alone with about a fiftie men who yet kept the citie Yea this foolish feare makes men to affirme stedfastly that they hearde and sawe that whiche they neuer did As when the Turke besieged the mightie rich citie of Argos assaulting it on two sides they whiche were in the one parte of the citie immagined that they hearde one say that the towne was taken in the other side wherefore they all ranne thether leauing at their owne part an easie entrie for the enimie When that the Dukes of Berry and Britaine the Earle of Charolois and the rest of the league whiche called them selues the publike good or the common wealth were incamped against Lewes the eleuenth before Paris in the dead time of the night the watch of the camp hearde the voyce of one that sayde that he was sent by certaine of the citie that fauoured the confederates and willed it to be shewed vnto them that the king had determined in the very dawning of the next daye to assault their campe with all his power being diuided into thrée battelles or companies that the watchmen should with all possible spéede certifie the Dukes that they were not oppressed vnwares Incontinently all the whole armie is raysed vp the souldiers commaunded to arme them selues Before it was day all things were in a readinesse both to defende the campe and also to fight the battell and the scoutes that were sente foorth when the Sunne was vp brought newes backe that they had séene a mightie number of pikes speare men The light was somewhat troubled and not good by reason of a thick mist which arose that morning againe the horsmen being sent foorth confirme the first newes Now was the enimie looked for as though they woulde euen at that very instant salie out but there was not one man in very déede for the scoutes had conceiued a vaine and false sight both feare and also the voyce and mocking vsed in the night representing vnto their eyes false things for true At the length when it was farre foorth dayes a clearer light opened the errour and it was merily iested among them that the thistles with whom the fieldes about the citie are clothed séemed vnto the fearefull to be pikes and speares But Iouius will match this historie with an other more ridiculous Anno. 153 S. Charles the Emperour Frauncis the french and Paulus Tertius the byshop of Rome were appointed to méete at Nicea a towne belonging vnto the Duke of Sauoy and during the colloquie there the Emperour lying at Villafrancha whither Andrewe Doria had brought him out of Hispanie one after noone the idle Courtiers and Mariners walked along the sea side and on the high hilles that runne along there and chaunced to sée beside a farme house built with towers a great thicke smoke to ascend euer and anon incontinently the foolish multitude imagined that it was Barbarosha the Turks high Admirall with a great fléete traiterously procured to come thether by the French king to take the Emperour and the Byshoppe and with this fearefull newes they came running into the citie Immediately was there a mightie vprore in all the whole towne with Out alas we be all betrayd Barbarossa is at hande with a mightie nauie The tale was so credited that the valiant and prudent Marques of Guasto who lay in camp on a hill aboue the citie with a band of souldiers for the Emperours safegard in all haste clapped on his heade péece caught his target commaunded all his souldiers with all spéede to be in a readinesse and with all his power descended downe into the towne vnto the Emperour appointing euery man where he should stande on the cliffes and higher places to beate downe with shot and stones the landing Turkes Andrew Dori also an other Neptune with great tumult makes the mariners to wey vp their anchors to turne about their galleyes and with all spéede sendes out foistes to certeinly espie where their enimies are and in what number They went foorth and not one galley or ship could they sée at length they sayled vnto the towred farme house where this fléete was reported to haue bene séene and there could learne of neuer a ship but vnderstoode that the good husbande that dwelt there had that day béene making cleane and fanning of his beans in diuers places the dust of whome flying vp nowe and then with a space betwéene as ye know hapneth in making cleane of al corne was taken not only of the rude multitude but also of the expert souldiers and skilful mariners for to be 36. galleys for so many times they had marked the dust to flye vp and all men trembled and shoke for feare except only the Emperour him self such was his hardy courage and yet could no man of them al sée from the highe houses and mightie mounteines in that verie open broade sea eyther mast sayle or sayle yard And least I should be tedious I omit in this place how that the olde expert capteine Iames de Caldora with greate vprore aranged his battels in Puglia against a greate heard of déere whome he did take for a mightie hoast of his enimies and how within fewe yeares after Ferdinand the first king of Naples retyred backe with his whole armie to the walles of Barletta for feare of an hearde of déere which was supposed by the fearefull to be a great armie of armed men a thousande such like examples Of this foolish vaine fearefulnesse of men came the prouerbe I thinke among all nations he is afraide of his owne shadowe and among the Gréekes more fearfull thē Pysander who was continually afraid that he shuld méete with his owne soule that he dreamed it had forsaken him while he was yet liuing and more feareful then he that looked out of the caue which prouerb arose of a man who being strucken with great terrour of the same of Hercules who men sayd would come that way hid him selfe in a caue and popping out and in his head as it is the maner of the feareful to sée if he could espy him chaunced vnluckily to sée him in very déede passing by wherwithal he was so affrighted that he dyed presently I read also of one Artemon a man so fearfull if he be not to be accounted madde that as long as he liued two of his seruaunts did continually holde ouer his heade a target of brasse that nothing should fall downe vppon him and if he happened to go foorth any whether out of the doores he was carried in an horslitter séeled ouer thereof was surnamed Periphoretes And in our dayes S. Vallier Duke of Valentinois in Fraunce being condemned to dye for not disclosing the treason of Charles the duke of Burbon the king sent him his pardon at that very instant that the executioner was about to strike of his head but the kinges pardon could not saue his life For the vehement feare of death conceiued brought him into a
Caligula was made out of the way to the incredible ioy of all mankinde whom he hated so deadly that he had béen often heard to bewayle his ill happe that in al his reigne there had chaunced no notable pestilence famine rauin of water earthquake nor any great bloudy battell wherby many men might perish wished that all the people of Rome had but one head that he might haue stroken it off at one blowe it had béene ill with mankinde if that this Phaeton of the world as his vncle Tiberius did vse to call him had béen immortall who in thrée yeares and sixe monethes for so long he reigned had néere hand vtterly destroyed it Moreouer I reade in Suetonius that Domitian the Emperour drawing a forme of letters whiche his agents should vse began thus Our Lord and God doeth commaunde it so to be done Whereby it was decréed afterward that he shoulde not be called otherwise by any man either in writing or spéeche It is is also left to memorie that about the yeare of our Lord 620. Cosdras the mightie King of the Persians after that he had won al Syria with Hierusalem al the South part of Asia with Egypt and all Africa would néedes be adored for a God and diuine honours with sacrifices done vnto him through out all his large dominions But perhappes some man will say what maruel was it for great monarches among the heathen to thinke themselues to be Gods if that you do consider their absurditie fonde vsage in constituting of Gods the originall and causes whereof I doe thinke good to touche The thirde Chapter Whereof the false Goddes had their first ground and the causes that moued diuerse countries to worshippe many men after death for Gods and also some while they liued as Demetrius Iulius Caesar Pycta Lysander Simon Magus Apollonius and of the extreeme maddnesse of the Egyptians in chusing of their Gods of the impudent flatterie of the ambassadours of Palermo vnto Martine the fourth and of the people to Herodes Agrippa and the present punishment of God for the accepting thereof Of the wonderfull reuerence that the Persians gaue vnto their Kinges and of the rare loue that the Galles Arabians Aethiopians bare vnto their Princes two woorthie sayinges of Antigonus and Canute AFter that the vngratious child Chara was abdicated and put away by his father without any instructions giuen him touching the worshippinge of the true God the outcast and his progenie marueilously increased as our common prouerbe is an ill wéede growes fast and they deduced many colonies into diuers partes of the worlde and the ignoraunce of the prouing of the true God whiche was in the first parent daily growing greater and greater in his posteritie You séeing as Cicero saies in his booke of the nature of the Gods it is naturally ingraffed in man to acknowledge a God and that no people or nation is so rude and barbarous that doth not professe a God they being vtterly ignoraunt of the true God thought those thinges which they sawe to excell other and by whom they receiued moste commodities to be Gods whereof arose the worshipping of the Sunne the Moone Starres and suche other things and also the making of the Gods when they were dead who in their liues had inuented or done any notable thinges to the vse and profite of mankinde And hereby it came to passe that some for the great celebrity of their names were as it were generally receiued of all nations as Hercules Bacchus Castor and Pollux and other were worshipped but in particular countries of whom onely they had well deserued as Isis in Egypt Iuba in Mauritania Cabyrus in Macedonia Vracius among the Carthaginians Fanus in Latium Romulus or after his deification Quirinus at Rome and with a great number such other shal he méete that diligently readeth the auncient monuments of the Paganes and those christian authors which haue refused their superstitions We read also in the booke of wisedome that the vnhappie man being bereft by vnripe death of his sonne whome hee loued tenderly to mitigate and assuage his sorrowe first inuented to haue his sonnes image adored and it to be taken for a present GOD in earth and the sonne him selfe for a GOD in heauen The like affection wee reade in Lactantius Cicero hadde towardes his Daughter and Virgils Aeneas vnto his Father with this consolation recouering their Spirites daunted and broken with griefe Wonderfull also was the honour and obseruancie that some nations bare vnto their kings so that he whiche readeth what Atheneus doeth write of the Arabians that the familiars of the Kinges did vse to maime them selues voluntarily of that member which it shoulde happen the king to léese and that when the King died either naturall or violent death they thought it but a sport to die all with him the like whereof is affirmed by Strabo and Diodorus Siculus of the Aethiopians and also of the Soliduni in a countrie of Gallia who were sixe hundreth men whom the King did chuse to be about him as his guard and liued and died with the king neither was it euer knowen that any one man of them did euer refuse or séeme vnwilling to die the Prince being deceased He I say that reads this wil not be hard of beléefe to credite Lactantius that the Maures did vse to consecrate all their kinges for Gods after they were dead The Aethiopians sayeth Strabo libr. 17. thinke that there is an immortall God and a mortall god The immortall is he that is the cause of all thinges the mortal is with them vncertaine and lacketh a name but mostly they do take them by whom they haue receiued benefites and their Kinges for Gods. Moreouer they doe thinke their kinges to be conseruers and kéepers of all men but priuate men when they be dead for they do account all dead men for Gods onely of them to whome they haue done good In like manner also the Romanes vsed to deifie their Emperours after their deathe as they also did their first king Romulus The Persian kings we reade in Curtius and other were adored like vnto Gods which honour saies Arrianus was giuen done vnto Cyrus first of all mortall men and the first of the Romane Emperours that was adored or knéeled vnto was Dioclesian after his glorious voiage and victorie against the Persians Yea in our time Xoas the king of the Persians is worshipped of his subiectes for god The water wherewithall he hathe washed his féete do they powre out of the basen and kéepe religiously as holy being an hoalsome medicine for al diseases he is called the Lord that holdes vppe heauen and earth The Gentiles also to incourage the young Gentlemen to folowe vertue and valiauncie vsed muche to Canonize and consecrate for Gods after death the renouned Capteines and greate conquerours by these meanes Hercules Bacchus and other did clime into heauen Of this
crowns a fine not halfe great ynough for so heinous a fault The Ephesians also by Plutarches reporte receiued him Godlike the women being disguised like Bacchus his dame priests the men boies transfigured into satyres and Panes bearing in their handes Bacchanicall iauelins called Thyrsie and garlandes of iuie on their heads saluting and calling him by the name of Bacchus Charidoles and Malichius Wherein they be the more to be borne with because saies Dion lib. 48. he had after the ouerthrowe that hee gaue vnto Brutus and Cassius named him selfe Bacchus whome in very déede he did very liuely counterfeite and expresse in drunkennesse and commaunded that no man should call him by any other name But before this time had the Romanes decréed Iulius Caesar after that he had with armes oppressed vnto the libertie of his countrie honours higher and greater then could agrée with any man a temple ioyntly vnto him and Clemencie a statuie of golde sette with precious stones to the Curia or Senatehouse and before the iudgement seate a sacred drey or litle carte and a Pageaunt setfoorth with the pompe that they vsed at their playes Circenses his statuies to be set vp close vnto the superstitious beddes of their Gods. A College of priests were instituted vnto his Godhead whiche were called Luperci Iulii and a Bishop or Flamin of the order which was Marcus Antonius the consul that they should swere by his fortune that euery fifth yeare a feast should be celebrated vnto him as a Heros or halfe God that all the games of swoord plaiers that should be kept in Rome or in all Italie should be consecrated vnto him Finally saies Dion they openly gaue him the syrname of Iupiter whiche thinges do agrée vnto Eustatius the famous interpreter of Homer vppon the firste of his Iliades that Iulius Caesar was called a God by the Romanes while he was liuing Al these decrées which partly the flattering people and partly his priuie ill willers to bring him into enuie thus heaped on him were engraued in pillers of siluer with letters of golde and placed at the féete of Iupiter Capitolinus couertly to admonishe him of his humanitie and subiection vnto god But it is not to be wondered at that Caesar was made a God by the oppressed Romanes séeing that Plinie affirmeth that one Euthymus Picta an Italian who had euer béene victor at the games helde at Olympus and neuer but once ouercome was by the commandement of the Oracle of Apollo and the astipulation of Iupiter the highest God consecrated aliue and fealing and that the very same day his statuie that had béene set vp at Olympia was stroken and consumed with lightening and that this did also please the Goddes he sayes that Callimachus doeth so maruell at as he doth at nothing else that euer happened Neither haue Magicians and sorcerers obteined lesse honour for in the time of Claudius the Emperour one Simon a Samaritane of his diuelish art and science called Magus came vnto Rome and plaide there so many fine slye iuggling knackes that he with his minion Helena were accompted for Goddes and sacrifices offered vnto them and his Image set vp betwéene the two bridges of Tiber with this title Simoni Deo Magno to Simon a great God but Tertullian hathe an holy God whome all the Samaritanes and many also of other nations did adore and confesse to be the highest God. The insolencie writes Egesippus out of this iuggling merchaunt went so farre that hee prouoked Simon Peter then beeing at Rome to contende with him in woorking of miracles He went about to raise vppe by magicke artes the bodie of a childe whose soule was departed out of it the Childe was of kinde vnto Nero and in déede moued it a litle but incontinently it fell downe starcke deade as it was before But Peter by the name of Iesus made it to rise alone of it selfe With the euent of whiche miracle Simon being netled and chafed professed that he woulde in the sight of all the people of Rome flye from the Capitoll vnto the Auentiue hill if Peter woulde followe him that déede should manifestly declare whither of them two was best beloued of god And nowe was Simon carried aloft in the ayre when Peter on his knées suppliantly desired almightie GOD not to suffer the people who tourneth all thinges to the wurst to bée deceiued by false iuggling neither lacked his prayers effecte for Simon fell downe to the grounde in the middes of his foolishe flight and brake one of his legges shortely after dying thereof at Aricia whither hee had béene priuily conueied by his disciples after that foule foile I finde also in Lactantius that in the reigne of Domitian Apollonius the famous Magician was adored of many for a GOD and an image set vp vnto him by the name of Hercules Alexicacos Hercules the driuer away of all euill Thus haue ye heard the extreame foolishnesse of many heathen men in choosing of their GODS but the madnesse of the Egyptians doth farre excéede them all for they sayes Herodotus in Euterpe doe take all beastes bothe wilde and tame for Godes There are saies Strabo in his seuentéenth booke some vnreasonable liuing creatures which all the Aegyptians doe vniuersally woorshippe as of the lande beastes the neate and the dogge of byrdes the hawke and the Ibis of fishes the Lepidotus and Oxyrinchus And there be other which euery city adoreth peculiarly as the Saites and Thebans a shéepe the Latopolitanes a fish in the Riuer of Nilus called Latus the Lycopolitanes a woulfe the Hermopolitanes the Cynocephalus the Babylonians besides Memphis the Cepus whiche is a beast like vnto a Satyre but in all other partes meane betwéene a dogge and a beare the Mendesians bothe the ramme and the ewe goat The Athribites the venimous mouse called Mus Araneus Hercules his citie with other the ilfauoured Ichneumon whiche killeth the crocodile and destroyeth the aspes egges the Arsinoites the cruell crocodile the Leontines the Lyon. The Ele also is a generall God in Egypt and all fishes with scales and the byrde Phenix and the Bergander as affirmeth Herodotus who also telleth that if any man kill any of those baggages willingly he dieth the death for it if against his will hée is fined and punished at the discretion will of the priests but whosoeuer killeth an Ibis or an Hauke either with his will or against it must néedes die for it And to be deathe to kill a catte either by mishappe or of purpose doth Diodorus Siculus shewe by an example which he himselfe sawe The Romane imbassadours were at Alexandria to enter into societie and friendshippe with the Egyptians and their king to he called an alie friend of the people of Rome where it chaunced one of the Romanes against his will to kil a catte As soone as it was noised in the citie the angrie citizens assembling together in great
troupes from all partes of the towne assaulted the house wherin the imbassaders lay requested to haue him deliuered vnto them that he might be executed vtterly neglecting the greatnesse of the Romane name and the memorie of the friendshippe lately made and doubtlesse they would haue put him to death if that the king and the officers had not rather conueyed then deliuered him out of the present perill Diodorus also doth affirme that these baggage Goddes are kept and nourished about the Temples by men of good reputation who féede them with fine manchet Alica a kinde of furmament deintie dishes made with milke Moreouer they do set euery day before them géese bothe boyled and also rosted and for those that eate rawe flesh they cause byrdes to be caught finally they kéepe them with great care and charges Furthermore they doe washe them with warme water and very good and odoriferous ointments They also make for them sumptuous beddes costly garnished they mourne for their death as muche as they were their children and burie them more sumptuously then their abilitie can cleare After the death of Alexander the great when that Ptolomeus Lagi held Egypt an Oxe being dead at Memphis for age he that tooke vpon him the charge to kéepe him bestowed vpon his buriall a great masse of money the whiche had béene giuen for the charges of the funeralles and also fiftie talentes that is 9375. lent by Ptolomey Also in our age which was in the time of Ptolomeus Dionysius the laste king certaine that had the keeping of suche beastly Goddes bestowed vpon their funeralles no lesse then 100. talentes that is 18750. pound In what house soeuer saies Herodotus cattes do dye by nature al they that do dwell in them do shaue their ey-browes onely but if that a dogge die all their whole bodies and heades are shauen Dead cattes are caried by the people howling and beating their brestes vnto the temples to be salted and from thence into the citie Buleastis to be buried but they lay dogs in sacred cophines in those temples where they happen to die but dead shrewe mise and hawkes they do carrie vnto the citie of Butis all these baggages doe they by the reporte of Diodorus wrapp in fine shéetes and embaulme with the precious liquor of Cedrus and odoriferous ointments but dead beares and wolues do they burie where they finde them Moreouer Iuuenal in his xv Satyre doth charge them with farther follie in that they make léekes and onyons their Goddes wherefore he frumping them sayes O holie nations that haue Goddes growing in their gardens I haue béene the longer in declaring the madnesse of the Egyptians to make men vnderstande from whence the Israelites had their wonderfull pronenesse vnto idolatrie and worshipping of false Goddes But as I sayd before it is not so greatly to be maruelled at if that heathen men who accounted those to be Gods whō they knewe to be most renouned for vertue and valiancie did when that when fortune fauned on them forget them selues and inuaded wrongfully the godhead yet who wold beléeue that so absurd a thought coulde come into their myndes to whome God had reuealed his trueth and the knowledge of him selfe if we did not reade the like of Herodes Agrippa in the moste true recordes of the Actes of the Apostles Whiche historie is in these wordes related more at large by Iosephus in the .xix. booke of his antiquities When Herodes Agrippa did set foorth at the citie of Caesaria magnificent spectacles vnto the people in the honour of Caesar vpon a day vowed for the life and safetie of the Emperour to the which came also the worshipfull and honourable of the whole Prouince the second day of the shewes the king putting on a glittering robe wrought with wonderfull workmanship of cleane siluer about Sunne rising came foorth vnto the theatre Nowe when that the Sunne at the first rising did shine vpon the siluer garment the glistering of the mettall did cast foorth with the reuerberated beames suche a double and diuine brightnesse that the tenour of the sight did dazell the eyes of them that behelde it striking in them a veneration with honour Incontinently was there hearde the flatterie of the common people pratling out wordes which sounded to honour but brought destruction He was saluted from all partes of the Theatre by the name of a God and supplyantly prayed vnto to be mercifull and good vnto them the people saying vntill this time we haue euer feared thée as a man but from hencefoorth we doe nowe confesse thée to surmount and be aboue mans nature But the king did not suppresse nor blame their lewde exclamations neither abhorred the vngodlinesse of vnlawfull flatterie vntill suche time as a little while after he looking vp sawe an Owle sitting vppon a rope that went crosse the Theatre ouer his head and immediately withall he felt him to be the minister of his destruction whome he had knowne before to be his purueyour of good thinges and so was he soudenly tormented with incredible peines about his heart belly and small guts and looking backe vpon his friendes sayde behold ye I that God of yours am presently tumbled downe from life the power of God presently prouing those wordes to be false whiche you euen very nowe bestowed and hurled on me And I whome but very nowe you called immortall am out of hande at this instant carried headlong to death but I must abide and receiue the sentence whiche God hath pronoūced on me for I haue liued not in miserie but in so great felicitie that al men cal me a blessed mā When he had spoken those words he being more grieuously vexed with the violence of the peine was incontinently borne into the palace But shortly after when it was bruted abroad that he was vpon the point of death a great multitude of al ages sects came vnto the palace who lying on the ground grouely clothed in hairecloth after their countrie guise made incessant supplications vnto God for the kings recouerie all the kinges palace ringing with their dolful cries and lamentations whē as in the mean time the king lying in a chamber aboue and looking downe and beholding them lying flatte on their faces with lamentable wéeping could not abstein from teares him selfe but being fiue dayes thus tormented incessantly with griping peines of his bellie at the lengthe brake in sunder the tedious thread of lothsome life Thus by this long narration of those whose prosperitie made them to forget their maker yea and them selues too that saying of Augustines is verified that as all fruites all graines all woodes haue their worme and euery one a diuers worme the one from the other so the worme of riches power and prosperitie is pryde which doth corrupt and quite consume them as all other wormes do the substaunces wherein they are bred neuer dying vntill that they haue chaunged the names turning woods to rottennesse yron to lust and
and made meate and drinke onely for noble men But it can not be better expressed then with his owne wordes Out of the garden is the commons their shambles with howe muche more innocent and harmelesse diet No I doe beléeue it is better to diue into the bottome of the sea and kindes of oysters to be sought by shipwrackes birdes to be set beyond the riuer of Phasis who one would haue thought should haue béene safe from fetching by reason of the fabulous terrour that we reade in Poets no for that they are the more pretious to goe a fouling for other into Numidia and Aethiopia among the graues or to fight with wilde beastes coueting to be eaten of that which an other man doth eate But oh Lorde howe good cheape are hearbs howe ready for pleasure and satietie if that the same indignation and spite which doth euery where did not also here occurre and come in the waye it were in déede to be borne withall exquisite fruites to growe of whome some for their tast and verdure some for their greatnesse other for their straungenesse shoulde be forbidden poore men and wines to be made to laste vntill great ages and to be gelded with bagges neyther any man to be so olde that he may not drinke wine elder then him selfe and also riot to inuent a certaine foode out of corne onely and the fine floure of it to be taken and it to liue and continue longer then the workes and ingrauings of the bakehouses some to be breade for noblemen some for the commons breade corne discending in so many kyndes euen vnto the basest of the commons What is there a distinction also in hearbes and hath riches made a difference in a meate yea which is to be bought for an halfepenie And some also of them do the tribes say growe not for them the stalke by franking being made so greate that a poore mans table may not receiue and holde him Nature had made sperage wilde that euery man might euery where gather them but beholde nowe there is francked sperage and Ranenna selleth them for poundes a péece Out alas the prodigies of the paunch it would haue béene a maruel not to be lawfull for cattell to eate thistles it is not lawful for the commons Water also is separated and the verye Elementes of nature are seuered by the power of riches These men drinke snowe they ice and do turne the punishmentes and pains of mountains into the pleasure of the throte Coldenesse is kept in heate and a deuice is founde for snowe to be colde in forreigne and contrarie monethes Other water they boile and that also anone after they winter or vse in the winter hauing warme water in winter So nothing doth please man being suche as it pleaseth nature And be there also some hearbes whiche growe onely for rich men let no man looke about for the holy and Auentine hills and the departure of the commons out of the citie for surely death shall make them equall whome wealth hath ouermatched Thus farre Plinie who also in his 14. booke telleth the waywardnes of men to be suche about their wines that they had inuented 195. kindes of them and of special kindes of those generall almoste double the number Neither did the immeasurable charges of their meats satisfie their vnthriftie mindes but that by vomiting they must make themselues readie to eat often as though there had béen no other vse of eating meate but to vomite it vp again not muche vnlike vnto the Rosomacha in Lithuama a beast of the bignesse of a dogge and the face of a catte the backe and taile of a foxe who vseth when he hathe filled his bellie with meate as full as it wil hold to scummer out that whiche he hath eaten with squising his bellie betwéene two trées standing néere together and then incontinently to returne againe vnto the carreine and so to do continually so long as he can gette meate But the roisting Romanes to haue a quarell vnto the cuppe besides salte meates and olde rotten chéese whiche are in vse also nowe a dayes among our tipplers they vsed to drinke colde poisons as hemlocke that deathe might make them powre in strong wine lustely to saue their liues other tooke the poulder of a pomise stone and other like thinges moste abhominable whiche by rehearsing I am ashamed to teache the wariest of those tiplers saies he do we sée to be boyled with baynes and to be carried out of them halfe dead that they may drinke the harder but other can not stay for the bedde no not for their clothes but incontinently naked and hasing take mightie great cuppes as it were to shewe their strength and plentifully powre in the wine that they may immediatly vomite it out and againe swill and vppe with it straightway and so the thirde time as though they were borne to destroy wine as and if wine could not otherwise be shedde but through mennes bodies But the fruites or rather incommodities of rauenous gluttonie doth he set downe in that place That it fall out the best vnto them they neuer sée the rising of the Sunne and they liue the lesse while Hereof comes palenesse hanging eyliddes vlcers of the eyes shaking handes which wil shedde full cuppes whiche is a present paine furiall sleapes disquiet and ill rest in the night the next day stinking breathes caste out of the mouth and obliuion almost of all things and the death of the memorie It is recorded by Plutarch that at a game of drinking made by Alexander 41. dranke them selues dead An. 1540. was a very good yeare for wines in the which there were found to die in the duchie of Wittenberg at feasts from Autumne vnto the first sunday of Lent 400. persons so that we néede no auncient examples Many dishes saies sage Seneca bring many diseases and innumerable diseases do rewarde innumerable cookes which is agréeable vnto that golden sentence of Plinie great diuersitie of dishes is very pestilent but of sauces and dressings of them more pestilent Aske mée sayes Seneca in his controuersies why we die so soone because we liue by deathes But admit that a man did not with excessiue quantitie of meate put the vaines in daunger of breaking nor set on fire the spirites with hote wines whiche the Phycisians will neuer graunt yet who woulde not thinke it more intollerable then death by gourmandise to be so ouerloden with flesh and fatte that he can not moue as Nicomachus of Smyrna or not goe as was Ptolomei Euagetes king of Egypt who in many yeares before he went foorthe to receiue that Péerelesse Paragon of the worlde Scipio Africanus the yonger walked not on foote or Alexander king of that Realme who could not walke for grosenesse but staied vp with two men or be like vnto Dionysius the tyrant of Heraclea whose fatnesse would not suffer him to fetch his breath and did put him in continual
the kinges sayes he séeking to féede his humour and to followe his affection caused Images to be made of yuorie golde and other pretious stuffe But Alexander him selfe gathered together a great number of Architects and the excellentest workmen to adorne his funeralles And first of all did he cast downe ten furlongs of the wals of Babylon all the bricks being gathered together caused he to be carried away the the ground might be leuel to build the roge or funerall fire vpon the which he erected foure square euery side being one furlong long the rest of the plot he diuided into 30. edifices the which were built with stories boorded with palme trée at the lowest part were set 240. béekes of quinqueremes or galleies with fiue ranckes of oares of golde and vpon euery one of them as it were vpon the stemme of a galley stoode two archers two cubites high resting on their knée in the middes stoode fiue statuies in armour of fiue cubites high and all the places betwéene them were couered with drawne courteins of purple On the second storie were fiftéene lampes whose féete were inclosed with crowns of gold In the top or highest story where the fire should be put and kindled were Eagles portraytured spreading abroade their winges and looking downe vpon the dragons that stoode beneath staring vppe vppon them The third storie was filled ful of a mightie number of wild beasts wrought for that purpose The fourth had the fight of the Centaures made in golde The fifth had Bulles and Lyons of golde first a Bull and then a Lyon and so stil in like order Aboue all this was the highest storie hanged round about with the weapons of the Macedons and also of all the Barbarians bothe to shewe the vallor of the Macedons and also to signifie what nations they had conquered Then vpon the toppe of al did there stand holow Myrmaides in whom were hidden certaine men that sang the funerall Nenia or song The height of the whole work was estéemed to be 130. cubites And when that the capteins the souldiers the embassadours and the inhabitants did to the vttermost of their power helpe to furnishe and adorne the pompe there was bestowed aboue 12000 talentes that is 572500. And after the rate and proportion of this magnificence were all other thinges celebrated in the funerals and buriall with surpassing brauery And last of al were men commanded to sacrifice vnto him as vnto a God president To furnish the funerals of so déere a beleued Alexander gaue commandement vnto all the cities néere to helpe and garnish the pompe by all meanes and with al things that they could possible He also gaue commandement to al the cities of Asia that they should put out the fire which was kept in the Temples and casted the holy fire the which thing was neuer vsed to be done among the Persians but at the death of their king In this place also although somewhat out of order will I set downe out of Thucidides the publike obsequies the which the Atheniens kept for their countrimen that were slain in the Pelopâ—a â—stan wars folowing the auncient manner of their countrie Thrée dayes before the buriall was there made a great tabernacle within the which were laide the bones of them that were dead that their parents fréends might lay vpon them what they thought good Afterward euery linage or tribe of the towne had a great cofer or cophin of cypresse into the which they did put the bones of al them of that tribe which were dead and carried it in a chariot to the vsuall place of buriall And after all the cofers was there carried in aâ— other chariot a great bedd ready made garnished without any body lying theron the which represented these deadmen whose bodies could not be found These chariots were conducted and accompanied by all sortes of people citizens or other those that would go vnto the sepulchre where the wiues parents of the diseased wept bitterly and made great lamentation Then did they lay all the cofers or cophins in a publike sepulchre or monument made for the purpose in the fairest suburbe of the citie the which sepulchre is called Ceramicon wherin they vsed to but iâ— al thâ—se that died in the warres except it were they that were slaine at the battel of Marâ—â—â—n In memorie of whose singular â—â—wesse they had willed a â—â—â—â—â—ar sepulchre to be 〈◊〉 â—s the selfe same pâ—â—e And after the bodies were buried the vsage was the some notable personage of the citie both for knowledge honour should make an Oration vnto the people in the praise of the persons departed the which being unded euery body departed home But for to make the oration at that time was the vallaint and â—â—quent Petâ—â—teâ— appointed And nowe to 〈◊〉 vnto the Rominâ—â— I do finde in Plinie 〈◊〉 was not vsed among them 〈…〉 for to burne the deaâ— bodies 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 them in the earth but afterward when that they vnderstood the those which were ouer whelmed by warres farre from home were oftentimes taken vp an ordinaunce was made that all should be burnt yet they kept the auncient rite diuersly for they do report that none of the house of the Cornelij were burnt before Sylla the Dictator who feared lest he himselfe should be taken vp and handled after his deathe as he in his life time had dealt with Marius his dead body Learned Volaterranus doth holde that after the time of the Antonines of whome Heliogabalus was the last they burnt no corses at Rome And before that time I read in Tacitus that when Nero had slaine in his madde moode his wife Poppea he burnt not her body but stuffing it ful of odours after the maner of forreigne kings buried it in the sepulchres of the Iulij but the solemne accustomed funerals were kept Furthermore laying of the dead bodie in the earth doth Cicero truely thinke to be the most ancient kinde of burial for the Patriarches were so buried wherunto Xenophon also séemeth to asseÌ„t making Cyrus to will his sonne to lay him neither in gold siluer nor in any thing else but only to restore him vnto the earth This also was common bothe vnto the Greekes and Romanes to burie the dead with great lameÌ„tations and teares without which saies Seruius they thought that they were not orderly duely buried wherof procéedes that complaint of Drances against Turnus the we an vnbewept multitude may be slaine in the fielde for the which cause they vsed to hire women to wéepe houle at burials whereof Chrysostome doth make mention in many places Horace also toucheth in his booke De Arte Poetica Chrysostome in his 69. sermon vnto the people of Antioche blameth in them the tearing of their haires the baring of their armes the dissipating of their eyes and the wearing of blacke apparell and vpon the first vnto the Philippians scratching of their faces he rebuketh their
vnto the greate Cham for they do thinke that they shall stande him in vse there In like maner doth Iouius write that all the lordes and princes of the Moores and Numidians dwell they neuer so farre off are all buried at the citie of Caruenna three days iourney frō Tunes because they be persuaded that their soules whose bones lie in the moste auncient sacred temple of that citie are most effectually commended vnto God for to obteine the felicitie of the heauenly life as they whiche are moste purely purged and clensed by the exquisite ceremonies and prayers of the reuerende college of holie priestes of the church In Tangute a prouince vnder the great Cham they vse to burne the bodie of the deade as also do almost al the nations of the East yet some do reserue the bodie certeine dayes some seuen dayes other while a moneth often times sixe moneths making at home a coffen for him the boords therof being ioyned together so close that no stinke can breath out of it And euerie day whilest the coorse is in the house do they at dinner time prepare and furnishe a table besides the coorse where vpon they set wine and meates letting them stande there the space of an houre for they do thinke that the soule of the deade man doth take and féede of the thinges whiche are set vpon the table In the citie of Tarnasseri in the newe founde Easte Indies they also burne their deade and put their ashes in vessels of clay which are seasoned with saltepeter or nitrum the vessels beeing filled with the ashes in the grounde do they set vp at home in their owne houses When they burne them they cast into the fire all kindes of swéete odors as Aloe Franckincense Myrrh Storax Corall Saunders and innumerable sortes of such odoriferous trées the trumpets blowing the pipers playing heauenlike but fiftéene dayes after the death of her husband the wife which suruiueth biddeth all her kinsfolkes vnto a feaste and adourned with all her iewels goeth vnto the place where her husband was burnt where a hole or pitte is digged of greate deapth and able to receiue a woman which they hange rounde aboute with blacke clothe and the pitte burneth verie feruently beeing filled full of odoriferous woodes after that the guests haue ended their feast the widdowe eateth greate store of Betola whereby her wittes are somewhat taken from her Nowe a greate number of pipers stande rounde about the pitte apparelled like vnto diuels and the woman like one somwhat frantike goeth to and fro hopping skipping as though she daunced at the length when al the ceremonies be finished shée throweth her self downe headlong into the burning pitt euen as though shée therby should be receiued immediately into heauen And vnlest the widdowe will doe thus after the death of her husband she is noted with wounderful infamie is a mocking stocke vnto all the whole region as one that loued not her husbande This fashion do none keepe but the noble men and the chiefe of the citie wherefore they say the king is mostly present at such a pompe The wylde people of America as soone as euer the soule is departed out of the bodie laye the deade bodie in the earth in that place where the diseased person did lacke greatest pleasure in his life time thinking that they cannot lay him in a more notable and honourable place then in the earth that bringeth foorth so manie good fruits and other riches profitable and néedefull for mannes vse If that an householder happen to die his wiues and his nearest kinsfolkes and friendes wil make a merueilous mourning not for the space of thrée or foure dayes but of foure or fiue monethes but the greatest lamentation is foure or fiue of the firste dayes you shal heare them make such a noise and harmonie as if a sorte of cattes and dogges were together ye shall sée as well men as women some laide on their beddes sorrowfull other sitting with their bare buttockes on the ground embracing one an other saying in their launguage our father or friende was so good a man he was so stronge and mightie he laboured so well and dressed our gardens he caught beastes foules fishes for our sustenance alas he is deade wee shall sée him no more but after that we be dead with our friendes in the countries where the pages they be their priestes and prophets say they haue séene them with manie such like wordes the which they will tenne thousand times repeate daye and night continually for the space of foure or fiue dayes neuer ceasing to lamente The childrē of the deceased a moneth after their mourning will desire their friendes vnto a feast or solemnitie helde in the honour of the deade man there will they all assemble together painted with diuers colours and bedecked with feathers and other brauerie according vnto the fashion of their countrie vsinge a thousande ceremonies pastimes daunces playes and pipinge on flutes made of the bones of the legges and armes of the slaine enimies and play also on other instruments which are in vse amongest them But the auncient sort cease not to tipple all the day longe without eating one morsell of meate and they be serued by the wiues and kinswomen of the deceased In the Isle of Cephale when one is deade they burie him in the courte of his house vntill that his fleshe bee consumed and when this is done they take vppe the bones and marke them that they may afterwarde knowe whose they were and then laye them on the table vnder a cloth of blacke fustion whither one doth bringe breade and fleshe baked as an offeringe or sacrifice made for the deade whome they do praye to haue them in remembraunce The principall effecte of their praiers is to desire him to be fauourable and good vnto their kinge to make him prosperous in all his affaires and so to destroy and confounde his enimies that he may keepe the Islande in peace reste and securitie These prayers are made by the chiefe of euerie house all the reste that be there beeing silente clothed in white But when this prayer is done they all rise vp wash their faces handes and then sit laughing and singing of the prayse of the deade person and euerie one with his householde eateth vp those thinges that were offered When one dieth in the Isle of the Heremites and specially one of the Heremites or priestes all the women of the towne or village assemble together in the deade mans house who is put into the barke of a tree in the middes of the house Aboute the coorse they make with ropes whiche are all couered with barkes if trees as it were a tente the whiche they couer all ouer with greene boughes of diuers trees and in the middes thereof they make a place finely trimmed with hearbes in forme like vnto a pauilion Vnder these
greene boughes and within the tent do the moste honourable and honest women assemble all clothed in blacke hauing euerie one of them a fanne made of palme leaues the rest of the women the parentes of the deade are in the house wéeping and sighing then one of the womē that is of greatest estimation aduaunceth her selfe and cutts off the haires of the deade man during the which time his wife remaineth all dismall and wéeping bitterly ouer the coorse of her husband ofte kissing his mouth handes and féete But whē that al the haires be shorne off this wéeping wife raiseth vp her selfe and falles to singing with a countenaunce as merie and laughing as it was before monstruously sadde These things beeing done they put into a vessel of purcellane wherin is fire Myrrhe frankincense Storax and other suche odoriferous things perfuming therewith both the bodie and the house in the whiche ioy and perfuming they continue fiue or sixe dayes after which terme expired they do annoynt the bodie with camphore a certeine time which béeing ended they inclose him in a cofine the which is nayled with wodden pinnes and after wardes lay him in the grounde in some place where no bodie dwelleth But when the king is departed out of life the greatest and moste honourable men of the realme assemble to celebrate the obsequies and haueing apparelled clothed the bodie verie honourably and reuerendly they cutte off the heades or snatche certeine greate personages of the chiefe of the men of warre or the best of the souldiours or some merchauntes of the retinue and certeine of the kinges best horses to the ende they may wayte vpon the kinge in the other worlde and when they do pute them to death they do say Goe in the name of our Goddes to serue our kinge in our paradise euen as ye haue attended on him in this worlde and as ye haue bene faithfull vnto him here beneth in the earth so also shal ye be in the glorie of our Gods. Those that be slaine be nothing sorie or dismaide therfore but take their death in very good part laughing reioycing no lesse then they doe among vs that goe vnto a marriage When one dieth in Siam a countrie of India beyond Ganges his fréendes and kinsmen for to honour him do take his body and carrie it into the middes of a fielde where they do driue into the ground two postes of wood lay a third vpon thē vnto this crosse post do they fasten a chaine with two hookes in whom they do lay the dead man and make a great fire vnder him and as long as the body rosteth his children and kinsfolks stand round about the fire wéeping howling and sighing bothe as pitifully also as loude as they can for their liues But when the the body is well rosted they take out their goblets and fill them with their kinde of wine and ordinarie drinke made of rice and sugar and euery one also draweth his knife and beginnes to cutte off the fleshe of the man the which they do eate and drinke of their goblettes and yet they ceasse not to sighe and lament And the first that beginneth to eate of the dead mans flesh is the person that is nearest of his kin neither do they departe out of the place before that they haue eaten al the fleshe vnto the very bones the whiche they doe burne a rite vsed by all the Orient And they do say that it is impossible to giue vnto their fréendes a more honourable tumbe and where he shal be better then their owne bodies who loue him best and are also of equal dignity vnto his person In the citie of Fesse in Aphrica they vse to bury the dead men in a common fielde without the towne setting vpon the graue a great stone made of the fashion of a triangle But notable men and of great reputation haue at the head a table of marble and an other at their féete in whom are séene ingrauen proper verses in comfort of hard and vnhappie chances passed And a litle beneath the name of him that lieth there and the name of the house he was off with the day yeare of his death There is also without the towne vpon a hil a palace where are séene the tumbes of the kinges made of marble with fine and wittie epitaphes ingrauen in them and the tumbes are garnished with suche surpassing workmanshippe and beautified with the finest colours of the worlde so that it woulde make a man astonied to beholde the excellencie of them At Ormus in the Arabian gulfe vseth the wife of the deceased man once in a day for the space of foure monethes to make a pitifull solemne wéeping and howling and sometime to hyre an other woman to do it for her The like manner saies Bel Forest the author hereof haue I séene in Perrigord a Prouince of Fraunce among the peasaunts The fifteenth Chapter The confuse and causelesse feare of man and particularly of the Romanes three times of Augustus Caesar of the Greekes at Patras Philocrene and Trapezonda of the league called the cōmō wealth in Fraūce before Paris of the Emperials at Villa Francha of Pysander of one that died with the sight of Hercules of Artemon of Saint Vallier of Cassander at the sight of Alexanders Image and other ANd this is enough ye and I feare me too too much touching mans care for his burying Which hofulnesse doeth the confuse feare of man muche augment which Plinie rightly putteth as a miserie of man and truely affirmeth that no liuing thing hath greater Hereof came the prouerb among the Gréeks Latines a Panik chance whereby they signifie a soudaine vaine and causelesse tumult of mens hartes and it is so called because that the Ethnickes did thinke that the God Pan did send into men such souden terrours and consternations of minde making them like madde men so impotent and vnstaied that for the time they be not only void of reason but also of common sense Such vaine feares according to the prouerbe often happen in warrs many in Alexander the great his voiage and twise vnto the Saracenes in that famous expedition of Godfrey de Bolloigne whiche chaunces be of suche force that the famous Poet Pyndarus holdeth that it ought not to be accounted a reproche and dishonor if that the sonnes of the Gods or the most valiant men flie out of the fielde in suche tumultes I read in Liuie that Claudio Sulpicio and Aemilio Ceritano Conss there arose suche a feare one night in the citie of Rome that alarum was cried throughout all the whole citie such a tumult was raised as though euery streat had béene full of the enimies But when it waxed day there appeared authour neither of the noise or yet of the feare And in his third decade he telleth that when the Fragellans had brought newes that Hanibal drewe neere vnto the citie all the Citizens fell into a marueilous feare
do contemne their deadly daunger and seeme to haue an insensibilitie of their sinnes and perill finally are ashamed of nothing so muche as to shewe ye any light signe of sorrowe for their horrible déepe sinke of sinne yet can not these lustie bloudes escape the inwarde percinge pricke of a guiltie conscience which tormenteth them a thousande folde more terriblye then if it were the deadly stinge of a viper and worketh them more woe and vnrest then doth the madde flie the coursed cattell in the rageing dogge dayes These iolly gentlemen tremble â— shake at euerie flash of lighteninge and be halfe deade at a clappe of thunder as though they came not of anie naturall cause but were sente downe from heauen by angred God purposely to reuenge their outrages Not in the day time not in the night will their vexed mindes graunte vnto their bodies anie reste WheÌ„ they go vnto their meales no one morsell of meate will go downe their throates fearing as men that had their iawes dried vp with a longe wastinge sicknesse yea they cast vp their drinke like vnto younge children makinge a sowre face at sweete Hippocras as though it were sharpe vineagre so vnsauourie doth remorse of their sinnes make al things vnto them But when the time of the night doth adhorte them to goe vnto their restlesse bedde they dare not lye alone for feare that a thousande diuelles woulde carrie them away bodie and soule vnto hell Nowe after they be tyred with tossinge and turning if they chaunce to happen on a slumber for sounde sleape will not the tormenting torche that burneth without intermission in their troubled brestes in anie case graunt them with what dreadfull dreames méete they howe starte they howe hydeously crie they out If theÌ„ religioÌ„ ingendereth suche griefes what tormentes may we think superstitioÌ„ bringeth for I can not tel how saith Seneca vaine thinges do trouble and vexe vs farre more theÌ„ true for the true haue their certeine measure and quantitie but whatsoeuer commeth of an incertâ—ntie is deliuered and giuen ouer vnto the coniecture and licence of a fearefull minde and what that will make of them may the straunge imaginations of the melancholyke manifestly declare some steadfastly beleauinge that they haue eaten venimous serpentes soÌ„e that they haue lost their heads soÌ„e that they haue drouÌ„ke poysoÌ„ soÌ„e that they beare vp al the whole world faynte faile vnder so heauie a burden other that they sée Atlas whoÌ„e the Poetes fayne to staye vp heauen with his shoulders to shrinke and giue ouer and presently readie to lett fall the weightie engine of the heauens on their heades some that they be earthen vessells and merueilously feare breaking other crie out if they do but see one come into the chamber for feare he will treade on his nose some that they haue deadly botches where as in verie déede there are no such thinges with 1000 such like vaine feares al of whome it were as madd a parte for me to rehearse as it was is for theÌ„ to imagine The eighteenth Chapter The hoofullnesse of Lewes the eleuenth Charles the seuenth French kings of Dionysius Commodus and Aristippus for the prolonging of their liues ANd no lesse madnesse considering the manifolde miseries the often calamities the greate mischiefes and annoyances whiche happen vnto man in his life is mans immesurable desiring of liuing which Plinie assigneth for a proper incoÌ„moditie of mankinde Lewes the French kinge the eleuenth of that name when he had liued thrée score yeares perceiuinge that he was fallen into a sicknesse which was likely to shorten his time and also being feared with the sixtieth yeare of his age because that none of the Capetts had passed that bound which yet could not coÌ„tent him what wayes wrought he to prolong his lothsome life to what solemne shrine offered he not greate rich oblations to what famous house of religion throughout all Fraunce gaue not hee fayre lands for a great parte of it wrongefully wrouÌ„g from pore men which donations because they were so great were reuoked after his death to what holy man of name in al Christendome sent not he the golden gifts instantly desiring them in their daylie praiers to God to haue a speciall memento for the large increase of his yeares But amonge all other he fet out of Calabria one Robert an Heremite a man of all them of his time moste renowned for holynesse of life at whose feete at the firste méetinge he fell downe desiring him with manie a bitter teare to prolonge his life foolishly hopinge as the Heremite truely tolde him to obteine that of a man whiche God only was able to giue But yet fearinge that he was not surely enoughe defenced againste terrible death by spirituall helpe studiously also soughte for naturall by phisicke and founde one Cocterius who with large promises of longe life fedde his folishe humoure as the kinge againe glutted the physicians vnsatiable desire of golde with giuinge him ten thousande crownes a moneth yea in fiue monethes foure and fiftie thousande besides manie greate promotions promised if he did recouer his health Yet could not this rare liberalitie of the kinge make the physician courteous vnto him but hee woulde continually handle him verie roughly churlishely and with despitefull wordes vpbrayed vnto him his wrongfull and cruell demeanour towardes diuers of the nobilitie and the counsell and vsed often to tell him that he woulde also handle him so one day Although this vncourteous and proude dealinge greatly greeued the kinge and made him often to complaine of it vnto his familiars yet durste he in no wise put him away because that he had constantly affirmed that the kinge shoulde not liue sixe dayes after that he were gone Which direfull denunciation the kinge abhorred as gate of hell as the man that in al his whole life coulde not abide to haue it once tolde him that he must one day die and would often in his health will his friendes that when they should sée him daungerously sicke they shoulde in no case put him in minde of death where as in verie déede he shoulde haue meditated nothinge so much all his life longe which should haue bene a continual preparing of him self vnto death where vnto he should most assuredly come at the laste and howe soone vncerteine neither yet during his longe sicknesse stoode hee in greater dreade of death by inwarde diseases then he feared shortening of life by forreigne foes Wherefore he imprisoned manie noble men of great power diuerse faithful counsellours vpon vaine imagination conceiued in his fearefull minde of their infidelitie He woulde suffer verie fewe of the nobilitie to come neare vnto the place where he lodged much lesse come within the castell gate which was guarded daye and night with foure hundreth souldiours of whom the one halfe were Scottes whome he trusted better then his owne subiectes commaunding them to shoote at all men whiche did
diuers parts to giue vnto their childrē Then placing a strong garrison in Athens he gaue Archidamus the king of Lacedemonia a mightie ouerthrow and entering Laconica vanquished him againe in an other battell and besieged the citie the which he had doubtlesse taken the which neuer man had done vntill that day if that to interrupt the course of his victorie in Peloponesus sorrowfull newes had not bene brought him that his cities in Asia were assayled by Lysimachus and Cyprus also would be won by Ptolomey vnlesse that he hasted out of hande to succour his mother and children who were streightly besieged in Salamina the chiefe citie thereof Demetrius being sore moued with these heauie tydings brake vp the siege of Lacedemon But being very pensiue and sorrowfull for this mishap fortune made him merrie againe with an other good occasion For Cassanders two sonnes Antipater and Alexander contending for the kingdome of Macedonia Alexander desired Demetrius to come vnto his ayde of whome he was at the firste verie friendly and honourably enterteined but anon after Demetrius vnderstanding that Alexander layd awaites to murther him he caused his souldiers to slay Alexander as he came out from supper then the cause of his death being declared in an assembly of the people Demetrius was proclamed king of Macedonia And also Lysimachus being oppressed with the warres of the king of Thrace gaue him a part of the kingdome of Macedonie which had befalne vnto his sonne in lawe Antipater the other brother that he might not haue warres with him also seing that he was then not able to match the Thracian And to augment his good luck he was certified that Ptolomey was departed from Cyprus Demetrius hauing thus gotten Macedonia with Thessalia subdued also all the Boetians And then hauing intelligence that Lysimachus was taken prisoner by Dromichetes king of Thrace he inuaded his kingdome The which occasion the Boetians hauing gotten rebelled the whiche reuoked Demetrius into Gréece while he was busied in subduing of the Boetians Pyrrhus king of Epyrus soudenly becomming his enimie wasted Thessalia Wherefore Demetrius after he had wonne Thebes and made a rode into Aetolia leauing a part of his power in Aetolia vnder the gouernment of Pantachus went foorth him selfe with the rest of his armie to reuenge the iniuries of Pyrrhus whose countries he wasted But Pyrrhus marching in array of battell to fight with Demetrius I knowe not by what aduenture happened on his Lieftenant Pantachus whome he slue in combate wherevnto Pantachus had challenged him and then the armie being dismayde with the losse of their capteine incontinently fled The fame of this ouerthrowe got Pyrrhus a great name among the Macedons whose hearts Demetrius his pryde had muche alienated from him in so much that when he fell sicke at Pella Pyrrhus spoyled wasted almost all Macedonia and not one man wold go out into the field against him vntil that Demetrius was recouered who hauing greater matters in his head dissembled this iniurie made peace with Pyrrhus preparing a mightie armie of 100000. footemen and 10000. horsmen and a nauie of 500. ships among whome were galleys with sixtéene bankes of eares for to inuade Asia and to recouer his fathers kingdome But this huge armie was almost oppressed before it did set foorth For Seleucus Lysimachus and Ptolomey being feared with this so great preparation did knitte them selues in a league together against him and did set foorth both by sea and lande all the power they were able to make they had also wonne by ambassage Pyrrhus to inuade Macedonia telling him plainely that Demetrius would no longer haue peace with him then vntill such time as he had done his exploites in Asia and then wold he vpō him with al his power to hurle him out of his kingdom all the which things they easily persuaded Pyrrhus to beléeue Wherevppon he at one side and Lysimachus on an other at one time inuading Macedonie and also a fléete sent by Ptolomey soudenly setting vppon the sea coast of Gréece filled all places full of feare and trembling Then Demetrius leauing his son to guard Gréece went him selfe in person against Lysimachus But before he was come vnto this enimie behold news was brought with a great vprore that the citie of Beria in Macedonia was taken by Pyrrhus and all the countrie neare aboutes miserably wasted with fire and sworde This newes much troubled Demetrius mynde but the reuolting of the Macedons farre more who nowe began to refuse to serue in that voyage Wherefore Demetrius to reteine them in their duetie promised that he would goe against Pyrrhus to saue Macedonie from spoyle This he pretended but the very cause in déede was for that he woulde be farre off from Lysimachus to whome the talke was that the Macedons minded to reuolt bycause he was their countriman Wherefore thinking that they were not so much inclined vnto Pyrrhus he had retyred from Lysimachus when that certaine Macedons comming into the campe from Beria had by extolling Pyrrhus with singular prayses and commendations brought their countrimen vnto that point that they brake out into an open mutinie and rebellion Demetrius hauing intelligence of those thinges which were in bruing and thinking it not good to expect a more hostile and woorse chaunce did put off his royall robes and ensignes and fled with a small traine in a blacke cloake vnto the citie Cassandria where his wife wearied with woe killed her selfe with poyson Not long after that Demetrius was crept away Pyrrhus setting vpon his armie the whiche was forsaken by their capteines at the first shout scattered them and being honourably receiued of the Macedons got both the campe and the kingdome the whiche had bene vnder Pyrrhus sixe yeares but nowe was diuided betwéen Pyrrhus Lysimachus Then fled Demetrius vnto Thebes where one scoffingly applyed vnto him that verse of Euripides he came vnto the Dyrcean springs and Ismenus his diuine and godly fourme and shape being chaunged in to a mortall But Demetrius gathering together all his ships whome the cruell tempest whiche about the same time had almost drowned and destroyed his whole fléete had lefte him and also the remnants of his lost armie wearied a little while with siege of the citie of Athens the whiche with fortune had chaūged their fidelitie but at the length through the persuasion of Crator the Philosopher he brake vp the siege and hauing almost eleuen thousande men vnder his banner wasted ouer into Asia to auert Caria and Lycia from the dominion of Lysimachus And hauing gotten Sardis the chiefe citie of Lydia and other places of that Prouince he had wel increased his armie when fearing the approche of Agathocles Lysimachus his sonne he diuerted into Phrygia thinking that if he coulde get Armenia that then the state of the Medes woulde easily be disturbed He marched in the Champain countrie often skirmishing with Agathocles who followed him stil at the harde héeles and Demetrius was victor
often ruthfull roades and wastinges to disturbe the quiet state of hofull Solomon but the rebellion of his owne seruaunt Hieroboam whome he had aduaunced from base birth to beare the honourable office of Lorde Stewarde of his housholde more brake the dismaide king who had not béene vsed vnto such furious fittes oâ—â—aging Fortune This Hieroboam béeing tolde by Ahias the Prophet that he should haue tenne of the Tribes after the decease of Solomon thought it too long to staye vntill hée was dead but solicited the souldiours and people to reuolt and depriue Solomon of his royall dignitie but attempting it vntimely he was forced to séeke safetie by flying into Aegypt but yet would not Solomons feare conceiued of him cease vntill that friendly death had ridde him out of worldly troubles with whome his heauie heart was nowe wholly oppressed The xli Chapter ¶ Of Herodes king of Iudea NOne of all the successours of Solomon did come so neare vnto his greatenesse as did Herodes who yet for Martiall glorie strength of bodie and valiant heart did more resemble his father Dauid He béeing descended of the royal bloud was the first straunger that reigned ouer the Iewes hauing the kingdome giuen vnto him by the Romanes when that the Parthians had expelled Hyrcanus carrying him awaye with them in yrones beeinge defourmed of his eares and placed there his enimie Antigonus whome Herodes thorough the aide of the Romaines foylinge in manie fightes tooke prisoner in Ierusalem and sent vnto the Romaines to be murdered he also augmented the bounds of the kingdom through the liberalitie of Augustus with Sadara Hippon Samaria Gaza Anthedon Ioppe Pyrgos Stratonis and afterwarde with the countries of Thracos Bathanea and Auranitis and his immesurable riches do his beautifull buyldings blase First he buylte the great and faire cities of Sebaste and Caesaria at whiche Caesaria he ouercomming nature with charges made the goodliest hauen of the Easte wher before no man coulde sayle all along that shore for the fléeting quicke sandes and although that all the whole place did withstande his purpose yet he did so striue with the difficulties thereof that the strength of the worke did not giue place vnto the violence of the Sea and the beautie of the buyldinge was so greate as though no harde thinge had hindered the garnishing thereof For all that greate space that he had appoynted for the safe roade of the shippes he piled or paued twentie fadome deepe with stones euerie one of whome beeing fifty foote long and ten broad and manie of them greater then inlarged he a wall into thrée hundreth foote of the whiche one hundreth was caste vp before to repell the surges of the Sea the rest lay vnder the wal that inclosed rounde the hauen mounting with manie verie goodly and beautifull towers there were also manie vaults or arches through whome suche thinges as were in the hauen might be caried foorth and before the vaultes a sumptuous galerie or walking place At the mouth of the hauen were set vp thrée Colossi stayed vp on both sides with pillers on the left hand of whom as a man came into the hauen stoode a tower but on the right two high stones the which did passe the tower in greatnes And vnto the hauen he adioyned great houses of white stone and ouer right against the hauen a temple vnto Caesar a singular péece of woorke both for beautie and greatnes and therin was there a Colossus of Caesar no lesse than Iupiters at Olympia by the whiche paterne it was made Hée also built therein a market place or a towne house a Theatre and an Amphitheatre and what charge it was to builde a Theatre may appeare by Plinie the younger in his epistle vnto Traiane where hee writeth that the Theatre at Nicen had consumed Centies sestertium that is thréescore and eightéene thousand one hundreth twentie fiue pounds yet was not finished but vnperfecte And doubtlesse an Amphitheatre spent double the charges as that which was as who would say two theatres ioyned in one Besides these cities he built also Agrippium and Antipatris the sumptuous castels the which might compare with townes of Cyprus Phaselis and Herodion Hee also newe built the temple of Hierusalem making it as faire as euer was Solomons and adioyned vnto it double as much ground as it had before being inclosed with a wall where he built stately walking places which the Romanes called Porticus whereunto he adioyned a goodly castell Hee also built for him selfe a sumptuous palace wherein were two chappels dedicated vnto Caesar the whiche might for beautie and greatnesse compare with any temple of the world Finally in all fit places of his kingdome did hee erecte goodly Churches and other sumptuous monumentes in the honour of Augustus Neither was he contented to beautifie his owne realme with goodly buildings but also in forreigne cities hée shewed his magnificence building at Tripolis Damascus Ptolomais publique baines a kinde of building in that riotous age of all other most costlye both for the garnishing and also for the stately walkes gardenes places of exercises and other such like thinges vsually adioyned vnto them Byblus hee walled about at Berithus and Tyrus he built burses towne houses and temples and at Sidon and Damascus Theaters and at Laodicea a conduite the which had béene no great princely worke if that they had béen no more chargeable in those countries then they be in ours but they being there brought vppon mightie arches of stones galantly garnished were of inestimable charges in somuch that Claudius Caesar bestowed vpon a conduite at Rome Quingenties quinquagies quinquies of oure monie foure hundreth and thirtie thrée thousand fiue hundred l. and fiftéene shillinges the whiche as it is a great summe of monie to be bestowed vppon a conduite so doth it drawe nothing néere vnto the summe of vij millions and eighte hundreth thousand pounds set downe by William Thomas But to returne vnto Herode hee also built baines and cesternes for water at Ascalon with other edifices worthie to be wondered at for their workemanshippe and also their greatnesse Moreouer of his magnificent liberalitie in kingly giftes the Rhodians the Lycians the Samians the Ionians the Athenians the Lacedemonians the Nicopolitanes the Pergamenians were partakers And besides these goodes of Fortune had God also bountifully blessed him with tenne sonnes and fiue daughters and with long life to reigne 37. yeares and to sée his sonnes sonnes and daughters married he liuing vntill hée was seuentie yeares old But yet this man vppon whom fortune had thus prodigally throwen her gifts was often sore shaken with many aduerse tempestes For while he was a priuate man but in déede ruled all the kingdome of Iurie vnder Hyrcanus was he in daunger of death being accused by an honourable Embassage of an hundreth Iewes before Antonius the Triumuir for oppressing of the realme and subiectes and also the which touched Antonius more that he had béene his
enimies Cassius lieftenaunt in Syria But not long after that he had fortunately escaped this doubtful perill fell hée into a greater when that the Parthian tooke Hierusalem with king Hyrcanus and placing there in his roome Antigonus forced Herodes his brother Phaselus to dashe out his owne braines against a wall that he might not come aliue into their bondage and Herodes himselfe very hardly escaped their hands and fearefully fledde vnto Rome where he was created king of Iudea The whiche he had not long enioyed but that he was sent for to come before Antonius at Seleucia to be arreigned for the vnworthie murther of his wiues brother Alexander the high priest at what time he knowing the great hatred towards him of Antonius his swéete heart Quéene Cleopatra who insatiably thirsted for his kingdome he was almost in vtter despaire of returne But not long after he fell into greater perill of his state through ayding of Antonius against Octauian wherefore after that Antonius was ouercome he sailed into Rhodes vnto Caesar and there in priuate apparell without diademe suppliantly desired pardon of Caesar the which being happely obteined and his kingdom also by his liberalitie augmented hée fell in his old age into many domesticall dolours the beginning whereof came thorough his wife Mariemne one descended of the auncient bloud royal whom he loued as immoderately as shee hated and abhorred him both hartily and openly vpbrayding him often with the cruell murthering of her graundfather and brother but in the ende hee did wrongfully put her to death for sinister opinion of adulterie betwixte her and his vncle Iosippus and then as immoderately bewailed and lamented her death as before he had rashly slaine her This vnworthie murther of their mother did her two sonnes whome Herodes had appointed to bee his successours in the kingdome stomache in so much that they fled to Rome and accused their father vnto Augustus who made an attonement betwéene the wretched father and his wicked sonnes but it was not long but that Herodes accused them for treason against his person before Archelaus king of Cappadocia whose daughter the one of them had married but Archelaus againe reconciled them but the ill patched friendshipp brake out againe not long after to the destruction of the two innocent sonnes After the dolefull death of his two déere sonnes Alexander Aristobulus the wofull father found out the treason of his sonne Antipater whome he had nominated his heire and how he not onely had caused him by suborning of false witnesses wrongfully to murther his two brothers Alexander and Aristobulus and exasperated him also against two other of his brothers Archelaus Philippe the poison was brought where with Antipater had gone about to poison him whereuppon he obteyned of the Emperour that he might worthily be put to death This domestical calamitie and continual treasons and murtherings of his sonnes did so afflict the aged father that hee ledde a lothsome life wrapped all in wailefulnesse taking no ioy at all in his large Empire great heapes of treasure and beautifull and pleasaunt buildinges And this heauinesse was heaped by long cōtinuance of many dolefull diseases He had no smal ague and an intollerable itche thoroughout all his body then was he also vexed with a painefull torment in his necke and his féete were swollen with the dropsie and his bellie as bigge as a barrell with winde the whiche griefes were augmented with a filthie putrefaction of his priuie parts the which bred aboundance of stinking wormes Moreouer he was very short winded sighing often and had al his lymmes contracted and cramped the tormentes were so intollerable that he thought his friendes did heynously iniurie him when that they did let him to ende his wofull life by friendly stroke of fatall meate knife And then to double his tormentes came this toy into his heade that all the Iewes and people woulde reioyce at his desired death wherefore he commaunded that out of euerie village and towne of the Iudea should the gentlemen be brought into the castell and be all slaine when he shoulde yelde vp his cruell and gastly ghoste that all the whole lande yea and euerie house might weepe and lamente at his death against their willes The xl Chapter Of Mahumet MAhumet the first founder of the secte of the Mahumetanes who possesse nowe farre the greatest parte of the worlde of a beggers bratt and slaue became conquerour and kinge of all Syria and Aegypt and by the consente of the moste of the beste approued authors of the whole Empire of Persia and yet had he also sowre often mingled with his swete for when he firste preached his seditious superstition at Mecha he was driuen by armes out of the towne with his bande of bondmen Neither founde he fortune more friendely at Medina Thalnabi whether he fledde for the Iewes taking armes against him discomfited him in manie skirmishes in one of whom they wounded him in the face strucke out his fore teeth and hurled him into a diche And afterward also in his first inuasion of the Persian was he foiled in fight and forced to retire home where entring in societie with the Sinites that had lately for reprochfull wordes reuolted from the Greekes and returninge with them into Persia fortunately atchiued his exploite But howe pitifully he was tormented with the terrible fallinge sicknesse I thinke it vnknowen vnto fewe Moreouer verie shorte was his reigne for sixe yeares after he beganne his conquestes he died and in the fourtéenth yeare of his age But what cause did depriue this furious fierbrand of mankinde of his enuied life authors do not agrée Some holde that he was poysoned by a Greeke other that he died madde But the cōmon opinion in the East saies Theuet that he was sicke thirty daies of a Pleuresie in seuen of whom he was distraught of his witts but comminge vnto him selfe a little before hee died he tolde his friendes that within three dayes after his death his bodie shoulde be assumpted into heauen The which wordes did witnesse that he was starke madde still as the euente did after proue for when his illuded sectaries had longe time in vaine expected his assumption at last they washing embaulminge his stincking bodie were forced to burie it The xliii Chapter Of Hismaell the Sophie HIsmaell who beganne in our age a newe secte of Mahumetanes amonge the Persians whereof he and all his successors are called Sophies as we shoulde say the wise men thorough the helpe of his folowers threwe downe from the Emperiall siege of Persia the auncient bloude royall and placed himselfe therein making also subiect therevnto manie other countries borderinge there on but Selim the Turke plucked this Pecockes taile discomfiting and woundinge him in a bloudie battell fought in the boweles of his realme the which he himselfe had caused to be all wofully wasted that his fierce enimies shoulde finde nothinge to susteine the necessities of them selues and their horses and also takinge his
Argier a longe iourney by lande thorough the Alarbes and Africanes who beeinge his cruell enimies woulde neuer haue suffered him to haue come to Argier longe time after to trouble and spoile the Christians The xlvi Chapter Of Tamerleyne the Tartar. AMounge these roge kinges will I inrolle Tamerlaine the Tartar. This man whome Theuet calles Tamirrhan and Tamerlanque Sigismundus Liber Themirasscke and Chalcondilas Temer was sonne vnto a poore man called Sangalis a Massaget sayes Chalcondilas but a Parthian affirmes Theuet borne at Samerchanden At the first he was the heardeman of a towne for horses but after warde conspireing together with other heardmen he became a strong théefe stealinge horses and other cattell But climinge one nighte a wall to enter into a stable and beeing espied of the good man of the house he was forced to leape downe from the wall and brake his legge Campofulgoso sayes that he brake his thighe whereof hee had his name for in his countrie language Temer is a thigh and Lang is lame or maymed the which two wordes beeing put together make Temerlang but the Latines keeping the proprietie of their owne tounge corruptly call him Tamerlan But Sigismundus Lyber saies that one whose shéepe he was aboute to steale brake his legge with a greate stone and because hee bounde the bones together with a hoope of yron he was called Themerassacke of yron and halting for Themer in the Tartarian tounge is yron and Assacke halting But whether hee had his name of the one thing or the other herein they do both agree that hee could not when hee came to be Lorde of all the Orient and a terrour vnto the whole worlde steppe foorth one foote but that he felt his infirmitie nor record his owne name but that he was put in minde of his infortunitie But after this mishappe he waxing wiser fortified a place where he and his might haue safe refuge when that they were persued At length he being meruailously enriched by robbing of all men that trauailed within his walke and also by stealing of all kinde of cattell hee gathered together a faire bande of Souldiours and associatinge him selfe with two capteines called Chardares and Myrxes did set vpon a power of the enimies whiche spoyled the countrie and gaue them a greate ouerthrowe the like whereunto he also often times did afterwarde whereby he became so famous that the king of the Massagetes made him capteine generall ouer his armies the which office he administred both valiantly and fortunately and namely a little before the kinges death hauing driuen his enimies into the cities of Babylon and Samarchen and then the king dying he marryed the Quéene and tooke Samarchen or Semerchanda and enioyed that mightie kingdome and also Babylon yea and then with continued course conquered Hiberia Albania Persia Media both Armeniaes Mesopotamia Syria Damascus Aegypt euen vnto Nilus and Capha vppon the coast of the Euxine Sea Cilicia Asia the lesse where hee discomfited in battell Baiazett the Turke with tenne hundreth thousande Turkes neither was his owne ordinarie armie any thing inferiour in number But while he was busied in those partes about taking of the Turkishe townes heauie newes was brought him that one of his confederates a kinge of India called the kinge of Tzachataa passing ouer the riuer Araxis had subdued a greate parte of the countrie thereaboutes which were subiect vnto Tamerlane And amonge all other manifolde detrimentes had miserably defaced the citie of Cheria and had taken Tamerlanes his treasure and returned home but yet so that hee still threatened that hee woulde bee his confederate no longer This sorrowfull message did put Tamerlane in greate feare least that the kinge of India woulde returne againe and sweepe him out of all his dominions at hoame while hee was busied abroade with forreigne warres and herewithall the cursed condition also of humaine affaires and mannes tickle state the which doeth not suffer any man long to enioye here on earth the blisful blast of friendly Fortune appalled his hearte wherefore hee hasted homewarde and whereas before hee iniuried al men nowe did hee not onely put vpp cowardly the Indian wrong but also made greate sute to recouer his auncient friendshippe But after that Tamerlane had thus recouered his countries loste and quieted them and buylt that renowned citie of the worlde Samarchanden in the village where hee was borne whiche hee beautified and enriched with the spoyles of the whole Orient and had throughly peopled it hee prepared a voyage against the Turkes and Christians from the goyng forwarde wherewith hee was stayed bothe by a mightie Earthquake and also two celestiall signes and prodigies the one of a man appearinge in the ayre holdinge in his hande a Lauâ—â—â— and the other of a blasinge Starre terrible for his greatenesse the whiche stoode directly ouer the citie by the space of fiftéene dayes Hee consultinge with the Southsayers and Astrologians about these wounders was tolde by them and namely by one Bene-iaacam a man of greatest authoritie and credite amonge them that they were tokens either of his owne death shortlye after to ensue or else of the vtter ruine and bringinge to naught of his Empire But muche more was he in short time after amazed by a vision that hee had one night the whiche was the cause of his fatall sickenesse and in the ende of his death For hee dreamed one night that Baiazeth the Turke whome hee had made to die miserably in an yron cage came vnto him or else the diuell in his likenesse with a countenaunce sterne and terrible to beholde and saide vnto him nowe it shall not be long villaine but that thou shalt worthilye bee payde for thy manifolde outrages and I too shall be reuenged for the werisome wrong that thou diddest vnto mee making mee to die like vnto a beast in mine own doung And when hee had thus sayed Tamerlane thought that Baiazeth did beate him verye grieuously and troade and trampled vppon him with his féete sore brusing his belly and bowelles in so muche that the nexte morninge when hee had thought to haue risen hee remained still attainted with the apprehension conceiued in his sleape the whiche did néere quite bereue him of his wittes and so rauinge al wayes vppon Baiazeth dyed leauynge his large Empire vnto his two sonnes begotten of diuers venters who consuming them selues with ciuill wars one vppon another left an easie way for all those princes and countries whome their father had spoyled and conquered to recouer all that which they had before lost The xliiii Chapter Of Mahumet the second the greate Turke MAhumet the seconde the greate seigniour of the Turkes that wanne Constantinople Pera Capha and the Empire of Trapezonda the kingdome of Cilicia or Caramania and Bosna and pierced Illyria or Slauonia euen vnto Forum Iulij nowe Friali where he discomfited the Venetians with the flower of al Italie began his reigne with the murthering of two infants his brothers so fearefull was he of
foūdation do kingdoms stand on so tottering a stoole do princes sitt that sporting Fortune séemes oftentimes to put them into the hand of a madd man But nothing did more manifestly shewe vnto him his brittle blisse then the reuolting of all the noble men of the farther Hispaine except the duke of Alua vnto Philip duke of Burgogie who had maried his eldest daughter and heire at his arriual in Hispaine after the death of Quéene Isabell they eftsones saying that they would rather adore the sunne rising then going downe The griefe of this shamefull forsaking of him did so gripe the aged princes heart that not being able to endure the dishonour to be a subiecte where hee had long reigned he left Hispaine and sailed with his newe wife vnto Naples chosing rather to cōmit himselfe vnto the doubtfull faith of the gouernour and conquerour of that flourishing kingdome whom the report was minded to reuolt make himselfe king of Naples the which hée might easily haue done then vnto the open ill wills and rebellion of the vnfaithful Hispaniards And doubtlesse hee was in very great danger of being vtterly excluded out of his kingdomes of Castill Lions if that God had not shortly after taken out of the world his sonne in lawe who was so alienated from him that when the courteous king laden with wearisome yeares had taken a lōg paineful iourney to receiue him at the water the proud and vnciuil duke would not vouchsafe to shew him any countenaunce But after he had giuen him scornefully a word or two and them too in French which the king vnderstood not he flange away from him al the nobilitie with him The xlix Chapter Of William Conquerour BVt nowe after that wee haue romed long abroad in all forreigne lands let vs returne home vnto our owne countrie take a view of such Princes as haue by dint of sword atteined the imperial crowne thereof or enlarged the dominions least we may be thought to be like vnto the Lamiae in Poets whome they do faine to sée very exactly when they are abroad but to be starke blinde at home William bastard sonne vnto Robert duke of Normandie who left him his heire although by puissance he cōquered this land discomfited in battel the king of Denmarke forced the king of Scotland for feare to do him homage sweare him fealtie yet the often rebellions and secrete treasons of the Englishmen Normans the perfidiousnes of his owne déere brother Odo in whom he reposed his greatest trust the wicked reuolting of his eldest sonne Robert vnto the French king with his aide his daungerous inuasion of Normandie his arme thrust through in fight and his vnhorsing by that vnnaturall child and his bowelles sore brused by a leape off his horse in his last voyage against the French king of the intollerable torments whereof he died will not suffer him to be enrolled among the happie But nothing in my mind doth more manifestly bewray his infelicitie then that he had not so much ground at his death as could couer his carcase without doing an other man wrong and that which the begger hath without contradiction was denied and forbidden this mightie king Hée had built S. Stephens Church at Cane in Normandie where he would be buried vppon an other mans ground and had not payed the owner for it who being then a very poore man yet nothing fearing the funeral pompe and the great number of nobles attending on the corps did thrust through the thickest thronge of the solemne traine like vnto a madd man and got him to the Church doore wherein he stoode stoutly to withstand the bearing into the Church of the kings body crying out with a lowde voice Hée that in his life time oppressed kingdomes by his furious force hath hitherto with feare also oppressed mee but I that do suruiue him that hath done me the wronge will not graunt rest and peace vnto him now he is dead The place whereinto ye doe carrie this dead man is mine I claime that it is not lawfull for any man to lay a dead body in an other mans ground But if that the case do so stand that when as now at the length through the grace of good God the author of this so vnworthie a wrong is extinguished yet force still doth flourish I do appeale vnto Rhollo the founder father of this nation who alone is of greater power by the lawes which he ordeyned then is any mans iniurie And therewithal I know not whether by hap or mans fraud there soudeinly was séene a great fire which raged on the Church the houses neere adioyning then euery body spéedily running to quench the fire left the kinges corps desolate all alone onely Henrie the kings youngest sonne could not be gotten frō his fathers body who being feared with as it were the manifest wrath of God presently paid the poore mā for his ground discharged his fathers iniurious spirite But these blisselesse bones of his which so hardly obteined entumbing did afterward as vnluckily againe lose it in Anno Domini 1562. when Chastillion conducting reliquias Danaum atque immitis Achillis those that had escaped at the battell at Dreax toke the citie of Cane For certaine sauage souldiours accompanied with foure Capteynes did beate downe and vtterly deface the noble tumbe and monument of that renowmed conquerour and victorious king and pulled out all his bones which they spitefully threwe away when that they could not finde the treasure that they falsly surmised had béen layed vp there as I haue béene certainly enformed by Englishmen of very good credite faithfull fauourers of the reformed who sawe this sorrowfull sight scarse without distilling teares And also Theuet maketh mention of this matter in his vniuersall Cosmographie writing of Cane The l. Chapter Of Henrie the second HENRIE the second had by his father the Earledomes of Aniow Toures and Maine by his mother the kingdome of England and the duchie of Normandie and by his wife the mightie duchie of Aquitane and the earledome of Poitow conquered the kingdome of Ireland and toke prisoner in battell the king of Scottes but this his glistering glorie was fouly darkened by the shamefull submission of his crowne vnto the Romane Sée as Platina their recorder doth report or certes by binding himselfe vnto vnreasonable conditions to abate the enuie of the murther of Thomas the archbishop of Canterburie as our Chronicles do record and by the daungerous and wicked warres a long time kept in Normandie Fraunce and England with al his vngodly sonnes Henrie Richard Gefferie and Iohn yea and his owne wife and their mightie confederats the kings of Fraunce and Scotland with a great number of the English nobilitie and after the death of his vngracious sonne Henrie by the second reuolting of his sonne Richard vnto the French king who wan from him in those warres a great part of the duchie of Normandie and besieged him in the
proportion of diet for householde of the kings of Persia and of Alexander the great The great prices of precious ointmentes and the riotous vse of them in auncient time and howe that Plotius and Muleasses were disclosed vnto their enimies by their sweet odors The manifolde sorts of wines the alterings of water found out by riot and the rare deuises to make men haue an appetite to eate and drink superfluously The great incommodities of excesse in diet the great death in the Duchie of Wittenberg by immoderate drinkinge of wine and at the game of drinking set foorth by Alexander the great The wonderful grosenesse of Nicomachus Ptolomey Alexander Dionysius and Sanctius of the rate vertue of an hearbe to make a man leane the rauenous nature of the beast Rosomacha and of certaine straunge shepe and swine The ninth chapter Of thâ— riotous magnificence of the Pyramides Labyrinthes Obelisces of the Babylonian garden of the vaine costly shippes of Ptolomey Hiero Sesostres Caligula the woonderfull purposelesse bridges of Caligula and Traian of the sumptuous Theatre of Scaurus of the incredible charges bestowed by the auncient Romanes in playes games and triumphes The tenth Chapter What intollerable troubles riot doth bring vnto man how it caused Catiline Marcus Antonius Curio Caesar to reise vppe ciuill warrs and of a dumbe shewe of Heraclitus that nothing doth more cause rebellion The shamelesse shiftes of Iulius Caesar Caligula Nero and Domitian to maintein their riotous expences and of Cheopes to finishe his Pyâ—â—mis howe Apitius murdered himselfe because he was not able to beare the charges of his wonted riot The eleuenth Chapter The vnutterable tormentes of loue the inordinate lust of man bothe before after against nature Of an harlotte that said she neuer remembred her selfe maide howe Solomon and Achaz begat their heires at the age of eleuen yeares of a Camell that killed his keeper for deceiuing him in horsing his damme of a man in Germanie in our dayes that begat vpon his mother a childe the whiche he afterward married of an horse that killed himself after he perceiued that he had serued his dam of diuerse men that burned in the lecherous loue of them whom they neuer sawe Of diuerse that raged in lust vpon senselesse statuies The twelfth Chapter Of the tormentes of ambition whiche are also confirmed by the examples of Themistocles Alexander Iulius Caesar Mancinus and an Indian Of the wonderfull summes of money giuen by the Romanes to obteine the honour to beare office and of the manner of the choosing of their Magistrates The thirteenth Chapter Of the painful troubles procured vnto man by his vnsatiable couetousnesse The fourteenth Chapter Of the great care and hofufulnes ingrafted by nature in man for his burial the rites aswel auncient as moderne of almost al nations and sectes vsed at burials with mention of diuerse costly tumbes The xv Chapter Of the confuse and causelesse feare of man and particularly of the Romans thriâ—e of Augustus of the Greekes thrise of the confederates called the common wealth before Paris of the Emperials in our dayes at Villa Francha of Pysander of one that died by seeing of Hercules of Artemons madde fearefulnesse of Saint Vallier Duke of Valentinois howe Cassander was affrighted at the sight of Alexanders Image and other suche vaine feares The xvi Chapter Of the furious wrath of man and specially of Walter Earle of Breme and Matthias king of Hungarie The xvij Chapter Of the care and hofulnesse that religion and superstition bredeth in man Of the vntollerable sorrowe for sinne of Dauid Marie Magdalene Fabiola Edgar the griping griefes of a guiltie conscience and the vaine imaginations of the Melancholike The xviij Chapter Of the great hofulnesse to prolong their liues of Lewes the eleuenth Charles the seuenth Dionysius Commodus and Aristippus The xix Chapter Of the shortnesse and vncerteintie of mans life and by howe many casualties it is cut off and of sundry straunge kindes of souden deathes The xx Chapter That not great riches and large Empire do make a man happie the which Socrates proued by an excellent induction whereunto is annexed a golden sâ—ntence of Agesilaus The xxi Chapter A discourse of the brittle blisse of Alexander the great The xxij Chapter The infelicitie and dolefull end of Demetrius yea his variable life and actes The xxiij Chapter The greatnesse and also great mishaps and troubles of Iulius Caesar and a worthy saying of Charles the fift The xxiiij Chapter Of the variable euents of Marcus Antonius The xxv Chapter Of Caligula his monstrous doings vntollerable enuies rare infelicities and shamefull end but the singular vertues of his father and great loue that all men bare vnto him The xxvi Chapter Of Domitians doings The xxvij Chapter Of the casualties of Commodus The xxviij Chapter Of the rare conquestes and losses of Cosdras king of Persia The xxix Chapter Of the insolent exulting of Vgoline Earle of Pisa Fredericke the second and Henrie the second for then good fortune but their farall falles and againe the moderation of mynde in their victories of Epaminondas Philip of Macedome Camyllus Paulus Aemylius Charles the fifte and why at Rome a bondman did ride in the chariot whereat did hang a bell and a whip with him that triumphed The xxx Chapter Of the infortunate fall of many great conquerours and founders of Empires The xxxi Chapter Of the greatnesse and also vnluckie chaunces of Augustus The xxxij Chapter Of Traiane The xxxiij Chapter Of Seuerus The xxxiiij Chapter Of Constantine the great The xxxv Chapter Of Iustinian The xxxvi Chapter Of Heraclius The xxxvij chapter Of Michael Paleologus The xxxviij chapter Of Charles the great The xxxix chapter Of Charles the fift The xl chapter Of Solomon The xli chapter Of Herodes king of Iudea The xlij chapter Of Mahomet The xliij chapter Of Hismael the Sophie The xliiij chapter Of the Cherife of Maroccho The xlv chapter Of Barbarossa king of Algier The xlvi chapter Of Tamberleine the Tartar. The xlvij chapter Of Selime the first great Lord of the Turkes The xlviij chapter Of Ferdinand the sixt king of the Hispaines The xlix chapter Of William Conquerour The l. chapter Of Henrie the second king of England The li. chapter Of Edward the third king of England The lij chapter Of Henrie the fift king of England The conclusion The Errata Fol. pag. line Fault Correction 1 1 20 singlenesse of God singlenesse God 4 1 21 of bountifull nature with the giftes of bounti c. 5 1 17 Camelion pardis Cameliopardis 10 1 3 you now 10 1 12 the them 11 2 22 poemes Paeanes 12 2 16 people Peple 12 2 32 Triumpher Triumuir 15 1 3 furmament frumentie 15 2 32 tenour terrour 17 2 19 gratious grieuous 22 1 10 100000. 1000000. 27 2 17 Myrrha Murrha 40 2 22 made make 57 1 32 burne burie 59 1 14 siluer Siler 100 1 28 these the East 100 2 6 demeanour misdemeanour 100 2 20 Cicero Curio 103 2 12 salting sallying 104 2 7 25000. 250000. 85 1 14 mire meere 88 2 21 abiect obiect 101 2 18 boldnesse baldnesse 102 1 19 moued monyed 104 2 14 of the Bataui of rhe king of the Bataui 115 1 3 especiall espiall 115 2 16 orgents his agents 112 1 25 the these 113 1 12 cartes certes 113 1 15 answered nothing answered nothing c. 114 1 12 scuffled stiffled 155 2 11 Sentines S. Quintins 116 2 22 seas feese 119 1 14 liueing his liuing 120 1 28 named hauing named 120 2 22 now nor 126 1 34 hall hat 128 2 14 finally smally 140 2 12 where wheras 142 2 19 brought brought foorth 137 2 11 Angier Argier Other escapes of lesse weight and small importance I referre gentle Reader to thine owne correction in thy priuate reading