Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	cause_v	death_n	sin_n	1,479	5	5.7215	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A16241	Theatrum mundi the theatre or rule of the world, wherein may be sene the running race and course of euerye mans life, as touching miserie and felicity, wherin be contained wonderfull examples, learned deuises, to the ouerthrowe of vice, and exalting of vertue. wherevnto is added a learned, and maruellous worke of the excellencie of mankinde. Written in the Frenche & Latin tongues by Peter Boaystuau, and translated into English by Iohn Alday.; Theatre du monde. English	Boaistuau, Pierre, d. 1566.; Alday, John.	1566 (1566)	STC 3168; ESTC S102736	106,769	288

present him others with the smoke of torches and flames But thys thing is most to be maruelled at yea and most horrible to heare that the humaine malice shoulde be so greate that there hath ben some that haue mingled poyson with the water or singing cake and by this meanes hath caused to die Henrie the seuenth Emperor as I haue red in Fluschius in his first composition of medcinable things We maye reade in Histories that certaine Emperors durst not lie downe to rest in the night before y ● they had caused their beds to be visited and lien on and all the places of their chambers to be searched for feare that they had to be murthred or strangled in their sléepe others woulde not permit Barbers nor Chirurgions to touch their face for feare that in trimming of their head or bearde they wold take from them their life And yet at this present daye they are in such feare that they dare not put their meate into their mouthes before that one haue tasted therof Were it not better said Iulius Cesar to die once than to liue always in such feare and dread But what felicity can a king or a prince haue that hath vnder his gouernement so manye thousands of men he must watch for al heare the plaintes and cries of euerie one procure euery mans safegard prouoke some by liberall giftes to do well the others by terror and feare he muste be no lesse circumspect to nourish peace among his people than to defende hys Realme against the inuasion of the straunger without putting in count many other calamities that are vnder the scepter They commaunde all and and manye times one or two doeth gouerne them Pege the Florentine hathe made a perticular discourse of the infelicitie of Princes he meaneth of y ● wicked where he sayth that for the moste part thrée kindes of people are to them most agreable and familiar flatterers kepe the first ranck which are the chief enimies of veritie and that empoison their soules with a poyson so pestiferous and daungerous that it is cōtagious to all y e world their follie and temeritie they call it prudencie their cruelty is iustice their luxurious life desolutions and fornications are pleasures and pastimes they are couetous which they they call good husbandrie if they be prodigall they call it liberall in such sorte that there is no vice in a Prince but that they cloke it hide it vnder y e protexetie of some vertue The seconde sort are these inuentors of newe subsidies they reste no night but that in the Morning they bring some inuention or new practise to the Prince to drawe monye from the poore people they cause newe statutes to be erected they break forme reforme diminishe and adde they demaund confiscations and proscriptiōs in such sorte that all their studie is to make themselues rich on the calamities and miseries of the poore people There is yet another sort that vnder the shadowe of honestie counterfeiting good men haue alwayes the eye on other mens liuings and make the office of reformer of vices they accuse and espie out other mens liues they inuent wicked and false deuises yea and not content to get other mens goods but also séeke their death and by their meanes they cause manye a one to be put to death whose life before God are innocent For this cause it is that the Elders as Herodianus writeth if their Kinges or Princes had behaued them selues wickedlye in the administration of the publicke affaire they condemned them for diuels after their death and assembled in the temples with the Priestes praying openlye to the Gods not to receiue them but recommended them to the infernall powers to the ende that they might be grieuouslye tormented The which hath not bene onely obserued of the Elders before vs but also of certaine in our time as witnesseth Anthonius Geuara Crowner to the Emperor in a certaine Epistle wherein he sayeth that to the Viceroy of Sicilia for vengeance of the tyrannies that he had exercised against his subiectes after hys death they made this Epitaphe on hys tombe that followeth Qui propter nos homines propter nostram salutem descendit ad inferos Here you may sée the miseries wherin Princes are subiect Here are the thorns that they receiue in recompence of their brightnesse and royall dignitie whiche ought to be like a Lampe that giueth light to all the world But when that it is darkened with any vice it is more reprochable than in any other priuate person For they alone sinne not as Plato writeth by the fault that they commit but by the euill example that they giue if it be hard to be good as Hesiodeus writeth yet with more greater difficultie can Kings and Princes be for the abūdance of honors and deliciousnesse the which they sée that they enioye serueth them as a bayte to enduce them to euil and they are the verie lanternes of vices What was Saul before that he was made King his goodnesse is shewed in holy scripture whō God only did elect but neuerthelesse he made a sodaine Eclipse or chaunging Howe wonderfull was the beginning of the raign of king Salomon the which being plunged in royal delices gaue himself incontinently a praye to women Of .xxij. Kings of Iuda there is founde but fiue or six that haue continued in their vertue bountie As touching the Kings of Israel if thou wilt cōsider their liues from Ieroboam the sonne of Nabath euen to the last which were in nūber .xix. they haue all in general yll gouerned the affaires of the kingdome If thou do consider the estate of the Assirians Persians Grecians and Egyptians thou shalt finde more wicked than good Let vs consider what the Romane Emperors were which haue bene estéemed the most flourishing common welth in the worlde thou shalt find them so ouercomed with vices and all kinde of cruelties that I doe almoste adhorre to read in Histories their liuings so corrupt defiled What was the estate of their common wealth before that Silla Marius did chaunge it before that Catallina and Catulla did perturbe it before that Iulius Cesar and Pompeius did slaunder it before that Augustus and Marcus Antonius did destroy it before that Tiberius and Caligula did defame it before that Domitiā and Nero did depraue it For althoughe that they had made it riche with manye kingdomes and Lordships notwithstāding the vices that they brought with them are more greater than the kingdomes that they haue gained for the goods and richesse are lost but the vices remaine vnto this daye But what memory remaineth now of Romulus that founded it of Neuma Pompillius that erected the Capitol so hie of Ancus Martius that compassed it with walles of Brutius that deliuered it from tyrants of Camillius that draue out the French men Did not they shew by their doings what felicitie is in the principall the which is more subiect

she hath charged man with suche an vnsatiable appetite that he ceaseth not continuallye to séeke for newe and straunge kinde of meates and hauing founde to his appetite with greate payne he can abstaine himselfe but that he wyll take more than nedefull after the whiche commeth Surfets Rheumes Cancars and other infinite kindes of sickenesses But as touching beastes they content themselues with that that nature hathe prepared without chaunging or forcing their nature for to please their appetite Moreouer nature hath giuē them a complection so well ruled and gouerned that they neuer take more thā is requisite for their nourishment neyther in drinke nor in meat But as for man al the fruites of y e earth those of the trées the fishes of the sea and the Fowles of the aire doe not suffice him but in all points turning hys nature he doth disguise puffe vp change the substance into excesse and the nature into arte to the ende that by such vnsatiablenesse nature be angered and almost forced to take more than is nedefull so then when that nature is ouercharged and that the stomacke is wel filled all the braynes are troubled in such sorte that there is neither of them that can execute their office And I am ashamed that I must nedes tell it that the vnmeasurable delicatenesse that raigneth among Christians this day is the cause that there are many that are not ashamed to giue their bodies and their members to al kinde of vice and villanie and to all kinds of wickednesse howe execrable so euer they be euen in committing many fornications theftes fellonies And I doe maruell that the bellies of manye vnsatiable gluttons do not rot and bruste out by their greate excesse and in the meane time the poore Lazarus standeth at the gate redy to die for hunger and can not haue so much as the crommes that fall from theyr table And therfore such Godbellies or Bellygods are called by the Prophetes fatte Calues who by good reason may be compared to brute beastes for their soule which is the chiefest part they haue being in the bodie so perfumed with meats and drinkes is captiue as in a darke prison or dungeon where as it is almoste stifled and smuthered and the wits whiche are the instrumēts with the which she ought to be serued are buried therein as within the bowels of a beast and against such gluttons as make their belly their God the Prophet Esay crieth out saying Wo be to you that rise earlie to follow drunkennesse and to sit drinking till the Euening to the ende that the wine heate you The which vice at this present day is so familiar among men that there is not almost neither Nation or prouince but that is infected and that glorieth in their great drinking The Tartarians the Persians and the Gréekes haue celebrated drūkennesse among their chiefest triumphes and constrained them that were at their bankets to drinke or to goe their wayes The Macedonians were instructed of their Emperor Alexander to drinke without measure But aboue all Nations Italie hath got the price in the which as Plinie doth write drunkennesse in his time did so raigne that they did not only drink themselues out of al measure but also they constrained their Mares and Horses to doe the like Paulus Diacrus in his Historie of Lumbardes doth rehearse a thing almost monstrous of the vice of drunkēnesse of foure old mē that made a banket in the whiche they drunke the yeares of one another after the maner as followeth they ordeyned to drinke two to two and counted theyr age of yeares that they had and he that drunke to his companion should drinke so many times as he had liued yeres and the yongest of these foure was .lviij. yeres olde the seconde sixtye thrée the thirde lxxxvij and the fourth lxxxxij So that it was not knowen what they did eate at this banket either more or lesse but we know that he that drunke least did drinke lviij tasters of wine and the others so many as they had liued yeares in suche sorte that one of them did drinke lxxxxij times It is not therfore without a cause that this great Philosopher Plato knowyng the harme that wine bringeth to man saide that partly the Gods had sent wine for the punishment of man and to take vengeance of their sinnes causing them when that they are drunke to kyll and murther one another the which cōsidered of Cyneas Ambassadour of King Pyrrhus on a time when that he arriued in Egypt and that he had séene the excesse height of the vineyards in that countrie did saye that by good right that mother was hanged so highe seing she brought forth so daungerous a childe as the wine For this cause Androcides did admonish that great Monarch Alexāder that wine was the bloud of the earth and therefore he shoulde take héede howe to receyue it The which not being well obserued by him in his intemperancie killed Clytus burned the Citie of Percepolis and committed manye other foule and detestable crimes It is not therefore in this our age that these wicked vices of gluttonye and drunkennesse haue made their laste ende vpon the earth but it séemeth that they haue nowe made almost their comming in with man The transgression of our first parents Adam and Eua was the cause that the gate of Paradise was shut against vs. Esau solde hys birth right The great Prophet S. Iohn Baptist was cruellye slaine and murthered after that the cruel tyrant Kyng Herode had banke●ed The wicked riche man was damned for it is expressiuely saide in the Text that he fared deliciously and therfore was he buried in hel Noe being ouercome with wine slept with his priuie parts vncouered and was mocked of his children Loth being ouercome with wine did deflowre his owne daughters Nowe therfore we sée how much more ●auor nature hath shewed vnto beastes than vnto vs in that they do so moderate their appetites that they take no more than is necessarie for the preseruation of their health in such sort that they are not vexed with an infinite number of diseases as we are And if it happen that they are afflicted with anye harmes nature hath instructed them proper remedies without hauing refuge to Phisicke or Phisicions which vnder the colour of receiue chaunge R. into D. and make deceiue so that somtimes we buy full deare the trauell of them which manye times cause our death for the most part of their laxatiue medicines are no other than very hammers to beate downe men But if it happen that the beastes or fowles are sicke nature doth shewe them remedies As the wood Doues Iayes Merlings and Partriches the which purge theyr superfluities with Bay leaues The Pigeons Turtels and Hennes with the herbe Helxine The Torterels wil heale their biting with Cegue The Dogs and Cats when their bellies are too full will purge them in eating dewed herbes or grasse When the Deare are hurt they

anye thing in his net draweth it vp and so goeth away withall othersome there are that play all out and others that remayne vntill they are as full as spunges and in the ende they are made to restore all others also that doe nothing but inuent subsidies and séeke meanes to inlarge or multiplie the treasures of kings and so become riche with spoyling of the poore people And Princes do by thē many times as we do by our hogs we let them fatten to the ende to eate and deuour them afterwarde so are they suffered many times to enriche themselues for to be despoyled after when that they are so fat and one that is new come shal manytimes be preferred in their places here you may sée how y t these poore courtiers sel their liberty for to become rich they must obey al commaundements be they iust or vniust they must frame thē selues to laugh whē y e Prince laugheth to wéepe whē he wéepeth approue y ● whiche he approueth cōdemne that which he condemneth they must obey to al alter and chaunge wholy his nature to be seuere with those that are seuere sorowfull with those that are sorowfull and in a maner transforme themselues into the nature of him whō they will please or els to get nothing If the Prince be impudent they must be the like if he be cruell they must delight in bloudshed To be shorte they must frame themselues to all ordinances and maners of the Prince or whom they will please and yet many times one little offence stayneth all the seruice that one hath done in his life time The which those that assisted y ● Emperor Adrian did féele who when they were elected by him into hie estates and dignities by the reporte of diuers flatterers they had not only taken from them that which before he had giuen them but also they were declared to be his chiefe enimies The which Plato liuelye considering and foreséeing in the Court of the Atheniensis did prōptly quit their deliciousnesse and yet he coulde not so well take heede to himselfe but that he returned to Dennis a tyrant of Sicilie who in the ende solde him to Pirats of the sea But what happened to Xenon that olde sage graue Philosopher whom Phalaris in satisfaction of his seruice caused most cruelly to be put to death as also did the King of Cyprus Anacreō to the noble philosopher Anaxagoras and Nero his tutor Seneca Alexāder Calistenus for that he wo●● not worship him caused his féete to be cut of his eares his hāds also his eyes to be put out and so left in the mercie of a straight prison or dungeon wherein he finished most miserably his dayes Such hath bene many times the ende of a great number of learned men who bicause they woulde not obey to the fearfull affections of Monarchs loste their liues in recompence of their good seruice and wholesome counsels without putting in account the vices that frequent those that followe the Courte whereas the most part of humain thinges are abolished Many in y e Court put of their cappes to thée that woulde be glad to sée thy head from thy shoulders such bow their knée to do thee reuerence which would that they had broken their leg to cary thée to thy graue Many haue the name of Lord that meriteth y e name of a hangman there is alwayes I know not what nor how or one I vnderstand not who is the cause that incessantlye one complayneth altereth or els despiseth In the Courte if thou wilt be an adulterer thou shalt finde of thy complices if thou wilt quarrell thou shalt find to whom if thou wilt lie thou shalt find those that will approue thy lies if thou wilt steale thou shalte finde them that will shewe thée a thousand wayes howe if thou wilte be a carder or a dicer thou shalt finde them that will cog and playe with thée if thou wilt sweare and beare false witnesse thou shalte finde there thy like to be shorte if thou wylte giue thy selfe to all kynde of wyckednesse and vices thou shalt find there the very exāple giuers Here may you sée the life of my maisters the Courtiers which is no life but a continuall death Here you may sée wherin their youth is emploied whiche is not youth but a transitorie death Whē y ● they come to age knowest thou what they bring from thēce their gray heades their legges full of gouts their mouth hauing a naughtie smell their backe ful of paine their hearts ful of sorow and thought and their soule filled with sin to be short in the Court there is very little to write but muche to murmure at of the which things yf thou desier a more ample knowledge reade the worke that Dom Anthonie Guenera bishop of Mondouent and the Crowner of the Emperor and Eneas Siluius otherwise called Pope Pius which haue compassed twoo most excellent and perticular treatises of thys matter wherein they haue painted my maisters the Courtiers so in their coulors that they haue stayed the hope of adding to those that will discouer after them Let vs leaue speaking of y e Courtiers with their life so vnquiet and miserable and let vs contemplate a little the estate of Kings Princes Monarchs and Emperors for whome onely it séemeth that felicitie is created for if we consider all that maye render the life of man in tranquility happy and content we shall finde that fortune among all other mortall creatures hathe prouided for them prodigally What maketh mā more wonderfull in this worlde but goods richesse dignities Empire licēce to do good or euill without correction powre to exercise liberalitie all kind of volupteousnesse aswell of the spirite as of the bodie All that may be wished for for the contentation of man be it in apparell in meates or drinkes varietie in meates in magnificence in seruices in vestures that which maye tickle the memorie and flatter the concupiscence of the fleshe is prepared for them euen from their cradell for to conduct y e estate of their life in more happe and felicitie The discourse of which if we wil consider outwardlye there is not one but will confesse that they alone triumph oner that that others languish in But if that we will consider things more nearer and examine and waye them in a true ballance we shall find that the selfe same things that we thinke degrées for to attaine to felicitie and to cause them to be happie are the verie instruments of vice that cause them to haue more greater sorowes that doth render thē most vnfortunate but wherfore serueth their costlye ornaments and honorable seruices or delicate meates when that they are in continuall feare to be poysoned seduced and beguiled by their seruitors haue not we had the experience therof in our time doeth not Platina write of a certaine Pope that was poysoned by the siege with a paper that his seruant did

maruellous miserable difficill and perilous no doubt his issue and departing is not lesse and whereas we haue shewed manye straunge childings and dreadfull so is there also straunge sortes of death muche more horrible and wonderfull This therfore is the laste seale and laste confirmation of all the actes déedes of the infelicitie of oure life after that man hath sighed and sorrowed all hys lyfe vnder the vnsupportable déedes heauie burthens of all his euilles he is forced to liue always in feare waiting for death and oftentimes by vncredible torments At the whiche the greate Doctor Sainct Augustine maruelling setteth forth his complaint to God after this sorte O Lord after we haue sustained so manye miseries and afflictiōs the vntollerable stroke of death commeth that rauisheth thy creatures by infinite wayes and meanes some he ouercommeth with Feuers or Agues others by some extréeme dolor an other by hunger an other by thirst other by fier others by water others by iron others by poison others by feare others are smothered others are choked others are torne of wilde beasts others deuoured of foules of the ayre others are made meate for fishes and others for wormes and for al this man knoweth not his end when he thinketh himselfe moste at rest he falleth and perissheth It is therefore the most dreadfullest of all dreadfull y e most terriblest of all terrible when that the bodie separateth frō the soule but what spectacle is it to sée in a bed him that is oppressed with the pangs of death what shaking what feare what alteration and chaunging in all the bandes of nature the féete become colde y ● face pale the eyes bollow the lips and the mouth to retire the thombe to deminishe the tongue waxeth blacke the téeth doe close the breath faileth the sweate colde appeareth by violence of the sickenesse which is a certain token that nature is ouercome Then whē it commeth to the last gaspe or at the sorrowful departure that the soule maketh frō his habitacle all the vessels and bandes of nature are broken withoute putting in count the furious assaultes that the diuelles and wicked spirites reare against vs when y ● they are assured of our end for there is no inuention craft cōspiracy or practise but that is then wrought for to bring vs into a presumption to haue liued well that oure might be fixed vpon that false opinion and not on the mercie of Iesus Christ or els laying before vs an infinit number of grieuous and enormeous sinnes that we haue committed in oure life time to the ende to bring vs in mistrust or dispaire of Gods mercie it is the howre the moment and the poynt whereas Sathan doeth his powre to striue against God for to let or hinder the saluation of mankinde and he is more busier in these latter days for that he knoweth that his time is but short that the end of his kingdom is at hād therfore he is the more enflamed so that he doth practise that which he did when he knew that our Sauiour Iesus Christ drue neare to the possessed of diuels for he neuer rageth and tormenteth those more cruelly whō he doth possesse than when he knoweth that he muste depart For this cause it was that the Prophet Dauid did lament for his sonne Absalon so bitterlye saying I woulde that I had died for thée my childe knowing that he was wrapped with an infinite nūber of grieuous and enormious vices and sinnes Now when that they haue passed that path and disgested this peare of anguishe where is become their glorie where are their pomps and triumphes where are now their volupteousnes and wantonnesse where are their maiesties their excellencies and holinesse they are vanished as the shadow sayth the Psal It is chaunced to them as to the garmēt that the wormes haue eaten and as the wooll that the Moth hath deuoured saith the Prophet Esaye they are become a pray for wormes and serpents But let vs behold man when he is in his graue who euer saw a monster more hideous what is there more horribe and vile thā the deade creature behold the holynesse excellencie maiestie and dignitiy couered with a lumpe of earth here is hym that was cherished reuerenced and honoured euen to kisse his féete hands yet notwithstanding by a sodaine mutation he is become so abhominable that all the faire and bewtifull Tombes of Marble and Aliblaster all the faire statutes or Images Epitaphes and other funerall pompes can not so well cloke nor hide them but that it is well knowē that it is no other thing but a vile and stinking carin carcasse and to them it happeneth as Salomon writeth in his Wisedome what hath it profited them sayth he the pride and great abundance of riches all these things are passed as a shadow or as the Arrowe that is shot to the white or as the smoke that is dispersed with the wind or as the remembrance of an host that passeth by that is lodged for one day Let vs leaue therfore this bodie sléeping and resting in the earth as in a bed for a season this is the moste doubtfullest and perilloust acte of all the humaine tragedie It is that which Dauid feared so muche that he prayed God not to enter into iudgemēt with his seruaunt It behoueth that this creature appeare before the iudgement seate of God with such a terrour to those that consider it well that there is no member but shaketh it is the daye that the Prophet Esaye speaketh of that the Lorde will come like a tempest euerye ones heart shall fayle them and all the world astonied and then the paines shal be like the paine of a woman that trauelleth this is the daye of the Lorde he shall come as one full of wrath and indignation for to make the earth desert and roote out from thence the sinners the Sunne shall be darkened and the Planets shal bring forth no more light I will trouble sayth he the firmament and the earth shal moue out of his place bicause of the wroth indignation of the Lord God Heare also y e words of our sauiour Iesus Christ in Sainct Mathew euen as the lightning that riseth in the East and extendeth to the West so shal the comming of the sonne of man be the tribulation then shall be so great as the like hath not bene since the beginning of the worlde vntill now nor neuer shal be the like the Sunne shall be darkned and the Moone shall giue no more light the starres shall fall from Heauen and the waues of the sea shall rage and men shalbe amased with feare and y ● powres of Heauen shall moue Wo shall be in those dayes to them that are with child and to them that giue sucke but as the time of Noe was so shall the comming of the sonne of mā be for as in the dayes before the floud they did eate and