THE VVONDERS OF THE AYRE THE TREMBLING OF THE EARTH And the warnings of the world before the Iudgement day VVritten by Thomas Churchyard Esquire seruant to the Queenes Maiestie Imprinted at London by Thomas Dawson 1602. To the right woorshipfull M. D. Sezar master of the requests master of S. Katherns and iudge of the Admiraltie Thomas Churchyard wisheth great worship wisedome and wealth with the fauour of Prince and good people ioyned to such a vertuous life as alwayes waites for heauenly faelicity WHen the light of my life and candell of earthly comfort was almost burnd out good M. Doctor Seazar it was Gods will I should addresse my selfe and suite to our sacred Soueraigne the mighty Caesar of our world who often times poured oyle into my wasting lamp and finding in wants a worthy maister of requests that would not suffer my dimme candell blaze to be blowne out so for my benifit you brake with her Maiestie and brought from her gratious goodnesse the little I liue vpon and am likely to die withall which kind curtesie of yours voyd of all taking of money drew my affection and hart in a manner out of my bowels and my inward spirits to be so farre in your dept that I searched the best of my inuentions to the bottom the shallownes whereof was so great that I found but little of contentment fit to present you withal Than I bethought me of a translation out of Plinie 30. yeres agoe set downe in prose by me Of the wonders of the ayre Trembling of the earth and warnings of the world desirous euery day to publish in print that simple translation of mine but long sicknesse held my good wil so far backe that weake body saw no season to serue my hope In the mean while a great learned doctor called doctor Holland most learnedly with great payne translated all Plinies workes I hearing thereof reioyced much because his torch would blaze so cleere that the blindest sight in the world should thereby see where the sweete kirnell lay when the hard shelled nut was crackt and opened so cunningly So taking his gallant booke as a witnes of my labors though I neuer read one line of his translation I boldly set foorth this worke of mine hoping that you and the wise of the world will accept and iudge as my paines and study may merit in that trust and confidence I present the patronage of these paynes to your consideration and approued wisedome confessing that neuer worke went from me with a greater good will nor lesse flattery God so knowes who increase in you grace and goodnes with worldly worship what your owne hart desires Yours in all that he may at commandment Thomas Churchyard The generall Epistle to the Readers COme gazing world whose restles mind wold see read each thing And mark what wonders wit may find that in this booke I bring Note now howe nature is beguild and God the nature takes Of euery wonder vnder Sunne and thereof triumple makes Come searching heads that finely shifts the grosest bran from flowre Who knows through suttel sleights of world no more thā naturs pour And marke what maruels mighty God with maiestie doth shoe Our simple age and carelesse time where lewde like learned goe Come you that liues like Epicures and likes no world but this And thinks when your bad life is gone there is no other blisse And note another kind of cause that can constraine vs all In prostrate maner humble wise with face on floure to fall Come proudest peacoks in your plumes with ruffling painted robes Come you that lookes when starres will fall staers on goodly globes And veiw how starrs and planets falls and earthly causes too If God when nature is at worst strange things himselfe will doo Come stubborne men that will not stoupe at fearfull signes and shoes Nor care for trembling of the earth which wonders comes and goes By course of nature as some say but therein make a pause Though kind commands amasse of things there is a greater cause That moues the earth shakes the world wel worldlings come see What wonders God hath wrought for men that wise and thankful be And see what warnings God hath sent to those he meanes to stricke Preserues the good wher fauour leads plagues wher growes mislike You stout stifnecked people proud that stands on reasons ground Come heere how farre past reasons earth in learned eares doth sound Make faith a proofe of your hard harts and so let nature guide And you shall see who shootes aright and when your shafts are wide If natures law and reasons rules might run with right away No place were left for God that rules to rule and beare the swaie O wily wits and babling tonges yeeld vp your reasons lore And folllow our great captaines steps that marcheth still before Who leaues them lagging far behind that lookes not after grace And in their owne opinions dwell with bold and shamelesse face Come all the flocke of new found sects that swarmes to much this day And you shall see what glory great Gods goodnes doth bewray Come Deitists and Athists all bring brabling bookes and wordes That you in bitter sorte let fall sometime with iests and bords And see his mighty workes aboue that rules all at his will Who makes earth ayre and waters moue to make men muse on still Come cunning brains whose quick conceits are ripe and in their prime Come read strange things that wonders are bestow therein some time Come souldiers that loues sword fire mark what wars God makes With kings and kingdomes in his ire when he the quarrell takes Come see the fall of mighty men that many battayls won Yet dropt downe headlong now and then as fatall chances run Come you that thinke you sit so fast you can ne slip nor slide And thinke by gesse of wonders past what you may iudge this tide Come hither high aspiring mind that hopes the cloudes to clime And by these warnings heere you find reforme your selues in time Come you that please I say no more my verses so I ende And craue that you with patience read that I with paines haue pend THE Wonders of the ayre The trembling of the earth And the warnings of the world before the iudgement day IN the dangerous dayes and sorrowfull season of Repentance when people ought rather to fal to praier then disputations and the manifest workes of the almightie commands the consciences of men to leaue of friuolous arguments and not to meddle too much with the height or deepe misteries that passeth common capacitie and the reach of weake iudgements It is most necessarie towardes the honouring of God and edifying of good men that preachers should pronounce meekenesse and mercy and writers should perswade probable matter that may drawe busie witts from curious questions and quiet the wauering mindes of those that are carryed away with euerie light wind and wordes full of vanitie
great reuerence and another at Cassandri a towne of Macedone or Thrace this stone for feare of the wrath of God that in his anger might punish and sodainly stricke was solemlie carryed abroad and shewed to the people to daunt their pride and bridle their follies The raynbow which as many affirm is neuer seene by night but alwayes appeareth in cleere day manifestly declareth that mightily Gods maiestie worketh and his mercifull dealings are to be marueilously noted For neuer as is to be read by good authors was séene more then two raynebowes at one time together in the skies who shewes that a firme and constant course and signe ef Gods mercyes with no alteration is planted perdurable where his people may behold it sometimes is to be seene as Plinie maketh mention of a scarlet colour and a red sanguine in the skyes and sundry other times is perceiued likewise that the skie seemes to open and fire falleth downe from the same a thing prodigious and fearefull which consumeth all thinges that it toucheth or encounters as it came to passe saieth Plinie the third yéere of the 107. Olympiade at which season King Philip of Macedonie obtayned by victorie the most parte of all Gréece And truely saith Plinie I thinke that nature which he calleth God produceth those thinges at certayne times determined by Gods appoyntment as he worketh his other operations and further sayeth Plinie all the subtill imaginations of man nor the inuentions of all humane spirits and iudgements can render no good reason for the same for there opinions thereof serueth for nothing Plinie 27. For these accidence celestiall haue alwayes signified some great calamitie to come not that I thinke sayth he that those euils and calamities that happen are the cause of the blazing starres or commetts but I holde opinion sayth he that the same commetts are procreated and sent for speciall markes and signes to know thereby what calamitie is likely to happen und because those signes are marueilous rare and strange the reason of their nature is in a maner incomprehensible so that truely men may not speake on them as they do on the order of the Planets or on their ecclipse or on many other thinges remarquable in the elements looke good Reader how excellently that eathnicke Plinie hath spoken of the diuine maiestie and doings of God which he calleth nature and note how he hath so cunningly handled the argument that no one point or other may be reasoned against for this in it selfe confuteth all thinges to the contrarie and explaneth such secrets that euery other naturall reason is by this put to silence I haue seene saieth Plinie often in the night an corps degard that made the sentinell in the campe néere the trenches certayne lights of the maner of a starre which were as it were a slame tyed to the end of a souldiers picke and on the Sea sundry Marriners as they haue sayled haue seene the like lights hanging on the mast which lightes are a very euill signe to the Saylers if they be but one of them séene at one time for that presageth shipwracke or manifesteth great mischiefe for sometimes if the flame fall downe wardes it burneth the vessell if two lights be seene they bring goodnesse and hope of happy fortune and presageth that the ship shall haue a good voyage likewise when these two happie lights ariueth the vnfortunate flame that commeth alwayes alone that the Marriners calleth helene vanisheth out of veiw yea sometimes this light lighteth full vpon many mens heads about the euening all which thinges saith Plinie neuer happen without great matter to follow them the misteries and knowledge thereof is reserued onely to the maiestie of God whom he nameth nature who will hyde and locke vp the reasons of those causes in the cabine or sacred chamber of his priuie secrets Heere Plinie plainely expoundeth though he were a Pagan many secrete matters much to the purpose of mens good opinions and greatly to the glory of God and to proue that strange lightes haue and are to be séene I being in Garnsey hauing charge vnder Syr Thomas Leighton was searching of the watch in a place called castle Cornet and there full on the toppe of a crosse I espyed this flaming fire before the face and veiw of diuers Souldiers after the which sight fell a very great tempest and such a kinde of a storme as the small fishes in the Seas could not abide for they were driuen to the shore so fast that little children and yong maydes wading but a foote deepe in the water tooke millions of the fishes and brought them to the land some in their kirchers and aprons and other some in their capps hatts and such thinges as they had for the cause Thus farre haue you heard some piece of the matter touching the ayre and secrets from thence sent to the world as God by his goodnesse pleaseth to deale And nowe shall yee haue rehearsed somewhat of the Earthquakes and other worldly Wonders that many times haue happened and hath bredde great harmes and no little wonder Now first and formost to some wonders of the world in Titus Liuius you shall read that before great warres burst out betweene the Romans and Macedonians in many places and regions were some strange thinges most fearefull and lamentable to behold For in the countrey of Lucanie the heauens seemed as they had béene all on a flaming fire and in another countrey farre from that at high noone the Sun became all ouer redde as scarlet and at midnight in the Temple of Iuno was heard a great alarum and horrible cry in diuers maners and fearefull sortes yea and in many places sundrie beastes of diuers shapes very monstrous were brought into the world and at Salonne a child was borne that the people knewe not whether it were a man or a woman and likewise in Sauoye a pigge was farryed that had the head of a man and againe in Lucanie was a horse seene that had fiue féete and as Cauies was a man that had his eares standing in the middle of his browes whereon was commaunded when the bookes of Sibell had beene seene that chast women should in murning sort sing a certayne heauie song thrée times in a weeke through the citie of Rome all which ceremonies the consull Aurellius did curiously accomplish King Philip of Macedone anon after these strange sights did beseige the great citie of Abydoo in which citie the maiestrates and people because they would not happen in Philips hand and be made slaues they all issued out and fought many times desperatly and in the ende burnt all their treasure set a fire of the Towne slue all their wiues and children and after all these horrible actes one of them killed another heere is to be noted with the rest of miseries that fell out that many euils falls immediatly in those partes where those strange and prodigious sights and signes are to be seene The Romans after this discomfited
the Gauls in which battell was slayne fiue thousand knights called noble souldiers and Amylkar the Duke of Penoyes and with him three noble Emperors of the Gaulles were put to the sword with a thirtie and fiue thousand poore Souldiers Ye shall reade in the 4. chapter of the second decaed that as Titus Quincius was going to leauie an armie of noble Souldiers that had beene in Spaine and Affricke one brought him newes that by a thunder or miraculous working of the elements the high way where he should goe was broken and torne in peices and both the temple of Ioue and Hercules were set on fire and at Aretto the ground for the length of a great distance was opened and therein was made a deepe caue to the wonder of a great number of people And at Assnesse there was a calfe séene with two heades and a pigge with foure tayles after which sights prayer and supplications was made to their gods a whole day long without ceasing and yet great warres and troubels began to be set abroch in many kingdoms these wonders going before al these hurly burlies the fourth decaed the 12. chapter in the Consull of Domycius time there was an Oxe that spake and sayd in latine Roma caue tibi after which wordes pronounced the Oxe was diligently kept and so the riuer of Tyber arose and did passe the bound so sarre that it ouerthrewe many houses and edifyses and did very great harme diuers wayes and through the aboundance of rayne that fell or other causes that pleased God a great rocke fell and ouerwhelmed a number of poore people and the flouds were so high by the meane of an outragious tempest that they drowned many viilages about Rome vpon the which strang sight or in a small space after thrée of the greatest Emperors of the world dyed most vnhappily and as some authors makes mention those Princes tooke their leaue all in one yéer Philopomenes Scypion and Hanniball was these thrée great personages Now to write what warres troubels seditions and other calamities hapned in many kingdomes after these terrible tokens and prodigious signes it would weary you with the reading thereof and make you but maruell at the mightie workes of God which assuredly comes to passe in euery place by his appointment to shew his power and happens not by the course of the heauens causes of the earth or naturall operations as many of Aristotels disciples affirme and wilfull schoolemen by reasons would prooue for as God is without beginning so his power is without ending and his diuine workes and iudgements are as matters that wee should not breake our witts about and are so farre beyond our reach that we rather stand amazed at veiwe of them then any way satisfyed in the searching or ceasoning of the cause of their beginnings and though at the first God gaue the Elements a nature past all the compasse of mans base knowledge we neither must trust Aristotle nor leane too much to our weakenes and imaginations for the beginning of his Deitie is as easily knowne as the nature of strange visions and signes in the ayre that onely are directed by his omnipotent power Now come we to Earthquakes In the yéere of the Consulship of Lucius Marcius and Sextus Iulius there befell a case so strange at Modenna that the like yet was neuer heard off as Plinie reports he hath found written in the bookes of Hertusques A maruell that mountains meet and among the Toscane Philosophers Then happened so terrible an earthquake that two mountaines met together and shooke so vehemently the one the other separating themselues as a combate were fought and méeting with such furie and noyse that all the countrey adioyning stoode astonied at the matter and when these two mountaines had done their shaking and at the instant of their first remooue there arose such a fume of flaming fire from the earth that it reached to the heauens the which monstrous battayle of mountaynes and wonderfull earthquake in those parts was séene of many Romaine Knights and Souldiers and an infinite number of trauellers of the world than being in the way called Emylius or via emilia who considering that pittifull tragidie of time and other matters that fell out marueiled much and were sore afrayd for indéede all the granges tenements farmes and houses that were one any of these mountaynes fell in small pieces and little morsels so that both beastes in the fielde and people in their dwellings were all vtterly destroyed and cleane ouerthrowne this marueilous chance fell a yéere before the warres of Sociale that was made against the Marses the which warres brought not much lesse domage to Italie than the warres ciuell by which dissention millions of men were slaine or put to shame and miserie and in the chronicle of Neroes rayne is to be found a very prodigious thing for the last yéere of Neroes raâ—â—ing a great ground of Alyue pertayning to Vertius Marcellus procuror generall to the Emperor Nero was transported from his owne proper place with all his trees and set in the common way betwéene the soyle it stoode on and another mans heritage after which matter the tyrant Nero dyed and a great alteration fell in the Empyre by the trembling of the earth as Homer affirmeth waters did flowe where firme land remayned and the Seas did retyre from their wonted course in another place by which meanes a great countrey was discouered before ouer flowed with water as men might sée towardes the mount Siscelo in the fields and néere the hauen of Larta or Ambracia a plot of ground ten long myles from the borders of the Sea that in times past stood drowned and vndiscouered and at Athens likewise the sea is retyred from the hauen that they call Piree about fiue myles of length and at Epheson the Sea did anciently beate against the temple of Diana but now the Sea is a great way reculed from that temple and if the historie of Herodote be true aunciently the waues of the Sea went ouer the citie of Memphys in Egypt running to the mountaynes of Ethiopie and the plaines of Arabie in like sorte the Sea did beate against Illion called Troy and couered all the whole countrey of Tentertanie and all the other fields wher passeth the riuer Meander these proofes and passages sufficiently sheweth that the tremblings of the earth are as much and more to be feared then the cracking of a rotten house or the fall of a mightie castell that stands on féeble proppes and totters at euery blast of winde Further it is sayde in the Isles of Pithecuses by the vehemencie of an earthquake a great towne did sincke and by another earthquake againe a great lake was made in the same Ilands as yet remayning a wonder to the world read the foure and ninth of Plinie and ye shall sée a number of other matters as myraculous as any yet rehearsed The diuine Plato reports that aunciently there was a mightie and a