dayly happens wee see that many sick folkes haue no appetite by reason their ventricle is stuft with euill humors and they receiue lesse meate in a weeke then they did in a day when they were well But when a man of a sound bodie can but passe one or two daies without meate and not bee an hungred that exceedes the rules of nature and is a Diuine miracle Howe much more admirable is it that such a man should fast fortie daies togither in such manner that hee feeles no hunger hath no neede to resist the desire of eating nor hath any more appetite to meate or drinke then an Angell Wee beleeue that IESVS CHRIST had a bodie exceeding temperate and pure though hee were subiect to our infirmities according to the condition of his humaine natu◅e sinne excepted Wee acknowledge like-wise that MOYSES and ELIAS when they abstayned fortie da◅e togither from meate and drinke were in perfect health at that time and by a certaine prerogatiue exempted from the common life of men Wherevpon it ensueth that they are iustly esteemed for excellent miracles whereby the authority of those Prophets and of IESVS CHRIST were established Nowe it is no nouelty that the like effects should happen by the order of things which our most good and mighty GOD hath prescribed to nature and by an euident miracle against the lawes of the same nature For feauers and diuers other disseases which the Saints haue healed the Physitions doe also cure But the meanes which they vse make great difference in the case For the Saints by their worde or touch alone through the grace of GOD tooke away the causes of such effects with the necessity imposed vpon nature The Physitions do nothing but oppose vnto naturall things other like wise naturall whereby if the vertue of the remedies giuen by the Creator bee of greatest strength and that it be his will it should not bee in vaine at that time the cause which doth offend is defaced IESVS CHRIST throughly healed the inueterate course of menstruall bloud with the onely touch of the hem◅e of his garment and sayd hee felt that vertue was gone out of him for that effect but the womā touched that in faith which presented it selfe to her hand embracing the power of our Sauiour in her thought Wee by the art of Physick whereof he himselfe a mercyfull Father hauing pittie on mans condition is the true author institutor helpe our s◅lues in the like disseasses with certaine medicines So no question may an abundant phlegmatique humor naturally induce fasting as appeared in those before named which felt themselues well through the good pleasure of GOD. But besides these there are infi◅ite miracles that exceede our vnderstanding which neither humane Art nor Nature it selfe can any waie immitate Such is the curing of naturall blindnesse expelling of vncleane spirits out of humaine bodies raysing of the dead halfe rotten and such like which confirme the authority of the Almightie GOD. By this I thinke it appeares that things which are sayd to happen by a certaine Lawe of nature although but seldome reproue not true miracles nor dimynish their credit and that hee no way contradicteth the Chistian fai◅h which diligently examineth the causes of such euentes But rather is not the verity of vnfained miracles thereby confirmed the better in taking away the occasion of impostures therewithall to the ende they should not easily abuse the vnexperienced people For if any of those which liue without eating by reason of their cold intemperature and abundance of flegme should counterfeit the Prophet inspired of the euer lyuing GOD howe many thousands might hee drawe head-long into error and distruction Verily hee is impio◅s and ignorant of true nay dyuine Phylosophy which thinking of these things and considering them shall affirme it to bee wicked and irreligious to go aboute to distinguish with vnpainted reasons betweene the workes and as wee vse to say the miracles of nature and the miracles of GOD Which all good and Godly persons will freely confesse do belong to an honest religious charitable man These are Doctor IOVBERTS owne wordes whose booke was Printed at Paris the yeare 1579. It hath beene told me of a certaintie that there was a Chanon at Salamanca which went to Toledo and backe againe hauing remained there fifteene or twenty dayes without drinking any drop of Wine or Water from the time of his setting forth till his returne But that which puts me into a greater meruaile is that written by PONTANVS in his Booke of Meteors Of a man that in all his life neuer drunke a drop of any thing which LADISLAVS King of Naples vnderstanding made him drinke a little Water that greatly pained him at his stomack I haue also heard of diuers credible persons that in the Towne of Mansill not farre from the Cittie of Leon was a man liuing that vsed to be two or three moneths without drinking and neuer felt any harme or displeasure by it A. de TORQVEMADO in the first day of his Hexameron Imprinted the yeare 1582. Singular Modestie yeelding to a seuere Censure THere are few men to be found especially among them that are called learned which doe not highly esteeme their owne workes and endure reprehensions impatiently If there be any such found they deserue to be admired and imitated MARCILLIVS FICINVS a most learned Philosopher and renowmed Desciple of PLATO in our time hauing vndertaken PLATOES workes to Translate them out of Greeke into Latin cartyed his Translation vnto a very learned Man called MARCVS MVSVRVS CANDIOT to haue hi◅ aduise MVSVRVS seeing that this translation was done hastely and that it would not satesfie the expectation of many which did greatly affect it Beeing loth to haue his friend derided and to discharge himselfe of his promise hee takes a sponge and puts it into an Inck pot and so blots out all the first page of FICINVS translatiō then turning towards him hee sayd thou seest howe I haue corrected the first page if thou wilt I will do as much to the rest FICINVS without any choller answered him It is no reason that PLATO should be disgraced through my fault then he retired himselfe and hauing his second conceptions better refined he made a newe translation worthie both of the maister and the disciple ZVINGER in the 1. tome of his Theater A Mocker mockt A Certaine man remayning at Onzain neere to Amboisse being perswaded by an hostesse who committed the infamous crime of Adulterie with him to make shewe for the freeing of her husband of all future Iealousie that hee would be gelt by one called M. PETER des SERPENS Surgion at Villantrois in Berry he sent for his kins-folks and after that hee had tould them that hee neuer durst discouer his griefe vnto them hee was in the ende brought to that extremity as he was forced to take that course wherevpon he made his will And to make the better shewe of it after that he had
the 1. of February 1542. The 6. a Commission giuen by the said Court of Chambery to the said BOISSONNE the 6. of February 1542. The 7. the Articles sent to the said BOISSONNE the 25. of February 1542. The eight other admonitions made to the sayd TABOVE and a sentence giuen the 23. of February the same yeare The 9. a sentence pronounced in the sayd Court the 23. of December the same yeare The 10. a Commission giuen to Maister NICHOLAS de la CHESNAY Councellor in the same Court The 11. a Letter deliuered vnto vnto him and written in the name of the sayd Court to the Chancellor of France the 1. of Aprill 1545. The 12. an Answer made by the Iudges of the sayde Parliament of Chambery the 17. of December 1541. to the aduertisments sent vnto the King by the sayde TABOVE termed in the Processe the fiue points The 13. and last a sentence giuen in the sayde Court the 23. of Iune in the yeare 1540. touching a sute betwixt the Kings Atturney generall and the Lord of Eschelle This matter beeing deliuered vnto the King and found hard and of importance for the grauity of the cause and of the persons it was committed to the Parliament of Bourgondy at Dijon where the said President Councellors yeelded themselues prisoners TABOVE beeing their accuser After that their cryminall and extraordinary Processe had beene made many sentences were giuen The first was the second of Maie against GRAFFINS Councellor whome they found to be least charged who notwithstanding was condemned in a fine of three score pounds vnto the King and twentie pounds vnto TABOVE and suspended from his place for a yeare TABOVE pleaded then with great shewe thanking GOD after the manner of MOYSES IOSVA and others for the victory which hee did see comming towards him euen as sayd hee the ancient Fathers had done for the victories which GOD had sent them hee beganne and concluded his oration with a verse of DAVID Hic est dies quem fecit dominus c. But herein the poore man did singe like vnto the swanne The said GRAFFINS yeelded to this sentence and sought no redresse The second sentence was the 28. of Iuly in the said yeare 1552. against the President PELISSON by the which it was sayd that the decrees contained therein and impugned by TABOVE made by the said President were false and falsly framed declaring the said President for euer incapable to hold any royall Office condemning him to aske mercie of GOD the King and of Iustice and to paie a thousand pounds fine to the King and two hundred to TABOVE his goods to bee forfited and to passe the remaynder of his life where it should please the King The solemnity of the pronouncing and execution thereof was that the sayd President hauing one halfe of his bodie be-nummed with the palsey olde and broken with age diseases and cares was brought into the open Court the doores beeing open and the Iudges sitting in the Castell of Dijon where he was prisoner by two Archers in a chaier attired in blake taffata pinckt with a roabe of blacke satten a little night-cappe of silke and his square cappe in his hand At this spectacle and in his presence TABOVE made a speech The sentence was afterwards pronounced the poore old man was constrained with much a doe and through the helpe of his gards that had brought him to kneele downe holding in his hands a burning torch of wax weighing 4. pounds and asked pardon of GOD the King of Iustice and of TABOVE The saied decrees and other peeces that were impugned were torne in his presence which done he intreated the Court that hee might bee freed out of the Castell for the weakenesse and great infirmity of his person Answere was made him that the Court would consider of it The third sentence was the fourth of August against the aboue named BOISSONNE a Preest and Councellor by the which hee was found guiltie of fals-hood and other crimes mentioned in his processe and the decrees declarations and other pe◅ces declared false depriued of his Councellors place and condemned in a hundred pounds fine to the King and fortie pounds to TABOVE and his charges and to remaine a prisoner and for the common offence he was sent vnto his Ordinary The fourth sentence was the same daie against ROZET an other Councellor all one with the former After all this the sayd President BOISSONNE and ROZET Councellors hauing a firme confidence in thēselues that they had not offended notwithstanding these punishments they go vnto the King and shewe him that if the crimes whereof they are condemned bee proued true it were a monstrous thing to see them liue in a common-weale But if through the slander of their accuser they haue beene reduced vnto that extremity there is no reason for the dignity where-with his Maiesty had honored them in the Soueraignty of Sauoie that the cause should be referred to one Parliament aloane consisting of a small number to degrade and depriue them in that sort of their good names fortunes and honours leauing them nothing but their soules which is onely a remainder of greefe and perpetuall sorrowe They beseech him to allowe of a reuision the which is g◅aunted and the cause committed to the Parliament of Paris whereas all being wel viewed and examined it was said and iudged by a sentence of the sixteene of May 155◅ that the former decres of the 28. of Iuly and the fourth of August were voide and that the cryminall processe by the which they had beene giuen should be viewed and Iudged a newe without any respect to bee taken of the said decrees TABOVE condemned in costs domage and interests The Court at Dijon aduertised of this decree at the instance of TABOVE beeing much troubled in the beginning come vnto the King debate the reasons and maintaine their decrees she wing that it would cause impunity of crimes of importance and blemish the prerogatiue of his Parliaments They had good audience with the sayd TABOVE who pretended new matter and concealed nothing which hee thought might auaile him alledging that this accusation framed by him was alwaies with the quality of the Kings Atturney general being so receiued and neuer reproued and therefore hee ought not to bee condemned in costs domages and interests like vnto a priuate party although the accusation were not so well grounded as this was Some of the Court Parliament of Paris which had assisted at the resolution of the said decree of nullity were sent for they come and are heard with them of Dijon All being duly examined it was decreed by the Priuy Councell the 7. day of March 1555. that the sentence giuen the 16. of May vpon the said Nullities should take effect and touching the principall cause the parties should be sent to the Court of Paris to bee iudged in the presence of a President and two Councellors of the Court named in the decree and three
he had the Artere in the wind pipe and the mouth of the stomake which is the passage for meate drinke quite cut I did sodenly stitch vp the wound taking the Artere and drawing the two extremites as nere as I could possibly one vnto an other but not of the mouth of the stomacke for that it was retired towardes the stomacke then I applyed remedies vnto his wounde with astringents and fit Ligatures As soone as euer he was thus drest he began to speake and to name him that had committed this excesse The murtherer was taken soone after in the Suburbes of Saint Marceau and was found seized of the patients goods wherevpon hee was put in prison the fact verified after the patients death the which was the fourth day after his wounding The murtherer was broken soone after and laied vpon a wheele neere vnto Saint Catherine du Valdes Escholiers M. AMB. PARE lib. 9. Chap. 31. In the first troubles a gentleman hauing ioyned with the troupes that did beseege Moulins in Bourbonois was so surprized with sicknesse as hee could hardly followe the Companie which dislodged and being lodged at a Bakers called IOHN MON who seemed to be his friend and seruant hee had such a confidence in him as hee had rather staie behinde then goe anie farther hauing made his host acquainted with his monie who promised to keepe it safe for him contrarie to the common course of such men with an other younger Brother of his of thirteene or foureteene yeares of age But they wretch kept no promise with them but contrariwise as soone as night was come hee led them out of the house vnto the ditch where hee did but halfe kill them so as they remayned there Languishing a wholedaie and could neither liue nor die Yet no man had compassion of them But GOD tooke reuenge a while after for it happened that this murtherer beeing in gard a Companion of his shot him by chance through the arme whereof hee languished for three monethes and then died madde Historie of France vnder CHARLES the ninth The Citty of Bourges hauing beene yeelded by the Seignieur of Iuoy during the first troubles those which had held it before were forbidden to talke within the Cittie nor without norto meete aboue two togither Among those which made a pastime vnder collour of this decree to murther such as they mette talking together there was one called GARGET Captaine of the Quarter of Bourbonne who made a practise of it Who falling soone after into a burning feuer did runne vp and downe the streete blaspheming the name of GOD calling vpon the Diuill and saying vnto all that if any one would go with him into hell hee would pay his charges and so he died madde whereat his Companions did but laugh In the same History PETER MARTIN a rider in the Kings stable holding the post in a place called Liege towards Poitou a man without reproch vpon a simple accusation without any other forme of processe was condemned by a great Nobleman during the furie of the first troubles to be drowned This Nobleman commanded a faulconer of his presently to execute the sentence vpon paine to bee drowned himselfe if he did it not The which was done But GOD stayed not long to take reuenge for three dayes after this Faulconer and a Laquay being fallen out for the spoiles of this man they slew one another The which being reported vnto the Lord a most vniust Iudge it forced him to haue some remorse and to say openly that he would it had cost him fiue hundred Crownes so as this poore Rider had not beene drowned But it was a small esteeme he made of an innocent mans life In the same Historie lib. 7. Some troupes of Peasants of Couleurs Cerisiers and other places in Champagne hauing committed many murthers and spoiles in diuers places were defeated here and there and did in a manner all perish of violent deaths during the first troubles I will note here two notable particularities concerning two of those troupes The one seeking to set fire to a house fell downe starke dead being casually shotte with a Harguebuse by one of his companions The other dragging a poore man and his wife to a post to haue them shotte receiued a shotte with a Harguebuze which depriued him of his life and his prisoners escaped by that meanes In the same Booke It hath beene obserued in the last peace that of a thousand murtherers which haue remained vnpunished in regarde of man there are not ten which haue not felt the reuenging hand of GOD and haue not made most wretched ends Strange horrible and very pittifull Accidents IN our time a Countryman of Beause who was reasonably well to liue binding vp sheaues in the field sent his Sonne home to fetch him some-what with whom being returned hee was so angry because hee had stayed longer then he would haue had him that he flung a great clod of earth at his head wherewith the boy fell downe dead to the ground The Father seeing it couered him with sheaues and in great dispaire gotte him home to his house where his wife was bathing her selfe and giuing suck to a little childe whereof she was newly deliuered and went into his barne and hangd himselfe Which being reported to the poore woman by one that by chance had beene in the Barne and seene him with the feare she was in and hast that she made to runne thither she let her childe fall into the bath where it was drowned Presently therevpon the poore woman almost beside her selfe with the wofull spectacle which she had seene finding at her returne the infant drowned entred likewise into such dispaire that she went back to the Barne and there shutting the doore to her hung her selfe by her husband What strange and horrible effects of the choller of an ill aduised Father and how great cause haue Fathers Mothers and Children to recommend themselues humbly and incessantly to GOD. Conformitie of ancient meruailes with moderne In the yeare 1578. a woman in the towne of Bochne bathing her little child heard a pretty bigge boy of hers crye very pittifully without doores Wherevpon she ranne out in all hast and found him wounded to the death with a knife that he had in his hand whereon by mischance he was fallen The Mother exceeding heauâ—…e returned to the little one in the Bathe and found it drowned Therewith the husband came in and being in a mighty rage at such a spectacle fell on his wife and killed her with beating Seeing those three so strangely dead vrged by his conscience and with compassion of such a sight hee sought about for a corde wherewith hee strangled himselfe ANDREVV DVDITIVS in the Treatise of Comets In the Marquisate of Brandebourg a certaine Mother transported with a wonderfull fury killed her husband and two of her Children and then hauing tyed great stones about their neckes tooke them and cast them all three into the bottome
hauing no head The heires runne presently and seize vpon his succession that was dead but they did not long enioy it The widow being risen out of child-bed felt her selfe very heauy thinking it had beene the swelling of some humors gathered together in her body by reason of her heauinesse Some Physitians whose aduise shee did aske were of the same opinion not once dreaming of that which followed soone after And therefore they aduised her to goe to certaine bathes and minerall waters along the Rhine whether shee went accompanied with one maide where she arriued in Iuly At that time the Elector of Saxonie was there with his Wife and many other Princes and Princesses so as the poore widowe being destitute of a lodging was forced to repaire to the Prouost or Mayor of the place acquainting him with her condition In the end shee obtained with great intreatie to lodge in the Prouosts house for that night This night being ten weekes after her first birthe shee was brought in bedde of a goodly Sonne whereof the Princes being aduertised the next day and of the whole History did honour her for the Elector of Menzt made her a stately feast according to the custome of Germany Hee of Saxonie gaue her a thousand Dollers and they forced them that had seized vpon the inheritance to leaue it to the lawfull heire new borne who was left in the garde and keeping of his Mother The same Children dead in their Mothers wombes and put forth by strange meanes LOVYSE POVPARD wife to Maister NICHOLAS SEVIN called Champgaste of Orleans thinking that her termes were not stopt but by reason of a quarten ague for then they doe commonly cease was conceiued with Child but not beleeuing it shee vsed such Phisicke letting of bloud and other applications as they do vsually as well for the quarten ague as for the hardnesse of the splene the which they tooke then for the childe that was in her belly not conceiuing what it was but rather some masse gathered together by the pretended retention of the menstruall bloud In the end the child being dead and the parts growne more soft being rotten without any shew of deliuery in time the bones disioyned within her and did pierce the Matrix behinde towards the great gutte so as she then began to voide them by little and little by the seege and among others a whole bone of the legge Hauing languished thus a long time shee dyed and was opened the sixt day of February 1565. by FLORENT PHILIP and MICHEL PICHARD who found nothing within her but rotten bones and especially those of the head with admiration how shee could so long sub-sist This woman seemed to haue beene curable by the Gastrotomia or section of hir belly if her greefe had beene knowne in time and the remedy that is vsed in Caesarien birthes practised discreetly FR. ROVSSET in his Histerotomotie CATHERINE des FIEFS Lady of Oucy neere vnto Milly in her second marriage fell sicke and with Childe at one instant not imagining that shee was conceiued and was Phisicked at Paris being sicke as the other had beene at Orleans with many helpes yea entring into a sweating diet notwith-standing that one of the Queenes Mid-wiues did iudge her to be with Childe by all the accidents of a woman in that case orderly obserued by her from the staying of her termes vnto milke in her brests and so to the ninth moneth at which time all did cease with the free motion of the childe hauing then paines of child-bearing without effect and presently after there followed all the signes of a dead childe whereof they yet tooke no heed So returning from Paris to her house she euer after carried this child suffocated euen vnto her dying day which was fifteene moneths after the ninth precedent that it was aliue The soft parts rotting and falling away beneath were held with good reason by N. PONET a learned Phisition of Melun for filthe comming out of the Matricall vlcer and the bones remaining for a tumor of the spleene In the end being dead and opened the 3. of October 1570. by LVC CHAMPENAIS and IAMES DAZIER Barbers at Milly in the presence of the Seigneiors of Verran and la Gainiere with many others there was yet found in her much corruption no matrix and all the bones of a child some rotten others whole and among others one of the two that ioyne vnto the shoulder vpon the brest hauing already pierced the skin that couereth the bowels and the Muscles of the belly nothing remaining but the skin which did appeare without on the left side all blacke the which had long before beene taken for a tumor of the spleene If her griefe had beene well looked into by the concurrence and continuance of signes in her greatnesse the child being dead and other co-incidences wel obserued by order and knowne what it was there had beene hope when as she could not be deliuered to haue saued both her and her fruite by the Gastrotomia or Caesarien section or else the child being dead to haue preserued the Mother by the meanes of this section beeing then the onely and most necessarie remedie In the same Treatie The like mournfull effect followeth the like cause in the Wife of a Chirurgion at Montpellier called AVSME assisted as it is to be presaged by the most famous Phisitions of that reuerend Colledge who as Maister RONDELET reports in the 65 Chap. of his Method of Curing hauing a childe rotten in the Matrix cast out a part by morcels the great bone remaining behinde so as within a while after she dyed In the same Treatie Maister I. ALIBOVX a learned Physition at Sens in Bourgongne writes in a Letter of his to FR. ROVSSET these wordes Here neere vnto my lodging hath fallen out an accident as strangely as your Caesarien section A woman with childe being aged or otherwise could not be deliuered but by morcels shee had eyther side of the bottome of her belley very much swelled by reason of the violence of their Instruments with all signes of an Impostume the which did also communicate with the passages of Nature from that part of the belly beeing layde open by corosey came a great aboundance of filthe and as much more of the like substance and coulour by the neather parts shee would not suffer mee to sound it with the Instrument to descerne precisely and aduisedly the bottome of the Synuositie but without it it appeared plainely that the Impostume and the ouer-ture thereof did pierce into the Matrix by the common accidents obserued and kept according to the order of times and by the like excrements the one and the other beeing cured by the same meanes and at the same time In the same Treatie A dead Childe hauing beene violently drawne with 〈◊〉 from a bakers wife called COLETTE SIMON without hurting the skin that lapt the Child in the belly shee happened in 5. daies to haue a great swelling of either
from Coymbra in Portugall dwelt a Knight the Father of a Damsell called MARY PACHECO who being come to the age that Maidens are accustomed to haue their Flowers insteed of them issued a virill member which had laine hidden within vntill then so as of a woman she became a man went apparreld like a man changing name aswell as Sex and was called EMANVEL PACHECO This new man went into the East Indies and returned very rich with the reputation of a braue Caualiero marrying afterwards a Noble Dame That which I haue read in HYPOCRATES in his sixt Booke of the popular diseases of PITHVLIA the wife of PYTHEVS and in PLYNIE 7. Booke 4. Chap. hath imbouldned mee to set before you a History that I would neuer tell any body of thinking it had beene a tale made for pleasure A friend of mine of good authority and worthy of beleefe hath told me that in a certaine place of Spaine a young woman being married to a poore labourer entred into some difference with him eyther through iealousie or some other cause This diuision grew so hotte that the wife finding one night the clothes of a young man that lay there apparrelled her selfe in them and away shee went to gette her liuing as a man In this case whether it were the powerfull working of Nature in her or the burning and excessiue imagination shee had to see her selfe so well and orderly fitted like a man was the cause of this effect but she became a man and married another wife keeping it secret vntill it chanced that a certaine man that before had knowne her comming to the place where shee was and comparing the resemblance of this man with the woman he had knowne before Hee said vnto her Am not I your brother Then this woman made man putting her trust in him discouered vnto him what had happened praying him to keepe it secret IOVIANVS PONTANVS writes of a woman of Gaiette in the kingdome of Naples who after that shee had liued forty yeares married to a poore Fisher-man was changed into a man who because he was mockt with it entred into a Monastery of Monkes where he reports to haue knowne him and dying he was buried at Rome in the Church of our Lady called Minerua Hee addes moreouer that another called AEMELY hauing beene married to one called ANTHONY SPENSE for the space of 12 yeares was in the end changed into a man married a wife hauing first by the commandement of FERDINAND King of Scicilia restored her dowry In our time there hath beene one seene at Bruxels in Brabant called PETER that before was called ELIZABETH for that before she had beene a woman The French forces passing at Vitry I saw a mā whom the Bishop of Soysons at confirmation called GERMAINE whom all the Inhabitants had knowne to haue bin a woman for 22. yeares space was called MARY making saith he some extraordinary leape the virill members came forth there is yet a Song in vse among the Maidens of that place that warneth them that they make no extraordinarie leapes least they become boyes as MARY GERMAINE did MONTAIGNE in the first booke of his Essayes Bodily strength THere hath beene in our time in the kingdome of Galitia one called the Marshall PETER PARDO of Ribabadineira who was at deadly enmity with a certaine Bishop the reason could not be knowne yet at the mediation of certaine friends who sought to take vp the matter and make them friends hee consented to an enter-view As they drew neere together this Marshall feigning that he had forgot all that was past and that he would be friends with the Bishop hereafter ranne to imbrace him But it was a deadly imbrace to the Bishop for it was so rude locking him so fast in his armes as hee brused his sides crusht his Heart and Intrailes so as hee left him dead in the place I haue seene a man in the Towne of Ast who in the presence of the Marquis of P◅scara handed a Piller of Marble three foote long and one foote in Diameter the which he cast high into the ayre then receiued it againe in his armes then lasht it vp againe sometime after one fashion some time after another as easilye as if he had beene playing with a Ball or some such little thing Hee brought from the Shambles certaine Oxe feete newly cut off set a Knife vpon one of them and with a blow of his fist cut it a crosse in two pecces he tooke another Oxe-foote and brake it against his fore-head as if it had beene against a peece of Marble without hurting him-selfe at all In my presence he tooke another and with his fist broke it into diuerse small peeces There was at Mantoa one named RODAMAS a man of a little stature but so strong as hee wreathed and broke with his hands a Horse-shooe and a Cable as big as a mans arme as easily as if they had beene small twine threds mounted vpon a great horse and leading another by the bridle hee would runne a full Carire and stop in middest of his course or when it liked him best SIMON MAIOLVS an Italian Bishop in his Canicular dayes Col. 4. In the yeare 1582. in the months of May and Iune at a solemne feast of the circumcision of MAHVMETT the sonne of AMVRATH Emperor of the Turkes was seene amongst many other actiue men one among the rest most memorable a lusty man and wonderfull strong worthy to bee compared with that most famous MILO of Crotonne who for proofe of his prodigious strength lifted vp a peece of wood that twelue men had much a doe to raise from the earth which he tooke and put vpon his shoulders where hee caried it without any helpe of his hands and afterwards lying downe flat his shoulder and his thigh tyed together he bore vpon his brest a great waighty stone that ten men had rowled thether making but a iest of it And which is a thing yet more wonderfull foure men stood leaping with long peeces of wood vpon his belly Besides this hee brake with his teeth and hands a Horse-shoe with such force that one part remained betweene his teeth and the rest in two peeces in either hand one At the third blow with his fist he brake a Plow-share hee lickt the Plow-share with his tongue being taken red hotte out of the fire he was couered with a great pile of stones but he neuer sturd one iot but remained firme and inuiolable as if he had beene planted there The same man with his teeth onely sadled bridled and harnest a Horse with many other wonders which got him much money and praise of all by reason of his extraordinary force GEORGE LEBELSKI a Polander in his Description of things done at Constantinople at the Circumsition of the Sonne of AMVRATH 1582. Amongst the Germaines of our time there are two recorded for strength GEORGE Baron of Fronsberg and IOHN Baron of Schuartzbourg they easily broke
Algadefie was wholie ruined the houses and buildings beeing layd flat with the ground The fiue and twenty of May 1566. about three a clocke in the afternoone a clap fell vpon the Castle of Misnia burnt a floore of a Chamber melted kettles and Pannes spoiling all the Chambers entring and going out at the windowes then downe into the cellars to the great amazement of all but hurt not any person Three yeares after the nineteeneth of Iulie the thunder hauing rored from eight a clocke in the morning till foure in the afternoone the boult about one a clock light vpon the Colledge Church of the Towne-house Much Cattell and some men were found dead in the ficildes amongest other memorable accidents the lightning ceized vpon a Country fellowe who burnt all his Bodie ouer three daies after and then died The Mother of IEROME FRACASTORIVS an excellent Philosopher admirable Poet and happy Physition of our time hauing him in her armes giuing him suck was strooke with a thunder-clap and kild without any touch or hutt to the little Childe which was a presage of the glory that this excellent personage who liued long after and then died of an Apoplexie should bee crowned with Horrible fury IN the memory of our Ancestors a Carpentar of Wilsmarse a famous towne in Saxony some-times possest with a Phrensie traueling one day with some of his owne condition with out saying a worde tooke his hatchet and went towards his house where being entred he cloue in two two of his Children his Wife being great with childe hearing the noise ran to saue the third which hee left falling vpon his Wife and cut her and the fruite she bare in peeces And so being couered with bloud he returned to his companions being askt how he came so he came to his senses And then remembring what he had done he went againe to his house snatcht a knife and gaue himselfe a blow on the brest and fell downe dead vpon the ground CRANTZIVS in his 10. booke of Vandalia Of Giants IN the yeare 1511. the Emperor Mâ—…XIMILIAN 1. being at Ausâ—…ourg at an Assembly of the States they presented a man vnto him of an vnreasonable height greatnesse who at a fewe month-fulls and without any stay did eate a whole Sheep or a Calfe not caring whether it were rost or raw saying that it did but sharpen his appetite SVRIVS in his Commentary of the memorable things of our time IOACHIM the 2. of that name Elector of Brandebourg had a peasant in his Court called Little MICHEL by ANTIPHRASIS for he was eight foot high which is a great stature of a man in our time but little and small in comparison of great men in old time namely of Goliath and others about Iudea MATHEVV HORST in his collection of the combate betwixt DAVID and GOLIATH I haue seene a young mayden of a Giant-like stature whom they did carry from Towne to Towne to shewe her as a prodigious thing for the sight of whome euery man gaue some thing wherewith her Mother that conducted her and she were entertained She was in a hired Chamber by her selfe and there suffred her selfe to be seene with admiration Going as others did I inquired carefully of euery point and did learne both from herselfe and her Mother who was a woman of a meane stature that the maidens Father was not tall that in all their stocke there was not any one that exceeded the height of other persones that her Daughter vntill shee was twelue yeares olde was very little but falling at the same time into a quarten ague which had held her some monethes comming to leaue her shee beganne then to growe all her members beeing proportionable to that height so as when I did see her shee was about fiue and twenty yeares olde neither could I note from the head vnto the sole of the foote any disproportion in any of her members but a fit measure in euery one of them At this age of 25. yeares shee had not yet had her monethly Termes nature seeming to haue required and restrayned this excrementall bloud for the norrishment and preseruation of so great a body Shee was helth-full ill faced black simple and grosse writted and heauy of all her Body for the vitall vertue infused at the beginning into this body according vnto the measure due to the greatnesse of an ordinary person dispersed afterwards into so great a Masse could not with equall power shew the efficacie of his worke as in a meane bodie and experience doth shewe that vertue restrained shewes it selfe more vigorous then when it is two much dispersed for the regard of naturall causes of this extraordinary greatnesse by the meanes of the quarten ague wee will leaue the decision vnto Physitions and will not dispute with them but in a word if a person that is about the age of twelue or twentie yeares comes to growe through a sicknesse so as in proportion of Bodie shee comes to bee twise as heigh as anie other wee must confesse that this force of nature is extraordinarie and admirable We haue drawne this Historie out of MARCELLVS DONATVS a learned Physition Lib. 3. Chap. 14. Whereas he treats amply of the causes of the Giant-like height as his profession did require After the victorie which King LEVVIS the twelfth obtained at the Battaile of Lode beeing gone to Milan I found a young man in the hospitall so great as hee could not stand right vp hauing not suffycient norrishment of nature for the thicknesse of his Bodie and the proportion of his forces Hee was therefore layd vpon two beddes the one ioyned long waies vnto the other the which hee did fill with his length The Samogitiens which inhabite betwixt Prusia and Liuonia are verie talle and yet some-times they ingender Children which come to age are of a verie small stature and some-times others which growe wonderfull great SCALIGER in the 63. exercitation against CARDAN There was in our time in Bourdelois a man of an vnmeasurable heigth and greatnesse by reason whereof he was called the Giant of Bourdeaux King FRANCIS amazed to see so long a body commanded hee should be one of his Guarde Hee was a peasant of a grose spirit so as not able to applye himselfe to a Courtiers life after some dayes hee gaue ouer his Halbard and returned to his Village An honourable person who had seene him Archer of the Guarde did assure mee that hee was of such a heigth as any other man of an ordinarie stature might goe right vp betwixt his legges when hee did stride I. CHASSAGNON in his Treatise of Giants Chap. 6. In the yeare 1571 there was a Gyant seene at Paris whome euery man did runne to see Hee kept himselfe very close in an Inne and no man could haue the sight of him but in paying to see him Entring into the Chamber where hee was kept they did see with admiration a man of a strange height sitting in a Chaire but their wondring