CHAP. II. ¶ Of a Familie, and What Difference There is
 betweene a Familie and a Commonweale. A Familie is the right government of many subjects
 or persons The definition of a familie. under the
 obedience of one and the same head of the family; and of such things as are
 unto them proper. The second part of the definition of a Commonweale by us set
 downe, concerneth a Familie, which is the true seminarie and beginning of every
 Commonweale, as also a principall member thereof. So that 

 Aristotle following Xenophon, 
 seemeth to me without any probable cause, to have divided the Oeconomicall
 government from the Politicall, and a Citie from a Familie: which can no
 otherwise be done, than if wee should pull the members from the bodie; or go
 about to build a Citie without houses. Or by the same reason he should have set
 downe by it selfe a treatise of Colleges, and Corporations; which being neither
 families nor cities, are yet parts of a Commonweal. Wheras we see the Lawyers,
 and law makers (whome we ought as guides to follow in reasoning of a
 Commonweale) to have in the same treatise comprehended the lawes and ordinances
 of a commonweale, corporations, colleges, and families; howbeit that they have
 otherwise taken the Oeconomicall government than did Aristotle; 
 who defineth it to be a
 knowledge for the getting of goods: a thing common unto corporations and
 Colleges, as unto Cities also. Whereas we under the name of a Familie, do
 comprehend the right government of an house or familie; as also the power and
 authoritie the maister of the house hath over his people, and the obedience to
 him due: things not touched in the treatise of Aristotle 
 and Xenophon. Wherefore as a familie well and wisely
 ordered, is the true image of a Citie, and the domesticall government,
 The good government of a familie the true modell for the
 government of a Commonweale. in sort like unto the soveraigntie in a
 Commonweale: so also is the manner of the government of an house or familie,
 the true modell for the government of a Commonweale. And as whilest every
 particular member of the bodie doth his dutie, wee live in good and perfect
 health; so also where every family is kept in order, the whole citie 
 shall be well and peaceably governed. But if a man
 shall be crosse and froward unto his wife, if the wife shall be about to take
 upon her the office of her husband, and not shew her selfe obedient unto him;
 if both of them shall account of their children as of servants, and of their
 servants as of beasts, and so tyrannise over them; if children shall refuse the
 commands of their parents, and the servants of their maisters; who seeth not no
 concord to be in that house, no agreement of minds and wils, but all full of
 strife, brawling and contention? Seeing therfore the way to order wel a citie,
 leaneth & resteth in the good government of families, as it were upon
 certain proper foundations: it behoveth us first to have
 an especiall regard and care for the good ordering and government of families. Wee said a Commonweale to bee a lawfull government of many families, and of
 such things as unto them in common belongeth, with a puissant soveraigntie. By
 the word, Many, you may not in this case understand two, as for most part we
 do; for seeing that the law requireth at the least three persons to make a
 College, we according to the Lawyers opinion account three persons also,
 besides the maister of the house, necessary to make a familie; be they
 children, or slaves, or men enfranchised, or free borne men which have
 voluntarily submitted themselves unto the maister of the house or family, who
 maketh up the fourth, and is yet neverthelesse a member of the family. But for
 as much as Families, Colleges, Companies, Cities, and
 Commonweals, yea, and mankind it selfe would
 perish and come to end, were it not by marriages (as by certaine Seminaries, or
 nurseries) preserved and continued, it followeth well that a family cannot be
 in all points perfect and accomplished without a wife. So that by this
 account No perfect familie without a wife. it
 commeth to passe, there must be five persons at least to make up an whole and
 entire familie. If therefore there must needs bee three persons, and no fewer,
 to make a How many persons be requisite to make up an whole
 and entire familie, and how many families make a Citie. College, and
 as many to make a familie, beside the maister of the houshold and his wife; wee
 for the same reason say three families and no fewer to bee necessarie for the
 making of a Citie, or Commonweale, which should be three times five, for three
 perfect families. Whereupon (in mine opinion) the auncient writers have called
 fifteene a people, as saith Appuleius, referring the
 number of fifteene unto three entire families. 
 For albeit that the maister of the family have three hundred wives, as had
 Salomon King of the Hebrews; and sixe hundred children,
 as had Hermotimus king of the Iustin.
 lib. 4. Parthians by his multitude of wives; or five hundred slaves,
 as had Crassus; if they bee all under the commaund of
 one and the same head of the familie, they are neither to be called a people
 nor a citie, but by the name of a family onely: Yea although hee have many
 children, or servants maried, having themselves children also; provided
 alwaies, that they be under the authoritie of one head, whome the law calleth
 father of the family, although he yet crie in his cradle. And for this cause
 the Hebrews, who alwayes show the proprietie of things by their names, have
 called a family אלף, not
 for that a family containeth a thousand persons, as saith one Rabbin, 
 but of the word אלוף, which
 signifieth an head, a Prince, or Lord, naming the familie by the chief therof:
 better as I suppose than did the Greeks, of οἴκω , or the Latines of Famulis. 
 But what should let (may some man say) three Colleges, or
 many other particular assemblies without a familie to make a Citie, or Commonweale,
 if they be governed by one soveraigne commaund? Truly it maketh a good
 show, and yet for all that is it no Commonweale: for that no Colledge, nor
 bodie politique can long stand without a familie, but must of it selfe perish
 and come to nought. Now the law saith, that the people never dieth, but a thousand yeare hence to
 be the same that it was before: although the use and profit of any thing
 granted unto a commonweale be after an hundred yeare extinguished, and againe
 reunited unto the proprietie, which proprietie
 should otherwise be unto the Lord thereof vaine and unprofitable: for it is to
 be presumed, that all they which now live wil in the course of an hundred
 yeares be dead, albeit that by successive propagation they be immortal; no
 otherwise than Theseus his ship, which although it were
 an hundred times changed, by putting in of new plancks, yet still retained the
 old name. But as a ship, if the keele (which strongly beareth up the prow, the
 poup, the ribs, and tacklings) be taken away, is no longer a ship, but an evil
 favoured houp of wood: even so a Commonweale without a soveraintie of power,
 which uniteth in one body all the members and families of the 
 same is no more a commonweale, neither can by any meanes long
 endure. And not 

 It is not the greatnes of the number that maketh the
 Commonweale, but the union of the people under one soveraigne
 commaund. to depart from our similitude: as a ship may be quite
 broken up, or altogether consumed with fire; so may also the people be into
 divers places dispersed, or els be utterly destroyed, the Citie or state yet
 standing whole; for it is neither the wals, neither the persons, that maketh
 the citie, but the union of the people under the same soveraigntie of
 government, albeit that there be in all but three families. For as an Emot is
 as well to be called a living creature, as an Elephant: so the lawfull
 government of three families, with a soveraigntie of power maketh as well a
 commonweale, as a great signiorie. So Rhaguse one of the least signeuries in
 all Europe, is no lesse a commonweale, than are those of the Turkes, the
 Tartars, or Spanyards, whose Empires are bounded with the same bounds that the
 course of the Sun is. And as a little familie shut up in a small
 cottage, is no lesse to be accounted a familie, than
 that which dwelleth in the greatest and richest house in the citie: so a little
 king is as well a Soveraigne as the greatest Monarch in the world.
 So Ulisses, whose kingdome was contained within the rock of
 Ithaca, is of Homer as well
 called a King, as Agamemnon: for a great kingdome (as
 saith Cassiodorus ) is no other thing than a great
 Commonweale, under the government of one chiefe soveraigne: wherefore if of
 three families, one of the chiefe of the families hath soveraigne power over
 the other two, or two of them together over the third, or all three joyntly and
 at once exercise power and authoritie over the people of the three families; it
 shall as well be called a Commonweale, as if it in it selfe comprehended an
 infinite multitude of citisens. And by this meanes it may chaunce, that one
 familie 
 Sometimes one familie may be greater than some Commonweale. 
 may sometimes be greater and better peopled then a commonweale: as was wel said of the familie of Aemilius
 Tubero, who was head of a family of sixteene of his owne children, all
 maried, whome he had all under his power, together with their children and
 servants, dwelling in the same house with him. And on the contrary part, the
 greatest Plut. in Emili. The greatest & best peopled citie
 no more a commonweale than the least. Citie or Monarchie, and the
 best peopled that is upon the face of the earth, is no more a commonweale or
 citie, than the least. Albeit that Aristotle saith, the
 citie of Babylon (whose circuit in a square forme was so great, that it could
 scarce on foot bee gone about in three dayes) was to bee called rather a
 nation, than a commonweale, which ought not, as he saith, to have more than
 ten thousand citisens in it at the most: as if it were any absurditie to call
 an infinite number of nations, and dwelling in divers 
 places, governed by one soveraigne commaund, by the name of
 a Commonweale. By which meanes the citie of Rome (more famous than which was
 never any) should not The multitude of people no hinderance
 to the unitie of a commonweale, so that they be under one soveraigne
 command. deserve the name of a Commonweale, which at the foundation
 thereof had not above 3000 citisens; but in the time of Tiberius 
 the Emperor, had cessed in it fifteene millions, besides an
 hundred and ten thousand others dispersed almost throughout the world: not
 accounting the slaves, the number of whom was ten times greater: and yet in
 this number were not comprised they of the Provinces subject unto the Empire of
 Rome, neither the confederat cities, or free nations, who had their Commonweals
 in soveraigntie divided from the Roman Empire. Which soveraigntie of government
 is the true foundation and hinge whereupon the state of a citie turneth:
 whereof all the magistrats, lawes, and
 ordinances dependeth; and by whose force and power, all colleges, corporations,
 families, and citisens are brought as it were into one perfect bodie of a
 Commonweale: albeit that all the subiects thereof be enclosed in one little
 towne, or in some strait territorie, as the commonweale of Schwitz, one of the
 least of the confederat Cantons of Suisers; not so large as many farms of this
 Fraunce. kingdom, nor of greater revenue: or
 els that the Commonweale hath many large provinces and countries, as
 Ester. cap. 1 had the Persians, which Herodotus, Plutar. in Artax. is reported to have had an hundred twentie
 seven provinces from the uttermost part of India, unto the sea of Hellespontus:
 or as is now also the 
 commonweale of the Aethiopians, wherein are fiftie provinces, which Pau. Iovius 

 without reason calleth kingdomes; albeit that
 they have not but one king, one kingdome, one Monarch, one Commonweale, under
 the puissant soveraigntie of one and the same Prince whome they call Negus. 

 But beside that soveraigntie of government thus by us set downe, as the strong
 foundation of the whole Commonweale; many other things besides are of citisens
 to be had in common among themselves, as their markets, their churches, their
 walks, Many things common unto
 citisens among themselves. wayes, lawes, decrees, judgements, voyces,
 customs, theaters, wals, publick buildings, common pastures, lands, and
 treasure; and in briefe, rewards, punishments, sutes, and contracts: all which
 I say are common unto all the citisens together, or by use and profit: or
 publick for every man to use, or both together. That is also a great communitie
 which ariseth of colleges and corporations
 of companies, as also of benefits both given and received. For otherwise a
 Commonweale cannot be so much as imagined, No commonweale
 where nothing is common which hath in it nothing at all publick or
 common. Although it may so be, that the greatest part of their lands be common
 unto the citisens in generall, and the least part unto every one of them in
 particular: as by the law of Romulus, called Agraria, all the lands of Rome, at that time containing
 eighteene thousand acres, was divided into Dionisius Halycarnasseus lib. 2. three equall parts,
 whereof the first part was assigned for the maintaining of the sacrifices; the
 second for the defraying of the necessarie charges of the commonweale; and the
 third was equally divided among the citisens; who being in number but three
 thousand, had to everie one of them allotted two acres: which equal partage
 long time after continued with great
 indifferencie, for Cincinnatus the Dictator himself 260
 yeres after had no more but two acres of land, which hee with his owne hands
 husbanded. But howsoever lands may be divided, it cannot possibly bee, that all
 things should bee common amongst citisens; which unto Plato 
 seemed so notable a thing, and so much Plato
 his opinion for the communitie of all things in a commonweale,
 refuted. to be wished for, as that in his Commonweale he would have
 all mens wives and children common also: for so he deemed it would come to
 passe that these two words, Mine and Thine, should never more be heard amongst
 his citisens, being in his opinion the cause of all the discord and evils in a
 Commonweale. But he understood not that by making all things thus common, a
 Commonweale must needs perish: for nothing can be publike, where nothing is
 privat: neither can it be imagined there to bee 
 any thing had in common, if there be nothing to be kept in particular; no
 more than if al the citisens were kings, they should at al have no king;
 neither any harmonie, if the diversitie and dissimilitude of voyces cunningly
 mixed together, which maketh the sweet harmony, were al brought unto one and
 the same tune. Albeit that such a Commonweale should be also against the law of
 God and nature, which detest not onely incests, adulteries, and inevitable
 murders, if all women should bee common; but also expresly forbids us to
 steale, or so much as to desire any thing that another mans is. Whereby it
 evidently appeareth this opinion for the communitie of all things to bee
 erroneous, seeing Commonweals to have bene to that end founded and appointed by
 God, to give unto them that which is common; and unto every man in privat, that
 which unto him in privat belongeth. Besides
 that also such a communitie of al things is impossible, and incompassible with
 the right of families: for if in the familie and the citie, that which is
 proper, and that which is common, that which is publick, and that which is
 privat, be confounded; we shall have neither familie nor yet Commonweale. In so
 much that Plato himselfe (in all other things most
 excellent) after he had seene the notable inconveniences & absurdities
 which such a confused communitie of all things drew after it, wisely of
 himselfe departed from that so absurd an opinion, and easily suffered that
 Commonweale which he had attributed unto Socrates to be
 abolished; that so he might more moderatly defend his
 owne. But some will say, that the Massagets 
 had all things in common: yet they which so say, confesse also every one of
 them to have had his pot, his sword unto himselfe, as also must they needs have
 their privat apparell and garments also; for otherwise the weaker should bee
 still spoiled of the stronger, having his garments still taken from him. Wherefore as a Commonweale is a lawfull government of many families, and of
 those things which unto them in common belongeth, with a puissant soveraigntie:
 so is a Familie the right government of many subiects or persons, and of such
 things as are unto them proper, under the rule and commaund of one and the same
 head of the familie. For in that especially consisteth the difference betwixt a
 Commonweale and a Familie: The chief difference betwixt a
 Familie and a Commonweale. for that the maister of a familie hath the
 government of domesticall things, and so of
 his whole familie with that which is unto it proper; albeit that every house or
 family be bound to give something unto the Commonweale, whether it be by the
 name of a subsidie, taxe, tribute, or other extraordinarie imposition. And it
 may bee that all the subiects of a Commonweale may live together in common, in
 manner of Colleges, or companies, as did in auncient time the Lacedemonians,
 where the men apart from their wives and families, used to eat and sleep
 together by fifteene and twentie in a company: As also in auntient time in
 Creet, all the citisens of all sorts men and women, young and old, rich and
 poore, alwaies eat and dranke together; and yet for all that, everie man had
 his owne proper goods apart, every one of them still contributing what was
 thought expedient for the defraying of the common charge. Which 
 thing the Anabaptists in our time began to practise in
 the towne of Munster, hauing commaunded all things to be
 Sleidan. common, excepting their wives (of whom they
 might have many) and their apparell, thinking thereby the better to mainteine
 mutuall love and concord among them: in which their account they found
 themselves farre deceived. For they which admit this communitie of all things,
 are so farre from this good agreement of citisens among themselves, which they
 hope thus to maintaine, as that thereby the mutuall love betwixt man and wife,
 the tender care of parents towards their children, and their dutifulnesse
 againe towards them, and in briefe the mutuall love of neighbours and kinsmen
 among themselves, is quite extinquished; all the kind bond of bloud and kindred
 (than which none stronger can be imagined for the friendship 
 and good agreement of citisens) being by this meanes taken
 away. For that which thou shouldest dearely love must be thine owne, and that
 also all thine: whereas communitie is of the Lawyers justly called of it selfe,
 the mother of contention and discord. Neither are they lesse deceived, which
 think greater care to bee had of things that bee common, than of things that be
 privat; for wee ordinarily see things in common and publick to be of every man
 smally regarded and neglected, except it be to draw some
 Things common smally regarded privat and particular profit thereout
 of. Besides that, the nature of love and friendship is such, that the more
 common it is, or unto moe divided, the lesse force it is of: not unlike to
 great rivers, which carry great vessels, but being divided into small branches,
 serveth neither so keep back the enemie, neither for burthen: in which maner
 love also divided unto many persons or things,
 looseth his force and vertue. So the lawfull and certaine government of a
 familie, divideth every privat mans wives and children, servants and goods,
 from all other mens families; as also that which is unto every particular man
 proper, from that which is to them all common in generall, that is to say, from
 a Commonweale. And withall in every well governed Commonweale we see the
 publick magistrat to have a certaine especiall care and regard of the privat
 goods of orphans, of mad men, and of the prodigall: for that it concerneth the
 Commonweale to have their goods preserved unto them to whome they belong, and
 that they be not embeseled. As in like case the lawes
 oftentimes forbiddeth a man to procure, to alienat,
 or to pawne his own goods or things, except upon certain
 conditions, as also unto certaine persons; for that the preservation of every
 privat mans goods in particular, is the preservation of the Commonweale in
 generall. And yet neverthelesse although Particular families
 may have also their particular lawes: and how. lawes be common to al,
 it is not inconvenient, but that families may have their certaine particular
 statutes for themselves and their successors, made by the auntient heads of
 their families, and confirmed unto them by their soveraigne Princes. As we have
 example in the most honourable nation of the Saxons, amongst whome are many
 families, which use certaine their owne privat lawes, quite differing both from
 the lawes of the Empire, and from the common lawes and customs of Saxonie. And
 betwixt the dukes of Bavaria, and the Counties Palatines there are also their
 particular lawes, as well for the lawfull
 succession in the inheritance of their houses, as in the right of the
 Electorship, which is in these two honourable houses, alternative, by the
 auntient decrees of their predecessors: which laws & customs the duke of
 Bavaria, with great instance required to have renewed at the diet of the Empire
 at Auspurge, in the yere 1555 which is not so in the other families of the
 Electors. Betwixt the houses also of Saxonie and Hess, are their domesticall
 and proper laws Anno 1370. and 
 1431. confirmed unto them by the Emperour Charles 
 the fourth, and Sigismund. In like
 maner it was decreed betwixt the houses of Austria, and Bohemia, that for lack
 of heirs male, the one of them should succeed into the inheritance of the
 other, as we see it is now come to passe. And not to go further than this
 Fraunce. Realme, I have seene a charter of the
 house of Laval granted by the King, and
 confirmed by the Parliament of Paris, directly contrarie to the customes of
 Anjou, Britagne, and Mayne, wherein the most part of their inheritance lie: by
 which Charter the first inheritor (able to succeed) is to enioy all, being not
 bound to give any thing unto his coheirs, more than the moveables; with charge,
 that the heire male shall beare the name of Guy de
 Laval; or of Guionne, if she bee an inheritrix,
 and the armes plaine. In like manner in the houses of Baume, Albret, and
 Rhodez, the daughters by the auntient lawes of their auncestors, were excluded
 both in direct and collaterall line from inheriting, so long as there were any
 males in what degree soever; deriving as it were into their families, the law
 Salique, usual unto the Princes of Savoy. Such lawes of families, which the
 Latines had also, and called them Ius familiare, were
 made by their auncestors and chiefe of their
 families, for the mutuall preservation of their inheritance, name, and auntient
 armes; which may in some sort well be suffered in some great and honourable
 families: which privat lawes and customs by us thus spoken of, have oftentimes
 preserved from destruction, not onely families, but whole commonweals; which
 was the cause that in the diet at Auspurge in the yeare 1555, the Princes
 The great benefit which oftentimes commeth unto a Commonweale,
 by certain privat lawes and customs granted unto some great and honourable
 houses & families. of the Empire after long civill warre, wisely
 renewed the auntient lawes of great houses and families, as having well
 perceived that by that meane the Empire was to be preserved from ruine, and the
 state of Almaigne from a generall destruction. Which for all that, is not to
 take place in other obscure and particular base families, to the intent that
 the publick lawes, so much as is possible, should be unto all men common and
 the selfe same. For it is not without great
 cause to bee suffered, that the lawes of privat families should derogat from
 the customes of the countrey, and so, much lesse from the generall lawes and
 ordinances. Neither are they which come after, by this law of families by their
 grand-fathers, & great grand-fathers made, contrarie to the common customs
 and lawes, further bound than they themselves shall thereunto give their
 consent. For which cause the successors of the house of Albret, of Laval, and
 of Montmorency obtained decrees from the Parliament of Paris, contrarie to the
 auntient charters of their predecessors; for that they were contrary unto the
 customes of those places, when question was of the
 successions of Laval, of the Countie of Dreux, and of Montmorency,
 which they would make indivisible, contrarie to the
 custom of the Viscomptie of Paris: For it beseemeth that the customes of
 families should bee subiect unto the lawes, in like maner as the heads of
 families are subject unto their soveraigne Princes. Much lesse are the lawes of
 families and kindreds, allowed by the decrees of the Romans, to be be suffered,
 least for the privat the publick should be neglected: as
 Camillus complained with Livie, 
 Livius lib. 5 What (saith he) if the sacred
 rites of families may not in time of warre be intermitted, pleaseth it you that
 the publick sacrifices and Roman gods should even in time of peace be forsaken?
 For it was a law of the twelve tables conceived in these words,
 Sacred privat Rites, firme be they for ever: which M.
 Tullius translated into his lawes. And thus much in
 generall, concerning the similitude and
 difference of a Commonweale and Familie: now let us discourse also of the
 singular parts of a Familie.