Lampry The Adder if he seeth a man cloathed he will hurt him if he can and hath the boldnesse to venter at him but if he see him naked he flieth from him The Rats and the Snakes or Adders are great enemies and when they cover their eggs in winter and that they go not out the Rats persecute them and make war against them and the Snake which by instinct of nature knowes it makes provision for the Rats to feed on that so they may be busied and leave them The Rat is so afraid of Beech-mast that if you should put never so little into the curds that make cheese the Rat will never eat of it A Sheep doth so naturally hate a Wolf that if one make a drum with the skin of a Wolf the Sheep will flie from the sound of it as if it were from a living Wolf There are some also that say if you should make Lute or Viol-strings of the guts of a Wolf and of a Sheep and string the instruments therewith you should never make them agree nor make good harmony The Monky shuns the Tortise and Craw-fish The Rat by a secret property is so contrary to the Scorpion that the biting of a Scorpion is healed by putting upon it a Rat. The Snake and the viper fears naturally the Crab which hath such force over these kind of creatures that if a Hog be bitten by a Viper he is healed by eating a Crab-fish And which is more strange when the sun is in the sign of Cancer those serpents suffer pain The Scorpion fish and Crocodile are continually at war and kill one another The Panther fears the Once and in such sort that he will let it kill him without resistance and if the skin of a Panther be hung near the skin of an Once that of the Panther will shed all the hair and consume The enmity is so much betwixt the Crow and the Owl that Aristotle saith they will rob one another of their eggs The Wasp makes war ordinarily against the Spider The Kite and the Fox also hate one another There is a sort of birds of prey very little ones which Plâ—nte cals Esalous that wish so much mischief to the Crow that they search ouâ— their nests and break their eggs The Swine hate naturally the Weezle The Wolf and the Lion hate so mortally that the bloud of the one and the other will not mingle together The Mole is so horribly afraid of the Ant tha she shuns the Tree where they are The Spider hath war with the Snake and Plinie saith will kill it when the Spider sees the Snake sleep under the Tree where she is she lets her self down by a thred that she makes and then gets into the head of the Snake where she bites and so fastens her self that she will not forsake him till she hath killed him with her venome There is also amongst other inanimate things a naturall contradiction and enmity For oil is an enemy to glew oil is an enemy to water so is lime but the oil and the lime agree together and join naturally The Olive hath a naturall property against the luxurious and fleshly given so that if an unchast woman plant them they die and take no root Coleworts will not thrive if they be planted near Marjoram Salt water becomes sweet if it be mingled with meal flower so that in two hours after it may be drunk We might bring so many examples of these naturall enmities which are between things animate and inanimate that it might be brought to a great length and likewise of things that love one another As the Pehens love the company of the Pigeons The Turtle the Popengay The Black-bird the Feldisare or the Thrush Aristotle saith that there is so much love betwixt a kind of Sparrow and a Crocodile that this great beast opens his mouth that this little bird may see to cure and cleanse his reeth and his gumms with his beak and that these birds are nourished thereby it is said also that there is great amity between the Fox and the Raven betwixt the Crow and the Turkey-hen and likewise betwixt the Lark and the bird called the Jone The Fox agrees-well enough with the Snake and the Sheep are not in danger among them The Sea-Mole is so beloved of the Whale that Plinie saith it goeth swimming before the Whale to warn him of ditches and holes Thus you see the marvellous works of nature disposed by order and the will of God by the influence of the Stars and Planets The Authors are Plinie Aristotle Albertus Magnus Elian and divers others ancient and Modern Authours that have written of the nature of beasts and other things CHAP. XXVI Of some properties of the Viper and how the flesh of it may be safely eaten THe Viper is a kind of a serpent wel enough known to many and although it be but little yet it is venemous enough for with a little prick it will kill a man But as the Lord hath made nothing in vain without some profit so this beast with all his venome serves man to cure some diseases and for Medicine principally for the pain in the throat it is good by a secret property by carrying about one the head of a Viper so that alive it killeth and dead it healeth The Theriacle is proper against venome and in making that Composition there goeth some of this beast for else it is not perfect that it may have the greater efficacie and therefore it is called Theriacle because Thirion in Greek signifieth a Viper or a venemous beast It is true that some give another Etimologie and reason of that name But before we speak of the profits that come by the Viper let us hear what Plinie Isiodorus and Elian say of it They say that when the beast engendereth the Male puts his head in the mouth of the Female whereby she receiveth such pleasure that with her sharp teeth she wrings and cuts off his head so she remains widdow-like and bagged with young which comes to be eggs which are formed in the body of which egs comes Vipers in a convenient time by casting every day one to twenty and because they are so many those which remain behind cannot stay the time of their delivery but break the belly of their mother so that by her death they are born and live If it be so it is a wonderfull thing for it seemeth the child revengeth the death of the Father With this opinion of Plinie divers others agree yet there are many that contradict it and deny that the Viper dieth in her bringing forth her young ones in which opinion I rest my self because the other doth not seem naturall neither have I ever seen the experience nor know not any one that say they have seen it Philostratus in the life of Apollo Trijan brings in Apollo who recites to have seen a Viper that after she had brought forth her young ones licked them and was well
a meal hath so much the greater charge and weight And neverthelesse it is so and we need not marvel at it for eating and drinking augments the spirits and chears him which makes him grow and increase in natural heat From hence it comes that when one man assays to lift up another if he wil that is lifted up he can make himself heavier by forcing forth his breath with in him which if he should keep in he would weigh lighter also one that runs breaths but little that he may run the more swift because the air being a very light Element desires to lift it self up high where its place is naturally as we see a piece of skin of chejucel or a bladder unblown thrown into the water it sinks presently but blow it up with air and it swims above the water In the same place Plinie saith That a body dead in the water when it comes to float if it be a man his face will be upwards towards heaven if it be a woman she wil rise with her face downwards which provident nature hath so ordeined to cover the shamefull parts of a woman There is yet an other natural reason for it And that is that women weigh heavier in the foreparts because of their breasts And men in their back-parts because of their shoulders CHAP. IX That death is to be judged good or evil according to the condition one dies in with examples of the death of divers IT is common to all once to die but to know when or how or what manner of death is revealed to none but all consists in being found in a good or evil estate That death may not be termed unfortunate unlesse that which finds not a man in that condition which he ought to be It often hides it self and keeps in houses and places where we least suspect And for this cause we ought not to live one day without consideration of it To this purpose examples are infinite and I will bring some here worthy note considering the effects are so strange though such happen daily Aullus Gelius writes and after him Valerius that there is in Italy a Town called Croton in Calabria in which lived one called Milo that was so strong and fit for any thing he undertook that at all games feasts and publick wrestlings never could be found his like and for the most part carried away the victory in such sort that he was accounted the strongest and most valiant that could be found in his time This Milo travelling over a Mountain and withdrawing himself out of the common rode for refreshment saw amongst other Trees an Oak having two great branches which some had begun to cleave by great force with wedges and left them behind not able to perform it which he being very desirous to accomplish put both his hands into the cleft and drew till he had opened them a little more so that the wedges fell to the ground but whether because it may be his strength failed him or that it may be he thought the branches were not of so great force he let go a little whereby the Tree closed on such a sudden that both his hands were fast taken therein so that he could not escape out and none passing by to help him he died there in great pain and of famine one of the most miserable and unhappiest deaths that could be imagined for he was made a prey to the most salvage beasts and so his own strength killed him If the death of Milo was so strange this of Echilus the Poet is no less strange for he one day walking out of a Town in Sicilie where he dwelt to take a little warmth of the Sun because it was then cold weather and he being old and bald-headed whose head shone again with whiteness seated himself in a high place where the Sun beat and having his head bare an Eagle by chance flew over him in the Air having in his tallons a Tortoise and seeing the white head of Echilus took it for a stone and so let it fall a great heighth thereupon so to break it that afterwards he might get the flesh of the Tortoise to eat it which broke his skull whereof he died presently A wonderfull thing seeing that he sate so high in an open place where one would have thought it impossible for any thing to fall upon his head Baptista Fulgosa in a near book that he hath written of Examples recites the unfortunatee death of a King of Navarre named CHARLES this King was old and very ill and troubled with a great pain in all his Nerves for which pain by the counsel of all the learned Physitians there could be found no Remedie but one which was to wrap him in a linnen cloath steeped in Aqua-vitae and sow him in it round on every side and he which sowed him in having nothing by him to cut off the thread took a candle lighted that was next him the flame whereof took hold of the Aqua-vitae so suddenly that before the King could be unsowed again or have any help he was burned in the flame and so he was cured of the pain he had in his Nerves and likewise of all his other diseases The death of Philemon was very pleasant for seeing an Asse come near to a table where on there was figs and fell to eating them fell into so great a laughter that the end of his laugh accompanied the end of his life And it is reported that Philiston the Commique Poet died laughing And so we find many men that have died of joy of which number was Dennis the Tyrant of Cicilie Diagoras and that Roman Dame who seeing her son return home who was thought to be slain in the battell died presently That death of the Shepheard Cratis whether it be so or no is likewise very strange for being asleep on a Mountain amongst his Goats a Buck-Goat killed him for jealousie he had of one of the She-Goats with whom Cratis abhominably perverted the order of nature Lewis Celius and Volateran recites this story alledging for it some Greek authors I leave divers other sorts of deaths as that of Pope Bonniface who died mad being famished in prison Of Richard the second of England Of the Arch-Bishop of Magunce who was killed and eaten up by a multitude of Rats Of Decius the Emperour of whom Familius Victor writes that though victorious he was found dead swimming in a Lake In this sort in our time died Lewis King of Hungary And Sforza father to that gallant Captain Duke Francis Sforza drowned himself thinking to save one of his Pages Andrew King of Provance died by the hand of his wife assisted by some other women who strangled him and hanged him up The Emperor Tiberius was also poisoned by his wife Agripina So Kings Princes and great Lords are subject to unfortunate and unhappy deaths as well as poor men although somtimes they are advised thereof yet in vain CHAP. X. How many
Popes hath been since Saint Peter and how the Popes came to change their names also by whom they used to have been chosen ONe of the most excellent histories and that Christians ought well to know is the lives of the Soveraign Bishops successours of Saint Peter and Vicars of Jesus Christ These are those which have been Bishops of Rome since the first Vicar of God Saint Peter placed the chair there the Mark for his Successours in which place it hath always been even to this day And put the case that sometimes some of the Soveraign Bishops have been absent from that Chair and the Town yet Rome ceased not to be the Bishoprick and principall seat of the absent Bishop for St. Peter placed it there first of all where it hath been ever since But to return to our purpose there hath been in Rome two hundred twenty and one Bishops or universal Popes as I can gather even to this day in which Iulius the third governed amongst which there hath been many Martyrs most excellent Saints and learned Doctours yet neverthelesse it is not without great admiration and a consicieration of great mysterie that none of them governed so long time as St. Peter did there For it hath pleased God as he excelled all the rest in sanctity so in the possession of that dignity he passed them all for he lived in it five and twenty years after the death of our Saviour Christ the first leven whereof he lived at Antioch and the other eighteen at Rome where he placed the Chair And some are of opinion that none of his successours for the time to come shall attain to that he did no more than those that are past already There is also another thing that I take notice of in reading the lives of the Popes that is that since Saint Peter to this very time I find not one that in changing of his name hath called himself Peter nor that had that name before his change So that it seems that God would put that name Peter for a foundation in the Church and no where else The saying of the Translatour I know not in what place the Authour hath taken out this last opinion for there is to be found seven at the least which before were named Peter As Innocent the fifth John the two and twentieth Celestine the fitfh Clement the fixt Gregory the elevench Boriniface the ninth And Alexander the fifth leaving out one Anti-pope Yet it it is good to know from whence came the first changing their name Know that Pope Gregory the fourth being dead in the year eight hundred forty two they chose for the Soveraign Bishop of Rome a Roman of Noble Bloud illustrious and of good breeding who was called Hoge-face and because this name seemed to him dirty and ill agreeing with such a dignity and remembring that our Saviour changed the name of Saint Peter would also change his and named himself Sergius which was his fathers name From thence came the custome observed to this day that he which is chosen Pope may tak eat his pleasure what name pleaseth him best And although they have changed their names they keep still this custome to take the name of some of their predecessors Of these things are the Authors Platinus Matthew Palmer Eusebins and others now we must understand according to what is found in histories that even to the time of Constantine the great which gave so much Goods and Priviledges to the Church of Rome because the Soveraign Bishops had been all Martyred there was no canvasing or suite who should have it for none desired it but contrary either by force or request they were constrained to accept the charge and so even till that time they were chosen to that dignity onely by the Priests which were in the Roman Church But since the Emperours were Christians and likewise many of the Citizens of Rome they were chosen by the Clergy with the voice and consent of the people That done they sent to the Emperour which then kept at Constantinople to desire a confirmation and it seems this was to please them or because they would have it so Sometimes this confirmation was done by the Governour which they had at Rome called Hyparcus who had the authority of the Emperour now was this confirmation by the Emperour or the Soveraign Bishops sure and firm but whether for the Tyranny and permission of the Church that after the death of Benet the first Pelagius the second was chosen But because at that time Rome was besieged by the Lombards from whence are descended the Lombards and also that there fell such an abundance of rain that the Rivers were all overflown in such sort that as Platinus saith there was an infinite number of persons drowned and perished so that it was thought for certain it was a generall Deluge This Pelagius was the first that governed the Bishoprick without making the Emperour acquainted yet nevertheless he feared that Maurice the Emperour of Constantinople would be angry at it therefore sent his Embassadors to excuse it and gave the reasons we have before recited Afterwards some years having past that this custome was continued without discontinuance and Benet the second coming to be created Soveraign Bishop the Emperour Constantine the fourth of that name being advertized of his singular holinesse and great learning had respect of his authority and sent this Pope a Charter or letter Patent by which he renounced for himself and his successours upon all reasons or pretences whatsoever the confirmation of the Papall election that from thence forward so soon as the Clergy or the people of Rome should have chosen a Soveraign Bishop he should be held for the Vicar of God without other confirmation or amplification This was observed for some time but afterwards the Church of Rome comming to be afflicted and its inheritance to be molested by the Lombards that reigned in that Country and being seconded by Charls Martel in the time of Gregory the third and by Pepin his son in the time of Stephen the second and at some other times having some little help from the Emperours of Constantinople Lastly Pope Leo the third of that name after great discord and controverâ—ies considering the great succour and help that he had from Charlemain King of France he made and named him Emperour and repassed the seat of the Empire to the Western parts where it hath remained to this day By means whereof we may know that either by special Priviledge or by Usurpation of the Successors of Charlemain to the Empire they began to set up again the confirmation of the Pope confirming him by the Emperours and approving the Election that is made of the Soveraign Bishops who acknowledged them for Emperours having recourse to them in their necessities and affairs Afterwards by succession of time and in the year Eight hundred and seventeen Pasquel the first was chosen by the death of Stephen the fourth and obeyed
is true that Iulius Caesar since named it Scivil and greatly enobled it and made it a Collonie and the Romans dwelt in it nevertheles it was greatly enobled before But to return to our first purpose in succession of time Moses was born under whose conduct the Hebrews came out of Egypt In this time also was Iob the just Then afterwards came the Deluge of Thessalie and many Kingdomes began to encrease in divers Provinces In Ethiopia first reigned Ethiop In Sicily Siculus In Boecia Boecim And so the Countries received their names of their Princes Then flourished the Town of Troy Iaeson made a conquest of the Golden Fleece from whence proceeded the history of Medea The Amazons were then in their force And the beginning of the raign of the Latines in Italy In this very age Paris ravished Helena which was the cause of the war destruction of Troy of the coming of Aeneas into Italy of divers other things which wil not admit of brevity Then failed the third Age which gave way to the fourth And began at the raign of David the 2 K. of the Hebrews which fourth age dured even to the Transmigration and Perigrination of the Jews in Babylon and lasted four hundred four-score five years Beda saith 474 years This age may be called the youth of the world during which happened an infinite many things whereof histories are full in it was the original of the victories of good King David he conquered the Philistines he avenged himself of the Amonites for the injury which they did to his Ambastadours and killed the Captain of the Assyrians After him succeeded in the Kingdom the wise King Solomon who built the rich Temple in Jerusalem he dead the Kingdome was divided Jeroboam succeeded to ten families and Roboam his son to two After the Empire of the Assyrians which had lasted more than twelve hundred years it was ruined by the death of Sardanaepalus who was Lord thereof and the most puissant King in the world who was killed by Arbact And then the Empire fell to the Medes In ths very Age began the reigns of the most puissant Kings of Macedoma And the Greeks began to count their years by Olimpiades which were feasts that they made from five years to five years with certain prizes for them that deserved best Also was that puissant City of Carthage built by Dido And a little while after Rome by Romulus and his brother Remus where the Kings began to reign The great Town of Bizance was also built in this time which is since called Constantinople Again there hapned great wars and mutation of Signiories in many parts of the world whereof histories are full And principally towards the end of this age Nabucadonozor King of the Medes and of Babylon fell upon Jerusalem which he destroyed and the Temple also Then led the people of Judea prisoners along with them and from that it is called the Transmigration in Babylon At which began the fifth Age of the world Age. 5 which lasted even to the birth of Jesus Christ God and Man our Saviour and Redeemer And this shall last five hundred eighty nine years by the computation of all During this time there was puissant Kings and great Republicks in the world such as it is marvellous to read and contemplate of the great things that happened in this Age The Changes The ruine of Estates The ordering of great Armies In brief it is better to be silent than to abreviate them Almost at the beginning of this Age began the Monarchy of the Persians whose Kingdomes were then the greatest by means of the victories of that great Cyrus which reigned thirty years during which time he conquered and discomfited the rich King Cresus of Lydia Then was discomfited himself and put to death by Tomoris Queen of the Scythians Seventy years of this Age being accomplished The Hebrews came out of their Captivity And the Temple that had been destroyed was re-edified by Solomon at Jerusalem In Europe the Romans chased their Kings and were governed by Consuls of which L. I. Brut was the first and the L. Collatine In Greece flourished Arms and letters which brought forth many excellent Philosophers and Captains Xerxes came thither with an innumerable army but he was constrained to retire with great losse and disgrace Then came to flourish in Macedonia King Philip who subdued all Greece the Mother of learning and of arms and which in this time brought forth Demosthenes Thomistocles Epaminondas Agifilaus Teno Plato Aristotle and others the like After the death of Philip his son Alexander went out of Greece and entred Asia which he conquered destroying the Empire of Persia And by the Victories which he gained against King Darius he lived the remainer of his life Monarch of all the world But he dead the Captains divided among themselves the Signiories and Lordships which being so mingled bred a discord which raised wars through all Asia and a great part of Europe In like manner the power of the Romans and Carthagenians encreased beyond measure for all of them strove to command the whole world and to attribute to themselves the Empire These two forces fought divers times against one another so that each of these two Towns brought forth Captains excellent skilfull in arms Carthage put forward Asdrubal Hano Hanibal Rome Fabius Scipio Marcellus Emillus and others Finally after a great quantity of bloudshed Rome became victorious and Carthage desolate destroyed and all Affrica tributary This Victory obteined the Romans proud and envious of the Greeks prosperity found out an occasion of war with them in which Greece was taken and made Tributary Not contented with this Their covetousnesse made them passe into Asia where they overcame Antiochus and then Mithridates making themselves Lords of Asia the lesse as also of Syria and Palestina and Egypt and all the coast on this side of France Spain England and the greatest part of Germany Of all which Conquests the chief Ministers were Sylla Marius Lucullus Pompeius Caesar and many others it happened that their envious ambition swelled their hearts whereof bred civill wars amongst them that every one would be a Commander one over another but at the last the Empire fell to Caesar whom after many fortunes had happened unto him his Nephew or adopted son Octavian succeeded who after having overcome all his enemies he rested peaceably in such sort that seeing himself in peace and concord with all the Kings and Common-wealths in the world he made them lock up the doors of his God Janus which were never shut in time of war Then the accomplishment of time being come the Fifth age of the World ended And our Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ was born very God and very Man in the year of the Creation of the World according to the Hebrews Three thousand nine hundred fifty and two years And according to the seventy Interpretours Eusebius and the greatest part of Historians Five
he appeared alive unto them according as the Prophets inspired by God had foretold and prophesied of him And yet in our time the doctrine and the name of Christians continues all the world over These are the words of Josephus who writ of the destruction of Jerusalem as an eye-witnesse which hapned fourty years after the death of Christ Pilate likewise that gave the sentence of death against him neverthelesse bears witnesse of his great miracles sending word of them by letters to the Emperour Tyberius so that the Senate was put to sit in Councell to advise whether they should receive Jesus Christ for a God and although they did not assent unto it Tyberius forbad any further persecuting the Christians As for the Earth-quake and the darknesse of the Sun during the time that Christ suffered upon the Crosse we have also Ethnicks for witnesses Flegon the Greek Historiographer born in Asia of whom Suydas makes speciall mention That in the fourth year of the two hundred and tenth Olympiade which will meet being well accounted with the eighteenth year of the Emperour Tiberius which was then when our Saviour suffered There was an eclipse of the Sun the greatest that ever was seen or found in any History and that it endured from the sixth to the ninth hour And that during this eclipse the Earth-quake was so great in Asia and Bithinia that there were an infinite number of houses fell to the ground It seems besides Flegon who lived in those times and writ this that Plinie vented and writ the same thing For he saith that in the time of the Emperour Tyberius the Earth-quake was greater than ever was any before it and saith thereby was thrown to the earth and ruined twelve Towns in Asia besides an infinite of other buildings So that the Historiographers who were Gentiles although they knew not the cause forbear not to write of the miracles of Christ The other miracle of the vail of the Temple which rent in sunder Iosephus recites it also Of the cruell death of the innocent children which Herod caused to die mention is made of it by another Jew named Filon a writer of great authority In his abridgement of time where he saith that Herod caused many children to be put to death and among them his own son because that he had heard that Christ a King promised to the Hebrews was born and this Authour was in the times of the other Herod called the Tetrark as he himself saith This History is again more amply recited by Macrobâ—us an Ethnick Historioagrapher who recites some pleasant and witty speeches of the Emperour Octavian in whose time our Saviour lived saying that the Emperour having heard of the cruelty of Herod towards his son and the other innocents said it was better in Herods house to be his hog than his child because the Jews killed no swine which witty conceit is alledged also by Dion in the life of the same Emperour So that there are many miracles whereof the Jews and the Gentiles not thinking of it be or witness to have been done by Christ besides those that the Christians make mention of What should we say any more of that the ancient Emperours have tasted of our belief and of that which they have done against the Christians The first Vicar of God St. Peter and likewise St. Paul died by the commandment of Nero the Emperour thirty six years after the death of our Saviour and then was the great persecution of the Church of which the Gentiles have not omitted to make mention And particularly Suetonus Tranquillus and Corneliâ—s Tacitus who lived in those times and of great authority Suetonus in the life of Nero speaking of some of his decrees and ordinances saith that he tormented and afflicted with great punishment a sort of people which called themselves Christians and followed a certain belief and new Religion and Cernelius Tacitus treatingon the acts of the same Nero saith that he persecuted and punished with terrible torments a sort of people which the vulgar called Christians And that the Author of this name was Christ of Jerusalem whom Pilate the Governour of Judea had caused to be crucified and by the means of his death his doctrine began to be extolled But now let us see what some other Gentiles write that are not of lesse authority Plinie in some of his elegant Epistles writes to the Emperour Trajan whose Proconful he was in Asia to know how he would that he should punish the Christians which were accused and brought before him that he might give his Lord a good account of what he found against them Amongst other things he writes that these Christians rose at certain hours in the night and assembled themselves together to sing hymns and praises to Jesus Christ whom they worshipped for God And being assembled into a Congregation they made vows to do no evil or hurt to any but promised not to steal not to be adulterers not to break their promises or vows not to deny what hath been lent or given them to keep And this Plinie saith further that they eat altogether without possessing any thing in proper By this we may know what was then the exercise of Christians and for what the world hated them and persecuted them These things were written by a Heathen and an Idolater sixty years after the Passion of our Saviour To which letters the Emperour made answer that seeing they were not accused for any excesse or other misdeeds that he should not trouble himself to punish them or make any inquisition against them Yet neverthelesse if they were accused and brought before him that he should find out a means to make them forsake their Religion but if they would not leave it yet he should do nothing to them Before this it is true that this Emperour Traian being a Heathen and deceived by accusers had persecuted the Christians To which Empire afterwards succeeded Adrian his Nephew of whom Aelius Lampridius a Heathen Historiagrapher and an Idolater writes that he began to honour the Christians suffering them to live in their belief and he himself worshipped Christ with the others and built Temples but afterwards he changed his copy and became hatefull odious and cruell towards the Christians being deceived and abused by the Masters and their false ceremonies and by the Bishops of those false Gods telling him that if he favoured the Christians all the world would be converted to their belief and they should loose the religion of their Gods This is certified by Peter Criniff It is found in the life of Saturninus that to this Empeaour Adrian there was a letter sent by Severinus the Consul where he writes that there was in Egypt divers Christians amongst which some called themselves Bishops and that none of them were idle but that all of them did work and employed themselves in some action and that there was not amongst them even those that were blind and lame that did not live
by the labor of their hands and that they all worshipped one God which was also worshipped by the Jews We also read in the History of these times that this Emperour beginning to persecute the Christians by the perswasion of their chief Bishops there was one of his Embassadors called Serene Eramy an Ethnick like himself which writ a letter unto him in which he said in his opinion it was cruelty to oppress the Christians being accused for no other thing than observing their Religion seeing that he found them not charged with any other crime or trespasse By means of which letter The Emperour Adrian forbade Minus Fondan Proconful in Asia to condemn any Christian if he were not convicted of any other crime than that of Christian Religion CHAP. XXIIII What opinions the ancient Emperours have had of the person of Christ by the Testimony which Ethnick Historiagraphers give of them TO this Emperour Adrian of whom we have spoken in the last Chapter succeeded Antoninus Debonair who although he had that name was perverse and wicked he favoured ill the belief of Christ and persecuted the Christians But his Successour Marcus Aurelius was more moderate to them for instead of persecuting them he led them along with him in his army by whose prayers he was delivered from the danger wherein he was for want of water which his enemies had cut from him because he sent them water and to his enemies Thunder-bolts and Thunder Of these things are made mention in one of his leters and Julius Capitoline also speaks of it although he doth not attribute it all to the Christians These hapned about the forty and five years after the Passion of our Saviour The fifteenth or twentieth year following Severus being chosen Emperor Elius Spartine an Ethnick like himself writ that he should make a law by which he should forbid upon pain of great punishment that none should turn Christian nor Jew After which Severus Antoninus Heliogabolus was Emperor who as Lampridius recites that writ his life caused a Temple to be built in Rome dedicated to his God onely to which he would have the Christians resort to perform their sacrifices which the Christians would not do After this Heliogabolus succeeded the Emperour Alexander Severus in the year of our Saviour one hundred ninety two and was in great doubt whether or no he should become a Christian Also we find by the history that is written of him that he had a good opinion of that belief and that he much esteemed of the Christians and gave them places and plots for buildings in Rome to make their Temples and places for prayer He kept the picture of our Saviour in his closset This is written by Elius Lampridius besides what the Christians write And he saith further that divers Victuallers and Pastry-Cooks went to the Emperour with a complaint against the Christians that they had taken away their harbours and their houses to make places for their superstitious hypocrisie and that they observed a Religion contrary to that of the Romans To which complaint the Emperour made answer that he had rather God should be worshipped in those places than to imploy them in the affairs of their vocations This Severus being dead Maximinian succeeded him an enemy and persecutor of the Christians but he lived not long and died an ill death Since whom and two others more which lived but a short while the Empire fell into the hands of Philip who was baptized as some say and was the first that received the Christians Eusebius affirmeth it yet the Heathen Historiographers write nothing of it Every day God enlightned more and more the hearts of men and a great number were converted to the Christian faith in spight of Decius and Dioclesian and others such like and even till they being weary of persecuting them they connived at them and suffered them for a time as appears clearly by a letter of Maximinian the Emperour a companion to Dioclesian which was two hundred years after our Redemption Which letter saith as followeth Caesar Maximinian invincible great Bishop of Germany Egypt Thebes Sarmacia Persia Armenia and victorious over the Medes and for his victories named nineteen times Emperour and eight times Consul and father of his Country At the beginning of our Empire Amongst other things which we determined to do for the publick good we do ordain that the order which was kept in all things strengthened by our ancient Laws be conserved and kept And for the same reason we command that those men which call themselves Christians and have forsaken our ancient Religion be pressed constrained and forced to forsake the new Religion which they have taken up and that they observe our ancient Religion established by our predecessors But being it is come to our knowledge notwithstanding this commandment and rigour used against them to make them observe it they have not left to follow their own wils and are so firm and constant to their purposes that there is neither force nor punishment so grievous which can make them draw back from their Religion or make them observe ours but will rather expose themselves to grievous torments and death it self and that they are still at this day in the same constancie and will not reverence or worship any of the gods in Rome our often remembring of our accustomed clemencie and pity determined to be used towards the Christians for that cause we do from hence-forward permit and suffer that all persons may make and call themselves Christians have places for their meetings and build themselves Temples where they may pray and sacrifice Which licence and leave we grant unto them upon condition they shall not do any thing contrary to our Common-wealth and Religion and that in other things they shall observe our Laws and Constitutions and that in acknowledgement of this permission they shall be bound to pray to their God for our life and health and also for the estate of the Common-wealth of Rome that the Town being prosperous and entire they themselves may live of their labour in rest and safety O truly unfortunate Emperour if thou shouldest force the Christians to leave and renounce their Faith as wicked how wouldest thou have them pray for thee and force them to have remembrance of thee in their prayers At the least this Letter will serve us in that thou thy self doest testifie of the Constancy Virtue and Spirit that the Martyrs and holy Christians had in suffering patiently for a long space of time the torment and punishments that were inflicted upon them for the love of Christ Now sometime after Maximinian there came to succeed in the Empire Constantine which was surnamed The great son of that good Dame Hellen which found the true crosse which was about two hundred and ninety years after the Redemption of Mankind He was a good Christian and did so many good deeds for the honour of God and the holy Church and the Ministers thereof that
them have died Jules Capitolin amongst other examples recites that which happened to Faustina daughter to Antoninns and wife to the Emperour Marcus Aurelius who fell in love with a Master of Fence or Gladiator in such sort that for the desire which she had of his company she was in danger of death she did so consume away Which being understood by Marcus Aurelius he presently called together a great companie of Astrologians and Doctours to have counsel and find remedy thereupon At last it was concluded that the Fencer should be killed and that they should unknown to her give Faustina of his bloud to drink and that after she had drank it the Emperour her husband should lie with her This remedie wrought marvellously for it put this affection so far from her that she never afterwards thought of him And the historie saith of this Copulation that the Emperor had then with her was begotten Antoninus Commodus which became so bloudy and cruel that he resembled more the Fencer whose bloud his mother had drank at the conception of him than Marcus Aurelius whose son he was which Commodus was alwaies found amongst the Gladiators as Eutropius witnesses in the life of the same Commodus The Greek and Arabick Physitians place this disease of love amongst the grievous infirmities of the body of man and thereupon prescribe divers remedies Cadmus Milesien as Suydas reports in his collections writes a whole book treating of the particular remedies to hunt out this disease of Love Amongst other remedies which Physitians give for this discase one is That to him that is passionate in Love one should put into his hands great affairs importuning his credit and his profit that his Spirit being occupied in divers matters it may draw away his imagination from that which troubles him and they say further that they should suffer him to be merry and conversant with other women Against this heat Plinie saith it is good to take the dust upon which a mule hath tumbled and cast it upon the Lover and all to be powder him or else of the sweat of a chafed mule as Cardanus affirms in his book of Subtilties The Physitians also teach how to know what person is loved of him that is sick in Love and it is by the same Rule that Eristratus Phyfitian to King Seleucus knew the love that Antiochus bare to the Queen Stratonicus his Step mother for he being extream sick and would rather die than discover the cause of his sickness proceeding from love which he bare to his fathers wife She came into the chamber just then when the Physitian was feeling the Patients pulse which beat so strong when he saw the Queen come into the chamber that Eristratus knew that he was in love with her and that was the cause of his sickness wherefore he found the way to make the King acquainted with it by such a means as would be too tedious to recite Which being experimented by the father and seeing his son in danger if he did not prevent it thought it good though contrary to the intention of the son which chose rather death than to be healed by his fathers Ioss to deprive himself of his Queen and give her to his sick son And so indeed the age and the beauty of the Lady and likewise marriage was more proper for the son than for the father And by this means Antiochus lived well and gallantly many years with his wel-beloved Stratonicus The History is very neatly recited by Plutark in the life of Demetrius And thus you see why Physitians say that you must feel the Pulse of those that are in love and repeat to them divers names of persons and if you name the right the pulse will beat thick and strong and by that you shall know whom they love By divers other signs one may know when any is in love and with whom which I leave to speak of now CHAP. XXIX Of the strange and furious love of a young At henian And of the ridiculous love of King Xerxes And how beasts have many times loved men and women TO see men affectioned to women and women to men is a naturall thing and to be believed But here blindnesse is come to that height that that which I intend to speak of seems impossible and incredible Historiographers write it for truth that in the Town of Achens there was a young man of an honest family competeutly rich and well known who having curiously observed a Statue of Marble excellently wrought and in a publick place in Athens fell so in love with it that he could not keep himself from the place where it stood but be alwaies embracing of it and alwaies when he was not with it he was discontented and blubber'd with tears This passion came to such an extremity that he addressed himself to the Senate at Athens and offering them a good sum of money beseeching them to do him the favour that he might have it home with him The Senate found that they could not by their authority suffer it to be taken away nor to sell any publick Statue so that his request was denied which made him marvellous sorrowfull even at the heart Then he went to the Statue and put a Crown of Gold upon it and enriched it with garments and Jewels of great price then adored it and seriously beheld it musing alwaies upon it and in this folly persevered many daies that at last being forbidden these things by the Senate he killed himself with grief this thing was truly wonderfull But if that be true which is written upon Xerxes and affirmed by so many Authours indeed he excelled in folly all the men in the world They say he fell in love with a Plain tree a tree well known though a stranger in England and that he loved it and cherished it as if it had been a woman Seeing then these things happen to rationall men we may believe that which is written of bruit beasts which have loved certain men and women especially when we find it certified by great and famous writers As Glaucus that was so loved of a sheep that it never forsook him Every one holds that the Dolphin is a lover of men Elian writes in his book of beasts a case worthy to be read He saith that a Dolphin seeing upon the Sea-shore where children were a playing one among the rest which he liked very well he fell so in love with it that every time that the Dolphin see him he came as near as he could to the edge of the water to shew himself At the first the child being afraid did shun it but afterwards by the Dolphins perseverance one day after another and shewing signs of love to the child the child was encouraged and upon the kind usage of the Dolphin the child was emboldened to swim upon the water near unto the fish even to go ride upon the back of it and the fish would carry him for a good space
all men are subject once to die and in that all men are alike Neverthelesse there is difference in the terms of life for one liveth longer and another a shorter time and yet according to Job the time of our life is measured and it is not possible for man to passe the bounds which God hath set and determined for our life Things standing so as indeed they are it will not be amisse to understand that which causes in the life of man why one liveth longer than another and what complexions makes best for a long life and lastly how we shall understand that where it is said that our daies are numbred and determined and that it is not possible to go beyond that which are obscure and difficult points and understood but of few people To understand therefore that which concerns the length of our life We must presuppose in the first place that the life of man and the maintenance of the humane body consists in the accord and harmony of the four elements or elementary qualities whereof it is composed That is to say hot cold moist and dry And expressely in the proportionable harmony of heat and moisture which Aristotle well demonstrates who makes onely mention of the agreement of these two qualities for the continuance of man So we see by experience that man fails not so long as he hath naturall heat for this heat is the principall instrument that maintains the vegetative spirit And indeed the life of man consists in no other thing than in maintaining the Instruments and Organs of the Soul amongst which naturall heat holds by good right the first rank For this heat is so necessary for thâ— maintenance of a humane body that it failing the soul is constrained to forsake the body and put an end to the life of that man And because this naturall heat holds of fire which consumes of its own nature all that it meets withall it is convenient to oppose it by an other contrary quality for the preservation of inferiour bodies For this cause God placed the Radicall or naturall moisture with this naturall heat to nourish and maintain it even as the fire is nourished and maintained with oil And because this Radicall moisture consumes and diminishes daily to maintain the same all living creatures must drink and eat that so by that means the moisture caused by that digestion may supply the default of nature But seeing that as Aristotle saith the moisture caused of that digestion is never so perfect as the Radicall and naturall although it serve much to maintain it of necessity this Radicall moisture diminisheth daily for the accidentall moisture caused by digestion is never so perfect as the Radicall which is vanished and by this means vanishing totally the naturall heat is lost and the body finisheth its end for if the Radicall moisture caused of this digestion were as perfect as the naturall moisture which is vanished man would live endlesly as Divines say who maintain that the nature of the Tree of life which God placed in the earthly Paradice consisted principally in this that eating of its fruit it restored the Radical moisture which would have been lost and vanished From thence it came that this Tree was prohibited to Adam and Eve after they were driven out of Paradice But if our first Parents had continued in their originall righteousness they and their Posterity eating of the fruit of that Tree would have lived eternally in flourishing youth without tasting corruption or old age untill God had glorified their bodies without passing through the gate of death But seeing that humane Race lost this Prerogative by sin which hath brought in death into the world it is no marvell if this offence be stamped upon us Now to return to our discourse I say the life lasts longer or shorter according as heat and Radicall moisture are concordant and proportionable For those in whom these qualities meet most tempered and best proportioned live longest And not those in whom the said qualities most abound From thence it comes that we see many smal creatures who have but little heat and moisture live longer than those that are greater and abound more in the said qualities which happens as well to Trees as men So that we may say long life consists in the temperature and just proportion of heat and moisture which failing the company that is to say life is dissolved and lost For when heat surpasseth moisture it consumes in a short time the whole body as we may see in chollerick men On the contrary when by excessive moisture the heat is extinguished as we see in phlegmatick persons the like happens By this neuerthelesse we must not understand that there ought to be as much moisture as heat But it is meet that the proportion be observed that is to say that the heat surpasse the moisture proportionably For a thing active hath no great power to work upon an other if it exceed not the thing passive which Aristotle covertly demonstrates when he saith that amongst the two qualities before spoken of there ought to be some litle coldnesse mingled to moderate the heat of the Radicall fire that it may not wholly consume the naturall moisture And that drought is also requisite to drie up the Radicall moisture that it may not quench the naturall fire as we see it often happens to little children who die of too much moisture Yet amongst these four qualities the hot and the moist are held for the principals as being vitall complexions and causing life As for the cold and the dry although they serve greatly for the preservation of life yet nevertheless we hold these two qualities to be the entrance to and beginning of death For cold is an enemy to heat in which principally consists the point of life And drought is opposite and contrary to moisture which nourisheth nevertheless the naturall heat So we may see in old folks which become dry and cold when they approach near unto death nay even in all dead bodies which ordinarily are dry and cold Man then Heaven working this good temperature ought to season his complexion amongst these four qualities in such sort that he maintain the heat in the first place and after that the moisture making the cold and the dry to serve according to their function and quarter Even so those that find themselves not thus proportionably temperate are naturally short lived See here then the causes of long and short life It rests now to speak of which is the best complexion to shew long life In the first place then we must note that of the four complexions in man to wit cholerick sanguine phlegmatick and melancholy the sanguine is the best to cause a man to live long For the bloud is hot and moist which qualities are proper to maintain life Also its moisture is not waterish but airy being hot and moist and sorts with the sanguine complexion And so this Sanguine Complexion