Palladium theologicum, Tomus quintus: De virtutibus

By what reason the public Judgment of the Judge is just.

IN this matter it is certain, first, that among Christians there can be just Judgments, against the error of the Waldensians and the Anabaptists, as Tannerus warns, disp. 4. quaest. 4. dub. 1.

IT IS PROVED

IT IS PROVED at length by the Saintly Doctor, p. 2. de Eccles. Hier. cap. 2., where the Saintly Doctor shows that Judges and Princes ought to be like the supernal Virtues, so that they may judge rightly. He brings forward several Scriptures on this point, 1. Reg. 14., where of King David it is said: But you, my lord the King, are as an Angel of God, who is moved neither by blessing nor by cursing. From this he deduces that the Judge must be strong, in order to judge rightly. Therefore Eccles. 7. Do not seek to be made a Judge, unless you have the strength to break through iniquities, lest perhaps you fear the face of the mighty. Sap. 6. Hear, O Kings and Judges, who judge the earth: to you is Power given by the Most High. The same is found in Psalm. 2. in the New Testament: Be instructed, you who judge the earth. Therefore in Exodus 32. rules for judging are given to the faithful: You shall not accept gifts, etc., and Deuter. 16. You shall not respect persons nor accept gifts, for they blind, etc. Second Paral. 19. See what you do: for you do not exercise the judgment of men, but of God. Isa. 1. Judge for the orphan, help the oppressed.

THUS David judged, 1. Reg. 30.: David rescued all that the Amalekites had taken, nor was anything missing from the spoils: but all things whatsoever they had seized, he brought back and restored. And 2. Reg. 22. Whom he shall repay fourfold, where he is called by the holy prophet to judge. And Solomon, 3. Reg. 3., judged — while he was holy — over those two little harlots concerning the stolen child. Many other passages from the Scriptures the Saintly Doctor brings forward in the Biblia pauperum, cap. 50. also for the law of grace.

THESE he also pursues at length ad cap. 6. Sap., in these words: Power has been given to you by the Lord, and strength by the Most High, who will question your works; for, though you were ministers of his kingdom, you did not judge rightly, nor keep the law of justice. Where he adduces that Rom. 13. There is no power but from God; Ioan. 19. You would have no power against me unless it had been given you from above. That Isa. 1. They do not judge for the orphan, and the cause of the widow does not come to them. The same he laments, Hierem. 5.

THE SAME authorities the Saintly Doctor pursues at length on that Ioan. 19. You would have no power, etc., where in the New Testament the power of judging is asserted by Christ, and by the Apostle, Rom. 13., and by St. Peter.

THE SAME he pursues in serm. 22. Hexaëmer., where he observes that it was promised in Isaiah, chapter 1: I will restore your judges as they were at the first: after this you shall be called the city of the just, the faithful city of Sion; she shall be redeemed in judgment, etc. Whence it follows that judgments erected in the Old Testament were not destroyed in the New, as regards power.

THEREFORE Paul also appealed to Caesar, Act. 25. and 26., and therefore, together with Peter, he exhorted the faithful to submit to the judgment of Princes, Rom. 13. Let every soul be subject to the higher powers, etc. For he does not carry the sword without cause: for he is God's minister: an avenger into wrath upon him who does evil, as the Saintly Doctor shows in 2. dist. 44. art. 3. quaest. 1., and in the first Epistle of Peter, 2. Servants, be subject to your masters, not only to the good, but also to the froward, etc. Therefore in the first Epistle to the Corinthians, 6., Paul praises judgments.

IT IS PROVED more fully by the Saintly Doctor in Hexaëmer. serm. 16. from the constant usage of the Church from the times of the Apostles onward; for St. Peter condemned Ananias and Sapphira, Act. 5., and in the following centuries there were always ecclesiastical and secular judgments in the Church, as is shown in the Tract. de Legibus, and p. 1. Tract. 1. Disputationibus Prooemialibus. These are confirmed by the ancient monuments of Councils, histories, and Decretals. Only this was most constantly provided: that ecclesiastical judgments should be held among ecclesiastics, as appears in the Decretis; and secular judgments among the faithful, if they could be held, as the Apostle teaches, prima Corinth. 6.

IT IS PROVED thirdly by the Saintly Doctor, in 2. dist. 44. art. 2. quaest. 1. ad 1., by the most solid argument of St. Peter, prima cap. 2., where, having described the state of the holy liberty of the New Testament, he concludes: Be subject, therefore, to every human creature for God's sake: whether to the King, as excelling: or to governors, as sent by him to punish malefactors, but for the praise of the good: for so is the will of God. From this the reason is drawn out, which he magnifies against the fourth argument of the following quaestio, and which Valencia uses, disp. 5. quaest 4 punct 2.: What is useful and necessary by natural law for the good of the commonwealth is not abolished, but established by the decrees of the Christian Religion; for Religion does not destroy, but perfects, the law of nature. But judges and judgments are necessary for the Christian commonwealth: Therefore. The minor is proved by the example of all nations, and from God's ordinance, Deuter. 16. Judges and Magistrates you shall constitute, that they may judge the people. Then the minor is evident: for if there were no judges and judgments by which the disputes of men would be terminated, and punishments assigned to crimes, and rewards to rightly performed political works, the greatest disturbance and overthrow would appear. With this reasoning he argues at greater length in p. 2. de Ecclesiastica Hier. cap. 2., as I shall say below.

NOR do the heretical adversaries lean on a firm foundation.

THEY OPPOSE, indeed, Matth. 5.: If any one will contend with you in judgment and take away your tunic, give him also your cloak.

THE SAINTLY DOCTOR ANSWERS on this passage, Lucae 6., that judgments are not forbidden; but contentions and quarrels, and the lust of vengeance, as St. Augustine says, epist. 5. Therefore, in sum, it must be held (says the Saintly Doctor) that the correction of a neighbor, or the hindering of evil, or the punishment of a crime committed by one who can and ought to hinder it — such as the Minister of the law — is not forbidden; but here the lust of revenge is forbidden and restrained, both as to the hand, and as to the sign, and as to the mind. In the same way St. Augustine says it is to be understood of what he said there also: And whoever shall strike you on one cheek, offer him the other also, and yet he himself, Ioan. 19., corrected the striker and did not offer the other cheek: similarly Paul, Actorum 23., struck on the cheek, answered: God shall strike you, you whited wall, and yet both were most patient in spirit, as the Saintly Doctor observes, loc. cit. ad locum Ioan., from St. Augustine, tract. 113. and epist. 5. — see him. Thus answers Valencia, disp. 3. quaest. 16. punct. 1. col. 742. and disp. 5. quaest. 4. p. 2., and Tannerus in the cited place.

THEY OPPOSE, secondly, Matth. 7.: Judge not, that you be not judged.

THE SAINTLY DOCTOR ANSWERS, p. 1. Concil. sect. 10., from St. Augustine, lib. 2. de serm. Domini in monte, cap. 28., that not every judgment is forbidden; but one rashly passed without firm reason. The same is the judgment of St. Hilar., Can. 5. in Matth.

THE SAINTLY DOCTOR ANSWERS, de septem Itineribus aeternitatis, Itinere primo, dist. 4., from St. Jerome, that the order of correction is taught, so that first, judging ourselves, we amend ourselves, casting the beam out of our own eye, before we contemplate the mote in another's eye.

THAT indeed he does not condemn every judgment is found in Ioan. 12.: Judge not according to the face, but judge just judgment, as St. Bonaventure there observes.

THEY OBJECT also from the first Epistle to the Corinthians, 6.: Brother contends with brother in judgment: and that before unbelievers? Indeed already altogether it is a fault in you, that you have judgments among yourselves.

IT IS ANSWERED, not that judgment is condemned, as I said above — indeed it is instituted; but that an undue one is reproved. Four conditions, however, are laid down by the Doctors that a judgment be just: thus St. Thomas, 2.2. quaest. 60. art. 1. and 6.; St. Bonaventure, in 2. dist. 44., in the cited places, and lib. 1. Pharetra, cap. 45.

T H E F I R S T is legitimate authority, such as ordinary Judges have, or Delegates, or even Arbitrators, who have that power by the law of nations over those who freely commit themselves to them. And such also would be one who, by a special judgment of God, fulfilled that office, as Phinees, Numer. 25., slew the Madianite and the Hebrew man, as the Saintly Doctor notes in the Biblia pauperum, cap. 51.

Because of the lack of this condition a Judgment is said to be unjust by usurpation, as St. Thomas says, art. 6.; St. Bonaventure, 2. dist. 44. art. 2. quaest. 1.

Y E T it can happen that the judgment of some Tyrant, who truly lacks legitimate power, be otherwise just and bind, namely if he be in peaceful possession. For otherwise the peaceful state of the commonwealth could not stand, unless what the ruler justly decreed is obeyed: Thus Valencia, punct. 2., who says that Victoria is held to have thought so, and it is the opinion of St. Bonaventure in the cited place, in the body and ad 2., where he teaches that the Tyrant, although he rules without legitimate power, and accordingly decides unjustly by reason of usurpation, must nevertheless be heard, if he decide justly, for the punishment of malefactors and the praise of the good, as is said in the first Epistle of Peter, 2.; and accordingly his decrees are just, and it is just to subject oneself to them.

T H E S E C O N D condition is, that the Judgment be conformed to the rule of Justice, namely, that what is decreed be just, even if the judge does not act from the virtue of Justice; but from the political rule, lest he be deprived — such was that Judge, Luc. 16., who finally sanctioned what was just for the Widow out of fear of punishment; as Valencia observes after St. Bonaventure on that passage. By the lack of this condition, the Judgment is said to be unjust, and it does not bind in conscience, as Innocent and Panormitanus teach, in cap. Plerique, extra de immunitate Ecclesiae; Sylvest., under the word Sententia, quaest. 11.; Sotus, lib. 3. de Iustitia, quaest. 4. art. 2.

¶ T H E T H I R D condition is the due judicial order: citation, hearing of the Accused, defenses, etc.

T H E F O U R T H condition, that he judge from the affection of Justice. So all the Interpreters of St. Thomas, quaest. 60. art. 2.; Suarez, 3. p. Tom. 5. disp. 4. sect. 7.; Tannerus, in the cited place.

Note, however, that this condition does not render the judgment invalid, as the cited authors warn. But an order failing in essentials renders it null. But of this there will be a sub-disputation.

A F I F T H condition is added: its conformity with the rules of Prudence. Now for this it ought to have two conditions: one, that it decide with due consideration; the other, that it not be from a depraved affection of hatred, or some other affection, or of gifts, etc.

¶ I T O U G H T also to be asserted that a Judge does not straightway lose his power because he lies in mortal sin, against Wicleph, whose error is condemned in the Council of Constant., sess. 8.

I T I S P R O V E D at length by the Saintly Doctor, in 2. dist. 44., where Peter, prima cap. 2., commands obedience to Masters, even to the froward. Iob 34. He makes the Hypocrite to reign. Osee 13. I will give them a King in my wrath. Ioan. 19. You would have no power unless it had been given you from above. The Saintly Doctor adduces examples of these in the Biblia, cap. 102. For thus of Nabuchodonosor it is said, Danielis 4.: Your power reaches to the ends of the whole earth. The same is asserted in cap. 5.; and to Ieroboam, 3. Reg., the Lord gave the kingdom of Israel, and to other wicked men, as the Saintly Doctor observes in the cited place. And Matth. 22.: Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. Now Tiberius was impious, which the Saintly Doctor elegantly discourses upon in serm. 5. Dom. 22. post Pentecosten.

T H E R E A S O N also is that of St. Bonaventure which Valencia uses: because the foundation of jurisdiction is not the grace of God, but his will in the order of political governance, and often also for the punishment of peoples, as he discourses in 2. dist. 44. art. 2.

N O W it is controverted: whether the judgment of a judge is rendered mortally evil because it is passed by a judge constituted in mortal sin — and indeed in the times of St. Bonaventure most Theologians held this, at least concerning Ecclesiastical Judges: Alens., 3. p. quaest. 40. membr. 3.; St. Thomas, 4. dist. 19. quaest. 2. art. 2. St. Bonaventure seems to suspect it in those words, Ioan. 8.: He who is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone, where he speaks of the danger for such judges, and more especially for those living in public sin, because they scandalize the peoples whom they ought to admonish and call away from evil.

F O L L O W I N G this were Paludanus, 4. dist. 19. quaestione 3. artic. 3.; Sylvester, under the word correctio fraterna, quaestione 16.

T H E O P P O S I N G opinion, however, is the common one: Thus St. Thomas, hic, art. 2. ad 3., where he abandoned the former opinion. Thus Caietanus; Sotus, lib. 3. de Iustitia, quaest. 4. art. 2.; Navar., in Comment. super Rubricam, de Iud. num. 42.; Valencia, disp. 5. quaest. 4. punct. 2.; and it is St. Bonaventure's, in the cited place.

I A S S E R T with St. Bonaventure that there is some sin in that case, but I do not lay down that it is always mortal, but dangerous, lest it lead to mortal sin.

I T I S P R O V E D first by St. Bonaventure, loc. cit., from that saying of Christ, He who is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone, which passage Anselm there expounds thus, and St. Augustine, tract. 33., who say that those unworthy to judge the woman were brought forward by Christ. Since, therefore, such judges are unworthy, it follows in some way that they sin, as Valencia confesses, freely responding.

I T I S P R O V E D secondly by St. Bonaventure, lib. 1. Pharetrae, cap. 45., from many Fathers.

St. G R E G O R Y, homil. 26. in Evang.: It is hard, that one who knows not how to hold the measures of his own life should become judge of another's life. Lo, the peril to which a depraved man exposes himself, when he makes himself judge of another's life.

St. I S I D O R E, de summo bono, cap. 55. sent. 1.: None of the foolish or the wicked ought to be a judge: for the fool by sloth, the wicked man by wickedness, corrupts the truth which he has learned.

St. A U G U S T I N E, epistol. 174.: It is unjust that anyone should wish to judge another and be unwilling to be judged himself.

St. A M B R O S E, in 2. Apol. David, cap. 2.: Let each one who is about to judge another first judge himself, and let him not condemn lesser errors in another, when he himself has committed graver ones.

N O R does Valencia satisfy, saying that the Fathers only signify that it is illicit if it be done without humility. For indeed with relaxed sinews it cries out that it is in itself unjust and dangerous. Whether it be always mortal, the Saintly Doctor does not assert.

A S T O the foundation Valencia opposes — that there is a great difference between the use of the power of order and of jurisdiction, so that this is not so grave as to confect the Sacraments unworthily — I grant it; but he will not deny that even that is evil.

N O W the Saintly Doctor elegantly discourses on the requirements of Judges in the second part, de Eccl. Hier. cap. 2., where, likening them to the Angelic Virtues, he teaches: For the Virtues are Angels of the second order, of the middle Hierarchy, who are so called because of the strong and unchangeable virility for the reception of divine illuminations, not in any way weak, but virilely reduced to the imitation of God (as St. Dionysius teaches, cap. 8. de coelesti Hier.), not abandoning the deiform movement, but bearing it firmly into the superessential and potentific virtue deiformly proceeding. All these things he teaches are to be referred to those who have obtained the power of judging.

F O R, that peace and concord may be had in the Church of Christ, justice has been ordained by the Lord. But Justice and Peace accompany one another; for the Psalmist says: The mountains shall receive peace for the people, and the hills justice; because there would not be peace in the mountains, that is, in proud men, unless there were justice in the hills, that is, in the good and humble Prelates and Judges, in whom virility, or angelic virtuousness, is required, so that neither by blessing nor by cursing they be turned aside from the rectitude of justice, as is said of David, 2. Reg. 14.: But you, my lord the King, are as an Angel of God, who is moved neither by cursing nor by blessing. The judge, therefore, ought to be strong and virile, lest by fear, hatred, or love he be turned from the vigor of justice. Therefore the counsel is given, Ecclesiastici 7.: Do not seek to be made a judge, unless you have the strength to break through iniquities, lest perhaps you fear the face of the mighty. And Sap. 6.: Hear, O Kings and Judges, who judge the earth: to you is strength given by the Most High, etc.

N E X T, the Judges ought to be like the Virtues in the virtuous defense of justice, as is said, Ecclesiastici 4.: Fight for Justice, and be certain even unto death for justice. For when subjects see Prelates pusillanimous and tepid, they are easily terrified, as is said, Zach. 13.: I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered. Therefore it is said, Ezech. 3.: I have made you like an adamant and like flint; fear them not; where Marinus Brixiensis [reads] magnesem, because the Judge ought to be strong as the adamant, and at the same time benign, attracting, as the Saintly Doctor says. Therefore let them act virilely, lest there be said to them that of Ezech. 13.: You have not gone up against [them].

T H I R D L Y they are compared to the Virtues on account of the imitation of Divine wisdom, which the Judges ought to hold before their eyes in their sentences. For human wisdom is bound to imitate the virtue of divine justice. Therefore Sap. 6.: Love the light of wisdom, you who preside over the peoples, lest that of Hierem. 5. be said of them: Perhaps the poor and the foolish know not the way of the Lord, and the judgment of their God. I will go forth, therefore, etc. Isa. 56.: They have not known satiety; the pastors themselves have not understood understanding. Therefore it is said of the Virtues that virilely, through the reception of illuminations, they are reduced to the imitation of God. For those who are illuminated by God execute justice without offense, and this is said, Psalm. 88.: Lord, they shall walk in the light of your countenance, and in your justice shall they be exalted.

F O U R T H L Y they are like the Virtues in the swiftness of dispatching the causes of the poor; for true Justice, when it has become known to the judge, is not to be delayed in execution, but is to be decided and promulgated at once, and this especially in the causes of the poor, whose delay is harmful to them in many ways; and therefore the Virtues are said not to abandon the deiform movement, because virtuous Judges, the cause of the poor being known, do not defer judgment; as neither does God, of whom it is said, Ecclesiastici 35.: The Lord will not delay, but will judge the just, and will do judgment; and the Most Strong will not have patience with them.

F I F T H L Y they ought to be like the Virtues, not burdened with gifts, which are therefore forbidden, Exodi 23., Deuter. 16., because they blind and enervate the strength of Justice. Therefore they are likened to the Virtues, which arrive at the Potentific and superessential virtue, that is, in their movements and acts they regard only God, not their own advantage. For they are admonished, 2. Paralip. 19.: See what you do: for you do not exercise the judgment of men, but of God, as I also admonished above.

S I X T H L Y let them be likened to the heavenly Virtues, on account of the swift and virile liberation of the oppressed. For those Angels are held to restrain the demons, as Tob. 8.: Raphael seized the demon, and Dan. 6.: God sent his Angel and shut the mouths of the lions. For there are some powerful men, cruel as demons, oppressors of the innocent. Therefore it is said, Proverb. 24.: Snatch them who are led to death: and Iob 29.: Because I had delivered the poor man crying out, and the orphan who had no helper, I broke the jaws of the wicked, and from his teeth I snatched [the prey]. As in the first book of Reg. 17. David is said to have snatched the sheep and lambs from the jaws of the lion and the bear. So God commands, Isa. 1.: Judge for the orphan, help the oppressed, etc.

F I N A L L Y they ought to be like the Angelic Virtues, which are destined for working miracles, restoring eyes torn out, feet cut off, etc. For so also the Judges ought manfully to take care to restore goods unjustly taken away, of fame, body, fortune, and to compel unjust robbers to satisfaction; and this is figured in the deed of David: All things which the Amalekites had taken, nor was anything missing from the spoils, but all things whatsoever they had seized he brought back and restored. And 2. Reg. 12. Whom (he decreed) he shall repay fourfold, and 3. Reg. 3. Solomon restored the stolen infant to his mother.

H E P R O C E E D S elegantly to liken Princes and Kings to the Powers. Now the Powers are Angels, by whose special power the adverse powers are restrained, lest they harm as much as they would wish. Now St. Dionysius says of the heavenly Powers, cap. 8. de coelesti Hier.: The appellation of the holy Powers teaches a power both well adorned and undivided in its order around divine receptions, not tyrannically precipitating the inferior powers into things potestative, but potently reducing them into divine things, and assimilating them, as far as is lawful, to the potentific causal power, and converting the inferior things toward God, who is the prince of all power, according to the hierarchical disposition, making the divine and shining power resplendent in inferior things, etc.

Whence the Angels of that order restrain and curb all who impede the hierarchical order of prelation and subjection. Hence they do not allow the power of prelation to be contemned by subjects, nor do they permit subjects to be violently oppressed. In all these things Princes ought to imitate the heavenly Powers, so that they rule wisely, live orderly, potently repress and avenge evil, spare the innocent, and not allow injury to be done to wretched persons.

T H E R E F O R E they will be like the Powers, because animated by the love of Justice they avenge all wickedness upon the guilty and pursue the disturbers of peace, as is said, Machab. 3., of Judas. See the Seraphic Doctor discoursing throughout in the Angelic tongue.

A G A I N, and again resuming this discourse, part. 4. de Ecclesiastica Hier. cap. 3., he likens the judges of the earth to the heavens. To the heavens therefore also the first judges of the Church, the Apostles, were likened, Psal. 18., and thus Psal. 21.: The heavens shall declare his justice. Certainly the impious cannot represent the justices of the Lord; for it is said, Psalm. 49.: But to the sinner God said: why do you declare my justices? But the heavens, that is, heavenly men, whose conversation is in the heavens. I shall set down, therefore, parallels between Judges and the heavens.

A N D first indeed, the heavens are bodies so sincere that among the wise it is disputed whether they are composed of matter and form; incorruptible, inasmuch as where there is matter, there is potency for new forms, and accordingly for corruption. So the Judges ought to be so separated from every earthly admixture that it may be doubted whether they are concreted of flesh and blood, so that they do not feel the affections of parents or friends, and can be said, as it were: Melchisedech, King of Salem, without father, without mother, without genealogy — so incorruptible ought they to be with respect to gifts, to prayers, and to terrors.

N E X T, the Heavens are most subtle substances, diaphanous, transmitting the light with which they are suffused. So also the Judges ought to shine with integrity, purity, and innocence so preeminent, that they transfuse the heavenly light into the world by preeminent examples of life.

O F T E N U O U S substance, and fluid, are the heavens, according to the opinion of the Seraphic Doctor and of the more recent Astronomers, yet in their place standing in their orb Mathematically, as if riveted most firm in structure, or as Eugubinus read: and the species; so also the Judges, of a frail nature indeed, yet most firm, standing in the most perfect spherical figure, so that they halt about the mean of equity without deviation, and are, as it were, the mirror of Justice and of the other virtues.

T H E H E A V E N S are moved above the center of the world, along the line of the Equator, from east to west with a regular motion, in the space of 24 hours, and render day and night; and they carry with them all the stars, and indeed, the wandering and deviating ones, they vindicate by force from their errors toward the west, which meanwhile, repressed, shriek, as it were, mourning their sins. So also the Judges, above the Equator of commutative Justice, rendering rewards to the good and punishments to the impious, should most swiftly carry them along, correcting the wandering ones even unto the west.

W I T H an unequal eccentric motion above the points of Aries and Libra the heavens are seen to move from the West according to the succession of the signs, so that they distribute, as it were in Geometric proportion, lights and influxes to the various regions, and portion out the good with proportional distribution: but especially the Sun, for the preservation of all regions, bending between the Tropics, at due times toward the North through the boreal signs, and toward the South through the Antarctida, so that no region can complain that a portion of light and influx has been denied to it — which would happen if it were moved only above the Equator.

S O also the Judges ought not only to repay rewards and punishments by commutative Justice, but also by Distributive [Justice] above the Balance of Justice, where again an Equinox is made, the commutative nevertheless being also kept; and they are held, strong ones above Aries of gentle clemency, to apportion the goods of the commonwealth in Geometric proportion, the needs and merits of each member of the commonwealth having been computed; so that no one can justly complain that he is left naked in rigid winter, or scorched with want in torrid summer, but all are clothed with the flowers and fruits of the commonwealth, imitating the Sun of Justice, CHRIST.

T H E F I R M A M E N T is moved trembling above the pivots of Aries and Libra. So the Judges ought to fear lest they incline too much; and therefore, immovable, let them stand above the poles of Justice and mercy. For thus it is enjoined upon them: and now, O Kings, understand; be instructed, you who judge the earth. Serve the Lord in fear, and exult unto him with trembling; lay hold on discipline, lest you perish from the just way. Psalm. 2.

V E R Y S L O W L Y the eccentric of the Sun is moved, traversing one degree in each century of years, completing the year according to the measure of the Crystalline [heaven], the great year. So the Judges ought to be most deliberate in irregular movements, nor take a step unless the truth by which we are burned has been clearly recognized.

T H E M O O N, nearer to the earth, appearing great undeservedly, deviates with its moonlike motions among the other Wanderers. So those nearer to earthly things, in governing, deviate more in judgments and governances, and accordingly are sprinkled with earthly dregs. Such appears to our eyes the Ottoman Empire, a huge chaos of barbarians, where they hold cruelty for severity, and dissolution in place of mercy; therefore also, spotted, subject to earthly eclipses, often walking in the shadows of the earth, it is darkened by abomination, luxury, robberies, oppressions. Harsh appears the Moon, and wrinkled, full of hollow mountains and valleys; so that sordid empire, deformed with spots and wrinkles, strewn with earthly dregs, appears to wise eyes great, but to the most expert intellects most worthy of being cast away.

N O T far away is Mercury, Aser, intent upon treacherous trades and piratical navigations; who yet can say to the Ottoman predominant what that Pirate said to Alexander, or, according to some, to Pompey: You accuse me of robbing a single skiff, and do you not see yourself the despoiler of the world?

N E A R at hand is the effeminate kingdom of Venus in Assyria

Soon the body of the Sun, adored among the Persians.

H E R E the warlike Mars of the Thracians and the Greeks; the Jupiter of the Cretans; the Saturn of the Easterns, of the golden, as they fable, age. All these, wandering, are at last corrected by the Justice of God. These emblems are drawn from Bucellius at the end, and from Cassanaeus, p. p. Catalogi gloriae mundi.

L E T U S R A I S E our eyes to the solid Firmament, and set forth the images and stemmata also of Kings and Princes, even of Christians, that from them they may learn Justice.

T H E R E A R E in the circle of life, the Zodiac: the Aquarius of Lorraine; the Fishes, the Kings of Sicily. The Aries of the Argonauts. The Taurus of the Egyptians, and most noble of Certhes; the Taurus of Mechebel, and the Bulls of Savoy the Gemini; the Cancer of the Gambari; the Venetian Leo; the shining Virgo of the most powerful golden King of the Gauls, and the Libra adorned with lilies. The Scorpius of the Indians; the Sagittarius of the Scythians and Persians. The Leo of England, the Lyra of Ireland.

P R E S E N T are the Eagles of Austria, in the maternal boreal clime of the Crown; the Dragons of the Romans of Norway, the Bears of the Suevi; the Wolves and Horses of the Romulids. The Crosses of the Burgundians and of the Ethiopians. See also many other emblems of Justice in Bucellius and Cassanaeus, parte prima de gloria mundi.