essence and naturall functions the same which was from the beginning the bounds of his quantity cannot vary in any great or notorious difference but through some exorbitancie and aberration in nature which as they haue beene in all ages so haue monsters too not only in figure and shape but also both in excesse and defect CAP. 5. Wherein the principall objections drawne aswell from Reason as from authority and experience are fully answered SECT 1. Of sundry fabulous narrations of the bones of Gianlike bodies digged vp or found in Caues THe Truth being thus settled it remaines that wee now dispell those mists and cloudes with which the brightnes of it is sometimes ouercast whereof the chiefe is the huge bodies and bones that at sundry times haue beene digged vp and yet are kept in many places as monuments of Antiquity to be seene Such are they which are shewen at Puteoli or Putzole in the Kingdome of Naples vpon which Pomponius Laetus hath bestowod verses which he thus concludes Hinc bona posteritas immania corpora servat Et tales mundo testificatur avos Their huge corpes good posterity keepes here To witnesse to the World that once such were The like haue I seene at Wormes in Germany and other Citties standing vpon the Rheine hung vp in Chaines or laid vp in Megazines and other publique places but saith Philippus Camerarius I haue heard many dispute and make doubt whether they were the bones of men or of fishes Infinite are the stories which to this purpose are recorded it would require a iust volume to collect them into one body and in truth it shall not need inasmuch as I finde it already done by the same Camerarius by Gassanion in his booke of Gyants and Fazelus in his first booke and first Decade of the affaires of Sicily as also by our Hollenshed in the fourth chap. of his first volume but with this Caution For my part saith he I will touch rare things and such as to my selfe doe seeme almost incredible wherefore I will onely point at a few of the most memorable lest on the one side I should seeme purposely to baulke that rubbe which is commonly thought most of all to thwart my way or on the other side should cloy the Reader with too many vnsavory tales It is reported by Plutarch out of Gabinius which I confesse I somewhat marvell at in so graue an Authour that Sertorius being in Lybia neere the streights of Morocco found the body of Antaeus there buried sixty cubits to which Fazelus adds ten more and makes it vp scaventy But Strabo in the seaventeenth of his Geography mentioning the same thing layes this censure vpon Gabinius the Authour of it Sed nec Gabinius Romanarum rerum Scriptor in describenda Mauritania fabulis prodigiosis abstinet neither doth Gabinius in his description of Mauritania abstaine from the relation of monstrous fables In the fourteenth yeare of Henry the second Emperour was the body of Pallas as 't was thought companion to Aeneas taken vp at Rome and found in height to equall the walles of that cittie But as Galeotus Martius hath well obserued his body was said to haue beene burned Arsurasque comas obnubit amictu The locks that shortly should consume in fire He couered with his Robe Which I suppose to be likewise true of many of those bodies which notwithstanding are reported to haue beene found intire for their proportions long after their deaths though turned into ashes many yeares before It being the custome of those countries to burne as it is ours to burie our dead Our Malmesburiensis likewise in his second booke thirteenth chapter de gestis Rerum Anglorum mentioneth the same story shall I call it or fable telling vs that in the yeare of grace 1042 in the reigne of S. Edward the body of Pallas the sonne of Euander of whom Virgill speakes Romae repertum est illibatum ingenti stupore omnium quod tot saecula incorruptionem sui superavit was found at Rome intire and sound to the great astonishment of all men that by the space of so many ages it had triumphed ouer corruption and farther to confirme the trueth thereof he assures vs that the gaping widenesse of the wound which Turnus made in the midst of his breast was found by measure to be foure foote an halfe a large wound and the weapon which made it we cannot but conceiue as large and by the appearance of it at full not onely the bones and skinne and sinewes but the flesh to remaine incorrupt a matter altogether incredible Besides he sets vs downe his Epitath found at the same time Filius Evandri Pallans quem lancea Turni Militis occidit more suo iacet hic Which himselfe knowes not well how to giue credit too quod non tunc crediderim factum sayth he which I cannot beleeue was then made but by Ennius or some other of latter ages But I proceede Herodotus in his first booke tels vs that the body of Orestes being taken vp was found to be seaven cubits but Gellius is bold to bestow vpon him for his labour the title of Homo Fabulator a forger of fables rather inclining to the opinion of Varro who held the vtmost period of a mans growth to be seaven foote What would he then haue said to the body of Oryon which Pliny makes forty six cubits or of Macrosyris which Trallianus makes an hundred cubits or of that body discouered in a vast caue neere Drepanum in Sicilie three of whose teeth if wee may beleeue Boccace weighed an hundred ounces and the leadde of his staffe a thousand and fiue hundred pounds And the body it selfe by proportion of some of the bones was estimated to no lesse then two hundred cubits which makes three hundred feete somewhat I thinke beyond Pauls steeple The more I wonder at S. Augustine who confidently assures vs that himselfe with others being on the sea shore at Vtica he there saw a mans iaw-tooth so bigge that being cut into small peeces it would haue made an hundred such as the men liuing in his age commonly had by which computation the body it selfe must likewise in reason haue exceeded the bodies of his age an hundred times so that being compared with a body of six foote exceeding it one hundred times it will be found six hundred foote high which is the just double to Boccace his Gyant Yet Ralph the Munke of Cogshall who wrote 350 yeares agoe as witnesseth Camden it may be in imitation of S. Augustine auerres that himselfe saw the like which in a Munke is I confesse more tollerable then that which Lodovicus Viues deservedly reputed a graue and learned Authour vpon that passage of S. Augustines affirmes that going to the Church on S. Christophers day the place he names not but it seemes to be Louaine because from thence he dates his Epistle dedicatorie to King Henrie the 8
the french Kings aduocate and others of that nature which are all published and extant partly in Latine and partly in their owne languages with that variety and learning as much exceedes the former ages SECT 4. Ancient and moderne Physitians compared especially in the knowledge of Anatomy and Herbary the two legges of that Science THE third great Profession is Physicke in which besides the vncertaine and fabulous reports of Apollo and Esculapius we read not of any excellent till Hippocrates after him being much decayed it was revived by Galen vt sub eo rursum nata medicina videatur so as it seemed vnder him to bee borne againe Two speciall parts thereof are the knowledge of the body of man and the knowledge of simples touching the former the opening and anatomizing of mens bodies It was doubtlesse among the Ancients in very little vse I meane the Aegyptians the Hebrewes the Graecians the Romans the Primitiue Christians First then I know the Aegyptians are by some said to haue beene this way most skilfull but considering how excessiuely curious ceremonious or rather superstitious they were in preseruing their bodies intire vnputrified I coÌ„ceiue their opening them to haue beene rather for the imbowelling imbaulming then the anatomizing of them and for the Graecians they could not well practise it in as much as they vsually burnt their dead bodies by the testimony not onely of Homer Herodotus whose authorities yet in this case might passe as sufficient but likewise of Thucidides Plutarch witnesses beyond all exception whereof the latter in the 3 booke and 4 question of his Symposiaques giues vs to vnderstand that their custome was with the bodies of ten men to burne one of an woman because they supposed their flesh to be more vnctuous and thereby to helpe forward the burning of the rest more easily speedily surely had Anatomy beene in vse among the Graecians me thinkes Physitians Anatomists should somewhere discouer it in the works of Hippocrates yet extant which I presume cannot be showne once I am sure that when at the instance of the Abderites he came to visite Democritus hee found him as may bee seene in his Epistle to Damogetus cutting vp seuerall beasts who being by him demaunded the reason thereof Democritus returnes him this answere Haec animalia quae vides proptereà seco non dei opera perosus sed fellis bilisque naturam disquirens these beasts which thou seestI cut vp not because I hate the workes of God but to search into the nature of gall choller now if hee feared lest the cutting vp of beasts might be censured as an hating of Gods workes he must needes much more haue feared that censure had he cut vp the bodies of men But among the Iewes it is evident that this Art could not be in vse for that their executed malefactours were put to death either by burning or stoning whom they buried vnder an heape of stones or by crucifying them vpon a crosse for these they had expresse charge Deut. 21. at the last verse that they should noâ—… suffer them to hang all night vpon the tree but in any wise must they bury them the very day they werâ—… crucified and besides it was most precisely injoyned them Number 〈◊〉 11 that they might not so much as touch the dead body of any that was either executed or died otherwise he that touched it was by the law of Moses so farre held vncleane that if he presumed to enter into the tabernacle before he was purified he was to be cut off from Israel for defiling it nay if in this case he but touched bread or pottage or wine or oyle or any meate he thereby made it vncleane as appeares Aggai 2. 13. Some more doubt seemes to be touching the ancient Romanes but I thinke it may easily bee shewed that from the Graecians they likewise tooke vp practised the burning of dead bodies the places which they commonly vsed to this purpose were by them called puticuli or culinae the pots or vessels in which they preserued the bones ashes of the burnt bodies Vrnae whereof I haue seen one in M. Chambers his keeping at Bath but all the difficultie seems to consist in this when this custome began among them and when it ceased for the former it is commonly held that it was not in vse among the Romans before Sylla the Dictator who hauing himselfe cruelly tyrannized vpon the dead bodie of Marius fearing lest the same measure might be shewed to himselfe commanded that his body instantly vpoÌ„ his death should be burned wheras Pli 7. 54. only sayes that he was thefirst of the Cornelian family that had his body burnt Tully 2 de legibus restrains it more narrowly Primus è patritijs Cornelijs igni voluit cremari he was the first of the Cornelian nobility that commanded it and he that attentiuely reads the Roman story will easily finde that this custome was practised among them long before Sylla euen from the first foundation of Rome so witnesseth Ovid in his 4 de Fastis speaking of Remus the brother of Romulus Arsarosque artus vnxit The limbes that now were to be burnt His brother did annoint And againe Vltima plorato subdita flamma rogo est The last fire now was set vnto his hearse After this Numa being by sect a Pythagorean forbade his owne body to be burnt as witnesseth Plutarch in his life which he needed not haue done had not the custome then beene vsuall Tullus Hostilius his successour had not his body therefore burnt because he was stricken dead with lightning for so was the Law After this againe Tully in his second de legibus telsvs that the Law of the 12 Tables commaunded Hominem mortuum in vrbe ne sepelito neve vrito let no dead body be buried or burned in the Citie which as he there addes was for feare their buildings might from thence take fire now the Lawes of the 12 Tables were composed as witnesseth Gellius 20. 1. in the 300 yeare after the foundation of the City which was almost 400 yeares before Sylla if any desire further satisfaction in this point I referre him to the learned and copious Annotations of Blasius Vigenerus in French vpon the first Decade of Livie which Author himselfe hath excellently translated into that language among other examples produced by him to this purpose he makes it plaine ouâ—… of Livie lib. 8 that the body of the sonne of Manlius the Consull who contrary to his fathers commaund fought out of his ranke was therefore by a commaund from the same mouth put to death was presently carried out of the campe and burned with all military pompe and this he assignes to the yeare 412 by his computation aboue 270 yeares before the death of Sylla Now this practise of the Romans I haue the longer insisted vpon partly for the checking of a common errour
exercendae atque desidiae miâ—…uendae causa fieri praedicant It is no discredit among the Germans to robbe so it be without the bounds of their citties and this they allow for the exercise of their youth the shunning of idlenes But particulars are infinite wherefore I will content my selfe with one nation three or foure notorious vices of that Nation The Nation shall be that of the ancient Romans I meane before their receiuing of Christianity because they were commonly reputed the most civill best disciplined of the whole world The speciall vices I will instance in shall bee their cruelty their couetousnes their luxurie their vaine-glory and ambition and in these will I shew their wonderfull excesse beyond latter ages concluding with a demonstration that the most eminent and renowned vertues of the Romanes as their wisedome courage haue likewise beene at least matched by some of latter ages and that in some other vertues as namely in modesty and humility they haue beene much exceeded CAP. 4. Of the excessiue cruelty of the Romans towards the Iewes the Christians other Nations one another vpon themselues SEC 1. Of the Romane cruelty toward the Iewes THe savage and barbarous inhumanity of the Romans appeares partly in their cruell handling of the Iewes Christians partly of other Nations But chiefely in their vnnaturall disposition one towards another and vpon themselues First then for the Iewes it is indeede true that by putting to death the Lord of life and crying alowd His blood be vpon vs and vpon our children they wilfully drew vpon themselues the Divine vengeance that dreadfull threate Loe the dayes shall come when they shall say happy are the barren and the wombes that haue not borne children and the paps that haue not giuen sucke Yet were the Romans though greater enemies to Christian Religion then the Iewes appointed by divine providence as the Executioners of that vengeance which they performed in a most vnmercifull manner And in regard of themselues an vndue vniust measure For to let passe all other bloody massacres of them in diverse townes citties thorow the Romane Empire after the passion of our Saviour and before the destruction of Ierusalem surely their cruelty acted in the siedge of that citty recorded by Iosephus was such as were able even to resolue an heart of steele into teares of blood It was on every side so straightly begirt that the besieged by extreamity of famine were forced to 〈◊〉 not only horses asses dogges rats mice and the leather that couered their shields bucklers but also the very dung out of their stables yea a Noble woman was knowne to eate her owne child that suckt vpon her breast wherein no doubt was fulfilled the prophecie of our Saviour happy are the barren Such as were taken by the Romans were by the commaundement of Titus crucified before the walls of the citty to the number of fiue hundred every day vntill at length as Iosephus reporteth there wanted both crosses for the bodies and place for the crosses Also great numbers of them who being forced with famine sought to saue their liues by yeelding themselues to ther enemies were nevertheles killed by the mercilesse souldier and their bowels ripped vp in hope to finde gold therein vpon a report or at least a conceite that the Iewes did swallow their gold to convay it out of the citty by that meanes Finally the number of those which were slaine and died during the siege was as witnesseth Iosephus a million and an hundred thousand and of the Captiues nine hundred and seventy thousand whereof Iosephus himselfe was one and of those some were condemned to the publique workes others of the stronger handsommer sort carried in triumph and such as were vnder the age of seventeene yeares were sold for litle or nothing those which remained in their countrey were loaden with such greivous impositions and tributes that they liued in a continuall misery slauery worse then death Yet the cruelty of the Romans towards these miserable Iewes ceased not heere but in the next age in the time of Traiane the Emperour within lesse then fifty yeares after the subversion of Ierusalem infinita eorum millia sayth Eusebius infinite thousands of them were killed in Egypt and Mesopotamia in Macedonia they were vtterly extinguished and in Cyprus they were all either put to the sword or banished and a law made that it should be death for any Iew to arriue there though he were driven thither by tempest against his will And in a few yeares after Iulius Severus being called out of Brittaine by the Emperour Adrian and sent into Iudea destroyed almost all the countrey For as Dyon writeth he dismantled fifty strong forts and razed or burnt nine hundred eighty fiue townes or villages and killed aboue fifty thousand Iewes in battell besides an infinite number of others that died either by fire famine or pestilence or were sold for slaues Shortly after Adrians time they were also miserablely afflicted by the Emperour Antoninus Pius and after him by Marcus Aurelius and againe some yeares after that by the Emperour Seuerus who renewed the decrees of Adrian for their exclusion from the sight of their countrey and triumphed for his great victories against them Now though it be true that the wickednes of the Iewish Nation was such as they well deserued to be thus seuerely punished yet cannot the Romanes be excused from vnreasonable cruelty in dealing thus vnmercifully with them as if they had beene beasts rather then men SECT 2. Their cruelty toward the Christians first in regard of the insatiable malice of their persecutors THeir dealing with the Christians whom they likewise named Iewes because our Saviours Apostles first disciples were all of that nation was yet more mercilesse because more vnjust They pretended the frequent rebellions of the Iewes to be the reason of their great severity towards them But the Christians they deadly hated and most cruelly persecuted only for their religion whereas they suffered all religions saue the Christian to be quietly exercised thorow their dominions Now their cruelty towards the poore Christians appeared in the insatiable malice of their persecutors the incredible number of those that suffered as Martyrs or Confessors and the exquisite variety of their tortures St. Augustine and his scholler Orosius compare the tenne persecutions of the Primitiue Christians which as so many raging waues came tumbling one vpon the necke of another to the tenne plagues of Egypt the first of which was vnder Nero whose cruelty or luxury was of the two more monstrous vnnaturall cannot easily be determined He caused Rome to be set on fire that he might the better conceiue the flames of Troy singing vnto it Homers verses His father and brother he poysoned murthâ—…red his master wife mother taking an exact view of her dead bodie commending the proportion of some parts discommending others
few Before I conclude this discourse touching the comparison of the strength of the Ancients with ours it shall not be amisse to remember a moderne example or two of Parents famously fertile in the linage issued from their bodies such as I doe not remember any where to be parallelled by antiquity In the memory of our Fathers saith Vives in his commentary vpon the eight chapter of the fifteenth booke of the Citty of God there was seene a village in Spaine of about an hundred houses whereof all the inhabitants were issued from one certaine old man who then liued when as that village was so peopled so as the name of propinquity how the youngest of the children should call him could not be giuen Lingua enim nostra supra Abavâ—…m non ascenâ—…t For our language saith hee meaning the Spanish affords not a name aboue the great Grandfathers father Likewise in S. Innocents Church-yard in the citty of Paris is to be seene the Epitaph of Yelland â—…aeily widow to Mr Dennis Capell a Proctour at the Chastellet which doth shew that she had liued eighty foure yeares and might haue seene 288 of her children and childrens children shee dyed the 17 of Aprill 1514. Now imagine saith Pasquier how much she had beene troubled to call them by a proper denomination that were distant from heâ—… the fourth and fifth degree Wherevnto wee may adde that which Theodore Zwinger a Physitian of Basill in the third volume of the Theatre of mans life recites of a noble Lady of the family of the Dalburgs who saw of her race euen to the sixth degree whereof the Germanes haue made this distich 1 Mater 2 ait natae 3 dic natae filia 4 natam 5 Vt moneat natae 6 plangere filiolam That is to say The mother said to her daughter daughter bid thy daughter tell her daughter that her daughters daughter cries The more I wonder at Pliny that he should report it as a wonder worthy the Chronicle that Crispinus Hilarus praelata pompa with open ostentation sacrificed in the Capitoll 74 of his children childrens children attending on him And so I passe from the consideration comparison of the stature strength of mens bodies to that of their mindes consisting in the more noble faculties of the reasonable soule and the beautifull effects thereof CAP. 6. Containing a discourse in generall that there is no such vniversall and perpetuall decay in the powers of the minde or in the Arts Sciences as is pretended SECT 1. The excellencie of the Ancients in the powers of the mind compared with those of the present as also their helpes and hinderances in matter of learning ballanced SInce it is a received conclusion of the choisest both Divines Philosophers that the reasonable soule of man is not conveied vnto him from his Parents but infused immediatly by the hand of the Creator withall that the soules of all men at their first Creation infusion are equall perfect alike endued with the same essence abilities it must needes bee that the inequality disparity of actions which they produce arise from the diverse temper of the matter which they informe and by which as by an instrument they worke Now the matter being tempered by the disposition of the bodies of our parents the influence of the heavens the quality of the elements diet exercise the like it remaines that as there is a variety vicissitude of these in regard of goodnes so is there likewise in the temper of the matter whereof wee consist the actions which by it our soules produce Yea where both the agents the instruments are alike yet by the diversity of education or industry their workes are many times infinitely diversified The principall faculties of the soule are imagination iudgement and memory One of the most famous for memory among the Ancients to my remembrance was Seneca the Father who reports of himselfe that hee could repeate two thousand names or two hundred verses brought to his Master by his Schoole-fellowes backeward or forward But that which Muretus reports of a young man of Corsica a student in the Civill Law whom himselfe saw at Padua farre exceedes it he could saith heâ—… recite thirty six thousand names in the same order as they were deliuered without any stay or staggering as readily as if he had read them out of a booke His conclusion is Huic ego ne ex antiquitate quidam quem opponam habeo nisâ—… forte Cyrum quem Plinius Quintilianus alij Latini Scriptores tradiderunt tenuisse omnium militum nomina I find none among the Ancients whom I may set against him vnlesse Cyrus perchaunce whom Pliniâ—… Quintilian and other Latine writers report to haue remembred the names of all his souldiers which yet Muretus himselfe doubts was mistaken of them Zenophon of whom onely or principally they could learne it affirming onely that hee remembred the names 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of his Captaines or cheife commanders And Aeneas Sylvius in his history of the Councill of Basill at which himselfe was present tels vs of one Ludovicus Pontanus of Spoleto a Lawyer likewise by profession who dyed of the Pestilence at that Councill at thirty yeares of age that he could recite not the titles onely but the intire bodies of the Lawes being for vastnes and fastnes of memory nemini Antiquorum inferior as he speakes nothing inferiour to any of the Ancients It is to this purpose very memorable which Famianus Srada in the first booke of his Academicall Pâ—…olusions relates of Francis Suarez who hath sayeth he so strong a memory that he hath S. Augustine the most copious various of the Fathers readie by heart alleadging euery where as occasion presents it selfe fully faithfully his sentences which is very strange his very wordes nay if he be demaunded any thing touching any passage in any of his volumes which of themselues are almost enough to fill a Librarie Statim quo loco quaque pagina disseruerit ea super re expedite docentem ac digito commonstrantem saepe vidimus I my selfe haue often seene him instantly shewing and pointing with his finger to the place page in which he disputed of that matter This is I confesse the testimonie of one Iesuite touching another But of Dr Rainolds it is most certaine that he excelled this way to the astonishment of all that were inwardly acquainted with him not only for S. Augustines workes but almost all Classike Authours so as in this respect it might truely be said of him which hath beene applyed to some others that he was a liuing librarie or third vniuersitie I haue heard it very crediblely reported that vpon occasion of some writings which passed to fro betwixt him Doctour Gentilis then our Professour in the Civill Lawes he publiquely professed that he thought Dr Rainolds had read and did remember more of those Lawes then himselfe though
holding that before Sylla the Romans burnt not their dead bodies and partly to shew that many of those monstrous giantlike bodies which aswell among the Romans as Graecians are said to haue beene digged vp were vndoubtedly burnt but chiefly that hereby it may appeare that the noble and vsefull practise of anatomizing mens bodies was not in vse among them neither indeed could it be considering they held it vnlawfull aspicere humana exta as Pliny speakes in his proeme to his 28 booke to looke vpon the entrals of mens bodies and Dion in his 55 tels vs that it was graunted to Tiberius to touch the body of Augustus quod nefas alias erat which was otherwise vnlawfull and from hence it was that their Vespillones Coriarij Pollinctores Libitinarij and other officers of that kinde imployed about the washing the annointing the carrying foorth the burning and providing things necessary about the dead were not suffered to liue in the Citty and the bodies themselues were burnt without the Citty few there were that went foorth of the citty gates to wait on the funerals of their nearest and dearest friends Now the Antiquity of this cvstome being cleared a second doubt there is when it ceased manifest then it is that it continued in vse till the Antonins and tben began it by degrees to be disvsed Macrobius witnessing in the seuenth booke and seuenth chapter of his Saturnals that in his time it was in a manner growne out of vse yet certaine it is that the bodies of Pertinax and Severus fifty yeares after were both burned as reporteth Dion of the one and Herodian in his fourth book of the other and neere about this time it was that Galen liued so as I verily beleeue he neuer or very seldome opened the bodies of men I know that Riolan and Laurentius haue both of them zealously defended him against the Neotericks who charge him with much weaknesse and ignorance in this Art but I cannot obserue that either of them hath produced so much as one cleere passage out of any part of his workes to proue that he euer so much as once opened the body of a man dogges indeed swine apes it appeares he opened once an Elephant but for his vsuall opening of mens bodies in my minde they bring no sufficient proofes which Laurentius himselfe well perceiuing modestly concludes his answere to the first instance brought against Galen with a verisimile est it is likely that he cut vp the bodies of men But let vs passe on from the Iewes and Gentiles to the Primitiue Christians who were as their workes shew professed adversaries to this practise Tertullian in the fourth chapt of his booke de anima speaking of Herophilus doubts whether he may call him medicum or lanium a Physitian or a butcher qui hominem odijt vt nosset saith he who hated mankinde that he might know it S Augustine de Civit. dei 22. 24. harpes much vpon the same string Etsi medicorum diligentia nonnulla Crudelis quos anatomicos appellant laniâ—…uit corpora mortuorum howbeit the ouer-diligent crueltie of some Physitians whom they call Anatomists hath butchered the bodies of the dead And to like purpose is that of Boniface the eigth extrauag commun lib. 3. tit 6. cap. 1. where he seuerely threatens such with the thunderbold of excommunication irreuocable but onely by the sea Apostolique who exenterate dead bodies and cut the flesh from the bones mangling it into gobbets quod non solum saith hee diuinae maiestatis conspectui abominabile plurimum redditur sed etiam humanae considerationis obtutibus occurrit vehementius abhorrendum which is a practise abominable in the eyes both of God men Out of all which it appeares that this practise of anatomizing the dead bodies of men so profitable to bring vs to the knowledge of our selues and consequently of our maker so necessarie to Physitians Surgeans was neuer brought into the bodie of a perfect art till this latter age Nos multa quotidie prioribus seculis incognita obseruamus wee obserue many things vtterly vnknowne to former ages And this last age in truth hath yeelded men singular in this art Vesalius Vassaeus Varolius Sylvius Fallopius Piceolhominaeus Columbus Riolanus Laurentius who followed Henry the fourth of France in his civill wars and gained much experience by cutting vp the bodies of such as were slaine in the field vt videatur haec Ars nunc summum perfectionis fastigium attigisse they be his owne words so as this Art now neuer before seemes to haue reached the very toppe of perfection Neuer was it in any age so illustrated with liuely exquisite pictures so encouraged with stipends so furnished with schooles fitting instruments all manner of helpes and generally so honoured as it is at this day And truely I haue often not a little wondred with my selfe that an Vniversitie so famous in forraine parts as this of Oxford was neuer to my knowledge provided of a publique Lecture in this kind till now as neither was it for a garden of simples now in good forwardnes by the noble munificence of the Heroicall Earle of Danbie nor of a History Lecture nor of an Arabique though it were long since solemnly decreed in the Councill of Vienna that this Vniversity as likewise Paris Bononia Salamanca Rome which were vndoubtedly then accounted the principall Vniversities in Christendome should each of them haue maintained two professours in that language as also in Chalde Hebrew Clementinarum lib. 5. Tit. 1. cap. 1. Now for the knowledge of Simples the other legge as it were vpon which Physicke stands as Theophraestus was in many things amended by Plynie Plynie by Dioscorides so hath Dioscorides himselfe by the happy travells of Ruellius Rouillius Leonardus Fuchsius who in his Epistle to Ioachimus Marquis of Brandenburg tels vs that this part of Physicke was a while since so vtterly neglected defaced that had not God raysed vp industrious and learned men to restore it actum plane de Medicina Herbaria fuisset it had beene vtterly lost But Hermolaus Barbarus was hee who by translating Dioscorides out of Greeke into Latine by adding his Corrolarium therevnto touching the same subject first recouered the ancient lustre thereof And since by reason of the discouerie of many parts of the world vnknowne to the Ancients many plants gummes drugges mineralls are by Monaedus others knowne to vs which they neuer heard of SECT 5. Of the profitable vse of extractions and the Paracelsian Physicke either wholy vnknowne to the Ancients or little practised by them TO the perfiting of the Anatomicall and reuiuing of the Botanicall art in this latter age may be added a new kinde of physicke professed by a new sect of Physitians neuer heard of in the world before and altogether differing from the Ancients as in name in tearmes of art so likewise in rules in matter in
that this was a common fashion of the Romans Videntur enim saith he terroris gratia hoc illi facere itaque frequenter videre est quando Romani civitates capiunt non homines modo occidi sed canes etiam dissecari aliorum animalium membra truncari It seemes they did it to terrifie others and therefore it hath beene often seene that the Romanes vpon the taking in of a City not onely slew the men but also cut in sunder the dogs mangled other liuing Creatures Servius Galba at his being in Spaine hauing assembled the Inhabitants of three cities vnder a pretence of consulting with them about their welfare on a sudden slew seuen thousand of them among whom were the very flowre of their youth Likewise Licinius Lucullus Consull in the same countrey put to the sword twenty thousand of the Caucaei by the hands of his souldiers sent into the city against the expresse covenants of their rendring Octavianus Augustus hauing taken Perusia sacrificed three hundred of the principall Townsmen which yeelded themselues as it had beene beasts before an Altar erected to Divus Iulius Antonius Caracalla being incensed against the citizens of Alexandria for some petty jeasts broken vpon him entering into the citty in a peaceable manner calling before him all their youth he surrounded them with armed men who at the signe giuen fell instantly vpon them and slew euery mothers son of them then vsing the like cruelty vpon the residue of the Inhabitants hee vtterly emptied a spatious populous citty Volesus Messalla Proconsull of Asia tooke off with the axe the heads of three hundred in one day then walking in out among the dead bodies with his hands behind him as if he had performed some noble act he cryes out ô rem verè regiam an exploit worthy a Prince But me thinkes that of Sulpitius Galba exceedes them all who entering into Portugall in an hostile manner laid waste the countrey the Inhabitants wondering thereat not knowing the reason neither being guilty to themselues of any offence they send Ambassadours to renew their former league he entertaines them and seemes to take pitty on them that they were thus afflicted but it may be saith he it was your wants that caused you to make some spoyles shew of warre I will remedy the matter I will range you into three parts will seat you in a good fat soile where you may lead the rest of your life more happily securely Come with your wiues children into such a valley there will I assigne you your portions They miserable people come on joyfully being ranged into three bands to the first of which when hee came he bids them lay aside their weapons as being now friends fellowes which being laide aside he sets his souldiers vpon them and kils them all vpon the place in vaine calling vpon the Gods his faith giuen them The same course he tooke with the second third band before the report of his first bloudy act could come vnto them Neither did their cruelty extend only to men but to townes citties Sempronius Gracchus if we may credit Polybius razing laying waste three hundred in Spaine Nec habet omne aevum opinor quod adstruat his exemplis praeter nostrum sed in orbe alio saith Lypsius I suppose no age can afford examples matchable to these except ours but that in another World where he instances in the Spanish cruelties vpon the naked Indians It is true indeed that Theodosius a Christian Emperour for a small matter in comparison caused seauen thousand Innocents of Thessalonica being called together into the Theater as for the beholding of some playes to be slaine by souldiers vpon the place and though hee might well for the present purpose bee numbred among the ancient Romane Emperours yet as a Christian I rather choose to excuse him that justly in as much as being admonished by S. Ambrose he heartily repented of that bloudy fact therevpon at the instance of that worthy Prelate made a Law that from thenceforth thirty dayes should passe betwixt the sentence of death and the execution thereof in as much as the guilty though spared for a time might notwithstanding afterwards be executed But the guiltlesse being once executed could neuer againe bee restored SECT 6. Of their cruelty one towards another by the testimony of Tacitus and Seneca and first in their civill warres NOw that which yet much more aggravates the Romane cruelty is this that they were not onely thus hard-hearted towards strangers but without naturall affection implacable mercilesse one towards another as appeareth partly in their factions civill warres partly in the tyrannie of their Emperours inferiour Gouernours partly in their bloudy games pastimes What a miserable complaint is that which is made by Tacitus Legimus cum Aruleno Rustico Petus Thrasea Herennio Senefioni Priscus Heluidius laudati essent capitale fuisse nec in ipsos modo Authores sed in libros eorum saevitum delegato Triumviris ministerio vt monumenta clarissimorum ingeniorum in comitio ac foro vrerentur scilicet illo igne vocem populi Romani libertatem Senatus conscientiam generis humani abolere arbitrabantur Expulsis insuper sapientiae professoribus omni bona arte in exilium acta ne quid vsquam honestum òccurreret Dedimus profectò grande patientiae documentum sicut vetus Respub videt quid vltimum in libertate esset ita nos quid in servitute adempto per inquisitiones etiam loquendi audiendique commercio memoriam quoque ipsam cum voce perdidissemus si tam in potestate nostra esset oblivisci quam tacere Wee read that when Petus Thrasea was praised by Arulenus Rusticus and Priscus Heluidius by Herennius Senesio it was made a capitall crime neither did their rage extend only to the Authours but to their bookes Cōmand being giuen from the Triumviri that the monuments of those rarewits should be burnt in the pleading market places Forsooth in that flame they made accoūt at one blaze to extinguish the voice of the people of Rome the liberty of the Senate the conscience of mankinde Besides the Professours of wisedome all ingenuous Arts were banished that nothing carrying the face of honesty might any-where appeare Then did wee shew a singular example of Patience as former ages saw the vtmost of liberty so we of servitude Moreouer the mutuall commerce of speaking hearing being by inquisitions abridged wee had surely lost our memory together with our voyce had it bin aswell in our power to forget as to be silent Yet more pitifull is that sad complaint of Seneca touching his times Adeo in publicum missa nequitia est in omnium pectoribus evaluit vt innocentia non rara sed nulla sit Numquid enim singuli aut pauci rupêre fidem
Besides he made away whosoeuer was valiant or vertuous in Senate in citty in Province without any difference of sexe or age No marvell then that being of a disposition so bloody he fell as a bitter storme vpon the Christians and his cruelty be by S Paule compared to the mouth of a Lyon Nay by reason of that violent persecution which vnder him the Christians endured hee was as witnesseth S. Augustine commonly reputed Anti-Christ But certaine it is that Rome being by his commaund set on fire he falsely accused punished most greevously the innocent Christians for it The second persecution was vnder Domitian whom Tertullian calls Neronis portionem Eusebius â—…aeredem the one a part the other the heire of Nero And Tacitus puts onely this difference betweene them that Nero indeed commaunded cruell murthers but Domitian not only commaunded them but beheld them himselfe What the world was to expect from him appeared in his very entrance to the Empire retyring himselfe euery day into a private closet where he passed his time in killing of flies with a sharp bodkin insomuch that one demaunding who was within with the Emperour Vibius Crispus made answer ne musca quidem not somuch as a flie But from the blood of flies hee proceeded on to the shedding of the blood of men so farre and in so fierce a manner Vt timeas ne Vomer deficiat ne marrae sarcula desint Well might yee doubt Least culters mattocks spades yee soone should be without The Authour of the last and most greivous persecution was Dioclesian whose raging cruelty towards the Christians Lactantius sets forth in liuely colours Nemo hâ—…ius tantae belluae immanitatem potest pro merito describere quae vno loco recubans tamen per totum orbem dentibus ferreis saevit non tantum artus hominum dissipat sed ossa ipsa comminuit in cineres furit ne quis extet sepulturae locus Quaenam illa fâ—…itas quae rabies quae insania est lucem viuis terram morâ—…uis denegasse No man can sufficiently describe the cruelty of this so vnreasonable a beast which lying in one place yet rageth with his iron teeth thorow the world and doth not only scatter the members but breake the bones of men yea shewes his furie vpon their very ashes least there should be found any place for their buriall what rage what madnes what barbarous cruelty is this to deny both the light to the liuing and the earth to the dead Where Lactantius seemes to allude to that fourth namelesse beast of Daniell which was fearefull terrible and very strong it had great yron teeth it devoured and brake in peeces and stamped the residue vnder his feete And though I haue instanced only in these three yet it is certaine that the Authours and Instruments of these persecutions were all of a disposition much alike Of whom the same Lactantius affirmes that they haue borrowed the shapes of beasts and yet were more cruell then they pleasing themselues in this that they were borne men yet had they nothing but the outward figure and lineaments of men For what Caucasus what India what Hircania saith he ever bred or brought forth so cruell and bloody beasts the rage of other beasts ceaseth when their appetite is satisfied their hunger being slaked they grow more mild tame but the rage of these never ceaseth their appetite is never satiated with blood the truth whereof will easily appeare if in the second place we doe but cast our eyes vpon the infinite multitude of innocent Christians that euery where suffered death and for none other cause but only the profession of their religion SECT 3. Secondly in regard of the incredible number of those that suffered OMnis ferè sacro Martyrum cruore orbis infectus est neque vllis vnquam magis bellis exhaustus est saith Sulpitius well nigh the whole world is stayned with the blood of the Martyrs neither was it euer in the like sort emptied by any warres And Gregorie the great almost in the same words totum mundum fratres aspicite Martyribus plenus est jam penè tot qui videamus non sumus quot veritatis testes habemus Deo ergo numerabiles nobis super arenam multiplicati sunt quia quanti sunt à nobis comprehendi non possunt Brethren looke abroad vpon the whole world it is filled with Martyrs we are hardly so many in number to behold them as we haue witnesses of the truth who haue sealed it with their blood in regard of God they are numerable but in regard of vs they are multiplied aboue the sand on the sea shore in asmuch as we cannot comprehend their number And happily those latter words of Gregorie had reference to that of Cyprian himselfe a glorious Martyr in his exhortation to Martyrdome Exuberante postmodum copia virtutis fidei numerari non possunt Martyres Christiani testante Apocalypsi dicente post haec vidi c. The strength of courage and faith afterwards increasing the Christian Martyrs could not be numbred according to that testimonie in the Apooalyps After these things I beheld and loe a great multitude which no man could number of all nations kindreds and people tongues stood before the Throne and before the Lambe cloathed with long white robes and palmes in their handes Wherevnto might be added that other Propheticall passage of the same booke The wine-presse was troden without the cittie and blood came out of the wine-presse vnto the horse bridles by the space of a thousand six hundred furlongs Which Prophesiâ—… we may well conceiue to haue beene accomplished to the full when the very axes swords of the Executioners were blunted with executions and themselues were forced to giue ouer and sit downe being vtterly wearied therewith when the day failing the bodies of the executed were burnt in the night to giue light to passengers and thirty three Romane Bishops successiuely from S. Peter to Sylvester were all martyred when hundreds thousands yea tenne or twenty thousands were slaughtered at once Lastly when by the testimony of S. Hierome in his Epistle to Chromatius and Heliodorus if it be his there was not a day in the yeare to which aboue fiue thousand might not justly be assigned the Kalends of Ianuarie only excepted Funditur ater vbique cruor crudelis vbique Luctus vbique pauor plurima mortis imago Piteous lamenting dreadfull feare and blood-shed every where And many a ghastly shape of death did euery where appeare SECT 4. Thirdly in regard of the various and divelish meanes and instruments which they devised and practised for the execution or torture of the poore Christians NOw though the Romane cruelty sufficiently appeare in the malice of the principall persecutors of the Christians and the infinite number of Martyrs that suffered yet doubtlesse the various and diuelish