great reuerence and another at Cassandri a towne of Macedone or Thrace this stone for feare of the wrath of God that in his anger might punish and sodainly stricke was solemlie carryed abroad and shewed to the people to daunt their pride and bridle their follies The raynbow which as many affirm is neuer seene by night but alwayes appeareth in cleere day manifestly declareth that mightily Gods maiestie worketh and his mercifull dealings are to be marueilously noted For neuer as is to be read by good authors was séene more then two raynebowes at one time together in the skies who shewes that a firme and constant course and signe ef Gods mercyes with no alteration is planted perdurable where his people may behold it sometimes is to be seene as Plinie maketh mention of a scarlet colour and a red sanguine in the skyes and sundry other times is perceiued likewise that the skie seemes to open and fire falleth downe from the same a thing prodigious and fearefull which consumeth all thinges that it toucheth or encounters as it came to passe saieth Plinie the third yéere of the 107. Olympiade at which season King Philip of Macedonie obtayned by victorie the most parte of all Gréece And truely saith Plinie I thinke that nature which he calleth God produceth those thinges at certayne times determined by Gods appoyntment as he worketh his other operations and further sayeth Plinie all the subtill imaginations of man nor the inuentions of all humane spirits and iudgements can render no good reason for the same for there opinions thereof serueth for nothing Plinie 27. For these accidence celestiall haue alwayes signified some great calamitie to come not that I thinke sayth he that those euils and calamities that happen are the cause of the blazing starres or commetts but I holde opinion sayth he that the same commetts are procreated and sent for speciall markes and signes to know thereby what calamitie is likely to happen und because those signes are marueilous rare and strange the reason of their nature is in a maner incomprehensible so that truely men may not speake on them as they do on the order of the Planets or on their ecclipse or on many other thinges remarquable in the elements looke good Reader how excellently that eathnicke Plinie hath spoken of the diuine maiestie and doings of God which he calleth nature and note how he hath so cunningly handled the argument that no one point or other may be reasoned against for this in it selfe confuteth all thinges to the contrarie and explaneth such secrets that euery other naturall reason is by this put to silence I haue seene saieth Plinie often in the night an corps degard that made the sentinell in the campe néere the trenches certayne lights of the maner of a starre which were as it were a slame tyed to the end of a souldiers picke and on the Sea sundry Marriners as they haue sayled haue seene the like lights hanging on the mast which lightes are a very euill signe to the Saylers if they be but one of them séene at one time for that presageth shipwracke or manifesteth great mischiefe for sometimes if the flame fall downe wardes it burneth the vessell if two lights be seene they bring goodnesse and hope of happy fortune and presageth that the ship shall haue a good voyage likewise when these two happie lights ariueth the vnfortunate flame that commeth alwayes alone that the Marriners calleth helene vanisheth out of veiw yea sometimes this light lighteth full vpon many mens heads about the euening all which thinges saith Plinie neuer happen without great matter to follow them the misteries and knowledge thereof is reserued onely to the maiestie of God whom he nameth nature who will hyde and locke vp the reasons of those causes in the cabine or sacred chamber of his priuie secrets Heere Plinie plainely expoundeth though he were a Pagan many secrete matters much to the purpose of mens good opinions and greatly to the glory of God and to proue that strange lightes haue and are to be séene I being in Garnsey hauing charge vnder Syr Thomas Leighton was searching of the watch in a place called castle Cornet and there full on the toppe of a crosse I espyed this flaming fire before the face and veiw of diuers Souldiers after the which sight fell a very great tempest and such a kinde of a storme as the small fishes in the Seas could not abide for they were driuen to the shore so fast that little children and yong maydes wading but a foote deepe in the water tooke millions of the fishes and brought them to the land some in their kirchers and aprons and other some in their capps hatts and such thinges as they had for the cause Thus farre haue you heard some piece of the matter touching the ayre and secrets from thence sent to the world as God by his goodnesse pleaseth to deale And nowe shall yee haue rehearsed somewhat of the Earthquakes and other worldly Wonders that many times haue happened and hath bredde great harmes and no little wonder Now first and formost to some wonders of the world in Titus Liuius you shall read that before great warres burst out betweene the Romans and Macedonians in many places and regions were some strange thinges most fearefull and lamentable to behold For in the countrey of Lucanie the heauens seemed as they had béene all on a flaming fire and in another countrey farre from that at high noone the Sun became all ouer redde as scarlet and at midnight in the Temple of Iuno was heard a great alarum and horrible cry in diuers maners and fearefull sortes yea and in many places sundrie beastes of diuers shapes very monstrous were brought into the world and at Salonne a child was borne that the people knewe not whether it were a man or a woman and likewise in Sauoye a pigge was farryed that had the head of a man and againe in Lucanie was a horse seene that had fiue féete and as Cauies was a man that had his eares standing in the middle of his browes whereon was commaunded when the bookes of Sibell had beene seene that chast women should in murning sort sing a certayne heauie song thrée times in a weeke through the citie of Rome all which ceremonies the consull Aurellius did curiously accomplish King Philip of Macedone anon after these strange sights did beseige the great citie of Abydoo in which citie the maiestrates and people because they would not happen in Philips hand and be made slaues they all issued out and fought many times desperatly and in the ende burnt all their treasure set a fire of the Towne slue all their wiues and children and after all these horrible actes one of them killed another heere is to be noted with the rest of miseries that fell out that many euils falls immediatly in those partes where those strange and prodigious sights and signes are to be seene The Romans after this discomfited
And though I seeme but slenderly learned hauing a good deuotion to doe well bestowe some small talent to Gods great glory I trust those labours shall purchase as good acceptation as the large volumes that are stuffed with darke sentences and pollished with racked reasons but woe is mee that am destitute of knowledge voyde of cunning and vtterly vnfurnished of eloquence that nowe haue thrust my selfe into alaborinth and heere am taking in hand to run a further course then my wonted custome heretofore hath familiarly bin acquainted withall notwithstanding the best is to be hoped if I happe to stumble that the path is plaine I walke in and I presume not to goe farre in mine owne opinion but will be ledde by the grauest authours of truth and most venerable diuines and Philosophers whose words and learning I will alleadge and with whom the Readers must striue and wrastle if they meane to struggle with any peece of the auncient Fathers reports and philosophie And for that in many an infinite number of causes both depending on natures reason and earthly operations Wonders are to be talked off and Earthquakes to be seene I will expresse as well as I may diuers thinges as they were done many hundred yeares agoe and so set foorth such wonderfull matters that happened in those dayes that the people at this present shall make a maruell off and yet therein behold no other thing but the mightie worke of the Lord and maiestie of our maker that is séene shining in his workemanship and gloryed in his creatures First and formost is meant by this discourse to begin at the Wonders of the ayre and alterations of the heauens which waxeth old as a garment and so to come downe orderly to the Trembling of the earth and shaking of the world declared onely in this little treatise to make the ignorant beleeue and acknowledge that there is no other worker of wonders neither heere nor aboue though many thinges are talked off but the power of God and blessed hand of the Lord who was neuer idle but from the beginning of the world hath alwayes bin occupyed either in one place or another by a wonderfull maner both in the heauens and earth to call his children to repentance and to shew himselfe a mercifull Father but there are some stubborne boyes and I feare too great a number of the kind and complexion of king Pharaoh whose heart was indurate and who forgat correction as soone as the rod was taken from his shoulders and plagues from his people now if such complexions and corrupt natures for want of good looking too haue or would infect the sound body and soule of those that are easily tempted and drawne to beléeue little that is true and trust much that is false and full of fayre semblances To these and to none other for the preseruation of their good beliefe and purging of peruerse incredulitie these present paynes are presented partly to shew in what partes these manifold wonders did fall and plainely to explaine what followed immediatly after among those nations where such wonders happened It is found in the Annales that in the yeare when Marcus Acilius and Caius Porcius were Consuls of Rome there was openly to bee seene that from the inferiour region of the ayre did fall in manner of rayne both bloud and milke which as some affirme albeit it was a strange thing to behold befell many times before some great alteration of the people and republicke likewise in the yeere when Lucius Volumnius and Seruius Sulpicius were Consuls of the same city it did rayne perfit flesh the most part whereof was consumed and eaten by the birdes of the ayre and yet the rest that did fall and remayne on the earth did not corrupt of a long season The very yéere before that Marcus Crassus or Rasilicata with his whole armie which were Italian souldiers of the countrey Lucania was ouerthrowne by the Parthes a strong nation that the Romans made warre vpon It rayned iron in the maner of a spunge in the selfe same land where the Souldiers were leuied whereupon their wise men and greate clarkes by their Deuinations declared that the wounds and sores of the heauens were to be feared and that some sort of people were in danger to receiue great hurt from the skies and angry Planets In the yéere that Lucius Paulus and Marcellus were Consuls it did raine wol like spunges about the towne of Carissan or Carino and the next yéere following Titus Annius Milo a great personage was slaine in battell néere the aforesayd towne of Carissan you shall finde in the register of Senats that the same yéere that Milo was slayne in it rayned bricke stones as Milo was pleading a matter in the senate house all which wonders spoken off wayed together perswades no little argument of the warnings and myraculous maner of the elements that foresheweth great matters to come and presageth many things worthy memorie It is sayd and truely to be prooued that before and after the wars that the Zelanders had with the Danes of Denmarke There was to be hard in the ayre oftentimes a certaine sound and clickening of harnesse and the sounde of many trumpets at that present instant was hard in the skyes In the yéere of the third Consulship of Marius the people of Ameria or Amelia and Todi or Tuderdani in the townes of the Dutchie of Spoleto did behold two great armies of men in the skies the one power comming from the leuant and the other from the occident and those that came from the occidentall were put to flight and chased by the other partie after both the armies had a long while béene in combate and there fell out great thinges in the necke of this wonder yea the selfe sam like matter happened in the ayre at Ramberg the yeere 1534. and at Wisenburg the yeere of our Lord 1530. On which strange veiw fell out bloudy wars in Iermanie and other partes both fearefull in proofe and pittifull to beholde The Greeke authors as Plinie sayeth doe affirme that the second yeere of the 78. Olympiade Anaxagoras Calzomenien presaged by his great knowledge and told the proper day and houre when a mightie and monstrous great stone should fall from the heauens which came to passe in the open and playne day in the countrey of Thrace which is along the floud Aegos and in the time of this stone as bigge as a tumbrell fell from the skyes a great commett was seene in the cloudes and this commett endured blazing a long season as did of late a blazing starre when the Queenes Maiestie lay at Windsore not long before the king of Portugall and all his armie a sorrowfull tayle to tel was ouerthrowne in Barbarie by the hard aduenture of fortune and force of the king of Fesse Then was another little stone that Anagoras spoke off long before it fell from the heauens that nowe remaines in the village of Abydo which superstitious people holde in
the Gauls in which battell was slayne fiue thousand knights called noble souldiers and Amylkar the Duke of Penoyes and with him three noble Emperors of the Gaulles were put to the sword with a thirtie and fiue thousand poore Souldiers Ye shall reade in the 4. chapter of the second decaed that as Titus Quincius was going to leauie an armie of noble Souldiers that had beene in Spaine and Affricke one brought him newes that by a thunder or miraculous working of the elements the high way where he should goe was broken and torne in peices and both the temple of Ioue and Hercules were set on fire and at Aretto the ground for the length of a great distance was opened and therein was made a deepe caue to the wonder of a great number of people And at Assnesse there was a calfe séene with two heades and a pigge with foure tayles after which sights prayer and supplications was made to their gods a whole day long without ceasing and yet great warres and troubels began to be set abroch in many kingdoms these wonders going before al these hurly burlies the fourth decaed the 12. chapter in the Consull of Domycius time there was an Oxe that spake and sayd in latine Roma caue tibi after which wordes pronounced the Oxe was diligently kept and so the riuer of Tyber arose and did passe the bound so sarre that it ouerthrewe many houses and edifyses and did very great harme diuers wayes and through the aboundance of rayne that fell or other causes that pleased God a great rocke fell and ouerwhelmed a number of poore people and the flouds were so high by the meane of an outragious tempest that they drowned many viilages about Rome vpon the which strang sight or in a small space after thrée of the greatest Emperors of the world dyed most vnhappily and as some authors makes mention those Princes tooke their leaue all in one yéer Philopomenes Scypion and Hanniball was these thrée great personages Now to write what warres troubels seditions and other calamities hapned in many kingdomes after these terrible tokens and prodigious signes it would weary you with the reading thereof and make you but maruell at the mightie workes of God which assuredly comes to passe in euery place by his appointment to shew his power and happens not by the course of the heauens causes of the earth or naturall operations as many of Aristotels disciples affirme and wilfull schoolemen by reasons would prooue for as God is without beginning so his power is without ending and his diuine workes and iudgements are as matters that wee should not breake our witts about and are so farre beyond our reach that we rather stand amazed at veiwe of them then any way satisfyed in the searching or ceasoning of the cause of their beginnings and though at the first God gaue the Elements a nature past all the compasse of mans base knowledge we neither must trust Aristotle nor leane too much to our weakenes and imaginations for the beginning of his Deitie is as easily knowne as the nature of strange visions and signes in the ayre that onely are directed by his omnipotent power Now come we to Earthquakes In the yéere of the Consulship of Lucius Marcius and Sextus Iulius there befell a case so strange at Modenna that the like yet was neuer heard off as Plinie reports he hath found written in the bookes of Hertusques A maruell that mountains meet and among the Toscane Philosophers Then happened so terrible an earthquake that two mountaines met together and shooke so vehemently the one the other separating themselues as a combate were fought and méeting with such furie and noyse that all the countrey adioyning stoode astonied at the matter and when these two mountaines had done their shaking and at the instant of their first remooue there arose such a fume of flaming fire from the earth that it reached to the heauens the which monstrous battayle of mountaynes and wonderfull earthquake in those parts was séene of many Romaine Knights and Souldiers and an infinite number of trauellers of the world than being in the way called Emylius or via emilia who considering that pittifull tragidie of time and other matters that fell out marueiled much and were sore afrayd for indéede all the granges tenements farmes and houses that were one any of these mountaynes fell in small pieces and little morsels so that both beastes in the fielde and people in their dwellings were all vtterly destroyed and cleane ouerthrowne this marueilous chance fell a yéere before the warres of Sociale that was made against the Marses the which warres brought not much lesse domage to Italie than the warres ciuell by which dissention millions of men were slaine or put to shame and miserie and in the chronicle of Neroes rayne is to be found a very prodigious thing for the last yéere of Neroes raâ—â—ing a great ground of Alyue pertayning to Vertius Marcellus procuror generall to the Emperor Nero was transported from his owne proper place with all his trees and set in the common way betwéene the soyle it stoode on and another mans heritage after which matter the tyrant Nero dyed and a great alteration fell in the Empyre by the trembling of the earth as Homer affirmeth waters did flowe where firme land remayned and the Seas did retyre from their wonted course in another place by which meanes a great countrey was discouered before ouer flowed with water as men might sée towardes the mount Siscelo in the fields and néere the hauen of Larta or Ambracia a plot of ground ten long myles from the borders of the Sea that in times past stood drowned and vndiscouered and at Athens likewise the sea is retyred from the hauen that they call Piree about fiue myles of length and at Epheson the Sea did anciently beate against the temple of Diana but now the Sea is a great way reculed from that temple and if the historie of Herodote be true aunciently the waues of the Sea went ouer the citie of Memphys in Egypt running to the mountaynes of Ethiopie and the plaines of Arabie in like sorte the Sea did beate against Illion called Troy and couered all the whole countrey of Tentertanie and all the other fields wher passeth the riuer Meander these proofes and passages sufficiently sheweth that the tremblings of the earth are as much and more to be feared then the cracking of a rotten house or the fall of a mightie castell that stands on féeble proppes and totters at euery blast of winde Further it is sayde in the Isles of Pithecuses by the vehemencie of an earthquake a great towne did sincke and by another earthquake againe a great lake was made in the same Ilands as yet remayning a wonder to the world read the foure and ninth of Plinie and ye shall sée a number of other matters as myraculous as any yet rehearsed The diuine Plato reports that aunciently there was a mightie and a