conquered by the Normans comming with a forreine King being none of their naturall countrey In the yeare of our Lord sixe hundred threescore and eighteene Childerich King of France caused a Nobleman of his Realme called Bolyde to bee bound to a stake and there beaten to death without the pretence of any just crime or accusation against him For which cruelty his Lords and Commons being grievously offended conspired together and slew him and his wife as they were hunting In the raigne of Edward the second and Edward the third Sir Roger Mortimer committed many villanous outrages in shedding much humane bloud but he was also justly recompenced in the end first he murdered King Edward the second lying in Barkeley Castle to the end he might as it was supposed enjoy Isabel his wife with whom he had very suspitious familiarity Secondly he caused Edward the third to conclude a dishonorable peace with the Scots by restoring them all their ancient writings charters and patents whereby the Kings of Scotland had bound themselves to be feudaries to the Kings of England Thirdly he accused Edmund Earle of Kent uncle to King Edward of treason and caused him unjustly to bee put to death And lastly he conspi redagainst the King to worke his destruction for which and divers other things that were laid to his charge he was worthily and justly beheaded In the reigne of Henry the sixt Humfrey the good duke of Gloucester and faithfull protectour of the King by the meanes of certaine malicious persons to wit the Queene the Cardinall of Winchester and especially the Marquesse of Suffolke as it was supposed was arrested cast into hold and strangled to death in the Abbey of Bure For which cause the Lords hand of judgement was upon them all for the Marquesse was not onely banished the land for the space of five yeares but also banished out of his life for ever for as hee sailed towards France hee was met withall by a Ship of Warre and there presently beheaded and the dead corps cast up at Dover that England wherein he had committed the crime might be a witnesse of his punishment The Queene that thought by this meanes to preserve her husband in honour and her selfe in estate thereby both lost her husband and her state her husband lost his realme and the Realme lost Anjou Normandy with all other places beyond the sea Calice onely excepted As for the Cardinall who was the principall artificer of all this mischiefe he lived not long after and being on his death bed murmured and grudged against God asking wherefore hee should die having so much wealth and riches and saying That if the whole Realme would save his life he was able either by policy to get it or by riches to buy it but death would not be bribed for all his aboundant treasure he died miserably more like a Heathen than a Christian without any shew of repentence And thus was the good Dukes death revenged upon the princiall procurers thereof As the murder of a gentleman in Kent called master Arden of Feversham was most execrable so the wonderfull discovery thereof was exceeding rare This Arden being somewhat aged had to wife a young woman no lesse faire than dishonest who being in love with one Mosbie more than her husband did not onely abuse his bed but also conspired his death with this her companion for together they hired a notorious Ruffin one Blacke Will to strangle him to death with a towell as he was playing a game at tables which though secretly done yet by her owne guilty conscience and some tokens of bloud which appeared in his house was soone discovered and confessed Wherefore she her selfe was burnt at Canterbury Michael master Ardens man was hanged in chaines at Feversham Mosbie and his sister were hanged in Smithfield Greene another partner in this bloudy action was hanged in chaines in the high way against Feversham And Blacke Will the Ruffian after his first escape was apprehended and burnt on a seaffold at Flushing in Zeeland And thus all the murderers had their deserved dues in this life and what they endured in the life to come except they obtained mercy by true repentance is easie to judge CHA. XI Of the admirable discovery of Murders AS the Lord hath shewed himselfe a most just Judge in punishing most severely this horrible sinne of shedding mans bloud so hath he alwaies declared his detestation thereof and his will to have it punished by those who are in his stead upon the earth and have the sword of vengeance committed unto them by his miraculous and superhaturall detecting of such murderers from time to time who have carried their villanies so closely as the eye of man could not espy them plainely shewing thereby that the bloud of the slaine crieth to the Lord for vengeance from the earth as Abels did upon Cain and that God will have that law stand true and firme which he made almost before all other lawes He that sheddeth mans bloud by man shall his bloud be shed If I should commit to writing all the examples of this kinde which either are recorded in Authors or which dayly experience doth offer unto us it would require rather a full Booke than a short Chapter for that subject And therefore I will be content with some few and those for truth most credible and yet for strangenesse most incredible And to begin with our owne countrey About the yeare of our Lord 867 a certaine Nobleman of the Danes of the kings stock called Lothebrocus father to Inguar and Hubba entring upon a certaine time with his hawke into a cockboat alone by chance through tempest was driven with his hawke to the coast of Northfolke in England named Rodham where being found and detained he was presented to king Edmund that raigned over the East-Angles in Northfolke and Suffolke at that time The King as hee was a just and good man understanding his parentage and seeing his cause entertained him in his Court accordingly and every day more and more perceiving his activity and great dexterity in hunting and hawking bare speciall favour unto him insomuch that the Kings Faulconer bearing privy malice against him for this cause secretly as they were hunting together in a wood did murther him and threw him in a bush Lothebroke being thus murthered and shortly missed in the Kings house no tydings could be heard of him untill it pleased God to reveale the murther by his dog which continuing in the wood with the corps of his Master at sundry times came to the Court and fauned on the King so that the King suspecting some such matter at length followed the trace of the hound and was brought to the place where Lothebroke lay Whereupon inquisition being made at length by some circumstances of words and other suspitions it was knowne that he was murdered by Berikâ— the Kings Faulconer who for his punishment he was set into the same boat of Lothebroke
prisoners to Affrica amongst the which was Eudoxia the Empresse with her two daughters Eudocia and Placidia who was the cause of all this calamity but her trechery saved not her self nor them from thraldome And thus was Rome sacked and destroyed more than ever it was before insomuch that the Romane Empire could never after recover it selfe but decayed every day and grew worse and worse These were the calamities which the adultery of Valeutinian brought upon himselfe and many others to his owne destruction and the utter ruine of the whole Empire Childericke King of France son to Merouce for laying siege to the chastity of many great Ladies of his Realme the Princes and Barons conspired against him and drove him to flie for his life Eleonor the wife to King Lewis of France he that first cut through the sea surrowes towards Jerusalem against the Turkes and Saracens would needs couragiously follow her husband in that long and dangerous voyage but how Marrie whilest he travailed night and day in perill of his life she lay at Antioch bathing her selfe in all delights and that more licentiously than the reputation or duty of a married woman required wherefore being had in suspition and evill reported of for her lewd behaviour it was thought meet that she should be divorced from the King under pretence of consanguinity to the end she should not altogether be defamed The faire daughters of Philip the faire King of France escaped not at so good a rate for the King as soone as he smelt out the haunt of their unchastity caused them to be apprehended and imprisoned presently howbeit one of them namely the Countesse of Poictiers her innocency being knowne was set at liberty and the other two to wit the Queen of Navarre and the wife of Iohn de le March being found guilty by proofe were adjudged to perpetuall imprisonment and the Adulterers two brethren of the countrey of Anjou with whom these Ladies had often lyen were first cruelly flaine and after hanged Charles son of the aforesaid Philip the faire had to wife the daughter of the Earle of Artois that also offended in the like case and in recompence received this dishonour and ignominie to be divorced and put in prison and to see him married to another before her face In the reigne of Charles the sixth there befell a notable and memorable accident which was this one Iaques le Gris of the Countrey of Alanson being enamoured with a Lady no lesse faire than honourable the wife of the Lord of Carouge came upon a day when he knew her husband to bee from home to her house and faining as if he had some secret message to unfold unto her on her husbands behalfe for their familiarity was so great entred with her all alone into a most secret chamber where as soone as he had gotten her he locked the doore and throwing himselfe upon her forced her unto his lust and afterward saved himselfe by speedy flight Her husband at his returne understanding the injury and wrong which was done him by this vile miscreant sought first to revenge himselfe by justice and therefore put his cause to be heard by the Parliament of Paris where being debated it could not well be decided because he wanted witnesses to convince the crime except his owne wives words which could not be accepted so that the Court to the end that there might some end be made of their quarrell ordained a combate betwixt them which was forthwith performed for the two duellists entering the lists fell presently to strokes and that so eagerly that in short space the quarrell was decided the Lord of Carouge husband of the wronged Lady remained conquerour after he had slaine his enemy that had wronged him so wickedly and disloyally the vanquished was forthwith delivered to the hangman of Paris who dragged him to mount Falcon and there hanged him Now albeit this forme and custome of deciding controversies hath no ground nor warrant either from humane or divine Law God having ordained only an Oath to end doubts where proofes and witnesses faile yet doubtlesse the Lord used this as an instrument to bring the treacherous and cruell Adulterer to the deserved punishment and shame which by deniall he thought to escape A certaine Seneschall of Normandy perceiving the vicious and suspitious behaviour of his wife with the Steward of his house watched them so narrowly that he tooke them in bed together he slew the Adulterer first and after his wife for not all her pittifull cryings for mercy with innumerable teares for this one fault and holding up in her armes the children which she had borne unto him no nor her house and parentage being sister to Lewis the eleventh then King could not withhold him from killing her with her companion Howbeit King Lewis never made shew of anger or offence for her death Mâ—sselâ—na the wife of Claudius the Emperour was a woman of so notable incontinency that the would contend with the common harlots in filthy pleasure at last she fell in love with a faire young Gentleman called Silius and to obtaine more commodiously her desire she caused his wife Sillana to be divorced and notwithstanding she was wife to the Emperour then living yet she openly married him for which cause after great complaint made to the Emperour by the Nobles she was worthily put to death Abusahed King of Fez was with six of his children murdered at once by his Secretary for his wives sake whom he had abused And it is not long sithence the two Cities Dalmendine and Delmedine were taken from the King of Fez and brought uâ—der the Portugals dominion only for the ravishment of a woman whom the Governour violently took from her husband to abuse and was slain for his labour CHAP. XXIX Other examples like unto the former MArie of Arragon wife to Otho the third was so unchast and lascious a woman and withall barren for they commonly goe together that she could never satisfie her unsatiable lust she carried about with her continually a young lecher in womans clothes to attend upon her person with whom she daily committed filthinesse who being suspected was in the presence of many untyred and found to be a man for which villany hee was burnt to death Howbeit the Empresse though pardoned for her fault returned to her old vomit and continued her wanton traffique with more than either desired or loved her company at last she fell in love with the County of Mutina a gallant man in personage and too honest to be allured with her stale though he was often solicited by her wherefore like a Tvgre she accused him to the Emperour for extreame love converts to extreame hatred if it be crossed of offering to ravish her against her will for which cause the Emperour Otho caused him to lose his head but his wife being privy to the innocency of her husband traversed his cause
the King if they had uttered a humane voyce but the author thereof was the first that endured the torment thereof and after the Tyrant Phalaris himselfe was constrained to endure the same miserable end In a famous Citie of Germany at a nuptiall festivitie a certaine virgin was brought by a young man a Shoomaker that made love unto her to the solemne and usuall dancing when the maide should returne home the young man by chance was absent so that she was conducted home by another which when the Shoomaker knew supposing himselfe to be wronged hee went presently to her fathers house and calling out the young student which guided her home he slew him assoone as he came out of the doores His father hearing the death of his onely sonne died within three dayes with griefe and was buried in the same grave with his sonne the Shoomakers mother died also with griefe and the murtherer himselfe falling into desperation threw himselfe headlong into a running river and was drowned Anno 156 a certaine Nobleman abounding with wealth not farre from Augusta of the Vindiletians brought up in his house a young Blackamore which villaine when his Master was from home rose up in the night and slew not onely his Lady but the whole family excepting one little daughter of the Noblemans The Nobleman returning home after two dayes and finding his gate shut rode nearer to the walls of the house wondring Where the Blackamore upon the top of the house with a fearfull countenance spake unto him these words O thou cruell man thou rememberest how unworthily thou beatest me not long since for no fault the memory whereof I still retained in my minde and have revenged this wrong upon thine behold here part of the carkasse of thy wife whom I have slaine with thy whole family except this little child which I have reserved and will restore it if thou wilt promise me my life The father being wonderfully disturbed promised that which he desired but the devillish Moore answered I know thou wilt not keepe promise with me therefore take thy childe unto thee and threw her out of the window where she was quashed in pieces and then threw himselfe downe headlong from the top of the house that hee might avoid the vengeance of his Master This story was related unto Philip Count Nassau by the Secretarie of the Count of Hanault CHAP. XI Of Adulterie ANobleman in Burgundie having taken in war a captive a Gentleman that was his prisoner the Gentlemans wife came to this Nobleman to redeeme her husband he promised that hee should be set free if that he might have the use of her bodie the woman returned to her husband and told him upon what tearmes he stood The Gentleman said that she could not shew her love better unto him than in yeelding to his desire which being accomplished the trayterous adulterous Nobleman next day cut off the prisoners head and gave his body to his wife which horrible fact being complained of by her to the Duke of Burgundie he presently sent for the Nobleman and first constrained him to marry her but before night he cut off his head and gave her all his possessions A like example is reported by the same Author of a Spanish Captaine who kept in prison a certaine man that had violated the lawes This man having a beautifull wife sent her to the Captaine to desire his favour and freedome which he promised upon condition that she should yeeld to his lust wherewith her husband being acquainted advised her to yeeld for the saving of his life the Spaniard after he had satisfied his lust upon her commandeth over and above two hundred Duckets to be paid unto him which being received she conceiving a certaine hope of her husbands liberty the perfidious Spaniard brought him forth out of prison unto her and presently remanded him back againe into prison and there commanded his head to be cut off Which horrible fact when the poore lamentable woman complained of to the Duke of Ferara called Gonsaga he presently sent for this Captaine and finding the accusation true first commanded him to pay back againe the two hundred Duckats with an addition of seaven hundred crownes more next hee sent for a Priest and married the woman to the Captaine which being done when as he hoped to enjoy his new married wife Gonsaga sent him presently to the gallows and there he ended his miserable dayes The wife of a certaine Duke being a lascivious woman wrote two letters one to the Duke her husband and another to her Lover but it happened by chance that her letter written to her Lover was delivered to her Husband the Duke who thereby knowing her wickednesse came no sooner home but slew her with his owne hand Anno 1056 a certaine Doctor of the Law an advocate in Constance extreamely lusted after the wise of the Kings Procurator which Procurator finding the Doctor and his wife together in a bath playing and sporting and afterward in an old womans house hard by he got unto him a sharpe curry-combe and leaving three at the doore to watch that no man should come in he so curryed the Doctor that he pulled out his eyes out of his head and rent his whole body and members that he died within three dayes the like he had done to his wife but that she was with childe In the yeare 1488 a certaine Priest did so long assault the chastitie of a Citizens wife that she was constrained to declare the same unto her husband who forbad him his house threatning that if ever he came there he would geld him but this bold Priest came againe when hee imagined an opportunity the husband fell upon him and bound him hand and foot and performed what he had threatened so that he went home in a miserable case In Voitland foure murthers were committed upon the cause of one Adulterie For when the adulterous woman was banquetting with her lovers her husband came of a sudden into the Chamber and slew first him that sate next his wife the other two amazed ran downe the staires and brake both their shoulders and died within a short space Then hee slew his adulterous wife This storie Wolsiâ—s Schrencke reported to Martin Luther as he himselfe confesseth In a certaine Citie of Germany a Gentleman of good note did solicite and seduce to his lust a Citizens wife which her husband comming to the knowledge of watcht them so narrowly that he found them in bed together and rushing into the chamber first slew the adulterer himselfe and then his wife being crept under a bed and imploring his mercy till she could confesse her selfe to a Priest her husband asked her Whether shee were sorry for what she had done Who answered that she was grieved for it which words were no sooner pronounced but he thrust her through the heart with his sword and was for the same adjudged by the Citie to have done justly This story is
his companions where threats were blowne out on every side against the Faithful swore before them all That before he died he would â—ide up to his spurs in the bloud of the Lutherans But it hapned in the same night that the hand of God so stroke him that he was strangled and choaked with his own bloud and so he rode not but bathed himselfe not up to the spurs but up to the throat not in the bloud of Lutherans but in his owne bloud before he died In the raign of Francis de Valois of late memory the first King of France of that name those men that shewed themselves frowardest sharpest and most cruell in burning and murthering the holy Martyrs were also forwardest examples of the vengeance of God prepared for all such as they are For proofe whereof the miserable end of Iohn Roma a Monke of the Order of the White Friers may serve who although in regard of his hood and habit ought not to be placed in the number of men of note yet by reason of the notable example of Gods vengeance upon him wee may rightly place him in this ranke This man therefore at that time when the Christians of Cabrier and Merindol began to suffer persecution having obtained a Commission from the Bishop of Provence and the Embassadour Avignion to make inquisition after and seise upon the bodies of all them that were called Lutherans ceased not to afflict them with the cruellest torments he could devise Amongst many of his tortures this was one To cause their boots to be filled with boiling grease and then fastning them overthwartwise over a bench their legs hanging over a gentle fire to seeth them to death The French King advertised of this cruelty sent out his Letters Patents from the Parliament of Provence charging That the said Iohn de Roma should be apprehended imprisoned and by processe of law condemned Which news when the Caitife heard he fled backe as fast as he could trot to Avignion there purposing to recreate and delight himselfe with the excrements of his oppression and robbery which hee had wrung out of the purses of poor people but see how contrary to his hope it fell out for first he was robbed of his evill gotten goods by his owne servants and presently upon the same hee fell sicke of so horrible and strange a disease that no salve or medicine could be found to asswage his paine and beside it was withall so loathsome that a man could not endure his company for the stinke and corruption which issued from him For which cause the white Fryers his Cloysterers conveyed him out of their Covent into the hospitall where increasing in ulcers and vermine and being become now odious not onely to others but to himselfe also hee would often cry either to be delivered from his noysomnesse or to bee slaine being desirous but not able to performe the deed upon himselfe And thus in horrible torments and most fearfull despaire he most miserably died Now being dead there was none found that would give Sepulture to his rotten carkasse had not a Monke of the same Order dragged the carrion into a ditch which he provided for the purpose The Lord of Revest who a while supplied the place of the chiefe President in the Parliament of Provence by whose meanes many of the Faithfull were put to death after hee was put beside his office and returned home unto his owne house was attached with so grievous a sicknesse and such furious and mad fits withall that his wise and neerest allyance not daring to come near him he like a frantick bedlam enraged and solitarily ended his life A Counsellor of the same Court called Bellemont was so hot and zealous in proceeding against the poor prisoners for the Word of Gods sake that to the end to pack them soon to the fire he usually departed not from the Judgement Hall from morning to evening but caused his meat and drinke to bee brought for his meales returning not home but onely at night to take his rest But whilest hee thus strongly and endeavourously imployed himselfe about these affaires there began a little sore to rise upon his foot which at the first being no bigger than if a waspe had stung the place grew quickly so red and full of paine and so increased the first day by ranckling over all his foot and inflaming the same that by the judgement of Physicians and Chirurgions through the contagious fire that spread it selfe over his whole body it seemed incurable except by cutting off his foot the other members of the body might be preserved which hee in no case willing to yield unto for all the medicines that were applied unto it sound the second day his whole leg infected and the third his whole thigh and the fourth day his whole body insomuch that he died the sameday his deadbody being all partched as if it had been rosted by a fire And thus he that was so hot in burning poore Christians was himselfe by a secret flame of Gods wrath as by slow and soft fire burned and consumed to death Lewes du Vaine brother in law to Meniâ—r the President of the said Parliament of Provence with the brother and son of Peter â—urand chiefe butcher of the city Ajax the evening before the horrible cruelty was executed at Merindoll fell at debate amongst themselves and the morrow as instruments of Gods judgements slew one another The Judge of the City Aix one of that wretched crew drowned himselfe in his returne as he passed over the river Durance As for the chiefe Judge that was principall in that murtherous action touching the condemnation of those poore soules of Merindoll and Cabrieres he likewise suddainly died before he saw the execution of that decree which himselfe had set downe Iohn Mesnier Lord of Oppede another chiefe Officer of the aforesaid Parliament that got the leading of the murthering Army against the poore Christians aforesaid committing such excesse of cruelty that the most barbarous heathen in the world would have yearned to doe For which cause hee was also summoned to appeare personally at the Parliament of Paris there to answer those extortions robberies and oppressions which were layd to his charge and being convinced and found guilty theieof was neverthelesse released and set at liberty and that which is more restored to his former estate Howbeit though hee escaped the hands of men yet was hee overtaken by the hand of God who knew well enough the way how to entrap and abate his proud intents for even then when hee was in the height of worldly prosperity and busier than ever in persecuting Christians even then was hee pulled downe by a flux of bloud which provoking his privy parts engendred such a carnositie and thicknesse of flesh therein and withall a restraint of urine that with horrible outeries and raving speeches hee died feeling a burning fire broyling his entrailes from his navill upwards
and an extreme infection putrifying his lower parts and beginning to feele in this life both in body and soule the rigour of eternall fire prepared for the devill and his angels Iohn Martin Trombant of Briqueras in Piemont vaunting himselfe every foot in the hinderance of the Gospell cut off a Ministers nose of Angrogne in his bravery but immediately after was himselfe assayled by a mad Woolse that gnawed off his nose as hee had done the Ministers and caused him like a mad man to end his life Which strange judgement was notoriously knowne to all the countrey thereabout and beside it was never heard that this Woolfe had ever harmed any man before Caspard of Renialme one of the Magistrates of the City of Anvers that adjudged to death certaine poore faithfull soules received in the same place ere hee removed a terrible sentence of Gods judgement against himselfe for he fell desperate immediately and was faine to be led into his house halfe beside himselfe where crying that he had condemned the innocent bloud he forthwith died CHAP. XIII Other examples of the same subject ABout the same time there happened a very strange judgement upon an ancient Lawyer of Bourges one Iohn Cranequin a man of ripe wit naturall and a great practitioner in his profession but very ignorant in the law of God and all good literature and so enviously bent against all those that knew more than himselfe and that abstained from the filthy pollutions of Popery that he served instead of a Promotor to inform Ory the Inquisitor for them but for his labour the arme of God stroke him with a marvellous strange phrensie that whatsoever his eyes beheld seemed in his judgement to be crawling serpents in such sort that after he had in vaine experienced all kinde of medicines yea and used the help of wicked sorcery conjuration yet at length his senses were quite benummed and deprived him and in that wretched and miserable estate he ended his life Iohn Morin a mighty enemy to the professors of Gods truth one that laboured continually at Paris in the apprehending and accusing the faithfull insomuch that he sent daily multitudes that appealed from him to the high Court of the Palace died himselfe in most grievous and horrible torment The Chancellour of Prat he that in the Parliaments of France put up the first bill against the faithfull and gave out the first commissions to put them to death dyed swearing and blaspheming the name of God his stomacke being most strangely gnawne in pieces and consumed with wormes The Chancellour Oliver being restored to his former estate having first against his conscience renounced his religion so also now the same conscience of his checking and reclaming he spared not to shed much innocent bloud by condemning them to death But such a fearefull judgement was denounced against him by the very mouths of the guiltlesse condemned soules that stroke him into such a feare and terrour that presently he fell sick surprised with so extreme a melancholy that sobbing forth sighes without intermission and murmurings against God he so afflicted his halfe-dead body like a man robbed and dispossest of reason that with his vehement fits hee would so shake the bed as if a young man in the prime of his yeares with all his strength had assayed to doe it And when a certaine Cardinall came to visit him in this extremity he could not abide his sight his pains increasing thereby but cried out as soone as he perceived him departed That it was the Cardinall that brought them all to damnation When he had been thus a long time tormented at last in extreme angish and feare he died Sir Thomas more L. Chancellour of England a sworne enemy to the Gospell and a profest persecutor by fire and sword of all the faithfull as if thereby he would grow famous and get renowne caused to be erected a sumptuous Sepulchre and thereby to eternize the memory of his prophane cruelty to be engraven the commendation of his worthy deeds amongst which the principall was that hee had persecuted with all his might the Lutherans that is the faithfull but it fell out contrary to his hope for being accused convicted and condemned of high Treason his head was taken from him and his body found no other sepulchre to lie in but the gibbet Cardinall Crâ—sâ—entius the Popes Embassadour to the Councel of Trent in the yeare of our Lord 1552 being very busie in writing to his Master the Pope and having laboured all one night about his letters behold as he raised himselfe in his chaire to stir up his wit and memory over-dulled with watching a huge blacke dog with great flaming eyes and long eares dangling to the ground appeared unto him which comming into his chamber and making right towards him even under the table where hee sate vanished out of his sight whereat he amazed and a while sencelesse recovering himselfe called for a candle and when he saw the dog could not be found he fell presently sicke with a strong conceit which never left him till his death ever crying that they would drive away the black dog which seemed to climbe up on his bed and in that humour he died Albertus Pightus a great enemy of the Truth also insomuch that Paulus Iovius calleth him the Lutherans scourge being at Boloigne at the coronation of the Emperor upon a scaffold to behold the pompe and glory of the solemnization the scaffold bursting with the weight of the multitude he tumbled headlong amongst the guard that stood below upon the points of their Halbards piercing his body cleane through the rest of his company escaping without any great hurt for though the number of them which fell with the scaffold was great yet very few found themselves hurt therby save onely this honourable Pighius that found his deaths wound and lost his hearts bloud as hath been shewed Poncher Archbishop of Tours pursuing the execution of the burning chamber was himselfe surprised with a fire from God which beginning at his heele could never be quenched till member after member being cut off he died miserably An Augustine Frier named Lambert Doctor and Prior in the City of Liege one of the troop of cruell inquisitors for Religion whilest he was preaching one day with an open mouth against the Faithfull was cut short of a sudden in the midst of his sermon being bereaved of sense and speech insomuch that he was faine to be carried out of the pulpit to his cloister in a chaire and a few dayes after was drowned in a ditch In the yeare of our Lord 1527 there was one George Hala a Saxon Minister of the Word and Sacraments and a stout professor of the reformed Religion who being for that cause sent for to appeare before the Archbishop of Mentz at Aschaffenburge was handled on this fashion they took away his owne horse and set him upon the Archbishops fooles horse and so sent
not respecting or beleeving there was either a God or a Devill or a hell or a Heaven and therefore he was damned there was no remedy And in this miserable case without any signe of repentance he dyed But let us come to our homebred English stories and consider the judgments of God upon the persecutors of Christs Gospell in our own countrey And first to begin with one Doctor Whittington under the raigne of King Henry the seventh who by vertue of his office being Chancellour to the Bishop had condemned most cruelly to death a certaine godly woman in a town called Chipping sadberry for the profession of the truth which the Papists then called Heresie This woman being adjudged to death by the wretched Chancellor and the time come when she should be brought to the place of her martyrdome a great concourse of people both out of towne and country was gathered to behold her end Amongst whom was also the foresaid Doctor there present to see the execution performed The godly woman and manly Martyr with great constancy gave over her life to the fire and refused no paines or torments to keep her conscience cleere and unreproveable against the day of the Lord. Now the Sacrifice being ended as the people began to returne homeward they were encountred by a mighty furious Bull which had escaped from a Butcher that was about to kill him for at the same time as they were slaying this silly Lamb at the townes end a Butcher was as busie within the towne in slaying of this Bull. But belike not so skilfull in his art of killing of beasts as the Papists be in murthering Christians the Bull broke loose as I said and ranne violently through the throng of the people without hurting either man or childe till he came to the place where the Chancellour was against whom as pricked forward with some supernaturall instinct hee ranne full butt thrusting him at the first blow through the paunch and after goaring him through and through and so killed him immediately trayling his guts with his hornes all the street over to the great admiration and wonder of all that saw it Behold here a plaine demonstration of Gods mighty power and judgement against a wretched persecutor of one of his poore flocke wherein albeit the carnall sence of man doth often impute to blinde chance that which properly pertaineth to the only power and providence of God yet none can be so dull and ignorant but must needs confesse a plaine miracle of Gods almighty power and a worke of his own finger Stephen Gardiner also was one of the grand butchers in this land what a miserable end came hee unto Even the same day that Bishop Ridley and Master Latimer were burned at Oxford he hearing newes thereof rejoyced greatly and being at dinner ate his meat merrily but ere he had eaten many bits the sudden stroke of Gods terrible hand fell upon him in such sort that immediately he was taken from the board and brought to his bed where he continued 15 dayes in intolerable anguish by reason he could not expell his urine so that his body being miserably inflamed within who had inflamed so many Godly Martyrs was brought to a wretched end with his tongue all blacke and swolne hanging out of his mouth most horribly a spectacle worthy to be beholden of all such bloudy burning persecutors Bonner Bishop of London another arch butcher though he lived long after this man and dyed also in his bed yet was it so provided of God that as he had been a persecutor of the light and a child of darknesse so his carkasse was tumbled into the earth in obscure darkenes at midnight contrary to the order of all other Christians and as he had been a most cruell murtherer so was he buried amongst theeves and murtherers a place by Gods judgement rightly appointed for him Morgan Bishop of S. Davids sitting upon the condemnation of the blessed Martyr Bishop Farrar whose roome he unjustly usurped was not long after stricken by Gods hand after such a strange sort that his meat would not go downe but rise and picke up againe sometime at his mouth sometime blowne out of his nose most horrible to behold and so continued unto his death Where note moreover that when Master Leyson being then Sheriffe at Bishop Farrars burning had fetcht away the cattell of the said Bishop from his servants house into his owne custody divers of them would never eate meat but lay bellowing and roaring and so dyed Adde unto this Bishop Morgan Iustice Morgan a Judge that sate upon the death of the Lady Iane this Iustice not long after the execution of the said Lady fell mad and being thus bereft of his wits dyed having ever in his mouth Lady Iane Lady Iane. Bishop Thornton Suffragan of Dover another grand persecutor comming upon a Saturday from the Chapter-house at Canterbury and there upon the Sunday following looking upon his men playing at bowles fell suddenly into a palsey and dyed shortly after And being exhorted to remember God in his extremity of sicknesse So I do saith he and my Lord Cardinall too c. After him succeeded another Suffragan ordained by the foresaid Cardinall and equall to his Predecessor in cruell persecuting of the Church who injoying his place but a short time fell downe a paire of staires in the Cardinals chamber at Greenwich and broke his necke and that presently let it be noted after he received the Cardinals blessing The like sudden death hapned to Doctor Dunning the bloudy and wretched Chancellour of Norwich who after he had most rigorously condemned and murthered a number of simple and faithfull servants of God was suddenly stricken with death even as he was sitting in his chaire The like also fell upon Berry Commissary of Norfolke another bloudy persecutor who foure dayes after Queene Maries death having made a great Feast whereat was present one of his concubines as he was comming home from the Church where he had ministred the Sacrament of Baptisme fell downe suddenly to the ground with a heavy groane and never stirred after thus ending his miserable life without any shew of repentance So Doctor Geffrey Chancellor of Salisbury another of the same stampe was suddenly stricken with the mighty hand of God in the midst of his buildings where he was constrained to yeeld up his life which had so little pitty of other mens lives before and it is to be noted that the day before he was thus stricken he had appointed to call before him ninety poore Christians to examine them by inquisition but the goodnesse of God and his tender providence prevented him Doctor Foxford Chancellor to Bishop Stockesley dyed also suddenly So did Iustice Lelond the persecutor of one Ieffery Hurst Alexander the Keeper of Newgate a cruell enemy to those that lay in that prison for Religion dyed very miserably being so swollen that he was more like a monster than a man and
with other care Save of their feed within that pasture faire These Flocks a Sheepheard had of power and skill To fold and feed and save them from all ill By whose advice they liv'd whose wholsome voice They heard and fear'd with love and did rejoyce Therein with melody of song and praise And dance to magnifie his Name alwaies He is their Guide they are his Flocke and Fold Nor will they be by any else controld Well knowing that whom he takes care to feed He will preserve and save in time of need Thus liv'd this holy Flocke at hearts content Till cruell Beasts all set on ravishment Broke off their peace and ran upon with rage Themselves their Young and all their heritage Slitting their throats devoured Lambs and all And dissipating them that seap't their thrall Then did the jolly feast to fast transforme So ask't the fury of that ragefull storme Their joyfull song was turn'd to mournfull cries And all their gladnesse chang'd to well adyes Whereat Heav'n grieving clad it selfe in blacke But earth in uprore triumph't at their wracke What profits then the sheephooke of their Guide Or that he lies upon a Beacons side With watchfull eye to circumscribe their traine And hath no more regard unto their paine To save them from such dangers imminent Some say as are so often incident 'T is not for that his arme wants strength to break All proud at tempts that men of might do make Or that he will abandon unto death His Owne deare bought with exchange of his breath For must we thinke that though they dye they perish Death dyes in them and they in death reflourish And this lifes losse a better life renues Which after death eternally ensues Though then their passions never seeme so great Yet never comfort serves to swage their heat Though strength of torments be extreame in durance Yet are they guencht by Hopes and Faiths assurance For thankefull Hope if God be grounded in it Assures the heart and pacifies the spirit To them that love and reverence his Name Prosperity betides and want of shame Thus can no Tyrant pull them from the hands Of mighty God that for their safety stands Who ever sees and ever can defend Them whom he loves he loves unto the end So that the more their fury overfloweth The more each one his owne destruction soweth And as they strive with God in policy So are they sooner brought to misery Like as the savage Boare dislodg'd from den And hotly chased by pursuit of men Run's furiously on them that come him neere And goares himselfe upon the hunters speare The gentle puissant Lambe their Champion bold So help 's to conquer all that hart 's his fold That quickly they and all their Progeny Confounded is and brought to misery This is of Iudah the couragious Lion The conquering Captaine and the Rocke of Sion Whose favour is as great to Iacobs Line As is his fearefull frowne to Philistine CHAP XV. Of Apostata's and Backsliders that through infirmity and feare have fallen away IT is a kinde of Apostasie and Backsliding condemned by the first commandement of the Law when as hee that hath been once enlightened by the word of God in the knowledge of salvation and nourished and instructed therein from the cradle doth afterward cast behind his backe the grace of Gods spirit or disallow thereof and exempt himselfe from the service of God to serve Idols or make any outward shew to doe it which kinde of sinne may be committed after two sorts either through infirmity and feare or willingly and with deliberation when not being pressed or constrained thereto by any outward means a man doth cleerely and of himselfe abandon and forsake the true Religion to march under the baoner of Satan and Antichrist And this is also of two sorts either when a man doth simply forsake the profession of the Truth to follow superstition and Idolatry without attempting any thing beside the meere deniall of his Faith or when after his revolt he professeth not onely the contrary Religion but also endeavoureth himselfe by all means possible to advance it and to oppresse and lay siege to the doctrine of Gods Truth in those that maintaine the same By this it appeareth that there are three kinds of Apostasie one as it were inforced and compelled the second voluntary the last both voluntary and malitious which though they be all very hainous and offensive in the sight of God yet the second and third sort are most dangerous and of them also one more hurtfull and pernitious than the other as we shall perceive by that which followeth Now as all these kinds are different one from another so I will referre the examples of each sort to his severall place that the efficacy thereof may be the better perceived And first of those which have fallen away through feare and infirmity and afterward in order of the rest Athough that they who by the conceit and feare of tortures presented before their eyes or of speedy and cruell death threatned against them doe decline and slide backe from the profession of the Gospell may pretend for excuse the weakenesse and feeblenesse of the flesh yet doubtlesse they are found guilty before the throne of God for preferring the love of this transitory and temporary life before the zeale of his glory and the honour which is due to his onely begotten Sonne especially at that time when they are called out of purpose by their Martyrdome to witnesse his sacred truth before men and he desireth most to be glorified by their free and constant perseverance therein to the which perseverance they are exhorted by many faire promises of eternall life and happinesse and from the contrary terrified by threats of death and confusion and upon paine to be discharged from the presence of Christ before God because they have denied him before men which is the misery of all miseries and the greatest that can happen to any man for what shall become of that man whom the Sonne of God doth not acknowledge Now to prove that God is indeed highly offended at this faint hearted cowardlinesse he himself hath made knowne unto us by the punishments which divers times he hath sent upon the heads of such offendors As in the time of the Emperour Valerian the eighth persecutor of the Church under whose persecution albeit that many Champions bestirred themselves most valiantly in that combat of Faith yet there wanted not some whose hearts failing them and who in stead of maintaining and standing for their cause to the death as they ought to have done retyred and gave up themselves to the enemy at the first assault Amongst the number of which doubty souldiers there was one that went up into the Capitoll at Rome in that place where Iupiters Temple in old time stood to abjure and recant Christ and his profession which he had no sooner done but he was presently strucke dumbe and so was justly punished
authority to doe the like mischiefe And that which is yet more and worst of all he made no account nor reckoning of the admonitions of the Prophets but the rather and the more hardened his heart to runne out into all manner of cruelty and wickednesse that his sinnes might have their full measure For the very stones of the streets of Ierusalem were stained from one corner to another with the guiltlesse and innocent bloud of those that either for disswading him from or not yeelding unto his abhominable and detestable Idolatry were cruelly murthered Amongst the number of which slaine innocents many suppose that the Prophet Esayas although he was of the bloud-royall was with a strange manner of torment put to death Wherefore the flame of Gods ire was kindled against him and his people so that he stirred up the Assyrians against them whose power and force they being not able to resist were subdued and the King himselfe taken and put in fetters and bound in chaines carried captive to Babylon but being there in tribulation hee humbled his soule and prayed unto the Lord his God who for all his wicked cruell and abhominable Apostasie was intreated of him and received him to mercy yea and brought him againe to Ierusalem into his unhoped for kingdome Then was he no more unthankfull to the Lord for his wonderfull deliverance but being touched with true repentance for his former life abolished the strange gods broke downe their Altars and restored againe the true Religion of God and gave strait commandement to his people to doe the like Wherein it was the pleasure of the Highest to leave a notable memoriall unto all posterity of his great and infinite mercy towards poore and miserable sinners to the end that no man be his sinnes never so hainous should at any time despaire for Where sin aboundeth there grace aboundeth much more Admit that this revolt of Manasses was farre greater and more outragious than was Solomons yet his true repentance found the grace to be raised up from that 〈◊〉 â—ull downefall for God hath mercy on whom he will have mercy and compassion on whom he will have compassion O the profound riches of the wisedome and knowledge of God! How unspeakable are his judgements and his wayes pâ—st finding out Amon the wicked sonne of this repentant â—ather committed also the like offence in serving strange gods but recanted not by like repentance and therefore God gave his owne servants both will to conspire and power to execute his destruction after hee had swayed the kingdome but two yeares CHAP. XVIII Of the third and worst sort of Apostata's BY how much the more God hath in these latter daies poured forth more plentifully his graces upon the sonnes of men by the manifestations of his Sonne Christ Iesus in the flesh and sent forth a more cleere light by the preaching of his Gospell into the world than was before times by so much the more culpable before God and guilty of eternall damnation are they who being once enlightened and made partakers of those excellent graces come afterwards either to despise or make light account of them or goe about to suppresse the truth and quench the spirit which instructed them therein This is the Sinne against the Holy Ghost which is mentioned in the sixth and tenth chapter to the Hebrewes and in the twelfth of Luke and in another place it is called a Sinne unto death because it is impardonable by reason that no excuse of ignorance can be pleaded nor any plaister of true repentance applyed unto it The Apostata's of the old Testament under the Law were not guilty of this sinne for although there were many that willingly and malitiously revolted and set themselves against the Prophets of God making warre as it were with the Holy Ghost yet seeing they had no such cleere testimonies of Christ Iesus and declaration of Gods Spirit as we have their sinne cannot be properly said directly to be against the Holy Ghost and so never to be remitted according to the description of this sinne in those passages of Scripture which were before recited as it may manifestly appeare by the former example of King Manasses The Apostle himselfe likewise doth averre the truth hereof when he saith If we sinne willingly after that we have received the knowledge of the Truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sinnes but a fearefull looking for of judgement and violent fire which shall devoure the adversaries If any man despised Moses Law he died without mercy under two or three witnesses of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be worthy which treadeth under foot the Sonne of God and counteth the bloud of the new Testament as a prophane thing whereby he was sanctified and doth despight to the Spirit of Grace Here we may see that this sinne is proper to those onely that lived under the Gospell and have tasted of the comfort and knowledge of Christ. Iudas Iscariot that wicked and accursed Varlet committed the deed and feeles the scourge of this great sinne for he being a Disciple nay an Apostle of Christ Iesus moved with covetousnesse after he had devised and concluded of the manner and complot of his treason with the enemie sold his Lord and Master the Savior of the World for thirty pieces of silver and betrayed him into the bands of theeves and murtherers who sought nothing but his destruction After this vile traitour had performed this execrable purpose by reason whereof he is called the sonne of perdition he could finde no rest nor repose in his guilty conscience but was horribly troubled and tormented with remorse of his wickednesse judging himselfe worthy of a thousand deaths for betraying that innocent and guiltlesse bloud If hee looked up he saw the vengeance of God ready to fall upon him and insnare him if hee looked downe he saw nothing but hell gaping to swallow him up the light of this world was odious to him and his own life displeased him so that being plunged into the bottomlesse pit of despaire he at last strangled himselfe and burst in twaine in the midst and all his bowels gushed out There is a notable example of Lucian who having professed Christianity for a season under the Emperour Trajan fell away afterwards and became so prophane and impious as to make a mocke at Religion and Divinity whereupon his sirname was called Atheist This wretch as he barked out like a foule mouthed dog bitter taunts against the religion of Christ seeking to rend and abolish it so he was himselfe in Gods vengeance torne in pieces and devoured of dogs Porphyrie also a whelp of the same litter after he had received the knowledge of the truth for despight and anger that he was reproved of his faults by the Christians set himselfe against them and published books full of horrible blasphemies to discredit and overthrow the Christian Faith But when he perceived how fully
name and title of Caesar and to oppugne the Emperor Henry by armes even by foure unjust battels in the last of which Rodolph being overcome lost his right hand and was sore wounded otherwise wherefore being ready to die when one brought unto him his hand that was cut off in the battell he in detestation of the Popes villanie burst forth into these termes many Bishops standing by Behold here the hand wherewith I swore fealtie to the Emperor this will be an argument of my breach of faith before God and of your traiterous impulsion thereunto And thus he deceased justly punished even by his owne confession for his perjurie Howbeit for all this manifest example the Pope and Bishops continued to persecute the poore Emperor yea and to stir up his owne sonnes Conrade and Henry to fight against him so hardned are their hearts against all Gods judgments Narcissus Bishop of Ierusalem a man famous for his vertues and sharpe in reproving and correcting vice was accused by three wicked wretches of unchastity and that falsly and maliciously for to prove their accusation true they bound it with oaths and curses on this wise the first said If I ly I pray God I may perish by fire The second If I speake aught but truth I pray God I may be consumed by some filthie and cruell disease The third If I accuse him falsely I pray God I may be deprived of my sight and become blinde Thus although the honesty and chastity of Narcissus was so well knowne to all the faithfull that they beleeved none of their oaths yet the good Bishop partly mooved with griefe of this false accusation and partly with desire of quietnesse from worldly affaires forsooke his bishopricke and lived in a desart for many yeares But his forsworne accusers by their death witnessed his innocencie which by their words they impugned for the first his house being set on fire extraordinarily perished in flame with all his family and progenie The second languished away with an irkesome disease that bespread his bodie all over The third seeing the wofull ends of his companions confessed all their villanie and lamenting his case and crime persisted so long weeping till both his eyes were out Thus God in his just judgement sent upon each of them their wishes and thereby cleered his servant from shame and opprobry Burghard Archbishop of Magdeburg though in regard of his place and profession he ought to have given good example of honestie in himselfe and punish perjurie in others yet he thrice broke his promise and oath with his owne Citisens the Senat and people of Magdeburg for first hee besieged them with a power of men and though they redeemed their liberty with a summe of money he swearing not to besiege them any more yet without respect of truth and credit he returned afresh to the siege but his persidie was soone tamed for they tooke him prisoner at that assault howbeit he so asswaged their angrie mindes with his humble and lowlie entreaties and counterfe it oathes never to trouble them any more but to continue their stedfast friend that they not onely freed him from imprisonment but restored him to all his dignities with solemnitie neverthelesse the traiterous Archbishop returning to his old vomit got dispensation for his oath from Pope Iohn the xxiij and began afresh to vex molest and murther them whom he had sworne to maintaine but it was the will of God that he should be once againe caught and being enclosed in prison whilest his friends sought meanes to redeeme him the gaoler beat him to death with a dore barre or as some say with an yron rod taken out of a window and so at last though long his perjurie found its desert The small successe that the Emperor Sigismund had in all his affaires after the violation of his faith given to Iohn Hus and Hierome of Prague at the Councell of Constance whom though with direct protestations and oathes he promised safe conduct and returne yet he adjudged to be burned doth testifie the odiousnesse of his sin in the sight of God But above all this one example is most worthie the marking of a fellow that hearing perjury condemned in a pulpit by a learned preacher and how it never escaped unpunished said in a braverie I have oft forsworne my selfe and yet my right hand is not a whit shorter than my left Which words he had scarce uttered when such an inflamation arose in that hand that he was constrained to go to the Chirurgion and cut it off lest it should infect his whole bodie and so his right hand became shorter than his left in recompence of his perjurie which he lightly esteemed of About the yeare of our Lord 925 when King Ethelstane otherwise called Adelstane raigned here in England there was one Elfrede a Nobleman who with a faction of seditious persons conspired against the King presently after the death of his Father and at Winchester went about to put out his eyes but the King by the good providence of God escaped that danger and Elfrede being accused thereof fled to Rome to the end to purge himself of the crime by oath before the Pope who beeing brought to the Church of Saint Peter and there swearing or rather forswearing himself to be cleere when indeed he was guilty behold the Lords hand on him suddenly as soon as his oath was pronounced he fell down in a strange sicknesse and from thence being brought to the English house in Rome within three daies after departed this life The Pope sent word hereof to King Ethelstane with demand Whither he would have him buried among Christians or no Who through the perswasions of his friends and kinsfolke granted that though he neither lived nor died like a Christian yet he should have Christian buriall In the towne of Rutlinquen a certaine passenger came into an Inne and gave a budget to his hoast to be kept in the which there was a great sum of money but when he demanded it againe at his departure the host denied it and gave him injurious words with many mocks and taunts Whereupon the passenger calleth him in question before the Iudge and because he wanted witnesses desireth to have him sworne who without all scruple offered to sweare and protest That he never received or concealed any such budget of money from him giving himselfe to the Devill if he swore falsely The passenger seeing his forwardnesse to damne himself demanded respit to consider of the matter and going out hee meets with two men who enquire the cause of his comming thither and being informed by him offer their help unto him in his cause thereupon they returne before the Iudge and these two unknowne persons justifie that the budget was delivered unto the host and that hee had hidden it in such a place whereat the host being astonished by his countenance and gesture discovered his guiltinesse the Iudge thereupon resolved to send
him to prison but the two unknowne witnesses who were indeed two fiends of hell began to say you shall not need for we are sent to punish his wickednesse and so saying they hoisted him up into the ayre where he vanished with them and was never after found In the yeare of our Lord 1055 Goodwine Earle of Kent sitting at the table with King Edward of England it happened that one of the cupbearers stumbled and yet fell not whereat Goodwine laughing said That if one brother had not holpen another meaning his legs all the wine had been spilt with which words the King calling to mind his brothers death which was slaine by Goodwine answered So should my brother Alphred have holpen me had not Goodwine been then Goodwine fearing the Kings new kindled displeasure excused himselfe with many words and at last eating a morsell of bread wished it might choke him if he were not guiltlesse of Alphreds bloud But he swore falsly as the judgement of God declared for he was forthwith choaked in the presence of the King ere he removed one foot from that place though there be some say he recovered life againe Long time after this in the raigne of Queene Elizabeth there was in the city of London one Anne Averies widow who forswore her selfe for a little money that she should have paid for six pounds of tow at a shop in Woodstreet for which cause being suddenly surprised with the justice of God shee fell downe speechlesse forthwith and cast up at her mouth in great abundance and with horrible stinke that matter which by natures course should have been voided downewards and so died to the terrour of all perjured and forsworne wretches There are in histories many more examples to be found of this hurtfull and pernitious sin exercised by one nation towards another and one man towards another in most prophane and villanous sort neither shaming to be accounted forsworne nor consequently fearing to displease God and his majesty But forasmuch as when we come to speak of murtherers in the next book we shall have occasion to speake of them more or of such like I will referre the handling thereof unto that place onely this let every man learne by that which hath been spoken to be sound and fraudlesse and to keep his faith and promise towards all men if for no other cause yet for feare of God who leaveth not this sin unpunished nor holdeth them guiltlesse that thus taketh his name in vaine CHAP. XXIX Of Blasphemers AS touching Blasphemy it was a most grievous and enormous sin and contrary to this third Commanmandement when a man is so wretched and miseble as to pronounce presumptuous speeches against God whereby his name is slandered and evill spoken of which sinne cannot chuse but be sharply and severely punished for if so be that God holdeth not him guiltles that doth but take his name in vain must he not needs abhor him that blasphemeth his Name See how meritoriously that wicked and perverse wretch that blasphemed and murdered as it were the name of God among the people of Israel in the desart was punished he was taken put in prison and condemned and speedily stoned to death by the whole multitude and upon that occasion as evill manners evermore begat good lawes the Lord instituted a perpetuall law and decree that every one that should blaspheme and curse God of what estate or degree soever should be stoned to death in token of detestation which sentence if it might now adaies stand in force there would not raign so many miserable blasphemers and deniers of God as the world is now filled and infected with It was also ordained by a new law of Iustinian That blasphemies should be severely punished by the judges and magistrates of Commonweales but such is the corruption and misery of this age that those men that ought to correct others for such speeches are oftentimes worst themselves and there are that thinke that they cannot be sufficiently feared and awed of men except by horrible bannings and swearings they despight and maugre God nay it is further come to that passe that in some places to swearc and ban be the markes and ensignes of a Catholike and they are best welcome that can blaspheme most How much then is that good King Saint Lewis of France to be commended who especially discharged all his subjects from swearing and blaspheming within his realm insomuch that when he heard a nobleman blaspheme God most cruelly he caused him to be laid hold on and his lips to bee slit with an hot yron saying hee must be content to endure that punishment seeing he purposed to banish oathes out of his kingdome Now wee call blasphemy according to the Scripture phrase every word that derogateth either from the bounty mercy justice eternity and soveraigne power of God Of this sort was that blasphemous speech of one of King Iorams Princes who at the time of the great famine in Samaria when it was besieged by the Syrians hearing Elizeus the Prophet say that the next morrow there should be plenty of victuals and good cheap rejected this promise of God made by his Prophet saying that it was impossible as if God were either a lyar or not able to performe what he would for this cause this unbeleeving blasphemer received the same day a deserved punishment for his blasphemy for he was troden to death in the gate of the city under the feet of the multitude that went out into the Syrians campe forsaken and left desolate by them through a feare which the Lord sent among them Senaccherib King of Assyria after he had obtained many victories and â—â—odued much people under him and also layd siege to Ierusalem became â—â—proud and arrogant as by his servants mouth to revile and blaspheme the living God speaking no otherwise of him than of some strange idoll and one that had no power to help and deliver those that trusted in him for which blasphemies he soone after felt a just vengeance of God upon himselfe and his people for although in mans eyes he seemed to be without the reach of danger seeing he was not assayled but did assayle and was guarded with so mighty an army that assured him to make him lord of Ierusalem in short space yet the Lord overthrew his power and destroyed of his men in one night by the hand of his Angell 185 thousand men so that he was faine to raise his siege and returne into his owne kingdome where finally he was slaine by his owne sons as he was worshipping on his knees in the temple of his god In the time of the Machabees those men that were in the strong hold called Gazara fighting against the Iewes trusting to the strength of the place wherein they were uttered forth most infamous speeches against God but ere long their blasphemous mouths were encountred by a condigne punishment for the first day of
but himselfe no man could ever after set eye on The magistrate advertised hereof came to the place where he was taken to be better informed of the truth taking the witnesse of the two women touching that which they had seene Here may wee see the strange and terrible events of Gods just vengeance upon such vile caitifes which doubtlesse are made manifest to strike a feare and terrour into the heart of every swearer and denier of God the world being but too full at this day of such wretches that are so inspired with Satan that they cannot speake but they must name him even him that is both an enemy to God and man and like a roaring lion runneth and roveth too and fro to devoure them not seeking any thing but mans destruction And yet when any paine assaileth them or any trouble disquieteth their minds or any danger threateneth to oppresse their bodies desperately they call upon him for aid when indeed it were more needfull to commend themselves to God and to pray for his grace and assistance having both a commandement so to doe and a promise adjoyned that he will help us in our necessities if we come unto him by true and hearty prayer It is not therefore without just cause that God hath propounded and laid open in this corrupt age a Theatre of his Iudgements that every man might be warned thereby CHAP. XXXI More examples of Gods Iudgements upon Cursers BVt before we goe to the next commandement wee will adjoyne a few more examples of this devillish cursing Martin Luther hath left registred unto us a notable example showne upon a popish priest that was once a professor of the sincere religion and fell away voluntarily unto Papisme whereof Adam Budissina was the reporter This man thundred out most bitter curses against Luther in the pulpit at a town called Ruthnerwald and amongst the rest wished that if Luthers doctrine were true a thunderbolt might strike him to death Now three dayes after there arose a mighty tempest with thunder and lightening whereat the cursed Priest bearing in himselfe a guilty conscience for that hee had untruly and malitiously spoken ranne hastily into the Church and there fell to his prayers before the Altar most devoutly but the vengeance of God found him out and his hypocrisie so that he was stroken dead with the lightening and albeit they recovered life in him againe yet as they led him homewards through the Church-yard another flâ—sh so set upon him that he was burnt from the crowne of the head to the sole of the foot as blacke as a shoo so that he died with a manifest marke of Gods vengeance upon him Theodorus Beza reporteth unto us two notable histories of his owne knowledge of the severity of Gods judgment upon a curser and a perjurer the tenor whereof is this I knew said he in France a man of good parts well instructed in Religion and a master of a Familie who in his anger cursing and bidding the Divell take one of his children had presently his wish for the childe was possessed immediatly with a Spirit from which though by the servent and continuall prayers of the Church he was at length released yet ere he had fully recovered his health he died The like we read to have happened to a woman whom her husband in anger devoted with bitter curses to the Divell for Sathan assaulted her persently and robbed her of her wits so that she could never be recovered Another example saith he happened not far hence even in this country upon a perjurer that forswore him selfe to the end to deceive and prejudice another thereby but he had no sooner made an end of his false oath but a grievous Apoplexy assailed him so that without speaking of any one word he dyed within few dayes In the yere of our Lord 1557 the day before good fryday at Forchenum a city in the Bishopricke of Bamburg there was a certaine crooked Priest both in body and minde through age and evill conditions that could not go but upon crutches yet would needs be lifted into the pulpit to make a Sermon his text was out of the 11 chap. of the first Epistle to the Corinthians touching the Lords Supper whereout taking occasion to defend the Papisticall errours and the Masse hee used these or such like blasphemous speeches O Paul Paul if thy doctrine touching the receiving of the Sacrament in both kinds be true and if it be a wicked thing to receive it otherwise then would the divell might take me and turning to the people if the Popes doctrine concerning this point be not true then am I the divels bondslaue neither do I feare to pawne my soule upon it These and many other blasphemous words he used till the Divell came indeed transformed into the shape of a tall man blacke and terrible sending before him such a fearefull noyse and such a wind that the people supposed that the Church would have fallen on their heads but he not able to hurt the rest tooke away the old Priest being his devoted bondslave and carried him so far that he was never heard of The bishop of Rugenstines brother hardly escaped his hands for he came back to fetch him but he defending himself with his sword wounded his owne body and very narrowly escaped with his life Beside after this there were many visions seene about the citie as armies of men ready to enter and surprise them so that well was he that could hide himselfe in a corner At another time after the like noyse was heard in the Church whilst they were baptising an infant and all this for the abhominable cursing and blasphemy of the prophane Priest In the yeare of our Lorld 1556 at S. Gallus in Helvetia a certaine man that earned his living by making cleane rough and soule linnen against the Sun entering a taverne tasted so much the grape that he vomited out terrible curses against himselfe and others amongst the rest he wished if ever he went into the fields to his old occupation that the divell might come and breake his necke but when sleepe had conquered drinke and sobriety restored his sences he went again to his trade remembring indeed his late words but regarding them not howbeit the Divell to shew his double diligence attended on him at his appointed houre in the likenesse of a big swarthy man and asked him if he remembred his promise and vow which he had made the day before and if it were not lawfull for him to breake his necke and withall stroke the poore man trembling with feare over the shoulders that his feet and his hands presently dried up so that he lay there not able to stir till by help of men he was carried home the Lord not giving the Devill so much power over him as he wished himselfe but yet permitting him to plague him on this sort for his amendment and our example Henry Earle of Schwartburg through a
King of England sonne of Geffrey Plantagenet and Maud the Empresse after he had raigned twenty yeares was content to admit his young sonne Henry married to Margaret the French Kings daughter into participation of his Crowne but he like an unnaturall son to requite his fathers love sought to dispossesse him of the whole for by inciting the King of France and certaine other Nobles hee tooke armes and raised warre against his owne naturall father betwixt whom divers strong battels being fought as well in England by the Deputies and friends of both parties as also in Normandy Poytou Guian and Britain the victory alwayes inclined to the father so that the rebellious son with his allies were constrained to bend to his fathers will and to desire peace which he gently granted and forgave his offence Howbeit the Lord for his disobedience did not so lightly pardon him but because his hasty mind could not tarry for the Crowne till his fathers death therefore the Lord cut him short of it altogether causing him to die six yeares before his father being yet but young and like to live long Lothair King of Soissons in France committed the rule of the province of Guian to his eldest son Cramiris who when contrary to the mind of his father he oppressed the people with exactions and was reclaimed home he like an ungratious and impious son fled to his uncle Childebert and provoked him towarre upon his owne father wherein he himselfe was by the just vengeance of God taken and burned with his wife and children to death Furthermore it is not doubtlesse but to a very good end enacted in the law of God That he which curseth his father or mother should die the death and that rebellious children and such as be incorrigible should at the instance and pursuit of their owne parents by order of law be stoned to death As children by all these examples ought not onely to learne to feare to displease and revile their parents but also to feare and reverence them lest that by disobedience they kindle the fire of Gods wrath against them so likewise on the other side parents are here advertised to have great care in bringing up and instructing their children in the feare of God and obedience to his will lest for want of instruction and correction on their part they themselves incurre a punishment of their carelesse negligence in the person of their children And this is proved by experience of the men of Bethel of whose children two and forty were torne in pieces by Beares for that they had been so evill taught as to mocke the holy Prophet Elizeus in calling him bald-pate Heli likewise the high priest was culpable of this fault for having two wicked and perverse sonnes whom no feare of God could restraine being discontent with that honourable portion of the sacrifices allotted them by God like famished and unsatiable wretches fell to share out more than was their due and by force to raven all that which by faire meanes they could not get and that which is worse to pollute the holy Tabernacle of God with their filthy whoredomes in such sort that the Religion of God grew in disgrace through their prophane dealings And albeit it may seem that their father did his duty in some sort when he admonished and reproved them yet it is manifest by the reprehension of the man of God that he did no part of that at all or if he did yet it was in so carelesse loose and cold manner using more lenity than hee ought or lesse severity than was necessary that God turned their destructions when they were slaine at the overthrow of Israel by the Philistins to be his punishment for understanding the dolefull newes of his sonnes death and the Arkes taking at once he fell backewards from his stoole and burst his necke being old and heavy even fourescore and eighteene yeares of age not able either to help or stay himselfe David also was not free from this offence for hee so much cockered some of his children that they proved the greatest plagues and scourges unto him especially Absolon and Adonijah for the one openly rebelled against him and almost drove him out of his kingdome the other usurped the title and honour of the kingdome before his fathers death of this it is recorded That David so cockered and pampered him that he would never displease him from his youth But see how he was punished in them for this too great lenity both of them came to an untimely death and proved not onely the workers of their owne destruction but also great crosses to their father Ludovicus Vives saith That in his time a certain woman in Flanders did so much pamper and cocker up two of her sonnes even against her husbands will that she would not suffer them to want money or any thing which might furnish their roiotous life both in drinking banquetting and dicing yea she would stoale from her husband to minister unto them but as soone as her husband was dead she was justly plagued in them both for they fell from royoting to robbing which two vices are commonly linked together and for the same one of them was executed by the sword and the other by the halter she her selfe looking on as a witnesse of their destructions whereof her conscience told her that her indulgence was the chiefest cause Hither may we referre that common and vulgar story and I suppose very true which is almost in every childes mouth of him that going to the gallowes desired to speake with his mother in her care ere he dyed and when she came unto him in stead of speaking bit off her care with his teeth exclaiming upon her as the causer of his death because she did not chastise him in his youth for his faults but by her flatteries established him in vice which brought him to this wofull end and herein she was doubly punished both in her sonnes destruction and her owne infamy whereof she carried about her a continuall maâ—ke This ought to be a warning to all parents to looke better to the education of their children and to root out of them in time all evill and corrupt manners lest of small sprigs they grow to branches and of qualities to habits and so either be hardly done off or at least deprave the whole body and bring it to destruction but above all to keep them from idlenesse and vaine pleasures the discommodity and mischiefe whereof this present example will declare At a towne called Hannuel in Saxony the Devill transforming himselfe into the shape of a man exercised many jugling trickes and pretty pastime to delight young men and maids withall and indeed to draw after him daily great companies one day they followed him out of the city gates unto a hill adjoyning where he played a jugling tricke indeed with them for he carried them all away with him so that they were never
after heard of This history is recorded in the Annales of the aforenamed city and avouched to be most true being a notable and fearefull admonition to all parents to set their children to learning and instruction and to withdraw them from all such vaine and foolish pastimes CHAP. II. Of those that rebell against their Superiors NOw as it is a thing required by law and reason that children beare that honour and reverence to their naturall parents which is commanded so it is necessary by the same respect that all subjects performe that duty of honour and obedience to their Lords Princes and Kings which is not derogatory to the glory of God the rather because they are as it were their fathers in supplying that duty towards their subjects which fathers owe their children as namely in maintaining their peace and tranquility in earthly things and keeping them under the discipline of Gods Church to which two ends they were ordained For this cause the Scripture biddeth every man to be subject to the higher powers not so much to avoid the punishment which might befall the contrary as because it is agreeable to the will of God And in another place To honour the King and To give unto Caesar that which is Caesars as unto God that which is Gods So also in Moses law wee are forbidden to detract from or speake evill of the Magistrate or to curse the Ruler of the people Yet for all this the children of Israel were not afraid many times to commit this sin but then especially when they charged Moses with conspiring the murther of those Rebels that under Corah Dathan and Abiram Captaines of that enterprise set themselves against him and Aaron whom not he but God for their pride and stubburnnesse had rooted out and destroyed and thus they backbited and slandered Moses and mutined against him being their soveraigne Magistrate and Conductor that so meekly and justly had brought them out of Egypt even by the speciall commission of Almighty God But the fury of Gods displeasure was so stirred up against them for this their fact that they were scourged with a grievous plague whereof dyed about foure thousand and seven hundred persons In the time of King Davids flight from Absalom who pursued him to bereave him of his kingdome there was one Semei a Ieminite that in his wicked and perverse humour in stead of service done unto his Soveraigne especially in that extremity not only presented not himselfe unto him as a subject but as a railer cursed him with most reproachfull tearmes as of murtherer and wicked man and also threw stones at him and his followers in most despightfull manner for which his malitious and rebellious act though whilest David lived he was not once called in question yet was he not exempted from punishment therefore for in the end his wickednesse fell upon his owne head and destruction overtooke him by desert of another fault at the commandement of Solomon The punishment of Shiba the sonne of Bichri tarried not all so long who having also with a proud and audacious heart stirred up the greatest part of Israel to rebell against David then when he thought to have been most at quiet enjoyed not long his disloyall enterprise for being speedily pursued by Davids servants and besieged in the city Abel his head was cut off by the citizens and throwne over the wall as a just reward for his rebellious act But let us passe over these sacred histories and come to prophane yet probable and more neere examples When Camillus besieged the Phalischi a people in Hetruria neere to mount Floscon a Schoolemaster of the city who had the rule over the chiefe mens sons both touching instruction and governance led them out of the city gates one day in shew to walke but indeed to betray them into Camillus hands which unfaithfull dealing Camillus did not onely mislike but detest and refuse thinking it an unhonest part by such finister meanes to bring even his enemies in subjection and therefore reproving the trustlesse Schoolmaster and binding his hands behind his back he gave every one of his schollers a rod with commandement to whip him backe unto the parents whom hee had pretended so to deceive A most noble act in Camillus would wee could finde the like among Christians and a most deserved punishment of the Schoolmaster would no traitor might be served better Neither might that worthy Romane repent his deed for the Phalischi in admiration and love of this notable justice freely yeelded themselves and their city to him which otherwise in long time and without great effusion of bloud he could not have atchieved Did Tarpeia the daughter of Sp. Tarpeius speed any better when shâ—t betrayed the tower whereof her father was the overseer to Tatius King of the Sabines who at that season besieged Rome upon condition of a summe of gold or as other writers say of all that the souldiers wore on their left hands No verily for the Sabines as soon as they had obtained their purpose overwhelmed her with her left hand gifts to wit their shields and not their rings and bracelets which she hoped to the end to leave an example to the posterity how no promise nor oath ought to be of force to traitors to keep them from punishment Neither did these noble young men of Rome amongst whom were the Consull Brutus sonnes come to any better issue when they conspired to receive King Tarquinius into the city by night who by the vertue and valour of their father was worthily expulsed for their secret and wicked counsell being bewrayed to the Consuls Iunius and Pub. Valerius by Vindicio a bondslave they were apprehended having letters about them written to Tarquinius to the same effect and being condemned were first shamefully scourged with rods and after executed to death Pausanias King of Sparta having conspired with the Persians against his own countrey and as it were offered violence to his owne bowels fled into the Sanctuary of Pallas for reliefe when he saw the Ephori to go about to call him in question for his treason Now whereas it was irrelegious to take him from thence by violence they agreed to shut him up there continually and so to pine him to death Which when his mother understood she was the first person that brought a stone to stop up the doores to hinder him from getting forth and therein shewed a notable example of godly cruelty to her childe and cruell pitty to her countrey approving that saying of Aristippus who being demanded why hee neglected his sonne being borne of his body answered Doe wee not cast from us lice and flegme which are also bred of our bodies Insinuating That they which have nothing to commend them to their parents but generation are not to be esteemed as children much lesse they that degenerate When Brennus Captaine of the Gaules brother to Belinus and sonne to
him of his gard from that he arose to be a Tribune and at last to bee Emperor which place he was no sooner in possession of but immoderate cruelty all this while buried began to shew it selfe for he made havocke of all the Nobilitie and put to death those that he suspected to be acquainted with his estate insomuch as some called him Cyclops some Bâ—siris others Aâ—teus for his cruelty Wherefore the Senate of Rome seeing his indignity proclaimed him an enemy to their commonwealth and made it lawfull for any man to procure his death Which being knowne his souldiers lying at the siege of Aquileia moved with hatred entred his tent at noone day and flew him and his sonne together Iustinian the yonger no lesse hatefull to his subjects for his cruelty than Maximinus was deposed from the empire by conspiracy and having his nosthrils slit exiled to Chersona Leontius succeeding in his place Howbeit ere long he recovered his Crowne and Scepter and returned to Constantinople exercising more cruelty at his returne than ever he had done before for he had not only put to death Leontius and Tiberius but also all that any way favored their parts It is said of him that he never blew his mangled nose but he caused one of them to be executed to death At last he was slaine by Philippicus to verifie the word of the Lord That he which striketh with the sword shall perish with the sword Albonius king of Lunbardy drinking upon a time to his wife Rosimund in a cup made of her fathers skull whom he in battell had slaine so displeased her therewith that attributing more to naturall affection than unity of marriage decreed with her selfe to hazard life and kingdome to be revenged upon this grievous injurie wherefore she thus practised A knight called Hemichild was enamoured with one of her maids him shee brought into a secret darke place by policie in shew to injoy his love but indeed to be at her command for she supplyed his loves place and then discovering her selfe put it to his choise either to kill her husband or to be accused by her of this villanie Hemichild chose the former and indeed murdered his Lord in his bed and after the deed done fled with her to Ravenna But marke how the Lord required this murder even most strangely for they both which were linkt together in the fact were linkt together also in the punishment and as they had beene joynt instruments of anothers destruction so he made them mutuall instruments of their owne for Rosimund thinking to poyson him too made him drinke halfe her medicine but hee feeling the poyson in his veines staied in the mid way and made her sup up the other halfe for her part so they died both together The Electors of the Empire disagreeing in suffrages Adolphus Duke of Nassavia and Albertus Duke of Austria tooke upon them the regiment and managing of the State whereupon grew grievous wars in all Germanie and dissention between the two State-men so that Adolphus was slaine by the Duke of Austria in battell by the citie of Spire whose death was thus notably revenged All that tooke part against him or that were accessary to the murder perished most strangely Albert Earle of Hagerloch was slaine Otto of Ochsensteme was hanged the Bishop of Mentz died suddenly of an apoplexie in his cellar the Bishop of Strasbrough was butchered by a Butcher the Earle of Leimingen died of a frensie the Duke of Austria himselfe was slaine by his nephew Iohn from whom hee had taken the government of Suevia because of his unthriftinesse generally they all came to destruction so grievous is the crie of innocent bloud against those that are guilty thereof After the death of Woldimirus King of Rhythenia his sonne Berisus succeeded in the kingdome who though hee was a vertuous and religious Prince yet could not his vertue or religion priviledge him from the malice of his brother Suadopolcus who gaping and itching for the Crowne slew his brother this good Prince as hee was sleeping in his Chamber together with his Esquire that attended upon him and not content herewith but adding murder to murder hee assaulted another of his brethren by the same impietie and brought him to the same end Whereupon the last brother Iorislaus to bee revenged on this villanie set upon him with an armie of men and killing his complices drove him to fly to Crachus king of Polonia for succour who furnishing him with a new armie sent him backe against his brother in which battell his successe being equall to the former hee lost his men and himselfe escaping the sword dyed in his flight to Polonia and was buried in a base and ignoble sepulchre fit enough for so base and ignoble a wretch And that we may see how hatefull and ungodly a thing it is to be either a protector or a saver of any murderer marke the judgement of God that fell upon this king of Polonia though not in his own person yet in his posterity for hee being dead his eldest sonne and heire Crachus was murdered by his younger brother Lechus as they were hunting so disguised and torn that every man imputed his death not to Lechus whose eyes dropt crocodiles teares but to some savage and cruell beast howbeit ere long his trechery being discovered and disseised of his kingdome hee died with extreame griefe and horrour of conscience And thus we see that Crachus his kingdome came to desolation for maintaining a murderer Iohn the high Priest of Jerusalem sonne and successor to Iudas had a brother termed Iesus to whom Bagoses the lieutenant of Artaxerxes army promised the Priesthood meaning indeed to depose Iohn and install him in his roome upon which occasion this Iesus growing insolent spared not to revile his brother and that in the temple with immodest and opprobrious speeches so that his anger being provoked he slew him in his rage a most impious part for the high Priest to pollute the holy temple with bloud and that of his owne brother and so impious that the Lord in justice could not chuse but punish the whole nation for it most severely For this cause Bagoses imposed a tribute upon them even a most grievous tribute that for every lambe they offered upon the altar they should pay fiftie groats to the king of Persia besides the prophanation of their temple with the uncircumcised Persians who entred into it at their pleasures and so polluted the Sanctuary and holy things of God this punishment continued upon them seven yeares and all for this one murder Gerhardus Earle of Holsatia after he had conquered the Danes in many and sundry battells was traiterously slaine in the citie Kanderhusen by one Nicolaus Iacobus a rich Baron so that whom the open enemy feared in the field him the privie subtile foe murdered in his chamber But the traitor and murderer albeit hee fled to the castle Schaldenburg and
then is the murdering of Parents especially detestable when a man is so possessed with the Devill or transported with a hellish fury that he lifteth up his hand against his own father or mother to put them to death this is so monstrous and inormous an impiety that the greatest Barbarians ever have had it in detestation wherefore it is also expresly commanded in the Law of God That whosoever smiteth his father or mother in what sort so ever though not to death yet he shall die the death If the disobedience unreverence and contempt of children towards their Parents are by the just judgements of God most rigorously punished as hath beene declared before in the first commandement of the second Table how much more then when violence is offered and above all when murder is committed Thus the Aegyptians punished this sinne they put the committants upon a stacke of thornes and burnt them alive having beaten their bodies beforehand with sharpe reeds made of purpose Solon being demanded why he appointed no punishment in his Lawes for Paricides answered that there was no necessity thinking that the wide world could not afford so wicked a wretch It is said that Romulus for the same cause ordained no punishment in his Common wealth for that crime but called every murderer a Paricide the one being in his opinion a thing execrable and the other impossible And in truth there was not for 600 yeeres space according to Plutarchs report found in Rome any one that had committed this execrable fact The first Paricide that Rome saw was Lucius Ostius after the first Punicke warre although other Writers affirme that M. Malliolus was the first and Lucius the second how soever it was they both underwent the punishment of the Law Pompeia which enacted That such offenders should be thrust into a sacke of Leather and an Ape a Cocke a Viper and a Dog put in to accompany them and then to be throwne into the water to the end that these beasts being enraged and animated one against another might wreke their teene upon them and so deprive them of life after a strange fashion being debarred of the use of the aire water and earth as unworthy to participate the very Elements with their deaths much lesse with their lives which kinde of punishment was after practised and confirmed by the constitution of Constantine the Great And albeit the regard of the punishment seemed terrible and the offence it selfe much more monstrous yet since that time there have beene many so perverse and exceeding wicked as to throw themselves headlong into that desperate gulfe As Cleodoricke sonne of Sigebert King of Austria who being tickled with an unsatiable lust of raigne through the deceivable perswasions of Cleodovius King of France slew his father Sigebert as he lay asleepe in his Tent in a forrest at noone time of the day who being weary with walking laid himselfe downe there to take his rest but for all that the wicked wretch was so farre from attaining his purpose that it fell out cleane contrary to his expectation for after his fathers death as he was viewing his treasures and ransacking his coffers one of Cleodovius factors strooke him suddenly and murdered him and so Cleodovius seised both upon the Crowne and Treasures After the death of Hircanus Aristobulus succeeded in the government of Judea which whilest he strove to reduce into a kingdome and to weare a crown contrary to the custome of his predecessors his mother other brethren contending with him about the same he cast in prison took Antigonus his next brother to be his associate but ere long a good gratefull son he famished her to death with hunger that had fed him to life with her teares even his naturall mother And after perswaded with false accusations caused his late best beloved Antigonus to be slaine by an ambush that lay by Strato's tower because in the time of his sicknesse he entred the Temple with pompe But the Lord called for quittance for the two bloodsheds immediately after the execution of them for his brothers blood was scarce washed off the ground ere in the extreamity of his sicknesse he was carried into the same place and there vomiting up blood at his mouth and nosthrils to be mingled with his brothers he fell downe starke dead not without horrible tokens of trembling and despaire Nero that unnaturall Tyran surpassed all that lived as in all other vices so in this for he attempted thrice by poyson to make away his mother Agrippina and when that could not prevaile by reason of her usuall Antidotes and preservatives hee assayed divers other meanes as first a devise whereby she should be crushed to death as she slept a loosened beame that should fall upon her and secondly by shipwracke both which when she escaped the one by discovery and the other by swimming he sent Anicâ—tus the Centurion to slaughter her with the sword who with his companions breaking up the gate of the City where she lay rushed into her Chamber and there murdered her It is written of her that when she saw there was no remedy but death she presented her belly unto the murderer and desired him to kill her in that part which had most deserved it by bringing into the world so vile a monster and of him that he came to view the dead carkasse of his mother and handled the members thereof commending this and discommending that as his fancy led him and in the meane time being thirsty to call for drinke so farre was he from all humanity and touch of Nature but he that spared not to embrue his hands in her blood that bred him was constrained ere long to offer violence to his own life which was most deere unto him Henry the son of Nicolotus Duke of Herulia had two wicked cruell and unkind sonnes by the yonger of whom with the consent of the elder he was traiterously murdered because he had married a third wife for which cause Nicolotus their cousin-german pursued them both with a just revenge for he deprived them of their kingdome and drove them into exile where they soon after perished Selymus the tenth Emperour of Turkes was so unnaturall a childe that he feared not to dispossesse his father Bajazet of the crown by treason and next to bereave him of his life by poyson And not satisfied therewith even to murder his two brethren and to destroy the whole stock of his own blood But when hee had raigned eight yeares vengeance found him out and being at his backe so corrupted and putrified his reins that the contagion spread it selfe over all his body so that he dyed a beast-like and irksome death and that in the same place where he had before oppressed his father Bajazet with an army to wit at Chiurle a city of Thracia in the year of our Lord 1520. in the moneth of September Charles the younger by surname called Crassus
of Aquitain then did King Edwards part begin to incline and the successe of war which the space of fourty yeares never forsook him now frowned upon him so that he quickly lost all those lands which by composition of peace were granted unto him CHAP. XLI Of such as by force of armes have either taken away or would have taken away the goods and lands of other men NOw if they that oppresse their Subjects and devour them in this manner be found guilty then must they needs be much more that are carried with the wings of their owne hungry ambitious desire to invade their lands and Seigniories attended on with an infinite retinue of pillages sackings ruines of Cities and people which are alwayes necessary companions of furious unmercifull war There are no flouds so broad nor mountaines so steep nor rokces so rough and dangerous nor sea so long and furious that can restrain the rash and headstrong desire of such greedy minded Sacres so that if their body might be proportioned to the square and greatnesse of their mindes with the one hand they would reach the East and with the other hand the West as it is said of Alexander howbeit hereof they boast and glory no lesse than they that took delight to be sirnamed City-spoilers others burners of Cities some conquerours and many Eagles and Faulcons seeking as it were fame by infamy and by vice eternity But to these men it often commeth to passe that even then when they thinke to advance their Dominion and to stretch their bounds and frontiers furthest they are driven to recoil for fear of being dispossessed themselves of their owne lands and inheritances and even as they dealt with others rigorously and by strength of weapons so shall they be themselves rehandled and dealt withall after the same measure according to the Word of the Prophet denounced against such as they Cursed be thâ—â— that spoilest and dealest unfaithfully when thou hast made an end of spoiling others thâ—â— thâ— selfe shalt be spoiled and when thou hast done dealing traiterously then treason shall begin to be practised against thee And this curse most commonly never faileth to seise upon these great Theeves and Robbers or at least upon their children and successours as by particular examples we shall see after we have first spoken of Adonias who not content with his owne estate of being a Kings son which God had allotted him went about to 〈◊〉 the Crowne and Kingdome from his brother Solomon to whom by right it appertained for God had manifested the same by the mouth of his father David but both he and his assistants for their overbold and rash enterprise were iustly by Solomon punished with death Crassus King of Lydia was the first that made war against Ephesus and that subdued the Greekes of Asia to wit the Phrygians Mysians Chalybeans Paphlagonians Thracians Bythinians Ionians Dorians Aeolians and Pamphilians and made them all tributeries unto him by meanes whereof he being growne exceeding rich and puissant by the detriment and undoing of so many people vanted and gloried in his greatnesse and power and even then thought himselfe the happiest man in the world when most misery and adversity grief and distresse of his estate and wholehouse approuched nearest for first and formost one of his sonnes that was dear unto him was by oversight slain at the chase of a wilde Bore next himselfe having commenced war with Cyrus was overcome in battell and besieged in Sardis the chief City of his Kingdom and at last taken and carried captive to Cyrus despoiled of all his late glory and dominion And thus Crassus as saith Plutarch after Herodotus bore the punishment of the offence of his great Grandfather Gigas who being but one of King Caâ—daules attendants slew his master and usurped the Crowne at the provokement of the Queen his mistresse whom he also took to be his wife And thus this Kingdom decayed by the same meanes by which it first encreased Polycratâ—s the Tyran was one that by violence and tyrannous meanes grew from a base condition to an high estate for being but one of the vulgar sort in the City Samos he with the assistance of fifteen armed men seised upon the whole City and made himselfe Lord of it which dividing into three parts he bestowed two of them upon his two brethren but not for perpetuity for ere long the third part of his usurpation cost the elder of them the best part of his life and the younger his liberty for he chased him away that he might be sole possessour of the whole Island After this he invaded many other Islands besides many Cities in the same Land he raised the Lacedemonians from the fiege of Samos which they had begirt and when he saw that all things fell out so well to his owne wish that nothing could be more fearing so great prosperity could not but carry in the â—ail some terrible sting of adversity and mischance attempted by voluntary losse of something of value to prevent the mischief which he feared to ensue and this by the advice of his dear friend and allie the King of Aegypt therefore he threw a ring which he had of great price into the sea to the end to delude Fortune as he thought thereby â—ut the ring was after found in a fishes belly and offered as a present unto him and this was an evident presage of some inevitable this for tune that waited for him neither did it prove vain and frivolous for he was hanged upon a gibbet of Sardis by the commandment of Orates the Governour of the City who under pretence of friendship and colour of rendring his treasure into his hands and bestowing upon him a great part thereof promising also to passe the rest of his dayes under his wing for fear of the rage of Cambyses drew him to come privately to speak with him and so easily wrought his will upon him Aristodemus got into his hands the government of Câ—ma after he had made away the principall of the City and to keep it the better being obtâ—ined he first worme the vulgars hearts by presents then banished out of the City their children whom he had put to death and entertained the rest of the youth with such variety of pleasures and delights that by those devices he kept himselfe in his tyrannous estate many yeares but as soon as the children of those slain Citizens were growne to ripe yeares of strength and discretion being desirous to revenge their fathers deaths they set upon him in the night so at unawares that they put him and all his family to the slaughter Timophanes usurped a principality power and rule in Corinth a free City and became so odious thereby to the whole people yea and to his owne brother Tymoleon also that laying aside all respect of nature he slew him with his owne hands preferring the liberty of his Countrey before any unity or bond of
hand in stead of a Scepter and a rope about his necke in stead of a crowne and in this order and attyre they led him through all Constantinople the people shouting and reviling him on all sides some throwing durt others spittle divers dung and the women their pispots at his head after all which banquetting dishes he was transported to the gallowes and there hanged to make an end of all Charles King of Navarre whose mother Iean was daughter to Lewis Lutton King of France was another that oppressed his subjects with cruelty and rough dealing for he imposed upon them grievous taxes and tributes and when many of the chiefest of his Common-Wealth came to make knowne unto him the poverty of his people and that they were not able to endure any more such burthens he caused them all to be put to death for their boldnesse he was the kindler of many great mischiefes in France and of the fire wherewith divers places of strength and castles of defence were burned to ashes he counselled the Count of Foix his sonne to poyson his father and not onely so but gave him also the poyson with his owne hands wherewith to do the deed Moreover above all this lechery and Adultery swayed his powers even in his old age for at threescore yeares of age he had a whore in a corner whose company he dayly hanted and so much that she at length gave him his deaths wound for returning from her company one day as his use was and entring into his chamber he went to bed all quaking and halfe frozen with cold neither could he by any meanes recover his heat untill by art they sought to supply nature and blew upon him with brasen bellowes Aquavitae and hot blasts of ayre but withall the fire unregarded flew betwixt the sheets and inflamed the drie linnen together with the Aquavitae so suddenly that ere any help could be made his late quivering bones were now halfe burned to death It is true that he lived fifteene daies after this but in so great griefe and torment without sence of any helpe or assuagement by Physicke or Surgery that at the end thereof he died miserably and so as during his life his affection over burnt in lust and his minde was alwayes hot upon mischiefe and covetousnesse so his dayes were finished with heat and cruell burning Lugtake King of Scots succeeding his father Galdus in the Kingdome was so odious and mischievous a Tyran that every man hated him no lesse for his vices than they loved his father for his vertues he slew many rich and noble-men for no other cause but to enrich his treasury with their goods he committed the government of the Realme to most unjust and covetous persons and with their company was most delighted he shamed not to defloure his owne aunts sisters and daughters and to scorne his wise and grave counsellors calling them old doting fooles all which monstrous villanies with a thousand more so incensed his Nobles against him that they slew him after he had raigned three yeares but as the Proverbe goeth Seldome commeth a better another or worse Tyran succeeded in his kingdome namely Mogallus cousin germane to Lugtake a man notoriously infected with all manner of vices for albeit in the beginning of his reigne hee gave himselfe to follow the wisedome and manners of his unkle Galdus yet in his age his corrupt nature burst forth abundantly but chiefly in avarice lechery and cruelty this was he that licensed theeves and robbers to take the goods of their neighbours without punishment and that first ordained the goods of condemned persons to be confiscate to the kings use without respect either of wives children or creditors for which crimes he was also slaine by his nobles Besides these there was another king of the Scots called Atherto in the yeare of our Lord 240. who shewed himselfe also in like manner a most abhominable wretch for he so wallowed in all manner of uncleane and effeminate lusts that he was not ashamed to goe in the sight of the people playing upon a flute rejoycing more to be accounted a good Fidler than a good Prince from which vices he fell at last to the deflouring and ravishing of maids and women insomuch as the daughters of his nobles could not be safe from his insatiable and intollerable lust wherefore being pursued by them when hee saw no meanes to escape hee desperately slew himselfe The great outrages which the Spaniards have committed in the West Indies are apparant testimonies of their impiety injustice cruelty insatiable covetousnesse and luxury and the judgement wherewith God hath hunted them up and downe both by sea and land as late and fresh histories doe testifie are manifest witnesses of his heavy anger and displeasure against them amongst all which I will here insert none but that which is most notorious and worthy memory as the wretched accident of Pamphilius Novares and his company This man with six hundred Spaniards making for the coast of Florida to seeke the gold of the river of Palme-trees were so turmoyled with vehement windes and tempests that they could not keepe their vessels from dashing against the shore so that their ships did all split in sunder and they for the most part were drowned save a few that escaped to land yet escaped not danger for they ranne roving up and downe this savage countrey so long till they fell into such extreame poverty and famine that for want of victuals twelve of them devoured one another and of the whole six hundred that went forth there never yet returned above ten all the rest being either drowned or pined to death Francis Pizarre a man of base parentage for in his youth he was but a hogheard and of worse qualities and education for he knew not so much as the first elements of learning giving himselfe to the West Indian wars grew to some credit in bearing office but withall shewed himselfe very disloyall treacherous and bloudy-minded in committing many odious and monstrous cruelties entring Peru with an army of souldiers to the end to conquer new lands and dominions and to glut his unsatiable covetousnesse with a new surfet of riches after the true Spanish custome he committed many bloudy and trayterous acts and exercised more than barbarous cruelty for first under pretence of friendship feyning to parle with Artabaliba King of Cusco the poore King comming with five and twenty thousand of unarmed men in ostentation of his greatnesse not in purpose to resist he welcommed him and his men so nimbly with swords and curtleaxes that they had all soon their throats cut by a most horrible slaughter and the King himselfe was taken and put in chaines yea and the Citie after this massacre of men abroad felt soone the insolencies of these brave warriours within in fine though Pizarre promised Artabaliba to save his life in regard of a ransome amounting to more than two millions of
the woman asked her before them all whether she durst say that he had ravished her to whom she replyed yea I sweare and vow that thou hast done it for shee supposed it to have beene Athanasius whom shee never saw whereat the whole Synod perceived the cavill of the lying Arrians and quitted the innocency of that good man Howbeit these malicious hereticks seeing this practise not to succeed invented another worse then the former for they accused him to have slaine one Arsenius whom they themselves kept secret and that hee carried one of his hands about him wherewith he wrought miracles by enchantment but Arsenius touched by the spirit of God stole away from them and came to Athanasius to the end he should receive no damage by his absence whom he brought in to the Judges and shewed them both his hands confounded his accusers with shame of their malice insomuch as they ranne away for feare and satisfied the Judges both of his integrity and their envious calumniation the chiefe Broker of all this mischiefe was Stephanus Bishop of Antioch but he was degraded from his Bishopricke and Leontius elected in his roome In our English Chronicles we have recorded a notable history to the like effect of King Canutus the Dane who after much trouble being established in the Kingdome of England caused a Parliament to bee held at London where amongst other things there debated it was propounded to the Bishops Barons and Lords of that Assembly Whether in the composition made betwixt Edmond and Canutus any speciall remembrance was made for the children or brethren of Edmond touching any partition of any part of the land which the English Lords flattering the king though falsly and against the truth yea and against their owne consciences denied to be and not onely so but for the Kings pleasure confirmed their false words with a more false oath that to the uttermost of their powers they would put off the bloud of Edmond from all right and interest by reason of which oath and promise they thought to have purchased with the King great favour but by the just retribution of God it chanced farre otherwise for many of them or the most part especially such as Canutus perceived to have sworne fealtie before time to Edmond and his heires he mistrusted and disdained ever after insomuch that some he exiled many he beheaded and divers by Gods just judgement died suddenly In the Scottish Chronicles we read how Hamilton the Scot was brought unto his death by the false accusation of a false Frier called Campbel who being in the fire ready to be executed cited and summoned the said Frier to appeare before the high God as generall Judge of all men to answer to the innocency of his death and whether his accusation were just or not betwixt that and a certaine day of the next moneth which he there named Now see the heart and hand of God against a false witnesse ere that day came the Frier died without any remorse of conscience and no doubt he gave a sharpe account to Almighty God of his malicious and unjust accusation In the yeare of our Lord 1105 Henry Archbishop of Mentz being complained of to the Pope sent a learned man a speciall friend of his to excuse him named Arnold one for whom he had much done and promoted to great livings and promotions but this honest man in stead of an excuser became an accuser for hee bribed the two chiefest Cardinals with gold and obtained of the Pope those two to be sent Inquisitors about the Archbishops case The which comming into Germany summoned the said Henry and without either law or justice deposed him from his Archbishoprick and substituted in his place Arnold upon hope of his Ecclesiasticall gold Whereupon that vertuous and honourable Henry is reported to have spoken thus unto those perverse Judges If I should appeale to the Apostolike Sea for this your unjust processe had against me perhaps I should but lose my labour and gaine nothing but toyle of body losse of goods affliction of minde and care of heart Wherefore I doe appeale to the Lord Jesus Christ as to the most highest and just Judge and cite you before his judgement seat there to answer for this wrong done unto me for neither justly nor godly but corruptly and unjustly have you judged my cause Whereunto they scoffingly said Goe you first and we will follow Not long after the said Henry dyed whereof the two Cardinals having intelligence said one to the other jestingly Behold he is gone before and wee must follow according to our promise And verily they spoke truer than they were aware for within a while after they both dyed in one day the one sitting upon a jakes to ease himselfe voyded out all his entrailes into the draught and miserably ended his life the other gnawing off the fingers of his hands and spitting them out of his mouth all deformed in devouring of himselfe died And in like wise not long after the said Arnold was slaine in a sedition and his body for certaine dayes lying stinking above the ground unburied was open to the spoyle of every raskall and harlot And this was the horrible end of this false accuser and those corrupted Judges Thus were two Cardinals punished for this sinne and that we may see that the holy father the Pope is no better than his Cardinals and that God spareth not him no more than he did them let us heare how the Lord punished one of that ranke for this crime It is not unknowne that Pope Innocent the fourth condemned the Emperour Fredericke at the Councell at Lyons his cause being unheard and before hee could come to answer for himselfe For when the Emperour being summoned to appeare at the Councell made all haste hee could thitherward and desired to have the day of hearing his cause prorogued till that he might conveniently travell thither the Pope refused and contrary to Gods law to Christian Doctrine to the prescript of the law of nature and reason and to all humanity without probation of any crime or pleading any cause or hearing what might be answered taking upon him to be both Adversary and Judge condemned the Emperour being absent What more wicked sentence was ever pronounced What more cruell fact considering the person might be committed But marke what vengeance God tooke upon this wicked Judge The writers of the Annals record that when Fredericke the Emperour and Conrade his sonne were both dead the Pope gaping for the inheritance of Naples and Sicilie and thinking by force to have subdued the same came to Naples with a great hoast of men where was heard in his court manifestly pronounced this voyce Veni miser ad judicium Dei Thou wretch come to receive thy judgement of God And the next day the Pope was found in his bed dead all black and blew as though he had beene beaten with bats And this was the judgement of God which he came
unto To this Pope and these Cardinals let us adde an Archbishop and that of Canterbury to wit Thomas Arundel upon whom the justice of God appeared no lesse manifestly than on the former For after hee had unjustly given sentence against the Lord Cobham he died himselfe before him being so striken in his tongue that he could neither swallow nor speake for a certaine space before the time of his death Hither might be adjoyned the vengeance of God upon Justice Morgan who condemned to death the innocent Lady Iane but presently after fell madde and so dyed having nothing in his mouth but Lady Iane Lady Iane. In the reigne of King Henry the eighth one Richard Long a man of armes in Calice bore false witnesse against master Smith the Curate of our Lady Parish in Calice for eating flesh in Lent which hee never did but hee escaped not vengeance for shortly after he desperately drowned himselfe A terrible example unto all such as are ready to forsweare themselves on a Booke upon malice or some other cause a thing in these dayes over rise every where and almost of most men little or nothing regarded About the same time one Gregory Bradway committed the same crime of false accusation against one Broke whom being driven thereunto by feare and constraint he accused to have robbed the Custome-house wherein hee was a Clerke of foure groats every day and to this accusation he subscribed his hand but for the same presently felt upon him the heavy hand of God for being grieved in his consciene for his deed hee first with a knife enterprised to cut his owne throâ—t but being not altogether dispatched therewith the Gaoler comming up and preventing his purpose hee fell forthwith into a furious frenzie and in that case lived long time after Hitherto we may adde the example of one William Feming who accused an honest man called Iohn Cooper of speaking trayterous words against Queene Mary and all because he would not sell him two goodly bullockes which he much desired for which cause the poore man being arraigned at Berry in Suffolke was condemned to death by reason of two false witnesses which the said Feming had suborned for that purpose whose names were White and Greenwood so this poore man was hanged drawne and quartered and his goods taken from his poore wife and nine children which are left destitute of all helpe but as for his false accusers one of them died most miserably for in harvest time being well and lusty of a sudden his bowels fell out of his body and so he perished the other two what ends they came unto it is not reported but sure the Lord hath reserved a sufficient punishment for all such as they are Many more be the examples of this sinne and judgements upon it as the Pillories at Westminster and daily experience beareth witnesse but these that we have alledged shall suffice for this purpose because this sinne is cousin Germane unto perjury of which you may read more at large in the former booke It should now follow by course of order if wee would not pretermit any thing of the law of God to speak of such as have offended against the tenth Commandement and what punishment hath ensued the same but forsomuch as all such offences for the most part are included under the former of which wee have already spoken and that there is no adultery nor fornication nor theft nor unjust warre but it is annexed to and proceedeth from the affection and the resolution of an evill and disordinate concupiscence as the effect from the cause therefore it is not necessary to make any particular recitall of them more than may well bee collected out of the former examples added hereunto that in evill concupiscence and affection of doing evill which commeth not to act though it be in the sight of God condemned to everlasting torments yet it doth not so much incurre and provoke his indignation that a man should for that onely cause be brought to apparent destruction and be made an example to others to whom the sinne is altogether darke and unknowne therefore we will proceed in our purpose without intermeddling in speciall with this last Commandement CHAP. XLVII That Kings and Princes ought to looke to the execution of Iustice for the punishment of naughty and corrupt manners NO man ought to be ignorant of this that it is the duty of a Prince not onely to hinder the course of sin from bursting into action but also to punish the doers of the Jame making both civill justice to be administred uprightly and the law of God to be regarded and observed inviolably for to this end are they ordained of God that by their meanes every one might live a quiet and peaceable life in all godlinesse and honesty to the which end the maintenance and administration of justice being most necessary they ought not so to discharge themselves of it as to translate it upon their Officers and Judges but also to looke to the execution thereof themselves as it is most needfull for if law which is the foundation of justice be as Plato saith a speechlesse and dumbe Magistrate who shall give voyce and vigor unto it if not hee that is in supreame and soveraigne authority For which cause the King is commanded in Deuteronomy To have before him alwayes the Booke of the Law to the end to doe justice and judgement to every one in the feare of God And before the creation of the Kings in Israel the chiefe Captaines and Soveraignes amongst them were renowned with no other title nor quality than of Judges In the time of Deborah the Prophetesse though she was a woman the weaker vessell yet because she had the conducting and governing of the people they came unto her to seeke judgement It is said of Samuel that he judged Israel so long till being tyred with age and not able to beare that burden any longer hee appointed his sonnes for Judges in his stead who when through covetousnesse they perverted justice and did not execute judgement like their father Samuel they gave occasion to the people to demaund a King that they might be judged and governed after the manner of other Nations which things sufficiently declared that in old time the principall charge of Kings was personally to administer justice and judgement and not as now to transferre the care thereof to others The same we read of King David of whom it is said That during his reigne he executed justice and judgement among his people and in another place That men came unto him for judgement and therefore he disdained not to heare the complaint of the woman of Tekoah shewing himselfe herein a good Prince and as the Angel of God to heare good and evill for this cause Solomon desired not riches nor long life of the Lord but a wise and discreet heart to judge his people and to discerne betwixt good and
repenting as they say of her foule sinne The Lord be mercifull unto her CHAP. III. Of Epicures and Atheists BArgesâ— otherwise called Elimaâ— a sore of implety and a horrible Magitian and Atheist oftenly resisting the Apostles Paul and Barnabas before Sergius Paulus the Deputy was presently stroke with blindnesse by the hand of God This man Saint Luke speaketh of Acts 13. Iustin Martyr that lived not long after the Apostles times a famous Christian writeth thus to 〈◊〉 the Emperour viz. after the ascention of Christ into Heaven certaine men stirred up by the Devill called themselves gods of which number was Simon the Samaritane borne in a Village called Gitton This man in the time of Claudius Caesar by the power of the Devill exercising Magicall Arts and working great wonders was esteemed for a god and a Statue erected unto him with this inscription Simonâ— deo sancto To Simon the holy god The Samaritans also with many of other Nations worshipped him as a god but this Atheist meeting with Saint Peter at Rome had great contentions with him and boasting that he would ascend into Heaven in the sight of all was 〈◊〉 up into the aire by Devils but Peter commanded the Devils in the name of Christ to let him goe and so he fell downe upon the 〈…〉 a pieces Caius Caligula Emperour of Rome raging against both 〈…〉 Jewes caused himselfe to be worshipped and his Images 〈…〉 places He also dedicated the Temple of Jerusalem to 〈…〉 commanding it to be called the Temple of famous Iupiter 〈◊〉 â—o hee styled himselfe but to shew that he was but a wretched simple man he reigned but three years and three moneths and was stain by Pherius a Tribut Herod Agrippa when he suffered himselfe to be saluted and honoured as a god was presently smitten with horrible plagues in his bowels when detesting the voice of his flatterers said I that was called but lately a god 〈◊〉 in the bonds of death Daphida a biting and contentious Sophister and hating all Religion both Heathenish and Christian came to Delphos and in a scoffe asked the Oracle of Apollo Whether he might finde his horse or no when hee had none to finde the Oracle answered That he should finde a â—orse but it should be his destruction At his returne from the Oracle King Aâ—talus his enemy ceased upon him and set him upon a rocke the name whereof was a horse causing him to be throwne downe headlong to learne what it is to mocke the gods CHAP. IV. Of Idolatrie THe wonderfull Idolatrie of the Heathens was so abhominable that their madnesse would astonish any reasonable man not to speake of their Iupiter Mars Mercurie Apollo and the rest Hesiod doth report that they had thirty thousand gods upon the earth and some most strange ones Troglodites worshipped Snayles the Syrians Pigions the Romans Geese because by their squâ—aking the Capitoll was saved from the Gaules the Aâ—bâ—acians a Liònesse because a Lionesse had killed a Tyrant of theirs The Delphians a Wolfe the Samians a Sheepe the Tenedians a Cow with Calfe the Albanians a Dragon the Aegyptians Rats and Mise and Cats and a Calfe wherein the Jewes are said to imitate them in the Wildernesse But the Idolatrie of the Romans was beyond all for they worshipped not onely the higher gods as they called but the basest things that could be named in the World as the Ague and the Gout the Privie yea and Priapus that filthie Idoll of the Gardens Now who seeth not but the vengeance of God hath beene poured downe upon all these Nations for their impious Idolatrie having beene delivered up into the hands of the Gothes and Vandals Turks and Tartarians and make a prey unto them Neither doe the Papists come short of these Heathens in their Idolatrie for they turne the blessed Saints into Idols and worship them in stead of God Every countrey and every citie and every house hath his protecting Saint which they daily invocate yea they ascribe a certaine god to every member and for their severall Cattell beside their abhominable Idolatrie in worshipping their breaden god but as God hath taken already in part vengeance upon that Idolatrous Whore of Babylon so I doubt not but he will fulfill the full measure of his wrath upon them in his due time except they repent CHAP. V. Of Blasphemie A Certaine holy man passing by a Wine-Taverne went to prayer wherein certaine young men having passed the whole night in drinking and playing and blaspheming the name of God he met with a poore man horribly wounded in his body and asked him of whom he had received those wounds the poore man answered that hee had received them of those young men that were in that Taverne whereupon the good man returned backe and enquired of them why they had so wounded the poore man The young men astonished answered that there were none in the Taverne with them all that night but themselves and presently went out to see the poore man thus wounded but he was not to be found whereupon being more amazed they judged that it was Christ whom they had thus wounded with their blasphemies Anno 1551. in the coasts of Magnapolis certaine men abusing the feast of Pentecost with much drinking a certaine woman in their company blasphemed God strangely and called upon the Devils who presently snatched her away and carried her aloft into the aire from whence the â—ell downe dead the whole company beholding of her At the coasts of Bohemia Anno 1551. five drâ—nken men quaffing together with horrible blasphemies prophaned the name of God and the picture of the Devill being painted upon the wall they caroused healths unto him to which the Devill answered immediately for the next-morning all five were found dead their necks being broken and quashed to places aâ— though a wheele had gone over them bloud running out of their moâ—â—hes nostrils and eares to the great astonishment of the beholders Not many years since two men contended together which of them should poure forth most blasphemies against God but whilest they were exercising this devilish contention one of them was stricken with madnesse and so continued till his lives end In like manner at Rome certaine young men agreed together that hee should have the victory that could sweare most which wicked strife as soone as they entred into one of them was deprived of the use of his tongue another of his reason and understanding and the rest remained as dead men God reserving them alive for repentance At Eslinga in Germany upon Saint Katharines day a certaine Nobleman having lost much money at play with horrible execrations and blaphemies commanded his man to bring him his horse that hee might ride home in a very darke night but his servant dissuaded him from his journey affirming how dangerous the way was by reason of the waters and the fennes that lay in the middest whereat hee began to rage
son to Lodouick the third was possessed tormented with a divell in the presence of his father the Peeres of the Realme which he openly confessed to have justly happened unto him because he had pretended in his mind to have conspired his fathers death and deposition what then are they to expect that doe not pretend but performe this monstrous enterprise A certaine degenerate and cruell son longing and gaping after the inheritance of his father which nothing but his life kept him from wrought this means to accomplish his desire he accused his father of a most filthy unnameable crime even of committing filtâ—inesse with a Cow knowing that if he were convicted therof the law would cut off his life herein he wroght a double villany in going about not only to take away his life which by the law of nature he ought to have preserved but also his good name without respecting that the stain of a father redoundeth to his posterity and that children commoÌ„ly do not only inherit the possessions but also imitate the conditions of their parents but all these supposes laid aside together with all feare of God he indicted him before the Magistrate of incest and that upon his own knowledge insomuch that they brought the poore innocent man to the rack to the end to make him confesse the crime which albeit amidst his tortures he did as soon as he was out he denyed again howbeit his extorted confession stood for evidence and he was condemned to be burned with fire as was speedily executed and constantly endured by him exclaiming still upon the false accusation of his son and his own unspotted innocency as by the issue that followed most cleerely appeared for his son not long after fell into a reprobate mind and hanged himselfe and the Judge that condemned him with the witnesses that bare record of his forced confession within one moneth died all after a most wretched and miserable sort And thus it pleased God both to revenge his death and also to quit his reputation and innocency from ignominy and discredit in this world Manfred Prince of Tarentum bastard son to Frederick the second smothered his father to death with a pillow because as some say he would not bestow the kingdome of Naples upon him and not content herewith he poisoned also the heirs of Frederick to the end he might attain unto the crown as Conrade his elder brother and his nephew the son of Henry the heir which Henry died in prison and now onely Conradinus remained betwixt him and the kingdome whom though he assayed to send after his father yet was his intention frustrate for the Pope thundered out his curses against him and instigated Charles Duke of Angiers to make war against him wherein bastard and unnaturall Manfred was discomfited and slaine and cut short of his purpose for which he had committed so many tragedies Martin Luther was wont to report of his own experience this wonderfull history of a Locksmith a yong man riotous and vicious who to find fuel for his luxury was so bewitched that he feared not to slay his own father mother with a hammer to the end to gain their mony and possessions after which cruell deed he presently went to a shoomaker and bought him new shooes leaving his old behind him by the providence of God to be his accusers for after an houre or two the slain bodies being found by the Magistrate and inquisition made for the murderer no manner of suspition being had of him he seeming to take such griefe therat But the Lord that knoweth the secrets of the heart discovered his hypocrisie and made his owne shooes which hee had left with the Shoomaker rise up to beare witnesse against him for the blood which ran from his fathers wounds besprinckled them so that thereof grew the suspition and from thence the examination and very soon the confession and last of all his worthy and lawfull execution From hence we may learne for a generall trueth that murder never so secret will ever by one means or other be discovered the Lord will not suffer it to goe unpunished so abominable it is in his sight Another son at Basil in the yeare of our Lord God 1560 bought a quantity of poyson of an Apothecary and ministred it to none but to his own father accounting him worthiest of so great a benefit which when it had effected his wish upon him the crime being detected in stead of possessing his goods which he aimed at he possessed a vile and shamefull death for he was drawne through the streets burnt with hot Irons and tormented nine houres in a wheele till his life forsooke him As it is repugnant to nature for children to deale thus cruelly with their parents so it is more against nature for parents to murder their children insomuch as naturall affection is of greater force in the descent than in the ascent the love that parents bear their children is greater than that which children redound to their Parents because the childe proceedeth from the father and not the father from the childe as part of his fathers essence and not the father of his Can a man then hate his own flesh or be a rooter out of that which himselfe planted It is rare yet sometimes it commeth to passe Howbeit as the offence is in an high degree so it is alwayes punished by some high judgement as by these examples that follow shall appeare The ancient Ammonites had an Idoll called Moloch to the which they offered their children in sacrifice this Idoll as the Jewes write was of a great stature and hollow within having seven chambers in his hollownesse whereof one was to receive meat another turtle Doves the third a sheep the fourth a ram the fifth a calfe the sixth an oxe and the seventh a childe his hands were alwayes extended to receive gifts and when a childe was offered they were made fire hot to burne it to death none must offer the childe but the father and to drowne the cries of it the Chemarims for so were the Priests of that Idoll called made a noise with bels cymbals and horns thus is it written that king Ahab offered his son yea and many of the children of Israel beside as the Prophet David affirmeth They offered saith he their sons and daughters to Divels and shed innocent blood c. this is the horrible crime Now marke the judgement concerning the Canaanites the landspued them out for their abominations Achab with his posterity was accur sed himselfe being slaine by his enemies and the crowne taken from his posterity not one being left of his off-spring to pis against the wall according to the saying of Elias as for the Jewes the Prophet David in the same place declareth their punishment when he saith That the wrath of the Lord was kindled and he abhorred his inheritance and gave them into the hands of the
the squadron of Switzers now joyned to the French in attire and armour like a Switzer thinking by this tricke to save his life but all his counterfeiting could not save him from being taken and from lying ten yeares prisoner in the Tower of Loches where he also died and so all his high and ambitious thoughts which scarcely Italie could containe were pend up in a strait and narrow roome With the like turbulent and furious spirit of ambition have many Roman Bishops been inspired who what by their jugling trickes cousenages and subtill devises and what by force have prospered so well that of simple Bishops which they were wont to be they are growne temporall Lords and as it were Monarchs having in their possessions lands cities castles fortresses havens garrisons and guards after the manner of Kings nay they have exalted themselves above Kings so intollerable is their impudence and made them subject to their wils and yet they call themselves the Apostles pedigree whom Christ forbad all such domination But what of that It pertaineth not to them to succeed in vertue but in authoritie the Apostles for if that charge had concerned them then Pope Lucius the second would never have beene so shamelesse as to request in right of his Popeship the soveraigntie over Rome as hee did neither when it was denyed him to have gone about to usurpe it by force and to bring his minde about to have layed siege to the Senat house with armed men to the end that either by banishing or murdering the Senatours then assembled together he might invest himselfe with the Kingly dignitie but what got he by it Marry this the people being in an uprore in the Citie upon the sight of this holy fathers proud attempt tooke themselves to armes and ran with such violence upon master Pope that they forthwith stoned his Holinesse to death but not like Stephen the Martyr for the profession of Christ Iesus but like a vile and seditious theefe for seeking the Common-wealths overthrow Pope Adrian the fourteenth a monkes sonne succeeding Lucius both in the Papacie and also in ambition tooke in hand his omitted enterprises for he excommunicated the Romanes untill they had banished Arnold a Bishop that gave them counsell to retaine the power of electing their magistrate and governing their citie in their hands a thing repugnant to his intent and after hee had degraded the Consuls to make his part the stronger he caused the Emperour Fredericke to come with an armie to the citie whom notwithstanding hee handled but basely for his paines for hee did not onely checke him openly for standing on his feet and holding the stirrop of his horse with his left hand but also denied him the crowne of the Empire except hee would restore to him Poville which he said pertained unto him how beit he got the Crowne notwithstanding and before his returne from Rome into Germanie more than a thousand citizens that would not yeeld nor subscribe unto the Popes will were slaine After Frederickes departure the Pope seeing himselfe destitute of his further aid first excommunicated the King of Sicilie that in right of inheritance possessed the foresaid Poville but when this served him to small purpose he practised with Emanuel the Emperour of Greece to set upon him which thing turned to his finall confusion After this through his intollerable pride hee fell out with Fredericke the Emperour and to revenge himselfe upon him discharged his subjects from their fealtie to him and him from his authoritie over them Now marke his end As he walked one day towards Aviane a flie got in at his mouth and downe his throat so farre that it stopped the conduit of his breath so that for all that his physitions could do hee was choked therewith And thus he that sought by all the meanes he could to make himselfe greater than he ought to be and to get the masterie of every thing at his owne will and pleasure and to take away other mens rights by force was cut short and rebated by a small and base creature and constrained to leave this life which he was most unworthy of Hither may be referred that which befell the Emperour Albert Duke of Austria and one of his lievtenants in Switzerland for going about to usurpe and appropriat certaine lands and dominions to him which belonged not unto him This Emperour had many children whom he desired to leave rich and mighty and therefore by all meanes possible he endeavoured to augment his living even by getting from other men whatsoever he could and amongst all the rest this was one especiall practise wherein he laboured tooth and nayle to alienate from the Empire the land of the Switzers and to leave it for an everlasting inheritance to his heires which although the Switzers would in no case condiscend nor agree unto but contrariwise sued earnestly unto his Majesty for the maintenance of their antient liberties and priviledges which were confirmed unto them by the former Emperors and that they might not be distracted from the Empire yet notwithstanding were constrained to undergo for a season the yoke of most grievous tyranny and servitude imposed by force upon them and thus the poore communaltie indured many mischiefes and many grievous and cruell extortions and indignities at the hands of the Emperours officers whilest they lived in this wretched and miserable estate Amongst the rest there was one called Grislier that began to erect a strong fort of defence upon a little hill neere unto Altorfe to keepe the countrey in greater awe and subjection and desiring to descrie his friends from his foes he invented this devise He put a hat upon the end of a long pole and placed it in the field before Altorfe where were great multitudes of people with this commandement That everie one that came by should do but dieth ere he awaketh so mony taken in usurie delighteth and contenteth at the first but it infecteth all his possessions and sucketh out the marrow of them ere it be long Seeing then it is abhominable both by the law of God and nature let us shun it as a toad and flie from it as a cockatrice But when these persuasions will not serve let them turne their eyes to these examples following wherein they shall see the manifest indignation of God upon it In the Bishopricke of Collen a notable famous Usurer lying upon his death-bed ready to die moved up and downe his chaps and his lips as if he had bin eating something in his mouth and beeing demanded what hee eat hee answered his money and that the divell thrust it in his mouth perforce so that hee could neither will nor chuse but devour it in which miserable temptation he died without any shew of repentance The same author telleth of another Usurer that a little before his death called for his bags of gold and silver and offered them all to his soule upon condition it would not forsake
him But if he would have given all the world it could not ransome him from death wherefore when he saw there was no remedie but hee must needs die hee commended his soule to the Divell to be carried into everlasting torments which words when hee had uttered hee gave up the ghost Another Usurer being ready to die made this his last Will and Testament My soule quoth he I bequeath to the divell who is owner of it my wife likewise to the divell who induced me to this ungodly trade of life and my deacon to the divell for soothing me up and not reproving me for my faults and in this desperate persuasion he died incontinently Usury consisteth not only in lending and borowing but buying and selling also and all unjust and crafty bargaining yea and it is a kinde of usurie to detain through too much covetousnesse those commodities from the people which concerne the publike good and to hoord them up for their private gain til some scarcitie orwant arise and this also hath evermore beene most sharpely punished as by these examples may appeare About the yeare 1543. at what time a great famine and dearth of bread afflicted the world there was in Saxonie a countrey peasant that having carried his corne to the market and sold it cheaper than he looked for as he returned homewards he fell into most heavy dumpes and dolours of minde with griefe that the price of graine was abated and when his servants sang merrily for joy of that blessed cheapnesse he rebuked them most sharpely and cruelly yea and was so much the more tormented and troubled in minde by how much he more he saw any poore soule thankfull unto God for it but marke how God gave him over to a reprobate and desperate sence Whilest his servants rode before hee hung himselfe at the cart taile being past recoverie of life ere any man looked backe or perceived him A notable example for our English cormorants who joyne barne to barne and heape to heape and will not sell nor give a handful of their superfluitie to the poore when it beareth a low price but preserve it till scarcity and want come and then they sell it at their owne rate let them feare by this lest the Lord deale so or worse with them Another covetous wretch when he could not sel his cornesodear as hee desired said the mise should eat it rather than he would lessen one jot of the price thereof Which words were no sooner spoken but vengeance tooke them for all the mise in the countrey flocked to his barnes and fieldes so that they left him neither standing nor lying corne but devoured all This story was written to Martin Luther upon occasion whereof he inveying mightily against this cruell usurie of husbandmen told of three misers that in one yeare hung themselves because graine bore a lower price than they looked for adding moreover that all such cruell and muddy extortioners deserved no better a doome for their unimercifull oppression Another rich farmer whose barnes were full of graine and his stacks untouched was so covetous withall that in hope of some dearth and deerenesse of corne he would not diminish one heape but hoorded up dayly more and more and wished for a scarcity upon the earth to the end hee might enrich his coffers by other mens necessities This cruell churle rejoyced so much in his aboundance that everie day he would go into his barnes and feed his eyes with his superfluitie Now it fell out as the Lord would that having supped and drunke very largely upon a night as hee went according to his custome to view his riches with a candle in his hand behold the wine or rather the justice of God overcame his sences so that he fell downe suddenly into the mow and by his fall set on fire the corne being dry and easie to be incensed in such sort that in a moment all that which he had scraped together and preserved so charily and delighted in so unreasonably was consumed and brought to ashes and scarce he himselfe escaped with his life Another in Misnia in the yeare 1559 having great store of corne hoordedup refused to succor the necessitie of his poore halfe famished neighbours for which cause the Lord punished him with a strange and unusuall judgement for the corne which he so much cherished assumed life and became feathered fowles flying out of his barnes in such abundance that the world was astonished thereat and his barnes left emptie of all provision in most wonderfull and miraculous manner No lesse strange was that which happened in a towne of France called Stenchansen to the Governour of the towne who being requested by one of his poore subjects to sell him some corne for his money when there was none to be gotten elsewhere answered hee could spare none by reason he had scarce enough for his owne hogs which hoggish disposition the Lord requited in it owne kinde for his wife at the next litter brought forth seven pigs at one birth to increase the number of his hogs that as he had preferred filthie and ougly creatures before his poore brethren in whom the image of God in some sort shined forth so he might have of his owne getting more of that kinde to make much of since hee loved them so well Equall to all the former both in cruelty touching the person and miracle touching the judgement was that which is reported by the same authour to have happened to a rich couetous woman in Marchia who in an extreame dearth of victuals denyed not onely to relieve a poore man whose children were ready to starve with famine but also to sell him but one bushell of corne when he wanted but a penny of her price for the poore wretch making great shift to borrow that penny returned to her againe and desired her he might have the corn but as he payed her the mony the penny fell upon the ground by the providence of God which as she stretched out obeisance and vaile bonnet to the hat and in every respect shew themselves as dutifull unto it as to his owne person imagining that his greatest enemies could not endure nor finde in their hearts to do it and therefore upon this occasion he might apprehend them and discover all their close practises and conspiracies which they might brew against him now there was one a stout hearted man that passing everie day up and downe that wayes could in no wise be brought to reverence the dignitie of the worthy hat so unreasonable a thing it seemed in his eyes whereupon being taken the tyran commanded him for punishment of his open contempt to shoot at an apple laid upon the crowne of the head of his dearest childe and if he mist the apple to be put to death the poore man after many excuses and allegations and entreaties that he might not hazard his childes life in that sort was notwithstanding