were thought of some to be Incubi because they were so luxurious Hence many tooke occasion to authorise that for truth which is reported of Marlyn that he was begotten of a deuill but thys is better said then affirmed for whether it be so or no God onely knoweth and besides this vvhich I haue said he speaketh of many other particularities secrets that are amongst the deuils which in truth it is best not to know nor vnderstand for the knowledge of them can be no way profitable and may perchance be some way hurtfull BER If the deuill can doe that which this Marcus sayeth perchance Lactantius Firmianus tooke thence occasion to vvrite that folly of his saying that the authority of Genesis vvhich saith As the sonnes of GOD sawe the daughters of men which were beautifull they tooke them for wiues and had children by them is vnderstood by the Angels vvhom God held heere in the world so that he attributeth to thē bodies with which they conuersed with women and begot chyldren AN. Truly you may rightly terme it his folly for there cannot be a greater as both S. Thomas all the other Docters of Theologie affirme vnderstanding by the sons of God men that serued him walked in the way of righteousnes by the sons of men those that followed their owne lusts and pleasures not regarding that which they ought to doe for it were absurd to thinke that the Angels should pollute themselues with such filthines as the deuils doe who also doe it not because they therin receiue delight but because of the sin and and offence which they therin make men to commit ioyntly with them for they cannot in truth howsoeuer they fashion their bodies exercise any vitall operation though there want not some who say that the deuils come to be enamoured of women pursue them in loue with lust and desire but I esteem this to be a meere mockery for it the deuill at any time make a shew of loue the same is dissembled that which he only seeks is the destruction of the soule without hauing any other respect for verification of which I will tell you what I saw in the Iland of Cerdinia in the citie of Caliar where at that instant was handled the inquisition of certaine Witches vvho they said had confederation did cōmunicate with those of Fraunce Nauarre of which many not long before had bin sought out punished at that very time there was a beautifull young mayden of the age of 17. or 18. yeres old apprehended accused to haue acquaintance and fleshly conuersation with the deuill brought to the same by the allurements and entisements of one of these Witches The deuill vsed oftentimes to resort vnto her in the likenes of one of the most beautifull young gentlemen in the world vsing so sweete and comely behauiour that the poore wench became so vehemently enamoured and so deepely inflamed in his loue that of all worldly felicities she accounted his company to be the greatest but he when he saw his time and thought her to be sure enough his tooke such order that the matter was discouered and the mayden taken who persisted so obstinatelie against the perswasions of those that willed her to repent to craue mercy that it was wonderfull thinking surelie that the deuill woulde helpe her as he had promised perseuering in such ardant loue and affection towardes him that with her passionate speeches she amazed and moued to pitty those that heard her speake and for conclusion willingly suffered herselfe to be put aliue into the fire and burnt still in vaine reclaiming the promised assistance of her abhominable Louer loosing thereby both her body and soule which so easily shee might haue saued in dying Christianlike and taking patientlie with repentance her bodily death in this world LU. Trulie her end was most pittifull and lamentable yet farre better did another of which I haue heard beeing lykewise a young mayden rich beautifull of good parentage who with extreame and vehement affection became to be inamoured of a young Gentleman liuing in the same Tovvne where shee remained but for her reputations sake she couered so warily this secrete feruent affection of hers that it was neyther perceaued of the Gentleman himselfe nor of any man else the deuill onely excepted who seeing occasion offered whereby as he thought to procure her damnation tooke vpon him the likenes habite and gesture of the Gentleman offring vnto her his seruice and loue with such artificiall perswasions that after solemne promise of marriage he came to haue the vse of her body to which otherwise her chast desire woulde neuer haue consented after which hee frequented many nights her companie lying in naked bedde with her as if hee had beene indeede the Gentleman vvhose shape he tooke vpon him and with whose loue the mayden was so ardently enflamed In this manner passed ouer manie monthes the deuill alwaies perswading her not to sende him any messages because it was for some respects conuenient to keepe the matter for a while secret withall that she should not conceaue any vnkindnesse if seeing her in publique hee vsed no outward semblance of loue towards her aduising her also to vse in all poynts the like strangenesse towardes him preuenting heereby the inconuenience that might haue hapned if she should haue found herselfe in company with the supposed Gentleman The matter continuing thus it fell out that the Mother of this mayden gaue vnto her a booke of deuout prayers to read which she often perusing the deuill had no more power at all to come in place where she was nor to abuse her any longer because she ware the same continuallie about her necke Whereupon at the end of three Moneths shee wondring much at his absence and withall hearing that he I meane the supposed Gentleman courted another Gentlewoman entring into a most vnpatient iealousie shee sent him one day word that by any meanes he should com speak with her about a matter most important The Gentleman without vnderstanding the cause beeing full of curtesie and good behauiour awayting a time when her mother was out came and founde her alone and after hauing curteously saluted her demaunded what her pleasure was The mayden seeing him speake as one that scarcely knewe her bathing her face with teares in wordes full of griefe complayned of his strangenesse and forgetfulnesse asking him for what demerite of hers he had left her so long vnuisited The Gentleman astonished at this manner of speech aunswered her as a man amazed and vtterlie ignorant of her meaning whereupon kindled with exceeding choller shee began to threaten him that seeing he had despoyled her of that which she held dearest that he should not now thinke to cast her of and that if he would not of his owne accord accomplish the promise of marriage vvhich he had vowed vnto her shee would besides her complaints to God and the world
they may hope of them in time to come for if they sit fast without feare they nourish them with great care and diligence as of a noble inclination and deseruing to be cherished but if theyr courage faile or that they shew any demonstration of feare they send them to be brought vp in some barren places farre from them selues AN. I doe not so affirme these things for true that I thinke it deadly sinne not to beleeue them mary they are written by a man so graue and which in the rest of his works vsed such sincerity that truly me thinkes wee should doo him great wrong in not beleeuing him LV. I know not what to say that there should be no more notice in the world of a Country so fruitfull and a people so blessed especially seeing the Portugals haue sayled and discouered all the Coast of Aethiopia and India euen to the very Sunne rising where they haue found so many and so diuers Ilands that it should be almost vnpossible for any such Country to remaine vndiscouered AN. Meruaile not at this for the Portugals as you say haue not stirred out of the Coast of Affrica and India the farthest that they went being to the Iles of Molucco whence such store of spice commeth as for Taprobana Zamorra and Zeilan they are all adioyning Ilands neere to those Coasts but they neuer nauigated into the Ocean foure continuall moneths as these others did LV. You are deceaued heerein for in only Magellans voyage they sailed farther then euer any other Nation did and if there had beene any such miraculous people in the world they should then haue had knowledge of them as well as Pigafeta had of the Pigmees for they did not onely as you know discouer the Sea of Sur passing a Sea where in fiue or sixe moneths they neuer saw any land but also on the other side sailed within few degrees of the Southpole And besides this the 4000. Ilands which they discouered in the Archpelago towards the Sunne rising the most part of which are peopled and according to somes opinion are thought to be on the other side of the earth in none of which any such blessed people haue been found as you speake of AN. Though all this be as you say yet the world is so great and there is in it so much to be discouered that perchaunce they are in those parts which we know not thinges so strange and monstrous that if we saw them would make vs wonder a great deale more and giue vs occasion to bee lesse astonished at the others in respect of which peraduenture we should account these very possible and one day hauing more time we may discourse more particulerly of this matter BER I take this worde of yours for a debt marry I would now aske you which you holde for the greatest wonder in that people eyther their tongue so strangelie deuided that they speake differently and with diuers persons seuerall matters at one time or else in steede of bones to haue onely sinewes doubling their members euery way AN. The first I neuer heard of nor of any the like and therefore of the two I hold it for the stranger but the likelihoode of the second is authorised for true by many vvriters and chiefely by Varro who writeth that in Rome there was a Fencer called Tritamio of such exceeding strength that being bound hand and foot he wrestled with very strong men whom onely with pushing his body from one side to another he gaue such a blow that if he touched them they were in danger of their lyues the like force had a Sonne of his who was a man at Armes vnder Pompey the which without Arms went to fight with his enemy Armed whom taking by one finger he made him yeeld and brought him prisoner to the Campe. It is sayde that these two had not onely their sinewes at length like vnto other men but also thwart and croswise ouer all their whole body whence proceeded this their so miraculous strength There are many incredible thinges reported of the forces and strength of Milo which though they were without doubt supernaturall and miraculous yet were they in the ende the cause of his most miserable and disastrous death for putting his hands into the cleft of a great tree thinking to rent and split it forcibly thorough the same of a suddaine turned backe and closed with such violence catching entrapping and crushing his handes so miserably that beeing not able to pull them foorth and beeing farre from helpe and in a desolate place hee was there forced pittifully to finish his life and vnfortunate strength together cutting vp his body they found that the pipes of his armes and legs were doubled LU. Though the strength of Milo were so famous and renowned as you say yet were there in his time as diuers Authors make mention that exceeded him farre Elian writeth that there was one called Tritormo helde in such admiration for his strength that Milo thinking thereby the greatnesse of his fame to bee diminished and obscured sought him out and challenged him but at such time as they were to enter into combate Tritormo taking vppe a mighty peece of a Rocke so huge that it seemed vnpossible that anie humaine force should mooue it cast it from him three or foure times with such exceeding force and then lifting it vppe on his shoulders carried it so farre that Milo amazed at the strangenesse thereof cryed out O Iupiter and is it possible that thou hast brought an other Hercules into the vvorlde But whether this mans pipe bones were double or single no man knoweth BER I haue heard of some whose bones were whole sounde and massiue vvithout any marrowe in them as diuers vvrite of Ligdamus the Syracusan and that the same is the cause of greater force ANTHONIO I neuer savve any such but Pliny vvryteth thereof in these vvordes vvee vnderstande sayeth hee that there are certayne menne vvhose bones are massiue and firme vvithin in vvhome this one thing is to bee marked that they neyther suffer thyrste nor may at any time sweate As for thirste wee see it voluntarilie suppressed of diuers for there was a Romaine Gentleman called Iulio Uiator who beeing in his youth sicke of a certayne corruption betvveene the fleshe and the skinne was forbidden to drinke by the Phisitians vsing him selfe to which abstinance a vvhile hee kept it in his age without euer drinking any thing at all LUDOUICO This is a matter not to bee lette slippe but in the meane time lette vs returne to that of strength I saye therefore that the forces of Sampsonne were such that if the holy Scripture made not mention of them no manne would beleeue them so that wee maye also giue credite to that which is written of Hercules Theseus and other strong menne that haue beene in the vvorlde whose Histories are so common that it were to no purpose to rehearse them heere AN.
If thou be a right deuill quoth he returne me this stone again at which very moment the selfe same stone fel from the roofe of the house and hitte him on the brimme of his Hatte ouer his eyes and the stone was euidently knowne of them all to be the very same which hee had throwne ouer the other house so that the Magistrate with the rest of those that were there present with him departed out of the house with the greatest astonishment that might be and not long after there came thither a Priest of the little Tower of Salamanca who through certaine coniuration which hee wrought deliuered the house both of this throwing of stones and all other such like molestations LU. In good sooth I neuer heard of a merrier deuill but afore you passe any farther I will tell you of two thinges which both happened in this same Towne where we nowe are the one was of a young man that being a Studient in Salamanca came thence hither to see his mother beeing a widdow and was certified by the folkes of the house that there haunted in the same a Hobgobline vvhich at sundry times played twenty knauish pranks with those of the house which the Studient would by no meanes beleeue but laughed at the reports thereof and at last grew into choller with them because they persisted in the earnest affirmation thereof At night calling for a candell hee went to a chamber that vvas made ready for him and shutting to the doore layd himselfe downe to rest but waking within a little while he might see vnder his bed a light like vnto a little flame of fire at which lifting vp the cloathes and starting out of the bed he began to looke whence this fire might come but the same presently vanishing hee turned to his rest againe thinking surely that his eyes had dazeled but he had not line long when he perceaued a greater flame then the first to his seeming vnder the bed at which lifting the couerings of the bed fearefully vp and bowing downe his head very lowe to looke vnderneath the bed he was sodainly taken by the legges and pitcht topsie turuie ouer and throwne into the midst of the chamber where-with striken into a great amazement he cryed out as loude as he could for a candell which beeing brought and searching vnder the bed there was nothing at all to be found from which time forward the Studient acknowledged his error and was lesse obstinate in beleeuing that were Hobgoblins The other was of two Gentlemen which are nowe the chiefest in the Towne and our especiall friends who hearing of a Hobgobline that haunted a poore womans house holding the same for a iest would needes goe thither one night with a certaine Priest to search out the secret cause whence this report might arise comming thither and giuing no credite to the poore womans wordes of a sodaine one of them was striken a great blow vpon one of his iawes with a clod of stinking filthy clay of which he receaued no greater hurt but that it astonished him a little There fell also of this earth vppon others of their company and one of them was hitte a great blowe on the shoulder with a tile so that the Gentlemen and the Priest made as great hast as they could to gette thence not without great wonder and meruaile Not long after a Priest exorcising a vvoman that was possessed the deuill that was within her amongst other thinges confessed that it was hee that which had handled them the other night and that the same clay which hee threwe at them was out of a Graue and of a putrified body not throughly yet conuerted into earth But if wee will enter into speech of this kinde of spyrites wee shall neuer make an ende for there is nothing tolde of them so vnpossible but I beleeue the same seeing it is a thing so manifestly approoued that they canne take vppon them what shape or forme they list Leauing therefore this and passing to other poyntes of greater importaunce I pray you make mee vnderstande vvhether this opinion which many doe holde be true that when so euer any manne is possessed the soule of some one that is dead should enter into him and speake within him AN. In trueth you haue reason to seeke to be resolued of so ignorant an absurdity as this of theirs is vvho so euer mainetayne or thinke the same for though sometimes GOD permitte the soules departed for some especiall causes to returne vnto the vvordle yet dooth hee not permitte them to enter into a body vvhere is an other soule for two reasonable soules canne by no meanes abide in one body so that there cannot be a greater falsenes and errour then this for without doubt they are deuils and not soules as we may see by their casting forth which is done by the vertue of holy and sacred words at which time they vse their vttermost endeuour not to be constrained to goe into places where they cannot exercise their malice of which we haue in the Scriptures an example of him who being as Saint Luke saith in his eight Chapter possessed of a legion of deuils was deliuered of them by our Sauiour by whose permission they entred into a Heard of Swine which threw them selues immediatly downe the Rocks tumbling into the Sea LV. I would also gladly know what should be the cause that the deuils are so desirous to enter into mens bodies and can with such difficulty be cast out of them making there-vnto all resistance that they possibly may AN. To this question Psellius maketh aunswere and Gaundencius Merula also saying that though the deuils are enemies vnto men yet they enter into their bodies not so much with will to doe them hurt as with desire of a vitall heate and warmenes for these are such as doe enhabite the deepest and coldest places where the cold is so pure that it wanteth moistnes so that they couet places hote and moist searching all oportunities and occasions to enter into them so often as for some reasons which we vnderstand not God suffereth permitteth them so to doe And when they cannot enter into the bodies of mē they enter into those of other creatures where willingly they detaine themselues so long as they may and through the violent strength which the body by their entry receaueth happen these tremblings shakings and forcible motions which we see they vse that are possessed This kinde of deuils vse the spirit of the patient as their proper instrument and with his tongue speake and vtter what they list but if they be of those that flie the light and dwell in the profundities of the earth as the last and vtmost sort of those of the earth they make the patient deafe and dumbe like a blocke without vnderstanding as though hee were depriued of all his sences forces which he had before and this is the worst sort of all and with
other fortune then the will and prouidence of GOD which ruleth and gouerneth all things but when we will stretch our selues farther vvee may say that Fortune coÌ„senting in Natura naturans which is God himselfe is part of Natura naturata being his operations I say part because of the definition of Aristotle others who attribute no more to her then accidentall causes so that Nature working in all other naturall thinges Fortune is more straightly limited in her workes and is inferiour to Natura naturata and the selfe same is to be vnderstood of that which wee call Chaunce BE. In this manner there is none other Chaunce nor Fortune but onely the will and prouidence of God seeing that thereon depend all successes and chaunces as well prosperous as aduerse AN. You haue said the truth and so are the wordes of Lactantius to be vnderstood in his 3. booke De diuinis institutionibus which are thus Let not those enuie at vs to whom God manifested the truth for as we well know Fortune to be nothing c. Comming therfore to the conclusion of this matter I say that we imitate the Gentiles in vsing this name of Fortune Chaunce as they did adding thereunto Hap Mishap Good luck Bad luck Felicity and Infaelicitie in an inferiour degree as it were vnto them when in pure truth there is neither Chaunce nor Fortune in such sort as they vnderstoode them and as yet many Christians thorough ignorance vnderstand them but if any such Christian would set himselfe with Aristotle to examine and sifte out the cleere reason of Chaunce and Fortune I am assured he would come to confesse the same as he which knewe and vnderstood that there was a first cause by which the vvorld was ruled and gouerned that was the beginning and Ruler of all things and that Fortune differed not from the will of the same which is the very selfe from which we receaue all good and euill according to our deserts God willing or permitting the same as it best pleaseth his diuine Maiestie so that the good Christian ought not to say in any prosperous successe of his It was my good fortune or Fortune did thys for me but that God did this or this was done by the will permission of God And therefore though we speake vnproperlie as conforming our selues to the common vse in vsing the name of Fortune in our discourses and affayres yet let vs alwayes thereby vnderstande the will of God and that there is no other fortune BER I knowe that you coulde haue discoursed more at large of this matter if it had pleased you neither should we haue wanted arguments and replyes matter to dispute on but you haue done farre better in leauing out those superfluous arguments which woulde haue but troubled our wits in going so roundly to the matter touching onely that which is requisite fit for the purpose with such breuity compendiousnes that we both vnderstand it distinctly beare it perfectly in our memory Now therfore I pray you if it be not troublesome vnto you make vs vnderstand what thing is Desteny how when for what cause we are to vse this word in which I find no lesse obscurity theÌ„ in those before discoursed of AN. I was glad in thinking that I had made an end now me thinks you cause to begin anew but I will refuse no paine so that it please you to take the same in good part to haue patience in hearing mee I will vse as much breuitie as I possibly may because otherwise the matter is so ample and so much thereof to be said that I know you would be weary in hearing me in summe therfore I will briefly alledge that which maketh most to the purpose beginning first with the opinion of the ancient Philosophers hereof The Stoyicks said that Desteny was an agreement order of naturall causes working their effects with a forcible vneuitable necessity in such sort that they affirmed al prosperitie and all misery the beeing of a King begger or hangman to proceed from the vnauoydable necessity of Desteny Aulê° Gelliê° saith that a Philosopher called Chrisippê° maintained Desteny to be a perpetuall and inclinable order and chaine of things of the selfe same opinion was Seneca when he said I verily beleeue that Desteny is a strong and forcible necessity of all thinges and doings whatsoeuer which by no means or force may be altred so that all those of this sect attributed to Desteny all successes good and bad that hapned as though they must of force necessitie so fall out without any possibility to be auoyded or eschewed to which opinion the Poet Virgill conforming himselfe saith of Pallas To euery man is assigned a fixed time and desteny not to be auoided This vnineuitable order according to many of their opinions proceedeth of the force which the starres and Planets haue through their influence and operation in humaine bodies Boetius in his 4. booke of Consolation saith that Destenie is a disposition fastned to the mooueable things by which the Prouidence annexeth each of them with order and agreement and according to S. Thomas in his 3. booke Contra Gentiles by Disposition is vnderstood ordenance which being considered with the beginning whence it proceedeth which is God may be called Desteny alwaies referring it selfe to the diuine Prouidence for otherwise we may say the same selfe of Desteny which we said of Fortune that desteny is nothing but only a thing fained in the imagination of the Gentiles for a good Christian ought by no means to attribute any inclination successe in matters or estate of his to desteny truly it is a wicked Gentilicall kind of speech which we vse in saying when any thing hapneth our Desteny woulde haue it so or it was his desteny hee could not auoyde it for though perchance the wiser sort knowe their error in saying so only following the common vse yet the common people think as they speak that Desteny is indeed a thing forcible not to be shunned but must of necessity happen and fall out LV. It is passing true that you haue said and for confirmation thereof I will tell you a most true storie which hapned to my selfe in one of the cheefest Citties of this Kingdome Riding one day with certain other gentlemen into the fields for recreations sake towards the euening as we returned homewardes we sawe by the Townes side three men setting vp a poast vpon a little knap close by the high-way for one that was condemned to be strangled there the next day of which three the one as a Gentleman in our company told me pointing to him was the Hangman adding withall that it was pittie that hee had vndertaken so infamous a condition beeing a young man otherwise well qualified and a very good Scholler of which desiring to know the truth because it seemed vnto me strange I turned my horse and
THE SPANISH MANDEuile of Miracles OR The Garden of curious Flowers VVherin are handled sundry points of Humanity Philosophy Diuinitie and Geography beautified with many strange and pleasant Histories First written in Spanish by Anthonio De Torquemeda and out of that tongue translated into English It was dedicated by the Author to the Right honourable and reuerent Prelate Don Diego Sarmento de soto Maior Bishop of Astorga c. It is deuided into sixe Treatises composed in manner of a Dialogue as in the next page shall appeare AT LONDON Printed by I. R. for Edmund Matts and are to be solde at his shop at the signe of the hand and Plow in Fleet-streete 1600. A Table of the Contents of the sixe Treatises contayned in this Booke IN the first are contained many thinges woorthy of admiration which Nature hath wrought and daily worketh in men contrarie to her common and ordinary course of operation with other curiosities strange and delightfull The second containeth certaine properties vertues of Springs Riuers and Lakes with some opinions touching terrestriall Paradise and the foure Riuers that issue out from thence Withall in what parts of the world our Christian beleefe is professed The third entreateth of Uisions Fancies Spirits Ghosts Hags Enchaunters Witches and Familiars With diuers strange matters which haue happened delightfull and not lesse necessarie to be knowne The fourth discourseth what Fortune Chaunce is wherin they differ what lucke felicitie happines and destenie is and what the influence of the heauenly Bodyes import whether they are the causes or no of diuers mischances that happen in the world touching besides many other learned and curious poynts The fifth is a description of the Septentrionall Countries which are neere and vnder the North-pole and of the lengthning and shortning of the dayes and nights till they come to be sixe monthes long apeece and of the different rising and setting of the Sunne frō that it is heere with vs with other things pleasant and woorthy to be knowne The sixth containeth sundry wonderfull things that are in the Septentrionall Regions worthy of admiration To the Right Honorable Sir Thomas Sackuile Knight Baron of Buckhurst Lorde high Treasurer of Englande Lieuetenaunt of her Highnes within the County of Suffex most worthy Chauncelor of the Uniuersitie of Oxenford Knight of the noble order of the Garter and one of her Maiesties most honourable priuie Counsell LIfting mine eyes vp from out the low humble valley of my obscure fortunes vp to that bright shining eminent hill of Honour on which the fauour of her Maiesty the noblenes of your birth your many excellent vertues haue seated you I cannot Right honorable and my most singuler good Lord but lay a sharpe and rigorous censure vpon my own presumption that being though bounde to this flourishing Kingdome for my education yet a stranger borne and to your Lordship meerely vnknowne haue thus boldly aduentured to presse into your presence and to craue your honourable patronage to a worke whereof howe soeuer it deserue I cannot to my selfe challenge any prayse It was the first labour of a worthie Gentleman of your Lordships Countrey of Sussex one that doth much loue and honour you who did it for his exercise in the Spanish tongue and keeping it by him many yeeres as iudging it vtterly vnwoorthy of his owne name did lately bestowe the same vpon me with expresse charge howsoeuer I should dispose thereof to conceale all mention of him wherin I should haue doone both him and my selfe too much wrong in obeying him him in depriuing him of his deserued prayse for so worthy a worke my selfe in arrogating vnto me the glory of this discourse to the well handling of which in such exquisite manner as he hath done it I know my owne forces altogether weake and insufficient VVith all humblenes therefore I beseech your Lordshippe to vouchsafe your noble name for a protection of this my bold endeuour and with your accustomed gentlenes to pardon this rash attempt proceeding whollie from an infinite and vehement desire I haue to doe you all possible honour and seruice that the poorenes of my capacity or fortune can stretch vnto I beseech the Almightie to blesse your Lordship and my honorable good Lady with all your noble familie with all happinesse honor and length of life that you may long remaine a strong and happy piller of this glorious Common-wealth vnder the blessed gouernment of her most sacred Maiesty whom God long preserue London this 23. of Aprill 1600. Your Lordships most humble and deuoted Ferdinando Valker To the right VVorshipfull my vvorthy and esteemed Friende Lewes Lewkenor Esquire one of the honorable band of her Maiesties Gentlemen Pensioners in ordinarie THE famous Architect of Greece weary of his constrained abode in the Court of the Crotish tyrant finding all other endeuours vaine for his escape composed at length with singuler excellence of Arte two payre of artificiall winges made with borrowed feathers of sundry sorts which when he had cunning lie ioyned together vvith waxe hee fastened one payre of them to his owne body and another to his sonnes and so bequeating both himselfe and his sonne to the ayre began to take his flight but the audacious courage of the youth presuming to approach neere vnto the glorious rayes of the Sunne the waxe melted his feathers dissolued and he by his memorable fall and folly gaue name to the Seas wherin he perrished The case is mine and I cannot worthy Maister Lewkenor but with a great fordooming of my selfe attende the like or a greater downefall For hauing long striued beyond my forces to creepe out of the lothsome Caue of ingratitude wherein I haue so long lyen obscured and knowing all my owne abilities too weake to carry me thence I haue at length with these feathers which I haue borrowed frō you endeuoured to make my flight But I feare me much that my ill composition of them and my too much aduenturous presuming to flie with them being not myne owne shall no sooner appeare before the brightnesse of such a iudgement as yours but that all my tackling wil faile and my selfe be vnrelieuably throwne downe into the incurable gulfe of confusion ignorance and disgrace Onely my chiefest hope and comfort is that your gentle and alwayes best construing disposition to which onely I appeale will not entertaine the hardest conceite of thys my bolde and strange attempt Receaue therefore gentle Maister Lewkenor this poore Treatise hauing so many long yeeres lien obscured among your wast papers and lately by your cruell sentence condemned to the fire now with a milder conceit vnder your protection For though you thinke it vnworthy of the worlds view as beeing the fruite and exercise of your youngest yeeres yet I assure you it hath passed the censure of graue and learned iudgements and receiued excellent allowance thorough whose encouragements I haue presumed to giue it life and no longer to depriue the
furiously sallied dooing great hurt and damage in the Country killing and wounding the passengers and destroying the fruits laboured grounds Ixion seeing that the people hereby endamaged exclaimed vpoÌ„ him resoluing to take some order for the destruction of these Bulls made it be proclaimed that he would giue rich rewards great recompences to who so euer should kil any of them There were at that time in a Citty called Nephele certaine young men of great courage which were taught instructed by those of the same towne to breake tame horses to mount vpon their backs sometimes assailing and sometimes flying as neede required These vndertooke this enterpise to destroy these Bulls and through the aduantage of their horses the vertue of theyr own courage slew tooke daily so many of them that at last they cleared deliuered the Country of this anoyance Ixion accomplished his promise so that these young men remained not only rich but mighty formidable through the aduantage they had of other meÌ„ with this vse redines of their horses neuer till that time seen or known before They retained still the name of Centaures which signifieth wounders of Bulls They grew at last into such haughtines pride that they neither esteemed the King nor any man else doing what they list them selues so that beeing one day inuited to a certaine mariage in the towne of Larissa being wel tipled they determined to rauish the dames and Ladies there assembled which they barbarously accomplished rising of a sodaine and taking the Gentlewomen behind them on their horses riding away with theÌ„ for which cause the wars began betweene them the Lapiths for so were the men of that Country called The Centaures gathering theÌ„selues to the mountains by night came down to rob spoile stil sauing theÌ„selues throgh the swiftnes of their horses Those of the Countries there about which neuer til that time had seen any horsman thought that the maÌ„ the horse had ben all one because the town whence they issued to make their warres was called Nephele which is as much to say as a cloud the fable was inuented saying that the Centaures discended out of the clouds Ouid in his Meramorphosis entreateth hereof say that it was at the mariage of Perithous with Hypodameya daughter to Ixion he nameth also many of the Centaures by whoÌ„ this tumult was committed but the pure truth is that which Eginius writeth LV. It is no meruaile if the people in those dayes were so deceaued hauing neuer before seen horses broken tamed nor men sitting on their backs the strange nouelty whereof they could not otherwise vnderstand for proofe wherof we know that in the Ilands of the vvest-Indies the Indians when they first saw the Spaniards mounted vpon horses thought sure that the man and the horse had beene all one creature the feare conceaued through which amazement was cause that in many places they rendered themselues with more facillity then they would haue done if they had knowne the trueth thereof But withall you must vnderstand that the Auncients called old men also Centaures that were Tutors of noble mens Sonnes and so was Chiron called the maister of Achilles through which name diuers being deceaued painted him forth halfe like a man halfe like a horse BER I was much troubled with this matter of Centaures wherefore I am glad that you haue made me vnderstand so much therof but withall I would that Signior Anthonio would tell vs what his opinion is of Sea men for diuers affirme that there are such and that they want nothing but reason so like are they in all proportions to bee accounted perfect men as wee are AN. It is true indeede there are many graue sincere writers which affirme that there is in the Sea a kind of fish which they call Tritons bearing in each point the shape humane the female sort thereof they call Nereydes of which Pero Mexias in his Forrest writeth a particuler Chapter alleadging Pliny which sayeth that those of the Citty of Lisboa aduertised Tiberius Caesar how that they had found one of those men in a Caue neere to the Sea making musick with the shell of a fish but he forgot an other no lesse strange which the same Author telleth in these very wordes My witnesses are men renowned in the order of Knighthood that on the Ocean Sea neere to Calays they saw come into their shippe about night time a Sea man whose shape without any difference at all was humaine he was so great and wayed so heauy that the boate began to sinke on that side where hee stoode and if hee had stayed any thing longer it had been drowned Theodore Gaze also alleadged by Alexander of Alexandria writeth that in his time one of these Sea men or rather men fishes accustomed to hide him selfe in a Caue vnder a Spring by the Sea side in Epirus where young maydens vsed to fetch their water of which seeing any one comming alone rising vp hee caught her in his armes and carried her into the Sea so that hauing in this sort carried away diuers the enhabitants being aduertised thereof set such grins for him that at last they tooke him kept him some dayes They offered him meat but he refused to eate and so at length beeing in an element contrary to his nature died The same Alexander speaketh of another Sea-monster which Bonifacius Neapolitanê° a man of great authority certified him that he saw brought out of Mauritania into Spain whose face was like a man some-what aged his beard haire curled and glistring his complexion and colour in a manner blew in all his members proportioned like a man though his stature were somewhat greater the onely difference vvas that he had certaine finnes with the which as it seemed he diuided the water as he swamme LVD It seemeth by this which you haue sayd of these monsters that there should be in them a kinde of reason seeing the one entred by night into the Shyp with intention to doe it damage and the other vsed such craft in his embuscades to entrappe those women AN. They are some likelihoods though they conclude not for as we see that there are heere on earth some beastes vvith more vigorous instinct of nature then others and neerer approching to the counterfaiting gestures of men as for example Apes and such like so is there also in this point difference among the Fishes of the Sea as the Dolphins vvhich are more warie and cautelous then the others as well in doing damage as in auoyding danger for Nature hath giuen all things a naturall and generall inclination to ayde help theÌ„selues withall Olaus Magnus handleth very copiously thys matter of Tritons or Sea-men of which in the Northerne Seas he sayth there is great abundance and that it is true that they vse to come into little Shyps of which with their weight
a part of the vvorlde where the dayes and nights equally endured sixe moneths a peece AN. This is the inconuenience that those which haue seene and reade these strange and wonderfull secrets may not make relation of them but in presence of those that are learned wise and of cleare vnderstanding so that these matters which we haue heere priuately discoursed are not to be rehearsed before other men the grosnes of whose ignorance would account vs more grosse and ignorant and inuenters of fables and nouelties neyther should it auaile vs to alleadge witnesses for they will say they knowe them not who nor whence they are yea though they be such Authors as neuer wrote with greater grauity and credite But seeing it is now so late and that we haue spent so great a part of the night me thinks it were not amisse if we retired our selues for this shall not be the last time God willing that we will meete together LV. This our communication hath been long though for my part I could haue been contented that it should haue lasted till to morrow morning and therefore Signior Anthonio afore we depart I will take your word that we shall to morrowe meete heere againe in the euening AN. Assure your selues Gentlemen that I will not faile for the profite heere of is mine LV. The pleasure you haue already done vs is not small neither shall that be lesse which we hope to receaue to morrow The end of the first Discourse The second Discourse contayning certaine properties and vertues of Springs Riuers and Lakes with some opinions touching terestriall Paradice and the foure Riuers that issue out from thence withall in what parts of the vvorld our Christian beleefe is professed Interlocutores LVDOVICO BERNARDO ANTHONIO LU. WHat thinke you Signior Bernardo had I not reason in commending Anthonio to be a man most accomplished in letters and ciuility and of a most sweete pleasing conuersation BER Truly I little thought him to be so sufficient in discourse as I perceaued yesterday that he is of which seeing I nowe begin to tast the sweetnes I should be exceedingly glad that it were our happe according to promise to meete together againe to day for our time cannot in my opinion be better employed then in his company who vnlesse I be deceaued goeth far beyond a great many which presume themselues to be great and learned Clarks LV. Beleeue me in this one thing which I will tell you it is sildome or neuer seene a foole to be curious folly and vertuous curiosity being two things directly repugnant contrary for wise men procure alwayes to extend their knowledge farther esteeming that which they already knowe and vnderstand to be little or nothing but fooles whose vnderstanding reacheth not to thinke that there is any farther knowledge to be had then that which they vnderstand and comprehend within the grosse compasse of their owne barraine capacity imagine that all wisedome knowledge maketh there an end so that bounding there their definitiue conclusion they argue and dispute without willing yeeld to any thing more then that whereto the dulnes of their sence reacheth whereas the vvise man for much that he knoweth thinketh alwaies that there is an other that knoweth more and neuer wedding him selfe to his owne fancy nor trusting his owne opinion and iudgement remitteth him selfe alwayes to those of more vnderstanding and this is the cause wherefore they erre so sildome whereas the other blockish dull heads neuer iudge a right in any thing because trusting opiniatiuely to their owne wit they neuer perswade them selues that they are deceaued whereby they remaine continually in error BER This which you haue sayd is so true that I must needes yeeld there-vnto vnlesse I would shew my selfe as ignorant and wilfull as those which you speake of but Lupus est in fabula for if I be not deceaued yonder commeth Signior Anthonio I should be glad that hee came vnaccombred with other matters to the ende we might haue his conuersation a while as yesterday we had LU. Though it were with deere price to be bought wee should not permit the contrary AN. A better encounter then this I could not haue wished in meeting you both together for being three I feared that we should not all haue met so conueniently LV. Neyther are we lesse glad of our good hap in meeting you in this place hoping that it shall please you to fauour vs in prosecuting that good conuersation with the which you left vs yesterday so engaged AN. You shall finde me ready wherein it shall please you to commaund me BER Lette vs then if you thinke good vvalke a while amongst these Vines the fragrant greenes and spreading of whose pleasant branches yeeld an ayre nothing inferiour in freshnes to that which yesterday refreshed vs by the Riuers side and a little beyond is a delicate Fountaine where being wearied with walking we may rest and repose our selues it is enuironed round about with greene trees whose shaddowe will serue to defend vs from the scorching of the sunne which also now beginneth to decline AN. Let vs goe whether it shall please you for in truth such is the sweete and delectable freshnes and verdure of these fields that it reuiueth a man that beholdeth them and it may serue for a motiue to lift vp our minds and to be thankfull vnto God which hath for our vse created them BER If our care were as great to consider of this as his is to blesse vs with his benefites wee should without ceasing prayse his Name and bee continuallie busied in the contemplation of his glorious workes but see here the Fountaine place most commodious for vs to repose in LVD Well let vs then sit downe together for thys very Fountaine wil yeeld vs sufficient matter of admiration whose water we see spring out so perfectly pure and cleere that it runneth as it vvere cheerfully smyling amongst the peble stones the which parting with his course the sands it leaueth bare and naked procuring with his christaline freshnes thirst to the beholders inuiting them as it were to drinke AN. God hath giuen to many things different force and qualitie so that few or none are without theyr particuler vertues if wee were able to attaine to the knowledge of them but chiefely hath he enriched the water ouer and aboue the generall vertue as beeing one of the 4. Elements concurring in the generation of all things created with sundry proper and particuler gifts vertues and operations the diuersities of which by experience we finde in Riuers Springs Fountaines Ponds Lakes and Floodes the cause whereof is though the water be all one proceed wholy from one beginning originall that the Sea passing through the veynes and concauities of the earth taketh and participateth the vertue nature and propertie of the same earth and minerals through which it passeth whereof it commeth that some Springs are hote some cold some bitter som sweet
Beleeue me the vertues of the water are no lesse then theyrs for as the herbes sucke and draw theyr propertie and vertue out of the earth which nourisheth and produceth them yeelding moisture and sustenaunce to their rootes so likewise the water draweth to it selfe the propertie of the earth minerals through which it passeth participating with thē of their vertues which beeing so deepe in earth are frō vs hidden vnknown But I know not whether the vertue of a Spring which Aristotle writeth to be in Sycilia in the Country of the Palisciens proceede of thys cause for the misterie which it contayneth is farre greater and so sayth Nicholaus Leonicus that it is a thing verie hardly credible for he affirmeth the propertie thereof to be such that who so taketh a solemne oath and the same oath be written in Tables and cast with certaine solemnities into the Fountaine If the oath contained therein be true the Tables remaine floating aloft vpon the water but if it be false they sink incontinently downe to the bottome And he which tooke the same is burned presently in the place and conuerted into ashes not without damage many times of those that were present They called this the holy Fountaine and appointed the charge and custody thereof to Priests which suffered no man to sweare vnlesse that hee first put in sureties that hee would content him selfe to passe by this triall LV. I rather thinke that Aristotle and those that wrote heereof were deceaued then otherwise because we heare not at this present that there is any such Fountaine knowne in Sicilia if there had beene in times past any of such force and vertue the memory thereof would be farre more rife and famous then it is BER Let vs neuer trouble our selues with the triall heereof for in this sort we may say the like of all those others which we haue not seen AN. The selfe same Nicolaus Leonicus writeth of another Fountaine in the Country of the Elyans nere to the Riuer Citheros into the which all the water that ranne there out degorged There stood by this Fountaine a sacred house the which they constantly affirmed to haue beene the habitation of foure Nimphs Caliphera Sinalasis Pegaea and Iasis All manner of diseased persons that bathed them selues in this Fountaine came there out whole and sound The like is written of two other Riuers the one in Italy called Alteno and the other called Alfeno in Arcadia But of no lesse wonder then all the before rehearsed is that which is vvritten of the Lake in Scithia in the Country of the Dyarbes neere to the Citty Teos the which besides the meruailous plenty of fish in which it aboundeth hath a property most admirable for in calme and warme weather there apeareth aboue the vvater great aboundance of a kind of liquor like vnto oyle which the inhabitants in Baotes made for the same purpose skimme off from the vvater and apply the same to their vses finding it to be as good and profitable as though it were very oyle in deede There is likewise in the Prouince of Lycia nere a Citty called Pataras a Fountaine the vvater that floweth from which looketh as though it were mingled with blood The cause whereof as the Country men say is through one Telephus who washing therein his wounds it hath euer since retained the colour of blood But the likeliest is that it passeth through some veine of red clay or coloured earth vvith the which mixing it selfe it commeth forth stained with that colour the Author hereof is Nicolaus Leonicus And Athenaeus Naucratites sayeth that in an Iland of the Cyclades called Tenaeus there is a Fountaine whose water will agree by no means to be mingled with vvine alwayes howsoeuer it be mingled or poured with vvine into any vessell it remaineth by it selfe a part so that it is to be taken vp as pure vnmedled as when it was poured forth yea though all possible diligence were vsed to ioyne and mingle them LV. There be a great many that would be glad that all water were of this condition by no means brooking the mixture therof with wine as a thing that keepes them somtimes sober against their wils AN. You say truth but leauing them with their fault which is none of the least but one of the greatest foulest that may be in any man pretending to beare honour or reputation I say there is in the Iland of Cuba according to the relation of many which haue seene the same a Fountaine which poureth forth a thick liquor like vnto Tarre which is of such force that they cauke and pitch their ships withall in such sort that they remaine as firme dight against the entry of water as though they were trimmed with the best sort of Pitch that we doe heere vse in these parts BER I haue heard say that there is in the same Iland a great Valley the stones that are found in which are all so round as if they had by Art euery one beene fashioned in the same forme LV. Perchaunce Nature hath so framed them for some effect of the which wee are ignorant seeing that few or none of her workes are without some secrete mistery and as well may these stones serue to some vse as the liquor of that Fountaine but let vs heerewith not trouble Signior Anthonio from prosecuting his discourse AN. Solinus discoursing of the Iland of Cerdonia saieth that it containeth many wholsome vvaters Springs amongst the rest one whose water healeth all infirmity of the eyes withall serueth for a discouery of theeues for whosoeuer by oath denieth the theft which he hath cōmitted in washing him selfe with that water loseth incontinent his fight if so be that his oath be true his eye siight is therby quickned made more sharp liuely but whosoeuer obstinately persisteth in denying his fault remaineth blind for euer But of this Fountaine there is now no notice at all for I haue beene long resident in that Iland during which time I neuer heard any such matter Many the like vnto these are written of by diuers Authors the which for their vncertainty I wil not weary my self in rehearsing only I wil tell you of a Lake which is in the Spanish Iland called S. Domingo in a mountaine very high vninhabited The Spaniards hauing conquered that Country found round about this mountaine no habitation of people through the cause of a hideous noise which was therein continually heard amazing making deafe the hearers therof the hiden cause secret mistery wherof no man being able to comprehend three Spaniards resolutly deliberated to goe vp into the height thereof to discouer if it were possible the occasion whence this continuall roaring proceeded so that prouiding them selues of all things necessary for the difficulty ragged sharpnes of the way being ful of craggy rocks shruby trees bushes
Generall flood it should be destroyed and ouerthrowne the selfe same consideration may serue for this of the Riuers not without proofes very euident and agreeable to reason for if it were destroyed with the Flood euen as it pleased God to permit the vndooing thereof so would hee also ordayne that all signes and markes of the same shoulde cease to the end that the peoples dwelling in the prouinces and borders thereabout shoulde haue no knowledge at all thereof that it should be no longer necessary for the Cherubin to remaine in garde thereof with a fierie Sworde as till that time hee had done But before wee come to handle the principall causes you shall vnderstande that there are some who holde opinion that all these foure Riuers rise neere the Land of Heden and come to ioyne in the same Leauing therefore a part Tygris and Euphrates because that of them seemeth in a manner verified as for Ganges the course therof is not so contrarie but that it may well meete where the other riuers doe and that any inconuenience eyther of lownes or highnes of the earth might bee sufficient to diuert or to cause the same to runne where it now doth But this is an argument that neyther concludeth nor carrieth any reason withall As for the Riuer Nilus they goe another way to worke saying that it is not the same which in the holy Scripture is called Fison for there are two Ethiopias say they the one in Affrica which is watred with Nilus the other in the West Indies in Asia beginning from the coast of Arabia folowing along the coast of the Ocean sea towards the East the which may be vnderstood by the holy Scriptures who call those of the Lande of Madian neere to Palestina Ethiopians Sephora also that was wife to Moises beeing natiue of that region was called Ethiopesse And with this agreeth a Glosse written in the margen of Caetano his discourse vppon thys matter by Anthonio de Fonseca a Frier of Portugall and a man very learned so that Fison may well be some Riuer of these which watereth this Country first discending by the Lande of Heden comming from the same to enter into the Ocean as Tygris and Euphrates and many other deepe riuers doe in the same maner may it be coniectured that Gion should bee some one of these riuers the one and the other through antiquity hauing lost theyr names and that it is not knowne because it cannot perfectly be prooued whether of these two Ethiopias is meant by the holy Scripture Aueneza saith it is a thing notorious that the Riuer Gion was not far from the Land of Israell according to that which is written in the third booke of Kings Thou shalt carry it into Gion although there be other Authors that vnderstande not Gion to be a Riuer but to be the Lake Siloe or else a Spring so called If that Gion were Ganges it is manifest that it runneth not so neere vnto Israel as it is heere said S. Isidore entreating of this matter sayeth that the Riuer called Araxes commeth out of Paradise which opinion is also maintained by Albertus Magnus Procopius writeth of another Riuer called Narsinus whose streame issueth from thence neere to the Riuer Euphrates some thinke that these are Gion and Fison though at this time their waters runne not through the same Lands These are the opinions of Ecclesiasticall Doctors labouring to discusse and sift out the truth of this secret But leauing them all I will tell you my opinion partly agreeing with Eugubinus and his followers that when it pleased God to drowne the whole worlde in time of the Patriarch Noe with a vniuersall flood mounting according to the sacred Text fifteene cubits in height aboue all the mountaines of the earth the same must of necessity make and vnmake change alter and ouerturne many things raysing valleyes abating mountaines altering the Deserts discouering many parts of the earth vnseene before and couering drowning many Citties and Regions which from thence forth remained vnder the water ouerwhelmed in the Sea or couered with Ponds and Lakes as we know that which without the flood happened to Sodome and Gomorrha with the rest which after they were burnt did sinke with them And we see oftentimes in the swelling and ouerflowing of great Riuers whole Countries drowned and made like vnto a Sea yea and sometimes mighty Riuers to lose their wonted passage and turne and change their course another way farre different from the first If I say the violent impetuosity of one onely riuer suffice to worke these effects What shall we then thinke was able to doe the incomparable fury and terrible swinging rage of the generall and vniuersall flood In the which as the same Text sayth all the Fountaines and Springs of the earth were broken vp by their bottomes and all the Conduits of heauen were opened that there might want no water eyther aboue or beneath If then the Springs so brake vp it could not be but that some of them were changed and passed into other places different from those in which they were before theyr streames scouring along through contrary wayes and veines of the earth In like manner might it happen to those which entered into terestriall Paradise issued forth to water those Lands named in the holy Text which eyther through the falling downe of huge mountaines and rocky hills or filling vp of lowe valleyes might be constrained to turne their streames farre differently to their former course or else by the permission and will of GOD which would haue vs to be ignorant of this secrete they changed their Springs and issues by hiding and shutting them selues in the bowels of the earth and running through the same many thousand miles and at last came to rush forth in other parts farre distant from those where they were before neyther passed they onely vnder a great quantity of Lands enhabited and vninhabited but the very Sea also whom they hold for mother Spring whence they proceede hideth them vnder her to the ende that they might returne to issue foorth where they were not knowne or if through some cause they were it should be vnto our greater admiration and meruaile as now it is Neyther wonder you at all if the generall flood wrought so great a mutation in the world for there haue not wanted graue men who affirme that the whole world before the time of the flood was plaine and leuell without any hill or valley at all and that by the waters thereof were made the diuersities of high and lowe places and the seperation of Ilands from firme Land And if these reasons suffice not let euery man thinke heerein what shall best agree with his owne fancy for in a mistery so doubtfull and secrete we may as well misse as hit and so S. Augustine thinking this to be a secret which God would not haue knowne but reserues it to himselfe saith that no
vnderstand by another example of the said Alexander who sayeth that a certaine Monke called Thomas with whom he was familiarly acquainted beeing a man euer after this accident of a most holy and approued good life who being resident in a Monastery neere vnto the Citty of Luka being situated amongst certaine mountaynes falling one day out with some other of the Monkes and mooued with an exceeding passion of choller went furiously out of the Cloyster with determination to absent himselfe from thence for euer and to goe liue in some other part as he was thus trauersing the thickest of the mountaine hee met with a great tall man of a tawnie Sunne-burnd complexion with a long blacke beard rowling eyes and his garment hanging downe to the ground After hauing saluted him the Moonke asked him whether he went that way seeing the same was no beaten or vsuall path The other aunswered him that hee followed a horse of his which was broken loose and had strayed ouer those mountaines into certaine meddowes on the other side so that they went on together talking till they came to a Riuer at the foote of the mountaine which because the same was very deepe and full of great pits they went along the side thereof seeking a Foord or passage till at last comming to a certaine place which seemed passable the Moonke would haue puld off his hose and shooes but the other would by no meanes suffer him so to doe saying that he was tall strong enough to carry him safely ouer on his shoulders in which perswasion he was so earnest that make the Monke what excuse he could he trussed him halfe perforce vp vpon his sholders at which instant looking downward he chanced to spie his Ferrymans feete not hauing seene them till then which were of a farre different making from those of other mens so that entring into some suspition hee would faine haue losed himselfe but he could not for the other began to wade with him into the deepest of the streame vvhere-vpon fearing it to be as in truth it was he began with great inward deuotion to commend him selfe to God and to call vpon the blessed name of Iesus for helpe at which very instant the other who was the deuill indeede threw him downe on the shoare of the Riuer vanishing presently away vvith so horrible a noise and tempest that the very sands of the Riuer were turned vpsie downe and the Oakes that grew vpon the banks were torne vppe by the rootes and the poore Moonke left in a traunce halfe dead who so soone as he reuiued and came to him selfe returned penitently to his Cloyster giuing thankes vnto GOD for the danger out of which hee had deliuered him BER To make recitall of all such like things as happen in the vvorlde were to beginne an endlesse and infinite worke for the deuils though they lost grace yet lost they not theyr naturall vertue as Anthonio de Florencia vvryteth so that if the same vvere not restrayned through the vvill of GOD they coulde vvorke many greater hurtes and damages then those which they doe AN. According to the saying of S. Paule they cannot onely take vpon them such formes of bodies as we haue said but they can also transforme them selues into Angels of light to deceaue vs which they would each moment put in practise as sometimes they doe were not their power suppressed and preuented which God doth somtimes by his only will and somtimes by a third person as that of the deuill which vnder the habite of a very beautifull and wise woman dined with a Bishop who was deliuered from destruction by S. Andrew the Apostle cōming to demaund almes of him like a Pilgrime by aunswering a question proposed to him by the deuill which was how far distant the heauen was from the earth Thou shouldst better know then I answered S. Andrew because thou hast falne from thence where-with the deuill finding him selfe discouered vanished presently But it is to no purpose to detaine our selues in these examples because there are whole volumes full of them and Saint Gregory in his Morrals rehearseth many notable thinges which they may reade that desire to know them BER For all this I must needs tell you one by the way which hath been told me for a matter vndoubted and most assuredly true of one Don Anthonio de la Cueua a Gentleman passing well knowne in this our Country nowe lately dead vvho by Gods permission for some cause to vs vnknowne was while he liued often tempted and vexed with visions and fantasies so that in continuance of time he began not to feare them though hee accustomed to haue all night long continually a candell burning by him in the chamber where he slept One night amongst others lying in his bed and reading of a booke he might heare a great rumbling vnder the bed and as he lay imagining what the same might be he perceaued come from vnder the bed close by the bed side an arme and hand seeming to be of a naked Blackamoore which taking the candell turned it downwards in the candlestick and put it forth and at that very instant offered to come into the bed to him which he endeuoring to refist the blacke Moore or rather deuill grasped him by the armes he him likewise beginning to wrestle and strugle together with such force and making so great a noyse that the seruaunts of the house awaked who comming into the Chamber to knovve what the matter was found Don Anthonio de la Cueua alone in such a heate and sweating as though he had newly come out of a Stew or Hothouse who declared vnto them the particularitie of this accident and withall that so soone as they began to enter into the Chamber the vision vntwynged himselfe from him so that he knew not what was becom thereof LUD At one thing I doe much wonder which I haue often heard to be affirmed for truth that the deuils also are Incubi and Succubi taking oftentimes to that ende the shape likenes sometimes of men sometimes of women ANT. This is affirmed by many Authours For their malice is so great that they will not stick to commit the greatest abhomination and wickednes that may be so that ioyntly they may procure and cause men to commit it with them Caelius Rodiginus saith that there was in Greece a man called Marcus naturall of Cafronesus vvho had great familiaritie with deuils for which cause he liued alwaies solitary conuersing little with other men This man vttered many of the deuils secrets of which this of the Incubi and Succubi was one and many other that for theyr filthines and abhomination are not to be spoken of but according to his confession all the deuils doe not vse this execrable offence but those onely who are neere vnto vs and doe forme theyr bodies of a grosse substance as of water or earth Saint Augustine saith that the Satyres and Faunes
doe her vttermost diligence to constraine him perforce to that whereto by his most solemne protestation hee was bound The Gentleman strooken heerewith into greater admiration then before aunswered her that he thought her not to be in her right sences for neuer in his life had he promised marriage nor once spoken to her in secret neyther was of meaning to satis-fie anie such demaund of hers The poore vvench welnigh out of her wits after infinite exclamations calling heauen and earth to witnes began perticulerly to recite vnto him all such thinges as had passed betweene her and the deuill asking him how he could be so impudent to deny the same she mingled with threatning teares wishing him to haue the feare of Gods vengeance before his eyes The Gentleman with great confusion began to blesse himself protesting vnto her by the most solemne sort of oaths he could that she was deceaued and that of this matter hee knew nothing at all Oh God quoth shee and howe is this possible doe you not remember that on such a very day to mee most vnfortunate naming a great feastiuall day you sware and vowed to accomplish with mee the holy estate of marriage in the open face of the Church which you said you were constrained to deferre as yet for some respects But he hauing heere no longer patience to the end quoth he that you shal fully and plainly perceaue your owne error I will by sufficient information and vnrefusable witnesses proue vnto you that I was not in this Towne the day you say neither 20. dayes before nor 20. dayes after if any man therefore in my name haue deceaued you I am not to be blamed and to the end shee might be the better resolued he sent incontinently for seauen or eight persons of credite as well of his house as others which without knowing the cause wherfore solemnly swore and declared that this Gentleman had beene the very day and all the time mentioned absent in another Towne aboue fifty leagues from thence The young Mayden remained confused and ashamed as well for this as for other particuler things passed betweene her the deuill which seemed to her impossible to haue beene done by any humaine man so that her iudgement waxing clearer she nowe began to suspect this her detestable Louer to be him who indeed he was and there-vpon entring into a wonderfull deepe repentance and vtterly giuing ouer the world shee placed her selfe in a Monastery where shee continued most deuoutly the rest of her life in Gods seruice BER She tooke in my iudgment the best and surest course both for her owne saluation and to reuenge her selfe of the iniury receaued by her enemy But seeing you haue set vs in this matter I pray you tell vs what power and authority they haue ouer the deuill that vse and exercise the Art of Negromancie for it is manifest that Negromancers and Witches constraine the deuils make them perforce obey and accomplish their commaundements and many also carry them bound and enclosed in rings boxes little viols and many other things applying their helps to such vses as they themselues will and such deuils they commonly call Familiars AN. It cannot be denied but that there is such an Art called Negromancie vsed in old times by faithfull and vnfaithfull and now in these our dayes also by diuers But this Art may be exercised in two sorts the first is naturall which may be wrought through things whose vertue property is naturall to doe them as hearbs plants and stones and other things as the planets constellations and heauenly influences and this Art is lawfull and may without scruple or offence be vsed and practised of those that can attaine vnto the knowledge of their hidden properties and such is that of which S. Thomas writeth in his Treatise De ente et essentia though some doubt whether the same be his or no where he alleageth that Abel the Sonne of Adam made a booke of all the vertues properties of the planets which foreknowing that the world should perish through the generall flood he enclosed so cunningly in a stone that the waters could not come to corrupt the same whereby it might be preserued and knowne to all people This stone was found by Hermes Trismegistus who breaking it and finding the booke therein enclosed profited wonderfully by applying the contents thereof to his vse which booke comming afterwards to the hand of S Thomas it is said that he did there-with many great experiences amongst the which one was that being sicke and troubled with the noise of Beastes and carriages that passed through the streete remedied that trouble by making an Image such as the booke prescribed him which being buried in the streete none of all the Beasts had power to passe thereby but cōming thither staid or went backward not being by any man to be constrained to do the contrary He also telleth of a certaine friend of his who by the selfe same booke made an Image putting the which into a Fountaine it caused all such vessels as touched the water thereof presently to breake which came by obseruations of certaine houres and points in working of those Images of which they tooke great reckoning and heede to the end that the planets might the better vse their influences in working those thinges which seemed supernaturall The vse of all this is so lawfull that there is nothing to be sayde to the contrary The other kinde of Negromancie or Art Magique is that which is vsed and practised through the helpe and fauour of the deuill which hath beene of long time as we know exercised in the world And of this the holy Scriptures giue vs sufficient testimony as well in the old Testament speaking of the Magitians of Pharaoh who contended with Moyses and Aaron as in the new Testament in the Acts of the Apostles making mention of Simon Magus rebuked by S. Peter and besides to satisfie your demaund you must vnderstand that the deuils may also be forced and constrained by the good Angels and this is because of the grace which the one lost and the other as yet retaine But leauing a-part the examples vvhich wee finde in the newe Testament of that which our Sauiour Christ as very GOD and manne wrought with them Let vs come to the Apostles and Saints who by the vertue of wordes and in the onely name of Iesus made them obey and accomplish all that which they commaunded them But the Magitians neyther by themselues neyther by their wordes Characters or signes haue power or force to constrayne the deuills to any thing howe so euer they persvvade them selues to the contrarie vvhich because you shall fully vnderstand to be so you must knowe that none canne vse or exercise this Arte of Negromancie vnlesse hee first make a secrete agreement or expresse couenaunt vvith the deuill and such deuilles vvith vvhom they deale in these couenauntes are not of the
novve speake vvith povver and vertue to heale a griefe so pestilent and raging as that of the byting of a madde Dogge of which kind of cure to the end you may better vnderstand the manner I will tell you what happened to my Father when he was a young man As he trauailed one day by the way he was set vpon by a fierce Mastiue by whom make what defence he could he was bitten through the boot into the legge of which making small account because it went not deepe into the flesh he caried the hurt about him three or foure daies without complaining of the same the fourth day passing by a Chappell and hearing the bell ring to Seruice hee lighted off his horse and stayed to heare the same which being done as he was comming forth of the Chappell he was encountred by a Husbandman who saluting him demaunded if hee had not beene lately bitten by a mad dogge My Father told him he had beene indeede bitten of a dogge demaunding of him the cause why he was so inquisitiue thereof in good faith sir quoth the Husbandman laughing you may thanke God that it hath pleased him to guide and conduct you into this place for this dogge by whom you are bitten was mad and if you should remaine nine dayes without helpe there were no other way with you but death and for the more assurance that I tell you the truth the dogge had such and such markes all which my Father acknowledging to be most true entring into some amazement the other bad him be of good comfort telling him that hee had the gift of healing that disease and if it pleased him to stay a day or two in the Village hee would helpe him My Father accepting courteously his offer went home with him to his house where hee presently blessed him and all that euer he did eate with certaine words and signes and so likewise once againe after meate towards the euening he tolde him that if he would be cured he must patiently endure three pricks in the nose to which my Father being in extreame feare willingly consented bidding him vse his pleasure where-vpon in presence of many the principallest men of the Village he tooke a sharpe pointed knife and prickt him three times on the nose wringing gently out of each pricke a drop of blood which he receaued in a little sawcer each drop by it selfe and then washt his nose with a little white vvine which was also charmed after which entertayning themselues in talke about halfe an howre they lookt on the bloode which was in the sawcer still remaining in theyr sight without beeing remoued and they found in euery drop a liue worme bubling therein which the Charmer shewing vnto my Father sayd be of good cheere sir for here is all the hurt that the dogge hath done you but assure your selfe you should haue runne mad and dyed if your good hap or rather God had not guided you this way giue God therfore thanks and depart when you please My Father requiting him in the thankfullest manner he coulde tooke the next morning his leaue and went on his way As for this man that helped him though it might be that God had giuen him some perticuler gift vertue yet for my part I rather mistrust that he went not the right way because hee could so readily tell the colour and tokens of the dogge LVD Whatsoeuer he was your Father had good hap in meeting with him But now seeing it waxeth late and wee haue so long discoursed of the manners and waies whereby the deuill seeketh to deceaue vs and to leade vs to perdition I pray you resolue mee in one doubt which remaineth the which is in what sort they tempt men in theyr sleepe AN. If you will reade Anthonio de Florencia you shall there finde so many diuers meanes and wayes by the which he compasseth vs about with temptations that to recite them all we had need of farre longer time then at this present vve haue but amongst the rest this one is most vehement and of great force which he suggesteth to vs in our sleepe representing in our fantasie those thinges in which we take delight such as are pleasing to our humors and appetites especiallie making vs dreame lasciuious Dreames and tempting vs so farre with filthy and carnall lust that he prouoketh vs oftentimes to pollutions To others he representeth in their sleepe great treasures and riches to the end that waking they might be stirred with desire of them and haue their thoughts and imaginations busied about thē leauing matter of better meditation But his malice is not alwaies herewith contented for sometimes it tendeth farder prouoking vs in our sleep to cōmit follies wherby we may lose both body and soule at once which to the end that you may the better vnderstand I will tell you what chaunced to a very principall gentleman of this countrey whose surname was Tapia whom beeing a boy I knew passing well This gentleman had so strange a condition in his sleep that he arose diuers nights sleeping out of his bed and went vp and downe the house from place to place without waking for which cause least hee might thereby come to receaue some mischiefe his seruaunts accustomed to set euery night a great shallowe tub of water by his beds side for it is a thing approoued that whosoeuer is troubled vvith this passion awaketh presently in touching the colde vvater It hapned one night among the rest that his seruants hauing forgotten to sette this vessell as they vsually accustomed that beeing in the hotest season of the Sommer thys Gentleman arose sleeping out of his bedde with the greatest agonie that might be to goe swimme in the Riuer whereupon casting about him a cloake ouer his shirt he went out of his chamber and vnbolted the doore of the house making as fast towards the Riuers side as he could comming to the townes end he met with another companion to whom demaunding of him whether he went at that time of night he made answer that he felt such an extreame heate in his body that he was determined to goe refresh coole himselfe in the Riuer I could neuer haue mette with a fitter companion sayde the other for I am also going thither for the same occasion of vvhose company Tapia beeing glad they went on together till they came to the Riuers side where as Tapia hauing put of his cloake and his shirt and was ready to enter into the vvater the other fell a scoffing and iesting at him as at one that knew not hovve to swimme vvhich he taking in ill part because he was therein very expert and cunning aunswered in choller that he would fwymme with him for as much for what wager soeuer he dared aduenture against him to the contrarie that shall be soone seene quoth the other whither your cunning be such that you dare boldly performe as much as you say and
somewhat difficill yet not so much as you make it for they were not inuented without cause or without contayning vnder them a signification which oftentimes is manifested vnto vs by the effect and sequell of such aduentures and chaunces as doe happen vnto vs. LU. It were not amisse in my opinion seeing wee haue happened on a matter so subtile and disputable if we endeuoured to vnderstand what might be sayde as concerning it for wee cannot passe the conuersation of this euening in a matter more pleasant or more necessary to be knowne then this and therefore sir you cannot excuse your selfe to take the paines to satisfie vs in this of which we are so ignorant and contayneth therein so many doubts AN. Though in respect of my small vnderstanding I might iustly excuse my selfe yet I will not refuse to satisfie you in this or any thing else whereto my knowledge and capacity extendeth on condition that you will not binde me any farther or expect more at my handes If I shall erre in any thing lette it remaine onely amongst our selues as in our former conuersations it hath doone for this matter being so farre from my profession I feare mee I shall not bee able to say all that vvere necessarie and behoouefull for the good vnderstanding thereof BER Greater should bee our error in leauing to reape the fruite of your learned conuersation and therefore without losing any more time I pray you deferre it no farther AN. Well to obey you then I will begin according to the common order with the definition of Fortune which Aristotle writing in his second booke De Phisicis Cap. 6. sayeth in this sort It is a thing manifest that Fortune is an accidentall cause in those things which for some purpose are done to some end Vppon the woordes of this Definition all the Phylosophers that haue vvrytten Glosses vppon Aristotle doe spende much time and many reasons vvith great alterations and argumentes the vvhich differing one from an other I vvill forbeare to recite least vvith the rehearsall of them I shoulde confounde your vnderstanding and beginne an endlesse matter I vvill therefore onely say that vvhich in my opinion I iudge fittest for the purpose and most materiall to satisfie your desire for your better vnderstanding I vvill therefore beginne vvith that vvhich in Humanitie is helde and vvritten as concerning Fortune and then vvhat in Phylosophie is thought thereof and lastlie vvhat vvee that are Christians ought to thinke and esteeme in true Diuinitie in deede Touching the first of the Gentiles as they erred the groslyest that might be without all reason and sence in all things concerning their Gods so without any foundation or ground faigned they Fortune to be a Goddesse dominating and hauing power ouer all things as writeth Boetius in his first booke of Consolation so that as well in Rome as in other places they builded and dedicated vnto her temples in which she was worshipped and adored of the which and of the founders of them many Authors make mention as Titus Liuius Pliny Dionisius Halycarnaseus Plutarch and Seneca The Praenestins a people of Italy held and adored her for the chiefest Goddesse and Protectresse of their Common-wealth but omitting this as not making much to the purpose I will tell you the diuers sorts and manners where-with they figured her forth in their temples Some paynted her like a franticke vvoman standing with both her feete vppon a rounde ball others with great wings and no feete giuing thereby to vnderstand that shee neuer stoode firme others fashioned her with a head touching the cloudes and a Scepter in her hand as though shee vniuersally gouerned all things in the world Others sette in her hand Cornucopia or the horne of aboundance shewing thereby that from her we receaue all both our good and euil Some made her of glasse because it is a mettall so easily crazed and broken but the most vsuall manner of painting her was with a wheele in her hand continually turning the same vp downe her eyes being blindfolded and mufled wherby it might appeare that hee which was in the height of all prosperity with one turne of the wheele might easily come vnder and be cast downe and likewise those vnderneath and of base estate might easily be mounted vp into higher degree Others thought it good to picture her like a man and therefore made vnto him a particuler temple Diuers also paynted her sayling by Sea vpon the backe of a great fish carrying the one end of a sayle puffed with a full winde in her hand and the other vnder her feet deciphering as it were thereby the fickle and dangerous estate of Saylers seafarers and hence as I take it proceedeth that common phrase of speech that when any man hath passed great tempest and danger by sea we say Corrio fortuna as though Fortune had medled with the matter Besides these they deuised and figured her forth in many other shapes with a thousand rediculous toyes and imaginations the cause of which diuersitie of formes attributed vnto her was because shee vvas a thing onely imagined and not knowne in the world as vvas Ceres Pallas Venus Diana and their other Goddesses so that they described her by gesse imagination according to the conceits inuentions of their own fancies some of which were passing grosse ridiculous and absurd LU. I haue not seene any picture of Fortune that pleaseth mee better then that in a table of your inuention where you paynt her vvith the wheele of which you spake in her hand holding her eyes betweene open and shut with a most strange and vncertaine aspect placing vnder her feete Iustice and Reason wearied and oppressed in poore ragged and contemptible habites lamenting in sorrowful gesture the iniury they receaue in being held in such captiuity slauery on the one side of Fortune standeth Pleasure and on the other Freewill both beeing pompously attired with rich and beautifull ornaments each of them holding in her hand a sharpe Arming-sworde seeming with angry gesture to threaten them some great mischiefe if they ceased not their complaints I leaue the other particularities thereof but it appeareth well that her effects are better knowne vnto you then they were to diuers of those Auncients AN. That liberty which they had in their imagination may I also haue to describe her properties and conditions seeing she obserueth neither Reason nor Iustice in her actions but oppresseth and banisheth them in a manner out of the world gouerning herselfe by her owne will pleasure without order or agreement as Tully writeth in his booke of Diuination There is nothing sayth he so contrary to Reason Constancie as Fortune and therefore the Ancients termed her by so sundry Names calling her blind franticke variable vnconstant cruell changeable traytresse opiniatre without iudgement besides infinite other foule Epithetes and ignominious names alwaies accusing and condemning her as vvicked light inconstant mutable
and inconsiderate BER This was a gentle Goddesse that would suffer her selfe to be so handled of mortall men because shee did not whatsoeuer they desired conforming herselfe wholy to their inclinations humours and appetites They might by thys haue perceiued that her power was not so great as that which was attributed vnto her AN. When theyr affaires succeeded prosperously then they praysed and adored her vvith great honours and thanksgiuings and endeuoured to please her with great and sumptuous sacrifices and so as I sayd they builded vnto her temples with sundry names and titles according to their good ill successes of which though the greater part was for the prosperous euent of theyr doings yet diuers also were founded and entitled of euill and aduerse fortune in which shee was worshipped with no lesse reuerence then in the others especially of those which feared aduersitie or tribulation growing towards them verily perswading thēselues that the same proceeded frō her and therfore through sacrifice and humble prayers they endeuoured to appease her to the end she might alter change her determination LV. In this manner they made two seuerall Goddesses of prosperous and aduerse fortune for otherwise in allovving her to be but one how being good could she be euill or how being euill could shee be good For that should be expreslie contrary to the opinion of all the old Philosophers who held that the Gods were Gods through theyr vertue and goodnesse as Tully in his nature of the Gods diuine Plato and all the rest of the graue and learned sort BER They dyd in this as diuers Gentils doe now adayes in sundry parts and prouinces of India Maior who as you Signior Anthonio in our discourse three dayes since told vs thought they know the deuill to be the worst and wickedst thing that euer was framed by the hand of God yet doe they make vnto him temples adoring him with great deuotion and solemne sacrifice being asked why they doe so they aunswer that therby they hope to please win and content him to the end hee should not hurt or anoy them LU. This is like that of the old woman which setting candles before all the Images in the church set one also before the deuill which S. Bartholmewe held bound and beeing asked why shee did so she aunsvvered because the Saints shoulde helpe her and the deuill not hurt her AN. Her meaning perchaunce was good and simple deceaued onely through ignorance but returning to our purpose the Gentiles helde and worshipped good and euill Fortune as the onely Goddesse and giuer of all good euill of all aduersity and prosperitie of all successes as vvell fortunate as vnfortunate of riches pouertie glory and miserie and they esteemed of her and named her according to the good and euill effects which she wrought and finally euery one spake of her according to the benefits and domages receaued from her hand Of the one she was loued and of the other feared Emperours Kinges and Princes helde her picture in theyr secrete chambers and withdrawing places recommending themselues and theyr affayres vnto her hoping thereby that all things should betide them according to theyr owne will and desire and lastly as Pliny sayth to onely Fortune gaue they thanks for all such benefites as they receaued and onely Fortune was she that was blamed and of whom they complained if any aduerse chaunce miserie or vexation hapned vnto thē LV. I would faine aske of these Gentils how they knew or wherby they had notice that Fortune was a Goddesse not a God and wherfore they painted her in that sexe hauing neuer seene her neyther yet vnderstood any assured certaintie of her AN. I verily think that none of them could yeeld hereof any reason but that frō the beginning of their Paganisme when they assumpted her into the nūber of their Gods they imagined her according to her name to be of the feminine sex perchance also as Galen saith they painted her in this sort the better to signifie her inconstancie neither was the subtilty of the deuil wanting to confirme the foolish people in their conceaued opinion for entring into the statues idols of fortune he gaue out of thē oftentimes his answers Yet the greatest part of Philosophers did not account Fortune to be a Goddesse but wrote verie differently of her as Aristotle did in this definition which you haue heard wherfore sith we haue hetherto entreated of the vaine erronious opinion of the old Gentils the grossnes where-with the common people suffered themselues to be abused Let vs now see what the Philosophers thought thereof first Aristotle whom in this matter we will chiefely follow termeth Fortune to be an accidentall cause differencing her from naturall essentiall causes which worketh in those things that are done with some purpose and to some effect BER This definition is to me so obscure that I vnderstand now as little thereof as I did before you told it AN. Haue patience and you shall vnderstand it better First therfore for better declaration thereof you must know that there is great difference betweene Fortune and Chaunce for Chaunce is ampler and containeth more then Fortune doth for all that is Fortune may bee called Chaunce but all that is Chaunce may not be called Fortune as according to the fore-said definition it followeth that if Fortune must be in those thinges which are done for some purpose and to some end they must needes be done with some vnderstanding which beeing so then there can be no Fortune in those things which want vnderstanding so that whatsoeuer betideth to Creatures vnreasonable and things sencelesse cannot be termed Fortune but Chaunce for Fortune is only to be vnderstood in things pertayning vnto men whence it commeth that when we see any man in great prosperity we say that Fortune was fauorable vnto him the which we say not of any sencelesse or vnreasonable Creature but rather that such a thing chanced or that by Chaunce such a thing was done the which very fame word as I said may be also applied vnto men and the definition of Chaunce may be the very same which we said of Fortune taking only that clause away for some purpose or to some end and therfore we will say thus Chaunce is an accidentall cause which worketh in things for seeing this words purpose and end cannot be but in the vnderstanding it is manifest that the definition of Chaunce is more generall then that of Fortune because it comprehendeth all thinges that want vnderstanding which to the ende you may the better conceaue I will vse some examples for the plainer and more euident demonstration thereof If a man should goe from hence to Rome with purpose and intention to prouide himselfe of some honest estate or office whereby to liue and in comming thither the Pope giueth him a Bishoprick or a Deanry we may say that he had good Fortune considering that his meaning
leaue by turne one alwaies waking as their Sentinel or watchman the which to auoyde sleeping standeth vpon one foote only lifting vp the other holding therin a stone the fall of which awaketh her if she should chance to sleep so that surely in my iudgement this warie and prouident carefulnesse of theirs to preserue themselues from such dangers as might otherwise at vnawares fal vpon them while they sleepe can by no meanes be without some vse of reason or vnderstanding AN. I confesse that all these things alleadged in your replycation are true but not that they do them with vnderstanding election of good from euil or of that which is hurtfull and noisom from that which is wholsom profitable as for reason it is more then manifest that they haue thereof no vse at al for only man is a creature resonable neither can that of theirs by any means be called vnderstanding though they seeme in these operations which you haue said to haue vse thereof for vnderstanding is so conioyned vnited with reason that the one cannot be without the other Nothing I say can vnderstand but that which hath the vse of reason nor any thing haue reason but that which vnderstandeth This therefore in those beasts which seemeth to be reason vnderstanding is a liuely instinct with which nature hath created them more theÌ„ others that are more brutish haue the power of phantasie more grosse dark which is the vertue that worketh in them with that imaginatioÌ„ by the which they are guided to put the same in effect and this proceedeth as saith Albertê° Magnê° in his eyght chapter De animalibus not that the wilines sagacity and craft of brute beastes is more in one then in another because they haue reason or vnderstanding in those thinges which they do but because their complexion is purer better and theyr sences of more perfection and because also the Caelestiall bodies haue better influence into them through which theyr appetite is better guided by instinct and Nature So that we may heereupon inferre that all theyr workes are done by onely appetite fancie and the vertue imaginatiue which mooueth them so that seeing all this is doone without reason or vnderstanding or purpose or intention directed to any ende it cannot bee saide that this definiton of Fortune is competent or appliable to brute beastes Though many other reasons and arguments might be alleaged about this matter yet this that is already sayd shall suffise seeing we pretende no farder then to knowe the difference betweene Chaunce and Fortune the rest we will leaue to be debated of by the Phylosophers LVD I throughly vnderstand all that which you haue sayd and the Phylosophers opinion also concerning the same but I see that that these words are dailie vsed farre wide from theyr definition and opinion for in naming Fortune we neuer marke whether the thing be done with any purpose or to any end but rather the contrary for we vse this worde so generally attributing thereunto all accidents whatsoeuer that we make no difference of one from an other and therefore Tully in his Offices Great sayth hee is the sway of Fortune in prosperity in aduersitie who knoweth not her force Whiles wee enioy her fauourable prosperous winde wee attaine vnto the fruition of our desires when otherwise we are afflicted and full of miseries so that he maketh no difference what is an accidentall cause vvhat is not neyther bindeth he her to things onely done contrarie to the purpose and pretended ende as for example when a Prince with a little Army presenteth battel to another whose Army and force is farre in number more puissant it is manifest that his meaning is to doe the best he can and his intention firme to obtayne victory otherwise he would neuer put himselfe in so apparant a danger which if hee according to his hope obtayne nothing hapneth therein vnto him contrarie to the purpose and meaning which he had but hee attayneth the end for which hee hazarded the battaile yet for all this we let not to say that hee had good fortune to ouercome so mighty an Army with so slender forces if one should goe to Rome with purpose to be made a Bishoppe beeing of so small merrite that there were no reason at all why hee should hope to obtaine so great a dignity yet in comming to be one we may well say that Fortune was fauourable vnto him therin and so when Iulius Caesar in his warres against Pompey being in Durazo where he attended a supply of Souldiours without the which his party was not strong enough to encounter with Pompey seeing that they came not without trusting any man else determined himselfe in person disguised and vnknowne to goe fetch them according to which resolution putting himselfe into a Fisher-mans boate thrust off from the shore and began to passe the straight but the water being rough and the tempest violent his Pilot the poore Fisher-man feared drowning would faine haue turned back againe and was therein very obstinate which Caesar by no meanes permitting him to doe after many perswasions and threatnings seeing him still perseuer in his feare at last be of good courage man quoth he and passe on without feare for thou carriest with thee the good Fortune of Caesar. It is manifest that his chiefe purpose and meaning in this ciuill warre was as the sequel shewed to obtaine alone the Empire which he afterwards did and yet in common course of speech wee let not to say that his good Fortune aduaunced him to that estate What shall we say of Caesar Augustus who from that very instant that Iulius Caesar was slaine had presently a meaning to succeed him in the Empire employing al his thought care and imagination about the compassing thereof and at last obtayned it indeede according to his pretence from the first without any contrary accident vnexpected Lucke or sodaine Chaunce and yet for all that neither was he forgetfull to giue thankes vnto Fortune neither erre we in calling him Fortunate for they were wont to say in an old Prouerb that there was neuer any Emperour more vertuous then Traiane nor more Fortunate then Octauian which was the same Augustus Caesar of whom we speake And now daily wee see this name of Fortune so commonly vsed that in a manner the rule and signeury of all worldly thinges seemeth to be attributed vnto her as though it were in her power to guide direct them at her pleasure and so saith Salust that Fortune dominateth ouer all thinges and Ouid that Fortune giueth and taketh away whatsoeuer pleaseth her and Virgil attributeth vnto her authority ouer all humaine matters bee they wrought by accidentall causes or fall they out aunswerable to our desire according to that which we procure and seeke AN. That which Aristotle saith is in true Philosophy which though we vnderstand yet we apply not well for Fortune is not
in those things which succeede vnto vs according to our purpose and pretence but in those that doe exceede our hope or come vnlooked for vnthought of and so we commonly mingle confound Fortune with Chaunce and Chaunce with Fortune yea sometimes we attribute that to either of them which is neither of both But to tel you the very truth this definition of Fortune is so intricate that I my selfe doe not throughly vnderstand his meaning where hee saith according to the purpose and to some end which are two diuers words may be vnderstoode in sondry sence as those doe which glosse vpon his text whose diuersity of opinions maketh the glosse far more difficill then the text it selfe But I will not meruaile hereat because perchaunce Aristotle would doe therein as he did in the selfe same books de Phisicis which being finished and Alexander telling him that it was great pitty that so high excellent a matter should by the publishing thereof become vulgar and cōmon he aunswered that he had written them in such sort that few or none should vnderstand thē And in truth the old Writers in all their works so delighted in compendious breuity of wordes that they not being clearely vnderstoode of those that followed in the ages after were the cause of an infinit variety of opinions neither is there any one which glosseth vpon thē who affirmeth not his interpretation to be the true sence meaning of the Author the same being perchaunce quite contrary But leauing this I say that though in this mother speech of ours we want fit and apt words to signifie the propriety of many things yet in expressing the effects of Fortune we haue more then either the Latine or Greeke for besides prosperous aduerse Fortune we haue Hap Mishap good Luck ill Luck by the which we signifie all successes both good and euill accustoming our selues more vsually to these words then to that of Fortune for what Chaunce soeuer happen to a man we cōmonly say that he was Happy or Vnhappy Lucky or Vnlucky LV. Me thinks that Felicity and Infelicity signifieth also the same that we may very well vse them in such sence as we doe the others AN. You are herein deceaued for Hap Mishap good and euill Luck prosperous aduerse Fortune are as we haue saide when they come by accidentall causes not keeping any order or limitation felicity as saith S. Anthony of Florence is in those things which happen to a man for his merrite and vertue infelicity in not happening to him which hath vertue and merrite to deserue them but these words we vse not in ordinary matters but in those that are of weight and moment some Authors also affirme the same to be vnderstood of prosperous and aduerse Fortune and that we ought not to vse this manner of speech but in difficill matters and such as are of substance and quality BER According to this rule wee erre greatly in our common speech for there are many that come to obtaine very principall estates and dignities not by their vertues and merrites but rather through their great vices and demerrites yet wee commonly say that such mens felicity is great and that they are very fortunate AN. You haue sayde the trueth for indeede wee goe following our owne opinion without any foundation of reason neither leaning to those graue and auncient Phylosophers of tymes past neyther to those which haue written what in true and perfect Christianitie wee ought to thinke thereof who affirme Fortune to bee that which happeneth in worldly and exteriour matters not thought on before nor looked for neyther of it selfe but proceeding from a superiour cause directly contrary to them which hold that such accidents happen without any cause superiour or inferiour but that they all come at happe hazard So that howsoeuer Fortune bee it must bee accidentally and not in thinges that come praemeditated and hoped for but seeing that the most sort of men obserueth heerein no order attrybuting all successes both good and euill to Fortune vvhether they happen or no in such sort as the Definition thereof requireth euery manne speaking and applying as he listeth I hold it for no error if amongst the ignorant wee followe the common vse but amongst the wise and learned me thinkes it were good for a man to be able to yeeld a reason of those things he speaketh and to speake of things rightly according to their Nature and property least otherwise hee be derided and held for a foole BER Greater in my iudgement is the error which wittinglie and wilfully we commit then that which is through ignorance onely neyther can any vse or custome be sufficient to authorize or allow that which in the iudgement of all wise and learned men is held for false and erronious But afore you passe any farther I pray you tell me what you meane in this your last definition whereas you say that Fortune is onely to be vnderstoode in exteriour things AN. It is manifest of it selfe that in thinges spirituall and interiour there can be no Fortune which who so list more at large to see and more particulerly to satisfie himselfe therein may reade S. Thomas in his second booke De Phisicis and in his third Contra Gentiles and S. Anthony of Florence in the second part of his Theologiques LV. As for the opinion of Philosophers you haue sufficiently made vs vnderstand the same now I would you would doe vs the fauour to declare vnto vs what the sacred Doctors of our holy Mother the Catholique Church doe teach and thinke therein AN. Farre different are they from the before alleadged Philosophicall censure for what good Christian soeuer you reason withall concerning Fortune he will aunswer you with the authority of Esay who saith Woe be vnto you that set a table before Fortune and erect Altars vnto her as to a Goddesse for with my knife shall you be cut in peeces The Gentiles as they were passing blinde in all diuine things pertayning vnto God and his omnipotencie so not beeing able to comprehend vnderstand his diuine vniuersall prouidence in all thinges they diuided the same frō God himselfe and made thereof a Goddesse attributing to her gouernment domination power and commaundement all the exterior things of the world which error of theirs herein committed some of themselues doe confesse and acknowledge as Iuuenall where he sayth Where Prudence is thou hast no deitie ô Fortune but wee for want of wisedome doe make thee a Goddesse and place thee in heauen According to which S. Hierome in an Epistle of his to Terentia sayth Nothing is created of GOD without cause neyther is any thing doone by chaunce as the Gentiles thinke the temeritie of blinde Fortune hath no power at all Whereby wee may see that Fortune is nothing else then a thing fained in the fantasie of men and that there is no
riding neere to the place where the men were after I had asked them for whom that poast was sette vp and they with theyr aunswere satisfied mee I narrowly markt and behelde the gesture and countenaunce of the young man who was of a very good complexion and of an honest face hee seemed to be about the age of twentie or twenty one yeeres his garments were not costly but cleanly and hansome asking him if hee vvere the Hangman he aunswered mee that hee was demaunding of him in Latine if euer he had beene a student hee aunswered me to that demaund and many others in the same tongue very eloquently but at last asking him of what country and place he was he aunswered me that hauing confest himselfe to be a Hangman he could with no honesty reueale vnto me any thing touching his Country or Parentage and therefore prayed me to hold him for excused I perceauing his shamefastnes vrged him farther saying How is it possible that hauing such knowledge and vnderstanding thou hast taken vppon thee so base infamous and dishonest an office Truly thou deseruest the greater blame and punishment by howe much more carelesly thou vsest the excellent giftes which God hath endued thee withall as comlines of fauour proportion good capacity and vnderstanding in vsing of which well thou mightest doe God and thy Country seruice wheras now thy talent lieth hidden and buried He hauing a while attentiuely listened to that which I said vnto him aunswered at length with many teares that such was his hard Desteny by which he was thereto forcibly compelled against the sway of which he was not able to preuaile of whose error and ignorance taking pitty I beganne to make vnto him a large discourse causing him to vnderstand that there was no Desteny able to force Free-will but that euery man had liberty to dispose of himselfe as he pleased and to take what way he list so that hee could not blame his Desteny but himselfe onely which hauing election of so many good wayes had suffered himselfe to be guided so ill Vsing these and many other such reprehensiue speeches vnto him hee fell into such weeping and shed so many teares that I tooke compassion of him vvithall he told me that he had falne into this misery for want of good counsaile hauing heeretofore neuer met with any that had told him so much whereby to lighten him out of the error wherein he was but seeing quoth he that which is past may be repented but not vndone I will by Gods grace hereafter take a new course lesse dishonourable to my kindred for you shall know sir that I am borne of Parents of a very honest condition beeing brought into this miserable estate in which you now see me through play only but God be thanked it is yet vnknowne to my friends that I execute this detestable office neither dooth any man of this Towne knowe whence I am for the place where I was borne is farre from this Country so that I am fully resolued to change my manner of life and to follow your counsaile and heere-with bitterly bewailing his vnfortunate course I brought him home with me to my lodging in which he remained that night seeming to be exceeding sorrowfull and the next morning departed vvhether hee went I knowe not but from that time forward he was no more seene in those quarters and truly by many signes I sawe in him hee gaue me good hope that hee would doe as he said AN. This fellowe had neuer seene the authority of S. Gregory in his Homily of the Epiphany where God defend saith he the harts of those that are faithfull from saying that there is any Destenie this is vnderstoode when they thinke or hold for a certainty that such thinges as happen to them proceede from the constellations or other superiour causes as not any way to be auoided or declined Therefore whensoeuer this word Destenie is mentioned we must vnderstand the same that we did of Fortune that is the will and prouidence of God But the best is not to vse it at all thereby to auoyde the error into which the common people doe fall yea and a much greater which is the deniall of free-will for if that Destenie were a thing indubitable and the sway thereof not to be resisted then should neyther reward punishment grace nor glory be due vnto deserts and so diuine Plato in his Gorgias To say saith hee that there is any constrayning or vnineuitable Destenie is a fable of vvomen which vnderstand not what they say so that all thinges are subiect to the free-will of man not to doe any thing forcibly but by contentment of the same vvill for being a Free-will there can be no Destenie But because in plunging our selues farther into this matter we should fall vpon that of Prescience Predestination engulfing my selfe in which I should not be able to finde the way out it is sufficient onely to declare though it be but superficially what belongeth to this word Destenie still vnderstanding that all proceedeth and dependeth of the Diuine will and prouidence of God and so sayth S. Austine in his fifth booke De ciuitate Dei If for this cause humaine thinges are attributed to Destenie let him which calleth the will power of GOD by the name of Destenie take heede and correct his tongue And so concluding we may inferre that there is no Desteny at all at least in such sence as the common people vnderstandeth the same but that by this word we ought to vnderstand the prouidence of GOD and the fulfilling of his will which alwayes leaueth vs in free liberty to choose that which is good and to eschewe that which is euill For this word Destenie is chiefely vnderstood and mentioned in matters of aduersity which when they happen vnto vs are eyther for that we seeke and procure them or else that God permitteth them because our sinnes and wicked life deserueth such chastisement Let not him say that is hanged that his Destenie brought him there-vnto but the small care he had to liue vertuously to feare GOD and to flie vice was the cause thereof The like of him that murdereth or drowneth himselfe for if such had liued well and refrayned those vices and enormities for punishment of vvhich they vvere condemned by the Ministers of Iustice or by theyr ovvne guilty desperate conscience to dye they should neuer haue had any such cause to complaine But there is so much herein to be sayde that in seeking particulerly to discusse euery poynt thereof it vvould be too tedious especially to those vvho desire no more then well to knowe the conclusion how it ought to bee vnderstoode vvhich by this praecedent discourse I hope you doe BER I vnderstand you very well yet mee thinkes vnder correction that there are some things which happen forcibly to men and not to be auoy ded as for example a man borne of Parentes that are bondslaues of force must
the rest they may sometimes fall out according as by the vertue and property of the signes and planets may be coniectured and iudged yea and sometimes also otherwise because it may please the first cause which imparted vnto them that vertue to change or alter their property or that there may be diuers other causes in the way which may hinder the effect of their influence AN. You haue in few wordes briefly knit vp the very pith and substance of the whole BER Well then let vs leaue this and come to Palmestrers which are they that tell Fortunes by seeing the lines of the inside of the hand whose diuinations they say prooue oftentimes true I would faine therefore know what credite we may giue them AN. I haue great suspition of those who confidently affirme their diuinations by Palmestry that they deale also in Negromancy that the deuill being farre craftier and subtiler then man and through his long experience and by certaine coniectures being able to knowe certaine thinges that are to come doth reueale vnto them the most part of those things for otherwise by the lines of the hand onely it were not possible to diuine so right though somtimes also the things simply thereby coniectured may proue true neyther can the Phisiognomers affirme that the same must needs be true which by their Science appeareth likely to happen For Aristotle which wrote a booke of Phisiognomy entreating of all the signes marks by which the conditions of men may be knowne sayeth that they are but casuall and by Chaunce As for those that seeing the Phisiognomy of a man doe iudge that he must come to be rich or that his end must be the Gallowes or that hee must be drowned and such like such must thinke that they be deceaued and ought therefore to reserue the successes of all thinges to the will of God whereby they may couer their error and remaine excused if the sequell fall otherwise out then they coniectured it should LU. This matter seemeth sufficiently debated of onely out of the former discourse resulteth one doubt which mee thinks were against reason that it should remaine so smothered vp and that is of the speech of Signior Anthonios where he sayd that of the influence of the signes planets and starres are engendered pestilences and new diseases inundations destroying vvhole Countries long drinesse vvhich causeth dearths infirmities scarsity of corne fruit with diuers other the like AN. This is a question in which the Astronomers and Philosophers doe disagree eyther holding of them their seuerall opinions For the Astronomers in community doe hold and affirme that all this which you haue said proceedeth from the constellations and that through their causes these domages do happen vnto men all the other euils also with the which we are afflicted alleadging for the proofe thereof the authority of Ptolome in his Centiloquium The man sayth he that is skilfull in the Science of Astronomy may fore see and auoide many euils to happen according to that which the starres doe shew portend and also they alleadge Gallen in his third book of Iudiciall daies whose words are these Let vs saith hee imagine that a man is borne the good Planets being in Aries and the euill in Taurus there is no doubt to be made but all thinges shall goe prosperously with this man while the Moone shall be in Aries Cancer Libra or Capricornus but when she shall possesse any signe in Quadrat aspect or in Diameter to the signe of Taurus he shall be molested with many troubles and vexations and hee goeth farther and sayth that this man shall begin to be perplexed with many infirmities when so euer the Moone shall be in the signes of Taurus Leo Scorpio or Aquarius and contrarily shall enioy perfect good health while the Moone shall be in the signes of Aries Libra Cancer or Capricornus They recite besides another authority of Auicenna in his fourth booke where he saith the configuration of the caelestiall bodies to be sometimes the cause of pestilentiall infirmities as when Saturne and Mars are in coniunction And so doth Gentil exemplifie it alleaging the selfe same place but what should I trouble my selfe in reciting their authorities when finally there is no Astronomer or Phisition which holdeth not the same but the Philosophers as I haue said maintaine a contrary opinion affirming that no domage or euil can proceede from the Planets signes or starres into the inferiour bodies and so diuine Plato in his Epynomide I surely thinke saith he the starres and all the caelestiall bodies to be a kinde of diuine creatures of a very beautifull body and constituted with a soule most perfect and blessed and to these creatures as farre as I vnderstand must be attributed one of these two things eyther that they and their motions are eternall and without any domageable preiudice or if not yet at the least that their life is so long that it is not necessary for them to haue any longer These are the words of Plato by the which is vnderstood that if the Caelestiall bodies haue no euill in them as beeing diuine pure cleane and sempiternall without any preiudiciall domage and free from all corruption and euill they can then by no means be causers of those domages euils which happen in the world to the inferior bodies Going on farther in the same booke This is sayth he the nature of the stars in sight most beautiful goodly in their moouings obseruing a most magnificent order imparting to inferiour creatures such things as are profitable for them By these authorities they inferre that seeing the starres are of such excellencie and that from them are imparted to creatures things profitable and wholesome they can by no meanes be the occasion of harme or mischiefe theyr nature office which they continuallie vse being contrarie thereunto But farther the same Author goeth on declaring the same more plainly Finally saith hee of all these thinges we may inferre this as a true and conclusiue opinion that it were vnpossible for the heauen the Planets the starres and the caelestiall bodies which appeare therein vnlesse they had a soule or vnlesse they dyd it through God by some exquisite reason to be able to reuolue the yeeres monthes dayes beeing the cause of all our good and so being of our good they cannot be of our euill And this explaneth Calcidiê° vpon the same Plato in his Tymaeus by these words Either sayth he all the starres are diuine and good without doing any euill or some of theÌ„ onely are euill and domageable But howe can this agree or howe can it be said that in a place so holy and so full of all bounty and goodnes there can be any euill And the starres beeing replenished with caelestiall wisedome euilnes and malice proceeding of the contrary which is folly howe can wee then terme the starres to be malicious or causers of any euill
vnlesse we shold say that which is not lawfull that they are at one time good and at another time euill and that they cannot mixtly be the cause both of good and euill the which is not to be thought or beleeued that all the starres haue not one selfe caelestiall substance none of them separating themselues from theyr owne nature so that all the starres beeing good they may be the cause of good but not of euill BE. These authorities me thinks conclude not throughlie the purpose of their intention for there are manie thinges that can cause both good and euill and therefore the caelestiall bodies also may doe the same AN. This is when there is in any thing both good euill working effects according to the nature thereof but there is no euill in the heauens not in any thing therein contained for according to Aristotle in his seconde Booke De Coelo the motion thereof is life to all things in the ninth of his Metaphisickes also he affirmeth that in those things which are sempiternall there can be found no euill error or corruption And Auerroes entreating of this matter vseth these wordes It is a thing manifest saith he that in those things which are Eternall and whose essence is without beginning there can be no euill error or corruption the which cannot be in any thing but where euill is and heereby may be knowne the impossibilitie of prouing that which the Astronomers say that there are some of them luckie and others vnluckie this only may be knowne of them that there are som better then others By these words we may vnderstand that the starres are all good but not in equalitie neither haue they all equall vertue goodnes and as in them there is no euill at all so can they not be the cause of any harme at all neither can wee say that their influences cause any contagious or pestilentiall infirmities so thinketh Mercurius Trismegistus in his Asclepius Where the heauen saith he is that which engendreth and if the office thereof be to engender it cannot be to corrupt Proclus in his booke De Anima holdeth the same The Heauens saith hee founded with a harmony in reason containe all worldly thinges putting them in perfection accomodating them and benefiting them which being so how then can they damnifie destroy or corrupt them Auerroes also alleadgeth another reason by the testimonie of Plato who sayth That euill is found in those things which haue no order nor agreement and all diuine thinges are framed and constituted in most excellent order whereby it followeth that the starres and other caelestiall bodies haue no euill in them and hauing none in them they cannot worke or cause any This opinion followeth Iamblicus in his Booke De Misterijs Egiptiorum and Plotinus in his tenth Booke where he demaundeth if the stars be the causes of any thing iesting and scoffing at the Astronomers who affirme that the Planets with their motions are not onely the causes of riches and pouertie but also of vertue vices health and diseases that in diuers times they worke vpon men diuers operations And finally he will by no meanes permit that there are any euill starres or that they can be sometimes good and somtimes euill which opinion is also maintained by Auerroes in his 3. booke of Heauen Where whosoeuer sayth hee beleeueth that Mars or any other planet or starre howsoeuer set in coniunction or opposition can hurt or doe domage he beleeueth that which is contrary to all Philosophy Marcilius Ficinus in his Comentaries vpon the sixth Dialogue of Lawes sayth thus One thing we must vnderstande and beleeue that all forces and mouings of the superior Bodies which discende into vs are of their owne nature alwaies causers of our good and guide vs thereunto wee must not therefore iudge that viciousnes of ill conditioned men proceedeth of Saturne or rashnes and crueltie of Mars or craft and deceit of Mercury or lasciuious wantonnes of Venus Let vs see what reason thou hast to attribute vnto Saturne that frowardnesse and vice which thy euill custome conuersation exercise or dyet hath engendred in thy body or minde or to Mars that fiercenes and crueltie which seemeth to resemble that magnanimitie and greatnes to which he is enclined or to Mercurie that subtiltie and craft called by a better name industrie or to Venus thy lasciuious loue and wantonnesse Hapneth it not often that men loose their sight yea and sometimes their liues vnder the flaming blasts of the Sunne-beames which is ordained onely for our comfort and to giue life and nourishment to things And doe wee not see diuers that in open ayre receaue the warmenesse thereof to theyr comfort who in enclosed places are with a small heate smothered sluft choaked And euen as these men through the heate of the Sun whose nature is to helpe cherrish and comfort doe receaue domage by theyr owne faulte in not vsing the same as they shoulde doe so may the successes of those which are borne vnder these planets which by their nature are al good throgh euil vicious education proue naught though the inclination of their planets be neuer so good and fauourable So that by these wordes of Marsilius the opinion of Astronomers Mathematitians and Phisitions seemeth not to be wel grounded but that how commonly held or allowed soeuer it be he holdeth it to be reprouable by many and euident arguments LU. The Philosophers are not a little beholding to you for strengthning their opinion with so many authorities effectual reasons no doubt but if this matter were put to your arbytrement they should finde of you a fauourable iudge AN. I haue not so good opinion of my selfe as to take vpō me the arbitrement of this matter though it were of lesse substance then it is especially so many wise learned men maintaining either side I haue therfore onely rehearsed touched some of their allegations on both sides leauing you in your choyse to leane vnto that opinion which liketh you best referring alwaies the iudgement therof to those that are of greater learning deeper studie and more grounded wisedome thē my selfe though it seemeth vnto me to be a matter scarcelie determinable considering the varietie of effectuall reasons that may be alleaged of either side LVD For all this I account you halfe partiall and therefore I pray you aunswere mee to one obiection which might be of the Astronomers side opposed the which is thus We see that there are diuers venomous and hurtfull hearbes and manie other Wormes Vermins and Serpents so contagious that they are thorough theyr poysons and infections noisome vnto men yea and often causers of their death And seeing that all inferiour bodies are ruled receauing their forces and vertues from the influence of the heauenly and superior bodies it then seemeth that they should be cause of the domage which is wrought by the
there are Antypodes or no neither can it out of his words be gathered what he thinketh thereof LU. What is the meaning of this word Antipodes AN. I will briefely declare it vnto you though mee thinkes you should haue vnderstood the same by that which I haue sayd before Antypodes are they which are on the other part of the world contrary in opposite vnto vs going with their feete against ours so that they which vnderstand it not thinke that they goe with their heads downward whereas they goe in the selfe same sort with their heads as wee doe for the world being round in what part thereof soeuer a man standeth eyther vnder or aboue or on the sides his head standeth vpright towards heauen and his feete directly towards the Center of the earth so that it cannot be saide that the one standeth vpward and an other downward for so the same which wee should say of them they might say of vs meruailing how wee could stay our selues without falling because it should seeme to them that they stand vpward and we downward and the right Antypodes are as I said those which are in contrary and opposite Zones as they of the North-pole to those of the South-pole and we being in this second Zone haue for our Antypodes those of the other second Zone which is on the other side of Torrida Zona but those in Torrida Zona it selfe cannot holde any for theyr right Antypodes but those which are of one side thereof directly to those that are on the other vnder them or aboue them or howe you list to vnderstand it BER I vnderstand you well but we being in this Zone which is round winding as you say about the earth how shall we terme those that are directly vnder vs who by all likelihoods must be onely vpon one side of the world for if there were a line drawne betweene them and vs through the earth the same line should not come to passe through the Center and middle of the earth AN. These the Cosmographers call in a manner Antypodes which in such sort as they haue different places one frō an other so doe they terme them by different names as Perioscaei Etheroscaei and Amphioscaei being Greeke wordes by which their manner of standing is declared and signified Perioscaei are those whose shadowes goe round about and these as you shall heereafter vnderstand cannot bee but those which are vnder the Poles Amphioscaei are those which haue their shadow of both sides towards Aquilo and Auster according as the Sunne is with them Etheroscaei are those which haue their shadow alwayes on one side but what distinction soeuer these words seeme to make yet Antypodes is common to them all for it is sufficient that they are contrary though not so directly that they writhe not of one side nor other for facility of vnderstanding this take an Orenge or any other round fruite thrust it of all sides full of needles and there you shall see howe the points of the needles are one against another by diuers waies of which those that passe through the sides are as well opposite as those which passe through the very Center and middle of the Orenge But this being a matter so notorious and all men now knowing that the whole world is enhabitable and that the same being round one part must needes be opposite to another it were to no purpose to discourse any farther therein LU. This is no small matter which you say that the whole world is enhabitable for leauing aside that you should say this generality is to be vnderstood that there is in all parts of the world habitation notwithstanding that there are manie Deserts Rocks and Mountaines which for some particuler causes are not enhabited me thinks you can by no meanes say that the two vtmost Zones in which the North South-pole is contained are enhabited seeing the common opinion of all men to the contrary AN. I confesse that all the old Astrologians Cosmographers and Geographers speaking of these two Zones doe terme them vninhabitable the same proceeding as they say through the intollerable rigour and sharpnes of the cold of which they affirme the cause to be because they are farther off from the Sunne then any other part of the earth and so sayth Pliny in the 70. Chapter of his second booke by these words Heauen is the cause of depriuing vs the vse of three parts of the earth which are the three vninhabitable Zones for as that in the midst is through extreame heate not any way habitable so of the two vtmost is the cold vntollerable being perpetually frosen with ice whose whitenes is the onely light they haue so that there is in them a continuall obscurity as for that part which is on the other side of Torrida Zona though it be temperate as ours is yet is it not habitable because there is no way to get into it c. And here-vpon he inferreth that there is no part of the world enhabited nor where people is but onely this Zone or part of the earth in which wee are an opinion truly for so graue an Author farre from reason and vnderstanding That therfore which I intend euidently to make manifest vnto you is that they were not onely deceaued in those Zones wherein eyther Pole is contayned but in Torrida Zona also for as this is found not to be so vntemperate nor the heate and Ardor so raging as they supposed so also is the cold of the Polar Zones nothing so rigorous and sharpe as they described it but sufferable and very well to be endured and enhabited as by proofe we find that all those cold Regions are peopled But the Auncients are to be excused who though they were great Cosmographers and Geographers yet they neuer knew nor discouered so much of the earth as the Modernes haue done which by painefull and industrious Nauigation haue discouered many Regions Countries and Prouinces before vnknowne not onely in the Occidentall Indies the which wee will leaue apart but in the Orientall also and in the farre partes of the Septentrion for proofe whereof reade Ptolome which is the most esteemed Geographer and to whom is giuen in those thinges which he wrote the greatest credite and you shall finde that hee confesseth himselfe to be ignorant of many Countries nowe discouered which he termeth vnknowne and vnfound Landes saying That the first part of Europe beginneth in the Iland of Hybernia whereas there are many other farther North that enter also into Europe and also a great quantity of firme Land which is on the same part towards the North-pole where he might haue taken his beginning and in his eight Table of Europe speaking of Sarmacia Europaea hee sayeth that there lyeth of the one side thereof a Country vnknowne and in his second Table of Asia entreating of Sarmacia Asiatica hee sayth the same not acknowledging for discouered
must haue the same encrease and decrease for the selfe same cause and reason as is of the other side and if the same goe lengthning on inwards it must be greater then it hath seemed vnto vs. AN. Whether this land extend it selfe on the other side of the North forward or whether the Sea be straight at hande I cannot resolue you for there is not any Author that writeth it neither do I thinke is there any that knoweth it the cause wherof as I said is that in passing by the coast of the West beyond the Iles of Thule the coldes are so bitterly sharpe that no ship dareth to aduenture farder by reason of the huge floting Rockes and flakes of Ise vvhich encomber that Sea threatning eminent danger and vnauoydable destruction to those that attempt to saile thereinto Of the other side of the East giuing a turne about to the very same North is discouered so far as the Prouince of Aganagora which is the last of all the knowne Countries on that side the Gulfe being past which is called Mare magnum for by land they say it is not to be trauailed by reason of the great Deserts the earth in many places full of Quagmyres with many other inconueniences which Nature seemeth to haue there ordained Some say that earthly Paradise standeth there and that therefore no earthly man in the world hath knowledge thereof but of this we haue before sufficiently entreated with the opinions of those that haue written thereupon Some there are also who write that in this Lande are certaine great mountains amongst the which are enclosed many peoples of India from which they haue no issue nor meanes at all to come out but I rather beleeue this to be a fiction because I find the same confirmed by no graue allowed Authour But howsoeuer it be beyond this Countrey called Aganagora is much vnknowne and vndiscouered Land neyther by sea thence Northward hath there been any nauigation or discouery of which also the extreame cold and the sea cōtinually frozen and choked vp with heapes of Ise may be the cause the feare of which hath hindred men from attempting the discouery therof onely that which we may hereby vnderstand is that there is a most great quantity of Land from the coast which goeth by the west turneth towards the North and that which compasseth about the East and turneth likewise to the North of which till this time there is not anie man that can giue direct notice in midst of all which is that which we intreated of which is vnder the North whose daie and night is reparted into a yeere BER I knowe not in vvhat sort the moderne Geographers doe measure or compasse the world but I know that they say that the whole Rotundity of all the Land and water in the worlde containeth not aboue sixe thousand leagues of which are discouered 4350. reckoning from the Hauen of Hygueras in the Occident or West Indies to Gatigara where the Prouince of Aganagora is cōtayned which is in the Orient so that there are yet to discouer 1650. leagues in discouering of which the ende and vtmost boundes of the Indies shoulde be knowne as well as that of this part of the earth which we inhabite AN. To those that will measure the world in this maner may be answered as a Boy in Seuilla to those that would deuide the conquest thereof between the King of Castile and the King of Portugale who in mockage of theyr folly puld downe his breeches and shewing them his buttocks badde them draw the line there along if they would needes deuide the world in the midst by measure as for those which mesure in such sort the worlde they take but the length of the earth fetching their way by the midst of the Equinoctiall and so the Astronomers and Cosmographers may goe neere the mark reckoning by degrees and giuing to euery degree 16. leagues a halfe a minute of way as they do but though they discouer this yet they can hardly come to discouer the many parts nookes that are of one side and another of the world being so wide that in one corner thereof may lye hydden many thousands of miles and Countries which beeing seene known wold perchance seem to be some new world so lieth this part of which I speake on the coast of the Sea quite without notice or knowledge BER Some will say that the shippe called Victoria which is yet as a thing of admiration in the Bay of Seuilia went round about the world in the voyage which she made of fourteen thousand leagues AN. Though she did compasse the world round about in one part yet it is not said that she compast the same about in all parts which are so many that to thinke onely of them is sufficient to amaze a mans vnderstanding Amongst the rest we neuer heard that the Coast from the West to the East by the way of the North or at least the greater part thereof hath beene compassed about as yet by any ship neither haue we knowledge of any thing at all neither by Sea nor Land nauigating from thence forward LV. If you reade Pomponius Mela in his Chapter of Scithia where he discourseth of this matter you shall finde that he bringeth the authority of Cornelius Nepos alleadging for witnesse Quintus Metellus whom he had heard say that when he was Proconsull of the Gaules the King of Swethland gaue him certaine Indians of whom demanding which way they came into those Countries they aunswered that through the terrible force of a great tempest they were so furiously driuen from the streame of the Indian Sea that after long attending nothing else thē to be swallowed vp of the waues they came at last violently to bee striken into a Riuer on the Coast of Germany which being true then they made that nauigation by those partes which you say are vndiscouered from the West to the East by the way of the North whereby it is to be thought that the Sea is not so frozen as they say but that it is nauigable AN. Truth it is that Mela saith so though it be doubted whether the Indians came this way or no and Mela himselfe in the ende of the Chapter turneth to say that all the same Septentrionall side is hardened with Ice and therefore vninhabitable and desert but as I haue said all this is not directly proued and confirmed by sound experience exact knowledge seeing we know not howe farre the Land extendeth it selfe on the other side of the North without comming to the Sea and if we would seeke to sift this secrete out and aspire to the knowledge of that which might be found in nauigating that Sea fetching a compasse about the world from North to North God knoweth what Lands would be found and discouered BER The likeliest to beleeue in this matter in my iudgement is that the same
him that knoweth not the cause thereof the same being no lesse terrible then the thunder from heauen yea and somtime because it is neerer it seemeth to be more violent the force thereof is such that the Ise sundereth and splitteth in clefts making it vvay and roome to passe espire out thereat at which time those that trauaile thereupon being neere the place where the noise is make as much hast thence as they can fetching a compasse about till they thinke themselues in securitie and then they follow theyr way on forward And though all these Lakes waters thaw by degrees more and more as the Sommer commeth on yet is the Lake Vether in thawing far different frō the rest for it seemeth to haue in the bottome thereof some secrete and hidden property hard to be vnderstood because the water beginning to boyle and bubble beneath in making like noise as doth a Cauldron of skalding water seething ouer a hote Furnace in very little space mounteth vpward breaketh the Ise how strong thicke or hard soeuer it be and that into such little peeces that many times those whose hap it is to be in that instant trauailing vpon the same doe saue themselues vpon one of them as vpon a plank where they perrish if they be not presently succoured with Boates which vsuallie accustome to be in readines to helpe and assist those that are in danger at such time as the breaking of the Ise is suspected to be at hande And once it happened that a Gentleman of very principall calling and reputation with fiue or sixe of his Seruaunts all on horsebacke trauailed vpon this Lake towards a towne in the Iland and at the very same time somewhat far from them vpon the same Lake was going a labouring man driuing before him certaine beastes who beeing borne there-abouts and knowing by long experience the propertie and manner of the Lake at that instant hearing it beginne to murmure and bubble beneath leauing his beasts betooke him to his heeles and ran with all his might towards the shoare which was about halfe a league of The Gentleman and his seruaunts being a good space farder inwards vpon the Lake imagined the poore man to be some theefe that had stolne this Cattell and the cause of his running away to be the feare he had of being discouered by him and his company and therefore putting spurres to their horses galopt after him as fast as they coulde to take him But the Labourers extreame feare made him so swift that they coulde not ouertake him till he was of from the Lake and vppon the firme Land where laying hands vpon him and demaunding him why he ran in such sort away leauing his Cattell behind him The poore Labourer beeing tyred with running was scarse able to make them answere but after hee had paused awhile and recouered his breath he prayed them to haue a little patience and though he told them not they should themselues see the cause why Whereupon presently of a suddaine the water bubled vp the Ise speeted in small peeces the beasts in sight of them all fell into the water and were drowned at which the husbandman laughing I had rather qd hee that they were drowned then I and thys was the cause of my running because fore-seeing by assured signes the breaking of the Ise and hauing no space to saue them I did the best I could to saue my selfe The Gentleman beeing a stranger in those parts hearing this tale with amazement thinking thys preseruation of him his to proceede of Gods diuine goodnes gaue thankes and prayse vnto his holie Name and withall knowing the Labourer to be an instrument and meane of sauing his life tooke him along with him not onely paying him for the Cattel which he had lost but also recompencing him with many other large rewards to his great contentment and bettering of his estate LV. By diuers meanes doth God preserue his seruaunts and I warrant you this Gentleman was one that feared GOD seeing it pleased him by fo strange a meane to deliuer him frō that danger in which he had otherwise perrished BER The nature of this Lake is wonderfull strange aboue mans capacitie which being but a moment before able to beare and sustaine a whole Army should so in an instant be dissolued broken But leauing thys the cold must of necessitie in my iudgement be there most extreamely sharp vehement rigorous seeing it causeth an Ise of such incredible strength and thicknes AN. Let vs leaue that of the sea which is on the other part or vnder the North commonly called the Frozen-sea remaining so as some doe write the whole yere thorough though as I said before my opinion is that it thaweth at such time of the yere as the sun lyeth beating vpon it with his beames let vs come vnto those Lands and Seas which though we call Septentrionals yet are neerer vnto vs which are all as you haue heard in a manner enhabited of Christians and are according to the description of the old Cosmographers contained vnder our Europe the cold of which is so sharp pearcing that a man would iudge no humaine flesh able to endure the same But according to the olde Prouerbe Custome is another nature and so those that are accustomed thereunto receaue thereby no domage at all Albertus Kransius in his history of those Countries wryteth in perticuler of some yeeres in which the cold was so excessiue that not onely the Riuers and Lakes were frozen but the Sea also so that no ship could saile thorough the same that they trauailed on horsebacke vpon the Ise frō one countrey to another carrying with them prouision of thinges necessarie fuell also to make fire Neyther was this extreame cold and freezing vpon the Sea-coast onely but also manie thousands of myles inward to the Landwarde and the earth was so hardned and bounde that it yeelded them no fruites vvhereupon there ensued a great dearth and mortalitie principally among theyr Cattell for want of fodder The dailie encrease of this cold and Ise continued so long that they built vppon the Sea on such places as men vsually trauayled by Innes and Tauerns with all necessary prouisions both to eate by day and to rest by night as well for man as horse a matter scarcely credible LVD I knowe not why any man should be so fond as to trauaile vpon the Sea in such danger and penury of commodities as of necessity they must endure especially hauing meanes to goe by Land with greater securitie and more prouision of necessaries AN. This may be easily answered for the way by Sea cannot chuse but be farre neerer in cutting straight ouer and lesse painefull as being without Hilles Valleys Quagmires or compasses about Neyther is it to be imagined that they want by the way commodity of things necessary vvhich for gaine are brought thether most aboundantly from all sides at such times
The wonderfull puissance of the deuill The power of the deuill restrained by God A strange chance that happened to a Boy in the Citty of Astorga A verie strange thing that happened in Benauides The miserable end of a swearer The fourth kind of Spirits The fifth kind of Spirits These are causers of earthquakes The sixth kinde of Spirits The opinion of S. Basile touching the bodies of Spirits Both the Angels and deuils are pure Spirits The generall opinion of the holy Doctors coÌ„cerning the substance of Spirits The Spirits when it is necessary fashion vnto themselues bodies of fire ayre or earth c. What PhaÌ„tasma is A strange vision that hapned to Gentleman in Fuentes de Ropell A notable straÌ„ge thing that happened in Bolonia to one Iohn Vasques de Ayola a Spaniard A notable strange chance that hapned to a Gentleman in Spayne in a Monastery of Nunnes Another very strange history written by Alexander de Alexandro Another most straÌ„ge history written by Alexander de Alexandro The answer of S. Andrew to a question proposed to him by the deuill A strange History of Don Anthonio de la Cueua Incubi Succubi The deuils malice is such that he wil not stick to commit any abhomination so that he may cause men to commit it with him Marcus a Greacian that had great familiaritie with deuils An erronious opinion of Lactantius Firmianus A wonderful history of a mayden that was enamoured of the deuill An other strange history of a mayden deceaued by the deuill Negromancie Naturall Magique Abel the Sonne of Adam made a book of the vertues of the Planets The vse of natural Magique is lawfull The Magitians do couenant and agree with the deuill Some deuils higher in authoritie then others A pretty tale of Sprights that were seene in Beneuenta Another pretty tale of a Spright Trasgoâ—y Duendes de Casa Hobgoblins and Robin Goodfelows A Hobgoblin in the Citty of Salamanca A Story of a Studient and a Hobgobline in Beneuenta Another story of a Hobgobline in Beneuenta A false and ridiculous opinion that many hold touching those that are possessed Psellius opinion of the cause why the deuils desire to enter into mens bodies Enchaunters Witches The deuill sometimes entreth into the body of beastes A story of a student that rode between Guadalupe and Granada in one night Another notable chance that hapned to two men on their way to Granada Sorcerers Hags A notable chance that happened to a learned man in Spaine Fryer Alonso de Castra his opinion touching Sorcerers Hags Lamia Striges Wee call these skriech Owles Two maner of wayes by which the Sorcerers are present in generall assemblies with the deuill A strange story of a Sorceresse Another story of a Sorceresse written in Malleê° Maleficarum a booke contayning nothing but things exceeding wel verified and of vndoubted truth Another history of a Sorceresse recited by Paulus Grillandus The names of certaine old famous Sorcerers Negromancers The deuill in the ende always bringeth his ministers to shame and confusion Particuler vertue of men called Ophrogens A pretty kind of curing a man that was bitten by a mad dogge There is a Sect of men in Spain called Saludadores who heale by such like ceremonies those that are bitten by mad dogs I haue seene of them my selfe The cause why the deuill suggesteth euill thoughts to vs in our sleepe A strange chance that hapned to a Gentleman in his sleepe The deuill is alwayes lying in wait to deceaue vs. Aristotles definition of Fortune The grosnes of the Gentiles about their Gods Sundry maners and formes in which the Gentiles figured and paynted Fortune The phrase Corrio Fortuna is not so proper in English and therefore I set it in Spanish Temples dedicated to aduerse Fortune There is great difference betweene Chaunce Fortune The definition of Chaunce more general then that of Fortune Claudius despairing to liue of a sodain made Emperour Caligula murdered as he went to see certaine pastimes Beastes haue no vnderstanding but are onely guided by a distinct of Nature A Beare that playd vpon a Flute The fiercenes of the dogs of Albania The strange affection of a dog of K. Lysimachus The loue of a Romaine gentlemans dog to his dead maister Cardanê° also maketh meÌ„tion of thy dog in his booke de perfect is animalibus Fernandus Gonzala Ouiedê° sayth that this dog was called Bezerillus A strange story of the Earle of Beneuentaâ— dogge The gouernment of the Bees The prouidence of the Ants. The vigilance or the Cranes Reason and vnderstanding vnseparably conioyned and vaited together The cause why some beasts haue greater instinct then others * Dycha Desdycha * Ventura Disuentura * 〈◊〉 Desdichade Bonauentuâ—ado Malauenturado Some words of the Author omitted which treate of the Etimologie of Dycha Desdycha Ventura Disuentura and Disgracia deriuing them from the Latine which doe nothing agree with our English phrase In thinges spirituall interiour there can be no Fortune What wee ought in true Religion to thinke of Fortune There is no other Fortune then the will and prouidence of God What thing Desteny is The Stoyicks opinion of Desteny The opinion of Chrisippus The opinion of Seneca A story of one that said it was his desteny to be a Hangman An argument to proue that there is Destenie The obiection aunswered All that is not vnpossible may be auoided How the operation influence of the starres is to be vnderstoode Our soules farre more noble then the caelestiall bodies Out bodies lesse noble theÌ„ the Planets therfore subiect to their influence The influence of the planets worketh not â—â— force necessity but theyr effects may many vvayes bee altered and changed Our good Angel preserueth vs oftentimes from many mischiefes Astronomers sometimes foretell future things Pope Marcellê° Father said at the houre of his sonnes birth that he was borne to be Pope The Astronomer of Charie Many causes and reasons to alter that which the signes and Planets doe seeme to portend The Chyromancers or Palmestrers doe often meddle their Science with Negromancie The opinion of the Astronomers touching the operation of the Planets Opinion of the Philosophers The opinion of Plato Calcidius An obiection An aunswer to the obiection Auerroes Opinion of Merc. Trismegistus Auerroes Iamblicus Plotinê° scoffeth at the Astronomers Auerroes Opinion of Marsilius Ficinus The Astronomers opinion reprouable by many arguments Obiection The iuyce of Hemlocke giuen to drinke to those that were condeÌ„ned to die The iuyce of Mandragora is mortiferous The vertue of Hemlock The vertues of Mandragora No herbe so venomous but it is some-way vertuous profitable The Viper yeeldeth remedy against many diseases A Leaper strangely cured Pestilentiall diseases are caused through the corruptions putrifactions of the earth The heauen is deuided into fiue Zones and the earth into as many The opinion of Ouid. Macrobiê° Virgil and the rest of the ancients erred touching the enhabited parts of the
continually hearde so great hideous a noyse that no man dareth to approch neer it by three or foure leagues The shyppes keepe alwayes a loofe of fearing and flying that Coast as death it selfe There is seene amongst those trees such an abundance of great black fowles that they seeme in a manner to couer them who rysing vp into the ayre doe make so great a clowde that they obscure in a manner the cleerenesse of the Sunne theyr crying or rather roring is so horrible and fearefull that such as heare them though verie farre of are constrayned to stoppe theyr eares They neuer flie out of the precincts of thys Iland the same beeing alwayes shadowed with a kinde of obscuritie in manner like a Clowde diuersifying it froÌ„ the Land neere vnto it Some saith he doe affirme this Mountaine to be a part of Hell where the condemned soules are tormented vvhich opinion though it bee ridiculous yet the propertie of this Mountaine is strange and in the cause thereof some hidden mysterie which we comprehend not BER These are matters the secrecie of whose causes are not to be sifted out like vnto that of the Mountaines of Angernamia one of the farthest of those Northerne Prouinces which are so high that they are seene a farre of by those that sayle on the Bothnycke Sea and by them with great care and diligence auoyded through a wonderfull secret in them contayned which causeth a noyse so hideous violent feareful and full of astonishment that it is heard many leagues of and if that by force of tempest driuen or otherwise through ignoraunce vnwitting any ship passeth neere thereunto the horror thereof is so great that many die presently through the penetrating sharpnes and vntollerable violence of the same many remaine euer after deafe or diseased and out of theyr wits Neyther are they that trauaile by Land lesse carefull in auoyding these Mountaines Once certaine young men of great courage beeing curious to discouer the cause heereof stopping theyr eares as artificially as they coulde deuise attempted in little Boates to rowe neere these mountaines and to view the particularities of them but they all perrished in that attempt by theyr desastre leauing an example and warning to others not to hazard themselues in like danger That which we may hereafter imagine is that there are some clefts or Caues within the Rocks of these Mountaines and that the flowing and ebbing of the water striuing with the wind and hauing no aspyration out causeth that fearefull rumbling and hideous noyse and this is vnderstood because the greater the tempest is at Sea the greater is the noyse in those Mountains the same being in calme and milde weather nothing so loude and violent Of these mountains Vincentiê° maketh mention in his glasse of Histories though he write not so particulerlie of them as some moderne Authors doe which affirme that they haue seene them LV. Me thinks this place is as perrillous as that of Charibdis and rather more considering the sharpnes and terror of the noyse which penetrateth so farre and in my iudgement the flowing and ebbing of the water should draw vnto it the shippes and make them perrish though you made therof no mention AN. It seemeth vnto me that you also haue read these Authors which treat of the Septentrional Countries seeing it commeth now to purpose I will tell you one no lesse admirable then the rest which is that in a citty called Viurgo neere the prouince of Muscouia there is a Caue called Esmelen of so secret a vertue that no man hath hetherto been able to comprehend the mistery and cause thereof which is that casting any quicke beast into the same there issueth out presently a sound so terrible as though 3000. great Canons were discharged and shot off together the effect of which is such that the hearers thereof if they haue not their eares very well stopt closed do fall presently down depriued of all feeling sence like dead men out of which mortall traunce som neuer reuiue some do but froÌ„ that time forward so long as they liue they detaine som defect or other The greater the beast is that is throwne thereinto the greater is the noyse and roaring that resoundeth out This Caue is compast about with a verie strong wall and the mouth thereof shut vp with a mightie strong doore hauing many Lockes of vvhich the Gouernour hath one Key in his keeping and the rest of the Magistrates each of them a seuerall least otherwise some desastre might fall out by which the Citty might come to be dispeopled which though it be very strong both of walles and Ramparts yet the greatest strength thereof consisteth in the Caue neyther is there any enemy so mightie or puissant that dareth to besiege it hauing before his eyes the ruine of great Armies that haue attempted the same before by which after the Citty was brought into some extreamitie the Cittizens bethinking themselues of the propertie of the Caue coÌ„maunded by publique proclamation all those of the towne to stop theyr eares and one night vnawares to the enemie they cast into the Caue a great number of liuing beasts vpon vvhich there presently issued forth such a hideous infernall noyse and the violence thereof strooke such amazement into the enemies that some fell downe in a traunce and others throwing away theyr Armes fledde out of theyr Cabbines trenches the most confusedly that might bee and withall to encrease theyr misery the Cittizens issuing out massacred the greater part of them by that meanes deliuering theyr Cittie from seruitude And though they could not but receaue som inconuenience through the horrour of that hellish noyse though theyr eares were neuer so well closed yet through the ioy of theyr victory and recouered libertie they made small account of the same since which time all the borderers there abouts fearing the effect of theyr Caue doe liue in league amitie with them BER In truth this is a matter of great admiration and such that though diuers very great secretes both of heauen and earth are comprehended yet the curiositie of no wit how perfect soeuer can reach to giue heereof anie reason LVD Let vs leaue these secrets to him that made them whose will perchance is to conceale theyr causes froÌ„ vs. AN. You say well and in truth the more wee should beat our wits about them the lesse we should be able to vnderstand them it suffiseth therefore for vs to knowe that these are the secrete and wonderfull workes of God shewen by Nature the vnderstanding whereof is aboue our reach and capacitie But to follow on our discourse of the wonders of this Countrey you shal vnderstand that in those standing waters frozen Lakes of which wee spake before the ayre remaineth oftentimes shut in and inclosed the which moouing it selfe and running vp down vnder the Ise seeking vent causeth such roring and noyse that it were able to amaze