former point as hauing shewed how farre the wickednesse of these times doth exceed and go beyond that of former ages in sundry things it remaineth I should endeuour the like in the second which when I shall haue fully finished I hope I shall haue made a reasonable good preparatiue to the Apologie for Herodotus But how may some say can these particular instances and allegations sufficiently serue to winne credit and authoritie to Herodotus his history cōsidering they consist of moderne examples borrowed partly from this and partly from the Age last past Marke therefore my answer which will further shew the scope which I ayme at Albeit we find strange stories in Herodotus which seeme to some altogether incredible partly because they cannot conceiue how men should be so notoriously wicked and prophane partly because it will not sinke into their heads that euer any were so rude and rusticall yet I doubt not but when I shall haue decyphered the villanies of this Age how transcendēt they are in comparison of former times we shal haue iust cause to say that as we haue seene sundry strange things in this last centenary of the world which were not knowne nor heard of in the former much lesse in the ages before and yet are such as we cannot call into question except we wil distrust our senses as hauing bin eare-witnesses and eye-witnesses thereof so we are not to thinke but that the age in which Herodotus liued and the precedent had some proper and peculiar to themselues which would not haue bin thought so incredible had we liued in those dayes I affirme the like of the second point assuring my selfe that when I shall haue shewed how those that liued in the age last past were not onely simple but also rude and rusticall in comparison all men of iudgement wil easily grant that as we cānot doubt of the rusticitie of our late forefathers it being so authentically witnessed though otherwise perhaps it might seem incredible so neither are we to thinke but that they which liued so many hundred yeares ago had their clownishnesse proper to themselues which would not haue bin thought so incredible as now it is had we bin their next successors seeing we might haue had it confirmed by infallible testimonies Now this argument my purpose is to handle generallie to the end it may serue as a preparatiue to the Apologie for Herodotus till I haue more time and leisure as also better meanes and oportunitie to handle it more distinctly and to find out moderne examples to sute and parallele those which seeme so strange in this our Historian 2 But what may some say should a man thinke those stories in Herodotus to be incredible onely in regard of the two former reasons viz. their notorious villany and sottish simplicity No verily for many mens incredulity proceeds from a third cause viz. in that they consider not the great change and alteration which is to be seene almost in euery thing since those times but would haue the naturall disposition of men in diebus illis and their course of life so to sute ours as that they should take pleasure in those things wherein we take pleasure and contrarily that whatsoeuer disliketh vs should haue bin distastfull vnto thē And which is more they would find an agreement and correspondence betweene the estates of ancient kingdomes and common wealths with those at this day Nay some are so inconsiderate in reading of ancient stories that they measure the climates of forrein and farre remote countries by their owne No maruell therefore if finding such discord and disagreement in all these things they iudge auncient stories to be as farre from truth as the things they reade are differing from those they dayly heare and see Knowing therefore this to be a third reason why many can hardly subscribe vnto them I haue reserued for it the third part of this treatise But I am to intreate thee gentle Reader to giue me leaue to omit that for the present which my occasions will not permit me to annexe not doubting but I shall giue thee a specimen hereof in the Preface which I am to prefixe before this present worke CHAP. XXVII How some Poets contrary to the current haue preferred their owne age before the former as being much more ciuill and of farre better grace THe sighes of Hesiod and groanes of Tibullus vttered in the depth of their discontent in dislike of the customes and fashions of their times haue bin sufficiently witnessed before by their verses wherein they affirme as we haue heard that they had bin happy men if they had bin borne before whereas they thought themselues wretched and miserable in being borne in so bad a time But what shall we say of those who contrarily thinke themselues happy in that they were borne in so good a time good I say in regard of the former For what saith Ouid Prisca iuuent alios ego nunc me denique natum Gratulor haec aetas moribus apta meis Let others praise the times and things forepast I ioy my selfe reserued till the last This age of all doth best my humour fit Where though he crosse and contrary Hesiod and Tibullus in his wish and desire yet he concurres with them in the cause thereof For the reason which made them wish they had bin borne in some other age was the exceeding great loosenesse leudnesse of their owne On the other side the reason why Ouid contented himself with his owne and preferred it before the former was not because there was lesse wickednesse and impietie but greater vrbanitie and ciuilitie For he saith expresly Sed quia cultus adest nec nostros mansit in annos Rusticitas priscis illa superstes auis And if I were to prosecute this argument I might particularize wherein his age was more ciuill then the former and namely then those which came nearest to that of old dreaming Saturne as Poets speake I might also draw out a long thread of a little flaxe and shew how mens wits haue bin more and more sharpened refined and as it were sublimated from time to time Whence it cometh to passe that they haue had a further insight into the workes they tooke in hand and haue dayly added something vnto them to perfect and polish them the better so that antick words and workmanship seeme to be but rude and rusticall in comparison But if I should further proceed in handling of this argument I should but intangle my selfe in an endlesse labyrinth it shall suffice therefore if according to my former promise I compare the age last past with this wherein we liue yet not taking vpon me curiously to scan euery point of this comparison but after I haue handled some of lesse moment to come to the maine and most materiall point of all which deserueth a farre more ample and large discourse Howbeit I am first to performe my former promise and to alleadge certaine French phrases whereby we
how easie a matter it is for those who credit the common report which hath often a blister on her tongue to condemne Herodotus as a fabulous fellow and lying Legendary But let vs see how many authors they here encounter For if Herodotus must not be heard with his ten moneths neither must Hippocrates Galen Plutarch Plinie sundry lawyers nor the greatest part of Poets as Theocritus Plautus Cecilius Virgil and Propertius who affirme as much But certaine it is that they which condemne Herodotus in this particular either haue not read him or do not remember that they haue read as much in these writers and being forestalled with this preiudicate opinion that he maketh no conscience of a lie they scorne any further information to which if they would but lend a patient eare they should without forraging so farre find the like nay some farre greater and more wonderfull things in the extraordinary workes of nature then any mentioned by him For clearing of which point I wil adde an obiection of another kind That which he reporteth of the fertility of the territory of Babylon that one graine yeeldeth for the most part two hundred and oftentimes three hundred farre surpasseth the fruitfulnesse of our soyle and therefore say they it is out of question he here lied for the whetstone But let these horned Logicians which frame such crooked arguments answer whether nature can bring foorth fruite any more of her selfe then the knife can cut of it selfe They will answer I am sure that it cannot I demaund then what is that ouer-ruling hand which guideth and disposeth all these things They dare not denie but that it is Omnipotent which if they grant why should they thinke that to be impossible to him which is here affirmed by Herodotus If they shall further say that he and other historians tell vs strange tales of the fertilitie of certaine countries whose plentie consisteth at this day only in scarcitie want and penurie and hereupon shall accuse him of forgerie let them beware lest they inuolue the holy scriptures in the same accusation For they make some places fertile which are now in a maner barren But if we consider the hand which somtimes stretcheth forth it self and somtimes drawes it self in again which now sendeth forth a blessing and now a curse vpon one and the same country In briefe if we call to mind the saying of Dauid Psal. 104. and refer the reason of such alterations to that supreame and soueraigne cause we shall find the true answer to such obiections Moreouer those who for the former reason will not beleeue Herodotus his report of the fruitfulnesse of Babylon will neuer beeleue that the citie Babylon was so great as he reporteth it to haue bene viz. that those which dwelt in the suburbes were surprised and taken before they in the heart of the citie had knowledge thereof For if we measure the largenesse of it by the greatnesse of our cities it cannot chuse but seeme false and fabulous I proceed now to prosecute the second part touching the actions of men First then as Herodotus is suspected of falshood and forgery for reporting that Babylon was so beautiful great rich and situate in so fertil a soile so is he also for the large report which he maketh of the puissance of the Persian Kings Lords of that citie For who can beleeue that a King of Persia euer led such an armie as drunke riuers drie I meane such small riuers as he speaketh of True it is I confesse if the Reader shal consider the power of our moderne Kings and thereby iudge of the puissance and power of the Persian Monarchs he cannot but hold Herodotus for the fondest fabler that euer writ But to make this comparison were to demaund as one did whether the Sea were greater then the Lake of New-castle and it were to speake with as good iudgement as he that said as it is reported Se le Rey de Franse se fousse bin gouuerna è fousse maitre d'houta de nâ—utron seignaâ— It were I say to measure the power of Princes with his mete-wand who said Mo l'è pur matto'sto ré à â—olerse â—uffar con san Marco L'è perso che i signori ha deliberato di mettere in terra cinquecenti cauai fottili For looke how much these fond fooles debased the King of France by such ignorant and doltish speeches so much do they decase the King of Persia who compare him with our moderne Kings But as he which asked whether the Sea were greater then the Lake of Newcastle would neuer haue demanded this question if he had seene Danubius or Nilus but wold at least should haue gathered that if these riuers do incomparably exceed this Lake in bignesse the Sea into which all riuers do run must needs be of a huge and spacious greatnesse so he that hath but read what forces Tamberlaine leuied of late yeares in comparison being at the first but a Neatheard will no doubt if he haue but a dramme of iudgement thereby gather that the power of the Persian Kings did infinitely surpasse the forces of our moderne Kings For Tamberlaine had sixe hundred thousand footmen and foure hundred thousand horsemen when he encountred Baiazet the Turkish Emperour and hauing discomfited two hundred thousand of his men led him away prisoner in fetters of gold Now then if Tamberlaine of a neatheard became so puissant a Prince to what height may we think mounted the Kings of Persia considering that euen from their cradles they were men of matchlesse might which at their dying day they left much more increased For confirmation whereof though many pregnant proofes might be produced yet I will content my selfe with such as historians do affoord as namely how Xerxes one of these Emperours gaue to Themistocles fiue great cities the first for his pantry the second for his celler the third for his kitchin the fourth for his wardrobe and the fift for his bed-chamber And what great thing was this for the King of Persia to giue Verily no more then for a King at this day to giue one or two small villages They further affirme that it is not probable that euer any King should play such prankes as Herodotus reporteth not onely not beseeming their places and persons being Princes but any simple swaines or corridons of the countrey Whereunto I answer that if it were a new thing to see Kings commit facts vnbeseeming their places and persons we might well suspect his report in this behalfe But if it be common and ordinary in euery childs mouth why should we not beleeue it What may some say is it credible that a King should so farre forget himselfe as to expose his naked wife to the view of his seruant as Herodotus affirmeth of King Candaules To which I answer that if Candaules were the onely King that played so shamefull a part we were in some sort to be pardoned if we did not subscribe hereto
his absolution yet vpon condition that he should not faile to giue Sir Iohn of the same wine that his master and mistris dranke of Now the reasons for which I say they will be sure to drinke of none but of the best are these First because it preuents crudities which might make them slauer or sniuell whilest they are deepe in their deuotion Secondly for that deuotion is more ardent in a hot stomacke then in a cold Thirdly because they are about to sing for this they take from the Poets called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifieth chanters or singers and therein they follow their opinion which hath bin such in all ages that a man cannot sing worth a button except he haue first drunk deepe and that of the best But some may haply say that by this meanes they are in danger to be drunk And what though they drink till they be drunk so they do it for a good intent For if it be no hurt to say hoc est nasum meum in stead of hoc est corpus meum so it be done cum intentione consecrandi And if it be no hurt to cast a child into a well so it be done cum intentione baptizandi as some Glosses affirme what great matter is it if they drink themselues drunke cum intentione missificandi And therefore they had reason to beare with a poore Curate neare to Fere in Tartenois who intending pleasantly to sing his Masse and to sacrifice his breaden god the next morning had so merrily sacrificed to God Bacchus the euening before that whereas he should haue baptized a child he administred extreame vnction In like manner he is to be excused who hauing taken his preparatiues ouer euening when all men cry as the manner is The King drinketh chanting his Masse the next morning fell asleepe in his memento and when he awoke added with a loud voice The King drinketh Howbeit the Priest of S. Mary in Paris who falling asleepe in his memento had his challice and plattin stolne by one which holpe him to say Mass◠and awaking ranne into the street crying a theefe a theefe was laughed at as a fond foole not without cause for he should first haue agreed with him whose helpe he desired in mumbling ouer his Masse But it is to be noted that he fell asleepe as the rest did through the great deuoire he had to prepare himselfe to sing well 4 And sith I haue proceeded thus farre in speaking of the iolly gaudeamus of these Church-men I will adde one word more in the behalfe of these poore fiue-farthing sacrificing Massemonging priests not for any great good will I beare them but for pity and compassion which I take vpon them viz. that if they knew how to plead their owne cause they might shew that they haue great wrong done them in that they are cut so short of their allowance and haue such small pittances in comparison of Priours Abbots and the rest of that rabble For if the sacrifice which they dayly offer be like vnto that which the Priests called Salij instituted by Numa Pompilius celebrated as the author of the booke intituled A briefe collection of sacred signes sacrifices and sacraments both learnedly soundly proueth what reason is there that they who performe the office of the Salij should not haue Saliares dapes but should leaue them to those which performe the dutie but once in the yeare But I will leaue them to pleade their owne cause CHAP. XXIII Of thefts and robber is committed by the Popish Cleargie IF I should diue deepe into this argument I should but plunge my selfe into a bottomlesse gulfe For if it haue bin an old and auncient saying The Church spoileth both quicke and dead and if the deuices of pilling and polling haue euer since increased what store may we thinke must there needs be at this day Now concerning great and notorious theeues who are so farre from hiding their heads that they glory and take a pride in robbing and spoiling and exposing their robberies to the view of the world my purpose is not to intreat at this present but onely of Priests and Monks who being as poore as Irus notwithstanding fare like Lucullus For if the Aegyptians and Solon also since their time as Herodotus telleth vs hauing enacted a law that euery man should shew what trade he followed and what meanes he had to liue should alleadge no other reason but this that he which spent freely hauing neither rents nor reuenues nor any meanes to earne a penny nor any to maintaine him must of necessity be a theefe what would our Mendicants trow we say if they should be thus examined For if they haue not a foote of land as they professe they haue not for otherwise they should do ill to beg and if they know not how to get their liuing whereon then do they liue nay not onely liue but fare so like Epicures If they shall answer that they liue vpon the almes of well disposed people that is cleane cōtrary to the cōplaint which they cōmonly make that mens charity towards them is not only cooled but euen as cold as ice If they shall say that they liue vpon borrowing who wil beleeue them For all men know that to lend to those who haue nothing to pay is all one with giuing according to the common saying Where there is nothing to be had the King loseth his right Herein therfore I appeale to their owne consciences what meanes they haue had now of late time since they began to complaine of the want of charitie to make their kitchins hot But because I should stay too long if I should heare their confession in that particular I will vndertake the matter and answer for them my self or rather rehearse some of their subtill deuices which shall serue in stead of an answer Who knoweth not then that they haue holden the world in such seruitude as that they haue violently taken not onely from the rich but also from the poore either all or the greatest part of that which their children should haue inherited Or who can be ignorant that the reason of the tragedy acted by the spirit of Orleans was for that these rauens saw they had lost the prey which they thought they had seazed vpon And doubtlesse it was a grea◠good hap the matter should be so well handled that it could be got out of their clouches For when they came to shriue silly soules that lay at the point of death their manner was to put them in no other hope of being saued but by making S. Francis S. Dominick or some other Saint patron of the Order that the Confessor was of their heires Nay they were so cunning in bewitching the consciences of those whom they had vnder benedicite that they did not onely make them giue the moitie or two thirds of their goods which their wiues and children should haue enioyed but in case their
in France betweene gentlemen and gentlewomen c. is permitted and held as honest be they kinsmen or others whereas such a kisse in Italie would not only be scandalous but also dangerous In recompence whereof Italian dames make no conscience to paint themselues as French Ladies do those at leastwise that are not Italianized These few examples which may serue vs as a patterne of that which hereafter God willing shal be handled more at large shall suffice for this present and herewith I will conclude that if in so neare neighbouring nations and in the same age the manners of men are so dissonant and disagreeing one from another we may not imagine the difference betweene vs and those of whom Herodotus speaketh so incredible they being so farre remote from vs not onely in distance of place but also of time But because the difference betweene our customes and those of our predecessors may easily be discerned I spare examples Yet one thing further is to be noted viz. that some which at the first blush may haply seeme foolish and ridiculous and are therefore thought forged and fabulous if they be throughly considered will be found to be grounded vpon good reason Among the rest that of the Babylonians recorded in the first booke may well be numbred In euery market towne saith he once a yeare they assemble all the mariageable maides and leade them to a certaine place appointed for the purpose where a multitude of men come flocking about them and there they are sold by an officer to him that offereth most the fairest of all being cried first and she being sold at a high rate the next to her in beautie and so the rest in order yet vpon condition that they marry them and take them for their wiues Whereupon the richest Babylonians intending to marry but the fairest and most beautifull virgins in the company one out-bidding another in the bargain The country swains contenting themselues though they haue not the fairest take the woodden-fac'd wenches and the ill-fauourd-foule-fustilugs for a small summe For when the officer hath sold all the handsomest he comes to the foulest of them all her especially that is lame or hath but one eye or some such deformitie and cries aloud Who will haue her for such a price In the end she is deliuered to him that will be content to marry her for the smallest summe The mony which is giuen for the mariage of the foulest acrewing of the sale of the fairest And thus the faire marry the foule and such as haue any bodily blemish or imperfection Neither is it lawfull for any to giue his daughter to whom he thinkes good nor for him which hath bought her to carry her away before he hath giuen his word that he will marry her This story at the first sight seemeth not onely strange but also ridiculous howbeit if we consider the causes and inducements which moued the Babilonians to marry their daughters in this sort we shall find that there is more reason and lesse sin in this custome then in sundry lawes deuised by those great Philosophers Plato and Aristotle Now as it cannot be denied but that there are in Herodotus sundry customes and fashions both wilde and wicked which for this cause carry small credite with them so must it needs be granted that he recordeth many noble enterprises famous acts and valiant exploits vndertaken managed and atchieued with such courage prowesse and valour as may well deserue admiration And that there is nothing in â—his history so abhorring from truth or so incredible but may winne credence if we compare it with that which other historians haue written in the like kinde For they report farre stranger facts I meane such as were atchieued with infinite greater prowesse and valour And verily since the first inuention of guns it was necessary men should as it were double and treble their valour in exposing themselues against their mercilesse fury and rage And we haue dayly euents and occurrences which do in a maner compel vs to beleeue that to be true which before we held to be false The fact of Cocles alwayes thought so strange and incredible was confirmed Anno 1562. by a Scot who being pursued by certaine Reisters from whom he could not wind himselfe leapt with his horse from the top of the mountaine Caux neare to Havre de Grace called Hable into the Sea and so escaped safe to land which is a story confirmed by innumerable testimonies I am further to aduertise thee gentle Reader that some stories recorded by Herodotus which seeme very strange and which a man would think were written for the whetstone are confirmed not onely by the testimonies of approued later writers but of our moderne historians as I haue shewed in my Latine Apology Of which number that of the women of Thrace may wel be reckoned who contended when their husband was dead for one man had many wiues which of them should die with him for companie For each of them affirmed that they were best beloued and thereupon great suite was made by their kinsfolkes and friends that they might haue the honour to accompanie him at his death For she that was thus graced was accounted happie the rest going away with shame enough all their liues after Verily this history cannot be sampled nor paralelled by any example of women in these countries for euen those kind hearts which loue their husbands best would looke strangely vpon him that should aske them whether they could not be contented to lay downe their liues for their husbands as Alcestis did a fact grounded vpon better reason then that of the Thracians And I perswade my selfe they would aske so many three dayes respite and so many termes to answer in one after another that there would be no end But shall we therefore say it is a fiction For my part though there were none but onely Herodotus that affirmed it I would not hold it incredible considering what Caesar and other auncient historians write of those which suffered voluntary death with the Kings of Aquitane For the King of that countrey saith he had six hundred men with him whom he entertained in his Court permitting them to haue a hand in managing the affaires of the State vpon condition they should beare him companie at his death which without further intreatie they were readie to performe This history I say maketh the other much more credible But to omit this known example we find this very thing which Herodotus reports of these Thracians recorded by other historiographers who as we know neuer tooke it out of him and testified also by others who were eye-witnesses thereof albeit they report it of the Indians and not of the Thracians I further affirme that our moderne historians report some stranger things then any is to be found in Herodotus which hath purchased him so ill a name which notwithstanding go for currant from hand to hand because the authors thereof are men of
benefite by euery particular here recorded but further learne to parallele auncient stories with moderne by obseruing their conformitie and Analogie if this word sound not too harshly in English eares and consequently to speake with greater reuerence and respect of auncient historians as also to omit no remarkable thing which may stand him in stead when occasion shall serue without due obseruation I say this worke once come to perfection because this is but an Introduction or Preparatiue treatise as the title purporteth albeit a man may here take a tast of that which hath bene said which is the cause why I call it A preparatiue Treatise or The first booke of the Apologie But you may here haply demaund the reason that moued me first to pen the Latin Apologie which was my first Essay Verily to deale plainly with you the great pleasure which I tooke in reading the Greeke storie made me not onely forget my paines in correcting infinite scapes in the Latin translation but further so obliged me vnto it by the great content it gaue me that I could do no lesse then pleade for it in these my Apologeticall discourses against the Philippicks and sharpe inuectiues of such seuere and rigide censurers as cease not to accuse it of falshood forgerie and fabulositie and that the great desire I had to testifie my good will and affection towards this author shold banish all feare of mine owne insufficiency to vndertake the penning of such an Apologie til some other better able to furnish out this argument should take it in hand Moreouer I confesse for I can conceale nothing from my friend that one reason among the rest which moued me to affect this storie being common to me with all French-men who are seene in the Greeke tongue was not onely the great affinitie the French hath with the Greeke aboue any other language as I haue shewed at large in a treatise which I published touching the conformitie of these two languages but for that there is not a Greeke author extant at this day nor any to be found in the best Libraries in France or Italie which agreeth so well with the French phrase and to the vnderstanding whereof the knowledge of the French is so necessarie and auaileable as Herodotus is Now as I haue taken vpon me to be Herodotus his aduocate so I am to intreate you to be mine in pleading for me against such supersilious censurers as not content to lash me for my faults for I feare me I haue giuen them iust cause in many places shall straine themselues to go a note aboue Ela and to correct Magnificat in calumniating that which their consciences tell them cannot be bettered And albeit it may be thought that I haue stretched euery storie vpon the tainters and made mountaines of mole-hils in enlarging each other narration thereby to winne the greater applause and admiration yet you who know me so well can witnesse with me that I make conscience of enhancing the meanest historie And verily I was so farre from taking this libertie to my self that where I found my authors who are for the most part classique writers or historians of note iarring and at discord I left all circumstances doubtfull and vncertaine contenting my selfe with the substance of the storie fully resolued and agreed vpon You may also boldly speake it vpō my word that if I haue brought in any like mummers in a mask concealing their names it was not because I was ignorant of them but for that I knew it would be more odious to some and lesse profitable to others How profitable may some say Verily the examples in the first part of the Apologie serue in stead of crystals wherin we may see the waiwardnesse and vntowardnesse the peeuishnesse and peruersnesse of our nature how backward it is to any thing that is good and how prone and propense to that which is euill as also what we are of our selues when we are destitute of the feare of God which as a bridle should curbe and keep vs in which point is handled more at large Chap. 11. sect 4. Againe they serue in stead of aduertisements or warning-peeces to admonish vs of sundrie subtill sleights and deceits so common and rife in the world Those in the second part shew how farre one age exceeds another in clownisme and rusticitie more especially they serue vs in stead of so many mirrours wherein we may behold the naturall blindnesse of the multitude in the maine matter concerning their saluation and consequently in what great need they stand of diuine illumination True it is indeed I haue there also blazoned the vertues of our good Catholickes of the Popish Clergie who feede themselues fat by famishing of others in debarring them of the foode of their soules and wickedly prophaning that which they beare the world in hand and vrge vpon others as the onely true religion Whose inditement I haue so hotly pursued and trauersed euerie point thereof that I feare me I haue somewhat ouershot my selfe in setting downe some of their sweete sayings and doings in the darke not worthie to be heard but by their owne eares which I perswade my selfe not you onely but all that know me will interprete no otherwise Notwithstanding let me intreate you to do the part of a faithfull friend in informing those with whom you shall conuerse of the sinceritie of my meaning herein lest haply they stretch my words beyond the leuell of my thoughts or make some other construction of my meaning then indeed was meant And thus Sir accordingly I recommend my suite vnto you and my selfe to your fauour desiring the Lord you may rest in his From our Helicon the sixt of Nouember 1566. AN INTRODVCTION TO A TREATISE TOVCHING THE CONFORMITIE OF AVNCIENT AND MODERNE WONDERS OR A Preparatiue Treatise in defence of HERODOTVS Which may also be called The first booke of the Apologie for Herodotus The Preface to the first Part. AS there are many who do highly esteeme of Antiquitie and haue it in great admiration and are if I may so speake so zealously affected towards it that the reuerence they beare it is in the nearest degree to superstition so there are others on the contrary who are so farre from giuing it that which of due belongs vnto it that they do not onely disgrace it what they can but euen tread it vnder foote Now that these two opinions be they fancies or humors haue borne sway among the auncient shall appeare hereafter by pregnant proofes But for the better manifestation of the reasons whereon they ground their opinions I thought it not impertinent to treate in generall of the vertues and vices of auncient times searching out the first source and spring thereof that so in the sequel of this discourse I may come to examine and trie the truth of the old prouerbiall sentence which saith by way of aequiuocation Le monde va tousiours à l'empire The world growes daily worse and worse And
the possession of it and merchants also who lending their merchandize in stead of mony value them at twice so much as they be worth which he formerly layd in the Treasurers dish as we haue heard Menot in like sort crieth out as well against close and cloaked vsury to vse his owne words as open and manifest when he saith Hodie sunt publicae vsura non coopertae vel palliatae sed omnino manifestae ita vt videamur esse sine lege And in another place Poore men are pilled and polled with greater vsuries at this day then euer were practised by the Lombards or Iewes for which notwithstanding they were banished France Fol. 100. col 3. Fuerunt aliâs Longobardi Iudaei expulsi à regno Franciae quòd totam terram inficiebant vsuris sed nunc permittuntur crassiores Diaboli vsurarij quà m vnquam fuerint Longobardi siue Iudaei Sutable whereunto we may obserue how Maillard saith Vos dicitis quòd illi qui tenent banquos ad vsuram sunt de Lombardia He addeth Et adhuc quod fortiùs vehementiùs ladit cor meum sunt illi qui dicuÌ„tur sapientiores So that his opinion concerning vsurers is this that if diuels should come downe from heauen by thousands vpon the earth they would not so endammage and spoile poore people as one great diuellish vsurer doth in one onely parish Fol. 17. col 3. Credite mihi si mille Diaboli descenderent de aëre in terram ad perdendum bona pauperum non tot mala facerent quanta vnus grossus diabolus vsurarius in vna parochia Et tales sunt fugiendi sicut Diaboli Further in discoursing and laying open their wickednesse to the world fol. 196. col 1. he saith that if these wicked wretches chance to reade a prognostication which foretelleth a dearth of corne or wine they buy vp all that comes to the market or can be got for mony and hauing boorded it vp will not part with it no not for the reliefe of the poore people except they pay double the price By which cruell and tyrannicall dealing they being so pinched with pouerty euen yell for hunger and die without mercie And fol. 110. col 4. These grosse diuellish vsurers haue so gnawed the poore people during the dearth that they haue nothing left whereon to liue except they should flea themselues and sell their skinnes Where note the phrase which he vseth alluding to the place which he had before alledged Pelli mea consumptis carnibus adhaesit os meum Thereby shewing that the poorer sort haue iust cause to take vp this complaint Likewise fol. 8. col 2. 3. O vos miseri vsurarij per vestras vsuras destruitis pauperes ponitis eos nudos in magna miseria homines sine misericordia ratione Vos habetis hoc anno vestrum Paradisum quòd videtis hoc anno esse magnam indigentiam bladi ideo vestrum pauperibus venditis in duplo plusquam emistis Vestra horrea plena sunt populus fame oruciatur And fol. 23. col 3. Sic faciunt isti grossi vsurarij qui volunt decipere pauperem dando ei bladum vt tandem possint habere suam haereditatem But he discourseth of this more largely elsewhere shewing how in a cheape yeare they would say to the poore farmers that brought them their rent corne Sell it sell it and keepe the mony to your selues for we need it not yet and so would watch these poore soules as it were by the way and in the end would call for all the arrerages when it was deare so that they being not able to pay their rent were constrained to leaue them their lands and to giue them for full paiment in stead of corne For these gallants as we may gather by the writings of this Preacher put their confidence in that which many now a dayes rely vpon viz. the founding of some Church Chappell or some religious house or otherwise vpon the vertue of their almes in being beneficiall to the Church at their death Fol. 5. col 1. Vos vsurarij putatis eâ—adere dicentes Ego committam vsuras sed hoc est cum intentione fundandi vnam capellam Barelete likewise doth now and then lay loade vpon these vsurers especially in the former particular mentioned by Menot viz that Iewes were banished out of France by reason of their vsuries and yet more villanous vsurers were to be found among Christians then euer were among them Men now adayes saith he are nothing ashamed to put out their mony to vsury no not to haue dealing and traffick with the Iewes Moreouer he maketh a sermon of purpose De vsuris restitutione rei alienâ— alledging sundry reasons why vsury should not be tolerated where to omit other particulars he cries out in this sort O what a number are there who in few yeares of very poore are growne exceeding rich per fas nefas Such a poore man hath bought a cheese which he neuer tasted of another hath bought cloth wherewith he was neuer clothed O ye vsurers wiues if your gownes were put in a presse the bloud of the poore would drop from them And fol. 63. col 4. he telleth vs of certaine vsurers who for ten measures which they lend cause sixteene or a greater number to be set downe in the bill And herupon he shews what punishment was inflicted vpon an vsurer at Creme in his time who lending ten bushels of corne caused fifteene to be set downe in his book viz. that the notary was punished with the losse of his hand and the vsurer with the losse of all his goods And they could not chuse I suppose but he euen hoarse againe with exclaiming against the thefts and polling practises of our lawlesse Lawyers as Proctors Aduocates Iudges and such like Of Aduocates Maillard saith that they take à dextris à sinistriâ— and he relateth a very pleasant story of a suite canuassed betweene two Lawyers in a certain citie of France in the raigne of king Lewis the twelfth A rich husband man saith he intreated one of these good fellowes to be of his counsell and to follow a sute which he had in the court which thing he vndertook About 2. houres after came the aduerse partie who was a very rich man and intreated him in like manner to pleade his cause against a certaine husbandman which he also took in hand The day being come wherein the cause should be heard the husbandman came to put his Proctor in mind of his sute who answered him My friend when you came to me the other day I gaue you no answer because I was otherwise employed and now I giue you to vnderstand that I cannot deale for you hauing vndertaken your aduersaries cause notwithstanding I will direct you by my letter to an honest man Wherupon he wrote to another Lawyer as followeth Two fat capons are fallen into my hands hauing chosen the fatter I send you the other
the French King at Venice about thirteene yeares ago there was a yong gentleman some fourteene or fifteen yeares of age sent into Italy by his father then Counseller of the high Court of Parliament at Paris vnder the tuition of his old Tutor who at his departure from his fathers house was of as meeke gentle and tractable a disposition as could be wished but after he had continued certaine dayes at Venice and some few of Padua he grew so stubburne and stout that whereas his Tutor was wont to hold a high hand ouer him and to keepe him short he was then glad not onely to let loose the reines to his head-strong affections but euen to lay the bridle in his necke and suffer him to runne at large and become a Tutor to himselfe To wind vp all in a word certaine it is that whether it be for the reasons formerly alledged or for some other the impietie of these times farre surpasseth all former ages being growne to that height within these fiue and twentie yeares that men make no bones to commit that which they would then haue loathed once to haue spoken or entertained in their secretest thoughts As for the vices wherewith our ancestors were infected there is as great difference betweene their dissolutenesse and ours as betweene those who are displeased with themselues for their slips and sinnes of infirmitie and such â—s glorie in their wickednesse For what should we say of this age when yong Princes and noble mens sonnes haue tutors and instructors for blasphemies and worse matters which for shame I cannot name But this shall suffice to haue spoken in generall I will now descend vnto particulars And here some may haply demaund what benefite a man may reape by such a discourse To which I answer that the benefit is greater then we may perchance imagine if we consider that God layes a more heauie hand vpon vs now then he did in former time as shall be declared hereafter in a seuerall Chapter that we remembring his boundlesse mercie in the midst of his iust iudgements might the more be moued to repentance For here we shall perceiue if we will not sooth and flatter our selues that for one plague and punishment inflicted vpon vs we deserue an hundred and that whereas he correcteth vs but with rods of men he might shiuer vs in peeces with his rod of Iron Besides we are to hold this as a most vndoubted truth that it is not without cause that so many fearfull examples and prodigious sins euen of the Saints are registred in holy Scripture For whence do we learne the frowardnesse and corruption of our nature or the sleights of Satan and his implacable hatred against mankind or how he lies in ambush for vs at euery corner and watcheth vs at euery turne but by such accidents as haue befalne them who without all hope of recouery haue intangled themselues in his snares And whence can we better know in what need we stand of all Gods helping hand then by the dayly dangers wherewith we are beset on euery side being so many warning peeces to admonish vs to stand vpon our guard And seeing we cannot be ignorant that all our helpe commeth onely from aboue and that there is none safely guarded but he that is guarded by the heauenly guard of Gods holy Angels euery rumour and report of such hainous and horrible crimes should be so many alarmes as it were to rouse vs from our securitie and to stirre vs vp to recommend our selues more earnestly into his hands and to plie him more effectually by humble and heartie prayer that he would not leaue vs to our selues nor let loose the reines to our vnruly and disordered affections but bridle and keep them in compasse and euer take vs into his holy protection like little children who the more they are afraid the more carefully they hide themselues and the further they creepe into their mothers lap For if seeing a man that hath any bodily blemish or imperfection we haue iust cause offered vs to lift vp our hearts by thankfulnesse vnto God for preseruing vs from the like and to acknowledge withall that we are liable to as great if not greater dangers How much more when we see any that hath foully forgotten himselfe and fallen into any fearfull sinne to giue him thankes for keeping vs from falling into the like and withall to acknowledge that we are made of the same mould and that we haue no pattent to be exempted from such dangers but so long as it shall please him to assist vs by his grace and keepe vs in his holy feare restraining the rage of the diuell our deadly enemie that though he assaile vs yet he may not preuaile against vs. Now then if this present discourse shew euidently that this deadly enemy of mankind hath doubled his forces in these latter dayes ought it not stirre vs vp to greater vigilancie and watchfulnesse ouer our hearts and liues to stand vpon our guard and to arme our selues at all points with the complete armour of the Spirit Vice we know was euer punished in all ages and religions But where the heathen respected onely exemplary punishment in doing open execution vpon malefactors that others might heare and feare and deale no more presumptuously Christians haue gone a step further and haue had a deeper insight thereinto viz. that those that would not be kept in compasse by the feare of God should be kept in order and awe by the feare of man I meane by feare of punishment which the law hath appointed to be inflicted vpon them according to the nature and qualitie of their offence For the heathen Poet said long ago Odérunt peccare boni virtutis amore Odérunt peccare mali formidine poena That is The good for vertues loue from ill refraine The ill refraine from ill for feare of paine Whereunto Christians also accord saue that they deliuer it in other termes when they say that the reason why the godly do not powre themselues forth into pleasure and let loose the reines to their lusts is because they haue the feare of God continually before their eyes Feare I say proceeding from a loue truly filiall and no way seruile as the good child feareth to offend his father for the loue he beareth him Moreouer this benefite we may reape by this discourse that it will serue vs in stead of a monitor to giue vs warning of those many sleights and deceits so common and rife in the world CHAP. XII Wherein is declared by how much Whoredome is greater and more notorious at this day then euer it was TO begin then where formerly I began yet not tying my selfe precisely to the same method we heare how mightily Menot exclaimeth against whoredome committed in his time But if he were now liuing neither his exclamations nor the out-cries of his fellowes though made with open mouth would be sufficient For since it was notoriously knowne that the place
least courtesie he could shew him he desired him to remember what he told him the other day concerning the close keeping of his mony wherefore quoth he I thinke it not amisse if we take a paire of oares and carrying a paire of ballances with vs row vp and downe the great channell and there weigh our crownes The French-man answered that he was ready to do what he thought good The next day therefore they tooke a paire of oares where when the Italian had weighed the French-mans crownes the better to colour his knauery he put them in his purse and pocketed them vp and making as though he had bene seeking for his Pistolets which he was to giue in exchange he caused the waterman to whom he had formerly giuen the watchword to land his boate And because he landed in a place where there were many short and narrow lanes on either side the French-man lost my gentleman in a trice neither hath he yet I suppose heard any newes of him nor of his hundred crownes My self came to the Inne three or foure daies after that pageant was played Another marking a French-man putting his purse into his bosome and after taking a paire of oares to crosse the water an ordinary thing at Venice leaped in after him with such violence that he caused the boate to leane so much on the one side that the French-man fel into the water where leaping in presently after he pulled him into the boate againe yet not without pulling his purse out of his bosome by the way which he did so nimbly that the partie perceiued it not till it was past recouery and so the Italian departed with a thousand thanks and a purse to put them in Another vsed more speed for faining that a Scorpion was gotten into his backe he intreated another Italian to looke if he could espie it in the meane time iuggling his purse out of his pocket And here I may not omit a like tricke of conueyance which another Italian played with a French gentleman newly come into Italy with Odet de Selue Embassadour for the French King at Venice for as he was in his Inne looking vpon two cheating Italians playing at cards who were partners as appeared afterward one of them faining that he had lost all his mony and had nothing left but certaine peeces of gold at which his fellow refused to throw because they were not weight he intreated the French-man to lend him a few crownes for them who had no sooner drawne his purse but they scattered all his mony and marking on which side of the table it fell blew out the candle We might well admit into this societie a Sergeant of Paris whose goods had bene distrained and sold to the very straw of his bed who going by a Goldsmiths shop cast sand in his eyes and hauing so done put as much gold into his boxe as he thought good But to returne to our cunning cut-purses how actiue nimble may we thinke were they which cut fortie or fiftie before they could be descried What say I forty or fiftie Nay I haue heard of one of this theeuish trade borne at Bourges chiefe Clearke to an Atturney of the Parliament called Dennis Gron in whose trunke after he had bin taken and conuicted of the fact were found fourescore purses and about three thousand crownes in gold who doubtlesse would haue obtained his pardon if his cause had bene tried by the lawes of the Lacedemonians which permitted theft the better to inure their people to nimblenesse and actiuitie so they were not taken in the fact which as Xenophon sheweth stood with good reason for no man ought to follow a trade wherein he hath no skill Now these bunglers who are taken with the manner shew that they are not their crafts masters in going no handsomlier to worke then a Beare when the picks muskles Which a Duke of Burgundie well obserued a man naturally giuen to this lurching legerdemaiâ—e which he practised more of wantonnesse then for any want as knowing himselfe to haue a notable filching facultie and an answerable dexteritie in cleanly conueyance the rather for that by this meanes he was better acquainted with such companions espying one of these light fingerd gentlemen as he was iuggling away a siluer goblet at a great feast and holding his peace for the present sent for him shortly after and told him roundly of it in this sort Sirra you may thank God that my steward saw you not pocket vp my plate for I can assure you he would haue hanged you all but the head What will you follow a trade to which you were neuer bound prentise and wherein you haue no skill Well you shall haue it vpon condition you wil giue ouer the occupation and practise it no more vpon paine of death sith you go so grosly to worke By which we see how this Prince concurres in opinion with the Lacedemonians But why may some say should we thinke the Lacedemonians would haue pardoned him considering they held such as were descried and taken in the fact vnskilfull in the trade and consequently vnfit to follow it Doubtlesse they would haue pardoned him for his great dexteritie in cutting the 80. purses in that he was taken but with the 81. For it fared not with him as with those filching coÌ„panioÌ„s born vnder the vnlucky planet Mercury who being pardoned the first offence fall into it again and againe Which hard hap befell one Simon Dagobert the Kings Atturneys son in Yssoudun who hauing plaid the filching fellow a long time and admonished to keepe himselfe true lest in the end he found the gibbet a Iew was taken at the last and condemned to the gallowes where as he was led to the place of executioÌ„ the duke of Neuers chanced to passe by and mediated to the King for him because he heard him spout a little Latin which albeit it was not vnderstood made him and the rest beleeue that he was a man fit for some great emploiment And as if he had bin so indeed the King hauing pardoned him sent him with one Roberual into the new found land in which voyage he verified that which Horace saith Coelum non animuÌ„ mutant qui trans mare currunt For after his coming thither he fell to his old trade of nimming more freely then euer before So that being taken the second time he went the way which before he had missed And I perswade my selfe he would not haue escaped better cheape either with the Lacedaemonians or with the foresaid Prince sith in all probabilitie he had bene often taken with the manner before it being almost impossible that committing thefts in this sort by the dozen he should euer go closely and artificially to worke Howbeit if euer there were any in whom we might see what a nature prone to theft may do him we haue as a liuely mirror thereof For I heard it credibly reported by his owne citizen a man of good
they might better sit still at home to be so vexed and disquieted and tossed from post to pillar and so to receiue their deserued reward by the iust iudgement of God yet we may not approue those by whom they are thus molested Let vs therefore see whether Pettifoggers do more kindly entertaine their clients at this day then they did when Maillard and Menot were liuing and for more breuities sake let vs heare what the most famous of all the French Poets saith hereof Là les plus grands les plus petis destruisent Là les petis peu ou point auxgrands nuisent Là trouue-l'on façon de prolonger Ce qui se doit se peut abbreger Là sans argent pouureté n'a raison Là se destruit mainte bònne maison Là biens sans cause en causes se despendent Là les causeurs les causes s'entreuendent Là en public on manifeste dit La mauuaistié de ce monde maudit Qui ne sauroit sous bonne conscience Viure deux iours en paix patience There greater men the poorer swaines deuoure There neuer poore gainstood the mighties power There meanes are found short suites in length to draw There needie clients waile the want of law There famous houses find their fatall end There fooles in causlesse suites their goods mis-spend There wrangling pettifoggers wont to sell Their clients suites there euery cause can tell This cursed worlds mad guise that are not able To liue two dayes in peace without some brable And a little after Et cestui-là qui sa teste descoeuure En plaiderie a fait vn grand chef d'oeuure Car il a tout destruit son parentage Dont il est craint prisé d'auantage Who doth but vaile his cap the barre before Hath done knights seruice in his clients cause Though he haue wrought his houses iust disgrace Yet he the more is fear'd and honor'd more And then speaking of sundry sorts of suites which he compareth to sundry kinds of serpents he saith De se froid là qui lentement se traine Par son venin a bien seu mettre haine Entre la mere les mauuais enfans And that cold serpent with soft trailing gate Hath learn'd to sow the seeds of foule debate Betwixt the mother and her impious brood Which agreeth well with that which Menot often reproueth in children for going to law with their mothers Further the same Poet saith that Cleargie-men who ought to disswade others from going to law are the greatest wranglers of all others in these verses Pas ne diront qu'impossible leur semble D'estre Chrestien plaideur tout ensemble Ainçois seront eux-mesmes à plaider Les plus ardans They will not quite despaire that one selfe man Should be a Lawyer and a Christian Yet who so hotly pleade as they the while 2 To conclude all in a word we are to take whatsoeuer the foresaid preachers haue spoken concerning the miseries which accompanied their suites and afterwards trebble them if we wold know all the mischiefes and miseries which follow our wrangling in the law And poore Menot needed not to haue troubled his head so much about Iudges bribes as though he could haue cured this sore which is Noli me tangere that may not be touched for they learned this lesson many hundred yeares ago and finding the practise pleasant and profitable they haue so well remembred it that they could neuer since forget it And if there were nothing else but tract of time since they first peaceably enioyed this priuiledge prescription doubtlesse would giue it them Tract of time I say for if we duely consider what Salomon and the Poet Hesiod say we shall easily perceiue that euen in their dayes Iustice which is painted blind and without hands was cleane banished out of the world Which custome though it be very ancient yet our Age I perswade my selfe beares away the bell not onely in regard of the Theoricke but much more of the Practicke For now they are not contented to take such bribes as may be eaten or drunken as the cookes in Paris know well with whom these Lawyers had to deale fearing lest the great store of foule which came flying in at their windowes and dropping downe their chimneyes all at an instant would be tainted before they came to the table Neither are they content that their wiues should be presented with bracelets chaines and rings of gold winking at it as though they knew nothing nor that their men should take vnder hand to the end they may share with them in the bootie but are come to this passe to say Come on and forthwith put out their hands Yea notwithstanding the Prouerbe which forbiddeth to looke a giuen horse in the mouth they sticke not to ting and peize the money before they will say Wel then And yet this doth not content them neither for they are growne to this extremity to cause many a poore Naboth to giue theÌ„ a vineyard of ten acres to do them iustice for a vineyard of fiue or sixe Nay they haue gone a step further and growne to harder tearmes for they haue not bene ashamed to aske that which cannot be lent sold or pawned neither by the Law of God nor man the losse whereof is far greater and as irrecouerable as the losâ—e of life it selfe they are euen come I say to enforce men to buy iustice at such a rate as is not onely contrary to all ciuilitie and iustice but redounds also to the infamie of succeeding posteritie To speake in plaine termes there was in this Age within the reach of our memory a President of the high court of Parliament at Paris who did extend his right so farre as to request an honorable Ladie to lend him her placket peece promising on that conditioÌ„ to giue her audience I will beware how I name that President yet thus much I dare boldly say that it was he who was afterward metamorphosed into an Abbot and being inuested into that dignity writ a booke against the Lutherans which he dedicated to the Pope the style whereof was so hard and rough that his Holynesse carrying a leafe of it by chance to the close-stoole did all to chafe and excoriate his Apostolike seate therewith To be briefe it was he whose nose was enchassed in many fine Epitaphs whilst the Pope who had at that time many yrons in the fire should be at leasure to canonize him for a Saint Howbeit I wil not deny but that if Communis error facitius and if that be lawful for a PresideÌ„t of the ParliameÌ„t which is lawful for other inferior Iudges this Iudges aduocates may alleadge the exaÌ„ples of some who haue done litle better and of others who haue done far worse Among which the Prouost called La Vouste may wel be the ringleader of the dance for the notable knauish part which he plaid with a vertuous Lady who comming vnto him in hope to
intreat him in her husbands behalf whom he kept in prison he requested her to do him a small pleasure onely to giue him a nights lodging promising vpon that condition to grant whatsoeuer she would aske She poore soule was here put to a plunge and what woman is there who entirely loueth her husband that would not haue bene in the like case For considering with her selfe on the one side that if shee yeelded to his impotent affection she should violate her faith plighted to her husband and one the other side that she should saue his life by consenting vnto him she handled the matter warily and well For although she was resolued to preferre her husbands life before her good name yet she first acquainted him therewith who easily dispensing with her as it is like he would she let his Lordship take his pleasure which he so much desired perswading her selfe he would be as good as his word But the next morning this wicked wretch yea supersuperlatiue knaue if I may so speake hauing hanged him said vnto her I promised indeed you should haue your husband againe Well I wil be as good as my word I wil not keep him frō you take him to you If we here consider the difference which ought to be between Christians heathen can we say that the knaueries of Verres for which he was so battered with the canon shot and striken downe with the thunderbolt of Tullies eloquence did any way come neare this notorious villany cōmitted notwithstanding in the sight of the Sunne I haue often heard of another of his knauish parts which because it makes much to shew his integritie may well go hand in hand with the former that so both of them may be registred in his chronicles Whilst this iolly gentleman was about to hang a silly soule who was vpon the ladder a good fellow came vnto him and whispered in his eare promising that if he would saue his life he would giue him a hundred crownes in ready money which words had so good a rellish and made his teeth so to water that he presently gaue a signe to the hang-man to hold his hand hauing deuised a good scābling shift came neare to the place of execution said aloud in his gibbridge Regardas messeurs en qual dangi◠me mettio a quest malhurous Car el a courone non m'oudisio pas Lo mal de terre te vire Dauala dauala tu seras menat dauant l'official ton iuge That is See my maisters into what danger this roague hath brought me for he hath courone and neuer told me A plague light on thee Come downe come downe Sirra thou shalt be presented before the officiall thy Iudge And here I remember another tricke yet farre more strange plaid by another who had the same office This good fellow desirous on the one side to saue a theeues life that was committed into his hands vpō condition he might haue a share in the booty as was formerly agreed and on the other side fearing lest the people should murmur and mutine if he suffered not the Law to haue his course and that himselfe should be in danger of his life he shifted it thus He apprehended a simple fellow and told him that he had sought for him a long time and that he was the man that had committed such a fact The silly soule denied it stoutly as one whose conscience acquit him of all that was laid to his charge But the Prouost being resolued to proceed on and to prosecute the matter against him to the proofe suborned certaine good fellowes to deale with him vnder hand and to shew him that it was better for him to confesse the fact seeing that whether he denied or confessed it there was no remedy he was sure to lose his life and that if he confessed it the Prouost wold be bound by oth to cause so many masses to be said for him that he might assure himself he should go to heauen and though he denyed it he shold be hanged neuerthelesse and go to the diuell because no man would procure him so much as one masse The simple sot hearing that he should be hanged and after go the diuell was terribly affraid and said that he had rather be hanged and so go to God In the end he told them he did not remember that euer he committed any such thing notwithstanding if any man did better remember it then himselfe and were sure of it he would dye patiently onely he besought them in any hand to keepe touch with him for his masses He had no sooner spoken the word but he was brought to the place of execution to supply his roome that had deserued death Howbeit being vpon the ladder he vttered certaine speeches by which he gaue the people to vnderstand that he was sorry that euer he had confessed so much notwithstanding the heauen and happinesse they had promised him To remedy which inconuenience the Prouost gaue a signe to the hangmā to turne him off the ladder lest he should tell tales out of the schoole which was done accordingly But because I am come to the very height of these mens impieties I will here strike saile and direct my course to another coast 3 And if I must needs speake of Iudges and Iustices wiues as well as Maillard and Menot be it knowne vnto all men that they are not content to haue their gownes died in the blood of the poore nor to get their liuing by the sweat of their bodies as those houswiues mentioned by the foresaid preachers but make their market better and go a nearer way to the wood For wheras they get nothing but braue apparrell and iewels by such sweat these get offices besides for their husbands And what say these gentle Gillians and chast Penelopes Quae faciunt placitum Domini Abbatis Domini Episcopi Domini Cardinalis as Menot speaketh when they see their husbands aduanced by their meanes but that it is good to haue the fauour of great Lords and that a man cannot tell what need he may haue of their helping hand Questionlesse if Menot or Maillard were now liuing they would answer them roundly if they had not forgotten their old Latin Ad omnes Diabolos talem fauorem 4 Which being so it cannot be but that that wicked kind of cheating and chaffering which was vsed in Menots time as we may perceiue by his complaints should be much more common and ordinary at this day viz. that Lawyers should lend their consciences to great Lords For seeing they obtaine offices of them at so easie a rate viz. by their meere fauour they cannot chuse as they thinke who haue as large a conscience as a ship-mans hose or a Franciscans sleeue which others call a cheuerell conscience but make them win the day and cary the cause though they should offer the greatest wrong in the world Notwithstanding I do not affirme that all maried men which are promoted by
and was deliuered of a daughter Her father who could neuer abide the child because it put him in mind of his daughters shamefull fact sent her to Paris to a Sempster to learne to sow And coming afterwards to Paris himselfe he fell in acquaintance with a priest called M. Hector a bakers son borne at Noyon to whom he declared that he had a daughter about seuen or eight yeares of age whom he would gladly haue bestowed in a monastery or some other place he cared not where nor how so that he might neuer heare of her againe telling him that for the effecting hereof he could be content to giue an hundred crowns The Priest being greedy of gaine vndertooke the matter and causing the girle to be brought vnto him together with the mony which they were agreed vpon he tooke his leaue of him and caried her home to his house Whither he was no sooner come but he cut her throate and hauing so done caried the corps into the churchyard of S. Nicholas in the fields where hauing cast it among certaine nettles he walked vp downe as though he had bin praying on his Portuise Shortly after came a Sexten and as he was digging a graue the Priest came vnto him and told him that he had seene a pitiful spectacle to wit a yong maid hauing her throte cut and cast among the nettles and desired him for auoiding of offence to bury her promising to giue him a teston for his paines The Sexten refused his offer and further told him that he would informe the Court thereof which he did the Priest in the meane time flying to Noyon The Court hauing intelligence hereof caused the corps to be caried to a place called Chastelet there to be exposed to the open view whither as God wold the Sempster her old mistris came to see her who knowing her wel declared to the Court how an Inne-keeper of Soyssons her grandfather had committed her to the custody of one M. Hector a Priest The Sexten also informed the Court of the conference which had passed betweene M. Hector and him The Court taking notice of these informations sent his brother in law to prison hoping by that meanes to learne what was become of him seeing he resorted ofteÌ„ to his house Now during the time of his imprisonment they dayly pressing him with interrogatories to the end they might learne what was become of his brother albeit he knew nothing it fortuned that the Priest came to S. Denis neare to Paris from whence he sent a messenger to his brother in law neuer dreaming of his imprisonment to request him to come to him and to informe him what rumour went of him Where the messenger coming to the prisoners wife the Priests sister was presently apprehended and brought before the Court and hauing told them where M. Hector was they sent a warrant for his apprehension Where after he had confessed the fact he was condemned by the Court of Chastelet to be degraded to haue his hand cut off to be broken vpon the wheele and after to be burned But he appealed to the high Court of Parliament at Paris which mitigating the sentence condemned him onely to be degraded to haue his hand cut off to be hanged and after to be burned This tragicall euent happened about fourteene yeares ago But I may not forget a ieast of his for hauing his hand cut off and meeting with one of his acquaintance as he was going to the place of execution he said Auise vn peu Herry men ami ie ne saurai peu canter Messe on m'a coupé vne main That is See here friend Harry I can say Masse no more they haue cut off my hand The man to whom I am beholding for this story dwelt in the same towne with this malefactor and told me that he heard him sing his first Masse with all the ceremonies and solemnities thereto belonging 6 There was also a Priest at Orleans about 37. yeares ago who being iealous of a whore which he kept brought her into a tauerne where leading her aside as though he would haue dallied with her he cast her on a bed and with a razor which he had in his sleeue cut her throate For which murther he was only condemned to perpetuall prison as it was told me by a famous lawyer who was then a student in the same citie 7 As for cruelties though no murther be voyd of crueltie where can we heare of a greater then that which is commonly practised by Monkes as themselues confesse I meane their vsuall maner of pulling men ouer the pearch in pace True it is indeed they vtterly renounce and disclaime this word crueltie for they will not grant that it is crueltie to send men into another world in pace But if they deny it to be crueltie to murther a man in pace they must needs deny that to die of hunger and thirst is a cruell death which is â— pâ—â—gnant to common sence But leauing this dispute let vs come to other notorious cruelties and among the rest to a kind of torment which lay-men among Christians wold neuer haue inflicted vpon Pagans or infidels but would haue left it for Barbarians as being too barbarous to be practised by them It is that which Plutarch in the life of Artaxerxes calleth Scapheusis to which this is not vnlike which I am about to relate The last Duke of Lymbourgh being dead without issue the Princes who were next heires as being nearest of bloud viz. the Duke of Brabant and the Earle of Guelderland waged warre one against another for the Dukedome In the end the Duke of Brabant got the victory where the Bishop of Collen who had aided the Earle of Guelderland was taken prisoner and committed to the custody of the Earle of Mount in Haynoult where he continued for the space of seuen yeares till he had agreed to all such articles as were demaunded of him Being set at liberty at the last he besought the Earle of Mount to beare him company to Tuits a towne standing vpon Rheyne right ouer against Collen whereunto the Earle easily condescended Now as they were going ouer a bridge which stood vpon the riuer an ambush of horsemen which by the Bishops appointment lay hard by rushed out suddenly vpon the Earle mistrusting no such matter and thus he seized vpon him and kept him in perpetuall prison and to the end he might giue him more kind entertainment caused an iron cage to be made which in sommer was annointed ouer with hony and set in the open Sunne lodging the poore Earle therein there to be assaulted by flies you may well imagine how Consider here gentle Reader this Bishops crueltie ioyned with treason coming not much short of the immanity of Busiris and Phalaris For doubtlesse of all other cruelties those are the greatest which cause men to languish and pine away for a long time in great anguish 8 Moreouer we reade of two Channons of Collen who
long traines their furres of sable their gold wherewith they all to bespangle their heads and which they weare about their necks and on their girdles and how Menot saith The poore starue for cold in the streete whilest thou stately Ladie and thou delicate Dame hast seuen or eight gownes in thy trunke which thou wearest not thrise in a yeare and doest thou not thinke thou shalt be called to account for this vaine superfluitie before Gods iudgement seate I know not what excuse a Ladie can make who seeing a poore man naked and crying for cold trayleth two or three elles of veluet after her But how women in all ages haue desired to excell in brauery I should say in pompe and pride Poets do sufficiently declare who like heraulds haue proclaimed the folly of their sumptuous superfluities in this kind whose testimonies if haply they shal not satisfie any they may haue recourse to sundry others recorded by historians as namely by Liuie who reports that certaine Romaine Ladies and Gentlewomen nobly descended and otherwise accounted graue and chast matrons did murmure and mutine against such as would not suffer them to returne to their braueries againe and that in such turbulent and furious manner as though they had bin besides themselues And wherfore I beseech you were laws enacted of old to cut off the excesse and riot of women but because there was need of such bridles to restraine them and curbes to keepe them in Menot also vseth a word which puts me in mind of a place in Terence where he shewes what paines women tooke in tricking and trimming of themselues For whereas he saith hyperbolically that a man might sooner make a stable cleane where fortie horses had stood then a woman will haue pinned all her pins and setled her attire Terence said long ago Dum comuntur annus est The same Preacher doth often fume and fret against those huswiues who attired themselues so modestly that a man might see euen to their nauels His words are these fol. 25. col 1. Habebit magnas manicas caput dissolutum pectus discoopertum vsque ad ventrem cum pectorali albo per quod quis clarè potest videre Which put me in mind of that which Horace saith Altera nil obstat Cois tibi pene videre est Vt nudam But some may haply say As for this light loose and lasciuious kind of apparell I hold it to be a wicked thing indeed but why should brauery and sumptuous attire vndergo so sharpe a censure To which I answer that in some persons it cannot be reproued notwithstanding such costly array hath euer bene condemned because that for one that maintaines it at her owne cost there are an hundred which maintaine it at their cost that cannot do withall as Barelete and Menot testifie though the mony come out of their husbands purses or accrew to them by cutting asunder the true loues knot For proofe whereof consider the place formerly quoted out of Barelete O ye such and such mens wiues I tell you if your garments were put in a presse the bloud of the poore would drop from them And Menot also who iumpeth with him not onely in iudgement but almost in words Ye my Lords Ladies who are so addicted to your pleasures and weare scarlet gownes I verily think that if they were wel pressed a man might see the bloud of the poore wherein they were died runne out of them Which prouerbiall phrases though they may not be taken strictly according to the letter but hyperbolically the better to set out such impietie as it were in orient colours yet Barelete not content to houer thus in generalities bringeth for instance that which befell an vsurer no lesse strange then the former for he saith that bloud came out of the bread which he ate As for those huswiues that maintaine their pompe and state by false play at the tables in bearing a man too many contrary to duty and promise Maillard and Menot say them their lessons But I will content my selfe with the testimonie of Maillard who hauing said Tell me whether it be a goodly sight to see an Atturneys wife who hath not twentie shillings a yeare left him after he hath payed for his ffice to go like a Princesse to haue her head bespangled with gold a gold chaine about her necke and a golden girdle You say your places wil maintaine it alsoâ—â—â—ddeth â—â—â—ddeth afterward It may be you will say Our husbands giue vs no such gownes but we get them with the paine of our bodies All the diuels in hell go with such paines For these are his words Dicetis fortè Maritus noster non dat nobis tales vestes sed nos lucramur ad poenam nostri corporis Ad trigenta mille Diabolos talis poena Now it is easie to vnderstand without further explication what this paine is neuerthelesse if it seeme so obscure to any that it need a glosse a man may fetch it out of Maillard where he exclaimeth against such as are their daughters bawds and who make them get their dowrie with the paine and sweate of their bodies Faciunt ei lucrari matrimonium suum ad poenam sudorem sui corporis fol. 35. col 4. But to apply these testimonies to the particulars which I haue here vndertaken to intreate of If in Hesiods time there was small fidelitie to be found among men no not among brethren nor yet in children towards their parents doubtlesse there was lesse in Ouids time and much lesse in the ages following and least of all in this wherein we liue And if charitie did waxe cold in former times it is now altogether frozen if iustice did then halt of one foote she now halteth downe-right of both If she had then but one eye she is now starke blind If she was deafe but of one eare she is now as deafe as a doore naile I speake according to the old prouerbe There is none so deafe as he that wil not heare to which we may adde this There is none so blind as he that wil not see And whereas she then tooke onely with her hands she now taketh both with hands and feete and whereas brauery and effeminatenesse in attire lasciuiousnesse in speech and behauiour and all such vices as are fore-runners of greater mischiefes went but on foote and slowly now they go on horsebacke and in post All which notorious and grosse sinnes we may assure our selues are now in the ruffe and as it were in the Aprill of their age whereas the former were but in their winter hauing so much more vigour and strength now then they had in former time as trees and plants haue in the spring time then in the winter season The truth of all which shall be demonstrated hereafter in particular Now we haue so little cause to complaine of the want of Christian reproofes instructions reprehensions and admonitions or to iudge it to be the reason of the loosenesse
and leudnesse of our times that if we consider the great mercie and fauour of God towards vs in this behalfe we cannot but wonder how the impietie of men at this day should any way come neare that of our auncestors For where is the preacher now to be found though many do nothing but flatter and bolster men vp in their sinnes who if he should say in open pulpit with Oliuer Maillard fol. 323. col 2. that whores ought to be tolerated would not be afraid least little children would spit in his face Or where is the man to be found that dare maintaine that damnable paradoxe which Priests as he saith defended in his time That a woman killing the child in her wombe did not commit a mortall sinne And albeit it hath euer bene an odious and so consequently a dangerous thing to reproue sinne as we may see in Menot who complaineth that Preachers in his time were threatned with a red hat and that they should be made Cardinals without going to Rome for preaching the truth like Iohn Baptist who for bringing the truth to Herods Court left his head behind him yet it was neuer halfe so dangerous as at this day And though flatterers who are naturally caried with a hellish hatred against such as reproue and censure sinne swarme in greater multitudes then euer they did and though the number of such as dare not speake the truth for feare of hard measure losse of goods or future hopes be as great as euer it was notwithstanding vices are better detected and more sharply censured by preaching and writing then they were in the dayes of our forefathers which as it serues to aggrauate our sinnes the more so it will make vs culpable of greater damnation when we shall giue vp our account at the generall audite Touching the last point which I propounded to intreate of in this Chapter to wit that God punisheth sin more seuerely at this day then he did in former time because it deserues a larger discourse I will here onely adde this one thing that he which hath no sense nor feeling thereof is neither French-man Italian Spaniard nor Germaine but in the shape of a man a very beast CHAP. X. How that the foresaid Preachers haue left sundry vices vntouched and vncensured BEfore I make a comparatiue estimate of the leudnesse of former times with the loosenesse of our owne it will not be amisse to consider whether the foresaid Preachers whose testimonies I haue alledged haue omitted any particular through obliuion or otherwise First then albeit Oliuer Maillard and Menot his punay say little or nothing of incests sodomies and other prodigious vices as murthering of father and mother of wiues murthering their husbands and husbands their wiues parents their children one brother another and one kinsman another we may not therefore thinke but that those times were stained with these sinnes or to speake more properly that such infection which had continued festering so long did then cease I say which had continued so long considering what we reade not only in prophane Antiquitie but especially in the Sacred history of these and the like vices For it fareth not with God as it did with the law-giuer Solon who being told that he had not prescribed what punishment should be inflicted vpon parricides there being then a malefactor taken who had murthered his father answered he could not enact a law for the punishment of such a fact as he could not imagine any man wold so much forget himself as once to cōmit The case I say is farre otherwise with this great law-giuer who seeth the most secret and hidden thoughts of mens hearts and the motions of their minds more clearly then we see the feature of their faces Neither may we thinke that any age hath bene free from such prodigious vices but that they were euer extraordinary in respect of other sinnes as also more rare in some countries and ages then in others And I here protest it much misliketh me to enter discourse of such an argument But as he who vndertakes to extoll the prowesse of Achilles aboue that of Hector or Aiax is not to omit any of their heroicall exploits if he would haue Achilles more renowned and extolled to the skies so considering the end of this discourse is to shew that the viciousnesse of our time is a perfect patterne thereof being compared with that of the age last past which notwithstanding surpasseth I suppose all former generations I should not escape the sharpe censure of iust reprehension if I should discharge one of these ages of some vices the more to loade the other or if I should go about to keepe the credite of the one entire and inuiolable by cracking the credite of the other For as for the rest I grant that though it was the will of God such prodigious sinnes should be recorded in holy Scripture yet it is so much the better by how much we speake or thinke the lesse thereof And as for sodomie I am easily drawne to beleeue that the former Preachers were very sparing in speaking thereof lest they should open a gap to mens curiositie which is naturally exorbitant in this kind The more knaues are the Priests who in their auricular confession as they call it stir the minds and awake the spirits of their confessionists by their interrogatories occasioning them to muse vpon such matters and to feed their fancies with such facts as otherwise they would neuer haue dreamed of For mine owne part I confesse that for this very reason I haue had much ado to perswade my selfe that swinish Sodomites and beastly buggerers should be executed publikely True it is sundry weightie reasons may be alledged on both sides but I hold me to that which I see practised in well ordered cities Furthermore the reason which moues me to thinke that sodomie was not then in all probabilitie so common as at this day is for that there was not such resort into those countreys where it is made a trade and occupation as at this present For proofe hereof if we consider who those French-men be that giue themselues to such horrible and hellish sinnes we shall find that most of them haue bene in Italie or Turkie or not to go out of France to seeke them haue frequented their companie at leastwise haue familiarly conuersed with their schollers For albeit Athenaeus tell vs in his thirteenth booke which I remember I haue read elsewhere vnder the name of Hermippus that the Celtes in his time notwithstanding they had fairer women then other Barbarians were addicted to this sinne yet God be thanked before we could speake so good Italian in France there was almost no speech of this villanie as I haue heard of diuers old folkes And verily it is more pardonable in Italians then in French-men if pardonable in any seeing that they who for the most part call it but peccatillo are nearer their sanctities who do not onely giue a licence
galled hereby For I protest my meaning is not to speake any thing to blemish the reputation of such as walke conscionably in their vocations and callings and demeane themselues therein as in the presence of God 2 First then to begin with Merchants their prouerbe is this Où marchand où larron that is either a merchan◠or a theefe Which many seeme to vse as a maske to the end they may not be discouered in their theeuish knaueries Others sweare they are losers by selling their wares at this or that price in the meane while dispensing with their oath be it neuer so false in the sence they would haue others to vnderstand it holding it sufficiently warrantable if in their owne sence and meaning it may passe for truth For there is another prouerbe which saith The merchant that is no gainer is a loser Whereunto they haue relation when they sweare that they lose by this or that merchandize I haue also heard of a starting-hole which certaine of them haue found out when they sweare they haue refused thus much and thus much for such and such wares But I leaue their words and come to their deeds for we may easily beware of their words if we keepe in mind the Italian prouerbe Non ti sidar non saray gabato that is Trust not and thou shalt not be deceiued 3 And seeing that thefts committed in selling of wares are either in the quantitie or qualitie I will first begin with the quantitie consisting in weights and measures And doubtlesse I were worthy great blame my conscience would also checke me of vntruth if I should say that our moderne merchants had forgotten either their cunning counterpoizing of the ballance in weighing or the quicke dexteritie of the thomb in measuring Nay they are so farre from yeelding an ace to their ancestors herein that they are able in regard of their good proficiencie in the art to reade a lecture to those mentioned by Oliuer Mayllard and to teach them diuers subtill sleights and conueyances in weighing and measuring inuented since for their owne aduantage For touching the ballance some can make it rise and fall as they list and neuer be perceiued and as for measuring they are not content to vse the trick of the thombe but of the ell also And yet without the help of these sleights they can make it come to their owne reckoning Witnesse those who hauing some loose cloth and not well fulled by the list which is commonly seene in narrow clothes will be sure in measuring it not to go farre in the bredth but measure it in the list as neare as possibly they can These few examples may suffice for those that vse subtil conueyances in weights and measures For if I were disposed to busie my selfe with such as giue indeed good weight and large measure but it is good weight by their owne weight and good measure by their own measure both being false besides that I should tell you of a thing not vnknowne to little children and which is cōmon to this age with the former I should speake of a theft wherein there is neither subtiltie nor sleight Neither wil I mention such as bearing men in hand that they sell by a great weight sell by a small or making as though they did weigh and measure by the standard of such a citie weigh and measure by another Both which belong to quantitie as hath bene said 4 Touching the qualitie I meane thefts committed by falsifying and sophisticating of wares it is a boundlesse and endlesse argument First there is no doubt but that may sleights and cheating trickes haue bene practised heretofore in corrupting and adulterating of wares and that many are cōmitted at this day which were neuer discouered before And besides those that haue bene in former time and are in vse at this present many new ones are dayly minted to be put in practise when others chance to be discouered considering also that one country vseth this sleight another that And note that when I say wares or merchandize I meane generally all such things wherein a man may trafficke comprizing herein gold and siluer coyned as being mettals wherein merchants vse to trafficke as in common wares besides that they affoord meanes to trafficke in all other commodities And because my purpose is among other examles of falsification to insist in these two mettals I wil giue them the first place which they seeme to challenge of right sith not onely all other commodities but gold and siluer also are falsified to get gold and siluer First then we are to know that the falsifying of these mettals is very ancient as may appeare by certaine Greeke and Latin words seruing to expresse sundry sorts of this deceitfull knauery Secondly that as the custome of falsifying mettals is ancient so the meanes to discouer such deceitfull dealing is as ancient as of gold by the touchstone whence this French prouerbe grew which I haue often heard at Paris Il est de bas or il craint la touche He is a counterfet he is afraid of the touchstone But how many peeces of gold are there to be seene at this day so cunningly falsified that they infringe the former prouerbe in fearing the triall of the touchstone neuer a whit How many peeces are there to be seene which must be deeply graued into especially in Portuguizes and other peeces of the value of halfe a Portuguize as those of Saltzbourgh or else melted to discouer the deceit Moreouer there was a time when gold was not suspected to be light vnlesse it were clipped Whereas now the fairest French crownes which are not clipped at all are often the lightest by the cunning of those who haue drawne out their quintessence by washing them Further we know how that not long since it was easie to know whether a peece were souldred or charged whereas now there are some so cunningly souldred that a man had need to put on his spectacles if he would not be deceiued And whereas heretofore a counterfet peece of gold and a false peece of siluer which we call a slip was neuer so falsified but that it was worth at least the two thirds of the value they haue now deuised a tricke to confound mettals so cunningly together that some crownes coyned at this day are not worth eighteene pence and some quart d'escus not worth two pence I am not ignorant that there are diuers other subtill sleights found out to falsifie these mettals but I hope I haue sufficiently spoken hereof to giue notice how farre this kind of theft now in vse exceeds that which was vsed in the dayes of our auncestors And I perswade my selfe if diligent inquiry were made that Alchymie which hath bewitched moe at this day then euer it did euen Princes themselues would be found to be the true cause thereof For as for those suiters who spent much time in courting Penelope were at the last contented to enioy the companie of
her waiting maid so those who could not with their Mercury become so great Lords are they promised themselues were at the last contented to become false coiners employing in this fine art all those secrets and mysteries which they had learned in blowing so many yeares together 5 Hauing now spoken of the falsifying of these two mettals wherewith all sorts of wares and merchandize are bought seruing also as wares to trafficke in it will not be amisse in the next place to intreate of such things the mutuall intercourse whereof maketh most for the preseruation of mans life What are these may some say Verily such as serue for backe and belly The number of which albeit it be exceeding great and almost infinite yet amongst those which serue for the nourishment of the body I will single out such as are sold by the Apothecary and of such as serue for attire only woollen clothes and silkes But here some may haply aske the reason why I should bid battell to Apothecaries in this particular seeing the greatest part of that which they sell is extraordinary sustenance seruing rather for the sicke then for the sound I grant indeed that Apothecaries wares are vsually and almost onely for sicke folkes if we except some licorish mouthes But I make choise of them the rather because the falsifying of them is more dangerous For whether is more dangerous to adulterate the meate of one that is in health or of one that is sicke Doubtlesse it cannot be denied but that there is greater peril in corrupting the diet of the sick then of the sound and healthfull person If any shall say that all drugs which Apothecaries sell for the vse of the sicke are not meates but being conuerted into nourishment become most pernicious I answer that such reasons make rather with me then against me For if potions be not ministred for nourishment but for an Antidote to the disease which may well be resembled vnto poison how much greater must the danger needs be in falsifying medicines then in corrupting of meates Besides it is not of late time that men began to crie out against the Apothecaries qui pro quo and we haue already heard what sentence Oliuer Maillard hath giuen hereof where he alleadgeth the prouerbe which was currant in his dayes But to let them passe with the time past this I dare affirme for the present that the abuse then committed as wel in this as in other respects was neuer comparable to that which is now practised not so much for want of knowledge as of good conscience though the error herein committed by our ancestors may well be imputed to their ignorance For doubtlesse neither simple nor compound drugs were so well knowne in the time of the former Preachers as at this day But to what end serue the books which instruct vs in the knowledge of them except we reade them To what end do the Doctors teach them if men haue not care to learne them What is a sicke man the better if his neighbours garden who is very curious in searching out of strange herbes be full of that simple whereof he stands in need if the Apothecary minister some other vnto him which will proue perhaps as hurtful as the right would haue bene healthfull To what end serues trafficke which is now greater then euer if Apothecaries make no conscience to carry rotten and mouldie drugs to the sick and as long as they haue any such neuer take thought for a new supply Besides to what purpose is it to haue a learned Phisition and fortunate in his practise if his receipt fall into the hands of an Apothecary that cannot reade it I hope Apothecaries are not so straight laced but that they will grant that there are many of their trade who haue much ado sometimes to reade the prescripts of Phisitions Of mine owne knowledge I can say thus much that being in place where an Apothecary was perusing a receipt I perceiued that he read a cleane contrary thing to that which a few dayes before I had learned at one of Master Syluius his lectures and thereupon wagering with him touching the particular wherein I found the contrarietie we referred it to the Phisition who had prescribed the receipt who hauing demaunded of the Apothecary whether he were not ashamed to make a question of the truth of my assertion affirmed that the Phisicke so ordered as the Apothecary had intended wold haue bene his patients death though he had had a thousand liues I haue also heard it reported by a very skilful and honest Apothecary that himselfe heard an Apothecary at Blois in stead of Agarici optimi mentioned in the Phisitions prescript and written with an abbreuiation as the maner is Agarici opti with a dash read Agarici opij which opium together with other drugs wrought in the patient so contrary an effect to the Phisitions expectation that except his skil and prouident foresight had espied the error and preuented it in time it would haue proued the poore patients last sicknesse But because when any obiect against them this their accustomed kind of qui pro quo they answer that they follow the example or practise of auncient writers and do as those who in the absence of the Parson go to the Curate as it is in the French prouerb I would gladly request their further answer to this question viz. whom they imitate of all the ancient Grecians Latins or Arabians and how their comparison can stand when in stead of an hot herbe or drug they take one of a cold operation and contrarily And in stead of a drier they vse a moister and in stead of a looser a binder c. For I am not ignorant that the ancient Grecians haue written a catalogue of certaine drugs which might in case of necessitie be vsed in stead of others howbeit they did it not without examining the correspondence of their qualities in which point these hucksters follow them not For proofe whereof I wold gladly see them answer Matthiolus who reckoneth vp a number of simples which they vse mistaking one for another and others which they falsifie and sophisticate by their mixtures and blendings But thus it is vnlearned Apothecaries wil be sure to make no reply but will pull in their hornes and say that they do as they haue seene others do Others who haue studied the nature of simples though slenderly God knowes will not sticke to compare with such a learned man as Matthiolus was nay some of them are not ashamed to preferre themselues before him and to brag that they know some one herbe better then he did and further that they do nothing in vsing their qui pro quo but they can giue a reason for it To be short they cloke their negligence or couetousnesse or both with certaine flight and triuiall questions which they moue vpon some simples presuming like Empericks vpon some experimentall skill which they arrogate to themselues but poore patients