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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	bitterness_n	flesh_n	great_a	25	3	2.1020	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57647	Arcana microcosmi, or, The hid secrets of man's body discovered in an anatomical duel between Aristotle and Galen concerning the parts thereof : as also, by a discovery of the strange and marveilous diseases, symptomes & accidents of man's body : with a refutation of Doctor Brown's Vulgar errors, the Lord Bacon's natural history, and Doctor Harvy's book, De generatione, Comenius, and others : whereto is annexed a letter from Doctor Pr. to the author, and his answer thereto, touching Doctor Harvy's book De Generatione / by A.R.	Ross, Alexander, 1591-1654.	1652 (1652)	Wing R1947; ESTC R13878	247,834	298

fire till it blistred out of which blisters they came and so he was cured Salt is an enemy to them yet they are bred in those AEthiopians by the frequent eating of the salt locusts But perhaps it is not the eating of the salt meat so much as the nastinesse and sweat unwholesom waters and corrupted air that breeds them And it is certain that wild and savage people are most given to them because of their carelesse uncleanlinesse using no other remedy against them but shirts died with Saffron which some wilde Irish doe wear six months together without shifting But sometimes this disease is inflicted by the immediate hand of God as a punishment of sinne and tyranny Examples we have in Sylla Pherecides Herod Philip the second of Spain and others who died of this malady Now because Locusts are such an unwholesome food I cannot think that Iohn Baptist did feed on them and therefore it is no vulgar error to hold that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Matth. 3. doth signifie the tops of hearbs rather then locusts both because these were an unwholesome food and unpleasant to the palat and nose used rather for Physick then diet as Dioscorides and Galen shew that Locusts are good against the Cholick and Stone and may be more safely given then Cantharides to provoke urine And although the AEthiopians did eat them for food yet this is no argument to prove that Iohn did eat them which is all the reason that Beza and Casaubon bring to prove their assertion neither can it be proved that Locusts were a food ever used in Iudaea For Pelusiota who lived an Eremite many years in those Desarts never knew any such food used there But whereas they alledge that in Levit. c. 11. v. 22. Locusts are set down for clean food I answer with Munster on Levit. 11.22 who though an excellent Hebrician yet confesseth that neither he nor the Rabbins themselves doe know the true meaning or signification of the proper tearms there used Therefore the Hebrew word Harbe which we translate Locust the Septuagints call Bruchus which is another kind of Insect And the French in their Bibles have left the Hebrew word untranslated And so did Luther before as not knowing what that word meant nor the other three Hebrew words Dr. Brown then had done well rather to have reckoned the Baptists eating of Locusts among the Vulgar Errors then his feeding upon hearbs in the Desart III. There is no flesh so much subject to putrefaction as mans body because it abounds in heat and moisture so that oftentimes some parts of it doe putrifie before the soul leave it which cannot so long preserve it from corruption as salt spices the juice of Cedar and other means by which the AEgyptians used to embalm their dead bodies For indeed heat and siccity are enemies to putrefaction therefore where the ambient air which is properly moist is excluded there the bodies remain unputrified Hence the bodies which are digged out of the hot and dry sands in Egypt have there continued many hundreds of years uncorrupted Alexanders body lay many days unburied and unbalmed yet stunk not but smelled odoriferously because he had dried up the superfluous moisture of his body by continual drinking of strong and fragrant wines There be also some wines that preserve dead bodies uncorruptible by reason of their cold and exsiccating quality So we read in the Indian stories that upon the Mountains of Chily bodies have been found dead there which have many years without corruption continued The first detectors of those Countries found it so by experience for many of them were killed by the piercing subtil quality of those winds and preserved from putrefaction by the excessive drinesse thereof I have read of Horsemen sitting on Horse-back with their bridles in their hands yet dead many months before without any corruption It is also the opinion of som that bodies thunder-struck do not putrifie I am apt to believe that either they putrifie not at all or not in a long time because of the exsiccating quality of the sulphurous vapour which comes from the thunder and lightning But there is nothing more apt to preserve dead bodies from corruption then the juice of Cedar therefore much used among the Ancients both in preserving of their books and bodies which by reason of their extream bitternesse and driing quality gives life to the dead and death to the living extinguishing the temporary life of the body and in recompence giving it immortality So then we see that siccity is the main enemy to putrefaction which is the cause the Peacocks fl●sh is not fo apt to putrifie as of other creatures because of its drinesse as Saint Augustine in the City of God sheweth who speaks of a Peacock which in a whole year did not putrifie The diet also is a great help to further or retard putrefaction for they that feed plentifully on flesh fish or other humid meats which breed much blood and humours are apter to putrifie then those who feed sparingly on hard and dry meats In the siege of Amida by Sapor the Persian King this difference was found for the European bodies who lay four days unburied did in that time so putrifie that they could scarce be known but the Persian bodies were grown hard and dry because of their hard and dry food having contented themselvs with bread made of Naesturtiu●● which we call Cresses or nose-smart an hot and dry hearb Concerning the stone Sarcophagus which consumes flesh in forty days as Pliny witnesseth l. 36. c. 17. is no fable for Scaliger writes Exerc. 132. that in Rome and in the Town where he then was the dead bodies were consumed in eight days But the stone Chernites is a preserver of flesh from corruption therefore the Tomb of Darius was made of it The like is written of the hearb Clematis or Vinca pervinea which resisteth putrifaction therefore of old they used to binde the heads of young men and maids deceased with garlands of this hearb And Korrimanus de mirac mortuorum speaks of a dead head so crowned with this hearb which in the year 1635. being taken out of the grave was found uncorrupted And as dead bodies embalmed with spices are preserved from corruption so by the fame dead bodies men are oftentimes preserved alive for that stuffe which proceeds from them called by the Arabians Mumia is an excellent remedy against diseases arising from cold and moisture Francis the first carried always some of it about him It was found in the Tombs of those Princes who had been imbalmed with rich spices but that which is found in ordinary graves is not the true Mumia but false uselesse or rather pernicious for the body as not being of the same materials that the true Mumia was IV. That the presence of a dear friend standing by a dying man will prolong his life a while is a thing very remarkable and true and which I found by experience

of Sens in Bourgundie which went 28 years with a dead child in her womb this woman being dead and her belly opened there was found a stone having all the limbs and proportion of a child of 9 months old This was no miracle but an extraordinary work of nature for the child being dead and the slimie matter of its body having an aptitude by the extraordinary heat of the matrix to be hardned might retain the same lineaments which it had before If any wonder how within the soft and liquid humors of the matrix such a hard substance should be ingendred let him as well wonder at the generation of hard bones within soft flesh of hard stones within soft plums Peaches and other fruits of stones and hard thunder-bolts within watrish clouds CHAP. IV. 1. Some without Lungs 2. Impostumes voided in Vrine 3. Worms the cause of many diseases 4. No change of sexes 5. Giants 6. Some without livers 7. Fleshy bladders 8. Stones haires worms c. Begot in our Vrine 9. A woman without a matrix I Have read of divers bodies of men without lungs and I believe it for oftentimes the lungs are putrified and corroded with corrupt and acrimonious matter and wasted with burning heat but hence it will not follow that a man can live without lungs any time seeing the heart stands in need continually of refrigeration yet some do live a great while with half of the lungs after the other half is putrified and spit out II. I finde that when impostumations and corrupted matter in the breast cannot be evacuated by spitting or coughing or vomiting or by Phlebotomy or the stool it is notwithstanding purged out by urine naturally without the help of art by which we see how cunning and industrious nature is to help her self and that she is more carefull to thrust out noxious then to draw in profitable things hence sick mens expiration is stronger then their inspiration and hence also we see that there are many porous and pervious passages unknown to us which doubtless are in our bodies being alive which cannot be found being dead because shut by the cold III. I finde that many Physitians are mistaken in the causes of divers diseases and therefore their remedies prove oftentimes fruitless or hurtfull For I have known Ap●plexies Convulsions Coughs Consumptions Feavers Cholicks and other Diseases proceed from Wormes which when they have beene voided either dead or alive the sick partys have recovered Nay I have read of some who have had worms crawle out at their navels and some whose organs of voice and speech having been assaulted and hurt by worms have become speechless how carefull then should we be of our diets not to delight so much as we do in sweet meats sauces and drinks or in such food as breeds sl●my matter whereof worms are ingendred and Physitians should be as carefull to prescribe such things to their patients as may kill and evacuate these enemies of our health and life IV. That maids have become boyes I have read in divers Stories but I have shewed in the former Book that there is no such change in nature because the organs of generation in the two sexes differ both in number form and situation and that therefore such transformations are meant of Hermaphrodites or of such boyes in whom the vessels of generation have not at first appeared outwardly for want of heat and strength which afterwards have thrust them out Dr. Brown admits the change and yet shews that the vessels are different both in form and situation which is a contradiction V. That there have been Giants and men of stupendious stature in all ages is not to be doubted seeing there are so many witnesses extant and the reason of their bigness can be none else but the aboundance of seed and menstruous blood of which they are begot the quality and pliableness of the matter ●apt to be extended the strength also of the heat and formative power and that these men should have rapacious stomachs to devour incredible quantities of meat and drink is not to be wondred at if we consider the bulk of their bodies the capacity of their stomachs and rapacity of their heat VI. Nature is not deficient in necessaries nor abundant in superfluities there is not any one member in our bodies that can be spared for if there be any one defective our life proves short and miserable I have read of some who have been found without Livers but such had a fleshy lump in stead thereof which not being able to sanguifie or turn the Chylus into blood the parties lived but a short while and died of Tympanies or Hydropsies and others whose Livers have been found full of stones have died of the same disease and so have those whose spleen hath been found stony A woman who died of an Hydropsie I saw dissected whose spleen was full of stones of a blewish and green colour VII Not onely are stones of great bigness bred in the bladder by which the passage of the urine is intercepted and so death and many tortures are procured but also there have been found in some bladders great lumps of flesh yea all the internal side of the bladder filled up with fleshy excrescences that there could be no room for the urine but I doubt whether this were true flesh or not seeing no flesh is begot but of blood I think therefore that this was an excrementitious substance res●mbling flesh in colour and shape VIII It is manifest that some with their urine evacuate stones gravel matter hairs little crawling creatures of divers shapes which doubtless are begotten of putrifaction according to the disposition of the matter and heat of the bladder or kidneys if the matter be adust and b●rned hairs are begot sometimes as big as hogs brissles and sometimes the stones of the kidneys are so big that they stick in the yard and cannot be evacuated without incision upon the stoppage of the urine by these stones malignant vapours ascend from the corrupted urine into the noble parts that convulsions syncopes and other dangerous effects are procreated IX As a man can live without testicles so can a woman without the matrix these being members given by natur● not for conversation of the individuals but for continuation of the species Therefore Zacu●u● speaks of a woman who lived thirty years after her matrix was cut out which by a fall that she had from a high tree had slipt out of its place and could never be again replaced Obs. 76. l. 2. CHAP. V. 1. Strange but not miraculous births 2. Strange and strong imaginations 3. Poison inward and outward 4. Poison of mad Dogs 5. C●ntharides 6. Poison how it worketh 7. Why birds not poisoned as men 8. Amphiam Opium Mandrakes 9. The Plague no Hectick nor putrid Fever 10. Epidemical diseases THat a boy of nine years old should beget a child is rar● but much mor● strange it is that a child should be

there is no necessity that we should call these miracles for as it is no miracle for a Cat to see in the dark nor for a musk-Cats sweat to smell sweetly nor for a Basilisk to kill with his eye or rather with the poisonsome vapour of his eye or breath of his mouth nor is it a miracle for an Eagle or Raven to see at such a distance these effects flowing from the natural temper and constitution of these creatures of which temper might these men now mentioned be I could alledge many other strange qualities of men as of one who could move his ears like an Horse of another whose spittle was poison and of one who never laughed c. but these are sufficient to let us see the power and wisdome of God and the dexterity of his Handmaid Nature both in the fabrick and divers temperaments of mens bodies FINIS The Second BOOK Of the strange Diseases and Accidents of MANS BODY Wherein divers of Dr. Browns vulgar errors and assertions are refuted and the ancient Tenents maintained CHAP. I. 1. Divers ways to resist burning 2. Locust eaters the lowsie disease the Baptist fed not on Locusts 3. Mans flesh most subject to putrifaction and the causes thereof How putrifaction is resisted Mumia 4. The strength of affection and imagination in dying men Strange presages of death 5. Difference of dead mens skuls and why THAT some mens bodies have endured the fire without pain and burning is not more strange then true which may be done three manner of ways 1. By divine power as the bodies of Shadrach Meshech and Abednego received no hurt or detriment in the fiery furnace 2. By a Diabolick skill so the Idolatrous Priests among the Gentiles used in some solemn sacrifices to walk securely upon burning coals as the Prince of Poets shews AEn lib. 11. Medium freti pietate per ignem Cultores multa premimus vestigia pruna And as the men in the Sacrifices of Apollo so women in the Sacrifices of Diana used to walk upon burning coals as Strabo witnesseth lib. 12. Of this custome Horace also speaks H●r 1. Od. 1. Incedis per ignes suppositos cineri doloso So Propertius Pro. El. 5. l. 1. Et miser ignotos vestigia ferre per ignes And so it was used as a Proverb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to walk upon coals when a man undertook any dangerous businesse The Scripture also sheweth that the Gentiles used to make their sons and daughters passe through the fire They used also in swearing to take a burning Iron in their hands without hurt as Deliro sheweth in his Magick Pliny and Sueton write that Pyrrhus his thumb and Germanicus his heart could not be burned 3. The body is made sometimes to resist fire by natural means as by unguents so those Hirpiae or Hirpini in Italy of whom Pliny Varro and others make mention used to anoint the soles of their feet with this unguent that they might walk on the fire Bushequius Epist. 4. was an eye-witnesse at Constantinople of what was done in this kind by a Turkish Monk who after dinner took an hot burning iron out of the fire held it in his hand and thrust it in his mouth so that his spittle did hisse without any hurt whereas one of Busbequius his men thinking this Monk had onely deluded the eye takes the same iron in his hand which so burned his palm and fingers that he could not be healed again in many days This was done by the Monk saith Busbequius after he had put some thing in his mouth when he went ●orth into the Court pretending it was to seek a stone The same Authour witnesseth that he saw at Venice one who washed his hands in scalding lead and why may not the body be made to resist the fire as well as that kind of Linum called therefore Asbetinum by the Greeks and Linum vivum by the Latines Pancerol de Lin. vivo in which they used to wrap their Emperours bodies when they buried them that their ashes might not be mingled with the ashes of their fire this Linum being incombustible The Salamander also liveth sometime in the fire though not so long as some have thought Pyraus●● are gendred in the fire So Aristotle and Scaliger Nor must we think it fabulous as Dr. Brown too magisterially concludes Of Errors 7. Book c. 18. What is written of the Spartan Lad and of Scaevola the Roman who burned their hands without shrinking he doubts of the truth of this and yet makes no doubt of that which is more unlikely to wit of Saint Iohns being● in the Chaldron of scalding oyl without any hurt at all Book 7. c. 10. he that will question the truth of Scaevola's burning his hand and of Gurtius leaping into the burning gulf may as well question the broiling of Saint Lawrence on the Grediron or the singing and rejoycing of other Martyrs in the midst of their flames II. That in Ethiopia there is a people whose sole food are locusts is witnessed by Diodorus and S●rabo l. 4. c. 16. these from their food are called Acridophagi they are a lean people shorter and blacker then others they are short lived for the longest life among them exceedeth not 40 years Their Countrey affordeth neither fish nor flesh but God provides them locusts every Spring which in multituds are carried to to them from the Desart by the West and South-west winds these they take and salt for their use These wretched people die all of one disease much like our lousie sicknesse A little before their death their bodies grow scabby and itchy so that with scratching bloody matter and ugly lice of divers shapes with wings swarm out of their belly first then from other parts so that they pine away and die in great pain This disease doubtlesse proceeds partly from the corruption of the aire and partly from the unwholesomnesse of their diet which turns to putrid humours in their bodies whence the disease is Epidemical This vermin breeds most in those who are given to sweat to nastinesse and abound with putrified humours between the flesh and skin whose constitutions are hot moist as children and according as either of the four humours are predominant so is the colour of lice some being red some white some brown some black sometimes they burst out of all parts of the body as in Herod and in that Portugal of whom Forestus speaks l. 4. de vitiis capitis out of whose body they swarmed so fast that his two men did nothing else but sweep them off so that they carried out whole baskets full Sometimes they breed but in some parts onely as in the head or arm-pits Zacuta mentioneth one who was troubled nowhere but in his eie-lids out of which they swarmed in great numbers Some have voided them by boils and imposthumes Forestus speaks of one who had them only in his back whom he advised to hold his naked back so close to the

for about tenne years ago when my aged Father was giving up the ghost I came towards his beds side he suddenly cast his eyes upon me and there fixed them so that all the while I stood in his sight he could not die till I went aside and then he departed Doubtless the sympathy of affections and the imagination working upon the vital spirits kept them moving longer then otherwise they would have done so that the heart the seat of affection and the brain the hous of imagination were loth to give off and the spirits in them to rest from their motion so long as they had an object wherein they delighted The like I have read of others And truly the sympathy of affections and strength of imagination is admirable when the mind is able to presage the death or danger of a friend though a great way off This also I found in my self For once I suddenly fell into a passion of weeping upon the apprehension I took that my dear friend was dead whom I exceedingly loved for his vertues and it fell out accordingly as I presaged for he died about the same hour that I fell into that weeping fit and we were at that time 60 miles asunder nor could I tell certainly that he was dead till two days after Thus to some the death of friends is presaged by bleeding at the nose and sudden sadness by dreams and divers other ways which the learned Poet was not ignorant of when he saith Agnovit longe gemitum praesaga m●li mens AEn l. 10. So by the Greek Poet the soul is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a soothsayer of evil The cause of this the Gentiles ascribed to the Sun which they held to be the Soul and our souls sparks of that great Lamp A Plato●●cal conceit which thought mens souls to bee m●terial● we were better ascribe this to the information of that Angel which attends us V. That which Herodotus in Thalia c. 3. writes of this difference between the Persian and the AEgyptian skuls may be no fable for in the wars between them such as were killed on either side were buried apart after their bodies were putrified it was found that the Persian skuls were soft but the AEgyptians so hard that you could scarce break them with a stone The reason of this might be because the AEgyptians used from their childhood to cut their hair and to go bareheaded so that by the Sun their skuls were hardned Hence it was that few among them were found bald but the Persians who wore long hair and had their heads always covered must needs have had soft skuls by reason the humidity was kept in and not suffered to evaporate nor the Sun permitted to harden them CHAP. II. 1. The benefits of sleep and reasons why some sleep not 2. Why dead bodies after the ninth day swim Why dead and sleeping men heavier then others why a blown bladder lighter then an empty 3. Strange Epidemical diseases and deaths The force of smels The Roses smell 4. Strange shapes and multitudes of worms in our bodies 5. The French disease and its malignity The diseases of Brasil WHereas Sleep is one of Natures chiefest blessings for refreshing of our wearied spirits repairing of our decayed strength moistning of our feebled limbs as the Poet speaks fessos sopor irrigat artus Virg. AEn 3. 4. for easing of our diurnal cares Positi somno sub nocte silenti lenibant c●r●s corda oblita laborum And therefore is as Euripides cals it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the remedy of our evils And whereas in sleep the heart is at rest as Aristotle rightly said though Galen who understood him not checks him for it from feeling understanding and inventing though not from life and motion I say whereas by-sleep we have so many benefits it is a wonder that any should bee found to live a long time without sleep Yet I read in Fernelius Pathalog l. 5. ca. 2. of one who lived fourteen moneths without any rest And it is more strange what Heurinus Praxis l. 2. c. 7. records of Nizolius that painful Treasurer of Cicero's words and phrases who lived ten years without sleep Mecaenas was sleeplesse three years saith Pliny Laurentius in his Tract of Melancholy knew some who could not sleep in three moneths the reason of this might be 1. The heat and drinesse of the brain as is usual in decrepit and melancholy men 2. The spareness of 〈◊〉 so that no vapours could be sent up to moisten the brain or nerves 3. The want of exercise and motion for sedentary men are least given to sleep 4. Continual cogitation and intention of the phantasie 5. And adust melancholy humours 6. Accompanied with continual fears horrid and distemperate phantas●es representing to the mind unpleasant objects II. Why dead bodies after the ninth day swim upon the water may seem strange seeing till then they lie hid under the water Cardan de subtil l. 8. gives this reason Because between the Peritoneum and Omentum flatulent matter is ingendred as appears by the great swelling of the belly Now this flatulent matter is begot of humidity dissolved by heat which heat is procreated of putrifaction Besides we see that putrified bodies as eggs fruit wood grow light because their solid parts being consumed what remains are porous and full of air for experience teacheth us that the more porous and aereal the body is the lighter it is and lesse apt to sink and perhaps may bee the reason why that body which wants the Spleen swimmeth not being a porous light substance And those men who have capacious lungs to hold much air can dive and live longer in the water then others And surely some people whose bodies are active subtile and quick will not sink so soon as men of duller spirits Such were the Thebii a people which could not sink so that it is a vain way to conclude those to be Witches who do not presently sink Hence also it is plain that dead bodies are heavier then living though Dr. Brown of Errors l. 4. c. 7. contradict this because he found no difference between a Mouse and a Chick being dead and alive in respect of gravity A weak reason to reckon a received truth among his vulgar errors for though there were no sensible difference in such little animals which have but few spirits yet in men which are of a greater bulk in whom do abound vital and animal spirits to say there is no difference of gravity in their life and death is to contradict sense and reason for every woman that attends upon sick men knows that they are more pondrous when dead then when alive being used to lift and turn them Reason also grounded on experience teacheth us that those bodies are lightest in which air is predominant therefore doubtlesse where there is store of such pure and refined air as the spirits are there must be lesse gravity then where they are vvanting his

leg hanging upon a stake as if it had been the stalk of a lettice That vvas a monstruous fish vvhich Scaliger speaks of having a hogs head vvith tvvo horns and but one bone in all its body on vvhose back vvas a bunch resembling a saddle In the lake Amara of Ethiopia is a kind of Conger having a head like a toad and a skin of partie colours In the Ethiopian sea is a fish resembling a hog in his head and skin vvith long ears and a tail of tvvo foot in length No lesse monstruous is the Hippocampus a fish like a horse in his head and neck having a long main the rest of his body is like our painted dragons He speaks also of a fish like a leather purse vvith strings vvhich vvill open and shut There is a fish having the resemblance of a calves head vvith horns There are fishes that have four ranks of teeth and in every rank fifty teeth Rondoletius speaketh of fishes in vvhose bellies have been found men arm'd at all assaies The Uletif is a fish having a savv on his forehead three foot long and very sharp Thevet tels us ●f a fish in the Sarmatique sea having horns like those of a hart on the branches vvhereof are round buttons shining like pearl his eyes shine like candles he hath four legs long and crooked pavves vvith a long speckled tail like the tail of a Tigre his muzzle round like a cats vvith moustaches round about There are s●a serpents of tvvo hundred cubits long Some fishes have been found resembling mitred Bishops others hooded monks and divers more shapes there are but none more strange then that vve read of in the Storie of Harlem in Holland out of vvhose lake vvas fish'd a sea-vvoman vvhich by a spring tide had been carried thither vvhen she vvas brought into the Tovvn she suffered her self to be clothed and to be fed vvith bread milk and other meats she learned also to spin to kneel before the crucifix and to obey her Mistresse but she could nebe brought to speak and so remained for divers years dumb They that vvill see more of fishes let them read Aristotle Pliny Olaus Magnus Arbian Oppian Rondoletius Gesner Aldrovandus Belon and others CHAP II. 1. Publick and privat calamities presaged by owles 2. By dogs 3. By ravens and other birds and divers other ways 4. Wishing well in sneezing when and why used 5. Divers strange things in thunder-struck people THat destruction and mortality are oftentimes presaged by the skrieching of ovvles the houling of dogs the flocking together and combating of ravens and other birds and by divers other ominous signes is no Gentil superstition or Vulgar Error as Dr. Brown Book 4. c. 21. vvould have it but a truth manifested by long experience Lampridius and Mar●ellinus among other prodigies vvhich presaged the death of Valentinian the Emperor mention an ovvle vvhich sate upon the top of the house vvhere he used to bathe and could not thence be driven avvay vvith stones Iulius Obsequeus in his book of Prodigies c. 85. shevves that a little before the death of Commodus Antoninus the Emperor an ovvle vvas observed to sit upon the top of his chamber both at Rome and at Sanuvium Xiphlirus speaking of the prodigies that vvent before the death of Augustus saith that the ovvle sung upon the top of the Curia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. he shevvs also that the Actian war was presignified by the flying of owls into the Temple of Concord in the year 1542 at Herbipolis or Wirtzburg in Franconie this unluckie bird by his schrieching songs affrighted the Citizens a long time together and immediately follovved a great plague War and other calamities Pliny lib. 10. c. 12. shews that this abominable and funeral bird as he calls it portended the Roman destruction at Numantia and therefore one time being seen in the Capitol so affrighted the City that Rome vvas purified to prevent the evils vvhich that ovvle presaged Balthasar Cossa vvho vvas Pope and named Iohn the 24th vvas forevvarned by an ovvle that appeared over against him as he sat in Councel of the troubles vvhich justly fell on himself and by his means on others About 20 years ago I did observe that in the house where I lodged an Owl groaning in the window presaged the death of two eminent persons who died there shortly after Therefore not without cause is the owl called by Pliny Inauspicata funebris avis by Ovid Dirum mortalibus omen by Lucan sinister bubo by Claudian infestus bubo and the Prince of Poets among other ominous portenders of Q. Dido's death AEn 4. brings in the owls schrieching and groaning Solaque culminibus ferali carmine bubo Saepe queri longas in fletum ducere voces And in another place he makes the owl presage the death of Turnus AEn 12. Quae quondam in bustis aut culminibus desertis Nocte sedens s●rum canit importuna per umbras II. That dogs also by their howling portend death and calamities is plain by Historie and experience Iulius Obsequeus c. 122. sheweth that there was an extraordinary howling of dogs before the sedition in Rome about the Dictatorship of Pompey he sheweth also c. 127. that before the civil Wars between Augustus and Antonius among many other prodigies there was great howling of dogs near the house of Lepidus the Pontifice Camerarius tels us c. 73. cent 1. that some German Princes have certain tokens and peculiar presages of their death amongst others are the howling of dogs Capitolinus tels us that the dogs by their howling presaged the death of Maximinus Pausonius in Messe relates that before the destruction of the Messenians the dogs brake out into a more fierce howling then ordinary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we read in Fincellus that in the year 1553 some weeks before the overthrow of the Saxons the dogs in Mysina flock'd together and used strange howlings in the woods and fields The like howling is observed by Virgil presaging the Roman calamities in the Pharsalick War Obscaenique canes importunaeque volucres Signa dabant So Lucan to the same purpose Flebile saevi latravere canes and Statius Nocturnique canum gemitus III. By ravens also and other birds both publick and privat calamities and death have been portended Iovianus Pontanus relates two terrible skirmishes between the ravens and the kites in the fields lying between Beneventum and Apicium which prognosticated a great battel that was to be fought in those fields Nicetas speaks of a skirmish between the crowes and ravens presignifying the irruption of the Scythians into Thracia The cruel battels between the Venetians and Insubrians and that also between the Liegeois and the Burgundians in which above 30 thousand men were slain were presignified by a great combat between two swarms of emmets In the time of King Charls the 8 of France the battel that was fought between the French and Britans in which the Britans were overthrown was