Pharaoh and the Red Sea yea God changeth the Times and the Seasons He removeth Kings and setteth up Kings Dan. 2.21 Who knowes but that the Hand-writing upon the Wall may be applicable to this present miserable deplorable time we live in for my part I tremble to thinke to what sad condition many will be brought in short time if God Almighty prevent not But Quos vult perdere Jupiter hos dementat And now though these two dismall Aspects in October be past their Effects continue And this yeare in April are many notable meetings of the Planets in the Signe Taurus governing Ireland As first of Saturne and Mercury on the 12 day Venus and Mercury the 14 day the Sun and Saturne the 17 day the Sun and Venus the 18 day and Saturne and Venus the 20 day all of them in the first Face of Taurus between the 6 and 10 degree of the said signe Lord what preparations doe the Irish and their confederate Friends the papall Party here there and from forraigne parts make what Consultations Messages Embassyes what Treacheries what combinations what Conspiracies doe they frame against the poore Protestants of England c But the longest day must have an end And on that day this yeere Mars and Saturne Lerma Lerma resonabunt who meeting in conjunction in the midst of Taurus will sound fearfull Alarmes in the midst of Ireland but of these more anon I thought to have found in the next Moneth in this Irish Almanack viz. November on the 5 day some commemoration of that damnable powder Plot 1605 that Popish hellish Conspiracy to destroy the Parliament but they in Ireland would be ignorant of that as not long since our corrupt ambitious Prelaticall Clergy endeavoured to have brought the same about here but let us in England for ever remember Gods mercy and be thankfull in our deliverance from the damnable Treason of the Papists on our 5 day of November 1605. Where there was both a Plot and powder And let us not forget the fearfull judgement of God in the downefall of Black-Fryers upon the Papists the 26 of our October being the 5 of their November 1623. where was no Plot nor powder O miranda Dei Judicis aequitas fraudis fraudâ— sua prenditu Artifex quis alios plagis irretire parabant hâ—sere impliciti pedes The wicked people in the pit are fallen themselves that digged it Yea their owne feet are fast insnar'd in hidden nets themselves prepar'd And thereby hath the Lord been known for having such a judgement shown In that the wicked are surpriz'd even in the snare themselves devis'd They in Ireland begin their Michaelmas Terme at Kilkenny as this Irish Almanack hath it on the 3 day of November on which day of November 1640. this happy Parliament in England so much endeavoured to be dissolved began but their Terme and our Parliament are heterogenean Our Parliament ere long will alter their Terme and as their Rebellion broke forth the 23 of October so we now begin our Terme on the 23 of October as if one should say all the Courts of Justice in England by a Divine providence were opened to give Judgement against the Irish for their Rebellion against them the 23 of October Well! This 23 of October will be remembred as a day of mercie by the Parliament and whole Kingdome of England for their great deliverance out of the hands of their cruell Enemy at Keynton Battell when the bloody Irish His Race and all his Generation Shall suffer utter extirpation And in the Age that next doth follow Oblivion shall his black name swallow It may very well be said of Ireland Bona Terra malu Gens But when that wicked Generation of men have drunke their fill of the bloud of the Saints then shall they as deepely drinke of the Cup of Gods wrath Quod differtur non aufertur The time hasteneth and is neerer then they are aware of I have briefely run over these Irish Notes which this Manapian in behalfe of that Kingdome of Ireland and to the same end as Naworth and Wharton the Oxfordians publish theirs in malice against the Parliament and the Kingdome of England have done Thereby discovering themselves to be a most Viperous Generation There are some other observations I might have made on the Popish Saints dayes which in this Almanack are very thin I hope in the next that is written there will be none at all And had this Irish Manapian beene as learned in Astrology as Wharton is and predicted as much as he did upon the Kings unfortunate march the seventh of May the last yeare I should have hoped the like successe as ever since hath befallen that Party My Friend Master Lilly in his Postscript to his Starry-Messenger lately Printed hath sufficiently refuted that Bloxford Astrolo-gazestar We neede not feare either of them one more then the other There is a lying Spirit in the mouth of all of them 2 Chron. 18.21 Their Religion their Learning is one and the same their Knowledge in Astrology very neere of kin There is not a Lunation that is A New Moone Full Moone or her other Quarters mentioned throughout this Popish Calendar that is truely set downe Some of them twelve houres some a day some two dayes and many three dayes erring from the truth I am sure of it never a one of them fitted to the Meridian of any part of Ireland for which it was intended nor for England against whom it was penned printed and published So that if the Oxford Writers take their Observations and ground their Judgements from the Lunations in the Irish Almanack we shall not neede to be dismayed at their pradictions And the fayre weather in the Irish Almanack will prove foule to them when the English come to correct the Printing Presse at Waterford I am now come to the end of the Calendar and in the next page I finde set downe The rising and setting of the Sun for every first and fifteenth day of every moneth in the yeare Why God maketh his Sun to rise on the evill and on the good and sendeth raine on the just and on the unjust Math. 5.45 There is likewise the length of the day set downe If they please to remember the Battell at Naseby the last yeare they will have small cause to rejoyce the 12 of June this yeare or not many dayes after Truely the longest day will be for ever fatall to the Irish and their Confederates if my Astrologie faile not and they know it seldome does After this Table followes A Compendious Chronology of things Memorable From the Creation to Noahs Flood Gen. 5.7.11 -1060 Yeares From the Flood to Abraham Gen. 11.32 12.4 Act. 7.4 -356 Yeares From Abrahams birth to Terah's death Gen. 11.32.12.4 80 Yeares From Terah's death to Israels delivery Exod. 12.40 41. -434 Yeares From that time till Salomons Temple 1 Kings 6.1 484 Yeares From the building of Salomons Temple to Christ 1032 Yeares From Christs birth
and nature It deales not with mans will simply and directly but accidentally it doth It deales with mens inclinations dispositions temperature affections and humours It meddles not with miraculous workes nor with fatall necessity except some contingency be joyned with it nor with Gods secrets It is necessary for Physicke Policie Husbandrie Navigation Military Discipline for health It can yeeld reasons which other Arts cannot as in Clymactericall yeares Criticall dayes Why children borne in the eighth month most part are not vitall Of Tides Why Customes Rites Manners Lawes and Temperaments be divers in people inhabiting in severall Clymates Why certaine Seasons be turbulent Why some yeares be dangerous And many other things which may be read in that great Booke of the most wise God the Heavens The Stars therein differing in glory and brightnesse one from another but whose motions are most wonderfull Regular and Harmonious which stares like severall letters some being capitalls and others of lesse size being as it were set together A man endued with an apt Genius and Knowledge therein may not onely spell but in some reasonable measure reade the admirable Worke of God therein in their influentiall and secondary government of all sublunary Creatures Faelices anima quibus hac cognoscere primum Inque Domus Superas scandere cura fuit On the other side I doe pitty the blinde ignorance of some others who thinke themselves as learned as wise that not knowing the motions of the Planets and starres if they chance to see a starre in the day time doe wonder at the same possessing themselves with some strange conceit of some great matter to ensue such an Apparition So it was in the yeare 1625 when a little before the death of King James the glorious Planet Venus being occidentall of the Sun and in her greatest distance from him was thought to have beene a Comet or some nova stella being Sunday in the Afternoone the Moone and she seemed to touch one another or that as Kepler sayes she did quasi haerere in sinistro Cornu Lunae which I my selfe being at Yorke then with some others observed in the West part of the Heavens So likewise what great wonder and amazement there was in the yeare 1630 at that time when Prince Charles was borne the same starre Venus being then in great distance from the Sun and orientall or rising before him was seen to goe before the Sun all day for the most part I will set downe the words of Johannes Johnstonius in his Thaumatagraphia Capite 3. Admirand Coeli Artic. 2. de stellarum luce c. Nona denique Junii hujus Anni visa una in Anglia ante meridiem cum Gratia Deo propter nativitatem Principis Walliae agerentur visam eandem codem tempore Diepae in Gallia a Gallis quibusdam accepimus That is the ninth day of June in the forraigne account the 30 of May being Sunday in the English account of this yeare one was seene in England before noone when thanks were given to God at Pauls Church in London for the birth of the Prince of Wales And we received intelligence from certain French men that the same Starre the same time was seen at Diep in France But by leave of this Learned Gentleman I doe not accompt this a wonder for it is usuall with Venus once or twice in the yeare to shew her selfe in the day time being in her greatest distance from the Sun either when she is orientall or riseth before the Sun or occidentall and setteth after him and this may be easily demonstrated out of her Theory If she presignified any thing she was the prodromus of the miseries that since have ensued to this Kingdome And now at this very time the Royall party in some places as I am informed flatter and promise themselves strange matters by reason this Starre Venus none of them having so much Astronomy as to discover what she is appears so bright and glorious in the West after Sun-setting if she betoken any thing I suppose she appears to our gallant Generall and the rest of the Commanders Souldiers now in the West as a bright lamp to discover the darke blinde corners of the West the unknown wayes of the enemy there and in Wales to reduce that miserable wasted Country which God be thanked is in a good forwardnesse I never observed or read that the simple appearance of any Star in the day time foreshewed any thing except what Hieronomus Cardanus in lib. 14. de varietate rerum cap. 70. mentions whose words I will set down as they are there Stellas quoque die sereno bis vidisse Mediolani me memini cum tota Civitate alteram splendidissimam Anno 1511. cum pulsi sunt Galli aliam Anno 1535. subobscuram cum mortuus est Franciscus Sfortia secundus sed tunc quod sine filliis mortuus fuerit mutatus est princeps transiitque in Carolum Imperatorem Civitatis Regnum variato rerum statu that is I remember my self twice to have seen Stars in a cleer day at Millain the whole City being spectators one very bright Anno 1511. when the French were expulsed and the other Anno 1535. somewhat obscure or dark when Francis Sfortia the second dyed but then he dyed without Sons the Prince was changed and the government of the City passed over to the Emperor Charles with a various state of affairs I know not whether if God have so ordered the motion of the Stars that Stars appearing in the day time should foreshew any thing for my part I beleeve it not in that simple apparition it is not proper for the Stars to shine or appear in the day God made two great lights the greater light to rule the day and the lesser to rule the night he made also the Stars and God set them in the Firmament to give light upon the earth and to rule over the day and over the night and to divide the light from the darknesse and God saw that it was good Gen. 1.16 17. verses This I am sure of that they work by their influence incessantly day and night upon all creatures Nay in many places of Scripture God would not tell us of the dominion of the Stars upon the earth and the creatures therein if they had no force power and influence in many places therein they are called the Host of Heaven and the Armies of Heaven therein amplifying the most wonderfull divine power and might of God by the force influence and energeticall operation of these glorious creatures in some places God expresly distinguisheth between the sweet influence of the Pleiades or the seven Stars and the binding influence of Orion under which two Constellations being of clean opposite nature and effect God comprehends all the rest of the Stars and as it were by the figure of Locution he puts the part for the whole thereby manifestly giving us so much understanding as to conceive all the other Stars of
ruine and destruction to those great ones subversion of their ancient Families and ruine to their stately Buildings Cities Townes Towers and Castles That People shall be in most miserable and deplorable condition We see the Conjunction is in Taurus under which amongst other places Ireland is posited and that the signes Leo Scorpio and Aquary are sharers and must participate in this influence Famine Scarcity Plagues and terrible warfare shall happen to many places under those Signes If they expect ayd from Foraigne parts they will be frustrated Me thinkes I behold all the States of Europe involv'd in this Quarrell the French and Spaniard Matching the Hollander busie the POPE thundering his Bulls and Excommunications the Turke making great preparations so likewise the Germane Dane Swede Polonian Venetian nay what State in the Christian World is not disquieted If I should recount the Eclipses and great Conjunctions of the superior Planets in Signes to which most or all Countries in Europe are subjected and the events that have succeeded within these few yeares in these places I might rather make an History then a succinct discourse there were not long since two or three Eclipses of both the Luminaryes in the Signe Leo the effects of all which are strongly operating and for many yeares together will produce admirable and unexpected occurrences I believe the progresse of Saturne through the Signe Taurus out of which he will not fully free himselfe till the end of March 1648. will be very fatall to Ireland and most chiefely he will powre out his influence upon that place rather then any other For if we consider the present condition thereof since the Rebellion there broke forth The horrid Murthers and cruell slaughters by them committed upon many thousands of English Protestants whose bloud cryes for vengeance doe authorise me Astrologically to pronounce a fearefull doome of Fire Sword Plague and Famine to follow that bloudy Nation Let me tell the Spaniard French or what other Nation soever that is ayding or assisting them they must not escape the Divine vengeance which God by the Starres his Coelestiall Ministers doth menace them withall If the Pope send his Agents to prosecute their Designes he may chance loose his Triple Crowne in this unjust quarrell they have raised The Divell may rage for a season Sed si Deus nobiscum quis contra nos The fight from Heaven the Starre in their Courses fight against CaesAR Sisera I hope I shall speak truth if I tell the French Spaniard or any other friend the Irish or their Associates have that though they never made greater preparations yet with as like successe as that Invincible Armado in 88 had at what time fourescore of the Spanish Ships were lost with not so few as twenty thousand men The windes and Seas fighting at that time for England which was many yeares before threatned by the proud and insulting Spaniard This Armado consisted of 130 Ships nineteene thousand two hundred and ninty Souldiers eight thousand three hundred and fifty Mariners two thousand and fourescore Gally-slaves two thousand sixe hundred and thirty great Ordinance which Navy having been three yeares in preparing and at no small charge within one moneth was often beaten and at length put to flight and as I said 20000 of their men being slaine and not above one hundred of the English were missing the remainder of their Navy some in their slight were cast upon Scotland and some upon Ireland and those few that escaped returned with a great deale of dishonour into Spaine above 700 Souldiers and Seamen were cast upon the Scottish shore who were afterward sent over to the Low-Countries but those which by Tempest were driven upon Ireland found a harder measure for the wild Irish of their owne accord slew many of them I suppose their cruelty is not inferiour now to what it was then but suppose the French Spanish Irish Jesuite Popish Fryer Priest and the whole rabble of Antichristians in all the World were combined together against England let but an English man name 1588. or 1605. And without doubt the proudest and most cruellest of them all will be daunted and sink down with amazement so powerfull hath God showne himselfe in those times That in the first the King of Spaine himselfe acknowledged the misfortune that befell him to have been the handy worke of God and gave thanks to God and his Saints causing the like to be done throughout Spaine that it fell to be no worse And for that in 1605 certainly it was the eye of Gods Providence that discovered that horrid deed of darknesse the Gun-Powder Treason invented by the Divellish Papists to the destruction of the Parliament and so consequently to the whole Kingdome Let us looke back to the yeare 1587. In which yeare Mary Queene of Scots was beheaded for the position of Saturne and we shall finde that from the first of March that yeare to the middle of Aprill 1589 he walked through Taurus the Signe under which he now is c. under which Ireland is subjected as I said before In the moneth of August the 28 day was an ominous opposition of Mars from Scorpio to him in the 16 degree and if we observe this memorable yeare 1588. Upon the 28 of May Saturne and Mars were in Conjunction in the 19 degrees Taurus not farre from the place they now meete in not many dayes after which that Spanish Fleet was discovered on our English Coast If we examine our Chronicles we shall finde most Memorable Passages in divers parts of the World to have happened this yeare Was it not unusuall and strange that Polonia this yeare should have three Kings usurping the Title while the fourth viz. Stephen Battori was yet unburied Namely Sigismond the Sweden Maximilian the Emperours brother and Henry Valoys King of France of which three Maximilian in the beginning of this yeare was taken Prisoner his Army overthrowne by meanes thereof many thousands of men women and children carryed away Captives by the Tartars Thus saith Gallobelgicus and further that Suetia was all on fire with tumults and lost certain places of strength to the Muscovite The Muscovite himselfe ranne mad and lost his wits The King of Denmarke Frederick the second dyed In France the Barricados of Paris the flight of the King from thence The slaughter of the Duke of Guise and his brother the Cardinall of Lorrayne The death of the Queen Mother the poysoning of the Prince of Condee and the Overthrow which the King of Navarre gave unto Duke Mercury all which Les derniers troubles de Fraunce do testifie and gave that Kingdome sufficient cause to thinke that yeare 1588 to be an extraordinary yeere At the same time the Duke of Savoy prepared his Army and surprized Carmagmall the King of France his chiefe Magazine in Saluze The Turke suffered great overthrowes in Hungaria And in Constantinople by reason of false moneys wherewith the Jauizaryes were payd their wages they fell into a
Mutiny and compelled the Emperour of the Turks to deliver unto them his chiefest Favourites to be put to death and that likewise they might remove his Officers at their pleasure yet they were not coment herewith they set fire on the Jewes Houses spoyled their goods and by that meanes above twelve thousand of their Houses were burnt downe to the ground in the same City The Hungarians were continually molested with the the incursions of the Turkes The Sophy of Persia dyed And if I may use the words of Gallobelgicu◠ab ortu Solis usque ad occasum nullus firmè remansit locus in quo non miratu dignum aliquid hoc Anno contigerit That is from the rising of the Sunne to the going downe thereof there was scarce any place in which something worthy Memory did not happen This yeere Regiomontanus foretold a little before his death at Rome viz. 1475. one hundreth and thirteen yeares before it came to passe to his effect The Translation whereof as I have read in Dutch is thus Tausen funfhundert achtzitchtacht Das ist das iar das ich betracht Geth in dem de weltnixt under Geschicht doch groz merklich wunder Post mille expletos a partu Virginis Annos Et post Quingentos rursus ab Orbe datos Octogesimus octavus mirabilis Annus Ingruet is secum tristia Fataferet Si non hoc Anno totus malus occidet Orbis Si non in nihilum terra fretumque ruet Cuncta tamen mundi sursum ibunt atque retrorsum Imperia Luctus undique grandis erit Which is thus done into English by me From Christs Birth count a thousand yeares compleate And adde five hundred more with eighty eight That yeare approaching All men will affright With woefull Terrours which on them will light If the whole World to ruine do not run Or into nothing Land and Seas be done At least most Kingdomes topsy-turny turne And men on all sides grievously shall mourne I mention this Astrologicall Prediction and these many occurrences that happened this yeare yet in the memory of man to the end remembring what having already bin passed we may in some measure conjecture of the like Accidents to happen in these our dayes It is true Saturne passeth through a signe once in two yeares and a halfe so that in thirty yeares he runneth through the Zodiaque or the twelve Signes And as often as he returneth to his place Quadrate or opposite Aspect for the most part there happeneth extraordinary mutations in many parts of the World according to the diverse and various positions of the other Planets to him and amongst themselves and the Ingresse of the Sun to the Cardinall poynts with Eclipses c. if we looke in our Chronicles for the yeare 1593 in which year Saturne was in Leo in Quadrate to Taurus and so to the end of 1595 and upward we shall finde the Irish to rebell The story wherof is at large in Mr. Camden and others And if we come neerer to our time viz. In the years 1600 1601 and 1602 all which time Saturne was in Scorpio we shall finde not onely them to rebell againe but the Spaniards then landed and had got footing in Ireland but were with great losse to them driven out with many other remarkable Passages worthy memory by all true spirited English men I could much inlarge my selfe in these Historicall observations and make them very fitly applicable to the Coelestiall Motions of the superiours Starres and Planets I suppose what hath already been spoke will suffice to informe any man of understanding I do not say that because there hath such such things happened to such and such places when such and such Conjunctions and Aspects of the Planets or Eclipses have been that the like must necessarily happen there againe at the like Congresse of the Heavenly bodyes No. Ipse Opifex Rerum voluit haec ordinatissima Coelicorpora esse in Signa tempora dies Annos God the Creator of all things willeth that these orderly Heavenly Bodyes shall be for Signes times dayes and yeares Rideat igitur qui velit cum suo detrimento summo cum periculo conjuncto abiiciat securè superbè contemnat has qualescunque significationes Coelestes Deus se derideri non patietur Phryx non emandatur nisi plagie Prudentiores facilè hinc haud dubie Divinitus admoneri se animadvertent ut discant matura poenitentia vera conversione ardenti pietate ad Deum confugere antevertere praecavere Iram Dei horrendam adversus nostra multiplicia peccata paenarum futurarum gravitatem The Irish have ever beene most rebellious and treacherous to the English Nation and of late have most barbarously and inhumanely murthered many thousand innocent soules Now they are at the height of their cruelty and God is powring out his overflowing cuppe of wrath and vengeance upon them and their adherents Jamque securis ad radicem posita est ut in frugisera arbor excidatur in ignem conjiciatur When God threatens a Nation People or Family he divers wayes forewarnes them before he sends his Judgements upon them sometimes in the sea upon the land in monstrous births in the fire by strange apparitions unusuall tempests sometimes by Comets in blazing Starres very often by Eclipses of the Sun and Moone and more usually by the Configurations of the Planets amongst themselves and the Hebdomaticall Lunations which if men would search into they might observe most excellent matters to contemplate upon and raise their thoughts to an exceeding height of Admiration of the most wonderfull workes of the omnipotent Creatour I doe much wonder at the harsh unadvised censure of many men Divines and otherwise learned enough that say nothing can be foreseene by the starres or their configuration I must tell them Astrology is as ancient as our first Parents but the Antiquity of it doth not alone worke upon me that it is allowed by Universities Princes Sages Philosophers from the first Infancie of the world to this very time and will be admired as long as the Sun Moone and Stars move in the Heavens It depends upon as good grounds as any Art It deales not by signes and effects but by causes whereof the motions configurations and positions of the Heavenly Bodyes are grounded upon Mathematicall demonstrations and the propertyes or virtue of the Heavenly Influence upon the observation or knowne experience of great learned men even from the beginning of the world And if the Divine will doe not counterchecke the ordinary course of nature or the matter of those Elementary Bodies here beneath be not unproportionable and thereby unapt to receive their impressions there is no reason why in a naturall and physicall necessity Astrologicall Predictions made according to Art should not succeede and take effect It deales not with rare contingents unknowne or undeterminate But with these things which fall out for the most part such as are performed by Art
Saturn and Jupiter In the yeer 1584. there was fourteen Conjunctions of the Planets in Aries and the Sun and Moon Eclipsed ih Taurus In the yeer 1586. there will be thirteen Conjunctions of the Planets in Aries and one in Taurus of the Sun and Mercury and afterwards in the yeer 1588. twelve Conjunctions of the Planets in divers Signs without doubt after these Conjunctions will follow or succeed mischievous villanous and wicked Counsels and detestable Acts commotions or troubles seditions wars slaughters or killing in Cities Kingdoms and Provinces unknown or unheard of diseases the plague death of great Kings and Lords Infinite dissentions and new diversities of opinions in Religion and to conclude very great calamities in all the Countries of the world as many skilfull men in coelestiall matters suppose gathering these things from the events which are to follow these forepast Conjunctions now rehearsed I shall hereunto adde some particular predictions out of the same Rantzovius pag. 99. Friderici secundi imperatoris Astrologus ab eo interrogatus cur tantum honoris Rudolpho Haspurgensi Comiti pauperi in Aula sua tunc versanti exhiberet respondit mortuis tuis filiis quorum adhuc decem supersunt ipse posteri ejus ad tua Regna pervenient Author Albertus Argentinensis quod exitus ipse probavit Nam Anno Christi 1273. Calend. Octob. Rudolphus a Germanis principibus Francofurti in Regem Romanum eligetur cum Basiliam obsideret hodierno adhuc die videmus Rudolphi posteros Regnum Neopolitanum Ducatum Austriae Sueviae una cum Imperio Regno Neopolitano obtinere Modernus nam Imperator Rudolphus ab eo nomen ditiones haeditario jure accepit Philippus Hispaniae Rex ex eodem natus Regnum Siculum Neoplitanum nactus est That is The Astrologer of the Emperour Frederick the second being asked by him why he showed so much respect to Rudolph the poor Earl of Habspurg then frequenting his Court To whom the Astrologer answered Thy Sonnes being dead of whom ten are yet living He and his Posterity shall attaine to thy Kingdoms which the event proved for in the yeer of Christ 1273. the first of October Rudolph besieging of Basill was elected by the Princes of Germany at Frankeford to be King of the Romans and to this day we see the posterity of Rudolph to enjoy the Kingdom of Naples the Dukedoms of Austria and Suevia together with the Empire and Kingdom of Naples for the late Emperour Rudolphus by hereditary right received from him both his name dominions and Empire and Phillip King of Spain proceeding from him obtained the Kingdom of Scicily and Naples This Frederick the second was elected 1212. he raigned 38. yeers he dyed 1250. the Empire was void 22. yeers though Conrade his Son and Richard brother to Henry the third King of England who was Earl of Cornwall were elected in the interim and in the yeer 1273. this Rudolph was elected Emperour and so continued seventeen yeers nine moneths and sixteen dayes it being sixty yeeres before this prediction came to passe for ought I read to the contrary In pag. 97. in the same Rantzovius thus I find Magister Christianus Astrologus Pragensis Ladislaum Jagellonem Regem Poloniae per Sacerdotem praemonuit ut mortem sibi imminentem praecaveret quod multi Planetae conjungerentur fieret Eclipsis Lunae sub Terra mortuus autem nihil ominus est eo Anno qui fuit Annus Domini 1434. Anno Aetatis 49. That is Master Christian an Astrologer of Prague admonished Ladislaus Jagello King of Poland by his Priest that he should beware of imminent death for that many Planets were conjoyned this yeer and there would be an eclipse of the Moon under the earth notwithstanding that premonition he dyed that yeer of our Lord which was 1434. in the 49. yeer of his age In the same page the next adjoyning observation is thus Joannes Picus Mirandulae Comes edidit Librum adversus Astrologos hi inter quos fuerunt Bellantius Senensis Antonius Sirigatus Florentinus Angelus de Catastivis Carmelita ut Artem veram ostenderent illum annum aetatis 33. non transgressurum predixerunt ex directione Ascendentis ad Martem quemadmodum hinc inde editis constat that is Joannes Picus Earl of Mirandula published a Book against Astrologers These men that is to say the Astrologers amongst whom were Bellantius of Sena Antonius Sirigatus a Florentine and Angelus de Catastivis a Carmelite that they might shew it Astrology to be a true Art they foretold the said Picus that he should not escape the 33. yeer of his age by reason of the direction of the Ascendant to the body of Mars as it appears in the writings published upon this occasion I mention this the rather for that it is most appaâ—â—nt these three men were Astrologers and by Astrology foretold to this Picus the time of his death who flattering himselfe with a false comfort as if he could wrangle away Death by writing against Astrology indeavouring to prove the Art vaine his death concurring exactly with the time predicted confirmed the same Art to be true and more actually confuted that which he had written against it then if all the world besides had conspired to answer him I have rehearsed these things and been the larger upon them though I could shew above one thousand examples of rare observations Astrologicall and many of my owne experiment to cure that Episcopomania or An examination of Sir Christopher Heydons Defence of Astrology For would any man but a man not well in his wits T. V.B. of D. publish and Print that the Astrologer foretelleth that is true by the helpe of Satan that Astrologicall predictions depend not upon naturall Causes that Astrologicall predictions stand not by learning but by some instinct that Astrology considereth the fortunes onely of Fooles and wicked men that the first Inventor of Astrology was the Divell that the Astrologer attaineth not to his intended end in a Prediction without the helpe of Magicke with many other absurd Tenents I will tell you a story of himself as he writes it in his Epistle Dedicatory where he says thus That those predictions doe not always fall out jump and true as they would bear us in hand but that either the Devil doth misse sometimes or that his Instrument doth mistake his informations this I am able to justifie and make good by a plain story of my self when I was a child and went to School at Carleil where I was born there came an odde fellow about the Country he was reputed a cunning man and so called for that he took upon him to tell fortunes the fellow was dumb or at least faigned himself speechlesse but certain it was he had an instinct or familiarity with some Spirit This fellow being on a time in my Fathers house there were some there more simply honest then religiously wise made signs unto him to shew what should be my