for three dayes after the tempest when he demaunded with greate feare whether the worlde stode still or not To conclude there was neither temple chapel nor other place of sanctuarie frée froÌ„ the furie of this tempest nor any corner of the towne dispensed withall for his malice the same raging indifferently vpon the whole citie leauing it so tottered and defaced that if there were paine in enduring the afflictions there is no lesse cause of pitie nowe to remember so greate a desolation Neither is it inough for the contentment of the reader nor sufficient to the discharge of my intent to preferre as it were paterns and familiar experience of these monstrous quarels skirmishes of the aire and Element aboue if in some sorâ—e I make you not priuie to the causes and motions of the same â–ª Whereof for a first authoritie Aristotle in his Metheors and bokes of the worlde giueth this reason There be .ij. sortes of vapors sayth he which ascend coÌ„tinually from the earth into the ayre wherof the one is hot moist and withal very massy and heuy which makes a stay of theÌ„ in the middle region of the ayre wher they are conuerted into a heauy thicknesse or grosse corruption and in the ende dissolued into watrie humoures as raine haile snowe and other like the other exhalations deriued of the humoures of the earth and drawne vp by the violence of the aire be of a more drie and hotte disposition which makes theÌ„ lighter in weight y â— same procuring them to a higher MouÌ„t euen to y e vttermost regioÌ„ where the extremitie of the heate forceth them to a fierie flame wherof procéede those blasing Cometes dragons and other like wonders in the Element whiche stirre vp an amaze in the people being ignorant of the cause And if it happen that those drie vapoures get place within any cloude they do so pierce and penetrate the most subtil part of it that there is forced a present vent which is the lightning and tremblyng of the heauen from the vehemencie of which conflict within the cloudes doe procéede the thunders and ratling of the skies in such sorte that it séemeth most often that the noyse is in the ayre and the trembling in the earth And yet be not all tempestes and stormes of wether referred altogether to causes naturall albeit it be the opinion of Aristotle and by him very diligently serched for that at certaine times diuels and euill spirites whose dominion and power as S. Paule writeth is chiefly in the ayre â–ª doe stirre vp and breede such monstrous motions when God is contented to giue them that libertie which is very well approued by diuers examples â–ª as well of prophane as sacred recorde And first of all in Iob wher Sathan hauing obteined as it were a licence or saufe conduict of the Lorde consumed by tempeste and fire the seruantes and cattail of the Prophete the like being also in experience amongst the Ethnikes for that according to diuerse of their recordes of credite at such time as the temple of Hamon of so great estimation among the Lybians flourished Sathan abused the people by many false miracles and sleightes of slender substance making them worship him vnder the form and figure of a Belier or by which meanes hauing heaped together an infinite treasure and Cambyses king of Persia sendyng hys armie to spoyle it and sacke the temple the Diuell stirred vp suche stormes and angrie motions in the Element of thunder and lightenings that the furie and flame thereof consumed and smoothered aboue Fiftie Thousande persons Plinie also with diuers others of the auncients affirme that the Hetrurians did so curiously obserue and marke the signes and motions in the Thunders that they did not only calculate of the successe but also gaue iudgement of the effect of diuers things and séemed able as it were by a predestination and forewarnyng appearing in these misticall influences of the Heauens to determine and appointe the very day of the death and lyfe of sundry greate estates for example wherof not long afore the fatall day of the Emperor Augustus Cesar the thunder had defaced the fyrst letter of his name as it stode engraued vpon a piller within the wall whiche the Augurers construed to a spéedie destruction of the emperour and that hée had but a hundred dayes to liue the rather bicause C being taken away ther rested but Esar which signifieth in the Hetrurian tong God and the Romains by the letter C accompte an hundred so that they both agréed that by the stroke of that thunder taking away C was figured the death of Cesar that within the hundreth day he shoulde be with the Gods Whiche chaunced accordingly for that the day of his death agréed with the sentence of their prediction A thing sure of great wonder the rather for that therein appeareth a maruellous power and subtiltie of the Diuell who by his Arte séemeth to discouer and prognosticate the deathe of so greate an Emperoure Aristotle wyth dyuers others of exquisite skill in the studie and reuelation of suche mysteries haue diuided the effectes and operations of those Lightenings and Thunders into thrée degrées the one burneth and consumeth all that commeth wythin hys power the other scorcheth and maketh blacke euery thing it toucheth the thyrde excéedeth them all in naâ—ure and qualitie and is almoste vtterly vnknowen to all the Philosophers for that it drayneth and dryeth vp the Wyne or other lycour wythout hurtyng the vessell or gyuyng it any vent howe close so euer it be it is of suche subtile force that it pierceth thorough euery thyng it melteth Golde and Syluer in the bagge without hurtyng the pursse it burneth and consumeth the apparell withoute touche of harme to any parte of the body that weareth them it smoothereth also the childe vnborne wythin the wombe wythout doyng harme to the mother whereof the chiefest reason wée haue of Recorde is broughte in by Cardanus in hys fyrste Booke de Subtilitate and his fourth boke de Varietate rerum wherein are described at large certayne causes and occasions of those thyngs And touchyng the examples I haue alleaged albeit they séeme straunge and wonderfull for the effect of Thunder yet are they of vndoubted truthe Besides wée haue read and also séene in oure tyme many valyaunt men put in feare wyth Thunder and dyuers greate personages broken in pieces murdered and slaine by such kinde of death The Pope Alexander celebratyng hys Masse on Easter day at Syenna and the diuell belyke pronouncing the passion or rather communicatyng with hys Papisticall ceremonies as he was vpon thys worde or clause of Consumatum est beholde suche a sodaine noise in the cloudes and opening of the Element beganne to houer and pierce into the Temple with such terrour that the Pope beyng dryuen to take day in perfourmyng the residue of hys prayers habandoned the Churche lefte his booke vnshutte for haste and forsooke his Cope and surplesse to make
Phrygia and Halderich were in one moment so couered with water and the sea so peopled with men and beastes crying with pitifull vehemencie that it séemed by them that God had forgotten his vowe made to Noe wherein he promised neuer to destroy mankinde by water againe Albeit the rage was so cruell that men were forced to climbe trées like birdes others ramped vpon the mountaines the mothers caste their children vpon the grounde to the ende they myghte with more spéede flée and shunne the furie of the element And to be short the desolation was suche that there was not only an infinite multitude of men women children and beasts drowned but that whiche was more to be lamented the corruption which sprang of the putrified bodies after the waters were retired to their olde chanel so infected the aire with a sodain plague that the rest which were saued from drownyng were destroyed by the miserable infection therof in suche sort that the Prouince remayned almoste deserte and inhabitable Wherein who list to beholde Flouds more freshe in memorie wherwith other Cities haue bene tormented let hym reade Carion in the Abridgement of his Chronicles and all those of Gasparde Contarenus in his learned boke of Philosophie whiche he made of the foure Elements ¶ The wonderful death of Plinie with a briefe description of the causes of fire whiche come of certaine openyngs of the earth LIke as it is straunge that the fyre falling from heauen should burne those places which it toucheth Euen so it is more monstrous to see the same issue from the earth without knowing where it firste tooke hir nouriture beginning and birth as this whereof Titus Liuius and Orseus make mention which sprang of the intrailes of the earth in the territorie of Calene which ceassed not burning by the space of thrée dayes thrée nights vntill it had committed to cinders about fyue acres of groūd drying so muche the moisture and humour of the grounde that not only the Corne and other frutes but also the trees with all their rootes were burnte and consumed Diuers Historians write that in the olde time the moste parte of the Realme of Scotland was by the like violente irruption of fire springing from an vnknowen opening and caue of the earth quite consumed and burned The cause whereof the Philosophers haue searched with great diligence and in the ende founde that Sulphur Allom Pitche and Water be the cause of the entertaining of that fire together with the very fatnesse of the ground and that fire after it hath founde a vente can not long continue without issuing with a wonderfull violent force And for the most part these flames haue bene diuers times séene of the people with great wonder terrour to them cōmonly about the Sepulchers and Churchyardes and other fat moyste places which was engendred of the fertilitie and moistnesse of the deade bodies who were there buried for men amongest all other creatures be of a very subtile and fat substance as is plainly shewed by that which is discouered in our time of the Sepulcher of Alexander Duke of Florence which although it were made of white Marble both massie heauie yet notwithstanding the fatnesse of y e bodie pierced distilled through the said Sepulcher piercing the bottome of the pillours thereof In like maner the moisture of the bodie of Alphonsus Aualus albeit the Phisitions had dried the same with salte and sande and inwrapped his bodie in leāde yet the fatnesse thereof spotted and spoiled not onely the stones aboue the Tombe but dropped through euery parte of the leade And there is also a mountaine called Hecla in the Isle of Islande whereof one George Agricola a man amongest others of our time worthie of memorie hath made mention reporting the same to caste such flames and making so great a a noise that it séemes to be made the same casting and darting greate stones withall vomitteth Sulphur smothering as in a gulphe all those which approch to beholde the nature of that fire whereby the common people of that cuntrie be brought in such an errour that they beleue that place to be y e prison of the damned Besides also manie Historiās write that there appeared in that place visions which shewe themselues visible and make their seruice to men they appeare for the moste part in the shape and figure of those which by some violent aduenture haue bene either killed or drowned and when those which they know makes their returne to their houses they aunswere them with maruellous complaint wéepingins willing them to returne to the mounte Hecla so sodainly passe vanishe awaye But for my part I haue alwaies thought that they be certaine disciples of the diuell which haue vowed them obedience in that place to deceiue the people being by nature of a Barbarous grosse capacitie whereof as we haue declared before y t the cause of these hideous and pepetuall flames is naturall so it also commeth of the fertilitie of the grounde together with the plentie of Sulphur wherewith the marchants loade so many shippes carying them into strange countreyes And moreouer the fatnesse of the groūde of this Islande as the Auncients and Historians at these dayes write is such and especially in the lowe countrey that they are constrained to féede their cattel but a smal time leaste they shoulde surfeit of the swéetnesse thereof so die as is dayly proued Neither let vs muse or be to curious in searching the cause of these flames of the mountaines so farre from vs for we haue the mounte Vesuue neare to Naples whereof Martial Strabo and Xiphilnius in the life of Seuerus the Emperour haue verye often in their writing made mention to be in times pastmost fertil is now by the continual embracements of the fire vtterlye ruinous and consumed and in the time of Titus Caesar it caste forth such plentie of fire that it burned twoo Cities and the smoke thereof rose so thick and high that it had welnigh darkened the Sunne making the dayes like to the night and all the fields thereabouts were so full of cinders that they seemed in heighte equall with the trées Wherein Plinie who raigned in the time of Vespasian the Emperour desiring to knowe the cause of the continual burning of this mountaine wente to sée it and approching too neare the same was at the sight thereof so astonished that he was immediatly surprised with the flame and his bodye thereby committed to ashes as you maye beholde in the pourtraite before that which is yet fresh in memorie in the yeare 1538. where it began againe to make so great an irruption that it feared al the people bordering vpō it We can in like maner bring in amongst these wonderful mountayns the mount Aetna otherwise called the mount Gibell in Sicile whereof S. Augustine hath made so often mention in hys workes and whiche Strabo witnesseth as one that hath not feared to mounte to the
an honeste feare to fall into a miserable dispaire In such sort that as we reade that the Egyptians were sometime scourged and afflicted wyth ten plagues at Gods hande so we may say by good right that the myserable suters and solicitoures of the lawe doe partycipate dayely wyth tenne thousandes whereof there is no difference as touchyng theyr tormentes sauyng y t the Egiptians plague was moued through their owne occasion by the prouidence of GOD and this of the Pleaders is incensed by the malice of men besides if the Egiptians were afflicted by the biting of beastes riuers running of bloud their landes swarming with Grassehoppers flies and gnatts and their people annoyde with Leprosie Botches and other lothsome diseases our poore pleaders are persecuted in attendyng the Presidentes paying the Notaryes brybing the Solicitoures and annointing their clarkes in the hand with double fée to vse duetie and reuerence to the iudge to clap and knele to the dore kepers and lastly pawne his land and credite to borow money to discharge it All which beside the toile and trauaile of their bodies are incident to the poore pleader without y t he makes any reckening vpoÌ„ what points he must forme his accusation what delayes are awarded to his cause how he must tender his demaund of the one side and challeÌ„ge his exceptions on the other make inquisition examin witnesses indure reproches and make perfect his processe and after that he must take a copie of it recorde it abreuiate it and lastly bring it to the opinion of the iudge from whose sentence for diuers respects he may appeale and remoue his processe bryng it to a higher Court with such infinite toile disquiet of minde that who coÌ„siders of them according to their value and merite in déede ought rather to be contented to lose one parte of his goodes than to get or buy any other at so deare a price which is the cause in déede why this learned bishop of Mâ—nodemo Anthonie de Guauara writ in a certain boke of his that the pleaders were the only true Saincts and Martirs of the world séeing that of the .vij. mortall sinnes they are not to be accused but of .iij. only bicause touching y e other iiij although they wold commit them yet had they neither the meane â—or leasure For how is it possible y t they should be proud seeing that they go continually with their hattes in their handes and sometimes with great humilitie solicite the iudge reserue a solemne reuerence to a pelting procurer lastly performe a fatte paiment to a scribling Notarie And how can they be touched wyth the sinne of couetousnesse séeing their pursses be neuer shut nor theyr hands come emptie out of them but making Idols bothe of maister aduocate and his wife doe neuer cease offring vnto theÌ„ till they haue left their pursse without a liuing And touching the sinne of slouth idlenesse they are voide of infection that way séeing that most commonly in place to passe the night in sléepe and naturall rest they are tormented with sorowes sighes and other passions of griefe and the day slippes away in drudging toile trotting from one place and other to procure expedition to their cause And lastly and least of all are they infected with gluttony seeing they must obserue neither times nor houres to fede their stomacke or procure them an appetite most commonly for expedition sake they eat standing wyth great grose morsels ill swallowed and worse disgested and all to be readie at the pallaice gate to salute hys councellour pul his aduocate by the sléeue make a signe to his clarke to remember his cause wherwith he concludes lastly that a processe is so dauÌ„gerous and venomous a Serpent that who would wishe any euill or heauie fortune to his enimie let him not desire to sée hym poore or miserable hated of others banished his Countrey afflicted with diseases nor threatned with present death But let him pray to God to giue him some crooked or intricate processe for in al the world can not be fouÌ„d a more cruell reuenge for a mannes enimie than to sée him plunged in a troublesom cause in the law ¶ A wonderfull Historie of a monstrous childe which was borne the same day that the Geneuois and Veniciens were reconciled CHAP. xxxix ALthough that nature as Galen witnesseth in his .xiiij. booke de vtilitate partiuÌ„ had an earnest desire that hir work should haue bene immortal if it might haue bene performed but for y t it was not lawful both by the corruptible matter of the elements sprite of the aire she made therefore a forge or helpe supuly for y e immortalitie for she fouÌ„d out a woÌ„derful mean y t in place of y e creature y t shuld die ther shuld be a supply of an other and therfore nature hath giuen to all creatures conuenieÌ„t instruments aswell to conceiue as engender But it is so that these instruments so ordained by nature although y t she had a care to make them perfecte yet there is found in them bothe vice and default as is afterwardes shewed by the forme of this creature wherin Hippocrates witnesseth in his booke De genitura wher he sheweth by the similitude of trees how these children issue from the bellie of theyr mother moÌ„strous and deformed saying thus that of force those bodies which cannot moue by reason of the straightnesse of the place must become the rather mishapen deformed like as trées before they issue out of the earth if they haue not libertie and scope to spring but be with holden by some let or hinderance grow crooked great in one parte and smal in an other Euen so it is of the childe if in the bellie of the mother the parties where he is nourished be more straight one than the other and that vice sayth he commeth of the narownesse of the place to straight in the wombe Wherupon arguing a litle before of the same matter he sheweth other reasons by the which childreÌ„ be made monstrous and deformed as by the natural diseases of the parents for if the foure kindes of humors whereof the séede is made be not wholly contributorie to y e secrete partes there shall be then some partie wanting Besides this he addeth further other reasons touching monstrous birthes as when the mother receiueth some blow or hurt or that the childe fortunes to be sicke in the bellie of hys mother either that the nourishment wherewith he ought to be relieued happen to slippe out of the wombe al which things be sufficient causes to make them hideous waÌ„ting or deformed And if we would consider with iudgement these reasons of Hippocrates treating vpon the generation of monsters we should without all dout finde that this whereof thou séest the portraict is engendred so mishapen by one of these causes which he shewed that is to say by the narownesse of the place wherein nature willing to create two found the
of man the Diamont deserues moste estimation who besides his violent clearenesse which of it selfe hath power to dimme our eyes as if it were the sodaine flashe of a thunder is of a hardnesse so infringible that it resistes not only the hammer or stroke of other mettall but it is also inuincible againste fire or flame Plinie in his last booke of his naturall histories writes that in his time the DiamoÌ„t was not founde but in the Courtes of Princes and that very rarely but nowe nature which since his age is become more bountifull doth yelde vs such plentie of it that there is not so meane a marchaunt mans wife at this day whose fingers are not decked with that Iewell Ezechiel and Zacharie twoo of the moste famous Prophetes in the Churche of GOD haue gyuen greate honour to this stone and not without cause for besides his common properties to withstande venom poyson charmes dreames enchauntementes and visions of the night yet hath he a moste wonderfull vertue to resiste fire according to the opinion of some Philosophers whose experience warrantes it to be of force to endure amyds the moste hotte burning coles that be for nine dayes continuallye without diminushing any parte of it such is the excellencie of this stone that waye albeit in this place it cannot séeme impertinent to my intent of true descriptions of stones to impart to the readers wherein both the AuncieÌ„t and late writers haue erred touching the reseruation of the properties of this stone Plinie with moste that were afore hym and Francisce Ruell professour of Phisike with Morbodeus a latter Poete writers not long since haue greatly abused the simplicitie of a number of people in persuading that the Adamant hath no power ouer the yron neither to smell nor drawe it if the Diamont be in place séeing the contrarie is proued by common and daily experience euen so they haue erred no lesse in that they assure the Diamont not to be vanished either by fire yron or other meane excepte onely by the bloud of aâ— hée goate for it is moste certaine that the hammer is of force to bruse and bring hym in pieces being striken with a strong hande I will not denie but that it excéedes all other stones in hardnesse and that it deuides and confoundes all other precious stones by his soliditie neither is he with ease to be polished or framed with other thing thaÌ„ with his owne lime pouder or duste with this further argumeÌ„t of his subtiltie hardnesse which y e Auncients did practise with greate maruel that y e point of a dart dagger or other instrument cutting being dipped in the pouder or forge of Diamont doth penetrat or pierce any armour for y e yron steele being chafed or stirred with the blow w t the vehement hardnesse of the forge makes it of power to pierce easely whatsoeuer resistes it Nature hath yet gyuen to the DiamoÌ„t another secret singular propertie no lesse maruelous than the other which is that being chaâ—ed it drawes a rushe or light strawe as the Ieat doth but not with such vehemencie Many other strange condicioÌ„s in a diamont could I preferre and the same approued both by forein and familiar writers but because they bring with them a suspicion of lightnesse or discredit I will reserue them for an other vse time and note vnto you in this last discourse of the diamont how nature in counterpaise of the sundry graces and good gyftes bestowed vpon it hath infected it with one speciall and mortall vice for that it is most venemouse and of suche fatall operation that it stoppes breath assone as it is dronke in pouder which some affirme to procéede of his extreme coldnesse and other holde it to moue by a violent gnawing in the bowels The greatest diamoÌ„t that euer was seene excéedes not in greatnesse an Almonde which as I haue hearde remaines amongest the Iewels of Solyman late Emperour of the Turkes Most writers haue gyuen the second place of honour for stones to y e Emeraud bycause that by his liuelye verdure he doth not onely solace the eye more than any other stone but also for delite and flourishing viewe it so surmountes both forrests trées and hearbes that nature séemes to contende with the earth to whome the price of gréennesse is due either to the Emeraud or y e plantes Touching the exellencie of this stone they write that it abhorres all vncleane and filthie liuers and is a special friend to chastitie the which they make good by an example experience in the Kyng of Hungarie who lying with his wife and hauing an Emeraud on his finger maruelled to sée it breake and conuert to many péeces which might also happen aswell by chaunce as come of any vertue in the stone séeing that of all other stones it is moste fraile tender The most true and credible properties attributed to this stone by most learned men be these First Aristotle giues councel to hang it at the heade of him that hath the falling sicknesse Rabie persuades that if a man drinke ix graines of it it drieth vp euil humors Sana Verola affirmeth that if it be layed to the thighe of a womaÌ„ feeling the paine of childe bearing it procures deliuerie Rasis Dioscorides will such as be infected with leprosye to drinke the pouder of an Emeraud wherunto as are diuerse other singularities so because they be not grounded vpon good substance let them persuade credit according to the wisedome of such as can iudge of them for my parte in suche causes of difference and doubt I had rather be carefull than curious but for a familiar example of the estimatioÌ„ and valewe of the Emeraud I maye boldely commende and bring in the honour of King Edward who hauing receiued a booke from Erasmus presented him with an Emeraud valued after his death at three thousande crownes whereof that famous clerke made so deare accompte that he had it on his finger euen at the instant of his death Suetonius writes that Nero was wont to discerne the eyes and lookes of ruffians and dashebucklers within an Emeraud Good Emeraudes do proue them selues by the touch stone called Lidia which if they be naturall and true they leaue a marke like the touche of brasse Saint Iohn in his Apocalipse hath giuen great honour to this stone That which the Auncients called a Carbuncle is no other thing than that which we commonly call a Rubie which takes his name by the similitude he hath in lighte with the burning coale the same being committed to the flames doth not onely resiste their force but excéedes them in clearenesse touching his giftes and properties the Philosophers moste commonly commende it of a vertue to chase awaye melancholye defende dreames and illusions of the night and to serue for a counterpoison againste all corrupte aire Ther be of them diuerse kindes as the Grenat and such other whereof I wil speake particularlye hereafter The
the whiche meanes we iudge to sée diuers sunnes We maye also sée the lyke in a table wel painted and polished which when we behold there appeareth to vs the shape of two or .iij. being but one in dede and as much we may say of y e Moone Thus haue we declared the very true causes wherfore appere so often .ij. or .iij Sunnes Moones let vs therfore now from henceforth search in nature the cause and beings of these things and stay no more at these fripperies deceiptes and dreames of the Astrologians iudicials who therby haue so oftentimes deceiued begiled vs that they oughte and deserue to be banished exiled from all cōmon wealths well gouerned for what trouble perplexitie and terrour haue they engendred in the consciences of a numbre of poore people As for example in the yere 1514. when they feared not with obstination to publishe openly in all places that there shoulde be in the moneth of February well nigh an vniuersall floud for that the coniunction of all the planets were in the signe of Pisces and notwithstandyng the day which should haue brought forth these waters was one of the moste faire and temperate days of the yere albeit many great personages fearefull of their prophecies made prouision of bisket flower ships and other like things propre to sayle withall fearyng to be surprised and drowned wyth the greate abundance of water whiche they before had tolde of Lette vs further from henceforth learne with Henry the .vij. king of Englande who reigned in oure tyme makyng no accompt of theyr deceytes but chastised their dreame who vpon the sodaine beyng made to vnderstande that one of the moste famous Astrologians of Englande had published in all places that he had found amongst the most hidden secretes of Astrologie that the King shoulde die before the next feast of Christmas commaunded that he should be brought before hym who after he had asked hym whether this talke were true and that the prognosticator had answered him that it was certaine and that he had founde this infallible in his constellation and natiuitie I pray thée then sayde the King tell me where the starres tell thée thou shalte kéepe thy Christmas this yeare To whom he answered he shoulde be in hys owne house with hys familie but I knowe very wel sayd the King that thy starres be lyers for thou shalt neither sée Moone Sunne Starres heauen nor thy familie this Christmasse putting hym presentely in the moste straight darke prison in the great tower of London where he continued till the feast was past Here you may sée how this true Astrologian was vsed remayning prisoner in extreme misery vntil after the feast kept of the natiuitie of Iesus Christe ¶ A wonderfull Historie of Flames of fyre which haue sprong out of the heades of diuers men CHAP. xxj IF there were but one onely Authour which had made mention of the Historie followyng although the truthe therof be sufficiently proued for whiche cause I haue the rather at this time placed it in these my wōders as a chiefe argument or coniecture in nature whereupon may be founded the cause notwithstanding seing so many learned men haue busied themselues to write therof together with so greate a number of faithfull authors witnessing the same in their works we ought the rather vpon their credite to beleue that whiche they haue sayd therin Titus Liuius in his thirde booke and thirde Decade Cicero in his seconde boke De diuinatione Valerius the great in his first boke and .vj. chapiter Frontinus in his secōd boke and .x. chapiter write that after the Scipions were surprised by their enimies and ouerthrowē and killed by the Spanyards and that Lucius Martius a Romaine knight making an oration to his souldiers exhorting to reuēgement they became astonished to see a great flame of fire issuing from his heade without doing to him any hurt which caused the armed men being moued with the sight of thys wonderfull flame to take heart and run so furiously vpon their enimies that they not onely killed xxvij thousande but also had a praie of a great number of captiues besides an inestimable riches they toke from the Carthaginiens Neither haue such fantasticall fyres sprong from the bodies of certaine men or appeared in one only but in many Wherof the same author Titus Liuius writeth in his first boke of things worthy of memory sithens the foundation of Rome the like to happen to Seruius Tullius who succéeded in the imperial seate Tarquinius Priscus from whose heade being yet but yong and as he slepte they sawe issue a flame of fyre whervpon the Quéene Tanaquil wife to the foresayd Priscus affirmed to hir husbād that this flame promised to hym greate good honour and prosperitie whiche afterwards chaunced for he maried not onely hir daughter but after the death of hir husband hée was Kyng of the Romaines And Plutarche and others haue written the lyke of Alexander when he foughte against the Barbariens being in the moste heate of the skirmish they sawe him all on fyre whiche caused a maruellous feare and terrour to his ennimies Euen so I knowe a certaine Physition at this day who writeth of the lyke in diuers of his histories chauncing in our time to a nere friende of his in Italy not onely at one time but at many Whereof as Plinius not onely in an other place maketh mention of the ryuer Trasimenus whyche was seene all on fyre but also maketh a certain discourse of these wonderfull flames whyche be seene aboute the bodies of men Also Aristotle in hys fyrst boke of Metheores treateth in lyke maner But to tell you myne opinion therein I can not any wayes gather the cause or foundation eyther of the one or other althoughe I haue promised to shewe the causes and reasons whervpon these wonders procede and take their beginnyng For if we wyll saye they be made by Arte As we haue séene very often in oure tyme certaine Ruffians vomite and caste forth of theyr mouthes certayne flames of burnyng Fyre whiche Atheneus in the fyrst boke of the Dipnosophistes and fouretenth Chapiter doth witnesse whiche coulde not happen as I thinke to the Histories before mentioned for that it hath chanced to greate lordes vpon whome these wonders haue bene moste proued by which meanes they being attended vpon wyth a greate numbre and multitude of persones the fraude thereof was easlyer discouered Wherefore it is moste expediente then to beléeue that they be wonders and deceytes of Sathan who was so familiar in the worlde passed that he inuented dayly newe wonders as is wytnessed in Exodus of the Magitiens of Pharao whiche conuerted Maydes into Serpentes and floudes of water into bloud whyche be matters as difficulte as to make flames of fyre issue or come from the bodies of men ¶ A Historie very notable of Prodigeous Loues CHAP. xxij I Am ashamed and almoste confused in my self that I must declare the wonderfull loue
was nothyng inferiour in prodigall allowance to his father These things be maruellous but there is nothing read of so monstrous in Nature as the riches and noblenessâ— of Pithius who neither was King Prince nor had anyâ— title of dignitie and notwithstanding he receiued and entertained by the space of a whole day the hoste of Xerxes sonne of the greate King Darius who were in number .vij. hundreth foure score and eighte thousande 〈◊〉 the same being no lesse strange vnto that which Herodotus Plinie and Budee write of him when he offred to Xerxes parting from his house to relieue and furnishe his campe fifty moneths with Corne. But least we should excede y e bondes or forsake the path of our first intention let vs retire where we lefte to our pompes and banquets amongest whome for a firste it behoueth vs to place in rancke Cleopatra Quene of Egipte who as Plutarch sayth had so pleasante delectable a phrase in talking that when she would dispose hir tong to entertaine any great Lorde she framed hir reason so tunably as though it had bene an armonious instrument of many strings whiche was the first gin or snare wherein thâ— Pigeon Marcus Antonius was taken for after he was infected with the swetenesse of hir diuine eloquence mixed or seasoned with a rare and wonderfull beautie together with an incredible magnificence in feasting and banqueting determined in place to pursue his causes of importance to make court vnto hir and so being captiue to hir good behauiour stoode more neede to be pitied than of other helpe althoughe he was at the first maister and Lorde yet in the ende he became vanquished and ouerthrowne But nowe to commende the noblenesse of Cleopatra you muste vnderstande what Plutarch writeth that Antonie going againste the Perthes he sente to summon hir to appeare personallie before him at suche time as he was in Cilicie to aunswere to the faultes and charges whereof she was accused knowing that she had giuen ayde and comforte to his enimies againste him but â—he being of a noble minde nothing fearefull or abashed of his threates put not on the apâ—â—â—ell of a person accused as was the custome of the Auncients but decked hir selfe with y e most sumptuous habits she had to 〈◊〉 nothing vnperfourmed y â— appertained vnto the settinâ— forth of so great a Princesse she caused to be trimmed a galey wherin she sayled to him by y e floud Cydius y e powpe wherof was of golde the ores of siluer and the saile of purple being shrowded vnder a tente trimmed with golde enuironed with singers and other heauenly instruments of musick besides all other things which might moue pleasure or coÌ„tentement to a man Whereupon Antonius knowing of hir comming sente to desire hir to supper but she being of hautie minde féeling-hir selfe tickled with such request sente him worde that if it pleased him to come to hir he shoulde be most welcome so much was hir coÌ„fidence in hir beautie eloquence and good behauiour for besides hir glistering beautie Nature had so endued hir with the perfect vnderstanding of diuers languages y t she was able to answere the Arabians the Syrians the Heâ—rues the Medes the Partheans the Ethiopians and the Troglodites withoute interpretour or construer which was the cause that Antonius séeing suche stoare of perfections in this wonderfull creature was incontinent surprised whereof we haue lefte hereunto to speake bycause the magnificence of the banquet made afterwardes by Cleopatra to Antonius hangeth thereupon Which with the sodaine encountre of of this newe beautie of Cleopatra made Antonius to commit to obliuion Octauia sister to Octauus Caesar his lawful wife the remembraunce and regarde of whome he séemed forthwith to exchaunge for a wanton delite in the braueries flatteries of his newe friend who by treate of time gouerned so well his amourous dispositeon with allurementes of contentation that if I woulde describe particularly hir liberall beautie which she vsed in the entertainement of Antonius according to the authoritie of Artheneus a Greeke writer I feare the nobilitie of it would take awaye the credit suche was hir pompe in hir selfe and such hir prodigalitie in expences Albeit what I prefer therin I appeale to the testimonie of the whole troupe of writers that haue dealte in the doings of Antonius Cleopatra who hauing employed all his sleightes pollicies in the deuice of newe delites for the more honour of hir Antonio she became extreme in one thing which was as they were in argumeÌ„t of the bountie of the feaste she said it was not equal and much lesse excede that which she was able to do vpon far lesse warning than this for saith she you cannot take me so vnprouided but that I shalbe able to entertaine you at the charges of a hundreth Sesterces in one banquet Antonius whiche was a very patron of prodigalitie prouoking an experience of hir saying argued against hir wherupon were iudges chosen on both sides and pawnes put in for the proufe of the contention Not long time after Antonius obseruing his aduantage of time with intent to visit hir without warning came vpoÌ„ a sodain to sup with hir when albeit he founde his table furnished with sundrie choices of exquisite meates yet was he of opinion that it was far vnder the value estimation of hir promise vntill he perceiued hir to take from hir eares twoo great and Orient pearles whereof she dissolued immediatly one dronke it in his presence and offring to perfourme the like of the other she was staied by the iudges who assured hir the victorie This pearle was of suche monstrous greatnesse that as Plinie affirmeth it waighed halfe an vnce whiche contained 80. quarettes the same being so massiue that it exceeded in weight the hugâ—st at this day by a quarter of an ounce which is the cause that Plinie commending the excellencie of that pearle calleth it y e only chief principal worke of Nature in that kinde and not without reason séeing the moste part of them which haue valued it do giue it an estimation of 2500. crounes And yet was this prodigalitie little or nothing in respect of the magnificall pompe whiche the Emperour Gecta vsed in his publike banquettes for he caused himselfe to be serued at the bâ—rdâ— with diuersitie of meates as fishe and fleshe in order of the Alphabet for all fowle and fishe that he could recouer â–ª that began with A he caused to be set on his table as a firste seruice as Austriges and suche others practising the like in the seconde course with B as Bustarde Bitter and suche lyke the same not fayling to come immediatly after y e first seruice was taken awaye and so consequently euery letter was honored with a seruice till the whole Alphabet was perfourmed hauing in deede Cookes and cators appointed for that purpose onely But what stande we so long in the searche of foraine prodigalities in banquets seeing
notwithstanding his memorie perfecte and sounde and yet sometime with the mortall assaultes of his passions he became immouable as a tronke or blocke hauing his eyes open with perfect knowledge of all the assistaunts his féeling albeit so far withdrawen that he would not stirre or moue what pricking or pinching so euer was offred him but the pange being retired and his bodie retourned to his former state of health quiet he would tell of many wonders in that qualme but most of al of .ij. men appearing afore him as in aâ—â—ision whereof the one bare the figure of a childe the other séemed to haue a more perfect age who also in the beginning of Lent appeared eftesoones vnto him with these wordes in order of speciall charge that if he woulde cause to be cut the prepuce he shoulde not féele any paine for .xl. dayes which he did and accordingly was deliuered of griefe for that time in the iust ende whereof his sorows began to returne in sorte as they did before and likewise the same .ij. men presented themselues afore him inuisible sauing to himselfe counsailyng him to caste hymselfe into the Sea vnto the nauell where tarying a certaine time his griefe shoulde ceasse and onely shoulde remaine a certaine slymie humour whiche woulde passe awaye whiche he did and founde an effecte of their aduise what wonderfull Philosophie is this of Sainct Augustine and what straunge apparaunce in visions But what more cause of wounder can be than to sée them priuie to the secretes of Phisicke all whiche sure as they bréede indifferent doubte and feare in suche as reade or heare of them and yet for my parte I haue not hearde nor redde eyther in prophane or sacred reporte anye thing more maruellous that waye than the vision of Cataldo Bishop of Tarento the same appearing in our time not without infecting many mens consciences with greate scrupule and doubte séeing that that vision hath lefte sufficient matter to trouble the most Theologians and Philosophers of the worlde This Cataldo a man holy in life being buried a thousande yeares past within the Bishoprike of Taronto appeared notwithstanding after â–ª the ende of such time in a nighte to a yong infante giuen altogether to God with expresse charge to vncouer a certaine vaulte in a place in the earth whiche he assigned hym wherein he had hidden whilest he was in the worlde a booke written with his owne hande whiche assoone as he had taken oute of the grounde he shoulde offer it immediatly to Ferdinando firste Kyng of Aragon and Naples raigning at that tyme. This childe for the small faith he gaue to the vision perfourmed not the charge giue him Whereunto albeit he was eftesones sollicited at sundry times yet he neuer vsed regarde to the persuasâ—â—n vntill one morning afore daye as he was in his prayers in the Churche he behelde Cataldo in his Byshoppes wéede and countenaunce of threatning seueritie who appeared sayd vnto him as thou haste gyuen slender credit to my wordes with lesse regarde to searche the booke and deliuer it to Ferdinando so assure thy selfe this time for all if thou refuse to perfourme the charge or once staie to attende an other sommonce thy punishement wil be to greate for thée to endure whiche laste threate stirred suche feare in the childe that the nexte morning he imparted the vision to the multitude who according to the strayte and too straunge tearmes of the same assembled very curiously to accompanie the childe to the place of charge where being arriued and vncouering the earth they founde a little coffer of leade so close and curiouslye wrought that the ayre or sounde had no place to enter in the bottome whereof they tooke vp a booke wherein were writen in forme of a prophecie the miseries plages and curses whiche should happen to the kingdome of Naples to the King Ferdinando and his children the same hauing so directly happened and succeded since as it may séeme the byshop did not erre or write false in one syllable For such was y e infortune of this miserable King Ferdinando to fall so déepe and desperatly into the ire of God that he was killed in the firste conflicte the like happening not long after to his eldest sonne Alfonsus who afore he coulde settle himselfe within the state Royall was put to flight by his enimies and dyed in miserable exile Suche was also the chaunce of Ferdinando his yonger sonne to whome as the kingdome was due by inheritaunce so death preuented his vse and possession of it and that in the floure of his age being so enuironed with warres that he had skarce leasure to take breath What otâ—â—r good was reserued to Federike sonnes sonne to the said Ferdinando than that he sawe sacked and burned afore his eyes his countrey his people bathing in the suddes of their owne bloud and his owne lyfe in the ende committed to the mercy of his mortall enimies And lastly if we well consider what fortune hath gouerned this kingdome of Naples withall giue faith to the authoritie of suche as haue written truly of it we shall finde that of al the kingdoms of the earth only this state of Naples hath excéeded in reuolution mutation persecution and losse of bloud the same making it séeme in déed and as it is and may be most properly termed the very but and marke whereat fortune hath delited to vnloase hir cursed and sharpe arrowe a very gulphe and sinke out of the whiche were drawne all the miseries whiche infected the whole bodie of Italy this was in effect the Prophecie and vision of the Prelate Cataldo according to the witnesse of Alexander ab Alexandro in his booke of the generall dayes which with the other afore recited as me thinke may suffise for the examples of our visions appearing to men both by day and nighte sléeping and waking aswell in sicknesse as health So there restes nowe according to our general intent touching all other matters in this booke to searche oute the cause of theâ—â— fantasticall illusions and of what substaunce they are founded or do procéede whiche bycause it doth not include an indifferent or equall respect to all men I thinke it most sure and best to follow and marche vnder the enseigne of S. Augustine who aboue any other hath vsed a more learned diligence to discouer this matter and yet is it necessary afore we passe further herein for y e better exposition of the circumstaunce to make an vniuersall partition in the deduction wherof we wil followe that which he hath written against Adamantum where he procéedeth in this sorte There be saith he diuerse kindes of visions auouched by the holye Histories whereof some do make themselues appeare afore the eyes of the bodye as the thrée men whiche appeared to AbrahaÌ„ that whiche Moyses sawe burning in the bushe and lastly that of Moyses and Elyas to the Apostles at suche time as Christe was transfigured vpon the mountaine The
and there giuing out suche arguments of pity according to his dumme kind as if he had demaunded iustice of the murder at the kings handes The same mouing in him and the rest of the assistants such suspition of the facte in them whome the dogge assailed that what with torment and other examination they confessed the matter were punished accordingly A thing very woÌ„derful wherin our God sheweth himself most iust in hys iudgements hauing in such horrour such as doe spoyle and spil mans bloud that he stirreth vp sometime little beasts to be his ministers of reuenge of their iniquities Plutarch Aelyan and also Tretzes in the thirde Chiliade and a hundred thirtye and one Chapter wryte that after Darius the laste king of the Persians was vanquished by Alexander and hurte in many places by Bessus and Nabarzenes he was forsaken of all the world and void of humaine sucâ—ors except a dogge which he had norished and brought vp who neuer forsoke the body of his maister but became no lesse faithful to him being dead thaÌ„ he was whilst he liued The Romane histories giue also great commendation to the fidelitie of the dogge of Titus Fabius who being condeÌ„ned by the iustice of the Senate and his body laid dead vpon the ground the dogge did not only accompany the dead carkasse but made such a pitifull howling and crying that he stirred the assistaÌ„ts to compassion who to appease him if they offred him bread he tooke it and in the presence of them all by such meanes as he could he opened the mortified mouth of his master and put in the bread thinking that as he sawe his distresse so he would relieue it by meanes as he best might but that which is more wonderfull touching the faith of this dogge was in that the bodye of hys master being cast into Tyber according to their custome at that time to bury dead men the dogge leaped also into the riuer not ceasing to conteÌ„d with the waues till he had got holde of his maister whom by maine strength he did not only support and kepe froÌ„ sinking but also drewe him out to the shore thinking he had theÌ„ deliuered him from peril By this and such other may we discerne in some respects a more great faith and amitie in these brute beastes than in reasonable creatures who for the most parte now a dayes obserue the order of the swallow shunning as they doe the roofe in the winter their frends touched with any aduersitie or sinister fortune for whych cause also Masinissa the great king of Numidia would neuer commit the garde of his body by night to the faith of men but vsed for hys sauetie that way the company of .viij. or .x â–ª great dogges whom he brought vp for the nonce and made them be shut in hys chaÌ„ber by night to the ende that by their barking he might be warned of any peril which remaineth in practise at this â—ay in S. Maloes in Britaine a town of defense enuironed with the Sea wherein only a great number of dogges of England do kepe watch and that so truely that the whole gard and protection of that city consists no lesse in the fidelity of those dogges than in their strong bands of their old souldiours of Piemont neither moueth any charge by them for either armour or weapon seeing they coÌ„tent theÌ„selues only with their liues which are reserued by coÌ„mon order they nourished continually in certaine dark caues where they are barde to see any light to the end to giue encrease to their fiercenesse the same in déede giuing them suche a woodnesse that they neither know nor vse regarde to any but such as are appointed to nourish and féede them in such sort y t at night when they are drawne out of their dennes they are driuen to souÌ„d drummes and trumpets as a warning to euery body to retire which hath bred suche a custome in those dogges that after the last retrait be souÌ„ded there is none so hardy to be found afore them which escapeth not their iawes without great hazard and daunger of his life There is also mention made in the Ecclesâ—asticall histories how the Emperor Aurelian forcing Benignus the Martyr to worship Idols made to be kepte fasting for .iiij. or v. dayes certaine great mastiues whom he reserued only to fede vpon christian mennes flesh afore whom he caused the body of the sayd Martir to be brought forth bound but the dogges refusing to become the mynisters of the sinne of such a tyrant in place to deuoure or teare hym in péeces they licked his hands and smelled to his body without either offer or effect of other harme Which makes me remember an History commeÌ„ded by Appius the Gréeke Aulus Gelius y e Latine Iouianus Pontanus lib. 1 amoruÌ„ and lastly Anthonio de Gueuuare bishop of Monodemo Al which albeit they treate of an other beast than a dogge yet bicause the discourse is no lesse prodigious than confirmable to our former arguments I thinke it no time euil imployed to describe it in sorte as they haue left it behinde them Titus the Emperor sonne to Vespasian vpon his retâ—rn from the warres of Germanye determined according to an auncient custome of the Nobilitie there to solemnise at Rome with great pompe the day of his natiuity For a first entry or beginning wherof he caused royall triumphes to be made to the Senate with a bountifull distribution of treasure amoÌ„gst the Romaines He enioyned withal by speciall charge to make prouision of Lions Beares Hartes Bulles wilde Bores Wolues Camels ElephaÌ„ts wyth a number of other sauage and fierce beasts found most commonly in the deserts of Egipt and valley of the mount Caucase In like sort it was decréed sometime afore by the maiestie imperiall that to all théeues felons murderers periurers traitors and rebels theyr liues should be reserued to be punished and torn in péeces y â— day by those beastes by whoÌ„ should not onely be thundred vpon them due reuenge of their wicked life past but also in the combate should appeare equall pleasures and delite to the lokers on wherein this was the order that was obserued One of those miserable men was let out after an other and committed all alone to a place which is at this day being at Rome called the Collisea after the which in the viewe of all the assistantes was let loose in the same place one of these cruell beastes who if by chaunce he tare the man in péeces the same was the sentence and punishment of his offence but if the man subdued the crueltye of the beast and killed him it serued as an absolution or dispence from further punishment And as they kept hungrye of purpose long time before these cruell beastes to the ende to adde a more fiercenesse to their woodde nature so amongst the â—est that were brought to the combate the Emperoure séemed chiefly to sée fight a Lion brought out of the deserts of Egipt
not so much offende vs as your tyrannies do continually grieue vs. If you do it in respect of our children tie them on your backs vse them as youre slaues and when you haue so done they can carie no more than they can cary but of commandements and tributes you haue gyuen vs more than we be able to sustain or suffer Wherefore knowe ye Romains to what extremitie your tirannie and crueltie hath broughte vs that all those of our miserable realme haue sworne togethers neuer to inhabite with their wiues and to kil their children before they suffer them to fall into the handes of so cruel and vngodly tyrantes as you be for we rather desire that they may enioy libertie thaÌ„ that they should liue in thraldom bondage besides as desperate we haue determined to endure as yet y e furious motions assaults of the flesh by sequestryng our selues fro our wiues to y e end they may become barren thinking it muche better for vs to continue so .xx. or .xxx. yeares than to leaue our children perpetuall slaues for if they shoulde suffer that whiche theyr poore fathers haue endured it were farre more better and profitabler they were not borne than liuing to proue so many wickednesse and torments Wherefore wyll you vnderstande Romains how your officers gouerne here If the poore come to demaund of them â—ustice hauing no money â—o giue nor wine to present neyther oyle to promise nor Silke to offer neyther fauour to ayde them nor reuenue to relieue them yet they finde the meanes to make them consume that little they haue nourishyng them by 〈◊〉 vaine hope or other to obtaine their matters and thus being once brought in they cause them to consume the best parte of theyr life by dilatorie delayâ— and afterwardeâ— altogether become ruinous and ouerthrowne the mostâ— parte of them assuring his cause to be right and at laste pronounce against him a contrarie sentence in such sorte that the poore miserable man who commeth to complaine of one returneth againe into his countrey crying out of many not onely cursing his peruerse and vnhappie Fortune but also exclamyng against the pitifull add iust goddes I haue not yet made an ende Romaines but before I procéede further I wyll recompt vnto you my lyfe and make you to vnderstande and knowe what be the delites of those in my countrey I gather in the Sommer Acornes and sometimes fishe as well for necessitie as to passe the tyme in so much that I spende the miserable course of my lyfe alone in the fieldes or mountaines and if you desire to vnderstande the cause hearken and I wil tel you I haue séen such tiraÌ„nies amongst your Censours such willing robberies spoiles made of the poore miserable people so great discentions in our realme so many hurts and miseries in our coÌ„mon weale that I am determined vnfortunate as I am to abandon mine owne house and wife to the ende I may not sée with mine eyes such lamentable things louing farre better to wander alone in the fields than euery houre to vnderstande and heare the sorowfull complaints sighs and bloody teares of my vnhappy neighbours for being thus bestowed in the fieldes the cruell beastes will not offende me if I offer to them no wrong but the wicked men in my publike weale thoughe I serue them will annoye and torment me Cruel Romains Romaines do you not vnderstande the things I haue spoken of before seyng that onely in bringing them to memory mine eyes be blynde my tongue foltereth my membres quiuereth my hearte panteth my intrailes breake my fleshe consumeth yet is it a more griefe vnto me to sée them in my countrey with mine eyes to heare them with myne eares to touche them with my fyngers and to vnderstande them by proufe Behold Romains the iniquitie of oure Iudges together with the miserie and desolation of our poore Realme and countrey the one of these two things oughte to be done eyther to chastise me if I lye or to put youre officers from their offices if I haue spoken the truth and if my tong haue offended hauyng spit oute the poyson of my hearte I am ready in this place to loase my head desiring rather to winne honour by offering my selfe to die than you should gaine the same otherways in taking away my life Wherewith the rusticall person ended his matter and incontinent the emperor Marcus Aurelius cried out and sayd Howe séemeth it vnto you my friends What kernel in the nut what gold in the mine what seede in the strawe what rose in the thornes what marie in the bones what reasons so high what wordes so wel framed what sentences so aptly applied what allegations more like a truthe and what couert so well discouered I sweare vnto you sayth Marcus Aurelius that hys discourse brought such amase to vs all that there was neuer a man so hardy to answere one onely worde whiche made vs to determine the next day to prouide new iudges for the prouince of Danube and to do punishment on those which had so corrupted their coÌ„mon wealth coÌ„maunding for end that he giue vs his oration in writing to the ende it might be recorded in the booke of good sayings of strangers whyche were in the Senate and the Rustick was enfraunchised and made riche of the Common treasure Beholde Christians what holynesse what oracles vnder the barke of the wordes of an Ethnike But haue we at thys day of suche rustikes for to refourme oure Christian publike weale and to discouer the deceits subtilties fraudes and iniquities of the mercenarie iudges which be found in these prouinces For who would describe plainly y e tromperie sdeceites enimities and daungerous ende of processes there shoulde be no one man hable to wryte the same with blacke inke but rather with liuely and pure bloud bicause that if euery man which followeth the lawe suffred as much for the christian faith as he endureth in the pursute of his processe there shoulde be as many martires in courtes Chaunceries palaices and Iustices of princesses as there hath ben at Rome in the time of the persecutions of the auncient emperors in such sort that to search or begin processes at this day is no other thing than to giue sorow to his heart to his eyes occasion to weepe to his feete and leggs to run his tong to complain his hands to be always in his purse to request desire his friendes his men to run and to al the rest of his body paine and trauaile besides he that knoweth not what is y e pursute of a processe let him learne and vnderstand that the effecte and conditions of it include no other thyng than of a rich man to become poore from ioy to fall to melancoly sorow of a free man to become seruile and bonde in place of courage to be infected with cowardise in stede of liberall bountie to vse ambitious couetousnesse of one beloued indifferently to be hated generally and from
.28 of the same month there appeared in the Element ouer the same place at .x. of the clock in the night a shining Crosse wyth a starre in the toppe and a Moone at the lower ende retiring immediatly after it began to be day without being séene any more at y e time but touching these sights and visions in the aire with their causes which moue in dede by natural meanes as we beholde the figure of our selues in a glasse or the Rainbow in the Element I shal not néede to vse large description of them héere bicause they are auouched by the Astronomers Philosophers and others of like profession beside for mine owne selfe I forbeare to wade farre therin vntil a time cause more conuenient for such purpose THe monsters which are this yeare come to knowledge be two the one was in Prouence at Arles and wandred besides thorow Fraunce It was a childe rough or hairy on all the body hauing the nauell in the place where the nose should stand and the eyes where naturally should staÌ„d the mouthe betwéene the which was a certaine opening hys eares stode on either side the chinne and his mouthe at the ende of the same THe other monster of this yeare .1567 was séene in FlauÌ„ders betweene Anwarpe and Macline in a village called Vbalen It was a childe which had .ij. heades and .iiij. armes séeming .ij. maides ioyned together yet had but .ij. legges Of a wonderfull Daunce LIke as I am greatly in dout whether so infer in the number of wonderful Histories that which we now write not for the matter but that it is shorte and yet worthie of no lesse memorie than admiration Euen so for that the Historie may seeme of lesse credite and truthe the same being written in that time wherin men would scarsly suffer it to be imprinted or taken as a witnesse of antiquitie albeit it were ayded and assisted by a truthe or other probable arguments to the like effect hauing withall sufficiente colour to make men beleue that they speake to be suche as they recite notwithstanding for that we be able to iustifie the truth of this present Historie by one who as be assureth to haue seene it so hath he taken paine to write therof hym selfe which is Othopertus of Saxonie and after him Vincentius wytnesseth the same in hys xxvj boke and .x. chap. and besides Antoni in his fourth chap. his .xvj. titles and seconde tome of hys workes where as I neede not feare to recite it as it is or to aggrauate the opinion or beliefe of any further than a truth So neuerthelesse I haue to preferre and make mention of one Historie very straunge and not heard of yet albeit true Wherof Othopertus writeth that the yeare .1012 which was in the tenth yeare of the emperour Henry the second in a certain borough or towne of Saxonie where he himselfe accompanied with .xvij. other of his friends whiche by computation wer .xviij. he accompted dyd sée .xv. men and iij. women dauncing of a rounde in a Churchyarde and singing of Wanton songs not meete for the solace of honest Christians And albeit there passed by at that instant a Priest who cursed them in such sorte that they daunced and song there the space of a whole yeare Yet that which was most maruellous is that as it rained not sayd he vpon them neyther were they hotte or desirous of meate or drinke nor lefte from doing that exercise or labour so their garmentes and shoes in all their dauncing were not worne or consumed albeit in the ende they sonke into the earth first to the knées and lastely to their middles The yeare expired and their daunce ended and they withall come to a perfecte vnderstandyng in what sporte they had spente the yeare paste one of the women and two others of that companie dyeâ— sodainely and all the reste slepte continually three dayes and thrâ—â— nyghtes Wherevpon some of them immediatly vpon their wakyng dyed the others deferred to the ende to tast more their follie remayned in a continuall tremblyng thorough all the partes of theyr bodies during the terme and space of theyr myserable and vnfortunate lyues FINIS Gellius lib. j. cap. 12. Silemander a worme liuing in the fire A Lampe burning without the aide of oile or match A great infection throâ—ghout all Europe by reason the water in their welles was ympoysoned The Adamant smelleth and â—â—eleth The nature of the Emeraud The Emeraud enimie to vncleanesse Volateranus writeth a lyke example in his geography A wonderfull prouidence of God The natures of sundry stoues Damascen writeth that in the time of Maximinian there wer killed and martyred in .xxx. dayes .xvij. thousande christians Cornelius Tacitus lib. 15. A wall of dead mens head The cause of the flames of fyre from heauen The Romains fearfull of the Eclipse of the Moone The cause of the Eclypse of the Moone iij sunnes sene by Cardanus The causes of the shewes of so many suÌ„nes and moones Plato Aristotlâ— Socrates Vâ—serius Max. lib. 4. A drooken combat Two huÌ„dreth and .l. crownes and some value them at .ij. C.xxx and iiij M.iij C.lx. and v. Ducaâ—s A pearle waying halfe an vnce A wonderfull prodigalitie in an Italian Prelate Some writers haue referred this to the Emperour Tyberius Xerxes killed by his prouost And Darius poisoned after by Alexander Mar. Anto. killed him selfe Cleopatra was stong to death Helioga slayn and cast into Tyber A dead man speaketh to his companion in a dreame An other visioÌ„ appearing to a man that was not a slepe Certaine houses at Rome haunted wyth spirites S. Augustin approueth enchaunting by example The effects of the bishops prophecie Act. 11. Cap. 11. Luke 11. In his booke of the Diuination of Diuels Cap. 22. Gen. lib. 1â— cap. 14. 3. Reg. 22. Visions of the imagination Lib. 1. cap. 20. Visions by naturall cause In his boke of maruelous inuentions Of .vij. voyces or soundes Artificiall visions Paris Garden
vpon him tearing the fleshe of his hand with hir téeth and deuoured the same sodainly Al which the infant abode in respect to satisfie hir longing And as she returned to play the like parte againe the childe grieuing at hir crueltie withstode hir Wherof being ashamed and full of despite after she had liued certain days in coÌ„tinual melancolie she broughte forth two twinnes the one aliue and the other dead Wherupon the physitions called together to argue vpon the cause of this childe bearing founde that the deniall of the seconde morsel of the boyes flesh was the occasion therof Behold in effect the causes moste frequented touching y e bringing forth of monsters gathered according to the opinion of the best lerned authors both Greekes and Latins Resting yet ouer aboue al those kind of artificial monsters who be most familiar to these vacabunds vncerten people traueling through al prouinces with diuers abuses and deceiptful legerdemains wherwith they abuse the simplicity of the people in getting their money These masked pilgrims or rather absolute hypocrites studying nothing but the philosophie of Sathan as soone as their children be borne whilest their sinewes bones be tender flexible with smal force wil not stick to breke their arms crush their legs puffe vp their belly with some artificial pouder defacing their noses with other parts of the face somtime pecking out their eyes al to make them appere monstrous wherof besides the familiar examples of oure miserable time there was great experience in Asia in the time of Hippocrates as apereth in his booke de aere locis ¶ The generall causes of the generation of MoÌ„sters with many notable Histories touching the same CHAP. vj. THe Auncients of olde time had these monstrous creatures in so greate horrour that if they fortuned to méete any of them by chauÌ„ce in their way they iudged it to be a foreknowledge of their misfortune and to belâ—eue it y e more the Emperor Adryan chancing to sée a Moore at vnwares assured himself to die immediatly The souldiers of Brutus being readie to ioyne battaile with the armie of Octauus Caesar hauing encouÌ„tred an Ethiopian in their way prognosticated that they shold lose the battaile which hapned according to their imagination In like maner the auncient Romains had these deformed creatures in suche disdaine that they straightly charged that the mis-shapen or hauing any other vice vpon their body shoulde not be receyued amongst the virgins Vestales as Fenestellus teacheth in his boke of the Magistrates and worthie men of Rome But that which is most to be maruelled at is that God forbad Moyses not to receiue them to do sacrifice amongest his people as you may reade more at large in the first chapter of Malachy the .xxj. of Leuit. Wherin S. Hierom hauing fully considered these abuses in an Epistle written to a virgin called Demetriade complaines of those Christians whiche offer vnto God those children or put them into religious houses being crooked lame deformed hauing yet a matter more straunge which Iulius Obsequius and other authors haue written of among the Romaine wonders wherin they credibly reporte that the auncient Romaines had these litle monstrous creatures in such abhomination that as soone as they were borne they were immediatly committed to the ryuer of Tyber there to be norished But we being better broughte vp and fostred in a schole of more humanitie knowyng them to be the creatures of GOD suffer them to be brought to the church there to receiue the holy sacrament of Baptisme as may be séene in the figure of these two Maides embracing eche other ioyned together by a straunge infirmitie of nature who wer séene to liue in our age of many thousande persons in forme or shape such as you see them portraicted And to the end the historie of their natiuitie might be the better vnderstanded I will declare that which Sebastian Munster writeth who saw them and behelde their vnnaturall order at large in the yeare as he sayde a thousand foure hundred fourescore .xv. and in the moneth of September A womaÌ„ brought forth a monster nigh to the citie of Worms vpon the right syde of the riuer of Rhine in a village called Bristante which was two maides hauyng their bodies entier and knitte together by the forheade so that there was not any artificial or humaine policie to deuide them asunder as myne author saw them at Magence in the yeare .1501 and being six yeres of age were constrained to go togither whiche was pitifull to beholde for as the one marched forwards the other of force reculed backwards they rose togither and slept togither their noses touching so nigh that they coulde not turne their eyes but one way their forheades ioyning togethers hanged ouer their eyes letting therby the iust course of their sight and liuing till they were ten yeares of age the one of them died who being separated and taken from the other the hurt she receyued in the separation from hir dead sister was the onely cause she died immediately Beholde here sayth he the cause of this monstrous birth two women talking togither the one of them being great with childe there came a thirde woman not knowyng that eyther of them were with childe and sodainly thrust their heads togithers as they talked wherewith she with childe was astonished whereupon grew this monstrous child bearing And to confirme the same to be of more trouth Cardan affirmeth in his bookes de Subtilitate saying That the astoonishment was some help to tie these .ij. infants togithers albeit he alleaged further cause of this vnnatural birth ¶ A wonderful and horrible monster of our tyme vpon the discourse of whom the question is asked whether Diuels can engender and vse the workes of Nature CHAP. vij THis hideous moÌ„ster whose portraict is here set out was born in base Pologne in the noble city of Cracouie in y e month of Februarie and yeare of grace .1543 or as some write 1547. and vpon the euen of the conuersion of S. Paule who although he were begotten of honorable parents yet was he most horrible deformed and fearefull hauing his eyes of the colour of fire his mouthe and nose like to the snoute of an Oxe wyth an horne annexed thereunto like the trumpe of an Elephant all hys backe shagge hairde like a dogge and in place where other men be accustomed to haue brests he had two heads of an Ape hauing aboue his nauell marked the eies of a cat and ioyned to his knee and armes foure heades of a dog with a grenning and fierce countenance the palmes of his féete and handes were like to those of an ape and amongst the rest he had a taile turning vp so hie that the height therof was half an elle who after he had liued foure houres died saying only Watch the Lorde commeth And although this creature were monstrous yet haue not sundry lerned authors failed to
seuere punishement as well to al the Iewes as Lepres thorough out all the prouince of Europe being founde culpable therof that their posterities smell therof til this day for they hauing proued so many kindes of torments and martirdoms that vpon theyr imprisonments they had greater desire to kil and broile one an other than become subiecte to the mercie of the Christians And as Conradus of Memdember of equall fame in the studie of Philosophie and artes Mathematicall writeth that ther died in Almayn for this cause aboue xij thousand Iewes Wherfore as it was strange to behold their afflictions Euen so it was as extreme to sée the poore Christians haue in horrour abhomination the water of theyr welles and fountains that they rather choosed to die of the drought than to receiue any drop therof into their bodies but hauing recourse to rain water or to riuers whereof they had greater want than any store or plentie at all finding not at al times to serue theyr turnes they preuented sundry times the perill of the poison And as these false deceiuers were of all nations much detested so they often times proued diuers kindes of calamities as the Historians testifie the same CoÌ„radus Licostenes amongst others reciteth a strange deuice hapening in the yere .434 about which time he fouÌ„d by fortune in the Isle of Creâ—e a seducer and false prophet or rather a wicked spirite â–ª as they might coÌ„iecture by the issue of his enterprises This prophet preched opeÌ„ly through al the Isle that he was the same Moyses which brought the Israelites from the seruitude of Pharao and that he was sent againe from God to deliuer the Iewes froÌ„ the bondage seruitude of the Christians wherin hauyng thus planted the rootes of his pestilent doctrine he therby woon the people by false miracles and other diabolicall illusions that they began to forsake their houses lands possessions and al the goodes they had to folow him in such sort that they founde no other matter in that couÌ„trey but a great troupe of Iewes accompanied with their wiues and children which folowed this holy man as their chief And after he had wel led theÌ„ in this miserable error he made them mount in the end to the height of a rock ioyning to the sea and there tolde them that he would make theÌ„ passe through the sea on foote as he had tofore brought the people of God thorough the floude of Iordain whiche he coloured so finely by his deceyuable arte that he persuaded them very easily and in such sort that the pore people gathered together on a heape dyd caste them selues headlongs into the sea Whereby the greatest parte of them were drowned and the reste saued by certain christen Fishermen whiche were then in the sea Whereof the Iewes perceiuing the greate deceite whereby he hadde abused them coulde not by any humaine Arte heare any newes nor discouer where was becom their prophet which gaue occasion to many of them not onely to thinke but also write that he was a Diuell vnder the shape and figure of a man which had so deceiued them Sebastian MuÌ„ster writeth in his boke of vniuersall Cosmographie an other historie of them set out in a more gay and braue fashion saying That in the yeare of health .1270 when the Countie of Steruembergh was bishop of Mandeburgh one of the chief Priests of the Synagoges of the Iewes fell by chaunce vpon their Saboth day into a déepe Iakes oute of which he coulde not get and therby constrained to call for the aide of his companions who being arriued sayd vnto him with grieuous complaints that it was theyr Saboth day and that it was not lawfull for them as that daye to yelde hym the benefite of their handes but willyng hym to vse pacience til the next day following which was sunday The bishop of Mandeburgh aduertised of this being a very wyse man gaue commaundement to the Iewes by the sounde of a Trumpet that vpon paine of death they shold froÌ„ henceforth kéepe holy and solemnise as their Saboth daye the Sunday By meanes whereof thys poore martir remained parfumed tyll the Monday ¶ Floudes and wonderfull Inundations of Waters CHAP. xj THe antiquities of forain times haue sufficiently proued the horrible rage of waters that if I shoulde goe about to declare them in order I shoulde rather want Eloquence to describe them than matter wherupon to entreate The first and most worthie of memorie is sufficiently shewed by Moyses in the .vij. chapiter of the boke of Genesis at what time God opened the veines of heauen and sent downe such abundance of water vpon all the earth for the purifying and clensyng of the synnes of men that the same ouerflowed the highest mountaines aboue .xv. cubites And in the reigne of kyng Henry the fourth the waters raged with suche impetuositie within the prouinces of Italie that there was not onely thereby drowned many thousand men but that whiche was more strange as the Historians make meÌ„tion the tame houshold beasts as hennes géese Pehens such like were by the terror therof so frighted that they became sauage waÌ„dring in the deserts and forrests and neuer after to be reclaimed Wherof S. Augustine in the third boke called the Citie of God maketh mention that in the yeare of health 1446. and on the .xvij. day of April in the tyme of Federike the .iij. Emperor at what tyme printing was first founde out there was in Hollande so great an inundation of water and the sea ouerflowed the bankes with suche furie that it brake the causeys running behinde Dordrech couering al the land as wel cities as villages in such sort that ther were drouned not only xvj parishes but also .100000 men with their wiues children and beasts And in y e yeare 1530. in Hollande Flaunders and Brabant the sea so swelled that it brake not only bulwarks and rampiers but also violently caried away both cities and villages togither with the creatures in them bisides made all the hauen townes no lesse nauigable than the open and main sea which not only chaunced in Flaunders but also the same yeare the riuer of Tyber so flowed in Rome that it mouÌ„ted aboue the highest towres and estages of the citie and withal not only breaking down the bridges but endamaging theyr goodes as gold siluer corne wine cloth of silke flowre oyles woull and other riches to the value of thrée millions of golde bisides the losse of thrée thousande persons as well men as women and litle childreÌ„ which were therby smoothered and drouned Wherein as all these matters were maruellous so the auncientes and writers at this day haue not made proofe of one more strange sithens the vniuersall floud of Noe than this which chaunced in Phrygia in the yeare of grace .1230 For euen as when they thought them selues most happie and were banketting drinkyng and giuing them selues ouer to all kindes of pleasure beholde all the lande nigh to the sea of
more frankly affirming by the authoritie of scripture that angels haue appered to certaine men with mortal shape and haue not only bene séene of them but suffred them selues to be touched by such as they haue appeared vnto Bysides there be many of opinion now a days by report of others and thousandes who haue proued it true by experienâ—e in themselues that there be certain impes and gliding spirites in the woods and sauage places which the coÌ„mon sorte call Nimphes who desire the companie of women haue had to do with them deliting chiefly in such vncleane and filthy exercise which albeit is sufficiently and absolutely approued by so many that it is not almost to be denied yet for my part I dare not affirme and much lesse assure that the spirites that haue their bodies of the ayre participate with that element can either desyre or performe effects of such vnclean plesure wherein notwithstandyng who séeketh to be more largely resolued let him reade Guilielmus Parisiensis in y e third part of his treatise de succubis and Incubis who albeit he hath gathered the opinioÌ„ of most of the Theologians yet Lodouicus Viues in the .xxiij. chapter of his fifte booke de ciuitate Dei despising suche vanitie maketh them of the Ile of Cypres a mockyng stocke bicause they glorifie their originall as mouyng first from the Dyuels succubi and incubi wherof you haue hearde a large description before ¶ A wonderfull discourse of precious stones their nature and propretie which resoneth of their procreation and other straunge things breedyng in the bowels of the earth CHAP. xvj AMongest all and euery cause of wonder in Nature there is none that more moueth maruel in men nor halfe so meritorious of philosophicall contemplation than the excellente propretle of precious stones who being once drawne out of the intrailes and wombe of theyr mother and nurse the earth do so amaze our sighte and rauishe oure senses that they séeme to contain some charme or newe mysterie sent by nature to dazell our eyes â–ª Ludouicus Vartomanus a Romain writeth that he hath seene the king of Pâ—gâ— a famous citie in India haue Carbuncles which the Gretians call Pyropi so great shining that who behelde them in any darke or shaded place seemed to haue his body distempered and almost transformed by imagination suche was the lighte and piercing glimmers of these stones séeming of no lesse force to penetrate than if they had bene assisted with the moste hoate and vehement reflection of the Sunne The moste part of the Greeke and Latine philosophers as Theophrastes Mutianus Plinie Ruffus wyth other of no lesse credite than they haue so precisely searched the propretie and procreation of stones that they affirmed that they doe not onely engender but also do suffer diseases olde Age and Death And touching the procreation they are of diuerse opinions For some say they engender betwéene rockes when the sappe or iuyce of other stones distilles within the creuices or hollow places of she same euen as the childe taketh his begynnyng of hys mother some affirme that they conceiue of the sap mary of precious mettals like as ofteÌ„times is found the reason in diuerse mynes of gold syluer some agayn who take vpon them to sifte more narrowly the secretes of Nature are of opinion that they come and grow in the earth as knots in wood waxkernels in men or séede in herbes whervnto as there may be credit giuen according to reason that moueth it so there be other Philosophers eyther more ignorant of the truthe or more precise than standeth eyther with learning or naturall persuasion who doubt not to assure absolutely that they haue sense motioÌ„ wherof they proue the first by the Adamant which smelles yron draweth it to him whose vertue shal folow at full hereafter And for the second they make good their opinion by a common experience in a litle stone not rare in Fraunce Italye called by them Astroites which being put within either vineger or wine moueth of himselfe with crooked pace not vnlike to an Oxe or Cowe réeling here and there and yet I thinke these seueral opinions inteÌ„de rather to aduaunce the estimation and propertie of stones than to persuade a credit that they haue either motion or féeling albeit touching this stone called Astroites it is most certaine that it stirres being put in wyne whereof notwithstaÌ„ding mine eyes haue bene often witnesses yet is it not sufficient to assure albeit it is not altogether voyde of cause reason in nature to proue his mouing séeing it is not cleare nor shining but couered with spots or staines like ashes preseÌ„ting a duskish hue or coÌ„plexion y e same being made of an humour very subtil which may be conuerted into vapour by force of the wine which vapour searching wayes to go out and can finde no issue thrustes as it were and giueth motion to the stone whiche is light like as the true signe and argumeÌ„t of the subtill vapour is proued chiefly in that y e stone is ful of litle knobbes which persuades it to be corrupte or rotten and to haue both hoales and conduites â–ª Here as it may be that some haue a precise opinion of my diligence in searching so narrowly the cause of mouing in this stone which notwithstaÌ„ding as I accoÌ„pte such Philosophie neither vnnecessarie nor vnprofitable seeing it giueth cause of wonder to suche as sée it stirre alone without vnderstanding the reason So were it not that tediousnesse woulde take awaye the delight of the readers and peraduenture include some discredite touching the thing it selfe I could preferre matters of more wonder in stones and such as haue passed by proofe and familiar experience Hector Boetius makes mention of a spunging stone in Scotlande whiche being dipped in the Sea altereth the taste therof and makes it pleasant Other historiaÌ„s bring in a kinde of stone which is piercing and somewhat pale which they call Nicolaus the same making him that weareth it sad and melancholike and so wrestes the sprites and inwarde partes that it stirres vp wonderfull passions in the minde they haue lefte also remembraunce of a wonderfull vertue in the Iewell hanging about the necke of Hermion which makes as many perish as weare it it is most certaine that in Archadie a cuntrie in Scotland there is a kinde of stone which being laide any small time vpon strawe or other like drye substance it kindles and growes to flame without the assistance of fire all which bicause thy séeme wonders excéeding our reason things rather mysticall than agréeing with our capacitie I will nowe stay to coÌ„mitte them any more to the iudgement or contemplation of the reader and enter into the searche and discourse of the being and propertie of those that be both familiar with our selues coÌ„mon in our vse Amongest the most riche precious treasures which the earth bred in hir intrailles or caste vp for the vse
the néedle beholde alwayes the north and the other the south He that firste founde oute the vse of this stone was named Flauius but the first that wrote of his vertue was Albertus Magnus Aristotle knewe well that it was of a nature attractiue and coulde drawe yron vnto it but yet he was ignoraunt to vse it in the Arte of Nauigation for if he had vnderstoode so farre of it he had preuented a numbre of miserable shipwracks and daungers of sea which ouerwhelmed his countreymeÌ„ for want of direction by vertue of this stone Neither was it without cause that Plinie giuing singular estimation to this stone did forme his cruell complaints against nature in that she was not onely contente to gyue a voyce vnto rocks to send or returne certain cries and calles in maner of an Eccho but also to giue feelyng motion and hands to stones as to the Adamant wherwith he smelleth and holdeth yron and séemeth to be iealous when any offereth to take it from him he not only allureth yron and holdeth it when he hath it but also is contented to imparte and transferre hys vertue to any thyng that toucheth it which hath not bene onely an experience among the prophane but Saint Augustine hym selfe confesseth to haue seene the Adamant drawe vnto it a ryng of yron whiche being rubbed or touched with the Adamant drew another ring and so the thirde drew the fourth and so consequently in suche number as he made a large coller of rings in the forme of a chaine by the only ayde and touche of thys stone such is his propretie and such his wonderful vertue whiche also hath bene verified by many familiar experiences and chiefly by a late triall whiche I sawe in Fraunce in this sorte There was a knife layd vpon a square thick table and vnderneath the bourde was helde in a mans hande a piece of an excellent good Adamant whose vertue piercing thorough the table that was betwene it and the mettall made the knife moue turne alone to the great wonder of the assistantes These propreties of the Adamant be common therefore we will syft out of it a more secrete wonder whyche wyth the profite may also bring pleasure to the Reader There is nowe a dayes a kinde of Adamant which draweth vnto it fleshe and the same so strongly that it hath power to knit and tie together two mouthes of contrary persons and drawe the hearte of a man out of hys body withoute offendyng any parte of hym wyth thys further propretie that yf the poynte of a néedle be touched or tempered wyth it it pierceth thorowe all the partes of the bodye wythoute doyng any harme whyche woulde not séeme credible were it not that Experience dyd warraunt it wyth greate wonder Hieronymus Cardanus writeth that a Physition of Tours called Laurentius Crascus had of this stone promised by the meane of the same to penetrate any fleshe wythoute griefe or sorrowe whiche Cardanus did eyther doubte or lightly beléeue tyll the experience assured the effect for he rubbed a néedle with this Adamant then put it thorough his arme where he let it remaine without any sorow many days after but that which maketh this experience and vertue of the Adamant more famous is that he respected neither veins nor sinews but thrust in his néedles or yroÌ„s indifferently without sparyng any place This Adamant which he had excéeded not the bignesse of a beane and was of colour like yron distinct of veynes and peysing aboute the weight of .xij. graines of corne By this Admant many people were deceyued like as also it was the occasion to entertain an errour amongst many persons which myne author confesseth to haue séene by experience about .xv or xvj yeres past being in the vniuersitie of Poyctiers whether came in great pomp a stranger naming him self to be a Greeke borne who in the presence of the people gaue him self many and great blowes with a dagger both vpon his thighes armes almost euery part of his body which being rubbed with a certain oyle which he called the oyle of Balsamyn it did so refresh consolidate his hurts as if the yron had neuer touched theÌ„ Ther is also at this day in Italy one Alexander of Verona who practised the like artificial experience with his seruaÌ„ts who pinched them in the presence of the people with pinsers tongs daggers and other tormenting instruments and that with such horrour that it greued the eyes of the assistants and then rubbing theyr woundes with a certaine oyle he made them hole agayne presently which so abused the simplicitie of the assistants that they bought of his oyle which he assured to be as profitable to all kinde of diseases what soeuer whiche was suche a gaine to him that there scaped no daye wherein he gat not tenne or twelue crownes aboue his hire for the cure of those that were sicke The mysterie whereof dyd driue Cardanus into such a wonder that he was very curious to searche the cause and falling for that matter into an intricate Labyrinth of Philosophie he coulde not fynde nor giue any other reason of it than that the people were enchaunted touching the oyle whiche he solde and wherwith he fained to heale his seruant being hurt he confessed it was a fiction and a thing nothing worth for that those that bought it of him coulde do no cure on themselues or any other And now to drawe to ende and resolution of al these things it is moste like that this Greeke and Alexander of Verona and all the rest that haue bene seene to cutte and teare their flesh in peces in sundry parts of the world dyd not heale them by eyther theyr oyles or balmes as they fayne but it is more likely they rubbe their daggers pinsers and instrumentes wherewith they hurte them wyth this seconde kynde of Adamant the same hauyng a certayne secrete and hydden vertue to consolidate that part that is hurt and to resist all sorow and griefe in the wounde wherein for a more credite I commende you to the authoritie of Plaudanus in his seconde Booke De Secretis orbâ—â— rerum miraculis ¶ Wonders of certaine Princesses being committed to the flames vniustly accused who were deliuered by vertue of their innocencie CHAP. xvij IT is no newe thyng neither chauÌ„ceth it often that the innocent creatures coulde not be endomaged by the flames of fire as it is verified in many noble persons found and spoken of in the holy Scriptures But it is a straunge thing at these days wherin sinne so aboundeth and we seldome sée suche miracles that such lyke shoulde happen amongst vs. For as Polydorus Vergilius witnesseth in the eyght boke of his histories of England and as others write before his time makyng mention of one Goodwyn prince of Englande who accused vniustly of many vices Emnia mother to Edward the seconde King of England and wrought therin so much by his false suggestions accusations that the Kyng hir
by order those which onely haue appeared sithens the natiuitie of Iesus Christe together searching the causes of their beginning birthes the life of a man woulde not perfourme the same albeit the most notable worthie to be celebrated of al others is the starre which cōducted the .iij. sage Kings of Perse to the place where Christe was borne the which feared not only the common people but the sighte thereof rauished and brought into admiration the most learned of the worlde for that it againste the Nature of all other starres which drawe them selues from the Orient to the Occident addressed hir course into Palestine which is situated towards y e North causing S. Iohn Chrisostome to thinke that that starre was none of them which we sée in heauen but rather a vertue inuisible figured vnder the forme of a starre Notwithstāding let vs leaue of to discourse of this starre and come to other strange things whiche haue appeared frō heauen whereof Gaguin in his sixte booke of y e gestes of the Kings of Fraunce maketh mention of a very maruellous blasing starre which appeared in the Septentrion in the time of Charles the .vj. In the yeare .597 which was in the yere of the natiuitie of the false impostour Mahomet at Constantinople was séene a hearie Comet so hideous and fearefull that they thought the ende of the worlde approched An other like president was séene a little space before the death of the Emperour Constantin whereof Orseus in his .vij. booke and .ix. Chapter and Eutropeus in his second booke maketh mention that in the yeare that Mitrydates was borne and in the yeare wherein he receiued the Scepter Royall there appeared a Comet from heauen as Iustin and Vincentius write which for the space of xxiiij dayes occupied so well the fourth part of heauen casting such a cleare lighte that the brighnesse of the Sunne was thereby darkened And also in the yeare that Tamburlan the Tirant killed so many men and women in one ouerthrowe of the Turkes that of their heades onely he made a greate wall as Matheolus writeth there appeared a maruellous blasing starre in the Occident whereof Pontanus and Ioachinus Camerarius in his booke de ostentis learnedly writeth Herodian a Greeke authour in the life of the Emperours maketh mention that in the raigne of Commodeus the Emperour they sawe by the space of a whole daye a number of starres shyning as though it had bene night likewise in the yeare that Lewes the stutting Frenche King died they behelde frō heauen shining a great number of starres at nyne of the clocke in the morning wherein as Hieronimus Cardanus in his .xiiij. booke De veritate rerum assureth to haue seen in the yere 1532. the .xj. day of Aprill being at Venise thre sunnes together cleare bright shining Euen so in the yeare that Francis Sforce died after whose deceasse grew greate warres in Italie there was in like maner seen at Rome thrée sunnes which dydde so frighte the people that they fell immediately to prayer thinking the malice and ire of God were kyndled against them for their sinnes Also the Pope Pius second of that name who was called before he receiued that dignitie Aeneas Siluius who died in the yere 460. writeth in his description of Europe the .liiij. chap. that in the sixt yere after the Iubile there was séene amongest them of Sienne and Florence twentie cloudes in the ayre who being stirred of the wyndes fought one against another euery one in his ranke reculing and approching according to the order and maner of battaill and during the conflicte of these cloudes the winde was not vnoccupied in dispoiling battering brusing and breaking trées houses and rockes besides lifting of men and beastes into the ayre The antiquitie of time cannot reporte or make mention of a more wonder in the aire than of a horrible Comet of the colour of bloude which appeared in the West the eleuenth day of October in the yeare 1527. being so wonderfull and fearefull that it engendred so greate terrour to the common sorte that diuers not onely died with the sighte but others fell into strange and miserable maladies This strange Comet was séene of manie thousand continuing the space of an houre and a quarter and in the ende began to bring hir selfe to the side of the sunne after drawing towards the Midy the Occident and the Septentrion appearing to be of an excessiue length and of the colour of bloud there was séene in y e height of the Comet the Character and figure of the stumpe of an arme holding a greate sworde in his hande as he woulde haue striken about the pointe of the said sword were thrée starres but that which was right vpon the pointe was more cleare and brighte than the others on the other twoo sides of the beames of this Comet they sawe a greate number of hatchettes kniues swordes of the colour of bloud about the whiche were a great number of humaine faces very hideous with their beardes and haire stirring as may bee seene before figured Shortely after y e viewe of this hideous wonderful Planet all the parties of Europe were welnigh bathed in humaine bloude ▪ so muche preuailed the inuasion of the Turckes besides other hurtes which Italie receiued by the Lord of Bourbon when he committed Rome to sacke dying at the same instant like as Petrus Creuserus Iohn Litchber excellent Astrologians interpret by writing the signification of this wonderfull Planet Euen so for that we haue promised in the induction of our worke to shewe the causes beginnings of these wonders it is therfore now requisite to serch more narrowly the matter and to decide the question so often debated amongest the Auncients and learned Philosophers These fantasticall figures as dragons flames Comets other like of diuers formes which are séene so often in the Element according to the opiniōs of many wise men do giue to vnderstande foretel or shew many things that shal and do happen as Albumazar Dorotheus Paulus Alexādrinus Ephestion Maternus ▪ Aomar Thebith Alkindus Paulus Manlius Alberanger and generally the most part of the anciēt Greekes Hebrues Caldees Arabec and Egiptians who haue written and attributed so muche to the starres and their influence that they haue assured the moste parte of the humaine actions to depende of the celestiall constellations Whereof Cicero in his first booke De fato◠seemes to fauour them muche when he affirmeth darckely ▪ that those whiche are borne vnder the Planet De Canis shall not be drowned In like maner Faber Stapulensis in his Paraphrase of Metheores maketh mention that the Commettes whiche appeared from heauen signified scarsitie of goodes aboundance of greate windes warres effusion of bloud and the death of Princes Hieronimus Cardanus a late Philosopher writeth in his fourth booke De subtilitate and .xiiij. booke De veritate rerum that the hearie and bearded Comets and other like monstrous figures whiche appeare from
heauen be as foretellers and messengers of famine pestilence warres mutations of Realmes and other such like hurtes which happen to the generation of man And he further beleues that the greater and hideous these figures appeare they purporte and shew the greater euils Whereof Proculus one of the moste excellent Astrologians which Grece at any time norished followeth the interpretations of suche predictions by all the signes of heauen recompting by order the maruellous powers which these starres haue vppon the actions humaine And there be others as Ptolome whiche haue written that if any infant in his natiuitie be borne vnder certaine constellations he shall haue power ouer diuels there be also others of opiniō but they be most shamelesse full of blasphemies who haue so much referred themselues to the dispositiō of starres that they haue not feared to write that if any from their natiuitie were borne vnder the aspect of certaine starres that they shoulde haue the gyfte of prophecie and should foretel things to come And that Iesus Christ the sauiour of al the world was borne vnder certaine fortunate cōstellations being y e cause y t he was so perfect wrought so many miracles Here you may see the cruel horrible blasphemies which these detestable infamous Astrologians iudiciall bring forth which is y e cause y t S. Augustin hath banisht thē frō the Citie of God Basil and S. Ciprian deteste thē Chrisostome Eusebius Lactantius and S. Ambrose abhorre them The councell of Tollete reiecte them the ciuill lawes punishe them by death And the Ethniques also as Varro Cornelius Celsus and many other defame them But farre more diuersly amongst Princes than any other hath Picus Mirandula shewed him selfe who hath so very well brought to light and discouered the Labyrinth of their dreames in a Latin worke which he made against them that they scarcely dare once lift vp their hornes Wherefore lette vs now returne to our purpose and shewe so neare as we can whether these straunge figures and Comets whiche we sée from heauen be foretellers of things whiche shall happen or that they be naturall wherein as Aristotle in his first boke of Metheores treating very learnedly of the nature of Cometes and of these other impressions Characters and figures which be made from heuen sayth that they be made onely by nature without makyng mention that they either foretell or appoynt any thing which shall happen euen so it is to be presupposed that if Aristotle who is the first and most excellent of all those which haue written at any time in this Arte had founde neuer so little coniecture or reason in nature that they were appointers of any thing whiche should come to passe he woulde haue kepte them no more secrete or hidden than he hath done the other secretes of philosophie which he hath lefte to vs by his writings Wherfore it is then certaine that these fantasticall flames and other figures whiche we sée from heauen be naturall and grow vpon this occasion folowing There be thrée regions in heauen one whiche is most high who receiueth into hir a maruellous heate for that she is nexte neighbour to the Element of fyre the other which is lower receyueth the beames of the Sunne beaten backe of the earth whereof I haue made mention in my description of the cause of thunders The third is in the mydst of these two to the which do come the force of the heate which commeth from the vppermost part lyke to the heate of the beames of the Sunne beaten backe when it commeth from the lowest or inferior region For as Plinie witnesseth the starres be continually nourished of the humor procedyng of the groūd which be the chiefest causes of these celestiall flames for the earthe as Aristotle sheweth in his fyrst booke of Metheores being chafed of the Sunne rendreth double ayrely substaunce the one vapour which we may proprely name exhalation hote and drye the other is hote and moyste and bicause the firste vapour is most light she is suffered to come to the highest region of the ayre where she is set on fyre wherof procedeth these fyres and flames from heauen which in the formes of dyuers straunge shinyngs appeare in the Cloudes in sundry figures as in the shape of burnyng torches of shippes heades launces bucklers swordes bearded and hairie Comets with other like things whereof we haue made mention here before the whiche engenders greate terror and astonishement to those who be ignorant of the causes wherin as it hapened oftentymes amongst the Romains in the warres of the Macedons who being brought into such fear and terror by the sodain appering of the Eclipse of the Moone that their hearts began to faile them Euen so Cneius Sulpitius seing thē continuing in this feare by a wonderful eloquēce shewed vnto them by probable reasons that such mutation in the aire was naturall and that the Eclipse proceded of no other thing than of an interposition of the Moone betwixt the Sunne and vs and of the earth betwixt vs and the Moone by whiche meanes they were delyuered of their errour not knowing til that houre the cause of the sayd Eclipse The like may be sayd of the raining of blood the which hath so much frighted the people in the yeres passed for bicause they were ignorant wherevpon it proceded as that which fell from heauen in the yere of health 570. in the tyme that the Lumbards wer vnder the conduct of Albuyn traueling through Italy And also ther fel the like yet fresh in memory neare Fribourgh in the yeare .1555 the whyche stained and made the garments and trées whiche it touched of the coloure of redde and notwithstanding although that this séemeth wonderfull yet oftentymes it is naturall For like as the earth gyueth diuers colours to many bodies euen so she coloureth the water of the rayne for if the earth be redde shee rendreth those vapours and exhalations redde the whiche being conuerted into raine the heauen in like maner sendeth them to vs redde and coloured as they were attired and lifted in height and falling so vpon certaine habites she maketh them of the colour and die of redde Wherfore many Historians as well Greekes as Latines amongest their great maruels and rare wonders from heauen haue made mention of these bloudy shoures It resteth now to putte to the laste seale this chapiter and to appoynte the causes of the number of Sunnes and Moones whych appeare oftentimes from heauen as the thrée Sunnes the whiche Cardanus reporteth to haue seene in oure tyme being at Venice And like as we haue sayd that these figures whiche appeare from heauen be natural euen so we must speake of the multitude of Moones and Sunnes the which appeare for that oftentymes and specially when a certaine thicke cloude is readie to raine being founde on the syde of the Sunne the same by a lyke reflection on hir beames imprinteth hir image in the same cloude by
was muche desired of manye honeste Matrones so was it asmuche lamented of many wanton louers The third Dame of the world was named Flora which was an Italian farre surmounting the twoo others in generositie noble disceÌ„t for she was issued of a certaine Romain Knight greatly renoumed in the feates of warre who deceassed with his wife leauing this yong mayde of the age of xv yeares no lesse charged with riches than endewed with greate beautie the only doughter of hir parents In such sorte that as the yong Damsel was yong riche beautifull enioying a libertie without controlement which be the greatest baudes of the worlde and chiefe meanes to make a woman glide in suche slippery pathes â— séeing all these meanes she did determine to goe vnto the warres of Affrique where she made sale both of hir person and honour and so florished in the time of the firste warres of Punique when the Consull Manileus was sente to Carthage who spente more monie in making loue to Flora than in the conqueste of his enimies And like as this Damsell was issued of a more gentle and noble race than the other twoo before recited euen so she shewed hir greatnesse in the choise of hir louers for I neuer red that she gaue hir selfe ouer to meane and pettie Companions as Lays or Lamie did but caused to be set vp aâ—scrol ouer hir gate which said King Prince Dictatour Consul Censour Bishop and Questour may knock and enter not speaking of Emperour or Cesar for these twoo famous names were not of long time after created by the Romaines in suche sorte that she neuer committed hir selfe but to men of high degrée dignitie and greate richesse saying alwayes that a woman of greate beautie shoulde be asmuch estemed as she values and accomptes of hir selfe Albeit Lays and Flora were contrary in doings for Lays woulde be payde hir hire before she had perfourmed hir worke But Flora without making accompte either of golde or siluer would be gouerned of hir louer And being one daye asked the cause of that she aunswered I committe my person to Princes and noble men to the ende they maye deale with me as noble men oughte to do for I sweare by all oure Gods that there was neuer man gaue me so litle but that I had more than I looked for double to that I demauÌ„ded saying that a sage woman ought not to make price of hir loue for the amorous pleasure she doth to any man but rather for the loue she beareth to him for that al things in the world be priced at a certaine rate except Loue which can not be payed but wyth loue Wherfore all the Embassadours of the worlde whiche came into Italy caried back as greate and seueral reports of the beautie and noblenesse of Flora as of the Publike weale of Rome for that it séemed as moÌ„strous a thing to sée the riches of hir house hir beautie the princes noble men who dayly required hir as also to behold the great presents they made vnto hir for looke what day she passed on horsebacke in Rome the viewe of hir hir attire gaue sufficient occasion to all the Citizens to talke thereof one moneth after She dyed at the age of .lx. yeres leauing hir wealth and riches to the people of Rome as hir onely heires whiche was esteemed not onely sufficient to haue edified the walles of Rome if they had bene vtterly in ruine and decaye but also to haue redeemed the common wealth Wherwith giuing ende to the discourses of these Women there resteth to searche oute some other cause more straunge and rare in oure wonderfull loues Cornelius and Suetonius write that the abhominable tyrant Nero did not only offend grieuously in the abuse of a number of honest and chaste virgins but also causing to be gelded a faire yong boy whome he named Sporus with intent to transforme hym into the vse of a woman he maried hym with open solemnitie vsing him in the place of his wyfe touching the exercise of mariage and assigned dowrie and portion accordyng to the order And whether may we terme it an act of wonderfull loue or effect of doating foly Herodotus reporteth of the daughter of Cheopes Kyng of Egypte who hauyng consumed his treasure and reuenue in the supplie of a hundred thousande workmen labouring vpon a moste sumptuous Pile whiche he made and being as destitute of money as voyde of meanes to get it commaunded his daughter to commit hir selfe to sensuall prostitution and that with charge that she should not only racke hir honoure to a high price but also refuse none whose companie broughte commoditie which she performed accordingly demaunding of euery one that delt with hir a stone by whose gaine was raised so much as builded the Pyramides or hyll whiche carieth in the front a hundreth and fiftie foote Ludouicus Vartomanus writeth that there is an other maner of makyng of loue at this day in vse in a certaine prouince of Indie named Tarnasseri which is no lesse wonderful thaÌ„ the precedent before recited if y e experience wer to be seene he declareth that when a yong maÌ„ is enamored of any dame desiring to make hir vnderstand the flames of his loue he taketh a piece of woullen cloth dipped in oyle and putting therto fire coucheth the same vpon his naked arme enduring that flame vntill the cloth be cleane consumed without shewyng any kinde of dolour testifying by this that he is so strongly embraced with the loue of his lady that there is no kind of torment or martirdome vnder the heauens whiche he woulde not taste or be partaker of for hir sake But to the ende we should not tast too much of these filthy and stinking loues I wil shewe you that there is to be founde as great wonders in chaste and vertuous loue whiche is sufficientely proued by sundry examples of late written by my brother G. Fenton in his boke of Tragical Discourses For what is more strange in Nature than to sée a man sacrifice him selfe to accompanie to death the person whom he loueth And notwithstaÌ„ding they haue found a numbre of exaÌ„ples of womeÌ„ which be more tender feareful thaÌ„ men The chast Porcia daughter of Cato loued so entierly hir husbaÌ„d Brutus y t after she vnderstode he was slain in Thessaly in y e fields Phillipiques for y t she could not presently get a knife to kil hir self she deuoured burning coales Cleopatra late quéene of Egipt nothing inferior in frendship to y e partie aforesayd hauing heard of y e death of hir husband Anthonie although she was warely garded by Octauius Cesar who would not she should kil hir self yet notwithstaÌ„ding their great care to preuent such a mischief as Apianus AlexaÌ„drinus writeth she was destroyed by a cruel kinde of tormeÌ„t for she made hir self to be deuoured of serpentes Neither let vs forget Arthemise quéene of Carie in Greece who after she knew y e king Mausolê° hir
the shape or figure of a deade man all to be bathed in the bloudy flouds of horrible murder preferring this lamentable request seing thou hast vsed so smal care to succour my lyfe at the least discharge the office of a friende in reuengyng of my death for this body whiche thou seest so murdered and dismembred afore thée is at the gate of the Citie in a charyot couered wyth dong by the crueltie of myne hoste Thys seconde summonce or rather importunitie was of suche force in the troubled mynde of the other Arcadian that he arose in greate sorrowe and wyth no lesse compassion requested dyuerse friends to accompanie him to the gate of the Citie where as they founde the deade body of his friend hydden in the dong in suche sorte as he appeared to him in his dreame Wherevpon the Hoast being taken and examined auouched the murder and receyued hys hyre by the losse of his head The like is affirmed by Alexander ab Alexandro in the ninth chapter of his second boke De ses iours geniaux which he vnderstode of a familiar and deare friend of his a man whose learnyng and vertue acquite hym from iust imputation of vntruthe in any sorte whatsoeuer Thys man being at Rome was required by one of hys verye friendes to accompanie hym to the bathes of Cumes the intente of whyche iourney as it was to séeke remedy for a disease whyche hadde troubled hym many yeares afore So the other agréed to hys request in sort to his owne expectation Neyther hadde they trauailed many yeares together but thys disease grewe to suche extreme debilitie thorough all hys body that what wyth the anguishe of it and weakenesse in hym to endure the paine he died and gaue vp the goast in an Inne To whome after the other had performed such funeralls as agréed with the time and place seing no cause of nede to passe further to the bathes retourned to Rome and being ouertaken with extreme wearinesse of the firste dayes trauaile tooke vp hys lodging in an Inne by the waye where he was no sooner in bedde and afore he hadde desire to sleepe than the image of his friende whome he hadde put into the earth the day afore presented hym selfe afore hys eyes beholdyng him wyth moste earneste and pitifull regarde and that in the same leane and defourmed estate he was in duryng the extremitie of hys sicknesse The same strikyng such mortall dreade into the other that he was readie to dye for feare and yet was not voide of courage and remembrance to aske hym what he was who without making him any aunswere put off hys ghoastly apparaile and roabes of a ghoast and wente to bedde to hym offeryng to embrace hym with greate familiaritie which forced the poore man halfe deade wyth feare to leape sodainely oute of the bed and saue hym selfe by flyght without that the vision appeared to hym afterwarde Whyche notwithstandyng coulde not so well assure hym but the remembraunce of that feare made hym fall into a mortall disease whiche albeit brought hym to the extreme hazarde of death yet the worst being preuented by special remedies and he returned 〈◊〉 health amoÌ„gst the wonderful reports of this vision he â—â—yd he neuer felt yce more colde than the feete of that dead body touching him in his bed The same author in the .xj. chapter of his first boke confirmeth this discourse with a like example which he hath neither red nor learned by report but séene the experience hym self in one of hys trusty seruantes a man bothe vertuous and of vpright lyuing who layed in his bed fast a slepe began vpoÌ„ a sodain to sigh lament complain in such sort that he awaked all those in the house His master in the morning asked him y e cause of his trouble to whom he answered that these complaintes were not vaine seing that he séemed to sée afore his eyes to be buried the dead body of his mother Whervpon as his maister obserued y e very daye and houre to the ende he myght know whether it didde prognosticate any harme to his man so within certaine dayes after there came a seruant of his mother the messanger of hir death who discoursing hir disease with the order of hir dying conferryng the times together it appered that the houre of hir death agréed wyth the very instaunt of the vysion whych sayth Alexander néede not séeme eyther vaine or doubtfull to suche as knowe certaine houses in Rome at this day of great hate and horrour by reason they are hauÌ„ted wyth spirites Whereof Plurarch maketh mention of Damon in the beginning of the life of Cymon The same also being confirmed with like example written of Pausanias Cleonices and Bizantia the maide bisides the authority of Plinie in his .vij. boke of his Epistles touchyng a vision appearing in a house in Athens and that which Suetonius writeth when Caligula was killed whose house was troubled with prodigeous monsters and visions many yeares after vntil it was burned And lastly suche like is approued by Marcus Paulus Venitian who writeth that at thys day the Tartarians be very strong by enchantments of spirits being able to chaunge the day into darkenesse bring either light or darkenesse when and into what â—â—ace they list wherwith whosoeuer hath ben at any time circumueÌ„ted escapeth hardly without mortal danger Wherof Hayronus is a sufficient witnesse in his historie of the Sarmares wherein he sheweth how the Tartarians being almoste ouerthrowne were restored and became victorious by the enchauntment of the Ensigne bearer who made suche a darknesse ouerwhelm the army of the aduerse part that it dimmed their sights and mortified their corages But here me thinketh we stande too long vpon prophane examples séeing we haue sufficient confirmation by Ecclesiasticall authoritie as Sainct Augustine in hys twelfth Boke and seuententh Chapiter vppon Genesis in the Historie of a frantike man prophecying vpon the death of a Woman who as he was banquetting in his owne house amongâ—â—â— certaine his familiar friends falling into question of a woman knowen to them all willed them to ende their talke of that woman bycause she was alreadie dead which as it moued them the rather bicause some of them sawe hir not long afore so being asked how he coulde assure it sayd he sawe hir passe before him caried by such as put hir in the grounde which happened accordingly within .ij. dayes after for that the dead corps of the same woman passed afore his gate to be buried without that she felte any motioÌ„ of sicknesse at the houre of the prediction In like sorte the said S. Augustin in the same place treateth so strangely of prodigeous visions that were not the holinesse and authoritie of him y t wrote them they deserued smal credit There was saith he in our Citie a yong man so vexed with a paine in his coddes that by the furie of his griefe he séemed to endure a maruelous torment hauing
all together within a castell and himselfe also he gat to fauor and further his coÌ„spiracy some .iiij. or .v. men whom according to the truste he put in them he made to be hidden in certaine secret corners of the chambers appointed for the noble men hauing firste attired them in horrible order with skinnes of seawolues whereof is greate stoare in that countrey by reason of the Sea with euery one a staffe in his ryghte hand of a kinde of olde and dry wood which shyneth in the night and in their left hand a great horne of an Ore pierced hollow these according to their commaundemente kept very close secrete vntill the Princes were in theyr first and fast sléepe when they began to appeare and discouer w t their staues glimering like the glaunces or flames of torches braying out of their hollowe hornes a hydeous voyce conteining that they were sent of God to sommon them to the warre of the Pictes against whom the sentence of victory was already pronounced and agréed by the heauens And so these artificiall sprites assisted with the benefite of the night which is the mother nurse to all illusions vsed so fine a conuey in the dispatch of their businesse that they escaped without being disclosed leauing the poore Princes so passioned with feare that they passed the rest of the night in prayers vntill the morning when euerye of them with great solemnitie imparted his vision to y e king who also for his parte to aggrauate the matter with further credite notwithstanding he was the first founder and forger of the mistery approued their sayings with the like appearing to himself albeit he was curious to reueale the secretes of God vntill he had more sure aduertisement thereof wherewith some other persuasions on his parte to enforce their forwardnes they became as eger and earnest to begin the warre as if Christ himself had bene their captaine and so assailed their enimies that they did not only ouerthrow them in battell but also made suche mortall extermination that the memory of the day euer since hath bene vtterly extinct There be some now a dayes that put lighted candels within the heades of dead men to feare the people and others that haue tied little waxe candels lighted vpon cockles tortures snailes which they put in that order within the church yards by night to the end that the simple people séeing these beastes moue a far of with their flames might beleue that it were some dead sprite returned for some speciall cause into the world by which villanous meanes as they haue gotten money of the common and ignoraÌ„t sort so let them be assured to render accompt of their doings to the soueraign iudge for abuâ—â—ng the pore flocke of his deare sonne vnder y e coloure of visions There hath bene yet of late time in Italy an other practise of Diabolical visions performed by certaine candels made of the grease or tallow of a man which so loÌ„g as they were light and did burne in the night the pore people seemed so ouerwhelmed with enchauntments and charmes that a man might haue taken any thing out of their house w tout that they were able to stirre out of their beds to reskue it but our God who according to his iustice doeth leaue nothyng vnpunished hath suffred that the authors and executors of such vanities haue bene taken as the thefe wyth the manner and being condemned haue yelded tribute to suche offences with the price of their life And lastly there is an other sort of artificial visions which are made with an oyle or licoure which cometh of certaine wormes we sée shine in the night which bicause they be things not worthie to be handled in argument amoÌ„gst no christians â–ª I will make silence of them for this time maruelling notwithstanding that sundry learned men heretofore haue vsed so large a libertye in discouering suche vanities the rather for that our natures for the most part are more credulous of such shadowed things than apt to beleue a truthe ¶ A wonderfull history of a monster seene by Celius Rhodiginus CHAP. xxvij TO the ende we shoulde taste of these wonderfell visions which may be thought very strange to the Reader me séemes good to shew here the pourtrait of twoo maruellous monsters the one a man the other a woman séen in diuers prouinces by twoo as excelleÌ„t Philosophers as haue raigned in our age The first being the man was séen by Ludouicus Celius Rhodiginus as he writeth in the iij. chapter of his .xxiiij. booke of auncient lessons folowing in this maner There was sayth he broughte forth a monster at Zarzara in Italy in the yeare of grace 1540. and the .xix. day of Marche worthie to be considered off for many causes One for that it was brought into the worlde at such time as Italy was afflicted wyth the plague and scourge of ciuile warres And that thys monstrous childe was a certaine forerunner or messanger which shewed vnto them the miseries of those domesticall quarels the other causes for the which it deserued to be diligently noted were for the straunge and maruellous effectes that nature exhibited in this little subiect for in the first place the mother of this infant broughte it forth within .iij. moneths wel formed which is a thing monstrous in nature Secondarily he had two faire heades well proportioned and two faces ioyned one to an other and tyed vpon the top of the neck with a proportion maruellous in euery of those partes he had his haire a little long and blacke and betwene these two heades he had a thirde heade whiche excéeded not the length of an eare And for the rest of his body it was so wel made and proporcioned in all thyngs requisite that it séemed that Nature delited to frame and make him so faire Who after he had soiorned a certaine tyme in this miserable worlde died wherein as he was made a present to one of the kyng of Spaynes lieutenants gouerning in that countrey so he thoughte it good to haue him ripped and his bellie opened and intrailes séen which being done he represented vnto the sightes of the lookers on things no lesse maruellous than the presidents written of before that is to say he had two liuers two milts and but one heart Wherwith endeth the description that Celius hath made of that monster The second monster is a woman hauing two heads whose figure is before to be séene with the other and more to be wondered at than the fyrst in one thing for that she liued many yeres whiche is contrary to the nature of monsters who ordinarily lyue not long for the abundance of melancolike humor which abundeth in them to see them selues so opprobrious to the worlde are therby so dried and consumed that their liues be shorte Whiche happened not to this maide which thou seest here portraicted for at suche tyme as Conradus Licostenes came into the Duchie of Bauiere whiche was in the yere
who was of a huge body horrible in regarde fearfull in his cries and yelling and most desperate and cruell in fight hauing already committed to morsels .v. or .vj. meÌ„ wythout deuouring them least withall he should lose his appetite and delite to fight albeit the Emperoure not lyking to kepe him any longer without meate commaunded to let loose vnto him one of the Captiues whom if the Lyon ouercame he should also deuoure him whereupon was committed into the place a poore slaue so leane and mortified with imprisonment that he séemed to delight in no other felicitie than sodaine deathe This fierce Lyon setting vp his brussels making two or thre turnes about the Collâ—sea seemed to whet his teeth and stomacke to praie vpon y e miserable man but y t which is no lesse straunge to heare than wonderfull to see this cruell beast approching neare his prisoner séemed at a sodaine to gase in beholding his face with greate iudgement which hauing performed and viewed with such leisure as he thought good he did not only refuse to doe him any harme but also with great humilitie he smelled to his handes and licked hys fingers and falling prostrate afore him he séemed not onely to know him but acknowledge most thankefully in his kinde an auÌ„cient debt and good turne done vnto him This brought suche indifferent comforte and courage to the pore man that he conuerted his former feare into present assuraunce of safetie The same mouing him in token to be thankefull of his parte to stroke and cherish the Lyon as if there had bene an auncient familiaritie betwene them which bredde such cause of amaze in the Emperoure and the assistantes as neuer hauing séene nor heard of the lyke that they imagined him to be some Nycromancien or by some Arte to haue enchaunted the disposition of the Lyon And forthwith called the slaue vnto hym and asked what he was of what Countrey and hys name what was his offence and for what cause he was there deliuered to such distresse of the wilde beastes what saith he hast y u nourished this Lion or hast thou heretofore staÌ„d his life in stead or deliuered him from any mortal danger Or if then be some enchaunter I enioyne thée vpon paine to be here disinembred quicke to yeld vs a truthe séeing it is now happened to thée which neuer hath bene séene to chaunce in Rome since the first foundation Wherwith the wretched prisoner hauing yet the Lion couched at his fete aunswered the Emperour with an assured and stayed couÌ„tenance in this sort Albeit sir I beare here a miserable body of the malice of my time and fortune the same wyth other mortall distresses in prison making me rather resemble the ghoast to a dead man than séeme of state as I haue bene yet sir the extremitie of my case doth not take away the estimation of the house y t bred me being not long since a knight of the countrey of Eselauonia and of the line of the Androniques of no lesse honor in that couÌ„trey than the famous Quintus Fabius and Marcus Marcellus throughe your prouince and part of Rome the city whereof I am is called Mantuca who as she reuolted against the obedience of the Romaines so all such as remained of that miserable calamitie became seruile to your city wherof my fortune as you sée made me a miserable partaker but touching your demaund to be priuy to the discourse of my tragical life It is now .xxvj. yeres since I was first prisoner in my countrey and as loÌ„g since I was brought in that order to this city sold in y e field of Mars to a sawyer of wood who finding me vnapt to supply y t trade sold me to the Consullâ— Dacus liuing at this day whose coÌ„mendation as it coÌ„sisted chiefly in wisdome profound experience so had he for a counterpoise of his vertues a vice most familiar to him y â— same eclipsing al the rest as the clouds doe the clearenesse of the Sunne for his couetousnesse was so great that I was at a point to sterue with hunger in his seruice my toyle trauel both day night so painfull extreme that during the space of a xj yeres which was the time scope of my miserable life I neuer ioyed in other thyng than in the desire of death which being withstanded by my destenie I thought to abridge my desolation by meanes as I best might wherevpon I tendred a request to my maister eyther to sell me to an other or by some other way to giue ende to my myserie Wherin if I preuailed it was in increase of further rigour on his part seeming rather to aggrauate his villanie than diminish any part of his crueltie and for my self féelyng the threats of age and fall of my former strength I resolued desperately to burie my selfe and sorrowes in the solitarie desertes of Egypt wherein fortune fauoured me with a most conuenient occasion for that the Consule my maister leauyng Rome to visite a countrey called Tamutha situated betwene the confines of Egipt and Affrica from whence as he rested one night and was in the depth of his sléepe I departed without other leaue than that I came with as slender noyse as I coulde and so taking only with me some reasons dry and a bottle of water I coÌ„mitted me in that state to the mercy of the nighte and guide of fortune But at the dawning of the day fearing some search to pursue me and being pressed withall with a wonderfull desyre of sléepe I layde me downe in a caue which I founde by chaunce in that desert place wherein I had not rested many houres but I saw enter into my lodging a huge and cruell Lyon hauing his throate and féete embrued wyth bloud the same addyng further dreade to my former the rather bicause I saw me as voyde of meanes to flée his furie as vnprouided of force to resist his furie which made me pronounce secrete sentence of myne owne death with contentment that the bowells of y e Lion to become the sepulchre of my brused bones Wherin as I was in the depth of these mortall cogitations beholde the Lyon which had a little paused at the entrie of the caue began to draw neare the place where I was drawing one of his leggs after hym with great griefe as it séemed and houering ouer the place where I laye vpon the earth for feare he layde his hurt legge vpon my handes in sorte as the wisest man would that sought to discouer his grief iâ— an other which made me take heart the rather for that y e feare which I had of this proude beast was turned into a desire in him self to demauÌ„d succors at my hand His grief was in his foot by reason of a great thorn which lay within the flesh the same making it swell that it was at point to yeld matter to the which I gaue a vent by breaking thâ— impostume and tooke out the
swiftnesse and light condition that no shippe how so euer she be assisted with windes or weather is able to make saile equall with the wing of that Birde whose wings in déede are long and thin but of a meruellous reflection and light whose fethers or more properly shagge or long haire be almost of the hardnesse of a horne thys Birde hath no féete she flieth continually without resting in any place sauing that she stayeth against a trée or bough vpon the which she hangeth and stayeth by a lock of hir loÌ„g hair she is of great price by reason of hir strauÌ„genâ—sse and rarietie the great men of Leuant for a brauery do deck the crests of their armors with the plumes of this Birde they saw it at Noremberg by Iohn Cromerus The Almaines call this bird in their laÌ„guage Luffruogel which signifieth a bird of y e air either by reason y t she liueth in the air or that they make accoÌ„pt she is releued therby the most be of opinion y t the female hath one receptacle or retreat vnder hir wings where she layeth and hatcheth hir egges Wherefore the kings of Marmin in the Iles of Moluques not long sithens were persuaded did beleue y t their soules were immortal by the consideration of this Birde being moued by no other argument if not that they obserued one litle bird of extreme beautie which at no time touched the earth but sometimes fell dead from the height of heauen And as the Mahometists trauailed with them they shewed them this birde persuading them that she came from Paradise which was a delicious place where the dead soules toke their repose wherby that people grosse and barbarous beleuing that which the Turkes declared to them begaÌ„ very curiously to examine of their law and in the ende became Mahometists and folow at this day the Mahomet law for which cause they name that birde Manucodiata that is to say the birde of God which birde they haue in such reuerence and honour that the Kings hauing hir aboute them accompte themselues sufficiently guarded from all perill and daunger of warre wherupon the Kings of the Isles aforesayd did send to Charles the fift Emperor fiue of these litle birdes dead for as we sayd before they were neuer taken by any man aliue Maximilianus Transsiluanus Gesnerus pursuing the Historie of this birde addeth yet that whiche foloweth I haue saith he attained to write these things by the letters of Melchior Guillandin Beruce a man great in science and doctrine whiche were brought vnto me to Padoue by the which he writeth hir the birde of Paradyse as here foloweth Albeit those which haue left in writing the nauigation of the Spaniards to straunge countreys assure and affirme that there is a little bird bred and borne in the Isles of Moluques very pleasaunt and of singular beautie wherof the body is but litle notwithstandyng by reason of the hugenesse of hir feathers she séemeth more great which be brode and houering disposed in a rounde in such sort that they represente the circuite of a circle That little birde representeth in greatnesse and forme a Quaile being adorned and decked with feathers of diuers colours most faire and bautifull contenting very muche the eyes of those which behelde hir hir head proportioned to the body somewhat more great than a swallow hir fethers which decke the height of hir from the vppermoste part of the bones of the skurfe of hir neck to the mydst of hir beake be short great hard thick and of a yealowe colour and shineth like the purest golde or the beames of the Sunne the others which couer hir chin be moste delicate tender and resemble a piercyng coloure like to the gréene and not much vnlike to those whiche we see vpon the heades of Canardes being directly against the sunne That birde hath no féete and is very like a Hearon touching the feathers of hir wings sauing that they be more tender and long holden of a broune colour participating with redde and blacke The male of that birde hath a hole vpon the skurfe of his back where the female putteth and hatcheth hir egges and not relieued by other meate than the dewe of heauen whiche serueth them for meate and drinke And who lyst to visite the inwarde parts of thys byrde shall fynde hir full of fat or grease whereof I may boldly talk bicause I haue séene two without legs which is contrary to the writing of Aristotle who affirmeth that no birde wanteth féete he dwelleth alwayes in the ayre I am sure this would amaze you to write wholy the form of this bird by his particulars as Gesnerus writeth according to the witnesse of the foresayd authors Albeit who is desirous to sée a more ample description thereof reade that which the sayd Gesnerus hath written in the chapter where he treateth of the birde of Paradise or in the boke of Auium natura Hieromeus Cardanus in his bokes de subtilitate or place where he writeth of perfect beasts reporteth the like to that which foloweth In the sayd Isles of Moluques they haue found vpon the laÌ„d or in the sea one dead bird called Manucondiata which is as much to saye in the Indians toung as the birde of God or Birde of Paradise whiche they haue not séene on liue for that it hathe no féete Which for my part I haue séene thrée or .iiij. tymes and alwayes wanting those membres she dwelleth continually in the aire and that very high and farre of Shée beareth a body and a beake muche like the sea swallowe both in bignesse and other forme the quilles of hir wings and tayle be full as bigge as those of an Eagle when she aduaunceth or stretcheth them abroade Hir feathers bee very small and moste lyke reseruing their litlenesse to the plumes of a Pehenne or a she Peacocke and differing in that poynt from the Peacocke hym selfe bycause these feathers haue not suche starres or eyes as we sée in the tayle of a Peacocke The backe of the male of this birde is holowe where by moste reason the female dothe laye hir egges seing hir belly is also hollow the same arguyng that by the hollownesse of the one and other she layeth and hatcheth hir eggs there is in the taile of the male a thréede of the length of thrée shaftments blacke in colour neither rounde nor square of an ordinarie bignesse not much vnlyke to a Shoemakers thréede by the whyche it may be presumed that the female is tied and ioyned to his backe whilest she layeth and hatcheth hir egges It is moste certaine that as she remayneth continually in the ayre so lykewise when hir wyngs and tayle be drawne into a roundnesse she supporteth hir selfe that way and being wearie she becommeth as she was afore She doth lyue by none other foode than by the dewe of Heauen whiche serueth hir bothe to eate and also to dryncke the same arguing a wonderfull diligence and maruell of Nature to make
wombe to straight which is y e cause that she is found to wante in suche sorte that the wombe is congealed and gathered in one whereupon groweth this forme and superfluitie of members in this little male moÌ„ster whom thou seest héere figured hauing four armes four legges and but one head with all the rest of his body well proportioned who was engendred in Italie the same day that the Venetians and Geneuois after the sheading of much bloud both of the one side the other coÌ„firmed their peace and wer reconciled togither and which was baptised and liued a certaine time after as writeth Iacobus Fincelius in his booke de miraculis post renatum Euangelium And in the same yeare that Leopolde Duke of Austrich vanquished of the Swizers died And Galea was created Uicount of Millain after the death of Barnabone ¶ A wonderfull Historie of Couetousnesse with many examples touching that matter worthy of memory CHAP. L. DIogines Laerce writeth that there was a Rhodian iesting one day with the philosoper Eschines saying to him I sweare by the immortal gods Eschines that I haue great pitie and compassioÌ„ of thy pouertie To whom he replied sodainly and by the same gods do I make y e like othe that I more bewaile thée to sée thée so rich seing that riches once gotten bréede not onely paine torment care with heauinesse to kéepe them but also a more great displeasure to spend them perill to preserue them occasion of great inconueniences and dangers to defend them And that which yet séemes to me more grieuous and horrible is that where for the most parte thou hidest thy riches in the same place thou leauest thy heart buried And lyke as Herodotus writeth that the inhabitants of the Isles Baleares watch and defend wyth great care that no maÌ„ entring into their Countrey bring or leaue behinde them either golde siluer silke or precious stones which hapned so wel vnto them y t during the space of .400 yeres wherein there was most cruel warres not only amongst the Romains and Carthaginois but also the French Spaniards neuer any of the said nations were once moued to inuade their landes for that they could not finde either golde siluer or other thing of price or value to robbe pilfer or take away euen so there is yet one other thing more straunge that is that Phalaris Agringetin Dionyseus Siracusan Catilmus Romanê° Iugurth Numidien being .iiij. famous tiraÌ„ts neuer maintained their estates realms by any vertue whych they vsed but only by their great gifts presents which they bestowed on their adhereÌ„ts wherfore I wold wish y t al such as be fauored of Princes should note wel this saying y t it is impossible for one being in great fauor to continue long therin being ouerwhelmed accompanyed w t the wicked vice of couetousnesse Neither am I out of my matter hauing touched y e same in the Historyes before for y t in these our dayes y e world is so coâ—rupted therwith as there is no other talke in our coÌ„mon weales of any thing but only of the burning rage of couetousnesse whych raigneth in all y e estates of y e world namely amoÌ„gst y e Ecclesiastical persoÌ„s as our high father w t his Cardinals a thyng much to be lameÌ„ted coÌ„sidering that they ought to be rather distributers of the goods of the Lord thaÌ„ affectionated burning as we sée w t this gréedie desire of riches y t it seemes y t they would drain al the welth of y e world into theyr gulphs in y e end burie the same w t their bodies in the graue wherof I haue written more largely in my other works making mention of the cardinal Angelot But now I wil returne to my matter for sithens that y e pestileÌ„t venom of couetousnesse hath sprinkled hir poison through y e world y t the most part of the prouinces remain be so much infected therwith y t they by that meanes stick not to make marchaÌ„dise of meÌ„s bodies to obtaine mony wherof Celius Rhodiginus in his iij. boke of auÌ„cient lessons .lvj. chapter is a sufficient witnesse who declareth y t in his time diuers wicked persons sold the flesh of men so well seasoned y t is séemed to be the flesh of Porke in which wickednesse as they continued til God by his almighty power discouered the same by suffering them to finde the finger of a man mingled amongest their meats which was the cause that they were taken cruelly punished euen so this néedes not séeme straunge or a fable to those which haue red Galenes .xiij. boke of Elements who sheweth y e mannes flesh is so like vnto porke hauing the very tast and sauor of it that those which haue eaten therof iudged it to be the flesh of a Porke Wherefore in the Historie of Caelius Rhodiginus it is not strauÌ„ge but most apparant that couetousnesse hath so blinded maÌ„ and rageth euen to the very tippe of iniquitie that they cannot adde any thing more thereunto Albeit Conradus Licostenes recompteth yet one other wonderfull Historie of couetousnesse which is nothing inferior to this before who wryteth that in the Dukedome of Wittemberge there was a wicked hoste who presented at supper all his gests lodged in his house with the fleshe of a Porke bitten of a madde dogge which was so greatly infected with the venim of that beast that all those which eate therof became not only madde but also pressed in such sort with the furie and rage of their euill that they eat and tare in pieces one an other ¶ A Monster brought forth at Rauenna in the tyme of Pope Iule the secâ—nde and king Lewes the .xij. CHAP. xlj REader this monster which thou seest here depainted is so brutall and farre differing from humaine kinde that I feare I shal not be beleued in that I shal write ther of hereafter notwithstanding if thou wilt but conferre this with those hauing faces like Doggs and Apes wherof I haue written in the Histories before thou shalt then fynde the other farre more monstrous Iaques Ruell in his bokes of the conception and generation of meÌ„ from wheÌ„ce I haue this figure Conradus Licostenes in his treatie of wonders IohaÌ„nes Multiuallis Gasparus Hedio affirme write y t in the yere 1512. at what time pope Iule y e second stirde vp caused so many bloody tragedies in Italy that he had made warre with king Lewis euen at the iorney of Rauenna this monster was engendred borne at Rauenna aforesayd a citie most auncient in Italy hauyng one horne in his head two wings and one foote like to the foote of a ramping bird with an eye in the knee it was double in kind participating both of the man womaÌ„ hauing in y e stomack y t figure of a Greke Y y e form of a crosse no armes And like as this moÌ„ster was brought into y e world in y
amongest a nuÌ„ber of others our time hath stirred vp a moÌ„strous example that waye in Auignon at such a time as mine authour studied the lawe vnder Emilius Farretus in whose time there was a Prelate straunger whose name I will concele aswell for the honour of his profession as to much superstition in him selfe who one daye inuited to a banquet the nobilitie of Auignon aswell men as women where for a firste beginning of his pompe at the very entrie into the hall where the banquet was appointed laye spread vpon a curious borde a greate beefe with his heade pulled of and purged in his intrailes hauing in his bellie a whole Harte or deare of the like dressing stufte full of little birdes as Quailes Partriches larkes Feasants and other lyke the same being so conningly inclosed in the bellie of the seconde beaste and they so artificially conioined y e one within the other that it séemed some excelleÌ„t Mathematitian had bene the workeman thereof But that whiche made the matter both straunge and wonderfull was that all the birdes so assembled did roste and turne all alone vpon a broche by certaine compasse and conduites withoute the ayde of any man For the firste course and order of the table his gestes were presented with store of curious pastrie wherein were wroughte and inclosed manye little birdes quicke who assone as the cruste was taken of began to flie aboute the hall there were besides sundrie sortes of siluer plate full of Iellie so subtillie conueighed that a man might haue seen in the bottome a number of little fishes quicke swimming and leaping in swéete water and muske to the greate delite and pleasure of the assistaunts neither is it lesse straunge in that all the foules which were serued vpon the table were larded wyth Lampraye albeit it was in a season when they coste halfe a croune a piece but that whiche seales vp the superstitious pompe of this proude Prelate was that there was reserued as many quicke birdes as he was serued with deade foules at his table the same contayning suche indifferente number that if there were a Fesant sente dreassed to the borde there were Gentlemen appointed for the purpose which presented an other aliue and al to shewe the magnificence of the prieste to whome what remaines for the consummation of his prodigall delites but that the Gentlemen which serued him had their faces couered with a vaile leaste their breath should offende either him or his meate all whiche I haue preferred in this place as moste prodigious and monstrous not for immitation sake but rather that all good Christians shoulde deteste him and his example séeing it mighte be that whilest his Shippe went with full saile and he in the middeste of his Epicures delites the poore Lazarus perished at his dore for wante of foode and fyre But alas what coulde the faithfull Sainct Iohn and Peter thinke of this who had not one Deniere to giue in almes to the poore lame man that did demaunde it at the Temple gate or what woulde the other Apostles constrained with extremitie of hunger to eate the eares and awnes of Corne if they had séen their successour in so hote a kitchen so diuersly garnished with delicate meates This had bene a time and place and fitte occasion for the wicked Iudas if he had bene there to haue cried againste them Vt quid perditio haec potuisseâ— hoc multum vendi darâ— pauperibus Who liste to be priuie to the pompe of other Prelates let him reade Platinus in his treatise De honesta voluptate There was besides a Cardinall no lesse famous this waye than our Italian Prelate who in the time of Sixtus the Pope consumed into twoo yeares in banquets ionquets and suche other bellye vanities 3000. crownes wherewith manye poore members of Christe and sundrie néedie scholers and students might haue bene relieued and kepte long time at their bookes Let vs leaue to reporte of these disorders in our time and returne to our auncestours who the more manifest their vices were the greater was their slaunder and the tragedie of their life lesse honorable Wherefore all that is spoken of before is but as a shadowe or figure of magnificence in respecte of those monstrous and diabolicall feastes of that greate glutton and deuourer of meates Heliogabalus Emperour of the Romains who was so disordred in his delites that sâ—arce the life of an excellent Historiographer woulde suffice to dilate therof at large That wicked and vnhappy minister of Sathan drowned as it were in the â—â—nke of vnsatiable eating neuer made dinner after he was created Emperour wherin he spenâ— lesse than .60 markes of golde whiche according to our computation amounteth to the summe of 2500 Ducats besides he was so fantastical and vnrulie in his appetites that he vsed no common meates at his meales but was â—edde with the combes of cockes the toungs of peahens also being made to vnderstande that there was but one thing rare in the worlde whiche they declared to be the Phenix he sente for hir to eate promising I knâ—w not how many thousand markes of golde to him who coulde furnishe him thereof and sayde in a common prouerbe that there was no sauce but dearth Wherin not suffising him self to féedâ— of these rare exquisite meats he feasted like wise with as great abundance his gentlemen and champions causing also his Dogs and Lions to be nourished with the fleshe of Phesants Pehens and birdes not ceassing to vse only this prodigalitie in daintinesse of his mouth but which more is he was as lasciuious and extreme in all other furnitures of his seruice for he caused to serue him at his table foure maides naked who wer oftentimes caried in that sorte through the citie of Rome he neither dranke nor eate at any time aboue once in one vessell or dishe although the same and all the rest of the implements of his house were of pure gold or siluer the stoole wherin he did his excrements not excepted And in the place of wax candels to giue him light he caused to be put into his lampes an excellent balme which he caused to brought from Iuda and Arabia That vnhappie Emperoure was so frantike and madde in all his actions that he inuented things which diuels themselues coulde neuer deuise before for he made to be counterfaited artificially meates of marble wood and other things causing not onely the people to be kepte hungrie but also to sitte at the table beholding these meates in pitifull sorte He made many bankets to the which he inuited .viij. balde men .viij. crooked men .viij. lame men viij deafe men .viij. dumbe men .viij. black men .viij. white men .viij leane men and viij fatte men to the ende that those which did assist the baÌ„ket might haue cause to laugh sometymes he made his guests dronke and then shutting the dores and gates of the place where they were a sleepe put in vnto them Beares and Lyons
withoute nailes or teeth to the ende that when they awaked they myght die for feare to sée them within the danger of suche rauenous beastes some others he woulde make drinke tyll they burst and of some againe when they had wel dronke he woulde tie their legs and their hands and al the conduits of their vrine and so let them die And being reprehended of these folies and warned to auoyde such extraordinarie expense least hereafter it were reuenged vpon him with pouertie His answere was that he was not subiect to any thing he had neither woulde he haue other heire than himselfe and his wife not caryng for children least they should conspire against him These were the charities and deedes of deuotion wherin this reuerend Emperor consumed the reuenue of his state whiche by reason of their monstrous order if they séeme incredible to any lette hym reade Aelyus Lampridius Sextus Aurelius Victor Eutropius Iulius Capitolinus and Spartian in the lyfe of Septimus Seuerus by whome albeit the matter is plentyfully aduouched yet haue they not broughte to memorie the moytie or one halfe There resteth nowe to discouer the ende of these delites and what bytter gall attended the pleasant taste of such sugred vanities What other ende had Darius and Xerxes whereof we haue first spoken than after so many duties and gluttonous delites done to their filthy bellies they were miserebly confounded the like happening rightly to Alexander whome one droppe of poyson made digest in one cup that which he had excessiuely deuoured all the days of his life And did it happen better to that prodigall Marcus Antonius or his liccorishe Cleopatra What mirrour what spectacle what example to such as liue in this worlde as in an eternall Paradyse of delites but what more shamefull punishmente and iust hire coulde he receiue of his Epicures life than to be the bloudy butcher of himselfe the like ende attending his Companion in wantonnesse whiche according to hir dissolute lyfe was at last deuoured of an Aspick the moste venomous of all other creatures And that sinke or gulfe of gluttonie Heliogabalus did he escape the furie or iustice of God no no for as he had deuoured an infinite numbre of sundry sortes of creatures he was in the endâ— torne in pieces of them seing his owne people after many hard experiences of his tyrannies conspired against him and killed him and trailyng him as a dead dog along the stretes THe figure and portraict of Denis Heracleot who becam so grosse that he was costrained to haue his bloud drawen from him by Horsleaches as appeareth further in the leafe 82. Galene reporteth the like historie of Nicomachus Smyrneus who was so grosse and monstrous that he could not remoue of Rome threw him at last into Tyber where his body was a praie to fishes wherof his throate whilest he liued had murdered an infinite number The Emperor Iouian and Septimus Seuerus as Baptista Ignatius witnesseth died of the disease of dronkennesse There be also other kindes of banketters which albeit haue not died vpon any surfete of eating or drinking yet they became so monstrous fat that they were little better in efâ—ect amongest whom the Emperoure Maximyn may chalenge first place as their chief patriarch whome they affirme to haue suche store of grease kitchen stuffe within his paunche that the breath that came from hym séemed of force to turne aboute a Windmill hauyng continually two men to beare vp hys belly his hands and other membres by succession of time being so greate and charged with fatnesse that his wiues bracelettes scarcely serued his fyngers for Ryngs as the Histories affirme In lyke maner Denys Heracleot gaue hym selfe so ouer to the desire of meate and drinke and other fleshly delites that he became so monstrous huge and fat that he durst not shewe himself to the people for feare of contempt By which meanes and continuall kéepyng in his close house he became so grosse and swelled thorow all the parts of his body that he was forced to applie continually to certaine partes of his body bothe day and night a great quantitie of Horsleaches to drawe the humour that fedde hys fatnesse for otherwyse he hadde died as may appeare in this Portraict adioynyng ¶ Certaine wonderfull discourses worthy of memorie touching Visions Figures and illusions appearing as well in the day as in the night and sleping as waking CHAP. xxvj I Accompt it to small purpose to argue in this place whether the shadowes of deade men do returne or if the spirits hauing passed the wracke of this mortall life doe visite vs sometimes or no Wherin notwithstanding as it is most credible that the two most famous pillers of the churche Saint Augustine and Sainte Hierome and almost the whole route of the Ecclesiasticall writers haue stande vpon the dissolution of the doubt of Samuel I meane whether it were the true spirite of the Prophete that appeareth by the inuocation of the enchauntresse or some sleightes of Sathan to abuse their iudgementes For my part I meane to giue out myne opinion touching such doubtes in order and termes of a philosopher and with the authoritie of the most auncient and learned writers now a dayes who for the first haue made of great estimation by their Histories the discourse of the two Arcadians wherunto they giue no lesse faith than if it were an Oracle of truth As also Pope Pius the seconde of that name auoucheth the same with probable argumeÌ„ts and reasons Amongst the auncients Valerius and many other that recorded the affaires of Grece and Rome affirme that there were two Arcadians which loued so dearely one an other with such an affinitie of actions and humoures that it seemed they had but one heart diuided betwéene them both They came one day to Megare a citie in Grece to performe certaine businesse there where they repaired to seuerall places of abode the one to a friends house of his the other according to his custome toke harbor in an Inne he that went to the place of his acquaintance after supper féeling a vehement motion or desire of sléepe the same moued by the wearinesse of the way went to bedde where he fell forthwith into a profounde sléepe of two houres continuance which notwithstanding was not so quiet as it escaped without a terrible and feareful dreame for he séemed to sée standing afore hym his Companion pale and of a hideous regard crying with teares to giue him aide against the distresse and daunger of his hoast wherewith he awaked and gyuing faith to the vision and solicited bisides with the vehemencie of mutual loue betwene them arose and put him on the way to sée his companion albeit arguing wythin himselfe the vanitie in dreames he chaunged his purpose and went to bed again where he had not long lien ere he was assailed with a seconde remembraunce of his first apprehension but in a more straunge order for he séemed to cary