the use of his limbs and cast him to the ground tormenting him as if he were mad And he saith more that the Enchantment which it brings by the eys pierceth or striketh through one person to another by the imagination of him that causeth the charm So S. Thomas speaking after Avicon asks which soonest kills a body the melancholy imagination or the delectable imagination by the violence of the one or the other Joy expels and forceth out the spirits and leaves a man without life the other binds them in so strong that thereby grows a violent suffocation We saw in Sivile James Osorius who was taken by the Catholick King by the strong imagination of the fear which he conceived became old and white haired onely in one night being the day before strong and young Again we see that imagination many times makes men become fools and at such times so ill and crazie that its effects and power is wonderfull CHAP. XVII What Countrey-man Pilate was How he died And of the Lake called the Lake of Pilate and of its property And also of the Den of Dalmatia PIlate the most wicked and unjust Judge that ever was or ever shall be was according to common opinion born at Lyons in France yet some of that Nation will not have any such thing but say this name Pontius comes from a house in Italie and of Pontius Ireneas Captian of the Samnites which vanquished the Romans Be it how it will this Pilate either for respect to his person or to his parentage came to be of great note in Rome and being known to Tiberius successour to Octavius according to Josephus and Eusebius was sent by him in the twelfth year of his Empire to govern Jerusalem and stiled him with the dignity of Proctor of the Empire So then Pilate governed the holy City and all the Province of Judea which is called Palestina And he held this Officeren years in the seventh of which and the eighteenth of the Emperor Tiberius according to Eusebius and Beda he gave sentence of death upon the Saviour and Redeemer of all mankind our Lord Jesus Christ God and Man at which time came to passe those things which are written by the holy Evangelists of his Death and Passion whose Resurrection was so publick in Jerusalem although they sought by all means to hide it that Pilate thought although he were wicked that such Resurrection and Miracles were not of humane power but of God For this cause as Eusebius and Tertullian recites he advertised the Emperour Tyberius for it was the custome of Consuls and Pro-consuls to advertise the Emperour or the Senate what things happened in their Provinces This news marvellously amazed the Emperour which made him refer it to the Senate to sit ill Councel to know if it mighâ— seem good that this Prophet should be worshipped for a God which he did because they could not without the authority of the Senate worship any new God in Rome without the slighting of their other Gods But as the divinity of Christ hath no need to confirm it self by the approbation of men onely God suffered that the Senators would do nothing in it On the contrary as these Authours say they were displeased that Pilate had not writ to them as well as to Tyberius yet for all this Tyberius forbad the further persecution of Christians After these things Pilate coming to live in Rome and confirmed by the Devil for his loyal servant did never after do any thing in his Office but unjust and unlawfull acts Whereof being accused before Cajus Caligula Successour to Tyberius And also to have profaned the Temple by putting in Statues and Images and to have robbed the common Treasury and other grievous crimes was banished to the town of Lions some say to Vienna in Dauphenie and because this place was assigned for his banishment some say that this was the place of his birth he was so handled that he killed himself with his own hands which was by divine permission that he might die by the hand of the most wickeddest man in the world Eusebius saith that he killed himself eight years after the death of our Saviour of which this accused Pilate made no profit to himself forasmuch as he died in despair For the goodnesse of God is so great that although he had condemned his son to death yet if he had repented him of his sin him whom he had condemned to die would have given him eternall life And now we speak of Pilate I remember of a Lake so called this Lake is in Suisse near a Town called Lucerna in a Plain environed with very high Mountains from the highest of which as some say he casts himself into the water And the common report is that every year he shews himself there in his Judges habit but whosoever it be that by chance happens to see him either man or woman dies within the year Over and beyond this I will bring upon the stage to witnesse it Ioachin Vadian a learned man who expounded Pomponius Mela he writes also an other notable thing of this Lake very true and wonderfull he saith it hath such a property that if any one cast a stone into it or a piece of wood or any other thing this Lake swels and grows into such a boisterous Tempest that it runs beyond its bounds in great fury in such sort that sometimes it drowns a great part of the Country from whence proceeds great losse and damage as well to trees and Plants as to beasts and neverthelesse if these things are not cast in expresly it swels not at all And this Ioachin saith further that there are Edicts that forbids upon pain of life for any one to cast any thing into this Lake and that divers that have transgressed this edict have been executed whether this proceeds of a naturall cause or by a miracle I know not howsoever some waters have great and wonderfull properties part whereof there may be reasons given for and for others none Plinie recites a thing like to this and saith that in Dalmacia there is a very deep Pit or Den into which if one cast a stone or any other heavy thing there arises such a boistrous and furions air out of it that it breeds a dangerous tempest to the neighbours thereabout It may very well be but I am not certain of it that Pilates body was cast into it and that Devil by divine permission because of his ignominie executes such effects in that place CHAP. XVIII Of a strange thing that happened to one of the sons of Cresus King of Lydia and to the child of another King amongst which there in a discourse That is to say whether speech be a thing natural to man and whether man onely hath speech HErodotus writes a wonderfull thing that hapned to a son of Cresus King of Lydia and so it is reported by Aulus Gelius This Cresus was a rich King and he which Cyrus destroyed as
have writ hereof is true or very likely Plinie and Varro speaking of the time of mans life affirm that the learned Egyptians knew by experience that man according to the order of nature could not live above a hundred years and if any one happen to live longer it is by some particular influence and force of the stars and a thing marvellous in nature Of this they took their ground from the heart of man in which by an Anotomy they have found experimentally marvellous secrets For they say at the age of one year the heart of man weighs two of their draghms at the age of two year four and so many years as he lives so many two draghms the heart encreases so that attaining to fifty years the heart weighs a hundred draghms And from that time afterwards it diminisheth its weight every year two draghms as before it did increase So that in a hundred years the heart annihilates it self and the body dies if by some other accident it be not advanced sooner for there are so many accidental causes which may and commonly cause death that there are few men arrive half the way to make this experience If this thing seem strange to some of us yet the Egyptians hold it for certain according to divers Authors and some as Lewis Caelius alledging Diescorides to have spoken much of this amongst other notable things as also Peter Crinit in his book of honest discipline and Cornelius Agrippa I scite all these Authors because it is a thing hard to be believed Let every one then give what credit to it seems good to himself And now we are treating of the heart of man and of so many excellencies that are in it we will not speak of one alone we must understand according to Aristoâ—le that man onely hath the heart placed on the left side and that all other creatures have it in the middest of the breast which he affirms in the first book of the nature of beasts Also this is the common opinion of all naturall Philosophers That the first part which is formed in man is the heart as the root of all the members in a humane body fountain of all naturall heat and the last member that dies in man and looses its motion It is so noble and delicate a member that it cannot be touched but it is present death Plinie recites an other wonder which happens some times saying that men have been fonnd to have the heart hairy and he that hath it so is very valiant and strong of disposition which was experimented in Aristomines who killed with his own hand in battell three hundred Lacedemonians who afterwards having escaped many dangers by his great valour at last died and being opened his heart was found hairy Suetonus in the life of Caligula and Plinie also saith that if a man die of poison his heart cannot burn although you throw it in the fire which was verified by the heart of Germanicus father of Caligula So it fareth with them that die of the disease called the Cardiague or griping at the heart And we must know that among the pellicles of the heart is the seat of laughter and to this purpose the ancient Historians write that the Roman-Gladiators having by any blow the caul or pellicles of the heart strook died laughing But even as laughter and joy proceeds from the heart so melancholy proceeds from thence and likewise good and evill thoughts Speech is procreated there and divers are of opinion that it is the principall seat and residence of the soul which seems to be confirmed by Christ himself when he says that wicked and evill thoughts proceed from the heart And that which enters in at the mouth soils not for those are indifferent things So venerable Bede in his Commentaries upon Saint Mark saith The chiefest place of the soul is not in the Brain as Plato maintains but in the hearr as our Saviour Christ saith CHAP. VII Of two Women the one of which in the habit of a man was made Pope the other Empresse I Beleeve many have heard of a woman Pope But because peradventure all know not by what means and that it was one of the strangest things that could happen amongst men I will here speak of it as it is extracted out of very true Histories She was born in England and in her youth grew acquainted with a learned man of whom perceiving her self to be beloved and she loved him no lesse took the habit of a man and named her self Iohn and forsaking her Countrey went along to dwell with him in the Town of Athens where then flourished the Schools with all manner of Learning and there lived some time where by her industry she attained to so much Learning that afterwards retiring her self to Rome she read publickly in the Schools in the habit of a Doctor By which readings and publick disputes she so gained the opinion of the Auditors that she was reputed one of the most Learnedst men of all her time and obtained such favour and authority among all that in the vacancie of the Apostolick Chair by the death of Leo the fourteenth of that name in the year of our Lord Eight hundred fifty two being taken for a man she was chosen Great Bishop of Rome and Universal Pope in the Church of God and kept that Chair two years and thirty odde days But being in this estate as happens always to such ill enterprises not having care of the preservation of her Chastitie had the company of one of her Favourite Serviteurs in whom she trusted most in so much that Madam the Pope proved with Child Nevertheless she hid her great belly with such care that none but her Minion could know any thing of it Howsoever God would not suffer such wickedness to last long nor go unpunished for as she went along according to the common solemnity to visit Saint Iean de Lateran her time of bearing being come she had publick correction for her secret sin for comming near to a certain place which is between the Church of Saint Clement and the Theatre improperly called Colliseus she was delivered with great pain of a humane creature which died incontinently with the Mother so both of them together without any Pomp or mourning were put into the ground and buried And for that cause the common opinion is that all the Soveraign Bishops that have been ever since come short of that place and when they come near it turn down another street in detestation of so horrible an offence And when they choose a Pope they set him upon a thing like a Close-stool pierced through that they may secretly know whether him that the choose be a male Many Authors write of this but I find not one that assures it Platinus onely writes of the Election of Popes ever since as is before recited Of all the Authors there is Martin and Platin in the Life of Popes and Sabollicus and St. Anthony
a meal hath so much the greater charge and weight And neverthelesse it is so and we need not marvel at it for eating and drinking augments the spirits and chears him which makes him grow and increase in natural heat From hence it comes that when one man assays to lift up another if he wil that is lifted up he can make himself heavier by forcing forth his breath with in him which if he should keep in he would weigh lighter also one that runs breaths but little that he may run the more swift because the air being a very light Element desires to lift it self up high where its place is naturally as we see a piece of skin of chejucel or a bladder unblown thrown into the water it sinks presently but blow it up with air and it swims above the water In the same place Plinie saith That a body dead in the water when it comes to float if it be a man his face will be upwards towards heaven if it be a woman she wil rise with her face downwards which provident nature hath so ordeined to cover the shamefull parts of a woman There is yet an other natural reason for it And that is that women weigh heavier in the foreparts because of their breasts And men in their back-parts because of their shoulders CHAP. IX That death is to be judged good or evil according to the condition one dies in with examples of the death of divers IT is common to all once to die but to know when or how or what manner of death is revealed to none but all consists in being found in a good or evil estate That death may not be termed unfortunate unlesse that which finds not a man in that condition which he ought to be It often hides it self and keeps in houses and places where we least suspect And for this cause we ought not to live one day without consideration of it To this purpose examples are infinite and I will bring some here worthy note considering the effects are so strange though such happen daily Aullus Gelius writes and after him Valerius that there is in Italy a Town called Croton in Calabria in which lived one called Milo that was so strong and fit for any thing he undertook that at all games feasts and publick wrestlings never could be found his like and for the most part carried away the victory in such sort that he was accounted the strongest and most valiant that could be found in his time This Milo travelling over a Mountain and withdrawing himself out of the common rode for refreshment saw amongst other Trees an Oak having two great branches which some had begun to cleave by great force with wedges and left them behind not able to perform it which he being very desirous to accomplish put both his hands into the cleft and drew till he had opened them a little more so that the wedges fell to the ground but whether because it may be his strength failed him or that it may be he thought the branches were not of so great force he let go a little whereby the Tree closed on such a sudden that both his hands were fast taken therein so that he could not escape out and none passing by to help him he died there in great pain and of famine one of the most miserable and unhappiest deaths that could be imagined for he was made a prey to the most salvage beasts and so his own strength killed him If the death of Milo was so strange this of Echilus the Poet is no less strange for he one day walking out of a Town in Sicilie where he dwelt to take a little warmth of the Sun because it was then cold weather and he being old and bald-headed whose head shone again with whiteness seated himself in a high place where the Sun beat and having his head bare an Eagle by chance flew over him in the Air having in his tallons a Tortoise and seeing the white head of Echilus took it for a stone and so let it fall a great heighth thereupon so to break it that afterwards he might get the flesh of the Tortoise to eat it which broke his skull whereof he died presently A wonderfull thing seeing that he sate so high in an open place where one would have thought it impossible for any thing to fall upon his head Baptista Fulgosa in a near book that he hath written of Examples recites the unfortunatee death of a King of Navarre named CHARLES this King was old and very ill and troubled with a great pain in all his Nerves for which pain by the counsel of all the learned Physitians there could be found no Remedie but one which was to wrap him in a linnen cloath steeped in Aqua-vitae and sow him in it round on every side and he which sowed him in having nothing by him to cut off the thread took a candle lighted that was next him the flame whereof took hold of the Aqua-vitae so suddenly that before the King could be unsowed again or have any help he was burned in the flame and so he was cured of the pain he had in his Nerves and likewise of all his other diseases The death of Philemon was very pleasant for seeing an Asse come near to a table where on there was figs and fell to eating them fell into so great a laughter that the end of his laugh accompanied the end of his life And it is reported that Philiston the Commique Poet died laughing And so we find many men that have died of joy of which number was Dennis the Tyrant of Cicilie Diagoras and that Roman Dame who seeing her son return home who was thought to be slain in the battell died presently That death of the Shepheard Cratis whether it be so or no is likewise very strange for being asleep on a Mountain amongst his Goats a Buck-Goat killed him for jealousie he had of one of the She-Goats with whom Cratis abhominably perverted the order of nature Lewis Celius and Volateran recites this story alledging for it some Greek authors I leave divers other sorts of deaths as that of Pope Bonniface who died mad being famished in prison Of Richard the second of England Of the Arch-Bishop of Magunce who was killed and eaten up by a multitude of Rats Of Decius the Emperour of whom Familius Victor writes that though victorious he was found dead swimming in a Lake In this sort in our time died Lewis King of Hungary And Sforza father to that gallant Captain Duke Francis Sforza drowned himself thinking to save one of his Pages Andrew King of Provance died by the hand of his wife assisted by some other women who strangled him and hanged him up The Emperor Tiberius was also poisoned by his wife Agripina So Kings Princes and great Lords are subject to unfortunate and unhappy deaths as well as poor men although somtimes they are advised thereof yet in vain CHAP. X. How many
THE WONDERS Of the World OR Choise Observations and Passages concerning the beginning continuation and endings of Kingdomes and Commonwealths With an exact division of the several Ages of the World and the most remarkable passages and memorable accidents that have come to pass therein Also divers weighty grounds and reasons both from Scripture and natural experience why men lived longer in former Ages then at this present With the seven several ages of men The opinions of divers great Emperours and Kings touching the person of Christ and the life of mankinde with the strange events that have befaln several of them Also a discovery of divers creatures bred in the Sea and other obscure places of the World retaining the similitude and likeness of men and women Together with the miserable death that befel Pontius Pilate after that he had condemned our Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST The place of his birth and burial and how he appears once every year in the said place in the shape and likeness of a Judge A Work very profitable and necessary for all Written originally in Spanish translated into French and now made English by that pious and learned Gentleman JOSHUA BAILDON Imprimatur John Downam London Printed for John Andrews at the white Lion in the Old Baily 1656. The WONDERS Of the VVORLD Discovering Many secret Rarities that have been hidden since the Creation CHAP. I. Why men lived longer in former ages than now in these days ALL those that are studious in Divine Writ may read that in the time of the first age and before that for sin a generall Deluge came over the earth mans life then was longer than it is at this present It is certain that Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years Seth nine hundred and twelve Cain nine hundred and ten And descending from the one unto the other the shortest of their lives was seven hundred years and in these times we see few attain to fourscore or ninety years and if some one passe that it is rare and marvellous so that we come not to the tenth of the age of former men The learned either Divines or Philosophers who have discoursed thereupon seeing that nature that brings us forth now is the same that it was in times past and that those first men lived so long by nature and not miracle became astonied thereat and have curiously searched out the causes and reasons as Marcus Varro and an infinite number of others who have found these things so difficult in natures appearance that they have thought the years in ancient times not to be the same with ours in these modern times which opinion and belief is a great and vain errour as will be made appear in this following Chapter The truth is when I see the works of others and descend to that which agrees with my opinion that the principall reason why men live not so long now a days as formerly is that the Ancients had not in their times the causes that engender now in us those diseases whereby comes so soon old age and death Then we must consider that the first Parents of all humane linnage Adam and Eve were created by the immediate hand of God without any other means or help and therfore it is presumed that he created them of a most excellent complexion perfect Sympathie and proportion of humours which caused them to live in health so long and many years By means whereof the children that proceed from Parents so full of health must needs resemble their Progenitors in the same good and healthful complexion as men descended of excellent matter even till the change of ages the property whereof is to change and impair all things all humane kind began to grow weaker and the days of men to grow shorter Now in those times there was one thing that made much toward their long life which in these times is very hurtfull and contrary to us which was their great temperance in drink both in quality and quantitie and the small varietie of meats for they had not of so many sorts as now we have nor with so many inventions of cooking We do nor find that before the Deluge men knew what it was to eat flesh besides some hold it for certain that the fruits and hearbs were of far greater virtue and substance without comparison than now they are because then they proceeded out of new earth and not as it is at this day weak weary and as it were fallow for the Deluge was the cause of taking away its fat leaving it more infertile with a salt savour lesse perfect by the inundation of the Sea which floted for many weeks over it All these reasons are and every one of them sufficient however there are more if they were all put together to prove that this is no strange thing but naturall that men lived longer then than in these times Moreover it is to be noted and we hold it for certain that Adam knew all the virtues of Hearbs Plants and precious Stones and his children learned from him more than any man could learn since This was in part for health and the support of life and to cure diseases if peradventure any should happen by using such remedies as were simple and perfect and leaving out venemous compositions used in these present times the which instead of purging and cleansing weaken and kill those that take them and which is more in those former times the life and health of man was more supported and helped by the course of the heavens and influence of the Stars more benevolent in those times than they are now because they had not passed so many aspects conjunctions eclipses and other celestiall impressions from whence are proceeded these alterations variations and changes upon the earth and amongst the elements principall occasions of life and health in those former times and on the contrary infirmities and death in these But above all that that we have said and founded upon naturall reason I maintain that the cause of the long life of men in those days proceeded from the providence of God who would have their lives such and that the occasions aforesaid might help one the other to the end that onely of two might be bred many that the earth might be filled and human kind multiplied So we see that men not living so long after the Deluge as before God suffered them to go into the ark and so saved more men and women then he did create at the first to the end that the world might be replenished more easily St. Augustine speaking of these things sayeth That our fore-Fathers had the advantage of us not onely in health and long life but also in stature of body as it is evident in many Sepulchres and bones which have been found under great Mountains so that one may verily believe they were the bones of men living before the Deluge The same St. Augustine affirms that being in Vtica a Town in
is true that Iulius Caesar since named it Scivil and greatly enobled it and made it a Collonie and the Romans dwelt in it nevertheles it was greatly enobled before But to return to our first purpose in succession of time Moses was born under whose conduct the Hebrews came out of Egypt In this time also was Iob the just Then afterwards came the Deluge of Thessalie and many Kingdomes began to encrease in divers Provinces In Ethiopia first reigned Ethiop In Sicily Siculus In Boecia Boecim And so the Countries received their names of their Princes Then flourished the Town of Troy Iaeson made a conquest of the Golden Fleece from whence proceeded the history of Medea The Amazons were then in their force And the beginning of the raign of the Latines in Italy In this very age Paris ravished Helena which was the cause of the war destruction of Troy of the coming of Aeneas into Italy of divers other things which wil not admit of brevity Then failed the third Age which gave way to the fourth And began at the raign of David the 2 K. of the Hebrews which fourth age dured even to the Transmigration and Perigrination of the Jews in Babylon and lasted four hundred four-score five years Beda saith 474 years This age may be called the youth of the world during which happened an infinite many things whereof histories are full in it was the original of the victories of good King David he conquered the Philistines he avenged himself of the Amonites for the injury which they did to his Ambastadours and killed the Captain of the Assyrians After him succeeded in the Kingdom the wise King Solomon who built the rich Temple in Jerusalem he dead the Kingdome was divided Jeroboam succeeded to ten families and Roboam his son to two After the Empire of the Assyrians which had lasted more than twelve hundred years it was ruined by the death of Sardanaepalus who was Lord thereof and the most puissant King in the world who was killed by Arbact And then the Empire fell to the Medes In ths very Age began the reigns of the most puissant Kings of Macedoma And the Greeks began to count their years by Olimpiades which were feasts that they made from five years to five years with certain prizes for them that deserved best Also was that puissant City of Carthage built by Dido And a little while after Rome by Romulus and his brother Remus where the Kings began to reign The great Town of Bizance was also built in this time which is since called Constantinople Again there hapned great wars and mutation of Signiories in many parts of the world whereof histories are full And principally towards the end of this age Nabucadonozor King of the Medes and of Babylon fell upon Jerusalem which he destroyed and the Temple also Then led the people of Judea prisoners along with them and from that it is called the Transmigration in Babylon At which began the fifth Age of the world Age. 5 which lasted even to the birth of Jesus Christ God and Man our Saviour and Redeemer And this shall last five hundred eighty nine years by the computation of all During this time there was puissant Kings and great Republicks in the world such as it is marvellous to read and contemplate of the great things that happened in this Age The Changes The ruine of Estates The ordering of great Armies In brief it is better to be silent than to abreviate them Almost at the beginning of this Age began the Monarchy of the Persians whose Kingdomes were then the greatest by means of the victories of that great Cyrus which reigned thirty years during which time he conquered and discomfited the rich King Cresus of Lydia Then was discomfited himself and put to death by Tomoris Queen of the Scythians Seventy years of this Age being accomplished The Hebrews came out of their Captivity And the Temple that had been destroyed was re-edified by Solomon at Jerusalem In Europe the Romans chased their Kings and were governed by Consuls of which L. I. Brut was the first and the L. Collatine In Greece flourished Arms and letters which brought forth many excellent Philosophers and Captains Xerxes came thither with an innumerable army but he was constrained to retire with great losse and disgrace Then came to flourish in Macedonia King Philip who subdued all Greece the Mother of learning and of arms and which in this time brought forth Demosthenes Thomistocles Epaminondas Agifilaus Teno Plato Aristotle and others the like After the death of Philip his son Alexander went out of Greece and entred Asia which he conquered destroying the Empire of Persia And by the Victories which he gained against King Darius he lived the remainer of his life Monarch of all the world But he dead the Captains divided among themselves the Signiories and Lordships which being so mingled bred a discord which raised wars through all Asia and a great part of Europe In like manner the power of the Romans and Carthagenians encreased beyond measure for all of them strove to command the whole world and to attribute to themselves the Empire These two forces fought divers times against one another so that each of these two Towns brought forth Captains excellent skilfull in arms Carthage put forward Asdrubal Hano Hanibal Rome Fabius Scipio Marcellus Emillus and others Finally after a great quantity of bloudshed Rome became victorious and Carthage desolate destroyed and all Affrica tributary This Victory obteined the Romans proud and envious of the Greeks prosperity found out an occasion of war with them in which Greece was taken and made Tributary Not contented with this Their covetousnesse made them passe into Asia where they overcame Antiochus and then Mithridates making themselves Lords of Asia the lesse as also of Syria and Palestina and Egypt and all the coast on this side of France Spain England and the greatest part of Germany Of all which Conquests the chief Ministers were Sylla Marius Lucullus Pompeius Caesar and many others it happened that their envious ambition swelled their hearts whereof bred civill wars amongst them that every one would be a Commander one over another but at the last the Empire fell to Caesar whom after many fortunes had happened unto him his Nephew or adopted son Octavian succeeded who after having overcome all his enemies he rested peaceably in such sort that seeing himself in peace and concord with all the Kings and Common-wealths in the world he made them lock up the doors of his God Janus which were never shut in time of war Then the accomplishment of time being come the Fifth age of the World ended And our Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ was born very God and very Man in the year of the Creation of the World according to the Hebrews Three thousand nine hundred fifty and two years And according to the seventy Interpretours Eusebius and the greatest part of Historians Five
he appeared alive unto them according as the Prophets inspired by God had foretold and prophesied of him And yet in our time the doctrine and the name of Christians continues all the world over These are the words of Josephus who writ of the destruction of Jerusalem as an eye-witnesse which hapned fourty years after the death of Christ Pilate likewise that gave the sentence of death against him neverthelesse bears witnesse of his great miracles sending word of them by letters to the Emperour Tyberius so that the Senate was put to sit in Councell to advise whether they should receive Jesus Christ for a God and although they did not assent unto it Tyberius forbad any further persecuting the Christians As for the Earth-quake and the darknesse of the Sun during the time that Christ suffered upon the Crosse we have also Ethnicks for witnesses Flegon the Greek Historiographer born in Asia of whom Suydas makes speciall mention That in the fourth year of the two hundred and tenth Olympiade which will meet being well accounted with the eighteenth year of the Emperour Tiberius which was then when our Saviour suffered There was an eclipse of the Sun the greatest that ever was seen or found in any History and that it endured from the sixth to the ninth hour And that during this eclipse the Earth-quake was so great in Asia and Bithinia that there were an infinite number of houses fell to the ground It seems besides Flegon who lived in those times and writ this that Plinie vented and writ the same thing For he saith that in the time of the Emperour Tyberius the Earth-quake was greater than ever was any before it and saith thereby was thrown to the earth and ruined twelve Towns in Asia besides an infinite of other buildings So that the Historiographers who were Gentiles although they knew not the cause forbear not to write of the miracles of Christ The other miracle of the vail of the Temple which rent in sunder Iosephus recites it also Of the cruell death of the innocent children which Herod caused to die mention is made of it by another Jew named Filon a writer of great authority In his abridgement of time where he saith that Herod caused many children to be put to death and among them his own son because that he had heard that Christ a King promised to the Hebrews was born and this Authour was in the times of the other Herod called the Tetrark as he himself saith This History is again more amply recited by Macrobâ—us an Ethnick Historioagrapher who recites some pleasant and witty speeches of the Emperour Octavian in whose time our Saviour lived saying that the Emperour having heard of the cruelty of Herod towards his son and the other innocents said it was better in Herods house to be his hog than his child because the Jews killed no swine which witty conceit is alledged also by Dion in the life of the same Emperour So that there are many miracles whereof the Jews and the Gentiles not thinking of it be or witness to have been done by Christ besides those that the Christians make mention of What should we say any more of that the ancient Emperours have tasted of our belief and of that which they have done against the Christians The first Vicar of God St. Peter and likewise St. Paul died by the commandment of Nero the Emperour thirty six years after the death of our Saviour and then was the great persecution of the Church of which the Gentiles have not omitted to make mention And particularly Suetonus Tranquillus and Corneliâ—s Tacitus who lived in those times and of great authority Suetonus in the life of Nero speaking of some of his decrees and ordinances saith that he tormented and afflicted with great punishment a sort of people which called themselves Christians and followed a certain belief and new Religion and Cernelius Tacitus treatingon the acts of the same Nero saith that he persecuted and punished with terrible torments a sort of people which the vulgar called Christians And that the Author of this name was Christ of Jerusalem whom Pilate the Governour of Judea had caused to be crucified and by the means of his death his doctrine began to be extolled But now let us see what some other Gentiles write that are not of lesse authority Plinie in some of his elegant Epistles writes to the Emperour Trajan whose Proconful he was in Asia to know how he would that he should punish the Christians which were accused and brought before him that he might give his Lord a good account of what he found against them Amongst other things he writes that these Christians rose at certain hours in the night and assembled themselves together to sing hymns and praises to Jesus Christ whom they worshipped for God And being assembled into a Congregation they made vows to do no evil or hurt to any but promised not to steal not to be adulterers not to break their promises or vows not to deny what hath been lent or given them to keep And this Plinie saith further that they eat altogether without possessing any thing in proper By this we may know what was then the exercise of Christians and for what the world hated them and persecuted them These things were written by a Heathen and an Idolater sixty years after the Passion of our Saviour To which letters the Emperour made answer that seeing they were not accused for any excesse or other misdeeds that he should not trouble himself to punish them or make any inquisition against them Yet neverthelesse if they were accused and brought before him that he should find out a means to make them forsake their Religion but if they would not leave it yet he should do nothing to them Before this it is true that this Emperour Traian being a Heathen and deceived by accusers had persecuted the Christians To which Empire afterwards succeeded Adrian his Nephew of whom Aelius Lampridius a Heathen Historiagrapher and an Idolater writes that he began to honour the Christians suffering them to live in their belief and he himself worshipped Christ with the others and built Temples but afterwards he changed his copy and became hatefull odious and cruell towards the Christians being deceived and abused by the Masters and their false ceremonies and by the Bishops of those false Gods telling him that if he favoured the Christians all the world would be converted to their belief and they should loose the religion of their Gods This is certified by Peter Criniff It is found in the life of Saturninus that to this Empeaour Adrian there was a letter sent by Severinus the Consul where he writes that there was in Egypt divers Christians amongst which some called themselves Bishops and that none of them were idle but that all of them did work and employed themselves in some action and that there was not amongst them even those that were blind and lame that did not live
by the labor of their hands and that they all worshipped one God which was also worshipped by the Jews We also read in the History of these times that this Emperour beginning to persecute the Christians by the perswasion of their chief Bishops there was one of his Embassadors called Serene Eramy an Ethnick like himself which writ a letter unto him in which he said in his opinion it was cruelty to oppress the Christians being accused for no other thing than observing their Religion seeing that he found them not charged with any other crime or trespasse By means of which letter The Emperour Adrian forbade Minus Fondan Proconful in Asia to condemn any Christian if he were not convicted of any other crime than that of Christian Religion CHAP. XXIIII What opinions the ancient Emperours have had of the person of Christ by the Testimony which Ethnick Historiagraphers give of them TO this Emperour Adrian of whom we have spoken in the last Chapter succeeded Antoninus Debonair who although he had that name was perverse and wicked he favoured ill the belief of Christ and persecuted the Christians But his Successour Marcus Aurelius was more moderate to them for instead of persecuting them he led them along with him in his army by whose prayers he was delivered from the danger wherein he was for want of water which his enemies had cut from him because he sent them water and to his enemies Thunder-bolts and Thunder Of these things are made mention in one of his leters and Julius Capitoline also speaks of it although he doth not attribute it all to the Christians These hapned about the forty and five years after the Passion of our Saviour The fifteenth or twentieth year following Severus being chosen Emperor Elius Spartine an Ethnick like himself writ that he should make a law by which he should forbid upon pain of great punishment that none should turn Christian nor Jew After which Severus Antoninus Heliogabolus was Emperor who as Lampridius recites that writ his life caused a Temple to be built in Rome dedicated to his God onely to which he would have the Christians resort to perform their sacrifices which the Christians would not do After this Heliogabolus succeeded the Emperour Alexander Severus in the year of our Saviour one hundred ninety two and was in great doubt whether or no he should become a Christian Also we find by the history that is written of him that he had a good opinion of that belief and that he much esteemed of the Christians and gave them places and plots for buildings in Rome to make their Temples and places for prayer He kept the picture of our Saviour in his closset This is written by Elius Lampridius besides what the Christians write And he saith further that divers Victuallers and Pastry-Cooks went to the Emperour with a complaint against the Christians that they had taken away their harbours and their houses to make places for their superstitious hypocrisie and that they observed a Religion contrary to that of the Romans To which complaint the Emperour made answer that he had rather God should be worshipped in those places than to imploy them in the affairs of their vocations This Severus being dead Maximinian succeeded him an enemy and persecutor of the Christians but he lived not long and died an ill death Since whom and two others more which lived but a short while the Empire fell into the hands of Philip who was baptized as some say and was the first that received the Christians Eusebius affirmeth it yet the Heathen Historiographers write nothing of it Every day God enlightned more and more the hearts of men and a great number were converted to the Christian faith in spight of Decius and Dioclesian and others such like and even till they being weary of persecuting them they connived at them and suffered them for a time as appears clearly by a letter of Maximinian the Emperour a companion to Dioclesian which was two hundred years after our Redemption Which letter saith as followeth Caesar Maximinian invincible great Bishop of Germany Egypt Thebes Sarmacia Persia Armenia and victorious over the Medes and for his victories named nineteen times Emperour and eight times Consul and father of his Country At the beginning of our Empire Amongst other things which we determined to do for the publick good we do ordain that the order which was kept in all things strengthened by our ancient Laws be conserved and kept And for the same reason we command that those men which call themselves Christians and have forsaken our ancient Religion be pressed constrained and forced to forsake the new Religion which they have taken up and that they observe our ancient Religion established by our predecessors But being it is come to our knowledge notwithstanding this commandment and rigour used against them to make them observe it they have not left to follow their own wils and are so firm and constant to their purposes that there is neither force nor punishment so grievous which can make them draw back from their Religion or make them observe ours but will rather expose themselves to grievous torments and death it self and that they are still at this day in the same constancie and will not reverence or worship any of the gods in Rome our often remembring of our accustomed clemencie and pity determined to be used towards the Christians for that cause we do from hence-forward permit and suffer that all persons may make and call themselves Christians have places for their meetings and build themselves Temples where they may pray and sacrifice Which licence and leave we grant unto them upon condition they shall not do any thing contrary to our Common-wealth and Religion and that in other things they shall observe our Laws and Constitutions and that in acknowledgement of this permission they shall be bound to pray to their God for our life and health and also for the estate of the Common-wealth of Rome that the Town being prosperous and entire they themselves may live of their labour in rest and safety O truly unfortunate Emperour if thou shouldest force the Christians to leave and renounce their Faith as wicked how wouldest thou have them pray for thee and force them to have remembrance of thee in their prayers At the least this Letter will serve us in that thou thy self doest testifie of the Constancy Virtue and Spirit that the Martyrs and holy Christians had in suffering patiently for a long space of time the torment and punishments that were inflicted upon them for the love of Christ Now sometime after Maximinian there came to succeed in the Empire Constantine which was surnamed The great son of that good Dame Hellen which found the true crosse which was about two hundred and ninety years after the Redemption of Mankind He was a good Christian and did so many good deeds for the honour of God and the holy Church and the Ministers thereof that
One may gather as much out of the words of Aristotle which saith The Viper onely amongst other Serpents makes her young ones for first she forms them in her body of egs as fishes spawn then having formed them they remain three days wrapped up in a tender thâ—â— skin which in due time breaks and sets the little ones at liberty because of which Apuleus in his apologie calls them Oviperes and not Vipers that is bred of egs And many times it comes to passe that this tender skin breaking in the belly of the Viper they come forth every day one even to the number of above twenty these are the words of Aristotle In another place in the third book of beasts he saith speaking of the bringing forth of Serpents The Viper before she brings forth little ones forms the egs within her And I think from thence proceeds this opinion who say that the little ones eat themselves out of the belly of the Viper For it hath seemed to them which maintain it that when Aristotle spoke of this first coming forth they would have it that they brake and gnawed the belly of the Viper Now leaving this discourse I say the Viper as venemous as she is gives succour and help to man Diascorides saith that the flesh of a Viper sodden or dressed may be eaten safely and that it is very medicinable for the Nerves and for the fight And to dress him to eat you must cut off the head the tail then the skin being taken off and well prepared boil him in oil and wine with good store of Aniseeds He saith also that of this flesh is made a kind of salt or pouder which gives a good appetite and is prepared in this manner Take a new earthen pot and put the flesh of the Viper in it dressed as before then put in salt and figs stamped with a competent quantity of Hony and the pot being well covered set it to bake a long time in an oven till it may be beaten and brought to a powder And whosoever afterwards would use it with other meats will find it very profitable and savoury Paul Egenetta saith that the flesh of the Viper is singular good for Lepers and Lazers and for that purpose esteems much of the salt forespoken of Plinie saith there is a certain nation in the Indies that eat Vipers Diascorides saith also that those that use to eat of the flesh of Vipers live long and in health Against the biting of this beast there are many remedies But Theophrastus names one saying that to him which is bit with a Viper melodie and musick help much Galen saith that the beast eats not all the time of winter and that she keeps her self as dead hid in the earth and then if you find her touch her or handle her she bites not and when Summer comes she recovers her force again So much Plinie reports of Lisards Snakes and all other sorts of creeping Serpents Aristotle saith they keep themselves so hidden in the earth three or four moneths without eating any thing Elian saith that the Vipers which breed in the Province of Arabia although they bite their teeth are not venemous because they eat Baum and lie under the shade of it And Aristotle saith they are very desirous to drink wine and that many people take them by putting vessels of wine in places where they haunt and so they make themselves drunk then they take them sleeping There are other things to be said of the quality and property of the Viper which I leave for brevities sake CHAP. XXVII Of the admirable property of a little beast whose biting is cured by the sound of musick and also of some ather infirmities that are cured by the same means THat which is said in the former Chapter by the authority of Theophrastus that the biting of the Viper may be cured with the sound of musick will make that which we shall speak now more credible Alexander of Alexandria and Piere Gilie a modern Author affirm and say that in Poville a country in Italy therâ— is a kind of Spider which those of that country call Tatantola and some Phalange which in the beginning of Summer are so venemous that whosoever is bitten of them if he have not help presently he looses his sences and dies and if any escape death they are sencelesse and totally not themselves For which evil experience hath a remedie which is musick that which these Authors say is as a testimony of their own experience as eye-witnesses who say that as soon as any one is bitten they send presently for one that can play upon the Vian or Flute or some other instrument which play and sing divers lessons which being heard by him that is strucken by the venemous Spider he begins to dance and stir as if all his life time he had been accustomed to dancing in which sury and force of dancing he continues till the venome be dissipated and wasted And this Alexander saies that he hath seen that one that hath been wounded with this beast hath continued so long in dancing till the Musitians have been all weary and ceased and the poor dancer fall to the ground as dead having lost his strength but as soon as they began to play again he saw the poor sick man raise himself anew and begin to dance with as much force as before even untill the wound was entirely cured He saith yet further that if it happen that one that had not been well cured by Musick a short time after hearing instruments of Musick began to stir their feet and were forced to dance even till they were cured which truly is wonderfull in nature A sclepiades writes that singing and a soft sound of musick is a great help to those that are Frantick We read also that Esmineas the Thebean hath cured divers diseases and maladies by a sweet soft noise of Flutes Theophrastus and Aulus Gelius say that musick appeaseth the pain of the Sciatica and the Gout Again we find in the holy Scripture that David with musick cast out the evill spirit out of Saul Such is the great effect that proceeds from the cause of the great amity that the nature of man bears to musick And if we well consider we shal not find it strange that divers infirmities are cured by the means of musick forasmuch as we see that there are some beasts that kill laughing others weeping and others sleeping As Plutarch writes to Cleopatre CHAP. XXVIII Of a strange medicine wherewith Faustina was cured of dishonest love And of divers other remedies against that passion THat the affection and prison of the mind which is ordinarily called Love is a strong passion and of great effect in the soul let us ask of such men which by experience have known it and of such of whom examples are notorious namely of very excellent personages that have suffered their wills to have been transported even so far that some of
them have died Jules Capitolin amongst other examples recites that which happened to Faustina daughter to Antoninns and wife to the Emperour Marcus Aurelius who fell in love with a Master of Fence or Gladiator in such sort that for the desire which she had of his company she was in danger of death she did so consume away Which being understood by Marcus Aurelius he presently called together a great companie of Astrologians and Doctours to have counsel and find remedy thereupon At last it was concluded that the Fencer should be killed and that they should unknown to her give Faustina of his bloud to drink and that after she had drank it the Emperour her husband should lie with her This remedie wrought marvellously for it put this affection so far from her that she never afterwards thought of him And the historie saith of this Copulation that the Emperor had then with her was begotten Antoninus Commodus which became so bloudy and cruel that he resembled more the Fencer whose bloud his mother had drank at the conception of him than Marcus Aurelius whose son he was which Commodus was alwaies found amongst the Gladiators as Eutropius witnesses in the life of the same Commodus The Greek and Arabick Physitians place this disease of love amongst the grievous infirmities of the body of man and thereupon prescribe divers remedies Cadmus Milesien as Suydas reports in his collections writes a whole book treating of the particular remedies to hunt out this disease of Love Amongst other remedies which Physitians give for this discase one is That to him that is passionate in Love one should put into his hands great affairs importuning his credit and his profit that his Spirit being occupied in divers matters it may draw away his imagination from that which troubles him and they say further that they should suffer him to be merry and conversant with other women Against this heat Plinie saith it is good to take the dust upon which a mule hath tumbled and cast it upon the Lover and all to be powder him or else of the sweat of a chafed mule as Cardanus affirms in his book of Subtilties The Physitians also teach how to know what person is loved of him that is sick in Love and it is by the same Rule that Eristratus Phyfitian to King Seleucus knew the love that Antiochus bare to the Queen Stratonicus his Step mother for he being extream sick and would rather die than discover the cause of his sickness proceeding from love which he bare to his fathers wife She came into the chamber just then when the Physitian was feeling the Patients pulse which beat so strong when he saw the Queen come into the chamber that Eristratus knew that he was in love with her and that was the cause of his sickness wherefore he found the way to make the King acquainted with it by such a means as would be too tedious to recite Which being experimented by the father and seeing his son in danger if he did not prevent it thought it good though contrary to the intention of the son which chose rather death than to be healed by his fathers Ioss to deprive himself of his Queen and give her to his sick son And so indeed the age and the beauty of the Lady and likewise marriage was more proper for the son than for the father And by this means Antiochus lived well and gallantly many years with his wel-beloved Stratonicus The History is very neatly recited by Plutark in the life of Demetrius And thus you see why Physitians say that you must feel the Pulse of those that are in love and repeat to them divers names of persons and if you name the right the pulse will beat thick and strong and by that you shall know whom they love By divers other signs one may know when any is in love and with whom which I leave to speak of now CHAP. XXIX Of the strange and furious love of a young At henian And of the ridiculous love of King Xerxes And how beasts have many times loved men and women TO see men affectioned to women and women to men is a naturall thing and to be believed But here blindnesse is come to that height that that which I intend to speak of seems impossible and incredible Historiographers write it for truth that in the Town of Achens there was a young man of an honest family competeutly rich and well known who having curiously observed a Statue of Marble excellently wrought and in a publick place in Athens fell so in love with it that he could not keep himself from the place where it stood but be alwaies embracing of it and alwaies when he was not with it he was discontented and blubber'd with tears This passion came to such an extremity that he addressed himself to the Senate at Athens and offering them a good sum of money beseeching them to do him the favour that he might have it home with him The Senate found that they could not by their authority suffer it to be taken away nor to sell any publick Statue so that his request was denied which made him marvellous sorrowfull even at the heart Then he went to the Statue and put a Crown of Gold upon it and enriched it with garments and Jewels of great price then adored it and seriously beheld it musing alwaies upon it and in this folly persevered many daies that at last being forbidden these things by the Senate he killed himself with grief this thing was truly wonderfull But if that be true which is written upon Xerxes and affirmed by so many Authours indeed he excelled in folly all the men in the world They say he fell in love with a Plain tree a tree well known though a stranger in England and that he loved it and cherished it as if it had been a woman Seeing then these things happen to rationall men we may believe that which is written of bruit beasts which have loved certain men and women especially when we find it certified by great and famous writers As Glaucus that was so loved of a sheep that it never forsook him Every one holds that the Dolphin is a lover of men Elian writes in his book of beasts a case worthy to be read He saith that a Dolphin seeing upon the Sea-shore where children were a playing one among the rest which he liked very well he fell so in love with it that every time that the Dolphin see him he came as near as he could to the edge of the water to shew himself At the first the child being afraid did shun it but afterwards by the Dolphins perseverance one day after another and shewing signs of love to the child the child was encouraged and upon the kind usage of the Dolphin the child was emboldened to swim upon the water near unto the fish even to go ride upon the back of it and the fish would carry him for a good space