vpon him tearing the fleshe of his hand with hir téeth and deuoured the same sodainly Al which the infant abode in respect to satisfie hir longing And as she returned to play the like parte againe the childe grieuing at hir crueltie withstode hir Wherof being ashamed and full of despite after she had liued certain days in coÌ„tinual melancolie she broughte forth two twinnes the one aliue and the other dead Wherupon the physitions called together to argue vpon the cause of this childe bearing founde that the deniall of the seconde morsel of the boyes flesh was the occasion therof Behold in effect the causes moste frequented touching y e bringing forth of monsters gathered according to the opinion of the best lerned authors both Greekes and Latins Resting yet ouer aboue al those kind of artificial monsters who be most familiar to these vacabunds vncerten people traueling through al prouinces with diuers abuses and deceiptful legerdemains wherwith they abuse the simplicity of the people in getting their money These masked pilgrims or rather absolute hypocrites studying nothing but the philosophie of Sathan as soone as their children be borne whilest their sinewes bones be tender flexible with smal force wil not stick to breke their arms crush their legs puffe vp their belly with some artificial pouder defacing their noses with other parts of the face somtime pecking out their eyes al to make them appere monstrous wherof besides the familiar examples of oure miserable time there was great experience in Asia in the time of Hippocrates as apereth in his booke de aere locis ¶ The generall causes of the generation of MoÌ„sters with many notable Histories touching the same CHAP. vj. THe Auncients of olde time had these monstrous creatures in so greate horrour that if they fortuned to méete any of them by chauÌ„ce in their way they iudged it to be a foreknowledge of their misfortune and to belâ—eue it y e more the Emperor Adryan chancing to sée a Moore at vnwares assured himself to die immediatly The souldiers of Brutus being readie to ioyne battaile with the armie of Octauus Caesar hauing encouÌ„tred an Ethiopian in their way prognosticated that they shold lose the battaile which hapned according to their imagination In like maner the auncient Romains had these deformed creatures in suche disdaine that they straightly charged that the mis-shapen or hauing any other vice vpon their body shoulde not be receyued amongst the virgins Vestales as Fenestellus teacheth in his boke of the Magistrates and worthie men of Rome But that which is most to be maruelled at is that God forbad Moyses not to receiue them to do sacrifice amongest his people as you may reade more at large in the first chapter of Malachy the .xxj. of Leuit. Wherin S. Hierom hauing fully considered these abuses in an Epistle written to a virgin called Demetriade complaines of those Christians whiche offer vnto God those children or put them into religious houses being crooked lame deformed hauing yet a matter more straunge which Iulius Obsequius and other authors haue written of among the Romaine wonders wherin they credibly reporte that the auncient Romaines had these litle monstrous creatures in such abhomination that as soone as they were borne they were immediatly committed to the ryuer of Tyber there to be norished But we being better broughte vp and fostred in a schole of more humanitie knowyng them to be the creatures of GOD suffer them to be brought to the church there to receiue the holy sacrament of Baptisme as may be séene in the figure of these two Maides embracing eche other ioyned together by a straunge infirmitie of nature who wer séene to liue in our age of many thousande persons in forme or shape such as you see them portraicted And to the end the historie of their natiuitie might be the better vnderstanded I will declare that which Sebastian Munster writeth who saw them and behelde their vnnaturall order at large in the yeare as he sayde a thousand foure hundred fourescore .xv. and in the moneth of September A womaÌ„ brought forth a monster nigh to the citie of Worms vpon the right syde of the riuer of Rhine in a village called Bristante which was two maides hauyng their bodies entier and knitte together by the forheade so that there was not any artificial or humaine policie to deuide them asunder as myne author saw them at Magence in the yeare .1501 and being six yeres of age were constrained to go togither whiche was pitifull to beholde for as the one marched forwards the other of force reculed backwards they rose togither and slept togither their noses touching so nigh that they coulde not turne their eyes but one way their forheades ioyning togethers hanged ouer their eyes letting therby the iust course of their sight and liuing till they were ten yeares of age the one of them died who being separated and taken from the other the hurt she receyued in the separation from hir dead sister was the onely cause she died immediately Beholde here sayth he the cause of this monstrous birth two women talking togither the one of them being great with childe there came a thirde woman not knowyng that eyther of them were with childe and sodainly thrust their heads togithers as they talked wherewith she with childe was astonished whereupon grew this monstrous child bearing And to confirme the same to be of more trouth Cardan affirmeth in his bookes de Subtilitate saying That the astoonishment was some help to tie these .ij. infants togithers albeit he alleaged further cause of this vnnatural birth ¶ A wonderful and horrible monster of our tyme vpon the discourse of whom the question is asked whether Diuels can engender and vse the workes of Nature CHAP. vij THis hideous moÌ„ster whose portraict is here set out was born in base Pologne in the noble city of Cracouie in y e month of Februarie and yeare of grace .1543 or as some write 1547. and vpon the euen of the conuersion of S. Paule who although he were begotten of honorable parents yet was he most horrible deformed and fearefull hauing his eyes of the colour of fire his mouthe and nose like to the snoute of an Oxe wyth an horne annexed thereunto like the trumpe of an Elephant all hys backe shagge hairde like a dogge and in place where other men be accustomed to haue brests he had two heads of an Ape hauing aboue his nauell marked the eies of a cat and ioyned to his knee and armes foure heades of a dog with a grenning and fierce countenance the palmes of his féete and handes were like to those of an ape and amongst the rest he had a taile turning vp so hie that the height therof was half an elle who after he had liued foure houres died saying only Watch the Lorde commeth And although this creature were monstrous yet haue not sundry lerned authors failed to
be amongst them song when he heard them crow beat him self with his armes as they do with their wings As also some other that persuaded them to be transfigured into a vessel of earth who kéeping cōtinually vpon the plaines champaines dare not come neare houses or trees for feare to bruse or breake them in pieces There was a certaine Damsel ▪ whereof Alexander Trallianus writeth this history that by a corruption of the imagination she persuaded hir selfe to haue deuoured a Serpente sleeping neither coulde she be deliuered from the disease of suche thought vntill being prouoked to an extreme vomite there was secretly conueyed into the basin a quicke Serpent immediatly after the which she was deliuered of hir disease persuading that she had vomited the Serpent that stirred in the basyn There be yet visions whiche procéede by eating certaine poisons as Plinie and Edwardus witnesse of him of those whiche did eate the braines of a Beare whiche being deuoured they imagined that they were turned into a Beare The like happening in oure time to a Spanishe Gentleman who hauing eaten of a Beare wente wandring by the desertes and mountaines thinking to be trāsformed into a Beare Yet ther be other sortes of visions which according to y e opiniōs of certaine Phisitions proceede vpon certaine Naturall causes as when any man is killed and buried not very deepe in the earth there come as they saye from the dead bodye certaine exhalations and vapours whiche ascende into the ayre do séeme to represente the figure or fourme of hym that was put in the earth Wee haue also many other things whiche vnder the coloure of illusions abuse oure vnderstanding as when the ayre is troubled with contrary winds by whose agitations is engendred a bruite or murmure resembling properly the lowing or noise of beastes or not much vnlike to the complaintes of women and little children sometimes also the ayre pierceth within the creuisses and vaultes of rocks and olde walls and being sent backe againe by his owne violence giueth out so distincte a sounde that it séemes a precise or set voice as we proue oftentimes in that whiche we call Eccho the same pronouncing for the most parte v. or .vj. wordes with so greate maruell that it easely persuades suche as knowe not the cause but specially in the nighte that they be some spirites or Diuels the like hapning in our time to a counseller secretary of a certaine Prince the which by reason of his ignoraunce in the cause of his Eccho was in daunger to be drowned according to Cardanus in his booke of maruellous inuentions who writeth of one Augustinus Lauisarius Counseller to a certain Prince who being in the countrey and out of his waye and lastly ouertaken with night founde himselfe greatly passioned and riding all along a Riuer side began to lamente his distresse and after the Italian maner cried Oh the Eccho which came from a certaine rocke thereby replyed vnto him incontinent with Oh Lauisarius somewhat comforted with the voice thinking it was some man whiche spake demaūded in his language vnde debo passa the Eccho aunswered Passa then the poore secretary being in greater paine than before demaunded Chi which asmuch to say as heare the Eccho replied chi but being yet not well assured he asked him again debo passa chi passa chi saith the Eccho whiche wordes fedde him with suche comfort of his waye that he tooke the riuer being astonied notwithstanding that his horse at his firste entry lost the bottome and begā to swimme and had it not bene the goodnesse of his horse and mercye of the waues that séemed to take compassion vpon his distresse he had taken a moyste lodging in the bottome of the riuer from the whiche albeit he escaped so hardely yet being broughte with muche ado to the other side he passed the reste of the night in colde and prayers withoute comforte sauinge for the pleasure he tooke in the remembrance of his peril past wherof certaine dayes after being come to Millan he made discourse to his deare frende Cardanus in sorte as if it had bene the malice of an euill sprite that wente aboute to drowne him telling the place euery circunstance in order Cardanus smelled forthwith the ignorance and simplicity of the secretary knowing that in that place was a wonderfull Eccho whiche yelded suche a plaine and perfect voice that it séemed to be formed oute of the mouth of some creature for a more assuraunce and proofe whereof he led him eftesones to the same place where they founde that his Passa that guided hym was none other thing than a reuerberation of the Eccho wherein séeing we are nowe so déeply fallen I will not forget to inferre the authoritie of mine authour in an example whilest he write this booke at Paris I haue saith he heard a sound in the borough of Chalenton neare Paris whiche yeldes and returnes the wordes that are spoken whole entier distinctly and plainly and that .vij. times one after an other like to the Eccho septuplex of the Auncients and specially commended of Plinie I haue also oftē marueled y t those which haue written the Antiquities and things worthie of memorie in Paris haue lefte suche a straunge thing without remembraunce in their writings seeing I haue neither heard nor séene so rare a thing in all the voyages I haue made ouer the highe Alpes of Italye and Germanie But now there resteth to put a laste seale to our difference and diffinition of visions to make some discourse of artificiall illusions the which being wroughte by sundry secret and Sophisticall sleightes of men moue no small terror to suche as beholde them as that whereof Hector Boetius in his Histories of Scotlande maketh mention wherein as there was a helpe and furtheraunce by art so the effecte was no lesse maruellous and straunge and at laste the onely cause of conseruation of a whole Kingdome in sorte as foloweth The Pictes according to the Histories haue alwayes borne a mortall hate to the Scots killing after sundry battails and skirmishes the first King of that countrey with the ouerthrowe of most of the nobilitie of that countrey Cenethus second King of the Scots and sonne to him whome the Pictes had murdered desirous to reuenge the death of his father vsed many persuasions to incense the nobilitie to fall into armes againste them who in respecte of their late infortune in the warre and their lacke of power to maintaine the quarell would not agrée to the persuasions of the King in whome as there remained a more grudge againste the death of his father than in the reste so finding him insufficient to worke it by wordes or incitation he reposed a laste helpe and refuge in arte and to giue a beginning to his deuise he fained a cause of conscience and consultation for the which the nobilitie were sente for to assiste the counsell where being lodged
all together within a castell and himselfe also he gat to fauor and further his coÌ„spiracy some .iiij. or .v. men whom according to the truste he put in them he made to be hidden in certaine secret corners of the chambers appointed for the noble men hauing firste attired them in horrible order with skinnes of seawolues whereof is greate stoare in that countrey by reason of the Sea with euery one a staffe in his ryghte hand of a kinde of olde and dry wood which shyneth in the night and in their left hand a great horne of an Ore pierced hollow these according to their commaundemente kept very close secrete vntill the Princes were in theyr first and fast sléepe when they began to appeare and discouer w t their staues glimering like the glaunces or flames of torches braying out of their hollowe hornes a hydeous voyce conteining that they were sent of God to sommon them to the warre of the Pictes against whom the sentence of victory was already pronounced and agréed by the heauens And so these artificiall sprites assisted with the benefite of the night which is the mother nurse to all illusions vsed so fine a conuey in the dispatch of their businesse that they escaped without being disclosed leauing the poore Princes so passioned with feare that they passed the rest of the night in prayers vntill the morning when euerye of them with great solemnitie imparted his vision to y e king who also for his parte to aggrauate the matter with further credite notwithstanding he was the first founder and forger of the mistery approued their sayings with the like appearing to himself albeit he was curious to reueale the secretes of God vntill he had more sure aduertisement thereof wherewith some other persuasions on his parte to enforce their forwardnes they became as eger and earnest to begin the warre as if Christ himself had bene their captaine and so assailed their enimies that they did not only ouerthrow them in battell but also made suche mortall extermination that the memory of the day euer since hath bene vtterly extinct There be some now a dayes that put lighted candels within the heades of dead men to feare the people and others that haue tied little waxe candels lighted vpon cockles tortures snailes which they put in that order within the church yards by night to the end that the simple people séeing these beastes moue a far of with their flames might beleue that it were some dead sprite returned for some speciall cause into the world by which villanous meanes as they haue gotten money of the common and ignoraÌ„t sort so let them be assured to render accompt of their doings to the soueraign iudge for abuâ—â—ng the pore flocke of his deare sonne vnder y e coloure of visions There hath bene yet of late time in Italy an other practise of Diabolical visions performed by certaine candels made of the grease or tallow of a man which so loÌ„g as they were light and did burne in the night the pore people seemed so ouerwhelmed with enchauntments and charmes that a man might haue taken any thing out of their house w tout that they were able to stirre out of their beds to reskue it but our God who according to his iustice doeth leaue nothyng vnpunished hath suffred that the authors and executors of such vanities haue bene taken as the thefe wyth the manner and being condemned haue yelded tribute to suche offences with the price of their life And lastly there is an other sort of artificial visions which are made with an oyle or licoure which cometh of certaine wormes we sée shine in the night which bicause they be things not worthie to be handled in argument amoÌ„gst no christians â–ª I will make silence of them for this time maruelling notwithstanding that sundry learned men heretofore haue vsed so large a libertye in discouering suche vanities the rather for that our natures for the most part are more credulous of such shadowed things than apt to beleue a truthe ¶ A wonderfull history of a monster seene by Celius Rhodiginus CHAP. xxvij TO the ende we shoulde taste of these wonderfell visions which may be thought very strange to the Reader me séemes good to shew here the pourtrait of twoo maruellous monsters the one a man the other a woman séen in diuers prouinces by twoo as excelleÌ„t Philosophers as haue raigned in our age The first being the man was séen by Ludouicus Celius Rhodiginus as he writeth in the iij. chapter of his .xxiiij. booke of auncient lessons folowing in this maner There was sayth he broughte forth a monster at Zarzara in Italy in the yeare of grace 1540. and the .xix. day of Marche worthie to be considered off for many causes One for that it was brought into the worlde at such time as Italy was afflicted wyth the plague and scourge of ciuile warres And that thys monstrous childe was a certaine forerunner or messanger which shewed vnto them the miseries of those domesticall quarels the other causes for the which it deserued to be diligently noted were for the straunge and maruellous effectes that nature exhibited in this little subiect for in the first place the mother of this infant broughte it forth within .iij. moneths wel formed which is a thing monstrous in nature Secondarily he had two faire heades well proportioned and two faces ioyned one to an other and tyed vpon the top of the neck with a proportion maruellous in euery of those partes he had his haire a little long and blacke and betwene these two heades he had a thirde heade whiche excéeded not the length of an eare And for the rest of his body it was so wel made and proporcioned in all thyngs requisite that it séemed that Nature delited to frame and make him so faire Who after he had soiorned a certaine tyme in this miserable worlde died wherein as he was made a present to one of the kyng of Spaynes lieutenants gouerning in that countrey so he thoughte it good to haue him ripped and his bellie opened and intrailes séen which being done he represented vnto the sightes of the lookers on things no lesse maruellous than the presidents written of before that is to say he had two liuers two milts and but one heart Wherwith endeth the description that Celius hath made of that monster The second monster is a woman hauing two heads whose figure is before to be séene with the other and more to be wondered at than the fyrst in one thing for that she liued many yeres whiche is contrary to the nature of monsters who ordinarily lyue not long for the abundance of melancolike humor which abundeth in them to see them selues so opprobrious to the worlde are therby so dried and consumed that their liues be shorte Whiche happened not to this maide which thou seest here portraicted for at suche tyme as Conradus Licostenes came into the Duchie of Bauiere whiche was in the yere
wyth hir hissing as Plinie sayth all the other Serpents she makes trées die with hir breath scorcheth herbes breakes stones and so infecteth the aire where she remaineth that no birde can vse wing there without perrill she killeth men wyth hir onely regarde like as an vncleane woman infecteth and spotteth a glasse And although she containe not aboue one foote in length yet is hir poyson so strong venimous as she killeth other Serpents wyth the very breathe that commeth from hir fore ende she is so mortally venomous that she infecteth and ouerwhelmeth great Cityes with the aire or breath of hir mouth the same approued not only by the historians prophane as Dioscorides Plinie Aelian Lucian Isidorus with many mo but also confirmed in some sort by the Ecclesiasticals Hieronimus Cardanus in his bookes of diuers Historyes treating of the wonders of this beast brings in a straunge thing hapning in our time which he describes in this sorte At such time saith he as I made my bookes of diuers Historyes the .xxiij. of Iuly happened a thing no lesse worthy of admiration than memory which I did assist wyth myne eies and presence Iacques Phillippes Cerunse caused to be made vnder the earth a valt or caue which bicause it shuld consolidate the better he made stoppe very close and within .xviij. or .xx. dayes after made the same to be opened to draw forthe certaine arches of woâ—de which sustained it whereunto as one of his workemen disposed himself to discend by a ladder and being in the middest of the same he fel downe dead the maister séeing no returne of his maÌ„ would proue the experience in himselfe who likewise being come so lowe as the other fell also dead after whom the assistaÌ„ts not doubting any mortal peril seÌ„t a third a fourth w t many other which al passed one way this albeit it gaue great indifferent cause of suspition and feare yet was it no suche terror to the people without the hoale as to make them desist to send any more but chose out amongst theÌ„ al a strong huge man of no other regard with them all than as a foole who discending as low and to the place of the others fell not but with a crooke of iron drewe one of them that were dead which gaue him such courage y t he would once againe goe downe and being within the mouth of the vault he began to sinke and fall albeit he was preuented by the diligence of the assistants who by speciall remedies recouered him of his traunce but not of the vse of his speache till the next day when I perceiuing sayth Cardan that he began to speake I asked him many things but he séemed not to remember to haue sayde or done any thing saue only his going downe there was let fal in a corde a dogge whom they also plucked vp againe halfe dead wherby euery man that was not able to comprehende the cause of these wonders iudged that there was within the caue a Basilicke which otherwise is called Serpens Regalis Wherin as we haue now as I thinke treated sufficiently of certaine straunge and monstrous Serpents found in sundry prouinces partes of the world it is no lesse necessary in mine opinion to search out certain singular things which are fouÌ„d in some particular kindes of them those which haue treated of the nature of Serpents haue obserued chiefly that their excrements smell sweete which by natural reason may procéede of their drinesse for Serpents of their owne nature be dry the same arguing that their excrementes be well boiled by reason of the straitnesse of their intrails Some affirme that Serpents haue so odiferous a breath that it séemes as swéete as Muske There be Serpentes which kepe their venome after their death as the Uipers for otherwise their flesh could little profite to the composition of Triacle if they were altogither without poyson Besides wherupon could come the excoriation in the Leper that hath eaten them if they did not reserue some poyson It hath chaunced in our time that such as haue taken of the hide from a beast that hath perished of the biting of a Uiper die also of the like disease Dioscorides in his sixth booke wher he treateth of poisons and venomes saith that immediatly after a man is bitten with a Uiper the biting swelleth and becometh dry and of a whitish coloure there appeareth in the beginning of the biting a fiery anguishe all died with bloud which doth force out of the flesh round about it certaine blisters as if they had bene burnt wyth fire then foloweth an viceration then they bléede swell touching those partes that be about the liuer whereupon are procured vomites of choler heauie sléepe shaking thorow the whole body Passions of the vrine and cold sweat Certaine late Phisitians are of opinion that the Uiper is no other thing than the Serpent which we call in Fraunce the Aspic Some do affirme that the Uiper doth abhorre a naked man and feareth him more than if he were clad with garments The Phisitians are of opinion that if a mannes eyes be rubbed euery morning with the skin or flough of a Uiper his sight shall neuer be dimme nor hurt with suffusion affirming besides that if an olde floughe be burned when the Moone is full and in the first part of the signe of Aries and that the cenders be sprinkled vpon a mannes head it stirres vp terrible dreames Plinie and Dioscorides auouche that the earth neuer receiues within hir entrails the Serpent that hath once bit a man seming as it were in respecte and reuerence of a certaine royall benignitie to haue in horror him that hathe offended the King chiefe and Prince of all beastes Plinie wryteth that the spittle of a man specially of him that is fasting is venomous to a Serpent in so much that if he but taste of it neuer so little he dieth and that which more is if a man but poure it vpon him it offendes him no lesse than if he had skalding water cast vpon him All the Phisitians and wryters obserue that the venomous Serpents hide them selues or abide within the thrée leaued grasse biâ—ause that herbe is mortiferous to them Those that wil handle serpents without daunger let them wash their handes first with the iuise and sappe of Turneps the same being so great an enimie to their poyson that they had rather die than once cease vpon the place that hath bene rubbed with Turneps whose only smell doth take away both his lyfe and force Cardanus in his .xviij. booke de subtilitate and in the Chapiter which â—reateth of maruellous inuentions sayth that the wilde Cowcumber blacke néesing pouder called Eleborum and the great Serpentine called DrachontiuÌ„ mains be of so great force against serpents that such as be annointed or rubbed with their iuise be seldome or neuer offended or hurt with Serpents for better confirmation wherof I may boldly bring in a History which I haue neither red
an honeste feare to fall into a miserable dispaire In such sort that as we reade that the Egyptians were sometime scourged and afflicted wyth ten plagues at Gods hande so we may say by good right that the myserable suters and solicitoures of the lawe doe partycipate dayely wyth tenne thousandes whereof there is no difference as touchyng theyr tormentes sauyng y t the Egiptians plague was moued through their owne occasion by the prouidence of GOD and this of the Pleaders is incensed by the malice of men besides if the Egiptians were afflicted by the biting of beastes riuers running of bloud their landes swarming with Grassehoppers flies and gnatts and their people annoyde with Leprosie Botches and other lothsome diseases our poore pleaders are persecuted in attendyng the Presidentes paying the Notaryes brybing the Solicitoures and annointing their clarkes in the hand with double fée to vse duetie and reuerence to the iudge to clap and knele to the dore kepers and lastly pawne his land and credite to borow money to discharge it All which beside the toile and trauaile of their bodies are incident to the poore pleader without y t he makes any reckening vpoÌ„ what points he must forme his accusation what delayes are awarded to his cause how he must tender his demaund of the one side and challeÌ„ge his exceptions on the other make inquisition examin witnesses indure reproches and make perfect his processe and after that he must take a copie of it recorde it abreuiate it and lastly bring it to the opinion of the iudge from whose sentence for diuers respects he may appeale and remoue his processe bryng it to a higher Court with such infinite toile disquiet of minde that who coÌ„siders of them according to their value and merite in déede ought rather to be contented to lose one parte of his goodes than to get or buy any other at so deare a price which is the cause in déede why this learned bishop of Mâ—nodemo Anthonie de Guauara writ in a certain boke of his that the pleaders were the only true Saincts and Martirs of the world séeing that of the .vij. mortall sinnes they are not to be accused but of .iij. only bicause touching y e other iiij although they wold commit them yet had they neither the meane â—or leasure For how is it possible y t they should be proud seeing that they go continually with their hattes in their handes and sometimes with great humilitie solicite the iudge reserue a solemne reuerence to a pelting procurer lastly performe a fatte paiment to a scribling Notarie And how can they be touched wyth the sinne of couetousnesse séeing their pursses be neuer shut nor theyr hands come emptie out of them but making Idols bothe of maister aduocate and his wife doe neuer cease offring vnto theÌ„ till they haue left their pursse without a liuing And touching the sinne of slouth idlenesse they are voide of infection that way séeing that most commonly in place to passe the night in sléepe and naturall rest they are tormented with sorowes sighes and other passions of griefe and the day slippes away in drudging toile trotting from one place and other to procure expedition to their cause And lastly and least of all are they infected with gluttony seeing they must obserue neither times nor houres to fede their stomacke or procure them an appetite most commonly for expedition sake they eat standing wyth great grose morsels ill swallowed and worse disgested and all to be readie at the pallaice gate to salute hys councellour pul his aduocate by the sléeue make a signe to his clarke to remember his cause wherwith he concludes lastly that a processe is so dauÌ„gerous and venomous a Serpent that who would wishe any euill or heauie fortune to his enimie let him not desire to sée hym poore or miserable hated of others banished his Countrey afflicted with diseases nor threatned with present death But let him pray to God to giue him some crooked or intricate processe for in al the world can not be fouÌ„d a more cruell reuenge for a mannes enimie than to sée him plunged in a troublesom cause in the law ¶ A wonderfull Historie of a monstrous childe which was borne the same day that the Geneuois and Veniciens were reconciled CHAP. xxxix ALthough that nature as Galen witnesseth in his .xiiij. booke de vtilitate partiuÌ„ had an earnest desire that hir work should haue bene immortal if it might haue bene performed but for y t it was not lawful both by the corruptible matter of the elements sprite of the aire she made therefore a forge or helpe supuly for y e immortalitie for she fouÌ„d out a woÌ„derful mean y t in place of y e creature y t shuld die ther shuld be a supply of an other and therfore nature hath giuen to all creatures conuenieÌ„t instruments aswell to conceiue as engender But it is so that these instruments so ordained by nature although y t she had a care to make them perfecte yet there is found in them bothe vice and default as is afterwardes shewed by the forme of this creature wherin Hippocrates witnesseth in his booke De genitura wher he sheweth by the similitude of trees how these children issue from the bellie of theyr mother moÌ„strous and deformed saying thus that of force those bodies which cannot moue by reason of the straightnesse of the place must become the rather mishapen deformed like as trées before they issue out of the earth if they haue not libertie and scope to spring but be with holden by some let or hinderance grow crooked great in one parte and smal in an other Euen so it is of the childe if in the bellie of the mother the parties where he is nourished be more straight one than the other and that vice sayth he commeth of the narownesse of the place to straight in the wombe Wherupon arguing a litle before of the same matter he sheweth other reasons by the which childreÌ„ be made monstrous and deformed as by the natural diseases of the parents for if the foure kindes of humors whereof the séede is made be not wholly contributorie to y e secrete partes there shall be then some partie wanting Besides this he addeth further other reasons touching monstrous birthes as when the mother receiueth some blow or hurt or that the childe fortunes to be sicke in the bellie of hys mother either that the nourishment wherewith he ought to be relieued happen to slippe out of the wombe al which things be sufficient causes to make them hideous waÌ„ting or deformed And if we would consider with iudgement these reasons of Hippocrates treating vpon the generation of monsters we should without all dout finde that this whereof thou séest the portraict is engendred so mishapen by one of these causes which he shewed that is to say by the narownesse of the place wherein nature willing to create two found the
by the hande of God so much imbased that he was couered with no other garment than with haire a clothing naturall to all brute beastes ¶ Of the bringing forth of Monsters and the cause of their generations CHAP. v. HAuyng shewed in order in these Chapiters before how Kings Emperors Bishops and Monarches be no more exempted from the wonderful iudgemeÌ„t of God than the common or vulgar sort It resteth now according to our purpose to search and sift those matters more neare a truthe to the ende we may bring to lyghte the horrible monsters and fearfull wonders found amoÌ„gst the common people And that the philosophie and contemplation of those things might be made more manifest and painted in their true coloures it is needefull before we passe any further to declare the causes wherevpon they procéede and are borne It is moste certaine that these monstrous creatures for the most part do procéede of the iudgement iustice chastisement and curse of God which suffreth that the fathers and mothers bring forth these abhominations as a horrour of their sinne sufferyng themselues to run headlong as do brute beastes without guide to the puddle or sinke of their filthie appetites hauing no respecte or regarde to the age place tyme or other lawes ordeined of Nature wherein S. Gregorie amongest diuers other examples taughte vs in his Dialogues sheweth the incontinencie and abhominable desire of a Nourse who made hir selfe with childe by an Infant of the age onely of .ix. yeres And for a proofe herein S. Hierom affirmeth by othe that there was an other infant of the age of tenne yeares the which was so inflamed by the waÌ„ton regards and amorous countenances of his Nourse that she made hym to lie with hir being of the age as afore and gotte hir with childe These be the matters that Osee crieth out of in his .ix. chapter saying These abhominable doyngs according to their loues euen when they haue nourssed theyr children I will destroy in suche sort that they shall neuer become men yea I will plague the wombe where they tooke their beginning the brests that gaue theÌ„ sucke and drie vp the very root that it bring forth no more fruit and if they câ—aunce to engender I wil also coÌ„mit to death the fruite of their bellie Al which is confirmed by the prophete Esdras in his .v. Chapter where amongst other cruel cursings wherwith the Angell threatned Babylon it is expresly sayde That women perfourming the desire of the fleshe being in their Sanguine menstruali bring forth these monsters And although this monstrous fruite be very often a witnesse of the incontinencie sinne of the parents yet it is not alwayes true nor hapneth in one place for there be many fathers and mothers chaste and continent whiche bring forth their children defectiue as S. Iohn sheweth in his .ix. chapter of a poore man whiche was blinde from his natiuitie who hauing receyued his sighte by the mercifull goodnesse and grace of Iesus Christe was asked of his disciples whether his owne synne or his parents were the cause that he was borne blinde But Christ willyng to declare to them that they oughte not to accuse the parentes for the defaultes of their children aunswered that it was neither the sinne of hym his father or mother but to the ende to shewe in him the wonderfull and maruellous workes of God The auncient Philosophers amongst others which haue serched the secrets of Nature haue declared other greate causes of this wonderfull and monstrous childbearing which Aristotle Hypocrates Empedocles Galene and Plinie haue referred to an ardent and obstinate imagination which the Woman hath whylest she conceiues the childe whiche hath such power ouer the fruite that the beames and Charrecters continue vpon the rocke of the infante wherevpon they finde an infinite number of examples to proue the same woorthy of memorie the which albeit may séeme but iestes or fables if the authoritie and truth of those which write them were not their sufficient warrant And for a further certaintie therof Damascenus a graue â–ª author doth assure this to be true that being present with Charles the .iiij. Emperoure and king of Boeme there was broughte to him a maide rough and couered with haire like a beare the which the mother had brought forth in so hideous and deformed a shape by hauing too much regarde to the picture of S. Iohn cloathed with a beasts skinne the which was tyed or made fast coÌ„tinually during hir conception at hir beddes féete By the like meanes Hippocrates saued a princesse accused of adulterie for that she was deliuered of a childe blacke lyke an Ethiopian hir husbande being of a faire and white complexion which by the persuasion of Hippocrates was absolued and pardoned for that the childe was like vnto a Moore accustomably tied at hir bed Reade of this in Genesis vpon S. Hieroms questions without musing or being curious to bring in the testimonies of Philosophers other doctors verifying the same by the authoritie of Moyses the greate prophete and secretarie of GOD in the thirtith Chapter of Genesis where he plainely sheweth howe Iacob deceiued Laban his father in lawe and therby enriched himselfe with his cattayle hauing pilled a rodde and put the beastes to drinke to the ende the Goates and Shéepe beholding the diuersitie of the colours of this rodde might bring forth their litle ones marked with sundry seuerall markes Besides these causes spoken of before of the generation of Monsters the beste learned in the secretes of Nature haue yet assigned vs others for Empedocleus and Dephilus do attribute the same to come of the superabundance or defaulte and corruption of the seede and wombe wherof they preferre diuers similies by the disposition of sundry mettals and other things which melts and yeldes with the heate of fyre or sunne for if the matter or substance which a man goes about to melt be not wel boiled purified and confected or the moulde be not well cast the image or effect of such worke will appeare imperfect hideous and deformed The Astrologians as Alcabitius haue referred these monsters to the influeÌ„ce of the starres iudging that if the Moone be in certaine degrées and coniunctions when the woman conceyueth hir frute shalbe monstrous Euen so Iulius Maternus writeth after him very learnedly the lawyer Alciates vpon the title and signification of these wordes and matters that sometimes these monsters be engendred of the corruption and filthie vnsauorie meates as burning coales mannes flesh and other like things that women desire after they haue conceyued the which is very contagious and hurtfull to their fruite whereof we haue a notable example in Leuinius Lemnius in his first boke of the hidden Secrets of Nature in a certaine Matrone of Belges great with childe of two infants who lusting to eate the flesh of a faire boy whome she beheld at vnwares and fearing he wold refuse hir demauÌ„d being pressed without measure of that vnruly appetite fel
for three dayes after the tempest when he demaunded with greate feare whether the worlde stode still or not To conclude there was neither temple chapel nor other place of sanctuarie frée froÌ„ the furie of this tempest nor any corner of the towne dispensed withall for his malice the same raging indifferently vpon the whole citie leauing it so tottered and defaced that if there were paine in enduring the afflictions there is no lesse cause of pitie nowe to remember so greate a desolation Neither is it inough for the contentment of the reader nor sufficient to the discharge of my intent to preferre as it were paterns and familiar experience of these monstrous quarels skirmishes of the aire and Element aboue if in some sorâ—e I make you not priuie to the causes and motions of the same â–ª Whereof for a first authoritie Aristotle in his Metheors and bokes of the worlde giueth this reason There be .ij. sortes of vapors sayth he which ascend coÌ„tinually from the earth into the ayre wherof the one is hot moist and withal very massy and heuy which makes a stay of theÌ„ in the middle region of the ayre wher they are conuerted into a heauy thicknesse or grosse corruption and in the ende dissolued into watrie humoures as raine haile snowe and other like the other exhalations deriued of the humoures of the earth and drawne vp by the violence of the aire be of a more drie and hotte disposition which makes theÌ„ lighter in weight y â— same procuring them to a higher MouÌ„t euen to y e vttermost regioÌ„ where the extremitie of the heate forceth them to a fierie flame wherof procéede those blasing Cometes dragons and other like wonders in the Element whiche stirre vp an amaze in the people being ignorant of the cause And if it happen that those drie vapoures get place within any cloude they do so pierce and penetrate the most subtil part of it that there is forced a present vent which is the lightning and tremblyng of the heauen from the vehemencie of which conflict within the cloudes doe procéede the thunders and ratling of the skies in such sorte that it séemeth most often that the noyse is in the ayre and the trembling in the earth And yet be not all tempestes and stormes of wether referred altogether to causes naturall albeit it be the opinion of Aristotle and by him very diligently serched for that at certaine times diuels and euill spirites whose dominion and power as S. Paule writeth is chiefly in the ayre â–ª doe stirre vp and breede such monstrous motions when God is contented to giue them that libertie which is very well approued by diuers examples â–ª as well of prophane as sacred recorde And first of all in Iob wher Sathan hauing obteined as it were a licence or saufe conduict of the Lorde consumed by tempeste and fire the seruantes and cattail of the Prophete the like being also in experience amongst the Ethnikes for that according to diuerse of their recordes of credite at such time as the temple of Hamon of so great estimation among the Lybians flourished Sathan abused the people by many false miracles and sleightes of slender substance making them worship him vnder the form and figure of a Belier or by which meanes hauing heaped together an infinite treasure and Cambyses king of Persia sendyng hys armie to spoyle it and sacke the temple the Diuell stirred vp suche stormes and angrie motions in the Element of thunder and lightenings that the furie and flame thereof consumed and smoothered aboue Fiftie Thousande persons Plinie also with diuers others of the auncients affirme that the Hetrurians did so curiously obserue and marke the signes and motions in the Thunders that they did not only calculate of the successe but also gaue iudgement of the effect of diuers things and séemed able as it were by a predestination and forewarnyng appearing in these misticall influences of the Heauens to determine and appointe the very day of the death and lyfe of sundry greate estates for example wherof not long afore the fatall day of the Emperor Augustus Cesar the thunder had defaced the fyrst letter of his name as it stode engraued vpon a piller within the wall whiche the Augurers construed to a spéedie destruction of the emperour and that hée had but a hundred dayes to liue the rather bicause C being taken away ther rested but Esar which signifieth in the Hetrurian tong God and the Romains by the letter C accompte an hundred so that they both agréed that by the stroke of that thunder taking away C was figured the death of Cesar that within the hundreth day he shoulde be with the Gods Whiche chaunced accordingly for that the day of his death agréed with the sentence of their prediction A thing sure of great wonder the rather for that therein appeareth a maruellous power and subtiltie of the Diuell who by his Arte séemeth to discouer and prognosticate the deathe of so greate an Emperoure Aristotle wyth dyuers others of exquisite skill in the studie and reuelation of suche mysteries haue diuided the effectes and operations of those Lightenings and Thunders into thrée degrées the one burneth and consumeth all that commeth wythin hys power the other scorcheth and maketh blacke euery thing it toucheth the thyrde excéedeth them all in naâ—ure and qualitie and is almoste vtterly vnknowen to all the Philosophers for that it drayneth and dryeth vp the Wyne or other lycour wythout hurtyng the vessell or gyuyng it any vent howe close so euer it be it is of suche subtile force that it pierceth thorough euery thyng it melteth Golde and Syluer in the bagge without hurtyng the pursse it burneth and consumeth the apparell withoute touche of harme to any parte of the body that weareth them it smoothereth also the childe vnborne wythin the wombe wythout doyng harme to the mother whereof the chiefest reason wée haue of Recorde is broughte in by Cardanus in hys fyrste Booke de Subtilitate and his fourth boke de Varietate rerum wherein are described at large certayne causes and occasions of those thyngs And touchyng the examples I haue alleaged albeit they séeme straunge and wonderfull for the effect of Thunder yet are they of vndoubted truthe Besides wée haue read and also séene in oure tyme many valyaunt men put in feare wyth Thunder and dyuers greate personages broken in pieces murdered and slaine by such kinde of death The Pope Alexander celebratyng hys Masse on Easter day at Syenna and the diuell belyke pronouncing the passion or rather communicatyng with hys Papisticall ceremonies as he was vpon thys worde or clause of Consumatum est beholde suche a sodaine noise in the cloudes and opening of the Element beganne to houer and pierce into the Temple with such terrour that the Pope beyng dryuen to take day in perfourmyng the residue of hys prayers habandoned the Churche lefte his booke vnshutte for haste and forsooke his Cope and surplesse to make
seuere punishement as well to al the Iewes as Lepres thorough out all the prouince of Europe being founde culpable therof that their posterities smell therof til this day for they hauing proued so many kindes of torments and martirdoms that vpon theyr imprisonments they had greater desire to kil and broile one an other than become subiecte to the mercie of the Christians And as Conradus of Memdember of equall fame in the studie of Philosophie and artes Mathematicall writeth that ther died in Almayn for this cause aboue xij thousand Iewes Wherfore as it was strange to behold their afflictions Euen so it was as extreme to sée the poore Christians haue in horrour abhomination the water of theyr welles and fountains that they rather choosed to die of the drought than to receiue any drop therof into their bodies but hauing recourse to rain water or to riuers whereof they had greater want than any store or plentie at all finding not at al times to serue theyr turnes they preuented sundry times the perill of the poison And as these false deceiuers were of all nations much detested so they often times proued diuers kindes of calamities as the Historians testifie the same CoÌ„radus Licostenes amongst others reciteth a strange deuice hapening in the yere .434 about which time he fouÌ„d by fortune in the Isle of Creâ—e a seducer and false prophet or rather a wicked spirite â–ª as they might coÌ„iecture by the issue of his enterprises This prophet preched opeÌ„ly through al the Isle that he was the same Moyses which brought the Israelites from the seruitude of Pharao and that he was sent againe from God to deliuer the Iewes froÌ„ the bondage seruitude of the Christians wherin hauyng thus planted the rootes of his pestilent doctrine he therby woon the people by false miracles and other diabolicall illusions that they began to forsake their houses lands possessions and al the goodes they had to folow him in such sort that they founde no other matter in that couÌ„trey but a great troupe of Iewes accompanied with their wiues and children which folowed this holy man as their chief And after he had wel led theÌ„ in this miserable error he made them mount in the end to the height of a rock ioyning to the sea and there tolde them that he would make theÌ„ passe through the sea on foote as he had tofore brought the people of God thorough the floude of Iordain whiche he coloured so finely by his deceyuable arte that he persuaded them very easily and in such sort that the pore people gathered together on a heape dyd caste them selues headlongs into the sea Whereby the greatest parte of them were drowned and the reste saued by certain christen Fishermen whiche were then in the sea Whereof the Iewes perceiuing the greate deceite whereby he hadde abused them coulde not by any humaine Arte heare any newes nor discouer where was becom their prophet which gaue occasion to many of them not onely to thinke but also write that he was a Diuell vnder the shape and figure of a man which had so deceiued them Sebastian MuÌ„ster writeth in his boke of vniuersall Cosmographie an other historie of them set out in a more gay and braue fashion saying That in the yeare of health .1270 when the Countie of Steruembergh was bishop of Mandeburgh one of the chief Priests of the Synagoges of the Iewes fell by chaunce vpon their Saboth day into a déepe Iakes oute of which he coulde not get and therby constrained to call for the aide of his companions who being arriued sayd vnto him with grieuous complaints that it was theyr Saboth day and that it was not lawfull for them as that daye to yelde hym the benefite of their handes but willyng hym to vse pacience til the next day following which was sunday The bishop of Mandeburgh aduertised of this being a very wyse man gaue commaundement to the Iewes by the sounde of a Trumpet that vpon paine of death they shold froÌ„ henceforth kéepe holy and solemnise as their Saboth daye the Sunday By meanes whereof thys poore martir remained parfumed tyll the Monday ¶ Floudes and wonderfull Inundations of Waters CHAP. xj THe antiquities of forain times haue sufficiently proued the horrible rage of waters that if I shoulde goe about to declare them in order I shoulde rather want Eloquence to describe them than matter wherupon to entreate The first and most worthie of memorie is sufficiently shewed by Moyses in the .vij. chapiter of the boke of Genesis at what time God opened the veines of heauen and sent downe such abundance of water vpon all the earth for the purifying and clensyng of the synnes of men that the same ouerflowed the highest mountaines aboue .xv. cubites And in the reigne of kyng Henry the fourth the waters raged with suche impetuositie within the prouinces of Italie that there was not onely thereby drowned many thousand men but that whiche was more strange as the Historians make meÌ„tion the tame houshold beasts as hennes géese Pehens such like were by the terror therof so frighted that they became sauage waÌ„dring in the deserts and forrests and neuer after to be reclaimed Wherof S. Augustine in the third boke called the Citie of God maketh mention that in the yeare of health 1446. and on the .xvij. day of April in the tyme of Federike the .iij. Emperor at what tyme printing was first founde out there was in Hollande so great an inundation of water and the sea ouerflowed the bankes with suche furie that it brake the causeys running behinde Dordrech couering al the land as wel cities as villages in such sort that ther were drouned not only xvj parishes but also .100000 men with their wiues children and beasts And in y e yeare 1530. in Hollande Flaunders and Brabant the sea so swelled that it brake not only bulwarks and rampiers but also violently caried away both cities and villages togither with the creatures in them bisides made all the hauen townes no lesse nauigable than the open and main sea which not only chaunced in Flaunders but also the same yeare the riuer of Tyber so flowed in Rome that it mouÌ„ted aboue the highest towres and estages of the citie and withal not only breaking down the bridges but endamaging theyr goodes as gold siluer corne wine cloth of silke flowre oyles woull and other riches to the value of thrée millions of golde bisides the losse of thrée thousande persons as well men as women and litle childreÌ„ which were therby smoothered and drouned Wherein as all these matters were maruellous so the auncientes and writers at this day haue not made proofe of one more strange sithens the vniuersall floud of Noe than this which chaunced in Phrygia in the yeare of grace .1230 For euen as when they thought them selues most happie and were banketting drinkyng and giuing them selues ouer to all kindes of pleasure beholde all the lande nigh to the sea of
Phrygia and Halderich were in one moment so couered with water and the sea so peopled with men and beastes crying with pitifull vehemencie that it séemed by them that God had forgotten his vowe made to Noe wherein he promised neuer to destroy mankinde by water againe Albeit the rage was so cruell that men were forced to climbe trées like birdes others ramped vpon the mountaines the mothers caste their children vpon the grounde to the ende they myghte with more spéede flée and shunne the furie of the element And to be short the desolation was suche that there was not only an infinite multitude of men women children and beasts drowned but that whiche was more to be lamented the corruption which sprang of the putrified bodies after the waters were retired to their olde chanel so infected the aire with a sodain plague that the rest which were saued from drownyng were destroyed by the miserable infection therof in suche sort that the Prouince remayned almoste deserte and inhabitable Wherein who list to beholde Flouds more freshe in memorie wherwith other Cities haue bene tormented let hym reade Carion in the Abridgement of his Chronicles and all those of Gasparde Contarenus in his learned boke of Philosophie whiche he made of the foure Elements ¶ The wonderful death of Plinie with a briefe description of the causes of fire whiche come of certaine openyngs of the earth LIke as it is straunge that the fyre falling from heauen should burne those places which it toucheth Euen so it is more monstrous to see the same issue from the earth without knowing where it firste tooke hir nouriture beginning and birth as this whereof Titus Liuius and Orseus make mention which sprang of the intrailes of the earth in the territorie of Calene which ceassed not burning by the space of thrée dayes thrée nights vntill it had committed to cinders about fyue acres of groūd drying so muche the moisture and humour of the grounde that not only the Corne and other frutes but also the trees with all their rootes were burnte and consumed Diuers Historians write that in the olde time the moste parte of the Realme of Scotland was by the like violente irruption of fire springing from an vnknowen opening and caue of the earth quite consumed and burned The cause whereof the Philosophers haue searched with great diligence and in the ende founde that Sulphur Allom Pitche and Water be the cause of the entertaining of that fire together with the very fatnesse of the ground and that fire after it hath founde a vente can not long continue without issuing with a wonderfull violent force And for the most part these flames haue bene diuers times séene of the people with great wonder terrour to them cōmonly about the Sepulchers and Churchyardes and other fat moyste places which was engendred of the fertilitie and moistnesse of the deade bodies who were there buried for men amongest all other creatures be of a very subtile and fat substance as is plainly shewed by that which is discouered in our time of the Sepulcher of Alexander Duke of Florence which although it were made of white Marble both massie heauie yet notwithstanding the fatnesse of y e bodie pierced distilled through the said Sepulcher piercing the bottome of the pillours thereof In like maner the moisture of the bodie of Alphonsus Aualus albeit the Phisitions had dried the same with salte and sande and inwrapped his bodie in leāde yet the fatnesse thereof spotted and spoiled not onely the stones aboue the Tombe but dropped through euery parte of the leade And there is also a mountaine called Hecla in the Isle of Islande whereof one George Agricola a man amongest others of our time worthie of memorie hath made mention reporting the same to caste such flames and making so great a a noise that it séemes to be made the same casting and darting greate stones withall vomitteth Sulphur smothering as in a gulphe all those which approch to beholde the nature of that fire whereby the common people of that cuntrie be brought in such an errour that they beleue that place to be y e prison of the damned Besides also manie Historiās write that there appeared in that place visions which shewe themselues visible and make their seruice to men they appeare for the moste part in the shape and figure of those which by some violent aduenture haue bene either killed or drowned and when those which they know makes their returne to their houses they aunswere them with maruellous complaint wéepingins willing them to returne to the mounte Hecla so sodainly passe vanishe awaye But for my part I haue alwaies thought that they be certaine disciples of the diuell which haue vowed them obedience in that place to deceiue the people being by nature of a Barbarous grosse capacitie whereof as we haue declared before y t the cause of these hideous and pepetuall flames is naturall so it also commeth of the fertilitie of the grounde together with the plentie of Sulphur wherewith the marchants loade so many shippes carying them into strange countreyes And moreouer the fatnesse of the groūde of this Islande as the Auncients and Historians at these dayes write is such and especially in the lowe countrey that they are constrained to féede their cattel but a smal time leaste they shoulde surfeit of the swéetnesse thereof so die as is dayly proued Neither let vs muse or be to curious in searching the cause of these flames of the mountaines so farre from vs for we haue the mounte Vesuue neare to Naples whereof Martial Strabo and Xiphilnius in the life of Seuerus the Emperour haue verye often in their writing made mention to be in times pastmost fertil is now by the continual embracements of the fire vtterlye ruinous and consumed and in the time of Titus Caesar it caste forth such plentie of fire that it burned twoo Cities and the smoke thereof rose so thick and high that it had welnigh darkened the Sunne making the dayes like to the night and all the fields thereabouts were so full of cinders that they seemed in heighte equall with the trées Wherein Plinie who raigned in the time of Vespasian the Emperour desiring to knowe the cause of the continual burning of this mountaine wente to sée it and approching too neare the same was at the sight thereof so astonished that he was immediatly surprised with the flame and his bodye thereby committed to ashes as you maye beholde in the pourtraite before that which is yet fresh in memorie in the yeare 1538. where it began againe to make so great an irruption that it feared al the people bordering vpō it We can in like maner bring in amongst these wonderful mountayns the mount Aetna otherwise called the mount Gibell in Sicile whereof S. Augustine hath made so often mention in hys workes and whiche Strabo witnesseth as one that hath not feared to mounte to the
very heighte to beholde and consider the maruellous effects therof wherof Sueton affirmeth that Caius Cesar Caligula Emperor of the Romains hauing beheld this great store of fire that the mount vomited forth was therewith so feared that he fled by night to Messane and not withoute cause for after the windes had gotten within the euents of this mountain it darted forth mightie stones and great flakes of burning fire whiche consumed all things it encountred Thucidide maketh mention of three notable embracementes of this mount Aetna which was after the Greekes had gotten to Sicile And Orose reciteth that in the time that Marcus Aemilius and Lucius Oresteus were Consules the same mount sodainely threwe out such a quantitie of flames of sulphure that al the countrey theraboutes was destroyed by meanes wherof the Romains remitted the ordinarie tribute whiche they receiued of those of Casine for the space of ten yeares And the men at those dayes thought that the matter wherwith the fyre was nourished was quite consumed for that y e same ceassed for a time but in the yeare .1570 they very well proued the contrary for as they were astoonished at the great masse of fyre with the light darkened Euen so that light of the sulphure fell from the height of the sayde mountain to the lowest part therof the which by a certaine coldenesse coulde not be so wel gouerned but that running here and there it burned not only fields stones forrestes but also two villages and all that it encountred and the fyre being at this time extinguished the grounde by that meanes brings forth muche good fruite and withal is become fertile ¶ Wonders of certaine horrible earthquakes chancing in diuers prouinces with a deceit of Sathan who by his crafte and subtiltie made a Romaine Knighte to throw him selfe headlong into a gulfe CHAP. xiij THe Histories yeares of Romains Greekes Parthains Medians Persians and others like haue so often made mention of the ruinous chaunce of manie Cities and Prouinces by the trembling of the earth that I could bring to memorie very neare the number of fyue hundreth greatly renowmed which perished and were destroyed by this kind of torment as Epheseus Magnesus Sardos Cesaree Philadelphius Mirimneus Apolonius Nicomedius Antiocheus and many others in suche sorte that in one night in the tyme of Tibereus the Emperour vnder whome y e sauiour of the worlde was crucified twelue of the most proud Cities of Asia were made ruinous in one night by the sodaine trembling of the earth as Plinius and Cornelius write In like sorte at what time Flaminius warred against Hanibal and as their hostes were ready to ioine battaile y e one against the other the earth begaÌ„ so vehemently to euente shake that many of the strongest partes of the Cities and diuers of the highest mountaines were battred and made flatte with the earth and yet as sayeth Titus Liuius these twoo armies were so enraged the one against the other that they forbare not to continue their furie making no accompte of these wonders whereof who listeth to reade Dion Niceus and Xiphilinus in the life of Anthonie the Emperour shall finde so strange earthquakes happening in Hellespont and Bithinie that it canot seeme otherwayes but y t those prouinces should be deuoured swallowed vp The Isle of the Rhodes so much renoumed by writings hath bene very often decayed by earthquakes in so much that the great Idol and Image of the Sun which shone so greatly in Rhodes made by Chares Lindius scholer of Lisippus when he was twelue yeares of age the which was in heyghte thrée score and six cubits was defaced and broken by trembling of the earth the .lv. yeare after the setting vp thereof which was once againe layde on the earth in the time of Plinie to the great maruel of those which went to sée it in such sorte that the very thombe of that Image surpasseth in bignesse y e greatest Image which they could finde and the riches of that Image was so maruellous that when the Soudan of Egipte inuaded Rhodes he loaded with the fragmentes reliques of Brasse of that Image which he founde battred nine hundreth Camels which he sente by lande into Alexandria And moreouer Iosephus in his first booke of the warres of the Iewes maketh meÌ„tion of an earthquake which chaunced in Iudee by the violence whereof there was killed a thousand men wherein as the Auncients vnder the gouerment of Eudoxius willing to celebrate a second Councel at Nice to vndoe the articles agréed vpon by y e general councel were sodainly stonished euen when their Byshops Prelats were assembled with the sodain mouing shaking of the Citie of Nice wherein many building sounke and many thousands of men were deuoured and choked who perceiuing that god was not coÌ„tente with their enterprise were forced to desiste from their purpose and returne to their Prouinces as Fuctius writeth Also in the yeare .1345 the daye of the conuersion of S. Paul was so horrible an earthquake in Venise as Sabellique writeth that by y e space of fyue dayes together they sawe no other thing but houses building decay and besides that all the women being with childe during that time were deliuered before their times their frute lost But to the ende we should not consume much time in coÌ„mitting to memorie the hurtes receiued in y e olde time by those shakings of y e earth we haue in our age proued y e like in y e yere of our Sauiour .1538 the .xxvj. day of Ianuarie where the Realme of Portugal was so shaked by the thrusting together of y e earth y t there fel at Lisbone as the writers at this daye reporte very neare a thousand or .xij. hundreth buildings besides more than .ij. hundreth others which where halfe decaied that torment coÌ„tinuing .viij. dayes y e assaultes thereof renewed .v or .vj. times a day by meanes whereof al y e poore inhabitaÌ„ts were so frighted y t they abaÌ„doned their houses lodged in y e fields Titê° Liuius in his vij booke .j. decade Oroseus in his .ij. booke .v. chap. Iulius Obsequens Polidorus Virgilius many others haue made mention of a strange earthquake in Rome which me seames worthie of memorie in this place for the noueltie of an acte so strangelie happening They write that in the time of Seruilius Hala and Lutius Genutius being Consulles the Citie of Rome was besieged with a sodaine shaking of the earth which being ceassed lefte a certaine caue or depth in the midst of a place of the Citie which by no meanes coulde be closed or shutte vp with all the earth or other matter they coulde caste into it besides there issued out thereof such a stinke of diuers pestilent and infectiue vapours that the most part of the Citizens of the Citie were therewith infected and after they had searched all the meanes they coulde to remedie their euill they determined as their laste
of man the Diamont deserues moste estimation who besides his violent clearenesse which of it selfe hath power to dimme our eyes as if it were the sodaine flashe of a thunder is of a hardnesse so infringible that it resistes not only the hammer or stroke of other mettall but it is also inuincible againste fire or flame Plinie in his last booke of his naturall histories writes that in his time the DiamoÌ„t was not founde but in the Courtes of Princes and that very rarely but nowe nature which since his age is become more bountifull doth yelde vs such plentie of it that there is not so meane a marchaunt mans wife at this day whose fingers are not decked with that Iewell Ezechiel and Zacharie twoo of the moste famous Prophetes in the Churche of GOD haue gyuen greate honour to this stone and not without cause for besides his common properties to withstande venom poyson charmes dreames enchauntementes and visions of the night yet hath he a moste wonderfull vertue to resiste fire according to the opinion of some Philosophers whose experience warrantes it to be of force to endure amyds the moste hotte burning coles that be for nine dayes continuallye without diminushing any parte of it such is the excellencie of this stone that waye albeit in this place it cannot séeme impertinent to my intent of true descriptions of stones to impart to the readers wherein both the AuncieÌ„t and late writers haue erred touching the reseruation of the properties of this stone Plinie with moste that were afore hym and Francisce Ruell professour of Phisike with Morbodeus a latter Poete writers not long since haue greatly abused the simplicitie of a number of people in persuading that the Adamant hath no power ouer the yron neither to smell nor drawe it if the Diamont be in place séeing the contrarie is proued by common and daily experience euen so they haue erred no lesse in that they assure the Diamont not to be vanished either by fire yron or other meane excepte onely by the bloud of aâ— hée goate for it is moste certaine that the hammer is of force to bruse and bring hym in pieces being striken with a strong hande I will not denie but that it excéedes all other stones in hardnesse and that it deuides and confoundes all other precious stones by his soliditie neither is he with ease to be polished or framed with other thing thaÌ„ with his owne lime pouder or duste with this further argumeÌ„t of his subtiltie hardnesse which y e Auncients did practise with greate maruel that y e point of a dart dagger or other instrument cutting being dipped in the pouder or forge of Diamont doth penetrat or pierce any armour for y e yron steele being chafed or stirred with the blow w t the vehement hardnesse of the forge makes it of power to pierce easely whatsoeuer resistes it Nature hath yet gyuen to the DiamoÌ„t another secret singular propertie no lesse maruelous than the other which is that being chaâ—ed it drawes a rushe or light strawe as the Ieat doth but not with such vehemencie Many other strange condicioÌ„s in a diamont could I preferre and the same approued both by forein and familiar writers but because they bring with them a suspicion of lightnesse or discredit I will reserue them for an other vse time and note vnto you in this last discourse of the diamont how nature in counterpaise of the sundry graces and good gyftes bestowed vpon it hath infected it with one speciall and mortall vice for that it is most venemouse and of suche fatall operation that it stoppes breath assone as it is dronke in pouder which some affirme to procéede of his extreme coldnesse and other holde it to moue by a violent gnawing in the bowels The greatest diamoÌ„t that euer was seene excéedes not in greatnesse an Almonde which as I haue hearde remaines amongest the Iewels of Solyman late Emperour of the Turkes Most writers haue gyuen the second place of honour for stones to y e Emeraud bycause that by his liuelye verdure he doth not onely solace the eye more than any other stone but also for delite and flourishing viewe it so surmountes both forrests trées and hearbes that nature séemes to contende with the earth to whome the price of gréennesse is due either to the Emeraud or y e plantes Touching the exellencie of this stone they write that it abhorres all vncleane and filthie liuers and is a special friend to chastitie the which they make good by an example experience in the Kyng of Hungarie who lying with his wife and hauing an Emeraud on his finger maruelled to sée it breake and conuert to many péeces which might also happen aswell by chaunce as come of any vertue in the stone séeing that of all other stones it is moste fraile tender The most true and credible properties attributed to this stone by most learned men be these First Aristotle giues councel to hang it at the heade of him that hath the falling sicknesse Rabie persuades that if a man drinke ix graines of it it drieth vp euil humors Sana Verola affirmeth that if it be layed to the thighe of a womaÌ„ feeling the paine of childe bearing it procures deliuerie Rasis Dioscorides will such as be infected with leprosye to drinke the pouder of an Emeraud wherunto as are diuerse other singularities so because they be not grounded vpon good substance let them persuade credit according to the wisedome of such as can iudge of them for my parte in suche causes of difference and doubt I had rather be carefull than curious but for a familiar example of the estimatioÌ„ and valewe of the Emeraud I maye boldely commende and bring in the honour of King Edward who hauing receiued a booke from Erasmus presented him with an Emeraud valued after his death at three thousande crownes whereof that famous clerke made so deare accompte that he had it on his finger euen at the instant of his death Suetonius writes that Nero was wont to discerne the eyes and lookes of ruffians and dashebucklers within an Emeraud Good Emeraudes do proue them selues by the touch stone called Lidia which if they be naturall and true they leaue a marke like the touche of brasse Saint Iohn in his Apocalipse hath giuen great honour to this stone That which the Auncients called a Carbuncle is no other thing than that which we commonly call a Rubie which takes his name by the similitude he hath in lighte with the burning coale the same being committed to the flames doth not onely resiste their force but excéedes them in clearenesse touching his giftes and properties the Philosophers moste commonly commende it of a vertue to chase awaye melancholye defende dreames and illusions of the night and to serue for a counterpoison againste all corrupte aire Ther be of them diuerse kindes as the Grenat and such other whereof I wil speake particularlye hereafter The
ende that those litle creatures might be the executioners of their offices others for delite sake would make theÌ„ so tame that at the sounde of a whistle they would leaue the water and come and take meate at their handes vpon the bankes of theyr riuers hauing them in suche delite that Lucius Crassius Censor lamented no lesse the death of one of his litle fishes dying out of his pondes than if it had bene for one of his daughters It is not vnknowen also that the Romain Emperours helde fyshes in suche honour and affection that in their moste Royall and pompous banquets they made more daintie deare accompte of fishe than of any kinde of foule or other fleshe reseruing suche reuerend obseruation to some of them and specially the Sturgeon that as some saye he that broughte it to the borde vsed to do it bareheaded sauing a Cornet or garland of flowers and for a more honour of the thing the Trumpettes and drâ—Ì„mes ceassed not to sounde blow so long as that dishe stoode on the table At this day in Grece Turkie y e people for y e most part be more desirous of fish than of flesh which was also the custome of y e Auncientes wherupon both the Greeke Latin Phisitions do most coÌ„moÌ„ly in all their treatises preferre the nouritures soueraine goodnesse of fishe afore flesh haue giuen also the inferiour place of estimation to flesh Like as at this time also the Egiptians do abstaine all their lyfe from eating of fish obseruing the order of our MoÌ„kes in their abstineÌ„ce from eating of flesh which shall suffice for this tyme for the dignitie commendacion of fishes folowing in order to describe how y e Seas bring forth their woÌ„ders with more maruel thaÌ„ y e lande wherof I will lay afore you in this place only the principal such as haue moued cause of astonishmeÌ„t in y e most precise Philosophers of y e world AmoÌ„gest the most woÌ„ders of y e Sea it may séeme miraculous almost incredible that fishes do flye and that those duÌ„me creatures do lifte themselues froÌ„ out of their moyste Element to pierce and breake the ayre as birdes do with their winges whereof although there be diuerse kindes according to the experience of the Sea yet I haue not figured the pourtrait of any in this chapter saue onely the Arundel or swallowe of the Sea that as Gesnerus and Rondelet in their histories of fishes haue drawne it Who desireth to haue a more large description of this fishe let him read Rondelet in his first chapter of his vj. booke wher he affirmeth this fish to be so called by reasoÌ„ of his colour greatnesse in proporcioÌ„ pinions like to a balde Mouse yet saith he who coÌ„sidereth thorowly of this fishe and maner of his flying he may seeme rather to resemble a swallow than a balde Mouse Opianus saith he flieth out of the water for feare he be deuoured of the great fishes Plinius writeth that there is a fishe flying called Arundelle whiche is very like the birde which we comonly cal a swallowe which as he is rare and sheweth himselfe by greate wonder with his greate wings so being taken they vse commonly to drie him and hang him vp in their houses which I thinke was more rare in the time of Plinie than now because there be diuerse founde in sundrie houses in Spaine Italie Fraunce and elswhere Claudius Campensius Phisition to the Lord Marquis of Trans sayd y t not many yeares past the Lord Admiral of EnglaÌ„d made him a banquet where he presented him with a flying fishe And in our time those that haue sayled by the pillers of Hercules affirme that there is such store of flying fishes thereabout that they séeme rather birdes with wings than fishes of the Sea Besides it is not inconuenient to set forth in this place the pourtrait of a fishe flying or rather a water monster which is the chiefe cause that I haue vndertaken this treatise of fishes This fishe or rather monster of the Sea I haue considered with long viewe iudgement and haue caused him to be drawne as neare as I can according to his naturall proportion wherein I maye boldly preferre as witnesses aboue twoo hundreth personnes who sawe him in Paris aswell as I. Amongest the things of woÌ„der to be séene in this beaste it hath chiefly a hydeous heade resembling rather in figure a horrible Serpent than a fishe with wings resemblyng rather the pynions of a balde mouse sauing they be farre more thicke and massiue he containes neare a foote and a halfe in length neyther is he so well dried but he yeldes some sauour or smel of a fishe the reste is to bée discerned in his figure Many learned men of the vniuersitie who considered largely of hym and his forme assured me that it was a kinde of flying Fishe the same notwithstanding agréeing in nothing with the description of the Auncientes touching the Arunâ—elle of the Sea nor of the Mugilatus nor of other flying fishe which makes me thinke that it is a sorte of monstrous fishe vnknowen to the elders Neither am I ignorant that there bee that can counterfaict by arte dyuerse formes of fishes Dragons Serpentes and other like things wherewith many are abused lyke as maister Gesnerus hath acknowledged by his writings to haue bene circumuented with the like Yet of all those which behelde this fish argued vpon his condition there was not one that could discerne other artificiall sleyght than as Nature brought hym forth formed him The Sea hath also other monsters which be more wonderfull than these as the fishe which they call in Latine Torpedo most coÌ„mon in Hauen townes and is accompted to resemble most of all those fishes that be harde skinned and she hath a hidden propertie which is very straÌ„ge for being hidden within the sand or moudde she slepeth by a secret vertue and making also al the fishe that be neare hir immouable and without sense she féedes vppon them and deuoureth them neither doth hir charme of sleepe extende onely againste fishes but also against men for if a man touch hir with his Anglerod she enchaunteth forthwith his arme And if she féele hir selfe taken with the lyne and hooke she hath this pollicy to embrace the lyne with hir wings and so making hir poyson mounte all along the lyne and the rode so tormenteth the arme of the fisher that often times he is constrained to abandon his prize The authours hereof be Aristotle in his ninth booke and xxxvij chapter De historia animalium Plinie in the .xxxij. booke and second chapter Theophrastus in libro De his quae hyeme latent Galen Opianus Plutarch in libro vtrum anima c. Plato also makes lyke mention in Memâ—o where Socrates is compared to the Torpedo in that by the violence and subtiltie of his argumentes he so grauelled those against whome he maintained disputation that they séemed
to participate with the enchauntement of the Torpedo of whose properties although the authours had made no mention yet the common experience of euery fisher maketh good no lesse of hym It is defended to sell him in the open market at Venise bycause of his poyson Moste parte of oure Phisitions nowe a dayes write that his fleshe is moiste softe and of an vnpleasant taste Yet Galen in his thirde booke de Alimentorum facultatibus and in his booke de Attenuante Victu and in the eyghte of his Methodes doth allowe it onely there hath bene great cōtrouersie amongest the Auncients to know in what parte of his bodie consistes the venom of his charme that casteth both fishe and the parts of men into a sleepe some giue out that it lyeth in one parte some saye in an other but moste agrée that it is deuided throughout euen vnto the gall whiche they confirme by the witnesse of Plinie which saith that the gall of a Torpedo on lyue being applied to the genitors or priuye partes represseth the desire of the fleshe wherein we will ende the discourse of that fishe and his propertie and visite other maruels founde in other fishes Althoughe the water is the proper Element mansion house and place of abode for fishes where they féede liue disporte encrease and exercise all their other functions yet is there of them whiche leaue the Sea floudes and riuers and leape vppon the lande eate and féede vppon hearbes vse recreation in the féeldes and sléepe there now and then Theophrastes affirmeth that neare vnto Babylon when the riuers retire within their bākes there be certain fishes lefte within caues and hollowe places which issue out to feede marching vpō their wings or with their often mouing of their taile whē any offreth to offend or assault them they flie forthwith into their caues as their refuge The auncient Philosophers affirme that there haue bene founde fiishes vnder the earth who for that cause they called Focilles whereof Aristotle makes mention and Theophraste speaking of Paphlilagonia where men drawe fishe and they be very good to eate out of déepe diches and other places wherein no water doth remaine Polybe writes in lyke sorte that neare to Narbone hath bene founde fishes vnder the earth We maye also bring in amongest other wonders of the Sea a kind of fishe called Stella or Sea starre bycause it hath the figure of a painted starre this fishe is of a Nature so hote that he endureth assoone as he hath deuoured which Aristotle approueth in his .v. booke De Historia anima where he gyueth such hotnesse to this fish that she boyleth what she taketh Plinie and Plutarch do likewise affirme that the starre by hir onely touche doth melte boyle and burne whatsoeuer she toucheth and knowing hir vertue she suffreth hir selfe to be touched with other fishe to the ende she maye burne them Monsieur Rondelet a man liuing at this daye and aswel worthie of credit as the best that write in his histostorie de piscibus affirmeth that he hath séene many starres of the Sea but one amongest the reste containing almost a foote in length which he opened in maner of Anotomie and founde in his bellye three Coquylles whole and twoo Remollies halfe digested such is the greate furious heate of this litle creature all which may seeme wonderfull examples of the wonders of the Sea yet are they nothing in respect of those whiche we meane to treate hereafter the same mouing both feare and amaze to suche as haue most nearely sifted the secretes of the Sea For this litle beast which so amazeth y e world is called in Greeke Ethneis and of the Latins Remora to whome is gyuen that name bycause she doth stay Ships as hereafter you shall heare more at large Opyanus and Aelian write that he delites moste in the high sea he is of the length of a cubite of a browne colour like vnto an Eele Plinie maketh hym like to a greate Limace whiche he proueth by the witnesse of suche as sawe one of them that stayed the Galey of the prince Caius Caesar. In his .ix. booke he brings in diuers opinions of sundry authors touchyng this fishe who although they differ in his description yet they agree all that suche one there is and is of power to stay shippes Whereof also many Philosophers of late dayes whiche haue trauailed by many ports and hauens in Asia and Affrica beare witnesse in that they haue séene hym made an Anatomie and proued his vertues with wonderfull effectes It is sure a maruellous and monstrous thing in Nature to finde a fish or creature in the water of y e gretnesse of a Limace which is of force by a secrete propretie of nature to stay immediatly what she toucheth be it the moste huge and tal ship or galey that vseth to scumme the sea whiche made Plinie crie out in this sorte Oh straunge and wonderful thyng sayth he that all the windes blowyng from all partes of the worlde and the moste furious tempestes raging vpon and ouer the waues and contendyng wyth extreme violence against the vessels that sayle thervpon stand in awe of a little fishe of the greatnesse of a Limace whose power preuaileth ouer their furie can restraine and bridle theyr rage and is of more force to stay the strongest shippe that is than all their ankers cables tackles or any other engine employed or vsed about the same This fishe encountred Anthonie in hys warres and restrained hys shippe Adamus Louicerus Lib. de Aquatilibus cōfirming Plinies opinion rauished as it were with suche straunge conditions in a fishe hath trauailed with great paines to searche out the cause in nature wherof being not able to giue any reason by any learnyng or diligence he vsed gaue it ouer with this exclamation Who is he of so dumbe and grosse iudgement whiche wyll not enter into admiration if he beholde at leysure the propreties and power of this little fishe I knowe sayth he that the Adamant hathe power to smell and drawe yron the Diamont sweateth and distilleth poyson the Turkeys doth moue when there is any peril prepared to him that weareth it the Torpille infecteth and maketh slepe the hande and arme of the Fisher and I know that the Basilicke is so venomous that with his onely viewe and regard he poisoneth man of all which notwithstandyng their straungenesse a man maye yelde some reason but of the vertue of this fish we may not argue bicause it is supernaturall for he lyueth in the water taketh his nouriture in the water as other fishes doe and doth no exercise but in the water his little stature approueth that he can do no great violence and yet is there no power equal with his nor force able to resist him there is neither storme nor engin by hande of power to moue a ship after he hath once plyed him selfe to it wer it that the whole windes and violence of the Element
heauen be as foretellers and messengers of famine pestilence warres mutations of Realmes and other such like hurtes which happen to the generation of man And he further beleues that the greater and hideous these figures appeare they purporte and shew the greater euils Whereof Proculus one of the moste excellent Astrologians which Grece at any time norished followeth the interpretations of suche predictions by all the signes of heauen recompting by order the maruellous powers which these starres haue vppon the actions humaine And there be others as Ptolome whiche haue written that if any infant in his natiuitie be borne vnder certaine constellations he shall haue power ouer diuels there be also others of opiniō but they be most shamelesse full of blasphemies who haue so much referred themselues to the dispositiō of starres that they haue not feared to write that if any from their natiuitie were borne vnder the aspect of certaine starres that they shoulde haue the gyfte of prophecie and should foretel things to come And that Iesus Christ the sauiour of al the world was borne vnder certaine fortunate cōstellations being y e cause y t he was so perfect wrought so many miracles Here you may see the cruel horrible blasphemies which these detestable infamous Astrologians iudiciall bring forth which is y e cause y t S. Augustin hath banisht thē frō the Citie of God Basil and S. Ciprian deteste thē Chrisostome Eusebius Lactantius and S. Ambrose abhorre them The councell of Tollete reiecte them the ciuill lawes punishe them by death And the Ethniques also as Varro Cornelius Celsus and many other defame them But farre more diuersly amongst Princes than any other hath Picus Mirandula shewed him selfe who hath so very well brought to light and discouered the Labyrinth of their dreames in a Latin worke which he made against them that they scarcely dare once lift vp their hornes Wherefore lette vs now returne to our purpose and shewe so neare as we can whether these straunge figures and Comets whiche we sée from heauen be foretellers of things whiche shall happen or that they be naturall wherein as Aristotle in his first boke of Metheores treating very learnedly of the nature of Cometes and of these other impressions Characters and figures which be made from heuen sayth that they be made onely by nature without makyng mention that they either foretell or appoynt any thing which shall happen euen so it is to be presupposed that if Aristotle who is the first and most excellent of all those which haue written at any time in this Arte had founde neuer so little coniecture or reason in nature that they were appointers of any thing whiche should come to passe he woulde haue kepte them no more secrete or hidden than he hath done the other secretes of philosophie which he hath lefte to vs by his writings Wherfore it is then certaine that these fantasticall flames and other figures whiche we sée from heauen be naturall and grow vpon this occasion folowing There be thrée regions in heauen one whiche is most high who receiueth into hir a maruellous heate for that she is nexte neighbour to the Element of fyre the other which is lower receyueth the beames of the Sunne beaten backe of the earth whereof I haue made mention in my description of the cause of thunders The third is in the mydst of these two to the which do come the force of the heate which commeth from the vppermost part lyke to the heate of the beames of the Sunne beaten backe when it commeth from the lowest or inferior region For as Plinie witnesseth the starres be continually nourished of the humor procedyng of the groūd which be the chiefest causes of these celestiall flames for the earthe as Aristotle sheweth in his fyrst booke of Metheores being chafed of the Sunne rendreth double ayrely substaunce the one vapour which we may proprely name exhalation hote and drye the other is hote and moyste and bicause the firste vapour is most light she is suffered to come to the highest region of the ayre where she is set on fyre wherof procedeth these fyres and flames from heauen which in the formes of dyuers straunge shinyngs appeare in the Cloudes in sundry figures as in the shape of burnyng torches of shippes heades launces bucklers swordes bearded and hairie Comets with other like things whereof we haue made mention here before the whiche engenders greate terror and astonishement to those who be ignorant of the causes wherin as it hapened oftentymes amongst the Romains in the warres of the Macedons who being brought into such fear and terror by the sodain appering of the Eclipse of the Moone that their hearts began to faile them Euen so Cneius Sulpitius seing thē continuing in this feare by a wonderful eloquēce shewed vnto them by probable reasons that such mutation in the aire was naturall and that the Eclipse proceded of no other thing than of an interposition of the Moone betwixt the Sunne and vs and of the earth betwixt vs and the Moone by whiche meanes they were delyuered of their errour not knowing til that houre the cause of the sayd Eclipse The like may be sayd of the raining of blood the which hath so much frighted the people in the yeres passed for bicause they were ignorant wherevpon it proceded as that which fell from heauen in the yere of health 570. in the tyme that the Lumbards wer vnder the conduct of Albuyn traueling through Italy And also ther fel the like yet fresh in memory neare Fribourgh in the yeare .1555 the whyche stained and made the garments and trées whiche it touched of the coloure of redde and notwithstanding although that this séemeth wonderfull yet oftentymes it is naturall For like as the earth gyueth diuers colours to many bodies euen so she coloureth the water of the rayne for if the earth be redde shee rendreth those vapours and exhalations redde the whiche being conuerted into raine the heauen in like maner sendeth them to vs redde and coloured as they were attired and lifted in height and falling so vpon certaine habites she maketh them of the colour and die of redde Wherfore many Historians as well Greekes as Latines amongest their great maruels and rare wonders from heauen haue made mention of these bloudy shoures It resteth now to putte to the laste seale this chapiter and to appoynte the causes of the number of Sunnes and Moones whych appeare oftentimes from heauen as the thrée Sunnes the whiche Cardanus reporteth to haue seene in oure tyme being at Venice And like as we haue sayd that these figures whiche appeare from heauen be natural euen so we must speake of the multitude of Moones and Sunnes the which appeare for that oftentymes and specially when a certaine thicke cloude is readie to raine being founde on the syde of the Sunne the same by a lyke reflection on hir beames imprinteth hir image in the same cloude by
which they bring to mankind yet shall we discouer therin an antiquitie so greate as we can not lerne or attain vnto without extreme admiratioÌ„ for lyke as euery arte was inueÌ„ted almost as soon as God had created man afterward augmented by the industrie of man Euen so the herbs plants immediatly after the creation of the elements at such tyme as ther liued no maÌ„ vpon the earth sprong folowing the coÌ„maundement of the Lorde from the caues and entrailes of the earth garnished with their propre and diuine vertues Which besides that Moses the great Lawyer of God sufficiently proueth in Exodus we may also alleage the opinion and witnesse of the auncient Greeke poetes as Orpheus Museus and Hesiodus who haue treated of the praise of Penyroyal as also hath done Homerus of Alisier and others as in like maner Pithagoras hath coÌ„mended the Eschallottus Crisippus Chou and Zeno the Caprier besides it is a thyng most straunge that Salomon king of the Iewes Euax king of the Arabians Iuba king of the Mauritans were so curious not only to know the names and propreties of plantes but also the moste part of them haue diligently written therof Others haue entertained great philosophers and Aâ—borists in diuers deserts of Asia Europe and Affrike for to discouer the secrets of herbes and plants Further it is a thing moste maruellous that a great number of plantes muche renoumed haue taken their names of many kings as Gentiane toke the name of Gentius king of the Illyrians Lymachie of Lyzimachus king of the Macedonians TeucriuÌ„ was inuented by Teucer Achilea of Achilles Arthemisia of Arthemise quéene of Carie. But nowe it resteth for vs as me séemeth hauing searched very narrowely the Antiquitie and prayses of Plantes to be as diligent following oure custome in séeking forth if we can fynd amongst hearbes any thyng monstrous wonderful or straunge as we haue â—one in the moste parte of other thyngs contayned vnder the concauitie of Heauen The Auncients haue reknowleged I know not by what meanes y e maruelous efficaciâ— of a plant which they called Agnus castus whose leaues are like vnto the Oliues for all those who haue written of the Nature and propertie of this plante saye that it resisteth the sinne of the fleshe and that those which either carie the same about them or drinke the iuice thereof be neuer tempted at any time to incontinencie for whiche occasion the maides in olde time bare the braunches and bowes of that hearbe in their hande and made garlandes therof to weare vpoÌ„ their heads thinking therby to make die estinguish the heates of the flesh Wherefore Discorides in the .xv. chapter of his first booke treating of y e Nature of plants sayeth that the Greeks named this tree Agnos that is to saie chaste for by that the Ladies sometime in the Citie of Athens garded their chastitie by making their beads thereof and doing sacrifice therewith to Ceres Euen as we haue described the singularitie of Agnus Castus which defends the chastetie of such persons as vse the same so are we nowe to make mentioÌ„ of an other hearbe altogether contrarie to the Nature of Agnus Castus and as who would saye his mortall enimie for it makes suche as vse the same lasciuious prompte and readie to the Uenerian actes The Auncients haue named this hearbe Satirium for that the Satires and sauage Gods were the inuentours of this plante for the better satisfying of theyr lusts and concupiscence when they wente to playe by the forrests caues with the Nimphes Albeit the Greeks cal it Orchis or Cmoâ—orchis for that that this roote is like the twoo genitories of a dogge in such sorte that it séemes that Nature woulde haue lefte some marke and token in this roote for to shewe the maruellous effects or works natural Wherefore those then sayeth Discorides in his third booke and .xxij. chapter which he writeth of plantes which desire to haue the companie of women ought to vse this roote for that it makes men prompte readie to the exercise and worke of Venus and as they saye this roote being holden in the hande prouoketh a man to desire the pleasure of a woman Bisides there is one thing worthiâ— to be considered of in this roote as who would saye wonderful that is that as one of these twoo rootes which reseÌ„bleth as we haue said before the genitories of a dogge excites stirres a man vnmeasurablie to the wanton actes of Venus so the other roote which is a little lesser extinguisheth hindreth the desire of the flesh in such sorte that as one of these rootes prouoketh the euill so the other giueth remedie Plinius Dioscorides and Galen be authours of this and Dioscorides writeth that the women in Thessalie gaue to men to drinke of that moste fleshly roote the rather to prouoke and stirre them to the lusts abhominable desires of the flesh Wherefore reader I will not forget to declare that thou shalt not néede to doubte of me in all this treatise of the wonders of plants the descriptions faculties temperaments and diuisions of them for that this worke woulde be excessiue excede the limits of my meaning Wherein Dioscorides Theophrastus Galen Plinie Matheolus Fuscheus Ruel and many others haue so well spoken in that that there is nothing to be desired more than they haue written thereof whiche I woulde gladly haue tolde before vnto those which thinke that I had here confounded the diuerse kinds of Satirium like this that the Greekes haue called Orchis Serapias wherof Paulus Aegineta and Aetius haue made mention which others saye to haue receyued that name of Serapius God of the Alexandrians by reason of the greate impudent lasciuitie for which cause they worshipped him in a place called Canope there where he had his Temple of greate reuerence ReligioÌ„ as Strabo reciteth in his .xvij. booke of his Geographies Wherefore it suffiseth me in this chapter to write simplie that there is more cause of maruell and wonder in some particular plant than in euery plant The Auncients as Chrisippus haue founde cause of wonder I can not tell by what meanes in the plante whiche we commonly call Basill who were of opinion that it makes a man senslesse and madde the goats refuse to eate thereof which giues iuste occasion to man to flye the rather from it They adde further that brusing it and putting the same vnder a stone it engendreth a Scorpion or if they chawe it and set it in the Sunne it brings forth wormes Furthermore some saye that if a man be stoung of Scorpion the daye that he eateth of Basill he shall neuer be hoale lykewise some assure that brusing a handefull of Basill with Cancres marins or of the Riuer that all the Scorpions farre or neare will come vnto him Wherfore I am not ignorant that those whiche came after Crysippus did so abhorre Basill that they neuer vsed the same The herbe called of
the Latins Herbae pulicaris hathe such a colde vertue that being cast into hot boiling water it will kill the heate therof In like maner as Chameleon albus serueth vnto men in stede of Treacle against poyson and all venims Euen so notwithstandyng it killeth and destroyeth Ratts and dogs eating therof It is in lyke maner a little Thistle growing by the grounde without any stalke putting vp pricks like an Hedgehogge hauing in the middle a knap ful of pricks in which do appere purple floures that growe into plumes fléeing away with the winde like as of other thistels hauing a white roote swéete groweth on olde landes and bare hilles Also Dioscorides Plinie and Pithagoras write that the herbe called Scylla and of the Apothecaries Squillae being hanged in a house deliuereth men from charmes sorceries and enchauntments the roote wherof is like a onyon Wherfore the good searchers out of the secrets of plants haue founde by experience that our Persley whiche the Latins call Apium â—ortense and the Greekes Selinon by a certaine seâ—ret propretie engendreth in vs the falling sicknesse in suche sorte that Simeon Sethy writeth that it is necessarie for suche as be subiecte to that euill to take héede they vse not y e same for it often hapneth that those whiche he deliuered from that disease by vsing of Persley fall a fresh into the same againe In like maner Plinie writeth that nurses oughte not to eate therof for y e infant sayeth he by sucking the milke of hir breast which eateth therof very often is persecuted with that disease Furthermore the Consyre whiche the Apoticaries commending with so many barbarous wordes do call Consolida maior hath so greate a vertue to knit and make to growe and ioine together freshe hurts for as Plinie and Discorides witnesse being put in a pot with sundrie pieces of flesh it will knit and ioyne them together for which cause the Greeks called it Symphiton for the gret vertue it hath in knitting ioyning togethers Euen so the Greeks and Romains celebrated alwayes amongest their excellent plantes that which is called in Greeke Peristereon in Latin Verbenaca and in Frenche Veruaine it hath bene named aunciently Hierabotane and Sacra herba that is to saye a holye hearbe for that at Rome in times paste it serued them not only to purifie their houses but also their familye was dressed with it and for a more supersticious estimation of this hearbe they hong the altar of Iupiter with it afore they perfourmed their sacrifice Their embassadours that wente vpon holy messages were crowned with it bycause as Discorides writeth it was very proper to withstande wicked spirits and purge the houses hong or garnished with it Dioscorides and Plinie be of opinion that the house sprinkled with the water of Veruaine makes the people ioyfull and those which assiste the baÌ„quet where is eyther dâ—awe or mentioÌ„ of this water shalbe replenished with mirth and glaâ—nesse The plante which the Apoticaries call Neâ—uphar and the Greeks and Latins Nymphea growing moste commonly in Pooles and riuers bearing a greate gréene leafe hath so greate vertue againste the hote and wanton motions of youth that being taken in broth once a day by the space of xl dayes it mortifieth altogether the appetite of sensualitie and eating it fasting among other meate it defendâ—s you from vnchaste thoughtes and dreames of Uenery prouided alwayes that this must be wrought of the firste kinde of Neniuâ—r whiche hath a yelowe flower like to a Flowerdelice wherof besides the authoritie of Plinie and Dioscorides first authours hereof experience makes it of faith and credit For in the olde time it was applied to Monkes and Nunnes and other people of deuotion in Religious houses to pull downe and mortifie their flesh The Ancients named it Nimphea bicause the virgin Nympha being ielouse of Hercules became leane pale and so full of mortall passions that death gaue ende to hir sorowes and afterwarde as they beleued she was chaunged into this marrishe and waterie hearbe to delaye hir heates It is common in euery place and of .ij. sortes the one hath a whyte flower and the other carieth a yealowe floure Iuye called in Latine Hedera and in Greeke Cysses is a common herbe yet it containes in it many things worthy of commendation firste it troubleth the minde if a man take too muche of it it brings forth an humour or gumme whiche as Galen saith burnes secretly as a hoate plaster without being perceyued besides it serueth for a depilatour to make fall the haire in euery place about man and woman the little graines or séedes of Iuye taken in broth make men become barreine Plinie addes besydes to the vertue of this hearbe that men that be melancholike and subiect to diseases of the Splene are easely healed if they do but drinke in cups or goblets made of the wood of this Iuye The Mandrake hath moued greate cause of wonder to suche as haue written of his properties and power Pithagoras calleth it Antropomorphen by reason it hath a roote whiche resembles the forme of a man others haue named it Ciroea â–ª as of Circes persuading that the roote was good to make men loue and that there was in it a certaine amorous charme I sawe in a faire at Saincte Germains in Paris a roote of a Mandrake so well counterfaited by arte with rootes and braunches one linked within another that it resembled properly the fourme and shape of a man whiche broughte suche value and estimation to his practise of deceite that he solde of them for twenty crounes a piece by which vnreasonable gaine his abuse was discouered and he constrained in the ende to carie his roote into Italy from whence he sayde it firste came whiche maye suffise for the deceits in this roote and nowe let vs returne to his singularities and vertues Dioscorides writes that it is of force to mollifie the Iuorye and make it apte to plye and turne and fashion in any worke or forme that a man wil boiling it with the Iuorye the space of sixe houres It is moste certaine that it is of a maruellous vertue to caste men on sléepe and so to entraunce suche as are to be opened or cut in any member that they shall not féele the paine if firste they taste of the iuice of this Mandrake some do vse it in parfume for the same purpose There be .ij. kindes of Mandrake whiche growe in manye places on the mountaines in Italie but speciallye in Powylla Whereof diuerse grafters and setters of plantes haue broughte awaye both Apples and rootes It is as strange which the Philosophers attribute vnto the plant whiche the Latins call Nerion the Greekes Rhododendros the Frenchemen Bosage and we Roselaurel it hath the floures of a Rose and leaues of a Laurell but that whiche is most wonderful those leaues kill Dogges Asses Moyles and many other foure footed beastes and to men or women if it be taken in brâ—ath with wine it
and there giuing out suche arguments of pity according to his dumme kind as if he had demaunded iustice of the murder at the kings handes The same mouing in him and the rest of the assistants such suspition of the facte in them whome the dogge assailed that what with torment and other examination they confessed the matter were punished accordingly A thing very woÌ„derful wherin our God sheweth himself most iust in hys iudgements hauing in such horrour such as doe spoyle and spil mans bloud that he stirreth vp sometime little beasts to be his ministers of reuenge of their iniquities Plutarch Aelyan and also Tretzes in the thirde Chiliade and a hundred thirtye and one Chapter wryte that after Darius the laste king of the Persians was vanquished by Alexander and hurte in many places by Bessus and Nabarzenes he was forsaken of all the world and void of humaine sucâ—ors except a dogge which he had norished and brought vp who neuer forsoke the body of his maister but became no lesse faithful to him being dead thaÌ„ he was whilst he liued The Romane histories giue also great commendation to the fidelitie of the dogge of Titus Fabius who being condeÌ„ned by the iustice of the Senate and his body laid dead vpon the ground the dogge did not only accompany the dead carkasse but made such a pitifull howling and crying that he stirred the assistaÌ„ts to compassion who to appease him if they offred him bread he tooke it and in the presence of them all by such meanes as he could he opened the mortified mouth of his master and put in the bread thinking that as he sawe his distresse so he would relieue it by meanes as he best might but that which is more wonderfull touching the faith of this dogge was in that the bodye of hys master being cast into Tyber according to their custome at that time to bury dead men the dogge leaped also into the riuer not ceasing to conteÌ„d with the waues till he had got holde of his maister whom by maine strength he did not only support and kepe froÌ„ sinking but also drewe him out to the shore thinking he had theÌ„ deliuered him from peril By this and such other may we discerne in some respects a more great faith and amitie in these brute beastes than in reasonable creatures who for the most parte now a dayes obserue the order of the swallow shunning as they doe the roofe in the winter their frends touched with any aduersitie or sinister fortune for whych cause also Masinissa the great king of Numidia would neuer commit the garde of his body by night to the faith of men but vsed for hys sauetie that way the company of .viij. or .x â–ª great dogges whom he brought vp for the nonce and made them be shut in hys chaÌ„ber by night to the ende that by their barking he might be warned of any peril which remaineth in practise at this â—ay in S. Maloes in Britaine a town of defense enuironed with the Sea wherein only a great number of dogges of England do kepe watch and that so truely that the whole gard and protection of that city consists no lesse in the fidelity of those dogges than in their strong bands of their old souldiours of Piemont neither moueth any charge by them for either armour or weapon seeing they coÌ„tent theÌ„selues only with their liues which are reserued by coÌ„mon order they nourished continually in certaine dark caues where they are barde to see any light to the end to giue encrease to their fiercenesse the same in déede giuing them suche a woodnesse that they neither know nor vse regarde to any but such as are appointed to nourish and féede them in such sort y t at night when they are drawne out of their dennes they are driuen to souÌ„d drummes and trumpets as a warning to euery body to retire which hath bred suche a custome in those dogges that after the last retrait be souÌ„ded there is none so hardy to be found afore them which escapeth not their iawes without great hazard and daunger of his life There is also mention made in the Ecclesâ—asticall histories how the Emperor Aurelian forcing Benignus the Martyr to worship Idols made to be kepte fasting for .iiij. or v. dayes certaine great mastiues whom he reserued only to fede vpon christian mennes flesh afore whom he caused the body of the sayd Martir to be brought forth bound but the dogges refusing to become the mynisters of the sinne of such a tyrant in place to deuoure or teare hym in péeces they licked his hands and smelled to his body without either offer or effect of other harme Which makes me remember an History commeÌ„ded by Appius the Gréeke Aulus Gelius y e Latine Iouianus Pontanus lib. 1 amoruÌ„ and lastly Anthonio de Gueuuare bishop of Monodemo Al which albeit they treate of an other beast than a dogge yet bicause the discourse is no lesse prodigious than confirmable to our former arguments I thinke it no time euil imployed to describe it in sorte as they haue left it behinde them Titus the Emperor sonne to Vespasian vpon his retâ—rn from the warres of Germanye determined according to an auncient custome of the Nobilitie there to solemnise at Rome with great pompe the day of his natiuity For a first entry or beginning wherof he caused royall triumphes to be made to the Senate with a bountifull distribution of treasure amoÌ„gst the Romaines He enioyned withal by speciall charge to make prouision of Lions Beares Hartes Bulles wilde Bores Wolues Camels ElephaÌ„ts wyth a number of other sauage and fierce beasts found most commonly in the deserts of Egipt and valley of the mount Caucase In like sort it was decréed sometime afore by the maiestie imperiall that to all théeues felons murderers periurers traitors and rebels theyr liues should be reserued to be punished and torn in péeces y â— day by those beastes by whoÌ„ should not onely be thundred vpon them due reuenge of their wicked life past but also in the combate should appeare equall pleasures and delite to the lokers on wherein this was the order that was obserued One of those miserable men was let out after an other and committed all alone to a place which is at this day being at Rome called the Collisea after the which in the viewe of all the assistantes was let loose in the same place one of these cruell beastes who if by chaunce he tare the man in péeces the same was the sentence and punishment of his offence but if the man subdued the crueltye of the beast and killed him it serued as an absolution or dispence from further punishment And as they kept hungrye of purpose long time before these cruell beastes to the ende to adde a more fiercenesse to their woodde nature so amongst the â—est that were brought to the combate the Emperoure séemed chiefly to sée fight a Lion brought out of the deserts of Egipt
pricke with the point of my knife and lapt vp his wound with a band or shread of my sheart And hauing performed this worke of charitie vpon the poore beast he lay with an extreme pacience by me all that day next nght til the morning folowing when I vnfolded eftsoones the sore and pressed out the corpuption with no lesse suffraÌ„ce in him thaÌ„ before who after .ij. or .iij. houres in the morning seeming to be pinched with hunger he left me and the caue went to the desert When I seing the honest departure of my guest preueÌ„ted y e like peril saued my self by flight wherin sir I coulde not be so precise as to escape the haÌ„ds of such as pursued me by whom I was presented to my maister froÌ„ him amoÌ„gst others no lesse infortunate than my self I was passed prisoner to Rome where if my good fortune haue brought me into the danger of this Lyon and he to returne the benefit of my good turn with a compassion safetie of my life I humbly beséech thy maiestie royal to coÌ„sent to the same and suffer not thy decrées giuen out by thine own mouth to be violated with any respect of crueltie Which moued such indifferent pitie coÌ„mpassion to y e assistants y t there was not 〈◊〉 amongst them al which with great intercession were not suters to y e Emperor for his libertie safetie of the Lyon Wherunto he did not onely agrée but also enioyned from that houre that Andronique and the Lion should vse their libertie to passe at all tymes thorow the stréetes of Rome whom the people beheld not without a singular pleasure the rather to see the Lion contented to carie great wallets full of bread and other reliefe giuen them in almes And somtime to get money to his keepers he would suffer children to leape vpon his back The same mouing such cause of maruel to the strangers y t came to Rome that there was question touching the meaning Wherupon to satisfie theÌ„ and al men was written a little bille and fastened to the brest of the Lion with this inscription Hic Leo est hospes huius hominis And vpon the brest of the man were written these words Hic est medicus huius leonis wherof the one signifieth This Lion is the guest of the man and the other This man is the physition of the Lion This is sure a woÌ„derful exaÌ„ple of charitie in a beast without vnderstanding wherin is also approued the opinion of an Indian Philosopher named Dephilus who was wont to say That y e great workman dame nature had graued certaine lawes in beastes which might be applied to men as exaÌ„ples to direct y e estate of their life for if we consider and view with discretion the order of doing of diuerse beasts we shal find them to excéede men in many things and haue as it were a natural vertue in euery affection of corage wisedome force cowardise clemencie discipline erudition They knowe one an other are able to decerne amoÌ„gst theÌ„selues desire things that be profitable and eschue such as be hurtful forsee what will fall and make prouision of such things as be necessarie for their relief Al which being considered by the auncient Philosophers they haue not ben ashamed to dispute and make a doubte whether brute beasts did participate with reason or not which made Salomon sende some of them to the schooles of the Philosophers Lyke as also Esay reprochyng the vnthankefulnesse of the Israelites towardes GOD layeth afore them an example of the Oxe and Asse which acknowledge their maister but Israel hath mystaken and not knowen hir Lorde ¶ A wonderfull historie of certaine women which haue brought forth a great number of children And an other whiche â—are hir fâ—â—te fiue yeares deade within hir belly CHAP. xxx LIke as that greate Philosopher Aristotle doth moste firmely assure in hys writings that a woman can not bring forth at one tyme aboue fiue chyldren and that very rare Euen so sayth he that happened on a time to a seruante of Augustus Cesar who at one burden brought forth fiue children who besides the mother liued but a short time after In remembrance wherof the Emperor Augustus caused to be made and erected a monumeÌ„t writing on the out side therof the numbre of the children which she had born Wherfore though Aristotle did beleue that a woman could not bring forth at one time aboue the numbre of fiue children notwithstaÌ„ding the contrary hath bene proued in many as is witnessed by many graue authors Amongst whom that notable learned Prince Picus Mirandulanus in his coÌ„mentaries vpon the second hymne assureth y t one Allemande called Dorothee brought forth in Italy at two seuerall times twentie children that is to say at one time .xij. at an other .viij. who during the time y t she was with childe hir belly was so great that she was constrained to payse y e weight thereof with a towel bound about the same for the succoryng of hir charge There is none of those which haue read the chronicles and histories of Lombardie which knoweth not that in the time of the raign of Algemont first kyng of the Lombards there was a certain common Woman brought forth .vij. boyes at one tyme who for the horrour of hir sinne cast them into the water But God by his almightie power and wonderfull prouidence not willyng to blot out of memorie this wicked and detestable act brought the same to light who permitting the king Algemont to walke by fortune nigh the water where she had cast them espied one of the children in the water on liue who with the crooke of a staffe which he helde in his hande he plucked out causing the chylde to be nourished and brought vp in learning and vertue who as he grew in yeares so he in like maner perseuered in al perfectious and good gifts and as the historiaÌ„s make mention succéeded Algemond and was named Lanytius second kyng of the Lombards And if thou wouldest reade the Historie of Martinus Cromerus in his sixt boke of the worthy actes of Poloigne thou shalt fynde an historie of a woman of the countie of Virboslaus which surpasseth all the precedents before recited for the multitude of children wherin like as all these histories be wonderfull for the great nuÌ„bres of children borne at one instant euen so I haue not red amongst al the Historians which haue written therof that for the great nuÌ„bres of children which they haue had they haue had cause to open bruse and anatomize or put an iron into their bellies to plucke forth their frute as it was strange and maruellous to behold that a woman for one onely childe hath ben opened for that she by the space of .v. yeres caried hir frute in hir body dead as thou mayst vnderstand by the discourse of this historie folowing worthy of remembrance the which Mathias Cornax a learned and excellent
physition of Vienne writ in a Latine worke which he sent for a wonder to Ferdinando Emperor at that day And although he haue dilated on this Historie sufficiently yet notwithstanding I will write thereof more at large in that I shal be able He writeth to the Emperour Ferdinando that in the yeare .1545 there was at Vienne in Austrice a certain woman named Margareta the wife of a Citizen of that towne called George Wolczer who being quicke with childe from S. Bartholomew day to S. Luce and then vpon point to be deliuered she began to féele y e sharpe and dolorous pangs which women accustomably tast and suffer in the bringyng forth of their children caused hir mother and certain other sage women to be called for hir better helpe therin But when they came to the great conflict of Nature and hoped to haue receiued the childe they perceiued such a brute noise as it had ben a thunder clap within the belly of that poore martir y t which made them to thinke that the child was dead with the great striuing and battaile that it had with Nature The noise being at last appaised they coulde not perceiue or iudge any mouing or life in the infant whiche was cause after they had imployed all their labour and arte in vaine thynking to draw the child out of the mothers belly they wer coÌ„strained in the ende to abandon and leaue hir for a time to the helpe and mercy of almightie God Albeit after certaine dayes hir dolor griefe renued that she was not only forced to vse for helpe herein the aduises of the most excelleÌ„t and best experimeÌ„ted physitions in that prouince but also all others elswhere whose fame was most renoumed and celebrated for their excellencie in that arte who with all their physike resolutiue attractiue suppuratiue were not able to deliuer hir from this misery or otherwise comfort hir than with that which the angel sayd to the Prophetâ— Dispone domus tuae quia morieris Whereupon she seing hir self voide of hope to receiue help at mans hands determined to take truce wich nature and perseuer constantly in this hir martirdom the which she continued with extreme dolor the space of foure yerâ—â— carying this dead caryon in hir belly which being exâ—â—ed she resolued in hir self that it was most expedient to expose some ready death rather than to suffer hir selfe continually to pine by the crueltie of that torment Wherfore resting vpon this deliberatioÌ„ she made to be called the Surgions Physitions at whose handes she requested to be opened And in the yeare .1550 the .xij. day of NoueÌ„ber they opened hir belly from which they drewe the childe half rotten which she had caried the space of fiue yeares And after purging and phisiking hir they restored hir by the ayde of God to suche perfect health that she remayneth at this day on liue and so whole that she may yet conceiue and bring forth children As it is more amply declared in the Latine worke sente vnto the Emperour Ferdinando ¶ A wonderfull historie of a Monster hauing the shape of the face of a man who was taken in the forrest of Haueberg in the yere .1531 whose portraict Georgius Fabritius sent to Gesnerus drawen naturally as he is here figured CHAP. xxxj LIke as those which admeasure the greatnesse of the workes of God according to the capacitie of their vnderstandings could scarsly be persuaded that this monster which is here figured shuld be naturall Euen so in my iudgement as I haue oftentimes protested that I wil not fil or pester my wrytings with any fabulous matter or history wherby I shal not be able to verifie the same by the authoritie either of some famous author Greeke or Latin sacred or prophane for as Gesnerus in his History de quadrupedibus viuiparis wryteth that in the Forest of Saxonie in the coast of Dace there was taken certain moÌ„strous beasts hauing y e shape of the face of a man wherof the female in chase by chauÌ„ce was killed of hunters and the male taken by them was brought aliue who afterwardes became domesticall and tame in such sorte as he began to talke a little albeit hys words were imperfect and hoost much like vnto a Goate and touching the rest of his actioÌ„s they were more brutall than humaine For at such time as he was moued by y e ardent heates and motions of nature the women were not in safety with him for he would endeuor himselfe by force to violaâ—e them openly And as an other like to this was taken in the yere .1531 in the Forest de la seigneurie de Salâ—ebourge in Almaine who wold neuer be made tame nor yet endure the loke of a man but liuing in such sorte certaine dayes in the ende died of hunger refusing to be fed of any liuing creature Euen so in the time that Iames the fourth king raigned in Scotland which was in the yere 1409. and y t he sent Iacobus Egilinus in embassage to the French king who by tempest of the seas was cast on land in a certaine Isle of Norway where he saw moÌ„sters like vnto these spoken of before as he witnessed at his return and enquiring of the people of that couÌ„trey what kinde of creatures they were they answered that they were certaine beastes hauing the shape of the face of men who accustomed very often to come by night to their houses which being not repulsed by dogges would deuoure as wel their men as children And I remember that S. Augustine in his boke of the Citye of God maketh mention of sundrye monsters of straungo formes who were found in deserts or elswhere whereupon grew a question whether they were descended of the first man Adam or that they had a reasonable soule or not or whether they should rise as others shall at the generall day of resurrection But for that this matter is a little to long to entreate vpon by reason of the shortnesse of this Chapiter I will therefore reserue it for a nother place more fit and apte for the dissolution therof ¶ A wonderfull History of sundry straunge famines CHAP. xxxij I Doe remember that I haue treated in my third booke of the Theatre of the world howe famine is one of the moste cruell ministers of the iustice of God as he hymselfe witnesseth very often by his Prophets and Apostels sometymes threatning to gyue them for their wickednesse a heauen of brasse and the earth of yroÌ„ that is to say that it shal bring forth nothing albeit I will not forget in this place to make mention of two notable famines noted in the boke of Ecclesiasticus to the ende that drawing our Histories out of the liuely springs of the scripture the same may moue vs y t rather and touche vs the more with remorse euen vpon the hammer of our conscience It is shewed in the .iiij. boke of the kings and .vj. chapter of a famine which happened in Samarie in
whipped through the streates In like manner the Romains gaue libertie to the husbande of his owne proper aucthoritie to kil the whoremoÌ„ger and his wife if he toke them coÌ„mitting of that abhominable vice Macrin the .xix. Emperour caused al such as were apprehended in adulterie to be broiled quicke who being informed that diuers souldioures had violated their hostesse chamber maide he caused the bellies of two great Beefes to be opened aliue and made the souldioures to be sowed and inclosed therin sauing their heads which appeared out to the end that all men might see them the one talke with the other And Aurelius the .xxix. Emperour being made to vnderstand y t a souldiour of his armie had defloured the wife of his host inuented for him to make him die by a new kind of cruell punishment for he caused two great trees by force to be bowed and plied whereunto the souldioure was tied to y e end that the trées returning to their place might tear and plucke him in pieces Confer these punishmeÌ„ts with those written of before and you shal find no adulterer receiue y e reward of a better hire for in y e sacred historyes â–ª by y e law of Moises they were smoothered murdered and stoned to death S. Paule in his .xiij. to the Hebrues crieth that God wil condemn fornicators and adulterers After in his first boke to the Corinthians and .vj. Chapiter he writeth thus Do not disceiue your selues for neither fornicator Idolatour or adulterour shal not possesse at all the kingdom of God Wherfore amongst the most principall causes that moued God to drowne the world was chiefly this wicked vice of whoredom fiue famous Cities as it is written in the booke of Moyses became ruinous and ouerthrowne for their disordred and wicked liues In the booke of numbers xij kings were hanged and .24000 men killed for comitting of whoredom It is wrytten in Leuiticus xxviij chapiter how the Chananeans were afflicted punished for their whordome wel nigh all the line of Beniamin as you may read in the .xxxix. of the Iudges was afflicted for committing fornication wyth the Leuites wife Diuers greuous punishments were sent vnto Dauid for his whoredom as you may read in the booke of the Kings Salomon for the same cause and committing Idolatrie became reprobate wherefore S. Ieremie the Prophet recompteth very often y e whoremongers and fornicators were the chiefest causers of the destruction of the Citie of Ierusalem Diuers many Realmes by thys detestable vice haue receiued chaunge and alteration become subiect to others Troy the proud became ruinous for the rauishment of Helen In like manner Thebes the populous was afflicted and scourged for y e abusing of Chrisippe and the incest committed by Eclipus The Kings of Rome were extirped banished for the rauishment of Lucrecia Aristotle in the .v â–ª of his politiques sayth that adulterers and fornicatours be the principall and chiefest causers of the ruin and mutation of realmes The King Pausanias so much renoumed in Licaonien who first defiled a maide at Constantinople and after killed hir was aduertised by an Image of his end and destruction A thing very straunge that whoremoÌ„gers should be warned of the paines prepared for them by wicked spirits to their owne confusion which Pausanias proued true for that the Ephores constrained him to die by famine Wherfore if the Histories both sacred and prophane be so fully replenished of grieuous paines cruel punishmeÌ„ts irefull cursings sent by God commonly vpon whoremongers what may then the Sodomites and others loke or hope for who ioyne them selues in the ignominie of God and nature with brute beasts as is most plainly shewed vnto vs by this shameful Historie whose portraict thou mayst beholde in the beginning of this Chapiter of a childe who was conceiued and engendred betwene a woman and a dogge hauing from the nauell vpwards the forme and shape of the mother so well accomplished that nature had not forgotteÌ„ any thing vnperformed and from the nauell downwards it had the forme and figure of the beast who was the father who as Volateranus wryteth was sent to the Pope which raigned at that time there to the end it might be purified and purged Conradus Licostenes writeth a like Historie in hys wonders of a woman which brought forthe in the time of the Emperor Lothairus a childe and a dogge ioyned knit together by the nether partes that is to say from y e rains or tippe of the backe to the haÌ„ches And Celius Rhodiginus in his .xxv. boke and .xxxij. chapiter of his auncient lessons wryteth that there was a Priest called Crathin in Cibaâ—e hauing had the companie of a Goate with whom he vsed this brutal desire and afterwards within a certaine time brought forth a Goat who had the head and shape of a maÌ„ resembling the Priest which was the father but the rest of the body was like the Goat Whereupon S. Paule sayth in the fourth Chapiter to the Ephesians that the plague ordained for whoremongers is that they become blinde and madde after that they be once forsaken of God and will not be reconciled by good and wholesome councel but perseuer still in their wickednesse prouoking therby Gods wrath and indignatioÌ„ against them ¶ A notable complaynt made by a Monstrous man to the Senate of Rome against the tyrannies of a Censour whiche oppressed the poore people of the ryuer of Danube by rigorous exactions CHAP. xxxviij THat great Monarch Marcus Aurelius who was as well a philosopher as an Emperor retiring himselfe into the fields with a great nuÌ„ber of wise men as wel to deceiue certain enuious times of the yeare as to moderate the heate burning of a feuer whiche had vext and troubled hym many dayes with intente not to be idle they began to talke of diuers matters amongest themselues as of the corruption of princes the alteration of common weales and generally of the vniuersall disorder whiche was founde amongest all the states of the worlde wherein after euery man had touched particularly that which seemed good vnto hym it pleased the Emperour to become therein a partie and continuyng the talâ—e he sayd vnto them My frâ—end although eche of you haue very learnedly spoken of the question propouned touchyng the corruption of Princes and publike weales so it is notwithstanding as me seemeth that the originall of that contagious euil procedeth of others as of flatterers which serue rather to feede the affections of Princes and contente their delites than to make them bolde to vtter vnto them the truthe They fill their heads with good words they are ready to claw afore they do itche they lull them a slepe with the harmonie of their false praises and fade them fatte with their owne faults in such sort that I know them at this day whose legs and feete can carie no more neither the force of their bodies hable to sustayne them vprighte neyther their handes sufficiente to write