Spain therefore do in like manner aspire to the same Height it is necessary that he frame some New Religion but this neither God nor Reason permits him to do For First this is never to be done but in the very Infancy and beginning of a Kingdom as you may see in the examples of Mahomet Romulus and Pythagoras for otherwise he must needs come to ruine by changing the Auspicia Regni the Fortune of the Kingdom as I may call it whose dependance is from Faith in Christ and then the People will immediately betake themselves to their Armes and revolt from him Neither indeed have any Monarchies been either more certainly or more miserably brought to destruction then when they have changed their Religion as is testified by Histories And then again the Pope and the rest of the Princes of Christendom would joyn their whole strengths together and would in a very litle time root him out of his Kingdom of Naples Millan and consequently also of the New World the rest of his Dominions And although these things were not done to Henry the VIII of England nor yet to the Duke of Saxony because their Territories were encompassed within small though well fortified Bounds yet for all that did they fail of succession and so their States went away from them And we have examples hereof also in Jeroboam Jehu Julian the Apostate and others who for having changed their Religion incurred the hatred of their People and brought destruction upon themselves Unlesse we shall say that the Pope hath no power at all in Temporal things nor is any whit above either any other of the Bishops or theirs Surrogates or Chaplains in Authority or degree which is evidently contradictory to Gods Ordination by which He hath been constituted a Regal Priest and hath been armed with both the Swords as well the Civill as the Spiritual For were it otherwise Christ should be a very mean Law-giver and should be lesse then Melchisedech who was both King and Priest together which addeth both the greater Majesty as well as security to any Kingdom as I have proved in my Treatise Touching Monarchy against Dante who looking only upon the Priesthood of Aaron allowes to the Pope nothing but Spiritualties and Tithes only And which is more this impugnes also all Reasons of Policy because the Pope can never want those that will take up Armes in His defence in case He should not be able to defend Himself and that either by being moved thereunto through Zeal to Religion as the Countesse Matilda did against the Emperour Henry or else out of Emulation or some interest of Faction as it was in the Case of the Venetians making war upon the Emperour Frederick whom they compelled to kisse the Popes Foot or for both these reasons as when King Pipin and Charles the Great took up Armes in assistance of the Pope against the Lombards and others who waged war against him Thus we see that the Constantinopolitan Empire came to be destroyed for the Apostasy of Julian and Constantius in like manner as all the Fredericks Henries and other Kings also of Naples suffered for the same Cause as often as they denied their Obedience to the Pope And certainly the Opinion and Beliefe which hath prevailed upon the Minds of all People touching the Christian Religion is of very great force and moves them to defend It to the utmost of their power so that whensoever the Pope hath excommunicated any Prince He doth at the same instant ruine him also Do but observe I pray you to what state Ferraria is reduced at this day But we have discoursed more copiously of this in the Treatise of Monarchy It is lastly against all Policy too for the Pope withholds the rest of the Princes of Christendom from invading Spain as he doth the King of Spain from invading them by continually composing their differences in like manner as he divided India betwixt the Portugals and the Spaniards and thus hath several times made peace betwixt the Spaniards and the French Venetians and Genowaies and so likewise betwixt Pisa and Florence which yet he would not so easily be able to do by the meer Reverence they bear to Religion For here in these Cases they have an eye as well to the force of Armes as to Religion for He that is in the wrong Cause may justly suspect the Popes joyning of his strength to that of his Antagonist and so for this reason he will the more readily obey the Popes Injunction as I have declared formerly in the forementioned Treatise And the King of Spain if he but declare himself for and stand up in the defence of the Pope shall be sure to have alwayes the assistance of His Forces at his devotion at any time which will be a good means of confirming his Kingdom to him And therefore I conceave it very necessary according to the Fate of Christendom that if the King of Spain would arrive to an Universal Monarchy He must declare himself publiquely to have his dependance from the Pope and command it to be published all abroad throughout the World that himself is the Cyrus that was before typified and the Catholick King that is the Universal Monarch of the World declaring this his Monarchy by his Religious Counsels and pious Actions and passing also by many litigious Controversies which he hath with the Pope and dwelling in the Tents of Sem making it appear to all the World that He is the Chief Defender of Christian Religion that depends wholly upon the Pope of Rome calling together also the Christian Princes to consult about the recovery of those Countreys they have lost and are at this day in the hands of Hereticks and Turks and He must proceed to the causing of such to be excommunicated as shall deny their assistance herein and lastly he must also take care that Pious and diligent Preachers be sent abroad into the World to promote this businesse For the Plain truth of it is that the Pope picks quarrels sometimes with the King of Spain for no other reason but only because he is afraid that in case he should subdue the King of France and the Princes of Italy hee would then make Him only as his Chaplain And this is the reason why He desires that they should alwayes be at variance one with another that so in case either of them should fall off from Him by reason either of Apostasy or some quarrel or other He might have the other to assist him And this is the reason why he stirred up the Western Empire against the Eastern onely because they had forsaken their former Religion had had many Clashings with the Pope about It. But now if King Philip will but do that which is his duty as is before declared and will but give way to the Pope in some things which he pretends His Right and will besides send some Bishops and Cardinals into the Belgick Provinces and to the New world to
possibly they can to get to be admitted into some Covent or other for Friers or Preachers I therefore here leave it to the King to consider whether or no He may not rather be overcome by Gold which is the Cause of so many Evils I say therefore that there are many things here that stand in need of a Reformation that so the Kings Treasury may grow Rich and that He himself may have greater Testimonies of his Subjects Love and Fidelity which might easily be brought about if so be that those Rules before laid down touching the encreasing the Number of the Subjects and the remitting and abating the Taxes and Exactions laid upon them were but observed and if the King going into the Wars Himself in person would by that means chalk out to his Wise and Valiant Commanders and Souldiers the Way to Honour rather then to Covetousnesse and would also propose New Arts and Sciences So likewise if He would make some such Lawes to which those that are Obedient should have their former honours continued to them but the Refractory and Disobedient should have Disgraces cast upon them and to perswade Obedience to which Lawes there should in the Second place some Profit and Advantage be proposed for such but in the Third place before the Disobedient should be laid down the Fear of Punishment to which our Modern Writers absurdly attribute the First Place in Relation to the due Observing of Lawes who having regard to the Time rather then to Religion require Fear in Subjects rather then Love because that the Rulers of the Gentiles preferred this Later before the Former and so taught that Wicked Wretch Macchiavel and other the like Polititians those Rules But if there be no place left for a Reformation it is then necessary that respect being had to the Present Abuses there should be good store of Treasure got up together lest at length the King should be undone by Use-Mony or some other Losses should fall upon him in case the Plate Fleet should not return back from the West-Indies in three or four years together perhaps I shall first therefore lay down the Usual Rules in this case and then such other as I my self have thought upon First therefore there must be matter administred for the promoting of Vsury and Vsurers and every one of them is to be bound under a certain Penalty to have alwaies a stock of Monies lying by them that so when there shall be any Necessity the King may know where to fetch presently good store of Large Summes of Mony Which Course is to be taken in all the chief Cities both in the Kingdome of Naples and of Spain Then when any great War is near at hand the said Summes of Mony are to be called for at the said Usurers hands and that by the intervening too of the Popes Authority that so the King may not draw upon himself alone the Hatred and Ill Will of his Subjects Secondly let him introduce the Tribute of Apulia which was brought up by King Ferdinand through all the Provinces that are under him imposing it either in the same or some other the like Form Thirdly let Him cause all the Barons to bring in what summes of Mony they have binding them thereto in the name of Religion and the Crown of Spain to which they are joyned and engaged Fourthly let Him procure of the Pope Indulgences and Croisados for all his Kingdomes and those Summes of Mony that shall be raised by the same He shall lay up in some Treasury where they may encrease to such a quantity as that an Army may be raised out of them which may be sent into the Holy Land Fifthly let Him get an Injunction from the Pope that for the space of five years all Churches Monasteries Bishopricks and Parishes throughout all his Provinces shall pay in a certain sum of Mony into The Sacred Treasury so called as being collected for the making of a War against the Infidels that is to say Five in the Hundred of all their Revenues but so that every year there should be an abatement made of One As namely the first year they should pay Five in the Hundred the second year Four the third Three and so on till the five years be expired But the Venetians exact the Tenths And this Course may be taken betwixt the King and the Pope under the Pretense of making a War upon the Infidels After all this is done let Him then appoint two Bishops to be the Treasurers of this Mony Sixthly let the King by his Treasurers traffick in every Country with such Commodities as are used there as in Calabria with Silks in Apulia with Wheat in Sicily with Oyl for by this means He will divert his Subjects from applying themselves to Usury and will cause them to attend more the Manuring of the Ground and withal will hereby mightily enrich Himself Seventhly let Him send out into every City and Town especially in the Kingdom of Naples a Commissary having a Counsellour joyned with him who shall be one of the Clergy to make enquiry into all Usurers and to cause Them to make it appear by the testimony of Three Witnesses that they have taken no other Use then what is allowed to be taken by the custome of the Kingdom and where they shall find any to have done otherwise to seize upon all they are worth and carry it away to some publick place for the King's use But then the King may afterwards restore half of it to them again if he think fit as for example suppose his Officers took away from any of these Usurers Ten Thousand Crownes He may then restore to the Owner Five Thousand Crownes of his Mony again For they are a hateful sort of People and are despised by all men so that you need never fear that they will rebel and besides the people when ever they see Them ruined will be very glad of it neither will any of them take their parts and indeed the Usurers themselves when they have half of their estates left them will think themselves very well dealt withal And with the rest of such Monies the King may set up A Bank of Charity where poor people shall take up Monies upon their Pawn but upon this condition that if they redeem not their Pawn by the Limited Time that then it shall be forfeit to the King And afterward with the Mony arising from hence He may drive a Trade of Merchandise as the Usurers themselves use to do or else He may with those monies erect Cloysters or Seminaries for Souldiers and Poor Women as hath been shewed before And if some of the Clergy were sent abroad with the like Commissions to inquire into the Barons also it would do them much good both in reference to their Soul Body and State who otherwise by their arts would swallow up and devour the whole World Eighthly let Him require an Account of all the Kings Ministers and Commissioners for the
Truth and that hath been confirmed by long experience that He that can make himself Master of the Sea shall give Lawes to the Continent and command it and shall be able to Land men whensoever and wheresoever he pleases and shall find it convenient to do so which the King of France should he be invited into Italy could not be able to do It will be a good course therefore for the King of Spain to be in League with his Neighbours the Switzers and the Grisons and let Him chuse out of these Nations Thirty Thousand Souldiers to whom He shall in the mean time allow half pay till such time as He shall have Occasion to use them according as the Venetians are wont to do and this Army let him make use of for the repelling of any powerful Enemy assaulting him But yet lest these people encreasing their numbers should themselves invade the Duchy of Millan which thing we know to have happened heretofore in the time of the Romans I would have this Army to be divided and some part of it to be sent into the Netherlands and another to Naples and there may some of them also be sent abroad as far as the West-Indies that so serving him abroad in His Wars they may at length be all destroyed And certainly should this People but keep at home and not go so much abroad to Wars as they do but should unite their forces together it would be a very easie matter for them to subdue all Italy but now whiles that they serve some of them under this Prince and some under that in their wars there is no great reason to fear any such thing of them However it would be a very good way to divide them as we have shewed and to send them abroad several waies The second thing that the Italians are wont to threaten the Spaniard with is that perhaps They may enter into a League with the Pope and the King of France to the Prejudice of Spain But this conceipt of theirs also the King of Spain may easily elude because no one of them dares do any thing without the Pope and the King of France as being not able of himself to defend himself much lesse to attempt any thing against others unlesse it be by chance and by taking some extraordinary Advantage as the Venetians did heretofore at what time the Popes were at War with the Emperours and when the Transalpines made bold to march over into Italy And therefore if so be the King of Spain have but the Pope on his side He hath no need at all to fear the Princes of Italy neither indeed is there any Change made in any State or Dominion in Italy without the Pope and the Pope alone hath been the cause of all the Mutations that have happened in the Kingdom of Naples And in case the Pope should take up Arms against any Party or against any Common-Wealth in Italy He would presently prove the Conquerour by having recourse immediately to his wonted Helps such as are His giving out Indulgences against it and his absolving the subjects from the Oathes they have taken to be true to the same and by calling in others to His Assistance as Pope Julius the second did at that time when He Excommunicated the Venetians at which time they were utterly crushed by him Now my Counsel to the King of Spain is that He would yeeld to the Pope and do whatsoever He would have and that He would give His Commands abroad as Constantine the Emperour heretofore did namely that the Pope shall have supream Authority in Last Appeals and so likewise that Two Bishops with the King who then holds the place of a Clergy man be Judges in all causes that shall be devolved unto them by way of Last Appeals And let it be agreed upon betwixt him and the Pope that what Princes soever shall refuse to submit hereto they shall be deprived by their Authority For if some of the Princes of Italy or indeed if all of them should fall off from the Pope the King of Spain who is the Vindicater of the Pontifical Authority being assisted by Croisados and other Aides from the Pope would by degrees ruin them all one after another or else bring them in Subjection under himself and thus whiles he yields to the Pope He is sure to have both His Affections surely united to Him and His power assisting him and he shall withal make himself Master of the Princes of Italy's Dominions And this may possibly hereafter come to passe although as matters now stand all that the King can do is to make it his businesse to keep these Princes at difference amongst themselves and to make either the Duke of Parma or some other of them Sure to Him and then He need care but little for any of the rest Let him also give the Venetians the Tittle of being The Fathers of Italy and let him desire of them the favour to have some of the Principal of them sent to him whom he may imploy as Judges in the Netherlands because that this Nation doth more willingly admit of Italians then Spaniards and of all Italians of the Venetian rather then any other and upon These Venetians so imployed by him let him confer the Dignities of Barons And seeing that it is known to every man that the Venetians are both very Just and also free from Ambition and so the fitter to be made use of if not for the gaining of any New Dominions yet certainly for the keeping of what are already gotten let the King so order the matter as that the Hollanders may be brought to desire Lawes to be prescribed them by the Venetians of which I shall say more hereafter And if by these Arts He could so far prevaile with them as to get them to give over their travelling to Alexandria and Syria to traffick there and to take up a trade of Merchandise with those in the West-Indies as the Portuguez have done He would by this meanes in time make Himself Lord of the Venetians as He hath already of the Genoeses Now that he may also secure himself in the mean time from the Venetians it would be his best Course to provide himself of such a Navy as I spake of before and He should likewise do well to make use of the Archduke of Carinthia and His Neighbours the Grisons in his wars by this meanes to fright the Venetians the more And besides let him give entertainment to all such persons as are banished by the Florentines or by the Venetians and receive them into his service in his wars and he may do well to bestow extraordinary rewards upon them too that by this meanes he may draw others of them also over to him who may serve under him if neeed be even against their owne Native Country Which indeed was the frequent practise of the Duke of Millan and also many times of the King of France when for the same reason he
another Errour in this Point in that by his Slownesse He gave the King of Navarre time to make over to his Party the Princes of Italy and the Pope only by making them believe that He intended to abjure the Protestant Religion and turn Catholick besides that those Princes did likewise consider that when France was once subdued by the Spaniards whom they knew very well to gape earnestly after an Universal Monarchy their Own Turnes would probably have been next to have been swallowed up by them This very Slownesse of his was the reason why the Spaniard gained the lesse and was also the longer held in expectation and besides by gaping in this manner after what belonged to others became hated by all So true is that Common Saying namely That there is no place Inexpugnable into which an Asse laden with Gold can but get in But then this is also to be added to that Saying namely that That Golden Asse or that Asse laden with Gold must have many Horses laden with Iron to come after it that so while the Citizens are all busied in weighing and telling out their Mony Thou mayest in the mean time make use of thy Iron in the subduing and taking in of that Place To this we may adde that the Spanish Commanders as well as the French plaid booty as we say neither of them fighting for the Victory but for Gain onely And the reason of this was because that neither the King himself nor his Son were present in person in the Army And besides the Duke of Parma durst not at first in the beginning of the War hazard all in a Battel without Commands from the King by which means the King of Navarre had time given him to gain over to him the French Nobility whom the Spaniard had before wrought over by his Mony to His side only by an Opinion they had conceived of his Military Valour And in this He imitated those other most Valiant Princes who neglecting the Common People made it their only businesse to oblige the Nobles to them only Which hath been the Ancient Custome with the Polonians Persians and French And because that the Nobles think it a thing too much below them to march with Foot Souldiers hence it is that these very Nations have alwaies been very strong in Horse but have still been but weak in Foot And seeing the businesse is come to this passe that the King of France hath now won to himself the Affections both of his Subjects the French and of the Pope also and hath thereby got himself more Renown then if he had beaten the King of Spain himself it is now to be feared that He may sometime or other attempt to take in some part of Spain also For He is of a Turbulent Unquiet Spirit neither can the French hold while they have well settled a Country that they have newly taken in but they must on still and fall upon some other and this the King of France must the rather do because that being out of Mony He is forced to forrage abroad and take from others that he may have to pay his own men And therefore it will be necessary that the King of Spain take care that the Frontiers of Spain and the Duchy of Millan also be well guarded and fortified and also that he carefully observe these following Rules The first whereof is that he enter into a League with the French who are his Competitors and the Second is that He hinder the coming of any Assistance to him either from England or from Italy both which things may be effected one and the same way namely if He do but perswade the Pope that the King of France hath a purpose of Assisting the Hereticks and that should he but once come into Italy he would scatter abroad the Poyson of his Heresie every where and that Tuscany and the Venetian Territories will first be the Seat of the War and afterwards will be his Prey Let the King of Spain therefore deal with the Pope that He would interdict the King of France the contracting of any League or Friendship either with the Queen of England or with any other of the Hereticks such as are the Genevians Helvetians and Rhetians or Grisons for these would be able to assist him very much Let the Pope also make Him swear that He will go to the Holy Land and there joyn with the Italians in the Defence of the Christian Faith But the best course of all would be that the Nobility of France and of Italy should all joyn together and should be sent in an Expedition against Greece and that there should also be another Association made betwixt the Princes of the House of Austria against the Hereticks For if that the Christian Princes were but thus dispersed and kept at a distance one from another the Kingdom of Naples together with that of Spain and the Duchy of Millan also would have none to stand in fear of but would be secure on all sides and besides the King of Spain might in the mean time bethink himself what waies were the best to be taken for the reducing of the Netherlands over whom were he but once Conquerour the forenamed Princes would be so much astonished at the report of that his Victory and of his Military Strength that they would never dare to attempt any thing against Him no though they should return home Lords of all Asia For although Pompey was a Conquerour in Asia yet he was not able to stand against Caesar that had now subdued the Belgick Provinces For the Belgians by reason of their Fiercenesse in War put Caesar much more to it to subdue them then those of Asia did Pompey who was for this reason also inferiour to Caesar in Power Now in case that Henry the Fourth should die as he begins now to be an old man and hath neither Successor nor Wife or if he should marry and should leave a Son behind him yet probably he would be under Age and so Conde would either be the next Heir to the Crown or else would at least have the Administration of the Government put into his hands during the Minority of the Prince whose Ancestors having alwaies been the Leaders and indeed the stirrers up of the Hereticks of France in all their Wars were the Authors of shedding so much Catholick blood I say should things come to this passe it would then concern the King of Spain to lay hold on that Opportunity in proposing to the Consideration of the Catholicks of France whether they thought would be the better course to make choyce of Conde or else of some Catholick to be their King remembring that He is the Son of that Father that acted so much Cruelty upon the Catholicks which this Prince suckt in with his Nurses Milk The King of Spain must also so order the matter as that if He cannot bring it about that the Kingdome of France should be divided in Judgment upon
was well versed in all the Learning of the Egyptians and managed a War for King Pharaoh against the King of Ethiopia whom he vanquished in the War and whose daughter also he took to Wife as both Flavius Josephus and Philo testifie And yet for all this he despised not the advice of Jothro his Father-in-law touching the taking in of a certain number of persons to assist him in the Administration of the Government over the People of Israel And indeed They being sore oppressed and labouring under their Egyptian Slavery took Occasion by his means of shaking that Yoak off their necks whence they were inclined to hearken the more willingly to Him and to follow him whither he would lead them the Occasion also taken from the Wickednesse of those of Palaestine concurring with their Inclinations Besides the Great Monarch of all the Earth God of his own accord and free grace gave Wisdom to his People as he did likewise to the Apostles and to the Bishop of Rome which was also assisted by Occasion which is nothing else but to know how to make right use of the Time whence followed the Division of the Romane Empire but the utter Subversion of the Jewish Yet notwithstanding where the Power of Man only appeared Outwardly there was a concurrence and co-operation of the finger of God though not so visibly seen And thus the Assyrians for some secret Causes were possessed of the Monarchy of the World which Causes notwithstanding have been sometimes apparent as we see in Nabuchodonosor whom God rewarded with the spoyles of Egypt because he had made use of Him against the ingrateful Hebrewes and against Tyre And in Isaiah God reproveth the King of the Jewes for that when by his aide his enemies had been slain and put to flight He notwithstanding had ascribed all to his Own strength Now the Occasion of this was the Wickednesse of the Nations who were governed by no Prudence In the Monarchy also of the Medes the same Occasion carried a great stroke in the businesse when as God as it appears out of Daniel came forth upon the stage and raised up Arbaces the Praefect of Media who was a very wise man against Sardanapalus who wallowed in all Luxury and Womanish delights In the Persian Monarchy the Valour and Courage of Cyrus appeared and Media being destitute of a Successour for the Kingdome afforded him the Occasion of shewing it and God himself in Isaiah calling Cyrus his Anointed instructed him how he should bring the Nations under his Yoake Who makes any doubt of the Prudence and Wisdome of Alexander the Great and knowes not that the Divisions of the Grecians at home and the Loosenesse of Life that the Eastern Nations had at that time given themselves up unto administred unto him an Occasion of making use of it Wherein the Divine Power was most evidently manifested for as much as as the Prophet Daniel testifies the Angel of the Kingdome of Greece laboured much in the businesse In the Roman Empire also Prudence and Valour did very much but Italy's being divided into several Common-Wealths and the Carthaginians Factions among themselves were the Occasion And commonly to that Part that dissolves any great Empire all the rest of the Principalities of the World do incline And certainly God himself was the chiefest Cause of the Prosperity of the Romans because of their Moral Virtues as it is proved by St. Augustine in his book De Civitate Dei Yet no place doth more evidently shew what Occasion can do then Sicily at what time it called forth Peter of Arragon against those of Anjou whence sprang the Proverb of those most famous Vespers Although it cannot be denied but that he was assisted very much in that Undertaking not only by the Pope but also by his own Innate Prudence And truly although Historians seldome make any mention at all of these Three Causes yet the Books of the Kings of the Jewes and the Successions therein laid down before us do sufficiently confirm the same and make it appear that which way soever the Prophesies and the Valour of the Persons inclined that way also did the Fortune of the Kingdom look CHAP. II. The Causes of the Spanish Monarchy THe same Three Causes therefore have concurred in the Spanish Monarchy For after that It had by the Assistance of Almighty God happily maintained War against the Moors for near 800. years space together It at length brought forth such Valiant Commanders and Souldiers that being so fortified both by Strength and Prudence and having overcome the Barbarians they then turned their Armes another way and proceeded on to greater Undertakings And afterwards being as it were by Divine Instinct assisted by the Pope with a great Treasure of Indulgences and Croisados and the King being also honoured by the Title of Catholick that is to say Vniversal It arrived to so great a reputation and glory of Valour that the Genueses were so much the more willingly and readily drawn in to their assistance in the making themselves Masters of the New World And lastly it is most certain that whilest Wars were made with Launces and Horses the Gaules Goths and Lombards enlarged their Dominions but when the Sword was the chief Weapon the Romans then carried all afore them But in after times when Subtlety and Craft was of more Prevalence then Valour and that Printing and Guns were now found out the Chief Power then fell into the hands of the Spaniards who are a People that are both Industrious Active Valiant and Subtle For then did Occasion joyn the King of Arragon with Isabella Queen of Castile who had no Issue Male to succeed her and at the same time also was added to him the Imperial Line of the House of Austria to which likewise through defect of Issue Male in the Burgundian Family there was added a very considerable Inheritance of many Lordships and Provinces in the Low-Countries and in other places Then followes the Discovery of the New World made by Christophorus Columbus and another accession also by the joyning of the Kingdom of Portugal to Spain All which rendred the Monarchy of Spain both Illustrious and Admirable and also besides other things made Her Lady of the Seas to which Advantages was also added the Troubled Condition of the French English and Dutch who were at Variance among themselves about certain Points of Religion by which meanes the Spaniard so easily arrived to this height of Power and Greatnesse it now is in And the King of Spain might grow more Powerful yet and might attain to the Dominion of the Whole World if he would but endeavour the Overthrow of the Turkish Empire as Alexander heretofore did of the Persian and the Romans of the Carthaginean For that Empire got up to this height for the Sins of the Christians and the Angel of that People hath yet the upper hand For while the Imperialists have been at variance with the Pontificians the French with the English
the Act of Copulation with his Queen under a Fortunate Planet onely and after Digestion is finished and besides he must not do this till after he hath abstained some reasonable time from the said Act to the end that his seed may be the more fruitful and when ever he hath any thing to do with his Queen he ought at that instant to be very hot in his love to her for it is of great concernment to the whole World what the seed of the King be And I could wish that all men did observe these Rules But the World is now come to that passe that men take more care to have a generous Breed of Horses then to have generous Children Then must his Queen when she is with Child use some Moderate Exercise that so the Child may be the stronger When she hath brought forth a Son there must be some woman that is a Gentlewoman provided to be his Nurse which Gentlewoman must also be a Wise woman and of a high Spirit too For the Manners are suckt in together with the Milk of the Nurse When the Child is grown up to some Maturity He must converse with Men rather then with Women and he must delight himself with the looking upon Mathematical Figures and also with Maps and draughts of the Kingdoms He is born to He may also look upon Horses and Armes but he must not be suffered to run about to idle Childish sports and plaies as were the sons of Cyrus Cambyses and Darius as if they had been born for themselves only and not for their People and who therefore as Plato saies came to destruction He must have Religious Tutors both Bishops and Commanders that are eminent for their knowledge in Martial affaires He must also have Eloquent persons that may instruct him in the Art of Oratory and informing him rather in the Solid Rules then the trifling Quiddities of Grammer After he hath grown past a Child he must then exercise both his Mind and his Body also for Valour and Wisdom are Virtues that are proper to Princes And we are to know that what Prince soever shall use the Exercise of Body only and not of his Wit as well his own as his Subjects he shall be a slave to him that exerciseth his Wit too And hence it is that the King of France and his Officers of State yeilded themselves up to Calvin as the Germans did to Luther both which so bewitched their eyes that they took all for right and good whatsoever these laid down before them And thus the Tartarians also after they had made themselves Lords of the whole East were at last made fools of by Mahomets Priests And if they are not enslaved by Wicked Ingenious Men yet how ever they are slaves to those that are Good as well as Ingenious And hence we see that those Kings of Judah and of Israel that were both dull and wicked persons were given up into the hands of Elias and Elisha and others who set them up and deposed them from their Thrones for their Ignorance of their own Religion The Consuls of Rome likewise were in subjection to their Priests And again on the other side he that exerciseth his Wit only is brought under the power of him that exerciseth his Body and Feats of Armes Whence it is that the Popes have so often been made the laughing stock of the Goths and Lombards and that Platonical King Theodoricus the second K. of Ravenna was subdued by Belisarius But that King that exerciseth himself both these waies he is the truly wise King And hence it was that the Romans never exercised their Wit without the exercise of the Body too as Salust informs us I adde moreover that a King ought not to bend his studies wholly to and to spend all his time in one certain Science onely as did King Alphonsus who became one of the most famous Astronomers in the World following the Example of King Atlas who was overcome by Perseus a valiant Man of Armes as the Fable tells us nor yet would I have him to addict himself wholly to the Study of Divinity as Henry the VIII did who by this means utterly ruined his own Wit But he ought to have several Tutors for each several Science and be a hearer of each of them at their several appointed times But the Knowledge most sit for the King is to know the Division of the World into its parts and of his own Dominions the different manners and Customes of the several Nations of the Earth and their Religions and Sects as also the stories of all the former Kings and which of them was a Conquerour and which was overcome and for what reasons And for this purpose he must make choice of the best Historians that have written He must likewise know the several Lawes of Nations and which are wholsome Lawes and which not and the Grounds they were made upon But chiefly He is to be well skilled in the Lawes of his own Kingdome and of the Kings his Predecessors and to understand by what means Charles the Fifth got here or lost there and how Maximilian sped in his wars So likewise with how many and what kind of Nations and Kingdomes They made their Wars and how the same Nations may be subdued He must also give an ear to all sorts of Counsels but let him make choice of and publish as His own the Best and Soundest onely Let his rule be also to inflict all punishments upon his Subjects in the name and by the Ministry of his Officers but to confer all benefits and rewards upon them with his own hand and in his own name In a word he must be adorned with all kinds of Vertues and let it be his chiefest desire to leave to His Successors Himself an Example worthy of their Imitation as it must be his care to imitate all the wisest of his Predecessors Those Affections which he ought with his utmost power to restrain are Grief Pleasure Love Hatred Hope Fear and lastly Mercy also For when a King shewes himself to be cast down by any Ill Fortune that hath befallen him He betrayes his own Weaknesse discourages his Subjects and lastly gives himself wholly to grieve for the same for which King David was justly reproved by Joab when he lamented so excessively the death of his Son Absalon As on the contrary side when he is too much lifted up with Joy for any good successe it argues in him an abject and servile Disposition and Temper And especially if he addict himself to keep company with Buffoons and Jesters and give himself up to excessive Banquettings and other the like pleasures he must needs be despised by his Subjects as Nero was who minded nothing but Stage-Playes and his Harp or Vitellius and Sardanapalus who giving themselves over wholly to Women and Feasting were therefore scorned by their Subjects and deposed with the losse of their Lives And indeed the Love of Women will very often
abroad out of the Country he is powerful in to some other as Ferdinand King of Arragon dealt with the Great Duke Consalvus removing him from Naples where he might possibly have raised Commotions in the State to Spain where he was not able to do any such thing Neither yet are such Men too much to be slighted for by this meanes the Prince might ncurre the hatred of his Subjects and it would be a discouragement to them from the endeavouring at any High and Noble Actions Therefore such persons as He is Jealous of are to be employed in such places where there is the least danger to be feared from them as we read Belisarius was called home by Justinian out of Italy where he was beloved by all men and sent him against Persia The Kings Anger must neither be Violent nor Headlong as was Alexander's of Macedon against his Nobles for so he may chance to be made away by poyson as Alexander was and his Subjects may fall off from him and so his Power will be diminished as it happened to Theoderick the First King of Ravenna and which was also the cause of the Emperour Valentinian's death In times of Peace He must be merciful to such as offend either out of Ignorance or Weaknesse of Body or Mind and that in favour of the Multitude and to sweeten Them but this he must take heed of in time of War and he must not pardon any Egregious Offenders or that are the Heads and Ringleaders of any Faction especially where the Worth of the Persons is not so great as that being pardoned they may be of greater use to him then that wherein they offended was prejudicial Thus Scanderbeg pardoned Moses rebelling against him as being the Greatest Commander he had under him who thereby became afterwards of very great Use and Advantage to him In like manner as David also pardoned Joab But yet we must remember that this Easinesse and Mercifulnesse is then only seasonable where the Crime concerns not the State it self but onely Particular persons And therefore the Prince ought not at any time to deny the Legal Proceeding of Justice to any one For for this very cause Philip King of Macedonia was slain by Pausanias And therefore as we have formerly said he ought to be careful and circumspect in the curbing and bridling of his own Passions and Affections But now Piety and Religion is of it self sufficient to make any Prince exercise his power of Dominion Justly and happily as we see by the Examples of the Emperour Constantine the Great Theodosius and the like And here we are alwaies to remember that it is most certain that The People do naturally follow the Inclinations of their Prince And therefore Plato was wont to say If the King but mend all the Kingdome mends without the accession of any other Law And therefore the Virtue of the Prince ought to surpasse in a manner all Humane sense As concerning Making of War it is certain and evident to all that Warlike Princes have still had the better of those that are not so inclined and although Wise Kings have alwaies made a shift to preserve their own yet they have not alwaies enlarged their Dominions but the idle and sloathful have ever been of the losing hand I say therefore that a King if he would be accounted a warlike Prince ought to go in person to the Wars especially where he is certain of Victory Thus Joab having for some time besieged that City of the Ammonites and being now ready to take it he gave notice to the King that He should come and be at the delivery of it up that so the Glory of the Action might be His. For by this means the People will be ready to admire their King as if he were something more then a King But He must be sure to decline all Evident Dangers and especially Duels Lest as the Israelites said to David He quench the Light of Israel For this was accounted a great fault in Alexander the Great that he would needs leap down first himself from off the Walls into a certain Town where He by that meanes received many Wounds For by that rash Act of his he in His Single person brought into Hazard the Monarchy of the whole World He must also reward his Old Souldiers with his Own hand and must prefer them to the Government of Castles and Forts and the rawer sort of Souldiers he must cause to exercise themselves in light skirmishes among themselves and in exercises of the Field Every King that swaieth a Scepter is either a Wolfe or a Hireling or lastly a Shepheard as Homer and the Holy Gospel it self also calls him A Tyrant is the Wolfe that keepes the Flock for his own Advantage and alwayes maketh away with all the Wealthiest Wisest Valiantest of his Subjects that so he may fill his own bags and may without any danger or controule Lord it as he list and range about through the whole flock spoyling whom he please And if the King of Spain should go about to shew himself such a one to his Subjects he will lose all as did those Dionysij of Syracuse Acciolinus of Padoua Caligula Nero Vitellius and the like The Hireling is he that kills not indeed his Subjects but rather drawes to himself all Profits Honours and advantages acquired by the service of his Souldiers and Vassals but he doth not at all defend them from the Ravenous Wolves I mean False Teachers nor other fierce Invaders and Oppressors As we may call the Venetians the Hireling Rulers of Cyprus seeing that they did not defend it against the Turkes And the Romans also were such in Relation of the Saguntines from whose necks they did not keep off Hannibals yoak And in like manner we may tearm Don Philip Maria the Hireling Vicount of the Genowayes for he mad onely a benefit of them but shewed not himself as a Governour over them Which cannot now be said of the King of Spain And these Hirelings or Mercenary Princes are suddenly losers by it as the former were As wee see the King of France lost by suffering Calvin to mount up into the Chaire as the Elector of Saxony likewise did by suffering that Wolf Luther For he that makes a prey of Mens Mind hath command over their Bodies also and will at length have the disposing of their Fortunes and estates too And therefore it is a meer Folly and Ignorance in those Princes whosoever they be that shall admit New Religions into their Dominions whereby the Minds of their Subjects are lead away And hence it was that Saul foresaw his own Ruin so soon as ever he perceaved the affections of the People inclined towards David And the Mischiefs of Germany Poland and France have been infinite since Luthers making a Prey and carring away the Minds and Affections of the Inhabitants of these Countries But that King is a Shepheard that feeds Himself with the Honour and Love of his
People and them with his own Example Learning and Abundance of good Things and withall defends them by his Armes and Wholesome Lawes And therefore a good King ought to be endued with so much a greater proportion of Learning and Knowledge above his People who do infinitely herein excel Brute Beasts as the Shepheard is above his Mute Flock So that a Prince as Plato said is somewhat above Humane Condition and ought to be esteemed as a kind of God or a Christ or at least is to be reputed as qualified with a certain measure of Divinity and to have some eminent knowledge conferred upon him from above as had that Divine Law-giver Moses and as at this day have the Pope and the Bishops Or if this be not granted to Him he ought however hrough Humane Virtue at least to submit and yield Obedience to the Divine Law-giver as did Charles the Great And there have been some who wisely considering these things have endeavoured to perswade the World that they were Inspired from Heaven as did Mahomet and Minos whose Lawes were thereby held in great Reverence by the People And certainly wheresoever the King shall approve himself to be such the People in general will be made good where as on the contrary if the Prince be Bad the People will be so too And therefore following the Example of the Pope and his Bishops he ought to appear as like them as he can doing nothing at all without their approbation but making a Union betwixt his Kingdom and their Church so to make up one Body of a Republick betwixt them as I have said before and by observing the Ecclesiastical Order and by constituting good Lawes he must render himself Worthy of Reverence from the People which by appearing but seldom abroad among them in Publique he shall be sure to have from them As for those Acts which Humane Nature cannot abstain from as eating and the like these he ought to do privately Or if at any time he do any of them in Publick He must alwaies after the example of Philopâ—emen the General of the Achaeans have some by him to discourse touching Peace and War Our King must not endeavour so much to be Accounted a Vertuous Person as to be so Really for where any one is discovered to have but once played the Dissembler no body will ever believe him again afterwards And because that for want of Issue to succeed him the Kingdome may easily fall to the ground His chiefest care must be that he get children as soon and early as he can And so soon as ever his Eldest Son shall be grown up to any maturity and himself perchance is yet a young man he may then do well to send him to Rome that so he may be instructed both in the affaires of the World and in those of Religion also and withal the Kingdom of Spain may be the more firmly incorporated into the Church by having both the Cardinals and Popes themselves alwayes true to their Faction and also that His Son and the Barons may not dare to joyn together and take up Armes against Him which our King Philip suspected of his Son Charles and so by Obeying he shall learn how to Rule The King of Spain ought also alwayes to design some of the House of Austria to be his successor in case that he should die without a successor of his own Let him alwayes speak the Language of his Native Country and give Audience to such only as speak the same He ought alwayes to keep his Court in Spain the Head of his Empire neither let him ever go out of it unlesse it be to the Wars and leaving his Son behind him Or to suppresse some mutinying Province or some Baron that he suspects He may go and take up his quarters among them that so being thereby reduced to want and scarcity they may be forced to serve the King instead of Souldiers and He by this means may be freed from all fears and jealousies The rest of His Male Children that are not brought up in the hope and expectation of Reigning he may make Cardinals neither ought he at any time to commit the rains of Government to their hands least happily they should be possessed with a desire of Ruling And hence it is that among the Turks it is the Custome alwayes to make away with all the yonger Sons And the King of China shuts up those that are next in blood to Him in large spacious places which abound with all variety both of necessaries and Delights as the King of Ethiopia confines all his to a certain very high and most pleasant Mountain called Amara where they are to continue tell they shall be called to succeed in the Kingdom But yet for all this neither doth the King of China or Ethiopia by confining their nearest of kin nor the Great Turk by killing his nor yet the Moor by putting out the Eyes of his acquit themselves from the danger and fear of Seditions and Rebellions For notwithstanding that the Parents of these confined Persons may haply bear it with a patient and quiet mind enough yet it may possibly be that either the Common People or the Nobles of the Kingdome being moved either with Indignation and Fury or else Fear of Punishment or desire of Revenge may corrupt and provoke those Persons so shut up or by killing their Keepers may carry them away out of their prisons by force and may place them in the Throne as those they call The Common Rebels of Spain attempted to carry away by force the Duke of Calabria who was at that time a Prisoner in the Sciattive Tower And in China many most cruel Tyrants of both sexes both Kings and Queens have been murdered And of late years in Ethiopia Abdimalo was called to the Crown not from out of the Mountain of Amara but from out of Arabia whether he had fled to preserve himself Neither is there any Country where there have been more Civil Wars and Rebellions raised then among the Moors in Mauritania The Kings of Ormus before that that Country was subdued by the Portuguez were wont to kill their Parents which custome was practised also by some Emperours of Constantinople by the Kings of Tunis also and of Marocco and Fez as likewise among the Turks as appears by the Wars betwxt Bajazet and Zerim and of Selim and his father Bajazet the second Therefore this Cruelty of the Turks renders them not much more secure thereby For in other Kingdomes it is onely Ambition and a desire of Honour and Rule that excites men to raise sedition and to take up Armes against the Prince Which Ambitious Desires may either be satisfied some other way or be diverted to some other design or possibly may be overawed and crusht But those of the Blood Royal among the Turks and Moors besides Ambition have a Necessity also of seeking the preservation of their own Lives to force them on to such Attempts
also may in like manner be distributed into their several Classes and Ranks And this is much the more honourable and secure way then to cause divisions and sidings into parties among them which is the counsel of some Writers who have a Saying Divide impera Cause Divisions among thy subjects and thou shalt rule them well enough The King must alwayes make much of such persons as are of eminent either Valour or Virtue and must prefer them to dignities and honours In every place also where He hath any Councel sitting He ought to joyn to them one of some Religious Order or other whom he can trust and that for the common security of both parties both Prince and Counsellour And all such persons as shall be admitted to this honour should have an Oath administred unto them or else should have some kind of Obligation by way of some Religious Fraternity with the Crown by which they should be bound in all troublesome and perillous times not only to deliver into the Kings hands all the Gold and Silver they have but that themselves also shall in person serve in the Wars in defence of the Fortune and safety of the Kingdom By which means the King shall prevent all Insurrections among them or in case they should stirr He shall have a sufficient Pledge in his hands as being possessed of all their Treasures in so much that their Wives will not spare in this case to bring in what Rings Bracelets and Chains of Gold or any thing else of value that they have as we read the Roman women did when Rome was distressed by Hannibal and other Enemies and lay them all at the Kings feet And as for Commanders in War those he ought to account the best that were themselves once common Souldiers such as Antonius de Leva and Gonsalvus de Corduba were as those Counsellours also are to be esteemed the ablest that have risen to that height from the lowest and meanest Trusts and Employments And therefore the King shall not take any great care for such Barons as have not been in service abroad before so that they may have thereby rendred themselves fit to discharge the offices of able Commanders in War or to serve the King in his Councells But he must get about him such as have been men of long Experience and are well acquainted with and versed in the Affaires of the World Neither is it a small Calamity that the Kingdom of Spain lieth under by reason of such Quarells and Suits of Law as oftentimes arise among the Nobility about Precedency as they call it which certainly in the time of War must needs be of most dangerous consequence for There Military Valour is onely to be looked after And who knowes whether or no this very thing might not be the cause of the Miscarriage of the Armado that was sent against England in the year 1588. But herein the Barons are of great use and advantage to the King because that in case He shall have any ill successe in any expedition He can immediately make himself whole again by his Barons which the Turks can not do For when he hath once received but one notable Blow and is now much weakened thereby He hath no Barons left him by whose aide he may recover himself again which was the case also of Darius when he was overthrown by Alexander the Great and of the Sultan of Aegypt that was conquered by Selim both which being once beaten were never afterward able to make head again against their Enemy And if so be that Emulation and Envy had not born too great a sway among the Christians in that Memoral Victory obtained at Sea against he Turk in the year 71. Constantinople might at that time have tbeen recovered and the Turk utterly rooted out The King must therefore take especial notice wherein the Barons may be prejudicial to Him and in what they may advantage Him and He must make use of them rather as his Treasurers of his Arms and Monies then make them as it were the Patrons of His State And yet out of these Treasurers of his he may choose out some to be Commanders in his War provided that he lay a Command upon them to set aside their Second Sons to be as a Seminary of Military Valour both for Sea and Land Service as we shall shew hereafter and by this means He shall have their Fathers the Barons themselves as it were bound to be faithful to him by reason of this Engagement of their Sons to the Prince and so He shall be sure to have them at his devotion whensoever he shall have occasion to make use of them as shall be shewed hereafter in the Chapter Of Navigation CHAP. XV. Of the Souldiery THe Souldiery of Spain and consequently the defense and Enlarging of that Kingdom may faile two wayes One is because that Spanish Women by reason of the too great Heat of the Country are not very Fruitful whence it may well so come to passe as that seeing there are very many Spaniards killed both in the Netherlands and in the New World and other of their wars they may want Souldiers As on the contrary the Helvetians and Polonians and all other Northern Nations do abound with Souldiers by reason of the Fruitfulnesse of their Women and especialy because there are so few of them in those parts that put themselves into Monasteries neither do they suffer any Publick Stewes there at all by which it is a wonderful thing to consider how much Humane seed is lost and utterly cast away and also because they deal more openly and freely with each other neither are matches among them so often broke off through the disagreement of Parents about Dowries c. and therefore they Multiply much the faster as having fewer Impediments either from Art or Nature And hence it is that the Franks Goths Vandals Lombards Herulians and other Northern People have alwaies abounded with plenty of Men In so much that by reason of the too narrow Limits of their own Countries they have been fain to leave them and to seek for places of Habitation in ours and other Countries and have like Bees been continually sending forth fresh Colonies into other parts by which means we see it hath come to passe that the Oriental Nations together with the Grecian Italian Spanish and Hungarian are now in a manner quite extinct And therefore the Spaniards being but few in Number have been forced for the reasons afore alleadged quite to clear all the places whatsoever that they conquered of their ancient Inhabitants as appears by the course they took with the Indians in the New World least otherwise they should have lived in a continual fear that the conquered who were much the greater number might rise up and take armes against their Conquerors And this is the reason why by the Ignorant they are accounted Cruel Mercilesse people for such their proceeding against the Indians The number of the
too near of kin may not marry contrary to the Orders of the Church and withal that those Marriages that are made may prove the more fruitful I would have Italian Women to be married to those that are of the Seminaries of the Low-Countries or of Spain For by this means also there will not so many Idle persons enter themselves into Religious Orders as there do who are a great burthen to the Church for as much as these Men make choice of this kind of Life not out of any sense of Religion but meerly being forced out of necessity and so are a Scandal to the rest and besides the King is also hereby prejudiced who by this means hath both the fewer Vassals and Souldiers and the smaller Subsidies also There may also be educated in these Cloysters or Colledges or call them what you please people of all Nations whatsoever for the maintenace of whom there may Revenues be taken out of the Allowances of Almes-houses and Hospitals appointed for the Maintenance of Old Men or of any other honest Men or of such Friers as by preaching about the Country get enough to sustain themselves and toward this Charge there may be something exacted of all Usurers as I shall shew hereafter when I come to speak of the Kings Treasure And by this means the Kings Revenue will be so far from being diminished that if He do lay out any thing of his own He will rather prove a gainer by it But now it would be very advantagious for Spain that the Spaniards should marry Italian and Low-Country Women and so make up one Family betwixt them for by this meanes the whole World would by little and little be brought to embrace the Manners and Garbe of the Spaniard and so would the easilier be brought into subjection And those Spanish Souldiers that are at Naples are in an errour while they seek onely for Spanish Women to make Wives of and therefore the Vice-Roy there should see that the Spanish Women should have Italians or Netherlanders for their Husbands on whom He should confer all the honours he can especially where these Marriages happen to be among the Barons or other persons of quality Neither let any one think that those Seragli or Cloysters among the Turks before spoken of are a meere fiction for this most excellent Design hath been practised in the Church ever since the Apostles time and we see how many Colledges for young Students the Pope hath both of Germans English and Maronites that are as so many Seminaries of the Faith And then the Orders of St. Dominick S. Francis and the rest are nothing else but Seminaries of Apostolical Souldiers who using no Armes but their Tongue only do bring the World in subjection And These are the very Nerves of the Ecclesiastical Monarchy The Pope likewise promotes Men of all Nations to the Dignities both of Priests Bishops and Cardinals having no respect either to Rich or Poor Barbarian or Roman as the Apostle himself commanded if so be they be but Wise and Good Men. And hence it is that His Dominion is so far extended and so united within it self namely through Spain the New World Africk and France as well as in Italy and that by reason only of the Common Tie of Religion and the Union of Men and Minds And therefore the King whose design it is to procure an Association not of his Subjects Fortunes onely but also of their Persons and Armes unlesse He be Powerful over their Religion too which is the Bond of Mens Minds and Affections He will have but a kind of an Estranged and weak Dominion among them And it is very evident that the Emperour of Germany by reason of his Subjects being of different Religions is of lesse power then either our King is or the Duke of Bavaria And hence it is therefore that the Turks have learnt Wisedome to Our Prejudice and Damage whilest we in the mean time transgresse against the Lawes of Policy while we observe the Roman or National Lawes Wherefore the King might do what would well become a Christian if he would cause to be erected Colledges of Souldiers and would also promote to Military Preferments not Spaniards only but all Persons of Worth and Valour whatsoever by that means engaging them in the Spanish Manners and Customs for by so doing He should be beloved as well by strangers as by his own Subjects And it is also consonant to the Opinion of Thomas Aquinas to take and baptize in the Seminaries such Children of Hereticks and Moores as have been taken from an enemy in time of War though not to do so in time of peace as for example to take the Children of Jewes living at Rome perhaps and by force to baptize them notwithstanding that Scotus approves of both these I would have the King likewise every seven years to pardon all such as are Banished Persons or are guilty of Murder upon condition that they shall serve Him as Souldiers in his Warres against Africk or in the New World Let Him also make an Act that each several Parish shall every year furnish him out one Souldier a piece which is a Proposal Your Lordship saith was made by a Friend of Yours in Spain for by this means there may be raised Threescore Thousand Souldiers and more in that Kingdom It will therefore be very expedient that there should an Union be made up betwixt the King and the Pope as hath been before spoken of But it would be better that every Baron at the end of such a set term of years should bring in to the King such a certain number of Souldiers and it would be best of all that the Baron himself also should go in person to the Wars whensoever the King goes And this ought to be observed not only in Spain but in all other of the Kings Dominions and likewise that other Rule that only the Eldest sons shall inherit their Fathers Estates in all places what ever But all these Rules cannot be observed any where to any great purpose except the Foundation of the Nations be first reformed namely in Making of Marriages and by erecting Seminaries or Colledges of Souldiers who should be such as contenting themselves with Meat and Drink and Cloathes onely shall have the Courage through hope of Advancement in case they approve themselves stout and Valiant persons to attempt as daringly and adventure upon all the most dangerous Undertakings and those greater then even the Turks Janizaries are wont to venture on And let this suffice to have been spoken concerning the means of encreasing the Souldiery and against the Depopulating of Countries As touching Captains and Commanders in War they ought not to be made out of that most Idle sort of men whom they now adaies call Nobiles Gentlemen but rather let the most Stout and Valiant persons be chosen for this purpose and such as are inclined rather to Severity as Hannibal was then such as are of a Courteous
small number it will concern him that he have more of his own Souldiers with him then either of Auxiliaries or Hired Souldiers or of those that are Guarders of the Frontiers least when they come to the point they all run away There are many more Observations required to the making up of a Perfect Commander all which I cannot here set down my design being at present to deliver such things as concern Spain only But above all care must be taken that the Souldiers be not used like Beasts who if they have but their wages duly paid them and if when they are wounded they be carefully looked to and be encouraged also to shew themselves Valiant men through the hopes of Military glory and by hearing good Preachers and by rewards they will then never think either of running away or of Revolting which are two of the greatest Mischiefs that can befal an Army I would also have some persons appointed out of some of the Religious Orders to commit to writing the famous and memorable Acts of each particular Souldier which should be read openly before the King when ever He bestowes rewards upon his Souldiers For this is the reason why the Barons refuse to serve in person in the Wars saying The King himself is not there to be an eye witnensse of my Valour and I cannot confide in the treacherous Memories of Envious Commanders Neither would I have the Souldiers to be rewarded with Mony only but sometimes also with some Coronet either of Oak or of Olive which is a most Magnificent argument of Honour to them and of no charge to the Prince and by this means they will be the more faithful and constant to Him For an other mans Mony may in like manner buy and sell perhaps that Faith which you have so purchased of them but such Honour it cannot seeing it is a most ignominious thing even in the esteem of an Enemy himself for any one to forsake his King And therefore it should be lawful for any man to kill such a one as should begin to run away or that goes abroad a pillaging without the leave of his Commander which very thing hath often hindered the obtaining of Victory against the Enemy and those that are of least account in the Army do by these courses enrich themselves while the Valiant Souldier fights it out to the last drop of blood in his body What Souldier soever shall fill up the place of his slain fellow-Souldier or protects him and saves his life he should have a Coronet of Oak granted him This was called by the Romans Corona Civica That Souldier that shall first get upon the Enemies Walls should have a Mural Coronet made of Herbs wreathed together in form of a Coronet which he should recieve at the hands of the General whiles the rest of the Army standing round about shall celebrate his Gallantry with Acclamations and Songs according to the ancient custome of the Romans For these two things Punishment and Reward are the two Pillars whereon all Military Discipline is founded and built the Former whereof deterrs the Souldier from wicked courses as the latter pricks him on to do gallant things the Former was devised for the restraining of Vile Rebellious spirits as the latter was for the Encouragement of the Generous and Valiant the former serves instead of a Bridle as the later doth of a Spur. Alexander the Great erected for the honour of his Souldiers that were Slain at the River Granicus Statues of Marble in a most stately manner The King of Siam that he might encourage his Souldiers to fight bravely took care to have the names of all those that had behaved themselves Gallantly in the Wars to be registred in a Book and afterwards to be recited before him which was the custome also of King Ahasuerus as the holy Scripture testifieth Whensoever there are any designs on foot for the gaining any large Kingdom or Empire the King ought alwayes to go in person to the Wars because that Princes that are Warlick alwaies get more then those that are sluggish and negligent which is a consideration of great importance for all such Princes as desire to enlarge their Dominions But if they care only to preserve their own they may then stay at home themselves provided that they set Valiant and faithful Commanders over their Souldiers However it will concern a Prince that he get an opinion of being a Warlike man unlesse he mean to be despised by all People or let him make an open shew that he loves Wars And to the end that He may be the more secure of Victory let him alwaies take with him good store of Souldiers that so he may neither lose his reputation nor be despised by his Enemies Those Defeats of his Armies are the least hurtful to Him where He himself was not present at the Engagement Strength of his forces at Sea wherein the Genoese Portugals and Hollanders do most excel is also a most necessary businesse For whoever shall make himself master of the Seas the same shall command all by Land also CHAP. XVI Of the Treasury of Spain IT is necessary that the King have a full Treasury if it be but for the keeping up of his Reputation abroad for as the World goes now a dayes the Power of Princes is valued according to the fulnesse of their Purses rather then the largenesse of their Territories And therefore not only in the time of War but of peace also it behoves a Prince to have alwaies good store of ready Mony by him For it is a very hard and dangerous businesse also especially when He is now already engaged in a War to expect and wait till monies can be raised Tolle moras Semper nocuit differre paratis It is necessary therefore that there be Monies alwayes in a readinesse for the raising of Souldiers in an instant least while you are employed in getting Mony together your Enemy be before hand with you To this end Augustus Caesar erected a Military Treasury as Suetonius testifieth and that he might alwaies and without any trouble be provided of Mony for the raising and paying of his Souldiers he filled the same with New Taxes and Impositions And certainly very many wonder how it comes to passe that the King of Spain whose yearly Revenues amount to above twenty Millions hath not by this time made Himself Universal Monarch of all Christendome nor hath all this while so much as as once set upon the Turk To whom I answer that this is nothing at all to be wondred at if they would but take notice that the reason of this it because He hath not the skill to lay hold on Occasion when it is offered Him which very thing hath hitherto upheld the Fortune of all Great Empires For there was an Occasion given him at the Uniting of the Kingdomes of Castile and Arragon and of Naples and Millan but there was a much fairer offered to Charles the V. who was
a man of a Warlike spirit being King of Spain was afterwards chosen also Emperour of Germany by al which advantages He might have been able to have made himself Lord of the whole Earth had He but known as well how to give Lawes to those He conquered as He knew how to conquer them This Prince took Tunis and having driven thence Ariodenus the Turk He made Muleasses King of that place without changing the former State of the Kingdom at all After this He conquered Germany that is to say the Protestant Princes there whom He devested of their Electoral Dignity substituting into their places their Brethren and Kinsmen but otherwise leaving them in the same state He found them And although He had once got Luther himself into his hands and power yet looking after the empty Fame only of being accounted a Mercisul Prince He let him go again that so he might have the opportunity forsooth of reducing all Germany and the Nâ—therlands He took Francis the King of France and then set him again at liberty that so he might raise up a new War against Him and thereby frustrate all that He had done before He also took in the Cities of Sienna Florence and bestowed them upon the Family of the Medici that so He might procure himself more powerful enemies by the bargain For whosoever is raised by any one to some degree of Power what service soever is due from him to his Rayser he will be sure to decline the doing it as much as he can and therefore he seeks all the occasions he can of shaking off the Yoak that he may make his Benefactor his Enemy which very thing was done by the Dukes of Florence and by Maurice Prince Elector of Saxony against Charles the Fifth And indeed such Benefits as by reason of the greatnesse of them cannot any way be returned commonly they draw a hatred upon the Virtue of the Benefactor as we see it evidently fell out in the case betwixt the aforementioned Francis King of France and Charles the Fifth Another cause that this Monarchy hath not yet hitherto been brought about is this because that Philip could not succeed his Father not so much as in the War and therefore lost both the Low Countries together with the Imperial Titles But that Affliction which also fell upon him by the losse of Charles his Son was the most grievous of all the rest for he would have been able to have maintained the Wars in His stead which seeing the King of Spain is not able to do He is constrained alwaies to defend and make good the bounds of his Kingdom rather then to endeavour to enlarge them and to look to his Commanders and see that they do not pillage the Countries where their Command lies and enrich themselves out of the Kings Treasure it being their onely care how to keep up such a Trade of War by which they may make advantage to themselves rather then any way enlarge the Kings Dominions I shall therefore here lay down these Rules though they are not so proper for this place that when any new Country is conquered that is of a different Religion and manner of Government the Natives are presently to be removed out of it and carried into some other Country where they may serve as Slaves and their Children are to be Baptized and may be either put into the Seminaries before spoken of or else sent into the New World and into this conquered Country may be sent Colonies of Spaniards under the conduct of some Wise and faithful Commander Which Course ought to have been taken by Charles the Fifth at Tunis who should also have carried away Muleasses to Naples And He should by right have done the very same thing in Germany namely in Saxony in the Marquisat of Brandenburg and the Lantgravedome of Hessen into which Countries He should have sent New Colonies under the Command of New Governours The Free Cities also He should have suppressed and have taken away their Priviledges and lastly He should have made Three Cardinals the Governous of all Germany But when any New Country is taken in that is not of a different Religion but only differing in Government let Him then change nothing at all in matters that concern the People but only let Him set strong Guards upon the Country and let the Chief Officers be chosen all out of the Kings party but the Inferiour out of the Common People of the place the Lawes whereof may also be altered by little and little and made to conforme to the Kings Lawes either by heightning or abating the rigour of them according as the Condition and Temper of the place shall require All Authors or Heads of Factoins must be presently removed out of the way either by Death if they have been Enemies or if they have been friends they must be carried away into Spain that they may there receive Baronies for their reward or may have liberty of free Traffick into the Kings Dominions granted them But the Chief Heads of such People as He shall subdue He must never suffer to continue in their places which course ought to have been taken with the Strozzi Medici Cappones Petruccij and other Ringleaders and Heads of Factions at Sienna and Florence And indeed the same Course should have been taken with Francis King of France that so he might have had no further opportunity of attempting any thing against Charles the V. But as for the Hereticks and Luther the best way would have been to have suppressed them under some other Pretense presently after the breaking up of the Diet at Ausburg as I shall shew hereafter And if Charles the Fifth had but taken these Courses He had never left behind him so much work and trouble for King Philip and perhaps his young son Charles too might have been alive at this day and might perhaps by His Arms have added Africk Hungary Macedonia Italy and England to his Dominions But He as I have before said was the onely cause of all those Evills which we see at this day So that I do not wonder at all that notwithstanding the vast Treasures of the King of Spain yet the bounds of His Monarchy are not all this while enlarged But I rather wonder that so Wealthy a Prince hath not laid up all such his Revenues for Necessary Uses against times of need which might have been his ruin For if so be his Negotiation by Sea should be stopt or interrupted but for one five or six yeares space together or that his Plate Fleet should be intercepted in its return home from the West-Indies would it not be so fore a cut to him as that he must of necessity be forced to oppresse his own snbjects by laying most heavy and unusual Taxes upon them and so draw upon himself their Hate and besides should he not also undoe all his Merchants and defraud his Souldiers of their Pay and by that means be in danger
of losing them upon every the least Occasion And indeed it is a thing much to be wondred at how and which way such vast Summes of Mony should come to be wasted and yet the King not any thing at all the better for it for we see that He is still Poor for all this and is almost continually borrowing Mony of others And therefore I say that it is Impossible but that things should alwayes succeed ill with Him so long as there is no provision made for the remedying of this mischief Yet I do not say that a Kings whole strengh consists only in his Mony but He is to consider that Mony alone will do little toward the subduing of an Enemy And indeed we read that Julius Caesar by his great knowledge in Military affaires and having withal the love of his Souldiers though they were but a very Small Army to speake of yet for all this conquered the whole World And so likewise the Saracens Tartarians and Hunnes without any Mony made themselves Lords of almost the whole World We confesse therefore that Mony is of Excellent good use and most necessary for a Prince for the Preserving and making good the Bounds of his Dominions but not at all for the enlarging of them by adding New Provinces to the same And therefore let him believe that the sinews of his Strength lye in something else then his Mony For that Faith that is purchased by Mony may again be sold for Mony And therefore I beseech you do but observe how in France our King Philip by his mony procured the Dukes of Maine Joyeuse Mercoeur and Guise to take up Armes against the King of Navarre and then again how the King of Navarre by the same meanes got over the very same men to His side after they found King Philip to be grown somewhat close-fisted and not to come off with his Mony so freely as before And in like manner the Commanders and Souldiers in the Low-Countries do now a daies rather exercise the profession of Hucksters then of Souldiers for they do not fight that they may overcome their Enemy but that they may make a gain of their serving in the Wars And so have made Armes which are the Instruments of Monarchy to be the Instruments of their Covetousnesse and their Sports And the King deceives himself whiles He pursues all Covetous Designs for He hath Mony enough if he have but Souldiers enough and if there be withal but Mutual love betwixt him and them and a due regard had to their several merits which things if they be wanting he shall be sure to be a sufficient Loser in the end First therefore and above all things let the King endeavour to treasure up to himself the Minds and Affections of his Subjects and Vassals and indear himself to them by his own Gallantry both in Peace and in War making Himself admired by them by making profession of and proposing to them some New Sciences c. as hath been said before Secondly let Him raise himself a Treasure of his Subjects Bodies by causing them to multiply by Frequency of Marriages to which they are to be encouraged by Honours and other Inticements c. as was also touched before And in the Third place let Him raise himself a Treasure out of the Wealth of his Subjects whiles He makes them Rich by taking care that Agriculture and Manuring of the Ground be promoted and that the making of Silks Woollen Cloath and the like Useful and Profitable Arts and Trades be set on foot and diligently followed rather then that such Courses should be taken as we see now adaies every where whiles in the smaller Towns most people give themselves to Usury and in the Greater Cities men for the most part apply themselves to Merchandise and Extorsion The Pope raises up his Treasures in the Minds of Men and therefore is He a Conquerour because that This being conjoyned with Eloquence and Wisedom is the onely Instrument by which that Treasure is acquired And hence it was that the Saracens by the use of their Tongue and also by making Profession of New Sciences and of a New Religion became Conquerours Julius Caesar raised Himself a Treasure both in Minds and Bodies by His own Personal Virtue and Gallantry winning to himself and obliging the Hearts and Affections of the Whole Souldiery But the Tartarians and Hunnes did this by Bodies only rendring them so Fruitful as that by reason of their Vast numbers they were fain to leave their Native soyl marching out of it in huge bodies like swarms of Bees and seizing upon others Territories But now the King may by His Own just Right exact all these Treasures at the hands of his Subjects as namely Religion by placing Able Preachers among them Love by Good Lawes the Subjects Profit and True Justice and Multiplication of them by the Waies before laid down where I spoke touching the encreasing of the Number of the Souldiery and let Him require of each several Nation that which they most abound in as People from the Germans Souldiers from the Spaniards Commanders in War and Garments from the Italians from the West-Indies Gold but not the contrary We may truly affirm that the New World hath in a manner undone the Old for it hath sowen Covetousnesse in our Minds and hath quite extinguished Mutual Love among men For all the World are wretchedly in love with Gold only and hence it is that Men are become Deceitful and Fraudulent in their dealings and have often sold and re-sold their Faith for Hire because they saw that Mony was That that did the businesse every where and that was held in Admiration by all people and so They are come now to despise all Sciences and Holy Sermons in comparison of Mony and have bid Adieu both to Agriculture and other Arts applying themselves only to look after the Fertility and Increase of Mony and to get themselves into Rich Mens houses It hath likewise Introduced a great Disparity amongst Men making them either too Rich whence they become Proud and Insolent or else leaving them too Poor whence proceeds Envy Theft and Open Robbery Hence also it is that the prices of Corn Wine Flesh Oyl and Cloath are very much raised because that no man applies himself to this kind of Merchandise whence followes Want and Penury and yet Monies in the mean while must be laid out In so much that the poorer sort being not able to hold out in the world are fain either to put themselves into service or else betake themselves to robbing upon the High-Way or else turn Souldiers being necessitated to do so through Poverty and not at all for Love either of the King or of Religion and many times also they run away from their Colours or else change them neither do they endeavour to get Children in a Lawful Way of Marriage because they are not able to pay Taxes or else perhaps they try all the waies that
there be no hopes at all left of reducing these men and bringing them back again into the True Way and making them to submit themselves to our Government and Doctrine then must the King embrace that counsel which was given by Terentius Varro to Hostilius for the keeping of the Tuscans within the bounds of their Duty and Obedience namely let him so order the matter as that they should not be able to shake off the yoak if they would never so fain And this may be done by observing these three things namely by bringing them to be Low-spirited Weak and lastly if they be Kept asunder from one another for the Boldnesse that any take upon them in attempting to cast off the Yoak from their Necks proceeds either from their Height of Spirit or from their Strength or else from their Multitude But before these severer Courses are taken with them it cannot be expressed how mightily advantageous it would be to the businesse in hand if so be the Children of Infidels were put to such Masters as should instruct them in the Arts and Liberal Sciences and all such exercises as are fit for any Ingenuous Man to be brought up in for by this course alone we should at once oblige both the Children and the Parents also to Us. We must therefore erect as I said before Seminaries both for the Tongues and Armes which we call the Two Instruments of our Future Monarchy the Former of these for the reducing of all such of our Subjects as are Infidels and Hereticks and the bringing them back in a peaceable manner into the True Way and to a Unity of Faith and the Later to the end that they may be utterly weakned and deprived of all power in case they shall stand out and refuse to return to the True Faith of which we have formerly spoken elsewhere CHAP. XIX Of such Kingdomes as are Properly belonging to the King of Spain and of such also as are his Enemies and of these which are in League with each other and which not SOme are of Opinion that it is Impossible that the Kingdom of Spain should stand long as well because almost All Other Nations are either Enemies to it or at least not very good Friends as also by reason of the remotenesse of the several parts of it from each other some lying in the New World and others lying scatteringly here and there like Islands as in Italy the Low-Countries and in Africk all which are most different from one another both in their Languages Situation and Temper of the Climate whereas on the contrary the Turk who layes claime to the Universal Empire of the whole World hath his Dominions lying all close together and besides in his Wars he observes the same Course that the Romans heretofore did in making War alwayes upon his Neighbours only that lye round about him Neither can the Enmity or hatred of those Nations that are his Enemies do him any hurt at all for as much as he brings up within his own Dominions Young Children of all sorts of which afterwards he maketh Souldiers so that his Empire seems in a manner to be nothing else but a Military Republick Neither can Religion at all hinder his proceedings and besides his Bashawes or Governours of Provinces have all of them an absolute power of Rule given them so that they need not stand in fear of poor naked and unarmed People whom if they should but offer to rise they would be able to suppresse by their own Sons Whosoever desires to become a great Monarch it will behoove him to be continually in making War upon all his Neighbours that lye round about him and to reduce them under his subjection as soon as possibly he can For thus the Romans heretofore did first of all setting upon the Sabines and Latines and then afterwards falling upon the Aequicolae the Peligni the Veientes Lucanians Tuscans and Samnites alwayes going round in a Circle till at length having subdued all Italy they passed over into Sardinia Sicily Spain Gaule and Germany The self same Course was taken by the Babylonians in their expeditions against those of Asia and the Persians The Macedonians did the like making War upon the Thebans first then falling upon the Epirotes Lacedemonians Achaians and Aetolians and afterwards passing over into Asia they filled it wholly with their Armies in so much that at length as Livy and Plutarch write they were so puft up with the glory of their Victories as that they would have marcht on against the Romans and Carthagineans also Certainly had not Alexander the Great been taken off by an untimely death he would without all doubt have made an Expedition against the Romans also I say therefore that the Turk does at this day take the very same course that the Greatest Empires in former times did For having first subdued all Asia Minor he then passed over into Europe and conquered all Greece next he falls upon Syria Egypt and Armenia till at length he came as far as Macedonia Epirus and Hungary Where after he had taken in some certain Christian provinces and added them to his Empire and that the Christians now out of a General fear of being swallowed up by him betook themselves all to their Armes and joyned their whole strengths together against him He then very craftily and subtlely makes a Truce with them and agrees upon conditions of Peace These things passing on thus the Christians in the mean while fall at variance among themselves and make war upon each other so that the Turk being now secure from any Molestation by them turnes his Victorious Armes against the Kings of Persia or Georgia till such time that finding the Christians all to peices again among themselves he thinks fit then to strike up a Truce with the Persian or those other of his enemies whosoever they were and so falls on again upon the Christians with all the strength he hath and does them what mischeif lies in his Power And then while They are fain to spend time in consulting what is to be done the Turk he goes on still Victoriously taking in now one Place and then another without controule So great and of so dangerous and sad Consequence are those Intestine Dissensions that are at this day kept up among the Christian Princes But the King of Spain at one and the same time maintaines a War with several Nations neither hath he at any time all his whole forces joyned together in any one Battel by which meanes He utterly destroyes himself For we shall have him making War in the most Remote Parts of the World whiles yet in the mean time He hath all his Neighbours that lye round about Him his enemies as the English French Hollanders and perhaps even the Italians themselves also Whence it may seem that He takes a very crosse and unlikely way for the enlarging of his Dominions and Empire But to this Objection I Answer that though much of this is
God may also raise up some of the Turks Christian Slaves against him The like Insurrection may also possibly utterly Subvert the Spanish Monarchy The Third is the Union of Monies and Riches by meanes whereof the Turk commands the Ragusians who are otherwise a free People but they are forced to pay Him tribute that so they may enjoy their Estates lying within his Dominions as also because they are too neer Neighbours to him which Neighbourhood alwaies inforceth the weaker to be a Servant to him that is stronger then he By this Third kind of Vnion the King of Spain beareth rule over the Genueses because that their Merchandise and their Baronies lye within his Territories And therefore I say that that Prince whose Dominions lye far asunder one from the other ought in the first place to endeavour to joyn them together by a Natural Vnion and then Secondly by Political Bonds and Ties As concerning Natural Ties the King may by them joyn his Spaniards with any other Nations although for the most part they are hated by all Nations for a Spaniard whiles he is a Servant is humble enough but where he is a Master he is very proud And he is besides a great Boaster and Loves to deal very subtlely and cunningly in meer trifling businesses though he does not carry himself so in matters of any Moment It is also certain enough that the Spanish Language and Habit doth please most people but then again their ordinary Carriage and Conversation and their swelling Titles together with their Ambitious striving for the uppermost places at all meetings and their too affected stately Gate distasts every body And because these Vices are Naturally Inherent in this Nation although they cast a blot upon their Virtues namely their Patience Religion Manlike Courage together with their Eloquence yet they cannot possibly be quite taken away and therefore others must come over unto their Manners as trees are graffed into one another And therefore I say it would be a very excellent good Course if our Spanish Souldiers and Barons that live abroad in Forraign Countries should marry Wives out of the same and besides those Arts by which strangers should be invited in to match with Spanish women and by Offices of which I have formerly spoken deserve so much the more serious Consideration because there lies more within them then they outwardly make shew of And this will appear more clearly when I shall come to speak of each several Nation in particular As concerning Political Vnions the King must endeavour to procure an Union betwixt his ow Nation and others and especially in Religion which is the surest means of uniting men together in the World and this must be done by the meanes of good and Learned Preachers as we have said before And next by the Tye of New and Famous Arts and Sciences and Languages which would draw all men into an admiration of so great an Empire And let Him alwaies make war rather upon his Neighbouring Enemies then upon those that are farther off and let Him go himself in person to the wars And lastly let him perswade and invite all Nations that traffick into the West-Indies to take up their Commodities in some parts of his Territories as we see that Genueses do at this day And therefore let Him so order all businesses as that one Kingdom may alwaies stand in need of another that so by this means there may be a continual Tie betwixt them And let him seek out all possible ways of setting his enemies at variance amongst themselves and labour that they may disagree both in Religion Leagues Manners Sciences Conditions Traffick and all things necessary and let him be in League with all those that may do him any hurt All which things that they may appear the more clearly I shall now fall to speak Particularly of all such several Nations as may either annoy or be advantageous to Him withall laying down the means by which they may be brought to an Union with him For it is an Undoubted Truth that every great Empire if it be Vnited within it self is so much the safer from the Enemies Incursions because it is not only Great but Vnited also whence cheifly is derived all its strength and Power CHAP. XX. Of Spain TO what hath been said we may further add that seeing that there are so many several sorts of people in Spain the King ought to take care that those amongst them who have heretofore been more Eminent then the rest for the largenesse of Dominion they had there be at Unity among themselves And therefore let Him labour especially that there may be all fair Correspondence and friendship betwixt the Castilians Arragonians and the Portugues and let Him confer equal Offices upon them in Court and let him bestow preferments upon the Portugues in the Kingdom of Castile and upon the Castilians in the Kingdom of Portugal also let him as it were tye them one to the other by the common bond of Marriages betwixt each other and by the Community of Navigation And the same course also is necessary to be taken with the Mountainous Biscaines and the Lionois and also betwixt the Astureans and Gallicians and betwixt the Champian-inhabiting Andaluzians and Valentians and let all these be brought to a familiarity one with another notwithstanding they are so far distant in place from one another Let him also erect in these several Provinces such Common Colledges and Seminaries for Souldiers both for the Theorical and Practical part of War as we have before spoken of that by means of these both themselves and also the King may be rendred the more secure and let Him take such order that they may marry Wives from forraign Countries and so may have Children by them who in case any War should be made upon them may fight for them not as if by chance they were engaged thereto but as they stand bound to do so by the Law of Nature And by little and little their old Customes are also to be abolished but not upon a suddain and let them be instructed how to bear Offices in Italy rather then in the Netherlands But in Spain let Italians be put to bear Offices with the Spaniards And seeing that Spain is the Principal Seat of the Whole Monarchy there ought in it to be all Vertues and Sciences in their prime and height namely Justice and Religion that so others may the more readily be induced to make the Spaniards their pattern to walk by and may suck in Their Manners whom they see to live so well and happily But in case that They should be of a Dissolute Life and of corrupt Manners they would be abhorred by all Nations not to say any thing that in Gravity and Constancy of Manners they ought to excell all others because they have an example amongst them whence they may learn these Vertues And in the first place it is necessary that they be very faithful as
next march with his Forces against Germany calling in to his assistance some Spaniards also and Italians For unlesse He do so there is some reason to fear that the King of Spain may receive some prejudice thereby He must therefore take care and to the same end deal both with the Emperour and the Pope that the Right of Election of the Emperour may be put into the hands of such only as are his Friends such as are the Duke of Bavaria and the Archduke for otherwise if it should so chance as that the King of France should be elected Emperour it would very much impede and crosse all his Designs But what course there might be taken so to prevail with the Protestant Party as that they should elect no other for Emperour but only the King of Spain I shall be ready to enform the Kings Majestie himself when He shall please to give me Audience touching these things but I shall forbear to set any thing of This here down in writing If the King desire to make Himself Lord of Germany He must first necessarily get Himself to be elected Emperour of Germany and having brought this about He must then under a pretense of making War against the Turk march into Hungary and so He may upon a sudden fall upon the Protestants before they are aware and while they dream not of any such thing and by this means he may be so much before hand with the Imperial Cities as that they shall not have any time to provide themselves to make any resistance against Him which Course was practised by Charles the Fifth with very good successe And then let Him bring in New Colonies and make New Laws and place Italians over them for his Ministers of State for the Clime will not bear the Temper of the Spaniard neither can this thing be better ordered any other way But indeed the Hungarian Affaires go very ill and They there have very much need of Assistance For if Vienna should be taken the Turk might presently march into Friuli if he would Now what Courses may be taken for the Prevention of this Mischief I shall hereafter declare when I shall come to speak of the Turk The constant Practise of the Turk hath been in his Warres against the Christians never to maintain any long War with any one Prince but to set now upon one and then upon another and to send some to invade one Country and others to invade another and so hath sometimes snatcht away a whole Kingdom at a time from them And least by being continually thus put to it they should so become to be expert in the use of Armes He presently makes either an absolute Peace or else agrees upon a Cessation of Armes with them and then immediately falls aboard of some other not giving them so much as any time to look about them or to provide to make resistance against Him and then having taken some City or some Strong Hold from them He presently makes either a Peace or a Truce with them and so away again By which means it comes to passe that His Armies are all Old Tried Souldiers but Ours are for the greatest part made up of such as are raw and unexperienced in War For the Turk is continually at war with some or other but so have not any of the aforesaid Princes been And hence it is that He hath alwaies been of the gaining hand and that either by taking in and adding to His Empire some new places or else by establishing to himself and making sure what He hath formerly gotten But it is now time to return to our former discourse I say therefore again that it behoves the King of Spain to take care that His Friends be at Unity among themselves but that his enemies especially in Germany be at variance and discord and He must not let slip any Opportunity for the bringing of this about And it would be a most excellent course for the bringing down of the Hereticks courage and taking them off their edge if there should be erected in Germany Schools for Philosophy and the Mathematicks that so by this means the Younger Heads might be busied and taken up with these kind of Speculations rather then spend their time in Heretical Studies And I would have others of them to be imployed in contriving of Engines for War both by Land and Sea and in other Mechanical Operations and let the choicest Wits amongst them be invited by large Salaries to go into the West-Indies and there to apply themselves to the study of Astrology But there is an Admirable way of causing a separation betwixt them which pleaseth me very much and it is done two waies the first is if all desire and willingnesse of meeting one another and laying their heads together to plot or design any thing be quite dasht in them and this is to be done by fomenting what disgusts and Jealousies there are amongst them so that one of them shall not dare to tell his minde to another or to trust any man with any of his secrets And this was an Art that Charles the Great made use of who also besides His Ordinary Tribunals set up a Secret Court of Justice in Westphalin for the keeping of the Westphalians in Order who after they had received Baptism lived very strangely nevertherlesse and not without suspition of being false to the Christian Faith A second way is by hindring them from ever being able to do any thing that may be Prejudicial to the State and this may be done by seeing that there be no Affinities Leagues or other Correspondences contracted between the Principal and most powerful Persons of that Nation and Secondly that no person that is of any very Eminent Account amongst them be suffered to live there but that he be removed some whether else And this course did Charles the Great take to avoid the frequent Combustions that arose in Saxony by sending away all the Nobility of that Province into France Lastly let him be sure to place in all their Councels Colledges and about all Magistrates some of His Creatures to serve him for Spies and Informers CHAP. XXIV Of France SEeing that there is no Christian Kingdome that is more able to oppose and put a stop to the growing of the Spanish Monarchy then France is I speak here of such Kingdomes as are United and lie compacted together all in a body as being the greatest richest and most Populous in Christendome for it hath in it seven and twenty thousand Parish Churches in it and feedeth about a hundred and fifty Millions of Soules and is so fruitful by Nature and so rich through the care and industry of its Inhabitants that it comes behind no other Country whatsoever Adde hereunto that It lies not far from Spain and the Inhabitants thereof do naturally hate a Spaniard and are besides excellent Souldiers and have all but one Head over them residing also in their own Country all which
meanes which is never to be done but with those that are farther off and which is especially to be declined when a Prince hath so Potent Neighbours that are his Antagonists for an Empire For the French had first a design of making themselves Universall Monarchs of the World before the Spaniards had any such thought whom the French afterwards envied when they found them aspiring that way A second Opportunity of keeping France under in such sort as that It should not have been able to have opposed or hindred the growing Potency of the Spaniard was offered to his Son Philip had he but had the skill to have laid hold of it and to have made the right use of it For Henry the III. of France being slain by a certain Dominican Frier under pretense of his favouring those of the Religion and the whole Kingdom of France being now divided into two Factions namely the Catholicks and the Huguenots and many Governours of Provinces having at that time the said Provinces at their Devotion as for example Montmorency had that of Languedoc and Espernon and others had others the Line of Valois being now quite extinct and there being a great Controversy started amongst them whether it were best for them to think of choosing any New King of some other House or not and lastly Henry of Navarre being by reason of his being an Heretick hated by the Catholick Party King Philip had at that time five Opportunities offered him either of which had He but laid hold of it would have been sufficient to have made him Master of France or at least to have weakned the power of it very much not to say any thing what might have been done when all of them concurred and met together And yet to say truth it lay not in his power at that time to effect this for he saw that if he should fall upon this design in an open way of making war upon them it would have been necessary for Him then to have had good store of Souldiers to have brought into the Feild which at that time He had not to be able to divide and distract all the Nobles of that Kingdome and to set them together by the ears And therefore he should first of all have dealt under hand either with the Duke of Guise or of Maine or with some other of the most Powerful amongst them and have promised to make Him King and besides to make him His Son in Law and at the same time to give hopes also to all the rest of the Nobility that they should every man of them be made the Proprietary and Absolute Lord of their several Provinces as that Montmorency should have Languedoc confirmed to Him Espernon should have Provence and every one of them should have had a promise made him of such Lordships as they liked best and all of these He should also have furnished with mony that they might have been the better enabled to make resistance against Henry of Navarre He ought also to have entred into a League with the Pope and the rest of the Catholick Princes that so joyning all their forces together they might all at once have set upon Henry of Navarre who was of a different Religion from them And then besides all this He ought to have obliged to him the hearts of all the French Bishops and Preachers by conferring upon them large Dignities and Preferments And when all these things had been thus ordered then either the King himself in person or else if He should not think that fit His Son or the Duke of Parma should presently have invaded France with an Army of at least a Hundred Thousand men consisting of Germans Italians and Spaniards and He should also immediately have sent out some to make Excursions into France by the way of the Duke of Savoys Country and by Navarre and Picardy And all these things should have been with all care and diligence put into Execution which if they had He had then certainly done his businesse and had either added France to his other Dominions or else might have Canton'd it out into many small Baronies and Republicks as Germany is and so he should have been ever after secure from their being able to do Him any hurt But King Philip was not nimble enough in his businesse and besides He was deluded by the French Nobles who almost all went over to the King of Navarre whereas had He been but as quick as He should have been all this had never happened For this is the usual Course of the World that every man looks first of all to his Own Interest and then to that of the publick and accordingly men use to bestirr themselves in troublesome times But here in this case where every one of them perceived that the good of the Publick did consist in the welfare of each Particular person and so on the Contrary they then presently made choise of that which they conceived would be for the Publick Good And so although those French Nobles being at the first by Mony and fair Promises wrought over to favour the King of Spain and so were brought to enter into Action in order thereunto yet when upon better Consideration they found at last that in case the Crown of France should passe away to another or that the Kingdom should be parcell'd out into small Dominions and Republicks the losse would at length redound to each of them in particular whiles that the King of Spain might then with ease reduce them one by one and bring them under his Obedience seeing that they were so divided as that they could not in any convenient time joyn their strengths together to make any opposition against him and besides knowing that France it self which had been hitherto so much honoured by all other Nations would now come to be despised by them and that all hopes of ever attaining to the Crown would now be quite cut off from them and that they should afterwards find that the Spaniards would but laugh at them for all their pains they conceived it to be the safer and more advantageous Course for themselves to adhere to the King of Navarre and receive him for their Prince Which certainly when at the first whiles they were inveagled and blinded by the false hopes of the Spaniards Mony they had not so well and throughly considered as They did afterwards when they had once weighed in their minds what the Event was like to be and also saw with their eyes what the Kings Proceedings were They then at length began to elude Art with Art Besides the French perceiving also how great Inconveniences would arise by maintaining a War with the Spaniard did therefore the more willingly and chearfully proceed to the election of a New King because that they were perswaded that when a King was once chosen those evils would then be removed which yet at the first they made litle account of But the King of Spain committed yet
this particular he must then deal with them that it may be conferred upon some one that they shall pitch upon by way of Election Or else in the last place He must speedily have recourse to the Arts before set down which King Philip failed in before And this manner of Electing a King upon condition that he be a Catholick would very much please the Italians and the Catholick Princes of France also would very willingly assent thereto because that every one of them would have some hope hereby of attaining to the Crown himself And if this should once come to passe it would prove a very great Weakning to the Kingdom of France for during the Vacancy of the Crown there must needs arise very great and long Dissentions amongst them and possibly the King of Spain also being called in by some or other of the Princes might come to have a finger in the businesse Now for as much as Elective Kings are for the most part not much given to trouble themselves about the enlarging the Bounds of their Kingdome because that they know very well that their Sons are not their Successours therefore neither will they expose themselves to danger upon the Account of another mans Interest And this is the onely reason why the Emperours of Germany never trouble themselves about the enlarging of their Empire as neither do the Kings of Poland unlesse they chance to be Persons of a high Warlick Spirit as King Steven was surnamed Battorius and Sigismund both which maintained Wars with the Muscovites Tartarians and others about the Principality of Prussia and some other Territories because they hoped that their Sons should at least have succeeded them in those This Course is of very good use to a Prince for the acquiring of Military Glory and through the Multitude of Victories and the affection of his Souldiers for the bringing his own Country under his subjection which Course I before shewed was to be taken by the Emperour of Germany according to the Example of Julius Caesar Yet notwithstanding this piece of Craft being well understood by the French hath been the cause that they have now laid aside all desires of enlarging their Territories meerly to avoid that Suspition And This Suspition is the reason why the Venetians do not send Commanders of their Own into their Wars but rather chuse to make use of Forraign Commanders whom a Little Mony contents well enough for their Pay For as to this particular it was no small hazard which they heretofore run under Carmagnola and Ludovicus Vrsinus And Francis Sforza who was but a Mercenary Souldier under the State of Venice returning home a Conquerour made himself Duke of Millun For this very cause the Romans heretofore hated the Tarquins their Kings who till that time had alwaies been Elective and this very thing also was the Ruine of the Duke of the Athenians that was Elected at Florence Neither are Opportunities at this time wanting of setting the French together by the ears among themselves for although their Peace is not at this time at all disturbed by any Forraign Enemies yet they being naturally of an Impatient Unquiet spirit are alwaies rising up one against another although it be perhaps but upon their quarrel about the Heresie of the Calvinists and I know not what New Gospel which wheresoever it is preached it bringeth not Joy but Mourning not Peace but horrid Wars and filleth the Minds of Men not with Good Will but with rage and Madnesse This Mischief therefore ought to be taken in due time and have a stop put to it for this Contagion hath already infected above two hundred thousand persons in France For if so be it should spread further and should infect the Nobility also and Peers of the Kingdom it would be much to be feared that there would never be any end of the Troubles of France which is now the Condition of Germany by means of the Dukes of Saxony Hessen and others For as we see such Kingdomes as abound with Nobles are made in a manner Immortal as we may evidently perceive by the examples of France and Persia For when France was heretofore in a manner all subdued and brought in subjection by the King of England yet it was afterwards through the Industry and by the endeavours of the Nobility and Gentry wholly asserted restored again to Its first Natural Lord. And so likewise the Kingdome of Persia which is one while annoyed by the Tartarians and again another while by the Saracens is yet so well defended by the Persian Nobility as that It is kept from falling under either of their Power and Obedience But yet on the contrary side again the very same Kingdomes are by reason of their Nobility also obnoxious to most unavoidable and miserable Calamities seeing they are able at any time either to assist or protect all such as endeavour to introduce any Innovations either in the State or Religion CHAP. XXV Of England Scotland and Ireland ALthough the English seem the least of all to affect an Vniversal Monarchy yet notwithstanding they have been a very great hinderance to the King of Spains designs that way several examples whereof may be gathered from the proceedings of the aforesaid Queen Elizabeth of England who appeared both against the Catholick King in the Low-Countries and against the most Christian King in France by fomenting the corrupt Humours in the subjects of both these Princes and in assisting the Hereticks both with her Counsels and Forces For they possesse an Island that is excellently well furnished both with Shipping and Souldiers and by this means they rob the King of Spain in all places in the North wheresoever he hath any thing and also wander out abroad as far as to the New World where although by reason of the Fortifications made upon the Sea Coast they cannot lay the foundation of any Kingdome yet do they do the Spaniards no small harme there For that same famous Englishman Captain Drake following the example of Magellan who had done the same before him sailed round about the whole World more then once and it is not impossible but that the Kingdom of Bacalaos which lies somewhat near to the English and is very convenient for them by reason of the temperatenesse of the Air may be some time or other seazed upon by them However it is most certain that if the King of Spain could but once make himself Master of England and the Low-Countries He would quickly get to be sole Monarch of all Europe and of the greatest part of the New World But seeing that He is not able to reduce this Island under His Obedience because that It is so exceeding strong by reason both of its Situation and multitude of Inhabitants who Naturally hate the Spaniard and are quite different from them both in their Manners and also their Religion it will concern Him therefore to defend himself as well as he can and to fortifie and set strong
Guards upon all such places of His Dominions as lye open to their Incursions least otherwise the English should chance to seaze upon them And such are the Haven Corugna and all the Sea Coast of Galicia Leon Biscay and all the Kingdomes that lie in the other Hemisphere as shall be shewed hereafter But this he must make his cheifest businesse namely to weaken the Power of the English for the effecting of which design it would be sufficient if He could but bring it about that the Hollander and the Freezlander should with their Fleets fall upon the English Forces at Sea as I shall by and by make it plainly appear But seeing He is so far from doing this that his own Navies are very often damaged by the English ships the only Remedy that is left him is to provide himself of some Vast Fleets of ships which should lie at Corugna and Lisbon that when ever the Spanish Fleet shall return from the Indies they may serve as convoys to It and may bring it home safely or else they may be sent forth either against Ireland or England and so may divert them from lying in wait for and infesting of the Spanish Navies And because the King of Spain is to be Lord of the Seas it is very necessary that He build himself many Wooden Cities that is to say great Navies for the securing of His Treasure that he recieves out of the New World It would also be a very good course for him to hire those that are of the greatest strength among the Hollanders though it cost him a Million of mony to guard such Fleets of his as are to passe to and fro in the Northern Seas and to deal in the like manner with such Nations as are better skilled in Nautical affaires then the English themselves are as namely the Danziokers by means of the King of Poland who is allied to the house of Austria likewise with the Gutlanders Swedes Finlanders and the rest that are of Scandinavia Denmark Pomerania and Borussia procuring them to declare against the English and either to set upon some of their Islands or else to invade England it self that so they may divert them from falling upon the Spanish Fleets or else if the King shall think it better to set upon the English Navy it self If I say He would but be at so great a charge as to hire the said Nations to fall upon the English and would besides but give them all the Booties that they should take from the English He might compasse all his desires and besides the seeds of such a Feude once sown would spread far and near and would never be killed and choaked again And therefore I conceive that Mony alone would be able to set these People at Variance and make them fall foul one upon the other And it is certain that England stands in fear of no other Nations so much as of those above named because they are both more fierce and more Populous Nations and also more powerful at Sea then the English themselves are For Spain cannot it self make any considerable opposition against the English unlesse it be by makig use of some such Artifice seeing that they are better acquainted with those Northern Seas then the Spanish are And then England is an Island whose Inhabitants are both very Numerous and they are also a diligent and subtle People and it is besides very strongly fortified both by Sea and Land and withall a deadly enemy to Spain partly by reason of their different Religions and partly because the English claime a kind of Right to that Crown by reason of the Castilian Line which is derived by the House of Lancaster besides diverse of the former Kings of England of the Family of York and others have been allied to Spain Now as concerning the weakning of the English there can no better way possibly be found out then by causing Divisions and Dissentions among themselves and by continually keeping up the same which will quickly furnish the Spaniard with better and more advantageous Opportunities And as for the Religion of that People it is that of Calvin though very much Moderated and not so rigid and austere as it is at Geneva which yet cannot so easily be extinguished and rooted out there unlesse there were some certain Schooles set up in Flanders with which People the English have very great coâ—â—erce by meanes of which there should be scattered abroad the Seeds of Schisme and Divisions in the Natural Sciences as namely betwixt the Stoicks Peripateticks and Telesians by which the Errours of the Calvinists might be made manifest For the truth of it is That Sect is Diametrically contrary to the Rules of Policy for they teach that whether a Man do well or ill he doth all by Divine Impulsion which Plato Demonstrates against Homer to be opposite to all Sounder Policy which sayes that every Man hath Free Liberty of Will either to do Well or Ill so that it is in our own Power either to observe or not observe what is commanded us and from hence we are to expect either our Rewards or Punishments according as I have most evidently demonstrated in my Dialogue touching Policy where I have discoursed of this Point though but briefly and without any flourish of Language which They since they have become Hereticks are grown somewhat subtle in and yet being of a Nature that is still desirous of Novelties and Change they are easily wrought over to any thing As concerning their Dominions and Private Estates the English are divided and live in several Countries whence some time or other the Spaniard may easily light upon some convenient Opportunity of advantage against them For the King of Englands Dominion is divided into Ireland and England which together with Scotland maketh up the Isle of Great Brittain Now Scotland it self hath also many small Islands belonging to it which are called the Orcades And hence it is that the Isle of Great Brittain had alwaies two Kings reigning over it namely one of them was King of England and the other of Scotland who by reason of their lying so near to each other were in a manner continually at wars and invading one anothers Territories for their Kingdomes are severed only by a little small River and some few hills But now the King of Scots hovers as it were at this time over England not only by reason of his Neighbourhood to it but also because of His Right of Succession for His Mother was Niece to King Henry the Eighth who was Father to Queen Elizabeth that now reigneth and if we should confesse the truth there is none so near in blood to the Crown of England as He is And therefore the time now draweth on that after the death of the said Queen Elizabeth who is now very old the Kingdom of England must fall into the hands of their Ancient and continuall Rivals the Scots We may here add that the Peers of the
Land who when they are assembled together in a Body are called in their Language the Parliament carry a great sway with them and have very great Power in so much that they seem to desire to set up an Oligarchy or an Aristocratical State according to the example shewed them by the Netherlanders For all Northern Nations are Naturally impatient of Monarchy or Absolute Power in Princes and the Kings of England were alwaies kept under by the Parliament till that now of later times under pretext of introducing a New Religion they have taken upon them to exercise a more absolute power over their Subjects But in Antient Times the whole Kingdom of England was divided into four lesser Kingdoms as Spain also hath been anciently distributed both into many several Kingdomes both of which Countries did afterwards grow into two entire Kingdomes although it cannot be denied but that the Power of the Kings of England was never so great as that of the Kings of Spain My opinion is therefore that the King of Spain should do well to employ under hand some certain Merchants of Florence that are wise and subtle persons and that traffick at Antwerp who because they are not so much hated by the English as the Spaniards are should treat with some such of the English as are some way or other descended from some of the former Kings of England and should promise each of them severally no one of them knowing any thing what is said to the other all the possible aides that can be from Spain for the restoring of them to their Inheritances Legally descending down to them from their Ancestours and undertake to effect this for them if not as to the whole Kingdome yet at least to some part of it requiring them to engage themselves to nothing else so to give a colour to the businesse save only that they shall not joyn their forces and assist the English in setting upon the Spanish Fleet at its return from the West Indies For by this meanes each of them being puft up with hope will presently fall to question the King of Scots his Title to the English Crown and will endeavour to oppose him in it Let him also send privately to King James of Scotland and promise him that He will assist him to the utmost of his Power in his getting possession of the Kingdom of England upon this condition viz that He shall either restore there again the Catholick Religion for the love whereof His Mother Mary Stuart Queen of Scots refused not to spend her dearest blood and even to lay down her Life too or at least that he shall not annoy or any way disturbe the said Spanish Fleet. But then again on the other side let him under hand labour with the English Peers and the chiefest of the Parliament and egge them on to endeavour to reduce England into the Form of a Republick withal assuring them that the King of Scots when he shall have once gotten into the English Throne must needs prove a cruel Prince to them as having alwaies about him a deep remembrance how injuriously the English have heretofore dealt with the Scots Moreover let Him endeavour to strike a terrour into Queen Elizabeths friends by often putting into their heads that they will find that King James will revenge his Mothers blood upon Queen Elizabeths friends seeing that She is like to leave behind her None of Her Own blood upon whom He might take revenge especially seeing that His Mother Queen Mary when she was now to dye seriously commended unto Him the care of the Catholick Religion and the Revenge of Her Blood The English Bishops are also to be exasperated and put into Fears and Jealousies by telling them that the King of Scots turned Calvinist out of hope and desire of the English Crown and being also forced to do so by his Heretical Barons but that when He shall once be quietly settled in the English Throne He will then quickly restore the Former Religion for as much as not onely His deceased Mother but even the King of France also have both of them very earnestly commended the same unto Him By which means it must necessarily follow that the seeds of a continual War betwixt England and Scotland will be sown in so much that neither Kingdome shall have any leisure to work any disturbance to the Spanish Affaires Or else by buzzing into their ears that in case King James should be possest of this Kingdom He will however be a Friend of Spain that the whole Island would be devided into many Dominions or else that it would come to be an Elective Kingdom by which means the King of it will be the lesse careful of making himself Master of other Countries and of adding them to the English Crown neither indeed though he should never so much desire it would he ever be able to do so as I have before shewed where I speak of France or else that this Country of England will be reduced into the Form of a Common Wealth which will perpetually be at feude with Scotland and that all Actions It shall undertake will be long in bringing to effect and so It will be able to do the lesse harm to Spain The Spirits of the English Catholicks also are to be rouzed up and as it were awakened from sleep and encouraged to Action for by this means so soon as ever the Throne shall be vacant the King of Spain shall come into England under Pretence of assisting them Let Him also deal with those English Nobles who are possessed of some certain circumjacent Islands lying about England that they should exercise an Absolute and full Jurisdiction each of them in their several places and have Peculiar Courts of Justice of their own distinct from those of England which very thing we read to have been Anciently done by them The Chief of the Irish Nobility also are to be dealt with that as soon as they hear of the Queens death they should new model Ireland either into the Form of a Republick or else should make it a Kingdom of it self throwing off all Obedience to the English withal promising aides to each of them in particular and that so much the rather because that in that Kingdome or Island the Catholicks and especially the Friers that are of the Order of S. Francis are very greatly esteemed and beloved There is also much greater agreement and correspondence betwixt the Spaniard and the Irish then betwixt them and the English whether it be by reason of the Similitude of their Manners or else by reason of the Clime and the nearnesse of these two Countries one to the other There are also in Ireland many Vagabond persons and such as have fled their Countries being men that are most impatient of Government and yet are good Catholicks and such as may be able to do good service in this kind as hath been shewed already But this sort of Men is not very rare to
and most Eminent Men of any Seditious City should have been sent abroad some whither else under the Pretense of some Military Imployment and the Ringleaders of all Heresies were to have been extirpated and rooted out and honest Preachers chosen out among the Natives and such as were sound in the Catholick Religion should have been substituted in their places and then at last after all this should the Inquisition have been brought in by the means of the Bishops though under some other name And yet even then He should have forborn to have imposed any Taxes upon them that so it might appear to all the world that nothing but their own Welfare and Good was sought after by Religion and not the Kings Advantage and Benefit onely There should also have been set over them such Governours as were chosen either out of the Germans or Italians seeing they naturally abhor a Spaniard and these indeed should be employed only in the keeping of Cities but not be made Governours of them for they are too Severe and Ceremonious whereas the Dutch should have such Governours set over them as are more Remisse and Easie To these Errours were added others that were committed in the Managing of the War for the King himself who was very much beloved of them as being descended of German Blood yet never went himself in person to the War but sent in his stead Spanish Commanders who were cruel by nature and withal extreamly hateful to the Dutch being such as in their Commands would make use of Blowes rather then of Fair Words And the truth of this appeared in that they desired to have one of the House of Austria to be their Head and therefore made choyce of Matthias the Arch-Duke After him they chose one that was nearer unto them namely Francis the King of France his son who yet having afterwards laid a plot so as that upon a certain day appointed he would have entered into the City of Antwerp upon a fudden with all his Horse whilest the Citizens dreamt of no such thing and would by this meanes have made himself Master of it but in the mean time having before-hand laid no foundation for this his design neither by way of Religion nor Policy He was in an instant driven out again by the Tradesmen and Merchants and that not onely with the losse of his Reputation and Principality but so great was the Tumult that He had like to have lost his life in it too And although Margaret Arch-Duchesse of Austria was made Governesse of these Provinces for one while and ruled there indeed with the Love and good Will of the Subjects yet could She not by any means reduce the same into a due Obedience because that Heresie had now taken so deep root amongst them and that the People had besides a suspition that She had a Design of reducing them and bringing them again under the Obedience of the Spanish Scepter and this was the Pretense under which the Ringleaders of that Sedition amongst them covered their desire of Principality and Liberty which they so greedily thirsted after And yet afterwards God himself shewed a way by which these people might have been subdued seeing that they were so divided by their several Sects into divers parts some of them standing for dull Luther others for subtile Calvin and some again for dissolute Zuinglius and Mennon in so much that you can hardly find a house amongst them wherein these different Heresies are not maintained neither are we wanting to our selves in any thing save only that we have not the skill to lay hold on so wished an Opportunity as this is and to make the best use of it For every Kingdom that is divided within it self shall be destroyed and a firm Union hath alwaies a very hard Knot to tye Notwithstanding we have not yet succeeded all this while not because the Enemy doth do us any harm but because we annoy them For it is certain that by reason of their differences in Religion they dare not one of them so much trust another as to joyn together in the Election of a General for their Wars so that if ever any where it may be truly said here that Quot capita tot sententiae so may Men so many minds I would be understood to speak here in reference to their Making of Warres abroad for the enlarging of their Dominions For they are every one of them so Jealous as that they cannot believe but that should they proceed to the chusing of such a General to be over them He would presently take upon himself the Authority to extirpate all such Sects of Religion as are different from that which He professeth and it would be the general fear of them all that such a one would usurp an Absolute Power over them And therefore we see that the successes which they have had in their Wars under the Conduct of Count Maurice have yet heartned them so far onely as to enter into a League amongst themselves of maintaining a Defensive War but not of an Offensive And then in the last place there be many other mischiefs that lye in the way to hinder the Spaniards from compassing the Dominion of these Provinces The First whereof is because they are to fight with an Enemy in his own Country to whom both the Nature and Site of the Country and also the Temper of the Air are very agreeable all which are most contrary to the temper of the Spaniard The Second is because that this Nation understandeth very well how great Inconveniences do arise unto them by this their War with the Spaniard and therefore it is not without good cause that they do so hate the Spaniards who are the Authors of this War and certainly to them Pax una triumphis Innumeris potior A Firm Peace once settled betwixt them would be infinitely more Advantageous then all the Victories they shall get be they never so many A Third is because that the Spaniards being now as it were mad that the Netherlanders have been able to hold them play now for so many years together should they but once get the better of them They would questionlesse make a horrible slaughter amongst them seeing that They do now at this time miserably afflict what Towns soever they take in punishing the Inhabitants most grievously A Fourth Hinderance of the Spaniards Successe herein is because that the Spanish Commanders fight onely so as that they may have still Occasion to fight and not that they may get the Victory by this means making as it were a Trade of War which should be used rather as a Means not only of Defending but also of Enlarging their Dominions And the very same is the Practise of the Commanders of the other side also for even Count Maurice himself to the end that He may the longer keep that Power he hath in his hands and that conquering the Country by degrees he may at length get into his power
the whole Principality of it protracts the War and spins it out as long as he can and His footsteps do the rest of the Officers and Commanders diligently follow Now the Spanish Commanders prolong the War that so their Pay as well as their Authority may also be prolonged and take the same course here that Charles Spinola took when he was sent into Abruzzo against Mark Sciarra with whom he dallied only and had no desire to destroy him that so the Viceroy of Naples might leave Him to be as it were Lord of Abruzzo and might also send him those large Summes which he had promised him for his Service mean while that Sciarra himself also sent him vast Presents to the end He should not fall too hard upon him And thus Spinola being paid on both sides both by his friend and his enemy continued for a long time and without any danger the Lord of that Country So that it is no wonder that King Philip having spent such vast Summes of Mony in this War with the Netherlands hath yet not only done no good upon it but hath besides exasperated the enemy so much the more and caused them to be the more exercised and experienced in Martial Affairs and hath given an Opportunity to his Antagonist Count Maurice and the rest of the Dutch Commanders of acquiring to themselves great Fame and renown for their Military Prowesse and hath now brought the businesse to that passe that his enemies though never so much divided among themselves in their Religion do yet meerly through fear of the Spaniard continue faithful and Constant to the League that it made betwixt them And therefore truly I am of Opinion that this War which the Spaniard now maintaines against the Hollander is both more Disadvantageous to the Spaniards and on the other side more Advantageous to the Hollanders only because they are thus continually forced to be in arms then if they were let alone and suffered to live quietly For thus we find it testified by Salust and after him by Augustine that the Romans by being continually exercised and vexed with War by their Neighbours became by this means more eminent and glorious every day then other and by the Tyranny of Tarquin and others they grew thereby more and more united among themselves whereas on the contrary when they were once left to themselves without any to annoy them they then presently fell to raise Civil Wars amongst themselves For when that Cartharge was once laid flat with the ground and that the whole World was now conquered by them being thus freed from all fear of Forreign Enemies through a Mutual Emulation amongst themselves they became presently to be divided into Factions and by this means brought destruction both upon themselves and their Common-Wealth as we see clearly in the examples of Sylla and Marius and of Caesar and Pompey So true an Argument of Wisedom is it not to hold your Neighbours in War too long lest by that means they come to be Skilful and Valiant Souldiers For thus heretofore it was objected against Agesilaus who had been wounded by the Thebans namely that He had received but his due Reward from them for teaching them by His making a long War upon them how to use Arms. But the cheifest point of Wisedome is for a Prince not to make War upon his subjects especially if they be his Natural subjects and Natives For by this means they will be but the more exasperated and more Averse from Him and so that which was at first but only a little Heart-burning as it were breaks out afterward into open Rebellion as we see it happened to Sigismund in his War that He made against the Bohemians For certainly you will never meet with any People that are so utterly devoyd of all shame as presently and upon the Instant to rise and take up arms against their Prince seeing that the very Name of Treachery and Rebellion is infamous and hatefull every where But when that the Princes sword is once stained with the subjects blood and that the Tye of Protection is now broken and all care of Justice thrown aside they use then openly to fall off from him and to declare themselves his Enemies Alexander King of the Jewes beginning at last to be weary of the long War he had maintained against them wherein he had destroyed at least fifty thousand men and asking some of his friends by what meanes there might be a firm and happy Peace concluded upon betwitxt them was answered that this could not be brought about by any other meanes then by His Death and thus did He though too late do that which He ought indeed to have done at the first I could here reckon up many other examples to this purpose but that I have resolved not to transgresse against the Brevity which I at first proposed to my self To returne therefore to my purpose I shall here lay down for an Observation that those that are put to fight in their own Country for their Wives and Children pro Aris et Focis as the Ancient Romans were used to say are alwaies wont to fight more stoutly then those that make war upon a forreign Country for that Assault which is not successeful the first day growes by degrees weaker ever after and withal adds the greater courage to those that are assaulted For the assailants befides those other Inconveniences that Naturally accompanie all War which certainly are very great are also wearied out by the Disagreeablenesse of a strange Air and Soyl. Which thing if Hannibal had understood or considered and had immediately after his first Victory at Trebia marched against Rome it self and had besieged It he might at that time easily have overthrown the whole Roman Empire Or at least after his Victorie at Cannae which was much the greater He should not have given the Romans any time to gather together fresh Forces but following the Counsel of Maherbal should presently have set upon Rome it self Thus Absalon also if he had followed the Counsel of Achitophel and had at the first pursued his Father David he had utterly destroyed him and had possessed himself of all Judaea neither had he given him any time to have gathered forces together and to have recovered courage as he did to his Destruction The Enemy is therefore either at first to be presently suppressed that so he may not get time and gather strength or else he is some way or other to be drawn forth of his own Country in like manner as Hercules drew forth Antaeus King of Libya that so He might the easier dispossesse him of his Throne For otherwise the nearer he came to the ground that is to his own Country the stronger he presently grew as the learned Fable informes us So that it seemes to be both a vain and Absurd undertaking to maintain a war still with the Netherlanders in their own Country seeing that they could not be conquered at the very beginning
of the war for the war doth but onely increase their strength and makes them abler to resist And therefore I conceive that there are but two waies left now to be taken for the bringing this businesse to effect the first of which is to sow the seeds of Division amongst them and the second To draw them forth out of their own Country Cadmus having a designe of erecting a Monarchy at Thebes whether he came a stranger is said first to kill a Serpent by which was signified the Defence and Safeguard of Thebes and then afterwards to sow the Teeth of it that is to say to scatter abroad the Poyson of Desire of Innovation and an Earnestnesse to be instructed in the knowledge of learning namely in such New Sciences and Arts as he had brought over with him from his own Country And hence Souldiers are said to spring up who through mutual discord slew each other and the remainders of them that were left joyned themselves with Cadmus their Head and Captain so laying the foundation of the Kingdom of Thebes in Boeotia I affirm therefore that these very Courses ought to have been taken by the King of Spain and not a war to have been onely maintained against them all this while And certainly if the Southern People would ever conquer or lay the foundations of a Monarchy over the Northern seeing that they are not strong enough to bring the same about they ought to have recourse to the Arts either of Cadmus or else of Jason although of the two Jason went the more wisely to work seeing he first wonne the heart of Medea that is the good will and Affections of the Northern Women to him for the Women of those Countries are easily brought to love Southern Men by reason of the Natural Heat that is in them which those Women like very well neither indeed do the Netherlanders hate the Spaniards so much as their Wives love them Afterwards Jason by the enchantments of Medea slew the Dragon that is the Guard of the Kingdom such as are the Warlick and Valiant men of a Nation with the Preachers And then did he by the meanes of enchanted Oyntments tame fierce Beasts the Brazen-footed and fire-spitting Bulls that is by his Friendship and Gifts He won over to him the Nobles and Principal men of the Kingdom And at length by them he sowed about the Teeth of the Dragon that is by the assistance of the Nobles he spread abroad the Seeds of Discord and Dissention about Religion Arts and Honours Whence in the last place sprung up Souldiers that is Factions such as are those of the Guelphs and Gibellines the Pontificians and Imperialists the Lutherans and Catholicks wherein they killed each other But those that remained chose Jason for their Head and Commander and though few in number yet afforded Him their assistance in the getting of the Golden Fleece that is to say such an Empire as we here speak of This Learned Fable I have therefore proposed and explained that I might shew the King of Spain what he is to do seeing that He hath hitherto taken so great pains and lost so many men and all to no purpose as Cadmus did before he had killed the Serpent Namely in the first place I would have either the King himself or else his Daughter or his son to go and dwell either a Antwerp or Bruxels or if he think fit rather at Gaunt that so by their Presence the Subjects may be the more encouraged and withal Forraigners may be drawn thither too herein following the Example of Cadmus who after his men were slain went himself to the Fountain of the Sarpent that kept the same In the next place I would have Him remove from all the Neighbouring Provinces all Suspition or fear of having any more Wars made upon them by the Spaniards and He should suffer them to live a while in peace and quietnesse and He withal shew himself so gentle and full of humanity to his own Subjects there that Forreigners taking notice of it should even repine thereat and should have a desire kindled within them of enjoying the same happinesse and of joyning themselves with His Subjects in the defending of that his Dominion In the Third place He should remit the Taxes and Impositions that have been laid upon those Places that are under his subjection and should exact no more of them then what is necessary for the Maintenance of the Kings Court only and the payment of the Souldiers that keep the Garrisons there But however instead thereof He should require a certain number of Souldiers to be raised yearly out of every City which He may send away into the West-Indies And let him be sure to pick out the stoutest and ablest men for this purpose by this means diverting the Noxious Humours from hence and turning them another way and filling up with these men his Armies in other Parts For from all such Countries as abound in Men it is better to require Men then Mony for this is both more advantageous to the Prince and also more agreeable to the humour of the People themselves Fourthly I would have Him make a General Feast every year to be kept upon one certain day in each several City and great Town and at His own charge at which time every City throughout the whole Province would Voluntarily declare their readinesse to serve the House of Austria And at this Yearly Feast I would have no cost to be spared for there is nothing in the world that doth more unite this People among themselves and bind them to others then to Feast them and make them Drunk once a year at least which Practise is said to have been first taken up by Minos the ancient Law-giver Fifthly I would have the Name of the Inquisition taken away though the Inquisition it self should be kept up by the Bishops but under some other Name and It should not be so severe as it is in Spain and at Rome but the Terrour of it should consist in Words only and Threatnings rather then in any more Harsh Usage Sixthly that under pretense of a Croysade Expedition there should be Indulgences and Dispensations procured from the Pope concerning Fasting daies and the Abstaining from Flesh at certain times of the Year for these People are infinitely given to Feastings and Revellings Seventhly all Garrison'd Towns should be kept by Spanish Souldiers but the Government of the same should be committed to the care of Bishops as the Government of the several Provinces should be put into the hands of Cardinals who should be such as are of Ripe Years and are eminent also for Wisdom And then would I have some of the Gentry of Venice to be appointed as Judges and to have the hearing of all Law Causes amongst them for by this means the Italians and Low-Country-men will easily be reconciled to each other seeing that these later love the Italians much better then they do the Spaniards Eighthly
to come by proposing some Salaries for such of them as shall apply themselves to the Discovering and giving an Account of such Stars and Constellations as are found in the other Hemisphere in the New World For by this means there would redound to the Spanish Empire both Honour and Profit I would also have the Schools of the Old Philosophers to be opened again as of the Platonists and Stoicks and of the Telesins that so the People may be diverted from Theological Questions and may apply themselves to study Questions of Philosophy for these come nearer to the Christian Faith then the Doctrine of Aristostle doth Now the King in doing these things shall follow the Example of Hercules who to the end He might the more easily overcome Antaeus drew him forth of his own Territories and also of Cadmus who brought over New Arts and Sciences with him into Boeotia and by means of the same got to be Prince of that Country And by taking this Course the Principal among the Hereticks when they shall see there is more to be gotten there then here forsaking their Heresies will become Ringleaders in the Sects of Philosophy and Astrology And besides that they may gain our favour they will probably make head against their enemies the Turks and their impious Doctrine which hath insensibly crept into Germany because it agrees very much with Calvinisme There should also be erected Publick Work-houses for the exercise of Mechanical Arts to which this People is exceeding Apt and so by this means will the Businesse of Navigation be much promoted together with the skill of Besieging Towns and of taking them in by the use of Artificial Fire-works By this means the People probably will be taken off from their False Religion and divided one from another to the great Advantage of the King and Kingdom of Spain to whom many will now come and tender their Service and His Empire which of late hath been Contemptible and hateful to all the World shall recover its ancient Splendour and Honour 13. There must mutual Contentions and Hatred be stirred up amongst the Nobles and Principal Men of the Country and that part that most favours the Spanish Interest must be assisted and rewarded with gifts that so the rest may be brought over too and may be encouraged to do the like But if this cannot be done He must then rid them out of the way or if they cannot be found to have deserved death any way then must their Reputation only be diminished for Injustice never yet took deep root or else they must be sent away into some other parts Paulus Aemilius that he might leave Macedonia in a quiet and peaceable condition perswaded all the Principal of the Nobility to take their wives and children and go live in Italy And Charles the Great to prevent the frequent Tumults and Commotions that were in Saxony sent all the Nobility of that Country into France 14. They should be prevailed with to sail away into the New World and to joyn with the Portugal Fleet and break into Arabia and Palestine through the Red Sea so to annoy the Turks as shall be hereafter shewed that so being drawn out of their own Country to fight against Forreign Enemies they may be destroyed by the Spaniards who in this particular are much abler men then They. 15. The seeds of Emulation and Envy should be sowed amongst them that after the example of those Brothers that sprung up out of the Serpents Teeth they may destroy one another and that those few of them that shall remain may be afterwards made use of by the King of Spain for his service But then it is necessary in the first place that the Serpent of Sedition it self I mean Count Maurice should be destroyed and not have Opportunity given him by the continuing of the War of growing greater and more powerful every day then other But before all as I said before there must be New Learning and New Languages introduced amongst them according to the Example of Cadmus and there must likewise Women be got away from them after the example of Jason 16. The Hollanders are to be hired every year though it should Cost the King a Million of Gold to be a convoy to the Spanish Fleet returning out of the West Indies and also to secure the Sea Coast of Spain against the English and those that are the Chief amongst them in that expedition should deliver up their Sons for Hostages till such time as they shall have done their businesse effectually For these men will willingly be hired for mony to fight against England and very probably there will at length be found some one or other of them that will for mony also betray even Holland it self and their whole Fleet to the Spaniards And certainly if the seeds of Dissention and Envy were but once sowed among the Principal men and Nobles of these Common-Wealths they would never be able to hold up so stifly against the Spaniards and gain strength every day as they do neither would those that now maintain Bookish Controversies against the Pope get so much reputation and Authority among the People and the King himself would also by this means confirm his own Empire both by Sea and Land and would draw these People over to him 17 These People are wonderfully taken with Miracles and are great Admirers of any Excellency and Eminent Vertue so that any Holy and Wise men might easily by their Arts draw them to any thing Therefore there is need of such diligent Workmen who by their Doctrine and Spotlesse Sanctimony of their Life may call home those straying sheep to the way of Truth And if it should please God to call Me to take this Imployment upon me I should c. 18. When these People were now once divided and weakened they should then upon the sudden be set upon by an Army for Delay tends rather to the confounding then the well Ordering of Affaires For Semper nocuit differre paratis When Preparations now are made Designs are by Delay betray'd The King should therefore fall in upon them with a numerous and powerful Army in the head whereof Himself should be and should withal make use of some unusual Stratagem without which all his Designs will come to nothing There should also some one among the Spanish Commanders who is both a Stout and also a Wise and circumspect man be suborned by the King of Spain to counterfeit himself to be a Renegado and going over to the Enemy should insinuate himself into the States General and should prevail with them to make him their General as we read Zopyrus did who betrayed the City of Babylon whether he had fled having first cut off his own Nose Ears and Lips and making them believe that all those were the Marks of the Cruelty of Darius to his Master or as Sinon did to the Trojans and as Sextus Tarquinius did who going over to the Gabii and making
them believe that he was fled from his Father and being both believed by them and also chosen to be their General he first cut off the chief men of the Common-Wealth and afterwards betrayed the said Gabii to his Father For the bringing about of the like Designe whereof the King of Spain hath need of a man that is most faithful as well as Valiant and Wise and not such a one as was that Persidious fellow Antonio Perez 19. Seing that the Cities of the Netherlands were in former times and before the Wars the greatest Mart Towns in all Europe and that for no other reason but only because that the Customes of all such Commodities as were either imported thither or exported into other parts which were both infinite in number and of all sorts were but small it will therefore concern the King whiles He endeavours to reconcile these People to Himself to take this into his consideration and to recall again that Ancient Custome and in a word to restore to the Netherlands its former Happinesse and to endeavour the Continuation of the same For although these Countries have no Gold Mines of their own yet while all things were quiet with them and no noyse of war heard amongst them what by their various and inestimable Pieces of Workmanship and their admirable skill in Manufactures and other Arts they had got together so much Gold as that they needed not at all to envy either the Hungarian or the Transsylvanian Mines Neither was there any Country more Glorious rich or more frequented by Forreigners I will not say in all Europe onely but in the whole World then this was in so much that in regard of that vast immense Treasure that Charles the V. received from thence it was for just cause called by some The Emperours Indies It much concerns the Interest therefore of the King of Spain that He reconcile these People to Himself and that things may be restored to their former State and condition which is a thing that is wont to be very easily brought about And to the effecting hereof He ought not to spare either for Cost Pains Counsel or Industry 20. A Careful Administration of Justice together with Peace and Plenty of all things will contribute much to the bringing of these things about as also the Maintaining and keeping up of Religion Learning and Vertue For seeing that those that are of Religious Orders and other Learned men and Persons of Worth are the men that are as it were the Heads among the rest of the People whosoever hath These of his side he may easily draw all the rest over to him also For those of Religious Orders bear rule over the Consciences of the People as the Learned do over their Wits and those of Eminency and Worth over their Purses and Military strength Those former are looked upon for their Piety and Religion the Other for their Learning and VVisedome Those through Reverence These through the Esteem the World hath of their Parts And hence it is that what soever Those men either do or say it passes for Oracular and is thought worthy to be imbraced and followed by All men 21. The fame also of a Princes being addicted to Mercy and Clemency and constantly persevering in the same will stand him in very good stead if so be that it may be but made known to all men that this Gentlenesse and Connivence in him proceeds meerly from his own good Nature and Inclination but that when he punisheth any it is out of Necessity and his Zeal towards Justice and the love of the publick Peace Thus Nero in the beginning of his Empire by his cunning dissembling his Natural Inclinations and his appearing to be a Merciful Prince wonderfully wonne the hearts and affections of the people of Rome to him which part He acted so cunningly and to the life as that when a certain Sentence of Judgment that had been pronounced by the Judges against an offender was brought to Him to set his hand to it He sighing said O quam vellem literas non didicisse I could wish I had never known a letter 22. The Raies of some extraordinary eminent Vertue shining forth in a Prince would also be of very great advantage to Him for by this meanes he would not only oblige his own Subjects to him but even his Enemies would be won over to love and favour him examples whereof we have in Alexander and Scipio both of which gave testimony to the World of their Singular Continency and Moderation in all things as likewise in Camillus and Fabricius who both gave evidence of the Greatnesse of their Courage the one against the Falisci and the other against King Pyrrhus These sparks of Gallantry appeared also in the Emperour Conrade in his war again Misico and likewise in Charles the Great who besides his diligent Observance of Religion and his endeavours to promote Learning got himself a great deal of Reputation also by his Beneficence and Liberality towards all sorts of men both the highest lowest and of middle ranke and indeed generally to all And certainly there is not a more Lovely strong and commendable Tye whereby to bind the Affections of the People to a man then Liberality and Bountifulnesse 23 But above all things it would be a businesse of very great Efficacy if that such Covenants and Agreements as have been made betwixt the King and them were but kept which yet the Spaniards have neglected to do though to their Cost and the losse of their own lives For nothing doth more offend and alienate the hearts both of Natural as well as conquered subjects then when they see that those Capitulations as they call them and Articles upon which they have submitted themselvs to any Prince are altered and changed by him And we see that this being not observed by the Duke of Alva who was a Covetous and Unjust man and one that looked after nothing but his own Gain was the cause that the Netherlands began to raise such Tumults there and at length openly to rebel against the King Whereas on the contrary Alexander Farnese Duke of Parma for his fidelity in keeping his promises and Agreements which is certainly an Infallible Argument of a Constant Mind and of an Excellent Judgement got himself an exceeding great repute of Gallantry and worth among the Netherlanders And questionlesse He was a most Compleat and throughly-accomplished Souldier and served as General under a most Just King alwaies commanding an Army under Him for the service of the Church and of God sometimes following the example of Fabius and sometimes that of Marcellus 24. Neither would it be a businesse of small moment to bring in the Spanish Tongue into these Countries and to cause it to be spoken there according to the Practise of the Ancient Romans who when they had conquered any Country caused the Nation conquerd to learn the Latine Tongue Thus did the Arabians also after the example of the
above sixty several Sects The rest of the Kings in Africk have but very small Dominions except only the King of the Abyssines who is commonly called Prester John and hath above fifty smaller Kingdomes under him This King of the Abyssines is a Christian although He doth not professe the Pure Catholick Religion It is necessary therefore that Forces should be brought over thence into Spain seeing that the passage to and fro is very easie For our King is possessed of the Kingdome of Oran there already where He is in continual Wars with the Moors who might easily all of them be conquered if he should but make One Invasion only upon them with an Army of Germans Neither indeed need the King fear any Obstruction to His Spanish Monarchy from those Parts For those Nations are much fitter to serve then to Command and bear Rule neither have They ever been able to conquer any of the Northern Nations but rather themselves have been alwaies conquered by Them excepting only Carthage which was a Colony of Tyre who yet were at length utterly ruined by the Romans And the Arabians also passed over out of Africk into Spain where they kept their footing for the space of Eight Hundred yeares yet were at length quite driven out again Neither indeed were they truly Africans but only the Novelty of their Armes together with that of their Mahometan Religion encouraged them so far as to fall upon so bold an attempt But the Africans at this day are a very Weak unwarlike People and for as much as they are Naturally Envious Crafty and of a servile Nature the King of Spain by making use of one of the little Kings there might in a little time break in upon them and make his way to the most Inmost Countries of all Africk as the Romans of old did by the help of Masinissa And therefore Sebastian King of Portugal did wisely when he made use of the King of Fez his sons for the getting and possessing himself of that Kingdom although he was not so very wise in venturing his own Person in that Expedition And indeed because that the sons of those Kings are wont to kill one another they are so much the more easily conquered if a man do but make any one of them over to him But seeing these People are so much divided among themselves there is no need of fearing them at all The King of Spain ought therefore to get further footing in Africk seeing that he hath opportunity enough of doing so by reason of the many strong Holds that He is Master of all along the Western and Southern Coast of Africk And He should do well to make over to him the above named Prester John whom he should cunningly set against the rest and get him to make War upon them And the King of Spain may very easily contract friendship with this Prester John by means of the Jesuites whom he may send thither And He should also by his Embassadours sent to him for that purpose put him in mind of the Duty and Obedience that he owes to the Pope which was formerly done in the time of Pope Eugenius IV. and Clemens VII by means of the Portuguez and so should make a League with him There should therefore be sent thither such as are both true Catholicks and Learned men to instruct them in the Arts and in the True Religion both which they are as yet Ignorant of For they would be easily converted and that so much the rather because they say it hath been heretofore foretold them by a certain Prophetesse whose name was Sinoda that They were predestinated to joyn with the Latines and to root out the Turk and to set at Liberty the Holy Sepulchre of Christ Seeing therefore that the King of Spain is Master of all the African shores He must make it his care that none may have any Fleets to passe by the said Coasts but that it may be free and safe for the aforesaid Prester John by the assistance of the Portuguez to sayl into Palestine when ever he pleases by the Gulf of Arabia and there to fall upon the Turks and to do them what mischief he can And to this purpose He is to be furnished with all Necessary Means as namely Engines of War and other such Provisions whereby he may be the better enabled to conquer the Turk For if Mahumetanisme should but once be introduced into that Kingdom of his it would prove extreamly prejudicial to the whole Christian World and especially to Spain He may also come in by Egypt and so fall upon the Turk And if there were but a gallant Fleet lying about Naples that might go out at pleasure and scour the Seas all along the Northern Coast of Africk it might easily be brought under the King of Spain's power and those Slaves also that are at Algier and in Cyrene might be dealt with to rise up all at once and rebel in favour of the Spaniard And such a Fleet as I but now spake of might be maintained meerly by the Prizes that they should take and so by that means would both Italy be secured and all such other places also that are now obstacles to the Spanish Monarchy might be taken in CHAP. XXIX Of Persia and Cataia THe King of Spain must endeavour by all Means possible to hinder the Persians and those of Taprobana from putting out any Fleets of Ships to Sea and also the Arabians for these people would questionlesse be a great hinderance to his Affaires in the East-Indies and would annoy His Fleet in its passage that way and might also probably infect the New-converted Christians there with Mahumetanisme He ought therefore to build strong Castles all along the Coasts of Arabia and Ethiopia and so likewise upon the Coasts of the Arabian Gulf and also in all the Southern Islands that lye upon the Coast of Africk and Asia and He should enter into a League with the Persian against the Turk And yet perhaps He need not so much care to have the Turk quite extirpated for whosoever of those two should over come the other whether the Turk or Persian he would thereby become so powerful as that he would be able to conquer the whole Christian World and so consequently to spoyl all the hopes of a Spanish Monarchy and it might prove as Prejudicial to Christendom to have the Turk ruined by any other but some Christian Prince as it would be for the advantage of Christendome that he should be conquered by the Christians themselves alone But yet seeing that the Turk does us continually very much harm breaking in upon us by Hungary Solavonia and Africk it would be good Policy to set the Persian upon him and to take a course that He may have Guns and such like Artillery sent unto him to make use of in his Warres against the Turk For it was meerly the want of these that was the cause that He lost almost all Armenia and that the
Arch-Priest He hath likewise a most Able Souldiery because that He takes all the likeliest boyes and youths through all his Dominions and breeds them up in Seminaries erected for that purpose and these He employes both in his wars abroad and in peace at home making some of them Souldiers and others Judges and Noblemen also Neither hath He any Barons to stand in fear of neither hath He any Brothers to share with Him in the Empire For the Eldest Son comming to the Empire after his Fathers death presently makes away with all his Younger Brothers Neither can He want any Men seeing that He permits every one of his subjects to take as many Wives to him as He is able to keep so that neither Inheritance nor Virginity are any hinderance to the Procreation of Children in his Territories His custome is also in making his Wars 〈◊〉 go as it were round about in a circle and so to deal with his â—eighbouring enemies neither leaving any enemy behind him nor ever going farther from home one way then another as hath been said before And he hath besides an Admirable Art in his making his Cessations from Arms and Truces with his Enemies being sure alwayes to make them for his own Advantage Now the Turk is descended from Iaphet by Magog and he hath the Lawes of Sem derived to Him by Ishmael whence hath sprung Mahumetanisme And of Him God himself foretold Agar that His hand should be against every man and every mans hand against him and that He should dwell in the presence of all his brethren And therefore we see that He hath pitched his Tents at Constantinople in the uttermost Angle of Europe over against Us who are his Brethren descending from Isaac who was both the Legitimate and Natural Brother of Ishmael For as the Spaniards are descended from Tubal so the Turks are descended from Magog who were both the Sons of Japhet And truly the Turk doth put forth his hand every way not only against all Christians but also against Mahumetans now here now there one while on the right hand and then on the left and still goes away the Conquerour He makes use also of another point of subtlety which is that so soon as ever He finds that we are at union amongst our selves He then presently flies to making a Truce with Us which notwithstanding he presently breakes off again so soon as ever he sees us at dissention among our selves And whensoever he is returned Victorious from one Country He presently falls to the making of some other Expedition either against the Persians or the Ethiopians c. as hath been shewed before And yet though all these things be thus yet doth the King of Spain lay claime also to the Dominion of that Empire or at least of part of it and that by reason of his Fraternity both Natural from Japhet and also Legal proceeding from Abraham but yet in respect of this Later he hath the Pre heminence above the Turk For he is descended from Isaac from whom Christ who is also God is descended the Cheif Law-giver of All and He hath also thereby a general Promise made him of the Universal Empire of the World And because He was Blessed also in Abraham the last Kingdome of the Saints which is to succeed after the end of the Four Monarchies and of which Daniel Prophesied belongs unto him But Ishmael from whom Mahomet the Turks Law-giver is descended had no other promise made unto him but that he should be an Absolute Lord and a great and famous Warriour Besides both these Princes are a part of the Roman Empire for after that the Roman Monarchy shall be at an end there shall no other succeed it But according to Esdras the German which is now the same that the Spaniard as hath been said before is the Right Head but the Turk is the Left Head of the Imperial Eagle after that Mahomet fell off from the Emperour Heraclius during whose Reign the Eagle was divided to whom notwithstanding there was no other promise made but that He should Devour the Middle Head namely the Constantinopolitan whereas the Spaniard hath this Promise made him that he should devour the Left Head that is to say the Turk as we have hinted formerly And although that the Spaniard hath above him one that is a Clergy Man and that is also Armed with the Temporal Sword yet doth this make for his advantage both in respect of Fate and of His State as hath been written before for as much as the Spaniard according to the example of Cyrus hath under him the United Monarchy of the Saints and the Pope is also a most sure defence and Safe-guard to Him by whose Assistance he is able to deal well enough with his enemies both with spiritual and Temporall weapons and yet so as that He may easily withal avoid the suspicion either of Covetousnesse or Profanenesse Now as concerning the Absolutenesse of Dominion the Great Turk is herein much above the King of Spain But yet I have formerly shewed that this very thing of his not caring to have any Barons or Nobles under him renders Him and His Condition and State so weak that if he should receive but one sound Blow onely in an open field Battel it would so crush Him as that he would never be able to hold up his Head again Which cannot happen to the King of Spain because that His Nobles and Bishops and also the Pope himself would speedily in such a case send in Relief to Him The Great Turk keeps under all the Great ones among his Subjects least they should attempt any Innovation in the State or act any thing to the Prejudice of His Monarchy as the Nobility of France did heretofore But then in the mean time He doth so weaken them that they are not able to yeild him any Relief or Aide at all in case he should come to have need of it As concerning Military Discipline and the Manner of making War the Turk far excells the Spaniard as I have before shewed yet notwithstanding if the King of Spain would but use all convenient diligence and withal carefully observe those Rules which I have here laid down before him He might even in this Particular surpasse the Turk and the rather if so be He would but go himself in Person to the Wars And as for the number of Men and of Souldiers the Turk goes beyond the Spaniard and indeed in all his greatest expeditions He hath ever done his businesse rather by his Numbers then by valour And yet his Subjects are divided amongst themselves in Religion and then besides all the Lands of every Country are given in Fee only to the Principal Commanders of his Militia whereas the King of Spain hath fewer Subjects indeed in number but yet they are more at unity among themselves But I have already shewn how the Number of the King of Spains Subjects may be encreased by their Marriages with Forraign Nations
and also how by meanes of erecting Seminaries for the instructing of Youth both in learning and the use of Armes the Valour of his Souldiers may be encreased the Neglect of making use of Which Meanes hath been the cause that the Turk hath overstript us in this particular As concerning the businesse of Mony I conceive there is little or no odds on either side But if the King of Spain would but proceed in that Absolute way of Power over his Subjects that the Turk does over his He might easily surpasse him in Riches The King I confesse wants Mony but I have formerly shewed him by what waies He might gather together Mony enough to maintain a war against the Turk Now the Turk useth infinite Celerity and speed in putting what ever designs He hath in execution sparing no cost or charges for the providing of all things necessary for the same so that with the present Mony that he hath in his Treasury He presently raiseth Men and provides them Armes and gets all things immediately in a readinesse in order to the expedition He is upon and when he hath laid out all the Mony that he had in his Treasurie he then presently falls to filling it up again by laying fresh Impositions and Taxes upon his Subjects It is a necessity that is in a manner Peculiar to the Turk of making War upon his Neighbours round about and as it were in a Circle for they are all his enemies But now the condition of the Spaniard is otherwise For betwixt His Kingdome of Naples and his Duchy of Millan there lye the Pope and the Tuscans who are united unto him by the Tie both of Religion and Friendship He lies something remote indeed from the Netherlands and the West Indies which notwithstanding render him worthy the more admiration because that by reason of his Fleets he lies as it were neer unto them and by meanes of the same he may possibly in time make himself Master of those other Parts also which he hath not yet possessed himself of as we shall shew hereafter The King hath also this advantage that although those Countries lye at so great a distance from one another yet by the Tie of Religion they are all joyned to Spain Lastly whereas in Turky the Eldest sons of the Emperours are wont alwaies to make away with their Younger brothers this piece of Cruelty of theirs does but set a Note of Infamy upon them and it may easily so fall out that some One of these Younger Brothers may get away out of his Elder Brothers power and may be able afterwards to make War upon his Brother And we see that this had been like to have come to passe in Gemes the Brother of Bajazet who having gotten out of prison might have been able to have done his Brother very much Mischief and by the Assistance of the Christians might have made his way into Greece had he not by the Arts his Brother Bajazet used and by the treachery also of the Christians been taken off by Poyson And Selim although He did not desire to make Himself Emperour yet He made himself very strong at first only to preserve himself from being put to death but afterwards taking the Opportunity when it was offered him He turned both his Father and Brother out of the Empire and commanded them to be both put to death at which Juncture of Time that Empire might very easily have been utterly subverted and ruined And truly I conceive that the Total destruction of that Empire cannot be brought about any other way then by this one thing namely their most bloody Cruelty that they Practise upon their nearest and dearest Friends and Kindred For seeing that the great Turk takes as many Wives to himself as he pleases and so gets an Infinite number of Sons by them all which are most certainly assured that when ever their Eldest Brother comes to be Emperour They shall be all of them murdered it is very probable that some time or other there may Civil Wars arise in that Empire by which it may either be totally destroyed or at least may be divided into many parts which would give the Turks enemies an Opportunity of falling upon him and so of ruining him Neither need any one wonder that this hath not as yet happened to this very day seeing that this Empire is not of any so very long standing For Ottoman who was the Founder of it died but in the Year of our Lord 1328. in the time of Pope Benedict XI And yet we know that there have already been bloody Wars amongst them which seems to confirm this our Prognostication and makes me the willinger to give credit to Torquatus the Astrologer who foretold that it would come to passe that in the time of the Sixteenth Emperour of Turky that Empire should fall to the ground namely when the Moon which is the Ensign of that Empire shall begin to decrease that is to say when It shall be divided into Two Hornes by two of the Great Turks Sons rising up one against the other and causing the Empire to be divided into Two parts One of which Brothers turning to Christianity shall come over to the Christians Now these Two Hornes signifie Two Kingdomes for Kingdomes are oftentimes denoted by the Ensigns or Armes of the same as we see in the Revelation of St. John where the Kingdomes themselves are from their Insignia called sometimes Dragons sometimes Eagles and sometimes also Lions and the Prophet Jeremy calleth the Kingdome of the Assyrians by the name of a Dove because the Assyrians had the Figure of a Dove for their Ensign or Devise Now in this Particular the Spaniard is much more happy then the Turk because that His Sons do not fall out or hate each other for any such Cause Yea we see at this day that those of the House of Austria partly by reason of this very thing because they are Brothers and Kindred and partly also through fear of the other Christian Princes and of the Hereticks are at so much the greater Concord and Agreement among themselves And you shall scarse find more Brothers or Kindred in any one Princes Family then in that of Austria and yet have not these ever broken the Bond of Consanguinity one with another nor have ever raised any Commotions in their Republick through Ambitious Ends and Respects but have on the contrary preserved each to other their Just Rights Untoucht and have lived together in so Unshaken a Concord and Union as that they seem to be so many Bodies animated all with One Soul and guided all by One Will. We may adde hereto that the Younger Brothers of this House have hopes either of being made Cardinals or else of being Elected Kings of Poland or of some of the other Forreign Elective Kingdoms so that the House of Austria by reason of the Multitude of Sons growes the Greater whereas the Ottoman House does for the same reason decrease
while that we do nothing but faâ—â— together by the Eares one with another But if this cannot be brought about the Persians must then be persuaded to joyn with the Ethiopians Muscovites and Polonians as hath been said before And I do believe also that the Great Turks Bassaes and other of his Subjects would quickly be got to fall off from him if so be they could but be once fully perswaded assured that they should each of them really be made the absolute Lords of what they now possessed All which things ought to have their Accomplishment in the death of this Mahomet III. now Raigning seeing that That Number is Fatal The Great Turks Younger Sons also are to be seazed upon and conveigh'd away least the Eldest Brother should Murder them according to their usual Custome and this the Venetians may do conveniently enough by their Merchants or else the same may be committed to the Christian Slaves that are there to be done by them After that this Empire shall be thus weakned and divided it would be convenient then to send thether some Preachers who should endeavour to convince the Natives of their Error There should care also be taken by all meanes for the bringing of Printing into Turky by meanes whereof that People may be taken off from the exercise of Arms and may apply themselves to Books and by being taken up with Disputations concerning Points of Divinity and Philosophy both of the Peripateticks Stoicks Platonists and Telesians they may be divided amongst themselves and so be the more weakned For those that give themselves to the study of Books onely usually become a Prey to such as apply themselves to the exercise of Armes and the study of the Arts too as we see in the example of Athens which became a Prey to the Lacedemonians both which Nations Philip King of Macedon by the force of his Armes afterwards subdued being first instructed by Epaminondas by what meanes this was to be effectd Cato was wont to say that the Romans would lose their Empire so soon as ever they should begin to apply themselves to the study of the Greek Tongue and Sciences This the Great Turk who is wiser then We are knew very well and therefore preferred rather the exercise of Armes and got him great Guns and Slaves I mean those Jewes that were sent to him by Ferdinand the last King of Arragon for he knew very well what and how great Advantage might be made by Sâ—â—â—es and that the Children that they should beget were to be brought up in the exercise of Armes and the knowledge of Military Affaires But then on the contrary He would not receive nor accept of those Printing-Presses and Letter for the Printing of the Arabick Tongue that were sent Him by the great Duke of Tuscany because he would not have his Dominions filled with Books because that would much take off the Military Valour of his Subjects and besides because that Mahumetanisme by frequent Disputations about it might easily in a short time have been overthrown It hath also been very prejudicial unto Us that we have had no Law made for the Injoyning of Silence whereby we should have been commanded to conceal some things from others which Law certainly would have been of very good use But now adaies in Germany all things are made Publick and laid open to the whole World and hence it is that we see every one there publisheth in Print a New Bible and that the Empire goes to ruine and that all places are overwhelmed with Luxury and Riot And had not the fear of the King of Spain's Armies kept the Netherlanders in Awe they also would by this time have been as Effeminate and Luxurious as the Germans are And the like would have befallen to the English also So that we might have hopes that unlesse there were a War maintained amongst them to keep them in exercise they would all quickly come to utter ruine after that they should but once come to be Effeminate Heart-lesse and at discord one with another as we have said formerly and that so much the rather because that the Heresie they professe seeing it denyes the Freedom of the Will is repugnant to all Principles of Policy Now all Heresies when they are once gone so far as to Atheisme are reduced again into the way of Truth by some Wise Prophet or other such as were in Italy Thomas Aquinas Dominicus Scotus and others For Heresies also have their Periods as well as States which fall first from being governed by good Kings into the hands of Tyrants from their Tyranny into an Aristocracy from thence into an Oligarchy and so at length to a Democracy and in the end they shift about again and in a Circle as it were return again to their first form either of a Kingdom or a Tyranny CHAP. XXXI Of the Other Hemisphere and of the New World THe Admirable Discovery of the New World which was foreseen by St. Brigitt and expressely foretold by Seneca in his Medea and there lively set forth in its proper Colours and Names according as he had received the same from one of the Sibylls hath been the cause that this Hemisphere of Ours hath been thereby rapt into the greatest Admiration that can be For some of the Ancientest among the Philosophers of which number was Xenophanes were of Opinion that That Other Hemisphere lay all covered over with Water some others as Lactantius and St. Augustine thought that the Earth was not a Perfect Globe about which the Sun was carried in his Diurnal Motion And some others believed among whom was Dante that those Countries were Inhabited and were a certain kind of Earthly Paradise Some there were that doubted hereof amongst whom was Aristotle and again some others of them confidently affirmed that the Earth was an Absolute and Perfect Orbe or Globe and of this number were Plato and Origen And therefore it is but for just cause that all the World admires the Spanish Monarchy as both very Daring and very Powerful seeing that It hath measured and overcome so many Seas and in a short space of time hath put a girdle about the vast Globe of the Whole Earth which neither Carthage nor Tyre were ever heretofore able to do nor yet the wisest of All Men King Solomon whose Fleet making its Voyage as far as Goa only and Taprobane spent alwaies three whole years in the same which yet Our Seamen now adaies perform in three Moneths time So that although the Vast distance of place that there is betwixt the several parts of the Spanish Monarchy seems to render It Weak yet doth their Admirable Skill in Navigation for the shortening of those Distances together with those other Means of Uniting these Parts which the Spaniards daily do make use of or may make use of when they please make the same most Illustrious and more Admirable then some perhaps do imagine However to the end that the King of Spain may not
And with these should be joyned also some of Our Preachers who after that they had faithfully and Effectually discharged their Office there should then be preferred to be Bishops or Abbats that so others by their example might be encouraged to do the like and also that those People might know and see that great Honors are by us proposed to such men as we send over to them to teach and instruct them And it seems also to be very Necessary to institute some certain Order of Preachers of the New World to be expressely known by that name seeing that the Businesse seems altogether to require it And the King of Spain must also take care rather how that Country may be made Populous full of Inhabitants then how the Natives may be all rooted out And such among them as will not be converted to Christianity He may make Slaves after the examples of the Romans and Lucullus who alone had forty thousand Slaves of his own by whose meanes he dug down nine Mountaines and laid them level with the plain ground and these Slaves the King of Spain may put to row in his Gallies But as for those that shall embrace the Christian Faith they may be put to learn Mechanical Occupations as Smiths and Carpenters and the like that so the Spaniards themselves may not need to look after any thing else but wholly to mind the exercising of themselves in Military Affaires following herein the example of Croesus King of Lydia whose Custome it was to put all such Prisoners as he had taken in War to learn the trades of Carpenters and Smiths but to keep his own subjects close to their Armes onely I think it fit therefore that a great number of those Indians should be transported over into Spain and Africk and should be set to build great Cities all along upon the Coast of Africk and of Asia the strong Holds and Government of which Cities should be put into the hands of Spaniards onely but the tilling of the Ground and the Mechanical Arts should be left to the Indians to follow or to some other the like Slaves of the Spaniards that should also be Christians And when any of the Indian Kings should chance to be converted and transported over into Spain they should have Baronies conferred upon them there that so the Spanish Empire might thereby be rendred the more Glorious and that the Indians also might by this means be brought by degrees to love us and our Countries And if the King of Spain had but observed all these Rules He might at this day have been possessed of larger Territories both in Africk and Asia and Spain also would have been more Populous and strong and the New World much Richer then it is And therefore in my Opinion it is the most Absurd thing in the World for the King to make those parts a Treasury to supply Him with Gold Silver only and not rather with Men seeing that these later are of the two of much the greater Value Now of those Indians being brought up to Trades and comming in progresse of time to be sufficiently Hispaniolized the King may make Souldiers also as the Turk is used to do with such of our Children as he takes to bring up in his Turkish way of life Then would I have in each several Province of the New World an Austrian Seminary to be set up for the training up of Young Souldiers who should acknowledge no other Father save the King onely and another Seminary for Women of which we spake formerly and likewise another for Mariners of which I shall speak more hereafter And by this meanes it would so come to passe that within lesse then Thirty years the King would so abound with Faithful Domestick Servants of his own that He would have no further need to make use either of Auxiliaries or Mercenary Souldiers and He would hereby also winne the hearts of the Indians to him when they shall see their Children to be brought up in so Liberal and Ingenuous a way of Education and shall find them nothing so Rude and Ill-behaved as they were before and so they will the more readily yield to serve the Spaniard Lastly seing that That part of the World is at so vast a distance from this of ours it is necessary that these Parts should be united and joyned together as much as possibly can be for as much as there is no Empire but is Lame and Imperfect without this Union The first sort of Union is True Religion and therefore there ought to be strong Castles and Block-houses erected upon all Havens and Mouths of Rivers least the English breaking into these Parts should bring in Heresy whereby the whole Design of the Spaniard would be utterly frustrated and come to nothing And besides there should be nothing had in greater Reverence where any of these People are in Presence then the very name of the Pope that so they may be kept the faster to our Religion And they should be brought also to sue to us and to desire us to prescribe them some Rule of Living here and also the Meanes of attaining to Eternal Life hereafter In the Second Place the King of Spain must make himself Absolute Lord of those Countries for if there should but any other Christian be chosen King in that Part of the World Our King were then quite lost Now there is none that He need to fear in that point unlesse it be some Principal Noble Man especially if it should chance to be such a one as is descended lineally from some of those Worthies that were the First Discoverers of this New World as namely if he should be descended from Columbus who first of all discovered these Parts or else from Cortesius So that it seemes to be necessary that such as have performed such gallant peices of Service should be rewarded indeed with very great Honours and Preferments but then it should not be in those Countries that they themselves had subdued For we know that Marquesse Vaglio who was Nephew to Columbus was once very near being chosen King And even the Vice-Roys themselves as they call them might easily make themselves Kings if they pleased And therefore none but some Principal Nobleman that hath great Revenues of his own either in Spain or Italy is to be placed as Ruler of the New World or at the least some Cardinal or Bishop that hath many kindred here with us The keeping of all strong Holds also and Castles is to be committed to some Garrison Captains who are to expect their reward from the King and the Vice-Roys are to live not in any of the strong Holds but in Cities and it must be so ordered that those that are the Commanders of the strong Holds and Castles and the Vice-Roys may be as much at variance and discord as possibly may be Over such Countries as have been conquered by Portugals there should be placed Spanish Governours and so on the
Seminaries And if they chance to take any whole large Country they may have whole Baronies bestowed upon them for their Reward And by this means both the King wil be enriched and the Genois will become the Instrumentts both of confirming and enlarging the Kings Empire who yet are themselves so rich as that they are able either of them to set forth whole Fleets of Ships against the Great Turk and to take in very many Countries for themselves if they pleased and therefore the Kings Navies ought alwayes to be so much the greater and the better provided Fourthly the Hollanders also Dantzickers and the Gutlanders are in a friendly manner to be dealt withal and perswaded to do the same as is said before only upon this condition that they shall deliver in their Sons as Pledges that what places soever they shall take in they shall not reckon upon them as gotten to themselves nor shall introduce Heresie into the same And by this means they would be the easier brought in subjection to the King even without making War upon them in like manner as the Gennescs are and thus by degrees would the whole World be brought over to comply with the Spaniards Customes and Manners Fifthly every seventh year such persons as are condemned to death are to be called forth and under the shew of a gentler punishment are to be sent away into the West Indies and so likewise the Children of Hereticks and of such others as shall be conquered by Him either in the Low-Countries or Africk should be sent into the Seminaries that afterwards they may be serviceable to the King both at home and abroad both in Nautical Affairs and in the Tilling of the Ground And I would have the King to be well assured that He hath not more need of any thing then of Men and especially of some most Experienced and Able Person for the managing of His Affairs such as were Lycurgus and Solon of which sort of Men there are many more to be found now adaies then there were then only by reason that they are Obnoxious to other mens envy they are not so much taken notice of as they ought to be There should also be Mathematicians sent out of the Low-Countries and out of Germany into all parts of the World for the observing of the Motions of the Stars and what New Constellations there are as also to observe the Situations of Countries the depths of the Seas what Motion they have from the East toward the West together with their Ebbings and Flowings and which of them increase when the Moon is twenty five daies old and again decrease when she is twenty six and which are fitter for the Summer Voyages and which for Winter and under what Star raigning so likewise in what parts their waters are thick and heavy and in which they are thin light and again which of them are wont to be frozen and which not together with all their Rocks Islands and Shelves for the knowlege of these things will tend to the advancement of the Spanish Monarchy more then any thing else whatsoever For God himself desires that these works of His should be known and He also reveales them to all such as desire earnestly after the knowledge of the same There ought also diligent notice to be taken of all Habitable Places and Temperate Climes and in what parts of the World there are Pygmies found and where Gyants where the Inhabitants are Black and where Red where White and where Green passing along thus in order from one Climate to another For the perfect knowledge of the World is as good as the Gaining of That half of It. And God himself hath given the World into the Possession of the Spaniards because that They above all others have the most earnestly thirsted after the knowledge of the same and because they also graced Columbus with Honours and dignities for that he desired to inform himself in the knowledge of World as being the Handiwork of God himself Besides this course would be also of every good use for the bringing under through their Admiration of the Spaniards and also the weakning of the Northern People Now that there may be continually safe Passage for the Kings Navies to and fro He ought to set up two Orders of Maritime Knights after the example of those of Malta the Masters of which Orders should have their Residence in Spain and they should be divided into Two Colledges one of which should be called The Eastern and the other The Western in which these Knights should be brought up from their Youth in the study of Nautical Affaires and the Exercise of what ever concerns Navigation where also they should take an Oath that they will imploy themselves continually in the scouring of the Seas and use their utmost endeavours both for the Protecting and also the Enlarging of the Spanish Monarchy for which purpose also the Younger Sons of the Barons should be made use of especially and be imployed in these Sea-Services some as Commanders and some as common Souldiers only And if the King would but once resolve to put all these things into practise He would quickly render Himself Formidable to the whole World much more therefore to England which yet He now stands in fear of and besides all hopes of being able to put forth any Fleets to Sea would be quite cut off both from the Turks Persians and all others whatsoever and withall those Salaries which are now swallowed up by Idle uselesse Persons would be more profitably bestowed upon such Worthy Heroick spirits as we here speak of There should also be proposed for the greater Encouragement of all such stout propagators of their Country as Cortesius was some Proportionable Rewards not so much of Mony or Possessions of Lands for these savour too much of Covetousnesse and may possibly by corruption be purchased for mony but rather of Honours namely that they should be allowed to have their Triumphs after the example of the Ancient Romans and should enter into Spain under their Triumphal Arches wherein should be described such Places as they had taken together with the manner how those Places were taken by them They should also have their Statues Erected for their greater Honour and underneath the same there should be such New Stars as are found to appear in the New World set up wrought in Mettal Neither can it be imagined how much good this course would do for the preservation of Military Discipline and also for the exciting and stirring up of all Mens minds towards the attempting of noble and high things It would also make very much to the businesse in hand in case that the King would but command that all the famous Acts of what persons soever whether Commanders or Common Souldiers should be Publickly recorded with the Names of the Authors of the same set down to them for this would serve as a Spur to stirre up others to the like Attempts For