9. Inquisition shall be made for the thoughts of the ungodly and the sound of the words shall come unto God for the correction of his iniquities Therefore beware of murmuring which profiteth nothing and refraine thy tongue from slander for there is no word so secret that shall goe for nought and the mouth that speaketh lyes slayeth the soule It is the counsell of the Wise man Eate not the bread of him that is envious or hath an evill eye neither desire his d 〈…〉 meates for as though he thought it in his heart bee will say Eate and drinke but his heart is not with thee thou sh 〈…〉 t vomit the â—arselâ— that thou hast 〈◊〉 and thou shalt lose thy sweet words c. The booke of Wisdome 〈◊〉 us that through Envy of the Devill came death into the world and they that hold of his side prove it therefore let us be advised by Saint Peter who in the second chapter of his first Epistle saith Wherefore laying aside all malitiousnesse and all guile and dissimulation and envy and evill speaking as new borne babes desire that sincere milke of the Word that yee may grow thereby c. But from the discovery of the foulenesse of the sinne I come now to shew what severall judgements have beene inflicted upon it And first to search forraine Histories before we come to fearefull and tragicall Examples moderne and domestick of our owne that the one may the better illustrate and set off the other I begin with that incestuous brood of Thebes the two brothers Eteocles and Polynices whose father Oedipus ignorant of his owne naturall parents and having first most unfortunately slaine his owne father and after retyring himselfe to Thebes by the solution of Sphinxes riddle married with his owne mother Iocasta neither of them knowing their proximity in bloud and by that match swayed the Kingdome together with those two before-named sonnes and two daughters Antigone and Ismene which he had by her But at length having knowledge of that incestuous match made with his mother he in griefe thereof with his nayles pulled out his owne eyes and she in despaire strangled her selfe after which the Kingdome falling to the two brothers They first agreed to raigne monethly and then yearely by turnes but soone after there grew such malitious envy betwixt them that whatsoever the one did in his regency the other when the power came into his hands utterly abrogated and disanull'd making new lawes to the former quite contrary which also lasted but a moneth for then the succeeder paid the resigner in his owne coyne Upon this grew faction and divers partisans on either side some favouring the one and some affecting the other in the end from threatnings and braves it came to battaile and blowes in which the two brothers encountering hand to hand in a single duell they interchangably slew one another whose envy in life was so irreconcilable and invererate that it appeared after their deaths for their two bodies being brought to be burnt in one funerall pile the very flame was seene to divide it selfe and burne in two parts suting to their opposite soules and contrary conditions Another Example of Gods Judgements against Envy Greece affordeth us Perseus the sonne of Philip King of Macedon but not that Philip who was father to Alexander the Great hee had an elder brother whose name was Demetrius a man of most approved honesty and imitable condition whose knowne vertues his younger brother of a malevolent and cumbred spirit much envying framed a most scandalous and detracting inditement against him pretending that he had privately insidiated his fathers life and Kingdom and sold them both unto his enemies the Romans of which by suborned witnesses he had made such proofe and bribing to that purpose prevailed so farre that he was convented convicted and condemned and most innocently suffered the rigout of the Law by having his head strooke off But the King having had notice of these barbarous and injust proceedings surprised with excesse of griefe died not long after and this malicious fratricide succeeded in the Kingdome who now having all things answerable to his own desires thinking Macedonia too narrow a limit for his unbounded ambition he in great presumption not onely opposed but invaded the Roman Empire whose envy and detraction against his brother God thus punished He drew him with all his puissant Army neare unto the river of Danubius where being encountred by the Roman Consul Aemilius he and his whole hoast were cut to pieces and utterly ruined insomuch that the power of the Macedonians being utterly confounded it became after subject and tributary to the Roman Empire and thus his defamatory destruction conspired against another fell upon his owne head and is still registred to his perpetuall shame and inflamy It is reported of the Roman Emperour Caligula who was a man of infinite vices that he never spared man in his rage not woman in his lust to whom sisters and strangers were alike he was so infected with this vice of envy that in contempt of the most noble families in Rome from the Torquati hee tooke the honour of wearing golden chains from the Cinâ—innats so called for their crisped and curled looks he tooke their haire and caused them to be shorne to the skull and so of others besides from 〈◊〉 Pompeâ—â—s he caused the denomination of Great to be taken away and Aesius Proculeus a very beautifull young man because hee was for feature and favour preferred before him he caused to be murdered for which and other like vices hee was deposed from the Imperiall purple and put to a most base wretched and ignoble death Antoninus and Geta were the two sonnes of the Emperour Severus betwixt whom he divided the Empire after his death To Antoninus was all Europe allotted and whole Asia was the possession and patrimony of Geta. Bizantium kept a great Garrison of Souldiers for Antoninus and Caloedon a Citie of Bythinia was the place of strength to which Geta trusted besides the two great Cities of Antioch and Alexandria were the Royall and Kingly feats for Geta and Mauritania and Numidia for Antoninus who was of a dangerous and divelish nature but Geta of a very curteous and affable temperature for which he was the more envyed by the Elder and his attrocities and inhumanities as much disaffected by the younger By which mutuall enmity those glorious victories which Severâ—s atchieved and after by concord and peace enjoyed to the great advancement of the Empire were now almost wholly ruined The Empresse their mother fore-seeing some great and eminent disaster gave them often very matron and pious admonitions exhorting them to unity and concord but her indulgent and wholesome counsell nothing prevailed with them for daily their discord hatred and bloudy practises increased and the one was so jealous of the other that they durst not eate nor drinke together for feare of poyson In this mutuall feare they continued till at the
length Antoninus grew so sicke of his brothers generall love and welfare that his ambition is now to be the sole possessour of the whole Empire and therefore in the dead of night with other of his assasinates he violently broke open his brothers chamber and basely murdered him even in the sight and presence of their mother not thinking hee was throughly dead till he had cut the head from the body This done he excused the fact to the Souldiers and with large donatives so insinuated into their favours that never was found who so much as repined at what was done nor was he sooner well seated in the Throne Imperiall but he caused all the friends well-wishers and acquaintance of Geta to be most cruelly put to death sparing neither degree age nor sex so that not one remained alive in the Common-weale of Rome most of the rich Senatours he caused to be slaine and their forfeited wealth he distributed amongst his Souldiers who supported him in all his villanies he slew his owne wife the daughter of Plantianus and the sonne of Pertinax and such was his hatred to Geta being dead that he destroyed all the Praefects Proconsuls Governours and Officers throughout Asia who had by him beene promoted to honour But after all his rapes incests and ryots murders and massacres as possest with all the horrid and abhominable vices that have any name As his life was detestable so was his death remarkable being in the midst of his sinnes without any repertance was most wretchedly slaine by his Souldiers at the instigation of Macrinus after Emperour Supplantation is one of the branches of Envy concerning which I have read an History to this purpose A Roman Emperour in those dayes before any Christianity was professed amongst them living in peace and tranquillity and no sedition or insurrection being made in any of his dominions so that the practise of Armes was quite left off and almost forgot This Emperour had a noble Prince to his sonne naturally inclined to prowesse and manhood and wholly addicted to martiall exercises But finding no imployment at home he had a great desire to know what milâ—tary exercises were abroad wherefore making choyce of one Gentleman to be his friend and companion whom hee valued as a second selfe furnisht with gold and treasure sufficient unknowne to any betooke themselves to sea and after much perillous navigation they landed in Persia at such time as the Soldan had warres with the Caliph of Aegypt The Prince with his companion concealing his birth and Countrey put himselfe under the Soldans service in which he so bravely demeaned himselfe that he grew remarkable through the Army and none in all the hoast was able to compare with him in daring or doing he so farre transcended them all insomuch that by his valour the Soldan had many brave victories and having but one onely daughter a Lady of incomparable beauty he had a secret purpose to take an advantage to bestow her upon him with all the Royalties of Scepter Sword Crowne and Dominion after his decease In processe it so happened that in a dreadfull battaile fought betwixt the Persians and Aegyptians the Soldan was mortally wounded in the eye with an arrow yet his body he yet living was safely brought to his Tent by this Roman Prince who before his death drew out a ring of great value and gave it unto him saying my onely daughter upon my paternall benediction hath vowed and sworne that whosoever shall deliver this ring from me to her shee will without any scruple or evasion accept him for her husband and this I freely bestow on thee and with these last words he expired Whose funerall being performed and by his death the warres ended the Prince with this ring retires himselfe with his companion towards Grand Kayre and by the way revealed unto his friend all that had past betwixt him and the Soldan concerning the Princesse and withall shewed him the ring who most perfidiously watching his opportunity in the night whilest the Prince was fast sleeping he stole away the ring and poasting to the Court presented it to the Lady who accepting both of it and him the false Imposter had her to wife and was crowned King of Persia. For which affront not able to right himselfe his great spirit was so afflicted that he grew into a dangerous and deadly feaver yet before his death he writ a Letter and sent it to his Father and the Senate in which he discovered the whole passage of the businesse as is before related and then died who by Embassadours informing the Queene and the State of Persia the truth of all which was confirmed by the dying Princes Letter The Impostor at length confessed all but because he had been their King the State would not put him to death or torture but delivered him to the Roman Embassadors to dispose of him at their pleasure who carrying him to Rome with the body of the dead Prince he was doomed to be shut alive into the Princes Sepulchre where the trayterous wretch most miserably finished his dayes A second to the like purpose wee reade in the History of the Popes which tells us that Pope Nicholas being dead one Celestine a man of a sincere and innocuous life and conversation was by a common suffrage advanced to the Papacie who bore himselfe with all humility and piety whose godly life one of the proud Cardinals envying and ayming to supplant him hee preferred a young kinsman of his to waite in his chamber who growing in favour with his Holinesse the Cardinall gave him a long trunke of brasse through which hee whispered in the Popes eare divers times when he was slumbering that it was Gods will and for his soules safety to resigne the Father-hood over to some others and himselfe to lead a private religious life which being often done took in him such impression as in a publike Consistory he told them what revelation he had from Heaven humbly desiring that with their good love and leave he might resigne his great charge and betake himselfe to a private and monastick life which motion this Cardinall seconded and by bribery and gifts having many friends and partisans on his side by his voluntary resignement was elected Pope in his steed by the name of Boniface Who now attaining to the height of his wishes and being feised of the tripple Diadem was not ashamed openly to boast how fraudulently hee came to that high Ecclesiasticall honour growing therewith more proud haughty and insolent insomuch that he pickâ— a quarrell with Lewis King of France and would have forced his personall appearance to acknowledge him for his supreame Father and Master which because the King denyed he excommunicated his Clergy and interdicted his Realme curfing him and his Subjects with Bell Booke and Candle But at length the King troubled and tyred with his so many contumacies sent a Knight called Sir Guillam de Langaret with a troope of
his hand made for the purpose and so rudely curried the Advocates naked body that he drew his eyes out tore off his stones and almost all the skin of his body The like he did to his wife though she were with child The Advocate dyed within three dayes after in great torment The Atturney transported himselfe to another place and his wife with much adoe recovering her rubbing spent the rest of her dayes there confounded with shame and infamy A Nobleman of Piedmont having married a Maid of mean parentage notwithstanding the honour she received by him she shamelesly abused her Lords bed by continuall Adulteries with a Gentleman his neighbour Which he knowing and purposing to take them in the act of uâ—cleannesse caused a packet of Letters to be brought him as from his Prince calling him to Court with an intent to send him in Embassage to a Forreine State Having imparted these Letters to his wife and providing all things necessary for his journey he departed with all his traine but at night stayes at a Castle of his to the Governour whereof he discovers his mis-fortune and designe and being followed onely by him and a Groome of his chamber all well armed in a darke night they came to the Castle where his Adulterate wife was in bed with her Amorist The Castellane told the Porter he had Letters from his Lord which he must presently deliver to his Lady The Porter opens the Gate and they suddenly all enter The Lord forbids the Porter to make any noyse but commanding him to light a Torch he presently goes to his Ladies chamber where the Castellane knocking toll'd an old woman her Baud that he had Letters from his Lord which his Lady must answer speedily This Lady drunke with her Lust commanded the old woman to open the doore and receive the Letters Then the Lord with the other two rushed in and suddenly seized on the two Adulterers naked together And after some furious words uttered he commanded his Lady with the helpe of her Baud to bind her Adulterate friend hand and foot and afterwards to hang him up upon a great Hooke fastned into a Beame for that purpose Then he caused the bed to be burnt commanding all the other moveables to be carried away he left onely a little straw for this Whore and Baud to lye on appointing that the dead body should remaine there untill the stink of it had choked them So having past some few dayes in that miserable plight they wretchedly ended their lives together Plutarch reckons this out of Dosythaus lib. 3. rerum saecularum Cyanippus the Syracusian being foxt with Wine meeting with his daughter Cyane in a darke corner by force comprest her but shee not knowing the party by whom she was deflowred pluck't off a Ring from his finger and gave it to her Nurse to keep which her Father after missing and shee finding by that assuredly that he was the man by whom she was vitiated shee found an opportunitie to transpierce him with a sword by which wound hee died and then shee her selfe fell on the same weapon and perish'd also The like Arisidas Italic lib. 3. relates of one Armutius who all the time of his youth lived a very continent and abstemious life but upon a time having drunke above measure he also in the night stuprated his daughter Medullinus who also knowing the ravisher by his Ring then taken from his Finger slew him without any respect of Filiall duty Fabinus Fabricanus the Cousin of Maximus having subdued Fuxia the chiefe City of the Samnites in which interim his Wife Fabia falling into the wanton embraces of her neare kinsman Petronius Valentinus at his home returne they conspired to murther him which having done they made a match together and were marryed But shee fearing that her new Husband might insiduate the life of her young Sonne Fabricianus who was then but a Childe she conveigh'd him thence to be liberally educated and instructed abroad who when hee grew to be a man and understood how treacherously and perfidiously his Father had been murdered and by whom he came disguis'd to Rome and having waited his opportunity slew both the Adulterer and the Adulteresse and for that act was acquit by the Senate One Story I connot forget remembred by Platine who writ the lives of the Popes though it be a mighty shame and a most ignominious aspersion not to exceed those in vertue whom we antecell in place and dignity yet this nothing mov'd Pope Iohn the twelfth of that name but that all honesty set apart and modesty quite banish'd he kept at his own charge a whole Seraglia of Prostitutes and Strumpets with whom night and day hee revelled and rioted which wickednesse escaped not without a most remarkable Judgement For he was after miserably slaine in the very act of Adultery Childebert the second and seventeenth King of France anno 692. grew in an utter detestation of his lawfull Wife and Queene Plectrude who was a Lady of a chaste and untainted life and divorc'd her from his Bed and Table in whose stead he received into his bosome one Alpayde a Gentlewoman of excellent Beauty and Feature but of a cruell and bloudy condition For when Lambert Bishop of Vtrecht a man of a strict life and austere conversation undertook boldly to lay his sinne before him and tell him the danger thereof notwithstanding hee had before restored him to his Episcopall See of which he had been before deprived shee having notice thereof could not rest in quiet till she had caused her Brother Dodon to kill this good Bishop which was done by the Kings consent For which neither of them escaped vengeance for Dodon dy'd despairing and mad and the King was strook after the acting of this murder with a disease of Wormes the stench wherof he not being able to endure threw himselfe headlong into the River of Mentz A strange and heavy Judgement for Wormes to eate his living flesh so that corruption did not altogether follow after death but contrary to nature hee rotted and his body putrified before death till the Worme of Conscience attended his soule a more miserable Death still attending a bad Life Philip the second sirnamed Augustus upon discontents repudiated his Queen Gelberge For which the King of Denmarke made complaint to the Pope of this injury done unto his Sister and the rather because neither Crime nor Delinquency nor the suspition of any could bee proved against her But this publike aspersion being cast upon her howsoever innocent must needs call her Honour into question which cannot bee but greatly to her harme and prejudice These things with other being alledged a day of hearing was appointed before the Popes Legate in the Bishops Hall at Paris where the Kings Cause was strongly maintained by the venters and Advocates but no one appeared in the poore Queenes defence insomuch that Sentence was ready to be pronounc'd against her and speedy
Souldiers who so well awaited their opportunity that as the Pope was riding from Avignon to one of his Castles in Provence called Poursorge he surprised him and brought him prisoner into France then put him into a strong Tower where for want of food he was forced to eate the flesh from his armes and so diedâ— of whom the story gives this Character That he estred into the Papacie like a Fox that he ruled like a Lyon and in the end died like a Dogge Nero Caesar who had all the seaven deadly sinnes predominant in him even in his minority and first comming to the Empire was in a high measure worthily asâ—â—â—st and branded with this horrid and abhominable vice of Envy who when Cesar Germanicus a Prince of great hope and expectation on whom all the eyes of Rome were fixt was made competitor with him in the Empite 〈◊〉 â—ligning his greatnesse and goodnesse though his neare kinsman he with his owne hands tempered a strong and moâ—â—â—serous poyson and most 〈…〉 ously inviting him to a feast in the height of all their 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 he caused that deadly draught to be ministâ—ed unto him which he had no sooner tasted but immediately he sunke from his seat and fell downe dead at the Table at which all the guests being startled and amazed Nero the master of the feast put it off with this sleight saying onely remove the body into some withdrawing roome and let it be buried according to the custome of Romans but how God revenged this and other his inhumanities you may reade in his wretched and unlamented death in the former Tractate expressed Macrinus who had murdered Antoninus the brother of Geta attaining to the Empire when he had raigned one yeare his head was cut off in Calcedon a Citie of Bythinia with his sonne Diadumenus whom in his life-time he had made competitor with him in the Empire Bassianus otherwise called Heliogabalus the sonne of Semiamira succeeded in the Empire He was first a Priest of the sunne and after by meanes of his grandmother Mesa a rich and potent woman was made Emperour who though a young man of an extraordinary aspect and feature able to attract the loves and affections of all men yet was he inwardly infected with the contagion of all the vices that could be named Insomuch that in all his actions he rather appeared a monster then a man so that hee grew not onely despised but hatefull to the people Which the wise Lady Mesa seeing and fearing his fall and in his her owne ruine as farre as she could she excused his grossest crimes laying the fault upon the tendernesse of his youth and wrought so that by his consent Alexianus who was the sonne of Mammea her daughter was admitted companion with him in the Empire which Alexianus after called Alexander Severus was a wise and prudent Prince whose vertue had gained him the generall love of the Senate and people for which Heliogabalus so envied him for vice and vertue are still in opposition that he made many attempts to poyson him which by the care of Mesa and Mammea were prevented But how was this envy punished The people seised upon Heliogabalus with his mother Semiamira and dragging their bodies through the chiefe streets of Rome having after torne them piece-meale would not affoord them the honour of buriall but cast their quarters into the common jakes that stood upon the river Tiber. Neither have women beene free from this rankorous sinne of Envy as appeareth by the story following and shall be made more apparant hereafter This Prince Alexander Severus afore-named all the time that his grandmother Mesa lived who suffered none but grave and wise men to be about him insomuch that no Emperour before or after him could be said to exceed him in all these attributes that belong to an Imperiall Monarch was both beloved and feared But she being dead his mother Mammea grew to that height of pride covetousnesse and envy that his indulgent sufferance of her ambition was a great and the sole blemish of his government who comming to maturity and the Empire now setled in his owne hands he tooke to wife a daughter of one of the most noblest Senators of Rome which was also by his mothers consent but when this Lady came to take upon her the state of an Empresse Mammea who challenged that title solely to her selfe malitiously envying her estate wrought so that first the father of the new Empresse was put to death and so terrible was her commandement and her Majestie so much dreaded that she banished both from the Court and the bed of the Emperour the innocent Empresse unto the uttermost coasts of Africa Thus was Alexander out of a milde and gentle nature swayed and over-ruled by his mother which was the occasion of both their ruines for Maximiâ—us a Thracian borne of base parentage his father being a shepheard and preferred by Alexander to eminent place in the warres taking the advantage of the murmuring of the people and souldiers and the covetousnesse and envy of the mother most treacherously conspired against his Lord and Master the same barbarously and cruelly flew them both and by their death aspired unto the Imperiall purple The French Chronicles speake of one Prince Cranne the sonne of Clotharius who having raigned forty five yeares at Soissons now called the Belgick Gant upon the decease of his elder brother Childebert who died without issue male was proclaimed the seventh King of France This Cranne on whom that may be truly construed of the Poet Filius ante diem patrios inquirit in annos was sicke of his fathers life envying and grieving that he kept him so long from the Crowne but wanting meanes to make him away privately by poyson or the like because his servants about him were faithfull and not to be corrupted he therefore opposed him by publike hostility incensing his Unkle Childebert against him who supported him in all his insolencies against his father But Childebert being dead and he now wanting his great support was forc't to mediate his peace with his father who upon his submission tooke him to grace and gave him his free pardon But his former heart burning envy still boyling in his breast he fell into a second rebellion yet finding the successe of his bad attempts to grow still worse and worse as his last refuge hee fled to the Prince or Duke of the Brittons whom some call Conobee others Canubo who undertooke to secure him from the pursute of his father Whereupon Clotharius with his Army invaded that Countrey and joyned battaile with the Prince and his sonne in which the Brittons lost the day their Army was routed the Prince slaine and Cranne taken prisoner of whom his father having seised hee caused him to be shut up in an house and with his wife and children to be burnt to death a just judgement from heaven but a cruell sentence from a father who that very day twelve-moneth
expeditions hee had alwayes a steele bow ready bent and what souldier soever but stept out of his ranke hee instantly strooke him dead with an arrow glorying to himselfe that he was so good a marks-man But after these and infinite other cruelties hee that delighted to see men die like Beares was himselfe in the end torne in pieces with wilde Wolfes being paid in the like though not in the same coyne which hee lent to others Suiting to which is that story of Perillus who hearing that Phalaris the Tyrant over the Agrigentines was much delighted in the severall wayes of tormenting men and presuming that nothing could better comply with his cruelty then to present him with some rare and unheard of machine to that purpose he devised and forged by his Art a brazen Bull to open on the one side and shut againe at pleasure which being brought to Phalaris he demanded of him the use for which it was made who answered him again he had forged it to punish offendors of high nature for saith he let the naked body be put in at this doore and then an hot fire made under it the person tormented will not utter the voyce of a man to put a telenting commiseration upon you but the sound will appeare like the bellowing of a Bull to make it the lesse terrible which Phallaris hearing and grieving in his ambitions evill that any should offer to out-doe him in his cruelty He told the workeman that he accepted of his gift but commanded withall that he should make proofe of his owne worke which was instantly done and he most miserably tormented in his owne engine for who more fit to taste of tortures then they that have the inhumanity to devise them and they by Gods Justice meritedly suffer themselves what they devise for others of which Oâ—id speakes thus Ipse Perillaeo Phalaris permisit in are Edere mugitus bovis ore queri The purpose this All that the Workeman by his Art did gaine He in his owne brasse bellowed out his paine Amongst these bloudy minded men let me give you a taste of some no lesse cruell women Parisatis the mother of Cyrus Iunior not content with inflicting ordinary and common torments upon the bodies of men devised with her selfe a new and unheard of way how to put men to a lingring death by putting wormes unto them being alive and so to beâ—d evoured And Irene the Empresse and wife of Leo the fourth caused her owne sonne Constantinus Sextus first to be cast in prison next to have his eyes torne out of his head and lastly to die in a dungeon Fulvia the wife of Antony one of the Triumuirat after her husband had caused the head of Marcus Cicero to be cut off he commanded it to be brought home to him and plac't upon his Table and when he had for a whole day glutted his revengefull eyes with the sight thereof he sent it to his wife Fulvia who no sooner saw it but as if it had still enjoyed the sence of hearing rail'd upon it with many bitter and despightfull words and having tyred her selfe with maledictions and womanish taunts she tooke the head into her lap and calling for a knife she with her owne cruell hands cut out the tongue once the pride and glory of Eloquence and with the pinnes from the tyre of her head prickt it full of holes as if it had still beene sensible of paine till she had fully â—â—ted her spleene and cruelty Tomyris Queene of the Scythians after she had taken Cyrus King of Persia in battaile when he was brought unto her presence she first caused a great and large Tombe to be filled with the bloud of his slaine subjects and then commanded his head to be cut off and cast there in which done she tauntingly said Now Cyrus drinke bloud enough in thy death which in thy life time thou hast so much thirsted after Dirce a Theban woman when she understood that her husband Lycâ—s was inamored of Antiope the daughter of Nictâ—â—s in her pestilent jealousie she caused the Virgine to be surprised and being in her power she commanded her to be first bound unto the head of a wilde Bull and then made fire to be fastened to his hornes by which he being the more inraged ran madly through woods and over rocks untill her body was miserably torne in pieces Alike if not more bloudy minded was Amos 〈…〉 the wife of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 jealous of the wife of Masista president over the Baâ—â—rians in his absence most cruelly butchered her causing first both her breasts to bee cut off which she cast to the dogges to be eaten then her nose eares lippes and tongue to be throwne into the fire and all these torments she endured being yet alive Progne the daughter of Pandion King of Athens having by her husband Terenus King of Thrace a sweet young Prince called Itis because her husband had ravished her sister Philomel and cut out her tongue because shee should not reveale the incestious Act of this having notice she in an unworthy revenge slew her sonne whom the King much loved and having cookt his limbes with sundry sawces she set them before his father who eate thereof and after because he should be sensible of what he had done in the last course she served in his head Tullia the wife of Tarquinus sirnamed Superbus the proud and daughter to Servius then King of the Romans when her father was by her consent slaine in the Capitoll and his body throwne in the streets she riding that way in her Chariot when the horses stopt their course and the driver stood amazed she compelled him to drive over her fathers body with whose bloud and braines her coach-wheeles were stained yet was shee so farre from being daunted that she was said to rejoyce highly in the Act. Yet for this accident so hatefull it shewed to all the multitude that the very street where this was done is called Vicus sceleratus the impious or wicked street even to this day Now if any shall taxe my promise in the title of this worke and say True it is that these were very bloudy and cruell women and their horrid Acts worthy both to be condemned and hated of all people whatsoever but where are the Judgements or what were the punishments inflicted upon them I answer It is not to be doubted but all or most of these suffered by the heavy hand of God in this life and that remarkably howsoever the ancient Remembrancers and Chronologers of those times forgot to leave the manner and particular circumstances of their ends in that to give the World a more full satisfaction But howsoever of this I am assured that no greater Judgement can be imposed upon any man-slayer or murderer than to have his or her name branded to all posterity Their actions as they were prodigious so their very memories are to be made hatefull and abhorrid of all Caligula the Roman Emperour when his
death of Marius for commanding his body to be burnt he sprinkled and threw his ashes into the river Anien after all which and many more his bloody executions he was strook by the hand of God with the lowsie disease so that his living body crawled with vermin in so much that before his death his houshold servants were almost stifled with the stench of his carcase such or the like are the terrible judgements of God against these proud Nimrods mighty Giants and great hunters of the earth to day in their pride and pontificalibus glorying in their oppressions and persecutions and to morrow worse than any carrion of beast stinking in the grave their memories being as hatefull to the hearing as their corrupt putrefaction to the smell I have hitherto spoken of cruell and bloody Tyrants let me treat a little of Ire or Wrath it self for they are sinonima's since all these are but siens growing from that stocke Anger and power meeting in one breast are more violent than any thunderbolt wrath and revenge take from man the mercy of God destroying and quenching that Grace which he hath before-time given Anger consisteth in habit and disposition but Ire and Wrath indeed and effect Hasty and froward speeches beget Anger Anger being kindled begets Wrath Wrath seeketh greedily after Revenge and Revenge is never satisfied without blood which blood is never shed without just vengeance from Heaven as may be made apparant by many pregnant examples For instance Clâ—tarius smothering in his breast the seeds of ranker and malice for the space of ten yeares against Galterus Rhothomanges when that most holy day cald the Parasceve in which our blessed Saviour suffered death for all mankind slew him as he was at his devotion upon his knees in an holy Chappell in Paris for so the French Chronicles report who for that horrid act was after fearfully punished in himselfe and his issue The like hath often happened in the Temples of Italy betwixt that imbestuous faction of the Guelfs and the Gibbelines who made no conscience of person or place but in the time of divine Service have pistolled one another in their pewes as they were kneeling at their prayers when the Church hath been full of drawn swords to the disturbing of the whole Congregation making no more reverence of the place than a slaughter-house or shambles upon whose but cheries God inflicted such vengeance that the one party quite destroyed the other till they were mutually cut off and utterly extinguished Such is the irreligious boldnesse of some that I heard a Scotishman of note soon after King Iames came into the Land speak in the company of prime Gentlemen after this manner Such a one killed my brother and I could not meet him in seven yeares after but at length espying him in the Church on a Sabbath-day my fury could not contain it selfe but even where he sate I shot him with my pistoll and slew him and the arrant puritans saith he would have excomunicated me for nothing else but for killing him who had before killed my brother But though men make slite of these atheisticall and sacrilegious butcheries that God who made man after his own Image and all men of one and the selfesame earth and clay will not let them escape his fearfull and terrible judgements Neither have the holy Fathers the Popes been altogether free of this sin of Ire and implacability for we reade in their own Chronicles that upon the day when the Sacra Cineritia were celebrated that was upon Ash-wednesday in which is used great solemnity when the great Presbiters and Cardinals according to the custome came to kneel to Pope Boniface to receive the ashes he took the ashes and vessell in which they were contained and in great rage flung them in the face of Prochetus Archbishop of Genoa with whom he was at oddes and hated him exceedingly and changing his words of exhortation and benediction he violently brake out into this language Remember O thou man that thou art of the faction of the Gebelines and with those Gibelines thou shalt die for he was of that party and enemy to the Guelfs whom the Pope favoured Stephanus Sextus because Formosus upon his death-bed would not set his hand to his election who was Pope before him when he came to be instated in the Papacy he commanded him to be plucked out of his sepulcher and buried in the Church-yard causing his fingers first to be cut off and so basely dismembred him being dead for refusing to subscribe for him being alive With the like malevolent hatred also did Sergius the third prosecute the same Formosus who again commanded his body to be taken out of the second Grave and brought it into the Forum or publike Rialto when the head was cut from the body and cast into the river Tiber and this he did to insinuate into the favour of Lotharius King of France to whom Formosus living was in great opposition Divers other examples of the like malitious nature I could extract out of their Annals and those remembrancers who have writ the lives of the Popes which for brevity sake I omit but am confident withall that these evil presidents from the Clergy whose light should shine to others have been a great encouragement to the Laity to offend in the like who for the most part paterne their actions be they good or evill by their teachers and instructers Mahometes Otomanus the Grand Seignior missing but two Cucumers out of his Garden in his returne home after solacing himselfe abroad he in his rage slew two of his Catamites with his own hands being young boyes of choice feature and beauty And Commodus was of that fiery indignation that when he came into the Bath to wash himselfe and found it somewhat more hot than usuall he commanded the Bath-keeper to be thrown into the fornace and there burnt to ashes And Quintus Metellus was of such a testy and cholericke disposition that having lived some yeares as Consul and Proconsull in Spain when he heard by the decree of the Senate of Rome Pompeius whom he much hated was to succeed him in his command and soveraignty his anger grew so violent that he diminished his army and made all the Magazine of Grain and provision of victuall a spoil and prey to the souldiers he caused all the Bowes and Arrowes in the Army to be broken and knapt asunder forbidding the Horses and Elephants to have their ordinary and customed food and fare not leaving him at his arrivall any one thing of any moment wherewith he might succour or relieve either himselfe or his Army Prâ—merus a domesticke servant of Archelaus King of Macedonia with such an intestine hatred persecuted Euripides that one night he watched him when he came late from supper with the King and in the way let loose fierce Mastiffes upon him by which he was most miserably torne to pieces Such also was the grounded and inveterate hare of the
the City called Dominica sent to parle with him and made a covenant for a mighty great sum of money to betray it into his hands which Brennus according to the composition entred and after sacked and spoiled and standing at one of the great gates to receive the reward he willing to keep his promise and yet in his heart detesting the avarice of the woman caused so much gold and treasure to be thrown upon her till under the huge masse she was buried alive Near allied to the former is the story of Tarpeia one of the vestall virgins in Rome who having covenanted with Sabine the enemies to the Romans to betray unto them the Capital for the bracelets they wore on their left arme which were very rich and costly they when they were entred and had possession of the place in stead of their bracelets and carcanets threw upon her their shields and targets worne of their left armes and so stiâ—â—ed smothered and pressed her to death in memory of whose soul and traiterous act grounded on Covetousnesse the Hill where she was buried is called The Tarpeian Mountain even to this day and this hapned in the year of the world 2305. Europhites was likewise the wife of Amphiâ—rus who for a carcanet of gold given her by Pâ—linyces betrayed her husband and discovered him in the place where he had hid himselfe because he would not go to the The 〈…〉 warres because it was told him by the Oracle that there he should assuredly die for which he left a strict charge with his son Alemaâ—â— that he should no sooner hear of his death but he should instantly kill his mother which Orestes-like he performed and proved a Maâ—â—icide to performe the will of his deceased father Thus you see not one of these three escaped a fearfull judgement Of contrary disposition to these was the virgin Placidia daughter to the Emperour Valentintanut and Eudosia who neglecting all her fathers riches and honours abandoned the vanities of the world and betook her selfe to a devout and sequestred life As the like did Elburga daughter to Edward King of England a Saxon and had the sirname of Seignior or the elder Edward And if we look no further than to this City London the Metropolis of the Kingdom how many pious and devout matrons hath it yeelded even from antiquity to this present who have contributed largely to the erecting and repairing of Temples building of Almes-houses and Hospitals erecting schooles for learning maintaining poore Ministers in preaching in giving liberally towards Halls leaving stockes to set up young beginners and bequeathing legacies for poor maides marriages and these not for the present but to the end of the world For which God be praised and daily increase their number but this is directly averse to the argument now in agitation which is Covetousnesse If it be dangerous to be rich even to him that knowes how to use his wealth how much more fearfully perillous then for him that hath abundance of all worldly fortunes and knows only how to abuse them Caesar being in Spain extorted great summes of money most injustly from the Proconsul there and certain Cities of the Lusitanians though they neither offended him nor violated any covenant with them yet when they friendly set open their gates to receive him as their patton and defender he spoiled their houses made seisure of their goods and even the Temples of the gods he sacrilegiously robbed it being his custome to rifle Cities not for any fault committed but for the certain prey expected In the first year of his Consulship he stole for no better attribute my Author giveth it 〈◊〉 thousand pound weight of gold out of the Capitol he moreover sold societies liberties and immunities nay even Crownes Scepters and Kingdomes for gold he also defrauded King Pâ—olomeus of six thousand talents at one time in his own name and Pompeys before they were at distance Eutropius writes that Flavius Vespatianas was wretchedly corrupted with this vice and evermore gaping after gold who at his comming to the Empire called in all those debts and impositions which were remitted or forgotten by his predecessour Galba to which he added new taxes more grievous and burdensom than the former he increased all the tributes in the Provinces and in some doubled them and for the avidity of money would sit upon all triviall and common causes such with which a private man would have been ashamed to have troubled himselfe to the â—anditates 〈◊〉 fold honours and to the guilty of any notorious act pardonâ— his custome was to raise procurators such as were the most â—apacious to great and gainfull Offices for no other cause but that 〈◊〉 they were â—â—ll he like a spunge might squeeze them by forfeiting their whole ill-gotten estate into his own hands neither was he ashamed to raise money out of urine for so saith Suetonius Thus we see what a monster money can make of the most mighty and potent men Sergius Galba who was Emperour in the year of our Redemption 71. Those Cities of Spain and France who were most constant to the Roman Empire upon them he imposed the most grievous exactions and tributes he rob'd the statâ—e of Iupiter of his crown of fifteen pound weight in gold the souldiers who desired the Roman Eagle and military Ensignes he decimâ—ted and tythed dismissing nine parts and to save charges reserved the tenth onely the German Cohorts appointed by the Caesars to be the Guard of their bodies as most intrusted next their persons he quite dissolved and sent them empty handed into their Countries without any reward at all he was moreover of that parsimony that if at any time he had at his table more fare than ordinary he would horribly repine at it forgetting the state of an Emperour and say that it was money expended in waste he said openly for his own part he could content himselfe with a dish of pulse or pease as sufficient to content nature Of the like penurious disposition was Didius Iulianus Emperour who made a Law called Did 〈…〉 x to restrain the excesse in banqueting who for his Imperiall table would make a pig or an hare to serve him for three severall suppers when his dinner was nothing else but a few olives and herbes Which abstinence had been very commendable had it been for continence sake and not the avaritious desire to save money And Aelius Pertinax was of that frugality that he would set before his guests onely an halfe sallad of lettice and thistles two sops and a few apples or if he would exceed at any time in his diet he would feast them with a leg or a wing of a hen And these two last Emperours may compare with the former who notwithstanding all his masse of wealth wrestingly and injuriously purchased was wretchedly murdered by his souldiers in the sixty third year of his age after he had reigned onely seven moneths and seven dayes Many others are for this sin
of Augustus Caesar was a man of a most perdit obscenenesse practised in that superlative degree of filthinesse that scarce any age could produce a prodegy to paralell him modesty will not suffer me to give them name And Tegillinus according to Tacitus lib. 17. was a man of a most corrupted life who soothed and humoured Nero in all his ribaldries his sirname was Othonius by whose flattery and calumny many a noble Roman was put to death and when Otho who succeeded Nero came to wear the Imperiall purple and to be instated Emperour he sent amongst other malefactours for him to suffer as a putrified and corrupt member of the State and when the executioner with other lictors and officers came to surprise him in his house they found him drinking and rioting amongst his catamites and harlots where without limiting any time either to settle his estate or to take leave of any of his friends he was instantly slain and his wounded body cast into the open streets Crassus the richest of the Roman fathers after the death of one of his brothers married his wife by whom he had many children And Surinus the wealthiest and most potent of the Parthians next to the King had in his tents two hundred concubines at one time And Xerxes King of Persia was so given over to all licentiousnesse and luxury that he hired pursuivants and kept Cursors and messengers in pay to inquire and finde out men who could devise new wayes of voluptuousnesse and to them gave great rewards for so Valerius Maximus reports of him And Volateranus remembers us of one Vgutius a Florentine Prince who was slain of his Citizens and Subjects for stuprating their wives and vitiating their virgins Thus seldom we see this vice to go unpunished Nor is it particular to the masculine sex as the sole provocatours hereof but women have been equally and alike guilty We reade in Genesis of Potiphars wife who solicited Ioseph to her adulterate embraces who because he refused to commit such villany and to offend both God and his master she accused him to his Lord that he would have done to her violence for which he lay two years in prison But from prophane Histories we have many examples For Iulia Agrippina the mother of Nero was said to have unlawfull congresse with Domitian for so Iuvenal saith nay more after feasting and banqueting in the heat of her cups when she with her son were together topt with wine they commonly used incestuous consociety the conclusion of which impious lust was that the son in the end having caused his mother to be slain commanded her body to be dissected and ript open before his face as longing to see the bed wherein he lay when he was an unborne infant She was the daughter to Germanicus sister to Caligula the wife first of Domitius after of Clodius whom she poysoned for no other cause but to make Nero her son Emperour and you hear how well he requited her A chicken of the same brood was Messalina the daughter of Messala and the wife and Empresse of Claudius Caesar a woman of a most insatiate lust whose custome was to disguise her selfe like a private Gentlewoman so that she might not be known and with her pandor ushering her to walke unto common stewes and brothell-houses and there prostitute her selfe to all commers whosoever nay she was not ashamed to contend with the ablest and strongest Harlot in the City for masterie whence also shee returned rather tyred then satisfied nay more she selected out of the noblest Wives and Virgins to be eye witnesses and companions in her filthinesse whither men also were not denied accesse as spectators against all womenly shame and modesty and if any noble Gentleman of whom she seemed to be enamoured refused or despised her profered imbraces shee would feigne and devise some crime or other to be revenged on him and his whole familie Pliu. lib. 29 tels us That one Vectius Valius a notable Physitian was nobilitated meerly for pandthering to her luxuries Fabia the Wife of Fabrius Fabricanus grew greatly besotted on the love of a faire young Gentleman call'd Petroninus Valentinus who the more freely to injoy in her petulant imbraces caused her husband to be traiterously murdred But being in regard of the high measure of the fault complain'd upon by her husbands Kinred and Friends shee was convicted by the Iulian Law and suffered according to the penalty thereof Martiall reckoneth up as notorious Strumpets and Adulteresses Leviana Paula Proculina Zectoria Gallia as Catullus remembreth us of Austelina and Iuvenall of Hyppia Zoe one of the Roman Empresses caused her husband Arginopilus to be slaine to adulterate her selfe with Michael Paleologus but who shall read of both their ends shall finde that they were most wretched and miserable As these for Scortation and Adultery so others have been notoriously infamous for Incest Giddica the Wife of Pomminius Laurentinus grew into such an extreme dotage of her sonne in law Comminius that not able to compasse her unchaste desires and her Incestuous love being discovered to her husband shee dispairingly strangled her selfe of which death also Phoedra alike besotted on her husbands sonne Hippolitus perished Papinius the sonne of Papinius Volucris had a beautifull Sister whose name was Canusia These two spending their childhood together as their yeares so their naturall affection increased insomuch that the one thought nothing to deer for the other their love being mutuall and alternate not guilty of the least Impious thought or immodest apprehension but when they came to maturity new thoughts began to grow and fresh temptations to arise to which in their minority they were altogether unacquainted and now they could not sollace themselves without sighing nor frame any mirth but mixt with melancholly both were sick and of one disease but neither had the boldnesse to discover the nature of their malady and thus they continued for a season In the meane time the Father had found out a noble match for his Sonne but he put it off with evasions and could not bee wonne to lend a willing eare to the motion The Mother also had sought an Husband for her daughter to which shee was quite averse alledging her youth and unripenesse of yeares and so both the motions had a cessation for a time without any suspition in which interim the incestuous fire burst out into a flame which in the end consumed them both for the Sister was found to be great with Childe by the Brother which a length comming to the knowledge of the Father he grew inraged beyond all patience neither could his wrath be mitigated or appeased by the teares of the Mother or mediation of any friend but his constant resolution was they both should die yet not willing to imbrue his own hands in their bloud he devised another course causing two swords to be made the own he sent to his son Papinius the other to his
daughter with no other message then this you must not live which the wretched creatures understanding knowing the austeritie of their Father and his constancy in his resolutions hee fell upon the one and shee on the other and so miserably ended their lives Iulia was the step-Mother of Antonius Caracalla Emperour of the Romans who having cast many wanton glances towards her and she reciprocally answering them at length when they were in familiar discourse together he brake forth into these words vellem si liceret I would if it were lawfull whose meaning she soone apprehending suddenly answered again and without pause si lubet licet leges dat Imperator non accipit if you like it is lawfull Emperours make Lawes but are tide to none with which words being emboldned he first contracted and then publikely married her notwithstanding some few dayes beforehe had caused her owne sonne Geta to be put to death and this is related by Sextus Aurelius and by Aeliâ—â— Spartanus Amongst these Incestuous is listed Capronia the vestall Virgin who for her offencâ— was strangled Semiramis was the wife of Ninus King of Assyria who after she had caused her husbands death and fearing lest so great and warlike a people would not be govern'd by one of her Sex shee tooke upon her the masculine shape of her Sonne whom she had altogether brought up in delicacie and effeminacy and in his name she raigned for the space of fourtie two yeares conquering the most part of Asia and erecting many famous Cities But Babylon she made her chiefe place of residence who also hedged or walled in the vast River Euphrates turning the channell and compelling it to run through the great City yet according to Diodorus lib. tertio shee grew to bee of that venerious and libidinous disposition she did not onely admit but hire and inforce divers of the youngest and ablest Souldiers to her lascivious and incontinent imbraces and further as Trogus Pompeius lib. 2. hath left remembred shee laboured to have Carnall congression with her sonne Ninus whom she concealed in her Pallace and whose shape she adulterated for which setting all Filiall respect and obedience aside hee slew her with his owne hands and after raigned in her stead A young Spanish Maid having prostituted her selfe to a Gentleman upon promise of marriage she being of meane parentage he married another which comming to her eare she vowed his death and the better to effect it preswaded him by flattering Letters to come againe and see her which he did and although at first she received him with teares and cornplaints yet seeming at last to be satisfied with some reasons he alledged she permitted him to use the same privitie with her as before and so to bed they went together but when he was asleepe she cruelly murdered him having first bound him so fast with a Cord that he could not make any resistance using also divers cruelties against the dead body before the heat of her rage could be extinguished For the which she also suffered death having first voluntarily accused her selfe A Gentleman of Millan a Widower tho of 60 yeares of age fell in love with a young Wench Daughter to a Farmer his Tenant whom he bought for ready money of the wretched Father to serve his Lust. This Strumpet growing impudent after a while fell in love with the eldest son of this Gentleman being about twentie yeares old and in the presence of a Cousin of hers who was her Baud she discovers her whole heart to him seeking by teares and sighs to draw him to commit Incest But the Gentleman having more grace sharply reprehended and threatned both her and her Companion Wherefore to excuse this her shamelesnesse as soone as the Father returned she complaines to him saying That his sonne had sought three or foure times to corrupt her which he beleeving and meeting his sonne at the staires head ranne furiously at him with his sword drawne and the sonne to shun that danger leapt backward downe the staires and brake his neck The Father following and finding him dead after cryes of fury and despaire in detestation of his former wicked life fell upon his owne sword and so dyed The Strumpet hearing by the fearfull cryes of the servant what had hapned pursued by the just judgement of God she runnes toward a Well neere the house into which she threw her selfe and was drowned The she Baud being apprehended and racked confesseth the whole plot and was therefore justly executed her body and the young Strumpets being hanged in the open aire as a prey for ravenous Birds Nicholas Prince of Opolia was so monstrously given to corrupt wives and maids that none were safe that came neere him for which God punished him in this manner Being at Nice in an assembly of the States of Silesia called by Cassimer Prince of that Countrey it hapned that one in his presence brought a packet of Letters to Prince Cassimer which being opened he delivered to the Bishop of Nice to read Which Nicholas seeing and his former beastly wickednesse causing him to imagine it was some partie made against him to seize upon his life suddenly drew his Dagger and desperately runnes against Cassimer and the Bishop whom he wounded tho but lightly for that being in open Court many Nobles and Gentlemen defended them Nicholas failing of his purpose saves himselfe in the Sanctuary from which he was drawne by the Bishops command and brought backe into the assembly by whom he was justly condemned for this and many other notorious Crimes and the next day was publiquely beheaded and his naked body as a reproch of his former wickednesse exposed to the view of all men A Burgesse of Ulmes finding his wife wantonly given did often advise her to carry her selfe in a more modest and civill sort But she not regarding his admonitions and he more and more suspecting her dis-honesty on a time he made a shew to goe into the Countrey but suddenly slipt back into his house without discovery and privately hid himselfe yet so that he saw his servants busied in preparing a feast and the Adulterer and his wife imbracing each other Yet he retained himselfe till after supper when seeing them enter the chamber to goe to bed together using filthy speeches the witnesses of their wickednesse he suddenly stepping out first killed the Adulterer and then his wife and having justified his proceedings before the criminall Judges he obtained pardon for the same An Advocate of Constance having had the carnall knowledge of an Atturnies wife of the same Citie which the Atturney suspecting pretends a journey into the Countrey but returning at night he heard they were together in a Hot-house in an old womans house that dwelt by him whereupon he goes thither with three of his friends which he left in the street to hinder any that should come to helpe them then entring the house with a strong Curry-combe in
One Albidinus a young man of a most perdit and debaucht course of life when he had consumed all his Lands Goods and Jewells and exhausted all his estate even to one house he with his owne hands set that on fire and despairing of any future fortune left the City and betaking himselfe to the sollitude of the woods and groves hee in a short space after hang'd himselfe Lucullus a noble Roman in his Praetorship govern'd Africk two severall times he moreover overthrew and defeated the whole forces of King Mithridâ—tâ—s and rescued his Colleague Cotta who was besieged in Calcedon and was very fortunate in all his expeditions but after his greatnesse growing an eye-sore to the Common-weale he retired himselfe from all publike Offices or Imployments to his owne private Fields where he builded sumptuously sparing for no charge to compasse any rarity that could bee heard of and had in his house he made a very rich Library and plentifully furnish'd with Books of all sorts And when he had in all things accomodated his house suiting with his owne wishes and desires forgetting all Martiall Discipline before exercised hee wholly betooke himselfe to riotous Commessations and gluttonous Feasts having gotten so much spoyle and treasure in the Warres that it was the greatest part of his study how most profusely to spend it in peace It is reported of him that Pompey and Cicero one night stealing upon him with a self-invitation to supper he caused on the suddaine a Feast to be made ready the cost whereof amounted to fifty thousand peeces of silver the state of the place the plenty of meat the change and variety of Dishes the costly sawces the finenesse and neatnesse of the Services driving the guests into extraordinary admiration Briefely having given himselfe wholly to a sensuall life his high-feeding and deep quaffing brought him to such a weaknesse that hee grew apoplex'd in all his senses and as one insufficient to governe either himselfe or his estate hee was committed to the keeping of M. Lucullus his neare Kinseman dying soon after Caesar the sonne of Pope Alexander was one of those who much doted on his belley and wholly devoted himselfe to all kinde of intemperance who in daily Breakfasts Dinners afternoon sittings Suppers and new Banquets spent five hundred Crowns of the same not reckoning Feasts and extraordinary Invitations For Parasites Buffoones and Jesters he allowed yearely two thousand suits of Cloathes from his Ward-robe He maintained also a continuall army of eight thousand souldiers about him and all this hee exhausted from his Fathers Coffers And Galentius the sonne of Iohn Galentius the first Duke of Imsubria was ranked amongst these great Rioters who cared not at what expence he was so he might see the Tressells of his Tables ready to bend under the waighty and gluttonous dishes that were plac'd upon them who at one Feast made at the Celebration of his Daughters marriage at which Petrarch the learned Italian Poet was present spent an hundred thousand Peeces of money which might be rated to the value of a Spanish Piece of Eight or a Dutch Ricks Doller One Peter a Priest and Cardinall in the time when Syxtus was Pope in the space of two yeares was knowne to lavish and waste three hundred thousand Double-Duckets rated at twelve shillings English the piece upon vanities and unnecessary disbursements the greatest part of which was consumed in his Kitchin and Seller the rest in sundry kindes of excesse and prodigality I read also of one Belflorius by Nation a Sicilian at first of very meane and low Fortunes but after by parsimony being a Banker and an Vsurer attaining to an infinite and almost incredible estate hee did not take the common course of your avaritious money-masters to imprison it in strong and Iron-barr'd Chests but cleane contrary hee built him a faire and goodly house and when it grew up somewhat above the Sellerage and Foundation in stead of Stone or Bricke his Materials were Plates and pieces of Silver which amounted to a mighty summe and having finish'd this argent Structure there he spent the rest of his dayes in all voluptuous feeding so that one would have thought Epicurus himselfe to have survived in him So what he got lewdly having spent lavishly he dyed like to a Fowle which we have in England call'd a Knott which never eats in season till it dye of Fatnesse He began in Poverty continued in Prodigality ended in surfeit At first a Camelion after a Cormorant and lastly a Swine or Boare fatted for slaughter Let us therefore bethinke our selves that whensoever wee sitdowne to eate and drinke we have two guests to entertaine and those are the body and the soule whatsoever the body receiveth departs away quickly into the draught and is seene no more but that on which the foule feedes lasteth and abideth for ever For then is the minde most apt to apprehend reason and ghostly instruction where the free operations of the â—raine are not dull'd and molested by such vapours as the excesse of feeding distempers it withall Salust saith nothing can appeare more abject and mis-becomming man who is the Image of the Creatour then to live as a slave to the mouth and belly But how hard a matter is it faith Cato to preach Abstinence to the Belly which hath no Eares and yet is importunate whether the hand have wherewith to supply it or no. Socrates inviting certaine of his friends to a Schollers pittance or a spare Supper when he was taxed by one of his Guests for too slender provisions made answer If these whom I invited be vertuous they will say here is enough but if they be otherwise then I say here is too much Intemperancy is a root that hath hand in every disease that belongeth unto mans body and it is a Proverbe common amongst us Much meat much malady Origen tells us that Vessells more fully fraught then they are able to carry are forc'd to sinke and the stomack and belly surcharged with too much meat and drinke causeth bodies to surfeit which is the readiest meanes to prepare sicknesse and sicknesse is the immediate path-way to death One Gorgius a very temperate and abstemious man being demanded how he came to arrive to the number of an hundred and eight yeares and in all that time was not visited with any grievous sicknesse made Answer I never eate but when I was hungry nor never drunke but when I was thirsty and then both moderately And King Cyrus being asked by one of his great Captaines named Artabazus in a long and heavy March what he would have provided for his Supper He answered Bread for Drinke saith he we shall finde in every Current or Fountaine by the way To order our lives well and frugally is to live temperately and avoid high and voluptuous feeding for there is a great difference betwixt living well and living sumptuously Because the first proceeds from Discipline
stifled by falling into kennells others found sleeping upon Dung-hills on which stumbling have not beene able to rise but there have took up their lodging for all night some that have been conducted home yet in going up staires to bed have falne backward and broke their necks But of all miraculous escapes that I have heard of I my selfe knew two Gallants come from the Taverne so strangely overtaken with Wine that when they came into the street they were scarce able to stand or goe or move one foot before another the night was darke and loath they were to take the benefit of a light because their indenturing should not bee observ'd and because they would both take one fortune they catcht fast hold one of the other and on they went it happened in the way that a Seller doore being left open downe they both fell into a Vault but here is the wonder one of their Rapiers slipt out of the scabbard and fell with the pummill downwards and the point up-right these tumbled after it and it ranne one of them through the Breeches at the knee up to the waste and thence through the body of the Dublet up to the shoulder where the point appear'd an handfull bare at his neck and yet in the whole passage not so much as once raz'd any part of his skinne The noise of the fall suddenly commanded a light but when they saw the Rapier so strangely scabbarded and by search found that the party had no hurt they were all amazed and the two Drunkards with the apprehension thereof made almost sober This was one of Gods miraculous deliverances but let none presume to make that a president for his security for doubtlesse hee hath lesse wit then an Ideot who being in his best sobriety would hazard the like danger But it hath not happened so to others for a Butcher who was observed for a common Drunkard being Pot-shot and in his Cups was got into a Carâ— to receive some hides or such like commodity to lade it with and stooping his body to take something in his Head was too heavy for his Legges that should have supported him and downe â—ee fell upon a Forke which stood by the Cart side with the pikes upward hee pitcht his breast upon it which pierc'd him to the heart so that he dyed immediately without calling to God for mercy and this is knowne not long since to have happened In Norfolke three men comming drunke out of an Ale house late in the night amongst many other prophane and blaspemous speeches they began to jest at Hell and withall to sweare that in the most obscure place of it it could not be so dark as that night was at length they were to take leave and part every man to his home and after a drunken farewell the one of their wayes lying over a Bridge his feet failing he slipt into the water and was drowned The two other were Horse-men one of which by the stumbling of his horse was cast upon the ground where he was after found dead with his neck broken neither did the third escape without a most remarkable Judgement for his horse was found grazing in one place and he dead in another but without any wound for some conjectur'd that hee perish'd with the extremity of cold it being a bitter frosty night and snow falling withall A Glasier in Chancery lane not long since so overcharged his stomack with wine that comming home he fell a vomiting in that extreame and extraordinary fashion that breaking a veine within him he dyed within two dayes after and a Barber in Drewry-lane comming from the Taverne in the like distemper his wife with much adoe got him to bed where he fell into a sound and dead sleep for that night being very tempestuous and a mighty winde stirring and they lodging in an upper roome or Garret the Chimney was blowne downe and he kill'd in his bed his wife that lay close by his side having no hurt at all To reckon up all the knowne judgements in this kinde would make this Tractate voluminous these therefore for the present I hope may satisfie the indifferent reader who if he shall but enquire from man to man of the disasters hapning in that kinde shall heare from their owne motion Stories too many of all good Christians to bee charitably commiserated and lamentably deplored These have been examples of such as wee call downe-right Drunkards and like selfe-murderers have beene not onely accessaries but the Agents of their owne deaths of which nature one accident of which my selfe was eye-witnesse comes fresh in my remembrance and happened some seven or eight yeares since at the most Five young men comming from Islington upon a Sunday where they had beene drinking good store of Ale in their way home came to the Nags-head Taverne upon Clerken-well hill where they cal'd for Wine what quaintity they dranke I am not certaine but in the midd'st of their carrowsing one of them being a young man a Barber in Ivy-lane and lately married grew to to bee drowsie and at length dropt under the Table which the rest not minding put it off with a jest and said he did but counterfeit sleep till the reckoning was paid another said hee had knowne him doe the like before and thus they past the time till they were ready to part when calling for a reckoning they also call'd for their drowsie Companion to rise and to goe along with them but hearing that he made no answer they pusht him and jogg'd him yet all in vaine till at length by the helpe of the Master of the House they lifted up his body and set him on one of the Benches but his head fell downe into his bosome for there was no life in him at which they grew all amaz'd neither can I blame them who for every Glasse of Wine they enforc'd him to drinke beyond his strength might as well to have given him a stabbe in the breast with a Puniard The next day came his weeping Wife and some of his sorrowfull kindred and conveighed his body from the Taverne to the Church to be buried I come now to that from which I late deviated as to those who through excesse of Gusling for manners sake call'd good fellowship destroy not themselves with suddaine Deaths but rather Consumptions and lingring Maladies which also by degrees bringeth on an assured and untimely end one of the branches thereof is luxurious Prodigality mixt with intemperate Vinocity of which I will give you but one President A rich Citizens sonne and well ally'd amongst the Aldermen being a personable and proper young man daring and valiant of a wondrous active body acute wit and a seeming sollid apprehension his Father dying left him what estate in land I know not thirty thousand pound in ready Cash besides Plate Jewels and houses furnish'd with rich hangings with all Utensills suitable to the state of Aldermen Now
time big with childe with a spurne upon her wombe by which she perished with her infant because Antonia the daughter of Claudius fearing the like refused to marry with him he commanded her to be put to death He persecuted the Church and under his Tyranny Saint Peter and Saint Paul both suffered Martyrdom Aulus Plancius a beautifull young Roman after he had violently and against his will stuprated he put to death 〈◊〉 Crispinus his step son by the marriage of Poppaea a beardlesse youth in rage he made to be drowned Many freed men when they came to the estate of riches he cut off by the sword He pulled out the eyes of Cassius Longinus an excellent Lawyer or Orator and never made known the cause of his offence To Pâ—liâ—hagus by Nation an Aegyptian who was accustomed to eat raw flesh he gave living men to be devoured these are but a part of his barbarous inhumanities who not throughly sated with the blood of men sought to exercise his hate upon Rome his own City by setting a great part of it on fire his excuse being the deformity thereof which incendiary he beheld from the Meceâ—â—tian Tower glorying in the flames thereof being so far from commanding the fire to be extinguished that he suffered not any man to enter into his own house to save any part of his Goods and yet how mercifull was God in his judgement to punish this Tyrant with one miserable death who had indeed deserved more than a thousand Creon a Tyrant of Thebes besides many other cruelties in which he exprest a most bestiall and unmercifull nature denied Buriall to all the dead Bodies of his Enemies slain in Battell with others of his own Subjects who had any way offended him whom Theseus after slew in a conflict and served him with the same sauce forbidding his dead carcase to be inhumed or sepulcred but thrown out in the fields for the brute beasts to feed and the fowles of the air to prey on Antonâ—â—â— Commodus one of the Roman Emperours had so troubled the Empire with gladiatory slaughters that the people in contempt gave him the denomination of Gladiator or Fencer He as Lampridius witnesseth when he saw any man weak or unserviceable by reason of some disease in his feet would shoot him with arrowes to death having a strong steel Bowe made for that purpose The braines of others he used to beat out of their heads with clubs and boasted that therein he imitated Hercules to that purpose putting on a Lions skin He was also so irriligious and such a contemner of the gods that offerings and sacrifice at the altars he would mingle with the blood and flesh of men and if any man shewed either a smiling or supercilious brow at what he did both were alike him he commanded to be cast to the Lions and other wilde beasts to be devoured One of his servants being commanded to reade unto him the tyrannous Raigne of Caligula with the manner of his death as it was set down in Sâ—etoniuâ— Tranquillus because it displeased him as somewhat reflecting on his person he commanded to be cast to the Lions If any man in his own hearing or by the information of other said he must die he was precipitated from a rocke or some other high place and his body crushed to pieces he delighted to see the bellies of fat men ript up and how suddenly their guts and entrals would tumble to the ground But the people after so great sufferings now at length tired with his inhumanities in the very height of his insolencies when he least dreamed of any such disaster caused him to be flain which though a violent death yet in all mens judgements may appear somewhat too milde for his merit but the great Judge of all sometime mitigates the punishments of such grand malefactours here to make their torments more great and perdurable in the world to come The next I present to your view is Caius Marius the Roman who as he was of great power and potency in Rome so his pride was boundlesse and unmeasured but his inhumanity far exceeding them both for after his exile when he had again emptied the City of all those whom he suspected to have but the least finger in his confinement by the assistance of Cinna Carbo and Sertorius he presently fell upon the slaughters of the Princes and Senatours which was so violent that the channels overflowed with the blood of the slain Nobility He took away the head from Octavius the Consul and caused that of Octavius a consular Senator to be brought and set upon his table taunting and deriding him even after death Casar and Fimbria two of the most eminent in the City he commanded to be murdered in their own houses breaking them violently open in the night and killing them in their beds the two Crassi the father and the son he flew one in the sight of the other the more to aggravate their sorrow in their alternate indulgence Bebius and Numitorius he commanded to be dragged through the Forum by the common hangmans clutches but Catulus Lactutius by swallowing fire ended his life and escaped his greater cruelty Archarius and Flamen Dialis a priest whose office was sacred and in great reverence amongst the Romans he commanded to be through pierced with swords All which examples of Tyranny he committed from the Kalends of January to the Ides of the same moneth but what heavy judgements God laid upon him you shall next hear in the relation upon Sylla Which Lucius Sylla made a deluge and overâ—â—ux of blood through Rome and all Italy four legions of the contrary faction of Marius being surprised and imploring his mercy he commanded instantly to be cut in pieces the Prestines who had received and entertained Marius junior into their City after they had yeelded themselves unto his mercy he put them out of the City commanding Putilius Cethegus to kill them every man without the wals and their bodies to be left in open fields without buriall in which inhumanity perished at once five thousand men four thousand and 700 slain by strength of his bloody Edict of proscription he caused their names to be registred in the publike tables lest the memory of that facinorous act might be buried in oblivion and not sating himselfe with the strage of men his tyranny usurped upon women not sparing matron or virgin but he commanded their heads being cut off to be brought unto him that he might thereby the better glut his savage indignation and implacable fury Marcus Marius the Praetor he deprived not of his life before his eyes were pulled out of his head and after caused all the bones in his body to be broken Marcus Pletoriâ—s because being sent to kill his enemy Caius Marius he was daunted at his brave aspect and honourable presence and therefore left the fatall act unperformed he commanded him instantly to be slain Nor did his malitious rankor and hate end in the
himselfe to have the like congresse with them being a young man he was a scandall to all those whom he made his companions and they reciprocally were scandalized by being in his company These with infinite others of his licentious irregularities are recorded by Lampridius Hee had also as the same Author testates three hundred Concubines of selected forme and feature chosen out of the families of the Senatours and Patritians and as many choice young men of sweet aspect and undespised proportion taken out of the best of the Nobility and with these hee did continually riot drinke and wanton in his Pallace where were used all immodest postures and uncomely gestures that the very Genius of lust could devise so that his Court shewed rather a common stewes then the royall dwelling house and mansion of a Prince Gordianus Iunior who wore the Imperiall purple with his father absenting himselfe from all warlike imployment lived in lazinesse and ease giving himselfe solely to voluptuousnesse and carnall concupiscence having at once two and twenty Concubines and by every one of them three or foure children at the least for which by some he was called the Priamus of his age but by others in scorne the Priapus And Proculus the Emperour in one expedition besides many other spoyles tooke captive an hundred Sarmatian Virgines all which hee boasted not onely to have vitiated and deflowred but to have perpetrated or more plainly got with childe within fifteene dayes for so Flavius Vopiscus reports of him as also Sabellicus in Exemplis Heliogabalus that Monster of nature gathered together Bawdes Whores Catamites Pimps Panders Rounsevalls and Stallions the very pest and poyson of a Nation or People even till they grew to a great multitude to which he added all the long-nos'd vagabonds and sturdy beggars he could finde for these they say have the greatest inclination to libidinou filthinesse and these he kept together and maintained at his great charge onely to satisfie his brutish humour Therefore Lampridius writing to the Emperour concerning his prodigious Venery useth these words Who can endure a Prince who committeth lust in all the hollowes of his body when Roomes Cages and Grates the receptacle and dennes of wilde beasts cannot amongst them all shew a beast like him He also kept cursors and messengers who had no other imployment but to ride abroad and seek out for these Masuti and to bring them to Court that he might pollute and defile himselfe amongst them But these whose dissolute and floath-infected lives have growne to such an execrable height of impudence have not escaped Gods terrible Judgements by miserable and tragick ends as you may read in the premises where I have had occasion to speake of the same persons though to other purpose I will prosecute this further by example wherein the effects of this dull and drowsie vice of idlenesse and sloath shall be better illustrated and in none more proper then that of â—Egistus and Clitemuestra for Agamemnon King of Mycena and brother to Menelaus King of Sparta the husband of Helena ravisht thence by Paris one of the sonnes of King Priam being chosen Generall of the Grecian Army in that great expedition against Troy for the rape of that Spartan Queene In his absence he left Aegistus to governe his family and mannage his Domesticke affaires who lull'd in ease and loytring in idlenesse and she a lusty Lady and lying in a widdowed and forsaken bed such familiarity grew betwixt them that at length it came into flat adultery of whom the Poet thus ingenuously writes Quaeritur Aegistus quare sit factus adulter In promptâ— causa est Desidiosus erat c. Aske any why Aegistus did Faire Clitemnestra woe 'T is answer'd he was idle and Had nothing else to doe Now this Egistus was before espoused to a young Lady the daughter of Phocas Duke of Creophen whose bed he repudiated and sent backe to her father For the love of this Queene of Micena of whom he begot a daughter called Egiona and in the absence of his Lord and Master supported by the Queene tooke upon him all regall authority and was obeyed as King Now Agamemnon had a young sonne called Orestes who was then under the tuition or guardianship of a worthy Knight called Fultibius who fearing lest the adulterer and the adulteresse might insidiate his life he conveyed him out of the Land and brought him to Idomeneus King of Creet a pious and just Prince who undertooke to bring him up educate and instruct him like the sonne of such a father and protect him against all his enemies whatsoever Imagine now the ten yeares warres ended Troy sackt and spoyled rak't to the earth and quite demolished and Agamemnon at his returne the very first night of his lodging in the Palace cruelly murdered in his bed by Egistus and the Queene By this time Orestes being of the yeares able to beare Armes and having intelligence how basely his father was butchered and by whom he made a solemne vow to avenge his death upon the Authors thereof and to that end besought aide of the King Idomeneus his foster father and protector who first made him Knight and furnisht him with a competent Army To assist whom came Fultibius his first Guardian with all the forces he could levy as also Phocas whose daughter Egistus had before forsaken These sped themselves so well that in few dayes they entred the Land and after laid siege to the chiefe Citie called Micene where the Queen then lay for Aegistus was at that time abroad to solicit aâ—d against invasion which he much feared but finding the gates shut and the wals manned and all entrance denied they made a fierce assault and though it was very couragiously and valiantly defended yet at length the City was taken and the Queen surprised in the Palace who being brought unto the presence of her son all filiall duty set apart and forgetting the name of mother he saluted her onely by the title of Adulteresse and Murderesse and when he had thundered into her eares the horridnesse and trocity of her crime having his sword drawn in his hand he suddenly transpieâ—â—'d her body and left her dead upon the pavement as an explaâ—ion or bloody sacrifice to appease the soul of his dead farher Some would aggravate the fact and say that he caused her breasts to be torne off she being yet alive and cast to the dogges to be eaten but that had been a cruelty beyond nature for a son to exercise upon a mother now whilest these things were in agâ—â—ation Aegistus had gathered an Army for the raising of the â—â—ege and reclaiming the City of which Orestes having intelligence ambuâ—hed him in his way and had such good successe that having incompassed him in he set upon his Forces both before and behinde routed them and took Aegistus prisoner whom after he had put to the greatest tortures that humane apprehension could invent or devise he commanded his body
to be hanged in chaines upon a gibbet without the City the place where malefactors were executed there to remain till it dropped thence limbe from limbe all this comming to the ear of the adulterate brood Esyone who was said to have been accessary to the death of Agameâ—nón she in extreme sorrow for the disaster happened to her father and mother despairing strangled her selfe and Orestes after he had more considerately pondered his cruelty towards his mother which how soever just had better to have come from any mans hand than his own and further that in the mouthes of all men he was held no better than a matricide a name hatefull both to God and man he upon this grew into a great melancholy and from melancholy to madnesse never being able to recover his senses after It being worthy observation what murders revenges adulteries divers selfe-killings and what not arise from this seeming harmelesse drowsie and sleepy sin of i 〈…〉 enesse of which I will present you further with a strange and most lamentable story Dom. Ioannes Gygas postilla suae parte secunda pag. 200. A noble and vertuous Lady who had a lasie and drowsie Chambermaid and as one bad quality seldom or never goeth without another she was of a testy disposition and of a snappish and curst tongue it happened that her mistresse upon a time chiding her for her neglect and sloath she began to mander and murmur and in the end to give her Lady very crosse and untoward language at which being much incenst she gave her a box on the ear at which she fell down upon the floor as if she had been halfe slain and multiplying many bitter and despightfull words told her Lady that blow should never be forgot nor forgiven Who somewhat sorry as fearing she had strook her too hard left her mumbling the devils Pater noster as we say and minded her no farther But the devill would not let slip this occasion putting her in minde to accuse her Lady of Adultery and day nor night she could be in quiet till she had so done at length attending a fit opportunity when she found her Lord in private the subtle shrew interupted him after this manner Noble Sir with pardon craved for my boldnesse I have a strange secret to acquaint you with were I assured of your silence but I am afraid that my zeal and tender care I have of your honour may be misprised and that punishment which belongeth to others may redound upon my selfe to mine own ruine at which the Crocodile wept and her Lord longing to know what the matter was protested secrecy and bid her say on when she thus proceeded I know Sir that you are confident of the modesty purity and conjugall chastity of your Lady as wholly devoted to your love having no other rivall or competitor in her affection but to my great sorrow I speak it she violates her matrimoniall tie and adulterates your sheetes in your absence not with a Gentleman of any of fashion or quality but with one of the Groomes of your stable which I most humbly beg of your honour that you will keep private to your selfe till I make you eye-witnesse of what I speak and bring you to the place where this ungodly congresse is frequently used betwixt them And here she broke off abruptly as if teares constrained by sorrow had stopped her in her further relation At this discourse the Nobleman was stupified and though he ever found her indulgent and affectionate towards him and could never tax her of the least lascivious glance or incontinent gesture yet he remembred that when his custome was to rise early to hunt or hawk or to survey his Parkes and grounds he found her scarce up or ready when he came backe to break fast and then his jealousie began to suggest him that in that interim this wickednesse might be committed and so growing full of thoughts he left her the devils agent to attend the event who let slip no occasion to prosecute the mischief that she had begun but finding him comming early one morning after his sports and knowing her Lady was then in bed ran presently to the stable and called one of the Groomes in haste and told him he must run suddenly to her Lady in her chamber for she had a serious businesse in which to imploy him which she did with such servency that the Groom ran to the chamber as if it had been for life and death and so indeed it proved and finding his Ladies door open entered in which time she cals her Lord and hastens him to the place but before he came thither the Lady spying the Groom to rush so suddenly into the chamber called him bold and saucy varlet and ignorant of the deceit flung bed-staves at his head and not having the patience to hear what he had to say for himselfe bad him get him thence with a vengeance whom his master met just at the door and with his sword ran him through so that without speaking he fell dead in the place and there in the heat of fury ere she had the leisure to aske what the matter was he as she lay in her bed and without any question or answer expected transpierc'd her to the heart whose chaste soul no doubt mounted unto that blessed place of rest to which her piety devotion and charity in her life time chiefly aymed now as he stood leaning upon his sword so lately imbrued in the bloud of these two innocents having a thousand chimera's in his brain and her flinty and obdurare heart mean time relenting at the horridnesse of the strage committed she could keep her own devillish counsell no longer but presently burst out into this language Alas my Lord what have I done Never was Lady more chaste or constant to the bed and imbraces of her husband than she who here lies weltering in her innocent blood whatsoever I spake of her was false and untrue as meerly suggested by the devill and this I malitiously devised in revenge of a blow she gave meto correct my 〈◊〉 and slo 〈…〉 fulnesse which not able in my ill disposition to digest I am onely I am sole authour of their commiserated and much to be lamented deaths which hath happened more difastrous than I expected This being so feelingly and passionately delivered strooke such a deep impression into him that sometimes casting his eye upon his honest and faithfull servant and then upon his vertuous and untainted Wife being possest with a world of distractions at once which swayed him above the strength of nature he first dispatched her of life and after fell upon his own sword making up the fourth in the Tragedy If you expect to hear further judgements inflicted upon this sin every Sessions and Assises through the Kingdom can afford presidents sufficient how many children are brought to the execution place who complain of their parents for their idle and slothfull bringing up who