Selected quad for the lemma: state_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
state_n	duke_n	king_n	savoy_n	1,314	5	11.4006	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55712	The present state of Christendom consider'd in nine dialogues between I. The present Pope Alexander the VIII. and Lewis the XIV. II. The great Duke of Tuscany, and the Duke of Savoy. III. King James the Second, and the Marescal de la Feuillade. IV. The Duke of Lorrain, and the Duke of Schomberg. V. The Duke of Lorrain, and the Elector Palatine. VI. Louis the XIV. and the Marquis de Louvois. VII. The Advoyer of Berne, and the Chief Syndic of Geneva. VIII. Cardinal Ottoboni, and the Duke de Chaulnes. IX. The young Prince Abafti, and Count Teckely. Done out of French.	Alexander VIII, Pope, 1610-1691.; Louis XIV, King of France, 1638-1715.	1691 (1691)	Wing P3259A; ESTC R203184	56,532	108

THE Present State OF CHRISTENDOM Consider'd In Nine DIALOGUES BETWEEN I. The Present Pope Alexander the VIII and Lewis the XIV II. The Great Duke of Tuscany and the Duke of Savoy III. King James the Second and the Marescal de la Feuillade IV. The Duke of Lorrain and the Duke of Schomberg V. The Duke of Lorrain and the Elector Palatine VI. Louis the XIV and the Marquis de Louvois VII The Advoyer of Berne and the Chief Syndic of Geneva VIII Cardinal Ottoboni and the Duke de Chaulnes IX The young Prince Abafti and Count Teckely Done out of French London Printed for R. Baldwin near the Oxford Arms in Warwick-Lane 1691. THE TRANSLATOR TO THE READER I Must acquaint the Reader that the following Dialogues having met with so Vniversal an Approbation beyond Sea and so few of the French Copies being come over into England I thought it would not be amiss if I endeavoured at leisure hours to Translate and so to communicate that Book to the World which gave me so much Diversion and Entertainment in the Reading The Design of these Dialogues is principally to offer Incense to our Heroick William the Third who has with so happy an Augury begun to deliver Europe out of her Chains and to check the Pride of that Ambitious Monarch whose Vanity and Injustice has thrown him upon no less a Design than of subjugating all the Western World In every Dialogue almost he takes occasion to expose the Intrigues of the French the Illegality of their Acquisitions their Rapines and Violences which were scarcely practised amongst the Goths and Vandals but I am sure were never carried to that height and refinedness as we see them in Modern France He advises the Allies all along to neglect no Opportunities to fall into no different Parties or Factions to espouse the Common Quarrel of the Empire cordially and vigorously to procure the same Common Interest and not by entertaining any contemptible thoughts of their Enemy or by thinking him weaker than really he is to slacken their Endeavours and lessen their Preparations against him I only foresee one Objection to the Book and that is because the Author whenever his Argument carries him into the Territories of Satyr his Efforts that way are too feeble and ineffectual In England 't is only good thorough paced substantial Scandal that pleases us we don't love to do things by halves and if we must write Satyr 't is expected we make our Thrusts home and push freely On the contrary the French rally always with a great deal of Decorum they are too intent upon the Punity of their Language to have any great regard to the justness of their thoughts and they forbear to speak severe bitter things lest it spoil the evenness of their Style as some Women in the World refuse to oblige their Gallants for no other reason than for fear it should russle or tumble their Clothes And now whether what we have been speaking of is an effect of French Civility or French Weakness I leave it to the determination of the Reader DIALOGUES BETWEEN Several Great Men UPON THE Present Affairs DIALOGUE I. Alexander the VIII and Lewis the XIV Alexander I Am over-joy'd to see you my dear Son Since you have quitted Versailles to come to Rome I make no Question but that you are now inclined to grant me what you have for so long a time refused both Me and my Predecessor And that being so you may be assured on my part that I shall be ready to expedite those Bulls which you have all along so impatiently desired Lewis To be free with you most Holy Father I am not come hither at this time to negotiate Had that been my design I should not have made such a long Journey besid●● that the high Rank which I claim in the World would have obliged me to demand of you the meeting of me half way You are not ignorant that when Leo the X. and Francis the I. desired an Interview how the Pope met him at Bologna I believe you to be as good as Leo the X. but I believe my self withal to be full as good a Man as Francis the I. Alexand. You speak in a strange Dialect to me What is then your design Have you committed any Mortal Sin and so are come in Pilgrimage to visit the Churches of Rome in order to obtain Absolution Lewis Nothing less than that Bigottry is the least Fault I have though some will have me guilty of it I see you can't divine my Intentions and therefore give me leave briefly to unfold them to your Holiness The part which Princes are to act upon the Stage of this World has always very much perplexed me For that same thing which ye call Policy engages them never to shew themselves what they are their Words are never the faithful Interpreters of their Thoughts They talk and act all their Life time in Cipher as I may so say and he is counted the most politick and cunning that can best unlock the Cipher of other Princes and who has a Cipher of his own which others can never find out the way to unfold I must acknowledge that I have oft been mightily pleas'd with my self with an Imagination that I could get incognito into the Court of any Prince though as great as my self that it would not be impossible for me to oblige him to tell me the very bottom of his heart as I have a design to do the same for him and in regard this pleasure is so great in it self and has withal the Charm of being a Novelty I am apt to think that I shall taste a Felicity more perfect than any I have hitherto enjoyed I have made choice of your Court as believing that next to my self there is not a greater Prince than you in Europe and for that Dissimulation is much deeper and more at Rome than Versailles it must be in my Opinion an extraordinary pleasure to hear a Pope discover his Mind sincerely unfold his Sentiments clearly and call every thing ingenuously by its own name Alexand. Your Design is very surprizing and I can scarce imagine that you your self should conceive such a thing How for a Pope to utter his mind plainly and which is more for a Venetian Pope too What a Prodigy would that be Assure your self my dear Son that this is the greatest Design that ever you set on foot and to make a Judgment of it by the Rules of good Policy it will be an easier Task for you to subdue all the Princes of Europe and to set the Imperial Crown upon the Dauphin's Head then to oblige a Pope to tell ye his mind freely and sincerely and by that means to despoil himself of the Character of the Pontificate to put on that of Humanity Lewis The Design is great I must acknowledge but I have been told a hundred times that there is nothing impossible to me and I have some Inclination to believe it

Oracle and amongst all the surprizing Revolutions that happen in the World 't is the greatest methinks to see the Duke de la Feuillade turn'd a Minister of State La Feuillade Say you so Well Sir you may use your pleasure but in my Opinion Laughter is not very suitable for your Party and raillery looks at best but disagreeable from you considering how the Case stands with you unless you intend to claim your benefit of the Proverb and then indeed you may laugh on to the end of the Chapter You tell me no News in acquainting me that I am not a man for Counsel Pish I was never disgusted at it in mylife I was never cut out for a Minister of State But to quit this digression certain it is that if my words had been believed you had to this moment continued on your Throne James II. Well and what was the Advice you proposed at that time for which you value your self so mightily now La Feuillade Why in short 't was this That you might rest assured that all the great Preparations for War which were making in Holland were only designed against your self and the Case being so that it was your best way to hang up Father Petre with some half a score or a dozen other Jesuites out of the way as the true Authors of all those Miscarriages which made so lamentable a noise amongst the People You might have furnished your self with more of the Tribe at any other Opportunity or Place for Heaven be prais'd we have no reason to complain for want of that sort of Merchandize James II. And what Effects do you think such a violent Action would have produced La Feuillade What Effects Why ten or a dozen Jesuites hang'd up were honestly worth between Turk and Jew twenty thousand men Your People whom it seems you had a Design at that time to Cajole with a few Sugar-plums would have been better perswaded of the sincerity of your heart by such a Sacrifice than by ten thousand other Acts of Royal Indulgence Besides I dare pawn my Soul for 't the Prince of Orange had died for fear least you should have supplanted him in the Affections even of his own Party James II. And were not the other Favours which I scatter'd at that time enough to convince any Subjects in the World that my Intentions were real and that I was become a new man You remember without question how I vacated and ruined in the space of one week all that I had been doing for the Advancement of the Catholick Cause in three years before Now was it possible for me then to do any thing more to satisfie the Nation La Feuillade Why this is your peculiar Talent You always do either too little or too much All those solemn Revocations of your former proceedings served only to acquaint the World that you were a Prince who had a great deal of Fear in your Constitution but very little Steadiness and Bravery Your People who were aware of your blind side resolved that since you began to fear they would make you afraid to some purpose and this as I take it was the first step you made towards the Precipice For notwithstanding all you did it was not sufficient to make the World believe that you had altogether thrown aside your Design though it must be confessed that for a time you had changed your Conduct It was no hard matter to perceive that you only gave way to the Necessities of the present Juncture and that as soon as ever the Tempest was blown over your Head you would re-assume your first Resolutions But now the hanging up of a dozen Jesuites and Father Petre in the first place would have passed for a plain palpable demonstration of your thorough Amendment even to the most disaffected Nay I am verily perswaded that not a man in your three Kingdoms and I think we may comprehend the Catholicks in the reckoning but would have thought you had turned your Coat and effectually reconciled your self to the Protestant Party James II. But all this while the Pope would never have forgiven me for it La Feuillade And why not Since in doing of this you only followed the Example of a Son of one of his Predecessors You see I am now speaking of the famous Borgio who having made use of Remiro d'Orco a cruel and active Man to exercise a thousand Cruelties in Romaigne which he had lately conquered in order to establish his Authority the better and fearing that so inhumane a Conduct would render him odious to the People resolved with himself to make a Sacrifice of this Remiro and so having dispatched the Villain he exposed the pieces of his mangled Body in the Market-place of Cesene with a bloody Knife by his side to show the People that the Cruelties which had been committed did not proceed from him but his Minister Would you know what was the Consequence of this Affair The People were surprized at it and all their Discontents cured in a moment A pretty Example this for James the Second to follow if he had but consulted Matchiavel James II. I begin to apprehend that you are in the right But if the Pope had said nothing to the matter yet the Jesuites would not have done the same I am afraid they would not have failed to Regale me with a Dose of Poison à l'Italienne La Feuillade Pshaw pshaw what a surmise is here The Society of the Jesuites would have advised you to the same Expedient if you had but consulted them They are a sort of men that are too zealously devoted to their own proper Interests not to see that as the Tide ran then it was for their Advantage to Sacrifice ten or a dozen of their Members for the good of the whole Society I dare engage for them they would have voluntarily furnished you with a greater number for the Peace-offering if your Occasions had required it but with this Salvo to have made Saints of them after their Death and so to have increased the Company of their Red-letter'd Lunaries in the Martyrology James II. But what would his most Christian Majesty have said what would all the Catholicks of Europe have said or those Subjects of mine who are of that Religion La Feuillade Why not a syllable but have kept the Secret to themselves and approved of your Conduct with all their Hearts James II. Be it so then But what had become of the Prince of Wales La Feuillade The Prince of Wales that is a good Jest I'faith I wonder in my heart how you came to trump that Card upon me The Death of these Jesuites has been as good as so many Letters of Legitimation for him and there had not been a single man in all your Kingdom who would not have believed that you were his true Father since you had made those worthy Gentlemen dye to whom we are obliged for his Birth But if after all your Subjects had continued