PARADOXES, PROBLEMES, ESSAYES, CHARACTERS, Written By D
r
DONNE Dean of
PAULS: To which is added a Book of EPIGRAMS: Written in Latin by the same Author; translated into English by
I: MAINE,
D. D.
As also
Ignatius his Conclave,
A SATYR, Translated out of the Original Copy written in Latin by the same
Author;
found lately amongst his own Papers.
De Iesuitorum dissidiis.
Quos pugnare, Scholis, clamāt, hi, (discite Regna)
Non sunt Unanimes, convenient{que} nimis.
London,
Printed by
T: N:
for
Humphrey Moseley
at the
Prince's Arms
in St
Paul's
Churchyard, 1652.
The Table.
-
PARADOXES.
-
I. A
Defense of Womens Inconstancy. 1
-
II.
That Women ought to paint 7
-
III.
That by Discord Things increase. 10
-
IV.
That Good is more common then Evil 13
-
V.
That all things kill themselves 16
-
VI.
That it is possible to find some virtue in some Women. 18
-
VII.
That Old men are more fantasticke then Young. 20
-
VIII.
That Nature is our worst Guide. 23
-
IX.
That only Cowards dare lie, 26
-
X.
That a Wise Man is known by much laughing. 29
-
XI.
That the Gifts of the Body are better then those of the Mind. 33
-
XII.
That Virginity is a Virtue. 81
-
PROBLEMS.
-
I.
WHy have Bastards the best Fortune. 38
-
II.
Why Puritans make long Sermons. 41
-
III.
Why did the Devil reserve Jesuits till these latter days. 42
-
IV.
Why is there more variety of Green then of other colors. 43
-
V.
Why do young Lay-men so much study Divinity. 44
-
VI.
Why hath the common Opinion afforded Women souls. 45
-
VII.
Why are the Fairest falsest. 47
-
VIII.
Why Venus-Star only doth cast a shadow? 49
-
IX.
Why is Venus-star multinominous, called both
Hesperus
&
Vesper?
52
-
X.
Why are New Officers least oppressing? 54
-
XI.
Why doth the Pox so much affect to undermine the Nose? 66
-
XII.
Why die none for Love now? 58
-
XIII.
Why do women delight much in Feathers? 59
-
XIV.
Why doth not Gold soil the Fingers?
ib.
-
XV.
Why do Great men of all dependants, choose to preserve their little Pimps? 60
-
XVI.
Why are Courtiers sooner Atheists,
then men of other conditions? 61
-
XVII.
Why are Statesmen most incredulous? 62
-
CHARACTERS.
-
THe Character of a Scot at the first sight. 65
-
The true Character of a Dunce. 67
-
AN Essay of Valour, 72
-
A
Sheaf of Miscellany Epigrams, 88
-
IGnatius
nis Conclave, 107
Ben. Johnson
to the Author.
WHo can doubt,
Donne,
where I a
Poet
be?
When I dare send my Epigrams to thee
That so alone canst judge, so alone dost make:
And in thy censures, evenly, dost take
As free simplicity, to disavow,
As thou hast best authority t' allow:
Read all I send: and, if I find but one
Mark'd by thy hand, and with the better stone
My title's sealed. Those that for claps do write,
Let punies, porters, players praise delight,
And till they burst, their backs, like asses load:
A man should seek great glory, and not broad.
PARADOXES.
I.
A Defense of Womens Inconstancy.
T
Hat Women are
Inconstant,
I with any man confess, but that
Inconstancy
is a bad quality, I against any man will maintain: For everything as it is one better than another, so is it fuller of
change;
The
Heavens
themselves continually turn, the
Stars
move, the
Moon
changeth;
Fire
whirleth,
Air
flieth,
Water
ebbs and flows, the face of the
Earth
altereth her looks,
time
stays not; the Colour that is most light,
will take most dies: so in Men, they that have the most reason are the most inalterable in their designs, and the darkest or most ignorant, do seldomest change; therefore Women changing more than Men, have also more
Reason.
They cannot be immutable like stocks, like stones, like the Earths dull Center; Gold that lieth still, rusteth; Water, corrupteth; Air that moveth not, poisoneth; then why should that which is the perfection of other things, be imputed to Women as greatest imperfection? Because thereby they deceive Men. Are not your wits pleased with those jests, which cozen your expectation? You can cal it pleasure to be beguile'd in troubles, and in the most excellent toy in the world, you call it Treachery: I would you had your
Mistresses
so constant, that they would never change, no not so much as their
smocks,
then should you see what sluttish virtue,
Constancy
were.
Inconstancy
is a most commendable
and cleanly quality, and Women in this quality are far more absolute than the Heavens, than the Stars, Moon, or anything beneath it; for long observation hath picked certainty out of their mutability. The Learned are so well acquainted with the Stars, Signs and Planets, that they make them but Characters, to read the meaning of the Heaven in his own forehead. Every simple fellow can bespeak the change of the
Moon
a great while beforehand: but I would fain have the learnedst man so skillful, as to tell when the simplest Woman meaneth to vary. Learning affords no rules to know, much less knowledge to rule the mind of a Woman. For as
Philosophy
teacheth us, that
Light things do always tend upwards,
and
heavy things decline downward;
Experience teacheth us otherwise, that the disposition of a
Light
Woman, is to fall down, the nature of women being contrary to all Art and Nature. Women
are like
Flies,
which feed among us at our Table, or
Fleas
sucking our very blood, who leave not our most retired places free from their familiarity, yet for all their fellowship will they never be tamed nor commanded by us. Women are like the
Sun,
which is violently carried one way, yet hath a proper course contrary: so though they, by the mastery of some over-ruling churlish husbands, are forced to his Byas, yet have they a motion of their own, which their husbands never know of: It is the nature of nice and fastidious minds to know things only to be wary of them: Women by their sly
changeableness,
and pleasing doubleness, prevent even the mislike of those, for they can never be so well known, but that there is still more unknown. Every woman is a
Science;
for he that plods upon a woman all his life long, shall at length find himself short of the knowledge of her: they are born to take down the pride
of wit, and ambition of wisdom, making
fools
wise in the adventuring to win them,
wisemen
fools in conceit of losing their labors; witty men stark mad, being confounded with their uncertainties.
Philosophers
write against them for spite, not desert, that having attained to some knowledge in all other things, in them only they know nothing, but are merely ignorant:
Active
and
Experienced
men rail against them, because they love in their lifeless and decrepit age, when all goodness leaves them. These envious
Libellers
ballad against them, because having nothing in themselves able to deserve their love, they maliciously discommend all they cannot obtain, thinking to make men believe they know much, because they are able to dispraise much, and rage against
Inconstancy,
when they were never admitted into so much favor as to be forsaken. In mine opinion such men are happy that women are
Inconstant,
for so may they chance
to be beloved of some excellent woman when it comes to their turn out of their
Inconstancy
and mutability, though not out of their own desert. And what reason is there to clog any woman with one man, be he never so singular? Women had rather, and it is far better and more Judicial to enjoy all the virtues in several men, than but some of them in one, for otherwise they lose their taste, like divers sorts of meat minced together in one dish: and to have all excellencies in one man (if it were possible) is
Confusion
and
Diversity.
Now who can deny, but such as are obstinately bent to undervalue their worth, are those that have not soul enough to comprehend their excellency, women being the most excellent Creatures, in that man is able to subject all things else, and to grow wise in everything, but still persists a fool in woman? The greatest
Scholar,
if he once take a wife, is found so unlearned, that he
must begin his
Horn-book,
and all is by
Inconstancy.
To conclude therefore; this name of
Inconstancy,
which hath so much been poisoned with slanders, ought to be changed into
variety,
for the which the world is so delightful,
and a woman for that the most delightful thing in this world.
II. That Women ought to Paint.
FOulness
is
Lothsome:
can that be so which helps it? who forbids his beloved to gird in her waste? to mend by shooing her uneven lameness? to burnish her teeth? or to perfume her breath? yet that the
Face
be more precisely regarded, it concerns more: For as open confessing sinners are always punished, but the wary and concealing offenders without witness, do it also without punishment; so the secret parts
needs the less respect; but of the
Face,
discovered to all Examinations and surveys, there is not too nice a Jealousy. Nor doth it only draw the busy Eyes, but it is subject to the divinest touch of all, to
kissing,
the strange and mystical union of souls. If she should prostitute herself to a more unworthy man than thyself, how earnestly and justly wouldst thou exclaim? that for want of this easier and ready way of repairing, tobetray her body to ruin and deformity (the tyrannous
Ravishers,
and sudden
Deflourers
of all women) what a heinous adultery is it? What thou lovest in her
face
is
color,
and
painting
gives that, but thou hatest it, not because it is, but because thou knowest it. Fool, whom ignorance makes happy, the Stars, the Sun, the Skye whom thou admirest, alas, have no
color,
but are fair, because they seem to be coloured: If this seeming will not satisfy thee in her, thou hast good assurance of
her
color,
when thou seest her lay it on. If her
face
be
painted
on a Board or Wall, thou wilt love it, and the Board, and the Wall: Canst thou loath it then when it speaks, smiles, and kisses, because it is
painted?
Are we not more delighted with seeing Birds, Fruits, and Beasts
painted
then we are with Naturals? And do we not with pleasure behold the
painted
shape of Monsters and Devils, whom true, we durst not regard? We repair the ruins of our houses, but first cold tempests warns us of it, and bites us through it; we mend the wrack and stains of our apparel, but first our eyes, and other bodies are offended; but by this providence of Women, this is prevented. If in
Kissing
or
breathing
upon her, the
painting
fall off, thou art angry, wilt thou be so, if it stick on? Thou didst love her, if thou beginnest to hate her, then 'tis because she is not
painted.
If thou wilt say now, thou didst hate her before, thou
didst hate her and love her together, be constant in something, and love her who shows her great
love
to thee, in taking this pains to seem
lovely
to thee.
III. That by Discord things increase.
Nullos esse Deos, inane Coelum Affirmat Coelius, probat{que} quod se Factum vidit, dum negat haec, beatum.
SO I assevere this the more boldly, because while I maintain it, and feel the
Contrary repugnancies
and
adverse fightings
of the
Elements
in my Body, my Body increaseth; and whilst I differ from common opinions by this
Discord,
the number of my
Paradoxes
increaseth. All the rich benefits we can frame to ourselves in
Concord,
is but an Even
conservation of things; in which
Evenness
we can expect no
change,
no
motion;
therefore no
increase
or
augmentation,
which is a
member
of
motion.
And if this
unity
and
peace
can give
increase
to things, how mightily is
discord
and
war
to that purpose, which are indeed the only ordinary
Parents
of
Peace. Discord
is never so barren that it affords no fruit; for the
fall
of one
estate
is at the worst the
increaser
of another, because it is as impossible to find a
discommodity
without
advantage,
as to find
Corruption
without
Generation:
But it is the
Nature
and
Office
of
Concord
to
preserve
only, which property when it leaves, it differs from itself, which is the greatest
discord
of all. All
Victories
and
Emperies
gained by
war,
and all
Judicial
decidings of doubts in
peace,
I do claim children of
Discord.
And who can deny but
Controversies
in
Religion
are grown greater by
Discord,
and not the
Controversy,
but
Religion
itself: For in a
troubled misery
men are always more
Religious
then in a
secure peace.
The number of
good
men, the only charitable nourishers of
Concord,
we see is thin, and daily melts and wains; but of
bad discording
it is infinite, and grows hourly. We are ascertained of all
Disputable
doubts, only by
arguing
and differing in
Opinion,
and if formal
disputation
(which is but a painted, counterfeit, and dissembled
discord)
can work us this benefit, what shall not a full and main
discord
accomplish? Truly me thinks I owe a
devotion,
yea a
sacrifice
to
discord,
for casting that
Ball
upon
Ida,
and for all that business of
Troy,
whom ruined I admire more then
Babylon, Rome,
or
Quinzay,
removed
Corners,
not only fulfilled with her
fame,
but with
Cities
and
Thrones
planted by her
Fugitives.
Lastly, between
Cowardice
and
despair, Valour
is gendred; and so the
Discord
of
Extreams
begets all virtues, but of
the
like things
there is no issue without a miracle:
Vxor pessima, pessimus maritus
Mirror tam male convenire.
He wonders that between two so
like,
there could be any
discord,
yet perchance for all this
discord
there was never the less
increase.
IV. That Good is more common then Evil.
I Have not been so pitifully tired with any
vanity,
as with silly
Old Men's
exclaiming against these times, and extolling their own: Alas! they betray themselves, for if the
times
be
changed,
their manners have changed them. But their senses are to
pleasures,
as
sick men's
tastes are to
Liquors;
for indeed no new thing is done in the world, all things are what, and as they were, and
Good
is as ever it was, more plenteous, and must of necessity
be
more common then Evil,
because it hath this for nature and perfection to be common. It makes
Love
to all
Natures,
all, all affect it. So that in the worlds early Infancy, there was a time when nothing was evil, but if this world shall suffer dotage in the extremist crookedness thereof, there shall be no time when nothing shall be good. It dares appear and spread, and glister in the world, but evil buries itself in night and darkness, and is chastised and suppressed when good is cherished and rewarded And as
Imbroderers, Lapidaries,
and other
Artisans,
can by all things adorn their works; for by adding better things, the better they show in Lush and in eminency; so good doth not only prostrate her amiableness to all, but refuses no end, no not of her utter contrary evil, that she may be the more common to us. For evil manners are parents of good Laws; and in every evil there is an excellency, which (in common
speech) we call good. For the fashions of habits, for our moving in gestures, for phrases in our speech, we say they were good as long as they were used, that is as long as they were common; and we eat, we walk, only when it is, or seems good to do so. All
fair,
all
profitable,
all
virtuous,
is,
good,
and these three things I think embrace all things, but their utter contraries; of which also
fair
may be
rich
and
virtuous; poor
may be
virtuous
and
fair; vicious
may be
fair
and
rich;
so that
good
hath this good means to be
common,
that some subjects she can possess entirely; and in subjects poisoned with evil, she can humbly stoop to accompany the evil. And of indifferent things many things are become perfectly good by being common, as
customs
by use are made binding Laws. But I remember nothing that is therefore ill, because it is common, but women, of whom also; They that are most common, are the best
of that Occupation they profess.
V. That all things kill themselves.
TO affect, yea to effect their own death all living things are importuned, not by Nature only which perfects them, but by Art and Education, which perfects her. Plants quickened and inhabited by the most unworthy soul, which therefore neither will nor work, affect an end, a perfection, a death; this they spend their spirits to attain, this attained, they languish and wither. And by how much more they are by man's Industry warmed, cherished and pampered; so much the more early they climb to this perfection, this death. And if amongst men not to defend be to kill, what a heinous
self, murder is it, not to defend itself. This defense because Beasts neglect, they kill themselves, because they exceed us in number, strength, and a lawless liberty: yea, of Horses and other beasts, they that inherit most courage by being bred of gallantest parents, and by Artificial nursing are bettered, will run to their own deaths, neither solicited by spurs which they need not, nor by honor which they apprehend not. If then the valiant kill himself, who can excuse the Coward? Or how shall man be free from this, since the first man taught us this, except we cannot kill ourselves, because he killed us all. Yet least something should repair this common ruin, we daily kill our bodies with surfeits, and our minds with anguishes. Of our powers, remembering kills our memory: Of affections, Lusting our lust; Of virtues, Giving kills liberality. And if these kill themselves, they do it in their best and supreme perfection: for after perfection
immediately follows excess, which changeth the natures and the names, and makes them not the same things. If then the best things kill themselves soonest, (for no affection endures, and all things labor to this perfection) all travel to their own death, yea the frame of the whole world, if it were possible for God to be idle, yet because it began, must die. Then in this idleness imagined in God, what could kill the world but itself, since out of it, nothing is?
VI.
That it is possible to find some virtue in some Women.
I Am not of that seard Impudence that I dare defend
Women,
or pronounce them good, yet we see Physicians allow some virtue in every poison. Alas! why should we except
Women?
since cerrtainly they are good for
Physic at least, so as some wine is good for a fever. And though they be the Occasioners of many sins, they are also the Punishers and Revengers of the same sins: For I have seldom seen one which consumes his substance and body upon them, escape diseases, or beggary; and this is their Justice. And if
suum cuique dare,
be the fulfilling of all
Civil Justice,
they are most just; for they deny that which is theirs to no man,
Tanquam non liceat nulla puella negat.
And who may doubt of great wisdom in them, that doth but observe with how much labor and cunning our
Iusticers
and other
dispensers
of the
Laws
study to embrace them: and how zealously our
Preachers
dehort men from them, only by urging their
subtleties
and
policies,
and
wisdom,
which are in them? Or who can deny them a good measure of
Fortitude,
if he consider how valiant men they have overthrown, and being themselves overthrown,
how much and how patiently they
bear?
And though they be most
intemperate,
I care not, for I undertook to furnish them with
some virtue,
not with
all. Necessity,
which makes even bad things good, prevails also for them, for we must say of them, as of some sharp pinching
Laws;
If men were free from
infirmities,
they were needless. These or none must serve for
reasons,
and it is my great happiness that
Examples
prove not
Rules,
for to confirm this
Opinion,
the World yields not
one Example.
VII.
That Old men are more Fantastick then Young.
WHo reads this
Paradox
but thinks me more
fantastic
now, than I was yesterday, when I did not think thus: And if one day make this sensible change in men, what will the burden of many years? To be
fantastic
in
young men
is
conceitfull distemperature,
and a
witty madness;
but in
old men,
whose senses are withered, it becomes
natural,
therefore more full and perfect. For as when we
sleep
our
fancy
is most strong; so it is in
age,
which is a
slumber
of the
deep sleep of death.
They tax us of
Inconstancy,
which in themselves
young
they allowed; so that reproving that which they did approve, their
Inconstancy
exceedeth ours, because they have changed
once more
then we. Yea, they are more idly busied in
conceited apparel
than we; for we, when we are
melancholy,
wear
black;
when
lusty, green;
when
forsaken, tawny;
pleasing our own
inward
affections, leaving them to others indifferent; but they prescribe
laws,
and constrain the
Noble,
the
Scholar,
the
Merchant,
and all
Estates
to a certain
habit.
The
old men
of our time have changed with patience their own
bodies,
much of their
laws,
much of their
languages;
yea their
Religion,
yet they accuse
us. To be
Amorous
is proper and
natural
in a
young man,
but in an
old man
most
fantastic.
And that
ridling humor
of
Jealousy,
which seeks and would not find, which requires and repents his knowledge, is in them most common, yet most
fantastike.
Yea, that which falls never in
young men,
is in them most
fantastike
and natural, that is, Covetousness; even at their journeys end to make great provision. Is any habit of young men so
fantastike,
as in the hottest seasons to be
double-gowned
or
hooded
like our
Elders?
Or seems it so ridiculous to wear long hair, as to wear none. Truly, as among the
Philosophers,
the
Skeptike,
which doubts all, was more contentious, then either the
Dogmatick
which
affirms,
or
Academike
which
denies all;
so are these uncertain
Elders,
which both calls them
fantastic
which follow others inventions, and them also which are led by their own humorous suggestion, more fantastic then other.
VIII.
That Nature is our Worst Guid.
SHall she be guide to all Creatures, which is herself one? Or if she also have a guide, shall any Creature have a better guide then we? The affections of lust and anger, yea even to err is natural, shall we follow these? Can she be a good guide to us, which hath corrupted not us only but herself? was not the first
Man,
by the desire of knowledge, corrupted even in the whitest integrity of
Nature?
And did not
Nature,
(if
Nature
did anything) infuse into him this desire of knowledge, and so this corruption in him, into us? If by
Nature
we shall understand our
essence,
our
definition
or
reason, nobleness,
then this being alike common to all (the
Idiot
and the
Wizard
being equally
reasonable)
why should not all men having equally all one
nature,
follow one course? Or if we shall understand our incli nations:
alas! how unable a guide is that which follows the temperature of our slimie bodies? for we cannot say that we derive our inclinations, our minds, or souls from our Parents by any way: to say that it is all from all, is error in reason, for then with the first nothing remains, or is a part from all, is error in experience, for then this part equally imparted to many children, would like Gavel-kind lands, in few generations become nothing: or to say it by communication, is error in
Divinity,
for to communicate the
ability
of communicating
whole essence
with any but God, is utter
blasphemy.
And if thou hit thy
Fathers nature
and
inclination,
he also had his
Fathers,
and so climbing up, all comes of one man, and have one
nature,
all shall embrace one course; but that cannot be, therefore our
complexions
and whole
bodies,
we inherit from
Parents;
our
inclinations
and minds follow that: For our mind is heavy in our
bodies
afflictions,
and rejoiceth in our
bodies pleasure:
how then shall this
nature
govern us that is governed by the worst part of us?
Nature though oft chased away, it will return;
'tis true, but those
good motions
and
inspirations
which be our guides must be
wooed, courted,
and
welcomed,
or else they abandon us. And that old
Axiom, nihil invita, &c.
must not be said thou
shalt,
but thou
wilt
do nothing against
Nature;
so
unwilling
he notes us to curb our
natural appetites.
We call our
bastards
always our
natural issue
and we define a
Fool
by nothing so ordinary, as by the name of
natural.
And that poor knowledge whereby we conceive what
rain
is, what
wind,
what
thunder,
we call
Metaphysicke, supernatural;
such
small
things, such
no
things do we allow to our pliant
Natures
apprehension. Lastly, by following her we lose the pleasant, and lawful commodities of this life, for we shall drink water and eat roots, and those not
sweet and delicate, as now by Mans
art
and
industry
they are made: we shall lose all the necessities of
societies, laws, arts,
and
sciences,
which are all the workmanship of
Man:
yea we shall lack the last
best refuge
of misery,
death,
because
no death is natural:
for if ye will not dare to call all
death violent
(though I see not why
sicknesses
be not
violences)
yet
causes
of all
deaths
proceed of the
defect
of that which
nature
made perfect, and would preserve; and therefore all against nature.
IX.
That only Cowards dare die.
EXtreames
are equally removed from the
mean;
so that headlong
desperateness
as much offends true
valor,
as backward
Cowardice:
of which sort I reckon justly all
un-enforced deaths.
When will your
valiant
man die of necessity? so
Cowards
suffer what cannot be avoided: and to
run into
death unimportun'd
is to run into the first condemned de sperateness. Will he die when he is
rich
and
happy?
then by living he may do more good: and in
afflictions
and
miseries, death
is the chosen refuge of
Cowards.
Fortiter ill facit qui miser esse potest.
But it is taught and practiced among our
Gallants,
that rather than our reputations suffer any
maim,
or we any
misery,
we shall offer our
breasts
to the
Cannons
mouth, yea to our
swords
points: And this seems a very
brave
and a very
climbing
(which is a
Cowardly,
earthly, and indeed a very
groveling) spirit.
why do they
chain
these slaves to the
Gallies,
but that they thrust their
deaths,
and would at every loose leap into the
Sea?
why do they take weapons from
condemned
men, but to bar them of that ease which
Cowards
affect,
a speedy death.
Truly this
life
is a
tempest,
and a
warfare,
and he which
dares die,
to escape the
anguish
of
it, seems to me, but so
valiant,
as he which dares
hang
himself, least he be
pressed
to the
wars.
I have seen one in that extremity of
Melancholy,
which was then become
madness,
to make his own
breath
an
Instrument
to stay his breath, and labor to choke himself; but alas! he was
mad.
And we knew another that languished under the
oppression
of a poor
disgrace,
so much, that he took more
pains
to
die,
then would have served to have nourished
life
and
spirit
enough to have out-lived his
disgrace.
what
Fool
will call this
Cowardlyness, Valour?
or this
Baseness, Humility?
And lastly, of these men which die the
Allegorical death
of entering into
Religion,
how few are found fit for any show of
valiancy?
but only a
soft
and
supple metal,
made only for
Cowardly
solitariness.
X.
That a Wise Man is known by much laughing.
RIdi, si sapis, ô puella ride;
If thou beest
wise, laugh:
for since the
powers
of
discourse, reason,
and
laughter,
be equally
proper
unto Man only, why shall not he be only most
wise,
which hath most use of
laughing,
as well as he which hath most of
reasoning
and
discoursing?
I always did, and shall understand that
Adage;
Per risum multum possis cognoscere stultum,
That by much
laughing
thou mayest know there is a
fool,
not, that the
laughers
are
fools,
but that among them there is some
fool,
at whom
wise men
laugh: which moved
Erasmus
to put this as his first
Argument
in the mouth of his
Folly,
that
she made Beholders laugh:
for
fools
are the most laughed at, and laugh the least themselves of any. And
Nature
saw this
faculty
to be so necessary in man, that she hath been content that by
more causes
we should be importuned to
laugh,
than to the
exercise
of any other
power;
for things in themselves utterly
contrary,
beget this effect; for we
laugh
both at
witty
and
absurd
things: At both which sorts I have seen men
laugh so long,
and
so earnestly,
that at last they have
wept
that they could laugh no more. And therefore the
Poet
having described the quietness of a
wise retired man,
saith in one, what we have said before in many lines;
Quid facit Canius tuus? ridet.
We have received that even the
extremity
of
laughing,
yea of
weeping
also, hath been accounted
wisdom:
and that
Democritus
and
Heraclitus,
the
lovers
of these
Extreams,
have been called
lovers of Wisdom.
Now among our
wise men
I doubt not but many would be found, who would laugh at
Heraclitus
weeping, none which weep at
Democritus
laughing.
At the hearing of
Comedies
or other witty reports, I have noted some, which not understanding
jests;
&c. have yet chosen this as the best means to seem
wise
and
understanding,
to
laugh
when their
Companions laugh;
and I have presumed them
ignorant,
whom I have seen
unmoved.
A
fool
if he come into a
Princes Court,
and see a
gay
man leaning at the wall, so
glistering,
and so
painted
in many
colors
that he is hardly discerned from one of the
Pictures
in the
Arras,
hanging his
body
like an
Iron-bound chest,
girt in and thick
rib'd
with
broad gold laces,
may (and commonly doth) envy him. But alas! shall a
wise man,
which may not only not
envy,
but not
pity
this
Monster,
do nothing? Yes, let him
laugh.
And if one of these
hot choleric firebrands,
which nourish themselves by
quarrelling,
and kindling others, spit upon a
fool
one
spark
of
disgrace,
he, like a
thatched house
quickly burning, may be
angry;
but the
wise man,
as
cold
as the
Salamander,
may not only not be
angry
with him, but not be
sorry
for him; therefore let him
laugh:
so he shall be known a Man, because he can
laugh,
a
wise Man
that he knows at what to laugh, and a
valiant Man
that he
dares
laugh: for he that
laughs
is justly reputed more
wise,
then at whom it is
laughed.
And hence I think proceeds that which in these later
formal
times I have much noted; that now when our
superstitious civility
of
manners
is become a mutual
tickling flattery
of one another, almost every man affecteth an
humor
of
jesting,
and is content to be
deject,
and to
deform
himself, yea become
fool
to no other
end
that I can spy, but to give his
wise Companion
occasion to
laugh;
and to show themselves in
promptness
of
laughing
is so great in
wise men,
that I think all
wise men,
if any
wise man
do read this
Paradox,
will
laugh
both at it and me.
XI. That the Gifts of the Body are better then those of the Mind.
I Say again, that the
body
makes the
mind,
not that it created it a
mind,
but
forms
it a
good
or a
bad mind;
and this
mind
may be confounded with
soul
without any violence or injustice to
Reason
or
Philosophy:
then the
soul
it seems is enabled by our
Body,
not this by it. My
Body
licenseth my
soul
to
see
the worlds
beauties
through mine
eyes:
to
hear
pleasant things through mine
ears;
and affords it apt
Organs
for the convenience of all perceivable
delight.
But alas! my
soul
cannot make any
part,
that is not of itself disposed to
see
or
hear,
though without doubt she be as able and as willing to see
behind as before.
Now if my
soul
would say, that
she enables any part to taste these pleasures, but is her self only delighted with those rich
sweetnesses
which her
inward eyes
and
senses
apprehend, she should dissemble; for I see her often solaced with
beauties,
which she sees through mine
eyes,
and with
music
which through mine
ears
she hears. This
perfection
then my
body
hath, that it can impart to my
mind
all his
pleasures;
and my
mind
hath still many, that she can neither teach my
indisposed
part her
faculties,
nor to the best
espoused
parts show it
beauty
of
Angels,
of
Music,
of
Spheres,
whereof she boasts the
contemplation.
Are
chastity, temperance,
and
fortitude
gifts of the
mind?
I appeal to
Physicians
whether the cause of these be not in the
body; health
is the gift of the
body,
and
patience
in sickness the gift of the
mind:
then who will say that
patience
is as good a happiness, as
health,
when we must be extremely
miserable
to purchase this
happiness.
And for nourishing of
civil societies
and
mutual love
amongst men, which is our
chief end
while we are men; I say, this
beauty, presence,
and
proportion
of the
body,
hath a more
masculine
force in begetting this
love,
then the
virtues
of the
mind:
for it strikes us suddenly, and possesseth us
immoderately;
when to know those
virtues
require some
Judgment
in him which shall discern, a
long time
and
conversation
between them. And even at last how much of our
faith
and
belief
shall we be driven to bestow, to assure ourselves that these
virtues
are not
counterfeited:
for it is the same to be, and
seem virtuous,
because that he that hath
no virtue
can
dissemble
none, but he which hath a
little,
may
gild
and
enamell,
yea and transform much
vice
into
virtue:
For allow a man to be
discreet
and
flexible
to
complaints,
which are great
virtuous
gifts of the
mind,
this
discretion
will be
to him the
soul
and
Elixir
of all
virtues,
so that touched with this even
pride
shall be made
humility;
and
Cowardice,
honorable and wise
valor.
But in things seen there is not this danger, for the
body
which thou lovest and esteemest
fair,
is
fair:
certainly if it be not
fair
in
perfection,
yet it is
fair
in the same
degree
that thy
Judgment
is good. And in a
fair body,
I do seldom suspect a
disproportioned mind,
and as seldom hope for a
good
in a
deformed.
When I see a
goodly house,
I assure myself of a
worthy possessor,
from a
ruinous weather-beaten building
I turn away, because it seems either stuffed with
varlots
as a
Prison,
or handled by an
unworthy
and
negligent tenant,
that so suffers the
wast
thereof. And truly the gifts of
Fortune,
which are
riches,
are only
handmaids,
yea
Pandars
of the
bodies pleasure;
with their service we nourish
health,
and preserve
dainty,
and we buy
delights
so that
virtue
which must be loved
for
it self,
and respects no further
end,
is indeed
nothing:
And
riches,
whose
end
is the
good
of the
body,
cannot be so
perfectly good,
as the
end
whereto it levels.
PROBLEMS.
I.
Why have Bastards best Fortune?
B
Ecause
Fortune
herself is a
Whore,
but such are not most indulgent to their
issue;
the old natural reason (but those meeting in
stolen love
are most
vehement,
and so contribute more
spirit
then the
easy
and
lawful)
might govern me, but that now I see
Mistresses
are become
domestic
and
in ordinary,
and they and wives
wait
but by
turns,
and
agree
as well as they had
lived
in the
Ark.
The old Moral reason (that
Bastards
inherit
wickedness
from their
Parents,
and so are in a better way to
preferment
by having a
stock
beforehand, then those that build all their
fortune
upon the
poor
and
weak
stock of
Original sin)
might prevail with me, but that since we are fallen into such times, as now the
World
might
spare
the
Devil,
because
she
could be bad enough without
him.
I see men
scorn
to be
wicked
by
example,
or to be
beholding
to others for their
damnation.
It seems reasonable, that since
Laws
rob them of
succession
in
civil benefits,
they should have something else
equivalent.
As
Nature
(which is
Laws pattern)
having denied Women
Constancy
to
one,
hath provided them with
cunning
to allure
many;
and so
Bastards de jure
should have better
wits
and
experience.
But besides that by
experience
we see many
fools
amongst them, we should take from them one of their chiefest helps to
preferment,
and we should deny them
to be
fools:
and (that which is only left) that
women
choose
worthier
men then their
husbands,
is false
de facto:
either then it must be that the
Church
having removed them from all place in the
public Service
of
God,
they have better means than others to be
wicked,
and so
fortunate:
Or else because the two
greatest powers
in this
world,
the
Devil
and
Princes
concur to their
greatness:
the one giving
bastardy,
the other
legitimation:
As
Nature
frames and conserves great
bodies
of
contraries.
Or the cause is, because they abound most at
Court,
which is the
forge
where
fortunes
are made, or at least the
shop
where they be
sold.
II.
Why Puritans make long Sermons
IT needs not for
perspicuousness,
for God knows they are plain enough: nor do all of them use
Sem-brief-Accents,
for some of them have
crotchets
enough. It may be they intend not to rise like
glorious Tapers
and
Torches,
but like
Thin-wretched-sick-watching-C
•…
s,
which
languish
and are in a Divine
Consumption
from the first minute, yea in their
snuff,
and
stink,
when others are in their more profitable
glory.
I have thought sometimes, that out of
conscience,
they allow
long measure
to
course ware.
And sometimes, that
usurping
in that
place
a
liberty
to
speak freely
of
Kings,
they would
reign
as long as they could. But now I think they do it out of a
zealous
imagination, that,
It is their duty to Preach on till their Auditory wake.
III.
Why did the Devil reserve Jesuits till these latter days.
DId he know that our
Age
would deny the
Devils possessing,
and therefore provided by these to
possess
men and kingdoms? Or to end the
disputation
of
Schoolmen,
why the
Devil
could not make
lice
in
Egypt;
and whether those things be
presented
there, might be
true;
hath he sent us a
true
and
real plague,
worse than those
ten?
Or in
o
•…
ntation
of the
greatness
of his
Kingdom,
which even
division
cannot
shake,
doth he send us these which
disagree
with all the rest? Or knowing that our
times
should discover the
Indies,
and abolish their
Idolatry,
doth he send these to give them
another
for it? Or peradventure they have been in the
Roman Church
these
thousand years,
though we have called them by
other names.
IV.
Why is there more Variety of Green then of other Colours?
IT is because it is the figure of
Youth
wherein
nature
would provide as many
green,
as
youth
hath
affections;
and so present a
Sea-green
for
profuse wasters
in
voyages;
a
Grass-green
for sudden
new men ennobled
from
Grasiers;
and a
Goose-green
for such
Politicians
as pretend to preserve the
Capitol.
Or else
Prophetically
foreseeing an
age,
wherein they shall all
hunt.
And for such as
misdemeane
themselves a
Willo-green;
For
Magistrates
must as well have
Fasces
born before them to
chastise
the
small
offenses, as
Secures
to
cut off
the
great.
V.
Why do young Lay-men so much study Divinity.
IS it because others tending busily
Churches preferment,
neglect
study?
Or had the
Church
of
Rome
shut up all our ways, till the
Lutherans
broke down their
uttermost stubborn doors,
and the
Calvinists
picked their
inwardest
and
subtlest locks?
Surely the
Devil
cannot be such a
Fool
to hope that he shall make this study
contemptible,
by making it
common.
Nor that as the
Dwellers
by the River
Origus
are said (by drawing infinite
ditches
to sprinkle their
barren Country)
to have exhausted and intercepted their
main channel,
and so lost their more profitable course to the
sea;
so we, by providing every
ones self, divinity
enough for his
own use,
should neglect our
Teachers
and
Fathers.
He cannot hope for better
heresies
then he hath had, nor was his
Kingdom
ever so much advanced by
debating Religion
(though with some
aspersions
of
Error)
as by a
dull
and
stupid security,
in which many
gross things
are swallowed. Possible out of such an
ambition
as we have now, to speak
plainly
and
fellow-like
with
Lord's
and
Kings,
we think also to acquaint ourselves with
God's secrets:
or perchance when we study it by
mingling human
respects,
It is not Divinity.
VI.
Why hath the common Opinion afforded Women Souls?
IT is agreed that we have not so much from them as any
part
of either our
mortal souls
of
sense
or
growth;
and we deny
souls
to others equal to them in all but in
speech
for which they are beholding to their
bodily instruments
For perchance an
Oxes
heart, or a
Goats,
or a
Foxes,
or a
Serpents
would speak just so, if it were in
the
breast,
and could move that
tongue
and
jaws.
Have they so many
advantages
and
means
to hurt us (for, ever their
loving
destroyed us) that we dare not
displease
them, but give them what they will? And so when some call them
Angels,
some
Goddesses,
and the
Palpulian Heretics
made them
Bishops,
we descend so much with the stream, to allow them
Souls?
Or do we somewhat (in this dignifying of them) flatter
Princes
and
great Personages
that are so much governed by them? Or do we in that
easiness
and
prodigality,
wherein we daily lose our own
souls
to we care not whom, so labor to persuade ourselves, that since a
woman
hath a
soul,
a
soul
is no great matter? Or do we lend them
souls
but for use, since they for our sakes, give their
souls
again, and their
bodies
to boot? Or perchance because the
Devil
(who is all
soul)
doth most
mischief,
and for convenience and proportion, because they
would come nearer him, we allow them some souls; and so as the
Romans
naturalized some Provinces in revenge, and made them
Romans,
only for the burden of the Common-wealth; so we have given
women
souls only to make them capable of
damnation?
VII.
Why are the fairest falsest.
I Mean not of falls
Alchimy beauty,
for then the
question
should be inverted,
Why are the falsest fairest?
It is not only because they are much
solicited
and
sought
for, so is
gold,
yet it is not so common; and this
suit
to them, should teach them their
value,
and make them more
reserved.
Nor is it because the
delicatest blood
hath the
best spirits,
for what is that to the flesh? perchance such
constitutions
have the best
wits,
and there is
no
proportionable subject,
for
women's wit,
but deceit? doth the
mind
so follow the
temperature
of the
body,
that because those
complexions
are aptest to change, the
mind
is therefore so? Or as
Bels
of the
purest metal
retain their
tinkling
and
sound
largest; so the
memory
of the last
pleasure
lasts longer in these, and disposeth them to the next: But sure it is not in the
complexion,
for those that do but think themselves
fair,
are presently inclined to this
multiplicity
of
loves,
which being but
fair in conceit
are
false in deed:
and so perchance when they are born to this
beauty,
or have
made
it, or have
dreamed
it, they easily believe all
addresses
and
applications
of every
man,
out of a
sense
of their own
worthiness
to be directed to them, which others
less worthy
in their own thoughts apprehend not, or discredit. But I think the
true reason
is, that being like
gold
in many properties (as that
all snatch
at them, but the
worst possess
them,
that they care not how deep we dig for them, and that by the Law of nature,
Occupandi conceditur)
they would be like also in this, that as Gold to make itself of use admits allay, so they, that they may be tractable, mutable, and currant, have to their allay
Falsehood.
VIII.
Why Venus-star only doth cast a shadow?
IS it because it is nearer the earth? But they whose profession it is to see that nothing be done in heaven without their consent (as
Re
—says in himself of
Astrologers)
have bid
Mercury
to be nearer. Is it because the works of
Venus
want shadowing, covering, and disguising? But those of
Mercury
need it more; for Eloquence, his occupation, is all shadow and colors; let our life be a sea, and then our reason and even
ons
are wind enough to carry us whether we should go, but Eloquence is a storm and tempest that miscarries: and who doubts that Eloquence which must persuade people to take a yoke of sovereignty (and then beg and make Laws to tie them faster, and then give money to the invention, repair and strengthen it) needs more shadows and colouring, then to persuade any man or woman to that which is natural. And
Venus
markets are so natural, that when we solicit the best way (which is by
marriage)
our persuasions work not so much to draw a woman to us, as against her nature to draw her from all other besides. And so when we go against nature, and from
Venuswork
(for marriage is chastity) we need shadows and colors, but not else. In
Seneca
's time it was a course, an un-
Roman
and a contemptible thing even in a
Matron,
not to have had a
Love
beside her husband, which though the Law required not at their hands, yet they did it
zealously
out of the Council of Custom and fashion, which was
venery
of
supererogation:
Et te spectator plusquam delectat Adulter,
saith
Martial:
And
Horace,
because many lights would not show him enough, created many
Images
of the same Object by wainscoting his chamber with lookingglasses: so that
Venus
flies not light, so much as
Mercury,
who creeping into our understanding, our darkness would be defeated, if he were perceived. Then either this
shadow
confesseth that same dark Melancholy Repentance which accompanies; or that so violent fires, needs some shadowy refreshing and intermission: Or else light signifying both day and youth, and shadow both night and age, she pronounceth by this that she professeth both all persons and times.
IX.
Why is Venus-star multinominous, called both
Hesperus
and
Vesper.
THe Moon hath as many names, but not as she is a star, but as she hath divers governments; but
Venus
is
multinominous
to give example to her
prostitute disciples,
who so often, either to renew or refresh themselves towards lovers, or to disguise themselves from
Magistrates,
are to take new names. It may be she takes new names after her many functions, for as she is supreme Monarch of all Suns at large (which is
lust)
so is she joined in Commission with all
Mythologicks,
with
Juno, Diana,
and all others for marriage. It may be because of the divers names to herself, for her affections have more names than any vice:
scilicet, Pollution, Fornication, Adultery, Lay. Incest, Church-Incest, Rape, Sodomy, Mastupration,
Masturbation,
and a thousand others. Perchance her divers names shown her appliableness to divers men, for
Neptune
distilled and wet her in love, the Sun warms and melts her,
Mercury
persuaded and swore her,
Jupiter's
authority secured, and
Vulcan
hammer'd her. As
Hesperus
she presents you with her
bonum utile,
because it is wholesomest in the morning: As
Vesper
with her
bonum delectabile,
because it is pleasantest in the evening. And because industrious men rise and endure with the Sun in their civil businesses, this Star calls them up a little before, and remembers them again a little after for her business; for certainly,
Venit Hesperus, ite capell
•…
e:
was spoken to Lovers in the persons of
Goats.
X.
Why are new Officers least oppressing?
Must the old Proverb, that
Old dogs bite sorest,
be true in all kind of
dogs?
Me thinks the fresh memory they have of the money they parted with for the place, should hasten them for the re-imbursing: And perchance they do but seem easier to their suitors; who (as all other Patients) do account all change of pain, easy. But if it be so, it is either because the sudden sense and contentment of the honor of the place, retards and remits the rage of their profits, and so having stayed their stomachs, they can forbear the second course a while: Or having overcome the steepest part of the hill, and clambered above Competitions and Oppositions they dare loiter, and take breath: Perchance being come from places,
where they tasted no gain, a little seems much to them at first, for it is
long before a Christian conscience overtakes, or straies into an Officers heart.
It may be that out of the general disease of all men not to love the memory of a predecessor, they seek to disgrace them by such easiness, and make good first impressions, that so having drawn much water to their Mill, they may afterwards grind at ease: For if from the rules of good horfemanship, they thought it wholesome to jet out in a moderate pace, they should also take up towards their journeys end, not mend their pace continually, and gallop to their Inns-door, the
grave;
except perchance their conscience at that time so touch them that they think it an injury & damage both to him that must sell, and to him that must buy the Office after their death, and a kind of
dilapidation
if they by continuing honest should discredit the place, and bring it to a lower rent, or under-value.
XI.
Why doth the Poxe soe much affect to undermine the Nose?
PAracelsus
perchance saith true, That every Disease hath his Exaltation in some part certain. But why this in the Nose? Is there so much mercy in this disease, that it provides that one should not smell his own stinck? Or hath it but the common fortune, that being begot and bred in obscurest and secretest places, because therefore his serpentine crawling and insinuation should not be suspected, nor seen, he comes soonest into great place, and is more able to destroy the worthiest member, then a Disease better born? Perchance as mice defeat Elephants by knawing their
Proboscis,
which is their Nose, this wretched Indian Vermin practiseth to do the same upon us. Or as the ancient furious Custom and Connivency of some Laws, that one might cut off their Nose whom he deprehended
in Adultery, was but a Tipe of this; And that now more charitable laws having taken away all Revenge from particular hands, this common Magistrate and Executioner is come to do the same Office invisibly? Or by withdrawing this conspicuous part, the Nose, it warns us from all adventuring upon that Coast; for it is as good a mark to take in a flag as to hang one out. Possibly heat, which is more potent and active then cold, thought her self injured, and the Harmony of the world out of tune, when cold was able to show the high-way to Noses in
Muscovia,
except she found the means to do the same in other Countries. Or because by the consent of all, there is an Analogy, Proportion and affection between the Nose and that part where this disease is first contracted, and therefore
Heliogabalus
chose not his Minions in the Bath but by the Nose; And
Albertus
had a knavish meaning when he preferred great Noses;
And the licentious Poet was
Naso Poeta.
I think this reason is nearest truth, That the Nose is most compassionate with this part: Except this be nearer, that it is reasonable that this Disease in particular should affect the most eminent and perspicuous part, which in general doth affect to take hold of the most eminent and conspicuous men.
XII.
Why die none for Love now?
BEcause women are become easier. Or because these later times have provided mankind of more new means for the destroying of themselves and one another,
Pox, Gunpowder, Young marriages,
and
Controversies
in
Religion.
Or is there in true History no Precedent or Example of it? Or perchance some die so, but are not therefore worthy the remembering or speaking of?
XIII.
Why do Women delight much in Feathers?
THey think that Feathers imitate wings, and so show their restlessness and instability. As they are in matter, so they would be in name, like
Embroiderers, Painters,
and such
Artificers
of curious
vanities,
which the vulgar call
Pluminaries.
Or else they have feathers upon the same reason, which moves them to love the unworthiest men, which is, that they may be thereby excusable in their inconstancy and often changing.
XIV.
Why doth not Gold soil the fingers?
DOth it direct all the venom to the heart? Or is it because bribing should not be discovered? Or because that should pay purely, for which pure things are given, as
Love, Honor, Justice
and Heaven? Or doth it seldom come into innocent hands, but into such as for former foulness you cannot discern this?
XV.
Why do great men of all dependants, choose to preserve their little Pimps?
IT is not hecause they are got nearest their secrets, for they whom they bring come nearer. Nor because commonly they and their bawds have lain in one belly, for then they should love their brothers as well. Nor because they are witnesses of their weakness, for they are weak ones. Either it is because they have a double hold and obligation upon their masters for providing them surgery and remedy after, as well as pleasure before, and bringing them always such stuff, as they shall always need their service? Or because they may be received and entertained everywhere, and Lord's fling off none but such as they
may destroy by it. Or perchance we deceive ourselves, and every Lord having many, and, of necessity, some rising, we mark only these.
XVI.
why are Courtiers sooner Atheists then men of other conditions?
IS it because as
Physicians
contemplating Nature, and finding many abstruse things subject to the search of Reason, thinks therefore that all is so; so they (seeing men's destinies, mad at Court, neck out and in joint there,
War, Peace, Life
and
Death
derived from thence) climb no higher? Or doth a familiarity with greatness, and daily conversation and acquaintance with it breed a contempt of all greatness? Or because that they see that opinion or need of one another, and fear makes the degrees of servants, Lord's and Kings, do they think that God likewise for such
Reason hath been man's Creator? Perchance it is because they see Vice prosper best there, and, burdened with sin, do they not, for their ease, endeavor to put off the fear and Knowledge of God, as facinorous men deny Magistracy? Or are the most Atheists in that place, because it is the fool that said in his heart, There is no God.
XVII.
Why are statesmen most incredulous?
ARe they all wise enough to follow their excellent Pattern
Tiberius,
who brought the senate to be diligent and industrions to believe him, were it never so opposite or diametricall, that it destroyed their very ends to be believed, as
Asinius Gallus
had almost deceived this man by believing him, and the Major and Aldermen of
London
in
Richard
the Third? Or are businesses (about
which these men are conversant) so conjectural, so subject to unsuspected interventions that they are therefore forced to speak oraculously, whisperingly, generally, and therefore escapingly, in the language of Almanac-makers for weather? Or are those (as they call them)
Arcana imperii,
as by whom the Prince provokes his lust, and by whom he vents it, of what Cloath his socks are, and such, so deep, and so irreveald, as any error in them is inexcusable? If these were the reasons, they would not only serve for state-business. But why will they not tell true, what a Clock it is, and what weather, but abstain from truth of it, if it conduce not to their ends, as Witches which will not name Jesus, though it be in a curse? eithere they know little out of their own Elements, or a Custom in one matter begetts an habit in all. Or the lower sort imitate Lord's, they their Princes, these their Prince. Or else they believe
one another, and so never hear truth. Or they abstain from the little Channel of truth, least, at last, they should
find the fountain itself, God.
The Character of a
Scot
at the first sight.
A
T his first appearing in the
Charterhouse,
an Olive coloured Velvet suit owned him, which since became mous-color, A pair of unskour'd stockingsgules, One indifferent shoe, his band of
Edinburgh,
and cuffs of
London,
both strangers to his shirt, a white feather in a hat that had been sod, one only cloak for the rain, which yet he made serve him for all weathers: A Barrenhalf-acre of Face, amidst whereof an eminent Nose advanced
himself, like the new Mount at
Wansted,
over-looking his Beard, and all the wild Country thereabouts; He was tended enough, but not well; for they were certain dumb creeping Followers, yet they made way for their Master, the Laird.—At the first presentment his Breeches were his Sumpter, and his Packets, Trunks, Cloak-bags, Portmanteau's and all; He then grew a Knightwright, and there is extant of his ware at
100l. 150l.
and
200l.
price. Immediately after this, he shifteth his suit, so did his Whore, and to a Bear-baiting they went, whither I followed them not, but
Tom. Thorney
did.
The True Character of a
Dunce.
H
E hath a Soul drownd in a lump of Flesh, or is a piece of Earth that
Prometheus
put not half his proportion of Fire into, a thing that hath neither edge of desire, nor feeling of affection in it, The most dangerous creature for confirming an
Atheist,
who would straight swear, his soul were nothing but the bare temperature of his body: He sleeps as he goes, and his thoughts seldom reach an inch further then his eyes; The most part of the faculties of his soul lie Fallow, or are like the restive Jades that no spur can drive forwards towards
the pursuit of any worthy design; one of the most unprofitable of all God's creatures, being as he is, a thing put clean besides his right use, made fit for the cart & the flail, and by mischance Entangled amongst books and papers, a man cannot tell possible what he is now good for, save to move up and down and fill room, or to serv as
Animatum Instrumentum
for others to work withal in base Employments, or to be a foil for better wits, or to serve (as They say monsters do) to set out the variety of nature, and Ornament of the Universe, He is mere nothing of himself, neither eats, nor drinks, nor goes, nor spits but by imitation, for all which, he hath set forms & fashions, which he never varies, but sticks to, with the like plodding constancy that a milhors follows his trace, both the muses and the graces are his hard Mistrisses, though he daily Invocate them, though he sacrifize
Hecatombs,
they still look a squint, you shall note him oft (besides his dull eye
and louting head, and a certain clammie benumbed pace) by a fair displai'd beard, a Nightcap and a gown, whose very wrincles proclaim him the true genius of formality, but of all others, his discourse and compositions best speak him, both of them are much of one stuf & fashion, he speaks just what his books or last company said unto him without varying one whit & very seldom understands himself, you may know by his discourse where he was last, for what he read or heard yesterday he now dischargeth his memory or notebook of, not his understanding, for it never came there; what he hath he flings abroad at all adventurs without accomodating it to time, place persons or occasions, he commonly loseth himself in his tale, and flutters up and down windles without recovery, and whatsoever next presents itself, his heavy conceit seizeth upon and goeth along with, however
Heterogeneal
to his matter in hand, his jests are either old flayed proverbs, or lean-starved-
Apophthegm's,
or poor verbal quips outworn by Servingmen, Tapsters and Milkmaids, even laid aside by Bassaders, He assents to all men that bring any shadow of reason, and you may make him when he speaks most Dogmatically, even with one breath, to aver pure contradictions, His Compositions differ only
terminorum positione
from Dreams, Nothing but rude heaps of Immaterial-inchoherent drossy-rubbish-stuff, promiscuously thrust up together, enough to Infuse dullness and Barrenness of Conceit into him that is so Prodigal of his ears as to give the hearing, enough to make a man's memory Ake with suffering such dirty stuff cast into it, as unwellcome to any true conceit, as Sluttish Morsells or Wallowish Potions to a Nice-Stomack which whiles he empties himself of, it sticks in his Teeth nor can he be Delivered without Sweate and Sighes, and Humms, and Coughs enough to shake his
Grandams teeth out of her head; Heel spitt, and scratch, and yawn, and stamp, and turn like sick men from one elbow to another, and Deserve as much pity during this torture as men in Fits of Tertian Feavors or self lashing Penitentiaries; in a word, Rip him quite asunder, and examine every shred of him, you shall find him to be just nothing, but the subject of Nothing, the object of contempt, yet such as he is you must take him, for there is no hope he should ever become better.
An Essay of
Valour.
I
Am of opinion that nothing is so potent either to procure or merit Love, as Valour, and I am glad I am so, for thereby I shall do myself much ease, because Valour never needs much wit to maintain it: To speak of it in itself, It is a quality which he that hath, shall have least need of, so the best League between Princes is a mutual fear of each other, it teacheth a man to value his reputation as his life, and chiefly to hold the Lye unsufferable, though being alone, he finds no hurt it doth him, It leaves itself to others censures, for he that brags of his own valor, dissuades others from believing
it, It feareth a word no more then an Ague, It always makes good the Owner, for though he be generally held a fool, he shall seldom hear so much by word of mouth, and that enlargeth him more than any spectacles, for it maketh a little fellow be called a tall man, it yields the wall to none but a woman, whose weakness is her prerogative, or a man seconded with a woman as an usher, which always goes before his betters, It makes a man become the witness of his own words, and stand to whatever he hath said, and thinketh it a reproach to commit his reviling unto the Law, it furnisheth youth with action, and age with discourse, and both by futures, for a man must ever boast himself in the present tense, and to come nearer home, nothing draws a woman like to it; for Valour towards men, is an Emblem of an ability towards women, a good quality signifies a better. Nothing is more behooffull
for that Sex; for from it they receive protection, and we free from the danger of it: Nothing makes a shorter cut for obtaining, for a man of Arms is always void of Ceremony, which is the wall that stands between
Pyramus
and
Thisbe,
that is,
Man
and
Woman,
for there is no pride in women but that which rebounds from our own baseness (as Cowards grow Valiant upon those that are more Cowards) so that only by our pale asking, we teach them to deny, and by our shamefac'dness, we put them in mind to be modest, whereas indeed it is cunning
Rhetoric
to persuade the hearers that they are that already which he would have them to be; This kind of bashfulness is far from men of Valour, and especially from soldiers, for such are ever men (without doubt) forward and confident, losing no time least they should lose opportunity, which is the best Factor for a Lover, and because they know women
are given to dissemble, they will never believe them when they deny,
Whilome
before this age of wit, and wearing black, were broke in upon us, there was no way known to win a Lady but by Tylting, Turnying, and riding through Forrests, in which time these slender striplings with little legs were held but of strength enough to marry their widows, and even in our days there can be given no reason of the Inundation of Servingmen upon their Mistresses, but (only) that usually they carry their Masters Weapons, and his Valour; To be accounted handsome, just, learned, or well favored, all this carries no danger with it, but it is to be admitted to the Title of Valiant Acts, at least the adventuring of his mortality, and all women take delight to hold him safe in their arms who hath 'scapt thither through many dangers: To speak at once, Man hath a privilege in Valour; In clothes and good faces we but imitate
women, and many of that Sex will not think much (as far as an answer goes) to dissemble wit too. So then these neat youths, these women in men's apparel are too near a woman to be beloved of her, They be both of a Trade, but be grim of aspect, and such a one a Glass dares take, and she will desire him for neatness and variety; A skar in a man's face is the same that a mole in a woman's; a Jewel set in white to make it seem more white, for a skar in a man is a mark of honor and no blemish, for 'tis a skar and a blemish too in a Soldier to be without one: Now as for all things else which are to procure Love, as a good face, wit, good clothes, or a good body, each of them I confess may work somewhat for want of a better, That is,
if Valour be not their Rivall;
A good face avails nothing if it be in a coward that is bashful, the utmost of it is to be kissed, which rather increaseth then quencheth appetite; He that sends her gifts sends her
world also, that he is a man of small gifts otherwise, for wooing by signs and tokens implies the Author dumb; and if
Ovid
who writ
the Law of Love,
were alive (as he is extant) would allow it as good a diversity, that gifts should be sent as gratuities, not as bribes; Wit getteth rather promise then Love, Wit is not to be seen, and no woman takes advice of any in her loving, but of her own eyes, and her waiting woman's; Nay which is worse, Wit is not to be felt, and so no good fellow; Wit applied to a woman makes her dissolve (or disclose) her simpering, and discover her teeth with laughter, and this is surely a purge for love; for the beginning of love is a kind of foolish melancholy, as for the man that makes his Taylor his Bawd, and hopes to inveigle his Love with such a coloured suit, surely the same deeply hazards the loss of her favor upon every change of his clothes; So likewise for the other, that Courts
her silently with a good body, let me certify him that his clothes depend upon the comelynesse of the body, and so both upon opinion; she that hath been seduced by Apparel, let me give her to wit,
that men always put off their clothes before they go to bed:
and let her that hath been enamored of her servants body, understand,
that if she saw him in a skin of cloth,
that is, in a suit made to the pattern of his body,
she would see slender cause to love him ever after;
there are no clothes sit so well in a woman's eye, as a suit of Steel, though not of the fashion, and no man so soon surpriseth a woman's affections, as he that is the subject of all whisperings, and hath always twenty stories of his own deeds depending upon him; Mistake me not, I understand not by valor one that never fights but when he is backed with drink or anger, or hiss'd on with beholders, nor one that is desperate, nor one that takes away a Servingmans weapons
when perchance it cost him his quarters wages, nor yet one that wears a privy Coat of defense and therein is confident, for then such as made Bucklers, would be accounted the
Catalines
of this Commonwealth—I intend one of an even Resolution grounded upon reason, which is always even, having his power restrained by the Law of not doing wrong. But now I remember I am for Valour and therefore I must be a man of few words.
PARADOX. XII.
That Virginity is a Virtue.
I Call not that
Virginity a virtue,
which resideth only in the
Bodies integrity;
much less if it be with a purpose of perpetual keeping it: for then it is a most inhumane vice—But I call that
Virginity a virtue
which is willing and desirous to yield it self upon honest and lawful terms, when just reason requireth; and until then, is kept with a modest chastity of Body and Mind. Some perchance will say that
Virginity
is in us by
Nature,
and therefore no
virtue.
True, as it is in us by
Nature,
it is neither a
Virtue
nor
Vice,
and is only in the body: (as in Infants, Children, and such as are incapable of parting from it) But that
Virginity
which is in Man or or Woman of perfect age, is not in them by
Nature: Nature
is the greatest enemy to it, and
with most subtle allurements seeks the over-throw of it, continually beating against it with her
Engines,
and giving such forcible assaults to it, that it is a strong and more then ordinary
virtue
to hold out till marriage.
Ethick
Philosophy saith,
That no Virtue is corrupted, or is taken away by that which is good:
Hereupon some may say, that
Virginity
is therefore no
virtue,
being taken away by marriage.
Virginity
is no otherwise taken away by marriage, then is the light of the stars by a greater light (the light of the Sun:) or as a less Title is taken away by a greater: (an Esquire by being created an Earl) yet
Virginity
is a
virtue,
and hath her Throne in the middle: The extremes are, in
Excess:
to violate it before marriage; in defect, not to marry. In ripe years as soon as reason persuades and opportunity admits, These extremes are equally removed from the mean: The excess-proceeds from
Lust,
the
defect from
Peevishnesse, Pride
and
Stupidity.
There is an old Proverb, That,
they that dy maids, must lead Apes in Hell.
An Ape is a ridiculous and an unprofitable Beast, whose flesh is not good for meat, nor its back for burden, nor is it commodious to keep an house: and perchance for the unprofitableness of this Beast did this proverb come up: For surely nothing is more unprofitable in the Commonwealth of
Nature,
then they that dy old maids, because they refuse to be used to that end for which they were only made. The Ape bringeth forth her young, for the most part by twins; that which she loves best, she killeth by pressing it too hard: so foolish maids soothing themselves with a false conceit of
virtue,
in fond obstinacy, live and die maids; and so not only kill in themselves the
virtue
of
Virginity,
and of a
Virtue
make it a
Vice,
but they also accuse their parents in condemning marriage. If this application
hold not touch, yet there may be an excellent one gathered from an Apes tender love to Conies in keeping them from the Weasel and Ferret. From this similitude of an Ape & an old Maid did the foresaid proverb first arise. But alas, there are some old Maids that are
Virgins
much against their wills, and fain would change their
Virgin-life
for a
Married:
such if they never have had any offer of fit Husbands, are in some sort excusable, and their willingness, their desire to marry, and their forbearance from all dishonest, and unlawful copulation, may be a kind of inclination to
virtue,
although not
Virtue
it self. This
Virtue
of
Virginity
(though it be small and fruitless) it is an extraordinary, and no common
Virtue.
All other
Virtues
lodge in the
Will
(it is the
Will
that makes them virtues.) But it is the unwillingness to keep it, the desire to forsake it, that makes this a
virtue.
As in the natural
generation and formation made of the seed in the womb of a woman, the body is jointed and organized about the 28 day, and so it begins to be no more an
Embrion,
but capable as a matter prepared to its form to receive the soul, which faileth not to insinuate and innest it self into the body about the fortieth day; about the third month it hath motion and sense: Even so
Virginity
is an
Embrion,
an unfashioned lump, till it attain to a certain time, which is about twelve years of age in women, fourteen in men, and then it beginneth to have the soul of
Love
infused into it, and to become a
virtue:
There is also a certain limited time when it ceaseth to be a
virtue,
which in men is about forty, in women about thirty years of age: yea, the loss of so much time makes their
Virginity
a
Vice,
were not their endeavor wholly bent, and their desires altogether fixed upon marriage: In Harvest time do we not account it a great
vice of sloth and negligence in a Husbandman, to overslip a week or ten days after his fruits are fully ripe; May we not much more account it a more heinous vice, for a
Virgin
to let her Fruit
(in potentia)
consume and rot to nothing, and to let the
virtue
of her
Virginity
degenerate into
Vice,
(for
Virginity
ever kept is ever lost.) Avarice is the greatest deadly sin next Pride: it takes more pleasure in hoarding Treasure then in making use of it, and will neither let the possessor nor others take benefit by it during the Misers life; yet it remains entire, and when the Miser dies most come to somebody.
Virginity
ever kept, is a vice far worse then Avarice, it will neither let the possessor nor others take benefit by it, nor can it be bequeathed to any: with long keeping it decays and withers, and becomes corrupt and nothing worth. Thus seeing that
Virginity
becomes a vice in defect, by exceeding a limited time; I counsel all female
Virgins
to make choice of some
Paracelsian
for their Physician, to prevent the death of that
Virtue:
The
Paracelsians
(curing like by like) say, That if the lives of living Creatures could be taken down, they would make us immortal. By this Rule, female
Virgins
by a discreet marriage should swallow down into their
Virginity
another
Virginity,
and devour such a life & spirit into their womb, that it might make them, as it were, immortal here on earth, besides their perfect immortality in heaven: And that
Virtue
which otherwise would putrefy and corrupt, shall then be complete; and shall be recorded in Heaven, and enrolled here on Earth; and the name of
Virgin
shall be exchanged for a far more honorable name,
A Wife.
A sheaf of Miscellany EPIGRAMS.
Written in
Latin
by
I. D. Translated by
J. Main
D. D.
1. Upon one who for his wives fault took it ill to be called Cuckold.
RUde scoffer! why dost cal me Cuckold? No
Loose fires of Love did in my bosom grow.
No wedlock knot by me unti'd hath been;
Nor am I guilty of another's sin.
Thy wife being not her own with thy limbs she,
Fool'd Cuckold, doth commit Adultery.
Being, then, one flesh, and thou her Head, tis fit
The Horus, in Justice, on thy Brow should fit.
2. Upon One
Roger
a Rich Niggard, familiarly unacquainted with the Author.
BOttomless pit of gold! slave to thy Chest!
Poor in the midst of Riches not possessed!
Self
Tantalus!
To thine own wealth a Thief!
Affording scarce thy half-starv
•…
d Womb relief.
Cheating thy limbs with cloths transparent worn;
Plague to thyself! To all men else a scorn!
Who madly dost men's silver shapes adore;
And thence getst Cheeks pale as the silver Ore.
Fear not I will beg; my mind's above thy pelf;
Good Thrifty
Hodge,
give something to thyself.
3. Upon a Whore barren and not barren.
THy oft repeated is no Childless sin;
When thou art lain with still thy purs lies in.
4. On the same.
Thy dowbak'd Lusts, and Tail which vainly wags,
Are recompenc'd by thy still teeming bags.
5. On an old Bawd.
Loe, I an old Whore have to young resigned;
Yet in my old flesh dwells a young whores mind.
6. On the same.
Though ramage grown, Th'art still for carting fit;
Thy will with others bodies doth commit.
7. On the same.
She, whose scarce yet quenched lust to freeze begins,
Liv'd by her own once, now by others sins.
8. On a Bawdy-house.
Here
Mal,
providing for Threescore,
Sets up the Trade she learned before,
With watchings many, sweatings more.
9. Upon an old rich scolding Woman who being married to a poor young man upbraided him daily with the smallness of his Fortune. The Husbands complaint.
What wife like mine hath any Husband known?
By day she is all
Noyse,
by night all
stone.
10. Another.
Shut thy purse-mouth, Old Trot, And let's appeal;
Who'd without sauce taste so deformed a Meal?
11. On her unpleasing Kisses.
They cannot be Kisses called but toothless Nips,
Which,
Beldam,
come from thy faint trembling lips.
12. Another.
When thy dry grissels with my soft lips close,
I give thee kisses, thou return'st me blows.
13. Another.
Thy senses fail thee, And pray God they may,
To me thy Cofers will their loss defray.
14. On the same old Wife.
Thou art no Woman, nor no woman's part,
Infant, or Girl; say, who the Devil art.
15. To the same.
Be not seen, Thou, whom I distracted love,
Least my prodigious dotage scandal prove.
For being a mere Image, 'twil be spread,
That I no wife did, but an Idol wed.
16. Upon one who saw the Picture of his scolding wife in a Painters shop.
Dialog.
Painter, whose face is that I see?
Thy wives. Alas! I fear tis she.
Just so her scolding eyes do burn;
And Brow doth into wrincles turn.
I tremble at her sharp nose; so
Her frighting chin doth pointed grow.
All parts are so drawn to the life,
Methinks the picture, like my wise,
Begins to brawl, and kindle strife.
17. Another.
Say Painter, who's this whom thy hand hath made,
Thy wife who dost inquire, at least her shade.
'It is so; yet Painter, I had cause to doubt,
Seeing her Tongue, her most known part left out.
18. Another.
Who's this, Painter? Thy wife, O
That she were in earnest so.
19. Another.
Venus,
when
Pygmalion
prayed,
Changed a Statue to a Maid;
Whose cold Marble drunk warm blood.
If at my request she would
My wife into Marble turn,
I would white
Doves
to her burn.
20. Upon a Pipe of Tobacco mis-taken by the Author for the Tooth-ach.
Outlandish Weed! whilst I thy virtues tell,
Assist me
Bedlam,
Muses come from Hell.
21. Another.
An Hearb thou art, but useless; for made fire,
From hot mouths puffed, thou dost in fumes expire.
22. Another.
A cloud
Ixion
for a Goddess kist;
So thou thy Lovers cosen'st with a mist.
23. To the Tobacco-seller.
Merchant of Smoke, when next thou makest a feast
Invite some starved
Chamelion
to be guest.
24. Another.
Lothings, stincks, thirst, rhumes, aches, and catarrh,
Base weed, thy virtues, that's, thy poisons are.
25. Another.
I love thee not, nor thou me having tried
How thy scorched Takers are but Takers fry'd.
26. Another.
Niggards till dead are Niggards; so vile weed,
Thy bounty from thy ashes doth proceed.
27. Upon a Town built in the place where a wood grew; From whence 'tis called
Dukes-Wood,
or the
Burse
A Wood into fair buildings changed we see;
And th' Oke stands City where 'twas fell'd a tree.
28. Another.
Falne Okes the Axe doth into Timber hew;
And a Town stands where Trees demolisht grew.
29. Another.
From a Woods ruins did these Buildings rise,
And it stood Grove where now it Rafters lies.
30. Another.
This naked Beam which bears up Roofes from ground,
Was once with
branches
& fair
green top,
crowned.
31. Another.
Wood
yields to
stone,
boughs are made joyces here,
And where a
Cops
stood now fair streets appear.
32. Upon a navigable River cut through a Town built out of a Wood.
Horsmen turn sailers,
waves
roll where grew
woods
And against
Nature
Art make ways through
floods.
33. Another.
The drownd land here a Crystall garment wears,
And her own trees, made Barges, once more bears.
34. Another.
The tree her womb-bred on the back now floats
Of this over-flown field, now in wandering Boats.
35. Another.
The ground whose head was once enriched with Okes,
Her Temples now steeped in sea-water sokes.
36. Another.
The place where once grew Ash for warlike spears
The
Maze
makes
drunk
now with his brinish tears
37. Upon the Meadows over-flown there.
The
Meadows
which their perfumed
locks
did boast
Ore-flown with waters have their perfumes lost.
38. Another.
The hungry Cow here lately did mistake;
And seeking grass was cosen'd with a lake.
39. Another.
Here Fishes dwell, till now not used to fields;
And pasture ground here sportful
Gudgeons
yields.
40. Another.
Mere pleasant fields drownd by the wandering
Maze,
See scaly flocks swim where once sheep did graze.
41. Another.
Dukes-wood
where once thick bushes did appear,
Like a new Island now stands in a mere.
42. Upon a piece of ground ore-flown, where once a Leaguer quartered.
Here where Tents stood,
Mars
now to
Neptune
yields,
And
Sea-nymphs
tread moist dances ore the fields.
43. Another.
Fishes now quarter where pavilions stood;
And the smooth Tench dies the sharp hook with blood.
44. Another.
Finn'd Soldiers here in
Belgic
Quarters jar;
And the fierce Pike in troubled streams makes war.
45. Another.
Dutchman!
This Grove once hatched the Warlick Speer,
Which angry Perches on their backs now wear.
46. Another.
Gudgeons, where soldiers lay, lie trencht in Sand,
Fearing the bloody Colours of the Land.
47. A
Dutch
Captain of Foot, having with his Soldiers entered a Breach, and there a while fought valiantly with a Two-handed Sword; In the very point of Victory, being mortally wounded, spake thus:
I fighting die; How much more blest then they,
Whom a blind shot doth, standing idle, slay.
48. Another.
We've conquered Boys; My wounds I highly rate,
When with such Honor they requite my fate.
49. Another.
Thus conquering killed, my ashes triumphs gain,
And make me wish thus to be often slain.
50. Another.
I die well paid, whilst my expiring breath,
Smiles ore the Tombs of foes made kin by death.
51. Another.
Me the queld
Spaniard
to the next world sent
Not unreveng'd; his Troops before me went.
52. His Will.
Let Heaven my soul, the foe my life, the grave
My corps, my fame let my saved Country have.
53. To the Prince of
Aurange,
on his famous Victory over the
Spaniards
in
Dukes-Wood.
Now Golden Fruit, Prince, hang on
Dukes-wood
Boughes;
Since it with Laurel crowned thy conquering Brows.
54. Another.
Holland
and
Aurange
may their Conquest boast
Of the quelled
Spaniard,
but brave
Aurange
most.
55. Another.
Spaniard,
no more call
Golden Fleeces
thine,
Since the bright name of
Aurange
doth more shine.
56. A
Panegyric
on the
Hollanders
being Lord's of the Sea. Occasioned by the Authors being in their Army at
Dukes-wood.
Heathen!
No more thy
Neptune
boast; Here see
A
Neptune
more Lord of the sea then He;
Whom fruitful
Holland
feeds,
Holland
Sea-bred;
And neighbouring
Zealand
folds in watery bed.
Neptune
's a
Dutch
God; Here his wanderings stay;
And his calm'd ragings con
•…
ring chains obey.
His standing Flood here to the Bridle yields,
And his fierce Torrent plays through unknown
fields.
Here the swoln sea views the inferior ground,
And yet no green bush, even to wonder, drownd;
Whilst Billows, like huge mountains, do hang over
The pleasing Vales which creep along the shore.
Banks hold waves captive, and through sluices free,
And
Glebes
from watery prisons snatched we see.
Glebes,
which were long of sun, and sky bereaved,
Now the
Dutch Plowman
sees well cornd & sheav'd.
Curbing the Ocean with stout Mounds and Bars,
And with the salt God's of it waging Wars.
Making Art fetch from the deep's rav'nous womb
Pastures, lost towns, and houses; In which swomm
Shell'd Citizens,' mongst pillars drenched in brine.
Should
Achelous
here join strengths with thine,
And wrestle for the conquest,
Holland,
here
Each
Drayner
would a
Hercules
appear;
And cosening Art with Art, in these dry'd Plains,
Would bind the oft shape-changing God in chains.
The oft tamed
Maze
here the
Dutch
yoke endures,
And his feared Master to the Walls secures
Of the sam'd
Burse
now,
Dutchman,
fear no harms,
When against neighbouring Cities seas take arms.
The
Oceans
thine, with thee his waves have sworn
The
league
which
Philip
broke. By him th'art born
To the parched Indians, and those lands of gold
Which the proud Tyrant doth in bondage hold:
Whose wealth
transported from the plundered Mine
His Plate-Fleet calls his, But the Sea makes thine.
Each Duch-man is
Columbus;
Worlds unknown
To the discovering Spaniard, are his grown:
Nor can I here conceal, nor yet say well,
Where
Heynskirch
's praise, or
Oliver
's excel,
Or
Heyn
's more bold adventure; whose bright Ore
Prest the Sea's back with wealth snatch from the shore
For whilst I do Dutch voyages rehearse,
And sail with thy victorious Ships in verse,
I,
Holland
in thy swimming Camp am rolled
Into all Seas, and there both Poles behold.
The Africa sands to thee large tribute send,
And
Asia
glories to be stilled thy friend;
America
's rich Mines grow in thy lands,
And at thy conquests
Europe
wondering stands.
57. To Sleep, stealling upon him as he stood upon the Guard in the corner of a running Trench, at the siege of
Duke's-Wood.
WHy dost besiege mine eyes, untimely Sleep?
And over my limbs with thy dull setters creep?
Hence, hence, depart; To roofs well till'd repair;
To beds of down, and minds unvext with care.
Shut Virgins eyes, whilst Love tired with delay,
Unstrings his Bow, and lets his Arrows play.
Rock weary Ploughmen, and new strength beget
In those whose spirits were breathed forth in sweat;
To men oppressed with grief, who court thy charms.
And men unbusied lend thy Opium arms.
Be kind to Men in bedlam, close the eyes
Of him who in a raging fever lies.
But let me watch; not as a spy, to mark,
With whom my wench steals meetings in the dark.
Here guards are kept, & from yond watchful
towers,
The crafty Foe vies broken: sleeps with ours;
Seeking by sly plots, what pitched-fields deny;
Hence, hence, then
Morpheus,
from our quarters fly.
Our very standing still here business find;
Duty employs our bodies, cares our mind.
Duty which may the next hour double strike;
Whilst each man here stands grasping of a pike;
Waitings stolen onsets with our weary spears,
Examining even whispers with our ears.
Doubts of the coming Foe, with hopes are mixed,
And all eyes are one his approaches fi
•…
t.
All passengers we summon with our eyes,
Ask who they are, and question them or spies.
If well-known friends, they pass; if not, they stay
Till we their doubtful answers strictly weigh.
Will not this serve, Sleep? will not all this fright thee?
See, then, a night turned into day to light thee.
See a bright shine from coal black powder spring,
And light from darkness once more issuing.
See flames like those belcht forth from
Aetna
's Maw,
Such flames as no Fleece-stealing
Jason
saw.
Hecuba
's child of fire in dreams begot,
Was not like that from murdering Canons shot.
If yet thou wilt stay, hear thunders mixed with flame,
Such as near yet from
Cyclops
Anvil came.
Hark how the loud gun shakes the trembling sky,
whilst threatening Bals in showers of murder fly.
Sicilian
Bull did not so loudly roar;
Nor was the sword more dreadful which hung over
Damocles
neck from guilt roof. Then, away,
And to such dangers, Sleep, donit me betray.
58. To his Fellow Sentinels.
ANd you, Comrades, with me this night endure;
Let our cause make us bold, Courage secure.
Lets with stout minds our present dangers meet;
And let our stations from their toils grow sweet.
Stations where soldiers are made brothers. Night
•…
In wine, and Revels spent make winged flights;
A coy whore is with patience watched for, yet
No honor's gained; glory with dangers met
Here doth attend us; toils are paid with praise.
Let's weave us Crowns, then, of immortal
Bayes.
To Heaven our souls, to Earth let's flesh assign,
But in our minds let loyal honor shine.
59. In Comaedam celeberrimam
Cinthiam
dictam ad in stantiam alterius f
•…
cit.
SIc vaga formosas superabat
Cinthia
Nymphas
Ut tu nunc socias
Cinthia
dicta tuas.
Quae tibi Majestas vultus, que gratia frontis!
Spiritus ut major quam muliebris inest?
Tam been compositum suavis decet actio corpus
Ut posset credi singula membra loqui.
Cùm velis esse
Venus,
vel cùm velis esse
Diana
Tam sunilis non est ipsa vel ipsa sibi,
Si velis esse
Diana
hos ô non desere saltus,
Haec nemus haec fontem florida scena dabit.
O si te nudam semel hoc in fonte viderem
Cornua tunc essent paena{que} grata canes.
Si Luna esse velis fiat tibi sphaera theatrum,
Pascantur radiis Lumina nostra tuis.
Sed raro hinc abeas, & cùm discedere velles
O si te possent Lumina nostra sequi;
Aut tua cum desit foelix praesentia nobis
Impressis liceat viribus us{que} srui.
Idem
Anglice
versum.
AS wandering
Cinthia
all her Nymphs excels,
So dost thou all thy fellows; In thee dwells
Majesty mixed with loveliness, a spirit
That's more then womanish; thy graces merit,
And force a liking, as the lights above;
The Earths light vapors upwards force and move:
Thy action doth each passion so well fit,
As if each limb did help to utter it:
If thou wilt
Venus
or
Diana
be,
Neither will be so like herself as thee.
〈◊〉
thou be
Diana,
haunt these fields,
〈◊〉
both woods and fountains yields.
That I could see thee here but wash thy snow,
Acteon
's fate Ide joy to undergo.
Wilt thou be th' Moon, then make thy sphere this stage;
But it were pity thou shouldst change thy age;
And if from our
Horizon
thou shouldst go,
Still to view thee we'd change
Horizon
too;
But that we may when thou art gone from hence,
Still be made happy by thy influence.
On one particular passage of her action, when she was to be stripped of her clothes by
Fulvio,
but not without much resistance.
Videns excogitavit.
AS
Fulvio Cinthia
's glory would eclips,
And graced by her limbs, her robe off strips;
To see her how she strove, and prayed, and cried,
But for the plays sake none could have denied.
And as she strove with him, so modesty
Did strive with anger for the mastery.
How was she pale with anger, red with shame!
Her color changed, with choller went and came,
As when the winking moon strives with a cloud,
Whose glory darkness doth by fits enshroude:
was it nor envy, that we might not see
That which from th' smock could scarce discerned be;
Or wast for shamefastness: yes, yes, 'twas so,
That too much hiding of her face did show.
So looked the Nymph which
Jupiter
beguile'd
I'th water with
Diana
got with child;
So
Salmacis
half ravished in the brook,
As she almost stripped to her smock did look.
The Poet was too sparing, had she been
Like intrapt
Venus
nak'd to have been seen;
And with a net unhid been covered;
How on her limbs our hungry eyes had fed,
And dwelt on her seen members, whilst the rest
Had by proportion easily been guest:
But pity 'twere that she enjoin'd had been
So hard a penance, guilty of no sin.
Finis.
IGNATIUS
HIS CONCLAVE: OR,
His Inthronisation in a late Election in
HELL.
Wherein many Things are mingled by way of SATYR.
Concerning
-
The disposition of
Jesuits.
-
The Creation of a
new Hell.
-
The establishing of a
Church
in the Moon.
There is also added an Apology for
IESUITES.
All dedicated to the Two adversary Angels, which are Protectors of the Papal Consistory, and of the College of SORBON.
By
JOHN DONNE,
Doctor of Divinity, and late Dean of Saint Paul's.
Printed at
London,
1653.
To the two tutelary Angels, Protectors of the Popes Consistory, and of the College OF SORBON.
MOst noble couple of
Angels,
lest it should be said that you did never agree, and never meet, but that you did ever abhor one another, and ever
Resemble
Janus
with a diverse face;
I attempted to bring and join you together once in these papers not that I might compose your differences, for you have not choson me for
Arbi
•…
or;
but, that you might beware of an enemy
common to you both, I will relate what I saw. I was in an
Extasie,
and
My little wandering sportful Soul,
Guest, and companion of my body,
had liberty to wander through all places, and to survey and reckon all the rooms, and all the volumes of the heavens, and to comprehend the situation, the dimensions, the nature, the people & the policy, both of the swimming Islands, the
Planets,
and of all those which are fixed in the Firmament. Of which, I think it an honester part as yet to be silent, then to do
Galilaeo
wrong by speaking of it, who of late hath summoned
the other worlds, the Stars to come nearer to him, and give him an account of themselves, Or to
Keppler,
who (as himself testifies of himself)
ever since
Tycho Braches
death, hath received it into
his care, that no new thing should be done in heaven without his knowledge.
For by the law,
Prevention
must take place; and therefore what they have found and
discovered first, I am content they speak and utter first. Yet this they may vouchsafe to take from me, that they shall hardly find
Enoch,
or
Elias
anywhere in their circuit. When I had surveied all the heavens, then as
The Lark by busy and laborious ways,
Having climb'd up th'ethereall hill, doth raise
His Hymns to
Phoebus
Harp: And striking then
His sails, his wings, doth fall down back agen,
So suddenly, that one may safely say,
A stone came lazily that came that Way,
In the twinkling of an eye, I saw all the rooms in Hell open to my sight. And by the benefit of certain spectacles, I know not of what making, but I think, of the same, by which
Gregory
the great and
Beda
did discern so distinctly the souls of their friends, when they were discharged from their
bodies and sometimes the souls of such men as they knew not by sight, and of some that were never in the world, and yet they could distinguish them flying into Heaven, or conversing with living men. I saw all the channels in the bowels of the Earth; and all the inhabitants of all nations, and of all ages were suddenly made familiar to me. I think truly,
Robert Aquinas
when he
took
Christ's
long Oration, as he hung upon the Cross, did use some such Instrument as this, but applied to the ear: And so I
think did he, which dedicated to
Adrian
6. that Sermon which
Christ
made in praise of his Father
Joseph:
for else how did they hear that, which none but they ever heard? As for the
Suburbs
of Hel (I mean both
Limbo
and
Purgatory)
I must confess I passed them over so negligently, that I saw them not: and I was hungerly carried, to find new places, never discovered before. For
Purgatory
did not seem worthy to
me of much diligence, because it may seem already to have been believed by some persons, in some corners of the
Roman Church
for about 50 years; that is ever since the Council of
Trent
had a mind to fulfill the prophecies of
Homer, Virgil,
and the other
Patriarchs
of the
Papists,
and being not satisfied with making one
Transubstantiation,
purposed to bring in another: which is, to change
Fables
into
Articles
of Faith. Proceeding therefore to more inward places, I saw a secret place, where there were not many, beside
Lucifer
himself; to which, only they had title, which had so attempted any innovation in this life, that they gave an affront to all Antiquity, and induced doubts, and anxieties, and scruples, and after a liberty of believing what they would, at length established opinions, directly contrary to all established before. Of which place in
Hell,
Lucifer
afforded us heretofore some little knowledge, when more
then 200. years since, in an
Epistle
written to the
Cardinal S. Sexti,
he promised him a room
in his palace, in the remotest part of his eternal Chaos,
which I take to be this place. And here Pope
Boniface
3. and
Mahomet,
seemed to contend about the highest room. He gloried of having expelled an old Religion, and
Mahomet
of having brought in a new; each of them a great deluge to the world. But it is to be feared, that
Mahomet
will fail therein, both because he attributed something to the old
Testament,
and because he used
Sergius
as his fellow-Bishop, in making the
Alcoran;
whereas it was evident to the supreme Judge
Lucifer,
(for how could he be ignorant of that which himself had put into the Popes mind?) that
Boniface
had not only neglected, but destroyed the policy of the State of
Israel,
established in the old
Testament,
when he prepared
Popes
a way, to tread upon the necks of
Princes,
but that he also abstained from all
Example and Coadjutor, when he took upon him that new name, which
Gregory
himself (a Pope neither very foolish, nor overmodest) ever abhorred. Besides that every day affords new Advocates to
Boniface
his side. For since the
Franciscans
were almost worn out (of whom their General
Francis,
had seen 6000, Soldiers in one army, that is, in one Chapter) which, because they were then but fresh Soldiers, he saw assisted with 18000
Devils;
the
Jesuits
have much recompensed those decays and damages, who sometimes have maintained in
their Tents, 200000 Scholars. For though the Order of
Benedict
have ever been so fruitful, that they say of it,
That all the new Orders,
which in latter times have broken out, are but little springs, or drops, and that Order the Ocean, which hath sent out 52 Popes, 200 Cardinals, 1600 Archbishops, 4000 Bishops, and 5000 Saints, approved by the Church,
and therefore it cannot be denied,
but that
Boniface
his part is much relieved by that Order; yet if they be compared to the
Jesuits,
or to the weak and imperfect types of them, the
Franciscans,
it is no great matter that they have done. Though therefore they esteem
Mahomet
worthy of the name of an
Innovator,
and therein perchance not much inferior to
Boniface,
yet since his time, to ours, almost all which have followed his S
•…
t, have lived barren in an
〈◊〉
and idle concord, and cannot boast that they have produced any new matter: whereas
Boniface
his Successors awakened by him, have ever been fruitful in bringing forth new sins, and new pardons, and Idolatries, and King-killings. Though therefore it may religiously, and piously be believed, that
Turks
as well as
Papists,
come daily in Troops to the ordinary and common places of
Hell;
yet certainly to this more honorable room reserved for especial
Innovators,
the
Papists
have more frequent access; and therefore
Mahomet
is out of hope to prevail, and must imitate the
Christian Emperors,
and be content to sit (as yet he doth) at the
Popes
feet. Now to this place not only such endeavor to come, as have
Innovated
in matters directly concerning the soul, but they also which have done so, either in the Arts, or in conversation, or in anything which exerciseth the faculties of the Soul, and may so provoke to quarrelsome and brawling controversies, for so the truth be lost, it is no no matter how. But the gates are seldom opened, nor scarce oft
•…
then once in an age. But my destiny favored me so much, that I was present then, and saw all the pretenders, and all that affected an entrance, and
Lucifer
himself, who then came out into the outward chamber, to hear them plead their own Causes. As soon as the door creekt, I spied a certain
Mathematician,
which till then had been busted to find, to
deride, to detrude
Ptolomey;
and now with an erect countenance, and settled pace, came to the gates, and with hands and feet, (scarce respecting
Lucifer
himself) beat the doors and cried;
Are these shut against me, to whom all the Heavens were ever open, who was a Soul to the Earth, and gave it motion?
By this I knew it was
Copernicus:
For though I had never heard ill of his life, and therefore might wonder to find him there; yet when I remembered that the
Papists
have extended the name and punishment of Heresy, almost to everything, and that as yet I used
Gregory's
and
Bedes
spectacles, by which one saw
Origen,
who deserved so well of the
Christian Church, burning in hell,
I doubted no longer, but assured myself that it was
Copernicus
which I saw, to whom
Lucifer
said,
Who are you? For though even by this boldness you seem worthy to enter, and have attempted a new faction even in Hell, yet you must
first satisfy those which stand about you, and which expect the same fortune as you do. Except, O
Lucifer,
answered
Copernicus,
I thought thee of the Race of the Star
Lucifer,
with which I am so well acquainted, I should not vouchsafe thee this discourse. I am he, which pitying thee who wert thrust into the center of the world, raised both thee and thy prison, the Earth, up into the Heavens; so as by my means, God doth not enjoy his revenge upon thee. The Sun, which was an officious Spy, and a betrayer of faults and so thy enemy, I have appointed to go into the lowest part of the world. Shall these Gates open to such as have
Innovated
in small matters, and shall they be shut against me, who have turned the whole frame of the world, and am thereby almost a new Creator.
More then this he spoke not.
Lucifer
stuck in a meditation. For what should he do? It seemed unjust to deny entry to him which had deserved so well, and dangerous to grant
it to one of so great ambitions, and undertakings: Nor did he think that himself had attempted greater matters before his fall. Somthing he had which he might have conveniently opposed, but he was loath to utter it, lest he should confess his fear. But
Ignatius Loyola
which was got near his chair, a subtle fellow, and so endued with the Devil, that he was able to tempt, and not only that, but (as they say) even to possess the Devil, apprehended this perplexity in
Lucifer.
And making himself sure of his own entrance, and knowing well, that many thousands of his family aspired to that place, he opposeth himself against all others. He was content they should be damned, but not that they should govern. And though when he died he was utterly ignorant in all great learning, and knew not so much as
Ptolomeys
or
Copernicus
name, but might have been persuaded that the words
Almagest, Zenith,
and
Nadir,
were Saints names, and fit to be put into the
Litany,
and
Ora pro nobis
joined to them; yet after he had spent some time in hell, he had learnt somewhat of his
Jesuits,
which daily came thither. And whilst he stayed at the threshold of
Hell,
that is, from the time when he delivered himself over to the Popes will, he took a little taste of learning. Thus furnished, thus he undertakes
Copernicus.
Do you think to win our
Lucifer
to your part, by allowing him the honor of being of the Race of that Star? who was not only made before all the Stars, but being glutted with the glory of shining there, transferred his dwelling and Colonies unto this Monarchy, and thereby gave our Order a noble example, to spy, to invade, and to possess foreign Kingdoms. Can our
Lucifer
or his followers have any honor from that Star
Lucifer,
which is but
Ve
•…
us?
Whose face how much we scorn, appears by this, that
for the most part we use her aversly and preposterously. Rather let our
Lucifer
glory in
Lucifer
the
Calaritan Bishop;
not therefore because he is placed amongst Heretics, only for affirming the propagation of
the soul; but especially for this, that he was the first that opposed the dignity of Princes, and imprinted the names of
Antichrist, Judas,
and other stigmatique marks upon the
Emperor;
But for you, what new thing have you invented, by which our
Lucifer
gets anything? What cares he whether the earth travel, or stand still? Hath your raising up of the earth into heaven, brought men to that confidence, that they build new towers or threaten God again? Or do they out of this motion of the earth conclude, that there is no hell, or deny the punishment of sin? Do not men believe? do they not live just as they did before? Besides, this detracts from the
dignity of your learning, and derogates from your right and title of coming to this place, that those opinions of yours, may very well be true. If therefore any man have honor or title to this place in this matter, it belongs wholly to our
Clavins,
who opposed himself opportunely against you, and the truth, which at that time was creeping into every man's mind. He only can be called the Author of all contentions, and School-combats in this cause; and no greater profit can be hoped for here in, but that for such brables, more necessary matters be neglected. And yet not only for this is our
Clavius
to be honored, but for the great pains also which he took in the
Gregorian Calender,
by which both the peace of the Church, and civil businesses have been egregiously troubled: nor hath heaven itself escaped his violence, but hath ever since obeyed his
appointments: so that S.
Steven, John the Baptist,
and all the
rest, which have been commanded to work miracles at certain appointed days, where their relics are preserved, do not now attend till the day come, as they were accustomed, but are awaked ten days sooner, and constrained by him to come down from heaven to do that business. But your inventions can scarce be called yours, since before you,
Heraclides, Ecphantus,
and
Aristarchus
thrust them into the world: who notwithstanding content themselves with lower rooms amongst the other Philosophers, and aspire not to this place, reserved only for
Antichristian Heroes:
neither do you agree so well amongst yourselves, as that you can be said to have made a
Sect,
since, as you have perverted and changed the order and
Scheme
of others: so
Tycho Brachy
hath done by yours, and others by his. Let
therefore this little
Mathematician
(dread Emperor) withdraw himself to his own come pany. And if hereafter the Fathers of our Order can draw a
Cathedral Decree
from the Pope, by which it may be defined as a matter of Faith,
That the earth doth not move;
and an
Anathema
inflicted upon all which hold the contrary: then perchance both the Pope which shall decree that, and
Copernicus
his followers (if they be Papists) may have the dignity of this place.
signified his assent: and
Copernicus
without muttering a word, was as quiet as he thinks the Sun: when he which stood next him, entered into his place. To whom
Lucifer
said: And who are you? He answered,
Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Paracelsus Bombast of Hohenheim.
At this
Lucifer
trembled, as if it were a new
Exorcîsme,
and he thought it might well be the first verse of S.
John,
which is always employed
in
Exorcismes,
and might now be taken out of the
Welch
or
Irish Bibles.
But when he understood that it was but the web of his name, he recollected himself, and raising himself upright, asked was he had to say to the great
Emperor Satan, Lucifer, Belzebub, Leviathan, Abaddon. Paracelsus
replied,
It were an injury to thee, O glorious
Emperor,
if I should deliver before thee what I have done, as though all those things had not proceeded from thee, which seemed to have been done by me, thy organ and conduit; yet since I shall rather be thy trumpet herein then mine own, some things may be uttered by me. Besides therefore that I brought all
Methodicall Physicians
and the Art itself into so much contempt, that that kind of Physic is almost lost; this also was ever my principal purpose, that no certain new Art, nor fixed rules might be established, but that all remedies might be dangerously
drawn from my uncertain, ragged, and imperfect experiments, in trial whereof how many men have been made carcases? And falling upon those times which did abound with paradoxicall and unusual diseases, of all which, the pox, which then began to rage, was almost the center and sink: I ever professed an assured and an easy cure thereof, lest I should deter any from their licentiousness. And whereas almost all poisons are so disposed and conditioned by nature, that they offend some of the senses, and so are easily discerned and avoided, I brought it to pass, that that treacherous quality of theirs might be removed and so they might safely be given without suspicion, and yet perform their office as strongly. All this I must confess I wrought by thy minerals and by thy fires, but yet I cannot despair of my reward, because I was thy first minister and instrument in these innovations.
By this time
Ignatius
had observed a tempest risen in
Lucifers
countenance: for he was just of the same temper as
Lucifer,
and therefore suffered with him in everything, and felt all his alterations. That therefore he might deliver him from
Paracelsus,
he said;
You must not think sir, that you may here draw out an Oration to the proportion of your name. It must be confessed that you attempted great matters, and well becoming a great officer of
Lucifer,
when you undertook not only to make a man in your
Alimbecks,
but also to preserve him immortal. And it cannot be doubted, but that out of your
Commentaries
upon the
Scriptures,
in which you were utterly ignorant, many men have taken occasion of erring, and thereby this kingdom much indebted to you. But must you therefore have access to this secret place? What have you compassed even in Physic it
self, of which we
Jesuits
are ignorant? For though our
Ribadenegra
have reckoned none of our
Order,
which hath written in
•…
ysick,
yet how able and sufficient we are in that faculty, I will be tried by that Pope who hath given a privilege
to
Jesuits
to practice
Physic
and to be present at
Deathsbed, (a)
which is denied to other
Orders:
for why should he deny us their bodies, whose souls he delivered to us? and since he hath transferd upon us the power to practice
Physic,
he may justly be thought to have transferd upon us the art itself by the same
Omnipotent Bull;
since he which grants the end, is by our
Rules
of
Law
presumed to have granted all means necessary to that end. Let me (dread
Emperor)
have leave to speak truth before thee; These men abuse and profane too much thy metals, which are the bowels and treasure of thy Kingdom: For what doth
Physic
profit thee?
Physic
is a soft and womanish thing. For since
no medicine doth naturally
draw blood,
that science is not fit nor worthy of our study. Besides, why should those things which belong to you, be employed to preserve from diseases, or to procure long life? were it not fitter that your
Brother
and
Colleague,
the Bishop of
Rome,
which governs upon the face of your earth, and gives daily increase to your Kingdom, should receive from you these helps and subsidies? To him belongs all the gold, to him all the precious stones, conceald in your entrails, whereby he might bait & ensnare the Princes of the earth, through their Lord's and Counselors means, to his obedience, and to receive his commandments, especially in these times, when almost everywhere his ancient rights and tributes are denied unto him. To him belongs your Iron, and the ignobler
metals, to make engines; To him belongs your Minerals apt for poison; To him the Saltpeter, and all the Elements of Gun-powder, by which he may demolish and overthrow Kings and Kingdoms, and Courts, and seats of Justice. Neither doth
Paracelsus
truly deserve the name of an
Innovator,
whose doctrine
Severi
•…
us
and his other followers do refer to the most ancient times. Think therefore yourself well satisfied, if you be admitted to govern in chief that Legion of Homicid Physicians, and of Princes which shall be made away by poison in the midst of their sins, and of women tempting by paintings and face-Physic. Of all which sorts great numbers will daily come hither out of your
Academy.
Content with this sentence,
Paracelsus
departed; and
Machiavel
succeeded, who having observed
Ignatius
his forwardness, and sauciness, and how, uncald,
he had thrust himself into the office of
Kings-Attorney,
thought this stupid patience of
Copernicus
and
Paracelsus,
(men which tasted too much of their
Germany)
unfit for a
Florentine:
and therefore had provided some venomous darts, out of his
Italian Arsenal,
to cast against this worn soldier of
Pampelune,
this
French-Spanish
mongrel,
Ignatius.
But when he thought better upon it, and observed that
Lucifer
ever approved whatsoever
Ignatius
said, he suddenly changed his purpose; and putting on another resolution, he determined to direct his speech to
Ignatius,
as to the principal person next to
Lucifer,
as well by this means to sweeten and mollify him, as to make
Lucifer
suspect, that by these honors and specious titles offered to
Ignatius
and entertained by him, his own dignity might be eclipsed or clouded; and that
Ignatius
by winning to his side politique men, exercised in civil businesses, might
attempt some innovation in that Kingdom. Thus therefore he began to speak.
Dread
Emperor,
and you, his watchful and diligent
Genius,
father
Ignatius, Arch-Chancellor
of this
Court,
and highest
Priest
of this highest
Synagogue
(except the primacy of the
Roman Church
reach also unto this place) let me before I descend to myself, a little consider, speak, and admire your stupendous wisdom, and the Government of this state. You may vouchsafe to remember great
Emperor)
how long after the
Nazarens
death, you were forced to live a solitary, a barren, and an Eremiticall life, till at last, as it was ever your fashion to imitate Heaven) out of your abundant love, you begot this dearly beloved son of yours,
Ignatius,
which stands at your right hand. And from both of you proceeds a spirit, whom you have sent into the world, who triumphing both with
Mitre
and
Crown,
governs
your Militant Church there. As for those sons of
Ignatius,
whom either he left alive, or were born after his death, and your spirit, the Bishop of
Rome,
how justly and properly may they be called equivocal men? And not only equivocal in that sense, in which the
Popes Legates,
at your
Nicene Council
were called
Equivocal,
because
they did agree in all their opinions, and in all their words:
but especially because they have brought into the world a new art of
Equivocation.
O wonderful and incredible
Hypercritiques,
who not out of marble fragments, but out of the secretest Records of Hell itself, that is, out of the minds of
Lucifer,
the
Pope
and
Ignatius,
(persons truly equivocal) have raised to life again the language of the Tower of
Babel
so long concealed, and brought us again from understanding one another. For my part (O noble pair of
Emperors)
that I may freely confess the
truth, all which I have done, wheresoever there shall be mention made of the Jesuits, can be reputed but childish, for this honor I hope will not be denied me, that I brought in an
Alphabet,
and provided certain elements, and was some kind of Schoolmaster in preparing them a way to higher undertakings; yet it grieves me and makes me ashamed that I should be ranked with this idle and Chymaericall
Copernicus,
or this cadaverous vulture,
Paracelsus.
I scorn that those gates into which such men could conceive any hope of entrance, should not voluntarily fly open to me: yet I can better endure the rashness and fellowship of
Paracelsus
then the other: because he having been conveniently practiced in the butcheries and mangling of men, he had the reason to hope for favor of the Jesuits: For I myself went always that way of blood, and therefore I did ever prefer the
sacrifices of the
Gentiles
and of the
Jews,
which were perfor med with effusion of blood (whereby not only the people but the Priests also were animated to bold enterprises) before the soft and wanton sacrifices of
Christians.
If I might have had my choice, I should rather have wished that the
Roman Church
had taken the
Bread
than the
Wine
from the people, since in the wine there is some color to imagine and represent blood. Neither did you (most reverend Bishop of this diocess
Ignatius)
abhor from this way of blood. For having consecrated your first age to the wars, and grown, somewhat unable to follow that course by reason of a wound; you did presently begin to think seriously of a spiritual war against the
Church
and found means to open ways even into Kings chambers, for your executioners. Which dignity you did not reserve only to your own Order, but (though
I must confess, that the foundation, and the nourishment of this doctrine remains with you, and is peculiar to you, out of your infinite liberality,) you have vouchsafed sometime, to use the hands of other men in these employments. And therefore as well they, who have so often in vain attempted it in
England,
as they which have brought their great purposes to effect in
France,
are indebted only to you for their courage and resolution. But yet although the entrance into this place may be decreed to none, but to Innovators, and to only such of them as have dealt in
Christian
business, and of them also, to those only which have had the fortune to do much harm; I cannot see but that next to the
Jesuits,
I must be invited to enter, since I did not only teach those ways by which, thorough
perfidiousness
and
dissembling of Religion,
a man might possess and usurp upon the liberty of free
Commonwealths;
but also did arm and furnish the people with my instructions, how when they were under this oppression, they might safeliest conspire, and remove a
tyrant,
or revenge themselves of their
Prince
and redeem their former losses; so that from both sides, both from
Prince
and
people,
I brought an abundant harvest, and a noble increase to this kingdom.
By this time I perceived
Lucifer
to be much moved with this Oration, and to incline much towards
Machiavel;
For he did acknowledge him to be a kind of
Patriarke,
of those whom they call
Laymen.
And he had long observed, that the
Clergy
of
Rome
tumbled down to
Hell
daily, easily, voluntarily, and by troupes, because they were accustomed to sin against their conscience, and knowledge; but that the
Laity
sinning out of a slothfulness, and negligence of finding the truth, did rather offend by ignorance and omission. And therefore he thought himself
bound to reward
Machiavel,
which had awakened this drowsy and implicit
Laity
to greater, and more bloody Vndertakings. Besides this, since
Ignatius
could not be denied the place, whose ambitions and turbulencies
Lucifer
understood very well, he thought
Machiavel
a fit and necessary Instrument to oppose against him; that so the scales being kept even by their factions, he might govern in peace, and two poisons mingled might do no harm. But he could not hide this intention from
Ignatius,
more subtle than the
Devil
and the verier
Lucifer
of the two: Therefore
Ignatius
rushed out, threw himself down at
Lucifers
feet, and groveling on the ground adored him. Yet certainly,
Vasques
would not call this
idolatry,
because in the shape of the
Devil
he worshipped him, whom he accounted the true
God.
Here
Ignatius
cried, and thundered out,
With so great noise and horror,
That had that powder taken fire, by which
All the Isle of Britain had flown to the Moon,
It had not equalled this noise and horror.
And when he was able to speak distinctly, thus he spoke;
It cannot be said (unspeakable
Emperor)
how much this obscure
Florentine
hath transgressed against thee, and against the
Pope
thy
image-bearer,
(whether the word be accepted, as
Gratian
takes it when he calls the
Scriptures;
Imaginary Books or as they take it, which give
that style to them who carry the
Emperors
Image in the field;) and last of all against our
Order. Durst any man before him; think upon this kind of injury, and calumny, as to hope that he should be able to flatter, to catch, to entrap
Lucifer himself?
Certainly, whosoever flatters any man, and presents him those praises, which in his own opinion are not due to him, thinks him inferior to himself,
and makes account that he hath taken him prisoner, and triumphs over him. Who ever flatters, either he derides, or (at the best) instructs. For there may be, even in flattery, an honest kind of teaching, if Princes by being told that they are already endued with all virtues necessary for their functions, be thereby taught what those virtues are, and by a facile exhortation, excited to endeavor to gain them. But was it fit that this fellow, should dare either to deride you, or (which is the greater injury) to teach you? Can it be believed, that he delivers your praises from his heart, and and doth not rather herein follow
Gratians
levity; who says:
That you are called Prince of the
world, as a king at Chests, or as the Cardinal of Ravenna, only by derision?
This man, whilst he lived, attributed so much to his own wit, that he never thought himself beholden to your helps, and insinuations; and was so
far from invoking you, or sacrificing to you, that he did not so much as acknowledge your kingdom nor believe that there was any such thing in Nature as you. I must confess that he had the same opinion of God also; therefore deserves a place here, and a better then any of the Pagan or Gentile Idolaters: For in every Idolatry and false worship there is some Religion, and some perverse simplicity, which tastes of humility; from all which this man was very free when in his heart he utterly denied that there was any God. Yet since he thought so in earnest, and believed that those things which he affirmed were true, he must not be ranked with them; which having been sufficiently instructed of the true God, and believing him to be so, do yet fight against him in his enemies Army. Neither ought it to be imputed to us as a fault, that sometimes in our
Exorcismes
we we speak ill of you, and call you
Heretic
and
Drunkard,
and
Whisperer,
and
scabbed Beast,
and
conjure the elements that they should not receive you,
and threaten you with
indissoluble damnation, and torments a thousand thousand times worse then you suffer yet.
For these things you know are done out of a secret covenant and contract between us, and out of mysteries which must not be opned to this
Neophite,
who in our
Synagogue
is yet but amongst the
Catechumen.
Which also we acknowledge of
Holy Water,
and our
Agnus Dei,
of which you do so wisely dissemble a fear, when they are presented to you: For certainly if there were any true force in them,
To deliver Bodies from Diseases, Souls from Sins, and the Elements from Spirits, and malignant Impressions,
(as in the verses which
Urban
the fifth sent with his
Agnus Dei
to the Emperor it is pretended) it
had been reason that they should first have exercised their force
upon those verses, and so have purged and delivered them, if not from Heresy, yet from Barbarousnesse and
Soloecismes;
that Heretics might not justly say, There was no truth in any of them but only the last; which is,
That the least piece which thence doth fall,
Will do one as much good as all.
And though our
Order
have adventured further in
Exorcismes
then the rest, yet that must be attributed to a special privilege, by which we have leave to question any possessed persons of what matters we will; whereas all other Orders are miserably bound to the present matter, and the business then in hand. For though I do not believe, that either from yourself, or from your
Vicar
the
Pope,
any such privilege is issued; yet our
Cotton
deserves to be praised, who being questioned, how he durst propose certain seditious Interrogatories
to a possessed person, to deliver himself, feigned such a privilege; and with an un-heardof boldness, and a new kind of falsifying, did (in a manner) counterfeit
Lucifers
hand and seal, since none but he only could give this privilege: But if you consider us out of this liberty in
Exorcismes,
how humble and servile we are towards you, the Relations of
Peru
testify enough, where it is recorded, that when one of your angels at midnight appeared to our
Barcena
alone in his Chamber,
he presently rose out of his chair, and gave him the place, whom he professed to be far worthier thereof then he was. But to proceed now to the injuries which this fellow hath done to the Bishop of
Rome,
although very much might be spoken, yet by this alone, his disposition may be sufficiently discerned, that he imputes to the Pope, vulgar and popular sins, far unworthy of his greatness. Weak
praising is a kind of accusing, and we detract from a man's honor, if when we praise him for small things, and would seem to have said all, we conceal greater. Perchance this man had seen some of the Catalogues of
Reserv'd Cases,
which every year the
Popes
increase, and he might think, that the
Popes
did therefore reserve these sins to themselves, that they only might commit them. But either he is ignorant or injurious to them. For can they be thought to have taken away the liberty of sinning from the people, who do not only suffer men to keep
Concubines,
but sometimes do command them? who make
St.
Peter
beholden to the
Stews
for part of his Revenue: and who excuse women from the infamous name of
Whore,
till they have delivered themselves over to 23000 men. The Professors
of which Religion teach,
That University Men which keep Whores in their chambers, may not
be expeld for that, because it ought to be presumed before hand, that Scholars will not live without them.
Shall he be thought to have a purpose of deterring others from sin, which provides so well for their security, that he teaches, that he
may dispense in all the Commandments
of the second Table, and in all Moral Law; and that those Commandments of the second Table can neither be called Principles nor Conclusions, necessarily deduced from Principles?
And therefore (as they ever love that manner of teaching) he did illustrate his
Rule
with an example, and dispensed in a marriage between
Brother
and
Sister,
and hath hoarded up so many
In dulgencies
in one Barn, the City of
Rome,
that it is easy for any man in an hour or two, to draw out pardons enough for 100000 years. How clear a witness of this liberality is
Leo
the tenth? who only for rehearsing once the
Lord's Prayer,
and thrice repeating
the name of
Jesus
(be it spoken here without horror) hath given three thousand years Indulgence. How profuse a
Steward
or
Auditor
was
Boniface,
who acknowledges so many
Indulgences
to be in that one Church of
Lateran, that none but God can number them?
Besides these plenary Indulgences are given not only to the
Franciscans
themselves, but to their parents also, and to any which dies in their habit; and to any which desire that they may do so: and to those who are wrapped in it after death, though they did not desire it; and five years
Indulgence
to those who do but kiss it. And at last,
Clement
the seventh by a privilege first given to one Order (which since is communicated to our Order, as the privilege of all other Orders are) gave to any who should but visit a place belonging to them, or any other place if he could not come thither, or if he could come to no
such place, yet if he had but a desire to it,
All Indulgences which had been granted, or hereafter should be granted in the universal world.
And though it be true, that if in any of these Indulgences a certain sum of money were limited to be given (as for the most part it is) a poor man who could not give that money though he were never so contrite for his sins, could have no benefit thereby: and though
Gerson
durst call those
Indulgences foolish and superstitious,
which gave twenty thousand years pardon for rehearsing one prayer, yet they do abundantly testify the Popes liberal disposition, and that he is not so covetous in reserving sins to himself; but if perchance once in an hundred years, someone of the scum of the people be put to death for
Sodomy;
and that not so much for the offense, as for usurping the right of the
Ecclesia stick
Princes, we must not much lament nor grudge at that,
since it is only done to discontinue and interrupt a prescription, to gain which Title the
Laity
hath ever been very forward against the
Clergy:
for even in this kind of his delicacies, the
Pope
is not so reserved and covetous, but that he allows a taste thereof to his
Cardinals,
whom whom you once called
Carpidineros
(by an elegancy proper
only to your
Secretaries
the
Monks)
in an
Epistle
which
you writ to one of that College: for since the Cardinals are so compacted into the Pope, and so made his own body,
That it is not lawful for them without
license first obtained from him, to be let blood in a Fever,
what may be denied unto them? or what kind of sin is likely to be left out of their glorious privileges. which are at least two hundred?
Which Order the Pope can
no more remove out of the Ecclesiastic Hirarchy, then he can Bishops; both because Cardinals were instituted by God, and because
the Apostles themselves were Cardinals before they were Bishops.
Whom also in their creation he stiles his
brothers, & Princes
of the world, and co-judges of the whole earth,
and to perfect all,
That there are so many Kings as there are Cardinals.
O fearful body; and as in many other things, so in this especially monstrous, that they are not able to propagate their species:
For
all the Cardinals in a vacancy are not able to make one Cardinal more.
To these men certainly the Pope doth no more grudge the plurality of sins, then he doth of Benefices. And he hath been content, that even
Borgia
should enjoy, this dignity, if he hath heaped up by his ingenius wickedness, more sorts of sins in one Act, then (as far as I know) as any the
Popes
themselves have attempted: For he did not only give the full rein to his licentiousness, but raging with a second ambition, he would also change the sek. Therein also
his stomach was not towards young, beardless boys, nor such green fruit: for he did not think, that he went far enough from the right Sex, except he had a manly, a reverend, and a bearded
Venus.
Neither stayed he there; but his witty lust proceeded further: yet he solicited not the
Minions
of the
Popes,
but striving to equal the licentiousness of
Sodomites
which would have had the
Angels;
to come as near them as he could, he took a
Clergy-man,
one of the portion and lot of the
Lord;
and so made the maker of
God,
a
Priest
subject to his lust; nor did he seek him out in a Cloister, or Choir; but that his
Venus
might be the more monstrous, he would have her in a
Mitre.
And yet his prodigious lust was not at the height; as much as he could he added: and having found a
Man
a
Clergy man,
a
Bishop,
he did not solicit him with entreaties, and rewards, but ravished him by
force. Since then the
Popes
do out of the fullness of their power, come to those kinds of sin, which have neither
Example
nor
Name,
insomuch that Pope
Paulus Venetus
which used
to paint himself, and desired to seem a woman, was called the
Goddess Cibele,
which was not without mystery, since, prostitute boys are sacred to that
Goddess)
and since they do not grant ordinarily that liberty of practicing sins, till they have used their own right and privilege of
Prevention
and
Anticipation;
This prattling fellow
Machiavel,
doth but treacherously, and dishonestly prevaricate, and betray the cause, if he think he hath done enough for the dignity of the
Popes,
when he hath afforded to them, sins common to all the world. The transferring of Empires, the ruin of Kingdoms, the Excommunications, and depositions of Kings, and devastations by fire and sword, should have been
produced as their marks & characters: for though the examples of the
Popes
transferring the
Empire,
which our men so much stand upon, be not indeed true, nor that the ancient
Popes
practiced any such thing; yet since the States-men of our
Order,
wiser then the rest have found how much this
Temporal jurisdiction
over
Princes,
conduces to the growth of the Church, they have persuaded the
Popes,
that this is not only lawful for them, but often practiced heretofore: And therefore they provide that the
Canons,
and
Histories
be detorted to that opinion: for though one of our
Order
do weaken that famous
Canon, Nos Sanctorum,
which was used still to be produced for this doctrine, yet he did it then when the
King of Great Britain
was to be mollified and sweetened towards us, and the Laws to be mitigated, and when himself had put on the name
Eudaemon.
But let him return to his true state, and profess himself a
Cacodaemon,
and he will be of our opinion. In which respect also we may pardon our
Cudsemius
his rashness, when he denies the
English Nation
to be heretics, because they remain in a perpetual succession of Bishops:
For herein these men have thought it fit to follow in their practice, that
translation
which reads the words of
Paul; Serve the time,
and not that which says;
Serve the Lord.
As for the injury which this petty companion hath offered to our
Order,
since in our wrongs both yours and the
Popes
Majesty is wounded, since to us as to your
Dictators,
both you have given that large and anti
•…
ent Commission,
that we should take care that the state take no harm,
we cannot doubt of our revenge: yet this above all the rest, doth especially ve
•…
me, that that when he calls me
Prelate
and
Bishop
(names which we so
much abhor and detest) I know well that out of his inward malignity he hath a relation to
Bellarmine's,
and
Tolets
Sacrilegious Vow-breaking ambitions, by which they embraced the
Cardinalship,
and other Church dignities: but herein this poor fellow unacquainted with our affairs, is deceived, being ignorant that these men by this act of being thus incorporated into the Pope, are so much the nearer to their
Center
and final happiness, this chamber of
Lucifer,
and that by the breach of a vow which themselves thought just, they have got a new title thereunto: for the
Cardinalship
is our
Martyrdom:
and though not many of our
Order
have had that strength that they have been such
Martyrs,
and that the Popes themselves have been pleased to transfer this persecution into the other
Orders,
who have had more
Cardinals
than we; yet without doubt for such of ours which have had so much
courage, new Crowns, and new Garlands, appropriate to our
Martyrs,
are prepared for them in this their
Heaven;
because being enabled by greater means they are fitter for greater mischiefs. We therefore lament the weakness of our
Laynez
and our
Borgia,
who refused the
Cardinalship
offered by
Paulus
4. and
Julius
3. for in this place and this meeting it is not unfit to say they did so, even amongst the ancient
Romans
when they sacrificed to you those sacrifices which offered any resistance, were ever reputed unaccepted: and therefore our
Bellarmine
deserves much praise, who finding a new
Genius
and courage in his new
Cardinalship,
set out his Retractions and corrected all those places in his Works, which might any way be interpreted in the favor of Princes. But let us pass over all these things; for we understand one another well enough: and let us more particularly
consider those things which this man who pretends to exceed all ancient and Modern
Statesmen
boasts to have been done by him. Though truly no man will easily believe, that he hath gone far in anything which did so tire at the beginning or midway, that having seen the
Pope
and known him, yet could never come to the knowledge of the
Devil.
I know what his excuse and escape will be; that things must not be extended infinitely; that we must consist and arrest somewhere, and that more means and instruments ought not to be admitted where the matter may be dispatched by fewer. When therefore he was sure that the
Bishop
of
Rome
was the cause of all mischief, and the first mover thereof, he chose rather to settle and determine in him, than by acknowledging a
Devil
to induce a new
tyranny,
and to be driven to confess that the
Pope
had usurped upon the
Devils
right, which
opinion if any man be pleased to maintain, we do not forbid him: but yet it must be an argument to us of no very nimble wit, if a man do so admire the
Pope
that he leave out the
Devil,
and so worship the Image, without relation to the
Prototype
and first pattern. But besides this, how idle and how very nothings they are which he hath shoveld together in his books, this makes it manifest that some of every
Religion
and of every profession have risen up against him, and no man attempted to defend him: neither do I say this because I think his doctrine the worse for that, but it is therefore the less artificially carried, and the less able to work those ends to which it is directed. For our part we have not proceeded so. For we have dished and dressed our precepts in these affairs with such cunning, that when our own men produce them to ens
•…
re and establish our pupils, then we put upon
them the majesty and reverence of the
Doctrine of the Church
and of the
common opinions:
But when our adversaries allege them either to cast envy upon us, or to deter the weaker sort; then they are content with a lower room, and vouchsafe to step aside into the rank of
private opinions.
And the
Canons
themselves are with us sometime glorious in their mitres and pontifical habits and sound nothing but mere
Divine resolutions
out of the Chair itself, and so have the force of
Oracles,
sometimes we say they are ragged and lame, and do but whisper with a doubtful and uncertain murmur, a hollow cloystral, or an eremiticall voice, and so have no more authority than those poor men which writ them: sometimes we say they were but rashly thrown into the people's ears out of Pulpits in the Homilies of fathers; sometimes that they were derived out of such
Councils
as suffered
abortion,
and were delivered of their children, which are their
Canons
before inanimation, which is the Popes assent; or out of such
Councils
as are now discontinued and dead (howsoever they remained long time in use, and lively and in good state of health) and therefore cannot be thought fit to be used now, or applied in civil businesses; sometimes we say the Popes voice is in them all by his approbation; sometimes that only the voice of those authors from whom they are taken speaks in them. And accordingly we deliver divers and various
Philosyphy
upon our
Gratian
who compiled them; sometimes we allow him the honor and dignity of
Diamonds
and the nobler sort of stones, which have both their clearness and their firmness from this, for that they are compacted of less parts and atoms then others are: and so is
Gratian;
whom for the same cause, sometimes
we account but a hill of many sands cast together, and very unfit to receive any foundation. I must confess that the
Fathers
of our
Order,
out of a youthful fierceness which made them dare and undertake anything (for our
Order
was scarce at years at that time) did amiss in inducing the
Council
of
Trent
to establish certain
Rules
and
Definitions
from which it might not be lawful to depart: for indeed there is no remedy but that sometimes we must depart from them: nor can it be dissembled that both the writers of our
Order,
and the
Dominicans
have departed from them in that great war and
Tragedy
lately raised at
Rome
about
Grace
and
Freewill:
For it is not our purpose that the writings of our men should be so ratified that they may not be changed so that they be of our
Order
which change them: so by the same liberty which
Daemon Johannes
hath taken in delivering
the King of
Britain
from the danger of
Deposition; (because as yet no sentence is given against him)
and also from many other
Canons
which others think may justly be discharged against him, it will be as lawful for us, when that
Kingdom
shall be enough stupefied with this our
Opium
to restore those
Canons
to their former vigor, and to awake that state out of her
Lethargy,
either with her own heat, intestine war, or by some
Medicine
drawn from other places: for
Princes
have all their securities from our indulgence, and from the slack and gentle interpretation of the
Canons:
they are but privileges which since they are derived, and receive life from us, they may be by us diminished, revoked and annulled: for as it was lawful for
Mariana
to depart from the doctrine of the
Council
of
Constance,
so it was lawful for
Cotton
to depart from
Mariana,
which notwithstanding, we
would have only lawful for our
Order
to whom it is given to know times and secrets of state: for we see the
Sorbonists
themselves (which may seem to have an
Aristocratical papacy
amongst themselves) though they labored to destroy the doctrine of
Mariana,
did yet wisely forbear to name him or any other
Jesuit,
which was a modesty that I did not hope for at their hands; since before I died they made one
Decree
against me:
but yet therein I think somewhat may be attributed to my patience and providence; who knowing their strength and our own infancy, forbad all of my
Order
to make any answer to that
Decree
of theirs: neither were we so
Herculean
as to offer to strangle Serpents in our cradle. But yet since after that time they have been often provoked by our men: (for I gave not so Iron a
Rule
and
Precepts
to my
Disciple
as
Francis
did to his, who would not have his
Rule applied to times & to new occasions) certainly they might have been excused if they had been at this time sharper against us. And if the
Parliament
of
Paris
thought it not fit to carry the matter so modestly in their
Arrest
against
Mariana,
but made both the
Book
and the
Doctrine,
and the
Man
infamous: what should we say more of it, but that it is a
Giant
and a wild beast which our men could never tame, for still it cries and howles,
The Pope is bound
to proceed lawfully and Canonically:
and this they maliciously interpret of their own Laws, and of ancient
Canons,
which they hope to bring in to use again, by an insensible way of
Arrest
and
Sentences
in that
Court.
This then is the point of which we accuse
Machiavell,
that he carried not his Myne so safely but that the enemy perceived it still. But we who have received the
Church
to be as a ship, do freely sail in the deep sea; we have
an
Ancor,
but we have not cast it yet, but keep it ever in our power to cast it and weigh it at our pleasure. And we know well enough that as to sailing ships, so to our sailing Church, all rocks, all promontories, all firm and fast places are dangerous, and threaten shipwreck, and therefore to be avoided; and liberty and searoom to be affected; yet I do not obstinately say that there is nothing in
Machiavels Commentary
which may be of use to this Church. Certainly there is very much; but we are not men of that poverty that we need beg from others, nor dignify those things with our praises which proceed not from ourselves. The Senate of
Rome
gave us heretofore a noble example of this temperance and abstinence, which therefore refused to place
Christ
amongst their
gods,
because the matter was proposed by the
Emperor,
and begun not in themselves.
As for that Particular wherein
Machiavel
useth especially to glory; which is that he brought in the liberty of dissembling and lying, it hath neither foundation nor color: For not only
Plato
and other fashioners of
Commonwealths,
allowed the liberty of lying to Magistrates
and to Physicians; but we also considering the Fathers of the Church,
Origen, Chrysostom, Jerome,
have not only found that Doctrine in them, but we have also delivered them from all imputation and reprehension by this evasion,
That it was lawful for them to maintain that opinion till some definition of the Church had established the contrary:
Which certainly (though this should not be so openly spoken of) as yet was never done. But yet we have departed from this doctrine of free lying, though it were received in practice, excused by the Fathers, strengthened by examples of Prophets and Angels in the Scriptures, and so almost
established by the Law of
Nations
and
Nature;
only for this reason, because we were not the first
Authors
of it. But we have supplied this loss with another doctrine less suspicious; and yet of as much use for our Church; which is
Mental reservation,
and
Mixt propositions.
The liberty therefore of lying is neither new nor safe, as almost all
Machiavels
precepts are so stale and obsolete, that our
Serarius
using I must confess, his Jesuitical liberty of wild anticipation,
did not doubt to call
Herod
who lived so long before
Machiavel,
a
Machiavelian.
But that at one blow we may cut off all his reasons and all his hopes, this I affirm, this I pronounce, That all his books and all his deeds tend only to this, that thereby a way may be prepared to the ruin and destruction of that part of this kingdom which is established at
Rome:
for what else doth he endeavor or go about, but to change the
form of Common-wealth, and so to deprive the people (who are a soft, a liquid, and ductile metal, and apter for our impressions) of all their liberty, and having so destroyed all civility and re-public, to reduce all States to Monarchies; a name which in secular States, we do so much abhor,
(I cannot say it without tears) but I must say it, that not any one Monarch is to be found, which either hath not withdrawn himself wholly from our kingdom, or wounded and endamaged in some weighty point; hereupon our
Cotton
confesseth, that the authority of the Pope is incomparably less then it was, and that now the
Christian Church,
(which can agree to none but the
Romans)
is but a diminutive. And hereupon also it is, that the Cardinals, who were wont to meet oftener, meet now but once in a week,
because the businesses of the
Court
of
Rome
grow fewer. To
forbear therefore mentioning of the Kings of
Britain
&
Denmark,
and the other Monarchs of the first sort, which have utterly cast off
Rome;
even in
France,
our enemies are so much increased that they equal us almost in number: and for their strength, they have this advantage above us, that they agree within themselves and are at unity with their neighbor Reformed
Churches;
whereas our men which call themselves
Chatholick
there, do so much differ from the
Roman Catholic
that they do not only prefer Councils, but even the
King
before the
Pope,
and ever more oppose those their two great
Giants Gog,
and
Magog,
their Parliament of
Paris,
and their
College
of
Sorbon,
against all our endeavors. Besides all this, we languish also miserably in
Spain,
where
Clergy-men, if they
break their fealty to their Lord, are accused of treason;
where
Ecclesiastical persons are subject
to secular judgment
and,
if they
•…
e sa
•…
rilegious, are burnt by the Ordinary Magistrate;
which are doctrines and practices, contrary and dangerous to us. And though they will seem to have given almost half the Kingdom to the Church, and so to have divided equally: yet those Grants are so infected, with pensions and other burdens by which the Kings servants,
〈◊〉
the younger sorts of great persons are maintained, that this greatness of the Church there, is rather a dropsy then a sound state of health established by well-concocted nourishment, and is rather don to cast an envy upon the Church, then to give any true majesty to it. And even in usurping
Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction;
the Kings of
Spain
have not only exceeded the kings of
France,
but also of
Britany; For
(says
Baronius
of that King)
there is now risen up
a new head, a monster and a wonder: He Excommunicates, and
he Absolves, And he practiseth this power even against Bishops, and Cordinals. He stops Appeals, and he acknowledges no superiority in the Sea of Rome, but only in case of Prevention:
And therefore, the name Monarch, is a hateful and execrable name to us. Against which,
Baronius
hath thundered with such viol
•…
e, such
•…
ercheffe, and such
•…
nesse, that I could hardly, add anything thereunto, if I should speak (unspeakable
Emperor)
with thine own tongue for he calls it an
A
•…
lterine name,
and a
Tower of Babel,
and threatens destruction to that King (though himself were his subject) except he for, bear the name. In the mean time, he resolves him to be a
Tyrant,
and pronounces him to stand yearly excommunicate by the
Bulla Coenae.
Neither doth he offer to defend himself with any other excuse, when a Cardinal reprehended his fierceness toward the King then this;
An
Imperious zeal hath no power to
spare God himself.
And yet he confesseth, that this zeal was kindled by the
Popes special command,
and by his
Oath
taken, as Cardinal. Neither hath our
Bellarmine
almost any other cause of advancing
Monarchical
government so much as he doth, then thereby to remove all Secular men from so great a dignity, and to reserve it only to the
Church.
It was therefore well done of that
Rebullus
(who now begins to be known in this State) when having surfeited with calumnies against the
French
Church and her Ministers, he hath dared of late to draw his Pen, and to join battle against a most puissant foreign Prince: he did well (I say) and fitly, when he called
Bellarmine
and
Baronius, The Sword and Buckler
of the Roman Church.
And I cannot choose but thank him for affording the Title of
Sword
to our
Order;
as well, because after so many Expositions of
those words,
(Behold, here are two swords)
which our side hath gathered, to establish a temporal Jurisdiction in the
Pope,
and which our Adversaries have removed, worn out, or scorned, this man hath relieved us with a new, and may seem to intend by the
two swords,
the
Popes Excommunications,
and the
Jesuits Assassinates,
and
King-killings;
as also because he hath reserved to our
Order
that sovereign dignity, that as God himself was pleased, to defend his Paradise with fire and sword, so we stand watchful upon the borders of our Church not only provided, as that
Cherubin
was with fire and sword, but with the later Invention of
Gunpouder;
about the first inventour whereof I wonder, why
Antiquaries
should contend, whether it were the
Devil
or a
Friar,
since that may be all one. But as (O unspeakable
Emperor)
you have almost in all things endeavored to imitate God: so have you most thoroughly performed it in
us; for when God attempted the
Reformation
of his Church, it became you also to reform yours. And accordingly by your
Capuchins,
you did reform your
Franciscans,
which before we arose, were your chiefest Laborers and Workmen: and after, you reformed your
Capuchins,
by your
Recolets.
And when you perceived that in the Church God, some men proceeded so far in that Reformation, that they endeavored to draw out, not only all the peccant and dangerous humors, but all her beauty, and extorior grace and ornament, and even her vital spirits with her corrupt blood, and so induce a leanness and ill-favourednesse upon her, and thought to cure a rigid coldness with a Fever; you also were pleased to follow that
example, and so in us did reform and awaken to higher enterprises the dispositions as well of the
Circumcellions
as of the
Assassins:
for we do not limit our
selves in that low degree of the
Circumcellions,
when we urge and provoke others to put us to death; not of the
Assassins,
which were hired to kill some Kings which passed through their quarter: so we exceed them both, because we do these things voluntarily for nothing, and everywhere. And as we will be exceeded by none in the thing itself: so to such things as may seem mystical and significant, we oppose mystical things. And so lest that
Canon; That no Clergy-man should wear
a knife with a point,
might seem to concern us, by some prophetical relation, we in our
Rules
have opposed this precept,
That our knife be often whetted,
and so kept in an apt readiness for all
uses: for our divination lies in the contemplation of entrails; in which, Art we are thus much more subtle then those amongst the old
Romans,
that we consider not the entrails of
Beasts,
but the entrails of
Souls,
in confessions,
and the
E
•…
trails
of
Princes
in treasons whose hearts we do not believe to be with us till we see them: let therefore this prattling
Secretary
hold his tongue, and be content that his Book be had in such reputation as the world affords to an
Ephemerider
or yearly
Almanac,
which being accommodated to certain places and certain times, may be of some short use in some certain place and let the
Ru
•…
s
and
〈◊〉
of his Disciples like the
Canons of Provincial Councils,
be of force there where they were made; but only ours which pierce and pass through all: the world, retai
•…
the strength and vigo
•…
of
Universal Councils.
Let him enjoy some honorable place amongst the
Gentiles;
but abstain from all of our sides: neither when I say,
Ou
•…
side,
do I only mean modern men: for in all times in the
Roman
Church there have been
Friers
which have far ex ceeded
Machiavel.
Truly I thought this Oration of
Ignatius
very long: and I began to think of my body which I had so long abandoned, lest it should putrefy, or grow mouldy, or be buried; yet I was loath to leave the Stage till I saw the Play ended. And I was in hope that if any such thing should befall my body, the Jesuits, who work
Miracles
so familiarly, and whose reputation I was so careful of in this matter, would take compassion upon me, and restore me again. But as I had sometimes observed,
Feathers or staws swim on the watersface,
Brought to the Bridge, where through a narrow place
The water passes, thrown back, and delayed;
And having danc'd awhile, and nimbly plaid
Upon the watery circles, Then have been
By the streams liquid snares, and jaws sucked in,
And sunk into the womb of that swoln bourn,
Leave the beholder desperate of return:
So I saw
Machiavel
often put forward, and often thrust back, and at last vanish. And looking earnestly upon
Lucifers
countenance, I perceived him to be affected towards
Ignatius,
as
Princes,
who though they envy and grudge that their great Officers should have such immoderate means to get wealth; yet they dare not complain of it, lest thereby they should make them odious and contemptible to the people: so that
Lucifer
now suffered a new
Hell:
that is, the danger of a
Popular Devil,
vainglorious, and inclined to Innovations there. Therefore he determined to withdraw himself into his inward chamber and to admit none but
Ignatius:
for he could not exclude him who had deserved so well; neither did he think it safe to stay without, and give him more occasions to amplify his own worth, and undervalue all: them there in public, and
before so many vulgar
Devils.
But as he rose, a whole Army of souls besieged him. And all which had invented any new thing, even in the smallest matters, thronged about him; and importuned an admission. Even those which had but invented new attire for women and those whom
Pancirollo
hath recorded in his
Commentaries
for invention of
Porcellan Dishes,
of
Spectacles,
of
Quintans,
of
Stirrups,
and of
Cavi
•…
ri,
thrust themselves into the troop. And of those which pretended that they had
squared the Circle,
the number was infinite.
But Ignatius
scattered all this cloud quickly by commanding, by chiding, by deriding, by force and violence. Amongst the rest, I was sorry to see him use
Peter Aretine
so ill as he did: For though
Ignatius
told him true when he boasted of his licentious pictures, that because he was not much learned, he had left out many things of that kind, with which the ancient Histories and Poems
abound: and that therefore
Areti
•…
had not only not added any new invention, but had also, taken away all courage and spu
•…
from youth, which would rashly trust and nely upon his dillgence, and seek no further, and so lose that
〈◊〉
on
•…
preti
•…
〈◊〉
suoe of
•…
quity. He
•…
ed moreove
•…
, that though
〈◊〉
,
and others of his
Order,
did use to gold
P
•…
ts
and other
〈◊〉
and here I could not
•…
huse but wonder, why they have not gel
•…
ed their
〈◊〉
Ed
•…
on,
which in some places hath such obse
•…
e
words as the
Hebrew
•…
gne, which is therefore also called
〈◊〉
, doth so much ahhor, that
〈◊〉
〈◊〉
things can be
•…
ed in it, info
•…
uch
〈◊〉
(as one of them very sub
•…
y notes) the
〈◊〉
of
Venus
is very seldom called
•…
hy that name in
〈◊〉
for how could
〈◊〉
wood being not in
〈◊〉
yet (said h
•…
)
〈◊〉
men do not g
•…
ld them to that p
•…
rpose that the memory thereof should he abolished: but that
when themselves had first tried whether
Tiberius
his
Spintria,
and
Martialis Symphlegma,
and others of that kind, were not rather
Chymera's,
and speculations of luxuriant wits, then things certain and constant, and such as might b
•…
educed to an Art and method in licentiousness, (for Jesuits never content themselves with the
Theory
in anything, but straight proceed to practice) they might after communicate them to their own
Disciples
and
Novitiates:
for this Church is fruitful in producing
Sacraments
and being now loaded with
divine sacraments,
it produces
Moral Sacraments.
In which, as in the Divine, it binds the
Laity
to one
Species;
but they reserve to themselves the divers forms, and the secrets and mysteries in this matter, which they find in the
Authors
whom they geld. Of which kind I think they give a little glimmering and intimation, when in the life of their last made
Coddesse, Francisc
•…
Roman,
they
say,
That the Bed where she lay
with her Hisband, was a perpetual Martyrdom to her, and a shop of miracles.
But for all this, since
Aretine
was one, who by a long custom of libellous and contumelious speaking against Princes, had got such a habit, that at last he came to diminish and disesteem God himself. I wonder truly, that this
Arch-Jesuit,
though he would not admit him to any eminent place in his
Triumphant Church,
should deny him an office of lower estimation: For truly to my thinking he might have been fit, either to serve
Ignatius,
as
Master of his pleasures,
or
Lucifer
as his
Cryer:
for whatsoever
Lucifer
durst think, this man durst speak. But
Ignatius,
who thought himself sufficient for all uses, thrust him away, and when he offered upward, offered his staff at him: Nor did he use
Christopher Columbus
with any better respect; who having found all ways in the earth and sea open to him, did
not fear any difficulty in
Hell,
but when he offered to enter
Ignatius
staid him, and said,
You must remember sir, that if this kingdom have got anything by the discovery of the
West Indies,
all that must be attributed to our
Order:
for if the opinion of the
Dom
•…
eans
had prevailed,
That the Inhabitants should be reduced only by preaching and without violence,
certainly their 200000 of men would scarce in so many ages have been brought to 150 which by our means was so soon performed. And if the Law made by
Ferdinando
only against
Cannibals; That all which would not be Christians should be bond slaves,
had not been extended into other Provinees, we should have lacked men to dig us out that benefit which their Countries afford. Except we when we took away their old Idolatry, had recompensed them with a new one of o
•…
, except we had obtruded to those ignorant and barbarous people,
sometimes natural things, sometimes artificial, and counterfeit instead of miracles, and except we had been always ready to convey and to apply this Medicine made of this precious
American
dung unto the Princes of
Europe,
and their
Lord,
and
Counselors,
the profit by the only discovery of these places (which must of necessity be referred to fortune) would have been very
•…
le; yet I praise your perseverance and your patience which (since that seems to be your principal virtue) you shall have good occasion to exercise here, when you remain in a lower and remote
•…
place, then you think belongs to your merits.
But although
Lucifer
being put into a heat and almost smothered with this troop and deluge of pretenders, seemed to have admitted
Ignatius
as his
Lieatenant,
or
Legat
•…
ere,
and trusted him with an absolute power of doing what he would, yet he quickly spied his own error
and danger thereby. He began to remember how forcibly they use to urge the
Canon Alius;
by which the King of
France
is said to have been deposed, not for his wickedness, but for his
infirmity and unfitness to govern: and that Kings do forfeit their dignity if they give themselves to other matters, and leave the government of the State to their Officers. Therefore
Lucifer
thought it time for him to enter into the business, lest at last
Ignatius
should prescribe therein; by which title of prescription he well knew, how much the Church of
Rome
doth advance and defend itself against other Princes. And though he seemed very thankful to
Ignatius
for his delivery from this importunate company, yet when he perceived that his purpose was to keep all others out, he thought the case needed greater consideration; For though he had a confidence in his own
Patriarchs
which had long before possessed that place, and in whose company
(as an
Abbot
said to the
Devil,
who after long intermission, now tempted him)
he was grown old,
and doubted not but that they would defend their right, and oppose themselves against any innovation which
Ignatius
should practice, yet if none but he in a whole age should be brought in, he was afraid that this singularity would both increase his courage and spirit, and their reverence and respect towards him. Casting therefore his eyes into every corner, at last a great way off he spied
Philip Nerius:
who acknowledging in his own particular no especial merit towards this kingdom, forbore to press nearer the gate, but
Lucifer
called to his remembrance, that
Nerius
and all that
Order,
of which he was the
Author,
which is called
Congregatio Oratorii,
were erected, advanced, and dignified by the
Pope,
principally to this end, that by their incessant Sermons to the people, of the lives of Saints, and other
Ecclesiastic
Antiquities,
they might get a new reputation, and so the torrent, and general superstition towards the
Jesuits
might grow a little remisser, and Iuke-warm, for at that time the Pope himself began to be afraid of the Jesuits, for they begun to publish their
Paradox of Confession and absolution to be given by letters, and Messengers,
and by that means to draw the secrets of all Princes only to themselves; And they had tried and solicited a great
Monarch
who hath many designs upon
Italy
against the Pope and delivered to that Prince divers Articles, for the reforming of him. Now the
Pope
and
Lucifer
love ever to follow one another's example: And therefore that which the one had done in the middle world, the other attempted in the lower. Hereupon he called for
Philip, Nerius,
and gave him many evidenoes of a good inclination towards him. But
Nerius
was too stupid to interpret them aright. Yet
Ignatius
spied them, and before
Lucifer
should declare himself any further, or proceed too far herein, lest after he were farengaged, there should be no way to avert or withdraw him from his own propositions (for he saw there must be respect had of his honor and constancy) he thought it fittest to oppose now at the beginning. He said therefore, that
he now perceived that
Lucifer
had not been altogether so much conversant with
Philip,
as with the
•…
esuirs,
since he knew not how much
Philip
had ever professed himself an enemy to him
For he did not only deny all visions and apparitions,
and commanded one to spit in
Mary's
face when she appeared again, because he thought it was the
Devil;
And drove away another that came to tempt a sick man, in the shape of a Physician;
and was hardly drawn to believe any possessings; but
when three
Devils
did meet him in the way,
to afright him, he neither thought them worthy of any
Exorcismes,
nor so much as the sign of the Cross, but merely went by them, as though he scorned to look at them, and so despighted them with that negligence. It may be that he hath drawn others into Religion, but himself remained then in the
Laity;
in so much as I remember, that
I used to call him
The Saints bell,
that hangs without, and calls others into the
Church.
Neither do they which follow this
Order,
bind themselves with any
vow
or
oath;
Neither do I know anything for which this
kingdom is beholding to him, but that
〈◊〉
moved
Baronius to write his Annals.
To all this
Nerius
said nothing, as though it had been spoken of somebody else. Without doubt, either he never knew, or had forgot that he had done those things which they write of him. But
Lucifer
himself took
the boldness (having with some difficulty got
Ignatius
leave) to take
Nerius
his part: and proceeded so far, that he adventured to say,
That
Baronius, Bozius
and others, which proceeded out of the
Hive
of
Nerius,
had used a more free, open, and hard fashion against
Princes,
and better provided for the
Popes direct jurisdiction
upon all kingdoms, and more stoutly defended it than they, which undertaking the cause more tremblingly then becomes the Majesty of so great a business, adhered to
Bellarmine's
sect, and devised such crooked ways, and such perplexed intanglings, as by reason of the various and uncertain circumstances, were of no use: And that whatsoever
Nerius
his
Scholars
had performed, must be attributed to him, as the fruit to the root.
Ignatius
perceiving that
Lucifer
undertook all offices for
Nerius,
and became Judge, Advocate, and Witness, pursuing his former
resolution, determined to interrupt him lest when he had enlarged himself in
Nerius
commendation, he should thereby be bound to a reward. He therefore cried out,
What hath
Nerius
done? what hath he or his followers put in execution? have they not ever been only exercised in speculations, and in preparatory doctrines? Are these books which are written of the Jurisdiction of the Pope, to any better use than Physicians Lectures of Diseases, and of Medicines? whilst these Receits lie hid in Physicians books and nobody goes to the Patient; nobody applies the Medicines to the Disease. What good, what profit comes by all this? what part, what member of this languishing body have they undertaken? In what Kingdom have they corrected these humors which offend the Pope, either by their Incision or cauterising? what state have they cut up into an Anatomy? what
Sceliton on have they provided for the instruction of posterity? Do they hope to cure their diseases by talking and preaching as it were with charms and enchantments? If
Nerius
shall be thought worthy of this honor, and this place, because out of his Scholars writings something may be gleaned, which may be applied to this purpose, why should we not have
Bez
•…
and
Caloin,
and the rest of that sort here in hell, since in their books there may be some things found which may be rested to this purpose? But since their scope was not to extirpate Monarchies, since they published no such Canons and
Aphorisms
as might be applied to all ca
•…
es, and so brought into certain use and consequence, but limited theirs to circumstances which seldom fall out, since they delivered nothing dangerous to Princes, but where in their opinion, the Soveraigntie resides in the
People,
or in certain
Ephory,
since they never said, that this power to violate the person of a Prince, might either be taken by any private man, or committed to him, and that therefore none of their Disciples hath ever boasted of having done anything upon the person of his Sovereign: we see that this place hath ever been shut against them: there have been some few of them (though I can scarce afford those men the honor to number them with
Knox
and
Goodman,
and
Buchanan)
which following our examples, have troubled the peace of some States, and been injurious to some Princes, and have been admitted to some place in this Kingdom; but since they have performed nothing with their hands nor can excuse themselves by saying, they were not able: (for wherein was
Clement,
or
Ravillac
more able than they, or what is not he able to do in the middesof an Army, who despiseth
his own life? they scarce ever aspire, or offer at this secret and sacred
Chamber. Lucifer
had a purpose to have replied to this: That perchance all their hands which had been imbrued in the bowels of Princes were not so immediately armed by the
Jesuits,
as that they were ever present at all consultations and resolutions: (and yet he meant to say this, not as sworn witness, but as
Lucifer
himself, and the father of lies, in which capacity he might say anything.) But that it was enough that Confessors do so possess them with that doctrine that it is not now proposed to them as
Physic,
but as natural food, and ordinary diet; and that therefore for the performance of these things, a
Jesuits
person is no more requisite, then that the heart of a man, because it sends forth spirits into every limb, should therefore be present in every limb: that when
it was in use for the
Consuls
of
Rome
for the the safety of their Country and army, to devote themselves over to the infernal
God,
it was lawful for themselves to abstain and forbear the Act, and they might appoint any Soldier for that
Sacrifice:
and that so the
Jesuits
for the performance of their resolutions, might stir up any amongst the people: (for now they enjoy all the privileges of the
Franciscans,
who say;
That the name
of People, comprehends all which are not of their Order;)
And that if this be granted,
Nerius
his Scholars are inferior to none; with whose books (if all the
Jesuits
should perish) the Church might content her self, and never fear dearth nor leanness.
This
Lucifer
would have spoken; but he thought it better and easier to forbear: for he observed, that
Ignatius
had given a sign, and that all his troupes which were many, subtle, and busy, set up their bristles, g
•…
mbled, and compacted themselves into
one body, gathered, produced, and urged all their evidence, whatsoever they had done, or suffered. There the
English Legion,
which was called
Capestrata,
which
Campian
led, and (as I think)
Garnet
concluded, was fiercer than all the the rest. And as though there had been such a second
Martirdome
to have been suffered, or as though they might have put off their
Immortallity,
they offered themselves to any employment. Therefore
Lucifer
gave
Nerius
a secret warning to withdraw himself, and spoke no more of him; and despairing of bringing in another, began earnestly to think, how he might leave
Ignatius
out. This therefore he said to him:
I am sorry my
Ignatius,
that I can neither find in others, deserts worthy of this place, nor any room in this place worthy of your deserts. If I might die, I see there would be no long strife for a Successor: For if you have not yet done that act which I did at first in
Heaven,
and thereby got this Empire, this may excuse you, that no man hath been able to tell you what it was: For if any of the
Ancients
say true when they call it
Pride,
or
Licentiousness,
or
Lying;
or if it be in any of the
Casuists,
which profess the Art of sinning, you cannot be accused of having omitted it. But since I may neither forsake this
kingdom,
nor divide it, this only remedy is left: I will write to the Bishop of
Rome,
he shall call
Galilaeo
the
Florentine
to him, who by this time bath thoroughly instructed himself of all the Hills, Woods, and Cities in the new world, the
Moon.
And since he effected so much with his first
Glasses,
that he saw the
Moon
in so near a distance, that he gave himself satisfaction of all, and the least parts in her, when now being
grown to more perfection in his Art, he shall have made new
Glasses
and they received a hallowing from the
Pope,
he may
draw the
Moon,
like a Boat floating upon the water, as near the Earth as he will. And thither (because they ever claim that those employments of discovery belong to them) shall all the
Jesuits
be transferred, and easily unite and reconcile the
Lunatick Church
to the
Roman Church:
without doubt, after the
Jesuits
have been there a little while, there will soon grow naturally a
Hell
in that world also: over which, you
Ignatius
shall have dominion, and establish your kingdom and dwelling there. And with the same ease as you pass from the earth to the
Moon,
you may pass from the
Moon
to the other
stars,
which are also thought to be worlds, and so you may beget and propagate many
Hels,
and enlarge your
Empire,
and come nearer unto that high seat, which I left at first.
had not the patience to stay till
Lucifer
had made an end; but as soon as he saw him pause, and
take breath, and look, first upon his face, to observe what changes were there, and after to cast his eye to another place in
Hell,
where a great noise was suddenly raised: he apprehended this intermission, and as though
Lucifer
had ended, he said:
That of
Lucifers
affection to the
Roman Church,
and to their
Order,
every day produced new Testimonies: and that this last was to be accounted as one of the greatest. That he knew well with how great devotion the Bishop of
Rome
did ever embrace and execute all councils proceeding from him: And that therefore he hoped, that he would reserve that employment for the
Jesuits
and that
Empire
for him their founder: and that he believed the
Pope
had thought of this before; and at that time when he put
Parsons
the
English Jesuit
in hope of a
Cardinalship,
he had certainly a reference to this place, and to this
Church:
That it would fall out shortly, that
all the damages, which the
Roman Church
hath lately suffered upon the earth, shall be recompensed only there. And that now this refuge was opened if she should be reduced into greater straits, or if she should be utterly exterminated, the world would not much lament and mourn for it. And for the entertainment of the
Jesuits
there, there can be no doubt made at this time, when, (although their profession be to enter whether Princes will or no) all the Princes of the World will not only graciously afford them leave to go, but willingly and cheerfully accompany them with Certificates, and Demissory letters. nor would they much resist it, if the Pope himself would vouchsafe to go with them, and so fulfill in some small measure, that Prophecy of his
Gerson, De Auferibilitate Papae.
Besides this, a woman governs there; of which sex they have
ever made their profit, which have attempted any
Innovation
in religion; with how much diligence were the two
Empresses, Pulcheria
and
Eudoxia,
solicited by the
Pope
for the establishing of
Easter?
how earnestly did both
Pelagius
and the
Pope
strive by their letters to draw the
Empress
to their side? For since
Julia
had that honor given to her in public coyns, that she was called
the Mother of the Army, the Mother of the God's, and of the Senate, and the Mother of her Country:
Why may not Women instructed by us, be called
Mothers of the Church?
Why may not we rely upon the Wit of Women, when once, the Church delivered over herself to a Woman-Bishop? and since we are reputed so fortunate in obtaining the favor of Women,
that Women are forbid to come into
our houses;
and we are forbid,
to take the charge of any Nunns;
since we have had so good experience
of their favor
•…
in all the
Indies,
or at least have thought it fit, that they which have the charge to write our anniversary letters from thence should make that boast, and add something to the truth, both because the ancient
Heretics
held that course in insinuating their opinions, and because they which are acquainted with our practices, will think anything credible, which is written of us in that behalf, why should we doubt of our fortune in this Queen, which is so much subject to alterations and passions? she languishes often in the absence of the Sun, and often in Eclipses falls into swounds, and is at the point of death. In these advantages we must play our parts, and put our devices in practice: for at these times anything may be drawn from her. Nor must we forbear to try what verses and incantations may work upon her: For in those things which the Poets writ
though they themselves did not believe them, we have since found many truths, and many deep mysteries: nor can I call to mind any woman which either deceived our hope, or escaped our cunning, but
Elizabeth
of
England;
who might the rather be pardoned that, because she had put off all affections of women. The principal dignity of which sex (which is to be a mother) what reason had she to wish or affect, since without those womanish titles, unworthy of her, of wife and mother, such an heir was otherwise provided for her, as was not fit to be kept any longer from the inheritance. But when I, who hate them, speak thus much in the honor of these two Princes, I find myself carried with the same fury as those beasts were, which our men say, did sometime adore the Host in the Mass. For it is against my will, that I pay thus much to the
Manes
of
Elizabeth;
from scorning of
which word
Manes,
when the King of great
Britain
writ it, I would our Parsons had forborne, since one of our own Jesuits useth the same word, when reprehending our adversaries, he says,
That they do insult upon
Garnets Manes.
And yet this
Elizabeth
was not free from all Innovation; For the ancient Religion was so much worn out, that to reduce that to the former dignity, and so to renew it, was a kind of Innovation: and by this way of Innovating she satisfied the infirmity of her sex, if she suffered any: for a little Innovation might serve her, who was but a little, a woman. Neither dare I say that this was properly an Innovation, lest thereby I should confess, that
Luther
and many others which live in banishment in
Heaven
far from us, might have a title to this place, as such Innovators. But we cannot doubt, but that this
lunatic Queen
will be more inclinable to our Innovations: for
our
Clavius
hath been long familiarly conversant with her: what she hath done from the beginning, what she will do hereafter, how she behaves herself toward her neighbor kingdoms, the rest of the stars, and all the planetary, and firmamentary worlds, with whom she is in league and amity, and with whom at difference, he is perfectly instructed, so he have his
Ephemerides
about him. But
Clavius
is too great a personage to be bestowed upon this
lunatic Queen,
either as her Counceller, or (which were more to our profit) as her Confessor. So great a man must not be cast away upon so small a matter. Nor have we any other besides, whom upon any occasion we may send to the Sun, or to the other worlds, beyond the world. Therefore we must reserve
Clavius
for greater uses. Our
Herbestus,
or
Busaus,
or
Voellus
(and these be all which have given any proof of their knowledge
in
Mathematics
although they be but tasteless, and childish, may serve to observe her aspects and motions, and to make
Catechisms
fit for this
lunatic Church:
for though
Garnet
had
Clavius
for his
Master,
yet he profited little in the Arts,
but being filled with
Bellarmine's Dictates,
(who was also his
Master)
his mind was all upon
Politicks.
When we are established there, this will add much to our dignity, that in our letters which we send down to the earth (except perchance the whole
Roman Church
come up to us into the
Moon)
we may write of what miracles we list: which we offered to do out of the
Indies,
and with good success, till one of our
Order,
in
simplicity, and ingenuity, fitter for a
Christian,
then a Jesuit, acknowledged and lamented that there were no
wiracles
done there. Truly it had been better for us to have spit all those five
Brothers, Acostas,
out of our
Order,
then that any one of them should have vomited this reproach against us. It is of such men as these in our
Order,
that our
Gretzer
says,
There is nobody without his Excrements,
because though they speak truth, yet they speak it too rawly. But as for this contemplation, and the establishing of that government, (though it be a pleasant consideration) we may neither pamper ourselves longer with it now, nor detain you longer therein. Let your
Greatness
write, let the
Pope
execute your counsel, let the
Moon
approach when you 2 think fit. In the mean time let me use this Chamber as a resting place. For though Pope
Gregory
were stricken by the Angel with a perpetual pain in his stomach and feet, because he compelled God by his prayers to deliver
Trajan
out of
Hell,
and transfer him to
Heaven,
and therefore God, by the mouth of
Gregory
took an assurance for
all his
Successors,
that they should never dare to request the like again: yet when the
Pope
shall call me back from hence, he can be in no danger, both because in this contract God cannot be presumed to have thought of me, since I never thought of him, and so the contract therein void; and because the condition is not broken, if I be not removed into
Heaven,
but transferred from an earthly
Hell
to a
Lunatique Hell.
More then this he could not be heard to speak: For that noise, of which I spoke before, increased exceedingly, and when
Lucifer
asked the cause, it was told him, That there was a soul newly arrived in
Hell,
which said, that the
Pope
was at last entreated to make
Ignatius
a Saint, and that he hastened his Canonization, as thinking it an unjust thing, that when all Artificers and profane Butchers had particular Saints to invocate, only these spiritual Butchers,
and
King-killers,
should have none.
For when the Jesuit
Cotton
in those questions which by virtue of his invisible privilege he had provided for a possessed person, amongst others, dangerous both to
England
and
France,
had inserted this question:
What shall I do for Ignatius his canonizing?
and found at last, that
Philip King of Spain,
and
Henry King of France,
contended by their Ambassadors at
Rome,
which of them should have the honor of obtaining his canonizing (for both pretending to be King of
Navarre,
both pretended that this right and honor belonged to him; and so both deluded the Jesuits:) For
D Alcala
a
Franciscan,
and
Penafort
a
Iacobite,
were by
Philip's
means canonized, and the Jesuit left out. At last he despaired of having any assistance from these Princes; nor did he think it convenient that a Jesuit should be so much beholding
to a King▪ since
Baronius
was already come to that height
and constancy, that being accused of some wrongs done to his King, he did not vouchsafe to write in his own excuse to the King, till the
Conclave
which was then held, was fully ended, lest (as himself gives the reason) if he had then been chosen
Pope,
it should be thought he had been beholden to the King therein. For these reasons therefore they labor the
Pope
themselves. They confess, that if they might choose, they had rather he should restore them into all which they had lost in
France
and
Venice,
then that
Ignatius
should be sent up into
Heaven;
and that the Pope was rather bound to do so, by the Order which God himself seems to have observed in the
Creation
where he first furnished the
Earth,
and then the
Heavens,
and confirmed himself to be the
Israeiltes God
by this
Argument,
that he had given them the Land of
Canaan
and other temporal blessings. But since this exceeded
the Popes omnipotence in earth;
it was fit he should try what he could do in
Heaven.
Now the
Pope
would fain have satisfied them with the Title of
Beatus,
which formerly upon the entreaty of the Princes of that
Family
he had afforded to
Aloisius Gonzaga
of that
Order.
He would also have given this Title of
Saint
rather to
Xaverius,
who had the reputation of having done
Miracles.
Indeed he would have done anything, so he might have slipped over
Ignatius.
But at last he is overcome; and so against the will of
Heaven,
and of the
Pope, Lucifer
himself being not very forward in it,
Ignatius
must be thrust in amongst the
Saints.
All this Discourse, I, being grown cunninger then that Doctor,
Gabriel Nele
(of whom
Bartolus
speaketh) that by the only motion of his lips, without any utterance, understood all men, perceived and read in every man's countenance there. These things as soon as
Lucifer
apprehended them, gave an end to the contention:
For now he thought he might no longer doubt nor dispute of
Ignatius
his admission, who, besides his former pretences, had now gotten a new right and Title to the place by his
Canonization;
and he feared that the
Pope
would take all delay ill at his hands, because
Canonization
is now grown a kind of
Declaration,
by which all men may take knowledge, that such a one to whom the Church of
Rome
is much beholden, is now made partaker of the principal dignities and places in
Hell:
For these men ever make as though they would follow
Augustine
in all things, and therefore they provide that that also shall be true which he said in this point,
That the Relics of many are honored upon earth, whose souls are tormented in Hell.
Therefore he took
Ignatius
by the hand, and led him to the Gate. In the mean time, I, which doubted of the truth of this Report of his Canonizing, went a little out for further instruction:
for I thought it scarce credible, that
Paulus Quintus,
who had but lately burdened both the City of
Rome,
and the
Church,
with so great expenses, when he canonized
Francisca Romana,
would so easily proceed to canonize
Ignatius
now, when neither any Prince offered to bear the charge, nor so much as solicited it: for so he must be focred to wast both the
Treasures of the Church
at once. And from
Leo
3. who 800 years after Christ, is the first
Pope
which canonized any, I had not observed that this had ever been done: Neither do I think that
Paulus Quintus
was drawn to the canonizing of this woman by any other respect, then because that
Rule
which she appointed to her
Order, was dictated and written by
S. Paul:
For though
Peter
and
Magdalene,
and others, were present at the writing thereof, as witnesses, yet
Paul
was the
Author
thereof. And since St
Paul's
old
Epistles
trouble and disadvantage this Church, they were
glad to apprehend anything of his new writing which might be for them, that so this new work of his might bear witness of his second conversion to
Papistry,
since by his first conversion to
Christianity,
they got nothing: for to say that in this business
Paulus Quintus could not choose but be God, God himself
to say
that he must needs have lived familiarly with the Godhead: and must have heard Predestination itself whispering to him: and must have had a place to sit in Council with the most Divine Trinity,
(all which
Valaderius
says of him, is not necessary in this matter, wherein the Popes for the most part proceed, as human affections lead them. But at last, after some enquiry, I found that a certain idle
Gazettior,
which used to scrape up news and rumors at
Rome,
and so to make up sale letters, vainer & falser then the
Jesuits letter
of
Iapan
and the
Indies,
had brought this news to
Hell,
and a little Jesuitical
Novice,
a credulous soul,
received it by his implicit faith, and published it. I laughed at
Lucifers
easiness to believe, and I saw no reason ever after, to accuse him of infidelity. Upon this I came back again, to spy (if the gates were still open) with what affection
Ignatius,
and they who were in ancient possession of that place, behaved themselves towards one another. And I found him yet in the porch, and there beginning a new contention: for having presently cast his eyes to the principal place, next to
Lucifers
own
Throne;
and finding it possessed he stopped
Lucifer,
and asked him who it was that sat there. It was answered that it was
Pope Boniface:
to whom▪ as to a principal Innovator, for having first challenged the name of
Universal Bishop,
that honor was afforded. Is he an Innovator thundered
Ignatius?
shall I suffer this, when all my disciples have labored all this while to prove to the world, that all the
Popes
before his time did
use that name? and that
Gregory
did not reprehend the
Patriarch John
for taking to himself an Antichristian name, but for usurping a name which was due to none but the
Pope.
And could it be fit for you,
Lucifer
(who in this were either unmindful of the
Roman Church,
or else too weak and incapable of her secrets and mysteries) to give way to any fentence in
Hell,
which (though it were according to truth) yet differed from the
Jesuits Oracles?
With this
Ignatius
flies upwards, and rushes upon
Boniface,
and throws him out of his Seat: and
Lucifer
went up with him as fast, and gave him assistance, lest, if he should forsake him, his own Seat might be endangered. And I returned to my body; which
As a flower wet with last nights dew, and then
Warm'd with the new Sun, doth shake off agen
All drowsiness, and raise his trembling Crown,
Which crookedly did languish, and stoop down
To kiss the earth, and panted now to find
Those beams returned, which had not long time shined.
was with this return of my soul sufficiently refreshed. And when I had seen all this, and considered how fitly and proportionally
Rome
and
Hell
answered one another, after I had seen a
Jesuit
turn the
Pope
out of his
Chair
in
Hell,
I suspected that that
Order
would attempt as much at
Rome.
An Apology for
Jesuits.
NOw it is time to come to the
Apology
for
Jesuits:
that is, it is time to leave speaking of them, for he favors them most, which says least of them; Nor can any man, though he had declaimed against them till all the sand of the sea were run through his hour-glass, lack matter to add of their practices. If any man have a mind to add anything to this
Apology,
he hath my leave; and I have therefore left room for three or four
lines, which is enough for such a paradox; and more than
Iungius, Scribanius, Gretzerus, Richeomus, Cydonius,
and all the rest which are used to
Apologies,
and almost tired with a defensive war, are able to employ, if they will write only
good
things, and
true,
of the
Jesuits.
Neither can they comfort themselves with this, That
Cato
was called to his answer four and forty times: for he was so many times acquitted, which both the
Parliaments
of
England
and
France
deny of the
Jesuits.
But if any man think this
Apology
too short, he may think the whole book an
Apology,
by this rule of their own,
That it is their greatest argument of innocence to be accused by us.
At this time, whilst they are yet somewhat
able to do some harm in some places, let them make much of this
Apology.
It will come to pass shortly, when as they have been despoiled and expelled at
Venice,
and shaked and fanned in
France,
so they will be forsaken of other
Princes,
and then their own weakness will be their
Apology,
and they will grow harmless out of necessity, and that which
Vegetius
said
of Chariots armed with sithes ond hooks, will be applied to the Jesuits,
at first they were a terror, and after a scorn.
FINIS.