thy walls and in this manner encreased thy goodlines and beauty BER Perchaunce those Pigmees of which Ezechiell maketh mention was some Nation of little men but not so little as those which wee speake of for Pigmee in Hebrew is as much to say as a man of little stature for if these Pigmees were such as those Authors write they must needes enioy long life seeing they voyaged so farre vsing traffique by Sea bringing vnto vs such commodities as theyr Country yeeldeth and carrying backe such of ours as are necessarie for them so that I account it a matter vnpossible that men whose space of lyues is so short should traffique with such carefull industrie in the farre Countries of Siry and Iury. LU. Your opinion is not without reason but in the ende heerein we cannot stedfastly affirme any thing for trueth so that it is best that wee leaue it euen so contenting our selues with that which hath beene vpon this matter alleadged seeing we haue not as yet ended our discourse of monsters I say therefore that Ctesias affirmeth that beeing with Alexander in India hee sawe aboue 130000. men together hauing all heads like dogges and vsing no other speech but barking BER I would rather call these dogges with two feete or else some other two footed beasts such as there is a kinde of great Apes of the which I haue seene one with a doggs face but standing vpright on his feete each part of him had the shape of a man or so little difference that at the first any man might be deceaued and so perchaunce might Ctesias and the rest of those which saw them seeing they could not affirme vvhether they had the vse of reason vvhereby they might be held for men and not brute beasts AN. Both the one and the other may be but leauing this they write that there are certaine men dwelling on the hill Milo hauing on each foote eight toes which turne all backward and that they are of incredible swiftnes Others that are borne vvith theyr haire hoary gray vvhich as they waxe olde becommeth blacke To be short if I should rehearse the infinite number of such like as are reported I should neuer make an ende for you canne scarcely come to any manne vvhich will not tell you one vvoonder or other vvhich hee hath seene One vvill tell you of an Evve that brought foorth a Lyon vvhich as Elian sayeth happened in the Countrey of the Coosians in the time of the tiranny of Nicippus Another vvill tell you of a Sovve that farowed a Pygge resembling an Elephant vvhich happened not long since in this Tovvne vvherein vvee dwell so that euery one will tell you a new thing and for my part I will not beleeue but that they are true because we see euery day new secrets of nature discouered the world is so great that we cannot knowe in the one part what is done in the other If it were not for this it were vnpossible to write the number of them neither were any booke how great so euer able to containe them But for the proofe of the rest I will tell you of one strange people found out in the world Mine author is Iohanes Bohemus a Dutch man in his booke entituled the manners and customes of all Nations who though he declareth not the time wherein it happened nor what the person was that found them out yet he writeth it so familierly that it seemeth he was some man meruailous well knowne in his Country but because you shall not thinke that I enhaunce the matter with wordes of mine owne I will repeate those selfe same which he vsed in the which haue patience if I be somwhat long Iambolo sayth he a man from his childhood wel brought vp after that his Father died vsed the trade of Merchandize who voyaging towards Arabia to buy spices and costly perfumes the ship wherein he went was taken by certaine Rouers which made him with another of the prisoners Cow-heard and keeper of their cattell with which as he went one morning to the pasture hee and his companion were taken by certaine Aethiopians and caried into Aethiopia to a Citty situate on the Sea whose custome was from long and auncient time to cleanse that place and others of the Country there abouts according to the aunswere of an Oracle of theirs in sending at certaine seasons two men beeing strangers to the Iland which they call Fortunat whose enhabitants liue in great and blessed happines If these two went thither and returned againe it prognosticated to that Country great felicity but if they returned through feare of the long way or tempest of the Sea many troubles should happen to that Country and those which so returned were slaine and torne in peeces The Aethiopians had a little boate fit for two men to rule into the which they put victuals enough for sixe moneths beseeching them with all instance to direct the Provv of their boate according to the commaundement of the Oracle towards the South to the end they might arriue in that Iland where those fortunate men liued promising them great rewardes if after theyr arriuall they returned backe threatning to pull them in peeces if they should before through feare returne to any coast of that Country because theyr feare should be the occasion of many miseries to that Land and as in so returning they should shewe themselues most wicked and cruell so should they at theyr hands expect all crueltie possible to bee imagined Iambolo and his companion beeing put into the boate with these conditions the Ethiopians remained on the shore celebrating theyr holie ceremonies and inuoking theyr Gods to guide prosperously thys little ship and to graunt it after the voyage finished safe returne Who sayling continuallie 4. months passing many dangerous tempests at last wearied with so discomfortable a voyage arriued at the Iland wherto they were directed which was round and in compasse about 5000. stadyes approching to the shore some of the inhabitants came to receiue them in a little Skiffe others stoode on the shoare wondering at the strangenes of theyr habite and attyre but in fine all receiued them most curteously communicating with thē such thinges as they had The men of this Iland are not in body and manners like vnto ours though in forme and figure they resemble vs for they are foure cubites higher and theyr boanes are like sinewes which they double writhe each way they are passing nimble and withall so strong that whatsoeuer they take in theyr handes there is no possible force able to take it from them They are hairie but the same is so polished and delicate that not so much as any one haire standeth out of order Theyr faces most beautifull theyr bodies well featured the entry of theyr eares far larger then ours The chiefest thing wherein they differ from vs is theyr tongues which haue a singuler particularitie giuen thē
head so incredibly great that it amazed the beholders but being rotten it fell in peeces the teeth still remaining whole of the which they carried one to Venice shewing it to those that desired the sight thereof as a thing wonderfull Frier Iacobê° Philippê° de Bergamo vvryteth in his Supplementum ChronicoruÌ„ that there vvas found a Sepulchre and in the same a body of admirable greatnesse outreaching as it were in length the high walls or buildings it seemed that he lay sleeping he had woundes vpon him well 4. foote wide at his bolster stoode a candle burning vvhich would not goe out till they bored a hole vnderneath then the light extinguished The body so soone as they touched it turned into powder ashes round about him were written in Greeke Letters these wordes Pallas sonne of Euander slaine by Turnus LUD You would wonder more at that which Sinforianus Campegius writeth in his Booke called Ortus Gallicus alleaging the authoritie of Ioh. Bocacius vvho affirmed to haue seene it himselfe that in Sicilia neere to the Citty of Trapana certaine Labourers diging for chalke vnder the foote of a hill discouered a Caue of great widenesse entring into the which with light they founde sitting in the midst therof a man of so monstrous hugenes that astonished therwith they fled to the vilage reporting what they had seen at last gathering together in great number with weapons torches they returned back to the Caue where they found this Giant whose like was neuer hearde of before in his left hand hee held a mighty staffe so great and thicke as a great maste of a ship seeing that he stirred not they tooke a good hart drew neere him but they had no sooner layde theyr hands vpon him but he fel into ashes the bones onely remayning so monstrous that the very skull of his head held in it a bushell of Wheat and his whole carkas beeing measured was found to be a 140. cubits long AN. It is necessary to alleage many Authors to giue credit to a thing so far out of all limits of reason the like of which hath neuer been seene or written of in the world which if it be true I would thinke it shoulde be some body buried before the floode For in the first age I take it that men vvere farre greater then they are nowe but since the Deluge neyther Nemrod neither anie of those that helped builde the Tower of Babilon neither any other Giant whatsoeuer hath approched any thing neer this monstrous and excessiue hugenes of stature LVD You haue reason but what shall we say thereto when we find it written by such authorized Authors gyuing vs the testimony of antiquity let vs therefore passe on with them returne to that which Sinforian sayd that hee saw himselfe by Valencia in a Cloyster of Grey-friers the bones of a Giant according to the greatnes of which by good Geometry the length of the body could bee no lesse then fortie foote Hee alleageth also Iohn Pius of Bononia which sayth that he sawe in a Towne on the Sea-side neere vnto Vtica or Carthage a tussle of a mans head which if it had been broken in peeces would haue made a hundred such tussles as men now liuing commonlie haue and of the selfe same tussle maketh S. Augustine mention in his booke of the Citty of God BER Many things like vnto these haue beene founde in times past which for my part beeing by such men confirmed I account woorthy of beleefe AN. There want not testimonies to giue them credite if wee will looke into Antiquities we shall finde in the holy Scripture that of Nemrod and those other Gyants of which Signior Ludouico nowe spake who after Noes-flood builded that high Tower to saue them selues in if such another shoulde happen to come or according to the Gentiles opinion to make warre with the Gods and all these in respect of men that now liue were sayd to be of a wonderfull and huge stature and comming vnto other ages neerer vnto ours that which is written of S. Christopher and confirmed by authoritie of the Romaine Church is notorious to all men where we finde that his proportion stature was little lesse then these aboue named Besides I haue heard diuers that haue been in the Monastery of Ronces valles affirme that there are certaine bones of those which as they say were slaine in the battaile wherein Charles the great was ouerthrowne by the King Don Alonso de Leon vvhere many of the twelue Peeres of Fraunce through the great valiantnes of Bernardo del Carpio ended their liues the vvhich bones are so great that they seeme to be of some Gyants a Frier that brought the measure of one of theyr shin-bones shewed it me it was in my iudgement as great as that of three men now a dayes but in this I referre me to those that haue seene them who told me also that there were some armours so great and heauy that they might well serue for a testimony of the greatnes of those bodies which ware them AN. This which you haue sayd agreeth with that which Iosephus writeth in his fift booke of Antiquities There was saith he a linage of Gyants which for the greatnes of their body and proportion different from other men were aboue measure wonderfull of which there are yet some bones to be seene not to bee beleeued of those which haue not viewed them And in time of Pope Iulio the third no longer agone there was a man in a Village of Calabria who perchance is yet aliue of so extraordinary a sise and stature that the Pope desirous to see him sent for him to Rome who because neither Horse nor Mule was able to carry him was brought to Rome in a Coach out of the which his legs from the knees downward hanged foorth he was so high that the tallest man in Rome reached not to his halfe breast according to which height the rest of his members were proportioned it was a thing of admiration to see how deuouringly he eat drank A friend of mine asked him whether his parents were great he aunswered that both his parents and brothers were of the middle sort onely he had a sister as yet young which by all coniecture in time would be as great or greater then himselfe LV. I am of opinion that in times past the men were for the most part greater then they now are and that by little and little they decrease daily and whereas the Auncients write that men then exceeded not the measure of seauen feete in height that their feete were then greater then ours and their cubits inches spans and all their other measures also so that the longer the world lasteth the lesse shall the people waxe Wee may the better vnderstand this to be so through that which is written of the Gyant Golyas in the first booke of Kings that he was sixe cubits high which
withall you said that the shapes of men being al one their countenances gestures are so diuers that it is vnpossible to finde one like another in all points Wheras I haue heard read of many that were so like in resemblance the one vnto the other that there was no difference at all to be found between them Your selfe I know must needs haue better knowledge hereof then I because you haue read Pliny other authors which treat therof and Pedro Mexia hath copied out many examples of thē in his forrest of collections besides all the which I wil alledge some notable examples The first is of two striplings which one Toranius sold to Mark Anthonio saying they were two brothers when in truth the one was born in Europe the other in Asia whose likenes was such that there was not in any one point difference between thē And when Anthonio finding himselfe deceaued began to be angry Toranius satisfied him in saying that there was greater cause of wonder in the diuersity of their Nations then if as he first had sayd they had ben both begotten horn of one father mother I am sure you haue read what many authors write of K. Antiochus who being murdered by the means of his wife Laodice she placed in his steed clothed with his rich habiliaments regall ornaments one Artemō of Siria who resembled him in such sort that he raigned two yeres without being known or discouered of any man In Rome there was a man called Caius Bibius so like to Pompey that he could be discerned from him by no other means then by the diuersity of his apparell Cassius Seucrus Mirmilus Lucius Pancus Rubus Estrius Marcus Messala Menogenes were by couples one so like another that they were with much adoe to be knowne of theyr familier friends such as were well acquainted with them and haunted daily their company But leauing the auncient Romaines we haue the like examples enough amongst our selues Don Rodrigo Girdon and his brother the Count of Vruenna were so like that vnlesse it were by their attire habiliments their very Seruants knew them not apart in so much that I haue heard it affirmed which if it be true is passing strange that being children sleeping both in one bed in touching their legs or armes together the flesh of the one did so cleaue to the other that they could not without difficulty be sundred But what should we passe heerein any farther vvhen euery day we see and heare the like BER I can be a witnesse of two which I haue seene my selfe no lesse meruailous then these which you haue rehearsed of the one there are witnesses enough in this house of Beneuenta for it is yet not much aboue twenty yeares that the Earle had a Lacky whom another man came to seeke saying that he was his brother and that he had runne away from his Parents being young they were so like that there was not betweene them any iote of difference at all vnlesse it were that he that came was somwhat more in yeeres but which is strangest though the Lacky were sent for to take possession of some goods left him by his Father yet did he constantly deny the other to be his brother affirming with oathes that he was not borne in that Village nor Country by many miles the other still remaining obstinate in challenging him for his brother where-vpon the Earle commaunded them both to goe to the same Village for to satisfie an old woman there which said she was mother to them both The Lacky comming thither could not perswade them but that he was the selfe same whom they supposed in the end the old vvoman looking fixedly vpon him for better assurance quoth she if thou art my sonne thou hast in such a place of thy legge a marke vvhich vvhen thou wert a child was burned The Lacky with wonderfull astonishment confessed that he had such a marke indeede though still perseuering with oaths to affirme that he knew them not and that hee neuer in his life before had beene in that Village as the truth indeede vvas for afterward it was proued that he was borne farre from that place and it was well knowne who were his Parents Besides this it was my hap being but a stripling to see an other the like very strange in a Village hard by the Citty of Segouia where I remained foure or fiue dayes in the house of a very honest substantiall man which had by his wife two daughters so strangely like that in turning your eyes once of them it was vnpossible to know which was the one and which was the other they were about 13. or 14. yeres olde I asking the mother which was the elder shee pointed to the one saying that she was borne halfe an houre before the other for she had at one burden both them and a sonne which she told me was with an vnkle of his in Segouia so resembling in all points to his sisters that being one day apparelled in one of theyr garments and brought before her husband and her neyther hee nor shee did the whole day till night that hee was vnclothed finde know or perceaue any difference at all betweene him and his sister LVD Truely this is very strange and the like hath sildom happened in Spaine especially in our time Macrobius writeth in the second booke of his Saturnals that there came a young man to Rome so resembling Aug. Caesar that standing before him it seemed that hee beheld as in a glasse the figure of himselfe whereupon Caesar asked him if euer his mother had beene at Rome meaning thereby that perchance his father might haue had acquaintance with her which the young man perceiuing answered him redily that his mother had neuer been there but his father oftentimes though thys history be common rehearsed of many yet I could not let it passe because it serueth so fitly to the purpose of which wee entreat AN. I deny not but that this may be true and that there are many the like things hapned in the worlde but according to the old prouerbe One Swallow maketh no Sommer neyther doth the whole field leaue to be cald greene for two or three hearbes or leaues that are withered and of a dead colour within it these are things which happen sildome and therefore refute not a generalitie so great as is the diuersity common difference of the countenaunces and gestures of all the men and women in the whole world LUD I confesse that you haue great reason but let vs not so passe ouer Signior Bernards tale of the woman with three children borne at one burden all liuing and brought vp to that age which truly seemeth to me so strange that me thinks in my life I neuer heard the like especially in this our Country AN. I wonder not a little thereat my selfe yet Aristotle writeth that the
Tartaria with so little mouthes that they cannot eate but maintaine their liues with sucking in onely the substance and iuice of flesh and fruites There is another kind of men with dogs faces and Oxe feete which containe all their speech vnder two wordes onely with the which the one vnderstandeth the other There are others whom they call Phanaces whose eares are so great that they couer therewith their vvhole bodies they are so strong that vvith one pull they teare whole trees vp by the roots vsing them in their fight with exceeding agillity There are others with one eye only and that in their forehead their eares like dogs and their haire standing stiffe vp an end Others they describe with diuers and monstrous formes which if I should rehearse all I should neuer make an end yet by the way I will tell you what I haue reade in one of Ptolomes tables of Tartaria maior There is in it sayth he a Country now called Georgia fast by the kingdome of Ergonil in the which there are fiue sorts of people some blacke as Ethiopians some white like vs some hauing tailes like Peacocks some of very little and low stature with two heads and others whose face and teeth are in maner of horse iawes And if this be true it is a wonderfull thing that there should be in one Land such diuersities of men BER Doe these Authors set all these monsters together in one part of the earth or in diuers parts AN. In this point they differ farre the one from the other Pliny and Strabo agree with the story written by the Philosopher Onosecritus which was in India with Alexander the great and writeth all these monsters to be there Solinus sayeth that the Arimaspes being a people with one eie are in Scithia fast by the Riphaean mountaines Others hold that the most part of these monsters are in the solitary deserts of Affrica and the rest are in the mountaines of Atlas others sayde that the Cyclops Gyants of exceeding hugenes with one onely eye and that in the midst of their forehead were to be seene in Sicillia LU. Yet it may be that they are as well in one place as in another yet Strabo entreating of them in conclusion accounteth them but fables and fained matters and Sinforianus Campegius a man singulerly learned in a Chapter which hee writeth of monsters proueth by naturall reasons that there can be none such and if there be any that they are no men but brute beasts like vnto men Pomponius Mela is of the same opinion saying that the Satyres haue nothing else of man then the likenesse AN. I will neyther beleeue all nor condemne all which is written but as touching the Satyres me thinkes Pomponius Mela hath small reason for wee must rather beleeue Saint Hierome who in the life of Saint Paule the first Hermite which worke is allowed by our Church witnesseth that they are men and creatures reasonable Their shape is according to the description of diuers Authors like vnto men differing onely in some points as in hauing hornes on their heads their noses and forepart of their mouthes like to dogges snowts and their feete like to those of Goates Many affirme that they haue seene them in the deserts of Aegipt The Gentiles in diuers places adored them for Gods and Pan the God of Sheepheards was alwayes painted in the likenes of a Satyre Many haue written of these Satyres and it is held for a matter certaine and vndoubted AN. Sabellicus in his Aeneads sayeth that there are of them in the mountaine Atlas which runne on foure feet and some on two feet like men either sort passing swiftly Pliny affirmeth that there are of them in India in certaine mountaines called Subsolani whom not accounting men hee termeth to be most dangerous and harmfull beasts Ouid in his Metamorphosis sayeth that the Satyre is a beast like vnto a man onely that hee hath hornes on his head and feete like a Goate But if it be so that they are men capable of reason I wonder that we haue no greater knowledge of them AN. Heerein is no great cause of wonder because the deformity of their figure maketh them so vvild that it taketh from them the greatest part of the vse of reason so that they flie the conuersation of men euen as other bruite beastes doe but amongst them selues they conuerse and vnderstand one another well enough for all those which vvrite of the mountaine Atlas say that there are in the tops therof many nights heard great noyses and soundes as it were of Tabers and Flutes and other winde instruments vvhich they hold for a certaine to be doone by the Satyres in their meetings for as soone as the day comes you heare no more yet some will say that the Satyres are not the cause thereof but another secrete of Nature of the vvhich we will hereafter in his more conuenient and proper place discourse LU. Before we passe any farther let vs first vnderstand what difference there is between Satyres Faunes Egipanes for Virgill in the beginning of his Georgiques inuoketh as well the one as the other and sundry other Authors vsing these seuerall names doe seeme to put a difference betweene them AN. I will ansvvere you herein with Calepin which saith that Faunes were held amongst the Greeks for the selfe same which Satyrs among the Latines that they both are one thing Probus and Seruius saith that they are called Fauni à fando because they prophesied as Pan did amongst the Sheepheards And Seruius vvriteth that Egipans Satyrs and Faunes are all one Nicolaus Leonicus in his second booke de vana historia vvriteth of another sort of Satyrs much differing in shape from these before rehearsed he alledgeth an Author called Pausanias vvhose authority he followeth in his whole worke who sayeth that he heard Eufemius a man of great estimation and credite affirme that sayling towardes Spaine the ship in which they went through a great tempest and storme beeing driuen with a violent vvesterne wind to runne along the Ocean Seas brought them at last vpon the coast of certain Ilands which seemed to be vninhabited wher they had no sooner landed to take in fresh vvater but there appeared certaine vvild men of a fierce cruel resemblance all couered vvith haire somwhat reddish resembling in each other part men but onely that they had long tailes full of brisled haires like vnto horses These monsters discouering the Marriners ioyned them selues in a great troupe squadron together making an ilfauoured noyse like the barking or rather howling of doggs and at last of a sodaine set vpon them with such a fury and vehemence that they draue them backe to their ship forcing them to leaue behind them one of their vvomen which was also landed vpon whom they savv from their ship those brutish men or rather barbarous monsters vse all sort of fleshly abhomination and filthy lust
that in euery such part of her body as by any possibility they might which when they savve themselues vnable to succour vvith griefe hoising vp their sailes they departed from thence naming the place the Iland of Satyrs Gaudencius Merula rehearseth the selfe same saying that Eufemius which told this to Pausanias was a Cardinall LU. Ptolome in his second booke of the tenth table of Asia vvriteth that there are three Ilands of Satyres bearing the selfe same forme I verily beleeue that those are they whom we commonly call wilde Sauages paynted with great and knotty staues in theyr handes for till nowe I neuer heard that there were any such particulerly in any part of the world BER Plinie vvriteth alleadging the authority of Megasthenes that there are towards the East certaine people which haue long bushie tayles like Foxes so that they are in a manner like vnto those which you haue said I partly beleeue this the rather because of that which as I haue heard hapned to a lynage of men that brake vp a vessell pertayning to S. Toribius Bishop of Astorga in which hee helde sacred reliques with whose delectable sauour hee sustained himselfe putting in place there of things stinking vnsauory for punishment and perpetuall marke of which wicked offence both they theyr posteritie came to haue tayles which race as it is sayde continueth till this day AN. You commit no deadly sinne though you beleeue it not But I will tell you one no lesse monstrous then all these aboue mentioned the which I did see as they say with mine owne eyes in the yeare 1514. of a stranger that went to S. Iames in pilgrimage who ware a long garment downe to his feet open before which in giuing him some litle almes he opened wide discouered a child whose head to our seeming was set in the mouth of his stomack or a very little higher his whole necke beeing out from whence downeward his body was fully perfected and well fashioned in all his members which he stirred as other children doe so that there was in one man two bodies but whether this child was gouerned by the man vvhich bare it or by it selfe in his naturall operations I cannot say for I vvas then so young that I neyther had the discretion to discerne it nor the wit to aske it I should not haue dared to haue tolde this but that there are in Spayne so many vvhich haue seene it remember it besides my selfe and the thing so publique and notorious Besides I haue beene tolde by certaine persons of great credite that about 2. or 3. yeares since in Rome they went about gathering money vvith shewing a man that had tvvo heads the one of the vvhich came out of th' entry of his stomacke the selfe same place out of vvhich the others bodie came but this head though it were most perfectly shaped yet was it like vnto a dead member vvhich of it selfe had no feeling but that the man felt vvhen it was touched as vvell as any other of his members BER Though these things be passing strange wonderfull and neede many witnesses to giue them credite yet why should not this happen sometimes to men as it doth often to other creatures I haue seen my selfe a Lamb brought forth vvith two heads which died incontinently LU. Petrus Crinitus in his 21. Booke of honest discipline saith that in Emaus which I take to be that of which the holie Scripture maketh mention a woman bare two boyes from the nauill downeward ioyned in one hauing vpwards two seuerall bodyes two heads two breasts and all other members proportionable and that they were two persons and two distinct soules it was easie to perceaue for the one wept when the other laughed the one slept when the other waked and each of them did in one moment different operations in which sort they liued two yeares at terme of which the one dying the other liued only foure dayes after him He rehearseth this historie by the authoritie of Singibertus whom he commendeth for an Authour of great grauity and truth who lyued in the time of Theodosius the Emperour Besides Saint Augustine in his Citty of God writeth of this monster though not so particulerly I haue read of other two that were borne ioyned together by the shoulders backe to backe lyuing so a certaine time till the one comming to die the stench of his dead body so infected and anoyed the other that hee lyued not long after him AN. When there is no Authour of credite I will neuer beleeue that which is amongst the common sort reported beeing for the most part altogether fabulous BER Leauing thys I pray you tell me Signior Anthonio what you thinke of that which Plinie writeth of the Pigmees many other Authors of the Amazons AN. As for the Amazons many Writers affirme that they haue been and there are so many histories recorded of them theyr valorous deedes of Armes the battailes and warres in which they were that it should seeme great temerity to say the contrary Though Plutarch writing the life of great Alexander bringeth xij Greeke Authors that wrote also of his life some in his very time and some little after his death of which some fewe make mention of one Thalestris Queene of the Amazones that came so far to see him and speake with him but the rest and the greater part say nothing at all thereof wherby he seemeth to doubt whether it were true or no for if it were hee thinks that such and so esteemed Authors would neuer haue past so notable a matter in silence Besides Strabo was of opinion that this matter of Amazons was altogether faigned whose wordes are these Who can beleeue that there was euer at any time Army Cittie or Commonwealth onelie of women and not onely that there were but that they made war inuaded conqueringly vpon other Countries subdued their neighbours in battailes ranged and dared set their Armies in Ionia and on the farther side of Pontus euen to Attica This were as much to say as that in those dayes the women were men and the men women LUD All thys is not sufficient to prooue that in times past there were no such for all those that write of the Troyan warres make no doubt of theyr comming thither and that vvhich is written of theyr originall beginning is most notorious and knowen but of theyr last fall and finall ende I haue not seene anie Historie that maketh mention BER There haue beene in the Worlde many notable thinges vnknowne for want of Wryters of the which this may be one but I haue cheefelie noted one thing vvhich is that the Authors agree not about those Countryes vvherein they write that they lyued the rehearsall of vvhose seuerall opinions concerning theyr Prouince and Kingdome I will not encomber my selfe with repeating ANT. Diodorus Siculus vvryteth that the Amazones raigned in two partes the
These were indued both with strength and courage and through the vse thereof the one and the other accomplished great and worthy enterprises leauing behind them a fame glorious and euerlasting but there haue beene and as yet are sundry of rare and excellent strength which they haue employed and doe employ so ill that there is no memory nor reckoning made of them There was one not long since in Galicia called the Marshall Pero Pardo de Riba de Neyra who bearing great grudge to a certaine Bishop and finding no meanes to accomplish his reuengefull despite was contented to yeeld to the request of certaine that went betweene to make them friends at such time as they should meete together for the consummation of their attonement the Marshall went to embrace him but his embracing was in such sort that he wrung his guts out and crusht all his ribs to peeces leauing him dead betweene his armes LU. Hercules did no more when hee fought with Antheus whom he vanquished in the same manner though this act be so villainous especially hauing giuen security that it deserueth not to be spoken of There are besides at this day many trewants peasants and labourers of such accomplisht strength that if they employed it in worthy works they would winne thereby great estimation BER It is not sufficient to haue courage with this strength but they must be also fortunate for else they are soone dispatcht with a blow of a Canon yea and though it be but of a Harquebuz it is enough to abate the strongest man liuing and therefore they had rather liue in assurance dishonourable and obscure then with such ieopardy to seeke glory and fame But let vs returne to those that haue no thirst least we forget it It is a common thing that there are diuers men which bide fiue or sixe dayes without drinking especially if the victuals they eate be colde and moyst I knew a woman that made but a pastime to abstaine from drink eight or tenne dayes and I heard say that there should be a man in Medina del Campo I remember not well from whence he was that stayed vsually thirty or fourty dayes without drinking a drop and longer if it were in the fruite season for with eating thereof hee moystned so his stomacke that hee made no reckoning of drinke It vvas tolde mee for a truth that there was in Salamancha a Chanon of the same Church vvhich vvent to Toledo and returned being out xx dayes in all which time till he returned to his owne house hee neuer dranke any droppe of water or wine or any other liquor But that which Pontanus writeth in his booke of Celaestiall thinges causeth mee to wonder a great deale more of a man that in all his life time neuer drank at all which Ladislaus King of Naples hearing made hym perforce drinke a little vvater vvhich caused him to feele extreame payne and torment in his stomack I haue been told also by many persons worthy of credite that there is in Marsile neere to the Citty of Lyons at this present a man lyuing which is wont to continue three or foure monthes vvithout drinking without receauing thereby any discommoditie in his health or otherwise AN. There are many strange things reported about thys matter the cause wherof we will leaue to Phisitions who giue sufficient reasons whereby we may vnderstand how possible thys is which seemeth so farre to exceede the ordinary course of Nature BER If wee leaue thys purpose let vs returne to our former of strength for I was deceaued in thinking that the greater part thereof consisted in bignes of body members AN. If we should follow this rule we should oftentimes deceaue our selues for we finde many great men of little and slender force and manie little men of great and mightie puissance the cause whereof is that Nature scattereth and separateth more her vertue in great bodies then in lesser in which beeing more vnited and compacted it maketh them strong and vigorous and so saith Virgil. In a little body oftentimes the greatest vertue raignes LVD But we must not alwaies alowe this rule for true for we haue read and heard of many Giants whose wonderfull forces were equall with the largenes of theyr bodies BER For my part I thinke that thys matter of Gyants be for the most part feigned and though there haue beene great men yet were they neuer so huge as they are described for euerie one addeth that as he thinketh good Solinus writeth that it is by many Authors agreed that no man can passe the length of seuen foote of which measure it is saide that Hercules was Yet in the time of Aug. Caesar saith he there liued tvvo men Pusion and Secundila of which either of them had x. feete or more in length and theyr bones are in the Ossary of the Salustians and afterwards in the time of the Emperor Claudius they brought out of Arabia a man called Gauara nine foote and nine inches long but in a thousande yeeres before Augustus had not beene seene the like shape of men neither since the time of Claudius for in this our time who is it that is not borne lesse then his Father AN. If you mark it wel in the same chapter in which Solinus handleth this matter he sayth that the bones of Orestes were found in Tegoea which being measured were 7. cubits long which are more then 4. yardes according to the common opinion and yet this is no great disformity in respect of that which followeth Besides saith he it is written by the Antiquitie and confirmed by true witnesses that in the warres of Crete vpon an irruption of waters breaking vp the earth with the violent impesuositie thereof at the retreate thereof amongst many openings of the earth they found in one monument a mans body 33. cubites long Among the rest that went to see this spectacle so strange was Lucius Flacus the Legate and Metellus who beholding that with theyr eyes which otherwise they vvoulde not haue beleeued remained as men amazed Pliny also saith that a hill of Crete breaking there was founde the body of a man 45. cubits long the which some said was of Orion and others of Ocius And though the greatnes of these 2. bodyes be such that it seeme incredible yet farre greater is that of Antheus the which Anthoniê° Sabellicê° in his Aeneads saith was found in the citty of Tegaena at such time as Sartorius remained there Captain generall of the Romaine Army whose Sepulchre being opened and his bones measured the length of his carkas was found to be 70 cubits to confirme the possibility of this he addeth presently that a certaine host of his a man of good credit told him that being in Crete meaning to cut downe a certaine tree to make therewith the mast of a ship that selfe tree by chance was turned vp by the roote vnder the which was found a mans
that was also 300. yeeres old both by his lowne saying and the affirmation of those that knew him well besides other many great proofes and arguments thereof This Moore for the austeritie of his life and abstinence vvhich hee vsed was held amongst the rest for a very holie and religious man and the Portugals had great familiarity friendshippe vvith him For all thys though the Chronicles of Portugall are so sincere that there is nothing registred in them but with great fidelitie and approoued truth yet I should stagger in the beliefe of this were it not that there are so many both in Portugall and Spayne which are eye witnesses hereof and know it fully to be true BER And so trulie should I but that your proofe and information is not refutable for these ages are so long in respect of the shortnesse of ours that they bring with them incredible admiration and mee thinkes it is impossible that the first of these two shoulde haue had so many wiues AN. It being verified that hee liued so long this is not to be wondred at for the law both of Gentiles and Moores permitteth men to forsake their wiues and to take new as often as they please and so perchance this man was so fantasticall and peeuish that not contenting himselfe long with any he tooke it for a custome to put away his wiues as we doe seruants that please vs not And as they hold together as many wiues as they will though they bee not all called lawfull what letted him if he chopt changed some turning away taking new especially if he were so rich that he had meanes to maintaine many at once so that there is no such cause to wonder at any of these thinges for in the yeare 1147. in the time of the Emperor Conrad died a man which had serued Charles the great in his warres who as it was by inuinsible arguments proued had liued 340. yeeres and it agreeth with that which you haue sayd of this Indian whence Pero Mexia which writeth also the same tooke it Fascicuhis Temporum likewise maketh mention thereof All thys can he doe in whose hands Nature is shoutning lengthning lyues and ages as it pleased him but for my part I will neuer beleeue but that there are in these things some secrete mysteries which we neither conceiue nor vnderstand LU. Let vs take it as we find it without searching the profound iudgments of God who onely knoweth wherefore hee dooth it and in truth I dared not vtter as holding in for a thing fabulous that which I haue read in the xv booke of Strabo where he saith that those which dwel on the other side of the moūtaines Hyperbores towards the North many of them liued a 1000. yeares AN. I haue also read it but hee writeth the same as a thing not to be beleeued though he denieth not but that it may be possible that many of them liued very long but the likeliest is that in those Countries they deuide theyr yeeres according to the reckoning of which Pliny speaketh one into foure by which computation a thousand yeeres of theirs maketh 250. of ours and this differeth not much from the ages of other people and Nations which we haue rehearsed Yet Acatheus the Philosopher speaking of the mountaines Hyperbores sayeth that those which dwell on the farther side liue more yeeres then all the other Nations of the world Pomponius Mela also speaking of them in the third booke vseth these words vvhen they are weary of liuing ioyfull to redeeme themselues from the trauailes and miseries of life they throw themselues headlong into the Sea which they account the happiest death and fortunatest Sepulcher that may be how so euer many Authors of credite verifie theyr liues to be long BER It is said also that those of the Iland Thile according to the opinion of many now called Iseland liue so long that wearied with age they cause themselues to be conuaied into other parts to the ende that they may dye AN. I haue not seene any Author that writeth this it is like to be some inuention of the common people because those of that Iland liue very long euery one addeth what pleaseth him for as the desire to liue is a thing naturall to all men so how old so euer a man be he will in my opinion rather procure to defend and conserue his life then seeke occasion to finish or shorten the same This people being in the occident and according to the auncient vvriters the last Nation that is knowne that way participate with the Hiperboreans in fame of long life or perchaunce those which haue heard speake of Biarmio Superior the which as we will one day discourse is the last which is knowne of the other side of the Septentrion and of which are written many wonderfull matter chiefely of their long life without infirmity ending onely through extreamity of age the which many of them not attending voluntarily kill themselues thought that these men were vnder the selfe climate and hereof was the inuention of the Elysian fields which the Gentiles held to be in these parts But this being a matter that requireth long time we will now leaue it returne to our former discourse Truly if conforming our selues to reason we would well weigh the trauailes miseries vexations which in this wretched life we endure we should esteeme a short life far hapier then a long which we see beset with infinite troubles calamities endeuor so in this transitory life to serue God that we may come in glory to enioy that other which shal endure for euer BER Seeing we haue hetherto discoursed of so many particularities belonging vnto men let vs not forget one which is of no lesse mistery nor lesse worthy to be knowne then the rest which is of the Centaures or Archers to the ende wee liue not deceaued in that which is reported of thē for many Histories make mention of them though to say truth I neuer read any graue Author that affirmeth to haue seene them or stedfastly that they now are or at any other time haue been in the world which if they either be indeed or haue been they are not to be held for small wonders but for as great as euer haue been any in the world AN. Certainely this of the Centaures is but a Poetical fiction for if it were true it is not possible as you said but that som graue Author or other would haue written therof LV. Let vs yet know whence these fables had their beginning AN. Aske this of Eginius Augustus Libertus which in a booke of his entituled Palephatus de non credendis fabulis sayth that Ixion King of Thessalia brought a mighty Heard of Bulls and Cows to the mountain Pelius which being affrighted throgh some accident that happened scattered themselues flying into the Woods Valleys other vninhabited places out of which they
and debating a matter so pleasant and delectable though it were to no other end then to moue vs to seeke and aspire vnto that heauenly Paradice which this terestriall representeth vnto vs. AN. Well then seeing it so pleaseth you I will recite the opinions of such as vnderstand it better than I doe and you may thereof iudge that which seemeth most agreeing to our Catholique faith and to reason I will with the greatest breuity I may make you pertaker of that which I remember Many Diuines especially those which haue written vpon Genesis haue discoursed vpon this matter of earthly Paradice amongst whose opinions though there be some diuersity yet they shoote all at one marke though in the meane time it be some confusion to those which curiously procure to sift out the truth thereof But seeing their opinions are all Christianlike and of good zeale I account it no error in following eyther of them But leauing a while the Christians and Diuines let vs first see what was the old Philosophers opinion though it were at blindfold concerning Paradise and the place on earth where they thought it to be If wee take this name of Paradice generally it signifieth a place of delight and so sayeth Saint Hierome in his Translation that Heden in the Hebrew Text signifieth delight according to the 70. Interpreters which hauing said that God planted Paradice in the place of Heden turne presently to declare the same calling it a Garden of delight of these delightful places there are many in the worlde for their exceeding beauty and pleasantnes called by this name and so Casaneus alleadging Philippus Bergamensis the one very late the other not very auncient sayeth that there is one in the Oryent towards the side of Zephyrus and this hee thinketh to be the same of which we now speake another in the Aequinoctiall betweene the winds Eurus Euronotus the third betweene the tropick of Cancer and the circle of the South pole a fourth in the Orient on the other side of the Aequinoctiall where the Sunne scorcheth with so vehement heate a fifth at the Southerne pole of which he sayth that Solinus also maketh mention and as I take it it is in his discourse of those that dwell on the other side of the Hyperbores The sixth he placeth in the Occident and withall he alleadgeth that the Senate of Rome had made a decree that none should be chosen high Pontif vnlesse he were in the Garden of delights in the prouince of Italy But me reemeth that Casaneus Philippus reckoning vp such places as these are calling them paradices and taking the word so largely might haue found a great many more For Salomon also sayeth he maketh Gardens and paradices and planteth in them fruitfull trees And Procopius writeth of a paradice in a certaine part of Affrica whose wordes are these There was saith he builded a royall pallace by a King of the Vandales in the most delightfull paradice of all those that euer I haue seene for there were many delicious Fountaines of which it was bedewed and watered and the vvoods round about were continually most fragrant greene flourishing These paradices are vnderstood as I haue said to be all the purest pleasantest places of the earth refreshed with sweet gales temperate wholesome ayres though perchance also such as haue written of them haue added somwhat to the truth and as for those of which Phillip of Bergamo speaketh they are described in places so far distant from vs that it is almost vnpossible to know the truth The Gentiles likewise according to their fals sects opinions fained the Elisian fields to be paradice whether they imagined the soules of those that liued well to be transported after their death Which some dreamed to be in the prouince of Andaluzia in this our Spain because it is a plat most pleasant delectable Others held opinion that they were not any where else then in an Iland called Phrodisia consecrated to Venus neere vnto Thule which was the most delicious and comfortable place that might be found in the whole world which sodainly sinking into the Sea vanished was seen no more But the commonest opinion was that the Elisian fields were those which we now call the fortunate Ilands the enhabitants of which are saide to liue so long that they are held to be as it were immortall Plato in his fourth book called Phedon writeth that there is a place on the earth so high aboue the clouds that they cannot raine vpō the same neither though it be neere the region of the fire feeleth it any immoderate heate but that there is alwaies a temperature of aire most pure perfect in such sort that many are of opinion that al things grow there in greater fertility abundance then in any other part of the earth and that the men are of purer complexion longer life then we whose bodies are such that many think them to be formed the greater part of fire aire as for water and earth they participate thereof very little neither feed they of such fruits victuals as we doe heere but differ far from vs in customs alwaies enioy a perfect freshnes of youth These words rehearseth Caelius Rodiginus which were saith he of a man that went serching out the certaine knowledge of our faith who was not far of frō being a Christian if there had been any man to haue instructed him wherin he was found to say so of him I know not for Plato spake wrote many other things wherein he deserued the name of Diuine out of which greater argument may be taken then out of these words to iudge as he doth of him That agreeth very well with this of Plato which Lactantius Firmianus writeth in verse in a little Treatise of the Phaenix discoursing of that Country whether after shee hath burned her selfe in Arabia and turned to reuiue againe of a vvorme engendered in her owne ashes she taketh her flight to passe her life till such time as of necessity she must returne to renue her selfe againe His very words are these There is saith he in the farthest part of the East a blessed place where the high gate of the eternall pole is open it is neyther anoyed with the heate of the Sunne nor the colde of the Winter but there whence the Sunne sendeth discouereth to vs the day there are neyther high mountaines nor low Valleyes the fields are all flat in a great and pleasant Plaine which notwithstanding the euen leuell thereof is ten fadoms higher then the highest mountaine of ours There is a flourishing vvood adorned with many beautifull trees whose braunches and leaues enioy perpetuall greenes and at such time as through the ill guiding of the chariot and horses of the Sunne by Phaeton the whole world burned this place was vntouched of the flame and when Deucalions flood ouerwholmed the whole
other such like tales of which the common people speaketh AN. There are some certainly yea and very many which I take to be meere fictions and fables inuented by men for their pastime or some other cause that moued them others there are which are vndoubtedly of most assured truth as it appeareth by sundry examples successes which cannot be denied LU. Truly Signior Anthonio I shold be very glad throughly to vnderstand this matter of Spirits whether they be illusions deceits of the deuill who representeth thē in imagination fancy only or whether they are truly seene discerned with our bodily eyes for according to the diuersity of tales which I haue heard and of such diuers sorts I knowe not what I should iudge thereof AN. You haue entred into a matter very deepe me thinks you go about to make me a Diuine perforce as yesterday you did in that of terestriall Paradise wherin because I found you then easie to be contented I am the readier now to satisfie you so far as my knowledge extendeth Let vs therfore repose our selues on this greene banke where with the shadow of those trees of one side the freshnes of this Fountain on the other we shal sit to our ease contentment BER We are ready to fulfill obey your cōmaundement in all things especially in this tending to so good an end surely I haue oftentimes beaten my braines about this matter of which you will nowe entreate but still in the end finding the conceite thereof intricate aboue my capacity I gaue it quite ouer AN. Well therfore I wil begin to say what I know as there ariseth any doubt aske and I wil doe my best to resolue satisfie you as wel as I can with the greatest breuity possible for otherwise the matter is so great so much thereof written that we should neuer bring it to an end and because these illusions apparitions of Spirits chiefely proceed of the deuils let vs first see what the ancient Philosophers thought of them not touching our Christian Religion The Peripatetikes chiefely Aristotle were of opinion that there were no deuils at all and so saith Aueroes that hee knew no spirituall substances but those which moue the heauens which he calleth also Angels seperated substances intelligences mouing vertues so that the deuils being spirituall substances he seemeth to deny that there be any Of the same opinion was Democrites therin so obstinate that certaine yong men clothing themselues one night in deformed vgly attire seeming to be very deuils in deed thinking to make him afraide when they came into the place where he was vsing horrible feareful gestures he shewed himselfe secure without any alteration at all bidding thē cease to play the fools because he knew wel there were no such bugs as they represented And when these Philosophers were asked what griefe that was which those endured who were possessed of Spirits they answered it was a passion proceeding of a melancholly humor affirming melancholly to be able to worke those effects and as yet the most part of Phisitions maintaine the same affirming that when the deuill speaketh in diuers tongues yea though often very highly and mistically yet that all this may well proceed through the operation of a vehement melancholly But this is a manifest error for amongst the Ethnike Philosophers them selues there were diuers of a contrary opinion as Pythagoras Plato Socrates Trismegistus Proculus Pophirius Iamblicus many others though S. Austine in his ninth booke De ciuitate Dei sayeth that Plato and his followers called the superiour Angels Gods and that they were the selfe same whom Aristotle called Angels and in this sort is to be vnderstoode the spirit of Socrates so famous in Platos works and of which Apuleius writeth a whole booke and whosoeuer attentiuely readeth the Tymeus of Plato and his Cratilus in the tenth Dialogue De legibus shal find that he meant the same Aristotle him selfe sayeth that Lemures and Lamiae dwell in a sad Region LV. I vnderstand not these names if you declare thē not plainlier vnto me AN. The deuils are called by sundry different names which though for certaine respects keepe their particuler significations Lamiae properly signifie a kind of deuils yet vnder the same name are also contayned Hags and Witches as persons who haue confederation and agreement with the deuill and Lemures or Lares are such as wee call Hobgoblins or domesticall Spirits and as these are Spirits it seemeth to make against that which in other places he maintained But leauing these men who went so blindly and obscurely to worke Let vs come to the trueth it selfe which is Christ and to our Christian Religion which manifestly teacheth vs to vnderstand what we should beleeue as touching these maligne Spirits whose being is proued by so many examples and testimonies of the holy Scripture and by the misteries and miracles wrought by the same God our Sauiour in casting them foorth of humaine bodies The which afterwards the Apostles and holy men did in like sort The Philosophers which confessed that there were deuils though they vnderstood that theyr office was to torment the soules of euill liuers as saith Plato and Xenocrates in his booke which he made of death yet they drawe diuers waies for they make good spirits and euil spirits and they call the departed soules of great wise men Spirits halfe Gods feyning thē through the excellencie of their merrits to be assumpted into heauen where though they neuer entered into the Consistory with the other Gods but when they were called and appointed yet were they Mediators for men that liued on the earth carrying and offering vp theyr messages requests demaunds supplications to the Gods in heauen Neyther made they heere an end but they called also the Gods Daemons as it appeareth by the words of Trismegistus which are thus When the separation saith he shall be of the soule from the bodie the examination thereof shall be tryed by the power iudgment of the chiefe Daemon who finding it righteous godlie will assigne it a conuenient happy place but if he find it spotted with wickednes and defiled with sinnes and offences hee will throw it into the deepe Abysmes where there is alwayes horror and confusion terrible tempests violent waters and vnquenchable fires And so by degrees downewardes towards the earth they place other Gods still declyning till they come to the ill Spirits which they say are those who dwell vnder the earth in the deepe Abysmes thereof Feyning besides a hundred thousand other such like toyes vanities which if you desire to see you may reade the Phylosophers before named and besides them Caelius Rodiginus Protinus Pselius and many others who haue perticulerlie written of this matter But one thing I will assure you that he had neede of a very diuine iudgement whom they
somewhat difficill yet not so much as you make it for they were not inuented without cause or without contayning vnder them a signification which oftentimes is manifested vnto vs by the effect and sequell of such aduentures and chaunces as doe happen vnto vs. LU. It were not amisse in my opinion seeing wee haue happened on a matter so subtile and disputable if we endeuoured to vnderstand what might be sayde as concerning it for wee cannot passe the conuersation of this euening in a matter more pleasant or more necessary to be knowne then this and therefore sir you cannot excuse your selfe to take the paines to satisfie vs in this of which we are so ignorant and contayneth therein so many doubts AN. Though in respect of my small vnderstanding I might iustly excuse my selfe yet I will not refuse to satisfie you in this or any thing else whereto my knowledge and capacity extendeth on condition that you will not binde me any farther or expect more at my handes If I shall erre in any thing lette it remaine onely amongst our selues as in our former conuersations it hath doone for this matter being so farre from my profession I feare mee I shall not bee able to say all that vvere necessarie and behoouefull for the good vnderstanding thereof BER Greater should bee our error in leauing to reape the fruite of your learned conuersation and therefore without losing any more time I pray you deferre it no farther AN. Well to obey you then I will begin according to the common order with the definition of Fortune which Aristotle writing in his second booke De Phisicis Cap. 6. sayeth in this sort It is a thing manifest that Fortune is an accidentall cause in those things which for some purpose are done to some end Vppon the woordes of this Definition all the Phylosophers that haue vvrytten Glosses vppon Aristotle doe spende much time and many reasons vvith great alterations and argumentes the vvhich differing one from an other I vvill forbeare to recite least vvith the rehearsall of them I shoulde confounde your vnderstanding and beginne an endlesse matter I vvill therefore onely say that vvhich in my opinion I iudge fittest for the purpose and most materiall to satisfie your desire for your better vnderstanding I vvill therefore beginne vvith that vvhich in Humanitie is helde and vvritten as concerning Fortune and then vvhat in Phylosophie is thought thereof and lastlie vvhat vvee that are Christians ought to thinke and esteeme in true Diuinitie in deede Touching the first of the Gentiles as they erred the groslyest that might be without all reason and sence in all things concerning their Gods so without any foundation or ground faigned they Fortune to be a Goddesse dominating and hauing power ouer all things as writeth Boetius in his first booke of Consolation so that as well in Rome as in other places they builded and dedicated vnto her temples in which she was worshipped and adored of the which and of the founders of them many Authors make mention as Titus Liuius Pliny Dionisius Halycarnaseus Plutarch and Seneca The Praenestins a people of Italy held and adored her for the chiefest Goddesse and Protectresse of their Common-wealth but omitting this as not making much to the purpose I will tell you the diuers sorts and manners where-with they figured her forth in their temples Some paynted her like a franticke vvoman standing with both her feete vppon a rounde ball others with great wings and no feete giuing thereby to vnderstand that shee neuer stoode firme others fashioned her with a head touching the cloudes and a Scepter in her hand as though shee vniuersally gouerned all things in the world Others sette in her hand Cornucopia or the horne of aboundance shewing thereby that from her we receaue all both our good and euil Some made her of glasse because it is a mettall so easily crazed and broken but the most vsuall manner of painting her was with a wheele in her hand continually turning the same vp downe her eyes being blindfolded and mufled wherby it might appeare that hee which was in the height of all prosperity with one turne of the wheele might easily come vnder and be cast downe and likewise those vnderneath and of base estate might easily be mounted vp into higher degree Others thought it good to picture her like a man and therefore made vnto him a particuler temple Diuers also paynted her sayling by Sea vpon the backe of a great fish carrying the one end of a sayle puffed with a full winde in her hand and the other vnder her feet deciphering as it were thereby the fickle and dangerous estate of Saylers seafarers and hence as I take it proceedeth that common phrase of speech that when any man hath passed great tempest and danger by sea we say Corrio fortuna as though Fortune had medled with the matter Besides these they deuised and figured her forth in many other shapes with a thousand rediculous toyes and imaginations the cause of which diuersitie of formes attributed vnto her was because shee vvas a thing onely imagined and not knowne in the world as vvas Ceres Pallas Venus Diana and their other Goddesses so that they described her by gesse imagination according to the conceits inuentions of their own fancies some of which were passing grosse ridiculous and absurd LU. I haue not seene any picture of Fortune that pleaseth mee better then that in a table of your inuention where you paynt her vvith the wheele of which you spake in her hand holding her eyes betweene open and shut with a most strange and vncertaine aspect placing vnder her feete Iustice and Reason wearied and oppressed in poore ragged and contemptible habites lamenting in sorrowful gesture the iniury they receaue in being held in such captiuity slauery on the one side of Fortune standeth Pleasure and on the other Freewill both beeing pompously attired with rich and beautifull ornaments each of them holding in her hand a sharpe Arming-sworde seeming with angry gesture to threaten them some great mischiefe if they ceased not their complaints I leaue the other particularities thereof but it appeareth well that her effects are better knowne vnto you then they were to diuers of those Auncients AN. That liberty which they had in their imagination may I also haue to describe her properties and conditions seeing she obserueth neither Reason nor Iustice in her actions but oppresseth and banisheth them in a manner out of the world gouerning herselfe by her owne will pleasure without order or agreement as Tully writeth in his booke of Diuination There is nothing sayth he so contrary to Reason Constancie as Fortune and therefore the Ancients termed her by so sundry Names calling her blind franticke variable vnconstant cruell changeable traytresse opiniatre without iudgement besides infinite other foule Epithetes and ignominious names alwaies accusing and condemning her as vvicked light inconstant mutable
in those things which succeede vnto vs according to our purpose and pretence but in those that doe exceede our hope or come vnlooked for vnthought of and so we commonly mingle confound Fortune with Chaunce and Chaunce with Fortune yea sometimes we attribute that to either of them which is neither of both But to tel you the very truth this definition of Fortune is so intricate that I my selfe doe not throughly vnderstand his meaning where hee saith according to the purpose and to some end which are two diuers words may be vnderstoode in sondry sence as those doe which glosse vpon his text whose diuersity of opinions maketh the glosse far more difficill then the text it selfe But I will not meruaile hereat because perchaunce Aristotle would doe therein as he did in the selfe same books de Phisicis which being finished and Alexander telling him that it was great pitty that so high excellent a matter should by the publishing thereof become vulgar and cōmon he aunswered that he had written them in such sort that few or none should vnderstand thē And in truth the old Writers in all their works so delighted in compendious breuity of wordes that they not being clearely vnderstoode of those that followed in the ages after were the cause of an infinit variety of opinions neither is there any one which glosseth vpon thē who affirmeth not his interpretation to be the true sence meaning of the Author the same being perchaunce quite contrary But leauing this I say that though in this mother speech of ours we want fit and apt words to signifie the propriety of many things yet in expressing the effects of Fortune we haue more then either the Latine or Greeke for besides prosperous aduerse Fortune we haue Hap Mishap good Luck ill Luck by the which we signifie all successes both good and euill accustoming our selues more vsually to these words then to that of Fortune for what Chaunce soeuer happen to a man we cōmonly say that he was Happy or Vnhappy Lucky or Vnlucky LV. Me thinks that Felicity and Infelicity signifieth also the same that we may very well vse them in such sence as we doe the others AN. You are herein deceaued for Hap Mishap good and euill Luck prosperous aduerse Fortune are as we haue saide when they come by accidentall causes not keeping any order or limitation felicity as saith S. Anthony of Florence is in those things which happen to a man for his merrite and vertue infelicity in not happening to him which hath vertue and merrite to deserue them but these words we vse not in ordinary matters but in those that are of weight and moment some Authors also affirme the same to be vnderstood of prosperous and aduerse Fortune and that we ought not to vse this manner of speech but in difficill matters and such as are of substance and quality BER According to this rule wee erre greatly in our common speech for there are many that come to obtaine very principall estates and dignities not by their vertues and merrites but rather through their great vices and demerrites yet wee commonly say that such mens felicity is great and that they are very fortunate AN. You haue sayde the trueth for indeede wee goe following our owne opinion without any foundation of reason neither leaning to those graue and auncient Phylosophers of tymes past neyther to those which haue written what in true and perfect Christianitie wee ought to thinke thereof who affirme Fortune to bee that which happeneth in worldly and exteriour matters not thought on before nor looked for neyther of it selfe but proceeding from a superiour cause directly contrary to them which hold that such accidents happen without any cause superiour or inferiour but that they all come at happe hazard So that howsoeuer Fortune bee it must bee accidentally and not in thinges that come praemeditated and hoped for but seeing that the most sort of men obserueth heerein no order attrybuting all successes both good and euill to Fortune vvhether they happen or no in such sort as the Definition thereof requireth euery manne speaking and applying as he listeth I hold it for no error if amongst the ignorant wee followe the common vse but amongst the wise and learned me thinkes it were good for a man to be able to yeeld a reason of those things he speaketh and to speake of things rightly according to their Nature and property least otherwise hee be derided and held for a foole BER Greater in my iudgement is the error which wittinglie and wilfully we commit then that which is through ignorance onely neyther can any vse or custome be sufficient to authorize or allow that which in the iudgement of all wise and learned men is held for false and erronious But afore you passe any farther I pray you tell me what you meane in this your last definition whereas you say that Fortune is onely to be vnderstoode in exteriour things AN. It is manifest of it selfe that in thinges spirituall and interiour there can be no Fortune which who so list more at large to see and more particulerly to satisfie himselfe therein may reade S. Thomas in his second booke De Phisicis and in his third Contra Gentiles and S. Anthony of Florence in the second part of his Theologiques LV. As for the opinion of Philosophers you haue sufficiently made vs vnderstand the same now I would you would doe vs the fauour to declare vnto vs what the sacred Doctors of our holy Mother the Catholique Church doe teach and thinke therein AN. Farre different are they from the before alleadged Philosophicall censure for what good Christian soeuer you reason withall concerning Fortune he will aunswer you with the authority of Esay who saith Woe be vnto you that set a table before Fortune and erect Altars vnto her as to a Goddesse for with my knife shall you be cut in peeces The Gentiles as they were passing blinde in all diuine things pertayning vnto God and his omnipotencie so not beeing able to comprehend vnderstand his diuine vniuersall prouidence in all thinges they diuided the same frō God himselfe and made thereof a Goddesse attributing to her gouernment domination power and commaundement all the exterior things of the world which error of theirs herein committed some of themselues doe confesse and acknowledge as Iuuenall where he sayth Where Prudence is thou hast no deitie ô Fortune but wee for want of wisedome doe make thee a Goddesse and place thee in heauen According to which S. Hierome in an Epistle of his to Terentia sayth Nothing is created of GOD without cause neyther is any thing doone by chaunce as the Gentiles thinke the temeritie of blinde Fortune hath no power at all Whereby wee may see that Fortune is nothing else then a thing fained in the fantasie of men and that there is no