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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
state_n	council_n	king_n	privy_a	1,162	5	9.8102	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60229	The second part of The minister of state Written by Monsieur de Silhon, secretary to the late Cardinal Richelieu. Englished by H. H.; Ministre d'estat. Part 2. English.	Silhon, sieur de (Jean), 1596?-1667.; Herbert, Henry, Sir, 1595-1673.	1663 (1663)	Wing S3782A; ESTC R217588	210,755	207

THE SECOND PART OF THE MINISTER OF STATE Written by Monsieur de SILHON Secretary to the late Cardinal RICHELIEU Englished by H.H. LONDON Printed for Thomas Dring and are to be sold at his Shop at the George in Fleetstreet neer St. Dunstan's Church 1663. To the Kings most Excellent MAJESTY SIR THE Women of Rome offer'd Jewels The Greeks Silver and Gold Sylla his Bloud and Jeptha his onely Child for Victory But your Majesty made no such Offerings And yet obtained a Greater Victory than any of them A Victory without Bloud And as it is th' Highest Victory that hath been gained So in forgiving Your Enemies Your Majesty hath taken th' Highest Revenge And as very Acceptable to God Because Forgiveness proceeds from th' Heart And that God for Christs Sake hath forgiven Us. The Prince that is Feared hath cause to Fear And t is safer for Princes to be Beloved for their Clemency than Feared for their Punishments The Law of the Jewes was the Law of Fear But of Christians the Law of Love And th' Enemies of Caesar did more envie the Pard'ning of the Pompeians than the Killing of Pompey Caesar is very Eminent in History for Pard'ning of Injuries Alexander for giving of Rewards Yet to th' Unthankfull person Alexander would not give a Reward nor Caesar Pardon an Injury And ther 's nothing that moves God to be less Carefull of us than Ingratitude which like the Sea turns Fresh springs into Salt water and may mind them of their Duty and Gratitude who are Guilty of the contrary To present Your Majesty with a Serious Frenchman in an English Habit is t' invert the Mode and Humour of Court And t' expose my Confidence to Your Majesties Accurate Judgement in th' Elegancies and Criticismes of th' English and French Languages which are much Improved by the Learning and Industry of them who delight in adding t' other mens Inventions And were not this Age Curious in th' Advance of Sciences Arts They would have their Cadences and be subject to Mortality with other things Yet they that busie themselves too much upon Speculative subtilties forsake the solid Foundations of Religion and pry so farr into the Nature and unrevealed purposes of God as to forget the Nature and Duty of Man The Subject matter of my Author is fitted to the Meridian of Statesmen and of State Affaires and communicates not onely Politique Essayes but abstruse Philosophical Notions which are of Familiar converse with Your Majesty whose Experience in the Intricacies of Government gives the Rule of Conduct to Your Privie Councellors And what was said of the French King Lewis th' Eleventh is verifi'd in Your Majesty That Your Majestie carries Your Councell with You wheresoe're Your Majesty Goes That Your Majesty may be th' Happy Instrument of Good to Church and State is the daily prayer of Your Majesties most Obedient and most Faithfull Subject and Servant HENRY HERBERT TO THE READER READER I give thee here the second part of the Minister of State which long since I promised thee and Confess it unjust to make thee Languish so long in expectation of so little a thing and that thy good reception of the first parts deserved better Expedition and to supply that by Promptitude of Labour which Could not be paid by th' Excellency of the Work but that which Caused the delay and suspension of the performance of my promise Was the Condition of the Time and the present State of Europe Having proposed unto myself not only to speak of it but to make it the Foundation and Basis of my Reasonings In th' Execution of this Design many Impediments delayed me as a person that had nothing but Moveable dust to build upon And the frequent and unexpected Revolutions which the War hath perpetually produced have often taken the prospects from me which I had taken and made the Foot to slide which was Advanced towards my work But to perform my promise at last I have Leapt over these ill paces and have stollen betwixt these Rocks to gain the place where I would Land and where I was expected by the too favourable and too obliging desires of many persons And I have made th' Ill fortune of the Times and the Condition of Affairs to be subservient to my designs and am entred upon a Cariere the War hath laid open unto me with Conveniency and which Peace will shut up at its Coming in by disarming spirits of sharpness and in blunting the points of Pens as of Armes I could have heartily desired that th' Ambition of our Enemies had been less Immoderate and that th' Attempts and Invasions they have made upon th' Estates and Liberties of our Allyes had not tyred the Kings Patience nor Constrained that Generous Prince to take into his Protection and secure by his Arms them whom he could not defend by his Intercessions and good Endeavours However since the Lot is Cast and that Justice hath drawn the Sword to revenge th' Injury which Reason nor Intercession could cause to be repaired I thought my course of life not permitting me to serve the King in his Armies that I ought to serve him some other way and that there are Means t' Incommodate his Enemies without using of Violence That th' House of Austria being the great Adversary the King hath in hand resolving to raise the Greatness of their Ambition upon two Engines Force and Artifice and this last though the most immaterial removing sometimes Burdens and sometimes overthrowing great Weights which by force were Immo●eable I did conceive that I should not perform a Small Act if I could render it less profitable or less powerfull And cure the spirits of other Princes and the spirits of their Subjects of the multitude of Errors wherewith that House hath prepossessed them to its Advantage And break the Chain that holds them Prisoners to the great prejudice of the Christian Common-Wealth I believed that the Kings good Genius for that purpose might inspire my Writings with the same Vertue and Success which heretofore th' Eloquent Discourse of Sir of Langey had in changing the Belief and th' Inclinations of a part of Germany when Charls the fifth had made such Malignant Impressions against his Master that with great Difficulty he obtained Audience of any person We are not altogether in that Distress and the Corruption of Resentments is not so general as it was in that Countrey There are nevertheless many Enchantments both there and in other places and darknesses to dissipate which are favourable to th' House of Austria and this is my present Work according to the Little Understanding God hath given me and the little Knowledge gained in the Matters of the World The manner of Assaulting this House which I do otherwise ●●●●●ence with Exceptions to the Kings and my Countries Interest cannot be ge●●ler unless it were too light And I blend so much Courtesie with the War I make it that I do●●● not but many will Accuse me of

an establish'd Councel in Italy which is formed of the Correspondencies and Relations observed amongst the Ministers of State whom they there entertain And especially betwixt the Governor of Milan and the Vice-King of Naples and their Ambassador at Venice In th' occasions then which happen in that Country the first Declarations are made by these four Heads which constitute as it were the first Tribunal where the Difficulties are agitated and Resolutions taken of what is most expedient to do in the present occasion The Result of th' Advises of that first Councel with a faithful Relation of the Facts whereon they were formed and the Reasons whereon they were grounded is sent into Spain t'another Councel framed of Intelligent Persons in th' affairs of Italy and who having past the great Employments of that Country have also the greater Lights and exacter Motions There the second Examination of the Business is made and th'advices and Reasons of the first Councels are put again to the Trial and Re-examination And as in th'Oeconomy of th'Human Body the Spirits which are formed in the Liver pass to th' Heart to be purifi'd and there to discharge themselves of the grosser part and from thence arise to the Brain where they receive th' ultimate degree of subtilty and light whereof they are capable and such a temper as renders them the nearest Organs of the Motion of the Body and of th' Operation of the Senses In like manner the Resolutions of this second Councel are carried to a Third which is the Councel of State of the Prince to receive there a Third Examination and to see if they may find a place in th' order of his affairs And if that which is conformable to the good of th' affairs of Italy whereunto the two first Councels have onely their Aspect be not contrary to the general good of their Monarchy They Act not onely in this Order and with so great a Refinement of Prudence in their own Affairs and which immediately concern them but they bring also the same Cares and the same contest of Spirit t' Examine th' Affairs of th' House of Austria in Germany and to direct the Form and Motion that ought to guide them Nevertheless with this difference That although they address as to their Centre the Particulars which they have collected as to the general Good of their House They so order it That the general Good remains always inferiour and subaltern to the particular Interests of their House and to the great Design they 've had to greaten it without Measure and to raise it to th' Universal Christian Monarchy I 've already brought some Examples for the proof of this Truth and I could bring others above number to confirm it if there were need and if it were not so evident and known that it would seem to give light to the Sun and to make his Light visible So that you must not b' Amazed if the Councel of Vienna is but th' Instrument of the Resolutions whereof the Councel of Madril is th' Author And if you see nothing come from that which bears not the mark of th' other and receiv'd th'Impressions of their Maxims and Conduct And since the knowledge of facts and of the true state of things is the Basis of Reasonings and that these have no subsistence if th 'others b'ill grounded And resemble the Colours of the Bowe in Heaven that are false though they are full of brightness and comeliness for want of a Body wherein they might b' infused and fastned They provide against this Inconveniency two way Th' one is by an unlimited Power they give to their Agents to distribute Moneys and not to consider any sort of Expence to be well informed of what passeth As to penetrate what is deliberated and resolved at the Results of their Enemies and Friends And that Expence is fully allowed them without Examination or Restriction and upon the single Account which they present Their Reason is that although this be Matter for Deceit and for Avarice to make unjust Harvests They 'd rather run th'hazard as Inconsiderable for the good which may arise to them as very great And they believe That an Expence well imploy'd in that behalf and a good advice given to purpose make them Recompence with Interest for a hundred lost Expences and for a hundred unprofitable Advices Th' other way is That no People of the world were ever more careful t' entertain their Correspondencies or a greater Number of them They do not affect onely specious ones and with illustrious Persons but they also form Correspondencies with all them that will b'obliged with them And Experience hath taught them that a Person of a Low Condition and of little sense may discover to them sometimes an important Truth which might have past by the Cares and Subtilty of great Personages So that 't is a wonderful thing and I 've been sometimes a●●onish'd at it to see the great Number of Persons who make Copies in the Chanceries of their Ministers of State and the great quantity of Letters which their Ambassadors by every ordinary Messenger write by way of Original And 't is incredible to believe their diligence t' inform the Prince and his other Ministers of State of War or Peace of what is necessary for them to know As well the Bad as the good News is speedily sent away unto them and above all th' ill news as that which is of Importance to be timely known and without disguise to remedy in time and with necessary Provisions th' Evil which they declare or presage And that the Posts that bring them are as largely paid and as civilly used as they who bring the good tidings After then that they 've understood the present state of their Affairs and observed the place where it imports them most t' Act They turn on that side as hath been said the chief of their Forces t' Act the more safely and to break and overcome by an excess of Power all that may oppose it and give Resistance They resolve to permit small Losses and light Disadvantages in one place t' obtain great Successes in another and they well know that the Branches cannot remain safe when the Body of the Tr●e is cut down and that after the wounding of the Nobler parts th 'others Die of themselves 'T is by this Principle that we 've sometimes seen our Frontiers covered with fearfull Clowds of their Men of War which have been nevertheless dispersed and that the Lower Germany hath seen formed against it great and formidable Bodies of Imperial Armies which have also been defeated Since w' are in the way to speak of the Conduct which the Princes of th' House of Austria have accustomed particularly t' observe in the War it may not be amiss to remark also here That when they resolve upon any great Design and that they prepare for some High Enterprize Th' act it with the most Privacy and with the least possible Noise Th'

Dependency upon Spiritual Things much disposed to be Governed and to permit Direction in Temporal Things And no marvel since it often happens that one of the Dependencies draws on th' other as well on their part who submit and follow as of them who Govern and Conduct and not being content with so absolute and delicate a Domination as that which is exercised upon th'understanding cannot forbear from enlarging of it upon material Objects And if they make not firm and durable Usurpations in that Province to make there at least from time to time Irruptions and Incursions And in Relation to th' objects themselves which are often much Complicated and Mixed and Composed of what regards th' Understanding and Concerns the Matter and in which by Consequent their Princes have no less need of the Councel of Conscience than of Councel of State and to b' enlightned with Lights of Christian Morality as with the Lights of Policy Sothat though Ferdinand naturally loved Justice and hated Improbity It was no difficult thing to perswade him to Consent to things which justled Justice and Probity in Colouring of them with th' Apparences of Religion and in gilding them with the Pretext of the greatest glory of God Besides That Prince had a Weakness to which all of his disposition are Subject being of a benign Nature and sweet Temper not to resist a long Importunity The Spaniards easily foreseeing that Assaulting him in that place they should gain divers things to which H 'had an Aversion and Accord them to Redeem himself from Vexation And for to Compel him to yield It was necessary only to redouble their batteries and to summon him often to yield which frequently hapned As it also fell out that in Consideration of his zeal for Religion of his Love for Justice and other good Qualities in that Prince God sent him prosperities which had no mixture or proportion of Moral virtues And for the punishment of his defects and weaknesses which he permitted to be th'Organs and Instruments of other Mens passions he sent him such violent disgraces that he thrice saw himself within a little of being lost without Remedy and upon the brim of a Precipice from whence no person falling in recovers himself but at last good Successes carried him over all disgraces and H' had this Satisfaction before Death to see the Promotion of his Son to the Kingdome of the Romans though it was held unlawfull and the greatness of his House in some safety and in some good condition of Subsistence Let 's Resume what we have quitted Ferdinand had a Brother called Leopold who was not truly a Prince of high Understanding nor of great Ambition nor Unfurnisht of Common Sense and Martial Heat and obliged to depend as younger on the Motions of his Elder Brother The Spaniards Judged also That He would b' obliged to depend on them who gave the Law t' Actions and to th 'others Conduct and that He might b' a proper Instrument t' advance the Designs they had on the Grisons Liberties and for th' Usurpations of the Voltolines Seventh Discourse In what manner the Successors of Philip Endeavoured t' establish themselves in Germany The Motives which obliged the Bohemians to withdraw themselves from the Government of th' Emperour Ferdinand and to call th' Elector Palatine to the Crown of Bohemia THe Conditions of these Princes carefully observed as hath been said and in strength and weakness well known to the Spaniards They began to Work at their Business and to give Fire to their Artifices whilst Rodolphus made a Shop and forge of his Cabinet and reduced all his Emperial Thoughts into the search of the Philosophers Stone and to make Watches and Dialls They made a Treaty with Paul the fifth In the year 1606. and with th' Archdukes by which And all for the Conservation and Exaltation of the Catholique Religion It was resolved with a Common consent to declare to Rodolphus That he Dying without issue Male Lawfully begot Th' Eldest of th' House of Austria should succeed him in his Hereditary Countries which Declaration being made He would Endeavour to cause him to be chosen King of the Romans lest th' Empire should fall into th' Hands of the Protestants but if this could not th' Effected He would declare him King of Bohemia That this Protestation should be made to th' Emperour with an Army to Compell the Bohemians t' Accept of this Declaration in case of Refusal and the Confederates bound themselves t' Aid him with Moneyes and Men if they were thereunto required In this business the Pope's zeal is excusable wh ' had truly for his End the Conservation and Exaltation of the Catholique Religion whereof He was th' Head who believed that it could not receive a more dangerous wound than in permitting th' Imperial Crown to fit upon an Heretiques Head And to whom without question Advice was given ●●that th' Election of the Kingdom of Bohemia was an Usurpation made by the Bohemians whereof they ought to be delivered and an Invasion of the People upon the Right of it which they would restore t' its Original Moreover Popes pretend to some right of Superiority and Superintendency over the Matters of th' Empire and which concern th' Electors whereof one of them is King of Bohemia They pretend t' have been the Founders of th' Empire of the West and that Leon the third made the separation of the Body of those Countries which belonged to the Graecian Emperours and gave to Charlemain the Western parts as Members at too great distance from their Head to receive any influences of Life They call themselves th' Establishers of th' Electoral College Gregory the Fifth and th' Authors of reducing the Suffrages to the present Number for th' Election of th' Emperours Thus one Lonigy amongst the Modern Writers hath published it not Problematically as a Thing to be disputed but Affirmatively and by positive Resolutions in th' Aphorisms which be published at Rome upon the promotion of th' Electorate to the Duke of Bavaria when he sent to Demand the Confirmation of it to Gregory the Fifth Upon these Foundations and with these Titles Popes presume to mingle safety with th' Affairs of th' Empire and that they are bound to provide that what is of their Institution and hath Issued from th' Authority of th' Holy Chair turn not to the prejudice of the Church and make waste in Gods Vineyard committed to their Charge Whether Popes are well or ill setled in those Pretensions and whether there are pertinent Replies and just Exceptions to those Aphorisms 'T is the business of interessed Persons and not mine to make the discoveries I say only that in Case these pretensions are probable and likely they 're secure from Injustice and Unbelief when they 're to b'used And that Opinions truly probable are sufficient Principles t' Act Lawfully and with a good Conscience as I shall make it appear in the Third Part. But as to the Spaniards as