that had regard and respect vnto those poor wretches took their cause into his hand to quit this prowd prelate with iust reuenge for his outrage committed against thē sending towards him an army of rats mise to lay siege against him with the engines of their teeth on all sides which when this cursed wretch perceiued he remoued into a tower that standeth in the midst of Rhine not far from Bing whether he presumed this host of rats could not pursue him but he was deceiued for they swum ouer Rhine thick threefold got into his tower with such strange fury that in very short space they had consumed him to nothing In memorial wherof this tower was euer after called the tower of rats And this was the tragedy of that bloody archbutcher that compared poor Christian soules to brutish base creatures and therfore became himselfe a prey vnto them as Popiel king of Poleland did before him In whose strange exāples the beams of Gods iustice shine forth after an extraordinary wonderfull maner to the terror feare of all men when by the means of small creatures he made roome for his vengeāce to make entrance vpon these execrable creature murderers notwithstanding al mans deuises impediments of nature for the natiue operation of the elements was restrained frō hindering the passage of them armed inspired with an inuincible supernatural courage to feare neither fire water nor weapon till they had finished his command that sent them And thus in old time did frogs flies grashoppers and lice make warre with Pharoa at the command of him that hath all the world at his beck After this Archbishop in the same ranke of murderers we find registred many Popes of all whome the notorious and markable are these two Innocent the fourth and Boniface the eight who deserued rather to be called Nocents Malefaces than Innocents Boniface for their wicked peruerse liues for as touching the first of them from the time that hee was first installed in the Papacy he alwaies bent his horns against the Emperor Fredericke fought with him with an army not of men but of excommunications cursings as their manner is seeing that all his thundering buls and canons could not preuaile so far as hee desired hee presently sought to bring to passe that by treason which by force he could not for hee so enchanted certain of his houshold seruants with foule bribes and faire words Hieron Marius that when by reason of his short draught the poison which he ministred could not hurt him hee got thē to strangle him to death Moreouer he was chiefe sower of that war betwixt Henry Lantgraue of Thuring whom he created king of the Romans Conrade Fredericks son wherein hee reaped a crop of discomfitures ouerthrows after which he was found slain in his bed his body being full of black marks as if he had ben beaten to death with cudgels Concerning Boniface Baleus after he had by subtle crafty means made his predecessor dismisse himselfe of his Papacy and enthronized himselfe therein hee put him to death in prison and afterward made war vpon the Gibilines and committed much crueltie wherefore also he died mad as we heard before But touching the murderers of Popes and their punishments for the same wee shall see more in the 43 chapter following whether the examples of them are referred that exceeding in all kind of wickednesse cannot bee rightly placed in the treatise of any particular commandement CHAP. XIX Other memorable examples of the same subiect IF wee descend from antiquities to histories of later fresher memory we shall find many things worthy report and credit as that which happened in the year 1405 betwixt two gentlemen of Henault Eguerron de monstr vol. 1. the one of which accused the other for killing a near kinsman of his which the other vtterly and stedfastly denied wheron duke William county of Henault offered thē the cōbat in the city of Quesney to decide the cōtrouersie by when as by law it could not be ended wherevnto they being come hauing broken their speares in two incountred valiantly with their swords at length hee that was charged with indeed guilty of the murder was ouercome of the other and made to confesse with his mouth in opē audience the truth of the fact Wherefore the County adiudged him in the same place to bee beheaded which was speedily executed and the conqueror honourably conducted to his lodging Now albeit this maner of deciding controuersies be not approued of God yet we must not thinke it happened at aladuentures but rather that the issue therof came of the Lord of hosts that by this means gaue place to the execution of his most high soueraign iustice by manifesting the murderer bringing him to that punishmēt which he deserued Eguerron de monstr vol. 1. About this very time there was a most cruel outragious riot practised performed vpō Lewis duke of Orleance brother to Charles the sixt by the complot deuise of Iohn duke of Burgundy who as he was naturally haughty ambitious went about to vsurpe the gouernmēt of the realm of France for that the king by reason of weaknesse of his braine was not able to manage the affairs therof so that great trouble vnciuil wars were growne vp by that occasion in euery corner of the realme As therfore he affected and gaped after the rule so he thought no means dishonest to attain vnto it and therfore his first enterprise was to take out of the way the kings brother who stood betwixt him and home Hauing therfore prouided fit champions for his purpose hee found oportunity one night to cause him to come out of his lodging late by counterfait tokens from the king as if hee had sent for him about some matters of importance and being in the way to S. Pauls hostle where the kings lodging was in Paris the poore prince suspecting nothing was sodainly set vpō with eighteen roisters at once with such fury violence that in very short space they left him dead vpō the pauement by the gate Barbet his braines lying scattered about the street After this detestable and odious act committed and detected the cruell Burgundian was so farre from shaming that he vaunted and boasted at it as if he had atchieued the most valorous and honourable exploit in the world so farre did his impudencie outstretch the bond of reason Neuerthelesse to cast some counterfait colour vpon this rough practise he vsed the conscience and fidelitie of three famous diuines of Paris who openly in publicke assemblies approoued of this murder saying That he had greatly offended if hee had left it vndone About this deuise hee emploied especially M. Iohn Petit a Sorbonist doctor whose rashnes and brasen-facednes was so great as in the counsell house of the king stoutly to auerre that that which was done in the death of
betwixt whome was great strife for the soueraigne dominion but to rid himselfe of all his trouble at once hee slew his brother Manlius by treason and after continued his raigne in tyranny and all vnlawfull lusts the space of twentie yeares but although vengeance all this while wincked yet it slept not for at the end of this space as hee was hunting hee was deuoured of wild beasts In the yeare of our Lord God 745 one Sigebert was authorised king of the Saxons in Brittaine a cruell and tyrannous Prince towards his subiects and one that chaunged the ancient lawes and customes of his realme after his owne pleasure and because a certaine Nobleman somewhat sharpely aduertised him of his euill conditions he malitiously caused him to bee put to death but see how the Lord reuenged this murder hee caused his Nobles to depriue him of his kingly authority and at last as a desolate and forlorne person wandering alone in a wood to bee slaine of a swine-heard whose maister hee being king had wrongfully put to death In the yeare of our Lord 678 Childerich king of Fraunce caused a Nobleman of his Realme called Bolyde to bee bound to a stake and there beaten to death without the pretence of any iust crime or accusation against him for which cruelty his Lords and commons being grieuously offended conspired togither and slew him with his wife as they were in hunting In the raigne of Edward the second and Edward the third Sir Roger Mortimer committed many villanous outrages in sheading much humane blood but hee was also iustlie recompenced in the end first he murdered king Edward the second lying in Barkley castell to the end hee might as it was supposed enioy Isabell his wife with whome hee had very suspitious familiarity Secondly hee caused Edward the third to conclude a dishonourable peace with the Scots by restoring to them all their ancient writings charters and patents whereby the kings of Scotland had bound themselues to be feudaries to the kings of England Thirdly he accused Edmund Earle of Kent vncle to king Edward of treason and caused him vniustly to be put to death And lastly he conspired against the king to worke his destruction for which and diuerse other things that were laid to his charge he was worthely and iustly beheaded In the raigne of Henry the sixt Humfry the good duke of Gloucester faithfull protector of the king by the meanes of certaine malicious persons and especially the Marques of Suffolke as it was suspected was arrested cast into hold strangled to death in the Abbey of Bury for which cause the Marques was not only banished the land for the space of fiue yeares but also banished out of his life for euer for as he sailed towards France he was met withall by a ship of warre and there presently beheaded and the dead corps cast vp at Douer that England wherein hee had committed the crime might be a witnesse of his punishment As the murder of a gentleman in Kent called maister Arden of Feuersham was most execrable so the wonderfull discouerie thereof was exceeding rare this Arden being somewhat aged had to wife a young woman no lesse faire then dishonest who being in loue with one Mosby more then her husband did not onely abuse his bed but also conspired his death with this her companion for togither they hired a notorious ruffian one Blacke Will to strangle him to death with a towell as hee was playing a game at tables which though secretly done yet by her own guiltie conscience and some tokens of blood which appeared in the house was soon discouered and confessed Wherfore she her selfe was burnt at Canterbury Michael maister Ardens man was hanged in chaines at Feuersham Mosby and his sister were hanged in Smithfield Greene another partner in this bloody action was hanged in chaines in the high way against Feuersham And Blacke Will the ruffian after his first escape was apprehended and burnt on a scaffold at Flushing in Zealand And thus all the murderers had their deserued dewes in this life and what they endured in the life to come except they obtaine mercy by true repentance it is easie to iudge CHAP. XI Of Paricides or parent murderers IF all effusion of humane blood bee both horrible to behold and repugnant to nature then is the murdering of parents especially detestable when a man is so possessed with the deuill or transported with a hellish fury that he lifteth vp his hand against his owne naturall father or mother to put thē to death this is so monstrous and inormious an impiety that the greatest Barbarians euer haue had it in detestation wherefore it is also expressely commanded in the law of God that vvhosoeuer smiteth his father or mother in what sort soeuer though not to death Exod. 21. yet he shall die the death If the disobedience vnreuerence and contempt of children towards their parents are by the iust iudgement of God most rigorously punished as hath ben declared before in the first commandement of the second table how much more then when violence is offered aboue all when murder is cōmitted Diodor. Sic. Thus the Aegyptians punished this sin they put the cōmittants vpon a stack of thorns and burnt thē aliue hauing beaten their bodies before hand with sharp reeds made of purpose Solon being demanded why hee appointed no punishment in his lawes for Parricides answered that there was no necessity thinking that the wide world could not affoord so wicked a wretch It is said that Romulus for the same cause ordained no punishment in his Common-wealth for that crime but called euery murderer a Parricide the one being in his opinion a thing execrable and the other impossible And in truth there was not for 600 years space according to Plutarchs report found in Rome any one that had cōmitted this execrable fact The first Parricide that Rome saw was Lucius Ostius after the first Punick war although other writers affirme that M. Malliolus was the first and Lucius the second howsoeuer it was they both vnderwent the punishment of the law Pompeia which enacted that such offendors should be thrust into a sack of lether an ape a cock a viper a dog put in to accōpany them then to be thrown into the water to the end that these beasts being enraged animated one against another might wreke their teene vpon them so depriue thē of life after a strange fashion being debarred of the vse of aire water earth as vnworthy to participate the very elements with their deaths much lesse with their liues which kind of punishmēt was after practised and confirmed by the constitution of Constantine the great And albeit the regard of the punishmēt seemed terrible the offence it self much more monstrous yet since that time there haue ben many so peruerse exceedingly wicked as to throw themselues headlong into that desperat gulfe As Cleodorick son of Sigebert king of
Caracalla tooke to wife his mother in law allured thereunto by her faire enticements whose wretched and miserable end hath already beene touched in the tenth Chapter of this booke The Emperour Heraclius after the decease of his first wife married his owne neece the daughter of his brother which turned mightily to his vndoing for besides that that vnder his raigne and as it were by his occasion the Saracens entred the borders of Christendome and spoiled and destroied his dominions vnder his nose to his soule and vtter disgrace hee was ouer and aboue smitten corporally with so grieuous and irkesome a disease of dropsie that hee died thereof Thus many men run riot by assuming to themselues too much libertie and breake the bounds of ciuill honesty required in all contracts and too audaciously set themselues against the commaundement of God which ought to be of such authority with all men that none be they neuer so great should dare to derogate one iot from them vnlesse they meant wholly to oppose themselues as profest enemies to God himselfe and to turne all the good order of things into confusion All which notwithstanding some of the Romish Popes haue presumed to encroch vpon Gods right and to disanull by their foolish decrees the lawes of the almightie Sleid. lib. 9. As Alexander the sixt did who by his bull approoued the incestuous marriage of Ferdinand king of Naples with his owne Aunt his father Alphonsus sister by the fathers side which otherwise saith Cardinall Bembus had beene against all law and equitie and in no case to be tollerated and borne withall Henry the seuenth king of England after the death of his eldest sonne Arthur caused by the speciall dispensation of Pope Iulius his next sonne named Henry to take to wife his brothers widdow called Katherine daughter to Ferdinando king of Spaine for the desire hee had to haue this Spanish affinitie continued who succeeding his father in the crowne after continuance of time began to aduise himselfe and to consult whether this marriage with his brothers wife might be lawfull or no and found it by conference both of holy and prophane lawes vtterly vnlawfull whereupon hee sent certain bishops to the Queene to giue her to know That the Popes dispensation was altogither vniust and of none effect to priuiledge such an act to whome shee answered that it was too late to call in question the Popes bull which so long time they had allowed of The two Cardinals that were in Commission from the Pope to decide the controuersie and to award iudgement vpon the matter were once vpon point to conclude the decree which the king desired had not the Pope impeached their determination in regard of the Emperour Charles nephew to the said Queene whome hee was loth to displease wherefore the king seeing himselfe frustrate of his purpose in this behalfe sent into diuers countries to know the iudgement of all the learned Diuines concerning the matter in controuersie who especially those that dwelt not farre off seemed to allow and approoue the diuorce thereupon hee resolued reiecting his old wife to take him to a new and to marry as he did Anne of Bullaine one of the Queenes maids of honour a woman of most rare and excellent beauty Now as touching his first marriage with his brothers wife how vnfortunate it was in it owne nature and how vniustly dispensed withall by the Pope we shall anon see by those heauie sorrowfull and troublesome euents and issues which immediatly followed in the necke thereof And first and foremost of the euill fare of the Cardinall of Yorke with whome the king beeing highly displeased for that at his instance and request the Pope had opposed himselfe to this marriage requited him and not vndeseruedly on this manner First he deposed him from the office of the Chancellourship secondly depriued him of two of his three bishopricks which he held lastly sent him packing to his owne house as one whom hee neuer purposed more to see Yet afterward being aduertised of certaine insolent and threatning speeches which hee vsed against him hee sent againe for him but he not daring to refuse to come at his call died in the way with meere griefe and despight The Pope gaue his definitiue sentence against this act and fauoured the cause of the diuorced ladie But what gained hee by it saue onely that the king offended with him reiected him and all his trumperie retaining his yearely tribute leuied out of this realme and conuerted it to another vse and this was the recompence of his goodly dispensation with an incestuous mariage wherein although to speake truly and properly he lost nothing of his owne yet it was a deepe checke and no shallow losse to him and his successors to be depriued of so goodly a reuenue and so great authoritie in this realme as hee then was CHAP. XXV Of Adulterie SEeing that marriage is so holy an institution and ordinance of God as it hath been shewed to be it followeth by good right that the corruption thereof namely Adulterie whereby the bond of marriage is desolued should bee forbidden for the woman that is polluted therewith despiseth her owne husband yea and for the most part hateth him and foisteth in strange seed euen his enemies brats in stead of his owne not onely to bee fathered but also to bee brought vp and maintained by him and in time to bee made inheritours of his possessions which thing being once known must needs stirre vp coles to set anger on fire and set a broch much mischiefe and albeit that the poore infants are innocent and guiltlesse of the crime yet doth the punishment and ignominy thereof redound to them because they can not be reputed as legitimate but are euer marked with the blacke cole of bastardy whilst they liue so grieuous is the guilt of this sinne and vneasie to be remooued For this cause the very heathen not onely reprooued adultery euermore but also by authority of law prohibited it and allotted to death the offenders therein Abimelech king of the Philistims a man without circumcision and therefore without the couenant Gen. 26. knowing by the light of nature for he knew not the law of God how sacred and inuiolable the knot of marriage ought to bee expressely forbad all his people from doing any iniury to Isaac in regard of his wife and from touching her dishonestly vpon paine of death Out of the same fountaine sprang the words of Queen Hecuba in Euripides speaking to Menelaus as touching Helen when she admonished him to enact this law That euery woman which should betray her husbands credit and her owne chastitie to another man should die the death In old time the Aegyptians vsed to punish adultery on this sort the man with a thousand ierkes with a reed Diodor. and the woman with cutting off her nose but hee that forced a free woman to his lust had his priuie members cut off By the law of
her enemies namely his sonne Callinicus who slew her with one of her sonnes and all that belonged vnto her and then he tooke again his old wife for which cause Ptolomie Euergetes sonne to Philadelphus renued war vpon him Herod the Tetrarch was so bewitched with the loue of Herodius his brother Philips wife Ioseph of the Iewish antiquitie lib. 18. cap. 7.9 that to the end hee might enioy her hee disclaimed his lawfull wife and sent her home to her father king Aretas who being touched netled with this indignity and disgrace sought to reuenge himselfe by armes and indeed made so hote war vpon him and charged his army so furiously that it was discomfited by him after which shameful losse he was by the Emperor Caligulas commandement banished to Lions there to end the residue of his daies Amongst the Remans Marcus Antonius was noted for the most dissolute and impudent in this case of diuorce Plutarch for albeit that in the beginning of his triumphirship he forsooke his first wife to mary Octauius his sister yet he proceeded further not content herewith but must needs forsake her to to bee with Cleopatra the queen of Aegypt from whence sprung out many great euils which at length fel vpon his own head to his finall ruin destruction for when he saw himself in such streights that no means could be found to resist Octauius hee sheathed with his own hands his sword into his bowels whē all his seruants being requested refused to performe the same being thus wounded hee fell vpon a little bed intreating those that were present to make an end of his daies but they all fled and left him in the chāber crying tormēting himself vntill such time that he was cōueied to the monumēt wherin Cleopatra was enclosed that he might die there Cleopatra seeing this pitifull spectacle all amased let down chains cords from the high window with the help of her two maids drew him vp into the monument vniting their forces and doing what they could to get his poore carcasse though by a shamefull vndecēt maner for the gate was locked might not be opened it was a lamentable sight to see his poor body al besmeared with bloud breathing now his last blast for he died assoon as he came to the top to be drawne vpon that cruell fashion As for Cleopatra who by her flattering allurements rauished the hart of this miserable man was cause of his second diuorce she plaied her true part also in this woful tragedy as she partaked of the sin so she did of the punishment for after she saw her self past hope of help her sweet heart dead she beat her own breasts tormented her self so much with sorrow that her bosome was brused halfe murdered with her blows her body in many places exulcerate with inflamations she puld off her hear rent her face with her nailes altogether in phrensied with grief melancholy distresse was found fresh dead with her two maids lying at her feet this was the miserable end of those two who for enjoying of a few foolish cursed pleasures together receiued in exchange infinite torments and vexations and at length vnhappy deaths togither in one the same place verifieng the old prouerbe For one pleasure a thousand dolours Charles the eight king of France Philip. de Cont. after he had ben long time married to the daughter of the king of the Romanes sister to the Archduke of Austria was so euill aduised as to turne her home again vpō no other occasion but to mary the duchesse of Britaine the sole heire to her fathers dukedome wherein he doubly iniured his father in law the Roman king for he did not only reiect his daughter but also depriued him of his wife the duchesse of Britaine whom by his substitute according to the maner of great Princes he had first espoused Bembus Bembus in his Venetian history handling this story somewhat mollifieth the fault when he saith that the Roman kings daughter was neuer touched by king Charles in the way of mariage all the while she was there by reason of her vnripe oueryong yeares After a while after this new maried king had giuen a hote alarme to all Italy and conquered the realme of Naples as the Venetians were deliberating to take the matter in hand of themselues to resist him Maximilian the Roman king sollicited them in the same thrust them forward aswell that he might confederate himselfe with the duke of Millan as that he might reuēge the iniury touching his repelled daughter so that by this means the French king was sore troubled at his return hauing to withstād him al the Venetian forces with the most part of the Potentates of Italy notwithstāding he broke through thē al after he had put the Venetians to the worst Philip. de Com. but being returned after this victorious triumphant voiage it happened that one day as hee led the queen to the castle of Amboise to see some sport at tenise he stroke his forehead against the vpper dore post of the gallory as he went in that he fel presently to the ground speechles Surseuil died incontinently in the place from whence though the filthiest sluttishest place about the castle they remoued not his body but laid it on a bed of straw to the veiw of the world from two of the clocke in the afternoone till eleuen at midnight and this good successe followed at last his so much desired diuorce CHAP. XXX Of those that either cause or authorise vnlawfull diuorcements Mat. 19. ALthough the commandement of our Sauiour Christ bee very plaine and manifest That man should not seperate those whome God hath ioined together yet there are some so void of vnderstanding and iudgement that they make no conscience to dissolue those that by the bond of mariage are vnited Iudg. 15. of which number was Sampsons father in law who took his daughter first giuen in mariage to Sampson and gaue her to another without any other reason saue that he suspected that Sampson loued her not but what got he by it Marry this the Philistims prouoked against him consumed him and his daughter with fire because that by the meanes of his iniury Sampson had burned their corne their vineyards and their oliue trees 1. Sam. 25. After the same sort dealt king Saule with Dauid when he gaue him his daughter Michol to wife and afterward in despight and hatred of him tooke her away againe and bestowed her vpon another wherein as in many other things hee shewed himselfe a wicked and prophane man and was worthely punished therefore as hath ben before declared Froysard vol. 1. Hugh Spencer one of king Edward of Englands chiefest fauourits insomuch that his eare and heart was at his pleasure was he that first persuaded the king to forsake and repudiate the Queene his
sole possessor of the whole Island after this he inuaded many other Islands besides many cities in the same land he raised the Lacedemonians from the siege of Samos which they had begirt And when hee saw that all things fell out so well to his owne wish that nothing could be more fearing so great prosperity could not but carry in the taile some terrible sting of aduersitie and mischance attempted by voluntary losse of something of value to preuent the mischiefe which he feared to ensue and this by the aduise of his deare friend and ally the king of Aegypt therefore hee threw a ring which hee had in great price into the sea to the end to delude fortune as he thought thereby but the ring was after found in a fishes belly and offered as a present vnto him and this was an euident presage of some ineuitable misfortune that waited for him neither did it proue vaine and friuolous for hee was hanged vpon a gibbet of Sardis by the commandement of Orates the gouernour of the city who vnder pretence of friendship and coulor of rendering his treasure into his hands and bestowing vpon him a great part thereof promising also to passe the rest of his daies vnder his wing for fear of the rage of Cambises drew him to come priuately to speak with him and so easily wrought his will vpon him Aristodemus got into his hands the gouernment of Cuma Dionâ—s Halicar lib. 7. after hee had made away the principall of the citie and to keepe it the better being obtained hee first won the vulgars hearts by presents then banished out of the Citie their children whome hee had put to death and entertained the rest of the youth with such varietie of pleasures and delights that by those deuises hee kept himselfe in his tyrannous estate many yeares but assoone as the children of those slaine Citizens were growne to ripe yeares of strength and discretion being desirous to reuenge their fathers deaths they set vpon him in the night so at vnawares that they put him and all his family to the slaughter Plutarch Tymophanes vsurped a principality power and rule in Corinth a free citie and became so odious thereby to the whole people yea and to his owne brother Tymoleon also that laying aside all respect of nature hee slew him with his owne hands preferring the libertie of his countrie before any vnity or bond of bloud When the cities of Greece sayth Orosius would needes through too greedie a desire and Ambition of raigne Lib. 3. cap. 12. get euery one the maisterie and soueraigntie of the rest they altogither made shipracke of their owne liberties by encroching vpon others as for instance The Lacedemonians how hurtfull and vncommodious the desire of bringing their neighbour adioining citties vnder their dominion was vnto them the sundrie discomfitures and distresses within the time of that warre vndertaken vpon that onely cause befell them Oros lâ—b 3. ca. 2. beare sufficient record Seruius Tullus the sonne to a bondman addicted himselfe so much to the exploits of warre that by Prowesse hee got so great credite and reputation among the Romanes that hee was thought worthie to bee made the sonne in law of king Tarquinius by marrying one of his daughters Titus Liuius after whose death hee also vsurped the crowne vnder colour of the Protectorship of the kings two yong sonnes Who when they came to age and bignesse maried the daughters of their brother in law Tullius by whose exhortation and continuall prouokement the elder of them which was called Tarquinius conspired against his father in law and practised to make himselfe king and to recouer his rightfull inheritance and that by this means he watched his oportunitie when the greatest part of the people were out of the citie about gathering their fruit in the fields and then placing his companions in readinesse to serue his turne if need should be he marched to the pallace in the roiall robes guarded with a company of his confederats and hauing called a Senate as hee began to complaine him of the trecherie and impudencie of Tullius behold Tullius himselfe came in would haue run violently vpon him but Tarquinius catching him about the middle threw him headlong down the staires and presently sent certaine of his guard to make an end of the murder which hee had begun But herein the cruelty of Tullia was most monstrous that not only first moued her husband to this bloudy practise but also made her coach to be driuen ouer the body of her father which lay bleeding in the middest of the street scarce dead Manlius after hee had maintained the fortresse of Rome against the Gaules glorying in that action Parricide lib â— cap. 11. and enuying the good hap and prosperity of Camillus went about to make himselfe king vnder pretence of restoring the people to their ancient entire libertie but his practise being discouered he was accused found guiltie and by the consent of the multitude adiudged to be throwne headlong downe from the top of the same fortresse to the end that the same place which gaue him great glory might bee a witnesse and memoriall of his shame and last confusion for all his valiant deedes before done were not of so much force with the people to excuse his fault or saue his life as this one crime was of weight to bring him to his death In former times there liued in Carthage one Hanno Oros lib. 4. c. 6. who because hee had more riches than all the Commonwealth beside began to aspire to the domination of the citie which the better to accomplish he deuised to make shew of marrying his only daughter to the end that at the mariage feast he might poyson the chiefest men of credit and power of the citie whome hee knew could or would any waies withstand or countermand his purpose but when this deuise tooke no effect by reason of the discouerie thereof by certain of his seruants he sought another meanes to effect his will He got togither a huge number of bondslaues and seruants which should at a sodaine put him in possession of the citie but being preuented herein also by the citizens hee seased vpon a castle with a thousand men of base regard euen seruants for the most part whither thinking to draw the Affricanes and king of the Moores to his succour he was taken first whipped next had his eies thrust out and then his armes and legs broken in peeces and so was executed to death before al the people his carcas being thus mangled with blows was hanged vpon a gallowes and all his kindred and children put to death that there might not one remaine of his straine either to enterprise the like deed or to reuenge his death That great and fearefull warriour Iulius Caesar one of the most hardie and valiants peeces of flesh that euer was after he had performed so many notable exploits ouercome all his enemies
more manifest I will briefly reckon vp a catalogue of the cheifest of them In the yeare 1275 Lewline Prince of Wales rebelled against King Edward the first and after much adoe was taken by Sir Roger Mortimer and his head set vpon the tower of London In like sort was Dauid Lewlines brother serued Ries Madok escaped no better measure in stirring the Welchmeâ— vp to rebellion No more did the Scots who hauing of their owne accord committed the gouernment of their kingdome to king Edward after the death of Alexander who broke his necke by a fall from an horse and left no issue male and sworn feaulty vnto him yet dispensed with their oth by the Popes commission and Frenchmens incitement and rebelled diuerse times against King Edward for hee ouercame them sundrie times and made slaughter of their men slaying at one time 32000 and taking diuerse of their Nobles prisoners In like manner they rebelled against King Edward the third who made three voiages into that land in the space of foure yeares and at euerie time ouercame and discomfited them in so much that well neare all the nobilitie of Scotland with infinite number of the common people were slaine Thus they rebelled in Henry the sixts time and also Henrie the eights and diuerse other kings raignes euer when our English forces were busied about forraine warres inuading the land on the other side most traiterously And thus it is to bee feared they will euer doe except they degenerate from their old natures and therefore it ought to bee a Caueat to vs how wee trust them in any extremity but neuerthelesse they euer yet were whipped for their treason as the histories of our English Chronicles doe sufficiently record â—â—nquet In the raigne of king Henry the fourth there rebelled at one time against him Sir Iohn Holland D. of Excester with the Dukes of Aumarle Surrey Salisburie and Gloucester and at another time Sir Thomas Percie Earle of Worcester and Henry Percie sonne to the Earle of Northumberland at another Sir Richard Scroope Archbishop of Yorke and diuerse others of the house of the Lord Moubray at another time Sir Henry Percie the father Earle of Northumberland the Lord Bardolph And lastly Ryce ap Dee and Owen Glendour two Welchmen all which were either slaine as Sir Hendry Percie the yoonger or beheaded as the rest of these noble rebels or starued to death as Owen Glendour was in the mountains of Wales after he had deuoured his owne flesh In the raigne of Henry the fift Sir Richard Earle of Cambridge Sir Richard Scroope treasurer of England and Sir Thomas Gray were beheaded for treason No lesse was the perfidious and vngratefull trecherie of Humfrey Banister an Englishman towards the duke of Buckingham his Lord maister whom the said duke had tenderly brought vp exalted to great promotion For when as the duke being driuen into extremity by reason of the seperation of his army which he had mustered together against king Richard the vsurper fled to the same Banister as his trustiest friend to be kept in secret vntill hee could find oportunity to escape This false traitor vpon hope of a thousand pounds which was promised to him that could bring forth the duke betraied him into the haÌ„ds of Iohn Mitton sheriefe of Shropshire who conueied him to the citie of Salisbury where king Richard kept his houshold where he was soon after put to death But as for vngrateful Banister the vengeaÌ„ce of God pursued him to his vtter ignominy for presently after his eldest son became mad died in a bores stie his eldest daughter was sodainly stricken with a foule leprie his second sonne marueilously deformed of his lims and lame his yoongest sonne drowned in a puddle And he himself in his old age arraigned and found guiltie of a murder and by his clergie saued And as for his thousand pounds king Richard gaue him not a farthing saying that hee which would bee vntrue to so good a master must needs be false to all other To passe ouer the time of the residue of the kings wherein many examples of treasons punishmeÌ„ts vpon them are extant to come nearer vnto our own age let vs consider the wonderfull prouidence of God in discouering the notorious treasons which haue ben preteÌ„ded so often so many against our soueraign now liuing Queen Elizabeth protecting her so fatherly from the dint of them all First therefore to begin with the chiefest the Earle of NorthumberlaÌ„d Westmerland in the eleuenth year of her raign began a rebellioÌ„ in the North pretending their purpose to bee sometimes to defend the Queens person gouernment from the inuasion of strangers and sometimes for conscience sake to seeke reformation of religion vnder colour whereof they got together an army of men to the number of sixe thousand souldiors against whom marched the Earle of Sussex leiutenant of the North and the Earle of Warwick sent by the Queen to his aid whose approch stroke such a terror into their hearts that the two Earles with diuerse of the Archrebels fled by night into Scotland leauing the rest of their companie a prey vnto their enemies whereof threescore and sixe or thereabout were hanged at Durham As for the Earles one of them to wit of Northumberland was after taken in Scotland and beheaded at Yorke Westmerland fled into another countrie and left his house and family destroied and vndone by his folly A while after this what befell to Iohn Throgmorton Thomas Brooke George Redman and diuerse other Gentlemen at Norwich who pretended a rebellion vnder the colour of suppressing strangers were they not discouered by one of their owne conspiracy Thomas Ket and executed at Norwich for their paines The same end came Francis Throgmorton to whose trecheries as they were abominable touching the Queens owne person so they were disclosed not without the especial prouidence of God But aboue all that vile and vngratefull Traitor William Parry vpon whome the Queene had poured plentifully her liberalitie deserueth to bee had in euerlasting remembrance to his shame whose Treasons being discouered hee paied the tribute of his life in recompence thereof What shall I say of the Earle of Arundell and a second Earle of Northumberland Did not the iustice of God appeare in both their endes when being attainted for Treason the one slew himselfe in prison and the other died by course of nature in prison also Notorious was the conspiracie of those Arch-traitors Ballard Babington Sauadge and Tylney c. yet the Lord brought them downe and made them spectacles to the world of his iustice Euen so that notorious villaine doctor Lopus the Queens Phisitian who a long time had not onely beene an intelligencer to the Pope and King of Spaine of our English counsailes but also had poysoned many Noblemen and went about also to poyson the Queene her selfe was he not surprised in his trecherie and brought to suddaine destruction In summe
same cup which his predecessors did he was taken in his own snare for Darius vnderstanding his pretence made him drinke vp his owne poyson which he prouided for him and thus murder was reuenged with murder and poyson with poyson Exod. 22.24 according to the decree of the almighty who sayth Eie for eie tooth for tooth c. In the yeare of the world 3659 Morindus a most cruell and bloodie minded Prince raigned here in England who for his cruelties sake came to an vnhappie and bloodie end Stow. for out of the Irish seas came foorth a monster which destroied much people whereof he hearing would of his valiant courage needs fight with it and was deuoured of it so that it may truly here bee said that one monster deuoured another There was as Elianus Elianus reporteth a cruell and pernicious Tyrant who to the end to preuent all practises of conspiracie and treason as Tyrants are euer naturally and vpoâ— desert timorous that might bee deuised against him enacted this law among his subiects that no man should conferre with another either priuately or publickely vpon paine of death and so indeed hee abrogated all ciuill societie for speech as it was the beginning and birth of fellowship so it is the very ioint and glew therof but what cared he for society that respected nothing but his owne safety hee was so far from regarding the common good that when his subiects not daring to speake signified their minds by signes hee prohibited that also and that which is yet more when not daring to speake nor yet make signes they fell to weeping lamenting their misery he came with a band of men euen to restrain their teares too but the multitudes rage being iustly incensed they gaue him such a desperate welcome that neither he nor his fellowes returned one of them aliue And thus his abhominable cruelty came to an end together with his life and that by those meanes which is to be obserued by which hee thought to preserue and maintaine them both Childericus who in the yeare 697 succeeded in the kingdome of Fraunce Theodoricke that for his negligence and sluggish gouernment was deposed and made of a king a Frier exercised barbarous and inhumane cruelty vpon his subiects Michael Rit l b. 1. de regibus Franc. Lib. 2. cap. 46. For hee spared neither noble nor ignoble but mixtly sent them to their graues without respect of cause or iustice One of the noble sort hee caused to bee fastened to a stake and beaten with clubs not to death but to chastisement which monstrous cruelty so incensed the peoples mind against him that there wanted no handes to take part with this clubbeaten man against the tyrant his enemie Wherfore they laid wait for him as hee came one day from hunting and murdered him togither with his wife great with child no man either willing or daring to defend him Tymocrates the king or rather tyrant of the Cyrenians wil giue place to none in this commendation of cruelty for hee â—fflicted his subiects with many and monstrous calamities â—nsomuch that hee spared not the priests of his gods which commonly were in reuerent regard among the Heathen as the bloody death of Menalippus Apolloes Priest did witnesse whome to the end to marry his faire and beautiful wife Aretaphila hee cruelly put to death howbeit it prospered not with him as he desired for the good woman not contented with this sacrilegious contract sought rather meanes to reuenge her first husbands death than to please this new lechers humour Wherefore she assaied by poyson to effect hir wish and when that preuailed not she gaue a young daughter shee had to Leander the tyrants brother to wife who loued her exceedingly but with this condition that hee should by some practise or other worke the death and destruction of his brother Which indeed hee performed for hee so bribed one of the groomes of the tyrants chamber that by his helpe he soone rid wicked Tymocrates out of the way by a speedy deserued death But to abridge these long discourses let vs looke into all times and ages and to the hystories of all countries and nations and we shall find that tyrants haue euer coâ—â— to one destruction or other Diomedes the Thracian king fed his horses with mans flesh as with prouender Plut. in Dion but was made at last prouender for his owne horses himselfe by Hercules Calippus the Athenian that slew Dian his familiar friend and deposed Dionisius the Tyrant and committed many other murders among the people was first banished Rheginum and then liuing in extreame necessity Philip. Melanct. lib. 3. Valemar slaine by Leptines and Polyserchon Clephes the second king of the Lumbardies for his sauadge cruelty towards his subiects was slaughtered by one of his friends Damasippus that massacred so many citizens of Rome was cut off by Silla Ecelinus that plaied the tyrant at Taurisium gelding boies deflouring maides maiming Matrones of their dugs cutting children out of their mothers bellies and killing 1200 Patauians at once that were his friendes Sabel lib. 8. c. 3. was cut short in a battaile In a word if wee read and consult hystories of all countries and times wee shall find seldome or neuer any notorious Tyrant and oppressor of his subiects that came to any good end but euer some notable iudgement or other fell vpon them CHAP. XXIII Of those that are both cruell and disloiall NOw if it bee a thing so vnworthy and euill beseeming a Prince as nothing more to bee stained with the note of cruelty how much more dishonourall is it when with crueltie disloialtie and falshood is coupled and when hee is not ashamed not onely to play the Tyrant but also the traitor dissembler and Hypocrite to the end hee may more freely poure out the fome of his rage against those that put confidence in him This is one of the foulest and vilest blots that can bee wherewith the honour and reputation of a man is not onely stained but blasted and blotted out not euer to bee recouered for what persuasion can one haue of such Or who is so fond as to put affiance in them 2. Sam. 18. This was one of the notorious vices of king Saul when maligning the prosperity of Dauid hee cunningly promoted him to bee generall of his army and married him to one of his daughters to this end that by exposing him to the hazards and perrils of warre hee might bring him to speedy destruction seeking besides other vnlawfull meanes to put him to death by but what was the end of this vniust murderer wee haue declared in the former chapter But aboue all that by Treason and deceit made way vnto their cruelty Herodian the Emperour Antonius surnamed Caracalla was the chiefe who to reuenge himselfe more at full vpon the Citizens of Alexandria in Aegypt faigne as if hee would come see their city built by Alexander and receiue an
who vpoÌ„ condition of hir yeelding to his lust and payment of 200 duccats promised safe deliuerance for him the poor woman seeing that nothing could redeeme her husbands life but losse shipwrack of her owne honesty told her husband who willed her to yeeld to the captains desire not to pretermit so good an occasion wherfore she consented but after the pleasure past the traiterous and wicked captaine put her husband to death notwithstanding which iniury when she complained to Gonzaga duke of Ferrara hee caused the captaine first to restore backe her 200 dukats with an addition of 700 crowns secondly to marry her to his wife and lastly when hee hoped to enioy her body to be hanged for his trecherie O noble Iustice and comparable to the worthiest deeds of antiquitie and deseruing to be held in perpetuall remembrance As these before mentioned excelled in punishing this sin so this fellow following excelled in committing it and in being punished for it Theat histor his name is Nouellus Cararius Lord of Pauie a man of note and credite in the world for his greatnesse but of infamy and discredit for his wickednesse This man after many cruell murders and bloodie practises which he exercised in euery place where he came fell at last into this notorious and abhominable crime for lying at Vincentia hee fell in loue with a young maid of excellent beautie but more â—ent honestie an honest citizens daughter whome hee â—anded her Parents to send vnto him that hee might haue his pleasure of her but when they regarding their credit and shee her chastitie more then the Tyrants command refused to come he tooke her violently out of their house and constrained her body to his lust and after to ad crueltie to villanie chopt her into small peeces and sent them to her Parents in a basket for a present wherewith her poore father astonished caried it to the Senate who sent it to Venice desiring them to consider the fact and to reuenge the cruelty The Venetians vndertaking their defence made war vpon the Tyrant and besieging him in his own city took him at last prisoner and hanged him with his two sons Francis and William Diocles sonne of Pisistratus Tyrant of Athens for rauishing a maid Lanquet was slain by her brother whose death when Hippias his brother vndertooke to reuenge and caused the maidens brother to be racked that he might discouer the other conspirators he named al the tyrants friends which by commandement being put to death the Tyrant asked whither there were any more none but only thy selfe quoth hee whome I would wish next to be hanged wherby it was perceiued how abundantly he had reuenged his sisters chastitie by whose notable stomacke all the Athenians being put in remembrance of their libertie expelled their tyrant Hippias out of their city Mundus a young Gentleman of Rome Lanquet chron rauished the chast Matron Paulina in this fashion when he perceiued her resolution not to yeeld vnto his lust hee persuaded the priests of Isis to say that they were warned by an Oracle how that Anubius the god of Aegypt desired the company of the said Paulina to whome the chast Matrone gaue light credence both because she thought the Priests would not lie and also because it was accounted a great renowne to haue to do with a god and thus by this meanes was Paulina abused by Mundus in the temple of Isis vnder the name of Anubius which thing being after disclosed by Mundus himself was thus iustly reuenged the Priests were put to death the temple beaten downe to the ground the image of Isis throwne into Tiber and the young men banished In the yeare of our Lord 955 Edwine succeeding his vncle Eldred was king of England Lanquet This man was so impudent that in the very day of his Coronation hee soddainely withdrew himselfe from his lords and in sight of certaine persons rauished his owne kinswoman the wife of a Nobleman of his realme and afterward slew her husband that he might haue vnlawfull vse of her beautie for which act he became so odious to his subiects and nobles that they iointly rose against him and depriued him of his crowne when hee had raigned foure yeares CHAP. XX. Other examples of Gods Iudgements vpon Adulterers AMongst all other things this is especially to bee noted how God for a greater punishment of the disordinate lust of men stroke them with a new yet filthy and stinking kind of disease called the French pocks though indeed the Spaniards were the first that were infected therewith by the heat which they caught among the women of the new found lands Paulus Iouius Ben. b. sowed the seeds thereof first in Spaine and from thence sprinkled Italy therewith where the Frenchmen caught it when Charles the eight their king went against Naples Guicciardine froÌ„ whence the contagion spread it selfe throughout diuers places of Europe Barbary was so ouergrowen with it that in all their cities the tenth part escaped not vntouched nay almost not a family but was infected From thence it ranne to Aegypt Siria and to the great Cair and it may nerehand truly be said that there was not a corner of the habitable world where this not only new and strange for it was neuer heard of in ancient ages but terrible and hideous scourge of Gods wrath stretched not it selfe They that were spotted with it and had it rooted in their bodies led a languishing life full of aches and torments and carried in their visages filthy markes of vncleane behauiour as vlcers boiles and such like that greatly disfigured them And herein we see the words of S. Paul verified 1. Cor. 6.18 That an Adulterer sinneth against his owne body Now for so much as the world is so brutishly carried into this sinne as to none more the Lord therefore hath declared his anger against it in diuers sorts so that diuers times hee hath punished it in the very act or not long after by a strange death Sabell Of which Alcibiades one of the great captaines of Athens may stand for an example who being polluted with many great and odious vices and much giuen to his pleasures and subiect to all vncleannesse ended his life in the middest thereof for as he was in companie of a Phrigian strumpet hauing flowne thither to the king of Persia for shelter was notwithstanding set vpon by certaine guards which the king induced by his enemies sent to slay him but they though in number many through the coÌ„ceiued opinion of his notable valor durst not apprehend him at hand but set fire to the house standing theÌ„selues in arms round about it to receiue him if need were Hee seeing the fire leaped through the midst of it and so long defended himselfe amongst them all till strength failed in himselfe and blowes encreasing vpon him constrained him to giue vp his life amongst them Plinie telleth of Cornelius Gallus and Q.
Iulia adulterers were without difference adiudged to death insomuch that Iulius Antonius a man of great parentage and reputation among the Romanes Lib. 4. Annal. whose sonne was nephew to Augustus sister as Cornelius Tacitus reporteth was for this crime executed to death Aurelianus the Emperour did so hate and detest this vice that to the end to scare and terrifie his souldiers from the like offence he punished a soldier which had committed adultery with his hostesse in most seuere manner euen by causing him to be tied by both his feet to two trees bent downe to the earth with force which being let goe returning to their course rent him cruelly in pieces the one halfe of his body hanging on the one tree and the other on the other Yea and at this day amongst the very Turkes and Tartarians this sinne is sharply punished So that we ought not wonder that the Lord should ordaine death for the adulterer If a man saith the law lie with another mans wife â—euit 20.10 if I say he commit adultery with his neighbours wife the adulterer and the adulteresse shall die the death Deut. 22.22 And in another place If a man be found lying with a woman married to a man they shall die both twaine to wit the man that lay with the wife and the wife that thou maist put away euill from Israel Yea and before Moses time also it was a custome to burne the adulterers with fire Genes 38. as it appeareth by the sentence of Iuda one of the twelue Patriarchs vpon Thamar his daughter in law because he supposed her to haue plaied the whore Beside all this to the end this sinne might not be shuffled vp and kept close there was a meanes giuen whereby if a man did but suspect his wife for this sin though shee could by no witnes or proofe be conuinced her wickednesse notwithstanding most strangely and extraordinarily might be discouered Numb 5. And it was this The woman publikely at her husbands sute called in question before the priest who was to giue iudgement of her after diuers ceremonies and circumstances perfourmed and bitter curses pronounced by him her belly would burst and her thigh would rot if shee were guilty and she should be a curse amongst the people for her sinne but if she was free no euill would come vnto her Thus it pleased God to make knowne that the filthinesse of those that are polluted with this sinne should not lie hid This may more clearely appeare by the example of the Leuites wife of whome it is spoken in the 19 20 and 21 chapters of Iudges who hauing forsaken her husband to play the whore certaine moneths after hee had againe receiued her to be his wife she was giuen ouer against her will to the villanous and monstrous lusts of the most wicked and peruerse Gibeonites Rape li. 2. c. 19. that so abused her for the space of a whole night togither that in the morning shee was found dead vpon the threshold which thing turned to a great destruction and ouerthrow in Israel for the Leuit when hee arose and found his wife newly dead at the dore of his lodging hee cut and dismembred her body into twelue pieces and sent them into all the countries of Israel to euery tribe one to giue them to vnderstand how vile and monstrous an iniurie was done vnto him whereupon the whole nation assembling and consulting togither when they saw how the Beniamites in whose tribe this monstrous villanie was committed make no reckening of seeing punishment executed vpon those execrable wretches they tooke armes against them and made warre vpon them wherein though at the first conflict they lost to the number of forty thousand men yet afterward they discomfited and ouerthrew the Beniamites and slew of them 25000 rasing and burning downe the city Gabea where the sinne was committed with all the rest of the cities of that tribe in such sort that there remained aliue but sixe hundred persons that saued their liues by flying into the desart and there hid themselues foure moneths vntill such time as the Israelites taking pitty of them least they should vtterly be brought to nought gaue them to wife to the end to repeople them againe foure hundred virgins of the inhabitants of Iabes Gilead reserued out of that slaughter of those people wherein man woman and child were put to the sword for not comming forth to take part with their brethren in that late warre And forasmuch as yet there remained two hundred of them vnprouided for the Ancient of Israel gaue them libertie to take by force two hundred of the daughters of their people which could not be but great iniury and vexation vnto their parents to be thus robbed of their daughters and to see them married at all aduentures without their consent or liking These were the mischiefes which issued and sprang from that vile and abominable adultery of the wicked Gabaonites with the Leuits wife One sin punished with another whose first voluntary sinne was in like manner also most iustly punished by this second rape and this is no new practise of our most iust God to punish one sinne by another and sinners in the same kind wherein they haue offended When king Dauid after hee had ouercome the most part of his enemies 2. Sam. 11. and made them tributaries vnto him and enioyed some rest in his kingdome whilst his men of war pursuing their victory destroied the Ammonites and were in besieging Rabba their chiefe citie hee was so inflamed with the beauty of Bathshabe Vriahs wife that hee caused her to be conueied to him to lie with her to which sinne hee combined another more grieuous to wit when he saw her with child by him to the end to couer his adultery he caused her husband to be slaine at the siege by putting him in the vantgard of the battaile at the assault and then thinking himselfe cocksure married Bathshabe But all this while as it was but vaine allurements no solid ioy that fed his mind and his sleep was but of sinne not of safety wherein he slumbered so the Lord awakened him right soone by afflictions and crosses to make him feele the burden of the sinne which hee had committed 2. Sam. 12. first therefore the child the fruit of this adultery was stricken with sicknesse and died next his daughter Thamar Absoloms sister was rauished by Ammon one of his owne sonnes 2. Sam. 13. 2. Sam. 15. thirdly Ammon for his incest was slaine by Absolom and fourthly Absolom ambitiously aspiring after the kingdome and conspiring against him raised warre vpon him and defiled his concubines and came to a wofull destruction All which things being grieuous crosses to king Dauid were inflicted by the iust hand of God to chastise and correct him for his good not to destroy him in his wickednesse neither did it want the effect in him for he was so farre from swelling
In this ranke deseruably we may place the second Dionysius his sonne Sabell that for his cruelties and extortions was slaine by his owne subiects who though at the first made shew of a better and milder nature than his father was of yet after he was installed in his kingdome and growne strong his wicked nature shewed forth it selfe for first he rid out of the way his owne brethren then his nearest kindred and lastly all other that but any way displeased him vsing his sword not to the cutting downe of vice as it ought but to the cutting the throats of his innocent and guiltlesse subiects with which tyrannie the people being incensed began to mutiny from mutinies fell to open rebellion persecuting him so that he was compelled to flie and to take harbour in Greece where notwithstanding he ceased not his accustomed manners but continued still freshly committing robberies and doing all manner of iniuries and outrages in wronging men and forcing both women and maids to his filthie lust vntill hee was brought vnto so low and so base an eb of estate that of a king being become a begger and vagabond he was glad to teach children at Corinth to get his poore liuing and so died in misery Clearchus another tyrant after hee had put to death the most part of the Nobles and chiefe men of account in the citie Heraclea vsurped a tyrannous authoritie ouer the rest Sabel amongst many of whose monstrous enormities this was one that hee constrained the widdowes of those whome hee had slaine against their wils to marry those of his followers whom hee allotted them to in so much that many of them with griefe and anger slew themselues now there were two men of stouter courage than the rest who pittying the miserable condition of the whole citie vndertooke to deliuer the same out of his cruell handes comming therefore accompanied with fifty other of the same mind and resolution as though they would debate a priuat quarell before his presence assoon as conuenience serued they diuerted their swords from themselues into the tyrants bosome and hewed him in peeces in the very midst of his guard Agathocles king or rather Tyrant of Sicile Sabel from a potters sonne growing to be a man of warre tooke vpon him the gouernment of the countrie and vsurped the crowne contrarie to the consent of his people he was one giuen to all maner of filthie and vncleane pollutions in whome trecherie crueltie and generally all kind of vice raigned and therfore was worthely plagued by God first by a murder of his yongest sonne committed by his eldest sonnes sonne that aspired vnto the crown and thought that he might be an obstacle in his way for obtaining his purpose and lastly hauing sent his wife and children into Aegypt for safetie by his own miserable and languishing death which shortly after ensued Romulus the first king of Rome was as Florus Florus testifieth transported by a deuill out of this earth into some habitation of his own for the monstrous superstitions coniurings thefts rauishments and murders which during his pompe hee committed and moreouer hee saith that Plutarch Plutarch the most credible learned writer among Historiographers both Greek and Latine that euer writ auoucheth the same for true that hee was carried away one day by a spirit in a mightie tempest of thunder and lightning before the view of the whole multitude to their great astonishment insomuch that they fled at the sight thereof What shall wee say of Silla that monster in cruelty that most odious and execrable Tyrant that euer was by whom all ciuill order and humane pollicy was vtterly defaced and all vice and confusion in steed thereof set vp Did hee not procure the death of sixe thousand men at one clap Plutarch at the discomfiture of Marius and hauing promised to saue the liues of three thousand that appealed vnto his mercy did he not cause them to be assembled within a parke and there to haue their throats cut whilest hee made an oration to the Senate It was hee that filled the channels of the streets of Rome other cities in Italy with blood slaughters innumerable and that spared neither altar temple or other priuiledged place or house whatsoeuer from the pollution and destainement of innocent bloud husbands were slain in their wiues armes infants in their mothers bosomes and infinite multitudes of men murdered for their riches for if any were either rich or owners of faire houses or pleasant gardens they were sure to die besides if there were any priuate quarrell or grudge betwixt any citizen and some of his crue hee suffered his side to reuenge themselues after their owne lusts so that for priuate mislike and enmitie many hundreds lost their liues hee that saued an outlaw or proscribed person in his house of which there were too many of the best sort in his time or gaue him entertainement vnder his roofe whether hee were his brother sonne or parent whatsoeuer was himselfe for recompence of his courtesie and humanity proscribed and sold and condemned to death and hee that killed one of them that was proscribed had for reward two talēts the wages of his murder amounting in value to twelue hundred crownes whether it was a bondslaue that slew his master or a son that murdered his father comming to Prenest he began to proceed in a kind of iusticiall form amongst the citizens as it were by law and equitie to practise wrong and iniury but ere long either being wearie of such slow proceedings or not at leisure to prosecute the same any further he caused to meet together in one assembly two thousand of thē whom he committed al to the massacre without any maner of compassion as he was sitting one day in the midst of his pallace in Rome a souldior to whom he had granted the proscription of his dead brother as if he had been aliue whom he himselfe before the ciuill war had slain presented him in lieu of thāks for that great good turn the head of one Marcus Marius of the aduerse factiō before the whole city with his hāds al embrued in bloud which he also washed in the holy waterstack of Apolloes temple being neer vnto that place and all this being cōmended countenanced by Sill◠he decreed a general disanulment abrogation of all titles and rights that were passed before his time to the end to haue more libertie both to put to death whō he pleased to cōfiscat mēs goods also to vnpeople to repeople cities to sack pull down build to depose make kings at his pleasure the goods which he had thus seazed he shamed not to sell with his own handssitting in his tribunall seat giuing oftentimes a faire woman a whole country or the reuenues of a city for her beauty and to plaiers iesters iuglers minstrels and other wicked effranchised slaues great and vnnecessary rewards yea