in his affaires whilest hee abstained from sheading the blood of Christians but assoone as hee gaue himselfe ouer vnto that villanie his prosperitie kingdome and life diminished and decreased at once for within two yeares hee and his sonne Vâ—lusianus in the war against Aemilian vvere both slain through the defection of his souldiors vvho in the point of necessitie forsooke him Beside the Lord in his time sent vpon the prouinces of Rome a generall and contagious pestilence which lasted vvhole tenne yeares without intermission to make satisfaction for the much innocent blood vvhich was spilled amongst them Phil. Melanct. chron lib. 4. Sebast franc chron Polon Arnolphus the fourescorth Emperour raged like a Tyger against all men but especially against those that professed the religion and name of Christ Iesus for which cause the Lord stirred vp a woman the wife of Guido to minister vnto him the dregs of his wrath in a poysoned cup by meanes whereof such a rottennesse possessed all his members that lice and wormes issuing out continually hee died most miserably in Oringe a city of Bauarie the twelfth yeare of his raigne Philip Melan. chron lib. 5. Baiaset the Turke to what a miserable and ludibrious end came hee to for his outragious hatred against all Christendome but especially against Constantinople which hee had brought to so low an eb that they could scarce haue resisted him any longer had not Tamerlane the Tartarian reuoked him from the siege and bidden him leaue to assaile others and looke vnto his owne Campofulus lib. 9. cap. 5. And indeed hee welcommed him so kindly that hee soone tooke him prisoner and binding him with chaines of gold caried him vp and downe in a cage for aspectacle vsing his backe for a footstoole to get vpon his horse by And thus God plaugeth one Tyrant by another and all for the comfort of his chosen Gensericus king of the Vandals Phil. Melan. chron lib. 3. exercised cruell tyrannie against the professors of the truth So did Honoricus the second also but both of them reaped their iust deserts for Gensericus died being possessed with a spirit And Honoricus being so rotten and putrified that one member dropped off after another Greg. Taron lib. 2. cap. 3. Some say that hee gnew off his owne flesh with his teeth Autharis the twelfth King of Lumbardie Paulus Diaconus lib. 3. cap. 18. de gestis Lâ—rgo bard forbad children to bee baptised or instructed in the Christian faith seeking by that meanes to abolish and plucke downe the kingdome of Christ but he raigned not long for ere sixe yeares vvere complet hee died with poison at Pauia And so hee that thought to vndermine Christ Iesus vvas vndermined himselfe most deseruedlie in the yeare of our Lord. 592. When Arcadius the Emperour through the persuasion of certaine enuious fellowes and his wife Endoxia Euagriur lib. 5. cap. 34. had banished Iohn Chrisostome bishop of Constantinople into Bosphorus the next night there arose such a terrible earthquake that the Empresse and the whole Cittie vvas sore affrighted therewith so that the next morrow messengers after messengers vvere sent vvithout ceasing till they had brought him backe againe out of exile Mandat 9. Calumniation lib. 2. cap. 44. and his accusers vvere all punished for their vvrongfull accusation Thus it pleased God to testifie the innocencie of his seruant euen by terrifying his enemies Smaragdus an exarch of Italie vvas transported by a Deuill for tyrannising ouer Christians in the first yeare of the Empire of Mauritius Paul Diacon lib 3. cap. 12. de gestis Longab Cent. 6. cap. 3. Anton. lib. 15. cap. 15. Mamucha a Sarasen being equall to Pharao in persecuting the church of God God made him equall to him also in the manner of his destruction for as he returned from the spoile of the monasterie of Cassime and Messana and the slaughter of many Christians the Lord caused the sea to swallow vp his whole armie euen an hundred ships Paul Diacon lib. 21. so that few or none escaped Another time euen in the yeare 719 they vvere miraculously consumed vvith famine sword pestilence water and captiuity and al for their infestious ranckor and tyranny towards Christians for whom the famine spared the sword deuoured vvhome both these touched not the pestilence eate vp and they that escaped all three yet perished in the vvaters and tenne ships that escaped the vvaters vvere taken by the Romans and the Syrians surely an egregious signe of Gods heauy wrath and displeasure To conclude there was neuer any that set themselues against the church of God but God set himself against them by some notable iudgement so that some vvere murthered by their subiects as Bluso king of the Vandals others by their enemies as Vdo Prince of Sclauonia some by their wiues Helmold cap. 24. Sclauon cap. 34. as Cruco another Sclauonian Prince others discomfited in war as Abbas the king of Hungaria some destroied by their owne horses Bonfinus as Lucius the Emperor who had first put his owne daughter because she was a Christian amongst the same horses And generally few persecutors escaped without some euident and markable destruction CHAP. XIIII Of the Iews that persecuted Christ BY how much the offence of the Iews was more hainous not onely in despising and reiecting the Lord of glory whom God had sent amongst them for their saluation but also in being so vvicked as to put him to death by so much the more hath God shed his fearfull indignation vpon them as at many other times so especially by that great calamitie and desolation which they abode at their last destruction begun by Vespasian and perfected by Titus which was so great and lamentable as the like was neuer heard of vntill this day for if the sacking and ouerthrow of Ierusalem then when Ieremie the Prophet made his booke of Lamentations ouer it was reputed more grieuous then the subuersion of Sodome which perished suddenly How much more then is this last destruction without all comparison by reason of those horrible strange miseries which were there both suddenly and in continuance of time committed Neither truly is there any history which containeth a description of so many miseries as this doth as it may appeare by Iosephus record of it For after that they had bene afflicted in diuers countries and tossed vp and downe by the deputies a long while there were slaine at Caesarea in one day twenty thousand at Alexandria another time fifty thousand at Zabulon and Ioppe eight thousand and foure hundred besides the burning of the two townes at Damascus ten thousand that had their throates cut As for Ierusalem when it had a long time endured the brunt of the warre both within and without it was pinched with so sore a famine Ioseph of the warres of the Iewes lib. 2. cap. 19 21 22 23. Lib. 6. cap. 16. Lib. 7. cap. 7.8 Lib. 6. c. 16. that
many warres and at length assaulted with such an extreame paine throughout his vvhole body that languishing and consuming he desired oft to poyson himselfe and at last died in great distresse Vitellius Saturninus one of his Leiutenants in those exploits became blind Tert. as Scap. another called Claudius Herminianus gouernour of Capadocia who in hatred of his owne wife that was a Christian had extreamely afflicted many of the faithfull was afterward himselfe afflicted with the pestilence persecuted with vermine bred in his owne bowels and deuoured of them aliue in most miserable sort Now lying in this miserie hee desired not to bee knowne or spoken of by any least the Christians that were left vnmurthered should reioice at his destruction confessing also that those plagues did iustly betide him for his cruelties sake Decius in hatred of Philip his predecessor that had made some profession of Christianity wrought tooth and naile to destroy the church of Christ vsing all the cruelties and torments which his wit could deuise against all those which before time had offered themselues to be persecuted for that cause But his diuelish practises were cut short by means of the warre which he waged against the Scythians Euseb booke 7. chap. 1. Ecclesi hist wherein when hee had raigned not full two yeares his armie was discomfited and he with his sonne cruelly killed Valerian albeit in the beginning of his Empire hee shewed himselfe somewhat mild and gentle towards the professors of religion yet afterwards he became their deadly enemie but when he had terribly persecuted them in his dominions it was not long ere he was taken prisoner in the Persian warres being threescore and ten yeares old and made a slaue to his conquerour al the rest of his life In the sermon of the congregatiō of saints Euseb histor ecclesiast booke 7. chap. 30. And whose condition was so miserable that Sapor king of Persia vsed his backe as a blocke or stirrop to mount vpon his horse Yea hee dealt so cruelly with the poore old man as Eusebius testifieth that to make vp the full number of his miseries he caused him to be flaine aliue Aurelian being vpon point to trouble the quiet of the church which it a while enioied vnder the Emperour Galien euen whilst he was deuising new practises against it a thunderbolt fell from heauen at his feet which so amased him that his malicious and bloodthirstie mind was somewhat rebated and repressed from doing that which he pretended vntill that returning to his old bent and perseuering to pursue his purpose when Gods thunder could not terrifie him Vepis Eutrop. Nicephor hee stirred vp his owne seruants to cut his throat Dioclesian went another way to worke for hee did not set abroach all his practises at one push but first assaied by subtle means to make those that were in his armie to renounce their faith then by open proclamation commanded that their churches should be rased and beaten downe Ruffin their bibles burned and torne in peeces that they that were Magistrats or bore any publike office in the Commonwealth if they were Christians should bee deposed and that all bondmen that would forsake their profession should be enfranchised Whē hee had thus left no deuise vnpractised that might further to abolish and destroy the religion of Christ and perceiuing that notwithstanding all his malice and cruell rage it euery day through the wonderfull constancie of Martyrs encreased and grew euen against the haire with very spight and anger he gaue vp the Empire And lastly when hee had beene tormented with diuerse and strange diseases and that his house had beene set on fire with lightning and burned vvith fire from heauen and hee himselfe so scarred with thunder that he knew not where to hide him hee sell mad and killed himselfe There was ioined to this man in the gouernment of the Empire one Maximian whose crueltie and tyranny against the Christians was so outragious also Mandat 7. Lib. 2. cap. 12. that vpon a solemne feastiuall day when infinite numbers of them vvere assembled together at Nicomedia in a temple to serue God he sent a band of Atheists to inclose them burne the temple and them together as they indeed did for there vvere consumed at that bondfire as Nicephorus writeth twentie thousand persons Euseb histor ecclesiast 7. 8. chap. 16. Nicephor lib. 7. chap 6. In like sort dealt he with a whole citie in Phrigia which after he had long besieged hee caused to bee burnt to cinders with all the inhabitants therein But the end of this wretch was like his life euen miserable for lying a while sicke of a greeuous disease the very vermine and such horrible stinke came forth of his body that for shame and griefe he hung himselfe Maximinus that raigned Emperour in the East Nicephor 7.22 was constrained to interrupt and make cease his persecution which he had begun by means of a dangerfull and greeuous sicknesse and to confirme a generall peace to all Christians in his dominions by publike edicts But alasse it was so brittle that it lasted but sixe months for euen then he sought all meanes possible againe to trouble and disquiet their rest sent forth a new edict quite contrary to the former importing their vtter destruction And thus being nothing amended but rather made worse by his sicknesse it assailed him afresh in such sort that euery day growing in extremity as he grew in crueltie it at last brought him to his death his carcasse being all rotten and full of corruption and wormes Against the Gentiles S. Chrisostome writeth of him that the apple of his eie fell out before he died Macentius and Licinius the one Emperour of Italy the other of the East perceiuing how the Emperour Constantine that raigned in the West was had in great reputation for maintaining the cause of the Christians began also to do the like but by and by their malice and hipocrisie discouered it selfe when they vndertooke to trouble afflict those whom before they seemed to fauour for which cause Constantine taking armes against them destroied them both one after another for Maxentius thinking to saue himselfe vpon a bridge on Tiber was deceiued by the breaking of the bridge and so drenched and drowned in the water Licinius was taken and put to death And thus two tyrants ended their daies for persecuting the church of Christ Lanques chron In the tenth year of the persecution of Dioclesian Galerius his chiefe minister and instrument in that practise fell into a greeuous sicknesse hauing a sore risen in the nether part of his belly which consumed his priuie members frō whence swarmed great plentie of wormes engendred by the putrifaction This disease could not bee holpen by any chirurgery or phisicke wherefore hee confessed that it iustly happened vnto him for his monstrous cruelty towards the Christians called in his proclamations which he had published against
thē Howbeit notwithstanding he died miserably and as some write slue himselfe CHAP. XIII More examples of persecutors SAint Bartholmew one of the twelue Apostles after hee had preached Christ Iesus vnto the Indians and deliuered them the Gospell written by Matthew and had conuerted many vnto the faith albeit the miracles which he wrought were strange and supernaturall for hee restored many diseased persons to their health Hieron in catalogo and clensed king Polemius his daughter from an vncleane spirit wherewith he was possessed yet in regard that hee destroied their idoll Astaroth and bewraied the subtilties of Sathan he was by Astiages Polemius yoonger brother at the instigation of the idolatrous priests first cruelly beaten with clubs after flaied and last of al beheaded But within 30 daies after both the wicked king and the sacrilegious priests were possessed with Deuils and brought to a wretched and miserable death Theodoret. lib. 4. chap. 26. Aphraates that heauenly Philosopher going out of his cloister towards the Temple to feed the flocke of Christ with some vvholesome food of sound doctrine and being perceiued by the Emperour Valens and demanded whether he went hee answered to pray for him and his kingdome Tripartit hist lib. 8. chap 4. Nicephor lib. 11. chap. 25. I but said the Emperour it were more cōuenient for thee that professest thy self a Monk to remaine at home in contemplation then to stray abroad true answered this holy man if Christs sheepe enioied peace but as it becommeth an honest matrone to sit still vvithin dores neuertheles if her house were on fire the flame enuironed her should shee not stir to helpe to quench it And should I lie still and see my country set on fire by thy persecution Wherat the Emperour being netled threatned him with death and one of his chamberlaines taunting bim for his boldnes vsed him most currishly But presently as he went to the bathes to make them ready for the Emperour the hand of God stroke him with an apoplexie that he fel down dead into the waters Vnder the Empire of Iulian the Apostate all they that either conspired or practised the death of Cyrillus a Deacon of Heliopolis scituate neere to Libanus Theodor. lib. 3. chap. 7. came to a miserable end for after that Constantine was deceased by whose authoritie the holy Martyr had broken downe many of their Images and Idols the abhominable idolators did not onely murther him but also deuoured his liuer with bread as if it had been the sweetest morsell of meat in the world But the alseeing eie of God saw their villany and his reuengefull rod brused them in peeces for their teeth wherwith they chewed that vnnaturall food fell all out of their heads and their tongues wherwith they tasted it rotted and consumed to nothing and lastly their eies which beheld it failed them and they became blind And thus were they all serued not one excepted bearing iustly the markes of Gods wrath for so inhumane and vnnaturall a deed Euseb lib. 8. cap. 7. At Tire a city of Paenicia vnder the raigne of Dioclesian many Christians that stoutly professed and maintained the faith and teligion of Christ Iesus vvere after many tortures and distractions exposed to wild beastes to bee deuoured as beares libards vvild bores and bulles but the sauage beasts though made fierce and furious by fires and swords yet I know not by what secret instinct refused once to touch them or to come neere them but turned their teene vpon the infidels that were without and came to set them on vpon the saints and tore many of them in peeces in their steads Howbeit although they escaped the chawes of vvild beastes yet they escaped not the swordes of them that vvere more sauage then any beastes and though the bowelles of beares refused to entombe them yet were they emtombed in the floods and crowned vvith the crowne of sacred martyrdome Processus and Martianus keepers of the prison wherein the Apostles Peter and Paul were inclosed at Rome seeing the miracles which were vvrought by their hands beleeued in Christ and together with seuen and fourtie other prisoners were baptised which when Paulinus the Iudge perceiued he enioined them to lay aside their conscience and offer sacrifice to idols But they readier to obey God then man Vincentius lib. 10. cap. 56. Petrus de natalibus could neither by threats nor violence bee brought to it but chose rather to be beaten with clubs or consumed with fire or scourged with scorpions as they were then to yeeld to denie their maker by doing worship to diuelish and monstrous idols But that Iudge the procurer of their martyrdomes shortly after became himself an obiect of Gods wrath when his eie sight failed him and an euill spirit so possessed him and tormented him that in the extremitie of terrors and griefe he breathed out ere long his last and miserable breath Nicephorus reporteth how the Emperour Traian hauing caused fiue holy Virgines to bee burned for standing in the profession of the truth Lib. 3. cap. 23. commanded certaine vessels to bee made of their ashes mingled with brasse and dedicated them to the seruice of a publike bath but the bath that before time instilled a wholesome and heathfull vapour into mens bodies now became pernicious and fatall to them for all that washed themselues therein felt presently such a giddinesse in their brains and such a dimnesse of sight that they fell down dead forthwith The cause of which mischiefe being perceiued by Traian hee melted againe the Virgine moulded vessels and erected fiue statues to the honour of them so choaking as it were one superstition with another to his own eternall infamie and disgrace As Agrippus a yoong man of fifteene yeares of age Bergomiensis lib. 8. being apprehended by the inhabitants of Preneste and grieuously tormented for refusing to offer sacrifice to their idols and when all would not serue to shake the foundation of his faith which was builded vpon a rocke he was condemned and executed to death Behold the Iudge that pronounced the sentence fell down dead from his throne before the face of the world euen whilest the yoong man was in the middest of his torments and by his example made knowne to all men how odious such cruell persecutors are in the sight of him that iudgeth the earth and entrolleth the mighty Princes and potentates of the same In the Empire of Iulian the Apostate the Lord sent such horrible earthquakes vpon the vvorld that vvhat for the fall of houses and ruptures of fields neither city nor countrie vvas safe to abide in besides such an extreame drought dried vp the moisture of the earth that victuals vvere very geason and deare These plagues Theodoret auoucheth to haue fallen vpon the world for the impietie of Iulian and the miserable persecution of Christians Lib. 4. cap. 4. Euseb lib. 7. cap. 21. 22. The Emperour Gallus had good successe
his faith and recoiled from Christ Iesus Christ Iesus would recoile from him and giue him ouer to death by depriuing him of his grace and spoiling him of the power of his quickning and sauing spirit These are the fearefull examples of Gods Iudgements which Saint Ciprian reporteth to haue light vpon Backsliders in his time adding moreouer that besides these many vvere possessed with Deuils robbed of their wits and enraged vvith furie and madnesse and all for this offence of Apostasie Amongst all the examples of our age of Gods seuere iustice vpon Apostataes the examples of Francis Spiera an Italian Lawier a man of credite and authoritie in his countrey is most pitifull and lamentable who hauing embraced the true religion vvith maruellous zeale and made open profession of the same Sleidan lib. 21.1 feared not freely to declare his opinion of euery point of doctrine that came in question and grew in knowledge euery day more and more But it was not long ere hee was complained off to the Popes Embassadour which when hee vnderstood and saw the danger wherein hee was like to fall After hee had long debated and disputed the matter in his owne conscience the counsaile of the flesh and wordlie wisedome preuailing hee resolued at last to goe to the Embassadour to the intent to appease his wrath and doe whatsouer hee should command Thus comming to Venice and ouerruled with immoderate feare he confessed that hee had done amisse and craued pardon for the same promising euer after to bee an obedient subiect to the Popes lawes and that which is more when it was enioined him that at his returne home hee should in his owne countrie openly recant his former profession hee refused not but performed his recantation in due sort But it chaunced very soone after that this miserable man fell sicke of bodie and soule and began to despaire of Gods mercie towardes him His Phisitian perceiuing his disposition iudged that the cause of his bodies disease was a vehement conceit and thought of mind and therefore gaue aduise to minister counsaile to his troubled mind verie carefully that the cause beeing taken away the effect also might surcease To this end many learned men frequented him euery day recalling into his mind and laying open before him manie expresse places of Scripture touching the greatnesse of Gods mercie which thinges hee auouched to bee true but said that those promises pertained not to him because hee had renounced Christ Iesus and forsworne the knowne truth and that for this cause nothing was prepared for him but hell fire which alreadie in soule hee saw and felt I would said hee willingly if it were possible loue God but it is altogether impossible I onely feare him without loue These and such speeches vsed he with a stedfast countenance neither did his tongue at any time run at randome nor his answers sauour of indiscretion or want of memorie but aduisedly warned all that stood by to take heed by his example how to listen too much to worldly wisdome especially then when they should bee called before men to professe the religion of Christ And lying in this extremity he refused all manner of sustenance rebuking and being angrie with his sonnes that opened his mouth to make him swallow some food to sustain him saying Since hee had forsaken his Lord and maister all his creatures ought to forsake him I am afeard of euery thing there is not a creature that hath not conspired to worke my destruction let me die let mee die that I may goe and feele that vnquenchahle fire which already consumeth mee and which I can by no means escape And thus he died indeed pined to death in despaire and horrible torment of conscience Centur. 3 cap. 12 Nichomachus a man that stoutly professed Christ Iesus in prosperity being brought to his triall at Troas and put into torments he denied him and being deliuered by that means consented to offer sacrifice vnto idols But assone as hee had finished his sacrifice he was hoisted vp by the spirit of darknesse whose darling now he was dashed against the earth so that his teeth biting his prophane tongue wherewith hee had denied his sauour in two he died incontinently Tamerus a professour of the true religion vvas seduced by his brother to cleaue vnto Poperie Theatrum historicum and to forsake his first loue but for his defection from the truth the Lord gaue him vp into a reprobat sence so that falling into despaire he hong himselfe Richard Denton a blacksmith dwelling at Wels in Cambridgeshire hauing beene a professor of the Gospell before time when William Wolsey Martyr whome the said Denton had first conuerted vnto the truth sent him certaine money out of prison at Ely with this commendations That he maruelled hee tarried so long behind him seeing he was the first that deliuered him the booke of scripture into his hand Acts monuments pag 1717. and told him that it was the truth his answere was this I confesse it is true but alasse I cannot burne But hee that could not burne in the cause of Christ was afterward burned against his will for in the yeare 1564 his house was set on fire and whilest hee went in to saue his goods hee lost his life There was also one Burton Bailife of Crowland in Lincolnshire who pretending an earnest friendship to the gospel in king Edwards time after the kings death began lustily to set vp the Popish masse againe and would haue beaten the poore Curate if hee had not setled himselfe thereto but see how the Lords iudgement ouertooke him as he came riding from Fennebancke one day a crow flying ouer his head let fall her excrements vpon his face so that it ran from the top of his nose downe to his beard Acts monuments pag. 2101 the poisoned sent and sauour whereof so annoied his stomacke that he neuer ceased vomiting vntill he came home and after falling deadly sicke would neuer receiue any meat but vomited stil and complained of that stincke cursing the crow that had poisoned him to be short within few daies he died desperately without any token of repentance of his former life Hither may wee ad the examples of one Hendrie Smith a Lawier of the middle temple Acts monuments and Arnoldus Bomelius a student of Louaine both which hauing professed the truth a while and after being seduced by euill companie the one of Gilford the other of Maister Tileman Smith afterward hanged himselfe in his chamber in the temple in the year of our Lord 1569. Bomelius murdered himselfe with his owne dagger And thus these two Apostataes felt the heauy scourge of Gods wrath for reuolting from the truth which they once professed CHAP. XVIII Of those which haue willingly fallen away THese kind of Apostataes which wee are now to speake of are such as without any outward compulsion threats or likelihood of daunger forsake freely Gods true Religion and
heauen and hell but as an old wiues fable hee beeing dead his disciples were brought forth into a large field neere Paris and there in the presence of the French king degraded and burnt the dead carkasse of Almaricus being taken out of the sepulchre and burnt amongst them It fell out that whilst they were in burning there arose so huge a tempest that heauen and earth seemed to mooue out of their places wherein doubtlesse the soules of these wicked men felt by experience that hell was no fable but a thing and such a thing as waited for all such rebels against God as they were Anastasius Emperour of Constantinople being corrupted with the heresie of Eutiches published an edict wherein all men were commanded to worship God not vnder three persons as a trinity but as a quaternitie containing in it foure persons and could not by any counsell be brought from that deuilish errour but repelled from him diuers bishops with great reproch which came to perswade him to the contrary for which cause not long after a flash of lightning from heauen suddenly seazed vpon him and so he perished when hee had reigned eight and twentie yeeres Iustinus the second also who after the death of Iustinian obtained the Imperiall crowne was a man of exceeding pride and crueltie contemning pouertie and murdering the nobilitie for the most part In auarice his desire was so insatiate that he caused iron chests to be prepared wherein hee might locke vp that treasure which by vniust exactions hee had extorted of the people Notwithstanding all this hee prospered well enough vntill he fell into the heresie of Pelagian soone after which the Lord bereft him of his wits and shortly after of his life also when he had reigned eleuen yeeres Mahomet by birth an Arabian and by profession one of the most monstrous heretikes that euer liued began his heresie in the yeere 625 his offspring was but out of a base stocke for being fatherlesse one Abdemonoples a man of the house of Ismael bought him for his slaue and loued him greatly for his fauour and wit for which cause he made him ruler ouer his marchandize and other businesse Now in the meane while one Sergius a monke flying for heresie into Arabia instructed him in the heresie of Nestorius a while after his master died without children and left behind him much riches and his wife a widow of fifty yeeres of age whome Mahomet married and when shee died was made heire vnto all her riches So that now what for his wealth and cunning in magicke he was had in high honour among the common people Wherefore by the counsell of Sergius he called himselfe The great Prophet of God And shortly after when his fame was published hee deuised a law and kind of religion called Alcaron wherein he borrowed something almost of all the heresies that were before his time with the Sabellians he denied the Trinitie with the Maniclies he said there was but two persons in the Deity hee denied the equalitie of the Father with the Sonne with Eunomius and said with Macedone that the Holy Ghost was a creature and approoued the community of women with the Nicholaits hee borrowed of the Iewes circumcision and of the Gentiles much superstition and somewhat he tooke of the Christian verity besides many deuilish fantasies inuented of his owne braine those that obeied his law he called Sarazins Now after he had liued in these monstrous abuses fourty yeeres the Lord cut him off by the falling sicknesse which he had dissembled a long time saying when hee was taken therewith that the Angell Gabriel appeared vnto him whose brightnesse hee could not behold but the Lord made that his destruction which he imagined would be for his honour and setting forth his sect Stow Chron. Infinite be the examples of the destruction iudgement of priuat heretikes in all ages therfore we will content our selues with them that be most famous In the yeere of our Lord 1561 and the third yere of the reigne of Q. Elizabeth there was in London one William Geffery that constantly auouched a companion of his called Iohn Moore to be Christ our Sauiour and could not be reclaimed from this mad perswasion vntill he was whipped from Southwarke to Bedlam where the said Moore meeting him was whipped also vntill they both confessed Christ to be in heauen and themselues to be sinfull and wicked men But most strange it is The same how diuers sensible wise meÌ„ were deluded caried beside themselues by the subtilty of Satan in the yeere 1591 the reigne of Q. Elizabeth 33 the memory thereof is yet fresh in euery mans head and mouth and therfore I will but briefly touch the same Edmond Coppinger Henry Arthington two gentlemen being associated with one William Hacket somtimes a profane very leud person but now coÌ„uerted in outward shew though not in inward affection were so seduced by his hypocriticall behauiour the deuils extraordinary deuices that from one point to another they came at last to thinke that this Hacket was anointed to be the Iudge of the world therfore comming on a day to Hackeâ—s lodging in London Hypocrisie in regard of Hacket lib. 1. c. 22. he told them that he had bin annointed of the H. ghost then Coppinger asked him what his pleasure was to be done Go your way saith he proclaime in the city that Christ Iesus is come with his fan in his hand to iudge the earth if they wil not beleeue it let them come kill me if they can Then Coppinger answered it should be don forthwith therupon like mad men he Arthington ran into the streets proclaimed their message aforesaid wheÌ„ by reason of the concourse of people they could not proceed any further they got vp into two empty carts in Cheap crying Repent repent for Christ Iesus is come to iudge the world then pulling a paper out of his bosom he read out of it many things touching the office calling of Hacket how he represented Christ by partaking part of his glorified body c. besides they called themselues his prophets one of Iustice another of mercy And thus these simple men were strangely deceiued by a miraculous illusion of Satan who no doubt by strange apparitions had brought them into this vain conceit But let vs obserue the end of it it was thus The whole citie being in a maze tooke Hacket the breeder of this deuise and arraigning him before the Maior other Iustices found him guilty as well of this seditious practise as of speaking traiterous words against the Queene Wherefore hee was shortly after hanged on a gibbet in Cheape-side counterfaiting to his last his old deuises and at length vttering horrible blasphemies against the maiestie of God As for his Prophets Coppinger died the next day in Bridewell and Arthington was kept in prison vpon hope of repentance This though it be no
least wee fall into the sinne of Saul and Herod 1. Sam 14. Marc. 6. Now what punishments God hath laid vpon periurers these examples that follow shall make knowen vnto vs. Osee the last king of Israel beeing made by Gods iust iudgement for his sinnes subiect and tributary to Salmanazar king of Ashur without regard to the bond wherewith he was bound 2. King 17. and to his faith which he had plighted conspired and entred league with the king of Aegypt against him but hee discouering their seditions and priuie conspiracies assembled his forces spoiled his countrey and bad them warre on all sides laying siege to the chiefe citie of his kingdome after three yeeres tooke it togither with the forsworne king whome he put in close prison and kept very straightly leading him and his whole nation captiue into Assyria to end their daies in misery of which euill as of all others that happened in that warre the disloialty and treason of Osee was the next and chiefest cause Among the beadroll of sinnes which Sedechias the last king of Iuda is noted withall in holy scripture periury is one of the count for notwithstanding hee receiued his kingdome of Nabuchadnezzar and had sworne fealty to him as to his soueraigne yet brake hee his oath in rebelling against him which was the very cause of his destruction 2. Chron. 36. for NabuchadneZZar to be reuenged on his disloialty sent a puissant army against Ierusalem which tooke spoiled and burned it and ouertooke the periurer in his flight and first made him a beholder of the slaughter of his owne children and then had his owne eies bored out and was caried in chaines to Babylon seruing for a spectacle to all posteritie of Gods wondrous iudgements vpon periurers And thus both the kingdomes of Israel and Iuda were for breach and falsifying their oth quite extinguished and razed out Plutarch The greatest deceiuer and most treacherous person one of them that euer Greece saw was Lisander the Lacedemonian a busie body full of cunning subtilty and craft and one that perfourmed the most of his acts of warre more by fraud and stratagemes then by any other meanes this was he that said that when the lyons skin meaning Fortitude would not serue it was needfull then to sue vnto the foxes case meaning subtilty he made so litle reckening of forswearing himselfe that he would often say that children were to be cousened wirh trifles as dice and cockals and old men with othes but by his deceitfull trickes he was occasion of much euill diuers murders but at last this fox making warre against the Thebanes for that they had taken part with the Athenians against him and giuen them succour and meanes for recouering their liberty was taken in the trap and slaine at the foote of their walls Liuie Metius Suffetius Generall of the Albanes procured the Fidenates to enter war against the Romanes contrary to his oth which he had sworne vnto them and being called by the Romans to their succour and placed in an outwing to helpe if need were whilst the rest were fighting he droue away the time in ordering his men and ranging them into squadrons to see which part should haue the best that hee might ioyne himselfe vnto that side But Tullus the Romane king hauing obtained the victory and seeing the cowardise subtilty and treason of this Albane adiudged him to a most straunge and vile death answerable to his fact for as hee had in his bodie a double heart swimming betweene two streames and now ready to go this way now that so was his body dismembred and torne in pieces by foure horses drawing foure contrarie waies to serue for an example to all others to be more faithfull and true obseruers of their othes then he was In old time the Africanes and Carthaginians were generally noted for perfidie and falshood aboue other nations Liâ— Decad. 3. lib. 1. the cause of which bruit was principally that old subtill souldier Anniball an old deceiuer and a notorious periurer who by his crafts and cousenages which hee wrought without religion or feare of God raised vp that euill report This subtill foxe hauing made warre in Italy sixteene yeeres and all that while troubled and vexed the Romanes sore after many victories wastings of countries ruines and sackings of cities and cruell bloodshed was at length ouercome by Scipio in his owne countrey and perceiuing that his countrey men imputed the cause of their fall vnto him and sought to make him odious to the Romanes by laying to his charge the breach of that league which was betwixt them hee fled to Antiochus king of Siria not so much for his own safeties sake as to continue his warre against the Romans which he knew Antiochus to be in hammering because they came so neare vnto his frontiers but hee found his hope frustrate for king Antiochus for the small trust hee affied in him and the daily suspition of his trechery would not commit any charge of his army into his hand although for valiantnesse and prowesse he was second to none in that age It came to passe therefore that assoone as Antiochus was ouerthrowen of the Romanes he was constrained to flie to Prusias king of Bithynia that tooke him into his protection but being as treacherous as himselfe hee soone deuised a meanes to betray him to Quintius the generall of the Romane army which when Anniball vnderstood and seeing that all the passages for euasion were closed vp and that hee could not any way escape hee poisoned himselfe and so miserably ended his treacherous life And thus the deceit which hee practised towards others fell at length vpon his owne pate to his vtter destruction Albeit that periurers and forswearers were to the Aegyptians very odious and abominable as wee said before yet among them there was one Ptolome Iustine who to bereaue his sister Arsinoe of her kingdome stained himselfe with this villanous spot and thereby brought his purpose to passe for pretending and protesting great affection and loue vnto her in the way of mariage for such incestuous mariages were there through a peruerse and damnable custome not vnlawfull and auowing the same by solemne oath before her embassadours did notwithstanding soone make knowen the drift of his intent which was to make himselfe king for being arriued in shew to consummate the marriage at his first approch he caused his nephewes her sonnes which she had by her former husband Lisimachus and were come forth from their mother to giue him entertainment on the way to be slaine yea and least they should escape his hands he pursued them euen to their mothers bosome and there murdered them and after expelling her also from her kingdome caught the crowne raigned tyrant in her roome all which mischiefes hee committed by reason of the faithlesse oth which he had taken and although that in such a case no oth ought to be of force to confirme so
vnlawfull an alliance though it be pronounced taken by the name and in the temple of their idols yet notwithstanding it being done with an euill conscience and to an euill purpose hee that did it can be no lesse then a periurer But for this and other vices it came to passe that ere long hee was conquered by the Gaules who taking him in battell slew him and cut off his head and hauing fastened it vpon a launce caried it in signe of victory and triumph vp and downe the host A most notable example of the punishment of periurie falshood in Vladislaus king of Hungary and his army destroied by the Turkes is set downe in Bonfinus his Hungarian history after this manner It fell out that the king of Hungary had so well bestirred himselfe against the Turkes that Amurathes was glad vpon vnequall conditions and euen to his owne hurt and their good to conclude a peace with him wherein it was agreed that certaine prouinces should be restored to the Hungarians which otherwise could not haue beene recouered but by great losse of men this league beeing made and the articles thereof engrossed in both languages with a solemne oth taken on both parties for the confirmation of the same Behold the Cardinall of Florence Admirall of the nauie which lay vpon the sea Hellespont now called S. Georges arme It is so called by the French meÌ„ but more coÌ„monly The straights of Castill which deuideth Turkie from Greece sendeth letters to the king of Hungary to persuade him to disanull and repeale this new concorded peace this practise likewise did Cardinall Iulian the Popes legate in Hungary with might and maine helpe forward which two good pillars of the Church inspired with one and the same spirit wrought togither so effectually with the king that at their instance he falsified his oth broke the peace sent to Constantinople to denounce warre afresh and forthwith whilst their Embassadours were retiring their garrisons out of Mâ—sia to bring them into their hands againe and had sent fortie thousand crownes for the ransome of certaine great men which were prisoners and had restored the realme of Rascia al their captiues according to the tenor of the late league not knowing of this new breach in the meane while I say hee set forward his armie towards the Turkes iâ— all expedition Now the Turkes secure and misdoubting nothing were set vpon vnawares by the king yet putting themselues in defence there grew a long and sharpe battell till Amurathes perceiuing his side to decline and almost ouercome pulled out of his bosome the articles of the foresaid peace and lifting vp his eies to heauen vtrered these speeches O Iesus Christ these are the leagues that thy Christians haue made and confirmed by swearing by thy name and yet haue broken them again If thou beest a God as they say thou art reuenge this iniury which is offered both thee and me and punish those truce-breaking varlets Hee had scarse ended these speeches but the Christians battell and courage began to rebate Vdislaus himselfe was slaine by the Ianissaries his horse being first hurt his whole armie was discomfited and all his people put to the sword sauing a few that fled amongst whome was the right reuerend Embassadour of the Pope who assoone as hee had thrust in others ouer the eares withdrew himselfe forsooth far enough from blowes or danger Then followed a horrible butchery of people and a lamentable noise of poore soules ready to be slaughtered for they spared none but haled them miserably in pieces and executed a iust and rigorous iudgement of God for that vile treachery and periury which was committed CHAP. XXX More examples of the like subiect BVt let vs adde a fewe more examples of fresher memory as touching this vngodly periury and first not to ouerpasse king Philip of Macedonie who neuer made reckoning of keeping his othes but swore and vnswore them at his pleasure and for his commoditie doubtlesse it was one of the chiefest causes why hee and his whole progenie came quickely to destruction as testifieth Pausanias for hee himselfe beeing sixe and fourty yeeres old In Arcadâ—cis was slaine by one of his owne seruants after which Olympias his wife made away two of his sonnes Anideus and another which hee had by Cleopatra Attalus his neece whome shee sod to death in a cauldron his daughter Thessalonicaes children likewise all perished and lastly Alexander after all his great victories in the midst of his pompe was poisoned at Babylon De Consessoribus Gregory Tours maketh mention of a wicked varlet in France among the people called Auerni that forswearing himselfe in an vniust cause had his tongue so presently tied that hee could not speake but roare and so continued till by his earnest praiers and repentance the Lord restored to him the vse of that vnruly member Thete were in old time certaine people of Italy called Aequi whereof the memory remaineth onely at this day for they were vtterly destroied by Q. Cincinnatus Liu. lib. 3. these hauing solemnly made a league of friendship with the Romans and sworne vnto it with one consent afterward chose Gracchus Cluilius for their captaine and vnder his conduct spoiled the fields and territories of the Romans contrary to their former league and oth Whereupon the Romans sent Q. Fabius P. Voluminus A. Posthumius Embassadours to them to complaine of their wrongs and demand satisfaction but their captaine so little esteemed them that he bad them deliuer their message to an oake standing thereby whilst he intended other businesse Then one of the three turning himselfe towards the oake spake on this manner Thou hallowed oke and whatsoeuer els belongeth to the gods in this place heare and beare witnesse of this disloiall part and fauour our iust complaints that with the assistance of the gods wee may be reuenged on this iniurie This done they returned home and shortly after gathering a power of men set vpon and ouercame that truce-breaking nation In the yeere of Rome built 317 the Fidenates reuolted from the friendship and league of the Romanes to Toluminus the king of the Veyans and adding crueltie to treason killed foure of their Embassadours that came to know the cause of their defection which disloialty the Romans not brooking vndertooke war against them and notwithstanding all their priuat and forraine strength ouerthrew and slew them In this battell it is said that a Tribune of the souldiers seeing Toluminus brauely galloping vp and downe and encouraging his souldiers the Romans trembling at his approch said Is this the breaker of leagues violatour of the law of nations If there be any holines on earth my sword shall sacrifice him to the soules of our slaine Embassadours therewithall setting spurs to his horse he vnhorst him fastening him to the earth with his speare cut off his perfidious head whereat his army dismaid retired became a slaughter
betwixt whome was great strife for the soueraigne dominion but to rid himselfe of all his trouble at once hee slew his brother Manlius by treason and after continued his raigne in tyranny and all vnlawfull lusts the space of twentie yeares but although vengeance all this while wincked yet it slept not for at the end of this space as hee was hunting hee was deuoured of wild beasts In the yeare of our Lord God 745 one Sigebert was authorised king of the Saxons in Brittaine a cruell and tyrannous Prince towards his subiects and one that chaunged the ancient lawes and customes of his realme after his owne pleasure and because a certaine Nobleman somewhat sharpely aduertised him of his euill conditions he malitiously caused him to bee put to death but see how the Lord reuenged this murder hee caused his Nobles to depriue him of his kingly authority and at last as a desolate and forlorne person wandering alone in a wood to bee slaine of a swine-heard whose maister hee being king had wrongfully put to death In the yeare of our Lord 678 Childerich king of Fraunce caused a Nobleman of his Realme called Bolyde to bee bound to a stake and there beaten to death without the pretence of any iust crime or accusation against him for which cruelty his Lords and commons being grieuously offended conspired togither and slew him with his wife as they were in hunting In the raigne of Edward the second and Edward the third Sir Roger Mortimer committed many villanous outrages in sheading much humane blood but hee was also iustlie recompenced in the end first he murdered king Edward the second lying in Barkley castell to the end hee might as it was supposed enioy Isabell his wife with whome hee had very suspitious familiarity Secondly hee caused Edward the third to conclude a dishonourable peace with the Scots by restoring to them all their ancient writings charters and patents whereby the kings of Scotland had bound themselues to be feudaries to the kings of England Thirdly he accused Edmund Earle of Kent vncle to king Edward of treason and caused him vniustly to be put to death And lastly he conspired against the king to worke his destruction for which and diuerse other things that were laid to his charge he was worthely and iustly beheaded In the raigne of Henry the sixt Humfry the good duke of Gloucester faithfull protector of the king by the meanes of certaine malicious persons and especially the Marques of Suffolke as it was suspected was arrested cast into hold strangled to death in the Abbey of Bury for which cause the Marques was not only banished the land for the space of fiue yeares but also banished out of his life for euer for as he sailed towards France he was met withall by a ship of warre and there presently beheaded and the dead corps cast vp at Douer that England wherein hee had committed the crime might be a witnesse of his punishment As the murder of a gentleman in Kent called maister Arden of Feuersham was most execrable so the wonderfull discouerie thereof was exceeding rare this Arden being somewhat aged had to wife a young woman no lesse faire then dishonest who being in loue with one Mosby more then her husband did not onely abuse his bed but also conspired his death with this her companion for togither they hired a notorious ruffian one Blacke Will to strangle him to death with a towell as hee was playing a game at tables which though secretly done yet by her own guiltie conscience and some tokens of blood which appeared in the house was soon discouered and confessed Wherfore she her selfe was burnt at Canterbury Michael maister Ardens man was hanged in chaines at Feuersham Mosby and his sister were hanged in Smithfield Greene another partner in this bloody action was hanged in chaines in the high way against Feuersham And Blacke Will the ruffian after his first escape was apprehended and burnt on a scaffold at Flushing in Zealand And thus all the murderers had their deserued dewes in this life and what they endured in the life to come except they obtaine mercy by true repentance it is easie to iudge CHAP. XI Of Paricides or parent murderers IF all effusion of humane blood bee both horrible to behold and repugnant to nature then is the murdering of parents especially detestable when a man is so possessed with the deuill or transported with a hellish fury that he lifteth vp his hand against his owne naturall father or mother to put thē to death this is so monstrous and inormious an impiety that the greatest Barbarians euer haue had it in detestation wherefore it is also expressely commanded in the law of God that vvhosoeuer smiteth his father or mother in what sort soeuer though not to death Exod. 21. yet he shall die the death If the disobedience vnreuerence and contempt of children towards their parents are by the iust iudgement of God most rigorously punished as hath ben declared before in the first commandement of the second table how much more then when violence is offered aboue all when murder is cōmitted Diodor. Sic. Thus the Aegyptians punished this sin they put the cōmittants vpon a stack of thorns and burnt thē aliue hauing beaten their bodies before hand with sharp reeds made of purpose Solon being demanded why hee appointed no punishment in his lawes for Parricides answered that there was no necessity thinking that the wide world could not affoord so wicked a wretch It is said that Romulus for the same cause ordained no punishment in his Common-wealth for that crime but called euery murderer a Parricide the one being in his opinion a thing execrable and the other impossible And in truth there was not for 600 years space according to Plutarchs report found in Rome any one that had cōmitted this execrable fact The first Parricide that Rome saw was Lucius Ostius after the first Punick war although other writers affirme that M. Malliolus was the first and Lucius the second howsoeuer it was they both vnderwent the punishment of the law Pompeia which enacted that such offendors should be thrust into a sack of lether an ape a cock a viper a dog put in to accōpany them then to be thrown into the water to the end that these beasts being enraged animated one against another might wreke their teene vpon them so depriue thē of life after a strange fashion being debarred of the vse of aire water earth as vnworthy to participate the very elements with their deaths much lesse with their liues which kind of punishmēt was after practised and confirmed by the constitution of Constantine the great And albeit the regard of the punishmēt seemed terrible the offence it self much more monstrous yet since that time there haue ben many so peruerse exceedingly wicked as to throw themselues headlong into that desperat gulfe As Cleodorick son of Sigebert king of
with his sonne but also quite extinguished the Gothicke kingdome in Spaine in this warre and vpon this occasion seuen hundred thousand men perished as hystories record and so a kingdome came to ruine by the peruerse lust of one lecher Anno 714. At the sacking and destruction of Thebes by king Alexander a Thracian captaine which was in the Macedonian army tooke a noble Matron prisoner called Tymoclea whome when by no persuasion of promises he could entise to his lust he constrained by force to yeeld vnto it Plut. in vita Alexand. Sabel lib. 5. c. 6. but this noble minded woman inuented a most witty subtile shift both to rid her selfe out of his hands and to reuenge his iniurie she told him that she knew where a rich treasure lay hid in a deepe pit whether when with greedinesse of the gold he hastened standing vpon the brinke pried and peared into the bottome of it she thrust him with both her hands into the hole and tumbled stones after him that he might neuer find meanes to come forth for which fact she was brought before Alexander to haue iustice who demanding her what she was she answered that Theagenes who led the Thebane army against the Macedonians was her brother Alexander perceiuing the maruellous constancie of the woman and knowing the cause of her accusation to bee vniust manumitted and set her free with her whole family When Cn. Manlius hauing conquered the Gallo-Grecians pitched his army against the Tectosages people of Narbonia towards the Piren mountains amongst other prisoners a very fair womā wife to Orgiagous Regulus was in the custodie of a Centurion that was both lustfull and couetous Liuiu◠lib. 38. This lecher tempted her first with faire persuasions and seeing her vnwilling compelled her with violence to yeeld her body as a slaue to fortune so to infamy and dishonor after which act somewhat to mitigate the wrong he gaue her promise of release and freedome vpon condition of a certaine summe of money and to that purpose sent her seruant that was captiue with her to her friends to puruey the same which hee bringing the Centurion alone with the wronged lady met him at a place appointed and whilest hee weighed the money by her counsaile was murdered of her seruants so she escaping caried to her husband both his money and threw at his feet the villaines head that had spoiled her of her chastitie Andreas king of Hungary hauing vndertaken the voiage into Siria for the recouety of the holy land together with many other kings and Princes committed the charge of his kingdome and family to one Bannebanius Chronica Hungariae a wise and faithfull man who discharged his office as faithfully as hee tooke it willingly vpon him now the Queene had a brother called Gertrude that came to visite and comfort his sister in her husbands absence and by that meanes soiourned with her a long time euen so long till hee fell deadly in loue with Bannebanus lady a faire vertuous woman one that was thought worthie to keepe company with the Queene continually to whome when hee had vnfolded his suit and receiued such stedfast repulse that hee was without all hope of obtaining his desire he began to droupe and pine vntill the Queene his sister perceiuing his disease found this peruerse remedie for the cure thereof shee would often giue him oportunitie of discourse by withdrawing her selfe from them being alone and many times leaue them in secret and dangerous places of purpose that he might haue his will of her but she would neuer consent vnto his lust and therefore at last when hee saw no remedie hee constrained her by force and made her subiect to his will against her will which vile disgracefull indignitie when shee had suffered shee returned home sad and melancholy and when her husband would haue embraced her she fled from him asking him if he would embrace a whore and related vnto him her whole abuse desiring him either to rid her from shame by death or to reuenge her wrong make knowne vnto the world the iniury done vnto her There needed no more spurs to pricke him forward for reuenge he posteth to the court and vpbraiding the Queene with her vngratefull and abhominable trecherie runneth her through with his sword and taking her heart in his hand proclaimeth openly that it was not a deed of inconsideration but of iudgement in recompence of the losse of his wiues chastitie foorthwith hee flieth towards the King his Lord that now was at Constantinople and declaring to him his fact and shewing to him his sword besmeared with his wiues blood submitteth himselfe to his sentence either of death in rigour or pardon in compassion but the good King enquiring the truth of the cause though greeued with the death of his wife yet acquite him of the crime and held him in as much honour and esteeme as euer hee did condemning also his wife as worthy of that which shee had endured for her vnwomanlike and traiterous part A notable example of iustice in him and of punishment in her that forgetting the law of womanhood and modestie made her selfe a baud vnto her brothers lust whose memory as it shall be odious and execrable so his iustice deserueth to be engrauen in marble with caracters of gold Equall to this king in punishing a Rape was Otho the first Albert. Krant lib. 3. for as he passed through Italy with an armie a certaine woman cast her selfe downe at his feet for iustice against a villaine that had spoiled her of her chastitie who deferring the execution of the law till his returne because his hast was great the woman asked who should then put him in mind thereof hee answered This church which thou seest shall be a witnesse betwixt mee and thee that I will then reuenge thy wrong Now when hee had made an end of his warfare in his returne as hee beheld the church hee called to mind the woman and caused her to be fetcht who falling down before him desired now pardon for him whom before she had accused seeing he had now taken her to wife redeemed his iniury with sufficient satisfaction Not so I sweare quoth Otho your compacting shall not infringe or collude the sacred ◠but hee shall die for his former fault and so he caused hi◠be put to death A notable example for them that after they haue committed filthinesse with a maid thinke it no sin but competent amends if they take her in marriage whom they abused before in fornication Nothing inferiour to these in punishing this sin was Gonzaga duke of Ferrara as by this historie following may appear in the yeare 1547 a citizen of Comun Theat histor was cast into prison vpon an accusation of murder whome to deliuer frō the iudgement of death his wife wrought all means possible therefore comming to the captaine that held him prisoner she sued to him for her husbands life
brother Elydurus in his roome after he had raigned fiue yeares Hardiknitus king of Denmarke The same after the death of Harold was ordained king of England in the yeare of the Lord 1041 this king as he was somewhat cruell for he caused the body of Harold to be taken vp out of the sepulchre and smiting off his head to be cast out into the riuer Thames because he had iniured his mother Emma when he was aliue so hee was burdensome to his subiects in tributes and exaction for which cause growing into hatred with God and his subiects hee was stricken with suddaine death not without suspition of poysoning after he had raigned three years The same William Rufus second sonne of William the conquerour succeeded his father as in the kingdome of England so in disposition of nature for they were both cruell vnconstant and couetous and burdened their people with vnreasonable taxes insomuch that what with the morreine of men by pestilence and the oppressions of them by exactions the tillage of the earth was put off for one yeare being the yeare 1096 whereby ensued great scarsitie the yeare following throughout all the land but for the oppression William was iustly punished by sodaine death when being at his disport of hunting hee was wounded with an arrow glaunsing from the bow of Tyrill a French knight and so his tyranny and life ended togither The same Neither dooth the Lord thus punish oppressors themselues but also they that either countenance or hauing authoritie doe not punish the same as it appeareth by this example following In the yeare of our Lord 475 there liued one Corrannus a king of Scots who though hee gouerned the people in peace and quietnesse a long space and was indeed a good Prince yet because his Chancelour Tomset vsed extortion and exaction amongst his subiects and hee being aduertised thereof did not punish him hee was slaine traiterously by his owne subiects It is not vnworthie to bee noted how Edward the third king of England prospered a long while in the warres against France and got many worthie and wonderfull victories but when Prince Edward sonne vnto the foresaid Edward after conditions of peace concluded began to set taxes and impositions vpoÌ„ the country of Aquitaine then did king Edwards part begin to decline and the successe of war which the space of fortie years neuer forsooke him now frowned vpon him so that he quickly lost all those lands which by composition of peace were granted vnto him CAAP. XXXIX Of such as by force of armes haue either taken away or would haue taken away the goods and lands of other men NOw if they that oppresse their subiects and deuour them in this manner In this whole chapter note the nature of ambition and the fruits thereof bee found guiltie then must they needs bee much more that are carried with the wings of their own hungrie ambitious desire to inuade their lands and signiories attended on with an infinite retinue of pillages sackings ruines of cities and people which are alwaies necessarie companions of furious vnmercifull warre There are no flouds so broad nor mountaines so steepe nor rockes so rough and dangerous nor sea so long and furious that can restraine the rash and headstrong desire of such greedie minded Sacres so that if their bodie might bee proportioned to the square and greatnesse of their mindes with the one hand they would reach the East and with the other hand the West as it is said of Alexander howbeit hereof they boast and glorie no lesse than they that tooke delight to bee surnamed citie-spoilers others burners of cities some conquerors and many Eagles and Faulcons seeking as it were fame by infamy and by vice eternitie But to these men it often coÌ„meth to passe that euen then when they think to aduance their dominion and to stretch their bounds and frontiers furthest they are driuen to recoile for feare of being dispossessed themselues of their owne lands and inheritances and euen as they delt with others rigorously and by strength of weapons so shall they bee themselues rehandled and dealt withall after the same measure according to the word of the Prophet denounced against such as they Cursed bee thou that spoilest and dealest vnfaithfully when thou hast made an end of spoiling others thou thy selfe shall bee spoiled and when thou hast done dealing traiterously then treason shall begin to be practised against thee and this curse most commonly neuer faileth to sease vpon these great Theeues and Robbers or at least vpon their children and successours as by particular examples wee shall see after wee haue first spoken of Adonias who not content with his owne estate of being a kings sonne 1. King 12. which God had allotted him went about to get the crowne and kingdome from his brother Salomon Treason lib. 2. cap. 3. to whome by right it appertained for God had manifested the same by the mouth of his father Dauid but both hee and his assistants for their ouerbold and rash enterprise were iustly by Salomon punished with death â—arod Crassus king of Lidia was the first that made war against Ephesus and that subdued the Greekes of Asia to wit the Phrigians Mysians Chalybeans Paphlagonians Thracians Bythinians Ionians Dorians Aeolians and Pamphilians and made them all tributaries vnto him by meanes whereof hee being growne exceeding rich and puissant by the detriment and vndoing of so many people vaunted and gloried in his greatnesse and power and euen then thought himselfe the happiest man in the world wheÌ„ most misery and aduersity griefe and distresse of his estate and whole house approched neerest for first and formost one of his sonnes that was deare vnto him was by ouersight slaine at the chase of a wild bore next himselfe hauing commenced war with Cirus was ouercome in battaile and besieged in Sardis the chiefe city of his kingdome and at last taken and carried captiue to Cyrus despoiled of all his late glorie and dominion And thus Crassus as sayth Plutarch after Herodotus bore the punishmeÌ„t of the offence of his great grandfather Giges who being but one of king Candanles attendants slew his master and vsurped the crowne at the prouokement of the Queene his mistresse whom he also tooke to be his wife And thus this kingdome decaied by the same meanes by which it first encreased Policrates the Tyrant Herod was one that by violence and tyrannous meanes grew from a base condition to an high estate for being but one of the vulgar sort in the citie Samos hee with the assistance of sifteene armed men seased vpon the whole citie and made himselfe Lord of it which deuiding into three parts he bestowed two of them vpon his two brethren but not for perpetuitie for ere long the third part of his vsurpation cost the elder of them the best part of his life and the younger his liberty for he chased him away that hee might be
in Israel the chiefe captaines and soueraignes amongst them were renowmed with no other title nor quality than of Iudges In the time of Deborah the Prophetesse though shee was a woman the weaker vessell yet because shee had the conducting and gouerning of the people they came vnto her to seeke iudgement It is said of Samuel that hee iudged Israel so long till being tired with age and not able to beare that burden any longer he appointed his sonnes for iudges in his stead who when through couetousnesse they peruerted iustice Iudg. 4. 1. Sam. 7.8 and did not execute iudgement like their father Samuel they gaue occasion to the people to demaund a king that they might be iudged gouerned after the manner of other nations which things sufficiently declared that in old time the principall charge of kings was personally to administer iustice and iudgement and not as now to transfer the eare thereof to others The same we read of king Dauid of whome it is said That during his raigne 1. Chron. 18. he executed iustice and iudgement among his people and in another place that men came vnto him for iudgement 2. Sam. 15. and therefore hee disdained not to heare the complaint of the woman of Tekoah shewing himselfe herein a good prince and as the angell of God to heare good and euill 2. Sam. 14. for this cause Salomon desired not riches nor long life of the Lord but a wise and discreete heart to iudge his people 1. King 3. and to discerne betwixt good and euill which request was so agreeable and acceptable to God that he graunted it vnto him so that he obtained such an excellent measure of incomparable wisdome that hee was commended and reputed more for it than for all his great riches and pretious treasures beside there is mention mad◠in the booke of the kings of his iudiciall throne wherein hee vsed to sit and heare the causes of the people and execute iustice among them and albeit he was the most puissant and glorious king of the earth yet notwithstanding hee scorned not to heare two harlots plead before him about the controuersie of a dead infant Ioram king of Israel son of Achab 2. King 6. though a man that walked not vprightly before God but gaue himselfe to worke abomination in his sight yet he despised not the complaint of the poore affamished woman of Samaria when shee demanded iustice at his hands although it was in the time of warre when lawes vse to be silent and in the besieging and famishment of the citie neither did hee reiect the Sunamites request for the recouery of her house lands 2. King 8. but caused them to be restored vnto her So that then it is manifest that those kings which in old time raigned ouer the people of God albeit they had in euery city Iudges yea and in Ierusalem also as it appeareth in the 19 chapter of the second book of Chronicles yet they ceased not for all that to giue eare to suites and complaints that were made vnto them and to decide controuersies that came to their knowledge and for this cause it is that Wisdome saith That by her kings raigne Prou 8.15 and princes decree iustice whereunto also belongeth that which is said in another place That a king sitting in the throne of iudgement chaseth away all euill with his eyes Prou. 20.8 Moreouer that this was the greatest part of the office and duty of kings in ancient times to see the administration of iustice Homer the Poet may bee a sufficient witnesse when hee saith of Agamemnon That the scepter and law was committed to him by God to do right to euery man answerable to the which Virgil describing the Queene of Carthage saith Shee sate in iudgement in the midst of her people as if there was nothing more beseeming such a person than such an action And therefore the Poets not without cause faigne Iupiter alwaies to haue Themis that is to say Iustice at his elbow signifying thereby not that whatsoeuer kings or princes did was iust and lawfull bee it neuer so vile in it owne nature as that wanton flatterer Anaxarthus said to Alexander but that equity iustice should alwaies accōpany thē neuer depart from their sides And hereupon it was that Acacus Minos and Radamanthus the first king of Grecia were so renowmed of old antiquity because of their true and vpright execution of iustice and therefore were not honoured with any greater title than the name of Iudges Plutarch It is said of king Alexander that although he was continually busied in the affaires of warre and of giuing battailes yet he would sit personally in iudgement to heare criminall causes and matters of importance pleaded and that whilst the accuser laid open his accusation he would stop one eare with his hand to the end that the other might bee kept pure and without preiudice for the defence and answer of the accused The Romane Emperours also were very carefull and diligent in this behalfe Sueton. as first Iulius Caesar who is recorded to haue taken great paines in giuing audience to parties and in dealing iustice betwixt them In like manner Augustus Caesar is commended for his care and trauaile in this behalfe for he would ordinarily sit in iudgement vpon causes and controuersies of his subiects and that with such great delight and pleasure that often times night was faine to interrupt his course before his will was to relinquish it yea though hee found himselfe euill at ease yet would hee not omit to apply himselfe to the diuision of iudgement or else calling the parties before him to his bed The Emperour Claudius though a man otherwise of a dull and grosse spirit yet in this respect hee discharged the dutie of a good prince for that hee would intermeddle with hearing his subiects causes and doe right vnto them He chaunced once to make a very prety and witty end of a sute betwixt a sonne and his mother who denying and disclaiming him to be her sonne was by the Emperour commanded to marry him so least shee should agree to that mischiefe was constrained to acknowledge and auow him for her sonne and to be short it was very ordinary and vsuall among the Emperours to take knowledge of matters controuerted but especially of criminall and capitall causes by meanes whereof the Apostle Paul desirous to shew the iudgement and lyings in waight of his enemies the Iewes appealed from them to Caesar which he would neuer haue done if Caesar had not in some sort vsed to meddle with such affaires and for further proofe hereof hither may be added the saying which is reported of Nero in the beginning of his raigne That when he should signe with his hand a sentence of death against a condemned person hee wished that he could neither wright nor read to the end to auoid that necessary action The bold answer of an old
woman to the Emperour Adrian is very worthy to be remembred Fulgos lib. 6. cap. 2. who appealing and complaining to the Emperour of some wrong when hee answered that he was not at leisure then to heare her sute shee told him boldly and plainly That then he ought not to be at leisure to be her Emperour which speech went so neare the quicke vnto him that euer after he shewed more facilitie and courtesie towards all men that had any thing to do with him The kings of Fraunce vsed also this custome of hearing and deciding their subiects matters as wee read of Charlemaigne the king and Emperour who commanded that he should be made acquainted with all matters of importance and their issues throughout his realme King Lewes the first treading the steps of his father Charlemaigne accustomed himselfe three daies in a weeke to heare publikely in his pallace the complaints and grieuances of his people and to right their wrongs and iniuries King Lewes sirnamed the Holy Aimo a little before his death gaue in charge to his sonne that should succeed him in the crowne amongst other this precept To be carefull to beare a stroke in seeing the distribution of iustice and that it should not be peruerted not depraued CHAP. XLVI Of such princes as haue made no reckening of punishing vice nor regarded the estate of their people IT cannot choose but be a great confusion in a common-wealth when iustice sleepeth and when the shamelesse boldnesse of euill doers is not curbed in with any bridle but runneth it owne swinge and therefore a Consull of Rome could say That it was an euill thing to haue a prince vnder whome license and libertie is giuen to euery man to doe what him listeth for so much then as this euill proceedeth from the carelesnes and slothfulnesse of those that hold the sterne of gouernment in their hands it can not be but some euill must needs fall vpon them for the same The truth of this may appeare in the person of Philip of Macedonie whome Demosthenes the oratour noteth for a treacherous and false dealing prince after that he had subdued almost all Greece not so much by open warre as by subtilty craft and surprise and that being in the top of his glory hee celebrated at one time the marriage of his sonne Alexander whome hee had lately made king of Epire and of one of his daughters with great pompe and magnificense as hee was marching with all his traine betwixt the two bridegroomes his owne sonne his sonne in law to see the sports and pastimes which were prepared for the solemnitie of the marriage behold suddenly a young Macedonian gentleman called Pausanias ran at him and slew him in the midst of the prease for not regarding to doe him iustice when hee complained of an iniury done vnto him by one of the peeres of his realme Plutarch Tatius the fellow king of Rome with Romulus for not doing iustice in punishing certaine of his friends and kinsfolkes that had robbed and murdered certaine Embassadors which came to Rome and for making their impunitie an example for other malefactours by deferring and protracting and disappointing their punishment was so watcht by the kindred of the slaine that they slew him euen as he was sacrificing to his gods because they could not obtaine iustice at his hands What happened to the Romanes for refusing to deliuer an Embassadour Tit. Liuius Plutarch who contrary to the law of nations comming vnto them plaid the part of an enemie to his own country euen well nigh the totall ouerthrow of them and their citie for hauing by this meanes brought vpon themselues the calamitie of warre they were at the first discomfited by the Gaules who pursuing their victory entred Rome and slew al that came in their way whether men or women infants or aged persons and after many daies spent in the pillage spoiling of the houses at last set fire on all and vtterly destroied the whole city Childericke king of France Paul Aemil. is notified for an extreame dullard and blockhead and such a one as had no care or regard vnto his realme but that liued idly and slothfully without intermedling with the affaires of the common wealth for he laid all the charge and burden of them vpon Pepin his lieutenant generall therefore was by him iustly deposed from his roiall dignity mewed vp in a cloister of religion to become a monke because he was vnfit for any good purpose albeit that this sudden change mutation was very strange yet there ensued no trouble nor commotion in the realme thereupon so odious was hee become to the whole land for his drowsie and idle disposition Paul Aemil. For the same cause did the princes Electours depose Venceslaus the Emperour from the Empire and established another in his roome King Richard of England amongst other foule faults which he was guilty of incurred greatest blame for this because he suffered many theeues and robbers to roue vp and down the land vnpunished for which cause the citizens of London coÌ„menced a high sute against him coÌ„pelled him hauing raigned 22 yeres to lay aside the crown resigne it to another in the presence of all the states died prisoner in the Tower Moreouer this is no small defect of iustice when men of authority do not only pardon capitall and detestable crimes but also grace and fauour the doers of them and this neither ought nor can be done by a soueraigne prince without ouerpassing the bounds of his limited power which can in no wise dispence with the law of God Exod. 21. whereunto euen kings themselues are subiect for as touching the willing and considerate murderer Dâ—ut 19. Thou shalt plucke him from my altar saith the Lord that hee may die thy eye shall not spare him to the end it may goe well with thee which was put in practise in the death of Ioab 1 King 2. who was slaine in the Tabernacle of God holding his hands vpon the hornes of the Altar for hee is no lesse abominable before God that iustifieth the wicked Prou 17. than hee that condemneth the iust and hereupon that holy king S. Lewes when hee had granted pardon to a malefactour Nich. Gilles reuoked it againe after better consideration of the matter saying That hee would giue no pardon except the case deserued pardon by the law for it was a worke of charitie and pittie to punish an offender and not to punish crimes was as much as to commit them In the yeere of our Lord 978 Egebrede the sonne of Edgare end Alphred king of England was a man of goodly outward shape and visage but wholly giuen to idlenesse and abhorring all princely exercises besides he was a louer of riot drunkennesse and vsed extreame cruelty towards his subiects hauing his eares open to all vniust complaints in feats of armes of all men most ignorant so
things a very niggard and pinchpenny shewed himselfe on the other side more then prodigall next he sent into Calabria for a Hermit reported to be a holy and deuout man to whome at his arriuall hee perfourmed so much dutie and reuerence as was wonderfull and vnseemely for hee threw himselfe on his knees and besought him to prolong his decaying life as if hee had beene a God and not a man but all that hee could doe was to no purpose no nor the reliques which Pope Sixtus sent him to busie himselfe withall nor the holy viall of Rheims which was brought him could prorogue this life of his nor priuiledge him from dying a discontent and vnwilling death he suspected the most part of his nearest attendants and would not suffer them to approch vnto him in his sicknesse after hee had thus prolonged the time in hope and yet still languished in extreame distresse of his disease it was at length told him in all speed that hee should not set his mind any longer vpon those vaine hopes nor vpon that holy man for his time was come and hee must needs die And thus hee that during his raigne shewed himselfe rough and cruell to his subiects by too many and heauy impositions was himselfe in his lattet end thus roughly and hardly dealt withall Christiern the eleuenth king of Denmarke Norway and Suecia after the death of king Iohn his father raigned the yeere of our Lord 1514 and was too intollerable in imposing burdens and taxes vpon his subiects for which cause the Swecians reuolted from his gouernment whome though after many battailes and sieges hee conquered and placed amongst them his garrisons to keepe them in awe yet ceased they not to rebell against him and that by the instigation of a meane gentleman who very quickely got footing into the kingdome and possessed himselfe of the crowne and gouernment Now Christiern hauing lost this prouince and beeing also in disdaine and hatred of his owne countrey and fearing least this inward heat of spight should grow to some flame of danger to his life seeing that the inhabitants of Lubeck conspiring with his vncle Fredericke began to take armes against him hee fled away with his wife sister to the Emperour Charles the fift and his young children to Zeland a prouince of the Emperours after hee had raigned nine yeeres after which the Estates of the realme aided by them of Lubeck assembling togither exalted his vncle Fredericke prince of Holsatia though old and ancient to the crowne and publishing certaine writings addressed them to the Emperour and the princes of his Empire to render a reason of their con-proceeding and to make knowne vnto them vpon how good siderations they had deposed and banished Christierne for the tyranny which hee exercised among them ten yeres after this hee got togither a new army by sea in hope to recouer his losses but contrary to his hope he was taken prisoner and in captiuity ended miserably his daies Henry king of Suecia was chased from his scepter for enterprising to burden his commons with new contributions Those that were deuisers of new taxes and tributes Nic. Gil. vâ—l 1. for the most part euer lost their liues in their labours for proofe whereof let the example of Parchenus or Porchetes serue who for giuing counsell to king Theodebert touching the raising of new subsidies was stoned to death by the multitude in the city Trieues Likewise was George Presquon cruelly put to death by the people for persuading and setting forward Henry of Suecia to the vexation and exaction of his subiects CHAP. XXXVIII More Examples of the same subiect Platiniae in vita Zacharin AIstulphus the nineteenth king of Lumbardy was not onely a most cruell tyrant but also a grieuous oppressour of his subiects with taxes and exactions Phil. Melanct. lib. 3. for hee imposed this vpon euery one of them to pay yeerely a noble for their heads against this man Pope Steuen prouoked king Pepin of France who comming with an army droue the tyrant into Ticinum and constrained him to yeeld to partiall conditions of peace howbeir Pepin was no sooner gone but he returned to his old byas wherefore the second time he came and droue him to as great extremitie in so much as another peace was concluded after the accomplishment whereof peruerse Aistulph still vexing his subiects was plagued by God with an apoplexie and so died Zonar lib. 3. Iustinian the Emperour as be was profuse and excessiue in spending so was hee immoderate and insatiable in gathering togither riches for hee exercised his wit in deuising new tributes and paiments and reioyced his heart in nothing more for which causes there arose a grieuous sedition at Constantinople against him wherein not onely the excellent and famous monuments of the Empire were burned but also fourty thousand men slaine and this was no small punishment for his oppression At Paris there is to be seene in the corne market a certain monument hard at the mouth of the common sinke which conuaieth away all the filth out of the city Eras in lingua the occasion whereof is reported to be this A certaine courtier seeing the king sad and melancholly for want of treasure counselled him to exact of euery countriman that brought ware into the city but one penny and that but for two yeares togither which when the king put in practise and found the exceeding commoditie thereof he not only continued that taxe but also inuented diuers others to the great damage of the Common-wealth and inriching of his owne treasurie Wherefore hee that put it first into his head when he saw that he had not so much authoritie in dissuading as hee had in persuading it to take punishment of himselfe for that inconsiderate deed and to warne others from attempting the like he commanded by his testament that his body should bee buried in that common sincke to bee an example of exaction and the filthinesse thereof Barnabe Vicount of Millane by the report of Paulus Ionius Tom. 2. ViuoruÌ„ illustrum was an vnconscionable oppressor of his subiects and tenants for hee did not only extort of them continuall imposts and payments but enioned them to keepe euery one a dog which if they came to any mishap or were either too fat or too leane the keeper was sure to bee beaten or at least some fine to be set on his head this tyrant was taken by Iohn Galeacius and after seuen months imprisonment poysoned to death Archigallo brother to Gorbonianus in nature Lanquet though vnlike in conditions for hee was a good Prince whereas this was a Tyrant was crowned King of Britaine in the yeare of the world 3671 we may well place him in this ranke of oppressors for he deposed the Noblemen and exalted the ignoble he extorted froÌ„ men their goods to enrich his treasure for which cause the estates of the realme depriued him of his roiall dignitie placed his yonger