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A28061
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Certain miscellany works of the Right Honourable Francis Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban published by VVilliam Ravvley ...; Selections. 1670
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Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626.
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1670
(1670)
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Wing B275; ESTC R21950
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51,907
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63
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he said himself from Page So he had brought his People from Lacquay Not to run up and down for their Laws to the Civil Law and the Ordinances and the Customs and the Discretions of Courts and discourses of Philosophers as they use to do King Henry the Eighth in the twenty seventh year of his Reign was authorized by Parliament to nominate 32 Commissioners part Ecclesiastical and part Temporal To purge the Canon Law and to make it agreeable to the Law of God and the Law of the Land But it took not effect For the Acts of that King were commonly rather Proffers and Fames than either well grounded or well pursued But I doubt I erre in producing so many examples For as Cicero said to Caesar so may I say to your Majesty Nil vulgare te dignum videri possit Though indeed this well understood is far from Vulgar For that the Laws of the most Kingdoms and States have been like Buildings of many pieces and patched up from time to time according to occasions without Frame or Model Now for the Laws of England if I shall speak my Opinion of them without partiality either to my Profession or Country for the Matter and Nature of them I hold them Wise Just and Moderate Laws They give to God they give to Caesar they give to the Subject what appertaineth It is true they are as mixt as our Language compounded of British Roman Saxon Danish Norman Customs And surely as our Language is thereby so much the richer So our Laws are likewise by that Mixture the more compleat Neither doth this attribute less to them than those that would have them to have stood out the same in all Mutations For no Tree is so good first set as by transplanting and Grafting I remember what happened to Callisthenes that followed Alexanders Court and was grown into some displeasure with him because he could not well brook the Persian Adoration At a Supper which with the Grecians was a great part Talk he was desired the King being present because he was an Eloquent Man to speak of some Theme Which he did And chose for his Theme the praise of the Macedonian Nation Which though it were but a filling Thing to praise Men to their Faces yet he performed it with such advantage of Truth and avoidance of Flattery and with such Life as was much applauded by the Hearers The King was the less pleased with it not loving the Man and by way of discountenance said It was easie to be a good Oratour in a pleasing Theme But saith he to him Turn your stile And tell us now of our faults that we may have the profit and not you the praise only Which he presently did with such Quickness that Alexander said That Malice made him Eloquent then as the Theme had done before I shall not fall into either of these extreams in this subject of the Laws of England I have commended them before for the Matter but surely they ask much amendment for the Form Which to reduce and perfect I hold to be one of the greatest Dowries that can be confer'd upon this Kingdom Which Work for the Excellency as it is worthy your Majesties Act and Times So it hath some circumstance of Propriety agreeable to your Person God hath blessed your Majesty with Posterity And I am not of opinion that Kings that are barren are fittest to supply Perpetuity of Generations by perpetuity of Noble Acts But contrariwise that they that leave Posterity are the more interessed in the Care of Future Times That as well their Progeny as their People may participate of their Merit Your Majesty is a great Master in Justice and Judicature And it were pity the fruit of that your Vertue should not be transmitted to the Ages to come Your Majesty also reigneth in learned times the more no doubt in regard of your own perfection in Learning and your Patronage thereof And it hath been the Mishap of Works of this Nature that the less Learned Time hath sometimes wrought upon the more Learned Which now will not be so As for my self the Law was my Profession to which I am a Debter Some little helps I have of other Arts which may give Form to Matter And I have now by Gods merciful Chastisement and by his special Providence time and leisure to put my Talent or half-Talent or what it is to such Exchanges as may perhaps exceed the Interest of an Active Life Therefore as in the beginning of my Troubles I made offer to your Majesty to take pains in the Story of England and in compiling a Method and Digest of your Laws So have I performed the first which rested but upon my self in some part And I do in all humbleness renew the offer of this latter which will require Help and Assistance to your Majesty if it shall stand with your good pleasure to imploy my Service therein THE HISTORY OF THE REIGN OF KING Henry the Eighth LONDON Printed by J. M. for Humphrey Robinson and Sold by William Lee 1670. THE HISTORY OF THE REIGN OF KING Henry the Eighth AFter the Decease of that Wise and Fortunate King Henry the VII who died in the Height of his Prosperity there followed as useth to do when the Sun setteth so exceeding clear one of the fairest Mornings of a Kingdom that hath been known in this Land or any where else A young King about 18 years of Age for Stature Strength Making and Beauty one of the goodliest Persons of his time And though he were given to Pleasure yet he was likewise desirous of Glory So that there was a passage open in his Mind by Glory for Vertue Neither was he un-adorned with Learning though therein he came short of his Brother Arthur He had never any the least Pique Difference or Jealousie with the King his Father which might give any occasion of altering Court or Counsel upon the change but all things passed in a Still He was the first Heir of the White and the Red Rose So that there was no discontented Party now left in the Kingdom but all Mens Hearts turned towards him And not only their Hearts but their Eyes also For he was the only Son of the Kingdom He had no Brother which though it be a comfortable thing for Kings to have yet it draweth the Subjects Eyes a little aside And yet being a married Man in those young years it promised hope of speedy Issue to succeed in the Crown Neither was there any Queen Mother who might share any way in the Government or clash with his Counsellours for Authority while the King intended his pleasure No such thing as any Great and Mighty Subject who might any way eclipse or overshade the Imperial Power And for the people and State in general they were in such lowness of obedience as Subjects were like to yield who had lived almost four and twenty years under so politique a King as his Father Being also one who came partly in by the Sword And had so high a Courage in all points of Regalitie And was ever victorious in Rebellions and Seditions of the People The Crown extreamly rich and full of Treasure and the Kingdom like to be so in short time For there was no War no Dearth no Stop of Trade or Commerce it was only the Crown which had sucked too hard and now being full and upon the head of a young King was like to draw less Lastly he was Inheriter of his Fathers Reputation which was great throughout the World He had streight Alliance with the two Neighbour States an ancient Enemy in former times and an ancient Friend Scotland and Burgundy He had Peace and Amity with France under the Assurance not only of Treaty and League but of Necessity and Inhability in the French to do him hurt in respect that the French Kings Designs were wholly bent upon Italy So that it may be truly said there had scarcely been seen or known in many Ages such a rare Concurrence of Signs and Promises of a happy and flourishing Reign to ensue as were now met in this young King called after his Fathers name HENRY the Eighth c. FINIS Characters of the Persons Eusebius beareth the Character of a Moderate Divine Gamaliel of a Protestant Zelant Zebedaeus of a Romish Catholick Zelant Martius of a Militar Man Eupolis of a Politick Pollio of a Courtier
a great time in the Protection of the League of France whereby they had their hands full After being brought extream low by their vast and continual Embracements they were enforced to be quiet that they might take breath and do Reparations upon their former Wastes But now of late Things seem to come a pace to their former Estate Nay with far greater Disadvantage to us For now that they have almost continued and as it were arched their Dominions from Milan by the Valtoline and Palatinate to the Low Countreys We see how they thirst and pant after the utter Ruine of those States Having in contempt almost the German Nation and doubting little opposition except it come from England Whereby either we must suffer the Dutch to be ruined to our own manifest prejudice Or put it upon the hazard I spake of before that Spain will cast at the fairest Neither is the point of Internal Danger which groweth upon us to be forgotten This That the Party of the Papists in England are become more knotted both in Dependance towards Spain and amongst themselves than they have been Wherein again comes to be remembred the Case of 88. For then also it appeared by divers secret Letters that the Design of Spain was for some years before the Invasion attempted to prepare a Party in this Kingdom to adhere to the Foreigner at his coming And they bragged that they doubted not but to abuse and lay asleep the Queen and Council of England as to have any fear of the Party of Papists here For that they knew they said the State would but cast the eye and look about to see whether there were any Eminent Head of that Party under whom it might unite it self And finding none worth the thinking on the State would rest secure and take no apprehension Whereas they meant they said to take a course to deal with the People and particulars by Reconcilements and Confessions and Secret Promises and cared not for any Head of Party And this was the true reason why after that the Seminaries began to blossom and to make Missions into England which was about the three and twentieth year of Queen Elizabeth at what time also was the first suspition of the Spanish Invasion then and not before grew the sharp and severe Laws to be made against the Papists And therefore the Papists may do well to change their thanks And whereas they thank Spain for their Favours to thank them for their Perils and Miseries if they should fall upon them For that nothing ever made their Case so ill as the Doubt of the Greatness of Spain which adding Reason of State to Matter of Conscience and Religion did whet the Laws against them And this Case also seemeth in some sort to return again at this time except the Clemency of his Majesty and the State do superabound As for my part I do wish it should And that the Proceedings towards them may rather tend to Security and Providence and Point of State than to Persecution for Religion But to conclude These Things briefly touched may serve as in a Subject Conjectural and Future for to represent how just Cause of Fear this Kingdom may have towards Spain Omitting as I said before all present and more secret Occurrences The third Ground of a War with Spain I have set down to be A Just Fear of the Subversion of our Church and Religion Which needeth little Speech For if this War be a Defensive as I have proved it to be no Man will doubt That a Defensive War against a Foreigner for Religion is lawful Of an Offensive War there is more Dispute And yet in that instance of the War for the Holy Land and Sepulchre I do wonder sometimes that the School-Men want words to defend that which St. Bernard wanted words to commend But I that in this little Extract of a Treatise do omit things necessary am not to handle things unnecessary No man I say will doubt but if the Pope or King of Spain would demand of us to forsake our Religion upon pain of a War it were as unjust a Demand as the Persians made to the Grecians of Land and Water Or the Ammonites to the Israelites of their Right Eyes And we see all the Heathen did stile their Defensive Wars Pro Aris Focis Placing their Altars before their Hearths So that it is in vain of this to speak further Onely this is true That the Fear of the Subversion of our Religion from Spain is the more just for that all other Catholick Princes and States content and contain themselves to maintain their Religion within their own Dominions and meddle not with the Subjects of other States Whereas the Practice of Spain hath been both in Charles the Fifth's time and in the time of the League in France by War And now with us by Conditions of Treaty to intermeddle with Foreign States and to declare themselves Protectors General of the Party of Catholicks through the World As if the Crown of Spain had a little of this That they would plant the Popes Laws by Arms as the Ottomans do the Law of Mahomet Thus much concerning the first main Point of Justifying the Quarrel if the King shall enter into a War For this that I have said and all that followeth to be said is but to shew what he may do The Second main Part of that I have propounded to speak of is the Ballance of Forces between Spain and us And this also tendeth to no more but what the King may do For what he may do s of two kindes What he may do as Just And what he may do as Possible Of the one I have already spoken Of the other I am now to speak I said Spain was no such Giant And yet if he were a Giant it will be but as it was between David and Goliah for God is on our side But to leave all Arguments that are Supernatural and to speak in an Humane and Politick Sense I am led to think that Spain is no Over-match for England by that which leadeth all Men That is Experience and Reason And with Experience I will begin For there all Reason beginneth Is it Fortune shall we think that in all Actions of War or Arms great and small which have happened these many years ever since Spain and England have had any thing to debate one with the other the English upon all Encounters have perpetually come off with honour and the better It is not fortune sure She is not so constant There is somewhat in the Nation and Natural Courage of the People or some such thing I will make a brief List of the Particulars themselves in an Historical Truth no ways strowted nor made greater by Language This were a fit Speech you will say for a General in the Head of an Army when they wére going to Battel Yes And it is no less fit Speech to be spoken in the Head of a Council upon