information of one Richard Master Parson of Aldington and Edward Bocking Doctor of Divinity a Monke of Canterbury and divers others counterfeited such manner of trances and distortions in her body with the uttering of divers counterfeit vertues and holy words tending to the rebuke of sinne and reproving such new opinions as there began to spread that shee woon great credit amongst the people and drew after her a multitude of favourites besides she would prophecy of things to come as that shee should be helped of her disease by none but the Image of our Lady in Aldington whither being brought she appeared to the people to be suddenly relieved from her sicknesse by meanes of which hypocriticall dissimulation she was brought into marvellous estimation not only with the common people but with divers great men also insomuch that a book was put in print touching her fained miracles and revelations Howbeit not content to delude the people she began also to meddle with the King himself Henry the eight saying That if he proceeded to be divorced from his wife Queene Katherine he should not remaine King one month after and in the reputation of God not one day for which and many other tricks practised by her she with her complices was arraigned of high treason and after confession of all her knavery drawn from the Tower to Tyburne and there hanged the holy maidens head being set upon London bridge and the other on certaine gates of the City The other named la Pucella de Dieu marvellously deluded with her counterfeit hypocrisie Charles the seventh King of France and all the whole French Nation in such sort that so much credit was attributed unto her that she was honoured as a Saint and thought to be sent of God to the aide of the French King By her meanes Orleance was woon from the English and many other exploits atchieved which to be short I will referre the Reader unto the French Chronicles where they shall finde her admirable knavery at large discovered But touching her end it was on this sort as she marched on horsebake to the towne of Champaigne to remove the siedge wherewith it was guirt by the Duke of Burgoine and other of the English Captaines Sir Iohn Leupembrough a Burgonian Knight tooke her alive and conveyed her to the City of Roan where she faigning her selfe with child when the contrary was knowne was condemned and burnt And thus these two holy women that in a diverse kind mocked the people of England and France by their hypocrisie by the justice of God came to deserved destructions CHAP. XXI Of Conjurers and Enchanters IF God by his first Commandement hath enjoyned every one of us to love serve and to cleave unto him alone in the conjuction and unity of a true faith and hope unremovable there is no doubt but he forbiddeth on the other side that which is contrary to this foresaid duty and herein especially that accursed familiarity which divers miserable wretches have with that lying Spirit the Father of errour by whose delusions and subtilty they busie themselves in the study of sorceries and enchantments whereupon it is forbidden the Israelites in the nineteenth of Leviticus to turne after familiar spirits or to seeke to Soothsayers to be defiled by them and the more to withdraw them from this damnable crime in the Chapter following there is a threat set downe against it in manner of a Commandement That if either man or woman have a spirit of divination or soothsaying in them they should dye the death they should stone them to death their bloud should be upon them so in the two and twentieth of Exodus the Law of God saith Thou shalt not suffer a Witch to live and Moses following the same steps giveth an expresse charge in the eighteenth of Deuteronomy against this sinne saying Let nonebe found among thee that useth witchcraft nor that regardeth the Clouds or times nor a Sorcerer or a Charmer or that counselleth with a Spirit or a teller of Fortunes or that asketh counsell of the dead for all that doe such things are abhomination unto the Lord. And therefore this sinne 1 Sam. ver 15. is reputed amongst the most hainous and enormous sinnes that can be When they shall say unto you saith the Prophet Enquire at them that have a Spirit of Divination and at the Soothsayer which whispers and murmures answer Should not a people enquire at their God from the living to the dead To the Law and to the Testimony Wherefore it was a commendable thing and worthy imitation when they that had received the Faith by Pauls preaching having used curious Arts as Magicke and such like being touched with the feare of God brought their bookes and burned them before all men although the price thereof amounted to fifty thousand pieces of silver which by Budeus his supputation ariseth to five thousand French Crownes The Councels as that of Carthage and that other of Constantinople kept the second time in the suburbs utterly condemned the practices of all Conjurers and Enchanters The twelve Tables in Rome adjudged to punishments those that bewitched the standing corne And for the Civill Law this kind is condemned both by the Law Iulia and Cornelia In like manner the wisest Emperours those I mean that attained to the honour of Christianity ordained divers Edicts and Prohibitions under very sharp and grievous punishments against all such villany as Constantine in the ninth book of the Cod. tit 18. enacted That whosoever should attempt any action by Art Magicke against the safety of any person or should bring in or stir up any man to make him fall into any mischiefe or riotous demeanour should suffer a grievous punishment in the fifth Law he forbiddeth every man to aske counsell at Witches or to use the helpe of Charmers and Sorcerers under the paine of death Let them saith he in the sixth Law be throwne to wild beasts to be devoured that by conjuring or the helpe of familiar spirits go about to kill either their enemies or any other Moreover in the seventh Law he willeth that not so much as his owne courtiers and servants if they were found faulty in this crime should be spared but severely punished yet neverthelesse many of this age gave themselves over to this filthy sinne without either feare of God or respect of Law some through a foolish and dangerous curiosity others through the overruling of their owne vile and wicked affections and a third sort troubled with the terrours of an evill conscience desire to know what shall besall and happen unto them in the end Thus Saul the first King of Israel being troubled in himselfe and terrified with the army of the Philistims that came against him would needs foreknow his owne fortune and the issue of this doubtfull warre Now whereas before whilest he performed the duty of a good King and obeyed the commandement of God hee had cleansed his Realme
all would not serve to shake the foundation of his Faith which was builded upon a Rocke hee was condemned and executed to death For being first scourged with whips then hanged up by the feet after having hot scalding water poured upon him at last hee was cast unto wilde beasts With all which torments being not terrified nor yet dispatched finally had his head cut off But behold the Judge called Antiochus that pronounced the sentence fell downe from his Throne before the face of the world even whilst the young man was in the mid'st of his torments and by his example made knowne to all men how odious such cruell persecutors are in the sight of Him that judgeth the Earth and controlleth the mightie Princes and Potentates of the same In the Empire of Iulian the Apostate the Lord sene such horrible earthquakes upon the world that what for the fall of houses and raptures of fields neither citie nor countrey was safe to abide in besides such an extreame drouth dryed up the moisture of the earth that victualls were very geason and deare These plagues Theodoret avoucheth to have fallen upon the world for the impietie of Iulian and the miserable persecution of Christians The Emperour Gallus had good successe in his affaires whil'st he abstained from shedding the bloud of the Christians but as soone as hee gave himselfe over unto that villany his prosperitie Kingdome and life diminished and decreased at once for within two yeares he and his sonne Vâ—lusianus in the warre against Aemylian were both slaine through the defection of his souldiers who in the point of necessitie forsooke him Beside the Lord in his time sent upon the Provinces of Rome a generall and contagious pestilence which lasted whole ten yeares without intermission to make satisfaction for the much innocens blood which was spilled amongst them Arnolphus the fourescor th Emperour raged like a Tyrant against all men but especially against those that professed the Religion and name of Christ Jesus for which cause the Lord stirred up a woman the wife of Guidâ— to minister unto him the dregs of his wrath in a poysoned cup by means whereof such a rottennesse possessed all his members that lice and wormes issuing out continually he dyed most miserably in Orâ—nge a city of Bavary the twelfth yeare of his raigne Bajazet the Turke to what a miserable and ludibrious end came he for his outragious hatred against all Christendome but especially against Constantinople which he had brought to so low an ebbe that they could scarce have resisted him any longer had not Tamberlaine the Tartarian revoked him from the siege and bidden him leave to assayle others and looke unto his owne And indeed he welcommed him so kindly that he soone tooke him prisoner and binding him with chaines of gold carried him up and downe in a cage for a spectacle using his backe for a foot-stoole to get upon his horse And thus God plagueth one Tyrant by another and all for the comfort of his chosen Gensericus King of the Vandales exercised cruell tyranny against the professors of the truth So did Honoricus the second also but both of them reaped their just deserts for Gensericus dyed being possessed with a Spirit and Honoricus being so rotten and putrified that one member dropped off after another Some say that he gnawned off his owne flesh with his teeth Authar is the twelfth King of Lombardy forbad children to be baptised or instructed in the Christian Faith seeking by that means to abolish and pluck downe the Kingdome of Christ but he raigned not long for ere six yeares were compleat he dyed with poyson at Pavia And so he that thought to undermine Christ Jesus was undermined himselfe most deservedly in the yeare of our Lord 593. When Arcadius the Emperonr through the perswasion of certain envious fellowes and his wife Eudoxia had banished Iohn Chrysostome Bishop of Constantinople into Bosphorus the next night there arose such a terrible earth-quake that the Empresse and the whole citie was sore affrighted therewith so that the next morrow messengers after messengers were sent without ceasing till they had brought him backe againe out of exile and his accusers were all punished for their wrongfull accusation Thus it pleased God to testifie the innocency of his servant by terrifying his enemies Smaragdus an Exarch of Italy was transported by a Devill for tyrannizing over Christians in the first yeare of the Empire of Mauritius Maâ—â—uâ—ha a Sarasen being equall to Pharoah in persecuting the Church of God God made him equall to him also in the manner of his destruction for as hee returned from the spoyle of the Monastery of Caâ—â—ime and Mossana and the Daughter of many Christians the Lord caused the sea to swallow up his whole army even an hundred ships so that few or none escaped Another time even the yeare 719 they were miraculously consumed with famine sword pestilence water and captivitie and all for their infestuous rancour and tyranny towards Christians for whom the famine spared the sword devonred whom both these touched not the pestilence ate up and they that escaped all three yet perished in the waters and ten ships that escaped the waters were taken by the Romans and the Syrians surely an egregious signe of Gods heavie wrath and displeasure To conclude there was never any that set themselves against the Church of God but God set himselfe against them by some notable judgement so that some were murthered by their subjects as Bluso King of the Vandales others by their enmies as Vdo Prince of Sclavonia others by their wives as Cruco another Sclavonian Prince others discomfited in warre as Abbas the King of Hungaria some destroyed by their owne horses as Lucius the Emperour who first cast his owne daughter because she was a Christian amongst the same horses And generally few persecutors escaped without some evident and markable destruction CHAP. XI Of the Iewes that persecuted Christ. BY how much the offence of the Iews was more hainous not onely in despising and rejecting the Lord of glory whom God had sent amongst them for their salvation but also in being so wicked as to put him to death by so much the more hath God bestowed his fearfull indignation upon them as at many other times so especially by that great calamity and desolation which they abid at their last destruction begun by Vespasian and perfected by Titus which was so great and lamentable as the like was never heard of untill this day for if the sacking and overthrow of Ierusalem then when Ieremy the Prophet made his booke of Lamentations over it was reputed more grievous than the subversion of Sodome which perished suddainly how much more then is this last destruction without all comparison by reason of those horrible and strange miseries which were there both suddainly in continuance of time committed Neither truly is there any History which
them back homewards conducted by one appointed for the purpose who not suffering him to ride the common and beaten way but leading him a new course through uncoth paths brought him into an ambush of theeves placed there by the Bishops appointment who set upon him and murthered him at once but it is notoriously knowne that not one of that wicked rabble came to a good end but were consumed one after another In a City of Scotland called Fanum Ianius the chiefe mart Towne of that countrey soure of the chiefest citizens were accused by a Monke before the Cardinall for interrupting him in a Sermon and by him condemned to be hanged like heretickes when no other crime could bee laid to their charge save that they desired the Monke to tie himselfe to his text and not to rove up and down as he did without any certain scope or application of matter Now as they went to execution their wives fell downe at the Cardinals feet beseeching and intreating pardon for their husbands lives which he was so farre from granting that hee accused them also of heresie and especially one of them whose name was Helene for hee caused her young infant to be pulled out of her armes and her to be put to death with her husband for speaking certaine words against the Virgin Mary which by no testimonies could be proved against her Which doome the godly woman taking cheerfully and desiring to hang by her husbands side they would not doe him the least favour but drowned her in a River running by that it might be truly said that no jot of mercy or compassion remained in them But ere long the cruell Cardinall found as little favour at another Butchers hands that slewe him in his Chamber when hee dreamed of nothing lesse and in his Cardinalls robes hanged him over the wall to the view of men And thus God revenged the death of those innocents whose blouds never ceased crying for vengeance against their murtherer untill he had justly punished him in the same kinde and after the same fashion which hee had dealt with them Of this Cardinall called David Beton Buchananus reporteth many strange acts of Cruelty both in the Common-wealth of Scotland in matters of State as also in the Church in questions of Religion how he suborned a false testament in the dead Kings name whereby hee would have created himselfe chiefe Governour of the whole kingdom had not his knavery bin soon detected and how he set many together by the eares of the chiefest sort not caring which of them soonest perished so that they perished glutting himselfe thus with bloud But amongst all his cruelties the least was not extended towards the professors of the Gospell whom hee endeavoured by all means possible not to suppresse only but even utterly to extinguish Many he put to death with fire divers he forced to revolt with extreame torments and many he punished with banishment among whom was George Buchanan the reporter of this history who being taken and imprisoned escaped through a window whilest his keepers slept out of this Lions jaws Amongst the rest there was one George Sephocard a most learned and sincere Preacher of the word of God in whom his savage cruelty was most eminent This man abiding at one Iohn Cockburns house a man of no small reckoning account about 7 miles from Edenborough was first sent for by the Cardinall after being not delivered he together with the Vicegerent beset all the passages that he might not escape so that Cockburn was constrained to deliver him into their hands upon the assurance of Earl Bothuel who promised to protect him from all injuries How be it notwithstanding the Earles promise and the countermand of the Vicegerent refused to meddle with that innocent man yea and gave command That no proceedings should be made against him yet the bloudy tyrant condemned him tobe put to death also caused the condemnation to be executed and that which doth more aggravate his cruelty he caused a place to be prepared for him and his company hung with tapestry and silke very sumptuously that he might be a joyfull spectatour and eye-witnesse of his torments But marke how the just vengeancee of God shewed it selfe even in that place for as it is in the former story not long after this vile butcher was murthered in his owne house by the conspiracy of Normanus Leslius son to the Earle of Rothusia who early in a morning surprised his porters and all his servants in their sleepe and murthered him in his bed that had murthered so many Christians and to stop the rage and fury of his friends hung out his body for a spectacle unto them in the same place where a little before he had with such triumph beheld the tortures of that guiltlesse Martyr Insomuch that almost all did not only acknowledge the just view of Gods judgement herein but also remembred the last words of that constant Saint who being ready to give up the ghost urtered this speech in effect He that sitteth and beholdeth us so proudly in that high place shall within few dayes as reproachfully lye as now arrogantly he sitteth A story not much unlike in manner of punishment happened in the raign of King Henry the eighth to one Sir Ralph Ellerker Knight marshall in the towne of Calice when as Adam Damlip otherwise called George Bucker a sincere Preacher of the word of God was condemned to be executed as a traytour in pretence though indeed for nothing but defending the truth against the dregs of Popery would not suffer the innocent and godly man to declare either his faith or the cause he dyed for but said to the Executioner Dispatch the knave have done not permitting him to speake a word in his owne defence to cleere himselfe from the treason that was objected not proved against him but this cruell Tyrant swore he would not away before he saw the trayterous heart out Now this said Sir Ralph in a skirmish or road betweene the French and us at Bulloine was amongst others slaine whose only death sufficed not the enemies but after that they had stripped him starke naked they cut off his privy members and pulled the heart out of his body so lefthim a terrible example to all bloudy and mercilesse men for no cause was knowne why they should use him so rather than the rest but that it is written Faciens justitias Dominus judicia omnibus injuria pressis Thomas Bâ—aver one of the Privy Councellors of the King of Scots was a sore persecutor of the faithfull in that land for which cause lying on his death bead he fell into despaire and said he was damned and a cast-away and when the Monkes came about him to comfort him he cryed out upon them saying That their Masses and other trash would do him no good for he never beleeved them but all that he did was for love of lucre and not of Religion
people for which cause the Lord first sent among them such a contagious plague that the living were scarce sufficient to bury the dead and when by this punishment they were not reclaimed then by their owne counsels and procurement the Lord brought upon them a fierce and mighty nation even the Saxons of Germany who albeit they came at first as helpers and succorers of them against their enemies yet ere long proved their sorest foes themselves and after much bloudshed drave them almost quite out of their Kingdome confining them into a haven nooke and corner of the same where they remaine till this day and all this came upon them saith that reverend Authour for their ingratitude for Gods mercies and contempt of the Word of God Againe we reade a little before this how that God stirred up Gildas a godly learned man to preach to the old Brittons and to exhort them to repentance and amendment of life and to forewarne them of plagues to come if they repented not but what availed it Gildas was laughed to scorne and taken for a false Prophet the Brittons with whorish faces and unrepentant hearts went forward in their sins and what followed God to punish their contempt of his Word and Ministers sent in their enemies on every side and destroying them gave their land to other nations Againe not many yeares past Almighty God seeing idolatry superstition hypocrisie and wicked living used in this land raised up that godly learned man Iohn Wickliffe to preach unto our fathers repentance and to exhort them to forsake their idolatry and superstition but his exhortations were not regarded he with his sermons was despised his bookes and himselfe after his death were burnt What ensued A most grievous and heavy vengeance they slew their lawfull King and set up three other on a row under whom all the noble bloud was slaine up and halfe the Commons destroyed what by warre in France and civile discord among themselves the cities and towns were decayed and the land brought half to a wildernesse O extrem plagues of Gods just vengeance But these examples be generall over whole nations now let us descend to particular judgments upon private persons for contemning scorning or despising the Word of God the holy Sacraments and the Ministers of the same Hemingius a learned Divine in his exposition upon the first chapter of S. Iohns Gospell reporteth That about the yere 1550 there was a certain lewd companion in Denmark who had long made profession to mocke at all Religion and at devout persons This fellow entering into a Church where there was a sermon made by the Minister of the place began contrary to all those that were present to behave himselfe most prophanely and to shew by lewd countenances and gestures his dislike and contempt of that holy exercise to whom the preacher being instant upon his businesse in hand spake not a word but only sighing praied unto God that this mocker might be suppressed who seeing that the Preacher would noâ— contest against him but contemned his unworthy behaviour goeth out of the Church but yet not out of the reach of Gods vengeance for presently as he passed out a tyle fell from the house upon his head and slew him upon the place a just judgement upon so prophane a wretch From whence all scorners and deriders of godly sermons and the preachers of the same may take example for their amendment if they have any grace in them Christopher Turke a Counsellor of Estate to a great Nobleman in Germany going one day to horse and mocking at a certaine godly Nobleman who was then prisoner in his enemies hands uttered these or such like speeches See what is become of these gallants that sung so much one with anotheâ— When any one doth wrong us God is our succor and defence but he had scarce ended his words when as a sudden griefe tooke him so that he was forced to alight from his horse and to be carried to bed where in stead of singing he dyed in dispaire drawing forth his tongue as blacke as a cole and hanging out of his mouth This happened the ninth of Iune 1547. The contempt of the Sacrament of baptisme was most notably punished in a certaine Curate of Misnia in Thuring whose custome was whensoever hee had baptised any women children in contempt of the foeminine sex and without any regard to the holy Sacrament to say That they should not carry them backe to the house but cast them into the River This prophane Curate looking one day over the bridge of Elbe which is a large and a deepe River how the boats did passe no man touching him nor his braine any way altered but by a secret judgement of God fell over the bridge into the water and was presently drowned that he which so impiously wished drowning to other and that at the Sacrament of Baptisme was drowned himselfe This happened in the yeare 1505. The contemptuous and irreverent handling of the Word of God in the pulpit together with open hatred of the Gospel was most famously revenged in one Nightingale the Parson of Gondal besides Canterbury in the raigne of Queen Mary Anno 1555. This wretched Parson upon Shrove Sunday which was the third day of the moneth of March making a Sermon to his parishioners entred beside his text into an impertinent discourse of the Articles lately set forth by the Popes authority in commendation thereof and to the disgrace of the Gospell saying more over thus unto the people My masters and neighbours rejoice and be merry for the prodigall sonne is come home for I know that the most part of you are as I am I know your hearts well enough and I shall tell you what happened to me this weeke past I was before my Lord Cardinall and he hath made me as cleane from sinne as I was at the Font-stone and he hath also appointed me to notifie unto you the Bull of the Popes pardon and so reading the same unto them he thanked God that ever he lived to see that day adding moreover that he beleeved that by the vertue of that Bull he was as cleane from sinne as that night that he was borne which words he had no sooner uttered but the Lord to shew that he lyed stroke him with sudden death and so he fel down out of the pulpit never stirring hand nor foot not speaking word but there lay an amazement and astonishment to all the people Denterius an Arrian Bishop being at Bizantium as he was about to baptise one Barbas after his blasphemous manner saying I baptise thee in the name of the Father through the Sonne in the holy Ghost which forme of words is contrary to the prescript rule of Christ that bad his disciples to baptise all nations In the Name of the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost the water suddenly vanished so that he could not then be baptised wherefore Barbas all amased
the Duke that they had stolne into the Emperours tents by night and viewed his power which they found to exceed his by three parts and therefore counselled him not to try the hazard of the battell but to save his souldiers lives by flight which if they tarried they were sure to loose Wherewithall the Duke mistrusting no fraud sore affrighted tooke the next occasion of flight and returned home with dishonour Now when these three traitors came to the Emperour for their compacted rewards he caused them to bee payed in counterfeit money not equivaling the summe of their bargaine by the twentieth part which although at first they discerned not yet afterwards finding how they were cousened they returned to require their due and complaine of their wrong But the Emperor looking sternely upon them answered That counterfeit money was good enough for their counterfeit service and that if they tarried long they should have a due reward of their treason Ladislaus Lerezin Governour of Alba Iulia in Hungary under Maximilian the Emperour in the yeare 1566 the City being besieged and in some danger of losing albeit hee was advertised That within two dayes he should receive some reliefe yet yeelded the City traiterously into the hands of the Turkes upon composition The cruell Turks forgetting their faith and all humanity massacred all the souldiers within the City and sent Ladislaus the traitour bound hand and foot to Selym the great Turke where he was accused for his cruell slaying of some Turkish prisoners and delivered to his accusers to be used at their pleasure who a just reward of his former treason put him into a great Pipe stickt full of long nailes and then rolled him downe from a high mountaine so as the nailes ran through him and ended his life in horrible torment Besides his sonne that was also partaker of this treason died miserably without meanes and abandoned of all men in great poverty and extremity When as the City of Rhodes was besieged by the Turke there was in it a certaine traiterous Nobleman who upon promise to have one of Solymans daughters given him in marriage did many services to the Turke in secret to the prejudice of the City The Island and towne being woon he presented himselfe to Solyman expecting the performance of his promise but hee in recompence of his treason caused him to be flayed alive saying That it was not lawfull for a Christian to marry a Turkish wife except he put off his old skinne being thus flayed they layed him upon a bed all covered with salt and so poudered him that in short space he died in unspeakable tormenes CHAP. III. More examples of the same subject WHen Manuel the Emperour of Constantinople lay about Antioch with an army prepared against the Turke one of his chiefest officers namely his Chancellour put in practise this notable piece of treason against him he waged three desperate young men with an infinite summe of money to kill him on a day appointed and then with a band of souldiers determined to possesse himselfe of the Crowne and of the City and to slay all that any way crossed his purpose But the treason being discoured secretly to the Empresse she acquainted her Lord with it who tooke the three traitours and put them all to cruell deaths and as for the Chancellour he first bored out his eyes and plucking his tongue through his throat tormented him to death with a rigorous and most miserable punishment When the Turke besieged Alba Graeca certaine souldiers conspired to betray the City into his hands for he had promised them large rewards so to doe howbe it it succeeded not with them for they were detected and apprehended by Paulus Kynifius Governour of Hungary who constrained them to eat one anothers flesh seething every dayone to feed the other withall but he that was last was faine to devour his owne body Scribonianus a captaine of the Romans in Dalmatia rebelled against the Emperor Claudius and named himselfe emperor in the army but his rebellion was miraculously punished for though the whole army favored him very much yet they could not by any meanes spread their banners or remove their standers out of their places as long as he was called by the name of Emperor with which miracle being moved they turned their loves into hatred and their liking into loathing so that whom lately they saluted as Emperor him now they murthered as a traitor To rehearse all the English traitors that have conspired against their Kings from the Conquest unto this day it is a thing unnecessary and almost impossible Howbeit that their destructions may appeare more evidently and the curse of God upon traitors be made more manifest I will briefely reckon up a catalogue of the chiefest of them In the yere 1295 Lewline Prince of Wales rebelled against King Edward the first and after much adoe was taken by Sir Roger Mortimer and his head set upon the Tower of London In like sort was David Lewline's brother served Râ—â—s and Madok escaped no better measure in stirring the Welchmen up to rebellion No more did the Scots who having of their owne accord committed the government of their kingdome to king Edward after the death of Alexander who broke his neck by a fall from an horse and lest no issue male and sworne fealty unto him yet dispensed with their oath by the Popes commission and Frenchmens incitement and rebelled divers times against King Edward for he overcame them sundry times and made slaughter of their men slaying at one time 32000 and taking divers of their Nobles prisoners In like manner they rebelled against King Edward the third who made three voyages into that land in the space of foure yeares and at every time overcame and discomfited them insomuch that well neere all the nobility of Scotland with infinite number of the common people were slaine Thus they rebelled in Henry the sixths time and also Henry the eights and divers other kings reignes ever when our English forces were busied about forraine wars invading the land on the other side most traiterously In the reigne of King Henry the fourth there rebelled at one time against him Sir Iohn Holland D. of Excester with the Dukes of Aumarle Surrey Salisbury and Gloucester and at another time Sir Thomas Percy Earle of Worcester and Henry Percy son to the Earle of Northumberland at another Sir Richard Scroope Archbishop of Yorke and divers others of the house of the Lord Moubray at another time Sir Henry Percy the father Earle of Northumberland and the Lord Bardolph and lastly Ryce ap Dee and Owen Glendour two Welchmen all which were either slaine as Sir Henry Percy the younger or beheaded as the rest of these noble Rebels or starved to death as Owen Glendour was in the mountaines of Wales after he had devoured his owne flesh In the reigne of Henry the fifth Sir Richard Earle of Cambridge Sir Richard Scroope
Treasurer of England and Sir Thomas Gray were beheaded for treason No lesse was the perfidious and ungratefull treachery of Humphry Banister an Englishman towards the Duke of Buckingham his Lord and master whom the said Duke had tenderly brought up and exalted to great promotion For when as the Duke being driven into extremity by reason of the separation of his army which he had mustered together against King Richard the usurper fled to the same Banister as his trustiest friend to be kept in secret untill he could find opportunity to escape this false traitor upon hope of a thousand pounds which was promised to him that could bring forth the Duke betraied him into the hands of Iohn Mitton Shirife of Shropshire who conveied him to the city of Salisbury where King Richard kept his houshold where he was soone after put to death But as for ungratefull Banister the vengeance of God pursued him to his utter ignominy for presently after his eldest sonne became mad and died in a bores stiâ— his eldest daughter was suddenly stricken with a foule lepry his second sonne marvellously deformed of his lims and lame his youngest sonne drowned in a puddle and he himselfe in his old age arraigned and found guilty of a murther and by his Clergy saved And as for his thousand pounds King Richard gave him not a farthing saying That he which would be nutrue to so good a master must needs be false to all other To passe over the time of the residue of the Kings where in many examples of treasons and punishments upon them are extant and to come neerer unto our owne age let us consider the wonderfull providence of God in discovering the notorious treasons which have been so oftenpretended and so many against our late Soveraigne Queene Elizabeth and protecting her so fatherly from the dint of them all First therefore to begin with the chiefest the Earles of Northumberland and Westmerland in the eleventh yeare of her raigne began a rebellion in the North pretending their purpose to be sometimes to defend the Queenes person and government from the invasion of strangers and sometimes for conscience sake to seeke reformation of Religion under colour whereof they got together an army of men to the number of six thousand souldiers against whom marched the Earle of Suffex Lieutenant of the North and the Earle of Warwicke sent by the Queene to his ayde Whose approch strucke such a terrour into their hearts that the two Earles with divers of the arch Rebels fled by night into Scotland leaving the rest of their company a prey unto their enemies whereof threescore and six or thereabout were hanged at Durham As for the Earles one of them to wit of Northumberland was after taken in Scotland and beheaded at York Westmerland fled into another Countrey and left his house and family destroyed and undone by his folly A while after this what befell to Iohn Throgmorton Thomas Brooke George Redman and divers other Gentlemen at Norwich who pretended a rebellion under the color of suppressing strangers were they not discovered by one of their owne conspiracy Thomas Ket and executed at Norwich for their paines The same end came Francis Throgmorton to whose trecheries as they were abhominable and touching the Queens owne person so they were disclosed not without the especiall providence of God But above all that vile and ungratefull traitor William Parry upon whom the Queene had powred plentifully her liberality deserveth to be had in everlasting remembrance to his shame whose treasons being discovered he payed the tribute of his life in recompence thereof What shall I say of the Earle of Arundell and a second Earle of Northumberland Did not the justice of God appeare in both their ends when being attainted for treason the one slew himselfe in prison and the other died by course of nature in prison also Notorious was the conspiracy of those arch traitours Ballard Babington Savadge and Tylney c. yet the Lord brought them downe and made them spectacles to the World of his justice Even so that notorious villaine Doctor Lopez the Queenes Physitian who a long time had not onely beene an intelligencer to the Pope and King of Spaine of our English Counsells but also had poisoned many Noblemen and went about also to poyson the Queene her selfe was he not surprised in his treachery and brought to sudden destruction In summe the Lord preserved her Majesty not only from these but many other secret and privy foes and that most miraculously and contrary to all reason and spread his wings over her evermore to defend her from all her enemies and in despight of them all brought her being full of yeares in peace to her grave All these treasons had their breeding and beginning from that filthy sinke of Romish superstition from whence the poison was conveied into the hearts of these traiterous wretches by the means of those common firebrands of the Christian World the wicked Iesuites whose chiefest art is Treason and whose profession is equivocation and practise to stir up rebellion and therefore as long as they breath in the world let us looke for no better fruits from such trees And hath the reigne of our now Soveraigne King Iames beene free from these Sinons He hath as yet swayed the Scepter of this Kingdome not fully nine yeres and how many treasons have beene complotted and practised against his Majesty and the State and how miraculously hath the Lord preserved him evermore even as the apple of his eye and the signet on his right hand To omit the treason of Raleigh and Cobham and that also of Watson and Clerke that late and last divellish and damnable practise of blowing up the Parliament house with gunpowder together with the King Prince and all the Nobles and chiefe Pillars of the Land is never to be omitted nor forgotten but to be remembred as long as the Sunne and Moone endureth to the shame of their religion and the professours thereof never Nation so barbarous that ever practised the like never any religion so odious that maintained the like but such are the fruits of their so much advanced religion such the clusters of their grapes How be it the Lord prevented their malice and turned it upon their owne pates not only by a Divine and miraculous discovery of their treason the very night before it should have beene effected but also by bringing the chiefe plotters thereof unto confusion some by the ordinary proceeding of justice and some by slaughter in resistance and that which is not to bee overpast some of the principall of them being together in a chamber were so scorched by their owne powder which was in drying that they were driven to confesse the heavy judgement of God to be upon them I pray God such may ever bee the end of all traitours and that the religion which bringeth forth such horrible fruits may not onely be suspected but abhorred of all Moreover there is yet another
Cassius near Modene all which victories and lucky proceedings did so embolden and puffe up the courage of Captain Fencer that he determined to give an alarme to Rome and to lay siege unto it but the Romanes preparing and directing all their Forces to withstand their practices gave him and his crue so sore a repulse that from Rome they were fain to flie to the uttermost parts of Italie and there seeing themselves pent in on all sides and driven to deep extremity they gave so desperate an onset on their enemies that both their Captain and they were all slain And thus the Romans made jolly pastime with their Fencers and bondslaves and more I thinke at this time than they either looked or wished for for four hundred of them being taken by the bondmen were enforced to shew them pastime at the same game whereat they had oftentimes made themselves merry at their costs and to kill one another as they had before time caused them to do How curious and desirous the people of Rome was wont to be of beholding these bloudy and mischievous games Cornelius Tacitus in the fourth book of his Annales declareth at large where he reporteth That in the City of the Fidenates in the twelfth year of the Raigne of Tiberius the people being gathered together to behold the Fencers prizes were fifty thousand of them hurt and maimed at one time by the Amphitheatre that fell upon them a cruell pastime indeed and a strange accident not comming by adventure as some suppose but by the just vengeance of God to suppresse such pernitious and uncivill sports The same story is registred by Paulus Orosius in his seventh book with this adjection That at that time were slain more than twenty thousand persons I cannot passe over in silence two notable and memorable Histories of two Lions recorded by two famous Authours Seneca the one and Auluâ— Gellius the other The first of whom reporteth That he saw on the Theatre a Lion who seeing a slave that sometimes had been his keeper throwne among the beasts to be devoured acknowledged him and defended him from their teeth and would not suffer any of them to do him hurt The second bringeth the testimony of one Appianus that affirmeth himselfe to have seen at Rome a Lion who for old acquaintance sake which he had with a condemned servant fawned upon him and cleared him in like manner from the fury of the other beasts The History was this A certain bondslave too roughly handled by his master forsook him and fled away and in his flight retiring into a desart and not knowing how to bestow himselfe took up a cave for his lodging where he had not long abode but a mighty Lion came halting to his den with a sore and bloudy leg the poor slave all forgone at this strange and ugly sight looked every minute to be devoured but the Lion in another mood came fawningly and softly towards him as if he would complain unto him of his grief whereat somewhat heartened he bethought himselfe to apply some medicine to his would and to binde up the sore as well as he could which he had no sooner done but the Lion made out for his prey and ere long returning brought home to his Host and Chirurgion certain gobbets of raw flesh which he halfe roasting upon a rocke by the Sun-beames made his daily sustenance for the time of his abode there notwithstanding at length wearied with this old and savage life and hating to abide long in that estate he for sook the desart and put himselfe again to adventure now it chanced that he was taken by his old master and carried from Aegypt to Rome to the end to be an actor in those beastly Tragoedies but by chance his old patient the Lion taken also since his departure being ready amongst other beasts to play his part knew him by and by and ran unto him fawning and making much of him the people wondring at this strange accident after enquiry made of the cause thereof gave him the Lion and caused him to lead him in a string through the City for a miracle for indeed both this and the former deserve no other name Thus God reproveth the savage inhumanity of men by the example of the wilde and furious beasts at whose teeth poor servants found more favour than at their masters hands The Emperour Constamine weighing the indignity of these and such like pastimes and knowing how far they ought to be banished from the society of men by a publike Edict abolished all such bloudy and monstrous spectacles In like manner these monomachies and single combates performed in places inclosed for the purpose wherein one at the least if not both must of necessary die ought to be abrogated in a Christian policy as by the Laterane Councell it was well enacted with this penalty That whosoever should in that manner be slain his body should be deprived of Ecclesiasticall buriall and truely most commonly it commeth to passe that they that presume most upon their owne prowesse and strength and are most forward in offering combat either lose their lives or gain discredit which is more grievous than death CHAP. XIX Of such as exercise too much rigour and severity FUrthermore we must understand that God doth not only forbid murder and bloudshed but also all tyranny and oppression therein providing for the weak against the strong the poor against the rich and bondslaves against their masters to the end that none might be trode under foot and oppressed of others under pain of his indignation Insomuch therefore as the Romans used such rigour towards their servants it came to passe by a just judgement of God that they being Lords over all the World were three sundry times driven by their servants into great extremities As first in Rome within the wals at the sametime when they also were troubled with the seditious factions of their Tribunes Secondly in Sicily where they horribly laid waste the whole Countrey the cause of which commotion was because the Romans had chained a multitude of slaves together and in that order sent them to maâ—â—ur and till the ground for a certain Syrian first assembled two thousand men of them that came next hand then breaking up the Prisons multiplied his Army to fourty thousand and with them pulled downe Castles rased up Townes and destroyed every where The third undertaken by a Shepherd who having killed his master set at liberty all the â—ondmen and prepared an Army of them wherewith he spoiled Cities Townes Castles and discomfited the Armies of Servilius and Lucullus who were pretors at that time but at last they were destroyed and rooted out by little and little and this good service got the Romans at their servants hands As every Nation hath his proper vertue and vice ascribed to it so the Spaniards for their part are noted famous for cruelty towards their subjects and vassals insomuch that as experience
the threshold which thing turned to a great destruction and overthrow in Israel for the Levite when he arose and found his wife newly dead at the dore of his lodging he cut and dismembred her body into twelve pieces and sent them into all the countries of Israel to every tribe one to give them to understand how vile and monstrous an injurie was done unto him whereupon the whole nation assembling and consulting together when they saw how the Benjamites in whose tribe this monstrous villany was committed make no reckoning of seeing punishment executed upon those execrable wretches they tooke armes against them and made war upon them wherein though at the first conflict they lost to the number of forty thousand men yet afterward they discomfited and overthrew the Benjamites and slew of them 25000. rasing and burning downe the City Gibea where the sinne was committed with all the rest of the Cities of that Tribe in such sort that there remained alive but six hundred persons that saved their lives by flying into the desart and there hid themselves foure moneths untill such time as the Israelites taking pitty of them lest they should utterly be brought to nought gave them to wife to the end to repeople them againe foure hundred virgins of the inhabitants of Jabes Gilead reserved out of that flaughter of those people wherein man woman and childe were put to the sword for not comming forth to take part with their brethren in that late warre And forasmuch as yet there remained two hundred of them unprovided for the Antients of Israel gave them liberty to take by force two hundred of the daughters of their people which could not be but great injury and vexation unto their parents to be thus robbed of their daughters and to see them married at all adventures without their consent or liking These were the mischiefes which issued and sprang from that vile and abominable adultery of the wicked Gibeonites with the Levites wife whose first voluntary sinne was in like manner also most justly punished by this second rape and this is no new practise of our most just God to punish one sinne by another and sinners in the same kinde wherein they have offended When King David after he had overcome the most part of his enemies and made them tributaries unto him and injoyed some rest in his kingdome whilest his men of war pursuing their victory destroyed the Ammonites and were in besieging Rabba their chiefe City he was so enflamed with the beauty of Bathshabe Vriahs wife that he caused her to bee conveyed to him to lye with her to which sinne he combined another more grievous to wit when he saw her with childe by him to the end to cover his adultery he caused her husband to be slaine at the siege by putting him in the Vantgard of the battell at the assault and then thinking himselfe cocksure married Bathshabe But all this while as it was but vaine allurements no solid joy that fed his minde and his sleepe was but of sinne not of safety wherein he slumbred so the Lord awakened him right soone by afflictions and crosses to make him feele the burden of the sinne which he had committed first therefore the childe the fruit of this adultery was striken with sicknesse and dyed next his daughter Thamar Absaloms sister was ravished by Ammon one of his owne sonnes thirdly Ammon for his incest was slaine by Absalom and fourthly Absalom ambitiously aspiring after the kingdome and conspiring against him raised war upon him and defiled his Concubines and came to a wofull destruction All which things being grievous crosses to K. David were inflicted by the just hand of God to chastise and correct him for his good not to destroy him in his wickednesse neither did it want the effect in him for he was so far from swelling and hardening himselfe in his sin that contrariwise he cast downe and humbled himselfe and craved pardon and forgivenesse at the hand of God with all his heart and true repentance not like to such as grow obstinate in their sinnes and wickednesse and make themselves beleeve all things are lawfull for them although they be never so vile and dishonest This therefore that we have spoken concerning David is not to place him among the number of lewd and wicked livers but to shew by his chastisements being a man after Gods owne heart how odious and displeasant this sin of Adultery is to the Lord and what punishment all others are to expect that wallow therein since he spared not him whom he so much loved and favoured CHAP. XXVIII Other examples like unto the former THE history of the ravishment of Helene registred by so many worthy and excellent Authors and the great evils that pursued the same is not to be counted altogether an idle fable or an invention of pleasure seeing that it is sure that upon that occasion great and huge war arose betweene the Graecians and the Trojanes during the which the whole Countrey was havocked many Cities and Townes destroyed much blood shed and thousands of men discomfited among whom the ravisher and adulterer himselfe to wit Paris the chiefe mover of all those miserable tragedies escaped not the edge of the sword no nor that famous city Troy which entertained and maintained the adulterers within her walls went unpunished but at last was taken and destroyed by fire and sword In which sacking olde and gray headed King Priâ—m with all the remnant of his halfe slaine sonnes were together murdered his wife and daughters were taken prisoners and exposed to the mercy of their enemies his whole kingdome was entirely spoiled and his house quite defaced and well nigh all the Trojane Nobility extinguished and as touching the whore Helene her selfe whose disloyalty gave consent to the wicked enterprise of forsaking her husbands house and following a stranger she was not exempt from punishment for as some writers affirm she was slaine at the sacke but according to others she was at that time spared and entertained againe by Menelaus her husband but after his death she was banished in her olde age and constrained for her last refuge being both destitute of reliefe and succour and forsaken of kinsfolkes and friends to flie to Rhodes where at length contrary to her hope she was put to a shamefull death even hanging on a tree which she long time before deserved The injury and dishonour done to Lucrece the wife of Collatinus by Sextus Tarquinius son to Superbus the last King of Rome was cause of much trouble and disquietnesse in the City and elsewhere for first she not able to endure the great injurie and indignity which was done unto her pushed forward with anger and despite slew her selfe in the presence of her husband and kinsfolke notwithstanding all their desires and willingnesse to cleare her from all blame with whose death the Romanes were so stirred and provoked against Sextus
for her living wherefore she murthered him in his bed and after slew her selfe also Arichbertus eldest son unto Lotharius King of France dyed even as hee was embracing his whores In summe to conclude this matter our English Chronicles report that in the yeare of our Lord 349 there was so great a plenty of corne and fruit in Britaine that the like had not been seene many yeares before but this was the cause of much idlenesse gluttony lechery and other vices in the land For usually case and prosperity are the nurses of all enormity but the Lord requited this their riotous and incontinent life with so great a pestilence and mortality that the living scantly sufficed to bury the dead Petrarch maketh mention of a certaine Cardinall that though hee was seventy yeares old yet every night would have a fresh whore and to this end had certaine bauds purveyours and providers of his trash but he dyed a miserable and wretched death And Martin Luther reported that a bishop being a common frequenter of the stewes in Hidelberg came to this mistrable end the boards of the chamber whither he used to enter went loosened that as soone as he came in he slipped through and broke his neck But above all that which we finde written in the second booke of Fincelius is most strange and wonderfull of a priest in Albenthewer a towne neare adjoyning to Gaunt in Flanders that perswaded a young maid to reject and disobey all her parents godly admonitions and to become his concubine when she objected how vile a sin it was and how contrary to the Law of God he told her that by the authority of the Pope he could dispence with any wickednesse were it never so great and further alledged the discommodities of marriage and the pleasure that would arise from that kinde of life in fine he conquered her vertuous purpose and made her yeeld unto his filthy lust But when they had thus pampered their desires together a while in came the devill and would needs conclude the play for as they were banquetting with many such like companions he tooke her away from the Priests side and notwithstanding her pittifull crying and all their exorcising and conjuring carried her quite away telling the Priest that very shortly he would fetch him also for he was his owne darling I may not here passe over in silence an Irish history famous both for notorious villany and excellent in justice wherein we may see by the adultery of one filthy Fryer occasion given not only of much bloodshed but of the ruine of a famous City called Rosse scituate in Leinster This City being first an unwalled towne was to prevent the sudden invasion of the Irish compassed about with a large and strong wall by the advice and charges of one Rose a chaste widdow and bountifull Gentlewoman This Rose had issue three sons who being bolstered out by their mothers wealth and their owne traffique made divers prosperous voyages into far countries but as one of the three chapmen was employed in his traffique abroad so the pretty poppet his wise began to play the harlot at home and that with none but a fat religious cloysterer of the towne they wallowed so long in this stinking puddle that suspition began to creepe into mens braines and from suspition the matter was so apparent that it grew to plaine proofe her unfortunate husband was no sooner come home but notice hereof was blowne in his eares so that with griefe and anger he grew for such is the nature of jealousâ—e almost starke mad and not only he but the whole towne took themselves as extreamely wronged by this shamefull fact whereupon divers of them conspiring together agreed as being a deed of charity to grub away such wilde shrubs from the towne and so flocking together in the dead of the night to the Abbey wherein this Fryet was cloystered the monument of which Abbey is yet to be seen at Rosse on the South side they undersparred the gates and breaking open the doores stabbed the Adulterer with the rest of the Covent through with their weapons where they left them goaring in their blood and gasping up their ghosts in their couches a cruell act I must needs confesse in the executioners who being carried away with private revenge had no measure in their cruelty but yet a just vengeance upon the executed that harboured and maintained so wretched a person but secret and deep are the judgements of God who punisheth one sin with another and maketh one wicked man a rod to plague another and after casteth the rod also into the fire for so did he here stirring up the rest of the Clergy to be a meanes to punish this cruelty for when as these three brethren not long after sped themselves into some far countrey to continue their trade the religious men being informed of their returne homeward every night did not misse to set a lantorne on the top of a high rock which was used to be set upon the Hulk tower a notable marke for Pilots in directing them which way to sterne their Ships and to eschew the danger of the rockes which are there very plentifull and so by this practise these three passengers bearing saile with a good winde made right upon the lantorne supposing it had been the Hulk tower and so ere they were aware their Ship was dasht upon the rockes and all the passengers over-whirled in the Sea And thus was Adultery punished with cruelty and cruelty with treason but see the end upon this there grew so great quarrels and discontentments between the townesmen and the religious the one cursing the other that the estate of that flourishing towne was turned upside downe and from abundance of prosperity quite exchanged to extreame penury CHAP. XXX More examples of the same argument I Cannot passe over in silence a history truly tragicall touching the death of many men who by reason of an Adultery slew one another in most strange and cruell manner and indeed so strangely that as far as I ever read or knew there was never the like particular deed heard of wherein God more evidently poured forth the streame of his displeasure turning the courage and valour of each part into rage and fury to the end that by their owne meanes he might be revenged on them In the Dukedome of Spaleto which is the way from Ancona to Rome of the antient Latines called Umbria there were three brethren who kept in their possession three Cities of the said Dukedome namely Faligno Nocera and Trevio the eldest of whom whose sirname was Nicholas as he passed from one town to the other being at Nocera lodged divers times in the Castle in the keepers and Captaines house whom he had there substituted to defend the place with an ordinary band of souldiers Now as he made his abode there a few dayes he grew to cast a more lascivious eye upon the Captaines wife than was
things run as it were in a circle and how great the uncertainetie of this world is seeing that the mightiest are subject to so many and great changes for if there be any thing under the Sun that may carry any shew of stability or continuance surely it is a Monarchie or Common-wealth grounded upon the unitie and consent of all people maintained by the authoritie of the greatest and most mightie and underpropped with the shores of much strength and wealth as the Romane Empire was and yet for all that there was never any though never so well reared and furnished and deepe rooted which at the length hath not bin demolished ransacked and pulled up by some notable and strange calamitie And this is that which the spirit of God would give us to knowe by the vision of that great image represented to Nabuchadnezzar in a dreame according to Daniels interpretation thereof to wit that the foure great and puissant Monarchies of the world should at last be ruined and dispersed like the chaffe before the winde till they were consumed and brought to nothing albeit they were glorious and excellent as gold and silver or strong and mightie as brasse and iron How much more foolish and evill advised are they then that for a certaine apparant splendour and shew of worldly honour which is as fraile as any rose as variable as the winde as light and vaine as a shadow or smoke as unassured as a rotten planke have the eyes of their minde so dazeled and their wits so bewitched and all their affections so transported as to mingle heaven and earth together to dash the East against the West to stirre up discord and dissention betwixt man and man and to shed so many thousand mens bloud and all for a paltrie desire of reigne though to their owne finall ruine and destruction And thus it came to passe in the time of the emperor Otho to a Duke of Venice called Peter Caudian who not content with his Dukedome went about to usurpe a tyrannicall rule over the whole Seigniorie and that by pride and threats desiring rather to make himselfe terrible to the people by those bad meanes than amiable and beloved by any meanes whatsoever and thus daily hee grew as in age so in insolencie he placed a garrison of men about his palace and so fortifying himselfe presently he shewed himselfe in his colours namely a cruell Tyran which when the multitude perceived and remembred withall their libertie which they were like to lose they tooke up armes forthwith in purpose to beat downe his haughtie minde therefore they first set on fire his house and caused him to forsake his fortresse and to betake himselfe to his shifts but when by reason of the stopping of the passages he could not escape they tooke him and his young sonne also which was with him and put them to a most cruell and sudden death and cast their carkasses to be devoured of dogs In the Empire of Maximilian Lewis Sforce a Prince of an inconstant and turbulent spirit ambitious and one that made no account of his promises nor faith tooke upon him the governement of Milan after the death of his brother Galeaz Duke of Milan who was traiterously slaine in which action the first wrong which hee did was to his brothers widow whom hee deposed the second to his young nephew his brother Galeaz son whom he so brought up as if he never meant he should come to honour or goodnesse for he suffered him not to be trained up either in learning or armes but let him runne into all possible occasions that might corrupt and spoyle his tender age Thus hee enjoyed the principalitie thirteene yeares all the while under his nephewes reigne to whom when Alphonsus King of Naples had given in mariage one of his daughters and perceived what small reckoning his uncle made of restoring him his Dukedome after he had often and instantly intreated him without prevailing at length he fell to threaten him with warre he fearing to have the worse and to lose so great a dignitie wrought so by his owne shifts and devices together with the helping hand of Pope Alexander that hee put in the head of Charles the eighth of France to go and conquer Naples for the hatred which his heart possessed against Alphonsus supposing by this meanes the better to accomplish his affaires to his owne desire The King of France was no sooner entred Italie but Lewis Sforce ministred an Italian posset to his young nephew Iohn Galeaz that hee immediatly died upon it and then he proclamed himselfe Prince of the Duchie by the aid of the principall of the Councell whom he had woon to referre that honour unto him by deposing the young sonne of Iohn Galeaz beeing then but five yeares old but he declared presently his inconstant and perfidious nature in breaking promise with the King of France whome he had induced with so many faire speeches to undertake that voyage and entering a new league with the Venetians both against him and the Pope although ere long he served them with the same measure but Lewis the twelfth succeeding in the Crowne of France could not brooke this injurie done to his predecessor but pretending a title to the Duchie of Milan he dispatched an armie thitherward that bestirred it selfe so well that in short space they brought under their subjection all the Cities and Townes neere adjoyning which the citizens perceiving began to rebell against their Duke and killed his Treasurer whereupon he being not able to make his part good with the French abroad nor daring to put any confidence in his owne at home left his castle to the charge and custodie of a captaine and fled himselfe with his children to Almaine towards the Emperour Maximilians court hoping to finde succour at his hand as indeed he did for he returned to Milan with five hundred Burgundians and eight thousand Switzers and was received againe into the Citie Being thus refortified with these and other more troupes that came unto him he encamped before Navarre and by composition got the City into his hands from the Frenchmen The French King in the meane while sent a new supplie of men into the Duchie amongst whom were many Switzers who so dealt with their countrimen that were on the Dukes side that they brought them also to favour the King of France and to forsake the Duke which when he understood hee presently departed the citie and posting to the campe hardened his souldiers desiring them to play the men and not to shrinke for he meant to give battell without delay but the captains made answer that they might not fight against their owne nation without especiall leave from their Lords Now in the meane while whilest these things were in doing they tooke order that the Frenchmen should approach to Navarre and intercept all the passages that the Duke might not escape He therefore laid aside his horse and marched on foot in
gold yet after the receit thereof he traiterously caused him to be hanged contrary to both his oath and all equity and reason but this cruell perfidie of his went not long without punishment for both hee and all the rest that were any wayes accessarie or consenting to the death of this King came to a wretched end but especially his foure brethren Ferdinand Gonsal Iohn Martin of Alcantara and Diego of Almagro who as they were principall in the action so were they in the punishment the first that was punished was Iohn Pizarre who with many other Spaniards was surprised in the City of Cusco and slaine by the men of warre of Mangefrem and Artabaliba next after that there arose such a division and heart-burning betwixt the Pizarres and Almagro and their partakers that after they had robbed and wasted and shared out the great and rich Countrey of Peru they slew one another by mutuall strokes and albeit that there was by common consent an agreement accorded betwixt them for the preserving of their unity and friendship yet Francis Pizarre envying that Almagro should bee Governour of Cusco and he not interrupted all their agreements by starting from his promises and re-kindled the halfe-quenched fire of warre by his owne ambition for hee presently defied Amagro and sent his brother Ferdinand before to bid him battaile who so well behaved himselfe that hee tooke Almagro prisoner and delivered him bound to his brother Francis who caused him to bee strangled in prison secretly and after to be beheaded in publique Now Ferdinand being sent by his brother towards Spaine with a great masse of gold to cleare himselfe of the death of Almagro could not so well justifie the fact as that all his treasure could save him from the prison and what became of him afterwards knowne it is to God but not to the world A while after the fellowes and friends of Almagro whose goods the Pizarrists hath seised upon tooke counsell with Don Diego Almagro his sonne to revenge the death of his father therefore being in number but twelve with unsheathed swords they desperately burst into Francis Pizarres house then Marquesse and Governour of Peru and at the first brunt slew a Captaine that guarded the enterance of the Hall and next him Martin of Alcahtara and other more that kept the entrance of the Chamber so that hee fell dead even at his brother the Marquesses feet who albeit his men were all slaine before his eyes and himselfe left alone amiddest his enemies yet gave not over to defend himselfe stoutly and manfully untill all of them setting upon him at once hee was stabbed into the throat and so fell dead upon the ground and thus finished hee and his complices their wretched dayes answerable to their cruell deserts but their murderers though they deserved to bee thus dealt withall yet for dealing in this sort without authority were not faultlesse but received the due wages of their furious madnesse for Don Diego himselfe after he had beene a while Governour of Peru had his army overcome and discomfited by the Emperours forces and was betrayed into their hands by his owne Lieutenant of Cusco where he thought to have saved himself and right soone lost his head with the greatest Captains and favourites that hee had who were also quartered Now of the five brethren wee have heard foure of their destructions onely one remaineth namely Gonzalle Pizarre to bee spoken of who being sent for by the Conquerours to be their Chieftaine and Protector against the Viceroy that went about to make them observe the Emperours lawes and decrees touching the liberty of the Indian Nation was betrayed and forsaken by the same men that sent for him and so fell into his enemies hands that cut off his head The Generall of his army a covetous and cruell man that in short space made away above three hundred Spaniards and all as it were with his own hand was drawn up and downe at a horse tayle the space of halfe a quarter of an houre and then hanged upon the gallowes quartered in foure parts The Monke of Vauvard called Vincent who with his crosse and porteise had encouraged Pizarre and his army against Artabaliba and was for that cause created Bishop of Peru when Diego came to the governement fled into the Island Puna to escape his wrath but in seeking to avoyde him he fell into as great a snare for the Islanders assaulted him one night and knockt him to death with staves and clubs together with forty Spaniards of his fellowship that accompanied him in his flight and started not from him in his death And thus the good and holy Monke for medling with and setting forward the murder of so many poore people was for his paines and good deeds justly rewarded by the Indians of that Island Moreover after and beside all these troubles seditions and civil warres of Peru all they that returned from Spaine suffered shipwracke for the most part for their fleet had scarce attained the midst of their course when there arose so terrible a tempest that of eighteen ships thirteen so perished that they were never heard of after and of the five which remained two were tumbled backe to the coast of Saint Dominick all berent and shivered in pieces other three were driven to Spaine whereof one hitting against the bay of Portugall lost many of her men The Admirall her selfe of this fleet perished near unto Saint Lucar de Baramede with two hundred persons that were within her and but one onely of them all got safe into the haven of Calix without dammage Here we may see how mightily the hand of God was stretched forth to the revenge of those wicked deeds and villanies which were committed by the Spaniards in those quarters Peter Loys bastard son to Pope Paul the third was one that practised many horrible villanies robberies murthers adulteries incest and Sodomitries thinking that because his father was Pope therefore no wickednesse was unlawfull for him to commit He was by the report of all men one of the most notorious vilest and filthiest villaines that ever the world saw he forced the Bishop of Faence to his unnaturall lust so that the poor Bishop with meer anger and grief that he should be so abused died immediately Being made Duke of Plaisence and Parma he exercised most cruell tyranny towards many of his subjects insomuch that divers Gentlemen that could not brook nor endure his injuries conceived an inward hate against him and conspired his death and for to put in practise the same they hired certain Ruffians and Roysters to watch the opportunity of slaying him yea and they themselves oftentimes went apart with these Roysters keeping themselves upon their guards as if some private and particular quarrels had been in hand One day as the Duke went in his horse-litter out of his Castle with a great retinue to see certain Fortifications which he had prepared being advertised by his father the