Spain expand themselfs further The Sun doth perpetually shine upon som part of the Phillippean Monarchy for if it sets in one clime it then riseth in another He hath dominion on both the Hemisphers and none of all the four Monarchies could say so much nor any Potentat now living but himself Therfore he may well joyn the Sphear of the world to his armes and better share Empires with Iove then Augustus Caesar could his Scepter points at the four Cardinal corners of the world East West North and South for of those 360. degrees in the Aequinoctiall Portugall alone is said to occupie 200. Iupiter in coelis in Terra regnat Iberus Most Illustrious Auditors you have hitherto heard the magnitude of the Spanish Monarchy but that which tends most to the glory of Spain is her policy and prudence in governing so many distinct Regions so many squandred Kingdoms so many millions of people of differing humours customes and constitutions To be able to Rule so many Nations is more then to raign over them the one is imputed to the outward strength of bodies the other to the Sagacity of the brain but for Spain her self ther is that sweet harmony twixt the Prince and peeple the one in obeying the other in bearing rule that it is admirable and here the Spanish King hath the advantage of all other Imperando parendo He is neither King of Asses as the French is nor the King of Devills as the English is nor the King of Kings as the Emperour glories to be but the King of Spain is Rex Hominum the King of Men he may also be termed the King of Princes according to the Character which Claudian gives Spain that she was Principibus faecunda piis There also as he signs Fruges aeraâ—…ia Miles Vndique conveniunt totoque ex orbe leguntur Haec generat qui cuncta regunt Therfore let Candy the Cradle of Iove let Thebes the Mother of Hercules and Delos the nurse of two Gods yeeld to Spain It was she who brought forth Trajan to the world who was as good as Augustus was happie she gave Hadrian the Emperour she gave Theodosius the first and the first of Emperours for Morality and Vertue who rays'd and rear'd up again the Roman Monarchy when she was tottering Ferdinand the first who was an Infant of Spain a Prince who for liberty and justice for mansuetude and munificence for assiduity and vigilance for piety and peace was inferiour to none of his progenitors and to this day they keep in Spain the Cradle and Rattles he us'd when he was a child in Complutum where he was born which Town enjoyes to this day some speciall immunities for his Nativity there But Spain gave all these Princes to other Nations how many hath she affoorded her self she gave Ferdinand of Aragon a Prince of incomparable piety and prowesse who first lay'd the foundation of the Spanish Monarchy by matching with Donam Isabella Queen of Castile a heavenly Princesse she gave Philip the second call'd the prudent and so he was to a proverb how cautious was he in administration of Justice how circumspect in distribution of Offices how judicious in rewarding of Men c. how wary in conferring of honors for he was us'd to say that honors conferred upon an unworthy man was like sound Meat cast into a corrupt Stomack What a great example of Parsimony was he yet Magnificent to a miracle witnes the eighth wonder of the world the Escuriall which stupendous fabrick he not only saw all finished before his death though the building continued many yeers but he enjoy'd it himself twelve yeers and carried his own bones to be buried in the Pantheon he had built there He was so choyce in the election of his Servants that he had no Barber for his Ambassador nor Taylor for his Herald nor Physition for his Chancellor as we read of Lewis the XI of France nor a Faukner to his chief Favorit as the last French King had But that which was signall in this wise K. was that he never attempted any great busines but he wold first refer it to the Councel of Conscience And before the Acquisition of Portugall he shewed a notable example hereof For King Sebastian being slain in a rash War against the Moores and Henry dying a little after ther were many Candidates and pretenders for the Lusitanian Crown first Philip himself then Philibert Duke of Savoy after him Farnessius Duke of Parma then Iohn Duke of Bragansa and lastly Katherine de Medici King Philip though t was in vain to compasse this businesâ—… by Legations therfore he did it with his Legions yet he paus'd long upon the busines referring it to the debate of the learnedst Theologues and Civill Doctors where it was eventilated and canvas'd to and fro with all the wit and arguments the brain of man could affoord pro con At last the title and right being adjudg'd for him and having fairly demanded it in a peaceable way and being put off he raiseth an Army answerable to the greatnes of the work and yet being advanc'd to the borders he made a halt and summons again both Divines and Civillians to deliver their knowledg and consciences herin conjuring them by God and the sacred Faith to do it with integrity and freedom Herupon they all unanimously concur'd in the confirmation of their former judgment as Ripsius doth testifie After this great transaction he sends the Duke of Alva with an army to take possession of his right wherin he was so prosperous that he invaded survay'd and subjugated the whole Kingdom of Portugall in a very short time utterly defeating Don Antonio whom though King Philip might have surpriz'd a good while before lurking in a Monastery yet he would not do it Besides he caus'd the Duke of Bragansa's Son being Captif among the Moores to be redeem'd at his own charge and when he could have detained him yet he suffer'd him to go where he would Now having debell'd and absolutely reduc'd the Kingdom of Portugall among many others who were his Opposers the Doctors of Conimbria were most busy yet he sent them not only a generall pardon but encreased the exhibitions of the University This mighty King was also a great Lover of his Countrey preferring the publick incolumity therof before his own bloud his only Son Charls who being a youngman of a restles ambitious spirit and being weary of the compliance he ow'd his Father was us'd to carry Pistolls ready cock'd about him in the day and put them under his pillow in the night He confest to his ghostly Father that he had a purpose to kill a Man and being denied absolution from him he desir'd that he would give him unconsecrated bread before the Congregation to avoid publick offence King Philip being told of this confin'd his Son and put him over to the Councell of the Inquisition The Councell deliver'd their opinion and humbly thought that since his Majesty
pray what can he want who hath Money unlesse he make such a foolish wish as Mydas did that whatsoever he touch'd might turn to gold for so he might starve medias inter opes inops Ther is a proverb in Spain that Don sin dinero no es Don si no Donayre A man without money is no man but a bable but a man with money commands the world according to those witty verses of Petronius Arbiter Quisquis habet nummos securâ naviget Aurâ Fortunamque suo temperet arbitrio Uxorem ducat Danaen ipsumque licebit Arisium jubeat credere quod Danaen Carmina componat declamet concremet omnes Et peragat causas sitque Catone prior Iurisconsultus paret non paret habeto Atque esto quicquid Servius Labeo Multa loquor quidvis nummis praesentibus opta Et Veniet Clausum possidet Arca Iovem I confesse it may be the Catholick King may be plung'd in a gulph of debt having allwayes his Sword drawn and being in perpetuall hostility with the common enemy of Christendom to his great glory as also in actuall Warr with some of the Princes of Europe who if they wold let him be quiet he might quickly subdue all Mauritania the opposit shore to Spain yet for all ther is never any the least appearance of want in the Catholique Court nor the least shew that Spain is in warr or want but all things flourish as if he did not ow peny or as if he were in peace with all the world It makes me think upon Glareanus a great learned man but much in debt who being asked by a friend of his how he liv'd He answer'd I lead the life of Kings and Princes for I drink I eet and indulge my genius I game and have money always in my purse yet I am in arrears to all so it may be said of the King of Spain But it is brave security the Spanish King gives to his Creditors no lesse then assignments upon his occidentall Fleet which weigh all circumstances well is one of the greatest glories that ever Monarch had Fortune her self may be call'd the King of Spaines wife who hath brought with her such a bottomles tresure for her dowry His closet is that punctum so often wish'd by Archimedes whence he moves the whole Globe of the Earth He hath more Kingdoms then the French King hath Provinces more Fleets then the French hath Shipps more Nations then the French hath Citties more Viceroys then he hath Marshals and more Captains by Land and Sea then he hath Common-Soldiers It is day It is Spring perpetually with him in one part or other of his dominions Strabo writes of one who had such a strong and piercing perspicuity of sight that he could discern an object 135. miles off for from Lilybaeum a promontory in Sicily he could discern and dinumerat the Shipps that went out of Carthage road But the Catholique King hath stronger Optiques for from his Councell Chamber he can see what is a doing in the Seralio at Constantinople in the Louvre in France at White-hall in England at Vienna in Austria in the Consistory at Rome his sight is so sharp that he can penetrat the very Cabinet-Chambers of Kings far and neer and pry into their intrinsecallst and secretst Councells All other Princes and States stand to him in the light and he in the dark to them But wheras you say that the Spaniard is irreconcilable unto the Reformed Religion let me tell you although the Theologues there do sometimes inveigh against Luther and Calvin alledging that the God of the Calvinists is the Author of sin Deum Calvinistarum esse Authorem peccati as may be infer'd out of Iohn Calvins own words yet you must not count the Spaniard an Antichrist for this Nor although he will rant it out sometimes that he will go arm'd to Paradis and rapp out other Rodomontado's 'T is tru the Spanish Soldiers are great Libertines but not Atheists nay som of them have good Consciences and capable of Repentance As ther is a true and memorable story of a Spanish Captain who wold have ravish'd a Lawyers daughter in Flanders 1578. who was of an alluring beauty but strugling with her she took his own dagger and mortally wounded him to preserve her pudicity The Spaniard thus wounded was taken away and he sending for a Surgeon 't was told him he could not escape death many howers therupon he call'd for his ghostly father to whom having confess'd and shewed great Evidences of repentance he was absolv'd from the attempt but this is not sufficient sayed he the party whom I wold have wrong'd must pardon me hereupon the yong Virgin came to whom he sayd in rathfull termes I am here upon my deaths bed therefore I desire you wold pardon my rash attempt and for your pardon and the expiation of the offence I bequeath unto you all my Estate provided that you will give me rites of buriall and assume hereafter the name of my wife The yong maid melting into teares did do all the Testator desir'd accordingly But my noble Cousin George Frederique I find 't was not enough for you to bespatter the Spaniard and tax him of pride prophanes and many other Vices but you bereave him of the glory for discovering the new World and of the right of that Discovery Seneca the Spanish Tragaedian was as much Prophet as Poet he was a tru Vates when he sung Venient annis Saecula seris quibus Oceanus Vincula Rerum laxet ingens Pateat Tellus Typhisque novos Detegat Orbes nec sit terris Ultima Thule Late yeers shall bring an Age wherin the Ocean shall slacken the ligaments of nature a mighty tract of Earth shall appeare and Neptune shall discover new Worlds so that Thule or Island will not be the furthest part of the Earth Now his Countreymen made Scneca a tru Prophet herein to whom that mighty blessing of discovery and dominion was reserv'd In so much that both the Prophet of this new tract of Earth and the propagators thereof were Spaniards So most humbly thanking this noble Auditory for this priviledg of reply I desire you most noble Cosen and illustrious Baron of Limburg to have a more charitable and just opinion of Spain DIXI THE ORATION OF THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS LORD EUBESWALD c. FOR GREAT BRITAIN Most Honorable and Heroique Princes IF any one of this Illustrious convention would set forth the glory of some great City which flow'd with plenty of all things that were requisit either for necessity or pleasure exceeding therein the very wishes of the Inhabitants a City which had also impregnable fortifications and strength both by art and nature with armes of all kinds such propugnacles such advantages by land and water both to defend her self and destroy the enemy Who had a grave way of administration of Justice whose Inhabitants did florish with all sorts of manufactures with all kind of vertu invention and
was one law enacted in Canutus time Omnis homo abstineat a Venerijs meis super poenam vitae Upon pain of life let every man refrain from my deer and my hunting places The Swainmote Courts have harsh punishments and amercements and for the poor Husbandman ther 's no remedy for him against the Kings dear though they lye all night in his corn and spoile it Sarisburiensis a reverend and authentic Author comprehends all this in a few words when he speaks of the exorbitancies of England in this kind Quod magis mirere ait pedicas parare avibus laqueos texere allicere nodis aut fistula aut quibuscunque insidijs supplantare ex edicto saepe fit genus criminis vel proscriptione bonorum mulctatur vel membrorum punitur salutisque dispendio Volucres coeli pisces maris communes esse audieras sed hae Fisci sunt quas venatica exigit ubicunque volant manum contine abstine ne tu in poenam laesae majestatis venantibus caedas in praedam Anovalibus suis arcentur Agricolae dum ferae habeant vagandi libertatem illis ut pascua augeantur praedia subtrahantur Agricolis sationalia insitiva Colonis cùm pascua armentarijs gregarijs tum alvearia a floralibus excludunt ipsis quoque apibus vix naturali libertate uti permissum est But that which is more to be wondred at saith Sarisburiensis is that to lay netts to prepare trapps to allure birds by a whissle or to supplant them by any kind of wile becomes oftentimes a kind of crime by the Edicts of England and is punish'd either by amercement or some corporall punishment whereas in other climes the birds of the Air and the fish of the Sea are common but not in England they belong to the Fisk or some particular person you must hold your hand and refraine for fear of comitting treason The Yeoman is hunted away from his new plowd fields while wild beasts have liberty to wander in them at pleasure nay sometimes cattle are kept from pasture and the Bees are scarce permitted to use their naturall liberty of sucking flowers But the English tyranny doth not terminat onely in the King but it difuseth it selfe further among the Nobles In so much that as Camden relates there were in King Stephens raigne as many tyrants in England as there were Castellans or Governors of Castles Stephani Regis temporibus tot erant in Anglia tyranni quot Castellorum Domini Who arrogated to themselves regall rights and prerogatives as coyning of money marshall law and the like For now there is no Kingdom on earth Naples excepted where there have been more frequent insurrections then in England for as the Kings have been noted to be Tyrants so the subjects are branded for devills In the Civill warrs that happen'd in Comines time there were above fourescore that were slain by the fortune of war and otherwise of the blood Royall besides the Kings themselves that perish'd Whereupon when the Queen of Scots heard of the fatall sentence that was pronounc'd against her with an intrepid and undaunted heart she said as an Author of credit hath it Angli in suos Reges subinde caedibus saevierunt ut neutiquam novum sit si etiam in me ex eorum sanguine natam itidem saevierint If the English have been often so cruell in the slaughter of their own Kings it is no new thing then that they have grown so cruell to me that am descended of their blood What a horrid and destructive conjuration was that subterranean plot of the Gunpowder Treason so bloody a designe no age can parallell It was like the wish of Caligula who wish'd the peeple of Rome had had but one neck that he might cut it off at one blow He had it onely in wish but these had a reall attempt to blow up not onely the blood Royall but all the Nobility and chief Gentry of the Kingdom And Guido Faux who was to set fire to the powder did shew so little sign of feare and repentance that he boldly said It was none but the great Devill of Hell who had discovered the plot and hindred him from the execution of it that God Almighty had no hand in the discovery and prevention of that meritorious work Which if it had taken effect one of the Conspirators sayd it would have satisfied for all the sins of his whole life had he liv'd a thousand yeers after And whereas my Noble Baron you travelled in your highstrain'd and smooth Oration through all the Shires of England and pointed at some things extraordinary in every one of them you shall find that they have as many blemishes as they have blessings When you extoll the Province of Cornwall so much you should also have made mention of their Pyrrhocoracas their Sea-theeves and Pirates which are so thick as choughes among them And whereas you magnifie Drake so much he was no better then a Corsary or a Skimmer of the Seas and an Archpyrate who notwithstanding there was an Ambassador here resident from Spain and a firm peace twixt the two Crownes yet was he permitted to steal and robb by land as well as by Sea among the subjects of the King of Spain Nor did he exercise cruelty on the Spaniards and Indians only but upon his own Countrymen as for example when he landed at Port San Iulian and finding a Gallowes there set up by Magellan he hang'd up by his own power a gentleman better then himself which was Mr. Iohn Doughty meerly out of envy because he might not partake of the honor of his Expeditions You praise Devonshire and the Town of Exeter especially about which there growes nothing but thin Oates and eares without grains in many places but you should have remembred that whereas Henry Duke of that City had married Edward the fourths Sister yet in tattered raggs and barefooted he was forc'd to begge his bread up and down in Flanders Whereas you speak also of Dorsetshire you should have call'd to mind the tyranny of King Henry the third against de Linde for killing one of his Dear which was made a Hart in White Forrest for which he was not onely amerc'd in a great sum of money but the Tenants of those Gentlemen that hunted with him were condemn'd to pay every year such a tax call'd White heart Silver every year to the Exchequer You passe also over Portland a poor naked Iland without Woods or any kind of Fuel but the ordure of beasts which they use for fyring For Somersetshire what huge tracts of wast grounds are found there up and down without Inhabitants which makes it so subject to theeves and Robbers Touching Hampshire what a large act of sacriledge did King William commit there by demolishing divers Churches and takeing away the Glebes from God and men the space of thirty miles and upwards making it a wild Forrest to plant and people the Country with bruite beasts useful only for
metamorphozed and Frenchifield in the motion of his members in the accent of his words in the tone of his voyce He was become Ex Brittanno Gallus or Capus he came home all transvers'd not only in his braine but in his body and bones having haply left a snip of the Nose he carryed with him behinde him Such sort of Lalie's such Capons are most worthy of Cybeles Priesthood whose Flamins were Hermaphrodites or Capons we finde in the midst of Germany Now as the Spanish mares use to conceive sometimes by the gentle breezes of a Southerly Favonian winde but the colts they bring forth presently languish and dye so these fantastick Landlopers returning home pregnant with some odd opinions or fashions bring back nothing that is serious and solid but their braines are stuffed only with windy fables and frivolous stories And as neer Charenton Bridge in France there is an Eccho that reverberates the voyce thirteen times in atticulate sounds so these Peregrinators do oftentimes multiply what they heare or see As those who reported to have seene Flyes in India as big as Foâ—…es Others to have seen Trees in Russia which could not be shot over and that an Army of men might finde shelter under their branches in foule weather Others had seen Pigmies upon Rams backs going to Warr with the Cranes Some speak of the Generation of Basilisques of the Crocodiles of Aegypt of the Phenix of Arabia of the Rooks of Madagascar of the Scots Clakes and Geese and so come back more arrand Geese then they And what they have haply read of in Pliny Lucian or Brandanus they vapour as if they had seen them all and that with strong asseverations and sometimes with oathes De nihilo magna de parvo maxima fingunt They make Mountaines of Molehills and Whales of Sprats But the most judicious sort of Noble Germans make other use of Peregrination it makes them not to disdaine their owne Countrey afterward or to be infected with any affected forraine humour but continue constant to themselves and true Germans in point of naturall affection But now Most illustrious Princes and Noble Lords whom I see present at this splendid Convention may you please now to reduce into an Oratory methodicall way those discourses and Forraine observations wherewith you have been used to season your Tables and meetings at other times confining your selves to the Kingdomes and Common-wealths of Europe according as you have pleased to assigne every one his particular task that at last we may make a conjecture which Country of Europe may merit the Palme and Prerogative of all the rest I know by proposing this my boldnesse is as great as my request but I shall endeavour to make some retaliation unto you most Noble Princes and brightest eyes of Germany when any opportunity whatsoever doth present it selfe and shall court all occasions to do it And now you my most Illustrious Cozen Francis Charles Duke of Saxony c. be pleased to begin THE ORATION OF PRINCE FRANCIS CHARLES DUKE OF Saxony Angaria and Westphalia c. FOR GERMANY Most Excellent Prince and Princes with the rest of this Illustrious Assembly BEfore I launch out into the maine of this large Sea of matter and that my Sayles be filld with the gentle breezes of your favourable attention I have something to say while I remain yet in the Port of Perigrination or Forren Travell which your Excellency hath already approved of and applauded in such a high straine of Eloquence Yet for my part I wold after the example of the Chineses were I worthy to give Counsell herein prohibit Forren travell under pain of a penalty as the times go now or at least I wold prescribe som exact Lawes to regulat Peregrination Now whereas the young Traveller shold apply himself principally to the knowledg of that which might prove pertinent and profitable to the publique good of his own Countrey let him make account before hand that he cannot find that every where as he passeth For as a man cannot expect to find out in a Taylors Shopp in Hungary a suite of Clothes that will fitt a Spaniard or in Spain a suite that will fitt a Frenchman though his next Conterranean Neighbour their modes of habit being so different So every Countrey hath som municipall constitutions and customes peculiar and proper to themselfs which are not onely disagreeable but incompatible with the Goverment of other Nations and one of the chiefest curiosity and care the prime judgment of a Traveller shold be to distinguish betwixt such Lawes But helas how many go now abroad of whom ther are high hopes conceav'd that at their return they might act the part of Agamemnons but having so journed som yeeres in Italy and other hott Countreys in the flower and spring of their youth they com back grown old men before their time bringing home Winter in their faces and so are rather fitt to act the part of Thersites then Agamemnon How few do rerurn true Germans having habituated themselves to softness Effeminacy and Lux or to some il-favour'd posture either by shrinking in the Shoulders by cringing with the kâ—…ee and sweeping the earth with their feet or by ducking down their necks by poudring their Dublets by extenuating the tone of their voice after a womanish fashion or by jetting dancing or pratling up and down the Streets with other loose and affected Modes Now as Paris in Homer when he went abroad fell enamour'd with Helen which was the onely fruit of his Travels So these never looking after serious things hunt after toyes and bables Or as Physitians observe of Horse-leeches that when they apply them to the body they use to suck onely the ill corrupted blood So these Travellers draw in the worst things and it were well if it remained onely with them but the mischiefe is that they disperse the poyson among others and infest them by their touch or breath For where can be found a greater Lux in Apparrell then in Germany where a greater vanity in cloathing dead Walls while poor living Soules who beare the Image of God Almighty go naked Where is there greater excesse in Dyet in Queckshoses Made-dishes and Sawces And all this may be imputed to Peregrination Where is there more crisping of haire more boring of Eares to hang in Rings where is there more dead mens haire worn upon the heads of the living And we may also thank Peregrination for this How many have gone to France with some Religion and come back without any How many have gone to Spain with cheerfull and well-dispos'd humours but come back with a kinde of dull Melancholy How many have gone o're the Alpes with plain and open hearts but return'd full of cunning and mentall reservation How many have gone to England ' and come home with Tobacco-pipes in their mouths How many have gone to Holland gentile men but come back meer Boors And we may thank Peregrination for all this The
over with wind in poop to England which are good at it being of a German race and therefore apt to take Nay as they say the English are good Inventis addere to improve any new Invention so they go beyond us for whereas the Dutch doth pelt the brain with small shot the Englishman doth storm it with whole canons and huge carowses for he when he is at it doth not sipp and drink by halfs or demurr upon it by som discourse as the German doth or eat some salt quelchose between but he deals in shire liquor and is quickly at the bottom of his cupp without any intervening discourse Yet the Dutch bears the bell away both from Him and all others Hereupon they use to characterize a Dutchman to be an Animal that can drink more then he can carry as also one who useth to barrell up more then he can broch that understands more then he can utter T is he who drinks cum mensura but absque modo according to measure but without a mean I heard of four old men in the upper Saxony that having mett at a clubb they did not stir til they had drunk as many healths as they had yeers betwixt them all which came to above three hundred I heard of another company who at a match of drinking upon the Texells side in Amsterdam tippled so long looking out of a casement that they thought they were at sea in a tempest therefore to lighten the shipp they began to throw tables and stooles with other luggage out of the windowes thinking they were in danger of shippwrack But he was not so intemperat a Drinker who used to drink according to the gamuth Vt Re Mi Fa sol la tossing up one carouse to every one saying it was Re-levet Mi-serum Fa-tum So-litosque La-bores Aeneas Silvius hath a story of the Count of Gorits that to try whether his children were legitimat or no he used to give them wine and if they grew sick upon it he concluded them to be bastards and none of his But he was a witty soule and deservd to drink wine of the best who comprehended the lawes and causes of drinking in these verses Si bené quid memini causae sunt quinque bibendi 1 Hospitis adventus 2 Praesens sitis atque 3 Futura 4 Et Vini bonitas 5 Vel quaelibet altera causa To Drink there may five causes be at least 1. For to entertain a Newcom guest 2. To quench the present thirst 3. Prevent the next 4. The goodnesse of the Wine 5. Or any text The Jesuit hath a geerupon the German that he forsook the Communion of the Church of Rome because laymen have not the Cup at the Sacrament Now to draw towards a conclusion it cannot be denied but heretofore the Germans were appoved men for military glory but Helas they are now much eclipsd The knights of Rhodes disswading Soliman the Great Turk to warr against Europe especially against Germany He answerd I esteem the armes of the Germans lesse then of any others and that for four causes Quia sunt discordes et quemadmodum sui quinque digiti it a illi nanquam in unum coalescant Quia laborum sunt impatientes et prae aliis Germani sunt helluones Potatores qui in castris scortorum turbam foveant Ducesque belli plumis potius quam armis militaribus gaudeant quia temere I value not the Germans much because they are at discord nor can they be ever made one no more then my five fingers They are impatient of labour and above all others they are gluttons and drinkers fit to march in a Field of Whores and they take more pride in their feathers then their armes But Germany glorieth much that she was the first Inventresse of gunpowder and printing of Artillery Typography whereof contrary to the Genius and function of the men a Fryer found out the first and a soldier the second But if we may give credit to Maffeius and Paulus Iovius and Boterus three serious and sober Authors They will tell you the contrary and they were first invented and practised in China the most Orientall Countrey upon this part of the Hemisphear Heare I pray you his words Aenea tormenta conflare litteras imaginesque subjectis praelo typis excudere quibus Cmomentis Europa recentibus adeo gloriatur vetustissimo in usu apud Sinas compertum est To cast brasse gunns or imprint characters by way of stamp hath bin of very ancient use in China though Europe arrogate the inventions to her self Besides the moulding of Canons they have a way to make them loose in parts which may be carried upon a porters back or a beasts to any place without carriages Then for printing their characters are longer then ours nor do their lines extend from left to right as Greek and Latins or from the right hand to the left as the Hebrew and all her dialects but perpendicularly from top to bottom There be books hereof both in the Vatican and the Escuriall Boterus sayeth sono piu di mille anni ehe I Chinesi vsano la stampa It is above a thousand yeers that the Chineses use Typography And Paulus Iovius affirmes Maximé mirandum videtur apud Sinas esse Typographos artifices qui libros Historias et sacrorum ceremonias more nostro imprimant quorum longissima folia introrsus quadrata serie complicentur cujus generis volumen a Rege Lusitaniae cum Elephante dono missum Leo pontifex humaniter nobis ostendit ut hinc facile credamus ejus artis exēpla antequà m Lusitani in Indiam penetrarint per Scythas et Moscos adincomparabile literarum praesidium ad nos pervenisse It seems very strange that there shold be typographical Artificers in China who used to print books the ceremonies of their law whose longest leaves were folded fowerfold innerly Pope Leo did us the civility as to shew us such a volume which was sent him for a gift with an Elephant whence we may well thinke that long before the navigation of the Portugalls to the East Indies this Art of typography might be brought to Europe by way of Scythia or Moscovy But put case that Germany was first foundress of these two Inventions truly I do not think she hath therby deservd any thing well of Europe Touching gunns they may be called things forgd in Hell and cast in Belzebubs furnace for they destroy the Valiant with the Coward And for Printing truly I think it hath bin the greatest cause of all the heresies odd opinions and schismes that have swarmd ever since in the Christian Church To conclude in regard that the wallet that Germany carrieth behind her is so full of Vices which cast such a shaddow that obscures all her Vertues I cannot give a full suffrage that she may merit the principality of Europe but rather vote for Italy whence all Imperiall Majesty was first derivd unto Her THE ORATION OF PRINCE
useful rich Commodities and great summes of Money the English the Scots the Flemins Hollanders Germans Danes Swedes and other bibacious Northern Nations fetch away Vast quantities by Sea and by Land Bodin speaks of one Laud a Marchant of Cambray who bought and brought in Carts 33000. barrels of French Wines in one yeer Now as the grape streptos according to Pliny doth turn about with the Sun so the French nectar conforming it self to the course of the Sun doth refresh as it were with a golden showr all the circumjacent Countreys What shall I say of the excellent stomack Wines of Bourdeaux the full bodied Wines of Orleans which by an expresse Edict are prohibited from the Kings Cellers by reason of their strength the neat Whites of Aix the rich Frontiniak and most pleasant Wines of Province and Languedoc fit to feast the gods withal In some places of Burgundy there are Wine Vessels as big as some Houses in altitude little inferior to the Vast vessels of Heydelâ—…erg Tubinga and Groninghen Now I come to Hemp the third loadstone of France and indeed it is more precious then any Gem or jewel who would think that such a contemptible Vegetal scarce a yard high should be able to remove Egipt to Italy for we read that Galerius in 6. daies sayl'd from Sicily to Alexandria Babilius in six that can bring Naples to Hercules pillers and the Baltic Sea to the Hellespont a poor Vegetal that can remove this upper part of the Hemisphere to the Antipodes for the Navigators into the East Indies do so A vegetal that can resist Eolus and overmaster Neptune himself both winds and waves notwithstanding the impetuous whirlwinds of the one and the tumblings of the other a Vegetal that can joyn East and West North and South together and to interchange mutual offices of humanity and frendship Now where doth this so useful Vegetal grow more copiously then in France She furnisheth all her Neighbours with Sayles for their Ships and shirts for their backs I come now to the Salt which savours all things how much are all Countreys obliged to France for this wholsome commodity I have heard there are rocks of Salt in Ormus that in Carra in Arabia they make walls and houses of massy salt In Hungary they have Mines of Salt but both Sea and Land makes France abound with Salt wherewith she preserves from stinking those huge Regions of the North where as Catullus saith Vix in tam magno corpore mica salis What millions of bushels of Salt are expended and exported out of France ev'ry yeer how doth salt fill the Kings Coffers with treasure In so much that in the last computation that was made it appeer'd that the French King had 20. millions of Franks from this sole commodity which is two millions of pounds sterling 'T is tru Spain hath Salt but it is more corroding and acrimonious Therefore in Charles the fifths time when for the vent of the Spanish Salt he had put out a Placart prohibiting that no French salt should be us'd in the Low Countreys the Countrey was like to mutiny for this tart proclamation because the Spanish salt was nothing so vigorous and sweet as the French To these riches of France you may add Oyl Figs Orenges Cytrons Saffron with all sorts of Fruit and most excellent Cydre Ther are not such delightful fields on the surface of the whole Earth such Herds of Cattle and abundance of cloth and stuffs made which makes le drap de Berry so famous such swarms of bees such hosts of Deer and other wild beasts you will hardly find any where Nor do there want horses of all sorts with other animals necessary for the use of man about Orleans they have 4000. breeding Mares perpetually Their numbers of Forrests Chaces and Parks Woods and Groves ev'ry where is infinite In fine France is universally fertil in ev'ry corner nor is there one acre of ground which produceth not something or other for need or pleasure which they who made the perambulation and tour of France have found to be tru Ther are great number of large deep ponds The Countrey is cover'd in many places with delightful Woods and Lawnes which besides the pleasure the Gentry are permitted to have without injury done to the peason afford not only fire for the Kitchin but instruments for war by Sea and land Pliny was not deceiv'd when he said that France was full of yew Trees which though it be poysonous if one sleeps or eats under them whence may be inferr'd that toxica came first from taxica or taxus yet there is a remedy found out that if one doth beat into the yew a brasse nayl it takes away the force of any poyson Hitherto most Princely Auditors I have shew'd the face and outward purple of our French Helen I will now discover unto you her belly and inward parts wherof she is pregnant as iron the best and worst instrument of life for herewith we manure the Earth we lopp trees we prune Vineyards we build Houses and Ships we arm our selves against the Enemy which makes the Indians to prefer it before all metals and when any Ships arrive to their Havens the first thing they cry out for is Iron Iron But we use it also to pernicious uses as killing and slaying we give it wings to do mischief c. And nature hath furnish'd the bowels of France with this mettal more then ordinary that she might defend herself and arm her couragious sons There is good store also of other mettals and although Diodorus seems to undervalue France because she hath no Mines of silver he is deceiv'd for though by a casual fire that happen'd among the Shepherds on the Pyreney hills which search'd the very bowels of the Earth and melted the Mines of gold and silver yet Dominicus Bertinus affirmeth that if we would go to the pains there might be as much gold dig'd out of that part of the Pyrenean hills which look upon France as is found in Peru. But the vertu of France looks upward towards heaven for since the upper parts of her earth affords all things that may satisfie humane desire and appetite even Apidicus himself why should we tear the bowels of so kind and benigne a Mother The Pagan Poet could complain of this Itum est in viscera Terrae Quasque abscondiderat stygijsque admoverat Umbris Effodiuntur opes irritamenta malorum Now for habitation Nature hath provided stones of all kind Marbles of all colours with white specious free stone wherewith the Burgundian and Pyrenean Hills abound Now as her upper parts abound with Woods Fruits and Grounds her bowels with Mines and Marble so her veines I mean her Rivers are full of fish and some extraordinary ones there is observ'd to be in the River Arari a great fish call'd Clupea which in the increase of the Moon is white and in the wane grows black therefore sure those that eat of it
slave whom he had bought in Spain the slave being told of the Constitutions of France came and told his Master Sir I have serv'd you hitherto in quality of a slave but I am now a Freeeman yet I am content to serve you still but as a free attendant according to the custome of this noble Countrey The like thing happen'd at the siege of Mets where a servant had play'd the fugitive and ran away with his Master Don Luis de Avila's horse who was Master of the horse to the Emperour Don Luis sent to the Duke of Guyse a Trompetor for his man and his horse The Duke understanding that the horse was sold caus'd the money to be sent the Spaniard but for the servant he sent him word That his servant had enter'd into the inner parts of France where the Law is that if any of a servile condition puts his foot once he instantly recovers his liberty which custom being so consonant to reason and agreeable to Christianity he could not nor would not violat Touching the magnanimity and valour of the French ther are infinit Examples all the World over Alexander the great hearing of their valour sent to know of them what they fear'd most They answer'd Ne coelum rueret Least the heaven should fall 'T is tru Gallia became a Province to the Romanes but presently after the death of Iulius Caesar she was declared free And Rome call'd the Gaules in their publique writings by the appellation of frends 'T is well known what footing the Gaules took in Italy for the best part of Lombardy was call'd Gallia Cisalpina We read in Caesar that the time was cum Germanos Galli virtute superarent that the Gaules were superior to the Germans in valour that they had conquer'd much of the Countrey about the Hercynian Forest Are not the Britains of the Gaulic or Wallic race are not divers Provinces in Spain and Portingal descended from Them Afterward in revolution of time the German Franconians and Gaules being neighbours came by coalition to be one Nation and they have continued so above these 12 Ages The Kings of Sicily descend from Tanered the Norman so do the Kings of England from William the Conqueror and the Plantagenets The Kings of Cyprus Syria and Greece com from Guy of Lusignan nay Constantinople was held awhile by Gallic Emperours What glorious Expeditions have bin made to the Holy Land by 5. French Kings in person Me thinks I see Godefroy of Bâ—…llion having sold his Duchy to that purpose marching with a huge Army through Germany Hungary and Greece and so passing to Asia and Syria to encounter the Forces of Soliman the Ottoman Emperour and Chalypha the Soldan of Egipt with other Barbarian Kings whom he put all to flight making himself Master of Nice of Antioch and Hieresulam her self with the holy Sepulcher of Christ Me thinks I see him when he was to be crown'd King of Hierusalem throwing away a Crown of gold and taking one of thorns in imitation of his Saviour Me thinks I see all the tributary Princes therabouts bringing offrings unto him and he clad in the habit of a common Gregarian Soldier wherat they being astonished som of them as the Archbishop of Tyre said How is it that so great a King so admirable a Conqueror who coming from the West hath shaken all the Eastern World shold go so plain and homely But to step back a little look upon Brennus ransacking Rome with an Army of Gaules look upon Charles Martel who was call'd Conservator of the Christian World which was then upon point of ruine and to fall under the yoke of Infidels and Saracens Look upon Pepin who chas'd the Longâ—…bards out of Italy upon Bertrand who depriv'd Peter King of Castile of his Kingdom for his tyranny I could instance in a great nomber who have their names engraven and their Ensigns hung up in the Temple of immortality Moreover for Cavalleers and horsemen it is granted by all Nations that the French are the prime It is recorded in good how in the African Warr 30. French repuls'd 2000. Moors But to come neerer home In the siege of Mets where the fifth himself commanded in chief What resolute Sallies did the French make out of the Town causing the Emperour at last to trusse up his bagg and baggage and go away by torchlight Inso much that the Town of Mets being then kept by a French Garrison put the last bounds to the Conquests of that Great Captain as a Poet could tell him Si metam nescis Urls est quae Meta vocatur Now to go from the Sword to the Crosier What brave Prelats and Champions against haeresie hath France bred St. Hilary the queller of the Arrian heresie St. Hierom Pontius Paulinus Bishop of Nola Rusticus Phaebadius Prosper â—…cditius Avitus Mamertus Archbishop of Vienna Sidonius Apollinaris Lupus Germanus Salvianus Remigius Archbishop of Rheims with multitudes more all of them most pioâ—…s and learned Prelats whose Monuments shew them to be so to this day And so well devoted were the French alwayes to the Church of God that they thought nothing too dear and precious to endow her withall witnesse those mighty revenues the Gallican Church possesseth For in the late Raign of Charles the 9. ther was a cense brought in of the demains of the Church and they amounted to 12 millions and 300. thousand Franks in annual rent besides voluntary oblations Now touching Learning and Eloquence Lucius Plotius a Gaul was the first began to read Latin Lectures at Rome and Cicero being then a boy and finding such a great confluence of Auditors to flock ev'ry day to hear him he griev'd that he could not do the like as Suetonius hath left it upon record Marcus Antonius Gnipho a Gaul did then florish also at Rome a man of singular Elocution and a prodigious Memory he delivered praecepts in Greek and Latin and among others Cicero himself when he was Praetor us'd to be his Auditor Marseilles was very renowned for great learned men having bin so many ages a Greek Colony so was Lions also a special seat of the Muses as it is now for Marchants of all Nations of whom the Kings of France have borrow'd Millions of money to supply their sudden necessities Valence was also famous for Philosophers and Poets witnesse Athenaeus as also Vienne where Latin was so vulgar according to that signal Epigram of Martial Fertur habere meos si vera est fama 〈◊〉 Inter delicias pulchra Vienna suas Me legit omnis ibi Senior Iuvenisque puerque Et coram tetrico cast a puella viro Hoc ego maluerim quà m si mea carmina cantent Qui nilum ex ipso protinus ore bibunt Quà m Meus Hispano si me Tagus impleat auro Pascat et Hybla meas pascat Hymettos apes c. And questionlesse no Countrey florish'd with Learning more then France in those daies witnesse St. Hierom when he writ Sola Gallia monstra
got 12. Kingdoms and taken 200. Cities I say he so handled this Mahomet that he and Bajazet his Sonne desir'd peace Besides this Sultan Mahomet when he gloried of himself that he had conquer'd and quell'd all the Kings round about him he used to except alwaies King Matthias who was call'd by him strenuus Princeps the strenuous Prince But that which adds much to the renown of this notable King was that he joyn'd Arts with Armes that he contracted a kind of Matrimony twixt Mars and the Muses to whom he was much devoted in his private retirements At dinner and supper he had alwaies some book or other read unto him or some Doctors discoursing by learned altercations He would alwaies say that 't was impossible for any to be a Generall and to deserve the name of a great Captain unlesse he were vers'd in the institution of Warre among our Ancestors and observ'd their discipline of Warre and Stratagems He made Buda the Domicile and rendevous of all kind of Vertue and Knowledge For he was very liberall and munificent to all learned men as well as Military and his reign florished with both Earl Emericus was another Ulisses his brother Stephen an Agamemnon Paul Cinisius another Aiax Micolas Cyupor a Diomedes Michael Palatine a Nestor Blasius Magerus who was of â—…o robust a constitution that he lift up a but of wine which three horses could hardly draw was another Hercules and King Matthias himself was a true Achilles In his happy reign Hungary was no other then an Academy of brave men in all faculties He boar up most magnanimously against the whole power of the Ottoman Empire who denounced Warre so often against him That fresh Empire which florisheth with such incredible Wealth most spacious and variety of Dominions with such veteran Captains and exact discipline and exercised souldiery flesh'd so often with blood and a continuall course of conquering having their courage elevated with the conceit of the puissance and large territories of their Emperor with divers other advantages which the soft Europaean Princes have not among whom either want of mony the mutining of souldiers the covetousnesse of Commanders the carriage of so much luggage and amunition for the mouth the luxury and excesses of the common souldier is so frequent In so much that as an Italian Author hath it it is a harder matter to take the smallest cottage from the Turke then it were to take Calais or Bayon from the French Hungary is the greatest rampart of Christendome against that Gigantique Enemy who magnifieth and esteems the Hungarian and slightes all other Europaeans confessing that when he comes to the field against them he is sure to meet with men Nay the women of Hungary have such masculine spirits that it is admirable Among many other instances which might be made I will produce a late one When Mahomet had closely begirt Agria by a pertinacious siege and that the Praesidiaries being summon'd to make a rendition of the place upon very fair termes for answer they set up a Mortuary with a death's head upon it on the top of one of their turrets preferring death before a dedition Hereupon the next day he made a furious storm and brought his scaling ladders round about the walls but he was notably repuls'd twice by the Inhabitants Wherein the virility and valour of the women was much seen whereof one having her husband kill'd before her face her mother being by the mother said that she should have a care of her Husbands body to give him buriall God forbid O mother that my husband should go unreveng'd to his grave pugnas hoc tempus non exequias poscit this is a time of fighting not burying and so taking up her husbands sword and target she rush'd in among the throng of the Enemies and never left till she had kill'd three Turks with her own hands as they were scaling a wall and so offer'd them for a Victime to her spouse to whom she afterward gave the rites of buriall Another following her Mother who carried upon her head a great stone to throw down upon the scaling Enemy and being shot by a bullet and kill'd the daughter takes up the same stone and went furiously to the walls where she made so happy a throw that she knock'd down dead two huge Turks as they were climing up a ladder This female courage did much heighten the spirits of the men who behav'd themselves so manfully that the gran Signior was constrain'd to raise his seige most ingloriously and so trusse up his bagage and be gone Bonfinius hath another story of a valiant Hungarian who at the seige of Iayza clim'd up a Turret where the Turk had set up his colours which he pull'd down and fell down with the colours and so sacrific'd his life What shall I say of the portentous courage of Nicolas Iurischyzius who kept Gunzium a small City against Solyman maugre his Army of 300. thousand men What stupendous exploits did Nicolas Serinius perform â—… at the siege of Ligeth who being encompas'd on al sides with fire famine thirst with the howling and screeching of women and children Thuanus reports he caus'd a gate to be open'd and having a select company of Adventurers with him they rush'd into the midst of the Enemy to the amazement of the whole army where some of them lost their lives so happily that they rais'd the siege But Serinius like the Salamander went through and through the fire without being burnt Necessity is vertues occasion and it is the property of a man truly valiant to make use of it and turn it to vertue Now vertue hath many waies to try the valour of her children She tries the courage of Regulus by fire of Rutilius by banishment of Socrates by poyson of Cato by his self-necion And of the Hungarians by these and many other waies Thus she tryed Serinius Iurischyzius Georgius Thurius and Nadastus who have got themselves high seates in the Temple of immortality It is Hungary that is the Antemurale the true Propugnacle of all Europe against that prodigious huge Tyrant the Musulmans Emperor The Germans grow rich by the Hungarian armes the Italians live by their Funeralls the French sleep quietly by their Calamities the Spaniard is at leisure to Warre else where by their Perills the English and Dutch made the more safe for their Power The Pole followes his spotes by their labour And Christians in generall live securely through their perpetual and contiguous dangers So that Noble Hungary is not onely the inexpugnable rampart but the buckler of Christendom Therefore most Noble Princes the Hungarians without much prophanesse may be call'd the Patrons and Tutelar Angells of Europe Therefore the Pole when the French Henry had stole away from them made no ill choice when they reflected upon Stephen Bartorius to be their King What an heroique Expedition did he engage himself in against the Moscovite what an immense tract of