of the partes betwéene the mouthe and the gullet falling inward of the spondill in the nape of the necke Asthma or hasing the stones wormes both round and astarides a kinde of wortes called acrochordones satyarismes or standing of the yarde by a smal inflamation strumes or the Kinges euill and other small tumors when they be elder and come vnto fourtéene yeares there happen many of the diseases of the ages which went before and longer agues and bléeding at the nose But vnto young men spitting of bloud consumpsions of the lungs sharp feuers the falling sicknesse and other diseases specially those whiche I haue spoken of before but vnto them whiche haue passed this age befall Asthma or hasinges pleurisies inflamations of the lungs lethargies phrensies burning agues long laskes skourings vpward and downeward bloudy fluxes lienteries piles But vnto old men hard fetching of breath rheumes with coughes stranguries difficulties of making water paines of the ioyntes swimming of the head apoplexies cacheries itches ouer all the body moistnesse of the bellie eyes and eares dimnesse of sight glaucedines or drinesse and concretion of the christaline humour in the eyes and ill hearing But although no age of mannes life is frée from diseases yet perhappes some parte of the yeare is so benigne that in it the body hauing rest from gréefe may refreshe and repaire his strength whiche was welnéere quite tyred and killed with the maladies and paynes whiche it suffered before No saies Hippocrates all diseases happen at all times but yet some diseases are more bredde and worse at one time then at another In the springtime reigne madnesse melancholy the falling sicknesse fluxes of bloud squinseis catarrhes hoarsnes coughes leprosies morphewes impetigines many vlcerous pustules small tumours paines of the ioyntes In the Summer some of those before rehearsed and agues continuall and burning and very many tertian and quartan agues vomitings and lasks ophthalmies or inflamations of the eares paines of the eares exulcerations of the mouth putrefactions of the general parts and sweatinges But in Autumne many of the summer diseases and feauers quartane wandring agues great splenes dropsies consumptions of the lungs straÌ„guries lienteries and bloudy fluxes paines of the hippe sqinseyes Asthma or hasinges paines in the smal gutts falling sicknesses maddnesse and melancholy In the Winter pleurisies inflamations of the lunges lethargies rheumes catarhes hoarsnesse coughes paines of the brest sides and loines swimming of the head and apoplexies Not onely no part of mans age nor of the yeare is frée from diseases no nor yet any kinde of weather or state or teÌ„perature of the ayre If it raine much there come long agues laskes putrefactions the falling euill apoplexies and squinseies In great droughts consumptions ophthalmies paines of the ioynts stranguries and bloudy fluxes Much heate bringeth effemination of the fleshe weakenesse of the sinewes and braine whereby the wittes minde be as it were benummed fluxes of bloud swounings after whome folowe death But colde causeth conuulsions tetanes or distentions benumming the killing of the natural heate making of the fleshe blacke and blewe quiueringes and shakings Southerne windes dull the hearing dimme the sight make the head heauie and men to be slouthfull lither but a northerne constitution brings coughs horsenesse binding of the â—â—lly and stranguries quiuering paine of the sides and brest So that Hippocrates truly sayes that all whole man from his natiuitie is sicknesse Ye though they infinite other bodily griefes and diseases wherewithall man is oppressed were not sufficient to kéepe this proud creature in his obediente and to make him acknowlege his creator he is no lesse but far more vexed with bodilesse perturbations of the mynde vnto whom he only at the least in most in the other is most subiect Only sayes Plinie the diligent searcher of nature who with Hippocrates haue sayd almost al that you haue heard of the miserie of man to him is giuen mourning to him ryot that innumerable wayes in euery meÌ„ber to him only ambition to him only couetousnesse to him only vnmeasurable desire of life to him only superstition to him only care of burial yea and what shal be when he is not To none is more brittle life to none greater lust of all things to none more confuse feare to none sharper and extreme rage and madnesse ¶ The fift Chapter The immoderate mourning of man and examples of them whiche haue dyed for sorrowe conceiued for the decay of Gods glory countries calamities infortunitie of parents children brethren wiues maisters and friends ANd these thinges not to be rather amplyfied rhetorically then spoken truly may easily be proued and first of mourning All other liuing things bycause they are moued only by the senses do apply them selues only vnto those thinges which are present little or nothing féeling thinges absent whereby it commeth to passe that they be not eyther so much or so long grieued with the losse of theirs But man onely by diuine reason whiche is giuen vnto him by God as the principallest and excellentest gift of nature doth perceiue and féele things absent past and to come which multiplyeth his miseries and sorrowes the vnsearchable wisdome of God so ordeining that nothing in this world should be in all partes blessed And as man by nature is desirous and louing societie and reposeth the greatest part of his felicitie in the mutuall loue of parents children husbande wife kinsfolkes friendes countrie yea and most principally of God so doubtlesse must we néedes confesse that it is vnto him the cause of great and many and sundry sorrowes and assent vnto Martialis that he whiche loueth not feeleth lesse ioy and lesse griefe the manifold mischaunces of death dishonor either by corrupt maners or otherwise griefs diseases both of body and mynde of our kinsfolkes and friends vnto all which kinde of calamities the world is too too muche subiect continually supplying vnto vs aboundant sorrowes And howe great the acerbitie of this mourning is besides the coÌ„mon examples of whom daily experience giues vnto vs store the lamentable habite of those which be in heauinesse doth sufficiently bewray their faces pale and leane their eyes hollowe their bodies nothing else but skin and bone shewing the knitting together of euery ioynt their continuall watchings their abhorring of meate after whiche ensueth death And of voluntarie death willingly gon vnto these cases will I rehearse vnto you examples For pietie towardes God we haue innumerable of holy martyrs who suffered al terrible torments to aduaunce God his glory and of Helie as soone as he heard that the Arke of God was taken fell backward from his chaire and brake his necke of duetifull affection to their countrie out of Iustine Codrus the king of Athens and out of Liuie the two Romane Decij who willingly lost their liues for their countries welfare out of Paulus Iouius Pomperane in our age a noble maÌ„ of Fraunce who being strickeÌ„ with extreme sorow for the
Caligula was made out of the way to the incredible ioy of all mankinde whom he hated so deadly that he had béen often heard to bewayle his ill happe that in al his reigne there had chaunced no notable pestilence famine rauin of water earthquake nor any great bloudy battell wherby many men might perish wished that all the people of Rome had but one head that he might haue stroken it off at one blowe it had béene ill with mankinde if that this Phaeton of the world as his vncle Tiberius did vse to call him had béen immortall who in thrée yeares and sixe monethes for so long he reigned had néere hand vtterly destroyed it Moreouer I reade in Suetonius that Domitian the Emperour drawing a forme of letters whiche his agents should vse began thus Our Lord and God doeth commaunde it so to be done Whereby it was decréed afterward that he shoulde not be called otherwise by any man either in writing or spéeche It is is also left to memorie that about the yeare of our Lord 620. Cosdras the mightie King of the Persians after that he had won al Syria with Hierusalem al the South part of Asia with Egypt and all Africa would néedes be adored for a God and diuine honours with sacrifices done vnto him through out all his large dominions But perhappes some man will say what maruel was it for great monarches among the heathen to thinke themselues to be Gods if that you do consider their absurditie fonde vsage in constituting of Gods the originall and causes whereof I doe thinke good to touche The thirde Chapter Whereof the false Goddes had their first ground and the causes that moued diuerse countries to worshippe many men after death for Gods and also some while they liued as Demetrius Iulius Caesar Pycta Lysander Simon Magus Apollonius and of the extreeme maddnesse of the Egyptians in chusing of their Gods of the impudent flatterie of the ambassadours of Palermo vnto Martine the fourth and of the people to Herodes Agrippa and the present punishment of God for the accepting thereof Of the wonderfull reuerence that the Persians gaue vnto their Kinges and of the rare loue that the Galles Arabians Aethiopians bare vnto their Princes two woorthie sayinges of Antigonus and Canute AFter that the vngratious child Chara was abdicated and put away by his father without any instructions giuen him touching the worshippinge of the true God the outcast and his progenie marueilously increased as our common prouerbe is an ill wéede growes fast and they deduced many colonies into diuers partes of the worlde and the ignoraunce of the prouing of the true God whiche was in the first parent daily growing greater and greater in his posteritie You séeing as Cicero saies in his booke of the nature of the Gods it is naturally ingraffed in man to acknowledge a God and that no people or nation is so rude and barbarous that doth not professe a God they being vtterly ignoraunt of the true God thought those thinges which they sawe to excell other and by whom they receiued moste commodities to be Gods whereof arose the worshipping of the Sunne the Moone Starres and suche other things and also the making of the Gods when they were dead who in their liues had inuented or done any notable thinges to the vse and profite of mankinde And hereby it came to passe that some for the great celebrity of their names were as it were generally receiued of all nations as Hercules Bacchus Castor and Pollux and other were worshipped but in particular countries of whom onely they had well deserued as Isis in Egypt Iuba in Mauritania Cabyrus in Macedonia Vracius among the Carthaginians Fanus in Latium Romulus or after his deification Quirinus at Rome and with a great number such other shal he méete that diligently readeth the auncient monuments of the Paganes and those christian authors which haue refused their superstitions We read also in the booke of wisedome that the vnhappie man being bereft by vnripe death of his sonne whome hee loued tenderly to mitigate and assuage his sorrowe first inuented to haue his sonnes image adored and it to be taken for a present GOD in earth and the sonne him selfe for a GOD in heauen The like affection wee reade in Lactantius Cicero hadde towardes his Daughter and Virgils Aeneas vnto his Father with this consolation recouering their Spirites daunted and broken with griefe Wonderfull also was the honour and obseruancie that some nations bare vnto their kings so that he whiche readeth what Atheneus doeth write of the Arabians that the familiars of the Kinges did vse to maime them selues voluntarily of that member which it shoulde happen the king to léese and that when the King died either naturall or violent death they thought it but a sport to die all with him the like whereof is affirmed by Strabo and Diodorus Siculus of the Aethiopians and also of the Soliduni in a countrie of Gallia who were sixe hundreth men whom the King did chuse to be about him as his guard and liued and died with the king neither was it euer knowen that any one man of them did euer refuse or séeme vnwilling to die the Prince being deceased He I say that reads this wil not be hard of beléefe to credite Lactantius that the Maures did vse to consecrate all their kinges for Gods after they were dead The Aethiopians sayeth Strabo libr. 17. thinke that there is an immortall God and a mortall god The immortall is he that is the cause of all thinges the mortal is with them vncertaine and lacketh a name but mostly they do take them by whom they haue receiued benefites and their Kinges for Gods. Moreouer they doe thinke their kinges to be conseruers and kéepers of all men but priuate men when they be dead for they do account all dead men for Gods onely of them to whome they haue done good In like manner also the Romanes vsed to deifie their Emperours after their deathe as they also did their first king Romulus The Persian kings we reade in Curtius and other were adored like vnto Gods which honour saies Arrianus was giuen done vnto Cyrus first of all mortall men and the first of the Romane Emperours that was adored or knéeled vnto was Dioclesian after his glorious voiage and victorie against the Persians Yea in our time Xoas the king of the Persians is worshipped of his subiectes for god The water wherewithall he hathe washed his féete do they powre out of the basen and kéepe religiously as holy being an hoalsome medicine for al diseases he is called the Lord that holdes vppe heauen and earth The Gentiles also to incourage the young Gentlemen to folowe vertue and valiauncie vsed muche to Canonize and consecrate for Gods after death the renouned Capteines and greate conquerours by these meanes Hercules Bacchus and other did clime into heauen Of this
a wiseman hath giuen too much to many men but enough to no man For althoughe saies Horace wealthe do growe without measure yet is there alwaies some thing wanting vnto wealth whiche is euer too short Wherefore in an other Ode doethe he aptly compare couetousnesse to the dropsie whiche groweth still greater and greater by continuall féeding of her humor with lugging in of drinke the which it vehemently desires For bothe the moisture the grounde of the griefe is augmented and also the liquor whiche is powred in to quenche the thirst being turned into a salt qualitie by the inward humour increaseth the former thirst the salte moisture the cause thereof being augmented In like manner couetousnesse chaunging all that euer shée doth get into her owne gréedy desiring humour hath not her insatiable desire satisfied filled by getting of much but rather made the greater more matter being supplied and added vnto it no otherwise then Hippocrates saieth that the more thou doest nourish and feede an vncleane bodie the more thou hurtest and weakenest it the quantitie of ill humours being by meate increased and the ill qualitie of them still kept and reteined To what pains doth this gréedy gulfe put man vnto This maketh him to runne day night thorough thicke and thinne fire and water to suffer killing colde in winter to abide the hurtfull heate in summer to sayle the daungerous seas to trauell the countries burnt vppe with the scortching sunne beames or oppressed with snowe and yce What facte is so perillous the whiche it will not driue man to do And when the couetous haue gotten great riches are they not Tantalus in the Poets that continually is like to dye for thirst and yet the water toucheth his lower lippe and starue for hunger the apple bobbing his vpper for vnto the couetous according vnto the olde sawes as well that is lacking which he hath as also that which he hath not and vnto a poore man be many thinges wanting but vnto a couetous man all And as he coueteth those thinges whiche he hathe not so feareth he to vse them which he hath least he should spend them but muche more is he tormented least they should be taken away from him so that in prosperitie he feareth aduersitie and léeseth present ioy for feare of sorrowe to come Wherefore moste true is that saying of the Mimographer one can wishe a couetous man no greater mischéefe then long life for he is the cause of his owne ill The fourteenth Chapter The rites vsed at burialles of almost all nations and sectes as well auncient as moderne with mention of diuerse costly rumbes BVt howe great mans care for buriall is whiche Plinie doeth set downe for the next incommoditie the two Oceans of all knowledge and wisedome Homer and Virgil haue declared yea and long before them God himselfe who commaunded it to be tolde to a disobedient prophet as a great terrour and mischiefe that he should not be buried in the sepulchre of his auncestours and threateneth Achab and Iezabel for their great outrages that either dogges or byrdes should teare into péeces their dead carcases But Homer in the 22. booke of his Iliad maketh couragious Hector to desire his cruel enimie Achilles when he was about presently to bereaue him of light not to spare his life but only earnestly to obtest him for the soule pietie of his parentes not to suffer the dogges to teare him in péeces at the shippes of the Gréekes but to take a great masse of money golde and other riche gyftes of his father and mother for his dead bodie that the Troiâ—â—s their wiues might honorably burne it And in the xij booke of Virgils Aeneidos the Italian Hector Turnus desireth the insulting Victor to restore vnto his fréendes his body spoyled of life and to extend his hatred no further Also in the tenth that despiser of the Goddes Mezentius when that Aeneas triumphed ouer him who lay flat on the ground and said where is this valiaunt Mezentius where is that sauage fiercenesse of hart of his answered O cruell enimie why doest thou insult ouer me threatnest me death why staiest thou thy happie hand why man it is no crueltie to kil me neither came I hither chalenged thée to the cumbat that I might be victor vanquisher neither did my deare sonne Lausus make any such couenaunt with thée for mée but nowe he is slaine it is life for me to die But this one thing I do request of thee if the a vanquished enimie may obteine any pardon or benefit at thy hand that thou wilt suffer my body to be couered with the earth I know the cruell hatred of my subiects inuiron me round about I suppliantly beséeche thée defend me from this one extréeme furie and let me be partaker of my sonnes sepulchre The foolish gentiles did holde that the soules of deadmen could not passe ouer the Srygian lake into the place of rest before that their bodies rested in some seate and place hereof came it that the soule of Patroclus in the xxiij of the Iliades appearing vnto Achilles complaineth of his flouthe desiring him to hasten his funeralles and buriall And Palinurus in Virgil can not passe the Stygian lake because that his bones lay vnburied Moreouer Virgil in the same sixt booke doth affirme that the soules of the vnburied doe wander aboute the hither shore of the lake 100. yeares which is saies Seruius the iust yeares of mannes life which being compleate and ended they may passe ouer the riuer that is go into the place of purgation that they may returne againe according vnto Pythagoras his doctrine into some body Hereof it came that among the Athenians if any captein did not honest with buriall his souldiers slaine in the warres he should léese his life for it And there was among the Macedons almoste no so solemne a function of warrefare as to bury their dead felowes But at Rome he that had taken vppe a dead man out of the graue or digged vp the bones if he were a man of lowe degrée sayes Paulus he suffered death but if of more honest calling he was banished into an I le or condemned to worke in the mines Yea this care of burial is so coÌ„mon vnto all mankinde that I knowe not whither there were euer any nation so barbarous or sect so sauage whiche hath not had their solemne funeralles and burying although in déede diuerse yea and quite contrarie one vnto an other The Persians after that the dead body is torne in péeces either by dogges or byrdes wrapping it in waxe buried it in the ground The Babylonians honied them and in other ceremonies were like vnto the Egyptians among whom when one died the women of the house did couer their face and head all ouer with durt and ranne out of the doores through out the streetes crying and wringing their handes with their clothes tucked vppe their dugges naked and
Of a wittie decree of the Lacedemonians touching Alexanders Godhead How Philippe of Macedonie dolted Menecrates and gaue one in charge daily to put him in minde that he was a man Of the free speech of a botcher vnto Caligula a worthie saying of Antigonus MOst truely is it writtē in Ecclesiasticus that pride is the beginning of all sinne and in Augustine the last sinne that the soule doth maister and ouer come This only of all other that I may vse Claudians wordes is the ingrate cōpanion of vertues this onely vice doth spring and is bredde of vertues ye and of the killing and destroying of all other this often is ingendered Howe many hunt and séeke for glorie by obstinate refusing thereof haue not many béen more proud of the making of them selues poore then they were before of their great riches is the number of them trowe you smal that be proude of their lowlinesse do not some by conquering of all other sinnes be conquered by this and perishe be slaine by the enimie whom they ouerthrewe and trode vpon this fault onely or certes most ought the perfect men to feare and take héede of wisely warneth Augustine Did not the diuel who for the subtiltie of his nature sharpe iudgement long experience in deceiuing best knowing what would soonest deceiue kéepe this temptation as a trusty Trystram for the last when he tempted Christ our Lord and God And what other traine I pray you made the subtile serpent when he tempted our first Parent Eue but this bearing the woman in hand that shee and her husbande shoulde be made like God Then if that our first parentes in that most frée state of theirs when as no sensualitie moued them nor any contagion of their corrupte and mortal bodies whervnto the soule is surely tied annoyed and infected them coueted the type of the glorie of the Godhead who will not beléeue but that the like proude and madde attempt might haue béene giuen by some wicked men whom the diuel the flesh and the world did vehemently driue forward but nothing stay and holde back what smal smatterer in humane letters hath not read of Psapho a Lybian who being ouermuche adorned of bountifull nature coulde not kéepe himselfe within his owneskinne as Martial wittily warneth the greatnesse or rather naughtinesse of his hautie hart swelled so bigge but by as wittie as wicked deuise gotte him selfe to be taken and worshipped for a God for he catching byrdes whiche were apt to learne mans spéeche diligently but secretely taught them to speake distinctly and plainely the great God Psapho And when he saw that these pratling byrdes had perfectly learned their lessō wold euer be harping on it he let them flie abrode into the wooddes But they as he subtily coniectured flue all abouts still singing this song The great God Psapho which the inhabitauntes thereaboutes hearing being altogether ignorant of that craftie fetche honoured Psapho for a God thinking that they could not without great note of impietie obstinacie denie him to be a God whome the vnreasonable byrdes did to their instruction by supernaturall diuine speach as they thought acknowledge and professe to be a great God. Moreouer I read it recorded in Athenaeus a graue Author and also in Aelianus and other that one Menecrates born at Syracuse in Sicyle a famous Physician called himselfe Iupiter the great Almighitie proudly and foolishly boasting that he was vnto men the cause of life by reason of his great skil in Physicke And his vsage was to force them whom he tooke in hand to heale of the falling sicknes to promise and sweare vnto him that when they were perfectly cured they would be his bondmen and follow him Of them Nicostratus being adorned like Hercules was called Hercules Nicogoras who was the tyranne of his countrie wearing a souldiours mantell and winges and bearing a Caducaeus in his hand such a rodde as the Poetes do faine Mercurie to beare hée named Mercurie Astycreon was Apollo and an other of his patiēts apparelled like vnto Aesculapius waited on this madde Menecrates who being Iupiter himselfe the father of Gods and men went about with his bands of Gods in his robe of purple a crowne of gold on his head and a Scepter in his hand This madd mate sending a letter vnto Philip king of Macenie wrote vnto him thus Thou art King of Macedonie but I of the art of healing thou whensoeuer thou listest canst kill men but I can saue men that be sicke ye and if they will obey me kéepe them in healthe lustie vntil they be old thou goest garded with Macedons but I with al the men in the world or that shal be hereafter for I Iupiter doe giue them life Philip answearing his letter vsed this superscription or after their maner this salutation Philip wisheth vnto Menecrates health and his right wits The very like wrote also Menecrates vnto Archidamus king of Lacaedemonia that he had vsed vnto Philip and vnto whome so euer he wrote he neuer absteined from the name of Iupiter On a time when Philip had inuited him with all his crue of Gods to a feast he placed them at a bed which was built and set on a great height and very magnificently decked and placed beside it a table whereon stoode an altar and the first fruites of all fruites of the earth and when meate was brought and serued vnto the other guests the children sacrificed with perfumes vnto Menecrates and his Gods waiters but gaue them neuer a morsell of meate for Gods néede no earthly foode to nourishe their heauenly bodies At the last Iupiter being laughed almost out of his coate with those whiche followed him ranne away out from the feast being dolted more like a dog then worshipped as a God by that wise king who after the great ouerthrowe that he gaue the Athenians and their confederates at Cheronea where he quite euerted the libertie of all Greece perceiuing him selfe to grow into pryde and insolencie by that happie successe prepared a preseruatiue to kéepe him from swelling so great that he should breake the bandes of reason and humanitie Wherefore he gaue vnto one of his seruaunts this office and charge that euery morning he should come into his chamber and call out vnto him aloud Philip remember thou art a man and this was euer after so constantly kept by him that he would not once go abroad him selfe or suffer any man to be admitted vnto his speach but on that day that the boy had before thrice thundred out vnto him Philippe anthropos ei Philip thou art a man In the very same place also telleth Athenaeus of one Themison darling and minion vnto king Antiochus who was proclamed at publike assemblies by the cryer Hercules and also all the inhabitants for feare of the king sacrificed vnto him by the name of Themison Hercules who was also present if any of the noble men sacrificed and lay vppon
drosse power to pouertie the vnsearchable wisedome of God so ordeyning that those thinges whiche it might séeme no forreighe forre could be able to hurt shoulde them selues ingender in them selues a thing to destroy them selues and be vtterly consumed by an inward yl Yet Canute the mightie Monarche of this realme Denmarke and Norwey did so medicine his prosperitie with true godlinesse religiousnesse and humilitie that there could no worme of pryde be bred in it For he hauing once gotten a leasure time from the troublesome affaires of his realmes and subiectes walked for to refreshe his spirites dulled with the vnquiet tediousnesse of Princes toyle along the sea side vpon the sandes not farre from Southhampton where he was called by one of his souldiers that serued vnto the eare the king of kings and of all kings far the most mightie who largely reigned ouer men ouer the sea ouer the earth Then the king speaking neuer a worde erected his mynde to contemplate the power of God and that he might with a manifest argument and demonstration reproue the vaine and false flatterie of his souldiour he did put off his cloke and wrapping it round together like a bowle and setting downe vpon it hard by the water that then flowed spake thus Waue I commaund thée that thou touch not my féete He had not so soone spoken these wordes those whiche attended on him woondering to what ende hee did these thinges when beholde the waue in surging all to wette him Then he going backe saide Syrs call ye me a king who am not able to cohibite and staye this litle waue certes no mortall man is woorthie of so highe a name there is one onely king the Father of our Lorde Iesus Christe with whome he doth reigne at whose becke al thinges are gouerned and ruled him let vs worshippe him let vs call king him of kinges him of all peoples and nations to be the Lord him of heauen of the earthe of the sea to be the ruler let vs not onely confesse but also professe and besides him none After this going to Winchester he did set with his owne handes the crowne whiche he ware on his head vpon the Image of Christe crucified whiche stoode in the Churche and neuer ware crowne afterwarde The fourth Chapter Of the manifolde miseries of man. NOw after I haue rehearsed vnto you a ragged roll of them whose vnmeasurable pride woulde not suffer them to be contented with the nexte place vnto God but would néedes sit with him and many of them hauing by their sauage and brutishe vsage and acts iustly lost the name of men did wickedly wrongfully inuade the Godhead I thinke it will not be either amisse or vnpleasaunt to discourse whither that they or any others suche foundlings of fortune euer had any suche perfect felicitie as might quite take from them all annoyance and defect and make them wholy forgette that they were mortal men and whyther that any man may in this life be truely accompted happie But I wil plainely proue that mans nature of it selfe is so farre from that blisse in this world that no liuing creature is in any wise so wretched and fraught with miseries as is he and wil also make manifest vnto you by the particular examining of their liues dooinges chaunces and endes that no man whiche either would bee or was accounted a God called the great or any other man which was notorious and renouned for this worldly felicitie euer had fortune so addicted vnto him that he liued long without some greate mischaunce which might put him in remembraunce that he was a man and subiect vnto manifolde miseries and gracious calamities And first to speake in general of man who knoweth not that where as all other liuing thinges be borne with some couering defence and clothing as shell ryndes hydes prickles bristles hayre fethers quilles scales fléeses or wull ye and trées are defenced against both colde and heate with a barke and some with two onely man hathe nature throwen away on the bare ground all naked for to wraule and crie and onely of al creatures to wéepe yea and to beginne his immeasurable labours with lamentations but to laughe before he be fourtie daies olde is a monster prognosticating and foretelling how seldome he shal haue cause of mirth howe rife sorowes wil be all his life long After his doleful beginning of life incōtinently is he bound like a notorious malefacter both hand foote ye euery limme of him which happeneth vnto no other liuing thing and he that shal reigne ouer al other creatures lies crying in his cradle as in a prison fast tyed and begins his life with punishment which he suffereth for no other fault but because he is borne O the madnesse of them that of their beginninges do thinke them selues borne to pride and to be Goddes The first hope of strength function and gyft of time makes him to craule on all foure How long is it er he doth goe howe long before he speaketh howe long before his mouthe he firme for meate howe long doth his moulde pante a signe and token of a singular weakenesse among the thinges that liue all other liuing thinges do féele and knowe their owne nature some vse swiftnesse of foote some wight winge other their strength other swimme onely man knoweth nothing without teaching He speaketh not he goeth not he eateth not and to be short he doth nothing of natures owne accorde and instruct but wéepe crye Whereby that saying of Menander in Plutarche his consolation vnto Apollonius is proued true that no liuing thing doth sooner and more often rise and fall then doeth man and good cause why for that he being of all other moste weake doth administer greatest and weightiest matters To how many diseases is he subiect how many medicines are inuēted daily against them which yet are ouercome by new diseases which do daily arise and what disease almoste hath any thing the draweth breathe wherunto man is not obnoctious howe many maladies hath he w whō no other liuing thing is troubled the panting of the hart bloud flowing out from the head by the nose onely he wéepeth only he goggleth with his eyes only he stāmereth with his toung he only is borne w the stone only in his scarrs wil no haire grow again he néeseth oftener then any other thing that beares life a token of greate distemperature of the braine Nowe if we runne through all partes of his life we shall finde and see no time voide of paine loose of gréefes and frée from tormentes of diseases In the ages of men saies diuine Hippocrates happen suche diseases in infants and children newly borne hotte vlceres of the mouthe vomitinges coughes watchinges swellinges inflamations of the nauill moistnesse of the eares but when they come to bréede téeth itching of the gummes agues conuulsions laskes and woorse when they put foorthe the dogge téeth when they are waxen elder inflamations
the daunger of mannes life doe best like Therfore pearles of all thinges haue the greatest price and praise Iulius Caesar bought a pearle for his swéete hart Seruilia which cost him Sexagies that is sixe and fourtie thousand eight hundreth thréescore and seuentéene poundes and tenne shillinges of our money Moreouer it is certaine saies Plinie that Nonius a senatour of Rome did weare in a ring a precious stone called an Opalus which was valued at vicies sestertium that is an hundreth thousande crownes the whiche ringe only of all his goodes he carried away with him when hee fledde being proscribed for it by Marcus Antonius whose sauagenesse and riot was great that would proscribe a senator for a stone and Nonius his contumacie no lesse that loued the cause of his proscriptiō séeing that also wilde beastes leaue behinde them those partes of their body being bitten off for whom they know they are in danger And in his 33. booke .3 chap. he telleth how the men at Rome did weare ringes or hoopes of golde about their armes and the women that were wiues vnto the horsemen of Rome about the smal of their legges but the comoners wiues of siluer and that the women did weare golde on their head their eares their necke their armes on all their fingers ye and on their féete and chaines hanging bandericke wise on bothe sides with tablets of golde set full of stones and pearles Aristophanes also the Athenian in his comedie called Thesmophoria reckoneth vp al the ornamentes and iewels that women did vse to weare in that prodigall citie which were so many in number that his breath failed him in the rehearsing of them which made him to maruell that they fainted not in the bearing of them And Clemens Alexandrinus chargeth his countrimen the Gréeks of Asia with the decking of themselues with golde pearles and precious stones and reckoning vp the Iewels that the women did weare besides earinges bracelettes tabletes ouches ringes chaines and a number of suche riotous ornaments the which being now out of vse I know not what thinges the names signifie he reciteth fetters of golde which were either chaines or else hoopes of golde suche as we shewed before out of Plinie were worne at Rome and that they were worne by the Gréekes in Europe hee proueth out of diuerse Poets Also the Gréekes and Asians were apparelled in purple a pounde of the whiche wooll being Tyrian double died as all good and vsuall in Plinies time by his owne testymonie were was woorthe at Rome and in Asia and Greece where it was vsually worne of women and the the noblemen 1000. denaries which is xxxj l. v. s̄ of our money So that their people may for cost which maketh al things to be estéemed of foolish mē cōpare with our cloth of gold siluer tissue which then were rare or not at all to be worne at Rome as Seneca cōplaines the silke began to be worne by womē in his dayes Yet I read in Plinie that he saw Agrippina wife vnto Claudius Caesar weare a robe of wouen gold without any other stuffe intermixed with it The which robe yet I thinke was not so rich as Clemens Alexandrinus doth report womē did weare gowns in his countrie being worth a thousand talents whiche is of our money 187500. at the least for if he meaneth Aegyptian talents it amounteth to a great deale more whereat I doe so muche the more maruell bycause neyther at Alexandria nor yet in those parts in his dayes there were any Quéenes which might be able to beare the outragious charges of so great riot But why stand I so long about the rehearsing of mans madde supplying of that profitable defect of nature in clothing his body séeing that he is no lesse troubled with correcting or rather corrupting of the naturall composition and ornaments therof Whereof come colouring of haires depilactories or making of haires to fall off yea and that which is most shameful wearing of bought haires painting of faces whitings of téeth and handes anoynting plastering and slabbering against wrinckles for the which cause Poppea wife vnto Nero vsed to haue driuen with her whether so euer she went or traueled fiue hundreth mylche Asses in whose mylke she bathed her vnchaste body and yet are they more to be discommended that will make them selues yl coloured with drinking of slabber sauce and in the olde time with cumin the which Horace toucheth in his epistles and in the age of our fathers Daniel the Metropolitane of Moscouie is reported to haue vsed to make his face looke pale with the smoke of brimstone that he might séeme to haue pyned him selfe away dryed vp his bloud with fasting studie watching praying and Egidius a Cardinal who by Iouius his iudgement deserued the highest honour of a Christian Orator in a holie pulpit was supposed for the causes before rehearsed to drinke cumin and vse perfumes of wet chaffe ¶ The seuenth Chapter O◠the vnreasonable ryot of men in building and namely of the auncient Romanes of Nero Caligula Heliogabalus Lucullus Clodius of the rare ryot in housholde stuffe of the Romanes Greekes and Asians and specially in their counterfeits both painted and in mettall and yuorie with the incredible prices of diuers of them in curiously wrought plate hangings bedsteedes chaires stooles tables with the excessiue prices of diuers of thē and of the great riot in furniture of houshold of Antonius Bassus Sopus Heliogabalus the liberts of Clodius a Cardinal and againe the sparenesse therein of the auncient Romanes of Scipio Africanus and his brother Aelius Catus and what siluer was found at the sacke of Carthage and of the costly peece of Arras of Leo the Pope BVt as this wayward creature man is not pleased with the proportion and garnishing of nature in his body and the clothing therof so neyther doth the open ayre the high hilles the lowe valeys the pleasant open fieldes nor the couerts of trées and caues against al kindes of iniuries of the angrie heauens and ayre content him which doe satisfie all other liuing thinges but that he buildes him sumptuous houses not to defend him from colde heate and stormes the which is the vse of an house but to fulfill his riotous and intemperate proude heart with wasting his wealth Our houses sayes sage Seneca are so wide and large that they be as it were cities We haue twice séene writes Plinie the whole citie inclosed and compassed about with the house of two Princes Caius and Nero and the latter that nothing might be missing of golde It was so great that these verses were set vp against it in Rome Roma domus fiet Veios migrate Quirites Si non Veios occupet ista domus Rome shall be made an house Romanes To Veios packe a pace If not both Veios to possesse We will this huge monstrous place Alluding vnto the historie that the Romanes
she arose from sléepe what a great péece of worke he had done whilest that she tooke her noone nappe He made an open portsale of the thinges whiche were left of al the shewes vnto the people he himselfe asking the byers what they would giue and recked the price so high that many men being compelled to buy thinges at an immeasurable price thereby being quite vndone did let themselues bloud to death And among other there is a mery iest of one Aponius Saturninus whom the Emperour espying to sitte napping and nodding with his head cryed to the cryer not to forgette the gentleman whiche had borne the Office of Pretor who beckened vnto him with his heade neither made they an end of offer and proffer as though the sléeping gentleman had talked with thē before that thirtéene swoord players were solde vnto him he being altogether ignorant of it for nonagies sestertiū 70312. l. In Gallia also when he had sold at vnreasonable prices the ornamentes householde stuffe bondmen ye and frée men of his condemned sisters he being allured fleshed with the gaine fette from the citie all the olde houshold stuffe and furniture of the court and his owne palace taking vp ye cartes and wagons that traueled for hire yea the bakers iades and mill horses in so much that bread often lacked at Rome many men that had matters in lawe because they being absent could not appeare at their dayes were condemned For the selling away of the which stuffe he vsed all kinde of deceite and facing sometimes he would blame the buyers of couecousnesse that they were not ashamed to be richer then hée and other while he would make as thoughe he had béen sorie that he had let priuate men haue those things whiche had belonged vnto the princes He had learned that a riche man of the Prouince had giuen vnto them whiche did inuite the guestes that did sit with the Emperour two hundreth sestertia 1562. pound tenne shillinges that he might sit at the Emperours table neither was he offended the honour of his supper to be estéemed so muche worthe To him the next day setting at the sale sent Caligula one who should deliuer him I can not tell what trifling thing for the which he should pay 200. sestertia tell him that he should suppe with the Emperour by the Emperours owne bidding He exacted newe kindes of tributes and neuer heard of before at the first by the Publicans and Customers and afterward because the gaine grewe greate by the Centurions and Tribunes of the souldiers of the guarde There was no kinde of thing nor men omitted vppon whome he did not sette some tribute for the victualles whiche were solde in all the whole citie was there a certaine and stinted custome exacted for suites and matters of Lawe in what place so euer they were entered the fourth parte of the summe that they sued for neither without a penaltie if that any plaintife were conuinced either to haue agréed or released Of the daily earninges of the poore porters the eight parte and of common harlots takinges so muche as they gotte for one iourney This shamelesse toll or custome for baudes harlottes and abused striplings it may seeme was euer after reteined For I do reade in Lampridius that Alexander Seuerus did forbid that it should be brought into the sacred common treasure but assigned it vnto the reparations of the theatre tiltyard Amphitheatre and cōmon treasure house But to returne vnto Caligula his lawes it was also added at the head of the statute that they also should be bounde to paye toule that had exercised either harlottes or bawdes craft ye that married folkes also should be subiect and payable thereunto Suche tributes being commaunded and proclaimed but the lawe not set vppe according vnto the vse in a publique place of the Citie when that many offended because they were ignorant what they were commaunded at length after long earnest sute of the people of Rome he did in déed set vppe the lawe but written bothe with very small letters and also set vp in a very narowe place so that no man could take a copie of it And lest there should be any kinde of pray and spoyle that he should not trie he did set vppe in the Palace a stewes building a great number of selles in whom matrones and young women should stande to be prostituted He sent about vnto the courtes and the Guild and common haules and vnto all places of méetings and assemblinges of men nomenclatores who were men that knewe the names of many men and for that cause were reteined by Noble men to prompt vnto them their names when they sued for any dignitie for to inuite yong men and olde to lecherie they that came thither should haue money lent them vppon interest and some were appointed who should openly note their names as they whiche did helpe the Emperours reuenues Neither also contemning the gaine by playing at dice he gotte more by lying ye and by forswearing him selfe And on a time willing his next fellowe to play for him he went out into the court of the palace espying two riche Gentlemen of the order of the horsemen he commaunded them without any tariaunce immediatly to be apprehended and all their goodes seazed when he had done this he came in againe skipping and reioycing and saide that he neuer had a better hande at dyce in all his life But when his daughter was borne he complaining of pouertie and now not only of the charges of an Emperour but also of a Father receiued contributions for the findeing and marriage money of his daughter He also made proclamation that he would receiue newe yeares gyftes on newe yeares day vpon which day he stoode in the porche of his house for to receiue the almesses or gyftes whiche all sorts of people with full hands and bosomes threw downe before him Finally this vnthrift who knew no other vse of money then to dash it away riotously and thought it high treason in any man to be riche was inflamed with suche a lewde lust to touche money that very oftentimes hée would cause immeasurable heaps of monie to be strewed abroade in a large roome and he would walke vpon it with his bare féete and euer nowe then tumble vp and downe vpon them But when his kinde cosen Nero who vsed to call them stinking churles and misers that did spend according vnto their reuenues and praised them for good felowes Gentlmen like men and magnificent in déede that would abuse their goodes and spende it away they care not howe when I say he by kéeping no meane either in giuing or spending allowing Tirydates the King of Armenia during his abode at Rome sixe thousand poundes a day and giuing him at his departure away aboue millies sestertium 781250. pound by inriching rascal knaues with senatours wealth and burying them with kinglike funeralles by playing at dice 3000. pound a
the kinges sayes he séeking to féede his humour and to followe his affection caused Images to be made of yuorie golde and other pretious stuffe But Alexander him selfe gathered together a great number of Architects and the excellentest workmen to adorne his funeralles And first of all did he cast downe ten furlongs of the wals of Babylon all the bricks being gathered together caused he to be carried away the the ground might be leuel to build the roge or funerall fire vpon the which he erected foure square euery side being one furlong long the rest of the plot he diuided into 30. edifices the which were built with stories boorded with palme trée at the lowest part were set 240. béekes of quinqueremes or galleies with fiue ranckes of oares of golde and vpon euery one of them as it were vpon the stemme of a galley stoode two archers two cubites high resting on their knée in the middes stoode fiue statuies in armour of fiue cubites high and all the places betwéene them were couered with drawne courteins of purple On the second storie were fiftéene lampes whose féete were inclosed with crowns of gold In the top or highest story where the fire should be put and kindled were Eagles portraytured spreading abroade their winges and looking downe vpon the dragons that stoode beneath staring vppe vppon them The third storie was filled ful of a mightie number of wild beasts wrought for that purpose The fourth had the fight of the Centaures made in golde The fifth had Bulles and Lyons of golde first a Bull and then a Lyon and so stil in like order Aboue all this was the highest storie hanged round about with the weapons of the Macedons and also of all the Barbarians bothe to shewe the vallor of the Macedons and also to signifie what nations they had conquered Then vpon the toppe of al did there stand holow Myrmaides in whom were hidden certaine men that sang the funerall Nenia or song The height of the whole work was estéemed to be 130. cubites And when that the capteins the souldiers the embassadours and the inhabitants did to the vttermost of their power helpe to furnishe and adorne the pompe there was bestowed aboue 12000 talentes that is 572500. And after the rate and proportion of this magnificence were all other thinges celebrated in the funerals and buriall with surpassing brauery And last of al were men commanded to sacrifice vnto him as vnto a God president To furnish the funerals of so déere a beleued Alexander gaue commandement vnto all the cities néere to helpe and garnish the pompe by all meanes and with al things that they could possible He also gaue commandement to al the cities of Asia that they should put out the fire which was kept in the Temples and casted the holy fire the which thing was neuer vsed to be done among the Persians but at the death of their king In this place also although somewhat out of order will I set downe out of Thucidides the publike obsequies the which the Atheniens kept for their countrimen that were slain in the Pelopâ—a â—stan wars folowing the auncient manner of their countrie Thrée dayes before the buriall was there made a great tabernacle within the which were laide the bones of them that were dead that their parents fréends might lay vpon them what they thought good Afterward euery linage or tribe of the towne had a great cofer or cophin of cypresse into the which they did put the bones of al them of that tribe which were dead and carried it in a chariot to the vsuall place of buriall And after all the cofers was there carried in aâ— other chariot a great bedd ready made garnished without any body lying theron the which represented these deadmen whose bodies could not be found These chariots were conducted and accompanied by all sortes of people citizens or other those that would go vnto the sepulchre where the wiues parents of the diseased wept bitterly and made great lamentation Then did they lay all the cofers or cophins in a publike sepulchre or monument made for the purpose in the fairest suburbe of the citie the which sepulchre is called Ceramicon wherin they vsed to but iâ— al thâ—se that died in the warres except it were they that were slaine at the battel of Marâ—â—â—n In memorie of whose singular â—â—wesse they had willed a â—â—â—â—â—ar sepulchre to be 〈◊〉 â—s the selfe same pâ—â—e And after the bodies were buried the vsage was the some notable personage of the citie both for knowledge honour should make an Oration vnto the people in the praise of the persons departed the which being unded euery body departed home But for to make the oration at that time was the vallaint and â—â—quent Petâ—â—teâ— appointed And nowe to 〈◊〉 vnto the Rominâ—â— I do finde in Plinie 〈◊〉 was not vsed among them 〈…〉 for to burne the deaâ— bodies 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 them in the earth but afterward when that they vnderstood the those which were ouer whelmed by warres farre from home were oftentimes taken vp an ordinaunce was made that all should be burnt yet they kept the auncient rite diuersly for they do report that none of the house of the Cornelij were burnt before Sylla the Dictator who feared lest he himselfe should be taken vp and handled after his deathe as he in his life time had dealt with Marius his dead body Learned Volaterranus doth holde that after the time of the Antonines of whome Heliogabalus was the last they burnt no corses at Rome And before that time I read in Tacitus that when Nero had slaine in his madde moode his wife Poppea he burnt not her body but stuffing it ful of odours after the maner of forreigne kings buried it in the sepulchres of the Iulij but the solemne accustomed funerals were kept Furthermore laying of the dead bodie in the earth doth Cicero truely thinke to be the most ancient kinde of burial for the Patriarches were so buried wherunto Xenophon also séemeth to asseÌ„t making Cyrus to will his sonne to lay him neither in gold siluer nor in any thing else but only to restore him vnto the earth This also was common bothe vnto the Greekes and Romanes to burie the dead with great lameÌ„tations and teares without which saies Seruius they thought that they were not orderly duely buried wherof procéedes that complaint of Drances against Turnus the we an vnbewept multitude may be slaine in the fielde for the which cause they vsed to hire women to wéepe houle at burials whereof Chrysostome doth make mention in many places Horace also toucheth in his booke De Arte Poetica Chrysostome in his 69. sermon vnto the people of Antioche blameth in them the tearing of their haires the baring of their armes the dissipating of their eyes and the wearing of blacke apparell and vpon the first vnto the Philippians scratching of their faces he rebuketh their
immoderate and vndecent mourning so sharply that he threatneth to excōmunicate them which would not ceasse to vse it And not without good cause For by Bellonius his report it is vsed among the Greekes euen at this day that when one is dead all the women of the towne or hamlet wil assemble together euen at the hard morning and there continue vntil night making a very piteous howling and wofully tearing their hairs renting their faces and thumping their breastes And that their pauses as the musicians terme them may be the better vnderstoode they hyre a woman that hath a good wide and a cleare throte to leade the song whom all they follow singing al the actes and life of the deceased euen from his natiuitie But the auncient Germanes did soone wipe drie their teares leaue off their lamentations but remained somewhat longer in sorow and sadnesse It was also permitted onely vnto the women to mourne and vnto the men no more but to haue them in memorie There was no ambition of funerals amōg them this only was obserued that the bodies of famous men were burnt with certaine woddes neither did they make high the pile of the funeral fire either with garments or odors as did the Romanes but euery man had onely his armour and weapons caste into the fire with him some of them their horses the graue was raised vp with gréen turfes they despising abhorring the painfull and laboursome honour of tumbes monumentes as heauy and grieuous vnto the deceased But I read in Curtius the Alexander in his great mourning for Ephestion commanded the manes of al the horses mules in the campe to be shorne the pinnacles of al the cities nere about to be beatē down neither pipes nor other instrumēts of musick to be vsed for a time in the campe Herodotus writeth in his ninth booke that it was the manner of the Persiani when that their king or any of consanguinitie or familiaritie with him died to poule themselues and to share the manes of their horses and other beasts eyther for burthen or the saddle But the vsage of the Romanes was quite contrarie for they in all kynde of mourning and sorrowe did let their head beard grow long whereof came the merrie iest of Sabinus who being offered by the Cretes bycause they sawe the Proconsul Appius singularly to fauour him to beare the chiefest office among them which officer must beare his beard and the haire of his heade long thanked them heartily for their good willes but he would none of it for he had borne it twice already at Rome for he had bene twice accused of notorious crimes But to shame their beards in mourning maye séeme to haue béene a fashion in Fraunce yea of late yeares for in Frosard the Earle of Foix shaueth his beard for the death of his sonne Moreouer Suetonius reporteth in the life of Caligula that whē the Romanes hearde of the death of the noble Germunious they battered their temples with stones they threw downe the altars of their Goddes some did hurle their housholde Gods into the streates and finally other did cast away their children lately borne Also the Barbarians that had eyther forreigne or ciuil warres as in a common heauinesse consented to truce Some of the kings shaued their beards and the heads of their wiues for a token of supreame mourning The king of the Parthians commanded a Megistanū which is to abstein from hunting setting at meate together like vnto the Romane institium whiche Caligula commaunded to be kept so straightly for the death of his sister Drusilla that during the time it lasted no man vppon paine of death might laugh wash or sup yea with his parents his wife or children Moreouer this I thee in Seranus that men at the first did vse to burie the beade at home at their houses and I dead that it was permitted the Lacedemonians to burie within their citie yea and to set vp tumbes and monuments about the temple but afterwarde the Romanes were mostly buried in Appia Via without the citie and Vulpian rehearseth an Edict of Adrian the Emperour that no man vpon paine of fourtie aurei which I take to be twentie poundes shoulde burie any man within the citie with a penaltie also on the officers that suffered it yet I reade in Plutarche that it was graunted vnto noble and famous capteins and their posteritie to be buried in the Romane forum or market place but the Romane Emperours were well neare all buried in Mars his fielde where they were made Goddes Furthermore this I note out of Appian that the greatest cause that the rich men did alledge against the lawe for diuision of landes among the people was bycause they sayde it was a wicked thing for to haue the sepulchres of their auncestours to passe vnto strangers albeit Pomponius the lawyer doth hold that the Owners of lands vpon whom they haue builded sepulchres haue right to resort vnto and visite thē after that the landes be alienated Moreouer sayes Sernius it was the maner among the auncient Romanes that where soeuer a man dyed he was brought home vnto his owne house or of his kinsfolkes and there kept seuen dayes and the eight burnt so he were aboue thrée yeares olde and the ninth buried whereof the playes that were kept in the honour of the deade were called Ludi nouensiles Euery day of these seuen was the bodie annoynted with pretious oyntments and washed with hote water and called vnto with a lowde voyce to sée if he would come vnto him selfe againe for many had returned to life in the middes of their burning could by no means be saued After this was he carried foorth vpon a highe bed with his féete forwarde to be burned the people following although afterwarde in the time of Hierome they went before with torches tapers candles and trumpets sounding pipes and other musical instruments playing also many boughes of Cypres were borne before the béere the which were sticked down rounde about the fire bicause sayes Varro the people which stoode about should not be annoyed with the smel of the burning of the corps the people continued there answering vnto the wéeping words gestures doings of the Prefica or leader of the lamentations vntil that at the length the last word was pronounced ilicet ye may be gone if ye list Polybius wryteth that when a noble man died in Rome they carried the coorse vnto a place in the citie where orations were vsed to be made vnto the people called the Rostra where his son or else some other of his kin did make an oration in his praise of his noble actes then they buryed him then did set vp his Image in the noblest parte of his house built about it litle chappels of wood But when any notable man died there rode round about the coorse diuers men that
the monumentes of the deade and to call out vnto them aloude by their names Oh arise vppe againe man come eate drinke and be merrie but on their dayes called Pandemes they did burne vnto coales their meates and offer vppe their wines bringing thereby no good at all vnto the dead and also hurting themselues But sayes Theuet although the Mahumetanes the Turkes the Persians the Arabians the Moores do dissent in diuers ceremonies yet do they all agree in the rites of buriall and the songe vsed thereat When that anie Turke dieth they washe his bodie and socke it in a verie cleane white sheete afterwarde they carie him with his heade forwarde men bearing men and women womē vnto some place without the citie to be buried for it is not lawful to burie anie bodie within a church no not the greate Turkes them selues wherefore the Bassaes do vse to founde greate mosques and hospitalles adioyning to whom they do erecte a rounde roome in forme like vnto our pigeon houses where they be buried Before the coorse go the monkes with candles but Theuet holdes it stifly that they beare no candles nor anie other kinde of lights the priestes come behinde the beare singing verie mournfully as also doeth all the people vntill they come vnto the place of his buriall eftsoones crying out abounde the greate God that made heauen and earth and had compassion of his prophetes Dauid Abraham Mahumeth and Haly will also take pitie on the soule of this poore sinner who hath offended all his life longe But if that anie of the great officers dooe die as a Bassa a Beglerbey the Aga which is capteine of the garde the Nassangibassa who is Lorde chauncellour or anie suche like the newes of his death is bruted euerie where and the day when hee shal be buried the whiche doth cause a greate number of people to stande in the streetes to beholde the funeralles They that beare the coorse are of the nearest of his kinne clothed all in white rusette cloth but the reste of the mourners haue euerie man a peece of white linnen cloth hanging downe from the toppe of his tubban whiche is his hatte vnto his knees But if he be a greate capteine that hath serued in the warres one doth lead after the coorse a horse or two into whose nostrels they do put the poulder of a roote that makes them to neese and their eyes to water the which they doe say the horse sheddeth for sorrowe that he taketh for his maisters death There do also attend on the coorse sixe or seuen Solachers they are a kinde of ordinarie souldiours and euerie one with a certeine number of Ianisars and the stewarde of his house and certeine Timariotes which be seruitours on horse backe who beare diuers banners and estanders And before the corps marcheth a Mutapharca an horseman of the turkish garde who holdes a speare in his hande vpon the ende wherof is borne the Tulban of the deade man with a taile of an horse fastened thervnto but if one of the children of the greate segniour die the pompe is verie magnificent and the maister of the ceremonies causeth manie sortes of armes to be borne before the coorse by the kinge of herhautes But to procéede in the relation of the generall ceremonies if that he that dieth be a poore man they vse to gather money through the streates for the paines of the religious men The friendes of the person departed do often resorte vnto the graue with mourning and set vpon the monumente breade fleashe egges and milke a nouendiall feast after the manner of the Ethnickes the which are eaten for the soule of the deade by poore men or birdes of the aire or els emottes for they do holde that it is a like acceptable to God to giue almes vnto brute creatures which are in lacke as it is to men seeing that it is giuen for the loue of god There be that do let flie birdes which were kept in cages paying their masters for thē and some for the loue of God do cast breade into riuers for fishes saying that they shall obteine most ample rewarde of God for such pitie shewed towardes them that do wante But the greate lordes of the Turkes or as we do here commonly call them the greate turkes lie all magnificently intumbed at Brusa a citie of Bithynia in manie chappels which do stande rounde aboute the church euerie prince hath his candlesticke of golde with a candle burning set vpon his sepulchre in the higher parts of the chappels hang there manie lampes alight Moreouer there do continually abide in that place twelue priestes of their religion who of their greene cappes are called Talismanlarie who do by course incessauntly praye in the church both day and night thrée before noone and three after three before midnight and three after But when that anie man is sicke amongst the Tartares and is neere vnto the point of death they do stick vp before the tente wherin he lyeth a speare with a blacke cloth that he that goeth by come not in for no man if he sée this signe dare goe in yea though he be called But after that he is departed this life all his householde assembles together and priuily carries the coorse out of the tent into some place chosen before and digging there a hole depe and broad enough they set vp ouer it a little tent and furnish a table with dishes of meate and setting the dead bodie verie preciously apparrelled vnto the table they ouerwhelme them altogether with earth There is also buried with him one beaste for burden and one horse trapped But the mightier sorte choose in their life time one of their seruauntes whome beeing burned with their marke they cause to be buried with them and the for this cause that they may vse them in an other worlde After this his friends take an other horse kill him eate vp the fleshe but the skinne being stuffed full of haye and sowed vp againe do they sette vpon foure postes ouer the sepulchre for a signe of a deade man The bones doe the women burne for to cleanse the soule But the men of greate power do an other thinge with the skin or hyde they cutte it in verie narrowe thonges and measure with them so much ground aboute the graue as they wil compasse for they do beleeue that the deade man shall haue so muche lande assigned him in an other worlde as his friends haue measured out for him with this hide The thirtithe day they ende their mourning But the Emperour of the Tartars the great Chame must be buried in the mountein Altay yea and thither is he caried although he die an hūdreth dayes iourney from thence All the men the horses yea if they be worth neuer so muche that they meete withal as they carrie the Emperour to the place of buriall do they kill and bidde them go into the other worlde to do seruice
enough to beare the name of one altogether wretched and oppressed with miseries if he be a man and wittily sayes Plautus in Bacchides that it is farre better to haue liued then to liue Howe solemne and vulgar an Epitheton vnto man is wretched in that flowing fountaine of all knowledge and eloquence Homer for nothing sayes he that liueth that draweth breath and créepeth along the laynes is so wretched as is man and féeles so often and grieuous paines And therfore is it truly sayde of Plinie that if we will iudge and decrée vprightly refusing all ambition of Fortune there is no man happie yea and fortune deales with that man very friendly and makes him a wanton which can not iustly be called vnhappie Our felicitie sayes Seneca is no sound thing and massie but only an ouercasting and that very thinne and which is lightly broken by so many violent chaunces as I haue already shewed and also by the shortnesse of mans life which life Homer calleth a shadowe Pyndarus the dreame of a shadow Sophocles a shadowe and blast Aechylus a shadowe of smoke Lucian and the common prouerb a bubble that ryseth on the water of whome some vanish awaye as soone as euer they rise some continue a little longer but all indure a very short time besides tenne thousand diseases which doe dayly and hourely yea to speake most truely continually bereaue men of life do fewer chances assault vs ruines poisons shipwracks warres earthquakes lightnings thunders falles and what not One is choaked with swallowing downe of the stone or graine in a grape as Anacreon the poet a litle haire in a messe of mylke strangled Fabius a Pretor of Rome Aeschylus the Poet had his crowne so crackt that he dyed thereof with a cockle let fall by an Eagle who did take his balde scalpe to be a rocke wherevpon she might breake her cockle to come by the fishe Q. Aemylius with dashing his foote against a stone and C. Aufidius against a threshold Iouinian the Emperour with the smoake of coles in his chamber or as other say with the smell of a chamber newly pargetted some with a clap on the chéeke giuen by a gyrle some auoyded their bowels out at the priuie as Arrius the archheretike and Anastasius the seconde Byshoppe of Rome Some are eaten with mice as Hatto Archbyshop of Mentz and Piast Prince of Poleland and some with toades as in Wales Seisillus Elkerher some kylled with lightning as Strabo Pompeyus father vnto great Pompey Carus and Anastasius emperors of Rome some are slaine in the middest of their pastimes in hunting as Aistulphe king of Lumbardie with a boare Basilius Emperour of Constantinople with a stagge Fulco king of Hierusalem by the foundering of his horse in pursuite of an hare William Rufus King of this lande with the glauncing of an arrowe Drusus the sonne of Claudius Caesar the Emperour playing with a peare which he woulde cast vp and catch in his mouth was choaked with it some dye in the middest of their venerie as Tytus Aetherius an horsman of Rome and Cornelius Gallus who had béene Pretour of the citie and two horsmen sayes Plinie in our dayes in one varlet and Cornelius Tacitus noteth a woman and Campofulgoso Giachetto Gereua a worshipfull man of Saluzzo with his minion And as though that sorrowes and griefes did not sufficiently annoy mankinde we reade of many that soudenly died for extreme ioy as Diagoras and two women in Aulus Gellius Chilo the philosopher and Sophocles the famous poet Dionysius the tyrant in Plinie and Inuentius Talua a Consul in Valerius who also writeth that Philemon the poet was choaked with laughing at his owne iest Howe innumerable are they whome dayly experience and histories doe teache vs to haue dyed soudenly of no euident cause and without all foreféeling of paines some at feastes and pastimes and some in their beds of whome Plinie reckoneth many examples Therefore séeing that suche is the infirmitie of man at his byrthe and many yeares after so many sicknesses and diseases so many molestations and vexations do continually chaunce vnto him all his life long that also is so short and vncertaine is there any man indued with common sense that will holde that any man can be happie in this worlde and life The twentie Chapter That not great riches and Empires doe make a man happie the which Socrates proued by an excellēt similitude whervnto is annexed a golden sentence of Agesilaus ANd nowe then after that I haue declared that man can not in this life be happie I will descend vnto my second proposition that no man hath continued many yeares in so great felicitie that he neuer felte during that time any cause to complaine of Fortune with protestation first made that these great Empires conquestes and riches are not in any wise to be accounted things which do make a man happie no more then a scabberd of golde set with precious stones doth make a good sworde a riche gowne a persite bodie a golden collar a swift dogge because they be things without them and no part of their substance A very liuely induction whereof makes Socrates with whiche kinde of Argument did he singularly delight The magnificent Nicias of Athens had a very goodly horse whiche when he was ridden through the streates did turne the eyes of all the people to beholde him and with great acclamations to crie out yonder goes the noblest horse of the worlde When I sawe sayes Socrates this horse so generally with one consent praised of the whole citie I stept vnto his kéeper demaunded of him what masse of money this so singular a horse and so highly commended had why syr quod the horse kéeper what money should a horse haue he hath not one farthing why then says Socrates if that an horse may be an excellent horse and perfect in all pointes whiche belong vnto an horse haue neither money no nor goodes nor an horse were neuer the better horse if he had great riches what then shold let but that a man may be a good and happie man without all goods or what shal he be the perfecter more blessed if he haue innumerable store of these fruites or rather follies of fortune Wherfore that saying of Agesilaus king of Lacedemonia is worthie to be written in letters of golde or rather in déed in all mennes hartes which he vsed vnto one that called according vnto the manner of the worlde then the king of Persia the great king how sayes Agesilaus is he greater then I am vnlest he be more iust and more temperate iustly measuring the felicitie and greatnesse of man by the goodes of the minde and not of fickle fortune But now after this protestation made I say and wil proue that neither these men whiche were or would be called by the name of Gods nor no man surnamed the great or any of them which haue
towardes him who so obstinately refused the Empire that when the Legions in Germanie would néedes force him to take it he would haue killed him selfe if they had not desisted from their rebellious purpose this yong colte his sonne was brought vp with his mother who being banished and his two brothers put to death remained with his great graundmother Liuia widdowe of Augustus after whose death he went vnto his grandmother Antonia with whom he remained vntil he was ninetéene yeares of age at what time he was sent for by Tyberius to come vnto him into his slaughter house at Capreas where he remained without any honour There was he assaulted and vndermined tenne thousand ways groped prouoked ye and in a manner forced to complaine of the wronges done vnto his Father and his fréendes but neuer could there be any holde taken of him as though he had quite forgotten the fal of his fréendes as though no ill had happened vnto any of them but all those villanies of whom he suffered innumerable he passed ouer with incredible dissimulation and was so seruiceable vnto Tyberius and those that were néere aboute him that it was not without iust cause cōmonly spokē that neuer was there a better seruant nor a worse maister In this slauerie continued he all the reigne of Tyberius whom he succéeded wherby it is greatly to be marueyled howe he that had béene so long time one of the most wretched men of the worlde could for so shorte a fickle felicitie thinke him self soudenly translated into a god But that he was alwayes guiltie in conscience of his owne infirmities his straunge spitefull enuie towards all men that excelled in honour good fortune and finally in any thing did manifestly declare For firste he brake downe all the statuies of famous men that were set vppe in the Court of the Capitol by Augustus he thought also to haue destroyed quite all Homers works and there lacked litle but that he had taken out of all libraries all the Images and workes of Liuie and Virgil and also he often boasted that he would burne al the bookes of the Lawe Moreouer he tooke from all the Noble men the auncient ensignes of their houses from Torquatus his cheine from Cincinnatus his haire from Pompey the surname of the great Yea Ptolomey king of Mauritania his cosin whom he had sent for receiued and interteined very honourably because that at a publique spectacle he had through the glistring of his purple robe caused the people to gaze vppon him he soudenly strucke him on the face with his fist As often as he mette with any beautiful personage or that had a goodly bushe of haire he would incontinently deforme him with the shauing off the hinder parte of his head There was one Esius Proculus whose Father had béene Primipile this Proculus for his tall and bigge stature and beautiful and good making thereof was called Collosers this mans goodly personage did so spite the Emperour that soudenly as Proculus was beholding of the playes he commaunded him to fight first with a Thracian and then with an armed man with a shielde souldiour like and being victor in bothe conflictes the enuious wretch commanded him without all delay to be bound and clothed in olde patched garments to be carried throughout euery stréete of the citie and shewed vnto the women a villanie of all other moste great as thoughe he had béene a man altogether effeminate and then to haue his throte cutte Finally there was no man of so base a state nor of so abiect and beggerly calling whose commodities he obtrected not in so muche that when at a publique game one Porius a chariot man had made his slaue frée because he had had good lucke in running that day and the people commending well of the maister for so doing had giuen a great shoute Caligula was brought into suche a choler that he incontinently flang vppe and woulde be gone the whiche he did with suche haste that treading vppon his gowne he wente tumbling downe the steppes of the Theatre chasing and crying out that the Lord of nations the people of Rome did for a very light a matter giue more honour vnto a slaue chariot man then vnto consecrated Princes and vnto him selfe being present Furthermore the thinnesse of the haires of his head and his balde crowne bereft him of blisse séeing that he did take it for such a deformitie that to looke out at a windowe aboue him whereby his baldenesse might be espied for in Rome at those dayes men went bare headed or vppon any occasion to name a goate was present death Yet was there a greater breach made in his blisse by the death of his sister and harlot Drusilla for it made him almoste starke madde in so muche that he did let his beard and haire growe long and often vpon a souden and that also in the night time woulde he for no cause fling on galloppe along all the Sea ceast of Italie and ouer into Sicyl where when he had done the like he woulde come backe againe as faste vppon the spurre He proclaimed for her a Iustitium during the whiche time it was deathe for a man to laughe washe or suppe either with parentes wife or children and yet was he also angrie with them that made lamentation for her because as he saide she was of a gillet become a Goddesse and to affirme this lie he gaue vnto two men Deries sestertium that is 7812.l 10 s̄ Who sware that they sawe her ascending vp into heauen Moreouer to put him in minde of his mortalitie he inioyed health neither of bodie nor minde For he was a childe he was troubled with the falling sicknesse after he was growen to mannes state he woulde otentimes be so taken that he could neither go stand nor stay vpon himselfe And that his wittes were not wel he himself perceiued and therfore would euer and anon thinke to separate himselfe from companie and purge his braine But most was he vexed with lacke of sléepe for he neuer could take aboue thrée houres rest in a night neither them quietly but in great feare through diuerse terrible dreames and visions And therefore a great part of the night did he for tediousnesse of watching and lying vse nowe sitting in his bed and then walking vp and down in long galleries euer and anon to call looke for daye Once in his short reigne was he very dangerously sicke in so muche that of a foolishe flatterie Publius Africanus Potitius sware that if that the Gods woulde vouchsafe of their woonted goodnesse to graunt life vnto Caligula the then he would gladly léese his life for him and Secundus a horseman of Rome vpon the same condition vowed to fight at a game of sword players bothe whiche vowes did Caligula when he was recouered make them to fulfil least they shuld be forsworne worthily though ingratefully forcing them to die who would wickedly though feignedly wish his life that
they had supped together merrily abroade and threwe his bodie into Tyber for no other cause but for that his fathers minde was that Frauncis shoulde marrie and increase the name of the Borgiae the which he would make honourable with large dominions but Caesar he had as it were banished into the cloyster of religion disguising him with a redde hatt the whiche was farre inferiour vnto his royal harte and immesurable desire of earthly honours who bare in his ensigne this worde Aut Caesar aut nihil an Emperour or nothinge the which insatiable thirst of his the Colonnese fearinge that he would quenche with their bloude abandoned all their dominions and landes and fledde away folowing the Castor who some say bites off his owne stones when hee is hardly persued knowing that for them onely his death is sought but the Orsines allured with his liberal interteinemente to serue him in the warres were almoste all murdered Baptista the cardinall at Rome Frauncis the Duke of Grauina and Paulo in the territorie of Perugia Liberto Prince of Firma Vitelloccio Vitelli one of the Princes of Ciuita de Castello at Senogallia the which caused all the rest of the Vitelli to flie and by their liues with the losse of their liuinges And also the noble men of the house of Gaieta who possessed the towne of Sermoneta in Campagna di Roma Iames Nicholas and Bernardine beeing slaine some one way and some an other yealded their castels lands and goodes vnto Caesar And also the Dukes of Camerino Caesar Anibal and Pyrrhus were expelled their dominions and strangled Astor Manfredi Prince of Fauenza yealdinge the towne and himselfe vppon promisse of safetie was slaine and cast into Tyber Furthermore Pandulpho Malatesta Iohn Sforza and Guido Vbaldo had rather by flight leaue their dominions of Rimini Pesaro and Vrbine vnto the inuading tyranne then be murdered And also Iames Appiano let him haue the principalitie of Piombino But Catharine Sforza who reigned at Forly and Imola hauing lost by force her dominions being taken prisoner was brought in triumphe to Rome But while by this bloudy way he encroched on al the principalities about him he also commaunded the prince of Beselio base sonne vnto Alfonse kinge of Naples yea and his sisters husbande to be slaine in her chamber yea in her bed being before wounded in the Courte of the church of Saint Peter but so that it was thought he woulde escape And by the same meanes he dispatched the yonger Borgia the Cardinal because he had seemed to fauour the duke of Candia his brother he also sauagely slue as he came from supper Iohn Cerbellion a man of greate nobilitie both at home and also in the warres because he had seuerely kept the honestie of a gentlewoman of the house of Borgia He did also put to death Iames Santatrucio a noble man of Rome theÌ„ whome there was no man more friende and familiar with Caesar neither for anie other cause but for that he was able vpon a soudeine to gather together a stronge bande of lustie felowes of the Orsine faction make them couragiously to atteÌ„pt anie exploite But wheÌ„ for this cursed and vnquenchable desire of Empire he and his father had appointed to poyson at a feast certeine noble and riche princes his man mistaking the flagon gaue thereof vnto the vngratious father and worse sonne whereof the father beeing olde died but his blessed byrde a lustie younge man was by manie medicines conserued to greater punishmente for after the deathe of Alexander the Colonese and the Orsines that were lefte returned vnto Rome Then Caesar that he might not be ouermatched by haueing warres with both the families restored vnto the Colonese all their possessions on whome in diuerse places he had sumptuously buylt Guido Defeltrie recouered Vrbine Iohn Sforza Pesaro excepte the castle Malatesta Riminie but the castle was stil retayned by Caesar and the Baleones Perugia through the helpe of the Orsines who also toke Tuderto with the castell and put to shamefull deathe the capteine and with like successe at Viterby Ameria and all the cities there aboutes either they restored the Princes of their owne faction or else strengthened them and had also beesieged Caesar in Nepe if hée had not fearefully fledde into Rome the whiche hee obteyned of the newe Pope Pius as a safe refuge but Pope Pius dying within twentie seuen dayes the Orsines also entered the citie with a greate power whome the greatest parte of the citizens fauoured and the Orsines requested that Caesar might according to iustice be put to death for his manifolde murthers or els kept in sure warde in the castell vntill that his cause were hearde But while the matter was prolonged with outragious altercations Caesar being afrayde stale away out of his house in the Suburbes into the Popes palace then his souldiours who vntil that time had valiantly guarded him perceiuing that their Capteines courage quayled and that he sought for hyding holes fled also awaye some to one place and some vnto another leauing him guardlesse among the cruell companies of his enimies and forceing him because hee could otherwise stande in no suretie of his life to desire as a greate benefite to be cast into the castell of Sainct Angelo vntil that a new Pope were created the which béeing Iulius the seconde would not set him at libertie before that he had deliuered vp all the Castels and townes that he had in the territorie of Rome Romandiola and the duchie of Spolieto But not long after preparing at Naples an expedition into Romandiola he was at the Popes earnest suite imprisoned in the newe castell and shortly after carried into Hispanie where he brake prison and fledde vnto the kinge of Nauarre whose néere cousine he had married and there was slaine in a skirmishe with this euent that not béeing knowen he was spoyled of all his armour and clothes and left starke naked and so brought by one of his seruauntes vnto the citie of Pompelona where he had sometimes béene Bishoppe a notable document of mannes miserie But as I saide before I passing ouer in silence all those greate worldlinges whome Fortune at the last ouerthrewe will examine the liues and infortunities onely of those whome the worlde doth account most fortunate and search whether that God did not ofteÌ„ make them to féele his force and to confesse their owne frailtie The xxxi Chapter The vnluckie chaunces of Augustus AND first I will beginne with him that thought so well of his owne fortune that when he sent his nephue Caius into Armenia against the Parâ—thians he wished that the loue good will of Pompey the hardinesse prowesse of Alexander the Fortune of him self might accompanie him Neither had hee alone this opinion of his good Fortune but it was also generally receiued of all men in so muche that it was decréede and also kept vntil the time of Iustinian that the people shoulde crie at the creation of a
vnchaste members were so conuulsed vpward that his vncleane yarde standing continually stiffe did whensoeuer he made water defile his face and blasphemous mouthe vnlest that a broade boorde were tyed aboue his nauel to kéepe downe the filthie spouting Vrine The xxxvij Chapter Of Michael Paleologus Emperour of Constantinople MIchael Paleologus recouered from the Latines or the christians of the west churche the French men and Venetians the Empire of Constantinople and was a Prince by the reporte of the Gréeke chronicles inferiour to none of his predecessours in goodly personage strength of bodie Princely Maiestie skilfulnes in armes prudence eloquence valiaunce and spéedinesse in dooing of al exploits and yet found he fortune a false flatterer rather then a faithfull fréende For that I may omitte his great daungers of deathe for suspicion of treason in the reigne of Iohn Ducas and also afterward in the time of Theodorus Lascaris when for feare of death procured vnto him by spitefull enuie he fledde vnto the Turke that reigned at Cogin in shorte time after that he had wrongfully gotten the Empire deposing the rightful yong prince whose gouernour he was and fortunatly recouered the citie of Constantinople from the Latines and all suche countries of the Empire as they then helde was Alexius Caesar his delight his trustie fréende through whose valiance he had taken Constantinople and the rest of the Empire and therefore had heaped vppon him so many and greate honours as neuer were giuen vnto any priuate man this his fortunate capteine was taken prisoner by the Despote of Epirus Aetolia hauing lost in battel his mightie armie Then also began he to fal into feare of loosing the Empire the which he had wickedly wonne and therfore to establish it he contrarie vnto thrée othes for so often was hee sworn to be true shamfully depriued the true Emperour young Iohn Lascaris of his sight whome he had before bereft of his Empire for the whiche detestable facte to abate his swelling pride was he excommunicated by Arsenius the Patriarche and a greate number of dayes stoode before the Churche porche in suppliaunt manner and habite pitifully praying the hardened Patriarch to restore him vnto the communion of Christes church but al in vaine vntill that by craft he had caused a counsell to depose the Patriarch And also for the reuenge of this cruel wrong done vnto the yong Emperour Constantine the Prince of the Bulgares who had married his sister made a lamentable rode into the Empire in the which he so spoiled all Thrace so that in that whole mightie Prouince there could for a time scarse be one husbandeman or Oxe séene he also slewe and tooke prisoners all the whole armie of the Emperour returning out of Thessalie not one man horse or cattel fléeing from his fingers except the Emperour him selfe who escaped almoste miraculously by priuie stealing away ouer the mounteines vnto the Sea side Where as it were by Gods prouidence he happened vppon two Latine galleis who were sailing vnto Constantinople but then were happely come a landed in that place for freshe water a boorde one of whome he wente chusing rather to truste their doubtful faithe then to fall into the handes of the bloudie Bulgares And after this followed a shamefull losse of a flourishing armie vnder the conducte of his brother the whiche was discomfited by the Dispote of Thessalie with fiue hundreth men the Emperials being afraide of their owne shadowe But afterward a farre more harmefull feare tooke him of inuasion and losse of his Empire by Charles the king of Naples to preuent the which mischiefe after that he had by large gyftes stirred vppe the king of Sicyl and other of his neighbours against him at the length he was gladde to sue for help vnto the Bishop of Rome and contrarie vnto the lawes of his countrie to submitte himselfe and his Empire vnto his iurisdiction graunting thrée articles the firste that at their diuine seruice mention shoulde be made of the Bishoppe of Rome among the foure Patriarches the seconde that it should be lawfull for all men to appeale in matters Ecclesiastical vnto olde Rome for they vsed also to cal Constantinople Rome but with this addition new the which should be accepted for the highest and more absolute Court the third that in all spiritual thinges the principalitie should be giuen vnto it By this cowardly submission as he escaped the thretened daunger of the Neapolitan so fell he into a farre greater perill of the displeased people who did so abhorre him for this degenerate subiectiō that he looked euery day to be deposed or slaine by them in the whiche hofull state he continued all his lifes time the peoples indignation hatred towardes him being nothing by long processe of time appeased And on the other side the Turke scourged him in Asia miserably wasting burning his Doninions in those partes subdued all the Countries from Mare Ponticum and Galatia euen vnto Mare Lycium and the Riuer of Eurìmedon Furthermore I can not omitt his great anguishe of hart and the déepe sighes that he fette when that he fell sicke in his voiage againste the vnquiet despote of Thessalia at a village called Pachonius the whiche place putting him in mournefull memorie of his vngodly and vniust bereauing the godly man Pachonius of his sight made him incontinently truely to despaire of his recouery Neither was frowning fortunes spite satisfied with his dolefull death but also she caused his onely sonne vnto whom he had with rare benignitie imparted the Empire while he liued himselfe ingratefully to denie him not only Emperial funerals but also christian burial in sacred place this only did childes duetie extort of him that he commanded him to be carried foorth priuily in the night time out of the campe and great store of earth to be hurled vppon him that the wilde beastes and byrdes should not teare into péeces his Fathers the Emperours bodie The cause of this vncourteous dealing with the blisselesse bodie of this noble Emperour procéeded not of any wicked stomache of the sonne against his father who was inferiour vnto no childe in pietie toward his parent but because the countrie lawes and the states of the Empire wold not suffer him to be buried in any of their churches who had they said wickedly reuolted from the true church vnto the false and malignant of Rome The xxxviij Chapter Of Charles the great CHarles the great did for princely personage rare strength of bodie valiant courage and martiall prowesse and glorie farre passe any Christian Prince that euer was and also was inferiour vnto none in learning wisedome pietie and all vertues vnto him came there Embassadours out of all partes of the worlde to desire either peace or fréendship yea out of Afrike Persia Greece he had restored again into the west the Empire which had béene transferred wholy into Thrace and Constantinople and largely reigned ouer Gallia Germanie Italie Hungarie Slauonie
fall that neither their brotherly bloud nor impotent age could persuade the bofull man securitie But anon after that he had wonne Constantinople the stately seate of the Easte Empire and slaine the Emperour therein before Belgrade which he boasted that hee woulde take within fiftéene dayes whereas as his father had like a cowarde in vayne béesieged it seuen monethes bee was by a sallie out of the towne daungerously hurte vnder the pappe his armie discomfited his campe taken with all his ordinaunce martiall furniture and carriages and hee him selfe gladde to séeke safetie by the benefite of a darke night yea so great was his ouerthrowe that it was thought by men of wisedome and experience that if the Hungarians had prosecuted the victorie they might haue driuen him out of Constantinople The next morning when he was come vnto himselfe after the rage of his wound was somewhat abated and vnderstoode howe great a foile he had taken he would haue poisoned himselfe that he mighte not returne home in so great dishonour and was hardly letten by his friends from doing thereof Hee could neuer abide after to heare or speake of this foule foile as often as he vnwillingly minded it he would teare his beard fetch déepe sighes gastly grind his téeth cruelly cursing that dismall day the which he did all his life after accompt for a blacke and infortunate But after this tempestuous storme the which had néere destroyed him a wished winde gan blowe againe and he conquered the Empire of Trapezonda the Isles of the Aegean sea or Archipelago Miteleno and Bosna the Peloponesus or Morea the whiche the Venetians and two of the Paleologi possessed brake downe the strong wall that the Venetians had builte in the Isthme of Corinthe and gott those townes which the Venetians had in Morea and by bloudie assault Eubea now Nigrepont Hauing thus fortunately subdued Constantinople and all Greece with the Islands thereabouts it was a great eye sore for him to sée the royall Rhodes frée from his bondage wherefore frowning fortune pricked him forth to assaile it with many a foule bloudie foile receiued both by sea land thus when force failed hee sought to take it by treason suborning many false knaues who vnder colour of fugitiues should betray it vnto him but when that neither this foxes skinne ioyned to his Lions was long enough to reach the Rhodes hee feigned great friendship if that they would vouchsafe to pay him any trifle in the name of tribute yea or present him with any gift but when that nothing would be graunted vnto the enimie of Christe and hee had vainely spent thrée yeares in these toyes he fell againe to force inuading it with a mightie fléete and fourescore thousand men but with no better successe then that after hée had lost 7000. souldiours at the landing and two thrée thousand at euery assault of whome hée made very many during his aboade there of thrée monethes hée was forced to depart home with incredible losse of men and munition and much greater of his honour But when his hautie heart could not rest in this great dishonour but prepared for the reuenge thereof and also to conquere proud Italie as hée termed it where his mightie armie being landed had taken Otronto his purpose was preuented in the one and the prosperous course of his conquestes corrupted in the other through his sondeine death when he had liued 58. yeares and reigned 31. The xlvij Chapter Of Selime the first great Lord of the Turkes SELIME that came vnto the Empire of the Turkes by murthering of his father brothers brothers children ouerthrew in battell the mightie Sophie in the middest of his realme and toke his chiefe cities of Chois Tauris subdued the Aladuli that inhabite the mountaine Taurus conquered the Empire of Aegypt that stretched on one side vnto the desartes of Arabia the streightes of the redd sea and to Aethiope and on the other vnto Cilicia staying two Soldanes yet this man who was of rare felicitie in all his attemptes was ouerthrowen and hurt in the battel that he sought against his father and also made such an hautie retire out of the Persian dominions that it might very well be termed a fearefull flight loosing a great number of his men his ordinance and his carriages in the passing ouer of Euphrates the Persians hotly pursuing them And when hée had escaped the Sophie hée was no lesse endammaged and endaungered by the Aladuli And finally this furie of hell that threatened vtter destruction to the Christian name reigned not aboue seuen yeares but died miserably of an eating Vlcer in his reynes which consumed so much fleshe in one night that a man might turne his fist round in the hole yéelding vpp his wicked spirite at the village of Chiurle where hée had vngraciously before foughten against his father The xlviij Chapter Of Ferdinande the sixt king of Hispaine FERDINANDE the sixte king of Arragon and Sicyl that had by his wife the rich kingdomes of Castill and Lions and won by sword the kingdoms of Granata that had béene in the handes of the Moores almost eight hundreth yeares of Naples and Nauarre and an other world of rich countries in the West Indies had a great and yet an harmelesse admonition of mans tickle state at the siege of Granata For a Moore burning in desire of deliuering his countrie out of perill by a desperate attempt of killing the king and Quéene of Hispaine came out of the towne into the Hispanish campe feigning that he had brought cōditions of peace and desiring to be admitted vnto the kinges and Quéenes presence but hee was put by his purpose thoroughe a meruailous chaunce or rather by Gods special prouision for a noble man of Hispaine that lay in a goodly and riche hall sent for this Moore to come vnto him being very desirous to vnderstand what newes the Moore brought The noble man sate at that instant at dinner with his wife whome the Moore taking by their brauerie to be the king and the Quéene assaulted them sore wounding them both but yet was stayed from killing them by the rescue of their seruants But afterward whē that this victorious king returned from the glorious conquest of the kingdome of Graneta and rode into Darselona in triumphant maner with the great acclamations of the people ringing his renowne hee had in the middest of that proud pompe almost loste both life and kingdome For one Canemas a Cathelane who séemed to haue béene long time molested with the madde melancholie thincking to haue killed the king in his chiefest iolitie gaue him a great wound in the neck Neither could any other cause of doing this desperate facte be wrounge from him by all kinde of terrible tormentes then that he hoped if that Ferdinando had béene slaine to become king himself being a very poore knaue the which thing he said had béene told him oftentimes by an Angel. On so féeble fléeting a
citie of Mauus out of the whiche hée fearefully fledde and left that citie which of all other he best loued to be won with Toures by his fierce enimies for which he was cast into such a chafe that he opeÌ„ly said that he would for euer after wholly withdraw his heart froÌ„ God séeing that he had suffered his delight to be taken and deformed with fire but anon after he came vnto him selfe and acknowledged his errour and wickednesse and suppliantly sued vnto the Frenche king for peace the which he could by no meanes obteine Wherfore despairing of the safetie of his estate hee died rather oppressed by this cruell concourse of calamities then worne with sickenesse The li. Chapter Of Edwarde the thirde AS Fortune was vnto Edwarde the thirde a louing and cocklinge mother in his youth in giuing him the famous victories at Sluse Cressey Poyters and Durham with the taking prisoners of the Frenche and Scottishe kinges and the restoring of Peter king of Castill and augmenting his dominions with the towne of Calaice and the Earledome of Guisnes and sending of him so many valiant sonnes and to so long life to haue proofe of their prowesse so was shée no lesse cruell stepdame vnto him in his age for the reuolting of the Earles of Armeniacke and Petiagors whiche brought the losse of Ponthiew Poitou Caoars Limosin Xantoigne Perrigort and finally almost all Gascoigne except Baron and Burdeaux and all Britaine vnlesse it were Brest and the discomfiture and taking of Iohn Earle of Penbruche and his greate Fléete comming to the rescuse of Rochell the vncourteous disobedient deniall of subsidie by Parliament in that his greate necessitie and the licentious complaint against him in open Parliament for kéeping of Alice Piers and the proude appointing of him Tutors as though he had béene a pupil who in his nonage was thought méete to hurle his father from the helme of the common wealth and rule the rudder him selfe and finally the vntimely deathes of his two valiant sonnes Leonell and the onely staye and staffe whereon his worne age did leane and holde vpp it selfe Prince Edwarde the sorrowe wherof quite brake the heart of the wofull father which was before sore wasted with age and the griefe conceiued for his vnwonted froward Fortune And to make vp the mischiefe hee left the realme to be ruled by an vnthriftie pupill who could neuer learne lesse all the dayes of his life then howe hee shoulde rule him selfe This worthie Prince doeth proue that to be true that Paulus Aemilius noteth in Charles the great that Fortune doth thinke it a goodly thing to shewe vnto men both her powers in kings of long life and that those Capteines which are saide neuer to haue found Fortune but fauourable in great attemptes lightely dyed young men for so saith hee I do thinke it hath séemed good vnto God lest that humane thinges may séeme to bee able to giue true and sound felicitie The lii Chapter Of Henrie the fift IN that perfect patterne of prowesse Henrie the fift I blame his vnthriftie youth and his being committed to the kinges benche by the Lorde chiefe Iustice for his misdemeanour such a president as I think is hardly to be founde in all the recordes of antiquities his wounding at the battell of Shrewesburie the daungerous conspiracie to murther him made by the Earle of Cambridge and other in his first voyage into Fraunce his greate hofulnesse for Agincourt fielde and almost vtter despaire of escape the disfomfiture in fight and also the death of his brother the duke of Clarence and last of all his owne vntimely death the which did not onely corrupt all his former victories and lost the duchie of Guian whereof his auncestours had béene possessed euer since Henrie the seconde but also did so wrappe the realme in such ciuil discorde that it is almost a miracle that it was not quite destroyed for euer So that if wee do duely consider the euent it had béene much better for this land that he had neuer béene borne then to haue prouoked the Frenche men and not to haue quite subdued and tamed them and to haue begotten to succéede him one so vnfit to gouerne although he were otherwise a Prince of singular pietie and godlinesse But as for Henrie the fourth Edwarde the fourth and Henrie the seuenth who gott the crowne by the swoorde they kept it with so much and so greate trouble that I thinke no wise man would take vpp the crowne if it laye vpon a dounghill to weare it in such continuall perils and molestations as Antigonus did vse to saye The Conclusion THEN séeinge that the miseries of mankinde are so manye and so greate and with so manifolde and grieuous calamities haue all they béene oppressed whome fickle Fortune hath seemed moste to fauoure what maye they promise vnto them selues that doe thinke that they are now carried with the most blisfull blast of worldly felicitie Let them like wise men persuade themselues that they are made of the same lamentable lump that other men are and also as much subiect vnto sondeine sorrowes as they that haue béene before them Wherfore let them thinke moderately of them selues let them make accompt of the guylefull giftes of false Fortune as though they should be incontinently taken from them let them not proudly despise the wretched whome lowring lott hath laide lowe séeing that the vnstablenesse of their owne tottering state maye shortly cast them into the same sincke of shame as they do thinke it finally let them attribute all honour and glorie vnto God the onely author and also conseruer of their brittle blisse whome let them serue moste lowly if that they desire to continue aloft in the ruling of other FINIS Symonides his wise answere Plato his opinion of God. The Persians brake downe all Images of God. What wordes doe best declare Gods essence God is no essence de Diui. No. In one sense God is moste properly an essence Hier. ad Marcel Aug. super Ioan. tract 99. Why bodily limmes and affectes are attributed vnto God. God onely vnchaungeable The singlenesse of Gods essence August de tri lib. 6. No qualitie in God. We do speake vnproperly of God by adiectiues Scal. de subti exâ—r 365. God is comprehended in none of the predicamentes August de Trinit lib. 5. The omnipotencie of God wherein it doth consist August lib 15. de Trinitate August lib. 1. de symbolo Cap. 10. Com in Psal. 7 Lib. 2. de Stil laud. Of Psapho A worthy order taken by Philip. Of horsmen Of Commodas Of Alexander A wittie decree of the Lacedemonians A woorthie saying of Antigonus Of Caligula The free speeche of a Botcher The impudent flattery of Vitellius Vitellius his wittie answer The constant pietie of the Iewes Caligula his great hatred vnto mankind Of Domitian Lact. de fals relig The Original of worshipping of false Gods. The first cause why the Gentiles did make men Gods. Lact. de fals