Of wisdome three bookes written in French by Peter Charro[n] Doctr of Lawe in Paris. Translated by Samson Lennard

CHAP. VIII. To obey and obserue the Lawes, Customes, and Ceremonies of the Country, how and in what sense.

EVen as a sauage and vntamed beast, will not suffer him∣selfe to be taken, led, and handled by man, but either fli∣eth * 1.1 and hideth himselfe from him, or armeth himselfe against him, and with furie assaulteth him, if he approch neere vnto him; in such sort that a man must vse force mingled with Art and subtiltie to take and tame him: So follie will not be han∣dled by reason, or wisedome, but striueth and stirreth against it, and addeth follie vnto follie; and therefore it must bee ta∣ken, and led, like a wilde beast, (that which a man is to a beast, a wise man is to a foole) astonished, feared, and kept short, that with the more ease it may be instructed and won.

Now the proper meane or helpe thereunto, is a great au∣thoritie, a thundring power and grauitie, which may dazell it with the splendor of his lightning, Sola authoritas est quae cogit stultos vt ad sapientiam festinent. In a popular fight or se∣dition * 1.2, if some great, wise, ancient and vertuous personage come in presence, that hath wonne the publike reputation of honour and vertue, presently the mutinous people being strucken and blinded with the bright splendor of this autho∣ritie, are quieted, attending what he will say vnto them.

Veluti magno in populo cùm saepe coorta Seditio est, saeuit que animis ignobile vulgus, Iamque faces & sax a volant, furor arma ministrat: Tum pietate grauem ac meritis, si fortè virum quem Conspexêre, silent, arrectisque auribus astant, Ille regit dictis animos, & pectora mulcet.

There is nothing greater in this world than authoritie, which is an image of God, a messenger from Heauen: if it be souereigne it it is called maiestie, if subalterne, authoritie: and by two things it is maintained, admiration and feare mingled together. Now this maiestie and authoritie is first and pro∣perly in the person of the soueraigne prince and lawmaker, where it is liuely, actuall and mouing; afterwards in his com∣mandements and ordinances, that is to say, in the law, which is the head of the worke of the prince, and the image of a liuely and originall maiestie. By this are fooles reduced, con∣ducted, and guided. Behold then of what weight, necessitie and vtilitie, authoritie and the law is in the world.

The next authoritie and that which is likest to the law, is custome, which is another powerfull and Emperious mistris; * 1.3 It seaseth vpon this power, and vsurpeth it traiterously and violently, for it planteth this authoritie by little and little, by stealth, as it were insensibly, by a little pleasing, and humble beginning; hauing setled and established it selfe by the helpe of time, it discouereth afterwards a furious and tyrannicall vi∣sage, against which there is no more libertie or power left, so much as to lift vp ones eies; It taketh it authoritie from the possession and vse thereof, it increaseth and ennobleth it selfe by continuance like a riuer; it is dangerous to bring it back to his originall fountaine.

Law & custome establish their authoritie diuersly, custome by little and little, with long time, sweetly and without force * 1.4, by the common consent of all, or the greater part, and the au∣thour thereof are the people. The law springeth vp in a mo∣ment with authoritie and power, and taketh his force from him that hath power to command all, yea many times against the liking of the subiects, whereupon some compare it to a tyrant, and custome to a king. Againe, custome hath with it neither reward nor punishment; the law hath them both, at least punishment, neuerthelesse they may mutuallie help and hinder one another. For custome which is but of sufferance, authorized by the soueraigne, is better confirmed: and the law likewise setleth it owne authoritie by possession and vse; and contrariwise custome may be caschiered by a contrarie law, and the law loseth the force thereof by suffering a con∣trarie custome: but ordinarily they are together, that is law and custome; wise and spirituall men considering it as a law, idiots and simple men as a custome.

There is not a thing more strange, than the diuersitie and strangenes of some lawes and customes in the world; Neither * 1.5 is there any opinion or imagination so variable, so mad, which is not established by lawes and customes in some place or other. I am content to recite some of them, to shew those * 1.6 that are hard of beleefe heerein, how farre this proposition doth go. Yet omitting to speake of those things that belong to religion, which is the subiect where the greatest wonder∣ments and grossest impostures are: but because it is without the commerce of men, and that it is not properly a custome, and where it is easie to be deceiued, I will not meddle with it. See then a brief of those that for the strangenes are best worth the noting. To account it an office of pietie in a certaine age to kill their parents & to eate them. In Innes to pay the shot, by yeelding their children, wiues and daughters to the plea∣sure of the hoste: publike brothelhouses of males: old men lending their wiues vnto yong: women common: an honor to women to haue accompaned with many men, and to cary their locks in the hembes of their garments: daughters to go with their priuie parts vncouered, and maried women care∣fullie to keepe them couered: to leaue the daughters to their

pleasures, and being great with child to enforce an obort in the sight and knowledge of all men; but maried women to keepe themselues chaste and faithfull to their husbands: wo∣men the first night before they companie with their hus∣bands, to receiue all the males of the estate and profession of their husbands, inuited to the mariage, and euer after to be faithfull to their husbands: yong maried women to present their virginitie to their prince, before they he with their hus∣bands: mariages of males: women to go to warre with their husbands: to die and to kill themselues at the decease of their husbands, or shortly after: to permit widowes to marie a∣gaine, if their husbands die a violent death, and not other∣wise: husbands to be diuorced from their wiues without al∣ledging any cause: to sell them if they be barren, to kill them for no other cause but because they are women, and af∣terwards to borrow women of others at their neede: women to be deliuered without paine or feare: to kill their children because they are not faire, well featured, or without cause: at meate to wipe their fingers vpon their priuities and their feete: to liue with mans flesh: to eate flesh and fish raw: many men and women to lie together to the number of tenne or twelue: to salute one another by putting the finger to the ground, and afterwards lifting it towards heauen: to turne the back when they salute, and neuer to looke him on the face whom a man will honor: to take into the hand the spittle of the prince: not to speake to the king but at a peepe-hole: in a mans whole life neuer to cut his haire nor nailes: to cut the haire on one side, and the nailes of one hand, and not of the o∣ther: men to pisse sitting, women standing: to make holes and pits in the flesh of the face, and the dugs, to hang rings and iewels in: to contemne death, to receiue it with ioy, to sue for it, to pleade in publike for the honor thereof, as for a dignitie and fauour: to account it an honorable buriall to be eaten with dogs, birds, to be boyled, cut in peeces and poun∣ded, and the powder to be cast into their ordinarie drinke.

When we come to iudge of these customes, that is the complaint and the trouble: the vulgar sot and pedante, are * 1.7 not troubled he••ewith, for euery seditious rout condemneth as barbarous and beastly whatsoeuer pleaseth not their palat,

that is to say, the common vse and custome of their countrie. And if a man shall tell them, that others do speake and iudge the same of ours, and are as much offended with ours, as we with theirs, they cut a man short after their maner, tearming them beasts and barbarians, which is alwaies to say the same thing. A wise man is more aduised, as shall be said, he maketh not such haste to iudge, for feare lest he wrong his owne iudg∣ment: and to say the truth, there are many lawes and cu∣stomes which seeme at the first view to be sauage, inhumane, and contrarie to all reason, which if they were without passi∣on, and soundly considered of, if they were not found to be altogether iust and good, yet at the least they would not be without some reason and defence. Let vs take amongst the rest for example the two first which wee haue spoken of, which seeme to be both the strangest and farthest off from the dutie of pietie; to kill their owne parents at a certaine age, and to eate them. They that haue this custome do take it to be a testimonie of pietie and good affection, endeuoring ther∣by first of meere pitie to deliuer their old parents, not only vnprofitable to themselues and others, but burthensome, lan∣guishing, and leading a painfull and troublesome life, and to place them in rest and ease: afterwards giuing them the most worthie and commendable sepulchre, lodging in themselues and their owne bowels the bodies and reliques of their pa∣rents, in a maner reuiuing them againe, and regenerating them by a kind of transmutation into their liuing flesh, by the meanes of the digestion and nourishment. These reasons would not seeme ouer-light to him that is not possessed with a contrarie opinion: and it is an easie matter to consider, what crueltie and abomination it had been to these people, to see their parents before their owne eies to suffer such griefe and torment, and they not able to succour them, and afterwards to cast their spoiles to the corruption of the earth, to stench and rottennes, and the foode of wormes, which is the worst that can be done vnto it. Darius made a triall, asking some Greekes for what they would be perswaded to follow the custome of the Indians in eating their dead fathers. To whom they answe∣red, that they would not do it for any thing in the world. And on the other side assaying to perswade the Indians to burne

the bodies of their dead parents as the Greekes did, it seemed to them a matter of such difficultie and horror, as that they would neuer be drawne vnto it. I will adde only one other, which concerneth only matter of decencie and comelinesse, and is more light and more pleasant: One that alwaies blew his nose with his hand, being reprehended for inciuilitie, in the defence of himselfe, asked what priuiledge that filthie ex∣crement had, that a man must affoord it a faire handker chiefe to receiue, and afterwards carefullie wrap & fold it vp, which he thought was a matter of greater lothsomnes than to cast it frō him. So that we see that for all things there may be found some seeming reason, and therefore we are not suddenly and lightlie to condemne any thing.

But who would beleeue how great and imperious the au∣thoritie of custome is? He that said it was another nature, did * 1.8 not sufficientlie expresse it, for it doth more than nature, it conquereth nature: for hence it is that the most beautifull daughters of men draw not vnto loue their naturall parents; nor brethren, though excellent in beautie, winne not the loue of their sisters. This kind of chastirie is not properly of na∣ture, but of the vse of lawes and customes, which forbid them, and make of incest a great sinne, as we may see in the fact not * 1.9 only of the children of Adam, where there was an inforced necessitie, but of Abraham and Nachor brethren; of Iacob and Iudas Patriarches, Amram the father of Moses, and other holy men: And it is the law of Moses which forbad it in these first degrees; but it hath also sometimes dispensed therewith not only in the colaterall line, and betwixt brothers, and their brothers wiues, which was a commandement, and not a dis∣pensation * 1.10: and which is more, betweene the naturall brother and sister of diuers wombs, but also in the right line of alli∣ance, that is to say, of the sonne with the mother in law; for in the right line of bloud, it seemeth to be altogether against na∣ture, notwithstanding the fact of the daughters of Lot with their father, which neuerthelesse was produced purely by nature, in that extreame apprehension and feare of the end of humane kind, for which cause they haue beene excused by * 1.11 great and learned doctors. Now against nature there is not any dispensation, if God the only superior thereunto giue it

not. Finally of casuall incests and not voluntarie the world is full, as Tertullian teacheth. Moreouer, custome doth enforce * 1.12 the rules of nature, witnes those Physitians who many times leaue the naturall reasons of their arte by their owne autho∣ritie, as they that by custome do liue and sustaine their liues with poyson, Spiders, Emmets, Lyzards, Toades, which is a common practise amongst the people of the West Indies. It likewise dulleth our senses, witnes they that liue neere the fall of the riuer of Nilus, neere clocks, armories, milles, and the whole world according to some Philosophers, with the sound of a heauenly kind of musick, and the continuall and diuers motions of the heauens dulleth our senses, that we heare not that which we heare. To conclude, (and it is the principall fruit thereof) it ouercommeth all difficultie, maketh things easie that seeme impossible, sweetneth all sower, and therefore by the meanes heereof a man liues in all things content, but yet it mastereth our soules, our beliefs, our iudgements, with a most vniust and tyrannicall authoritie. It doth and vndoeth, authoriseth and disauthoriseth whatsoeuer it please, without rhythme or reason, yea many times against all reason: It esta∣blisheth in the world against reason & iudgement all the opi∣nions, religions, beleefs, obseruances, maners, and sorts of life most fantasticall and rude, as before hath been said. And con∣trarily, it wrongfully degradeth, robbeth, beateth downe in things that are truly great and admirable, their price and esti∣mation, and maketh them base and vile.

Nil adeo magnum, nec tam mirabile quidquam Principiò, quod non cessent mirarier omnes Paulatim.—

So that we see that custome is a thing great and powerfull. Plato hauing reprehended a youth for playing at cobnut, or chery-pit, and receiuing this answere from him, That he con∣trouled him for a matter of small moment, replied, My child, custome is not a matter of small moment. A speech wel worth the noting for all such as haue youth to bring vp. But it exer∣ciseth it power with so absolute authoritie, that there is no striuing against it, neither is it lawfull to reason, or call into question the ordinances thereof: it enchanteth vs in such sort, that it maketh vs beleeue that what is without the bounds

thereof, is without the bounds of reason, and there is nothing good and iust, but what it approueth; ratione non componimur, * 1.13 sed consuetudine abducimur: honestius putamus quod frequen∣tius: recti apud nos locum tenet error, vbi publicus factus. This is tolerable with idiots and the vulgar sort, who wanting suf∣ficiencie to looke into the depth of things, to trie and to iudge, do well to hold and settle themselues to that which is com∣monlie held and receiued: but to wise men, who play ano∣ther part, it is a base thing to suffer themselues to be caried with customes.

Now the aduice which I heere giue vnto him that would be wise, is to keepe and obserue both in word and deede the * 1.14 lawes & customes which he findeth established in the coun∣trie where he is: and in like maner to respect and obey the magistrates and all superiors, but alwaies with a noble spirit, and after a generous maner, and not seruilely, pedanticallie, su∣perstitiously, and withall not taking offence, nor lightly con∣demning other strange lawes and customes, but freely and soundly iudging and examining the one and the other, as hath been said, and not binding his iudgement and beleefe but vnto reason only. Heereof a word or two.

In the first place according to all the wisest, the rule of rules, and the generall law of lawes, is to follow and obserue * 1.15 the lawes and customes of the countrie where he is, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, auoyding carefullie all singularitie, and strange extrauagant particularitie, different from the common and ordinarie; for whatsoeuer it be, it alwaies hur∣teth and woundeth another, is suspected of follie, hypocrisie, ambitious passion, though perhaps it proceede from a sicke and weake soule. Non conturbabit sapiens publicos mores, nec po∣pulum in se, nouitate vitae conuertet. We must alwaies walke vn∣der the couert of the lawes, customes, superiours, without disputation or tergiuersation, without vndertaking sometimes to dispence with the lawes, sometimes like a frugall seruant to enhaunce the price.

But that it be (which is the second rule) out of a good mind and after a good maner; nobly and wisely, neither for the loue * 1.16 nor feare of them, nor for the iustice or equitie that is in them, nor for feare of that punishment that may follow for not obei∣ing

them: to be briefe, not of superstition, nor constrained, scrupulous, fearefull seruitude, eadem quae populus, sed non eo∣dem modo, nec eodem proposito faciet sapiens, but freely and sim∣ply for publike reuerence, and for their authoritie. Lawes and customes are maintained in credit, not because they are iust and good, but because they are lawes and customes; this is the mysticall foundation of their authoritie, they haue no other; and so is it with superiours, because they are superi∣ours, quia supra Cathedram sedent, not because they are ver∣tuous and honest, quae faciunt, nolite facere. Hee that obeyeth them for any other cause, obeyeth them not because hee should, this is an euill and a dangerous subiect, it is not true obedience, which must be pure and simple, vnde vocatur de∣positio discretionis mera executio, abnegatio sui. Now to goe a∣bout to measure one obedience by the iustice and goodnesse of lawes and superiours, were by submitting them to our iudgement, to serue them with processe, and to call our obe∣dience into doubt, and disputation, and consequently the state and the policie according to the inconstancie and diuer∣sitie of iudgements. How many vniust and strange lawes are there in the world, not only in the particular iudgements of men, but of vniuersall reason, wherewith the world hath li∣ued a long time in continuall peace and rest, with as great sa∣tisfaction as if they had beene very iust and reasonable? And he that should goe about to change or mend them, would be accounted an enemie to the weale-publike, and neuer bee ad∣mitted: The nature of man doth accommodate it selfe to all with the times, and hauing once caught his fish, it is an act of hostilitie to goe about to alter any thing: we must leaue the world where it is, these trouble-houses and newfan∣gled spirits, vnder a pretext of reformation marre all.

All change and alteration of lawes, beleefes, customes and * 1.17 obseruances is very dangerous, and yeeldeth alwaies more e∣uill than good; it bringeth with it certaine and present euils, for a good that is vncertaine and to come. Innouatours haue alwaies glorious and plausible titles, but they are but the more suspected, and they cannot escape the note of ambiti∣ous presumption, in that they thinke to see more cleerely than others, and that to establish their opinions, the state,

policie, peace and publike quiet must be turned topsy turuy.

I will not say for all this that hath beene said before, that * 1.18 we must absolutely obey all lawes, all commandements of superiours, for such as a man knoweth euidently to be either against God or nature, hee is not to obey, and yet not to re∣bell and to trouble the state: how he should gouerne himselfe in such a case shall be taught heereafter, in the obedience due vnto princes; for to say the truth, this inconuenience and infe∣licitie, is rather, and more common in the commandements of princes, than in the lawes: neither is it sufficient to obey the lawes and superiours because of their worth and merrit, nor seruilely and for feare, as the common and prophane sort doe; but a wise man doth nothing by force or feare, soli hoc sapienti contingit, vt nil faciat inuitus, recta sequitur, gaudet officio, he doth that which he should, and keepes the lawes, not for feare of them, but for the loue of himselfe, being iea∣lous of his dutie; he hath not to doe with the lawes, to doe well; that is that wherein he differeth from the common sort, who cannot do well, nor know what they ought to do, with∣out lawes; at iusto & sapienti non est lex posita. By right a wise man is aboue the lawes, but in outward and publike effect, he is their voluntarie and free obedient subiect. In the third place thereof, it is an act of lightnesse and iniurious presump∣tion, yea a testimonie of weakenesse and insufficiencie, to condemne that which agreeth not with the law and custome of his countrie. This proceedeth either from want of leasure or sufficiencie to consider the reasons and grounds of others; this is to wrong and shame his owne iudgement, whereby he is enforced many times to recant, and not to remember that the nature of man is capable of all things; It is to suf∣fer the eie of his spirit to be hood winked, and brought asleepe by a long custome, and prescription to haue power ouer iudgement.

Finally it is the office of a generous spirit and a wise man * 1.19 (whom I heere endeuour to describe) to examine all things, to consider apart, and afterwards to compare together all the lawes and customes of the world, which shall come to his knowledge, and to iudge of them (not to rule his obedience by them, as hath beene said, but to exercise his office, since

he hath a spirit to that end) faithfully and without passion, ac∣cording to the rule of truth and vniuerfall reason and nature, whereunto he is first obliged, not flattering himselfe, or stai∣ning his iudgement with error: and to content himselfe to yeeld obedience vnto those whereunto hee is secondly and particularly bound, whereby none shall haue cause to com∣plaine of him. It may fall out sometimes, that wee may doe that, by a second particular and municipall obligation (obey∣ing the lawes and customes of the country) which is against the first and more ancient, that is to say, vniuersall nature and reason; but yet we satisfie nature by keeping our iudgements and opinions true and iust according to it. For wee haue no∣thing so much ours, and whereof we may freely dispose; the world hath nothing to do with out thoughts, but the outward man is engaged to the publicke course of the world, and must giue an account thereof: so that manie times, wee doe iustlie that, which iustly we approoue not. There is no remedie, for so goes the world.

After these two mistresses, Law and Custome, comes the * 1.20 third, which hath no lesse authority & power with many, yea is more rough & tyrannicall to those that too much tie them∣selues thereunto. This is the ceremony of the world, which to say the truth, is for the most part but vanity; yet holdeth such place, and vsurpeth such authority, by the remisnesse and contagious corruption of the world, that manie thinke that wisedome consisteth in the obseruation thereof, and in such sort do voluntarilie enthrall themselues thereunto, that rather than they wil contradict it, they preiudice their health, benefit, businesse, libertie, conscience and all; which is a very great follie, and the fault and infelicity of manie Courtiers, who aboue others are the idolaters of ceremonie. Now my will is, that this my Wise-man, do carefullie defend himselfe from this captiuity. I doe not meane, that out of a kind of loose inciuilitie, he abuse a ceremonie, for we must forgiue the world in some thing, and as much as may be outwardlie con∣forme our selues to that which is in practise; but my will is, that he tie not, and enthrall himselfe thereunto, but that with a gallant and generous boldnesse hee know how to leaue it when he will, and when it is fit, and in such maner, as that he

giue all men to know, that it is not out of carelesnes, or deli∣cacie, or ignorance, or contempt, but because he would not seeme ignorant how to esteeme of it as is fit, not suffer his iudgement and will to be corrupted with such a vanitie, and that he lendeth himselfe to the world when it pleaseth him, but neuer giueth himselfe.

Notes

• * 1.1

  1 The begin∣ning, insti∣tution and authoritie of the lawes.
• * 1.2

  August.
• * 1.3

  2 Of Custome.
• * 1.4

  3 A compari∣son of them both.
• * 1.5

  4 Their diuer∣sitie and strangenesse.
• * 1.6

  Of lawes and customes in the world.
• * 1.7

  5 Examinatiō and iudge∣ment.
• * 1.8

  6 The autho∣ritie thereof.
• * 1.9

  Gen. 11. 20. 29. 35. Exod. 6. Leuit. 28.
• * 1.10

  Deut. 25. 2. Reg. 12. 3. Reg. 2.
• * 1.11

  Chrysost. Ambrose. August.
• * 1.12

  In Apolog.
• * 1.13

  Senec.
• * 1.14

  7 An aduice.
• * 1.15

  1 Lawes and customes are to be obser∣ued.
• * 1.16

  2 Not for their iustice and equity.
• * 1.17

  Against in∣nouatours.
• * 1.18

  3 Strange things are not lightly to be con∣demned.
• * 1.19

  4 Wisely to e∣xamine all things.
• * 1.20

  8 Of Ceremo∣nies.