in that very member wherewith he had offended A woman likewise having renounced her profession and feeling in herselfe no remorse of conscience for her fall went as she was wont to doe in the time of her rest and prosperity to the Bathes and Hot-houses to refresh herselfe as if all had had gone well with her but she was so seised upon and possessed by an evill Spirit that in stead of pleasure which she fought for she fell to lamenting and tormenting her owne flesh and chopt in pieces with her dainty teeth her rebellious tongue wherewith shee had spoken wicked words and dishonoured God and tasted meats offered to Idols and so this poore wretch whereas she should have wasted her selfe in teares of true repentance and in the true bath of grace and mercy because she had more care of cleansing her body from filth than her soule from sinne became corrupt and filthy both body and soule by the meanes of that uncleane spirit which God had given power to afflict her and armed her owne mouth which had tasted chewed and swallowed that cursed food furiously to rise against her selfe to destroy her so that she became her owne murtherer for she survived not long by reason that her bowels and intrails were choaked up to the throat with paine Another woman well stricken in yeares that in like manner had revolted from the Truth thrust her selfe notwithstanding into the assembly of the Faithfull as they were receiving the holy Sacrament But that holy food which nourished the soules of them that believed turned to her bane for she found there in stead of peace a sword in stead of norishment deadly and mortall poison in such sort that immediately after the receit of that holy Supper she began to be marvellously troubled and vexed in soule and felt the hand of God so heavy upon her for her offence committed in denying her Saviour to shun her persecution that trembling and stamping she fell downe dead There was also in like manner a certain man that having renounced his saith did notwithstanding present himselfe at the celebration of the holy Supper presuming to come and eat at his Table whom he had a little before denied but receiving into his hand part of the Sacrament as well as the rest and thinking to put it into his mouth it was turned into ashes whereupon he stood amazed and confounded in himselfe God manifesting in him that hee that revoked his faith and recoiled from Christ Jesus Christ Jesus would recoile from him give him over to death by depriving him of his grace and spoiling him of the power of his quickning and saving Spirit These are the fearfull examples of Gods Judgements which Saint Cyprian reporteth to have light upon back sliders in his time adding moreover that besides these many were possessed of devils robbed of their wits and inraged with fury and madnesse and all for this offence of Apostasie Amongst all the examples of our age of Gods severe justice upon Apostates the example of Francis Spiâ—ra an Italian Lawyer a man of credit and authority in his countrey is most pitifull and lamentable who having embraced the true Religion with marvellous zeal and made open profession of the same feared not freely to declare his opinion of every point of Doctrine that came in question and grew in knowledge every day more and more But it was not long ere he was complained of to the Popes Embassadour which when he understood and saw the danger wherein he was like to fall after he had long debated and disputed the matter in his owne conscience the counsell of the flesh and worldly wisedome prevailing he resolved at last to goe to the Embassadour to the intent to appease his wrath and do whatsoever he should command Thus comming to Venice and over-ruled with immoderate fear he confessed that he had done amisse craved pardon for the same promising ever after to be an obedient subject to the Popes Lawes and that which is more when it was enjoyned him that at his return home he should in his owne countrey openly recant his former profession he refused not but performed his recantation in due sort But it chanced very soone after that this miserable man fell sicke of body and soule and began to dispaire of Gods mercy towards him His Physitian perceiving his disposition judged that the cause of his bodies disease was a vehement conceit and thought of minde and therefore gave advice to minister counsell to his troubled minde very carefully that the cause being taken away the effect also might surcease To this end many learned men frequented him every day recalling into his minde and laying open before him many expresse places of Scripture touching the greatnesse of Gods mercy Which things he avouched to be true but said that those promises pertained not to him because he had renounced Christ Jesus and forsworne the known truth and that for this cause nothing was prepared for him but hell fire which already in soule hee saw and felt I would said he willingly if it were possible love God but it is altogether impossible I onely feare him without love These and such speeches used he with a stedfast countenance neither did his tongue at any time run at randome nor his answers savour of indiscretion or want of memory but advisedly warned all that stood by to take heed by his example how to listen too much to worldly wisedome especially when they should be called before men to professe the Religion of Christ. And lying in this extremity he refused all manner of sustenance rebuking and being angry with his sonnes that opened his mouth to make him swallow some food to sustaine him saying Since he had forsaken his Lord and Master all his creatures ought to forsake him I am afraid of every thing there is not a creature that hath not conspired to worke my destruction let me die let me die that I may goe and feele that unquenchable fire which already consumeth me and which I can by no meanes escape And thus hee died indeed pined to death in despaire and horrible torment of conscience Nichomachus a man that stoutly professed Christ Jesus in prosperity being brought to his triall at Troas and put into torments he denied him and being delivered by that meanes consented to offer sacrifice unto Idols But as soone as he had finished his sacrifice he was hoisted up by the spirit of darknesse whose darling now he was dashed against the earth so that his teeth biting his prophane tongue wherewith he had denied his Saviour in two he died continently Tamerus a professor of the true Religion was feduced by his brother to cleave unto Popery and to forsake his first love but for his defection from the truth the Lord gave him up into a ceprobate sense so that falling into despaire he hung himselfe Richard Denton a Blacksmith dwelling at Wels in Cambridge-shire having
be punished by man and that humane lawes can lay no hold upon them so much the rather God himselfe becommeth executioner of his owne justice upon their pates and in such sort that every man may perceive his hand to be on them Let any adversity or affliction light upon a man of low degree or which is poore and desolate no man considereth of it rightly but talking thereof mâ—n cease not to impute the cause of this poore soules misery either to poverty or want of succour or some other such like cause Therefore if any such be in griefe or by chance fallen into some pit and drowned or robbed and killed in the way by theeves straightway this is the saying of the world That it commeth thus to passe either because he was alone without company or destitute of help or not well looked to and regarded and thus they passe over the matter But as concerning great men when they are any way afflicted no such pretences or excuses can be alleadged seeing they want neither servants to attend upon them nor any other means of help to succor them therefore when these men are overtaken and surprised with any great evill which by no means they can eschew and when their bold and wicked enterprises are pursued and concluded with strange and lamentable events in this we must acknowledge an especiall hand of God who can intangle and pull downe the proudest and arrogantest He that lives and those whom the world feareth to meddle withall These proud gallants are they against whom God displaieth his banner of power more openly than against meaner and baser persons because these poore soules finde oftentimes to their paines that they are punished without cause and tormented and vexed by those tyrants not having committed any offence at all to deserve it whereas as Philip Comine saith who dare be so bold as to controll or reprehend a King and his favorites or to make enquiry of his misdeeds or having made inquisition of them who dare presume to informe the Iudge therof who dare stand up to accuse them who dare sit down to judge them Nay who dare take knowledge of them and lastly who dare assay to punish them Seeing then in this case that our worldly justice hath her hands bound behind her from executing that which is right it must needs be that the sovereigne Monarch of heaven and earth should mount up into his Throne of Iudgement and from thence give his definitive unchangable sentence to deliver up the most guilty and hainous sinners to those paines and torments which they have deserved and that after a strange and extraordinary manner which may serve for an example to all others CHAP. V. How all men both by the Law of God and Nature are inexcusable in their sinnes NOw to the end that no man should pretend ignorance for an excuse God hath bestowed upon every one a certaine knowledge and judgement of good and evill which being naturally engraven in the tables of mans heart is commonly called the Law of Nature wherby every mans owne conscience giveth sufficient testimony unto it selfe when in his most secret thoughts it either accuseth or excuseth him for there is not a man living which doth not know in his heart that he doth an evill deed when he wrongeth another although he had never been instructed elsewhere in that point So although that in Tarquinius Superbus time Cicero saith there was no written Law established in Rome forbidding the ravishing and deflouring of wives and virgins yet the wicked sonne of this Tarquine was not therefore lesse guilty of an hainous crime when contrary to the Law of Nature he violently robbed Lucrece of her chastity for no man can be ignorant that it is a most grievous crime to lay siege to the chastity of a married woman with such outrage and so the whole people of Rome did esteeme of it as a crime most wicked strange and intolerable and worthy of grievous punishment Every man knoweth thus much that hee ought not to doe that to another which he would not another should do to him which sentence the Emperour Severus made alwaies to bee spoken aloud and declared by the sound of the trumpet in the way of advertisement as often as punishment was taken upon any offendor as if it were a generall Law pertaining to all men This is that equity and justice which ought to be ingraffed in our hearts whereof nature her self is the schoolmistresse from this fountaine all humane and civill Lawes are derived if we had not rather say that they are derived from that true spring of equity which is in the Law of God which Law he hath given for a plaine and familiar manifestation of his will concerning just holy and reasonable things touching the service honour and glory which is due unto himselfe and the mutuall duty friendship and good will which men owe one to another whereunto he exhorteth and enticeth every one by faire and gracious promises and forbiddeth the contrary by great and terrible threatnings so gentle and mercifull is he towards us and desirous of our good This is that Law which was published before the face of more than six hundred thousand persons with the mighty and resounding noise of Trumpet with earthquake fire and smoake and with thunders and lightnings to make men more attentive to heare and more prepared to receive it with all humility feare and reverence and also to put them in minde that if they were disobedient and rebellious he wanted no power and ability to punish them for he hath lightning thunder and fire prepared instruments to execute his just vengeance which no creature under heaven is able to avoid when by the obstinate transgression of wicked men he is provoked to anger and indignation against them This is that holy law which hath been set forth by the Prophets by the rule whereof all their warnings exhortings and reproovings have been squared To this Law the onely begotten Son of God our Saviour and Redeemer Iesus Christ conformed his most holy doctrine bringing men to the true use and observation thereof from which they had declined and whereof he is the end the scope and perfect accomplishment so that so farre it is that a Christian man may be ignorant of it and have it in contempt that none can be counted and reputed a true Christian if hee frame not his life by the rule thereof if not fully yet at least as farre forth as hee is able otherwise what a shame and reproach is it for men to call themselves by the name of Gods children Christians and Catholiques and yet to doe every thing clean contrary to the will of God to make no reckoning of his Law to lead a dissolute and disordered life and to be as evill if not worse than the vilest miscreants and Infidels in the world God willeth and requireth that he alone should bee worshipped and prayed unto and yet the greater part of
writeth of him That the apple of his eye fell out before he died Maxentius and Licinius the one Emperour of Italy the other of the East perceiving how the Emperour Constantine that raigned in the West was had in great reputation for maintaining the cause of the Christians began also to doe the like but by and by their malice and hypocrisie discovered it selfe when they undertook to trouble and afflict those whom before they seemed to favour For which cause Constantine taking arms against them destroyed them both one after another for Maxentius thinking to save himselfe upon a Bridge on Tyber was deceived by the breaking of the Bridge and so drenched and drowned in the water Licinius was taken and put to death And thus two Tyrants ended their dayes for persecuting the Church of Christ. In the tenth yeare of the persecution of Dioclesian Galerius his chiefe minister and instrument in that practise fell into a grievous sicknesse having a sore risen in the neither part of his belly which consumed his privy members from whence swarmed great plenty of wormes engendred by the putrefaction This disease could not be holpen by any Chirurgery or Physick wherefore he confessed that it justly happened unto him for his monstrous cruelty towards the Christians and called in his proclamations which he had published against them Howbeit notwithstanding he died miserably and as some write slew himselfe CHAP. X. More examples of Persecutors SAint Bartholomew one of the twelve Apostles after hee had preached Christ Jesus unto the Indians and delivered them the Gospell written by Saint Mathew and had converted many unto the Faith albeit the miracles which he wrought were strange and supernatural for hee restored many diseased persons to their health and clensed King Polemius his daughter from an unclean spirit wherewith she was possessed yet in regard that he destroyed their Idoll Astaroth and bewraied the subtilties of Satan he was by Astyages Polemius younger brother at the instigation of the Idolatrous Priests first cruell beaten with clubs after fleyed and last of all beheaded But within thirty dayes after both the wicked King and the sacrilegious Priests were poffessed with devills and brought to a wretched and miserable death Aphraats that heavenly Philosopher going out of his Cloyster towards the Temple to feed the flocke of Christ with some wholesome food of sound Doctrine and being perceived by the Emperour Valeus and demanded whither he went he answered To pray for him and his kingdome Yea but said the Emperour it were more convenient for thee that professest thy selfe a Monke to remaine at home in contemplation than to stray abroad True answered this holy man if Christs sheep enjoyed peace but as it becommeth an honest Matron to sit still within doors nevertheles if her house were on fire and the flame inviâ—oned her should she not stirre to helpe to quench it And should I lye still and see my Countrey set on fire by the persecution Whereat the Emperour being netled threatned him with death and one of his chamberlaines taunting him for his boldnesse used him most currishly But presently as he went to the Baths to make them ready for the Emperour the hand of God stroke him with an Apoplexy that he fell downe dead into the waters Under the Empire of Iulian the Apostate all they that either conspired or practised the death of Cyrillus a Deacon of Heliopolis scituate neer to Libanus came to a miserable end for after that Constantine was deceased by whose authority the holy Martyr had broken downe many of their Images and Idoils the abhominable Idolaters did not onely murther him but also devoured his liver with bread as if it had been the sweetest morsell of meat in the world But the all-seeing eye of God saw their villany and his revengefull rod bruised them in peeces for their teeth wherewith they chewed that unnaturall food fell all out of their heads and their tongues wherewith they tasted it rotted and consumed to nothing and lastly their eyes which beheld it failed them and they became blinde And thus were they all served not one excepted bearing justly the markes of Gods wrath for so inhumane and unnaturall a deed At Tyre a City of Phoenicia under the raigne of Dioclesian many Christians that stoutly professed and maintained the Faith and Religion of Christ Jesus were after many tortures and destructions exposed to wilde beasts to be devoured as Beares Libards wilde Boares and Buls the savage basts though made fierce and furious by fires and swords yet I know not by what secret instinct resused once to touch them or to come neere them but turned their teeth upon the Infidels that were without and came to set them on upon the Saints and tore many of them in pieces in their steads Howbeit although they escaped the jawes of wilde beasts yet they escaped not the swords of them that were more savage than any beasts and though the bowels of Beares refused to entombe them yet were they intombed in the flouds and crowned with the Crowne of sacred martyrdome Processus and Martianus Keeper of the Prison wherein the Apostles Peter and Paul were inclosed at Rome seeing the miracles which were wrought by their hands believed in Christ and together with seven and forty other prisoners were baptized Which when Paulinus the Judge perceived hee injoyned them to lay aside their conscience and offer sacrifice to Idols But they readier to obey God than man could neither by threats nor violence bee brought to it but chose rather to bee beaten with clubs or consumed with fire or scourged with Scorpions as they were than to yeeld to deny their Maker by doing worship to devilish and monstrous Idols But that Judge the procurer of their martyrdomes shortly after became himselfe an object of Gods wrath when his eye-sight failed him and an evill spirit so possessed and tormented him that in the extremity of terrours and griefe he breathed out ere long his last and miserable breath Nicephorus reporteth How the Emperour Trajan having caused five holy Virgins to be burned for standing in the profession of the Truth commanded certaine Vessells to be made of their ashes mingled with brasse and dedicated them to the service of a publique Bath but the Bath that before time instilled a wholesome and healthfull vapour into mens bodies now became pernitious and fatall unto them for all that washed themselves therein felt presently such a giddinesse in their braines and such a dimnesse of sight that they fell downe dead forthwith The cause of which mischiefe being perceived by Trajan he melted againe the Virgin-moulded Vessells and erected five statues to the honour of them so choaking as it were one superstition with another to his owne eternall infamy and disgrace Agapitus a youngman of fifteene yeares of age being apprehended by the inhabitants of Preneste and grievously tormented for refusing to offer sacrifice to their Idols and when
them back homewards conducted by one appointed for the purpose who not suffering him to ride the common and beaten way but leading him a new course through uncoth paths brought him into an ambush of theeves placed there by the Bishops appointment who set upon him and murthered him at once but it is notoriously knowne that not one of that wicked rabble came to a good end but were consumed one after another In a City of Scotland called Fanum Ianius the chiefe mart Towne of that countrey soure of the chiefest citizens were accused by a Monke before the Cardinall for interrupting him in a Sermon and by him condemned to be hanged like heretickes when no other crime could bee laid to their charge save that they desired the Monke to tie himselfe to his text and not to rove up and down as he did without any certain scope or application of matter Now as they went to execution their wives fell downe at the Cardinals feet beseeching and intreating pardon for their husbands lives which he was so farre from granting that hee accused them also of heresie and especially one of them whose name was Helene for hee caused her young infant to be pulled out of her armes and her to be put to death with her husband for speaking certaine words against the Virgin Mary which by no testimonies could be proved against her Which doome the godly woman taking cheerfully and desiring to hang by her husbands side they would not doe him the least favour but drowned her in a River running by that it might be truly said that no jot of mercy or compassion remained in them But ere long the cruell Cardinall found as little favour at another Butchers hands that slewe him in his Chamber when hee dreamed of nothing lesse and in his Cardinalls robes hanged him over the wall to the view of men And thus God revenged the death of those innocents whose blouds never ceased crying for vengeance against their murtherer untill he had justly punished him in the same kinde and after the same fashion which hee had dealt with them Of this Cardinall called David Beton Buchananus reporteth many strange acts of Cruelty both in the Common-wealth of Scotland in matters of State as also in the Church in questions of Religion how he suborned a false testament in the dead Kings name whereby hee would have created himselfe chiefe Governour of the whole kingdom had not his knavery bin soon detected and how he set many together by the eares of the chiefest sort not caring which of them soonest perished so that they perished glutting himselfe thus with bloud But amongst all his cruelties the least was not extended towards the professors of the Gospell whom hee endeavoured by all means possible not to suppresse only but even utterly to extinguish Many he put to death with fire divers he forced to revolt with extreame torments and many he punished with banishment among whom was George Buchanan the reporter of this history who being taken and imprisoned escaped through a window whilest his keepers slept out of this Lions jaws Amongst the rest there was one George Sephocard a most learned and sincere Preacher of the word of God in whom his savage cruelty was most eminent This man abiding at one Iohn Cockburns house a man of no small reckoning account about 7 miles from Edenborough was first sent for by the Cardinall after being not delivered he together with the Vicegerent beset all the passages that he might not escape so that Cockburn was constrained to deliver him into their hands upon the assurance of Earl Bothuel who promised to protect him from all injuries How be it notwithstanding the Earles promise and the countermand of the Vicegerent refused to meddle with that innocent man yea and gave command That no proceedings should be made against him yet the bloudy tyrant condemned him tobe put to death also caused the condemnation to be executed and that which doth more aggravate his cruelty he caused a place to be prepared for him and his company hung with tapestry and silke very sumptuously that he might be a joyfull spectatour and eye-witnesse of his torments But marke how the just vengeancee of God shewed it selfe even in that place for as it is in the former story not long after this vile butcher was murthered in his owne house by the conspiracy of Normanus Leslius son to the Earle of Rothusia who early in a morning surprised his porters and all his servants in their sleepe and murthered him in his bed that had murthered so many Christians and to stop the rage and fury of his friends hung out his body for a spectacle unto them in the same place where a little before he had with such triumph beheld the tortures of that guiltlesse Martyr Insomuch that almost all did not only acknowledge the just view of Gods judgement herein but also remembred the last words of that constant Saint who being ready to give up the ghost urtered this speech in effect He that sitteth and beholdeth us so proudly in that high place shall within few dayes as reproachfully lye as now arrogantly he sitteth A story not much unlike in manner of punishment happened in the raign of King Henry the eighth to one Sir Ralph Ellerker Knight marshall in the towne of Calice when as Adam Damlip otherwise called George Bucker a sincere Preacher of the word of God was condemned to be executed as a traytour in pretence though indeed for nothing but defending the truth against the dregs of Popery would not suffer the innocent and godly man to declare either his faith or the cause he dyed for but said to the Executioner Dispatch the knave have done not permitting him to speake a word in his owne defence to cleere himselfe from the treason that was objected not proved against him but this cruell Tyrant swore he would not away before he saw the trayterous heart out Now this said Sir Ralph in a skirmish or road betweene the French and us at Bulloine was amongst others slaine whose only death sufficed not the enemies but after that they had stripped him starke naked they cut off his privy members and pulled the heart out of his body so lefthim a terrible example to all bloudy and mercilesse men for no cause was knowne why they should use him so rather than the rest but that it is written Faciens justitias Dominus judicia omnibus injuria pressis Thomas Bâ—aver one of the Privy Councellors of the King of Scots was a sore persecutor of the faithfull in that land for which cause lying on his death bead he fell into despaire and said he was damned and a cast-away and when the Monkes came about him to comfort him he cryed out upon them saying That their Masses and other trash would do him no good for he never beleeved them but all that he did was for love of lucre and not of Religion
were deluded and carried beside themselves by the subtilty of Satan in the yeare 1591 and of the raigne of Queene Elizabeth 3 3 the memory whereof is yet fresh in every mans head and mouth and therefore I will but briefly touch the same Edmund Coppinger and Henry Arthington two gentlemen being associated with one William Hacket sometimes a prophane very leud person but now converted in outward shew though not in inward affection were so seduced by his hypocriticall behaviour and the devils extraordinary devices that from one point to another they came at last to thinke that this Hacket was anointed to be the Judge of the world and therefore comming one day to Hackets lodging in London he told them they had been anointed of the Holy Ghost then Coppinger asked him what his pleasure was to be done Goe your way saith he and proclaim in the citie that Christ Jesus is come with his fanne in his hand to judge the earth and if they will not beleeve it let them come and kill me if they can Then Coppinger answered it should be done forthwith and thereupon like mad-men he and Arthington ran into the streets and proclaimed their message aforesaid and when by reason of the concourse of people they could not proceed any further they got up into two emptie carts in Cheape crying Repent repent for Christ Iesus is come to judge the world and then pulling a paper out of his bosome he read out of it many things touching the office and calling of Hacket how he represented Christ by taking part of his glorified body c. Besides they called themselves his Prophets one of Justice another of Mercy And thus these simple men were strangely deceived by a miraculous illusion of Satan who no doubt by strange apparitions had brought them into this vaine conceit But let us observe the end of it it was thus the whole citie being in amaze tooke Hacket the breeder of this device and arraigning him before the Maior and other Justices found him guiltie as well of this seditious practise as of speaking traiterous words against the Queene wherefore he was shortly after hanged on a gibbet in Cheap-side counterfeiting to his last his old devices and at length uttering horrible blasphemies against the Majestie of God As for his Prophets Coppinger dyed the next day in Bride well and Arthington was kept in prison upon hope of repentance CHAP. XX. Of Hypocrites AS God is a Spirit and Truth so he will be worshipped in truth of spirit and affection and not in hypocrisie and dissimulation for which cause he commandeth us by the mouth of Moses in the sixth and tenth chapters of Deuteronomy To love and honour him with all our heart with all our soule and all our strength which hypocrites are so farre from doing that they have nothing in them but a vaine shew of coined religion and so by that means break the first commandement thinking to bleare Gods eyes with their outward shewes and ceremonies as if he were like men to see nothing but that which is without and offereth it selfe to the view but it is quite contrary for it is he that descryeth the heart and searcheth out all the cornors thereof to see what truth and sinceritie is therein and therefore hateth and detesteth all hypocrisie and abhorreth all such service as is performed onely for fashion sake or in regard of men as appeareth by there proofes and checks which the Prophet Esay denounceth against the hypocrites of his time who made shew of honouring God but it was but with their lips and vaine and frivolous ceremonies not in truth of heart and affection so our Saviour Christ thundred out his curses against the Scribes and Pharisees with the judgements and vengeance of God for their hypocrisie With this sinne was Balaam that wicked Prophet upon whom God bestowed a certaine gift of prophesie infected for when King Balac sent for him to curse the Israelites he made as though he would not enterprise any thing contrary to the will of God as if he had him in great reverence and estimation neverthelesse being allured and enticed by the golden presents which were sent him he despised Gods commandement and discovered his own secret impietie and became an hired slave and enemy to the people of God but as he was in journey towards him there happened a strange and prodigious thing an Angell met him by the way with a naked sword in his hand ready to hew him in pieces whom when he himselfe being blinded with covetousnesse as with a vaile could not perceive â—is asse saw and was afraid and that which was more strange the poore bruit and dumbe beast speaking in a new language like a man reproved his masters madnesse Whereat he being sore amazed and notwithstanding all the asses humbling before the Angell yet pursued his unhappy journey to his eternall shame and confusion as one of an obstinate and heardened heart for he was forced by the Spirit of God to blesse those whom he had purposed to curse and yet further discovering his hypocrisie and envious disposition he was the cause why the Israelites provoked the wrath of God against themselves through the pernicious and deceivable counsell which he gave to the Madianites for which cause he himselfe was in the end slain In this range may we place Geesie Elizeus servant who being as is it were the Disciple and profest follower both of his Masters life and doctrine the true Prophet of God by whom for the further assurance and confirmation of the grace and blessing of God he had seene many notable and excellent miracles wrought yet notwithstanding was not true of heart but drawne aside by desire of lucre that caused him secretly unwitting to his master to ruâ—ne after Naaman the Syrian in his masters name for the money and apparell which his master had before refused and supposing his knavery to be so hidden that it could not come to light God discovered and pulled off his visard and punished as well the deed as the manner of doing hereof upon him and his posteritie with a perpetuall leprosie Saint Luke in the first chapter of the Acts doth at large describe the hypocrisie of Ananias and Saphira who that they might seeme zealous to Godward and charitable toward the Saints having sold a certaine possession under pretence of giving the price thereof among the poore retained covertly a certaine portion of it to their owne use being so impudent as to lye unto the Holy Ghost the President of the Church and founder of all secrets but being attached by the mouth of Peter a just and fearfull judgement of God fell on them both even their sudden death at the Apostles feet one after another Nicephorus telleth of one Philip the first Emperour that undertook the name and profession of Christ but by the report of other writers it proceeded not from any zeale of Religion
of Witches and Enchanters yet is he now so mad as to make them serve his owne turn and to use their counsels in his extremity adding this wickednesse to the number of his other great sins that the measure thereof might be full he went therefore to a Witch to seeke counsell who caused a Devill to appeare and speake unto him in the shape of Samuel and foretell him of Gods just judgement upon his wickednesse his utter and finall ruine and destruction An example not much unlike unto this in the event but most like in practise wee finde recorded of Natholicus the one and thirtieth King of the Scots who after he had unjustly usurped the Crowne and Seepter and installed himselfe by much bloudshed into the Throne of the Kingdome by open intrusion and no apparent shew of right sought by the same means to confirme and establish the Kingdome unto him And therefore as wickednesse is alwaies accompanied with suspition and feare hee sent one of his trustiest fâ—iends to a Witch to enquire of things to come both what successe he should have in his Kingdome and also how long he should live the Witch answered That he should not live long but should shortly be murthered not by his enemy but by his familiar friend when the Messenger urged instantly of whom she answered of him hee detesting her at first and abhorring the thought of any such villany yet at length considering that it was not safe to disclose the Witches answer and on the other side that it could not be concealed resolved for his most security rather to kill the Tyrant with the favour of many than to save him alive with the hazard of his owne head Therefore as soone as he was returned home being in secret alone with the King to declare unto him the Witches answer he slew him suddenly and gave him his just desert both for his horrible cruelty and wicked sorcery Let all them that make no conscience of running to Witches either for their lost goods or for recovery of their owne or friends health remember this example either for their instruction to amend or for their terrour if they continue that devillish practise Plutarch in the life of Romulus reporteth of one Cleomedes a man in proportion of body and cruell practises huge and gyant-like who for that he was the cause of the death of many little children and was pursued by the parents of those dead infants who sought to be revenged on him for that cruell part he hid himselfe in a coffer closing the lid fast to him but when the Coffin was broken up the Conjurer was not therein neither alive nor dead but was transported by the malitious spirit the Devill to a place of greater torment Antient Histories make mention of one Piso a man of credit and authority among the Romanes whom the Emperour Tiberius gave unto his sonne Germanicus for an help and counsellor in the mannaging of his affaires in Asia so well was he perswaded both of his sufficiency courage and loyalty towards him It chanced a while after that he was suspected to have bewitched to death the said Germanicus the signes and markes of which suspition were certaine dead mens bones digged out of the earth with divers charmes and curses and Germanicus name engraven in tables of lead and such like trash which Witches use to murther men withall were found with him Whereupon Tiberius himselfe accused him of that crime but would not have the ordinary Iudges to sit upon it but by speciall priviledge committed the enquiry thereof unto the Senate Piso when every man thought he was preparing himself for his defence against the morrow like a wise man to prevent all mischiefes was found dead the day before having his throat cut and as most likelihood was finding himselfe guilty of the fact and too weake to overweigh the other side forestalled the infamy of a most shamefull death by killing himselfe although there be that say that the Emperour sent one of purpose to dispatch him in this manner Olaus Magnus telleth of one Methotin a noble Magitian in old time that by his delusions did so deceive and blinde the poore ignorant people that they accounted him not onely for some mighty man but rather for some demy god and in token of the honour and reverence they bare him they offered up sacrifices unto him which he refused not but at last his knaveries and cousenages being laid open they killed him whom before they so much esteemed and because his dead carkasse with filthy stinke infected the approachers they digged it up and broached it upon the end of a stake to be devoured of wild beasts Another called Hollere as the same Author witnesseth plaid the like tricks in abusing the peoples minds as strongly as the other did insomuch that he was reputed also for a god for he joyned with his craft strength and power to make himselfe of greater authority in the world When he listed to passe over the sea he used no other ship but a bone figured with certaine charmes whereby he was transported as if both sayles and wind had helped and driven him forwards yet his inchanted bone was not of power to save him from being murthered of his enemies The same Author writeth That in Denmarke there was one Otto a great Rover and Pyrat by sea who used likewise to passe the seas without the help of ship or any other vessell and sunke and drowned all his enemies with the waves which by his cunning he stirred up but at last his cunning practise was over-reached by one more expert in his art than himselfe and as he had served others so was he himselfe served even swallowed up of the waves There was a Conjurer at Saltzburg that vaunted that he could gather together all the serpants within half a mile round about into a ditch and feed them and bring them up there and being about the experiment behold the old and grand serpent came in the while which whilest he thought by the force of his charmes to make to enter into the ditch among the rest he set upon and inclosed him round about like a girdle so strongly that hee drew him perforce into the ditch with him where he miserably died Mark here the wages of such wicked miscreants that as they make it their occupation to abuse simple folke they are themselves abused and cousened of the Devill who is a finer jugler than them all It was a very lamentable spectacle that chanced to the Governour of Mascon a Magitian whom the Devill snatched up in dinner while and hoisted aloft carrying him three times about the towne of Mascon in the presence of many beholders to whom he cried on this manner Help help my friends so that the whole towne stood amased thereat yea and the remembrance of this strange accident sticketh at this day fast in the minds of all the inhabitants of this country and
that could get out first neither durst they plead any more causes in that place untill it were mended Thus much reporteth Enguerran without mention of any decision of that matter Now forasmuch as nothing happeneth by chance it is most likely that God by that accident would give us to understand both how monstrous and detestable all such speeches are as also how men ought to feare and abhorre them seeing that the dumbe and sencelesse creatures and wood beams planks and stones and the earth it self by nature stedfast and fixed are so far from enduring them that they are moved withall There was a certaine blasphemous wretch that on a time being with his companions in a common lnne carowsing and making merry asked them if they thought a man was possessed with a soule or no Whereunto when some replyed That the soules of men were immortall and that some of them after release from the body lived in heaven others in Hell for so the Writings of the Prophets and Apostles instructed them hee answered and swore that he thought it nothing so but rather that there was no soule in man to survive the body but that heaven and hell were meere fables and inventions of Priests to get gaine by and for himselfe he was ready to sell his soule to any that would buy it then one of his companions tooke up a cup of wine and said Sell me thy soule for this cup of wine Which he receiving bad him take his soule and dranke up the wine Now Satan himselfe was there in a mans shape as commonly he is never far from such meetings and bought it againe of the other at the same price and by and by bad him give him his soule the whole company affirming it was meet he should have it since he had bought it not perceiving the Devill but presently he laying hold of this souleseller carried him into the aire before them all toward his own habitation to the great astonishment and amasement of the beholders and from that day to this he was never heard of but tryed to his pain that men had soules and that hell was no fable according to his godlesse and prophane opinion Pherecides by birth a Syrian a tragicall Poet and a Philosopher by profession boasted impudently against his schollers of his prosperity learning and wisedome saying that although he offered no sacrifices unto the gods yet he led a more quiet and prosperous life than those that were addicted to Religion and therefore he passed not for any such vanity But ere long his impiety was justly revenged for the Lord struck him with such a strange disease that out of his body issued such a slimy and filthy sweat and engendred such a number of lice and wormes that his bowels being consumed by them he died most miserably At Hambourgh not long since there lived an impious wretch that despised the preaching of the Gospell and the Ministers thereof accounting it as a vaine thing not worthy the beleeving of any man neither did he thus himself only but also seduced many others bringing them all to Atheisme and ungodlinesse Wherefore the Lord justly recompenced him for his impiety for he that before had no sence nor feeling of God in his conscience being touched with the finger of the Almighty grew to the contrary even to too much feeling and knowledge of God that he fell into extreme despaire affirming now his sinnes to be past forgivenesse because he had withdrawne others from the truth as well as himselfe whereas before he thought himselfe guilty of no sinne and that God was so just that he would not forgive him whereas before he thought there was no God so mighty is the operation of the Lord when he pleaseth to touch the conscience of man finally continuing in this desperate case he threw himselfe from the roofe of a house into a well and not finding water enough to drowne him he thrust his head into the bottome thereof till he had made an end of his life In the yeare of our Lord 1502 there lived one Hermannus Biswicke a grand Atheist and a notable instrument of Satan who affirmed that the world never had beginning as foolish Moses dreamed and that there was neither Angels nor devils nor hell nor future life but that the soules of men perished with their bodies besides that Christ Iesus was nothing else but a seducer of the people and that the faith of Christians and whatsoever else is contained in holy writs was meere vanity These articles full of impiety and blasphemy he constantly avouched to the death and for the same cause was together with his books burnt in Holland A certaine rich man at Holberstadium abounding with all manner of earthly commodities gave himselfe so much to his pleasure that he became besotted therewith in such sort that he made no reckoning of Religion nor any good thing but dared to say that if he might lead such a life continually upon earth he would not envy heaven nor desire any exchange Notwithstanding ere long contrary to his expectation the Lord cut him off by death and so his desired pleasure came to an end but after his death there appeared such diabolicall apparitions in his house that no man daring to inhabite it it became desolate for every day there appeared the Image of this Epicure sitting at a board with a number of his ghests drinking carousing and making good cheare and his table furnished with delicates and attended on by many that ministred necessaries unto them beside with minstrels trumpetters and such like In summe whatsoever he delighted in in his life time was there to be seene every day The Lord permitting Satan to bleare mens eyes with such strange shewes to the end that others might be terrified from such Epicurisme and impiety Not inferior to any of the former in Atheisme and impiety and equall to all in manner of punishment was one of our owne nation of fresh and late memory called Marlin by profession a scholler brought up from his youth in the Vniversity of Cambridge but by practise a Play-maker and a Poet of scurrility who by giving too large a swing to his owne wit and suffering his lust to have the full reines fell not without just desert to that great outrage and extremity that he denied God and his sonne Christ and not onely in word blasphemed the Trinity but also as it is credibly reported wrote books against it affirming our Saviour to be but a deceiver and Moses to be but a seducer of the people and the holy Bible to be but vaine and idle stories and all Religion but a device of policy But see what a hooke the Lord put in the nostrils of this barking dogge so it fell out that as he purposed to stab one whom he ought a grudge unto with his dagger the other party perceiving so avoyded the stroke that withall catching hold of his wrest he stabbed his owne
Metius Suffetius Generall of the Albanes procured the Fidenates to enter warre against the Romanes contrary to his oath which he had sworne unto them and being called by the Romanes to their succour and placed in an out Wing to helpe if need were whilest the rest were fighting hee drove away the time in ordering his men and ranging them into squadrons to see which part should have the best that he might joyne himselfe unto that side But Tullus the Roman King having obtained the victory and seeing the cowardise subtilty and treason of this Albane adjudged him to a most strange and vile death answerable to his fact for as he had in his body a double heart swimming between two streames and now ready to goe this way now that so was his body dismembred and torne in pieces by foure horses drawing foure contrary wayes to serve for an example to all others to be more fearefull and true observers of their oathes than he was In old time the Africans and Carthagenians were generally noted for perfidy and falshood above other Nations the cause of which bruit was principally that old subtile Souldier Annibal an old deceiver and a notorious Perjurer who by his crafts and cousenings which he wrought without Religion or feare of God raised up the evill report This subtile Foxe having made warre in Italy sixteen yeeres and all that while troubled and vexed the Romanes sore after many victories wastings of Countries ruines and sackings of Cities and cruell bloodshed was at length overcome by Scipio in his owne Conntrey and perceiving that his Country-men imputed the cause of their fall unto him and sought to make him odious to the Romanes by laying to his charge the breach of that league which was betwixt them he fled to Antiochus King of Syria not so much for his owne safeties fake as to continue his warre against the Romanes which he knew Antiochus to be in hammering because they came so neere unto his Frontiers but he found his hope frustrate for King Antiochus for the small trust he affied in him and the daily suspition of his treachery would not commit any charge of his Armie into his hand although for valiantnesse and prowesse he was second to none of that Age. It came to passe therefore that as soone as Antiochus was overthrown of the Romanes he was constrained to flie to Prusius King of Bythinia that tooke him into his protection but being as treacherous himselfe hee soone devised a meanes to betray him to Quintius the Generall of the Romane Armie which when Annibal understood and seeing that all passages for evasion were closed up and that he could not any way escape he poysoned himselfe and so miserably ended his treacherous life And thus the deceit which he practised towards others fell at length upon his owne Pate to his utter destruction Albeit that Perjurers and forswearers were to the Egyptians very odious and abominable as wee said before yet among them there was one Ptolome who to bereave his sister Arsinoe of her Kingdome stained himselfe with this villanous spot and thereby brought his purpose to passe for pretending and protesting great affection and love unto her in the way of marriage for such incestuous marriages were there through a perverse and damnable custome not unlawfull and avowing the same by solemne oath before her Embassadours did notwitstanding soon make knowne the drift of his intent which was to make himselfe King for being arrived in shew to consummate Marriage at his first approach hee caused his Nephewes her sonnes which she had by her former husband Lysimachus and were come forth from their mother to give him entertainment on the way to be slaine yea and lest they should escape his hands hee pursued them even to their mothers bosome and there murthered them and after expelling her also from her Kingdome caught the Crowne and reigned Tyrant in her roome all which mischiefe he committed by reason of the faithlesse oath which hee had taken and although that in such a case no oath ought to bee of force to confirme so lawfull affiance though it bee pronounced and taken by the name and in the Temple of their Idols yet notwithanding it being done with an evill conscience and to an evill purpose he that did it can be no lesse then a Perjurer But for this and other vices it came to passe that ere long he was conquered by the Gaules who taking him in battell slew him and cut off his head and having fastened it upon a Lance carried it in signe of victory and triumph up and downe the hoast A most notable example of the punishment of Perjurie and falshood in Vladislaus King of Hungary and his Army destroyed by the Turkes is set downe in Bonfinus his Hungarian History after this manner It fell out that the King of Hungary had so well bestirred himselfe against the Turks that Amurathes was glad upon unequall conditions and even to his owne hurt and their good to conclude a peace with him wherein it was agreed that certaine Provinces should be restored to the Hungarian which otherwise could not have been recovered but by great losse of men This league being made and the Articles thereof engrossed in both Languages with a solemne oath taken on both parties for the consirmation of the same behold the Cardinall of Florence Admirall of the Navie which lay upon the Sea Hellespont now called Saint Georges Arme which divideth Turkie from Greece sendeth Letters to the King of Hungary to perswade him to disannull and repeale this new concluded peace This practise likewise did Cardinall Iulian the Popes Legate in Hungarie with might and maine helpe forward which two good pillars of the Church inspired with on and the same spirit wrought together so effectually with the king that at that instance he falsified his oath broke the peace and sent to Constantinople to denounce Warre afresh and forthwith whilst their Embassadors were retyring their Garrisons out of Misia to bring them into their hands againe and had sent forty thousand crownes for the ransome of great men which were prisoners and had restored the Realme of Rascia and all their Captives according to the tenour of their late league not knowing of this new breach in the meane while I say he set forward his Armie towards the great Turkes in all expedition Now the Turkes secure and misdoubting nothing were set upon unawares by the King yet putting themselves in defence there grew a long and sharpe battell till Amurathes perceiving his side to decline and almost overcome pulled out of his bosome the Articles of the aforesaid peace lifting up his eyes to heaven uttered these speeches O Iesus Christ these are the leagues that thy Christians have made and confirmed by swearing by thy name and yet have broken them againe if thou beest a God as they say thou art revenge this injurie which is offered both thee and mee and punish
of Alphonsus King of Arragon and Sicily in an Isle towards Africa a certain hermit called Antonius a monstrous and prophane hypocrite that had so wicked a heart to devise and so filthy a throat to belch out vile and injurious speeches against Christ Iesus and the Virgin Mary his mother but hee was strieken with a most grievous disease even to be eaten and gnawne in pieces of wormes untill he died CHAP. XXX Of those that by cursing and denying God give themselves to the Devill AS concerning those that are addicted to much cursing and as if their throats were Hell it selfe to despightings and reviling against God that is blessed for ever and are so mad as to renounce him and give themselves to the Devill truely they worthily deserve to be forsaken of God and given over to the Devill indeed to go with him into everlasting perdition which hath been visibly experienced in our time upon certaine wretched persons which have been carried away by that wicked spirit to whom they gave themselves There was upon a time in Germany a certain naughty packe of a most wicked life and so evill brought up that at every word he spake almost the Devill was at one end if walking he chanced to tread awry or to stumble presently the Devill was in his mouth whereof albeit he was many times reproved by his neighbors and exhorted to correct and amend so vile and detestable a vice yet all was in vaine continuing therefore this evill and damnable custome it happened that as he was upon a time passing over a bridge he fell downe and in his fall gave these speeches Hoist up with an hundred Devils which he had no sooner spoken bat the Devill whom he called for so oft was at his elbow to strangle him and carry him away with him A certain souldier travelling through Marchia a country of Almaigne and finding himselfe evill at ease in his journey abode in an Inne till hee might recover his health and committed to the hostesses custody certaine money which he had about him Now a while after being recovered of his sicknesse required his money againe but she having consulted with her husband denied the receit and therefore the returne thereof and accused him of wrong in demanding that which she never received The souldier on the other side fretted amaine and accused her of cousenage Which stir when the goodman of the house understood though privy to all before yet dissembling tooke his wives part and thrust the souldier out of doors who being throughly chaâ—ed with that indignity drew his sword and ran at the doore with the point hereof whereat the host began to cry Theeves theeves saying that he would have entred his house by force so that the poore souldier was taken and cast into prison and by processe of law ready to be condemned to death but the very day wherein this hard sentence was to be pronounced and executed the Devill entred into the prison and told the souldier that he was condemned to die howbeit neverthelesse if hee would giue himselfe bodie and soule unto him he would promise to deliuer him out of their hands the prisoner answering said That he had rather die being innocent and without cause than to be delivered by that meanes againe the divell replied and propounded unto him the great danger wherein he was yea and used all cunning meanes possible to perswade him but seeing that he lost his labour he at length left his suit and promised him both helpe and revenge upon his enemies and that for nothing advising him moreover when he came to judgement to plead not guiltie and to declare his innocencie and their wrong and to intreat the Iudge to grant him one in a blew cap that stood by to be his advocate now this one in a blew cap was the Divell himselfe the souldier accepting his offer being called to the barre and indicted there of Felonie presently desired to have his Atturney who was there present to plead his cause then began the fine and craftie Doctor of the lawes to plead and defend his client verie cunningly affirming him to be falsly accused and consequently unjustly condemned and that his host did withhold his mony and had offered him violence and to prove his assertion he reckoned up every circumstance in the action yea the verie place were they had hidden the mony The host on the other side stood in deniall very impudently wishing the divell might take him if he had it then the subtill lawyer in the blew cap looking for no other vantage left pleading and fell to lay hold of the host and carrying him out of the Sessions house hoisted him into the ayre so high that he was never after seen nor heard of And thus was the souldier delivered from the execution of the law most strangely to the astonishment of all the beholders that were eye witnesses of that which happened to the for sworne and cursing host In the yere of our Lord 1551 at Megalopole neer Voildstat it happened in the time of the celebration of the feast of Pentecost the people being set on drikingng and carousing that a woman in the company commonly named the Devill in her oathes till that he being so often called on came of a sudden and carried her through the gate aloft into the ayre before them all who ran out astonished to see whither he would transport her and found her a while hanging in the ayre without the towne and then falling downe upon the ground dead About the same time there lived in a City of Savoy one that was both a monstrous swearer also otherwise very vicious who put many good men to much fruitlesse paines that in regard of their charge employed themselves often to admonish and reprove his wicked behaviour to the end he might amend it but all in vaine they might as well cast stones against the wind for he would not so much as listen to their words much lesse reforme his manners Now it fell out that the Pestilence being in the City he was infected with it and therefore withdrew himselfe a part with his wife another kinswoman into a garden which he had neither yet in this extremity did the Ministers forsake him but ceased not continually to exhort him to repentance and to lay before his eyes his faults and offences to the end to bring him into the right way But he was so farre from being touched or moved with these godly admonitions that he strove rather to harden himselfe more and more in his sinnes Therefore one day hasting forward his owne mishap as hee was swearing and denying God and giving himselfe to the Devill and calling for him with vehehemency behold even the Devill indeed snatched him up suddenly and heaved him into the aire his wife and kinswoman looking on and seeing him fly over their heads Being thus swiftly transported his cap tumbled from his head and was found at Rosne
Moluntius King of Brittaine besieged Ephesus a devillish woman enticed with the jewels which Brennus wore about him betraied the city into his hands But Brennus detesting this abhominable covetousnesse when he entred the city so loaded her with gold that he covered and oppressed her therewith In like manner Herodamon delivered up to the Emperour Aurelian his own native city Tianâ— in hope to save his owne life by betraying his countrey But it fell out quite contrary to his expectation for though Caesar had sworne not to leave a dog alive within the wals because they shut their gates against him and also his souldiers were instant and urgent upon his promise yet he spared the city and destroyed the traitor and quit himselfe of his promise by hanging up every dog in the city contrary to his owne intent and his armies expectation yet agreeable to his words and most correspondent to equity and true fortitude In the yeare of our Lord 1270 the Bishop of Colonea practising to spoile the city of her priviledges and reduce it under his own jurisdiction Hermanus Grinu Consul and chiefe Magistrate withstood his power and authority with all his force so that he could not bring his purpose about Wherefore two Cannons belonging to the Bishop sought to undermine this their enemy by policy and to take him out of the way for which end they invited him in very kind manner to dinner but when he was come they brought him into a young lyons denne which they kept in honour of the Bishop and unawares shut the doores upon him bidding him shift for himselfe thinking that it was impossible for him to escape out alive But the Consull perceiving in what great danger he was wrapped his cloake about his left arme and thrusting it into the mouth of the hungry Lion killed him with his right hand and so by the wonderfull providence of God escaped without hurt But the two traiterous Canons he caught right soone and hung them at their Cathedrall Church to their owne confusion and tertor of all traitors It was noble saying and worthy the marking of Augustus Caesar to Ramitalches King of Thracia who having forsaken Anthony to take part with Augustus boasted very insolently of his deserts towards him then Caesar dissembling his folly dranke to another King and said I love treason but I cannot commend nor trust a traitour The same also in effect Philip of Macedony and Iulius Caesar were wont to say That they loved a traitour at the first but when hee had finished his treason they hated him more than any other signifying that traitours deserved no retribution of thankes seeing their office was accepted for a time yet they themselves could never be counted lesse than naughty and disloyall persons for no honest man ever betrayed his countrey or his friend and what greater punishment can there be than this But for manifest proofe hereof let this one example serve in stead of many namely of Theodoricke King of Francia and Irminfride King of Thuringia who being profest foes and having sought many cruell battels at length the latter was conquered of the former by the lucky assistance of the Saxons This Irminfride thus subdued sued for pardon and release at the conquerours hand but hee was so farre from pittying his estate that he corrupted one Iringus a Nobleman and Irminfride's subject to murther his master which he performed kneeling before Theodoricke running him through with his sword at his backe which traiterous deed as soone as it was finished Theodoricke though the setter of it yet he could not abide the actour but bad him be packing for who could put trust in him that had betrayed his owne master At which words Iringus mad with anger and rage ranne at Theodericke also with purpose to have slaine him too but his hand missing the marke returned his sword into his owne bowels so that he fell down dead upon his masters carkasse What more notable and wonderfull judgement could happen surely it is an example worthy to be written in golden letters and to bee read and remembred of every one to teach men allegiance and obedience to their Princes and Superiors lest more sudden destruction than this fall upon them After the death of Ieronimus King of Siracuse Andronodorus and Themistius provoked by their wives descending of the bloud royall affected an usurpation of the crowne and wrought much hurt to the commonwealth but their practises being discovered the Pretors by the consent of the Senatours slew them both in the market place as rotten members of their common body and therefore fit to be cut off And when they understood how their wives Damarata and Harmonia were breeders and incensers of this mischiefe they sent to kill them also yea and Heraclia Harmonia her sister guiltlesse and witlesse of the crime for no other cause but because shee was sister unto her was pluckt from the Altar and slain in the tumult with two of her daughters that were virgins And thus is treason plagued not only in traitors themselves but also in those that are linked unto them in friendship and affinity The glory and reputation of Fabritius the Roman is eternised by that noble act of his in sending bound to Pyrrhus a traitor that offered to poyson him For albeit that Pyrrhus was a sworne enemy to the Roman Empire and also made war upon it yet would not Fabritius trecherously seeke his destruction but sent back that traitor unto him to be punished at his discretion What notable treasons did Hadrian the fourth Pope of Rome practise against the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa yet all was still frustrate for the Lord protected the Emperour and punished the traitour with a sudden and strange death for he was choaked with a flie which went downe his throat and stopped his breath and could by no meanes be pulled out till it made an end of him Besides many others that went about the same practise were brought to notable destructions as that counterfeit foole whom the Italians set on to murder Fredericke in his chamber which had been performed had he not leaped out of a window into a river and so saved his life for the foole being taken was throwne headlong out of the same window and broke his neeke As also an Arabian Doctor a grand poysoner who going about to infect with poyson his bridle his saddle his spurres and stirrops that as soone as he should but touch them hee might be poysoned was discovered and hanged for his labour In the yeare of our Lord 1364 when as the Emperour Charles the fourth and Philip Duke of Austria were ready to joyne battell in the field Charles distrusting his owne power undermined his foe by subtilty on this fashion he sent for three of Duke Philips captaines privily and persuaded them with promises of rewards to worke some meanes to terrifie the Duke and dissuade him from that battell which they performed with all diligence for they told
whereof much losse and inconvenience grew unto him as well by sea as by land After the first overthrow where one of his sisters was taken prisoner when he saw himselfe in so desperate a case that no hope of helpe was left he slew two other of his sisters with two of his wives having before this warre given his foruth sister who also was his wife a dram of poyson to make up the tragedy Afterward being vanquished in the night by Pompey the Roman and put to flight with onely three of his company as he went about to gather a new supply of forces behold tydings was brought him of the revolt of many of his Provinces and countries and of the delivering up of the rest of his daughters into Pompeyes hand and of the treason of his yong sonne Pharnax the gallantest of his sonnes and whom he purposed to make his successor who had joyned himselfe to his enemy which troubled and astonished him more than all the rest so that his courage being quite dashed and all hope of bettering his estate extinguished his other two daughters he poysoned with his owne hands and sought to practise the same experiment upon himselfe but that his body was too strong for the poison and killed the operation thereof by strength of nature but that which poyson could not effect his owne sword performed Though Pompey the great was never any of the most notorious offenders in Rome yet did this staine of cruelty ambition and desire of rule cleave unto him for first he joyning himselfe to Silla dealt most cruelly and unnaturally with Carbo whom after familiar conference in shew of friendship he caused suddenly to be slain without shew of mercy And with Quintius Valerius a wise and well lettered man with whom walking but two or three turnes he committed to a cruell and unexpected slaughter He executed severe punishment upon the enemies of Sylla especially those that were most of note and reputation and unmercifully put Brutus to death that had rendered himselfe unto his mercy It was he that devised that new combat of prisoners and wilde beasts to make the people sport withall a most inhumane and bloudy pastime to see humane and manly bodies torne and dismembred by brute and senselesse creatures which if we will beleeve Plutarch was the onely cause of his destruction Now after so many brave and gallant victories so many magnificent triumphs as the taking of King Hiarbas the overthrow of Domitius the conquest of Africa the pacifying of Spaine and the overwelding of the commotions that were therein the clearing of the sea coasts from Pirates the victory over Methridates the subduing of the Arabians the reducing of Syria into a Province the conquest of Iudea Pontus Armenia Cappadocia and Paphlagonia I say after all these worthy deeds of armes and mighty victories he was shamefully overcome by Iulius Caesar in that civill warre wherein it was generally thought that he had undertaken the better cause in maintaining the authority of the Senat and defending the liberty of the people as he pretended to doe being thus put to flight and making towards Aegypt in hope the King for that before time he had beene his tutor would protect and furnish him that he might recover himselfe againe he found himselfe so farre deceived of his expectation that in stead thereof the Kings people cut him short of his purpose and of his head both at once sending it for a token to Caesar to gratifie him withall Neverthelesse for all this his murtherers and betrayers as the yong King and all others that were causers of his death were justly punished for their cruelty by the hands of him whom they thought to gratifie for as Cleopatra the Kings sister thrâ—w her selfe downe at Caesars feet to entreat her portion of the kingdome and he being willing also to shew her that favour was by that means gotten into the kings palace forthwith the murtherers of Pompey beset the palace and went about to bring him into the same snare that they had caught Pompey in But Caesar after that he had sustained their greatest brunt frustrated their purposes and recovered his forces into his hands assayled them with such valour and prowesse on all sides that in short space he overcame this wicked and traiterous nation Amongst the slaine the dead body of this young and evill advised King was found overborne with dirt Theodotus the kings schoolemaster by whose instigation and advice both Pompey was slaine and this warre undertaken being escaped and fled towards Asia for his safety found even there sufficient instruments both to abridge his journey and shorten his life As for the rest of that murthering fellowship they ended their lives some here some there in that mercilesse element the sea and by that boisterous element the wind which though senselesse yet could not suffer them to escape unpunished Although that Iulius Caesar concerning whom more occasion of speech will be given hereafter did tyrannously usurp the key of the Roman Common-wealth and intruded himselfe into the Empire against the lawes customes and authority of the people and Senate yet was it accounted a most traiterous and cruell part to massacre and kill him in the Senate as he sat in his seat misdoubting no mishap as the sequell of their severall ends which were actors in this tragedy did declare for the vengeance of God was so manifestly displayed upon them that not one of the conspirators escaped but was pursued by sea and land so eagerly till there was nor one left of that wicked crue whom revenge had not overtaken Cassius being discomfited in the battell of Philippos supposing that Brutus had beene also in the same case used the same sword against himselfe a marvellous thing wherewith before he had smitten Caesar. Brutus also a few dayes after when a fearefull vision had appeared twice unto him by night understanding thereby that his time of life was but short though he had the better of his enemies the day before yet threw himselfe desperately into the greatest danger of the battell for his speedier dispatch but he was reserved to a more shamefull end for seeing his men slaine before him he retired hastily apart from view of men and setting his sword to his breast threw himselfe upon it piercing him through the body and so ended his life And thus was Caesars death revenged by Octavius and Anthony who remained conquerors after all that bloudy crew was brought to nought betwixt whom also ere long burst out a most cruell division which grew unto a furious and cruell battell by sea wherein Anthony was overcome and sent flying into Aegypt and there taught his owne hands to be his murtherers And such was the end of his life who had beene an actor in that pernicious office of the Triumvirship and a causer of the deaths of many men And forasmuch as Cleopatra was the first motive and fetter on of Anthony to this warre
then is the murdering of Parents especially detestable when a man is so possessed with the Devill or transported with a hellish fury that he lifteth up his hand against his own father or mother to put them to death this is so monstrous and inormous an impiety that the greatest Barbarians ever have had it in detestation wherefore it is also expresly commanded in the Law of God That whosoever smiteth his father or mother in what sort so ever though not to death yet he shall die the death If the disobedience unreverence and contempt of children towards their Parents are by the just judgements of God most rigorously punished as hath beene declared before in the first commandement of the second Table how much more then when violence is offered and above all when murder is committed Thus the Aegyptians punished this sinne they put the committants upon a stacke of thornes and burnt them alive having beaten their bodies beforehand with sharpe reeds made of purpose Solon being demanded why he appointed no punishment in his Lawes for Paricides answered that there was no necessity thinking that the wide world could not afford so wicked a wretch It is said that Romulus for the same cause ordained no punishment in his Common wealth for that crime but called every murderer a Paricide the one being in his opinion a thing execrable and the other impossible And in truth there was not for 600 yeeres space according to Plutarchs report found in Rome any one that had committed this execrable fact The first Paricide that Rome saw was Lucius Ostius after the first Punicke warre although other Writers affirme that M. Malliolus was the first and Lucius the second how soever it was they both underwent the punishment of the Law Pompeia which enacted That such offenders should be thrust into a sacke of Leather and an Ape a Cocke a Viper and a Dog put in to accompany them and then to be throwne into the water to the end that these beasts being enraged and animated one against another might wreke their teene upon them and so deprive them of life after a strange fashion being debarred of the use of the aire water and earth as unworthy to participate the very Elements with their deaths much lesse with their lives which kinde of punishment was after practised and confirmed by the constitution of Constantine the Great And albeit the regard of the punishment seemed terrible and the offence it selfe much more monstrous yet since that time there have beene many so perverse and exceeding wicked as to throw themselves headlong into that desperate gulfe As Cleodoricke sonne of Sigebert King of Austria who being tickled with an unsatiable lust of raigne through the deceivable perswasions of Cleodovius King of France slew his father Sigebert as he lay asleepe in his Tent in a forrest at noone time of the day who being weary with walking laid himselfe downe there to take his rest but for all that the wicked wretch was so farre from attaining his purpose that it fell out cleane contrary to his expectation for after his fathers death as he was viewing his treasures and ransacking his coffers one of Cleodovius factors strooke him suddenly and murdered him and so Cleodovius seised both upon the Crowne and Treasures After the death of Hircanus Aristobulus succeeded in the government of Judea which whilest he strove to reduce into a kingdome and to weare a crown contrary to the custome of his predecessors his mother other brethren contending with him about the same he cast in prison took Antigonus his next brother to be his associate but ere long a good gratefull son he famished her to death with hunger that had fed him to life with her teares even his naturall mother And after perswaded with false accusations caused his late best beloved Antigonus to be slaine by an ambush that lay by Strato's tower because in the time of his sicknesse he entred the Temple with pompe But the Lord called for quittance for the two bloodsheds immediately after the execution of them for his brothers blood was scarce washed off the ground ere in the extreamity of his sicknesse he was carried into the same place and there vomiting up blood at his mouth and nosthrils to be mingled with his brothers he fell downe starke dead not without horrible tokens of trembling and despaire Nero that unnaturall Tyran surpassed all that lived as in all other vices so in this for he attempted thrice by poyson to make away his mother Agrippina and when that could not prevaile by reason of her usuall Antidotes and preservatives hee assayed divers other meanes as first a devise whereby she should be crushed to death as she slept a loosened beame that should fall upon her and secondly by shipwracke both which when she escaped the one by discovery and the other by swimming he sent Anicâ—tus the Centurion to slaughter her with the sword who with his companions breaking up the gate of the City where she lay rushed into her Chamber and there murdered her It is written of her that when she saw there was no remedy but death she presented her belly unto the murderer and desired him to kill her in that part which had most deserved it by bringing into the world so vile a monster and of him that he came to view the dead carkasse of his mother and handled the members thereof commending this and discommending that as his fancy led him and in the meane time being thirsty to call for drinke so farre was he from all humanity and touch of Nature but he that spared not to embrue his hands in her blood that bred him was constrained ere long to offer violence to his own life which was most deere unto him Henry the son of Nicolotus Duke of Herulia had two wicked cruell and unkind sonnes by the yonger of whom with the consent of the elder he was traiterously murdered because he had married a third wife for which cause Nicolotus their cousin-german pursued them both with a just revenge for he deprived them of their kingdome and drove them into exile where they soon after perished Selymus the tenth Emperour of Turkes was so unnaturall a childe that he feared not to dispossesse his father Bajazet of the crown by treason and next to bereave him of his life by poyson And not satisfied therewith even to murder his two brethren and to destroy the whole stock of his own blood But when hee had raigned eight yeares vengeance found him out and being at his backe so corrupted and putrified his reins that the contagion spread it selfe over all his body so that he dyed a beast-like and irksome death and that in the same place where he had before oppressed his father Bajazet with an army to wit at Chiurle a city of Thracia in the year of our Lord 1520. in the moneth of September Charles the younger by surname called Crassus
and stones echoed France into his eares And on this manner was his flight to Sicilie King Charles in the meane while having by force and bloodshed to terrifie the rest taken two passages that were before him the whole Realme without any great resistance yeelded it selfe unto his mercy albeit that the young King had done what he could to withstand him But at length seeing the Neapolitanes ready to rebell and himselfe in danger to be taken prisoner he fled from the Castle of Naples and with a small company got certaine Brigandines wherein he sayled to the Island Ischia thirty miles from Naples saying at his departure this verse out of the Psalmes How vaine are the watchmen and gards of that City which is not garded and watched by the Lord which he often repeated and so long as Naples was in his view And thus was cruelty punished both in Ferdinand the father and Alphonso the sonne Artaxerxes Ochus the eight King of the Persians began his raigne with thus many murders he slew two of his owne brethren first secondly Euagoras King of Cyprus his partner and associate in the kingdome thirdly he tooke Gidon traiterously and was the cause of forty thousand mens deaths that were slaine and burned therein beside many other private murders and outrages which he committed for which cause the Lord in his justice rained downe vengeance upon his head for Bagoas one of his Princes ministred such a fatall cup to his stomacke that it mortified his senses and deprived him of his unmercifull soule and life and not onely upon his head but upon his Kingdome and his sonne Arsame also for he was also poysoned by the same Bagoas and his Kingdome was translated to Darius Prince of Armenia whom when the same Bagoas went about to make taste of the same cup which his predecessors did he was taken in his owne snare for Darius understanding his pretence made him drinke up his owne poyson which he provided for him and thus murder was revenged with murder and poyson with poyson according to the Decree of the Almighty who saith Eye for eye tooth for tooth c. In the yeare of the World 3659. Morindus a most cruell and bloody minded Prince raigned here in England who for his cruelties sake came to an unhappy and bloody end for out of the Irish seas came forth a Monster which destroyed much people whereof he hearing would of his valiant courage needs fight with it and was devoured of it so that it may truly here be said that one Monster devoured another There was as Aelianus reporteth a cruell and pernicious Tyran who to the end to prevent all practises of conspiracy and treason as Tyrans are ever naturally and upon desert timerous that might be devised against him enacted this Law among his subjects That no man should conferre with another either privately or publikely upon paine of death and so indeed he abrogated all civill society For speech as it was the beginning and birth of fellowship so it is the very joynt and glue thereof but what cared he for society that respected nothing but his owne safety hee was so farre from regarding the common good that when his subjects not daring to speake signified their mindes by signes he prohibited that also and that which is yet more when not daring to speake or yet make signes they fell to weeping and lamenting their misery he came with a band of men even to restraine their teares too but the multitudes rage being justly incensed they gave him such a desperat welcome that neither he nor his followers returned one of them alive And thus his abominable cruelty came to an end together with his life and that by those meanes which is to be observed by which he thought to preserve and maintaine them both Childericus who in the yeare 697 succeeded in the Kingdome of France Theodoricke that for his negligence and sluggish government was deposed and made of a King a Frier exercised barbarous and inhumane cruelty upon his subjects for he spared neither noble or ignoble but mixtly sent them to their graves without respect of cause or justice One of the noble sort he caused to be fastened to a stake and beaten with clubbes not to death but to chastisement which monstrous cruelty so incensed the peoples mind against him that there wanted no hands to take part with this club-beaten man against the Tyran his enemie Wherefore they layed wait for him as he came one day from hunting and murdered him together with his wife great with childe no man either willing or daring to defend him Tymocrates the King or rather Tyran of the Cyrenians will give place to none in this commendation of cruelty For he afflicted his subjects with many and monstrous calamities insomuch that he spared not the priests of his gods which commonly were in reverent regard among the Heathen As the bloody death of Menalippus Apollo's priest did witnesse whom to the end to marry his faire and beautifull wife Aretaphila he cruelly put to death how beit it prospered not with him as he desired for the good woman not contented with this sacrilegious contract sought rather meanes to revenge her first husbands death than to please this new letchers humour Wherefore she assayed by poyson to effect her wish and when that prevailed not she gave a yong daughter she had to Leander the Tyrans brother to wife who loved her exceedingly but with this condition that he should by some practise or other worke the death and destruction of his brother which indeed he performed for he so bribed one of the groomes of the Tyrans chamber that by his helpe he soone rid wicked Tymocrates out of the way by a speedy and deserved death But to abridge these long discourses let us looke into all times and ages and to the histories of all Countries and Nations and we shall finde that Tyrans have ever come to one destruction or other Diomedes the Thracian King fed his horses with mans flesh as with provender but was made at last provender for his owne horses himselfe by Hercules Calippus the Athenian that slew Dion his familiar friend and deposed Dionisius the Tyran and committed many other murders amongst the people was first banished Rheginum and then living in extreame necessity slaine by Leptines and Polysperchon Clephes the second King of the Lumbards for his savage cruelty towards his subjects was slaughtered by one of his friends Damasippus that massacred so many Citizens of Rome was cut off by Scylla Ecelinus that played the Tyran at Taurisium guelding Boyes deflowring Maydes mayming Matrons of their Dugs cutting children out of their mothers bellies and killing 1200 Patavians at once that were his friends was cut short in a battell In a Word if we read and consult Histories of all Countries and times we shall find seldome or never any notorious Tyran and oppressor of his subjects that came to
any good end but ever some notable judgement or other fell upon them CHAP. XV. Of those that are both cruell and disloyall NOw if it be a thing so unworthy and evill beseeming a Prince as nothing more to be stayned with the note of cruelty how much more dishonourable is it when with cruelty disloyalty and falshood is coupled and when he is not ashamed not onely to play the Tyran but also the traitour dissembler and hypocrite to the end hee may more freely poure out the â—ome of his rage against those that put confidence in him This is one of the foulest and vilest blots that can be wherewith the honour and reputation of a man is not onely stayned but blasted and blotted out not ever to be recovered for what perswasion can one have of such Or who is so fond as to put affiance in them This was one of the notorious vices of King Saul when maligning the prosperity of David he cunningly promoted him to be Generall of his Army and married him to one of his daughters to this end that by exposing him to the hazards perils of warre he might bring him to speedy destruction seeking besides other unlawfull means to put him to death by but what was the end of this unjust murderer we have declared in the former Chapter But above all that by treason and deceit made way unto their cruelty the Emperour Antonius surnamed Caracalla was the chiefe who to revenge himselfe more at full upon the Citizens of Alexandria in Aegypt feyned as if he would come see their City built by Alexander and receive an Oracle from their god Which when he approached neere unto the Alexandrians prepared to entertain him most honourably and being entred he went first to visite their Temples where to cast more colours upon his treachery hee offered many sacrifices in the mean while perceiving the people gathered together from all quarters to bid him welcome finding opportunity fitting his wicked and traiterous enterprise he gave commandement that all the young men of the Citie should assemble together at one place saying That hee would acquaint them to range themselves in battell after the manner of the Macedonians in honour of King Alexander But whilest they thus assembled together in mirth and bravery hee making as though he would bring them in array by going up and down amongst them and holding them in talke his army enclosed them on all sides then with drawing himselfe with Kis guard he gave the watch-word that they should rush upon them which was performed with such outrage that the poor credulous people being surprised at unawares were all most cruelly massacred There might you see the most horrible barbarous and incredible butchery of men that ever was heard of for besides those that were actors in this bloody tragedy there were others that drew the slaine bodies into great ditches and very often haled in them that were scarce dead yea and sometimes that were altogether alive which was the cause that divers souldiers perished at the same time when those that having some strength of life left being haled to the ditch held so fast by the halers that divers times both fell in together The bloud that was shed at this massacre was so much that the mouth of the River Nilus and the sea shore were died with the streams thereof that ran downe by smaller Rivers into those plain places Furthermore being desirous to obtain a victory over the Parthians that he might get himselfe fame and reputation thereby he passed not at what rate he bought it he sent therefore Embassadours with Letters and Presents to the King of Parthia to demand his daughter in marriage though he never intended any such thing and being non-suted at the first with a deniall yet pursued he his counterfeit purpose with much earnestnes and with solemne Oath protested his singular good affection and love that he bore unto her so that in the end the match was condescended unto by all parties whereof the Parthian people were not a little glad in hope of so durable a peace which by this marriage was like to be established betwixt them The King therefore with all his subjects being ready to entertain this new Bridegroom went out with one consent to meet him in the mid-way their encounter was in a fair plain where the Parthians having sent backe their horses being unarmed and prepared not for a day of battle but of marriage and disport gave him the most honourable welcome they could but the wicked varlet finding opportunity so fit set his armed souldiers upon the naked multitude and hewed in pieces the most part of them and had not the King with a few followers bestirred him well he had been served with the like sauce After which worthy exploit and bloudy stratagem he took his voyage backeward burning and spoiling the townes and villages as he went till he arrived at Charam a City in Mesopotamia where making his abode a while he had a fancy to walke one day into the fields and going apart from his company to unburden nature attended upon by one onely servant as he was putting downe his breeches another of his company ran in and strucke him through with his dagger Thus God blessed the World by taking out of it this wicked Tyran who by treason and treachery had spilt so much innocent bloud Seturus Galba another bird of the same feather exercised no lesse perfidious cruelty upon the people of three Cities in Lusitania for hee assembled them together in colour of providing for their common affaires but when hee had gotten them into his hands unarmed and weaponlesse he took nine thousand of the flower of their youth and partly committed them to the sword and partly sold them for bondslaves The disloyall and treacherous dealing of Stilico towards the Gothes how dear it cost him and all Italie beside Histories do sufficiently testifie for it fell out that the Gothes under the conduct of Allaricus entered Italie with a puissant and fearfull Army to know the cause why the Emperor Honorius with-held the pension which by vertue of a league and in recompence of their aid to the Empire in time of war was due unto them which by riper judgement and deliberation of the Councell was quieted and to preserve their Countrey from so imminent a tempest offer was made unto them of the Spaniards and French-men if they could recover them out of the hands of the Vandales which usurped over them so that incontinently they should take their journey over the Alpes towards them and depart their Coasts Which offer and gift the Gothes accepting did accordingly fulfill the condition and passed away without commiting any riot or any damages in their passages But as they were upon mount Cinis making toward France behold Stilico Honorius his father in law a man of a stirring stubborne and rash spirit pursueth and chargeth them with battell unawares and
that all the servants of the house being awaked ran thitherward and finding this gallant in the snare took him and for all his bauld crowne stripped him naked and cut off cleane his privy and adulterous parts and thus was this lecherous Priest served Pope Iohn the thirteenth a man as of wicked conversation in all things so especially abominable in whoredomes and adultery which good conditions whilest he pursued he was one day taken tardy in the plain fields whither he went to disport himselfe for he was found in the act of adultery and slaine forthwith and these are the godly fruits of those single life-lovers to whom the use of marriage is counted unlawfull and therefore forbidden but Adultery not once prohibited nor disallowed CHAP. XXXI Of such as are divorced without cause BY these and such like judgements it pleaseth God to make knowne unto men how much he desireth to have the estate of marriage maintained and preserved in the integrity and how much every one ought to take heed how to deprave or corrupt the same now then to proceed If it be a sin to take away ravish or intice to folly another mans wife shall we not thinke it an equall sin for a husband to forsake his wife and cast her off to take another she having not disanulled and cancelled the bond of marriage by adultery Yes verily for as concerning the permission of divorce to the Israelites under the law our Saviour himselfe expoundeth the meaning and intent thereof in the Gospell to be nothing else but a toleration for the hardnesse and stubbornnesse of their hearts and not a constitution from the beginning upon which occasion speaking of marriage and declaring the right and strength of the same he saith That whosoever putteth away his wife except it be for adultery and marrieth another committeth adultery and he that marrieth her that is put away committeth adultery also All which notwithstanding the great men of this world let loose themselves to this sin too licentiously as it appeareth by many examples as of Antiochus Theos son of Antiochus Soter King of Syria who to the end to goe with Ptolomie Philadelphus King of Aegypt and marrie his daughter Bernice cast off his wife Laodicea that had borne him children and tooke Bernice to be his wife but ere long he rejected her also and betrayed her to her enemies namely his son Callinicus who slew her with one of her sons and all that belonged unto her and then he tooke againe his old wife for which cause Ptolemie Euergetes son to Philadelphus renewed war upon him Herod the Tetrarch was so bewitched with the love of Herodias his brother Philips wife that to the end he might enjoy her he disclaimed his lawfull wife and sent her home to her father King Aretas who being touched and netled with this indignity and disgrace sought to revenge himselfe by armes and indeed made so hot war upon him and charged his army so furiously that it was discomfited by him after which shamefull losse he was by the Emperour Caligula's commandement banished to Lions there to end the residue of his daies Among the Romanes Marcus Antonius was noted for the most dissolute and impudent in this case of divorce for albeit that in the beginning of his triumvirship he forsooke his first wife to marry Octavius his sister yet hee proceeded further not content herewith but must needs forsake her also to be with Cleopatra the Queen of Aegypt from whence sprung out many great evils which at length fell upon his owne head to his finall ruine and destruction for when he saw himselfe in such straits that no meanes could be found to resist Octavius be sheathed with his owne hands his sword into his bowels when all his servants being requested refused to performe the same and being thus wounded he fell upon a little bed intreating those that were present to make an end of his daies but they all fled and left him in the chamber crying and tormenting himselfe untill such time that he was conveighed to the monument wherein Cleopatra was inclosed that he might die there Cleopatra seeing this pittifull spectacle all amased let downe chaines and cords from the high window and with the help of her two maids drew him up into the monument uniting their forces and doing what they could to get his poore carkasse though by a shamefull and undecent manner for the gate was locked and might not be opened and it was a lamentable sight to see his poore body all besmeared with blood and breathing now his last blast for he dyed as soone as he came to the top to be drawne up on that cruell fashion As for Cleopatra who by her flattering allurements ravished the heart of this miserable man and was cause of his second divorce shee played her true part also in this wofull tragedy and as she partaked of the sin so she did of the punishment For after she saw her selfe past hope of help and her sweet-heart dead she beat her owne breasts and tormented her selfe so much with sorrow that her bosome was bruised and halfe murdered with her blowes and her body in many places exulcerate with inflamations she pulled off her haire rent her face with her nailes and altogether infrensied with griefe melancholie and distresse was found fresh dead with her two maids lying at her fâ—â—t and this was the miserable end of those two who for enjoying of a few foolish and cursed pleasures together received in exchange infinite torments and vexations and at length unhappy deaths together in one and the same place verifying the olde proverbe For one pleasure a thousand dolours Charles the eighth King of France after he had been long time married to the daughter of the King of the Romanes sister to the Archduke of Austria was so evill advised as to returne her home againe upon no other occasion but to marrie the Dutchesse of Britaine the sole heire to her fathers Dukedome wherein he doubly injured his father in law the Romane King for he did not only reject his daughter but also deprived him of his wife the Dutchesse of Britaine whom by his substitute according to the manner of great Princes he had first espoused Bembus in his Venetian history handling this story somewhat mollifieth the fault when he saith that the Romane Kings daughter was never touched by King Charles in the way of marriage all the while she was there by reason of her unripe and overyoung yeares After a while after this new married King had given a hot alarme to all Italy and conquered the Realme of Naples as the Venetians were deliberating to take the matter in hand of themselves and to resist him Maximilian the Romane King solicited them in the same and thrust them forward as well that he might confederate himselfe with the Duke of Milan as that he might revenge the injury touching his repelled daughter so that by this meanes the
French K. was fore troubled at his returne having to withstand him all the Venetian forces with the most part of the Potentates of Italie notwithstanding he broke through them all after he had put the Venetians to the worst but being returned after this victorious and triumphant voyage it happened that one day as he led the Queen to the Castle of Amboise to see some some sport at Tenise he stroke his forehead against the upper door-poste of the gallery as he went in that he fell presently to the ground speechlesse and died incontinently in the place from whence though the filthiest and sluttishest place about the Castle they removed not his body but laid it on a bed of straw to the view of the world from two of the clocke in the afternoon till eleven at midnight and this good successe followed at last his so much desired divorce CHAP. XXVII Of those that either cause or authorise unlawfull Divorcements ALthough the Commandment of our Saviour Christ be very plain and manifest That man should not separate those whom God hath joyned together yet there are some so void of understanding and judgement that they make no conscience to dissolve those that by the bond of marriage are united Of which number was Sampsons father in Law who took his daughter first given in marriage to Sampson and gave her to another without any other reason save that he suspected that Sampson loved her not But what got he by it Marry this the Philistims provoked against him consumed him and his daughter with fire because that by the meanes of his injury Sampson had burned their corne their vineyards and their olive-trees After the same sort dealt Saul with David when he gave him his daughter Michol to Wife and afterward in despight and hatred of him took her away again and bestowed her upon another wherein as in many other things he shewed himselfe a wicked and prophane man and was worthily punished therefore as hath been before declared Hugh Spencer one of King Edward of Englands chiefest favourites insomuch that his ear and heart was at his pleasure was he that first persuaded the King to forsake and repudiate the Queen his Wife daughter to Philip the Faire King of France upon no other occasion but onely to satisfie his owne appetite and the better to follow his delights And thus by this meanes she was chased out of England and driven to retire to King Charles her brother where hoping to finde rest and refuge she was deceived for what by the crafts and practises of the English and what by the Popes authority who thrust himselfe into this action as his custom is she was constrained to dislodge her selfe and to change her countrey very speedily wherefore from thence she went to crave succour of the County of Henault who furnished her with certain forces and sent her towards England where being arrived and finding the people generally at her command and ready to do her service she set upon her enemy Hugh Spencer took him prisoner and put him to a shamefull death as he well deserved for he was also the causer of the deaths of many of the Nobles of the Realme therefore he was drawne through the streets of Hereford upon an hurdle and after his privie members his heart and head were cut off his four quarters were exalted in four severall places to the view of the world Now if these be found guilty that either directly make or indirectly procure divorcements shall we accuse them that allow and authorize the same without lawfull and just occasion No verily no though they be Popes that take it upon them as we reade Pope Alexander the sixth did who for the advancement of his haughty desires to gratifie and flatter Lewis the twelfth King of France sent him by his son a dispensation to put away his Wife daughter to King Lewis the eleventh because she was barren and counterfeit and to recontract Anne of Bretaigne the widow of Charles the eighth lately deceased But herein though barrennesse of the former was pretended yet the Duchie of the later was aimed at which before this time he could never attain unto But of what force and vertue this dispensation by right was or at least ought to be it is easie to perceive seeing it is not onely contrary to the words of the Gospel Matth. 19. but also to their owne decrees secund part quest 7. Hi qui matrimonium where in is imported that marriage ought not to be infringed for any default or imperfection no not of nature But Popes may maim and clip both the Word of God and all other writings and do what soever themselves liketh be it good or bad CHAP. XXXIII Of Incestuous persons ALthough Incest be a wicked and abominable sin and forbidden both by the Law of God and man in so much that the very heathen held it in detestation yet are there some so inordinately vicious and dissolute that they blush not once to pollute themselves with this filthinesse Reuben the Patriarch was one of this vile crue that shamed not to defile himselfe with Bilha his fathers concubine but he was cursed for his labour for whereas by right of eldership and birth he ought to have had a certain prerogative and authority over his brethren his excellency shed it selfe like water and he was surpassed by his brethren both in encrease of progeny and renowne Ammon one of King Davids sonnes was so strongly enchanted with the love of his sister Thamar that to the end to fulfill his lust he traiterously forced her to his will but Absalom her naturall brother hunting for opportunity of revenge for this indignity towards his sister invited him two yeares after to a banquet with his other brethren and after the same caused his men to murder him for a farewell The same Absalom that slew Amnon for Incest with his sister committed himselfe incest with his fathers concubines moved thereto by the wicked counsell of Achitophel that advised him to that infamous deed of defiling his fathers bed but it was the forerunner of his overthrow as we have already heard Divers of the Roman Empetours were so villanous and wretched as to make no bones of this sin with their owne sisters as Caligula Antonius and Commodus and some with their mothers as Nero so much was he given over and transported to all licentiousnesse Plutarch telleth us of one Cyanippus that being overcome with wine defloured his owne daughter Cyane but he was slain of her for his labour Neither do I thinke it so unnaturall a part for her to kill her father as in him to commit incest with his owne daughter for the Oracle lessened or rather approved her fault when it abhorred and chastened his crime for when Syracusa was grievously infected with the pestilence it was pronounced by the Oracle That the plague should continue till the wicked person was
many more whose hearts are passionate with love are blindfolded after the same sort like as poeticall Cupid is fained to be that not knowing what they take in hand they fall headlong into destruction ere they be aware Let us then be here advertised to pray unto God that he would purifie our drossie hearts and divert our wandring eyes from beholding vanity to be seduced thereby CHAP. XXXVI Of unlawfull gestures Idlenesse Gluttony Drunkennesse Dancing and other such like dissolutenesse LIke as if we would carry our selves chastly and uprightly before God it behoveth us to avoid all filthinesse and adultery so we must abstain from uncivill and dishonest gestures which are as it were badges of concupiscence and coales to set lust on fire and instruments to injure others withall From hence it was that Pompey caused one of his souldiers eyes to be put out in Spaine for thrusting his hand under a womans garment that was a Spaniard and for the same or like offence did Sertorius command a footman of his band to be cut in pieces O that we had in these daies such minded captaines that would sharply represse the wrongs and ravishments which are so common and usuall amongst men of war at this day and so uncontrolled they would not then doubtlesse be so rise and common as in these daies they are Kissing is no lesse to be eschewed than the former if it be not betwixt those that are tyed together by some bond of kindred or affinity as it was by antient custome of the Medes and Persians and Romanes also according to the report of Plutarch and Seneca and that which is more Tiberius Caesar forbad the often and daily practise thereof in that kinde as a thing not to be freqented but rather utterly abhorred though it be amongst kinsfolkes themselves It was esteemed an indignity among the Graecians to kisse any maid that was not in blood or assinity allyed unto them as it manifestly appeareth by the earnest suit and request of the wife of Pisistratus the Tyran of Athens to put to death a young man for kissing her daughter in the streets as he met her although it was nothing but love that moved him thereto Saint Augustine also affirmeth That he which wantonly kisseth a woman that is not his wife deserveth the whip It is true that the holy Scripture often mentioneth kissing but either betwixt father and childe or brethren or kinsfolkes or at least in a manner of salutation betwixt one another of acquaintance according to the custome of the people of God and sometimes also it is mentioned as a token of honour and reverence which the subject performeth to his superiour in this action In the former ages Christians used to kisse also but so that it was ever betwixt parties of acquaintance and in such sort that by this manner of greeting they testified to each other their true and sincere charity peace and union of heart and soule in the Lord. Such chearings and loving embracings were pure and holy not lascivious and wanton like the kisses of prophane and leacherous wretches and strumpets whereof Solomon maketh mention Furthermore every man ought to shun all meanes and occasions which may induce or entice them to uncleanenesse and amongst the rest especially Idlenesse which cannot chuse but be as it were a wide doore and passage for many vices to enter by as by experience we see in those that occupy themselves about no good nor profitable exercises but mispend their time in trifling and doing nothing and their wits either upon vaine and foolish conceit to the hurt of others or upon lascivious and unchaste thoughts to their owne overthrow whereas on the contrary to them that are well employed either in body or minde no such thing betideth wherefore wee ought to be here advertised every one of us to apply our selves to some honest and seemly trade answerable to our divers and severall estates and conditions and not to suffer our selves to be overgrowne with Idlenesse lest thereby we fall into mischiefe for whom the adversary that malicious and wicked one findeth in that case he knowes well how to fit them to his purpose and to set them about filthy and pernitious services Next to idlenesse the too much pampering the body with dainty and much food is to be eschewed for like as a fat and well fed horse winceth and kicketh against his rider so the pampered flesh rebelleth against God and a mans owne selfe This fulnesse of bread and abundance of â—â—shly delights was the cause of the destruction of Sodome and Gomorrah and therefore our Saviour to good purpose warneth us to take heed to our selves that we be not oppressed with surfetting and drunkennesse and the Apostle to take no thought for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof but to walke honestly not being given to gluttony and drunkennesse chambering and wantonnesse and in another place not to be drunke with wine wherein is excesse for besides the losse of time and mispence of goods the grievous diseases and pangs of the body and dulling and besotting of the wit which spring from intemperance many other great evils depend and wait thereon as whoredomes adulteries uncleannesses quarrels debates murders with many other such like disorders and mischiefes Noah that holy Patriarch by drinking too much wine not only discovered his owne shame but also was the occasion of that cruell curse which the Lord sent upon the posterity of Cham which even to this day lyeth heavy upon them Lot though he hated the sin of Sodome and escaped the punishment of Sodome yet being overcome with the wine of the mountaines he committed incest with his owne daughters and made a new Sodome of his owne family Balthasar rioting and revelling amongst his pots had the end both of life and kingdome denounced against him by a bodilesse hand-writing upon the wall the Lords decree Whilest Holofernes besotted his sences with excesse of wine and good cheare Iudith found meanes to cut off his head The Emperours Septimius Severus and Iovinianus dyed with eating and drinking too much Likewise a certaine African called Donitius overcharged his stomacke with so much food at supper that he dyed therewith Gregory of Tours reporteth of Childericke a Saxon that glutted himselfe so full of meat and drink over night that in the morning he was found choked in his bed In our memory there was a Priest in Rovergne neare Milan that dining with a rich farmer for his yeares dinner cheared himselfe so well and filled his belly so full that it burst in two and he dyed suddenly Alexander the great having invited many of his favourites and captaines to supper propounded a crowne in reward to him that should drinke most now the greatest drinker swallowed up foure steanes of wine and woon the prize being in value worth six hundred crownes but lost his life a jewell of greater
worth for he survived not three daies after the vile excesse besides the rest that strove with him in this goodly conflict of carousing one and forty of them dyed to beare him company The same Alexander was himselfe subject to wine and so distempered divers times therewith that he often slew his friends at the table in his drunkennesse whom in sobriety he loved dearest Plutarch telleth us of Armitus and Ciranippus two Syracusians that being drunk with wine committed incest with their owne daughters Cleomenes King of Lacedemonia being disposed to carouse after the manner of the Scythians dranke so much that he became and continued ever after sencelesse Anacreon the Poet a grand consumer of wine and a notable drunkard was choaked with the huske of a grape The monstrous and riotous excesses of divers Romane Emperours as Tiberius by name who was a companion of all drunkards is strange to be heard and almost incredible to be beleeved he loved wine so well that in stead of Tiberius they called him Biberius and in stead of Claudius Caldus and in stead of Nero Mero noting by those nicknames how great a drunkard he was The Earle of Aspremont after he had by infinite excesse exhausted all his substance being upon a day at S. Michael dranke so excessively that he dyed therewith Cyrillus a Citizen of Hippon had an ungracious son who leading a riotous and luxurious life in the middest of his drunkennesse killed his owne mother great with childe and his father that sought to restraine his sury and would have ravished his sister had she not escaped from him with many wounds Bonosus the Emperour is reported to have been such a notorious drunkard that he was said to be borne not to live but to drinke if any Embassadours came unto him he would make them drunke to the end to reveale their secrets he ended his life with misery even by hanging with this Epitaph That a tun not a man was hanged in that place Philostrates being in the bathes at Sinuessa devoured so much wine that he fell downe the staires and almost broke his neck with the fall Zeno the Emperour of the East was so notoriously given to excesse of meates and drinkes that his sences being benummed he would often lie as one that was dead wherefore being become odious to all men by his beastly qualities his wife Ariadne fell also in detestation of him and one day as he lay sencelesse she transported him into a tombe and throwing a great stone upon it pined him to death not suffering any to remove the stone or to yeeld him any succour and this was a just reward of his drunkennesse Pope Paulus the second beside the exceeding pompe of apparell which he used he was also very carefull for his throat for as Platina writeth of him he delighted in all kinde of exquisite dishes and delicate wine and that in superfluity by which immoderate and continuall surfeiting he fell into a grievous Apoplexy which quickly made an end of his life It is reported of him that he eat the day before he dyed two great Melons and that in a very good appetite when as the next night the Lord struck him with his heavy judgement Alexander the son of Basilius and brother of Leo the Emperour did so wallow and drowne himselfe in the gulfe of pleasure and intemperance that one day after he had stuffed himselfe too full of meat as he got upon his horse he burst a veine within his body whereat upwards and downewards issued such abundance of blood that his life and soule issued forth withall The moderne examples of Gods fearefull judgements upon drunkards not only in other countries but even in this Nation of ours are many and terrible all which if I should stand to report it would be matter for a whole booke Our reverend Judges in their severall circuits doe finde by experience that few murthers and manslaughters are committed which are not from this root of drunkennesse for when mens braines are heat with wine and strong drinke then their tongues are let loose to opprobrious speeches and thence proceed both sudden quarrels and deliberate challenges wherewith thousands are brought to their untimely ends Besides the Lord punisheth the Drunkard many waies first in his soule with impenitency and hardnesse of heart which commonly followeth this vice for as Saint Augustine saith As by too much raine the earth is resolved into durt and made unfit for tillage so by excessive drinking our bodies are altogether unfitted for â—he spirituall tillage and so can bring forth no good fruits of holinesse and righteousnesse but rather like biggest and marishes are fit to bâ—â—ed nothing but serpents frogâ— and vershine that is all manner of abominable sins and leathsome wickednesse Secondly in his body with deformednesse of feature filthy diseases and unseasonable death for excessive drinking breedeth crudities Rheumes Imposthumes Gouts Consumptions Apoplexies and such like whereof men perish before they are come to the halfe of their naturall yeares and this is one principall cause why men are now so short lived in respect of that they have â—â—en heretofore Thirdly in his estate for commonly poverty yea penury followeth this vice at the heeles as Solomon teacheth Pâ—ov 21. 27. And lastly with sudden death and destruction even in the middest of their drunken fits as wofull experience doth make manifest every day and almost in every corner of this land Within these few yeares of mine owne knowledge three not far from Huntington being overcome with drinke perished by drowning when being not able to rule their horses they were carried by them into the maine streame from whence they never came out alive againe but left behinde them visible markes of Gods justice for the terrour and example of others and yet what sin is more commonly used and lesse feared than this Concerning Dancing the usuall dependants of feasts and good cheare there is none of sound judgement that know not that they are baits and allurements to uncleanenesse and as it were instruments of bawdrie by reason whereof they were alwaies condemned among men of honour and reputation whether Romanes or Greekes and left for vile and base minded men to use And this may appeare by the reproach that Demosthenes the Orator gave to Philip of Macedony and his Courtiers in an Oration to the Athenians wherein he termed them common dancers and such as shamed not as soone as they had glutted their bellies with meate and their heads with wine to fall scurrilously a dancing As for the honourable Dames of Rome truly we shall never reade that any of them accustomed themselves to dance according to the report of Salust touching Sempronia whom he judged to be too fine a dancer and singer to be honourable withall as if these two could no more agree then fire and water Cicero in his apologie of Muraena rehearseth an objection of Cato against his client wherein
together riches for he exercised his wit in devising new tributes and payments and rejoyced his heart in nothing more for which causes there arose a grievous sedition at Constantinople against him wherein not onely the excellent and famous monuments of the Empire were burned but also forty thousand men slain and this was no small punishment for his oppression At Paris there is to be seene in the corne market a certaine monument hard at the mouth of the common sinke which conveyeth away all the filth out of the City the occasion whereof is reported to be this A certaine courtier seeing the king sad and melancholly for want of treasure counselled him to exact of every countriman that brought ware into the city but one penny and that but for two yeares together which when the King put in practise and found the exceeding commodity thereof he not onely continued that tax but also invented divers others to the great dammage of the common-wealth and enriching of his owne treasurie Wherefore he that put it first into his head when hee saw that he had not so much authority in dissuading as he had in persuading it to take punishment of himselfe for that inconsiderate deed and to warne others from attempting the like he commanded by his testament that his body should be buried in that common sinke to be an example of exaction and the filthinesse thereof Barnabe Vicount of Milan by the report of Paulus Iovius was an unconscionable oppressor of his subjects and tenants for he did not onely extort of them continuall imposts and payments but enjoyned them to keepe every one a dogge which if they came to any mishap or were either too fat or too leane the keeper was sure to be beaten or at least some fine to be set on his head This Tyran was taken by Iohn Galeacius and after seven moneths imprisonment poysoned to death Archigallo brother to Gorbonianus in nature though unlike in conditions for he was a good Prince whereas this was a tyran was crowned King of Britaine in the yeare of the world 3671 we may well place him in the ranke of oppressours for he deposed the Noblemen and exalted the ignoble he extorted from men their goods to enrich his treasure for which cause the Estates of the Realme deprived him of his royall Dignity and placed his younger brother Elydurus in his room after he had raigned five yeares Hardiknitus King of Denmarke after the death of Harold was ordained King of England in the year of our Lord 1041. This King as he was somewhat cruell for he caused the body of Harold to be taken up out of the Sepulclire and smiting off his head to be cast out into the River Thames because he had injured his mother Emma when he was alive so he was burdensom to his Subjects in tributes and exaction for which cause growing into hatred with God and his Subjects he was strucken with sudden death not without suspition of poysoning after he had raigned three yeares William Rufus second son of William the Conquerour succeeded his father as in the Kingdom of England so in disposition of nature for they were both cruell inconstant and covetous aud burdened their people with unreasonable taxes insomuch that what by the murraine of men by postilence and oppressions of them by exactions the tillage of the earth was put off for one year being the year 1099 whereby ensued great scarcity the year following throughout all the Land but for the oppression William was justly punished by sudden death when being at his disport of hunting he was wounded with an arrow glauncing from the bow of Tyrill a French Knight and so his tyranny and life ended together And here is further to be noted that the place where this King was slain was called New Forest in which same place Richard the Cousin germane of King William son to Duke Robert his brother was likewise slain This New Forest was made by William the Conquerour their father who plucked downe and depopulated divers Townes and Churches the compasse of 30. miles about to make this a Forest for wilde Beasts a most beastly sin yea a bloudy crying sin too too much practised in these dayes and that by great persons that make no conscience to turne Townes into pastures and men into sheep but let all them behold the just vengeance of God upon this Kings posterity for when then either cannot or will not revenge then God revengeth either in them or their posterity In the year 1548. the Commons of Guyenne Santonge and Augoulemois fell into a great Rebellion by reason of the extortions of the Customers and Farmours of Salt the Rebels in a few weekes grew to the number of fourty thousand men armed with clubs and staves who joyning with the Islanders by a generall consent ran upon the Officers of the Custome and with extreme sury put to sword all that they could take notwithstanding the King of Navarre sought by all meanes to appease them About the same time the Commons of Gascoigne rose in divers places upon the same causes and notwithstanding all that the Lord of Monneins the Kings Lieutenant and all other Officers could do they made a great spoil of many honourable Houses and massacre of much people insomuch that the Lord of Moneins himselfe was slain by them whilest he was making an Oration to them to pacifie their rage but at length these Rebels were suppressed by Francis of Lorraine Earle of Aumale and Anne of Mommorancye high Constable of France and the chief King-leaders and Captaines of them executed according to their deserts La Vergne was drawne in pieces by four horses L'Estonnac and the two brothers of Saulx had their heads cut off Tallemoigne and Galeferâ— the two Colonels of the Commons were broken upon the Wheele being first crowned with a crowne of burning iron as a punishment of the Soveraignty which they had usurped Thus the Lord punished both the one and the other and the one by the other the exactors for their oppression and the tumultuous Commons for their Rebellion Neither doth the Lord thus punish oppressours themselves but also they that either countenance or having authority do not punish the same as it appeareth by this example following In the year of our Lord 475. there lived one Corrannus a King of Scots who though he governed the people in peace and quietnesse a long space and was indeed a good Prince yet because his Chancellour Tomset used extortion and exaction amongst his Subjects and he being advertised thereof did not punish him he was slain traiterously by his owne Subjects It is not unworthy to be noted how Edward the Third King of England prospered a long while in the warres against France and got many worthy and wonderfull victories but when Prince Edward son unto the aforesaid Edward after conditions of peace concluded began to set taxes and impositions upon the Country