Compendium politicum, or, The distempers of government under these two heads, the nobilities desire of rule, the commons desire of liberty : with their proper remedies, in a brief essay on the long reign of King Henry III / by J.Y. of Grayes-Inne, Esq. Yalden, John. 1680 Approx. 86 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 52 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2006-02 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A67820 Wing Y6 ESTC R12598 12592098 ocm 12592098 63976 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A67820) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 63976) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 971:23) Compendium politicum, or, The distempers of government under these two heads, the nobilities desire of rule, the commons desire of liberty : with their proper remedies, in a brief essay on the long reign of King Henry III / by J.Y. of Grayes-Inne, Esq. Yalden, John. Cotton, Robert, Sir, 1571-1631. Short view of the long life and raigne of Henry the Third. [22], 80 p. Printed for Robert Clavel ..., London : 1680. Reproduction of original in Bodleian Library. Based on Sir Robert Cotton's A short view of the long life and raigne of Henry the Third. Errata: p. [22] Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. 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Great Britain -- History -- Henry III, 1216-1272. 2005-08 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-09 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-10 Jonathan Blaney Sampled and proofread 2005-10 Jonathan Blaney Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-01 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion COMPENDIUM POLITICUM , OR ; THE Distempers of Government , Under these two Heads , The Nobilities Desire of RULE . The Commons Desire of LIBERTY . With their proper Remedies , in a brief Essay on the long Reign of King HENRY III. By J. Y. of Grayes-Inne , Esq 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Arist : Ethic. lib. 1. cap. 1. Ars omnis , itemque actio , & propositum aliquod bonum experete videtur . LONDON , Printed for Robert Clavel , at the Sign of the Peacock in St. Paul's Church-yard 1680. To his most Honoured Uncle , but more worthy Friend , Mr. THOMAS STOCK of Upham in the County of Southampton , Gent. WHither should we fly for succour against approaching dangers but to such whose goodness and ability hath both sheltered and protected us heretofore ? 'T is hard for a Cock-boat to venture to confront a Storm , when the ablest Ship must be in a great deal of danger . These Tempestuous times seem to threaten Shipwrack to the Common-wealth her self , and what must a single member thereof expect , when he steers himself betwixt the violence of Opposite Interests and Factions ? Liberty ! Liberty ! was too lately the Cry , when in the consequence the whole Kingdom laboured under the greatest Tyranny and Slavery ; and those that affect the People with that , surprise them to their own purposes , in the unjust and covert propagation of their own affected Superiority : Thus you see the Rocks on both sides , and from your exemplary moderation I have studied and learned an impartial guidance in these distractions of time . Happy is he who can discriminate his Judgement , and ( in these times ) anchor his Affections in the blessed Haven of Peace , and infallible impartiallity . We ought to be as sollicitous about the lawfulness of the means , as about the goodness of the end ; It is a rule in Ethics that Bonum oritur ex integris , and in Christ's Schole , that We must not do evil that good may come of it ; and we may possibly prevent future cousenage , if we examine the Lawfulness of every circumstance leading to the end propounded , before we are tickled and transported with the beauty of the pretence . This Armour I have always thought and learned from your excellent Example , and from the Principles laid down by the best Authors to be Faction proof . This Compendium as your Relation claimes your Care ; and under that pretence the Author is emboldned to thrust it into your Closset . It claimes your perusal , because it is Political , and strikes at the Root of such Errors as are too frequently visible both in the Prince and People : Under the Government of the first you are concerned in respect to the King's Care , as your Sovereign , and under the Obedience of the latter , with relation to your Duty , and Allegiance as his Subject . It had been needless to have writ any Epistle at all , had I had no designe more necessary , than that of commenting on my Labour ( the full Bulk whereof extending it self not beyond the bigness of a moderate Dedication ) But the most enforcing enducement was that of taking hold on this occasion publickly to exert my gratitude . And that the World may know how much I am obliged always to render my self , Your most faithful Friend and affectionate Nephew JOHN YALDEN. Grayes-Inne Feb. 8. 1679. TO THE READER . READER , I Must first be so just to my self as to avoid Pliny's malediction a-against those Thieves who will steal even an whole Author , and not so much as add to the sense one Paragraph , or alter one Syllable in the Phrase , Reprehensione dignum est , Majorum tacere nomina , & eorum sibi appropriare ingenia . Whereas ( saith the same Author ) Benignum etenim est & plenum ingenui pudoris fateri per quos profeceris ; Nevertheless I can only tell thee this , that I have changed both the Phrase ( to a finer Allay ) of my Author , I have added many whole Paragraphs and pages to pursue his excellent designe , which he had only framed , not compleated ; and which came to my hands in the form of an old musty Manuscript , which was not capable to tell its Author's name , and very difficult to express its designe , being in many places prejudiced by time ( that Edax rerum ) to a great imperfection . I thought it therefore best not to thrust it into the World crippled and injured as it was , nor to amend its old expressions with a new sort of Dialect , on purpose to avoid piecing and patching ; And if yet any thing of Lameness shall remain , be thou not a Noverca , but rather a Nutrix , extenuate thy Candor and suppress thy prejudice and if thou pleasest to take the pains thou hast as much right to put it into a better dress , which I commend to thy sufficient ability . Yet nevertheless it is expected from some that this will be upbraided with Bastardy , and be despised and hated as Filius Populi , by that abounding and multitudinous sort of People who are called Partialists , who always wedded to their own particular Lusts and private Interests , that are factious even to Rebellion and Tyranny , that will neither give God nor Caesar his due : Notwithstanding it is resolved to venture , knowing that no sorrow is sudden to an expectation ; And that it will find some ( though but a few ) that will both commend and protect it . It will Court all but Flatter none : It is the hand that points at The Princes Right and the Peoples Liberty . It is that little Costick which will twinge all such whose corruptions are ripe for separation ; and though it may make them wince at the touch of their thwarted passions ; yet it is the surest means to work the cure , if they will be perswaded to endure the Pain . The design of this is to sweeten the seeming bitter severities , yet just necessities of Government and render them plausible and palliable to the People , that so they may delight more in their Duty to obey than the Sovereign in his Power to Command ( Legum servi sumus ut Libri esse possumus , saith Cicero ) And the Prince ( on whose Head is placed both at once the Weight and Glory of a Crown ) and the People may both mutually know ( since the burthen of a Crown is first understood before the Glory is perceived ) that Grandure is both to compensate as well as dignify the toyles and difficulties of Government . Bracton saith Nihil aliud potest Rex , in terris cum sit Dei Minister & Vicarius , nisi id solum quod de jure potest , which is an Axiome that puts reciprocal bounds of Justice and Goodness , both to instruct the Prince in his Duty and Behaviour towards God and his Subjects , and the People in their due Obedience to their Sovereign , since the King is none , but the Almighty's Substitute or Vice-Roy , and consequently to be questioned for his Actions , or punished by none but God himself , who is not to be hastned or directed in the disposition of his Vengeance , but rather entreated by hearty : Prayer for the removal of his Plagues and Judgements . I stand amazed when I consider the many Factions and Seditions amongst us , that these Kingdoms are not already the Subjects of irritated Justice : when I hear the open murmurs , and see the many Treasonable Libels in these licentious times ; The Prince abused , and the People deceived by Instruments of Darkness and wicked practices , by such men , or rather Monsters , who when they most violently cry up the Kingdomes good under the necessity of reforming the manners of Magistracy , they onely aim at the destruction of Peace and Innocence , which is the hated Object of such devouring Vultures . Hence I foresee the Imminent Dangers and miserable Calamities that every moment seems to threaten inevitable miseries on these divided Kingdoms . One may perceive the dreadful storm hanging , as it were , immediately over our Heads , We are confounded on all Hands , and the Disease seems almost Remediless ; Rome's horrid Plots are not yet fully detected , and God knows how much of the Good old Cause remains yet to this day in the Hearts of partial and ill affected Puritans . These two are the Sylla and Charibdis of our misfortunes , and seem to make but one Body , because they aim at one end , the destruction of our Lives , Religion , and Government . Let the King and People therefore of the established Church of England take as much care against the hatred of a Puritan as against the malice of a Jesuite , the Contrivances of the latter ( being commonly prevented ) having never acted so vile a Tragedy , as the Principles and Practices of the former . The Pope in all his Bulls and Interdicts cannot fulminate more Maledictions than have been reduced into Practice amongst our Jesuited Fanaticks . Let us then beware of these two ; Be obedient to our King ; and his Majesty careful both of himself and us ; let the Laws be duely practised and observed , and then the King , our Lives , Religion and Government will be safely preserved . Farewell . ERRATA . PAge 3. line 23. read such tortious . p. 4. l. 17. r. would not . p. 12. l. 14. r. any matter . p. 16. l. 23. r. as the , l. 25. dele B. p. 18. l. 13. r. and popularity . p. 32. l. 7. r. the King's necessities . p. 45. l. 16. r. former restrictions . p. 47. l. 14. r. view of . p. 51. l. 2. r. inraged . p. 51. l. 12. r. So the. p. 60. l. ult . r. and precipitation . p. 61. l. 17. r. almost , l. 21. r. bestowing . COMPENDIUM POLITICUM , OR , The Distempers of Government , With their proper Remedies , in a short Essay on the long Reign of King HENRY III. SCarce was that unfortunate Prince , King John , entombed within the bowels of the Earth , but the People , wearied with the heavy burthens of his time , but more especially with the lingring Calamities of Civil Arms , and the affrighted fall of that Prince , their licentious and unhappy Sovereign ; but all men stood at gaze expecting the event of their long desires , Peace , and the issue of their new hopes , their own particular benefits , for in all changes of Government , and in every shift of Princes , there are few either so mean or modest , that please not themselves with some probable object of preferment . But for the general satisfaction and composure of the minds of all , a Child ( whose auspitious looks seemed to portend the common good ) ascends the Throne ; milde and gratious , but easy of nature , whole innocency and natural goodness ( the paths of the Almighty's providence ) led him safe along the various dangers of his Father's Reign : Happy was he in his Uncle William Marshall Earl of Pembroke , the guide and moderator of his Infancy , and his most faithful Counsellor for no less than thirty years after , whilst De Burgo ( that fast Servant of his Father 's against the French both in Normandy and England ) with Bigot Earl of Norfolk , and others of great gravity and experience , did govern , and by their Counsels conduct the whole affairs of the Kingdom . Few , and none others , were the Distempers of State , but such as are incident and concurrent in all , viz. The Nobility's desire of Rule , and the Commons of Liberty : Fulco de Brent , De Fortibus and some others , men that could onely thrive by Wars , the Ballance of whose Lives was their keenest Swords , ready at all adventures to abscind the right and peace of others ; These , and such men misliked those days of Sloth ( for so they termed the calmness and tranquillity of King Henry's Government ) and the rather for that the Justice of quiet times urged from them to the lawful Owners , tortious Possessions and unlawfull seisins as the sury of War had unjustly given them , and finding that the King would make his Prerogatives as sacred in their use as they are in their Stile , and that his Majesty would not suffer his Power of Protection to be made a Stalking-horse to the Rapines and Injustices of wicked men , making good that Maxim , Rex hoc solum non potest facere , quòd non potest injustè agere : They fell out into the Rebellion that with it ended their Lives and Competitions , professing that the Swords which had set the Crown upon the Sovereign , when neither Majesty nor Law could , should secure those small pittances to their Masters , when Majesty and Law could not : Dangerous are too great benefits of Subjects to their Princes , when it maketh the mind capable of Merit , nothing of Duty : Ambitious men are dangerous in Councils , and disturb the quiet of the Commonweal , more than the passionate Winds can toss or prejudice a ship in the Ocean ; No other turbulences did the State after feel but such as are incident in all , the Malice of Authority . Good and great men may secure themselves from Guilt , but not Envy ; for greatest in trust for publick affairs are still shot at by the aspiring of those who deem themselves less in employment than merit . These vapours did ever and easily vanish , so long as the Helm was guided by temperate Spirits , and the King tied his actions to the rule of good Counsell , and not to young , passionate , or single advice . Thirty years now passed , and all the Guides of his youth dead but De Burgo , a man in whom nothing of worth was wanting but moderation , when length of days giving him advantage of sole Power , his ambition and age gave him desires and art to seclude others , which wrought him into the fatal envy of most , and that was increased in the title of Earl , and an Office the King gave him . Time by this had wrought , as in it self , so in the affections of the people a Revolution : The Affliction of their Fathers forgotten , and the Surfeit of long Peace ( perchance ) having led in some abuses ; Hence the Commons , to whom days present seem ever worst , commend the foregone Ages they never remembred , and condemn the present , though they neither knew the Disease thereof nor the Remedy . To these idle and pernicious humours of the unwary and unsteady Rabble , some young and noble Spirits often adhere , who always covet Action and rarely consider the Consequence , who being as ignorant as the rest , first , by fullying the Wisdom and Conduct of the present and greatest Rulers ( making each casual mishap their error ) seem to decipher every blemish in Government , and by holding meer imaginary and fantastick forms of Government , flatter their own belief and abilities that they can mould any State to those general rules , which in particular application will prove idle and gross absurdities : Confirmed in their own worth by Somerie and Spencer , they take it a fit time to work themselves into Action and Authority , a thing very long desired , and now ( though unwilling to seem so ) sue for , and covet it , but the King taught them by the new Earl Consilia Senum , hastas Juvenum esse . and that such wits ( for so they would be stiled ) Novandis quam gerendis rebus aptiores . fitter in being factious to disorder than to settle affairs , either delayed or denied their desires , for wise Princes will ever chuse them Ministers , Par negotiis & non supra . Creatures that are only theirs , otherwise without Friends or Power ; It is not the least happiness for Princes to be served with good Subjects equal to their affairs , for those abilities that are above their employments cause negligence , and those that are beneath , ruin of the Agent : Amongst this unequal medly , there were of the Nobility Richard Marshal Earl of Pembroke , Gloucester , and Hereford , Darlings of the Multitude , some for the merits of their Fathers , whose memory they held sacred , as Pillars of publick Liberty , and Opposers of incroaching Monarchy at Rumney Meade ; and of the Gentry , Fitz-Geffery , Bardolfe , Gresley , Maunsel , and Fitz-John , Spirits of as much acrimony and arrogant Spleen as the places from whence they were elected , ( Camp , Court and Countrey ) could afford any , these designe to compass their ends by force , whilst the others effect their purposes by obscure arts and cunning contrivances , too well knowing that Ars Vim superat , yet though the latter by their subtle policies could over-reach their Competitors , they could never prevail over wholesome and honest Counsels : But all minds being as much disturbed as their interests were divided , and designs frivolous and fruitless , and that so long as the King followed the Counsels and Directions of the Earl of Kent , they had small hopes of their desires and mischievous purposes , they made frequent and often meetings , and as one saith of them Clam & nocturnis colloquiis . In the end Somerie and Spencer , two that were far in opinion with the rest , whose Education qualified them in all respects for greater imployments than any of their times , they having the advantages of forreign experience in their Travels abroad , and well understanding the individual interests of the King and his Neighbours ; upon these grounds they glossed their own merits , and set upon their own deserts , the best places when the stream should turn , which one of them ( Spencer ) did most unworthily obtain , for he raised in actual Rebellion Justiciarios Angliae against his Sovereign , and advised that the best means to remove that great and good Obstacle , the Earl of Kent , out of the way of their preferment , was by sifting into his actions and siding with his opposite , and most implacable enemy Peter Bishop of Winchester , an evil man but gracious with the King , aiming to drive out the most worthy by the worst of men : That being their Maxim , they made no doubt they should be able to remove the Instrument of their intended villanies ( the haughty Bishop ) by dilating his particular Vices , and making them conspicuous , and him notorious both to King and People , which will be ever more possible as he is more potent , and so conclude to remove him at their pleasure , or else this must be the way , to give the King over to such Ministers as would certainly cut off the affections of his people , and consequently render the Government odious : So they doubt not ( though the first stratagem miss ) that this must certainly hit the mark , and light them the way to their dark and evil purposes , Honores quos quieta Republica desperant , perturbata consequi se posse arbitrantur . This Counsel being heard and approved must now be put in practice , the corrupt and ambititious Bishop is drawn to their party by Money and an opinion of increase of Power ; men are most easily corrupted in the supreamest Fortunes , where Lusts may have the advantage of being armed with Power : Articles are in all hast forged and urged against the good and innocent Earl , as , Sale of the Crown-lands , Wast of the King's Treasure , and Lastly that ( which those ambiguous times held Capital ) giving allowance to any that might breed a rupture between the Sovereign and the Subject , which they charged to be his design ( to work some machinations of his own against the Government ) and to have been done by him , in working the King to annihilate all Patents granted during his minority , and enforcing the Subject to pay as the Record it self mentions , Non juxta singulorum facultatem , sed quicquid Justiciarius estimabat . But the good Earl stood upon his own legs and opposed his innocence singly to shield him from the mischiefs of their wicked purposes , and he cleared himself of all their false accusations ; but they did worthily perish by their own Swords , for Arts that fit Princes , end ever in the ruin of the first inventors : Bad times corrupt good Counsel and make the best Ministers yield to the Lusts of Princes , Irridenda est eorum socordia , qui presenti potentia credunt extingui posse sequentis aevi memoriam . Therefore this King cannot pass blameless , that would so easily banish all former merit of so good a Servant for that wherein himself was chief in fault : But Princes natures are more voluble and sooner cloyed than others , their Favours transitory ; and as their minds are large , so they easily out-look their first elections , having no farther necessity in the fastness of their affections than their own satisfactions : When it is once past Noon with a Court-favourite , it is suddenly Night with him . The eminent Vertue of men , if it be not the cause of their natural , is frequently of their civil and political destruction ; at first they are sought to , and raised by the necessities of the Prince , and under colour of the same pretext , or cause , they meet with ruin ; The Tree that was esteemed for its Shadow to shelter us from the heat of the Summer , is afterwards cut down to defend us from the cold of the Winter ; the same man whom Princes advance , and embrace in the heat of their necessity , is he whom they cut down in the cold of their jealousie . The Bishop now sits at Helm and mannageth the State as he pleases , having chosen for his Instruments , Peter Rivalis , a man like himself ; he displaceth the Natives , and obtrudes the Britains and other Foreiners into Offices and Places of the largest benefit and greatest trust : by whose conduct in Affairs , the King is drawn into an evil opinion of his people : For nothing is more intolerable with and against the nature of the English , than to have Strangers rule over them . Of these times Wendover an Authour then living , saith , Judicia committuntur injustis , Leges ex legibus , justitia injuriosis . Thus the Plot of the tumultuous Barons went clear , and had not the discreter Bishops calmed all by dutiful perswasions , informing the King of the pernicious consequences that must inevitably follow this bad mans counsels and power , whose carriage before had lost his Father Normandy , his Treasure , the love of the People , and in that the Crown , and would ( by teaching the Son passionately to reject the just Petitions and Rights of his loyal Subjects , as of late the Earl of Pembroke Earl Marshal of England , the due of his Office ) drive the whole Commonweal into distraction and discontent , by his bad advice and corrupt manners ; and doubtless the rebellious Lords had ended this Distemper as they designed in a Civil War , had not these and the like wholsom Counsels stopped them in their career . Denials of Princes must be supplied with gracious usage , that though they cure not the Sore , yet they abate the sense of it : But it is best that all Favours flow directly from the Princes themselves , as the proper Fountains of principal goodness and mercy : Denials , and things of bitterness from their Ministers , are the proper Heralds of their Justice . Thus are the strangers all displaced and banished : B. Rivalis Extortions , ransackt by many strict Commissions of Inquiry , the Bishop himself sent disgraced to his See , finds now that Nulla quesita scelere potentia diuturna : And that in Princes Favours there is no subsistance betwixt a mediocrity and precipitation ; so dangerous are the ways of Majesty , and men so foolish as to quicken their approaching ruines , by their partial Counsels , the effects of their own indulgence to their wicked Politicks : Policy is a Sea so inconstant and so turbulent , that there is no place to be found in it where we have not seen one or other cast away ; it is a piece of Architecture so decayed , that it always threatens to tumble . The affections of a corrupt mind , like those of a diseased body , are always pernicious : The Lords begin now to sow upon this late ground of the peoples discontent , Querelas & ambiguos de principe sermones ; and take the readiest way to destroy the Government , by slandering the King and his Counsels , which is the best Expedient for them to procure the peoples affection , who always love change ; and those who have the greatest tyranny in projection , will be the most vehement and earnest Assertors of the peoples liberties and power , or popularity acquired by fraud or violence , will never be imployed in the exercise of Justice : The King whose Nature was too gentle for such insolent Spirits , was forced as Fre. saith ) to seek as he presently did the advice and counsels of strangers , seeing his diligent care and greatest merits could not procure or purchase it within his own Dominions ; all bearing and behaving themselves more like Tutors and Controllers , than like Subjects and Counsellors . 'T is the Almighty that rules the hearts of Princes , and 't is he alone that can pry into , prosper , or divert their purposes : Nihil est quod Deus efficere non potest , & ullo sine labore ; 'T is he whose auspicious Providence ever works , and yet never labours , but is eternally concerned in the preservation of all Sublunary Beings ; more especially of those whose eminence exceeds all others ( as Princes do ) and stands next in relation ( in respect of their Office ) to the same Providence that finds means both to preserve and direct them : Whilst by the former Factions , the Affairs of State seem to go retrograde ; Heaven sends the King such a Counsellor as the necessity of those times required : Mountfort a French-man is now become the Subject of the Kings Favours ; and the choicest Object of his delight ; a Gentleman of noble blood , and ample education ; whose comely features and exact delineaments seemed nevertheless to adapt him more for a Mistress than a Counsellor . The King seemed to be never more concerned than when this Favourite seemed to be troubled , and on this mans content , the strongest affections of his Prince did so dote , that at the first essay of the Kings Favours and grace , his Majesty ( in spight of the Nobility ) created him Earl of Leicester , and in no less offence of the Clergy ( by violating the Rites of holy Church ) gave him his vowed vailed Sister to Wife . More of art than usual , some have deemed this Act of the Kings making the tye of such dependency , and the strength of this assurance both at his will. Mountfort made wanton thus with the dalliance of his Master , sorgetteth his moderation ; for discretion in youth seldom attends great and sudden Fortunes : He draweth all publick Affairs into his own hands ; all favours must pass from him , all preferments by him : the King stands but as a Cypher to add the greater Number to this Figure ; and his Majesty thought himself never more secure and glorious , than when this State-Statue was most adored ; there was such a perfect union betwixt them , that the crosses and prosperities of the one , were bewailed and accepted by the other , and the King looked upon him no more as a Subject , but as his dearest Friend and most familiar Companion . Great is the Soveraign's errour , and dangerous his condition , when the hope of Subjects must acknowledge it self beholding to the Servant for matters of the greatest importance , and acts of the greatest grace , which ought always to be owned as the immediate bounty and good election of himself . The most eminent Exertions of the Soveraigns Grandeur , is always conspicuous in the most elevated choice of great Actions ; for , Non vacat exiguis rebus adesse Jovi ; The Poets feign , that the Universe is born on the Shoulders of Atlas . So great Actions ( which ought always to be the Princes own work ) are the best Supporters of universal Soveraignty : Though Princes may take above others some Cabinet Friend , with whom they may participate their nearest Passions , yet 't is their greatest prudence , so to moderate and temperate the Affairs of their Favourite , that they corrupt not the effects of their Principalities : Mountfort is this Minion which grated the Spirits of the great men , and they conclude him unworthy to deal alone in those Matters which should pass through their hands , and are implacably incensed to see him leap over all their Heads to the greatest Honours and Offices ; they presently run along with the rising Grace of the Kings half-brethren , ( though Strangers ) hoping thereby to divide that power which otherwise they saw impossible to break . Leicester confident of his Masters love , and impatient to bear either Rival in Favour , or Partner in Rule , opposeth them all , and arrays his audacity against their malice ; yet he found in the ebb of his Fortunes the mischance of others ; that this King could as easily transfer his Fancy , as he had unadvisedly settled his Choice . Great ( we see ) must be the experience and cunning of that man that can Pilote himself amidst the various streams and sudden gusts of Princes Favours , since the mutability of their Affections are as certain , as their Resolutions are difficult to be fixed : whosoever intends to effect this , must not aim only at the Honour and Service of his Master , dispoyled of all other respects , transform himself into his inward inclinations , work into a necessity of emplyoment , by undergoing the Offices of greatest Secresie , either of publick Service , or Princes Pleasures , he must tumble down Competitors of worth by others hands , conceal his own Grandeur in publick , with a pretended humility , and what in Popularity or Government he affecteth , let it rather seem the work of others , than any appetite of his own . Thus were the Reigns of Government ( by this advantage ) made by the rebellious Lords , put solely into the hands of the Kings half-brethren , Adam Guydo , and Godfrey , and William himself as before ; Ex magnâ fortuna licentiam tantam usurpans : So now to act his own part was warily withdrawn , when he had such eminent and worthy Relators of all his Actions about the King , as would frequently for his honour and advantage opportunely urge them . These Masters ( as Wallingford termed them ) Tanta elati jactantia quod nec superiorem sibi intelligunt nec parem , mellitis , & mollitis adulationibus animum Regis pro libito voluntatis ex rationis tramite declinantes , do alone what they list , they fill up the Courts and places of Justice , and trust their Country-men under the conduct and rule of Foreiners , exact on whom and how they please , consume the Kings Treasure , and dispose the Crown-lands upon themselves and followers , set prices on all Offences , darraign the Justice of the Law within the rule of their own breast , the usual reply of their Creatures or Servants , being to the complaints of the Kings Subjects . Quis tibi rectum faciet , Dominus Rex vult quod Dominus meus vult ? These Strangers seemed in their lawless carriage not to have been invited , but to have entred the State by conquest , exercising rather the Severities of Conquerors ; than behaving themselves as good Magistrates or Friends , knowing that such power as is acquired by fraud , must be maintained by violence : The Nobility they compel not to obey but serve , and the meaner sort to live so as they may justly say , they had nothing , bringing in the greatest miseries that an unlimited power could inflict . Plenitudo potestatis est plenitudo tempestatis : Yet least the King should hear the groans of his people ( which able and honest men would tell him ) they bar all possibility of access to such men , suspicion and jealousie being the best means to conceal their own defects , always aiming at the ruine of those who have more of vertue than themselves , having the greatest cause to fear them most . Omnis facultas gubernandi quae est in Magistratibus , summae potestati ita subjicitur , ut quicquid contra voluntatem summi Imperantis faciant , id defectum sit ea facultate , ac proinde pro actu privato habendum . Thus happens the incapacity of Government in Princes , when it falleth to be a prey to such lawless Minions , the ground of all corruption in all the members of King Henry's State. Contagions easily attaque the fairest Fortunes , and men take example generally from their Prince's Weakness and Licentious Liberty ; and Greatness frequently makes Gain a Monopoly , which gives way to the growth of evils , and they matter nothing more than their own private Lucre. A Famine accompanieth these Corruptions , and that so violent , that the King is enforced to direct Writs to all the Shires , Ad pauperes mortuos sepeliendos faucis media deficientis , ( Famine proceedeth ) & secutus est Gladius tam terribilis ut nemo inermis secure possit Provincias pervagari . For all places within the Realm were left a Prey to the Fury of the lawless and irresistible multitude ( Plebs aut humiliter servit aut superbe dominatur ) who , Per diversas partes itinerantes velut per consensum aliorum ( as the Record saith ) did imply that the factious Lords suspected by the King , had given some heat to that Commotion , Seditious Peers being too frequently the fomenters , but ever Fuel to such popular Conflagrations . Neither were the Church-men without their parts in this Tragick work , as , Walter Bishop of Worcester , and Robert of Lincoln ( to whom Mountfort and his Faction percordialiter adherebant ) were much engaged : These Contagions infect the Church as well as the State , and the Clergy in such designs are rarely backward : and the disgust of the present Government in the Church as well as in the Commonwealth , will be but one designe carried on by the united resolutions in the members of both ; for such turbulent and unquiet Spirits , who propose to themselves a better fortune in the new modeling , or clean extirpation of the old , and introducing some new form of Government , which always in the minds of the giddy multitude winneth an applause both for the Design and the Projectors , and did at this time fitly sute the peoples humour , so much distasted at the new Courts of the Clergy , their Pomp , their Avarice , and the Pope's Extortions : Fair pretext it was to these Factious Bishops to use their embittered Pens and Speeches , which they did so severely against some Religious Orders , Ceremonies , and State of the Church , that one of them incurred the Sentence of Excommunication at Rome , and Treason at home ; for he enjoyned the Earl of Leicester , In remissionem Peccatorum ut causam illam ( meaning the rebellion ) usque ad mortem assumerit , asserens pacem Ecclesiae Anglorum sine Gladio materiali nunquam firmari . Falsely grounding his opinion and practices on the saying of St. Isidore , Quod non praevalet Sacerdos efficere per doctrinae Sermonem , Potestas hoc imperet per disciplina terrorem . It was not the best Doctrine this man might plant to preach its firmation and establishment by a disordered Liberty , and Civil Wars , when the first Church propagated its Discipline and Doctrine by Fasting and Prayer : True Piety bindeth the Subject to deliver a good Sovereign , to bear with a Bad , and to take up the burthen of Princes with a bended Knee , hoping rather in time to merit Abatement than resist Authority : The Vices of bad Princes are to be born with the like patience as we endure Dearths and Tempests , or such like Deviations of Nature from her usual course ; because though Princes ( as they are men ) may be vitious , yet as such are not immortal ; and a pious Successor may repair the ruins of a former Oppressor . Church-men ought not to lead us in the rule of Loyalty , but instruct us in the knowledge of our Christian and Spiritual Duties , in difficult points of Religion ( where an humble ignorance is a safe and secure knowledge ) we may rely on them . To suppress these troubles , and supply the King's enormities , a Parliament was summoned much to the liking of these Lords , who as little meant to relieve the King's wants as they did desire , and endeavour to quiet His Majesties Realms , their end at this time being only to discover the Nakedness or Poverty of their Master at home , that so they may be able to diminish his Credit and Glory abroad , and so the better to brave out their inclinations freely ; which those licentious times did permit . Here they began to be bare-faced , and audaciously to tell their Sovereign that he had wronged his Subjects , and injured the publique good , in that he had taken to his private choice the Chief Justice , Chancellor , and Treasurer , that should be only by the Common Council of the Realm , commending much the Bishop of Chichester for denying the delivery of the Great Seal but in Parliament where he received it . They blame him to have bestowed the best Places of trust and benefit ( that were in his gift ) upon Strangers , and to leave the English unrewarded . To have ruined the Trade of Merchants by bringing Maltolts , and Customs , and to have invaded the Liberty of the Subject by Non Obstantes in his Patents to make good Monopolies for private Fauorites . That he hath taken from his Subjects , Quicquid habuerunt in esculentis & poculentis . Rusticorum enim Equos , Bigas , Vina , victualia ad Libitum caepit . That his Judges in their Circuits under colour of Justice do Fleece the People Causis fictitiis quoscunque poterunt diripuerunt . And Sir Robert de Parslaw had wrong from the Borders of his Forests under pretence of Incroachments , and Asserts great sums of Money , and therefore they wonder he should now demand Relief from his so pilled and polled Commons , alledging the saying of Tiberius , Quod boni Pastoris est pecus tondere non deglubere , And that by these , and such like former extremities , Et per auxiliae prius data , ita depauperentur , ut nihil habeant in bonis . And therefore they advise him that since his needless Expence ( posteaquam Regni caepit esse dilapidator ) was summed up by them to above 800000 lib. It were most just and expedient to retrench or resume from his Favourites who had degluberated the Kingdom 's Treasure , divided the old Lands of the Crown , for , and amongst , themselves . Some of them they undertake to describe : Saying one is Clericus militaris , or , Literatus Miles , that in a short space from the possession of an Acre had grown up to the Inheritance of an Earldom . And that Maunsell another inferior Clerk did constantly expend 4000 marks , as the Product of his yearly Revenue , whereas a more compendious Stipend would have more aptly suited the dignity of Clerks better qualified than with the mean and ordinary fruits of a Writing-school . Notwithstanding all which grievances , if a moderate supply would suite with the King's occasions they were content to perform Relief in obedience , and as the * desert of his carriage towards them should merit , and so ( as the Record saith ) Dies datus fuit in tres septimanas ut interim Rex excessus suos corrigeret , & magnates voluntati ejus obtemperarent . At which day upon his Majesties new grant of the Great Charter , admittance to his Council of some persons elected by the Commons , and promise to rely upon natural Subjects of England , and not upon strangers for his Counsellors hereafter , they grant him such a Supply as his occasions must shortly after oblige him again to their Devotion for another . Thus Parliaments that were ever before the most infallible medicine to heal up any Distempers or Malignities , are now grown worse , and almost less desirous , than the Maladies themselves , since malevolent humours and factious Spirits did most of all sway in them , and the well-composed Tempers had the least share and prevalency in all their Consultations . Thus the King did demonstratively experience the purposes of his Rebellious Subjects , and finding that the ebb of his Treasure caused his Calamities to flow the higher , he begins to play the good Husband , conclude all Extravagances , and close the mouth of his overspending and over-open Purse , and resolveth himselfe , though too late , to stand alone . Such experience is always pernitious to the private and dangerous to the publick good of the State , when it never learns to doe but by undoing , and never sees Order but when Confusion shews it : Yet still , alas , such was his flexibility that he could not refrain his assent to the vast , and as it were unlimited desires and importunities of his Forreigners , tending to endless wast and destruction , so that an Author living in those times saith it became a by word amongst the Natives , Our Inheritance is converted to Aliens , and our houses to Strangers . Servants to a King excessive in Gifts , measure their demands by his bounty , and put them not out by reason but by example . Men naturally affect no bounty but what is meerly future , the more that a prince weakeneth himself by giving , the poorer he is of Friends , for prodigality in the Sovereign seldom ends without the Spoil and rapine of the Subject , self-interested Ministers ever building their Power , and conceive themselves to be as Arbitrary as their Master's Liberality to them is profuse . The Kings Treasure is again exhausted , and yet he resolves , that before he will submit himself again to and bear as he had done the last Parliament ; so many bravadoes and strict enquiries , and severe scrutinies of his factious and disobedient Subjects , he resolves to pass through all the shifts that extremity of need with greatness of mind could lay before him . He beginneth first , with the Sale of Crown-lands , and then of Jewels , pawneth Gascoigne , and after that his Imperial Crown : And when he had neither credit to borrow , ( having too often failed the reputation he had gotten ) nor pawns of his own to procure any more , he then engaged the Jewels , and other Ornaments of Saint Edward's Shrine : And in the end , being destitute both of Means and Money to defray the ordinary Expences of his Court ; was constrained to break up house : and ( as Paris saith ) with his Wife and Children : Cum abatibus & prioribus satis humilibus hospitia quaerunt & prandia . This Exigence ( that again the Kings improvidence had reduced him to ) gave great assurance to the rebellious Lords , they should now have the soveraign power left a prey to their ambitious designs ; And ( as the quickest expedition to such their machinations ) they covet nothing more , than that the Kings necessities might be so many and so great , as to constrain him to call a Parliament ; for at such times Monarchs are ever less than they should , Subjects more : For as the Moon is furthest off from the Sun which giveth her light , when she is at the Full ; so bad Subjects are remotest from the interest of their Prince , when they are fullest of riches and ambition , and so by consequence further off from that justice and equity , which ought to give them light in all their proceedings . To hasten on the time then for this Session from whence they expect so much , and to fit the means to compass their ends , there are cast abroad certain seditious rumours , that the Kings necessity must supply it self upon the estates and liberties of the people ; That his Majesty having nothing of his own left ; he might and meant to take from others what his own occasions did require ; for Kings must not want as long as their Subjects have means to supply : This never-failing Touchwood took fire just to their Minds , and wrought a little moving in the State , which doubtless had gone further if the King had not timely prevented by his Proclamations , Quod quidam malevoli sinistra praedicantes illis falso suggesserant illum velle eos de debito gravari ac jura , & libertates regni subvertere , ut per suggestiones dolosas & omnino falsas eorum corda à sua dilectione & fidelitate averterent : But desireth them , hujusmodi animorum suorum perturbatoribus ne fidem adhiberent ; for that he was ready to defend them from the oppression of the great Lords , Et omnia jura & libertates eorum debitas bonas & consuetas in omnibus & per omnia plenius observare . But the King seeing that he could neither right himself nor his Subjects , without means and power , and himself had of neither so much as would stop the present breach in his own wants , or his Subjects loyalty , he flieth to the Bosom of his people for relief and counsel : At Oxford they met in Parliament , where his necessities met with so many undutiful demands , that he was forced to give up to their rebellious will his Regal power , and lay down his Prerogative to their unjust desires . Here the Commons knowing , that Cum eligere inceperunt , they were loco libertatis , required of the King to have the management of the Affairs of the publick put into the hands and under the care of Twenty four , whereof Twelve by their Election ( to which they look strictly ) and the other twelve to be nominated by the King , who in all things else stood but as a Cypher , and in this , whether by fear or remisness , filled out his number with Mountfort , Gloucester , and Spencer : which besides the weakning of his own part , won to these late Opposites an opinion of great interest they had in his Favour : He hath now left neither election of publick Office or private Attendant : He is now constrained to despoil his Brethren and their Friends and followers of all their Estates and Fortunes , and by a Writing under his own hand to banish them his Dominions , commanding the Ports Pro tranfretatione fratrum suorum to be guided and directed by the Earls of Hereford and Surry , and not to suffer them to export with themselves , either Money , Arms , or Ornament , Nisi in forma quam dicti Comites injunxerunt : And after their departure , enjoyned the men of Bristol that they should not permit any Strangers , sive propinquos ipsius regis applicare in porta ; but so to behave themselves herein , that as well the King quam magnates sui merito debeant commendare . Thus we see how difficult a thing it is to apply ill Acquisitions to a good use , and how hard it is to fix the wavering dispositions of chance on a firm basis . Richard Elect of the Empire , the Kings full Brother , and then beyond the Seas , must be wrought by his own Letter , and ( at his free desire ) to confirm by Oath these former 11 restrictions of Regal power , which when he had performed , yet would the Lords suffer neither the one nor the other to enter Dover Castle ( the Key of the Kingdom ) which they had furnished , ( as likewise most of the other Forts of strength in the Realm ) with Guardians of their own , sworn respectively to the Common State and them , taking the like assurance for the good behaviour of many towards their Cause by strict Commission upon Oath to gain opinion in shew among the Vulgar who groaned under their late Extortions , whereas their design was truly ( as it after appeared ) by displacing the most faithful Servants of the King , to make the way easie for their own Dependants . This change of sole Power from the nature and right of the ancient Government into the hands of a seeming Democrasie set up by popular Election , made the Kingdom believe ( or rather imagine ) that by this form of limited Policy , they had utterly suppressed the hopes or expectation of any one man , for ever aspiring to , or dreaming more upon the imaginary humours of licentious Soveraignty : But it fell out nothing so , for every man began to estimate his own worth now , and to humour his brain on every design which might encrease his power and command . The great men ( as being first in strength ) begin now to rend their Masters Coat , and most arbitrarily to oppress their Neighbours , by seising the King and his Subjects Seigniories , upon none other pretence then because they lay convenient for , and bordered on their Seats ; And enforce the Tenants , ( as the Record saith ) Ad sectas indebitas & servitutes intolerabiles subditos regis compulerunt . Thus they unjustly acquired great Mannors to support their greater intended Honours , and by misguiding the Royal Justice , make themselves of so many Subjects ( whilst they lived within the bounds of their Allegiance ) so many Tyrants ( as the Book of S. Albans saith ) when they had renounced their Loyalty , Magnas induxerunt magnates regni super subditos Regis servitutes & oppressiones , which they bear with the greatest patience ; for excess of misery finding no ease but on the shoulders of Custom , made men satisfied with their hardest servitude by the length of Sufferance , which found neither ease nor end , until the calm of this Kings Reign : For in all changes it is the peoples miseries that first happen , and are last redressed ; and yet the peoples destruction is the surest perspective through which the Prince may have the nearest viewing of his own approaching ruine , the calamities of both being so individually concomitant , that they ever observe this order in their progress , ( viz. ) That the Soveraign brings up the Rear of his Subjects missortunes , and leads the Van of his own and their prosperities . Mountfort , Gloucester , and Spencer , the Heads of this rebellious design , having by the late provisions drawn to the hands of their Twenty four Tribunes the sole management of the Royal Authority , yet finding this power too much dispersed to accomplish the end of their purposes , force again the King at London to call a Parliament , where they purchase and procure the power of the Twenty four to be delivered unto themselves , and create a Triumvirate Non constituendae reipub , causa as they pretended , but that they might the better facilitate the means to effect their own private ends . One of them is made ( which proved fatal to him ) Dictator perpetuus , Ambition is never so high , but she thinks ever to mount that Station which seemed lately the top , is but a step to her now , and what before was great in desire seems little when it is in power . These three elect Nine Counsellors , and appoint Quodtres ad minus alternatim semper in Curia sint , ro appoint Governours for his Majesties Forts and Castles , Et de aliis omnibus regni negotiis , of the chief Justice , Chancellor , and Treasurer , with all Officers both great and small , the choice of which they reserve to themselves , and bind the King to this hard Bargain upon such strong Security , that he is constrained to confirm it under the Great Seal ; and for his stricter observance thereof to bind himself by an Oath , which was in effect , to remit to them the tyes of their Allegiance and bounden duty , whensoever he assumed the exercise of his Royal Dignity ; insomuch that Liceat omnes de regno nostro contra nos resurgere , & ad gravamen nostrum opem & operam dare , ac si nobis in nullo tenerentur . Hence we may see , that Riches are the firmest and most steady bottom whereon to build the safety as well as glory of a happy Monarchy , whose report terrifies our Enemies beyond the roaring of the greatest Cannons : 'T is therefore the prudence of every Prince not to be lavish of his Purse , since the basis of Government ( the glory of the Prince ) is quite overwhelm'd in the gulph of an empty Fortune : And it is not enough for a man in Authority to have a Power that may awe the judgment of the wise to subjection , unless he have a pomp or purse to , that may dazle the eyes of the Vulgar into veneration . This Prince , this Prodigy of Fortune whom she had affronted with the most pitiful and insolent Examples of her inconstancy , finding no part of his Soveraignty left , but the naked Title ( which he enjoyed neither but by the permission of the rebellious Lords ) beggeth succour from Urban the Fourth against his disloyal Subjects ; The Pope by his Bull cancelleth his Oath and Contract , and armed him with Excommunication against all such as returned not with speed to their due and old obedience . The Lords at this grow incouraged , and resolve , since promises made by men ( that cannot say they are at liberty ) are light , and Oaths of so a little moment , to be contented now with no gain but what they should rake out of the ashes of that Monarchy they meant to destroy : They make head now against their Soveraign , and the better to confront him call in to their assistance the French Forces : Thus the Commonwealth turned her Sword into her own bowels , and invited her ancient Enemy to the funerals of her liberty ; So that it was a wonder she did not at this time undergo the rigorous severities of an arbitrary forein Servitude . And although these men were more truly sensible of their own disgrace than others miseries , yet found they no better cloak to cover their unjust Designs , than that of asserting the publick good ; and therefore at the beginning of this unhappy War , they cried out , Liberty ! Liberty ! although when they had finished it , they threw off that cloak of the Publick Good , and made that very Liberty they so much cried up , give place to their own private interest and lust . Those that have the extreamest Tyranny in projection , will be the greatest Pretenders of the Publick good , and the most importunate and implacable Assertors of the Peoples Rights and Liberties ; And it is the most compendious way of imposing slavery , to raise in the multitude too passionate and eager desires of Liberty : And when success attends the Tyrants Euterprizes , it is not the indulgence of Heaven to him , but the indignation thereof towards the people . At Lewis the Armies met , where the King endeavours a reconciliation , but to no purpose , for perswasions are ever unprofitable , when Justice is inferiour to force ; The Lords resolve to decide the difference by Battel , the fatal consequence of which was the captivity of the King and his two eldest Sons , and so Mountfort and Gloucester trampling on the Misfortunes of their Prince mounted with the more facility into the place ( though not the Throne ) of Regal Power , ( the effect of their long-laboured and wished for ends . ) Thus all Authority being devolved into the hands of these two , from whose ambition the King could neither expect safety or liberty , unless the emulous competition of Grandeur ( which now began to break out between these mighty Rivals ) might produce it , by verifying the old Proverb , That when Thieves fall out , the honest man comes to his right ; For Leicester meaning to engross from his Partner to himself , the Kings person , and to his Followers , the best part of the Spoil , and so reap more Fruit from the Advantage when divided , than he conceived was possible to be produced , so long as he was coupled in fellowship with Gloucester , where , fore he dissolved all former Obligations of Amity and Friendship betwixt them : Thus equal Authority with the same Power is always fatal in great Enterprizes , for to fit minds to so even a temper , that both should round the same circle , and never out-look the Horizon of their reciprocal Interest , is a work altogether impossible . Mountfort having now broken all Faith with his Confederate , and renounced his Allegiance to his Soveraign , forsook the paths of integrity and moderation to come to the King by those of pride and distruct ; to whom he feigneth , that he never assumed Arms for , and his ambition and desires never had any other object , but the settlement of the Weal-publick , and ease of his Majesties Subjects : That he did not in this carry his affection against duty , but knew well how to limit his desires to his just power , and so no less to the Kings content , if his Majesty would be ruled and guided by his Counsels , which was to summon and command all the Forts and Castles of his Competitor Gloucester and the rest , into the custody of himself , and to be disposed of as he should direct and advise . The Discontent and Insurrections of the Multitude is always grounded on the evil actions of some great Minister , or Court-Minion : But if great men rebel , it is not so much for that they dislike the Government , but because they would be Governours themselves : To yield to their Demands is to resign the Soveraignty , seeing such will not be satisfied till they obtain it ; which is visible in the Fortunes and behaviour of this man : He has now climbed the Summit of Regal Power , and sits at the Helm of State to govern and direct Affairs according as he pleaseth ; and still thought to dissemble his purposes with the King , but thought of nothing less than the performance of his promises : Such was his insatiable lust after Superiority , that it became a matter almost impossible for him to be honest , he was so compleatly stuffed with improbity , that he had no room left for honesty ; and his own base Interest so pricked him forward , that he trampled on the miseries of his Prince without the least pity or remorse ; and resolves ( as it were ) from the heart of Monarchy to spin out the long thread of his endless ambition , and make no other use of a King , than to lead him as the Stalking-horse to the deprivation of his Crown and Dignity . But his purposes are shortly prevented in his own fatal overthrow ; for God gave the King better Counsels : Nevertheless Majesty as yet is forced to truckle under Inferiority , and the necessities of the time ( which in Soveraign Affairs doth often force away all Formalities ) compels the King to embrace his Proposals , and much against his own thoughts to look upon him as his Friend : And therefore this poor Prince who ( now at the Victors discretion ) seemed to have been only raised to shew the inconstancy of Fortune , and vanity of man , suited himself nevertheless with incomparable humility and wisdom to the emergency of his misfortunes : Neither did that humility at this time wrong the Splendors of Majesty , since there were none other means left to subdue Spirits that were so insolent , but dissimulation : His Majesty therefore in his own person summoned the Forces of his fastest Friends to yield to his greatest Enemy . Thus Leicester became the Darling of the common Rout , who easily change to every new Master , and whose Favours are so inconstant that they are never to be fixed ; so that he could not sail long amidst the tenebrous Designs of his Enemies , by the light and splendour of his new acquired Glory : For as the ascent of Usurped Royalty is slippery , so that the top is tottering , and the fall fearful ; Altius evexit quam te fortuna , ruinam Majorem timeas — Juven . To hold this man then compleatly happy at the entrance of his false felicity , was but to give the name of the Image to the Mettall , which was not yet molten ; For by this the Imprisoned Prince had broke his Fetters , and makes his first resort to Gloucester , who covered any , but more especially this ●●portunity of the King's pres●●●● to revenge the injuries and affronts that Leicester had before done to his Interest and Honour , and having formed another out of the torn remains of the loyal Army , by a speedy march they arrived , unlooked for , at Evesham , where the un armed troops of the secure Rebells then lay , whom they instantly assail , for it was no fit season to give time , when no time could assure so much as expedition did promise : De Spencer , and other Lords of that faction came towards their Prince with the best speed , for mercy , but could not break out being hurried along with the scorn of the giddy multitude . Publick Motions depend on the conduct of Fortune , private in our own carriage ; we must be wary therefore of running down steep hills with mighty bodies , they once in motion , Sua feruntur pondere , stops are not then voluntary : But Mountfort , at that time with the King and out of the Tempest , might have escaped , if his timerity and hope had not made him more resolute by misfortune , so that he could neither desert his Followers , nor relinquish his Ambition . Thus fell this Usurper by making Adversity the exercise of his Vertue , or rather desperate in the loss of his hopes , is resolved not to survive their funerals , but to die with his designs , accounting it more glorious to be killed in desence of his Power than than by submission tamely to renounce himself ( his ambitious nature ) and live within the bounds of his allegiance . Private contemplations may be satisfied with more or less of Fortune , but aspiring thoughts we see once raised to the height of Rule are no longer in our own power , having no mean to step upon between the highest of all and the precipitation . Thus the King by these happy occurrences of Providence being delivered from the severities of his former miseries , and his Royall Authority returned into its Channel by the Reduction of his people to their due and wonted obedience , he began to be more carefull , and to make a stricter scrutiny into the grounds and causes of his former Misery , and why that Virtue which had both setled and upheld the Glory of the Empire so long under his Ancestors had cast her self off in his time , and conspired with her Enemies to her most ruine , as if the Genius of the State had utterly renounced her . Here he finds his Bounty had been too profuse in too liberally bealstowing what was his own , and his Subjects Fortunes : the griping Avarice of his civil Ministers , and lawless Liberty of his Followers : The neglect of Grace , and breach of his word , to have lost his Nobility at home , and necessity his Reputation abroad by making merchandize of Peace and War , as his last refuge ; so leaving his old Allies became himself enforced to betake himself to persons ambiguous or injurious , and that by giving over himself to sensual Security , and referring the conduct of all affairs to base , greedy , and unworthy Ministers , whose Counsels were allways more subtle than substantial ; so that now perfectly perceiving by these misguidances and evil Counsels he had thrown down those two main Pillars of Sovereignty and Safety , Reputation abroad , and Obedience at home . He now therefore moderateth the first entrance of his restored Sovereignty with Sweetness and Clemency , he passeth an Act of Oblivion on the misprisions of most of the late Rebels , others he forgave that they might live to acknowledge his goodness , always deeming that the fewer he destroyed the more remained to adorn his Trophy . Tyrants shed blood for pleasure and revenge , Kings for necessity , the latter delighting as little in the death of a Subject , as God himself ( the universal Monarch ) doth in that of a Sinner , whose Glory is always most conspicuous in the benigne attribute of his Mercy ; where as his Justice is not always to be exercised , unless it be to exert the terrors of his offended Majesty in the destruction of an unrelenting and implacable Sinner . Even so this Prince , least his Justice and Power might too much suffer by his acts of Grace , some few he punished by small Fines , and others by Banishment , as the two guiltless yet unpitied Sons of the Arch-Traitor : For Treason is a Crime that draws Posterity under the odium of the Ancestor ; and what would be but a bare suspition in others , is a positive guilt in them ; and that Crime merits the highest resentment which in its consequence is most pernicious to the Supreamest Power . The Spawn of a Traitor ought as little to be nourished ( in the Garden of a Commonwealth by the hand of Policy ) as the discrete Gardiner does that weed which he roots up and destroys , because in its own nature it is destructive to the growth of those Herbs , which are of a more excellent quality : And he that first preached that Doctrine to Princes of grafting their Enemies in those places due only to the merit ( and only proper for the care ) of their Friends , is certainly he who designed to suppress the growth of Friends and increase that of Enemies ; for he took no regard to that common Orthology , Quo semel est imbuta recens servabit odorem Testa diu — which the State hath often experienced , and which is too visible in the actions of a great many , even in these very times . And if this impolicy be persisted in , and the King's Enemies must still be produced from the sufferings of his Friends , and this encrease be watered by the Dew of his Majesties own bounty on the greatest Malignants to his Government , where will be the Friends in time of need ? All ought , but those that are most willing cannot , and those that have been most obliged will not . And you may gild a Traitor with your Gold , and make him seem another thing in shew , but if you cast the Good old Cause before him , he will be like the transformed Cat in the Fable , or rather ( to adapt the Simile ) like the Curr that will return to his Vomit . Unto the constant followers of his broken fortune he giveth ( but with a more wary hand ) the forfeitures of his Enemies , having found profuse Bounty but a weak means to procure affection , for it lost more in the gathering than it gained in the giving ; for that liberality which is bestowed without respect , is taken without grace ; it discredits the Receiver , detracts from the Judgment of the Giver , and blunts the appetites of such as carry their hopes by their Virtue and Service ; Thus at last he learned that Reward and Reprehension do ballance Government , and that it much importeth a Prince The hand be equal that holdeth the Scale . In himself he reformed his natural errors , for Princes Manners have more of life and vigor in their Example , and become a Law sooner observed and obeyed than those of Letters : and although he did sometimes touch upon the verge of Vice , he forbore ever after to enter the Circle . And his Court , wherein at this time the faults of great men did not only by approbation but imitation also receive encouragement and authority , he purged severely , since from thence proceeds either the regular or disorderly condition of the State. Expence of house he measured by the just rule of his proper Revenue , and was heard frequently to say , that his excess of wast had caused the greatest issue of his Subjects blood . The insolence of the Souldiers ( made lawless by the late liberty of Civil Arms ) he spendeth in Foreign Expeditions , having seen that the most temperate Spirits bore the rigour of all the former miseries , and that the other never were satisfied but in the Calamities of the Innocent , and knowing that if he did not find an Enemy for them abroad , they would procure one to themselves at home . The rigours and corruptions of Civil and Judicial Officers he examineth and redresseth by strict Commission , for the sence of their Severity became the murmur of his own cruelty . The Seats of Judgment and Counsels he filled up with men nobly descended , for such attract with less offence the generous Spirit , to respect and reverence ; Their ability he measureth not by favour , nor by private information ( as before ) but by general voice ; for every one in particular may deceive and be deceived , but no one can all , nor all deceive one . Now therefore to discover his own Capacity , that so he might know what part to bear hereafter in all deliberate enterprises , he daily sits in Council , and in his own person manageth all affairs of the greatest weight and moment ; for Counsellors be they never so wise are but accessaries in the guidance of the Commonwealth ; their Office must be subjection , not fellowship , in Consultations , and to have ability to vise , not authority to resolve ; for as the natural Body cannot subsist unagitated by the Soul , no more can the politique part or grandeur of a Prince always support it self without sometimes giving a Sic Volo , Sic Jubeo , for unless he be positive in some things to the manifestation of his Power , he is unfit to be obeyed in any thing , to the prostration of his Prerogative ; For it offendeth as well the Minister of merit as the People , to be obedient to one incapable of his own Greatness and unworthy of his Fortune . This wonderful change to the Kingdom in general , lately destitute of all hopes or expectations to recover their ancient Rights and former Liberty , that they wished and sought for nothing but the mildest Servitude , did bring them back ( without the least Commotion ) miraculously to their Duty , and their Allegiance lovingly imbraced their new recovered and restored Rights and Liberties . He that will lay ( we see ) the foundation of Greatness upon popular esteem must give his Subjects ease and justice , for they measure the Bond of their obedience by the Good always they receive . This calm serenity ever after blessed his old age , and attended his person to the period of his days . And now he ransacks the various calamities and changes of his own Reign , purposing to prepare his Successor with the best rules ( from Principles which himself had drawn from experience ) for the settling of an happy Government , and with the best remedies against evil times . The negligence and intemperance of youth , which experience and old age had both amended and worn out in himself , he advises his Son to avoid , as the greatest stimulations to all the incommodities of trouble and infelicity . And the better to instruct and enable him , he made him partner both of his Experience and Authority ; and farther advised him as the most approved Antidote against the Venom of every passion , and as the surest Compass to steer himself by amidst all occurring anxieties and dangers ; to learn in Prosperity to be silent and not transported ; in Adversity , to be patient and not dejected : In neither to be discontented or dissatisfied : but in both to be discreetly and Philosophically affected . In fine , all the Actions of his future Reign were exact grounds of Discipline and Policy , ( the best patterns for his Successor's imitation . ) And , as he was the first that settled the Law , and State , deserving to wear the stile of England's Justinian , and the Great and Glorious Title , To have delivered the Crown from the Subjection and Wardship of the Nobility , shewing himself in all his Actions after capable to command not the Realm only , but the whole World. Thus frequently doth the wrongs and malice of our Enemies , beyond the conduct of our own prudence , make us sometime both Wise and Fortunate . And as no Man was ever truely Miserable but by his own miscarriage , so none can ever be truely Happy without putting a Ne plus ultra to the career of his unruly Passions , and exorbitant Lusts : The first of which is truely visible in the Fortunes and Fate of Mountfort the King's Minion , and the latter conspicuous in the bad and good Fortune of this King himself . That man who becomes the subject of his Princes delight and favours , must have in him a correspondent worth as well of Wisdom and Obedience , as of Sincerity and Truth , which makes none other use of this so great a blessing but to his Sovereigns Honour and his own Credit ; and not to advantage himself by the oppression of others . Sudorem ferro abstergere tetrum facinus ; saith Pythagoras . To curvet and dance on the top of a Pinacle is the readiest way to tumble , and it is as dangerous for a man to walk on the Summit of Honour , which is so glaciated and slippery by the over-tumid passions and temptations ( the constant companions of a Supreme Fortune ) without the indispensable support of moderation . Let the Favourite always tast the Kings bounty , but not devour it ; let him enjoy his Masters Ear , but not engross it ; let him participate his Love , but not enchant it . If he must be a Moat in the Eye of the Commonwealth , let him not be a Monster . And Lastly , if he must hold the Reigns of the Government , let him not ride it with the Spurs of Ambition : 'T is that alone makes a subject sally beyond the bounds of his Duty , and at one instant to become both a Casar and Pompey , to endure neither Equal nor Superiour ; the dismal consequences of which is too frequently an irretrievable misery both to his Prince and Countrey . Let the Kings Actions be as pure and immaculate as Truth and Innocence , yet if his affection either blind or transport him to become the Asylum of his Servants insolences and evil actions , then Majesty it self becomes guilty , and must expect to share both in the grievance and hatred of the poor distressed Subject . The general Cry seeing the Stream polluted ascribe it to the Fountain head , where is the Spring and Power that may reform and cleanse it . He that will read the History of our own , or those of Foreign Nations , shall find ( that by this one particular error of protection ) a number of memorable Examples which have produced Deposition of Kings , Ruine of Kingdoms , the effusion of Christan Blood , and the general distractions of that part of the World , all grounded on this occasion . Princes should put limits to their own affections , and the Power Majestick is or ought to be bounded , and the obedience due to the King should reciprocally correspond with the equal Right and Justice due to the subject , by which they claim a property in his actions . If either of these prove defective by wilful Errour , the State is in imminent danger of a following mischief . The Ballance therefore must be kept even betwixt the Princes Power and the Peoples Liberty , which is the firm Basis of a quiet Government . Let the People abstain from Faction and Discontent ( the Dams that at length bring forth Consusion and Rebellion ) and no doubt the Prince will from Tyranny and Oppression . It is the Interest as well as Duty of every Subject to pay an entire obedience to the Government under which he lives , and that without murmur or grumbling ; for his obedience is a Condition annexed to that Security which he hath of his Life and Liberty ; for no Prince is obliged to protect his Subjects any longer than they continue in their Obedience to him , since Rebellion and faction cannot be nourished , but as a Viper in the Bosom of Government . And a prospect of danger does often necessitate a Prince to become a Tyrant in his own defence ; and it was a wise saying of Ptolomy King of Egypt , That good Subjects might easily of a bad make a good Prince , but he could never of bad Subjects make good . The King in his Throne is like the Sun in the Firmament whose influence animates all sublunary beings . So the Authority of a Prince gives life and vigor to every particular Member of the Body politick ; and he is not onely Caput but also Anima Reipublicae , and no member ought to move from his proper station , or against that Soul which is the life of its being , or presume to accede too near this resplendent Head ( by intermedling with the scorching influences of the State Arcana , but leave them to their own orderly course and natural guidance ) least the brightness thereof should dazle the Adventurers into Blindness and Faction , and the heat thereof scorch them into Rebellion and Destruction . But suppose a Magistrate really Tyrannical ; it is no contemptible question , Whether the evils of the Redress may not be equivolent to the mischiefs ? I remember Livy's Nec morbum ferre possumus nec remedium . And Tacitus , Ferenda Regum ingenia , neque usui esse crebras mutationes : vitia erunt donec homines , sed neque haec continua , & meliorum interventu pensantur ; and Seneca , Infaeliciter aegrotat , cui plus periculi à Medico quam Morbo . Poise the Miseries of a Civil War with the Grievances of an unjust Magistrate , and the Ballance seems to me so unequal , that if my Christianity fail , the apprehension of the inevitable miseries by the Sword is sufficient to deterr from such a practice ; for though the fury of incensed Tyranny may fall heavy upon many particulars , yet the bloody consequences of an intestine Sword are more epidemical and lasting : And Tacitus commends to Subjects rather Scutum than Gladium , the Shield of Patience and Toleration to be more excellent than the Sword. But if there be such distempers in a State , as shall necessarily require amendment , let it be left to the course of Providence , and not ( against the disposition of Heaven ) be attempted by the Sword of Violence , for I never read that Illegal , or Tumultuous , or Rebellious were fit Epithets for Reformation : And 't is fit Christians should forbear the use of such surly Physick till they have levied a Fine in the Court of Heaven , and cut off the entail of the seventh Beatitude . It is manifest that we are fallen into the dregs of time , we live in the rust of the Iron age , and must accordingly expect to feel Ultima senescentis mundi deliria , the dotages of a decrepit World , and the many miseries that attend an hardned and dissenting people ; wherefore I will conclude with the saying of the Philosopher : Novi ego hoc Saeculum quibus moribus sit ; Malus bonum , malum esse vult , ut sit sui similis ; turbant , miscent mores mali ; Rapax , Avarus , Invidus , sacrum profanum , publicum privatum habebit ; Hiulca gens , &c. FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A67820-e960 Mat. Paris Hist . minor . Co. 11. Rep. Magdalen Colledge Case . Histor . S. Alb. Earl of Kent . Mat. Paris Hist . minor . Mat. Paris Hist . minor . Tacit. l. 4. Marq. Virgil . Malvezzi . Chron. de Litchfield . Monac . de Bur. Regist . de Ma. Paris . Lib. de Bermonsey . Ma. Par. Rog. Wend. Chron. Jo. de Salgr . H. Kinston W. Bishang . Grot. de jure B. & P. l. 1. c. 4. Sect. 6. Rot. clang . 42 H. 3. Will. Rishanger . Mat. Paris Will. Rishanger . Isidor . sent . li. 3. ca. 15. Chron de Worcester . M. Paris . R. Wendov . Jo. Wallingford . M. Paris . Ma. Paris . Chron. de S. Albani . Sueton. Will. Rishanger . Chron de Litchfield . Mat. Paris Hist . minor . W. Rishang . * Ad Reges potestas omnium pertinet , ad singulos proprietas . Mat. Paris Regist . R. de Waling . Hist . minor . S. Albani . 46 H. 3. 49 H. 3. Hist . minor . Claus . An. 49 H. 3. Ma. Paris . Chron de Worcest . Claus . An. 49. H. 3. Chron. St. Albani . Claus . An. 49 H. 3. Wil. Rishanger . Rot. Scotii . Rot. Scotii . Jo. de Wallingford . Cart. Orig. sub Sigilio . Chro. Lei●●● field . Will. Rishander , Chron. de Brit. Chro. Dunstable . Will. Rishanger . W. Rishang . Rot. Pat. 53 Hen. 3. Jo. de T●●etor . Monac . de Bury . Claus . 53 H. 3. Chron. de Dunstable . Anno 53. Hen. 3. Chron. de Trailbaston .