Tristram Eurialis Peregrinus Callisthus and the like by means whereof young Children are in their tender years bred up and accustom'd to the Intrigues and Mysteries of Fornication and Adultery Neither is there any Engine so powerful whatsoever to overthrow and oppress the Chastity of young Virgins Wives and Widows than the reading of a wanton History no woman so well principled or of so chast a disposition which is not spoil'd and tainted thereby And yet for Maids and Virgins to discourse what they have read in these Books to taunt and jeer and prattle with their Servants or Wooers in imitation of what they read there Now there have been many of these Historical Pandars of which some of obscure same as Aeneas Sylvius Dante 's and Petrarch Boccace Poutanus Baptista de Campo Fragoso and Baptis de Albertis a Floremine Also Peter Haedus Petrus Bembus Jacobus Carniceus Jacobus Calandrus Mantuan and many others from all which Boccace bears away the Bell especially in those Books which he calls his hundred Novels where the Stories and Examples set down do but discover the Stratagems and Tricks of Whores and Bawds Now when a woman Vertuous Religious and Chast is to be assail'd then all the fallacious Arguments of Rhetorick are let loose and how far they avail the Fable of Myrrha in Ovid tells ye Now as concerning the Mathematicks what greater assistance and help to familiarity than your Mathematical Plays and Games Neither is Musick a contemptible friend of this Art as being no small incentive and provocative to Lust by means of her wanton Airs and the Charms of Voice and sweet touches of an Instrument softning the Minde moulding the Affections and afterwards introducing variety of Society and Company who begin at length to be Lovers and Admirers Neither is there less use of Dancing and Dancing-schools where the Lovers have freedom of Discourse liberty of Kissing Handling and Embracing and many times after that the conveniencie of withdrawing Neither is the Geometrical Artist wanting to give his assistance by whose contrivance fine convenient Ladders are made for the scaling of Windows and by the cunning of Daedalus Keys are many times counterfeited and no invention omitted that may farther Pasiphae's obedience to her Adulterer But as for Pictures these women that never had the advantage of reading may understand more than they who had read never so much while they behold within their Chambers Copies of Obscenity easie enough to be imitated whereby the Eyes as well as the Ears become the Conduits to convey evil thoughts to the Heart Pictures make a deep impression upon the Minde seeing that the representation of what has been done easily moves men to do the like For example Venus of Gâ—idos drawn in her Temple by the hand of Praxitiles in the Act of being Vitiated and a Cupid of the same Artist corrupted by Alchidas a Rhodian young man Elian also reports that the Statue of Fortune was so vehemently belov'd by an Athenian young man that when he could not be permitted to buy it he expired at her feet Terence also in his Eunuchus brings in a young man inflam'd with Love seeing a Picture where was painted the Story how Jupiter lay with Danae in a Golden showre Therefore not undeservedly propose that a severe penalty should be inflicted upon those Painters who expos'd such things to the eyes of the multitude whereby to kindle and inflame Lust so that it was not without cause that the wise man said That Statuary and Painting were invented by the Devil as a chief means to tempt them to evil In the next place we meet with Astrologers Palmistry Gypsies Fortune-tellers Dream-expounders Witches Conjurers an innumerable tribe of Assistants to Pandarism by a kinde of Divine Imposition of their Fallacies upon the disturb'd Fancies of Youth bring unlawful Amours to perfection contrive and finish most wicked and abominable Marriages and er'e they be well knit together dissolve them by and by into most heinous Adulteries From such Panders as these not onely credulous women but to their unspeakable shame men also fetch the prosperous Omens of their Loves and Marriages grounding the hopes of Possession or Enjoyment upon their uncertain guesses and upon their not so stupid as impious assurances either Marry or leave the Pursuit of their Love Nay some are so mad as to believe that by Astrological Images and observation of Hours Love may be compell'd as Theocritus Virgil Catullus Ovid Horace Lucan and many other triflng Poets have made the world believe By which single piece of Cunning your Astrologers and Fortune-tellers make no small advantage Next to which Magick also brings a very considerable aid That by her Charms some Lovers trees from fears Afflicting others with consuming Cares Of which Lucan thus sings Love that before was slâ—w Thessalian Charms now cause to overflow Th' inflamed heart In Horace we finde Candidia in Apuleius Paemphilae provoking their Lovers and in the Tragi comedy of Callisthus Celestina the Bawd inflames the Virgin Melibaeâ— by her Magick Art To these we may adde the use of Philters and Love-potions though very dangerous sometimes the cause and procurers of Death instead of Love One of these Drenches kill'd Lucullus and Lucretius who before they did grew mad and lost their senses We read also of a certain woman who was acquitted by the Areopagites because she did it out of Love But there is no Art or Science so useful and profitable to Pandarism as Physick that promises fairly by renewing the Hymenâ—an Film to restore lost Virginity to hinder the Brests from swelling to put a Spell upon the Womb administring procurements of Sterility for the longer continuation and seâ—resie of Venereal Combats and teaching how by the swift motion of the Reins to eject the first matter of Conception as we read in Lucretius Thus for their own sakes Whores were wont to move Left they should fill too soon and gravid prove Not equal Pleasure with their Loves enjoy By which one benefit of Physick many Matrons and Widows many that go for Maids many Court-Laâ—â—es most securely follow the sports of Venus Neither is Physick less Officious in filling up the clefts of Age in composing Pomatums and Fucus's for which you may find infinite Receits in every Volume of Physick and in all their Pharmacopoeas under the Title of Decorating and cleansing the skin and are of great use for Bawds to put off their old Worm-eaten Ware which Compositions the Scripture calls Oyntments of Whoredome With these you shall also see set down many Incentives and Provocatives to Lust which are call'd by another Name Restoratives by the help of which Ovid boasts himself to have liv'd to the Ninetieth Year Moreover there is no design of Bawdery so closely and undiscernably carried as that which is Acted under the Design of Physick for there are no Houses so fast shut no Nunneries so Recluse no Prisons so well guarded which will not admit a Physitian-Pander in
bold The French-man through vehement desire of a wise man becomes a fool but the German having wasted all his Estate at length though late of a fool becomes a wise man the Spaniard for his Mistriss sake will attempt great things and the Italian for the enjoyment of his Lady contemns all thought of danger Moreover we see that great men intangled in the Shares of Love and Passion many times forsake great Actions and leave most noble Enterprizes behinde their backs as formerly Mithridates in Pontus at Capua Hannibal Caesar in Alexandria in Greece Demetrius Antonie in Egypt Hercules ceas'd from his labours for Iole's sake Achilles hides himself from the Battel for love of Briseis Circe stays Vlysses Claudius dies in Prison for love of a Virgin Caesar is detain'd by Cleopatra and the same woman was the ruine of Antonius We read in Scripture that for the Fornication of Seth with the Daughters of Cain that the whole Race of man was drowned in the Flood The Sichemites and the House of Amor was destroy'd in revenge of Fornication and the whole people of Israel for committing Fornication with strange women were many times overcome in Battel and carried into Captivity And for the single Adultery of one person David the King what a destruction and waste of people ensu'd For Fornication and ravishing of women the Thebans Phoceans and Circeans were assail'd and quite overthrown and for the same reason was the Peloponnesian War undertaken as I said before by Pericles and Troy for the same reason ten years besieg'd to the vast detriment of Greece and Asia For the same reasons and upon the same score Tarquinius Claudius Dionysius Hannibal Ptolomy Marck Antony Theodorick the Goth Rodoaldus the Lombard Childerick of France Advinceslaus of Bohemia and Manphred the Neapolitan suffered death and the ruine of their Countries Meerly for the vitiating of Julia Cana Daughter of the Governour of Tingitana by Rodorick the King the Moors having driven out the Goths possess'd all Spain Henry the second King of England for abusing the contracted Wife of his Son Daughter of Philip the French King had like to have been driven out of his Kingdom by his Son For being false to their Beds those enraged Wives Clytemnestra Olympia Laodicea Beronica Fregiogunda and Blanch both Queens of France Joane of Naples and many other women slew their Husbands And this was the reason that Medea Progne Ariadne Althea Heristilla changing their maternal Love into Hatred were every one the cause and plotters of their Sons deaths And now adays we finde that many women revenge the Adulteries of their Husbands upon their Children and of most milde and patient Mothers have become most cruel Medea's furious Althea's and impious Heristilla's CHAP. LXIV Of Pandarism or Procuring NOw because that by the advice assistance and perswasion of Pimps and Bawds both Whores and Whoremongers commit their mutual Follies Let us discourse a little concerning their Subtleties and Devices for as it is the Calling of a Whore onely to prostitute her own body so it is the business of a Pimp or Bawd to batter and overcome the Chastity of another Which is therefore a Trade to be in some respects preferr'd before the Trade of Self-prostitution by how much it is the more wicked and so much the more powerful as being guarded with the Artillery of many other Arts and Experience besides so much the more pernicious that while it makes use of other Arts and Sciences whatever there is of poyson in any Art or Science that this worshipful Vocation wholly sucks to it self out of which the weaves those Snares that not like Spiders Cobwebs take the Flies but let go the stronger Birds nor like the strong toils of Hunters catch the bigger Beasts of Chace and let go the less but such strong Nooses and Bands that no Maid no Virgin no Woman never so silly never so prudent never so constant never so obstinate never so bashful never so fearful never so confident but will at length lend a willing ear to a Bawd be insnar'd with her perswasions So fine a Craft is this that no woman can vanquish whose perswasions no Virgin Widow Wife or Matron though a Vestal can resist whose unarmed Militia vanquishes the Chastity of most women which a whole Army would not be able to conquer The crafty tricks cunning shifts deceit circumventions delusions frauds and strange inventions of the Art of Bawdery no Pen can suffice to set down nor Wit to express So that it is nothing strange that though there be so many Professors of this Trade of both Sexes yet there are few that arrive to a perfection therein For since the Baits of Pandarism lie couch'd in every Art or Science it behoves therefore a Bawd to be perfect in every one Therefore she that intends to be a perfect Bawd must not direct her studies to one particular sort of knowledge as to her Pole-star but to be universally learned as professing an Art to which all other Arts and Sciences are but the Slaves and Hand-maids For first and foremost Grammar the Art of Writing and Speaking affords ye ability to write Love-letters and how to compose and frame them of Complements Petitions Lamentations and Moans Invocations Protestations and alluring perswasions of all which ye have many late Presidents in Sylvius Jacobus Caviceus and many other Modern Authors There is also another use of Grammar for the manner of abstruse and secret writing in Characters an Invention of Archimedes the Syracusan as Aulus Gellius reports Concerning this Trithemius Abbot of Spanheime hath written two Treatises some few years since one under the Title of Polygraphy the other under the Title of Stenography in the latter of which he hath discover'd such mysterious ways and means of expressing the minde at what distance soever and concealing the meaning of words plainly legible that the most discerning jealousie of Juno nor the strict custody of Danae nor the watchful eyes of Argos can ever prevent Next to Grammar comes Madam Poesie who by the assistance of her lascivious Rhimes wanton Stories and Love-dialogues Epigrams and Epistles taken out of the Armories of Venus playing the part of a Pimp and Bawd together corrupts all Chastity destroys all the hope towardliness and good manners of Youth Well therefore do Poets deserve to have the Precedencie above other common Pandars and Bawds of which the chiefest among the Antients were these whom we have above named in the Chapter of Prostitution as Callimachus Philetes Anacreon Orpheus Pindarus Alceon Sappha Tibullus Catullus Propertius Virgil Ovid Juvenal and Martial and we have now adays too many that write after a most impudent and shameful manner Next to Poets Rhetoricians claim Precedencie the contrivers of fraudulent Flatteries and Perswasions for which cause Suadela or Persuasio was held to be the chief Goddess of Pandarism Historians also have not a little Interest in the World especially the Compilers of those Historical Romances of Lancelot
of his Life The Rhetorician will rather deny the manifest Truth than yield to his Opposer in the least Syllogistical Conclusion Arithmeticians and Geometricians number and measure all things but neglect the Measures and Numbers of their lives and souls The Musicians are all for Sounds and Songs not minding the Discords of corrupt Manners Therefore Diogenes the Sinopian was wont to reprove them that they would fitly make the Harmony and Strings agree but that there was neither measure nor harmony in their customs of living Astrologers behold the Heavens and the Stars and foretel others what shall happen in this world but they never minde the evil which every moment hangs over their own heads Cosmographers describe the situations of Countries the forms of Mountains the course of Rivers and limits of distinct Regions but they make a man never the wiser nor better Philosophers with great vaunting dive into the Causes and Beginnings of things while they neglect perhaps not so much as know God the Creator of all things There is no Peace among Princes and Magistrates being easily drawn for small advantages to seek the destruction one of another Physicians cure the bodies of the sick and neglect the health of their souls Lawyers diligent in observing the Laws of Men however transgress the Commands of God whence it is grown to be a Proverb Neither physicians live well nor Lawyers die well Physicians being the most disorderly sort of men and Lawyers the most dishonest Divines make a great noise while they preach to us the observation of the Commands of God and holy Doctrine but their words and conversations differ very much being such as had rather seem to know than love God Now then he which knows all things to speak and write well he who understands the nature of Verse the course of Times the ways of Reasoning the ornaments of Speech the colours of Rhetorick he that remembers all things the proportions and sums of Numbers the harmony of Sounds the measures of Dancing the measures of all Quantities the inflexions and reflexions of the Sun-beams the situation of the Earth and Sea the various ways of rearing all sorts of Edifices and Engines the ordering of Battels the tilling of Ground the taking feeding fatting of Beasts Birds and Fish every kinde of Country-trade every species of Mechanick Industry Painting Graving Founding Hammering Hewing Factoring Sayling the course of the Stars their Influences upon inferiour Bodies the forebodings of Destiny Divinations of all sorts the hidden monstrosities of Magick Art the secrets of the Cabalists the causes of all Natural things the reformation of Manners the Governments of Commonwealths Family-order Remedies for Diseases vertues of Medicines and skill in mixture the delicate Dressing of Meats Let him know both Laws all the Pleadings of the most learned Doctors and Council the wrangling of the Sorbonnists the hypocrisie of the Monks with all the Learning of the holy Fathers he I say who knoweth all this and more if there be any thing yet remaining yet he knoweth nothing unless he know the will of Gods Word and perform the same He that hath learned all things and hath not learned this hath learn'd in vain and all his Knowledge is in vain In the Word of God is the Way there is the Rule there is the Gole or Mark whither he ought to bend his Course that will not go astray but drives to reach the Truth All other Sciences are subject to Time and Forgetfulness and not onely these Sciences and Arts but also the Letters Characters and Languages which we use shall perish and others rise in their places and peradventure they have more than once been already lost and have as often come to light again Neither has there been one manner of Orthography in one Age nor alike with all men Nor is the true Pronunciation of the Latine Tongue at this day any where to be found The ancient Characters of the Hebrew are quite lost they which are now in use being found out by Esdras for the Hebrew Language was corrupted by the Caldeans a Misfortune that has happened well-near to all the Languages of the world so that there is hardly one at this day which understands its own Antiquity new words growing into use and the old ones decaying So that there is nothing fixt or durable Finally the opinion of Terence is That nothing is now spoken which has not been spoken before And many there are among whom Volaterrane is one that would have it that the Gun which is by most accounted a New Invention of the Germans was used in ancient time and this they endeavour to prove out of Virgil. There Salmon lay in cruel torments bound Curs'd Imitator of th' Olympick Sound He born by four fleet Steeds his Flambean shaking Through Greece and Elis Towns his journey taking Triumphing went and call'd himself a God Mad as he was still thundring as he rode Thunder and Tempests seem'd to fill the skie With so much noise his speedy Coursers flie Much to this purpose hath Ecclesiastes spoken when he saith There is nothing new under the sun nor can any man say Behold this is new for it hath been in times past before us There is no remembrance of things past neither they which shall be in the later days shall remember the things which shall be hereafter And in another place he saith The learned and the ignorant also shall die What then shall we here say but that all Sciences and Arts are subject to death and forgetfulness neither shall they for ever remain alive but together with death shall pass to death forasmuch as Christ himself saith That every plant which the heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted out and cast into everlasting fire So far are we to be from believing that Knowledge availeth to Immortality but that the Word of God alone endures for ever The knowledge whereof is so needful to us that he that despiseth it that esteems it not and is not a hearer thereof as the Word it self testifies in the holy Scripture God will send upon him a Curse Damnation and everlasting Judgement Ye are not therefore to think that it belongeth onely to Divines but to every one man and woman old and young so that every one according to the grace and capacity given to them is bound to have the knowledge thereof and not of dissent a hairs breadth from the true sence and meaning of it For this cause the Old Testament commands us in this manner These words shall be in thy heart all the days of thy life and thou shalt declare them to thy children and grandchildren and command them to keep and observe them Thou shalt ponder them sitting in thy house and going thorow the street sleeping and waking and shalt binde them as a token to thy hand they shall always be and move before thy eyes and thou shalt write them over the doors of thy house Thus Josiah read all the words and
all these things that were contained in the Volume of the Law before all the multitude of men women children and strangers And Esdras brought the book of the Law before all the multitude of men and women and read therein openly in the street before all that could understand And Christ commanded his Gospel to be preached to all creatures throughout the whole world and this not in the dark not whisper'd in the ear not in secret not in private chambers not to some particular Doctors and Scribes but openly upon the house tops to the people to the multitude for thus faith he to the Apostles That which I speak to you I speak to all men that which I speak to you in darkness declare you in the face of the sun that which I tell you in your ears publish you upon the house-tops And S. Peter in the Acts saith He hath charged us to preach to the people And Paul commands us to bring up our children in the discipline and doctrine of Christ. And which is more Christ himself blam'd his disciples for hindering little children to come to him whose simplicity and humility whose mindes are not passed up with vain Opinions or swell'd with humane knowledge teacheth us how necessary it is for us to become as little children seeing that without being such we are altogether unfit for the kingdom of heaven For this cause S. Chrysostom in a certain Homily advises that children above all things should be bred up in the knowledge of the holy Scripture and that husbands should discourse in their houses at home with their wives concerning the Scripture and make diligent search and enquiry into the sence and meaning thereof And the Council of Nice decreed that no Christian should be without the Book of the holy Scripture Know then that there is nothing in the holy Scripture so hard so profound so difficult so hidden which pertains not to all the faithful in Christ nor that ever was so committed to these our Masters for them to hide it from the people but rather all Divinity ought to be common to all believers and to every one according to the capacity and measure of the gift of the holy Ghost Wherefore it is the duty of a good Preacher to distribute to every man as much as he is able to receive to one in milk to another in strong meat and to beguile no man of the food of necessary Truth CHAP. CI. Of Masters of Arts. NOw at length that I may recollect my self again ye have heard from those things which have been hitherto said That Arts and Sciences are nothing else but the Traditions of men received by us upon the good esteem we have of them and that they all consist of nothing else but of things doubtful confirm'd by apparent Demonstrations and that most of um are not so uncertain and doubtful as they are deceitful and wicked and therefore it is also an evil thing to believe that they can bring to us any heavenly advantage It is true that in times past it was the superstition of the Gentiles that gave Divine worship to the Inventors of things and to them whom they saw surpass others in any Art or Science and plac'd them in the number of their Gods dedicating to them Temples Altars and Images adoring them under several likenesses Thus Vulcan among the Egyptians being the first Philosopher and referring the beginnings of Nature to the Fire was by them worshipt as the God of Fire and Esculapius as Celsus saith because he more subtilly practised Physick then rude and imperfect was for that reason made the God of Physick And this and no other deification of Sciences was that which the ancient Serpent the type of these Gods promised to our first Parents saying to them Ye shall be as gods knowing good and evil Let him then boast the authority of this Serpent that boasts in worldly knowledge For no man can possess Knowledge without the favour of this Serpent whose doctrines are nothing but delusions and the end thereof evil When it is a Proverb among the Vulgar That the Learned are all mad To which Aristotle himself assents saying that there is no man of great knowledge without a mixture of madness And Austin witnesses that many for the desire of knowledge have lost their wits Neither is there any thing more contrary to Christian Faith and Religion than Knowledge nor any two things that less agree together For we finde in the Ecclesiastical Histories and are also taught by Experience how Sciences went to wrack when Christian Religion waxed strongest so that the greatest part of them utterly perished and those mighty Arts of Magick departed in such wise that not the least signe of them remains many Sects of Philosophy vanished very little of the Peripatetick Philosophy known and that imperfect Nor was the state of the Church in more quiet than when these Sciences were reduced to the lowest extremity when Grammar was taught by one onely Alexander Gallus Logick onely by Petrus Hispanus Laurentius Aquilegius was the onely Rhetorician a small Collection of annual transactions serv'd for a History the Ecclesiastical Computation serv'd for Mathematical Instruction and for the rest one single Isidorus But now after that knowledge of Tongues Eloquence and number of Authors began to multiply as formerly the quiet of the Church began to be troubled and Heresies arose Neither is there any sort of men less fit to receive Christian doctrine than they who have their mindes tainted with the knowledge of the Sciences for they are so stiff and obstiâ—ate in their self-opinions that they leave no place for the Holy Ghost and do so assure themselves and trust in their own strength and power that they will allow of nothing else for truth and they scorn and despise all those things which they cannot understand by their own Industry Therefore hath Christ hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to little children that is to say to the poor in spirit not enriched with the treasuries of humane knowledge to the pure in heart not defil'd with the vanity of Opinions and to the peace-makers not followers of other men not contentious overthrowers of the Truth with wrangling Syllogisms and suffer persecution for the sake of Truth and Justice Thus Socrates was poysoned by the Athenians Anaxagoras condemned to die Diagoras accus'd but escap'd death by flight Among the Jews Isaiah was cut to pieces Jeremiah stoned to death Daniel condemned to the lions Amos kill'd with a club Micah cast headlong from a rock Zachariah slain at the Altar Elias persecuted by Jezebel who slew many of the Prophets Thus also were the Apostles and other Martyrs witnesses of the Divinity of Christ several ways tormented to death And all this for no other cause but that they thought more holily of God than the Wise-men of the world Behold these who in purity of heart poverty of spirit and peace of Conscience resemble