MACHIAVEL
“The praises he gave Brutus and Cassius in his discourses and books, made him vehemently suspect to be the principal director of a plot that was discovered. Nevertheless, there was no prosecution against him. But from that time he lived in poverty, ridiculing everything and having no religion. (…) Some say that they were obliged to use the public authority to force him to receive the sacraments. Others say that he died uttering blasphemies.”
“Some authors say he served Caesar Borgia as his favourite-counsellor; and perhaps he was employed for him in France, when he had at Nants [sic] that conversation with the cardinal of Rouen, which he mentions in the 3rd chapter of his Prince.”
“One day, as Machiavel mimicked the gestures and irregular motions of some of the Florentines, the cardinal told him, they would appear much more ridiculous on the stage, in a comedy made in imitation of the comedies of Aristophanes. There needed no more to put Machiavel upon writing his Sanitia, in which the persons he designed to ridicule were so lively described that they durst not show their resentment tho’ they were present at its first acting, for fear of increasing the public laughter, by discovering themselves. The cardinal de Medicis was so charmed with it, that after he was Pope, he caused the scenes, the habits, and the actors themselves, to be brought to Rome to divert his court with it.” Paul Jovius
“The Florentine scribe, whom you know, has turned a good Latin play into one not bad in the Tuscan language; for his Clitia is the same with Plautus’ Casina. Some parts of which he has translated word for word, some artfully corrected, and many most happily imitated; tho’ some passages either imprudently or perversely; as that of the bailiff Olympio to his master Stalionon:
OLYMPIO. Your wife hates me, your son hates me, and all your acquaintance hate me.
STAL. What is that to you? Whilst Jupiter is your friend, nevermind those minute deities.
OLYMPIO. They are indeed not worth my regard, provided these human Jupiters die soon; but you, Mr. Jupiter, should die, and your kingdom come to the minor gods, what will become of my back, and shoulders, and shins?
Which the Tuscan Poet had thus turned in the 6th scene of the 3rd act, where Pyrrhus holds this dialogue with Nicomachus.
NIC. What is it to you? keep in favour with CHRIST, and laugh at the saints.
PYR. Yes; but if you die, and the saints use me very ill.
NIC. Fear not; I will put you in such a condition, that the saints shall be able to give you very little trouble.
This is much inferior in elegance to the passage of Plautus; but unworthy of a Christian, whose muse ought to be more holy, and, even in ludicrous subjects, remember severity.” Balzac
“He confined with new and perfectly Attic chains the old rambling prose of Boccace, its founder; yet so, as that the latter is esteemed by the men of leisure the more correct, but not the more pure or more weighty.” P.J.
“when I say that Machiavel died in the year 1530, I accommodate myself to Paul Jovius’ expressions; without knowing whether it will be better to follow him or Poccianti, who places his death in the year 1526.”
“It is strange there are so many people who believe Machiavel teaches princes dangerous politics; for on the contrary, princes have taught Machiavel what he has written. It is the study of the world, and the observation of the transactions in it, and not a fanciful closet meditation, that have been M.’s masters. Let his books be burned, answered, translated, and commented, it will be all one with respect to government. By an unhappy and fatal necessity, Politics set themselves above Morality; they do not confess it, but yet they do as Achilles, Jura negat sibi nata. A great philosopher of this age cannot bear they should say that it was necessary man should sin: ‘I believe, however, that he owns, with respect to princes, that sin is now become a necessary thing, although that does not make them excusable; for besides that there are few who content themselves with what is necessary, they would not be under this wretched condition, if they were all good men.’”
“qui nescit dissimulare nescit regnare”
“Mr. Amelot proves that Machiavel was but the disciple or interpreter of Tacitus, and he makes use of the same observations as Coringius.”
“Prince was published about the year 1515, and dedicated to Laurence de Medicis, nephew to Leo X. It did not prejudice the author with this Pope, who nevertheless was the first who threatened those with excommunication that read a prohibited book. (…) The Pope was so far from discontinuing the expressions of his friendship to the author that he employed him in writing a book that required secrecy. He ordered him to write a treatise concerning the reformation of the republic of Florence. (…) Hadrian VI, successor to Leo X, did not censure Machiavel’s book. Clement VII, successor to Hadrian VI, did more; for he not only allowed of Machiavel’s dedicating his History of Florence to him, but also granted a privilege to Antony Bladus to print this author’s works at Rome. The successors of Clement VII, to Clement VIII, exclusively, permitted the sale of Machiavel’s Prince, in all Italy, whereof there were frequent editions and translations. It was however known that this book did not please some doctors; for a book of Ambrose Catharinus, printed at Rome in 1552, has a chapter against the Discourses and the Prince. At last, under the pontificate of Clement VIII, the writings of this Florentine were condemned, after the loud complaints of the Oratory called Thomas Bozius: tho’ it is certain that this Jesuit had never read Machiavel’s Prince; for if you look into the judgment he has published on 4 writers, La Nouë, Bodin, Du Plessis Mornai and M., you will find that he supposes the Prince, written by the 4th, to be divided into 3 books; which is evidently false! He charges M. with such things as are not in the book. Coringius conjectures very well that the occasion of these mistakes was because Possevin [another critic] never knew this work, but by the reading of Gentillet [cujo livro mais famoso é conhecido como O Anti-Maquiavel].”
“Cardan informs us that M., a doctor of the last age, who wrote so much, and so well, on the military discipline of the Romans, would not venture to exercise a single regiment, tho’ the duke of Urbino pressed him to attempt it.”
“That HISTORY OF FLORENCE, says James Gohory, was written in such perfection that the deceased Milles Perrot, Master of the Accounts, my near kinsman (the most learned person of his time in this kingdom in divers languages and sciences) having made some notes on it in the margin more carefully with his own hand, than on his Livy and Tacitus, told me that it was so fitted to the humour of our times, that he esteemed the reading of it more profitable than of the great ancient Historians, so different from our present manners, fashions and customs.”
MAHOMET
“This woman, called Chadigha, fell in love with Mahomet, driver of her camels, and married him. He was then 25 (…) He had by this woman 3 sons, who died very young, and 4 daughters, which were well married. Being subject to the falling-sickness, and having a mind to conceal this infirmity from his wife, he made her believe that he fell into these convulsions upon sight of the angel Gabriel, which he was not able to bear, who came to reveal to him many things, in the name of God, concerning religion. Chadigha, being either deceived or feigning to be so, went about, and told from house to house that her husband was a prophet, and by that means endeavoured to procure him followers.”
“It is not easy to know the true detail of his actions; for if the writers of his own sect have invented a thousand fables in honour of him, it is no ways probable that his adversaries made any scruple of publishing lies against him. It is very remarkable that he himself says that he wrought no miracles, and yet his followers attribute many to him.”
“His lewdness was doubtless the cause why he permitted Polygamy under some restraints, and concubinage without any bounds.”
“There are some Doctors, even in the communion of the Protestants, who have taken him for Anti-christ.”
“There has been published a Testament, under the name of Mahomet, which has very much the air of a forgery: It is a treaty of mutual toleration, which, they say, was concluded between him and the Christians.”
“if we divide the known countries of the earth into 30 equal parts, 5 of them are Christians, 6 Mahometan and 19 Pagan.” Brerewood
“Moreover, say these gentlemen, the Alcoran is the work of a fanatic: everything in it savours of disorder and confusion; it is a chaos of disjointed thoughts. A deceiver would have ranged his doctrines better; a Comedian would have been more polite. And let none say that the devil would never have persuaded him to oppose idolatry, nor to recommend so much the love of the true GOD, and of virtue; for this proves too much; since from thence we might conclude that Mahomet was not his instrument.” “It would be to no purpose to alledge that this false prophet boasted of conversing with the angel Gabriel: for since the Scripture tells us that the devil transforms himself into an angel of light; cannot we say that he presented himself to Mahomet under that name, and in the figure of the angel Gabriel?”
“He ordains circumcision, which is a thing very harsh to adult persons: he requires them to abstain from certain meats, which is a slavery that does not well agree with worldly men: he forbids the use of wine, which is a precept indeed, that is not so very harsh to the Asiatic people, as to the northern nations, and which would certainly have made Willibrod and Boniface miscarry in their design: but yet it is convenient in all countries, where wine grows; and we know, by ancient and modern History, that this liquor does not displease the eastern people. Besides, Mahomet imposed fastings and washings, which are very troublesome, and such a frequent use of prayers, as is tedious and uneasy.” “I mistake not, the only things wherein it opened the gap, which the Gospel had shut, are marriage and revenge”
“I do not deny but the divisions of the Greek churches, whose sects were unhappily multiplied, the bad state of the oriental empire, and the corruption of manners were a favourable conjuncture for the designs of this impostor.”
“We may venture to affirm that Paganism would be still in being, and that ¾ of Europe would still be Pagan, if Constantine and his successors had not employed their authority to abolish that religion (sic)” Mr. Jurieu
“We must freely declare the truth: the kings of France have planted Christianity in the country of the Frisons and Saxons by Mahometan ways”
“The exploits of the Mahometans are without doubt the most glorious things that History affords. What can we find more wonderful than the empire of the Saracens, which extended from the Straits of Gibraltar as far as the Indies? Has it fallen? See the Turks on one side, and the Tartars on the other, who preserve the grandeur and renown of Mahomet. Find, if you can, among the conquering Christian princes, any that can be put in the balance with the Saladines, the Gingis-Chams, the Tamerlanes, the Amuraths, the Bajazets, the Mahomets II, the Solymans. Did not the Saracens confine Christianity within the bounds of the Pyrenean mountains? Did they not commit 100 outrages in Italy, and proceed as far as the heart of France? Did not the Turks extend their conquests to the confines of Germany, and the gulf of Venice? The leagues, the croisades of Christian princes, those grand expeditions, which drained the Latin church of men and money, can they not be compared to a sea, whose waves flow from the west to the east, to be broken, when they encounter the Mahometan forces, like one that splits against a steep rock?”
“The Mahometans, being more addicted to war than study, have not written histories equal to their actions; but the Christians having many great wits, have wrote histories which excel all that they have done.” “A fine advantage indeed, that we know better than they, the art of killing, of bombarding and destroying mankind!”
“Mahomet, the legislator of the Turks, through an immoderate lust, lay with a she-ass, which he rode on.”
“He had but 2 wives, when Marine, his servant-maid, a very pretty lass, pleased him so well, that he lay with her before she came to a marriageable age. His wives surprised him in the very act, and were transported with rage against him. He swore to them that he would never return to her anymore if they would keep it secret; but because he broke his oath, they made a great noise, and went away from his house. To remove this great scandal, he feigned a voice from heaven, which informed him that it was lawful for him to have to do with his servant-maids. Thus this impostor begun with committing a crime, and finished with converting it into a general law.”
MAHOMET II
“The 11th sultan of the Turks, born at Adrianople the 24th of March, 1430, was one of the greatest men that is mentioned in history, if we consider only the qualifications necessary for a conqueror”
“The Christians raised monuments to him, which exalt his victories above what the Ottoman annals do, and above all the Turks could invent to immortalize the grandeur of his actions.”
“I think he was also the first of the Sultans who loved the arts and sciences.”
MAIGNAN, EMANUEL (1601-1676)
“One of the greatest philosophers of the XVIIth century, was a Minim Frier, a native of Toulouse. (…) He was neither Catesian, nor Gassendist, but agreed with the heads of these 2 sects in rejecting accidents, qualities and substantial forms, and cultivating experimental philosophy.”
“He is sometimes mistaken for another philosopher, called Magnen.”
“His book De Perspectiva Horaria, printed at Rome in 1648, at the expence of cardinal Spada, was very much esteemed. No body had yet undertaken such a work. It contains a method of making telescopes of his own invention, which he explains at large, and does not imitate those, who conceal, as a mystery, the inventions of their art, and die with their secret.”
MANICHEES
“It became formidable in Armenia in the IXth century (…) and it appeared in France in the time of the Albigenses. (…) but it is not true that the Albigenses were Manichees. These, among other errors, taught that the souls of plants are rational and condemned Agriculture as a murdering employment”
MELANCHTHON, PHILIP
“There was quickly an intimate friendship contracted between him and Luther, who taught Divinity in the same university. They went together to Leipsic [sic] in the year 1519, to dispute with Eccius.”
“But nothing cost him more pains than the task that was given him in the year 1530, to draw up a Confession of Faith; which is called the Augsburg Confession, because it was presented to the emperor at the diet in that city. All Europe was convinced that he was not so averse as Luther to an accommodation, and that he would have sacrificed many things for the sake of peace. Wherefore Francis I judged him a proper person to pacify the disputes about religion in his kingdom, and desired him to come thither.”
“he was credulous as to prodigies, Astrology and Dreams”
METRODORUS
“M. of Chios, a disciple of Democritus, had among other disciples the philosopher Anaxarchus and Hippocrates the Physician. Others affirm that he was the disciple of Nessas, who had been the disciple of Democritus, and that he was master to Diogenes, who had been the master of Anaxarchus.”
MILTON, John
“while he was writing a History of England, the council of State which was then established by authority of parliament, having a mind to make use of his pen, ordered him to confute the Icon Basilike, which went under the name of the deceased king. He intituled his confutation Iconoclastes.”
“He lived very quietly under the usurpation of Cromwell, and by a good fortune, which was very extraordinary, he was not disturbed nor called to an account after the restoration of Charles II, but was suffered to live peaceably at his house, though no writer did ever more insult a crowned head, than he did king Charles I and his banished family.”
“He understood the Italian tongue so well that he designed to write a Grammar of it, and made very good Italian verses.”
Que não se comente no verbete de Milton sobre o Paraíso Perdido é uma sentença de morte desse “dicionário”…
Seclusão Anagógica 