For the defendour to replie, and with all force & strength
of matter, to mollifie and appease the perturbacions of the
Iudges and hearers, to pulle doune and deface the contrarie
alledged.
There is greate force in this oracion, on bothe the sides.
Properlie this kinde of Rhetorike, is called a common
place, though it semeth to be made againste this man, or that
man: because the matter of thesame shall properly pertain to
all, giltie of thesame matter.
Pristianus. Pristianus sheweth, that this parte of Rhetorike, is as it
were a certaine exaggeracion of reason, to induce a manifest
probacion of any thyng committed.
As for example, a Theife taken in a robberie, in whom
neither shamefastnesse, nor sparcle of grace appereth against
soche a one: this oracion maie be made, to exasperate the Iud-
ges from all fauour or affeccion of pitie, to be shewed.
¶ The order of the Oracion followeth
with these notes to be made by.
¶ The firste Proheme.
Emosthenes the famous Orator of Athenes in
his oraciō made against Aristogitō doeth saie,
What are
Lawes. that Lawes wherewith a common wealthe, ci-
tie or Region is gouerned, are the gifte of God,
a profitable Discipline among men, a restraint
to with holde and kepe backe, the wilfull, rashe, and beastilie
Aristotle.
Plato. life of man, and therupō Aristotle and Plato doe shewe, that
through the wicked behauour of men, good lawes were first
ordained, for, of ill maners, saie thei, rose good lawes, where
Order. lawes doe cease, and good order faileth, there the life of man
will growe, rude, wild and beestlie: Man beyng a chiefe crea-
Man borne
by nature to
societee. ture [or] God, indued with manie singuler vertues, is framed
of nature to a mutuall and Godlie societie of life, without
the whiche moste horrible wolde the life bee, for not onlie by
concorde and agremente, the life of man dothe consiste but al
things on the earth haue therin their being: the heauens and
lightes conteined in the same, haue a perpetuall harmonie
& concente in finishyng their appointed race. The elementes
All thinges
beyng on the
yearth, dooe
consiste by a
harmonie or
concorde. of the worlde, where with the nature and substaunce of all
thinges, doe consiste onlie by a harmonie and temperature of
eche parte, haue their abidyng increase & prosperous beyng,
otherwise their substaunce, perisheth and nature in all partes
decaieth: Kyngdomes and common wealthes doe consiste in
a harmonie, so long as vertue and all singularitie tempereth
their state and gouernemente, and eche member thereof obe-
ieth his function, office and callynge, and as partes of the-
same bodie, euerie one as nature hath ordained theim occu-
piyng, their roume and place, the vse of euerie parte, all to the
vse and preseruacion of the hole bodie, and as in the bodie so
in the common wealthe, the like concorde of life oughte to be
in euery part, the moste principall parte accordyng to his di-
gnitie of office, as moste principall to gouerne thother inferi-
or partes: and it thei as partes moste principal of thesame bo-
die with all moderacion and equabilitie tēperyng their state,
Order con-
serueth com-
mon wealth. office and calling. The meanest parte accordyng to his lowe
state, appliyng hym selfe to obeie and serue the moste prin-
cipall: wherein the perfecte and absolute, frame of common
wealthe or kyngdome is erected. And seyng that as the Phi-
losophers doe saie, of ill maners came good lawes, that is to
saie, the wicked and beastlie life of man, their iniurius beha-
uiour, sekyng to frame themselues from men to beastes mo-
Euil maners
was the occa-
sion of good
Lawes. ued the wise and Godlie, elders to ordaine certaine meanes,
to rote discipline, whereby the wickedlie disposed personne
should bee compelled to liue in order, to obeie Godlie lawes,
to the vpholdyng of societie. Therefore, all suche as dissolue
lawes, caste doune good order, and state of common wealth,
out as putride and vnprofitable weedes, to be extirpated and
plucked vp from Citie and Common wealthe, from societie,
who by mischeuous attemptes seke, to extinguishe societie,
amitie, and concord in life. Princes & gouernors with al other
magistrates ought in their gouernment to imitate the prac-
tise of the Phisician, the nature of man, [wekedned] and made
feble with to moche abundaunce of yll humors, or ouermoch
with ill bloode replenished, to purge and euacuate that, and
all to the preseruacion and healthe of the whole bodie: for so
was the meanyng of the Philosopher, intreatyng of the po-
litike, gouernment of kingdome and commonwealth, when
Theiues not
mete to be in
any societie. thei compared a kingdome to the bodie of man: the thefe and
robber as a euill and vnprofitable member, and all other as
without all right, order, lawe, equitie and iustice, doe breake
societie of life, bothe against lawe and nature: possessing the
goodes of a other man, are to bee cutte of, as no partes, méete
to remaine in any societie.
¶ The seconde Proheme.
Why theiues
and wicked
men, are cut
of by lawe.