Lyrick verse were all turned into the gingling of Cymballs tinckling with rhythmes and like-sounding cadencies But let us heare a few lines of her Prophecies and thence guesse the rest In those dayes there shall rise up a people without understanding proud covetous and deceitfull the which shall eat the sins of the people holding a certain order of foolish devotion under the feigned cloke of beggery Also they shall instantly preach without devotion or example of the holy Martyrs and shall detract from the secular Princes taking away the Sacraments of the Church from the true pastours receiving almes of the poore having familiarity with women instructing them how they shall deceive their husbands and rob their husbands to give it unto them c. What could be said more plain to draw out to the life those Mendicant friers rogues by Gods statutes which afterwards swarm'd in the world Heare also how she foretold the low water of Tiber whilest as yet it was full tide there The Kings and other Rulers of the world being stirred up by the just judgement of God shall set themselves against them and run upon them saying We will not have these men to reigne over us with their rich houses and great possessions and other worldly riches over the which we are ordained to be Lords and Rulers and how is it meet or comely that those shavelings with their stoles and chesils should have more souldiers or richer armour and artillery then we wherefore let us take away from them what they do not justly but wrongfully possesse It is well the Index expurgatorius was not up in those dayes nor the Inquisition on foot otherwise dame Hildegardis must have been call'd to an after account I will onely ask a Romanist this question This Prophesie of Hildegardis was it from heaven or from men If from heaven why did ye not believe it If from men why did the Pope allow it canonize her As for miracles which she wrought in her life time their number is as admirable as their nature I must confesse at my first reading of them my belief digested some but surfeted on the rest for she made no more to cast out a devil then a barber to draw a tooth and with lesse pain to the patient I never heard of a great feast made all of Cordialls and it seems improbable that miracles which in Scripture are used sparingly and chiefly for conversion of unbelievers should be heaped so many together made every dayes work and by her commonly constantly and ordinarily wrought And I pray why is the Popish Church so barren of true works nowadayes here wrought at home amongst us For as for those reported to be done farre of it were ill for some if the gold from the Indies would abide the touch no better then the miracles However Hildegardis was a gratious Virgin and God might perform some great wonders by her hand but these piae fraudes with their painting have spoyled the naturall complexion of many a good face and have made Truth it self suspected She dyed in the 82. yeare of her age was afterwards Sainted by the Pope and the 17 day of September assign'd to her memory I cannot forget how Udalrick Abbat of Kempten in Germany made a most courteous law for the weaker sexe That no woman guilty of what crime soever should ever be put to death in his dominions because two women condemn'd to die were miraculously delivered out of the prison by praying to S. Hildegardis CHAP. 14. The Elder Brother IS one who made hast to come into the world to bring his Parents the first news of male-posterity and is well rewarded for his tidings His composition is then accounted most pretious when made of the losse of a double Virginitie He is thankfull for the advantage God gave him at the starting in the race into this world When twinnes have been even match'd one hath gained the gole but by his length S. Augustine saith That it is every mans bounden duty solemnly to celebrate his birth-day If so Elder Brothers may best afford good cheer on the festivall He counts not his inheritance a Writ of ease to free him from industry As if onely the Younger Brothers came into the world to work the Elder to complement These are the Toppes of their houses indeed like cotlofts highest and emptiest Rather he laboureth to furnish himself with all gentile accomplishment being best able to go to the cost of learning He need not fear to be served as Ulrick Fugger was chief of the noble family of the Fuggers in Auspurg who was disinherited of a great patrimony onely for his studiousnesse and expensivenesse in buying costly Manuscripts He doth not so remember he is an Heire that he forgets he is a Sonne Wherefore his carriage to his Parents is alwayes respectfull It may chance that his father may be kept in a charitable Prison whereof his Sonne hath the keyes the old man being onely Tenant for life and the lands entaild on our young Gentleman In such a case when it is in his power if necessity requires he enlargeth his father to such a reasonable proportion of liberty as may not be injurious to himself He rather desires his fathers Life then his Living This was one of the principall reasons but God knows how true why Philip the second King of Spain caused in the yeare 1568. Charles his Eldest Sonne to be executed for plotting his fathers death as was pretended And a Wit in such difficult toyes accommodated the numerall letters in Ovids verse to the yeare wherein the Prince suffered FILIVs ante DIeM patrIos InqVIrIt In annos 1568. Before the tIMe the oVer-hasty sonne Seeks forth hoVV near the fathers LIfe Is Done 1568. But if they had no better evidence against him but this poeticall Synchronisme we might well count him a martyr His fathers deeds and grants he ratifies and confirms If a stitch be fallen in a lease he will not widen it into an hole by cavilling till the whole strength of the grant run out thereat or take advantage of the default of the Clark in writing where the deed appears really done and on a valuable consideration He counts himself bound in honour to perform what by marks and signes he plainly understands his father meant though he spake it not out He reflecteth his lustre to grace and credit his younger brethren Thus Scipio Africanus after his great victories against the Carthaginians and conquering of Hannibal was content to serve as a Lieutenant in the warres of Asia under Lucius Scipio his younger Brother He relieveth his distressed kinred yet so as he continues them in their calling Otherwise they would all make his house their hospitall his kinred their calling When one being an Husbandman challenged kinred of Robert Grosthead Bishop of Lincoln and thereupon requested favour of him to bestow an office on him Cousen quoth the Bishop
Natives secondly hereby he shall in a manner stand invisible and view others and as Josephs deafnesse heard all the dialogues betwixt his brethren so his not owning to understand the language shall expose their talk the more open unto him thirdly he shall have the more advantage to speak and negotiate in his own language at the least wise if he cannot make them come over to him he may meet them in the midway in the Latine a speech common to all learned Nations He gets his Commission and instructions well ratified and confirm'd before he sets forth Otherwise it is the worst prison to be commission-bound And seeing he must not jet out the least penthouse beyond his foundation he had best well survey the extent of his authority He furnisheth himself with fit Officers in his family Especially he is carefull in choosing 1 A Secretary honest and able carefull to conceal counsels and not such a one as will let drop out of his mouth whatsoever is poured in at his eare Yea the head of every Embassadour sleeps on the breast of his Secretary 2 A Steward wise and provident such as can temper magnificence with moderation judiciously fashioning his ordinary expences with his Masters estate reserving a spare for all events and accidentall occasions and making all things to passe with decency without any rudenesse noise or disorder He seasonably presents his Embassage and demands audience Such is the fresh nature of some Embassages if not spent presently they sent ill Thus it is ridiculous to condole griefs almost forgotten for besides that with a cruell courtesie it makes their sorrows bleed afresh it foolishly seems to teach one to take that which he hath formerly digested When some Trojane Embassadours came to comfort Tiberius Cesar for the losse of his sonne dead well nigh a twelvemoneth before And I said the Emperour am very sorry for your grief for the death of your Hector slain by Achilles a thousand years since Coming to have audience he applyeth himself onely to the Prince to whom he is sent When Chancellour Morvill Embassadour from the French King delivering his message to Philip Duke of Burgundy was interrupted by Charles the Dukes sonne I am sent said he not to treat with you but with your father And our M â— Wade is highly commended that being sent by Queen Elizabeth to Philip King of Spain he would not be turned over to the Spanish Privy Counsel whose greatest Grandees were dwarfs in honour to his Queen but would either have audience from the King himself or would return without it And yet afterwards our Embassadour knows if desirous that his businesse should take effect how and when to make his secret and underhand addresses to such potent Favourites as strike the stroke in the State it often hapning in Common-wealths that the Masters mate steers the ship thereof more then the Master himself In delivering his message he complies with the garb and guise of the countrey either longer briefer more plain or more flourishing as it is most acceptable to such to whom he directs his speech The Italians whose countrey is called the countrey of good words love the circuits of courtesie that an Embassadour should not as a sparrow-hawk flie outright to his prey and meddle presently with the matter in hand but with the noble falcon mount in language soar high fetch compasses of complement and then in due time stoop to game and seise on the businesse propounded Clean contrary the Switzers who sent word to the King of France not to send them an Embassadour with store of words but a Treasurer with plenty of money count all words quite out which are not straight on have an antipathy against eloquent language the flowers of Rhetorick being as offensive to them as sweet perfumes to such as are troubled with the Mother Yea generally great souldiers have their stomachs sharp set to feed on the matter lothing long speeches as wherein they conceive themselves to lose time in which they could conquer half a countrey and counting bluntnesse their best eloquence love to be accosted in their own kind He commands himself not to admire any thing presented unto him He looks but not gazeth on forrein magnificence as countrey clowns on a city beholding them with a familiar eye as challenging old acquaintance having known them long before If he be surprised with a sudden wonder he so orders it that though his soul within feels an admiration none can perceive it without in his countenance For 1 It is inconsistent with the steddinesse of his gravity to be startled with a wonder 2 Admiration is the daughter of ignorance whereas he ought to be so read in the world as to be posed with no rarity 3 It is a tacit confession if he wonders at State Strength or Wealth that herein his own Masters kingdome is farre surpass'd And yet he will not slight and neglect such worthy sights as he beholds which would savour to much of sullennesse and self-addiction things ill beseeming his noble spirit He is zealous of the least puntillo's of his Masters honour Herein 't is most true the Law of honour servanda in apicibus Yea a toy may be reall and a point may be essentiall to the sense of some sentences and worse to be spared then some whole letter Great Kings wrestle together by the strength and nimblenesse of their Embassadours wherefore Embassadours are carefull to afford no advantages to the adverse party and mutually no more hold is given then what is gotten lest the fault of the Embassadour be drawn into president to the prejudice of his Master He that abroad will lose an hair of his Kings honour deserves to lose his own head when he comes home He appears not violent in desiring any thing he would effect but with a seeming carelesnesse most carefully advanceth his Masters businesse If employed to conclude a Peace he represents his Master as indifferent therein for his own part but that desiring to spare Christian bloud preponderates him for Peace whose conscience not purse or arms are weary of the warre He entreats not but treats for an accord for their mutuall good But if the Embassadour declareth himself zealous for it perchance he may be forced to buy those conditions which otherwise would be given him He is constantly and certainly inform'd of all passages in his own Countrey What a shame is it for him to be a stranger to his native affairs Besides if gulls and rumours from his Countrey be raised on purpose to amuse our Embassadour he rather smiles then starts at these false vizards who by private instructions from home knows the true face of his Countrey-estate And lest his Masters Secretary should fail him herein he counts it thrift to cast away some pounds yearly to some private friend in the Court to send him true information of all home-remarkables He carefully returns good intelligence to
corps to scale a city by it then a bridge of him whilest alive for his punies to give him the Goe-by and passe over him to preferment For this reason chiefly beside some others a great and valiant English Generall in the daies of Queen Elizabeth was hated of his souldiers because he disposed Offices by his own absolute will without respect of orderly advancing such as deserved it which made a Great man once salute him with this letter S r if you will be pleased to bestow a Captains place on the bearer hereof being a worthy Gentleman he shall do that for you which never as yet any souldier did namely pray to God for your health and happinesse He is fortunate in what he undertakes Such a one was Julius Cesar who in Brittain a countrey undiscovered peopled with a valiant Nation began a warre in Autumne without apparent advantage not having any intelligence there being to passe over the sea into a colder climate an enterprise saith one well worthy the invincible courage of Cesar but not of his accustomed prudence and yet returned victorious Indeed God is the sole disposer of successe Other gifts he also scattereth amongst men yet so that they themselves scramble to gather them up whereas successe God gives immediately into their hands on whom he pleaseth to bestow it He tryeth the forces of a new enemy before he encounters him Sampson is half conquered when it is known where his strength lies and skirmishes are scouts for the discovery of the strength of an army before battel be given He makes his flying enemy a bridge of gold and disarms them of their best weapon which is necessity to fight whether they will or no. Men forced to a battel against their intention often conquer beyond their expectation stop a flying coward and he will turn his legges into arms and lay about him manfully whereas open him a passage to escape and he will quickly shut up his courage But I dare dwell no longer on this subject When the Pope earnestly wrote to King Richard the first not to detain in prison his dear sonne the Martiall Bishop of Beavois the King sent the Pope back the armour wherein the Bishop was taken with the words of Jacobs sonnes to their-Father See whether or no this be the coat of thy sonne Surely a corslet is no canonicall coat for me nor suits it with my Clergy-profession to proceed any further in this warlike description onely we come to give an example thereof GUSTAVUS Adolphus the pious and Valiant King of Sweden He was Slaine in the Battell at Lutzen the 16 of November 1632. Aged 38 yeares W.M. sculp CHAP. 18. The life of GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS King of Sweden GUstavus Adolphus King of Sweden born Anno Domini 1594 had princely education both for Arts and Armes In Italie he learnt the Mathematicks and in other places abroad the French Italian and Germane tongues and after he was King he travelled under the name of M r G. A. R. S. being the foure initiall letters of his name and title He was but seventeen years old at his Fathers death being left not onely a young King but also in a young kingdome for his title to the Crown of Sweden was but five years old to wit since the beginning of his Fathers reigne All his bordering Princes on the North nothing but the North bounded on him were his enemies the Duke-Emperour of Muscovy on the East the King of Denmark on the West and of Poland on the South The former two laid claim to parcels the latter to all his kingdome Yet was he too great for them in his minority both defending his own and gaining on them Wo be to the kingdome whose King is a child yet blessed is that kingdome whose King though a child in age is a man in worth These his first actions had much of glory and yet somewhat of possibility and credit in them But Chronicle and belief must strain hard to make his Germane Conquest probable with posterity coming in with eleven thousand men having no certain confederates but some of his alliance whom the Emperour had outed of all their estates And yet in two years and foure moneths he left the Emperour in as bad a case almost as he found those Princes in Gods Providence herein is chiefly to be admired who to open him a free entrance into Germany diverted the Imperiall and Spanish forces into Italy there to scramble against the French for the Dukedome of Mantua For heaven onely knows how much Protestant flesh the Imperialists had devoured if that bone had not stuck in their teeth If we look on second causes we may ascribe his victories to this Kings piety wisedome valour and other virtues His piety to God was exemplary being more addicted to prayer then to fight as if he would rather conquer Heaven then Earth He was himself exceeding temperate save onely too much given to anger but afterwards he would correct himself and be cholerick with his choler shewing himself a man in the one and a Saint in the other He was a strict observer of Martiall discipline the life of Warre without which an Army is but a crowd not to say herd of people He would march all day in complete armour which was by custome no more burthen to him then his armes and to carry his helmet no more trouble then his head whilest his example made the same easie to all his souldiers He was a strict punisher of misdemeanours and wanton intemperance in his camp And yet let me relate this story from one present therein When first he entred Germany he perceived how that many women followed his souldiers some being their wives and some wanting nothing to make them so but marriage yet most passing for their landresses though commonly defiling more then they wash The King coming to a great river after his men and the wagons were passed over caused the bridge to be broken down hoping so to be rid of these feminine impediments but they one a sudden lift up a panick schrick which pierced the skies and the souldiers hearts on the other side of the river who instantly vowed not to stirre a foot farther except with baggage and that the women might be fetch'd over which was done accordingly For the King finding this ill humour so generally dispers'd in his men that it was dangerous to purge it all at once smiled out his anger for the present and permitted what he could not amend yet this abuse was afterwards reformed by degrees He was very mercifull to any that would submit And as the iron gate miraculously opened to S. Peter of its own accord so his mercy wrought miracles making many city-gates open to him of themselves before he ever knock'd at them to demand entrance the inhabitants desiring to shroud themselves under his protection Yea he was mercifull to those places which he took by assault ever detesting the bloudinesse of Tilly
understand the language of her behaviour She counts her house a prison and is never well till gadding abroad sure 't is true of women what is observed of elm if lying within doores dry no timber will last sound longer but if without doores expos'd to weather no wood sooner rots and corrupts Yet some Harlots continue a kind of strange coynesse even to the very last which coynesse differs from modesty as much as hemlock from parsely They will deny common favours because they are too small to be granted They will part with all or none refuse to be courteous and reserve themselves to be dishonest whereas women truly modest will willingly go to the bounds of free and harmlesse mirth but will not be dragg'd any farther She is commonly known by her whorish attire As crisping and curling making her hair as winding and intricate as her heart painting wearing naked breasts The face indeed ought to be bare and the haft should lie out of the sheath but where the back and edge of the knife are shown 't is to be feared they mean to cut the fingers of others I must confesse some honest women may go thus but no whit the honester for going thus The ship may have Castor and Pollux for the badge and notwithstanding have S. Paul for the lading yet the modesty and discretion of honest Matrons were more to be commended if they kept greater distance from the attire of Harlots Sometimes she ties her self in marriage to one that she may the more freely stray to many and cares not though her husband comes not within her bed so be it he goeth not out beyond the Foure-seas She useth her husband as an hood whom she casts off in the fair weather of prosperity but puts him on for a cover in adversity if it chance she prove with child Yet commonly she is as barren as lustfull Yea who can expect that malt should grow to bring new increase Besides by many wicked devices she seeks on purpose to make her self barren a retrograde act to set Nature back making many issues that she may have no issue and an hundred more damnable devices Which wicked projects first from hell did flow And thither let the same in silence go Best known of them who did them never know And yet for all her cunning God sometimes meets with her who varieth his wayes of dealing with wantons that they may be at a losse in tracing him and sometimes against her will she proves with child which though unable to speak yet tells at the birth a plain story to the mothers shame At last when her deeds grow most shamefull she grows most shamelesse So impudent that she her self sometimes proves both the poyson and the antidote the temptation and the preservative young men distasting and abhorring her boldnesse And those wantons who perchance would willingly have gathered the fruit fruit from the tree will not feed on such fallings Generally she dies very poore The wealth she gets is like the houses some build in Gothland made of snow no lasting fabrick the rather because she who took money of those who tasted the top of her wantonnesse is fain to give it to such who will drink out the dregs of her lust She dieth commonly of a lothsome disease I mean that disease unknown to Antiquity created within some hundreds of years which took the name from Naples When hell invented new degrees in sinnes it was time for heaven to invent new punishments Yet is this new disease now grown so common and ordinary as if they meant to put divine Justice to a second task to find out a newer And now it is high time for our Harlot being grown lothsome to her self to runne out of her self by repentance Some conceive that when King Henry the eighth destroyed the publick Stews in this Land which till his time stood on the banks side on Southwark next the Bear-garden beasts and beastly women being very fit neighbours he rather scattered then quenched the fire of lust in this kingdome and by turning the flame out of the chimney where it had a vent more endangered the burning of the Commonwealth But they are deceived for whilest the Laws of the Land tolerated open uncleannesse God might justly have made the whole State do penance for whoredome whereas now that sinne though committed yet not permitted and though God knows it be too generall it is still but personall JOAN the first of that Name Queen of Naples which for her Incontinency and other wicked Practises was put to Death Anno 1381. Page 360. WM sculp CHAP. 2. The life of JOAN Queen of Naples JOan grandchild to Robert King of Naples by Charles his sonne succeeded her grandfather in the Kingdome of Naples and Sicily Anno 1343. a woman of a beautifull body and rare endowments of nature had not the heat of her lust soured all the rest of her perfections whose wicked life and wofull death we now come to relate And I hope none can justly lay it to my charge if the foulnesse of her actions stain through the cleanest language I can wrap them in She was first married unto her cosen Andrew a Prince of royall extraction and of a sweet and loving disposition But he being not able to satisfie her wantonnesse she kept company with lewd persons at first privately but afterwards she presented her badnesse visible to every eye so that none need look through the chinks where the doores were open Now Elizabeth Queen of Hungary her husband Andrews mother was much offended at the badnesse of her daughter-in-law whose deeds were so foul she could not look on them and so common she could not look besides them wherefore in a matronly way she fairly advised her to reform her courses For the lives of Princes are more read then their Laws and generally more practised Yea their example passeth as current as their coin and what they do they seem to command to be done Cracks in glasse though past mending are no great matter but the least flaw in a diamond is considerable Yea her personall fault was a nationall injury which might derive and put the Sceptre into a wrong hand These her mild instructions she sharpned with severe threatnings But no razor will cut a stony heart Queen Joan imputed it to ages envy old people perswading youth to leave those pleasures which have left themselves Besides a Mother-in-laws Sermon seldome takes well with an audience of Daughter-in-laws Wherefore the old Queen finding the other past grace that is never likely to come to it resolved no longer to punish anothers sinne on her self and vex her own righteous soul but leaving Naples return'd into Hungary After her departure Queen Joan grew weary of her husband Andrew complaining of his insufficiency though those who have caninum appetitum are not competent judges what is sufficient food And she caused her husband in the city of Aversa to be hung
then come to them for a piece of bread He holds the reins though loosely in his own hands and keeps to reward duty and punish undutifulnesse yet on good occasion for his childrens advancement he will depart from part of his means Base is their nature who will not have their branches lopt till their bodie be fell'd and will let go none of their goods as if it presaged their speedy death whereas it doth not follow that he that puts off his cloke must presently go to bed On his death-bed he bequeaths his blessing to all his children Nor rejoyceth he so much to leave them great portions as honestly obtained Onely money well and lawfully gotten is good and lawfull money And if he leaves his children young he principally nominates God to be their Guardian and next him is carefull to appoint provident overseers CHAP. 6. The Good Child HE reverenceth the person of his Parent though old poore and froward As his Parent bare with him when a child he bears with his Parent if twice a child nor doth his dignity above him cancell his duty unto him When Sr. Thomas More was Lord Chancellour of England and Sr. John his father one of the Judges of the Kings-Bench he would in Westminster-Hall beg his blessing of him on his knees He observes his lawfull commands and practiseth his precepts with all obedience I cannot therefore excuse S. Barbara from undutifulnesse and occasioning her own death The matter this Her father being a pagan commanded his workmen building his house to make two windows in a room Barbara knowing her fathers pleasure in his absence injoyned them to make three that seeing them she might the better contemplate the mystery of the holy Trinity Methinks two windows might as well have raised her meditations and the light arising from both would as properly have minded her of the Holy Spirit proceding from the Father and the Sonne Her father enraged at his return thus came to the knowledge of her religion and accused her to the magistrate which cost her her life Having practised them himself he entayls his Parents precepts on his posterity Therefore such instructions are by Solomon Proverbs 1.9 compared to frontlets and chains not to a sute of clothes which serves but one and quickly weares out or out of fashion which have in them a reall lasting worth and are bequeathed as legacies to another age The same counsels observed are chains to grace which neglected prove halters to strangle undutifull children He is patient under correction and thankfull after it When M r West formerly Tutour such I count in loco parentis to Dr. Whitaker was by him then Regius Professor created Doctour Whitaker solemnly gave him thanks before the University for giving him correction when his young scholar In marriage he first and last consults with his father when propounded when concluded He best bowls at the mark of his own contentment who besides the aim of his own eye is directed by his father who is to give him the ground He is a stork to his parent and feeds him in his old age Not onely if his father hath been a pelican but though he hath been an estridge unto him and neglected him in his youth He confines him not a long way off to a short pension forfeited if he comes in his presence but shews piety at home and learns as S. Paul saith the 1. Timothy 5.4 to requite his Parent And yet the debt I mean onely the principall not counting the interest cannot fully be paid and therefore he compounds with his father to accept in good worth the utmost of his endeavour Such a child God commonly rewards with long life in this world If he chance to die young yet he lives long that lives well and time mispent is not lived but lost Besides God is better then his promise if he takes from him a long lease and gives him a free-hold of better value As for disobedient children If preserved from the gallows they are reserved for the rack to be tortured by their own posterity One complained that never father had so undutifull a child as he had Yes said his sonne with lesse grace then truth my grandfather had I conclude this subject with the example of a Pagans sonne which will shame most Christians Pomponius Atticus making the funerall oration at the death of his mother did protest that living with her threescore and seven years he was never reconciled unto her Se nunquam cum matre in gratiam rediisse because take the comment with the text there never happened betwixt them the least jarre which needed reconciliation CHAP. 7. The good Master HE is the heart in the midst of his houshold primum vivens et ultimum moriens first up and last abed if not in his person yet in his providence In his carriage he aimeth at his own and his servants good and to advance both He oversees the works of his servants One said that the dust that fell from the masters shooes was the best compost to manure ground The lion out of state will not run whilst any one looks upon him but some servants out of slothfulnesse will not run except some do look upon them spurr'd on with their Masters eye Chiefly he is carefull exactly to take his servants reckonings If their Master takes no account of them they will make small account of him and care not what they spend who are never brought to an audit He provides them victualls wholsome sufficient and seasonable He doth not so allay his servants bread to debase it so much as to make that servants meat which is not mans meat He alloweth them also convenient rest and recreation whereas some Masters like a bad conscience will not suffer them to sleep that have them He remembers the old law of the Saxon King Ina If a villain work on Sunday by his lords command he shall be free The wages he contracts for he duly and truly payes to his servants The same word in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies rust and poyson and some strong poyson is made of the rust of mettalls but none more venemous then the rust of money in the rich mans purse unjustly detained from the labourer which will poyson and infect his whole estate He never threatens his servant but rather presently corrects him Indeed conditionall threatnings with promise of pardon on amendment are good and usefull Absolute threatnings torment more reform lesse making servants keep their faults and forsake their Masters wherefore herein he never passeth his word but makes present paiment lest the creditour runne away from the debtour In correcting his servant he becomes not a slave to his own passion Not cruelly making new indentures of the flesh of his apprentice To this end he never beats him in the height of his passion Moses being to fetch water out of
seeing Grace doth not cut of the affections of nature but ripen them the rather because Christianity is not naild to Christs crosse and mount Calvary nor Piety fastned as we may say to the freehold of the land of Palestine But if any Papist make her a pattern for pilgrimages let them remember that she went from Rome and was it not an unnaturall motion in her to move from that centre of Sanctitie She with her daughter Eustochium began her journie and taking Cyprus in her way where she visited Epiphanius she came at last to Judea She measured that countrey with her travelling and drew the truest mappe thereof with her own feet so accurately that she left out no particular place of importance At last she was fixed at Bethlehem where she built one monasterie for men and three for women It will be worth our pains to take notice of some principall of the orders she made in those feminine Academies because Paula's practice herein was a leading case though those that came after her went beyond her For in the rules of monasticall life Paula stood at the head game and the Papists in after ages desirous to better her hand drew themselves quite out Each monasterie had a chief matrone whilst Paula was Principall over all These societies were severd at their meat and work but met together at their prayers they were carefully kept apart from men not like those Epicoene monasteries not long since invented by Joan Queen of Sweden wherein men and women lived under one roof not to speak of worse libertines Well were Nunnes called Recluses which according to the true meaning of the word signifie those which are set wide open or left at libertie though that Barbarous age mistook the sense of the word for such as were shut up and might not stirre out of their Cloyster They used to sing Halelujah which serv'd them both for a psalm and a bell to call them all together In the morning at nine a clock at noon at three a clock in the afternoon and at night they had prayers and sang the psalmes in order This I believe gave originall to canonicall houres The Apostles precept is the plain song Pray continually and thus mens inventions ran their descants upon it and confin'd it to certain houres A practice in it self not so bad for those who have leisure to observe it save that when devotion is thus artificially plaited into houres it may take up mens minds in formalities to neglect the substance They rose also at midnight to sing psalmes A custome begun before in the time of persecution when the Christians were forced to be Antipodes to other men so that when it was night with others it was day with them and they then began their devotions These night-prayers begun in necessitie were continued in Paula's time in gratefull remembrance and since corrupted with superstition the best is their rising at midnight breaks none of our sleep These virgins did every day learn some part of the holy Scriptures whereas those Nunnes which pretend to succeed them learn onely with post-horses to run over the stage of their beads so many Ave Maries and Pater nosters and are ignorant in all the Scripture besides Such as were faultie she caused to take their meat apart from others at the entrance of the dining-room with which mild severitie she reclaimed many shame in ingenuous natures making a deeper impression then pain Mean time I find amongst them no vow of virginitie no tyrannicall Penance no whipping themselves as if not content to interre their sinnes in Christs grave they had rather bury them in furrows digg'd in their own backs They wrought hard to get their living and on the Lords day alone went out of their monasterie to hear Gods word Yet was she more rigid and severe towards her self then to any of them macerating her body with fasting and refusing to drink any wine when advised thereto by Physicians for her health So that as an holy man complained of himself whilest he went about to subdue an enemie he kild a subject she overturned the state of her bodie and whilest she thought to snuff the candle put it quite out Yea S. Hierome himself what his Eloquence herein doth commend in her his Charity doth excuse and his Judgement doth condemne But we must Charitably believe that these her fastings proceeded out of true humiliation and sorrow for her sinnes otherwise where opinion of merit is annexed to them they are good onely to fill the body with wind and the soul with pride Certainly prodigious Popish self-penance is will-worship and the purest Epicurisme wherein pain is pleasant for as long as people impose it on themselves they do not deny their own will but fulfill it and whilst they beat down the body they may puff up the flesh Nor can her immoderate bounty be excused who gave all and more then all away taking up money at interest to give to the poore and leaving Eustochium her daughter deep in debt a great charge and nothing to maintain it Sure none need be more bountifull in giving then the Sunne is in shining which though freely bestowing his beams on the world keeps notwithstanding the body of light to himself Yea it is necessary that Liberality should as well have banks as a stream She was an excellent text-woman yea could say the holy Scriptures by heart and attained to understand and speak the Hebrew tongue a language which Hierome himself got with great difficultie and kept with constant use skill in Hebrew will quickly go out and burn no longer then 't is blown yet she in her old age did speedily learn it She diligently heard Hierome expounding the old and new Testament asking him many doubts and Quaeres in difficult places such constant scouring makes our knowledge brighter and would not suffer his judgement to stand neuter in hard points but made him expresse the probable opinion Most naturally flie from death Gods Saints stand still till death comes to them Paula went out to meet it not to say call'd death unto her by consuming her self in fasting she died in the fiftie sixth yeare of her age and was solemnly buried in Bethlehem People of all countreys flockt to her funerall Bishops carried her corps to the grave others carried torches and lamps before it which though some may condemne to be but burning of day was no more then needed she being buried in a cave or grot as an eyewitnesse doth testifie Psalmes were sung at her buriall in the Hebrew Greek Latine and Syriack tongue it being fit there should be a key for every lock and languages to be understood by all the miscelany company there present Eustochium her daughter had little comfort to be Executrix or Administratrix unto her leaving her not a pennie of monie great debts and many brothers and sisters to provide for quos sustentare arduum abjicere impium I like not
Dionysius first King of Sicily turn'd afterwards a Schoolmaster in his old age Behold here Dionysius inverted one that was a Schoolmaster in his youth become a King of Arms in his riper years which place none ever did or shall discharge with more integrity He was a most exact Antiquary witnesse his worthy work which is a comment on three kingdomes and never was so large a text more briefly so dark a text more plainly expounded Yea what a fair garment hath been made out of the very shreds and Remains of that greater Work It is most worthy observation with what diligence he inquired after ancient places making Hue and Crie after many a City which was run away and by certain marks and tokens pursuing to find it as by the situation on the Romane high-wayes by just distance from other ancient cities by some affinity of name by tradition of the inhabitants by Romane coyns digged up and by some appearance of ruines A broken urn is a whole evidence or an old gate still surviving out of which the city is run out Besides commonly some new spruce town not farre off is grown out of the ashes thereof which yet hath so much naturall affection as dutifully to own those reverend ruines for her Mother By these and other means he arrived at admirable knowledge and restored Britain to her self And let none tax him for presumption in conjectures where the matter was doubtfull for many probable conjectures have stricken the fire out of which Truths candle hath been lighted afterwards Besides conjectures like parcells of unknown ore are sold but at low rates If they prove some rich metall the buyer is a great gainer iâ— base no looser for he payes for it accordingly His candour and sweet temper was highly to be commended gratefully acknowledging those by whom he was assisted in the work in such a case confession puts the difference betwixt stealing and borrowing and surely so heavy a log needed more levers then one He honourably mentioneth such as differ from him in opinion not like those Antiquaries who are so snarling one had as good dissent a mile as an hairs breadth from them Most of the English ancient Nobility and Gentry he hath unpartially observed Some indeed object that he claws and flatters the Grandees of his own age extolling some families rather great then ancient making them to flow from a farre fountain because they had a great channell especially if his private friends But this cavil hath more of malice then truth indeed 't is pitty he should have a tongue that hath not a word for a friend on just occasion and justly might the stream of his commendations run broader where meeting with a confluence of desert and friendship in the same party For the main his pen is sincere and unpartiall and they who complain that Grantham steeple stands awry will not set a straiter by it Some say that in silencing many gentile families he makes baulks of as good ground as any he ploweth up But these again acquit him when they consider that it is not onely difficult but impossible to anatomize the English Gentry so exactly as to shew where every smallest vein thereof runs Besides many Houses conceived to be by him omitted are rather rightly placed by him not where they live but whence they came Lastly we may perceive that he prepared another work on purpose for the English Gentry I say nothing of his learned Annalls of Queen Elizabeth industriously performed His very enemies if any cannot but commend him Sure he was as farre from loving Popery as from hating Learning though that aspersion be generall on Antiquaries as if they could not honour hoary hairs but presently themselves must doat His liberality to Learning is sufficiently witnessed in his Founding of an History-Professour in Oxford to which he gave the mannour of Bexley in Kent worth in present a hundred and fourty pounds but some years expired foure hundred pounds per Annum so that he merited that distich Est tibi pro Tumulo Cambdene Britannia tota Oxonium vivens est Epigramma tibi The Military part of his office he had no need to imploy passing it most under a peaceable Prince But now having lived many years in honour and esteem death at last even contrarie to Ius Gentium kill'd this worthy Herald so that it seems Mortality the Law of Nature is above the Law of Arms. He died Anno 1623. the ninth of November in the seventie fourth yeare of his age CHAP. 24. The true Gentleman WE will consider him in his Birth Breeding and Behaviour He is extracted from ancient and worshipfull parentage When a Pepin is planted on a Pepin-stock the fruit growing thence is called a Renate a most delicious apple as both by Sire and Damme well descended Thus his bloud must needs be well purified who is gentilely born on both sides If his birth be not at leastwise his qualities are generous What if he cannot with the Hevenninghams of Suffolk count five and twenty Knights of his familie or tell sixteen Knights successively with the Tilneys of Norfolk or with the Nauntons shew where their Ancestours had seven hundred pound a yeare before or at the conquest yet he hath endeavoured by his own deserts to ennoble himself Thus Valour makes him sonne to Caesar Learning entitles him kinsman to Tully Piety reports him nephew to godly Constantine It graceth a Gentleman of low descent high desert when he will own the meannesse of his parentage How ridiculous is it when many men brag that their families are more ancient then the Moon which all know are later then the starre which some seventy years since shined in Cassiopea But if he be generously born see how his parents breed him He is not in his youth possest with the great hopes of his possession No flatterer reads constantly in his ears a survey of the lands he is to inherit This hath made many boyes thoughts swell so great they could never be kept in compasse afterwards Onely his Parents acquaint him that he is the next undoubted Heir to correction if misbehaving himself and he finds no more favour from his Schoolmaster then his Schoolmaster finds diligence in him whose rod respects persons no more then bullets are partiall in a battel At the Vniversity he is so studious as if he intended Learning for his profession He knowes well that cunning is no burthen to carry as paying neither portage by land nor poundage by sea Yea though to have land be a good First yet to have learning is the surest Second which may stand to it when the other may chance to be taken away At the Innes of Court he applyes himself to learn the Laws of the kingdome Object not Why should a Gentleman learn law who if he needeth it may have it for his money and if he hath never so much of his own he must
warres in the two voyages of King Lewis to Palestine and thereupon ever since by custome and priviledge the Gentlewomen of Champaigne and Brye ennoble their husbands and give them honour in marrying them how mean soever before Though pleasantly affected she is not transported with Court-delights as in their statelie Masques and Pageants Seeing Princes cares are deeper then the cares of private men it is fit their recreations also should be greater that so their mirth may reach the bottome of their sadnesse yea God allows to Princes a greater latitude of pleasure He is no friend to the tree that strips it of the bark neither do they mean well to Majesty which would deprive it of outward shews and State-solemnities which the servants of Princes may in loyalty and respect present to their Sovereigne however our Lady by degrees is brought from delighting in such Masques onely to be contented to see them and at last perchance could desire to be excused from that also Yet in her reduced thoughts she makes all the sport she hath seen earnest to her self It must be a dry flower indeed out of which this bee sucks no honey they are the best Origens who do allegorise all earthly vanities into heavenly truths When she remembreth how suddenly the Scene in the Masque was altered almost before moment it self could take notice of it she considereth how quickly mutable all things are in this world God ringing the changes on all accidents and making them tunable to his glorie The lively representing of things so curiously that Nature her self might grow jealous of Art in outdoing her minds our Lady to make sure work with her own soul seeing hypocrisie may be so like to sincerity But O what a wealthy exchequer of beauties did she there behold severall faces most different most excellent so great is the variety even in bests what a rich mine of jewells above ground all so brave so costly To give Court-masques their due of all the bubbles in this world they have the greatest variety of fine colours But all is quickly ended this is the spight of the world if ever she affordeth fine ware she alwayes pincheth it in the measure and it lasts not long But oh thinks our Lady how glorious a place is Heaven where there are joyes for evermore If an herd of kine should meet together to phancy and define happinesse they would place it to consist in fine pastures sweet grasse clear water shadowie groves constant summer but if any winter then warm shelter and dainty hay with company after their kind counting these low things the highest happinesse because their conceit can reach no higher Little better do the Heathen Poets describe Heaven paving it with pearl and roofing it with starres filling it with Gods and Goddesses and allowing them to drink as if without it no Poets Paradise Nectar and Ambrosia Heaven indeed being Poetarum dedecus the shame of Poets and the disgrace of all their Hyperboles falling as farre short of truth herein as they go beyond it in other Fables However the sight of such glorious earthly spectacles advantageth our Ladyes conceit by infinite multiplication thereof to consider of Heaven She reades constant lectures to her self of her own mortality To smell to a turf of fresh earth is wholsome for the body no lesse are thoughts of mortality cordiall to the soul. Earth thou art to earth thou shalt return The sight of death when it cometh will neither be so terrible to her nor so strange who hath formerly often beheld it in her serious meditations With Job she saith to the worm Thou art my sister If fair Ladyes scorn to own the worms their kinred in this life their kinred will be bold to challenge them when dead in their graves for when the soul the best perfume of the body is departed from it it becomes so noysome a carcasse that should I make a description of the lothsomnesse thereof some dainty dames would hold their noses in reading it To conclude We reade how Henry a Germain Prince was admonished by revelation to search for a writing in an old wall which should nearly concern him wherein he found onely these two words written POST SEX AFTER SIX Whereupon Henry conceived that his death was foretold which after six dayes should ensue which made him passe those dayes in constant preparation for the same But finding the six dayes past without the effect he expected he successively persevered in his godly resolutions six weeks six moneths six years and on the first day of the seventh yeare the Prophecie was fulfill'd though otherwise then he interpreted it for thereupon he was chosen Emperour of Germany having before gotten such an habit of piety that he persisted in his religious course for ever after Thus our Lady hath so inur'd her self all the dayes of her appointed time to wait till her change cometh that expecting it every houre she is alwayes provided for that then which nothing is more certain or uncertain JANE GRAY proclaimed Queen of England wife to the Lord GILFORD DUDLEY She was beheaded on Tower-hill in London Februarie y e 12. 1553. at 18 yeares of Age. W.M. sculp CHAP. 14. The life of Ladie Jane GREY JAne Grey eldest daughter of Henry Grey Marquesse of Dorset and Duke of Suffolk by Francis Brandon eldest daughter of Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk and Mary his wife youngest daughter to King Henry the seventh was by her parents bred according to her high birth in Religion and Learning They were no whit indulgent to her in her childhood but extremely severe more then needed to so sweet a temper for what need iron instruments to bow wax But as the sharpest winters correcting the ranknesse of the earth cause the more healthfull and fruitfull summers so the harshnesse of her breeding compacted her soul to the greater patience and pietie so that afterwards she proved the miroir of her age and attained to be an excellent Scholar through the teaching of M r Elmer her Master Once M r Roger Ascham coming to wait on her at Broad-gates in Leicestershire found her in her chamber reading Phoedon-Platonis in Greek with as much delight as some Gentleman would have read a merry tale in Bocchace Whilest the Duke her father with the Dutchesse and all their houshold were hunting in the Park He askt of her how she could lose such pastime who smiling answered I wisse all the sport in the Park is but the shadow of what pleasure I find in this book adding moreover that one of the greatest blessings God ever gave her was in sending her sharp parents and a gentle Schoolmaster which made her take delight in nothing so much as in her studies About this time John Dudley Duke of Northumberland projected for the English Crown But being too low to reach it in his own person having no advantage of royall birth a match was made betwixt Guilford his fourth sonne and this
moist dropping of stone walls against rainy weather Small resistance was made against him onely some seemed to fight against him in complement so that with ease he made himself master of Constantinople and not long after he caused Xena the Empresse to be choked the eyes of whose Favourite Protosebastus he had formerly bored out The next care of Andronicus was to cut off all those steps by which he had ascended to this height lest leaving those stairs still standing others also might climbe up the same way All those friends who had assisted him in this his designe he rewarded with death yea though at first his cruelty might seem to shoot at a mark in taking of some prime men for whose death some reason might be rendred his malice afterwards shot at rovers as if he had a quarrell at mankind killing all he came near When any party accused recriminated the accuser the sword of Andronicus cut on both sides the accuser and accused were sent the same way and what cup one began the other was made to pledge Those Sycophants which ingratiated themselves with him escaped no better then others it being equally dangerous to please and displease him Men met every where with his cruelty but no where with the reasons thereof But who can expect other reasons of Tyrants actions but that they are Tyrants actions But his dealing with young Alexius the Emperour whose death was methodically contrived with some politick pauses deserves observation At first entrance into the city Andronicus observed his awfull distance towards the Emperour teaching others that the minority of Princes ought not to lessen their Subjects reverence unto them Afterwards he emboldned himself to make his nearer approches chalenging in young Alexius that interest which carefull tutours claim in those whose protection they tender Hence he proceeded to set a guard about him not to defend but watch him and to guard him from his friends who though allowed to follow his sports in hunting was indeed made sport of himself and the hunter kept in a net Then Andronicus was forced by his friends importunity whom he himself had secretly importun'd to be elected joynt-Emperour with Alexius and with much unwillingnesse this great dissembler who could have taught Tiberius craft and Nero cruelty was driven up the Emperiall throne Next day in all publick Edicts the name of Andronicus was set before Alexius it seeming preposterous that a child should be preferred before so sage and grave a man Hitherto the life of Alexius was profitable to Andronicus but now his death would be more behooffull Wherefore Andronicus counting it cumbersome now any longer to wear a cloke in the sunshine and heat of his happinesse abandoned all uselesse dissembling and appear'd like himself The next news we heare of Alexius is that his neck is broken with a bowstring by command from Andronicus his body was spurn'd and abus'd a hole bored in his ear with a spit his head cut off and shamefully dealt with his body cast into the sea with many more cruell outrages as much against policie as piety and not onely needlesse but scandalous to Andronicus Thus Tyrants having once given the rains to their cruelty are not able to stop themselves But this innocent bloud cryed to God for revenge and obtained it Next yeare Isaacius Angelus was chosen Emperour by the people and Andronicus chased out of the city and pursued after Andronicus got into a ship and had conveyed himself away had not the winds and the waves as if knowing him though disguis'd refused to be accessary to his escape and beaten him back again till he was taken by his pursuers Being carried into the presence of Isaacius the new Emperour he there was beaten spurn'd kick'd on and had an arm cut off and an eye bored out But all this was mercy in respect of what he next day suffered by the rascall multitude being carried on a scabb'd Camell thorow Constantinople happy he that could do most unhappinesse unto him all sorts of people sought to mischief him throwing that upon him in comparison whereof that which runneth in the channell may be counted rosewater Thus orphanes thought to revenge the death of their fathers widows of their husbands one ran him thorow with a spit another threw scalding water in his face At last he could hardly die being hang'd up by the feet betwixt two pillars after a thousand abuses offer'd unto him It may seem miraculous how his body could make room for all their blows or that he so old a man could find so many lives for their cruelty were it not that passing with some speed thorow the city few had their full blows at him and they were somewhat mannerly in their revenge in that they would not take all to themselves but leave some to others And indeed after long throwing of dirt upon him their darts became his shield being so covered over with the filth that the mire kept him from the mire All which time he brake not out into any impatience but still cryed Lord have mercy upon me and Why break you a bruised reed and bore all with an invincible quietnesse of mind Surely God measured unto him a time of repentance by a large houreglasse and haply it were tyranny to think otherwise of the worst Tyrant the tempest of the peoples fury might drive his soul to the best shelter the mercy of the God of heaven It is a good signe when one hath his hell in this world and true repentance is never too late As for those that hold repentance on the death-bed unprofitable by this their tenet they would make heaven very empty and yet never a whit the more room therein for the maintainers of so uncharitable an opinion Andronicus reigned two years having a beautifull aspect and majestick stature almost ten foot high of a strong constitution advantaged by the temperatenesse of his diet In all his life time he took but one antidote and never purged but once and then the Physick found no obnoxious humour to work upon so healthfull was his temper His death happened Anno Dom. 1183. FERDINAND Alvarez de Toledo Duke of Alva Viceroy of the Netherlands under Philip the 2d. He dyed in Portugall Anno Dni 1582. in the â—75 yeare of his Age. W.M. sculp CHAP. 19. The life of Duke D'ALVA FErdinand Alvarez de Toledo Duke of Alva one bred abroad in the world in severall warres whom Charles the fifth more employed then affected using his churlish nature to hew knotty service was by Philip the second King of Spain appointed Governour of the Netherlands At his first arrivall there the loyalty of the Netherlanders to the King of Spain was rather out of joint then broken off as not being weary of his government but their own grievances The wound was rather painfull then deadly onely the skirts of their lungs were tainted sending out discontented not rebellious breath much regretting that their Priviledges Civil and Ecclesiasticall