vertue

... the which thing they all refused to do, albeit they were enjoyned to do the same in vertue of their allegeaunce and as commaunded from the Kinges Majestie, the said Rochester and Walgrave saying that they had rather endure whatsoever punisshement or emprisonment the Lordes shuld think mete for them, and Sir Fraunces Inglefeld alledging that he could neither fynde in his harte nor in his consyence to do it. 82

From Heads of Household to Heads of State: The Preaccession Households of Mary and Elizabeth Tudor, 1516-1558 2008

So MERCIFUL to alH IIQ His vertue was his only fault.

Ancient songs, from the time of King Henry the Third, to the revolution .. 1790

Insomuch as the Indian priest preferred to keep his professional secrets, the colonist was unlikely ever to learn the "vertue" of the clay.

Medicine in Virginia, 1607-1699 Thomas Proctor Hughes

Nor is the 'vertue' of the ring confined to bird-intelligence, for the knight who came on the 'steed of brasse,' adds, --

International Miscellany of Literature, Art and Science, Vol. 1, No. 3, Oct. 1, 1850 Various

"the waves of glassie glory" (ll. 29-30) is bidden look to "vertue" for guidance to his desired haven -- not exactly the conclusion to be expected from the opening lines of the speech.

Bussy D'Ambois and The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois George Chapman

The code began with a noble paragraph: “no mans life shall be taken away,” or his “honour or good name … stayned, or his person arrested, or his goods taken, except by the vertue or equity of some expresse law of the Country, or in defect of a law in any particular case by the word of God.”

A History of American Law Lawrence M. Friedman 1985

The code began with a noble paragraph: “no mans life shall be taken away,” or his “honour or good name … stayned, or his person arrested, or his goods taken, except by the vertue or equity of some expresse law of the Country, or in defect of a law in any particular case by the word of God.”

A History of American Law Lawrence M. Friedman 1985

The code began with a noble paragraph: “no mans life shall be taken away,” or his “honour or good name … stayned, or his person arrested, or his goods taken, except by the vertue or equity of some expresse law of the Country, or in defect of a law in any particular case by the word of God.”

A History of American Law Lawrence M. Friedman 1985

And upon all that hate contentions, and love quietnesse, and vertue, and Angling.

The Compleat Angler 2007

But these by priuie entries of the eare, slip downe into the hart, and with gunshotte of affection gaule the minde, where reason and vertue should rule the roste.

The More Things Change II Heo 2006