that kind of obedience which Tacitus speaketh of is to be held suspected: Erant in officio, sed tamen qui mallent mandata imperantium interpretari quam exequi;[1] disputing, excusing, cavilling upon mandates and directions, is a kind of shaking off the yoke, and assay[2] of disobedience; especially if in those disputings they which are for the direction speak fearfully and tenderly, and those that are against it audaciously.
Also, as Machiavel[3] noteth well, when princes, that ought to be common parents, make themselves as a party, and lean to a side, it is as a boat that is overthrown by uneven weight on the one side;[4] as was well seen in the time of Henry the Third[5] of France; for first himself entered league for the extirpation of the Protestants; and presently after the same league was turned upon himself. For when the authority of princes is made but an accessary to a cause, and that there be other bands that tie faster than the band of sovereignty, kings begin to be put almost out of possession.
Also, when discords, and quarrels, and factions, are carried openly and audaciously, it is a sign the reverence of government is lost. For the motions of the greatest persons in a government ought to be as the motions of the planets under primum
- ↑ They were in office, but chose rather to interpret the commands of their rulers than to execute them. Tacitus. Historiarum Liber I. 7. (Sense quoted again, not the language.)
- ↑ Assay. Trial.
- ↑ The Italian translation omits the name of Machiavel, and says only un scrittore. S.
- ↑ Discorsi sopra La Prima Deca di T. Livio. III. 27.
- ↑ Henry III., of Valois, 1551–1589, King of France, 1574–1589.
