privately what they can and publickly what they dare both in England and Scotland all for the most part except such as be of our Faith oppose this Match to the uttermost by Prayers Counsels Speeches Wishes but if any be found longer tongued than his Fellows we have still Means to charm their sauciness and to silence them to expel them the Court to disgrace them and cross their Preferments with the imputation of pragmatick Puritanism For instance I will Relate this one particular A Doctor of theirs and Chapline in Ordinary to the King gave many Reasons in a Letter against this Marriage and Propounded a Way how to supply the Kings Wants otherwise which I understanding so wrought underhand that the Doctor was committed and hardly escaped the Danger of this presumptious Admonition though the State knew his Intent was honest and his Reasons good Wherein we on the other-side both here and with the arch-Duke have had Books penn'd and Pictures printed directly against their King and State for which their Embassadors have sought satisfaction of us in vain not being able to stay the Prince or so much as to touch the Hem of the Authors Garment But we have an evasion which Hereticks miss our Clergy being freed from the Temporal Sword and so not included in our Treaties and Conditions of Peace but at liberty to give any Heretical Prince the Mate when they list whereas they are lyable to accompt and hazard and are muzled for barking when ours may both Bark and Bite too The Council-Table and the Star-Chamber do so terrifie them as they dare not Riot but run at the stirrop in excellent command and come in at the least Rebuke they call their Preaching in many places standing up but they crowch and dare not stand not up nor Quest behave themselves like Setters silent and creeping upon their Bellies lick the dust which our Priests shake off from their beautiful feet Now quoth the Duke of Lerma satisfie me about our own Clergy how they fare for there were here Petitions made to the King in the Name of the Distressed Afflicted Persecuted and Imprisoned Priests that his Majesty would intercede for them to free them from the intollerable burdens they groan under and to procure their Liberties and Letters were directed from us to this end That you should Negotiate this Demand with all speed and diligence Most Excellent Prince replyed Gondamor I did your Command with a kind of Command my self not thinking it fit to make it a Suit in your Name and my Masters I obtained them liberty to walk up and down to face and out-face their Accusers Judges Magistrates and Bishops and to exercise their Functions almost as freely altogether as safely as at Rome Here the Nuncio objected That he did not well in procuring their liberty since they might do more good in Prison than abroad because in Prison they seemed to be under Persecution and so were pitied of others and pity of the person prepares the affection further besides then they were careful of their own Lives to give no offence but abroad they might be scandalous in their Lives as they use to be in Rome and Spain and other Catholick Countries and so the Opinion of their Holiness which upholds their Credit and Cause against the Married Clergy would soon decay But the Embassadour Replyed He considered thesâ— inconveniences and besides a superiour Command he saw the profit of their liberty more than of their restraint for now they might freely confer and were ever practising and would doubtless produce some work of Wonder and besides the reason of their Authority and Means to change places did apply themselves to many persons whereas in Prison they could only deal with such as came to be taught were their own before And this quoth he I added as a Secret that as before they were maintained by private Contributions from Devout Catholicks even to excess so much more now shall they be able to gather great Sums to weaken the State and furnishing them for some high attempt by the example of Cardinal Wolsey barrelling up Gold for Rome and this they may easily do since all Catholicks rob the Heretical Priests and with-hold Tythes from them by fraud or force to give to these of their own to whom it is properly due And if this be spied it s an easie matter to lay all upon the Hollander and say He carries the Coin out of the Land who is forward enough indeed in these practises and so ours shall not only be excused but a flaw made betwixt them to weaken their Amities and beget suspition betwixt them of each others Love But amongst all these Priests quoth the Inquisitor did you remember that old Reverend Father Bauldwin who had a finger in that admirable attempt made on our behalf against the Parliament House such as he deserving so highly and ventering their Livâ—s so resolutely for the Catholick Cause must not be neglected but extraordinarily Regarded thereby to encourage others to the like Holy Undertakings Holy Father quoth Gondamor My principal care was of him whose Life and Liberty when I had with much difficulty obtained of the King I solemnly went in person atended with all my Train and divers other well-willers to fetch him out of the Tower where he was in durance as soon as I came in his sight I behaved my self after so lowly and humble a manner that our Adversaries stood amazed to see the Reverence we give to our Ghostly Fathers and this I did to confound them and their contemptuous Clergy and to beget an extraordinary Opinion of Holiness in the person and Piety in us and also to provoke the English Catholicks to the like devout Obedience that thereby at any time these Jesuites whose authority was somewhat weakned since the Schism betwixt them and the Seculars and the succeeding Powder-plot may work them to our ends as Masters their servants Tutors their Schollars Fathers their Children Kings their Subjests and that they may do this the more boldly and securely I have somwhat dash'd the authority of their high Commissioners upon which whereas there are divers Pursevants men of the worst kind and condition resembling our Flies and Familiars attending upon the Holy Inquisition whose office and employment is to disturb the Catholicks search their Houses for Priests holy Vestments Books Beads Crucifixes and the like Religious appurtenances I have caused the Execution of their Offices to be slackened so that an open way may be given to our Spiritual Instruments for the free Exercise of their Faculties and yet when these Pursevants were in greatest authority a small Bribe in the Country would blind their eyes or a little greater at the Court or in the Exchequer frustrate and cross all their actions so that their malice went off like Squibs making a great Crack to fright Children and new born Babes but hurt no old men of Catholick spirits and this is the effect of all other their Courses
the Duke of Villa Hermosa President of the Council of Aragon fed his humour by the discharge of his own discontentment upon occasion of the Duke of Lerma his absence and beckned Signior Gondomor to him using this speech in the heaâ—ing of the Nuncio after a sporting manner how unhappy are the people where you have been first for their souls being Hereticks then for their estates where the name of a Favourite is so familiar how happy is our state where the Keyes of life and death are so easily come by pointing at the Nuncio hanging at every Religious girdle and where the doors of Justice and Mercy stand equally open to all men without respect of persons The Embassadour knew his Ironical stroak to be intended only as a by-blow at the Nuncio but fully at the Duke of Lerma whose greatness begun now to wax heavy toward declension and therefore he returneth this answer Your Excellency knoweth the estate is happy where wise Favourites govern Kings if the Kings themselves be foolish or where wise Kings are who having Favourites either foolish or the wiser sort will not yet be governed by them The State of England howsoever you hear of it in Spain or Rome is too happy in the last kind they need not care what the Favourite be though for the most part he prevent all kind of suspition in that kind being chosen rather as a Schollar to be taught and trained up then as a Tutor to teach Of this they are sure no Prince exceeds theirs in personal abilities so that nothing could be added to him in my wish but this one that he were our vassal and a Catholick With that the noise without gave notice of the Duke of Lerma's entrance at whose first approach the whole house arose though some later then other as envy had hung Plummets on them to keep them down the Nuncio only sate unmoved the Duke cherished the observance of the rest with a familiar kind of carriage too high for curtesie as not neglecting their demeanors but expecting it and after a filial obeysance to the Pope his Nuncio sate down as President under the cloth of Estate but somewhat lower then after a space given for admiration preparation and attention he began to speak in this manner The King my Master holding it more honor to do then to discourse to take from you the expectation of Oratory used rather in Pulpits and Schools then in Councils hath appointed me President in this holy wise learned and noble assembly a man naturally of a slow speech and not desirous to quicken it by Art or Industry as holding action only proper to a Spaniard as I am by birth to a Souldier as I am by profession to a King as I am by representation take this therefore briefly for declaration both of the cause of this meeting and my Master his further pleasure There hath been in all times since the worlds foundation one chief Commander or Monarch upon the earth this needs no further proof then a back looking into our own memories and Histories of the world neither now is there any question except with Infidels and Hereticks of their own chief Commander in Spirituals in the unity of whose person the members of the visible Church are included But there is some doubt of the chief Commander in Temporals who as the Moon to the Sun might govern by night as this by day and by the Sword of Justice compel to come in or cut off such as infringe the authority of the Keys This hath been so well understood long since by the infallible Chair as that thereby upon the declension of the Roman Empire and the increase of Romes Spiritual splendor who thought it unnatural that their Sun should be sublunary our Nation was by the Bishop of Rome selected before other People to conquer rule the Nations with a rod of Iron And our King to that end adorned with the Title of Catholick King as a name above all names under the Sun which is under Gods Vicar General himself the Catholick Bishop of souls to instance this point by comparison look first upon the grand Signior the great Turk who hath a large Title but not universal for besides that he is an Infidel his command is confined within his own Territories and he stiled not Emperour of the World but of the Turk and their Vassals only Amongst Christians the Defender of the Faith was a glorious Stile whilst the King to whom it was given by his Holiness continued worthy of it but he stood not in the Truth neither yet those that succeed him beside it was no great thing to be called what every Christian ought to be Defender of the Faith no more then to be stiled with France the most Christian King wherein he hath the greatest part of his Title common with most Christians the Emperour of Rome Russia Germany extend not their limits further than their stiles which are local only my Master the most Catholick King is for dominion of bodies as the universal Bishop for dominion of souls over that part of the World which we call America except where the English intruders usurp and the greatest part of Europe with some part of Asia and Africa by actual possession and over all the rest by real and indubitable right yet acknowledgeth this right to be derived from the free and Fatherly donation of his Holiness who as the Sun to the Moon lends lustre by reflection to this Kingdome to this King to this King of Kings my Master what therefore he hath howsoever gotten he may keep and hold what he can get from any other King or Commander by any Stratagem of War or pretence of Peace he may take for it is theirs only by usurpation except they held of him from whom all civil power is derived as ecclesiastical from his Holiness what the Ignorant call Treason if it be on his behalf is truth and what they call Truth if it be against him is Treason and thus all our Peace or War our Treatises Marriages and whatsoever intendment else of ours aims at this principal end to get the whole possession of the World and to reduce all to unity under one temporal Head that our King may truly be what he is stiled the Catholick Universal King as Faith is therefore universal the Church is universal yet so as it is under one Head the Pope whose seat is and must necessarily be at Rome where Saint Peter sate So must all men be Subject to our and their Catholick King whose particular seat is here in Spaine his universal every where This point of State or rather of Faith we see the Catholick Roman Religion hath taught every where and almost made natural so that by a Key of Gold by intelligence or by way of confession my Master is able to unlock the secrets of every Prince and to withdraw their subjects allegiance as if they knew themselves rather my Master his
subjects in truth then theirs whom their birth hath taught to miscal Soveraign we see this in France in England especially where at once they learn both to obey the Church of Rome as their Mother to acknowledg the catholick King as their Father to hate their own King as an Heretick and an Usurper so we see Religion and the State are coupled together laugh and weep flourish and fade and participate of eithers fortune growing upon one stock of Pollicy I speak this the more boldly here in this presence because I speak here before none but Natives persons who are partakers both in themselves issues of these Triumphs of antient Rome and therefore such as besides their oaths it concerns to be secret Neither need we restrain this freedome of speech from the Nuncio his presence because besides that he is a Spaniard by birth he is a Jessuit by profession and order devised by the providence of Gods Vicar to accomplish this Monarchy the better all of them being approriate thereunto and as publick Agents and privy Counsellors to this end whereas the wisdome of this state is to be beheld with admiration that in temporal Wars it imployes or at least trusts none but Natives so in Castile Portugal or Aragon so in Spirituals it imployes none but the Jesuites and so imployes them that they be generally reputed how remote soever they be from us how much soever obliged to others yet still to be ours and to be of the Spanish Faction though they be Polonians English French and residing in these Countries and Courts the penitents therefore and all with whom they deal and converse in their spiritual traffick must needs be so too so our Catholick King must needs have an invisible Kingdome and an unknown number of subjects in all Dominions who will shew themselves and their Faiths by their works of disobedience whensoever we shall have occasion to use that Jesuitical vertue of theirs this therefore being the principal end of all our Councils according to those holy directions of our late pious King Phillip the second to his son now surviving to advance the Catholick Roman Religion and the Catholick Spanish Dominion together we are now met by his Majesties Command to take an account of you Signior Gondomor who have been Embassadour for England to see what good you have effected there towards the advancement of this work and what further project shall be thought fit to be set on foot to this end and this is briefly the occasion of our meeting Then the Embassdour who attended bare-headed all the time with a low obeysance began thus this most laudable custome of our Kings in bringing all Officers to such an account where a review and notice is taken of good and bad service upon the determination of their Imployments resembles those Roman Triumphs appointed for the Souldiers and as in them it provoked to courage so in us it stirs up to diligence our Master converseth by his Agents with all the World yet with none of more regard then the English where matter of much diversity is often presented through the several humors of the State and those of our Religion and Faction that no instruction can be sufficient for such negotiations but much must be left in trust to the discretion Judgment and diligence of the Incumbent I speak not this for my own glory I having been restrained and therefore deserved meanly but to forewarn on the behalf of others that there may be more scope allowed them to deal in as occasion shall require Briefly this rule delivered by his Excellency was the Card and compass by which I scaled to make profit of all humors and by all means to advance the State of the Romish Religion and the Spanish Faction together upon all advantage either of oath or the breach of them for this an old observation but a true that for our piety to Rome his Holiness did not only give but also bless us in the Conquest of the new World and thus in our pious perseverance we hope still to be Conquerors of the old And to this end whereas his Excellency in his excellent discourse seems to extend our outward Forces private Aims only against Hereticks and restrain them in true amity with those of the Romish Religion This I affirm sure because there can be no security but such Princes as are now Romish Catholicks may turn Hereticks hereafter my aims have ever been to make profit of all and to make my Master Master of all who is a faithful and constant son of his Mother Rome And to this end I beheld the endeavours of our Kings of happy memory how they have archeived Kingdomes and Conquests by this policy rather then by open Hostility and that without difference as well from their Allies and Kinsfolks men of the same Religion and profession such as were those of Naples France and Navarr though I do not mention Portugal now united to us and Savoy that hardly stept from us as of an adverse and Heretical Faith Neither is this rule left off as the present Kingdome of France the State of Venice the low Countries Boâ—emia now all labouring for life under our plots apparently manifest this way therefore I bend my Engines in England as your honours shall particularly hear Neither should I need to repeat a Catalogue of all the service I have there done because this State hath been acquainted with many of them heretofore by the intercourse so wrought that the State should be rather rob'd and weakned which is our aim then strengthened as the English vainly hope Besides in a small time they should work so far into the body of the State by buying Offices and the like whether by Sea or Land of Justice Civil or Ecclesiastical in Church or State all being for Mony exposed to sale that with the help of the Jesuites they would undermine them with meer wit without gunpowder and leave the King but a few Subjects whose Faiths he might relie upon whilst they were of a Faith adverse to his for what Catholick body that is sound at the heart can abide a Corrupt and Heretical head With that the Duke of Medina dell Rio secco President of their Council of War and one of the Council of State rose up and said his Predecessors had felt the Force and Wit of the English in Eighty eight and he had cause to doubt that the Catholicks themselves that were English and not fully Jesuited upon any Forraign Invasion would rather take part with their own King though an Heretick than with his Catholick Majesty a Stranger The Embassadour desired him to be of another mind since first for the persons generally their bodies by long disuse of Arms were disabled and their Minds effeminated by Peace and Luxury far from that they were in 88 when they were daily flesh'd in our Bloud and made hearty by customary Conquests And for the affections of those whom they
call Recusants quoth he I know the bitterness of their inveterate Malice and have seen so far into their Natures as I dare say they will be for Spain aâ—ainst all the World yea quoth he I assure your Honours I could not imagine so basely of their King and State as I have heard them speak nay their rage hath so perverted their Judgements that what I my self have seen and heard proceed from their King beyond admiration even to astonishment they have sleighted misreported scorned and perverted to his disgrace and my rejoycing magnifying in the mean time our Defects for Graces Here the Duke Pastrana President of the Council of Italy steps up and said He had lately read a Book of one Cambdens called his Annals where writing of a treaty of Marriage long since betwixt the English Elizabeth and the French Duke of Anjowe he there observes that the Marriage was not seriously intended on either side but politickly pretended by both States counterchangably that each might effect their own ends There quoth he the English had the better and I have some cause to doubt since they can Dissemble as well as we that they may have their aims under hand as we have and intend the Match as little as we do And this quoth he I beleive the rather because their King as he is wise to consult and consider so he is a constant Master of his Word and hath Written and given strong Reasons against Matches made with Persons of contrary Religion which Reasons no other man can Answer and therefore doubtlesse he will not go from nor counsel his Son to forsake these Rules laid down so deliberately Your Excellency mistakes quoth the Embassador the advantage was then on the side of the English because the French sought the Match now it must be on ours because the English seek it who will grant any thing rather than break off and besides have no patience to temporize or dissemble in this or any other Design as the French have long since well observed for their Necessities will give them neither time nor rest nor hope elsewhere to be supplied As for their King I cannot search into his Heart I must beleive others that presume to know his Mind hear his Words and read his Writings and these relate what I have delivered But for the rest of the People as the number of those that are truly Religious are ever the least and for the most part of least account so it is there where if an equal opposition be made betwixt their truly Religious and ours the remainder which will be the greater number will stand indifferent and fall to the stronger side where there is most hope of gain and glory for those two are the gods of the magnitude and multitude now these see apparently no certain supplies of their Wants but from us Yes quoth the Duke for even now you said the general State loathing the Match would redeem the fear thereof with half their Estates it is therefore but Calling a Parliament and the business were soon effected A Parliament sayes the Embassadour Nay therein lies one of the chiefest Services I have done in working such a dislike between the King and the Lower House by the endeavours of that honourable Earl and admirable Engine a sure Servant to us and the Catholick Cause whilst he lived as that the King will never endure Parliament again but rather suffer absolute Want than receive conditional Relief from his Subjects besides the Matter was so cunningly carried the last Parliament that as in the Powder-Plot the fact effected should have been imputed to the Puritans the gteatest Zealots of that Calvinian Sect so the Propositions which dam'd up the Proceedings of this Parliament howsoever they were invented by Romish Catholicks and by them intended to disturbe that Session and yet were propounded in favour of the Puritans as if they had been hammered in their Forge which very Name and Shadow the King hates being a sufficient Aspersion to disgrace any Person to say he is such and a sufficient bar to stay any suit and utterly to cross it to say it smells of or enclines to that Party Moreover there are so many about him who blow this Coal fireing their own Stakes if a Parliament should enquire into their Actions that they use all their Art and Industry to withstand such a Council perswading the King he may Rule by his absolute Prerogative without a Parliament and thus furnish himself by Marriage with us and other Domestick Projects without Subsidies when Levying of Subsidies and Taxes have been the only use Princes have made of such Assemblies And whereas some free Minds amongst them resembling our Nobility who preserve the Priviledge of Subjects against Soveraign Invasion call for the Course of the Common Law a Law proper to their Nation these other Time-seâ—vers cry the Laws down and up the Prerogative whereby they prey upon the Subjects by Suits and Exactions milk the State and keep it bare procure themselves much Suspition amongst the better and more judicious sort and Haâ—e amongst the oppressed Commons and yet if there should be a Parliament such a course is taken as they shall never Chuse their Shire Knights and Burgesses freely who make the greater half of the Body thereof for these being to be Elected by most Voices of the Free-holders in these Countries where such Elections are to be made are carried which way the great Persons who have Lands in these Countries please who by their Letters command their Tennants Followers and Friends to Nominate such as adhere to them and for the most part are of our Faction and respect their own Benefit or Grace rather than their Countries good yea the Country-people themselves will every one stand by the great Man their Lord or Neighbour or Master without regard of his Honesty Wisdom or Religion that which they aim at as I am assured by faithful Intelligence is to please their Landlord and so to renew their Lease in which regard they will betray their Country and Religion too and Elect any man that may most profit their particular Therefore it is unlikely there should ever be a Parliament and impossible the Kings Debts should be paid his Wants sufficiently repaired and Himself left full-handed by such a course and indeed as it is generally thought by any course but by a Marriage with us For which cause whatsoever Project we list to attempt enter safely at the Door whilst their Policy lies asleep and will not see the Danger I have made tryal of these Particulars and find few Exceptions in this general Rule Thereby I and their own Wants together have kept them from Furnishing their Navie which being the Wall of their Island and once the strongest in Christendom lies now at Road unarm'd and fit for Ruine If ever we doubted their Strength by Sea now we need not there are but few Ships or Men able to look abroad or live in a Storm much lesse
in a Sea Fight this I effected by bearing them in hand the Furnishing of their Navie bred suspition in my Master and so would avert him from the Match the Hope of which rather than they would lose they would lose almost their Hope of Heaven Secondly All their Voyages to the East Indies I permit rather with a colourable Resistance than a serious because I see them not helpful but hurtful to the State in general carrying out Gold and Treasure bringing home Spice Silks Feathers and the like Toyes and insensibly wasting the Common Stock of Coin and Bullion while it fills the Custom-house and some private Purses who thereby are enabled to keep this discommodity on foot by Bribes especially so many great Persons even States-men being adventurers and sharers in the Gain besides this wasteth their Marriners not One of Ten returning which I am glad to hear for they are the Men we stand in fear of Thirdly Their West Indian Voyages I withstand them in earnest because they begin to Inhabite there and Fortifie themselves and may in time perhaps raise another England to withstand our new Spain in America as this old England opposeth our present State and clouds the glorious extents thereof in Europe Besides there they trade for commodities without waste of their Treasure and often return Gold for Knives Glasses and the like trifles and that without such loss of their Marriners as in other places therefore I crossed whatsoever Intendments were projected for Virginia or the Bermudoes because I see they may be hereafter really helpful unto them as now they serve for Drains to unload their populous State which else would over-flow its own Banks by continuance of Peace and turn Head upon it self or make a Body fit for any Rebellion And so far I prevailed herein as I caused most of the Recusants who were sharers to with-draw their Ventures and discourage the Work so that besides private Persons unable to effect much nothing was done by the publick Purse And we know by experience that such Voyages and Plantations are not effected without great Means to sustain great Difficulties and with an unwearied Resolution and Power to meet all Hazards and Disasters with strong Helps and continual Supplies or else the Undertaking prove idle Fourthly By this means likewise I kept the voluntary Forces from Venice till it was almost too late to set out and had a hope that work of secrecy should have broken forth to action before those could have arived to succour them Fifthly I put hard for the cautionary Towns which our late King Philip of happy memory so aimed at accounting them the Keyes of the Low Countries that they might be delivered to his Catholick Majesty as to the proper owner and had perhaps prevailed but that profest Enemy to our State and Church who dyed shortly after gave Council to restore them to the Rebellious States as one that knew popular Common-wealths to be better Neighbours surer Friends and less dangerous enemies than Monarchs and so by this practice rescued them from my hands and furnished the Exchequer from thence for that time neither was I much grieved at this because the dependancy they had before of the English seemed now to be cut off and the interest the English had in them and their cause to be taken away which must be fully and finally effected before we can hope either to Conquer them or England who holding together are too strong for the World at Sea and therefore must be disunited before they can be overcome This point of State is acknowledged by our most experienced Pentioner and sure Friend Mounsier Barnevelâ— whose succeeding plots for this end shall bear witness for the depth of his Judgement Sixtly But the last service I did for the State was not the least when I underwrought that admirable Engine Rawleigh and so was the cause his voyage threatning much danger and damage to us was overthrown and himself returning in disgrace I pursued almost to death Neither I hope need I say almost if all things hit right and all strings hold But the determination of my commission would not permit me longer to stay to follow him to execution which I desired the rather that by concession I might have wrung from the inconsiderate English an acknowledgment of my Masters right in those places punishing him for attempting there though they might prescribe for the first foot And this I did to stop their mouths hereafter and because I would quench the heat and valour of that Nation that none should dare hereafter to undertake the like or be so hardy as to look out at Sea or breath upon our coasts and lastly because I would bring to an ignominious death that old Pirate who is one of the last now living bread under that deceased English Virago and by her flesht in our blood and ruin To do this I had many Agents first divers Courtiers who were hungry and gaped wide for Spanish Gold Secondly some that bare him at the heart for inveterate quarrels Thirdly some forraigners who having in vain sought the Elixer hitherto hope to find it in his head Fourthly all men of the Romish Faith who are of the Spanish Faction and would have been my Blood-hounds to hunt him or any such to death willingly as persons hating the prosperity of their Country and the valour worlh and wit of their own Nation in respect of us and our Catholick cause Lastly I left behind me such an instrument composed artificially of a secular understanding and a Religious profession as he is every way adopted to scrue himself into the Closet of the heart and to work upon feminine Levity who in that Country have masculine Spirits to command and pursue their Plots unto death This therefore I account as done and rejoyce in it knowing it will be very profitable to us grateful to our Faction there and what though it be cross to the People or the Clergy we that only negotiate for our gain treat about this marriage for their own ends can conclude or break off when we see our time without respect of such as can neither profit us nor hurt us for I have certain knowledg that the Commons generally are so effeminate and cowardly that they at their Musters which are seldome and slight only for the benefit of their Muster Masters of a 1000 Souldiers scarce a hundred dares discharge a Musket and of that hundred scarce one can use it like a Souldier And for their Arms they are so ill provided that one Corslet serveth many men when such as shew their Armour one day in one place lend them to their friends in other places to shew when they have use And this if it be spied is only punished by a mulct in the purse which is the Officers aim who for his advantage winks at the rest and is glad to find and cherish by Connivance profitable faults that increase his Revenues Thus stands the state of