and unjust taxes exacting of them a tribute even for their meat if there were any money controversies to be decided the fourth part of the same was his share which way soever the matter enclined the eight penny of every Porters gaine throughout the citie which with travell they earned hee tooke into his purse yea and that which is more filthy and dishonest the very whores and common strumpets payed him a yearely revenue for their bauderies which act though most villanous and slandrous yet is made a samplar to some of our holy Popes to imitate and indeed hath of many beene put in practise but to our purpose whereas before his prodigality was so great as to scatter money like seed amidst the people now his niggardlinesse grew on the other side so miserable that hee would have the people upon the first day of the yeare every one to give him a new-yeares-gift he himselfe standing at the doore of his house like a beggar receiving the peoples almes Moreover of all that ever gave their lusts the bridle to abuse other mens wives hee was most impudent and notorious for divers times he used to feast many faire Ladies and their husbands and after his good cheare ended to overview them severally a part as Merchants doe their wares and to take her that pleased his fancie best into some secret place to abuse at his pleasure neither after the deed done to be ashamed to glory and vaunt himselfe in his wicked and filthy act He committed incest with his owne sisters forcing them to his lust and by one of them had a daughter borne whom saith Eutropius his abhominable concupiscence abused also in most filthy and preposterous manner At length many conspired his destruction but especially one of the Tribunes which office we may after the custome of our French nation rightly terme the Marshalship and the officer one of our foure Marshals as Budeus saith who shewed himselfe more eagerly affected in the cause than the rest pursued this enterprise in more speedy and desperate manner for as the Tyrant returned from the Theater by a by-way to his Pallace the third day of the feast which he celebrated in honour of Iulius Caesar the Tribune presented himselfe as if in regard of his office to import some matter of importance unto him and having received a currish word or two at his hands as his custome was he gave him such a stroke betweene the head and the shoulders that what with it and the blowes of his complices that going for the same intent rushed upon him he was â—laine amongst them no man stirring a foot to deliver him out of their hands though many looked on and might have aided him if they would he was no sooner slaine but his wife incontinently was sent after and his daughter also that was crushed to death against a wall and thus came his wretched selfe with his filthie progenie to a wretched and miserable end Nero shewed himselfe not onely an enemy to God in persecuting his Church but also a perverter and disturber of humane nature in embruing his hands in the bloud of his owne mother and grandmother whom he caused to be put to death and in killing his owne wife and sister and infinite numbers of all kinde of people beside in adulteries he was so monstrous that it is better to conceale them from modest eares than to stirre up the puddle of so stinking and noysome a dunghill for which his villanies the Senate condemned him to a shamefull and most ignominious death and his armies and forces forsooke him which when hee understood he betooke him to flight and hid himselfe in an out way amongst thornes and bushes which with great paine having past through being weary of his life hee threw himselfe downe into a pit foure foot deepe and when he could get none of his men to lay their hands upon him he desperately and miserably slew himselfe Vitellius for the murders and other outragious misdeeds which he committed was taken in his shirt and drawne through the streets with a halter about his necke and his hands bound behinde him and the point of a dagger under his chin the people casting durt and dung upon him in detestation and calling him make-bate and seditious villain with other opprobrious reproches and at last being massacred with many blowes was drawne with a hooke into Tyber like a carrion Domitian was a cruell enemy of the Christians hee rejected his owne wife to take a new and being covertly reproved by Helvidius for the same in a Play of the divorce of Paris and Enon which he presented unto him he put him to death for his labour Many worthy Senatours and chiefe men and such as had borne the office of the Consull without just cause given of reprehension were murdered by him hee spared not his owne bloud and nearest allies no nor his owne brother Titus but what with poyson and sword destroyed them all to confusion But in the end when hee saw that the world hated him for his outragious cruelties he consulted with the Astrologians and Conjurers what death did waite for him one of the which amongst the rest told him that hee should be slaine and that very shortly wherewithall being sore troubled hee first caused him that had prognosticated this evill unto him to be slaine then he compassed himselfe with a strong guard and to the end to see them that should come neare hee made his gallery walls where hee walked of such a kinde of glistring and shining stone that he might see in them all about him both behinde and before When the day and houre which was fore-calculated for his death was come one of the Conspirators came in with his left arme in a scarfe as if he had beene sore hurt feigning that he would bewray the whole treason which hee so much feared and being entred his Chamber he presented him with a long discourse in writing touching the matter and manner of the Conspiracie and when in reading the same he saw him most astonished then he tooke occasion to strike him suddenly into the belly with his dagger his owne servants making up the murther when they saw him goe about to resist And thus by all his wisedome and providence he could not rid himselfe from being surprised nor hinder the execution of Gods just fore-appointed judgement And these were the ends of those wicked Emperours who in regard of their vile lives were rather monsters than men and not onely they whom we have named but many moe also as Antonius Caracalla Heliogabalus and other like may bee worthily placed in this ranke But of all Heliogabalus is most famous of whom is recorded in histories that hee was so prodigious in all gluttonie filthinesse and ribauldrie that the like I thinke was never heard of except those monsters that went before and yet I suppose he surpassed them too Such was the exceeding and luxurious pompe of this beast-like
erecteth principalities and which maintaineth Common-wealths Kingdomes and Empires untill by the sum and weight of their iniquities they sink themselves into ruine and destruction And herein is he glorified by the execution of his most just and righteous judgements when the wicked after the long abuse of his lenety benignity and patience doe receive the wages and reward of their iniquities In this I say once again shineth out the wonderfull and incomprehensible wisedome of God when by the due ordering of things so different and so many hee commeth still to one and the same marke which hee once prescribed to wit the punishment of the world according to their demerits And this same is most manifest and apparant even in the Histories of prophane Writers albeit in their purpose it was never intended nor thought upon nor yet regarded almost of any that read the same men contenting themselves for the most part with the simple recitall of the story therein to take pleasure and passe away time without respecting any further matter Notwithstanding the true and principall use of their writings ought to be diligently to marke the effects of Gods Providence and of his justice whereby to learne to conteine our selves within the bounds of modesty and the feare of God seeing that they which have carried themselves any thing uprightly in equity temperance and other naturall vertues have been in some sort spared and the rest bearing the punishment of their iniquities have falne into destruction This consideration ought to perswade every man to turne from evill and to follow that which is good seeing that the Lord sheweth himselfe so incensed against all them which lead a wicked damnable and perverse life And this is the cause why I having noted the great and horrible punishments wherewith the Lord in most righteous judgement hath scourged the world for sin according to that which is contained as well in sacred as prophane Histories having gathered them together and sorted them one after another in their severall rooms according to the diversity of the offences and order and course of time which as neare as I could I endeavoured to sollow to the end to lay downe as it were in one Table and under one Aspect the great and fearefull judgements of God upon them that have rebelled or repugned his holy will And this I do not with purpose to comprehend them all for that were not onely difficult but impossible but to lay open the most notable remarkable ones that came to my knowledge to the end that the most wicked dissolute and disordered sinners that with loose reines runne fiercely after their lust if the manifest tokens of Gods severity presented before their eyes doe not touch them yet the cloud and multitude of examples through the sight of the inevitable anger and vengeance of God upon evill livers might terrifie and somewhat curb them Perjurers Idolaters Blasphemers and other such wicked and prophane wretches with murderers whoremongers adulterers ravishers tyrants shall here see by the mischiefe that hath falne upon their likes that which hangeth before their eyes and is ready to lay hold of them also For albeit for a time they sleep in their sins and blindnesse delighting in their pleasures and taking sport in cruelties and evill deeds yet they draw after them the line wherewith being more ensnared then they were aware they are taken and drawne to their finall destruction And this may teach and advertise both those that are not yet obstinate in their sins to bring themselves to some amendment and those that feare God already to strengthen and encourage them in the pursuit and continuance in their good course For if God shew himselfe so severe a revenger of their sinnes that take pleasure in displeasing him there is no doubt but on the contrary he will shew himselfe bountifull gracious and liberall in rewarding all them according to his promise which seeke to please him and conforme their lives unto his will Great and small young and old men and women and all other of what degree and condition soever may here learne at other mens charges how to governe themselves in duty towards God and betwixt themselves by a holy and unblameable life in mutuall peace and unity and by shunning and eschewing sin against the which God a most just Judge powreth forth his vengeance even upon the heads of them that are guilty thereof Beside here is ample matter and argument to stop the mouthes of all Epicures and Atheists of our age and to leave them confounded in their errors seeing that such and so many occurrents and punishmēts are manifest proofs that there is a God above that guideth the stern of the world and that taketh care of humane matters that is just in punishing the unjust and malicious Againe whereas so much evill and so many sins have reigned and swayed so long time and do yet reign and sway upon the earth we may behold the huge corruption and perversity of mankinde and the rotten fruits of that worme-eaten root Originall sin when we are not directed nor guided by the holy Spirit of God but lest unto our owne nature And hereby true faithfull Christians may take occasion so much the more to acknowledge the great mercy and singular favour of God toward them in that they being received to mercy are renewed to a better conversation of life then others In brief a man may here learne if he be not altogether void of judgement and understanding to have sin in hatred and detestation considering the wages and reward thereof and how the justice of God pursueth it continually even to the extreamest execution which is both sharp and rigorous Touching the word Iudgement I have imitated the language of Holy Scripture wherein as the Ordinances and Commandements of God are called Judgements because in them is contained nothing but that which is just right and equall so likewise the punishments inflicted by God upon the despisers of his Commandements are called by the same name as in Exod. 6. 6. 2 Chron. 20. 12. 22. 8. Ezech. 5. 8. 11. 9. and elsewhere because they also are as just as the former proceeding from none other fountaine save the most righteous judgement of God whereof none can complaine but unjustly The Names of the Authors from whom the most part of the Examples contained in this book are collected Moses and other sacred Writers Tertullian Cyprian Eusebius Socrates Theodoret. Sozomenes Nicephor Ruffinus Suidas Chrysostome Luther Illyricus Herodotus Thucydides Dion Halycarnasseus Diodorus Siculus Polybeus Plutarch Herodian Dyon Procopius Iornandes Agathius Aelianus Tit. Livius Salustius Suetonius Corn. Tacitus Amm. Marcellinus Iustinus Eutropius Lampridius Spartianus Flavius Vopiscus Cuspinianus Orosius Aimoinus Gregor Turonensis Anton Volscus Paulus Diaconus Luitprandus Olaus magnus Gothus Sabellicus Anton. Panormitanus Aeneus Silvius Ravisius Hieronymus Marius Alexander ab Alexandro Petrus Pramonstratensis Mich. Ritius Neapolitanus Fulgosius Fran. Picus Mirandula Bembus
Antonius Bonfinus Munsterus Iohan. Wierus Platina Nauclerus Vincentius Hugo Cluniacensis Benno Baleus Gagninus Paulus Aemilius Discipulus de Tempore Acts and Monuments Carion Chronicon Beza Iosephus Manlii Collectanea Stow Chronica Froyssard Enguerran de Monstrel Philip de Comines Nicholas Gilles Guicciardine Paulus Iovius Benzoin Milanois Iob. Fincelius Centuriae Magdeburg Abbas Vrispurgensis Philippus Melancthon Sleidanus Lanquet Chronica The first Booke OF THE WORTHY AND MEMORABLE HISTORIES of the great and marvellous Iudgements of God sent upon the World for their misdeeds against the Commandements of the first and second Table CHAP. 1. Touching the Corruption and Perversity of this World how great it is EVen as one that taketh pleasure to behold a pleasant and delightsome place a piece of ground covered and painted with all manner of fine flowers a garden decked and as it were cloathed with exquisite plants and fruitfull trees is much grieved so soone as he perceiveth all this beauty and pleasure suddenly to be withered and scorched by the violence of some outragious tempest or if he be constrained to cast his eyes from them upon some other place by all cragged and parched full of briers and brambles In like sort a man cannot chuse but be sore grieved and discontent when hee beholdeth on the one side the wholsome light of the Sunne whereby the heavens doe many wayes distill their favours upon this World gloriously to advance it selfe on the other side he perceiveth such an army of thicke clouds and palpable darknesse from whence such a number of disorders and hurliburlies do arise that most strangely disfigure the face of the whole World when that he which ought to be gentle and peaceable is become mischievous and quarrellous in stead of being true and single hearted disloyall and deceirfull in stead of being modest well governed and courteous is proud cruell and dissolute in stead of serving God serveth his owne humors and affections Which kinde of behaviour is too common and usuall for there is not any kind of wickednesse which is not found in this ranke Vngodlinesse vomiteth up his fury together with injustice in those men of whom it is said There is none that understandeth or secketh after God their throat is an open sepulchre they use deceit in their tongues the poyson of Aspes is under their lips they have nothing in their mouths but cursing and bitternesse their feet are swift to shed bloud destruction and misery is in their waies and they have not knowne the way of peace In summe the feare of God is not before their eyes From whence it commeth that being not restrained by any bridle like untamed colts broke loose they give the full swinge to their bold and violent affections running fiercely to all filthinesse and mischiese and being thus enraged some of them with horrible blasphemies most villanously speake and doe in despight of God and deny him that created them and sent them into the World Others are not ashamed to be open forswearers of themselves violating and breaking every promise without regard of faith or honesty Others as they are of cruell and bloudy natures so they doe not cease to exercise these their natures by outragious practises to some of them whoredomes and adulteries are no more esteemed than as sports and pastimes whereof they boast themselves to another sort cousenings extortions and robberies are ordinary exercises whereof they make their best occupations All which evils are so common and so usuall at this time amongst men that the World seemeth truly to be nothing else but an ocean full of hideous monsters or a thicke forrest full of theeves and robbers or some horrible wildernesse wherein the inhabitants of the earth being savage and unnaturall void of sence and reason are transformed into bruit beasts some like Tygres or Lyons others like Wolves or Foxes others like Dogges and Swine Oh sinfull nation would the man of God say if hee lived at this houre a people laden with iniquity a seed of the wicked corrupt children they have forsaken the Lord they have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger The noble and high minded are proud to disdaine the lower and ready alwaies to smite them making their countenance pale with vices and oathes the Magistrate partiall and full of brides overthroweth equity the Merchant covetous and desirous of gaine remembreth not his integrity nor the labourer his simplicity And so vertue in most men lyeth buried piety banished justice oppressed and honesty troden under foot in such sort that all things being as it were overthrowne and turned upside downe men speake evill of good and good of evill accounting darknesse light and light darknesse sowre sweet and sweet sowre And by such disorder it commeth to passe that the most vertuous are despised whilest naughty-packs and vitious fellowes are esteemed and made much of CHAP. II. What is the cause of the great overflow of Vice in this age IF wee would consider from whence it is that this great disorder and corruption of manners doth arise we should finde especially that it is because the world every day groweth worse and worse according to the saying of our Saviour and Redeemer Christ Iesus the Sonne of God That in the latter dayes which are these wherein we live Iniquity shall be increased And herein wee shall perceive even the just vengeance of God to light upon the malice and unthankfulnesse of men to whom when hee would draw neere to doe good unto by offering them the cleere light of his favour the more they strive to alienate and keep themselves aloofe from him and are so farre from being bettered thereby that they shew themselves a great deale more malitious and obstinate than ever they did before not unlike to those who by nature being bleare eyed and tender sighted are rather dazled and dimmed by the Sunne beames than any wayes enlightened so men in stead of growing better grow worse and every adde some increase to their wickednesse to whom also many great men give elbow-roome and permission to sinne whilest justice slumbreth and the not punishing of misdeeds giveth them liberty and boldnesse to commit their wickednesse so that some of these mighty ones shew themselves but little better than the other A mischiefe to be lamented above the rest drawing after it an horrible overflow of all evils and like a violent streame spoyling every where as it goeth when as they that ought to governe the sterne of the Commonwealth let all goe at randome suffering themselves to be rocked asleep with the false and deceitfull lullaby of effeminate pleasures and delights of the flesh or at least letting themselves be carried headlong by the tempest of their owne strong and furious passions into imminent danger and shipwrackes when as their carefull watch fulnesse and modesty accompanied with the traine of other good and commendable vertues ought to serve them for saliscables ankers masts and skuttles whereby to governe and direct the
be punished by man and that humane lawes can lay no hold upon them so much the rather God himselfe becommeth executioner of his owne justice upon their pates and in such sort that every man may perceive his hand to be on them Let any adversity or affliction light upon a man of low degree or which is poore and desolate no man considereth of it rightly but talking thereof mâ—n cease not to impute the cause of this poore soules misery either to poverty or want of succour or some other such like cause Therefore if any such be in griefe or by chance fallen into some pit and drowned or robbed and killed in the way by theeves straightway this is the saying of the world That it commeth thus to passe either because he was alone without company or destitute of help or not well looked to and regarded and thus they passe over the matter But as concerning great men when they are any way afflicted no such pretences or excuses can be alleadged seeing they want neither servants to attend upon them nor any other means of help to succor them therefore when these men are overtaken and surprised with any great evill which by no means they can eschew and when their bold and wicked enterprises are pursued and concluded with strange and lamentable events in this we must acknowledge an especiall hand of God who can intangle and pull downe the proudest and arrogantest He that lives and those whom the world feareth to meddle withall These proud gallants are they against whom God displaieth his banner of power more openly than against meaner and baser persons because these poore soules finde oftentimes to their paines that they are punished without cause and tormented and vexed by those tyrants not having committed any offence at all to deserve it whereas as Philip Comine saith who dare be so bold as to controll or reprehend a King and his favorites or to make enquiry of his misdeeds or having made inquisition of them who dare presume to informe the Iudge therof who dare stand up to accuse them who dare sit down to judge them Nay who dare take knowledge of them and lastly who dare assay to punish them Seeing then in this case that our worldly justice hath her hands bound behind her from executing that which is right it must needs be that the sovereigne Monarch of heaven and earth should mount up into his Throne of Iudgement and from thence give his definitive unchangable sentence to deliver up the most guilty and hainous sinners to those paines and torments which they have deserved and that after a strange and extraordinary manner which may serve for an example to all others CHAP. V. How all men both by the Law of God and Nature are inexcusable in their sinnes NOw to the end that no man should pretend ignorance for an excuse God hath bestowed upon every one a certaine knowledge and judgement of good and evill which being naturally engraven in the tables of mans heart is commonly called the Law of Nature wherby every mans owne conscience giveth sufficient testimony unto it selfe when in his most secret thoughts it either accuseth or excuseth him for there is not a man living which doth not know in his heart that he doth an evill deed when he wrongeth another although he had never been instructed elsewhere in that point So although that in Tarquinius Superbus time Cicero saith there was no written Law established in Rome forbidding the ravishing and deflouring of wives and virgins yet the wicked sonne of this Tarquine was not therefore lesse guilty of an hainous crime when contrary to the Law of Nature he violently robbed Lucrece of her chastity for no man can be ignorant that it is a most grievous crime to lay siege to the chastity of a married woman with such outrage and so the whole people of Rome did esteeme of it as a crime most wicked strange and intolerable and worthy of grievous punishment Every man knoweth thus much that hee ought not to doe that to another which he would not another should do to him which sentence the Emperour Severus made alwaies to bee spoken aloud and declared by the sound of the trumpet in the way of advertisement as often as punishment was taken upon any offendor as if it were a generall Law pertaining to all men This is that equity and justice which ought to be ingraffed in our hearts whereof nature her self is the schoolmistresse from this fountaine all humane and civill Lawes are derived if we had not rather say that they are derived from that true spring of equity which is in the Law of God which Law he hath given for a plaine and familiar manifestation of his will concerning just holy and reasonable things touching the service honour and glory which is due unto himselfe and the mutuall duty friendship and good will which men owe one to another whereunto he exhorteth and enticeth every one by faire and gracious promises and forbiddeth the contrary by great and terrible threatnings so gentle and mercifull is he towards us and desirous of our good This is that Law which was published before the face of more than six hundred thousand persons with the mighty and resounding noise of Trumpet with earthquake fire and smoake and with thunders and lightnings to make men more attentive to heare and more prepared to receive it with all humility feare and reverence and also to put them in minde that if they were disobedient and rebellious he wanted no power and ability to punish them for he hath lightning thunder and fire prepared instruments to execute his just vengeance which no creature under heaven is able to avoid when by the obstinate transgression of wicked men he is provoked to anger and indignation against them This is that holy law which hath been set forth by the Prophets by the rule whereof all their warnings exhortings and reproovings have been squared To this Law the onely begotten Son of God our Saviour and Redeemer Iesus Christ conformed his most holy doctrine bringing men to the true use and observation thereof from which they had declined and whereof he is the end the scope and perfect accomplishment so that so farre it is that a Christian man may be ignorant of it and have it in contempt that none can be counted and reputed a true Christian if hee frame not his life by the rule thereof if not fully yet at least as farre forth as hee is able otherwise what a shame and reproach is it for men to call themselves by the name of Gods children Christians and Catholiques and yet to doe every thing clean contrary to the will of God to make no reckoning of his Law to lead a dissolute and disordered life and to be as evill if not worse than the vilest miscreants and Infidels in the world God willeth and requireth that he alone should bee worshipped and prayed unto and yet the greater part of
up for their deliverance some grievous punishment befell them for then being without law or government every man did that which seemed good in his owne eyes and so turned aside from the right way Now albeit these examples may seeme to have some affinity with Apostasie yet because the ignorance and rudenesse of the people was rather the cause of their falling away from God than any wilfull affection that raigned in them therefore we place them in this ranke as well as they have bin alwaies brought up and nuzled in Idolatry One of this câ—â—w was Ochosias King of Iuda sonne of Ioram who having before him an evill president of his wicked father and a worse instruction and bringing up of his mother Athaliah who together with the house of Achab pricked him forward to evill joyned himselfe to them and to their Idols and for that cause was wrapped in the same punishment and destruction with Ioram the King of Israel whom Iehu slew together with the Princes of Iuda and many of his neere kinsmen And to be short Idolatry hath been the decay and ruine of the kingdome of Iuda as at all other times so especially under Ioachas sonne of Iosias that raigned not above three moneths in Ierusalem before he was taken and led captive into Aegypt by the King thereof and there died from which time the whole land became tributary to the King of Aegypt And not long after it was utterly destroyed by the forces of Nabuchadnezzar King of Babel that came against Ierusalem and tooke it and carried King Ioachim with his mother his Princes his servants and the treasurers of the Temple and his owne house into Babylon and finally tooke Zedechias that fled away and before his eyes caused his sonnes to be slaine which as soone as he had beheld commanded them also to be pulled out and so binding him in chaines of yron carried him prisoner to Babylon putting all the Princes of Iudah to the sword consuming with fire the Temple with the Kings Palace and all the goodly buildings of Ierusalem And thus the whole kingdome though by an especiall prerogative consecrated and ordained of God himselfe ceased to be a kingdome and came to such an end that it was never re-established by God it is no marvell then if the like hapned to the kingdome of Israel which was after a sort begun and confirmed by the filthy idolatry of Ieroboams calves which as his successors maintained or favoured more or lesse so were they exposed to more or lesse plagues and incumbrances Nadab Ieroboams sonne being nuzled and nurtured up in Idoll worship after the example of his father received a condigne punishment for his iniquity for Baasa the sonne of Ahijah put both him and all the off spring of Ieroboams house to the sword and raigned in his stead who also being no whit better than those whom he had slaine was punished in the person of Ela his sonne whom Zambri also his servant slew And this againe usurping the crowne enjoyed it but seven dayes at the end whereof seeing himselfe in danger in the city of Tirza taken by Amri whom the people had chosen for their King went into the palace of the Kings house and burned himselfe As for Achab he multiplied Idolatry in Israel and committed more wickednesse than all his predecessors wherefore the wrath of God was stretched out against him and his for he himselfe was wounded to death in battell by the Syrians his son Ioram slain by Iehu and threescore and ten of his children put to death in Samaria by their governors and chiefe of the city sending their heads in baskets to Iehu Above all a most notable and manifest example of Gods judgement was seene in the death of Iezabel his wife that had been his spurre and provoker to all mischiefe when by her Eunuchs and most trusty servants at the commandement of Iehu she was throwne downe out of a window and trampled under the horse feet and last of all devoured of dogs Moreover the greatest number of the kings of Israel that succeeded him were murthered one after another so that the kingdome fell to such a low decline that it became first tributary to the King of Assyria and afterward invaded and subverted by him and the inhabitants transported into his land whence they never returned but remained scattered here and there like vagabonds and all for their abhominable Idolatry Which ought to be a lesson to all people Princes and Kings that seeing that God spared not these two Realmes of Iuda and Israel but destroyed and rooted them out from the earth much lesse will he spare any other kingdome and Monarchy which continue by their Images and Idol-worship to stirre up his indignation against them CHAP. XXV Of many evils that have come upon Christendome for Idolatry IF we consider and search out the cause of the ruine of the East Empire and of so many famous and flourishing Churches as were before time in the greatest part of Europe and namely in Greece we shall finde that Idolatry hath been the cause of all for even as it got footing and increase in their dominions so equally did the power of Saracens and Turkish tyranny take root and foundation among them and prospered so well that the rest of the world trembled at the report thereof God having raised and fortified them as before time he had done the Assyrians and Babylonians as whips and scourges to chasten the people and Nations of the world that wickedly had abused his holy Gospel and bearing the name of Christians had become Idolaters for no other name than this can be given them that in devotion doe any manner of homage to Images and pictures whatsoever may superficially be alleadged to the contrary For be it the Image either of Prophet Apostle or Christ Iesus himselfe yet it is necessary that the law of God stand whole and sound which saith Thou shalt make thy selfe no graven Image nor any likenesse of things either in heaven above or in earth beneath thou shalt not how downe to them nor worship them c. Wherefore he performed the part of a good Bishop that finding a vaile spread in the entrance of a Church dore wherein the Image of Christ or of some other Saint was pictured rent it in pieces with these words That it was against the authority of the sacred Scriptures to have any Image of Christ set up in the Church After the same manner Serenus Bishop of Marscilla beat downe and banished all Images out of his Churches as occasions of Idolatry and to shun them the more it was ordained in the Elibertine Councell that no Image nor picture should be set up in any Church for which cause also the Emperour Leo the third by an open Edict commanded his subjects to cast out of their Temples all pictures and statues of Saints Angels and whatsoever else to the intent that all occasions of Idolatry might be
conquered by the Normans comming with a forreine King being none of their naturall countrey In the yeare of our Lord sixe hundred threescore and eighteene Childerich King of France caused a Nobleman of his Realme called Bolyde to bee bound to a stake and there beaten to death without the pretence of any just crime or accusation against him For which cruelty his Lords and Commons being grievously offended conspired together and slew him and his wife as they were hunting In the raigne of Edward the second and Edward the third Sir Roger Mortimer committed many villanous outrages in shedding much humane bloud but he was also justly recompenced in the end first he murdered King Edward the second lying in Barkeley Castle to the end he might as it was supposed enjoy Isabel his wife with whom he had very suspitious familiarity Secondly he caused Edward the third to conclude a dishonorable peace with the Scots by restoring them all their ancient writings charters and patents whereby the Kings of Scotland had bound themselves to be feudaries to the Kings of England Thirdly he accused Edmund Earle of Kent uncle to King Edward of treason and caused him unjustly to bee put to death And lastly he conspi redagainst the King to worke his destruction for which and divers other things that were laid to his charge he was worthily and justly beheaded In the reigne of Henry the sixt Humfrey the good duke of Gloucester and faithfull protectour of the King by the meanes of certaine malicious persons to wit the Queene the Cardinall of Winchester and especially the Marquesse of Suffolke as it was supposed was arrested cast into hold and strangled to death in the Abbey of Bure For which cause the Lords hand of judgement was upon them all for the Marquesse was not onely banished the land for the space of five yeares but also banished out of his life for ever for as hee sailed towards France hee was met withall by a Ship of Warre and there presently beheaded and the dead corps cast up at Dover that England wherein he had committed the crime might be a witnesse of his punishment The Queene that thought by this meanes to preserve her husband in honour and her selfe in estate thereby both lost her husband and her state her husband lost his realme and the Realme lost Anjou Normandy with all other places beyond the sea Calice onely excepted As for the Cardinall who was the principall artificer of all this mischiefe he lived not long after and being on his death bed murmured and grudged against God asking wherefore hee should die having so much wealth and riches and saying That if the whole Realme would save his life he was able either by policy to get it or by riches to buy it but death would not be bribed for all his aboundant treasure he died miserably more like a Heathen than a Christian without any shew of repentence And thus was the good Dukes death revenged upon the princiall procurers thereof As the murder of a gentleman in Kent called master Arden of Feversham was most execrable so the wonderfull discovery thereof was exceeding rare This Arden being somewhat aged had to wife a young woman no lesse faire than dishonest who being in love with one Mosbie more than her husband did not onely abuse his bed but also conspired his death with this her companion for together they hired a notorious Ruffin one Blacke Will to strangle him to death with a towell as he was playing a game at tables which though secretly done yet by her owne guilty conscience and some tokens of bloud which appeared in his house was soone discovered and confessed Wherefore she her selfe was burnt at Canterbury Michael master Ardens man was hanged in chaines at Feversham Mosbie and his sister were hanged in Smithfield Greene another partner in this bloudy action was hanged in chaines in the high way against Feversham And Blacke Will the Ruffian after his first escape was apprehended and burnt on a seaffold at Flushing in Zeeland And thus all the murderers had their deserved dues in this life and what they endured in the life to come except they obtained mercy by true repentance is easie to judge CHA. XI Of the admirable discovery of Murders AS the Lord hath shewed himselfe a most just Judge in punishing most severely this horrible sinne of shedding mans bloud so hath he alwaies declared his detestation thereof and his will to have it punished by those who are in his stead upon the earth and have the sword of vengeance committed unto them by his miraculous and superhaturall detecting of such murderers from time to time who have carried their villanies so closely as the eye of man could not espy them plainely shewing thereby that the bloud of the slaine crieth to the Lord for vengeance from the earth as Abels did upon Cain and that God will have that law stand true and firme which he made almost before all other lawes He that sheddeth mans bloud by man shall his bloud be shed If I should commit to writing all the examples of this kinde which either are recorded in Authors or which dayly experience doth offer unto us it would require rather a full Booke than a short Chapter for that subject And therefore I will be content with some few and those for truth most credible and yet for strangenesse most incredible And to begin with our owne countrey About the yeare of our Lord 867 a certaine Nobleman of the Danes of the kings stock called Lothebrocus father to Inguar and Hubba entring upon a certaine time with his hawke into a cockboat alone by chance through tempest was driven with his hawke to the coast of Northfolke in England named Rodham where being found and detained he was presented to king Edmund that raigned over the East-Angles in Northfolke and Suffolke at that time The King as hee was a just and good man understanding his parentage and seeing his cause entertained him in his Court accordingly and every day more and more perceiving his activity and great dexterity in hunting and hawking bare speciall favour unto him insomuch that the Kings Faulconer bearing privy malice against him for this cause secretly as they were hunting together in a wood did murther him and threw him in a bush Lothebroke being thus murthered and shortly missed in the Kings house no tydings could be heard of him untill it pleased God to reveale the murther by his dog which continuing in the wood with the corps of his Master at sundry times came to the Court and fauned on the King so that the King suspecting some such matter at length followed the trace of the hound and was brought to the place where Lothebroke lay Whereupon inquisition being made at length by some circumstances of words and other suspitions it was knowne that he was murdered by Berikâ— the Kings Faulconer who for his punishment he was set into the same boat of Lothebroke
that all the servants of the house being awaked ran thitherward and finding this gallant in the snare took him and for all his bauld crowne stripped him naked and cut off cleane his privy and adulterous parts and thus was this lecherous Priest served Pope Iohn the thirteenth a man as of wicked conversation in all things so especially abominable in whoredomes and adultery which good conditions whilest he pursued he was one day taken tardy in the plain fields whither he went to disport himselfe for he was found in the act of adultery and slaine forthwith and these are the godly fruits of those single life-lovers to whom the use of marriage is counted unlawfull and therefore forbidden but Adultery not once prohibited nor disallowed CHAP. XXXI Of such as are divorced without cause BY these and such like judgements it pleaseth God to make knowne unto men how much he desireth to have the estate of marriage maintained and preserved in the integrity and how much every one ought to take heed how to deprave or corrupt the same now then to proceed If it be a sin to take away ravish or intice to folly another mans wife shall we not thinke it an equall sin for a husband to forsake his wife and cast her off to take another she having not disanulled and cancelled the bond of marriage by adultery Yes verily for as concerning the permission of divorce to the Israelites under the law our Saviour himselfe expoundeth the meaning and intent thereof in the Gospell to be nothing else but a toleration for the hardnesse and stubbornnesse of their hearts and not a constitution from the beginning upon which occasion speaking of marriage and declaring the right and strength of the same he saith That whosoever putteth away his wife except it be for adultery and marrieth another committeth adultery and he that marrieth her that is put away committeth adultery also All which notwithstanding the great men of this world let loose themselves to this sin too licentiously as it appeareth by many examples as of Antiochus Theos son of Antiochus Soter King of Syria who to the end to goe with Ptolomie Philadelphus King of Aegypt and marrie his daughter Bernice cast off his wife Laodicea that had borne him children and tooke Bernice to be his wife but ere long he rejected her also and betrayed her to her enemies namely his son Callinicus who slew her with one of her sons and all that belonged unto her and then he tooke againe his old wife for which cause Ptolemie Euergetes son to Philadelphus renewed war upon him Herod the Tetrarch was so bewitched with the love of Herodias his brother Philips wife that to the end he might enjoy her he disclaimed his lawfull wife and sent her home to her father King Aretas who being touched and netled with this indignity and disgrace sought to revenge himselfe by armes and indeed made so hot war upon him and charged his army so furiously that it was discomfited by him after which shamefull losse he was by the Emperour Caligula's commandement banished to Lions there to end the residue of his daies Among the Romanes Marcus Antonius was noted for the most dissolute and impudent in this case of divorce for albeit that in the beginning of his triumvirship he forsooke his first wife to marry Octavius his sister yet hee proceeded further not content herewith but must needs forsake her also to be with Cleopatra the Queen of Aegypt from whence sprung out many great evils which at length fell upon his owne head to his finall ruine and destruction for when he saw himselfe in such straits that no meanes could be found to resist Octavius be sheathed with his owne hands his sword into his bowels when all his servants being requested refused to performe the same and being thus wounded he fell upon a little bed intreating those that were present to make an end of his daies but they all fled and left him in the chamber crying and tormenting himselfe untill such time that he was conveighed to the monument wherein Cleopatra was inclosed that he might die there Cleopatra seeing this pittifull spectacle all amased let downe chaines and cords from the high window and with the help of her two maids drew him up into the monument uniting their forces and doing what they could to get his poore carkasse though by a shamefull and undecent manner for the gate was locked and might not be opened and it was a lamentable sight to see his poore body all besmeared with blood and breathing now his last blast for he dyed as soone as he came to the top to be drawne up on that cruell fashion As for Cleopatra who by her flattering allurements ravished the heart of this miserable man and was cause of his second divorce shee played her true part also in this wofull tragedy and as she partaked of the sin so she did of the punishment For after she saw her selfe past hope of help and her sweet-heart dead she beat her owne breasts and tormented her selfe so much with sorrow that her bosome was bruised and halfe murdered with her blowes and her body in many places exulcerate with inflamations she pulled off her haire rent her face with her nailes and altogether infrensied with griefe melancholie and distresse was found fresh dead with her two maids lying at her fâ—â—t and this was the miserable end of those two who for enjoying of a few foolish and cursed pleasures together received in exchange infinite torments and vexations and at length unhappy deaths together in one and the same place verifying the olde proverbe For one pleasure a thousand dolours Charles the eighth King of France after he had been long time married to the daughter of the King of the Romanes sister to the Archduke of Austria was so evill advised as to returne her home againe upon no other occasion but to marrie the Dutchesse of Britaine the sole heire to her fathers Dukedome wherein he doubly injured his father in law the Romane King for he did not only reject his daughter but also deprived him of his wife the Dutchesse of Britaine whom by his substitute according to the manner of great Princes he had first espoused Bembus in his Venetian history handling this story somewhat mollifieth the fault when he saith that the Romane Kings daughter was never touched by King Charles in the way of marriage all the while she was there by reason of her unripe and overyoung yeares After a while after this new married King had given a hot alarme to all Italy and conquered the Realme of Naples as the Venetians were deliberating to take the matter in hand of themselves and to resist him Maximilian the Romane King solicited them in the same and thrust them forward as well that he might confederate himselfe with the Duke of Milan as that he might revenge the injury touching his repelled daughter so that by this meanes the
him But if he would have given all the world it could not ransome him from death wherefore when he saw there was no remedie but hee must needs die hee commended his soule to the Divell to be carried into everlasting torments which words when hee had uttered hee gave up the ghost Another Usurer being ready to die made this his last Will and Testament My soule quoth he I bequeath to the divell who is owner of it my wife likewise to the divell who induced me to this ungodly trade of life and my deacon to the divell for soothing me up and not reproving me for my faults and in this desperate persuasion he died incontinently Usury consisteth not only in lending and borowing but buying and selling also and all unjust and crafty bargaining yea and it is a kinde of usurie to detain through too much covetousnesse those commodities from the people which concerne the publike good and to hoord them up for their private gain til some scarcitie orwant arise and this also hath evermore beene most sharpely punished as by these examples may appeare About the yeare 1543. at what time a great famine and dearth of bread afflicted the world there was in Saxonie a countrey peasant that having carried his corne to the market and sold it cheaper than he looked for as he returned homewards he fell into most heavy dumpes and dolours of minde with griefe that the price of graine was abated and when his servants sang merrily for joy of that blessed cheapnesse he rebuked them most sharpely and cruelly yea and was so much the more tormented and troubled in minde by how much he more he saw any poore soule thankfull unto God for it but marke how God gave him over to a reprobate and desperate sence Whilest his servants rode before hee hung himselfe at the cart taile being past recoverie of life ere any man looked backe or perceived him A notable example for our English cormorants who joyne barne to barne and heape to heape and will not sell nor give a handful of their superfluitie to the poore when it beareth a low price but preserve it till scarcity and want come and then they sell it at their owne rate let them feare by this lest the Lord deale so or worse with them Another covetous wretch when he could not sel his cornesodear as hee desired said the mise should eat it rather than he would lessen one jot of the price thereof Which words were no sooner spoken but vengeance tooke them for all the mise in the countrey flocked to his barnes and fieldes so that they left him neither standing nor lying corne but devoured all This story was written to Martin Luther upon occasion whereof he inveying mightily against this cruell usurie of husbandmen told of three misers that in one yeare hung themselves because graine bore a lower price than they looked for adding moreover that all such cruell and muddy extortioners deserved no better a doome for their unimercifull oppression Another rich farmer whose barnes were full of graine and his stacks untouched was so covetous withall that in hope of some dearth and deerenesse of corne he would not diminish one heape but hoorded up dayly more and more and wished for a scarcity upon the earth to the end hee might enrich his coffers by other mens necessities This cruell churle rejoyced so much in his aboundance that everie day he would go into his barnes and feed his eyes with his superfluitie Now it fell out as the Lord would that having supped and drunke very largely upon a night as hee went according to his custome to view his riches with a candle in his hand behold the wine or rather the justice of God overcame his sences so that he fell downe suddenly into the mow and by his fall set on fire the corne being dry and easie to be incensed in such sort that in a moment all that which he had scraped together and preserved so charily and delighted in so unreasonably was consumed and brought to ashes and scarce he himselfe escaped with his life Another in Misnia in the yeare 1559 having great store of corne hoordedup refused to succor the necessitie of his poore halfe famished neighbours for which cause the Lord punished him with a strange and unusuall judgement for the corne which he so much cherished assumed life and became feathered fowles flying out of his barnes in such abundance that the world was astonished thereat and his barnes left emptie of all provision in most wonderfull and miraculous manner No lesse strange was that which happened in a towne of France called Stenchansen to the Governour of the towne who being requested by one of his poore subjects to sell him some corne for his money when there was none to be gotten elsewhere answered hee could spare none by reason he had scarce enough for his owne hogs which hoggish disposition the Lord requited in it owne kinde for his wife at the next litter brought forth seven pigs at one birth to increase the number of his hogs that as he had preferred filthie and ougly creatures before his poore brethren in whom the image of God in some sort shined forth so he might have of his owne getting more of that kinde to make much of since hee loved them so well Equall to all the former both in cruelty touching the person and miracle touching the judgement was that which is reported by the same authour to have happened to a rich couetous woman in Marchia who in an extreame dearth of victuals denyed not onely to relieve a poore man whose children were ready to starve with famine but also to sell him but one bushell of corne when he wanted but a penny of her price for the poore wretch making great shift to borrow that penny returned to her againe and desired her he might have the corn but as he payed her the mony the penny fell upon the ground by the providence of God which as she stretched out obeisance and vaile bonnet to the hat and in every respect shew themselves as dutifull unto it as to his owne person imagining that his greatest enemies could not endure nor finde in their hearts to do it and therefore upon this occasion he might apprehend them and discover all their close practises and conspiracies which they might brew against him now there was one a stout hearted man that passing everie day up and downe that wayes could in no wise be brought to reverence the dignitie of the worthy hat so unreasonable a thing it seemed in his eyes whereupon being taken the tyran commanded him for punishment of his open contempt to shoot at an apple laid upon the crowne of the head of his dearest childe and if he mist the apple to be put to death the poore man after many excuses and allegations and entreaties that he might not hazard his childes life in that sort was notwithstanding
escape unpunished for his perfidie and impietie For first his warre-like affaires in the East prospered not then a little before the end of his life he grievously complained that he had innovated the faith in his kingdome At last in those sighings and complaints he parted this life with a grievous and violent disease The Unkle of Iulian the Apostata called also Iulianus at Antioch in the temple prophaned the holy table with pissing upon it And when Eusoius the Bishop rebuked him for it he stroke him with his fist Not long after he was taken with a grievous disease of his bowels putrifying and miserably died his excrements comming from him not by their ordinary passages but by his wicked mouth Under the Emperour Valence a wonderfull haile the stones being as big as a man could hold in his hand was sent upon Constantinople and slew many both men and beasts for that the Emperour had banished many famous men that would not communicate with Eudoxius the Arrian and for the same reason a great part of Germa a Citie of Hellespont was throwne downe by an earthquake and in Phrygia such a famine succeeded that the Inhabitants were faine to change their habitation and to â—lee to other places After the martyrdome of Gregory the Bishop of Spoleta Flacchus the Governour who was author thereof was strucke with an Angel and vomited out his entrailes at his mouth and died Under the Empire of Alexander Mammea Agrippitus fifteene yeares old because he would not sacrifice to their Idols was apprehended at Praeneste whipt with scourges and hanged up by the heeles and at last slaine with the sword in the middest of whose torments the Governour of the Citie fell from the Tribunall seat dead Bajazet a most cruell enemy of the Christians was taken by Tamerlane the Tartarian King and bound in golden chaines and carried about by him in an iron cage latised and shewne unto all being used for a stirrop unto Tamerlane when he got upon his horse Gensericus the King of the Vandales exercising grievous cruelty against the Orthodox Christians he himselfe being an Arrian was possessed of the Devill and died a miserable death in the yeare 477. Honoricus the second King of the Vandales having used inexplicable cruelty against the Orthodox Christians hanging up honest matrons and virgins naked burning their bodies with torches cutting off their dugges and armes because they would not subscribe to the Arrian heresie was surprised himselfe with the vengeance of God for his land was turned into barrennesse through an exceeding drought so that numbers of men women and beasts died with famine the pestilence also seised upon them and he himselfe was stricken with such a disease of his body that his members rotted off one after another Anastatius Dicorus a grievous persecutor of the Church of Christ being admonished in a dreame that he should perish with thunder built him an house wherein he might defend himselfe from that judgement but in vaine for in a great thunder he fled from chamber to chamber and at last was found dead blasted with lightning to the great horror of the beholders Chasroes the King of Persia a grievous enemy to Christ and Christians committed horrible outrages against them for first he slew at Jerusalem ninety thousand men with Zachariâ— the Patriarch of Jerusalem and also raged in like manner in Aegypt Lybia Aethiopia and would grant them no condition of peace unlesse they would forsake Christ and worship the Sunne he also put to death with most cruell torments Anastatius a godly Monke because he constantly confessed the faith of Christ. But God met with him to the full for his eldest sonne Syroes tooke him prisoner and handled him in most vile manner he hanged an iron weight upon his neck and imprisoned him in an high tower which he had built to keepe his treasure denying him food and bidding him eat the gold which he had gathered together then he slew all his children before his face and exposed him to the scoffes and railings of the people and lastly caused him to be shot to death and so that great terror of the world and shedder of Christian bloud breathed out his soule after a miserable manner Regnerus the King of Denmarke abrogating Christian Religion and setting up Idolatrie in his Kingdome anew the divine vengeance overtooke him for Helles whom he had cast out of the Kingdome returned upon him with an army of the Gaules and overcomming him in battell tooke him prisoner and shut him up in a filthie prison full of serpents which setting upon him with their venomous bitings and stings brought him to a most horrible end Lysius the Emperour gave Heriâ—a his daughter a virgin because she was a Christian to be trampled under foot of horses but he himselfe was sâ—ain by the byting of one of the same horses A Popish Magistrate having condemned a poore Protestant to death before his execution caused his tongue to be cut out because he should not confesse the truth in requitall whereof the next childe that was borne unto him was borne without a tongue CHAP. II. Of Perjurie Pâ—ilip King of Macedon who was a great contemner of all oathes and held the Religion thereof as a vain thing for this cause as all Writers affirme the vengeance of God followed him and his posteritie for when he had lived scarce forty and sixe yeares he himselfe was slain and all his whole house in short time in short time after utterly extinguished 〈◊〉 one of his sonnes was slaine by Olympias his wife Also another sonne which he had by Cleopatra the 〈◊〉 of Aâ—â—alus â—he tormented to death in a brazen vessell compassed about with fire The â—est of his sonnes periffied in like manner and at last the famous Alexander his sonne after great conquest atchieved by him in the middle course of his victories periffied miserably some thinke by poyson In the Countrey of Arbernum there was a certaine wicked man that used ordinarily to for sweare himselfe but at one time after he had thus sinned his tongue was tyed up that he could not speake but began to low like an oâ—e yet repenting and grieving for his sinne he found the bond of his tongue loosed and a readinesse of speech given unto him againe whereby we see both the Iustice of God in punishing them that sinne in this kinde and his mercy in pardoning when they truly repent At this day we have an example fresh and famous of a certaine maid that had stolne and pilfered many things away out of her mistresses house of which being examined she forswore them and wisht that she might rot if she ever touched them or knew of them but notwithstanding she was carried to prison and there presently began so to rot stink that they were forced to thrust her out of prison and to convey her to the Hospitall where she lies in lamentable miserie