140 OF AN HOLY WAR. 



certain enemies ; so is there a natural and tacit 

 confederation amongst all men, against the common 

 enemy of human society. So as there needs no 

 intimation, or denunciation of the war ; there needs 

 no request from the nation grieved : but all these 

 formalities the law of nature supplies in the case of 

 pirates. The same is the case of rovers by land ; 

 such as yet are some cantons in Arabia, and some 

 petty kings of the mountains, adjacent to straits 

 and ways. Neither is it lawful only for the neigh 

 bour princes to destroy such pirates or rovers, but 

 if there were any nation never so far off, that would 

 make it an enterprise of merit and true glory, as the 

 Romans that made a war for the liberty of Gragcia 

 from a distant and remote part, no doubt they might 

 do it. I make the same judgment of that kingdom 

 of the assassins now destroyed, which was situate 

 upon the borders of Saraca; and was for a time a 

 great terror to all the princes of the Levant. Their 

 custom was, that upon the commandment of their 

 king, and a blind obedience to be given thereunto, 

 any of them was to undertake in the nature of a 

 votary, the insidious murder of any prince, or per 

 son, upon whom the commandment went. This 

 custom, without all question, made their whole 

 government void, as an engine built against human 

 society, worthy by all men to be fired and pulled 

 down. I say the like of the anabaptists of Mun- 

 ster ; and this, although they had not been rebels to 

 the empire : and put case likewise that they had 



