what I would say in defence of Letters which help to forme th' Art of a Minister of State and sometimes serve for a Guid and Torch to them who are to walk ofton in the dark and amongst Precipices It remaines now to speak a word of Eloquence which is as th' hand of that Art and Instrument wherewith it enters the hearts stirs up the passions gives to things the form she pleaseth and renders her selfe Mistress of Men and Businesses 'T is a quality of an incomparable perfection which requires all the favours Nature can bestow upon a Body and Wit All the polishings that Labour and Industry can bring unto it and all that good Custome and Experience can adde unto it 'T is so full also of Glory that 't is never exposed to Disdains as sometimes the Sciences are She makes her selfe to be feared if not to be beloved she hath Lightnings as well as Crowns She raigns in all places and to that height that she undertakes to change the order of Providence and to take away the use of Liberty from the Causes to which God had given it This Quality then which cannot be perfect nor in its true Dignity without Virtue and Philosophy is worthy of the Cares of a Minister of State It wonderfully adornes Peace and is of great service in time of War 'T is by her power that th' Ancient Orators protected the Innocency of particular persons and defended oppressed Provinces 'T is by her force that the fall of States hath been sometimes prevented and fatall Conspiracies dissipated 'T is by her that Cicero merited honours which he preferred to the Triumph of Conquerors And by her he pretends to have place amongst the Founders and Restorers of the first Common-wealth of the world 'T is she that hath often secured the Victories that were doubtfull that hath given courage to the Souldiers that had lost it that struck fire and boldnesse into the souls of them who compelled Fortune to favour them and that would die or overcome And without speaking of Xenophon of Caesar and of the greatest Captains of Antiquity who have gained in the Modern Ages a higher and clearer Reputation than Scander-beg than the great Captain and than Gaston of Foix And is it not true that these three great persons have alwaies begun to prepare the Victory by Discourse and by perswasion which after they compleated by Conduct and Valour In effect it is no small favour which God hath done to the reasonable soul by giving it power to communicate its thoughts and to bring to light its affections And Speech is a present of an extraordinary price wherewith she may distribute part of her excellencies She can give without losse and make rich without becoming poor she can see the Treasures abroad she hath within her selfe the Lights that beautifie her and those admirable Representations whereof she is at the same time the Painter and the Table And 't is for that chiefly that she hath received so exquisite a Guift For in relation onely to the Body and the single necessities of th' animall life 'T is probable that Nature would have given it certain signs and some exterior Motions to express them as it hath done to Beasts and little Children But as health of it selfe is a silent good and is scarce felt if pleasure do not animate it and delight give it life so the Dignity of Speech is unknown if it be not accompanied with Graces and expressed with Pomp. It seems that Reason scorns to go abroad unless she be adorned that she hath no force without allurements and effects Complaisancy that she may be useful And 't is Eloquence and that divine faculty whereof we speak which fits and trims Reason to so high an Admiration 'T is she that doth furnish her with Flowers and Ornaments 'T is she that causeth Reason not onely to bring Light to be understood but also stirs up Love to be followed I will not speak here of the knowledge of Sr. the Cardinal nor of the wonder that laying out so much time for Action and Directions for publique Affairs there should remain to him any time for his study and for to gain that generall knowledge he hath of all good things It were also to be ignorant of his strength and dignity of his subject To speak of his Eloquence it were to seek light from the Sun to undertake the publishing of that Divine Faculty which is every day admired in Councills which hath so eminently appeared in Assemblies done so great services to France and hath so often by his Mouth and Pen made the Christian truths to Triumph 'T is such and his soul is so strangely imbued that as there are places in the world from whence nothing is taken but what is perfumed and odoriferous In liker manner even the most familiar Discourses and ordinary Entertainments of Sr. the Cardinall hold forth some Tincture and give some taste of the virtue fo that excellent quality The Fifteenth Discourse That the Councill of a Prince ought to be composed a few persons 'T Is of importance that the Councill of a Prince be reduced to a few Heads so as they be well chosen and that the number be not the Evidence of his Dignity but the Merit and Virtue of his Counsellors Unity is the last measure of the perfection of things and the first of all Beings is the most single of all others This Being is God himselfe who without suffering Division of Parts or mixture of Qualities is infinitely perfect within and infinitely active without and by a power infinitely pure and infinitely single and without th'adjunction of any forraine virtue hath produced the wonders we see and that variety of subjects which are united to make the world And without him the most noble Natures and most excellent are the least composed and the most indivisible And we rejoyce much more in a sight not limited in th'extents of its objects and that can know all the colours of Nature and the Figures of all Bodies then if we had as many eyes as the visible Objects are divers and Colours different in nature So if it were permitted to make faire Dreams and magnificent Wishes it were to be desired that a Prince alone should make up his Councill That he were the sole Director of his business That he were the sole intelligence to give it motion and that he alone held the Helme and handled the Scepter But insomuch that such a Prince was never seen and that th'Idaea remaines in th' head of Xenophon that History doth not propose the like to us that th'imperfection of humane things suffers it not Lewis the Eleventh and that he who boasted that his Horse carried him and all his Councill did sometimes commit such enormous faults and foolish errours that all the world takes notice of them A Prince ought at least so to order his business that his power be not loose that it enlarge not and be restrained to
found nothing so easie as to be in danger of poverty for the service of his Master insomuch that it may be said of him that he hath a soul so quiet that not a Motion ariseth in it but what his duty doth suggest not an Agitation but what the love he bears to his King hath occasioned and that nothing hath been acted but what Reason hath consented unto and what Philosophy hath conveyed into the souls of the wisest persons The fifth Discourse That good Ministers of State have not alwaies the Recompence which they deserve and that their Services are often payed with Ingratitude THat a Minister of State proposeth to himselfe to act for the Love of Vertue and to draw from himself the Approbations of Conscience as the chiefest Recompence for the good he doth For to hope alwayes or for the most part Acknowledgement or Justice from the souls of Princes is not to know their humour and to mistake their nature 'T is to be ignorant that the great services which are done them are so many great Crimes when they have not wherewithall to requite them That there are not in the world such dangerous debtors as Princes when they are insolvent that they make away their Creditors when they cannot pay them for the fear they have that they will pay themselves with their hands That they are never confident of the faithfulnesse of their subjects who have power to hurt them and that they forgive willingly enough the offences which have been done them but never pardon the ill which may be done though there be no will to do it There are so many Examples of this truth in Histories and in all Ages that 't is almost a superfluous thing to make stay upon it But amongst all I see none comparable to the disgrace of Bellisarius that great person who had no other crime then his Reputation and was not culpable but that he was powerfull Having conquered Persia and subdued Africa humbled the Goths in Italy lead Kings in Triumph and made appeare to Constantinople somewhat of old Rome and an Idea of the ancient splendor of that proud Republique After all that I say this great person is abandoned to Envy A suspition ill-grounded destroyes the value of so many Services and a single jealousie of State wipes them out of the memory of his Master but he rests not there for the demeanor had been too gentle if cruelty had not been added to ingratitude They deprive him of all his honours they rob him of all his fortune they take from him the use of the Day and Light they put out his eyes and reduce him to the company of Rogues and Bellisarius demands a charity I confesse when I consider the chiefe Captain of his Age and the greatest Ornament of the Empire of Christians after so many Victories Conquests accompanied with so high and clear a vertue and in the midst of Christendom reduced to the height of misery it seems to me that I read the Metamorphosis of Fables A desire possesses me to give the lie to History and I cannot hold from exclaiming against the memory of Justinian that could not suffer the glory of one of his subjects who had been so usefull to him and that of a Cabinet person and compiler of Lawes had made him a Conqueror and Triumpher over people so that basnesse cost him vey dear and obliged Narces who was as well a successour in merit as authority to Bellisarius not to expose himselfe to the like fortune This Narces upon a single act of disdain which was past upon him at the Court of the Emperour conceived that they might passe to a more cruel passion if he prevented not the ill and that it was better to shake off the yoak then to stay to be oppressed That spoiled th' affairs of Justinian in Italy The Goths revolted and Fortune could not forbear to be of the party which Narces followed nor to find the Barbarians where so great a Virtue was engaged All Princes nevertheless are not of his humour there are some whose Raign is more Christian and Conduct more just and with whom desert is in safety where services are acknowledged and in whom brave Actions beget love without giving them the least jealousie However the Raign of our King is an eminent Exception to a proposition so generall And if Machavell had observed many such in the world he had not advised them who rise very high by their Virtue to descend timely and to quit their greatness or to maintain it by force He had known that there is yet a medium betwixt two extreams and the King had made him see that his servants might continue great without making ill use of that greatnesse to become Rebels The second Example that I will propose is the disgrace of Ferrand Gonsalve 'T is not in truth accompanied with so eminent a persecution nor with such cruell marks of Ingratitude and Injustice as that of Bellisarius But it hath neverthelesse circumstances which deserve to be considered and whereupon a Minister of State ought to pause It must be confessed that Gonsalve is the greatest person that ever Spain brought forth He may passe among the greatest of all Ages He was worthy to enter the Lists of comparison with great Scipio and the Spanish vanity hath not invented so high a Title to honour him withall which he hath not made good by his Actions and merited of his Enemies He finished the conquest of the Kingdom of Granada and had the honour to conclude a War of ten years and to gain for Ferdinand and Isabella the Sirname of Catholiques He chased us from the Kingdom of Naples for to re-establish the Arragons And when Ferdinand shared with Lewis the twelfth the Goods of his Parents and that those Princes divided betwixt them the Inheritance of an unfortunate person He conquered his Master's share and forced ours from us He defeated our Armies in all places but at Seminara where he did not command He took all the Towns he assaulted and which were defended by us He knew how to overcome and to make use of the Victory And though no State in the World was more moveable or subject to Revolutions then that of Naples He assured it notwithstanding entirely to Ferdinand and his Race He stopped up there the Springs of the War and of Disorders He pulled up Factions that tore the Nation in pieces and if some root had since appeared it had so little life and force and such weak and faint motions that the safety of the Kingdome was not shaken nor its health altered He did not onely excell in War and exceed all Captains of his time in the glory of Armes but he supreamly understood the Art of Negotiations and the knowledge of Affairs His Eloquence was admirable His speech had inevitable charms and his Tongue furnisht infallibly to gain those whom his good Countenance had shaken and whose liberty was weakened and courage abated
eternall and that 't is built upon an immoveable Stone Though this Barke cannot perish nor make Shipwrack Though the Doctrine be infallible that hinders not but regard being had to the manners of particular persons but that some alteration may often happen in it That Compliance must be made with the time sayls shifted according to the nature of the winds which blow Relaxation from the severity of discipline and much submission to th' inclination of the people Miracles have founded the Church and th' Holy Ghost aydes it with his protection But it requires also that the prudence of Prelates should interpose to govern it Reason is not banished provided that it remaine subject to Faith and the Truths which have been proposed to us all naked and with the sole Authority of signes are not declared unto us by the Councills but after great inquiries and answerable consultations And nevertheless Prudence requires that in the Conduct of souls what is best in it self be not so much considered as what is most conformable to them That a violent subjection be not imposed upon them for fear least the yoak being made too heavy it give a desire to shake it off Heretofore the Churches Arms were very dreadfull and the greatest Princes tremble at the Noyse of th' Thunder of Rome The Prudence of Pastors who made no unlawfull use of their powers th' opinion had of their sanctity caused that they who were threatned held themselves at that instant culpable and that they had even fear of unjust excommunications But as there 's nothing so good which man doth not abuse nor any thing so holy which his Malice or fragility doth not corrupt It hath hapned that in these latter ages have been seen great alterations of Manners in Pastors and great abuses in th' exercise of Justice There was no fault of Boniface th' eighth and of Jules the second which did not passe the bounds of the Spirit which confines their power and instead of opening the Kingdome of Heaven whereof Jesus Christ had left them the keys endevoured to take away th' Interest of Lands from their true Masters and lawfull possessors Besides that the too frequent use of Excommunications and th' application thereof to matters of nothing The Scismes of the Popes which have vexed the Church and caused many persons to take up Arms who ought to have been governed by a single person All this is the cause that they are now lesse respected then they ought to be and make not sufficient impressions of terrour upon Christian Souls In effect There 's nothing that so much conserves the reverence due to Holy things as the Rarity nor that vilifies them more then to render them popular Those things principally which are of an Order superiour to the body and whose effects are not sensible and respect another Life then this have need of these precautions that they may be wholsome Insomuch that 't is to misunderstand it to draw a consequence from the time past when Ecclesiastique Discipline was in vigour the consciences of Christians docile when there was nothing but heate and flame among the faithfull when obedience was generall and that superiours had not so much use of a Spurre to provoke the love of virtue and to the pursuit of good as of a Bridle to retaine and to hinder th' excess by th' impetuosity of Zeal 'T is ill done I say to draw consequences from that time to this present time when not only Heretiques change the Truths received but Atheists assault the Principles of Faith and the Foundations of Religion In the dispensation of Ecclesiastical punishments The Prelates and the Soveraigne chief of the Church ought not to decline th' end for which God left then the power t' impose them Instead of building they ought not to pul down nor destroy a whole body in cutting of a perished member and sick part To conclude There 's nothing that Superiours spirituall or temporall ought more t' avoid nor wherein they ought to be more difficult than in putting their Authority to Reference and to make Lawes that are not observed 'T is t' offend against the forme of what they are and 't is much better to suffer Evills and to Tolerate abuses in a State then to discover its wants of power in not correcting of them or manifest its weakness in contesting too much to surmount their Resistance Truly since Sr. the Cardinall hath had the power of Administration it cannot be said That th' Example of strangers hath put us out of our way nor that we have lost our selves in following our predecessors and for nor daring to be bolder wiser than they This great Minister of State hath so well known the Nature of th' Ill we laboured of and our Boare and the Remedies have been dispensed with such due proportion and equality that the defect hindered not the operations nor th' excess sharpned the disease The sweetness which the King used towards the Rochellers when they were not in condition any longer to resist his forces The grace which was afforded to Criminalls when they were in his power and the Clemency he exercised when the might have used Severity without blame and have made examples of Justice which could not have had any ill consequence nor dangerous revenge On th' other side the Comportment at Privas and that sad spectacle which seemed to have been procured by some superiour providence To supply it may be the too great humanity of the King and that of his Ministers of State The Manner of hearkning to the propositions of accommodations not to make the culpable desperate and to press the War and hasten victory To take from them the means of expecting any thing from time which is th' hope of unfortunate persons Th' industry which Sr. the Cardinall hath added to force Th' Art he hath used to sow division and to convey distrust amongst the Rebels He divided their Interests and hath made them weak for want of Union The assaults of his Eloquence and of that divine faculty which hath so charmed the Hearers that all the passions that nourished Rebellion were quieted Th' hottest Motions of desyance they had for us were stayed The most opinionated could not but consent to what we would have and the most valiant durst not seek their safety in Arms but in Obedience and subjection Moreover the most scrupulous observation of promised things and that Legall and new proceeding wherewith fears were not allayed but their hopes were surmounted That I say hath reconciled all their spirits hath rendred the victory perfect and firme in gaining the wills of the Conquer'd hath cut off the last Roots of Rebellion and finished the work which had been so often begun and as often destroyed by ill Fortune or by ill Conduct If the King would have believed th' old Ministers of State and the wise persons that had Governed in other Raignes He had never assaulted the Hugenots He had not offended a party
to that of Gaston that it had given him the field and that fortune would not have abandoned a young servant that knew how to make use of her favours for a person that made no esteem of it and was compelled to retire in the midst of Enjoyment The long time that had passed wherein Gonsalve had not made warr and the great Cessation in a profession that affords alwayes somewhat to be learnt had without question much changed him from what he was And as Iron rustes when it is not handled and Aire corrupts that is long shut up and putrifies so th' Art of making warr is unlearnt if it be discontinued and military Abilities are weakened if they are not exercised Secondly Age that hath the property to take away the good sense and to ripen prudence hath also the defect to freeze the blood and the spirits and to weaken th' active Qualities which are the Chiefest principles of Execution and the nearest Causes of Victories Insomuch that the Coldness of Age if it have nothing but experience prevents sometimes the committing of faults but not alwayes the suffering of Losses and is not capable of Enterprizes that are not happy because they are bold nor of Certaine designes wherein there 's lesse need of Circumspection then of Courage We have also seen a great number of Brave persons whose Age hath taken away their Reputation and whose Glory hath been effaced by long Life We have no example of this truth more visible then that of Marius His valour accompanied alwayes the disposition of his Temper It entertained it selfe in his fairest yeares and fell in the fall of his body and in the cadency of his Age. It hath also been observed that the greatest part of Conquerours and vanquishers of Nations did not attaine th' Age of sixty yeares and that Many of them have finished their dayes much short of that time by naturall death or by a precipitated or violent End Caesar Charles the fifth Francis the first Henry the fourth and the last Prince of Orange failed betwixt fifty and sixty yeares And one of these stayed not to give over business till he was in Condition no longer to retaine it nor to give over his greatnesse till death would have taken it from him But by a Prudence higher then that of the world and by Motives more generous then those that had made him t' undertake so great things He quitted the functions of th' Empire t' exercise them onely of a Man and chose rather t' end his Life in th' humility of a Religious person then with th' Ambition of a Monarch The Prince of Parma who had th' honour to give Life to the Military discipline of th' Ancients and to advance that faire work which the Prince of Orange had finished dyed at th' age of Eight and forty yeares And 't is true That his Glory began to decline that th' affaires obeyed him no more as they had before done and that his last designes had neither the good fortune of Event nor the grace of Execution as the former had Alexander Germanicus The Marquis of Pessary and Don John of Austria have encountred the same period of Life and a death almost alike All four passed not the Age of thirty and three yeares and all four fell rather by the Malice of others and with great suspition of poyson then by the fault of their Complexion or by open force This rule neverthelesse is not so generall that it admits not of Exceptions and there all valours which resist the Ruine of the body and th' injuries of Age they maintaine themselves in spight of the Time Insomuch that 't is not the blood that heats them but reason that enlighteneth them And without speaking of the present Age the past hath produced a Constable of Mountmorancy and a Duke of Alva who have preserved an entire Reputation to the very extremity of Age whose last actions have been the Crownes of the first and the Conclusion of life the glory of all the rest This neverthelesse is very pure and t is otherwise true That fortune hath been pleased to favour young Captaines when they were wise against th' old who have not the Courage so active nor the Virtue so violent And by consequence there 's some apparance that she would have declared for Gaston and been of his party against the Great Captaine Thirdly the great Captaine came to the Government of an Army whose officers and souldiers were scarce known unto him nor had th' army other knowledge of him then his Reputation and Glory Insomuch that 't is a Question if there had been any Sympathy at least at his first comming betwixt th' head and the Members whether their Manners had agreed and the Proportion had been adjusted to the Command and obedience Fourthly he came to Command an Army shattered and of unfortunate Troops and he was necessitated at the same time to fight the despaire of his souldiers and the boldnesse of his Enemies On the Contrary Gaston was in Exercise and in breath and the warr he carried into the kingdome of Naples had been but a Consequent of his good fortune and the Continuation of that He newly finished most happily in Romagna He exercised a Soveraigne power in his Army He had th' heart of all his Souldiers they loved him as their Companion and respected him as their Generall His beauty and good fashion and the other Graces of the body which render virtue the fairer and in an age when they make strongest Impression and have an action more lively His beauty that was extreame and just that was neither excessive nor retentive who knew how to give much and to distinguish of Persons who obliged honest Persons and contented the covetous His Courtesie was capable to compell his Enemies to change their passion and so wish him in the practise of it Th'Eloquence wherewith he changed the spirits of Men prepared Courages for him as he would have them and brought Moderation t' impetuous spirits and boldness to the fearefull All those Qualities I say together might give him hopes to lead his army as farr as humane force could go and he ought not to have proposed any difficulties to himselfe but impossibilities Briefly Th' opinion the souldiers had of his Fortune and Virtue and th' Experience they had so often made of Th' one and th' Example he had given them of Th' other Enabled them to dare all dangers under so valliant a Commander and t'hope all good successe under so happy a Commander From all these Conjectures I conclude very rationally that the death of Gaston hath been the good fortune of Gonsalve That if Gonsalve deserved to be compared to Scipio That our Heroique Gaston if he had lived long had deserved preference to both of them And if the greatness of things he ought to have done were to be judged by them he had done That none of th' ancient Captaines had surpassed him in the Glory of Armes and that