with God growing one with him in charitie who was and is the only fountaine of all charitie neuer rose the sunne but preuented by his praiers neuer shut the euening but out worne by his meditations neuer was he pensiue but beholding the presumptions neuer more pleasant then in confirming a Conuertite his riches was a hiue yéelding him hony and the honie of his persuations suckled and fed the weake mindes Whilest thus he liued and thus perfited It for tuned that certian straglers that had left the Army of the Lumbards to intend folow pillage ignorāt in the waies of Italie lost their direct way and by good hap fell into this desert where trauelling long without either pleasure or profit and in a desert disinhabited where no victuals might be had to assuage hunger they at last hit on Menas caue where they found him slacking his hunger with hearbes quenching his thirst with water and rather féeding to continue life then to pamper nature Where shewing themselues by their inciuilitie they not only robbed him of his meat spoiled tooke away his hiue but beyond all reason beat him cruelly The good old man that had no helpe but from heauen nor weapon in his hand to defend him but his tongue praying earnestly whilest he was persecuted at last brake out into this persuasion What outrage is this you souldiers whereas you neither respect age nor regard deuotion neither feare God nor regard the lawes wild beasts assaile not vnprouoked Serpents sting not vntrod on the harmelesse bird is no Harpies prey shall then a Hermit in deuotion an old man in yeares a poore man in fortune be subiect to your tirannies In the law of kind you are cursed for by it you are to endure no more to be done to others then you can quietly admit in your owne causes then since none of you can easily suffer iniurie beware to be ouer earnest in offering it to other men In the law written all theft is forbidden then what are you but law breakers that vse violence The law of grace condemneth you for it enioineth you to giue of your owne to other men but you driue other men from their own O what impietie is this to defraud nature to abuse God to despise grace and afflict man In the Romane lawes as Cato witnesseth théeues were punished by the double and taxed to restore twise that thing in value which they had taken away by villany in Gods law thieues are excluded from Gods kingdome Oh earthly men consider what you loose by winning so wickedlie you loose your liuing soules to norish your deadlie sinnes you loose heauen to purchase hel You loose honor to win infamie brieflie the poore curse you the rich hate you the Prince condemneth you the Magistrate plagueth you what miseries then worke you for your selfe when on earth you are estranged from all societie in heauen forsaken for your impietie in hell euerlastingly plauged for your securitie Oh repent you presentlie or too lately is too lamentably who deferreth his repentance hasteneth his plague where time is swift the world but a shadow mans life but a moment his death imminent how vaine is his delay in repentance where reuenge outstrippeth time terrifieth the world shortneth the shortnesse of life and whets on death and damnation Further would this holie father haue discoursed and more earnestlie would he haue vrged his arguments But that a miscreant wretch who had neuer God in his lips but to blaspheme him nor remorse in his heart where blood was to bée shead séeing the rest of his fellowes some what amazed at these his persuasions drew out his sword and purposelie ran at him to pierce his brest when loe after a terrible and hideous crie the heauen ouercast the earth opened and from the lowest hel a fiend appeared in shape ouglie in threats dreadfull who seazing the sinfull wretch first flong him vp into the aire then threw him on the ground sometime turning his lims from their naturall places other whiles thundring out oracles of the wretches condemnation till Menas mooued by compassion and his companions terrified by example humbly knéeling dispossessed him by praier whom the Deuil had possessed for his sinne finallie the catiue reconciled his soultiers scholed and Menas recompenced they returned to their armie reporting his fame whilst he resorted to his meditations to yéeld thanks for their reconcilements Neither was Gods power so tied to defend him from men but that he likewise protected him from sauage beasts so that being earnest in their prey he subdued them by praier making them feare at his presence who otherwise caused all men to runne from their pursute His studie likewise was to haue nothing in this world and hauing nothing to contemne all things his charitie was to embrace all that visited him and to conuert all that heard him frée was he in reproouing the prowd and reconciling the penitent To be short his solitude made him beloued of God defended from men preserued from beasts and lastlie a Citizen of heauen Metrodorus that had left his solitarie thoughts to listen to his holie historie hearing so many miracles at first grew amazed but subdued by self opinion which quicklie peruerteth our faith he brake out into this reply which be wrated his infirmitie Though thy life old Hermit be the example of modestie yet thy words are so wonderfull as they deserue no credit miracles are for more then men and those are our best obiects that are subiect to our sences bring therefore better authoritie to confirme our beliefe or for my part I shal thinke the storie is rather an Hiperbole then a historie Metrodorus quoth Anthonie this prooues thée to be carnall because thou comprehendest nothing that is eternall and therfore worldlie wits as Gregorie saith beléeue not spirituall things because they behold not that in experiment which they heare by report the reasons whereof I will expresse thée because I am willing to confirme thée Looke as a child borne in prison and nourished in obscuritie bearing nothing but the solitarie cries of his mother séeing nothing but the desolation of all delight seemeth holie assured in the 〈◊〉 of his sences suspitious in all other approued certainties so that if his mother tel of the sunne he beléeueth nothing but obseuritie if she talke of 〈◊〉 Moone and Starres he trusteth nothing to be in that he sées not their being so carnall men hauing all things by hearsay beléeue nothing but in experience liuing in the obscurities of the world they admit nothing that excéedeth their conceits and hauing the marke of sinne in their bodies norish not the light of contemplation in their soules With Adam their father they are taxed to labours but with Adam their father they conceaue not their fall for the memorie of his former pleasures remaineth in him but the remisconceit worldlie blindnesse choketh thē he remembring his former happinesse vert they nourished in their worldlie frailties delight therein
aduersary Demon because experienced in many things and Belial because yoakles and an Apostata Leuiathan because the complement of all this deuouring soule and bodie affecting and séeking obscuritie accusing and calumniating the iust bringing message of mischiefe assailing vs by his craft beguiling vs by his experience seduring vs by his Apostacie and planting in vs the excesse of all impietie Briefly diuels as a father saith are desirous to hurt deuoid of Iustice swelling in pride swallowed with enuie craftie in deceit who dwell in this aire and being cast from the height of the superior heauen are ordained and destinated to the prisō of obscurity in regard of their pride restraint of their power Their power is tied not in such sort as they may not tempt but as they may not tempt as they desire by nature permission they may do things in semblance true and séeming to the fantasie as y e Magitians rods in respect of Moises by permission as spoiling Iob and his flocks yet both these acts are held miraculous not in respect of nature but in respect of sences debilitie Ouer good men the deuils haue power to proue not to destroy ouer bad to destroy except repentant Their prison is the darkesome aire till the time of the Iudgement their hell the retreat of horror from whence the issue is remedilesse In mans enuie they tempt and impugne in his pride vsurpe and confound They assaile men by obiects because they know the senses most flexible they assaile by passion assured that the soule is subiect to perturbations they assaile by fantasie because as Aristotle saith the braine and heart are most subiect to unpression and fantasies They seduce by persuasion or inciting passion and that in two sorts as Damascene witnesseth where he saith Omnem malitiam immund as passiones a daemonibus fuisse excogitatas inuentas Those in the aire are till the iudgement enclosed for our exercise to impugne tempt and assault vs not beyond our power Some alreadie in hel which as now only afflict the soule but after iudgement shall torment both bodie and soule But is it true graue father quoth Metrodorus that the malignant spirit appeareth to man on his death bed Too true Metrodorus said Anthonie and that by common course for if it be certaine that a good angell is assistant to reléeue and succour vs it is necessarie that an euill angell should be prest to tempt vs for as the one is to helpe the other is to destroy and further as a Father saith as in the issue of a conquest men show greatest value so the néerer we approch to our end the busier is the feind to seduce vs as appeared by Martin the Bishop who séeing sathan assistant at his death bed said thus Quid hic astas cruenta bestia In what manner quoth Frumentarius my good father Anthony appeare they for as spirituall they cannot be séene because there ought to be proportion betwixt the obiect and the power I tell thée myson answered Anthonie they either appeare imaginatiuely by mouing humours and blood and thereby forme certain apparitions or they appeare in assumpted bodies appropriat to their intents and if suppositiuelie or according to imagination they appeare to none but to those to whom the vision appertaineth but if in an assumed body it is by their power and in that sort are subiect to many mens sights Besides in temptations they aime at fiue things first to corrupt faith by error next to kéepe man in superstition thirdly to induce vice fourthlie to produce tediousnesse and we arinesse in affliction Lastlie to confirme men in their iniquities that by that meanes they may be finally condemned and eternally perish Besides they continually tempt in desire not in power in desire because they are enuious in power because they feare to be subdued and suspect their owne weakenesse and to the end they might make the iust secure from temptations That there are workings then we are sure by deuils because they be that they hate we perceiue because they seduce that they are proud we are resolued in that they rebeld that they are selfe louers we know for it was their sinne all this thine arguments infer or thy reasons approue but for Magicke we doubt and in Magicke we would be resolued discourse therefore good Anthonie of that secret What should he discourse said Frumentarius where Pliny condemns it as false scornes it as vaine and denies it for anie thing One instance quoth Anthonie in Logicke destroies not an vniuersall proposition neither is priuat reproofe a general conuiction That it is it appeareth because forbidden that it is forcible it is manifest because taxed and condemned by law The name importeth effects aboue nature which though receiued for art is but méer folly They define Magicke to be the worker of many effects the reasons wherof are neither comprehēded by sence nor by any reason may be subiect to the mind or vnderstanding The schoolmen likewise deuide it as being of two sorts the one natural conuersing only in secret ending in naturall vertues which though vnknowne to most men is onelie admirable for obscuritie not effect for those effects are vnrightly admirable which are incident to nature the other diabolicall condemned by God laws and customes Touching the naturall it may be wrought without the concomitance or assistance of any spirituall bodie and those are rightly called Magi who are expert in those sciences and practised in those works for example consider these wondrous effects which resemble preposterous and diabolicall actions yet in effect are méerely naturall as is the stone Molaris which is found in Tigris which as Aristotle in his book De animalibus witnesseth being caried about a man defendeth him from the incursions of wild beasts and the hearb Dictamnum which being deuoured by goats driueth out those arrowes wherewith they are wounded as Pliny and other testifie And touching the effects of the loadstone if it were generally vnknowne to man he that first should either show it or vse it should be held a Magician for he should méerlie work miracles and séeme both the author and agent of incredible matters diuers fathers there be that haue diuerslie written of these secrets one of an iron ring fastened to a loadstone which by the vertue of the attractiue minerall drew linck by linck many other to the first till it séemed an absolute and vnited chaine Another registreth the historie of a wonderful fountaine in which torches were extinguished and extinct were lighted again Architas Doue Dedalus Laborinth both but the Proiects of wit were held Magicall and admirable Iohn of Mountroyall the Almaigne so memorable in Ramus in his booke of Mathematicall obseruation made an eagle which before the Emperor mounted into the aire and afterwards dulie stooping followed him to his gate His flie likewise of yron who beholding it would not rather haue held him for a diabolical Artist then an excellent Naturalist So then it
sooner was he arirued in that cittie but contrarie to all expectation his fame began to increase his studies to be more vehement his ambition more earnest so that he finally promised the Diuell if he would raise him to the dignitie of Papacie he would be his both bodie and soule This condition ratified betwéene them by these steps he presently ascended First became he tutor to Otto the emperor and afterwards to Robert of France making by this meanes diuers famous scholers and attaining thereby many mightie friends At last wearied with teaching which is a great busie trouble he exchanged his Academy into Archbishoprick his rod into a crosier his cap into a miter attaining the Archbishopricks of Rhemes and Rauenna by bribes and by Simony and not content with these but aspiring prowdlie to a higher place at last by many insinuations with the Diuell and promises to be his bodie and soule after death hée attained the Papacie not crowned by the Emperor as a holy diuine and Philosopher but like a most execrable damned Magician Installed thus in the soueraigntie he poisoned those whom he hated peruerted those whom he loued persecuted the professors of the truth hiding so much mischiefe vnder the shadow of holinesse as the world no sooner espied it but they began to detest him And because where honour is attaind it cannot be lost without discontent very curious of continuance of his life and desirous to escape death by magical incantations he so wrought the diuel that at last he gaue him this answer of his fortune Thou shalt liue so long saith he to Pope Siluester for the name of Gilbert he gaue ouer at his coronatiō til thou enter Ierusalem The vain man prowd of this replie fearing neuer in Rome to méet with Ierusalem and supposing the Prophecie extended to the citie in Paltestine where it only had relation to a Minster in Rome he followed banquetting tooke his delight and pleasure leauing nothing vn sought that might further his vanitie and securitie at last in the fourth yeare of his raigne and the tenth day of the first month whilest he sacrificed and said masse in Rome in the Cathedrall church of the holy crosse in Hierusalem on a sodaine he was warned hée should die and at last he perceiued how vainly he was deceiued where vpon moued with repentance and publickly confessing his sins to the people and exhorting to flie the baits of preposterous ambition and eschue the deceipts and magicall illusions of the Dwell he prepared himselfe to the death which sodainly followed charging his ministers amidst the pangs thereof that after his death they should cut his bodie into péeces and so scattered should lay it on a chariot not suffering him to be buried in any place but where they willingly rested At last he dead and his will effected both to shew Gods prouidence and to examplefie his mercie vpon vnfained repentance he was laid in a chariot so mangled and cut péecemeale and was conducted by the horses to the Cathedrall church of Lateran where willingly staying he was worthily burried she wing in his life the vanities of magicke and in his death the effectuall fruits of repentance Thus hast thou heard O Asterius a true and certaine example Which if thou follow the world will reioice in thy conuersion and thy soule shall haue comfort in my counsaile Thou hast wonne me holy hermit quoth Asterius not without sheading of teares and I long to be instructed in a better kind of studie my former delights are tedious to mine ears and my present state dangerous by my sins O Asterius said Anthonie as thou hast liued ill so learne to liue well take the benofite of Gods forbearance least thou be ouertaken with his iustice Thou séest a good matron will rather die then betray hir husband a stout captaine perish ere he leaue his souldiers so play thou by Christ as thy maister obserue him as thy guide follow him as thy iusticer feare him as thy redéemer loue him and learne to die for him who suffered death for thy follies duly bethinke thée now on the gréeuousnesse of sin hourely flie thou the occasions of offence learn in the beginning to resist temptations mortifie thy flesh that hath beguiled thy spirit kéepe thy toung from talking of vanities restraine thy heart from being intangled with the inordinate loue of visible delights séeke solitude flie idlenesse think God alwaies present and suspect sin alwaies egging and come and learne what the desert is and loue to liue with Anthony Great is my desire said Asterius and forward my zeale but I haue a father to loue a mother to content their presence is mine only comfort their absence my miserie Ah Asterius quoth Anthome this as Hierome saith is the Ram and battering Cannon of all pietie that knitteth vs so much to earthly loue as we despise heauenly Harke what Climachus saith It is better quoth he to gréeue our parents thē to discontent Iesus for he created and saued vs they onely loose vs by louing vs Gods loue must extinguish eternall loue and he that will be his must be wholy his Let not thy parents teares draw thée from him least thou increasest eternall teares to thy owne soule when thy Parents inuiron thee like bées and brey about thée like waspes complaining and lamenting propose thou thy sinnes to thy selfe that thou maist ouercome griefe with griefe Thou are bound to forsake thy father for Gods sake neither doest thou hate thy father by comming to Christ but thou makest him happie by producing thée who art sealed to Christ shall the celestiall trumpet of Christ draw thée to battell with the world saith Augustine Epist. 38. ad Laet. and shall thy mother retaine thée She counsaileth thée perhaps saith Barnard to flie solitude by this meanes is contrarious to thy health and her owne chuse therfore of both which thou wilt either to satissie ones foolish will or to loose boths saluation But if thou louest her truly forsake her rather least forsaking Christ to remaine with her she likewise perish for thy cause perhaps thou will say thou are not sure of thy vocation because thou art called publikely But heare what Barnard saith in 107 Epistle to Thomas Vox haec non sonat in soro nec auditur in publico secretum consilium secretum quaerit auditum auditui tuo gaodium pro certo dabit laetitiam si sobria aure perceperis Thou maist say that solitude wanteth thē delights of this life but I tel the with the wiseman Prouerbe 15 better to be called Ad oleum cum caritate quam ad vitulum saginatum cum odio Thou wilt say the solitarie life is subiect to temptations and I tell thée that those who are tempted are beloued and who abide the assault are worthy of the lawrell perhaps thou suspectest the necessaries of life but heare Augustine what he saith lib de Eleemos Thinkest thou that earthly necessaries shall faile thée where
in retaining and constant in obseruing That thou oughtest to take counsaile request it at Gods hand Iames teacheth thée where he saith If any of you lacke wisdome let him aske it of God Iacob 10. and Paule in his Epistle to the Colossians saith Whatsoeuer you doe either in word or déed doe it in the name of our Lord Iesus Christ giuing thanks to God the father For as Iames saith Euery best gift and euery perfect gift is from aboue descending from the father of lights with whom is no transmutation nor shadowing of alteration in demanding counsaile therefore at Gods hands thou must both be deuout and prouident to the end thou maist desire nothing at his hands but y t which shall stand with iustice and be correspondent to honestie and if so thou doe doubtlesse whatsoeuer thou wilt thou shalt obtaine For Christ faith whatsoeuer you shall aske of my father in my name he shal giue it you which thou maist thus vnderstand if thou be iust and demand iustly otherwise if thou desire vnlawfull things the iudgement shal light on thy selfe and the peruerse counsaile destroy thine own soule for as Iesus the sonne of Sirac saith he that worketh vngodly counsailes they shall returne and ouer whelme himself neither shall he know from whence they happen vnto him For if in the law of common freindship it be held both iniustice and iniurie either to request dishonest things or accomplish them being demanded much more in Gods cause who is our perfect friend and only kéeper of our soules ought we to be respectiue and therefore as Cato saith Quod iustum estpetito vel quod videatur honestum Nam stultum est petere quod possit iure negari Since therefore mans counsaile without Gods helpe is both weake and fruitlesse by reason that without him we may not do any thing let vs first of all séeke from him our counsaile and his iustice and all other goods shal bée annexed and tied vnto vs. Next of all thou must aske counsaile and examine it in thy selfe namely whether thy will peruert not thy reason thy superstition thy deuotion thy selfe loue thy iudgement briefly thou must chiefest of all so draw counsaile from thy selfe that thy moderation be not peruerted by rage nor thy discretion by light beliefe First take héed that neither thou thy selfe be irefull nor thy counsellor be wrothfull and that for many reasons First because the ireful man thinketh his abilitie to excéed his power and by that means he ouercommeth his owne abilitie for it is a true law that he who thineketh he can more then his nature ministers in excéeding his owne power thinketh himselfe to be imbaced secondly because the wrothfull man speaketh not according as iustice directs him but as the spléene peruerteth him Thirdly because wroth hindereth the mind whereupon the Poet saith Wroth lets the mind for feare it spie the truth In counsailes therefore and in other things thou must restraine the disturbed motions of thy soule and make thy desires obedient to the rules of loue and reason for so Tullie counsaileth when he saith Gouerne thy wrath because whē it hath power nothing may either be done rightly or consideratly for those thinges which are wrought with any perturbation can neither be done with constancie nor approoued by those that are absent wroth hath no meane neither doth interrupted furie admit any moderation For the irefull man accounteth al counsaile inconsiderat he that ouercommeth his wroth ouercommeth a great enemie and he can neuer be considerat that is sildome moderat in counsell likewise thou must auoid pleasure or cupidity least either y e one or other ouercome the sence and iudgement of either thée or thy chosen counsaile First because desire and couetousnesse is the root of all euils Paul ad Cor. Secondly because the voluptuousnes of the heart extinguisheth the light of the mind and containeth in it selfe all kind of inconuenience For Tully in his booke de Senectute saith That nature hath not giuen man more capitall or fatall enemies then the desires and pleasures of the bodie for from it spring rash and vnrefrained lusts inciting and peruerting the mind and after many enormities reckoned vp he concludeth that there is no place for vertue in the kingdome of pleasure For which cause there is nothing so detestable or pestilerous as to folow pleasure for where it taketh most head and roote there is all the light of the soule extinguished And truly pleasure is so bad that it neuer springeth except griefe forego it for as Alphonsus saith no man is delighted with drinking except he be foregréeued with thirst neither taketh any man pleasure in eating except he hath béene plagued with hunger neither affecteth any man rest except he hath béene agréeued and agrauated by labor beside this is to be noted that in euery and the least danger there is some imminent perill wherevpon the Philosopher said thus Whosoeuer is voluptuous cannot want vice Thirdly in thy counsailes other things thou must auoid and remoue couetous desire quia parat peccatum generat mortem as Iames saith Fourthly thou must auoid desire both in thy selfe and thy counsailers because all desires are the gates of hell by which we haue recourse vnto death Fiftly in thine actions and counsailes whatsoeuer thou must expell desire because it loueth nothing els but that which is vnlawsul therfore Seneca saith Ferocissima cupiditas pestis est quis solet egenos facere quos capit quia finemquerendi non inuenit alia enim cupiditas ex fine alterius nascitur Desire quoth he is a fierce plague which not only maketh thée poore when it surpriseth because it findeth no end in séeking for one desire is begotten by the issue and end of another and therefore in another place he saith he is stronger that ouercommeth his desire then hée which mastereth his enemie Sixthly desire in all affaires and actions is to be both remoued and reproued especiall to the end that infirmities may be auoided for if as it is prooued desire hath no end it deserueth and that worthily to bée dispised whereupon a father saith follow not infinit things for where is no end there can be no rest and where there is no rest there can be no peace and where there is no peace God cannot dwell for as Dauid saith His place is in peace and his habitation in Sion In counsailes likewise thou must auoid all hast and rashnesse for as in iudgement celerilie is condemned wherevpon it is wont to be said that hée is the best iudge that quickly apprehendeth and slowly iudgeth and againe he hasteth to repent him that swiftly censureth so is it written of counsaile in thy counsailes the longer thou hast deliberated thinke thou hast the righter done for the swiftest counsails are soonest repented Thou must not therefore either giue or take counsaile hastely or sodainly but with aduised deliberation and competent delay for as Seneca saith Lib de For.