entred into great part of the Atlantick shore wherein many townes citties and Islands were discouered and found forth in all which places by his meanes the faith of Christ was made knowne and Churches there erected especially in those Islands which before lay desart the principall whereof was the Iland of Wood commonly called Medeyra now a most famous and fruitfull Iland But in the end as there is no certaintie in mortal matters in the yeare of our Sauiour Christ one thousand foure hundred and three score this Henry was surprised by death and for that he was neuer married he had lest al which he had got by his voiages traueling by sea vnto the crown of Portugal as his proper inheritance which being giuen by his own hands continued vnto the time of Iohn the second of that name without enuy or emulation of other forraine kings or Princes In which Kings daies Columbus a Genoan borne a very skilfull Sayler being repulsed vnregarded and dismissed by the same King Iohn to whome he promised to discouer the West Indies by the ayde and furtherance of Ferdinand and Elizabeth King and Queene of Castile he most fortunately attempted the voyage and found out those large and ample prouinces to their great and vnspeakeable profit shewing also how they might come to them by shippes This Iohn oftentimes reuoluing in his minde the affaires of the East Indies of whose fruitfulnesse many and sundry things were deliuered by auncient writers Amongst his other great labours and costes whereof hee was no niggard hee determined to send certaine men skillfull in the Arabian tongue vnto those prouinces and especially vnto Prestor Iohn whereof two of them which hee sent were Alfonsus of Payua borne at the white Castell and another Iohn Peter of Couilham both Portingales These luckely began their iourney from Schalabiton the seauenth day of May in the yeare of our Sauiour Christ one thousand foure hundred foure-score and six and fayning them selues to be Marchants for their more quietter passage they iournyed first to Barchiona from thence to Naples and so to Rhodes then taking their iourney from Alexandria they arriued lastly at Cayre and their getting the company of some Marchants they tooke their iourny towards Thor where taking shipping they arriued neere a certayne citty called Cuaquen sytuated on the Aethiopian shore from thence they sayled towards Adenes where they agreed betwixt themselues that Alphonsus should returne againe into Aethiopia vnto Prestor Iohn and that Peter should go forward into India but Iohn hauing found out Calecut Goa and the whole shore of the Malabars sayled to Zofala and from thence againe to Adenes so went straight to Caire expecting to finde his companion there and that they might returne together into Portingale to their king for they appointed when they went from Adene to meete againe at a time limited at the same Cayre whither when he was returned he receyued letters from King Iohn out of Portugale by the hands of two Iewes whereof one was called Rabbi Abraham a Biensian and the other Ioseph a Lamacensian by which letters he was certified that his fellow Alfonsus was there dead and whereby hee was also commanded not to returne into his country before hee had vewed Ormuzia and saluted Prestor Iohn of whose state the king did greatly desire to be certified Wherefore Iohn Peter not knowing what his companion Alphonsus had done in his life time went backe againe to Adenes accompanied with the same Rabbi Abraham and sent Ioseph backe againe to the King with letters signifiing his trauels and what he had done so taking water sayled from Adenes to Oromuzia where leauing Abraham the Iew and dispatching him with more letters to the King he determined to saile towards Mecha which when hee had deseryed he ernestly desired to see mount Synai from thence hee departed to Thor and againe taking shipping and passing ouer the straights of the Erythrean sea hee came to Zeila and from thence went all the rest of the way on foote vnto the court of Prestor Iohn who was then called Alexander of whome beeing very curteously receiued hee deliuered vnto him the letters which hee had from King Iohn offerring into his hands also the Topography or Mappe wherein he might see all our voyage This Alexander determining to send him backe to his King was preuented by death that hee could not doe it who being dead his brother surnamed Nau succeeded him in his place of whome this Iohn Peter could neuer obtaine licence to depart into his country and Nau dying likewise his liberty to depart was in like manner denied him by Dauid the Sonne of Nau and next heire to his Kingdome but seeing hee could by no meaues haue leaue to depart from that prouince and to mitigate and asswage the exceeding desire he had to returne home the King bestowed vpon him most ample and large gifts and then he tooke to his wife a noble woman of whome hee begot many children This man our Embassadors found out in the court of Prestor Iohn and had conferrence with him from whence when they departed in the yeare of our Lord one thousand fiue hundred twenty and sixe they were very desirous to take him with them into their country and he himselfe was as willing to depart but they could neuer get leaue of king Dauid for hee euer answered to their desires that hee receiued that man of his father Nau when he receiued his Kingdomes and that hee would regard him with the like care and loue as he did his Kingdomes And that there was noe cause why it should bee irckesome to him to liue amongst the Aethiopians where both from his fathers liberality and his owne he had receiued great welth and riches This Iohn Peter as our Embassadors reported was skilfull almost in all languages for which cause and more especially for his wisdome which was very great was he so earnestly retayned of the Aethiopian Emperors from whome they exactly understood the estate of Portugall and their nauigations by the often recytall whereof as he was very learned and eloquent he purchased the loue and affections of the people of Aethiopia both to him-selfe and to vs all After Iohn the second King of Portugall was dead and Emanuell most happily succeeded him in his Kingdome he sent a nauy whereof Vascus a Gama was gouenor in the yeare of our redemtion one thousand foure hundred ninty and seauen for Aethiopia who disankerring at Vlysbone and recouering and escaping that dangerous poynt called caput bonaespei at last arriued in East India where by armes they reduced many prouinces and citties vnder our subiection and gouernment which newes being made knowne in Aethiopia by the borderers as also by some Portugalls which at that time came out of India to Prester Iohns Court Helena the grand-mother of David who by reason of Dauids non age had the administration and gouernment of his Kingdomes sent one Mathew Armenius a skilfull man and learned in
my owne part hath hitherto best contented my selfe and I trust hath beene most acceptable to God From the which if either ambition of high estate offered to mee in marriage by the pleasure and appointment of my Prince whereof I haue some records in this presence as you our Treasurer well knew or if the eschewing the danger of mine enemies or the avoyding of the perrill of death whose messinger or rather a continuall watch-man the Princes indignation was no little time daily before mine eyes by whose meanes although I know or iustly may suspect yet I will not now vtter or if the whole cause were in my sister her selfe I will not now burthen her therewith because I will not charge the dead if any of these I say could haue drawne or diswaded mee from this kinde of life I had not now remained in this estate wherein you see mee but so constant haue I alwaies continued in this determination although my youth and wordes may seeme to some hardly to agree together yet is it most certaine and true that at this day I doe stand free from any other meaning that either I haue had in times past or haue at this present with which trade of life I am so throughly acquainted that I trust in God who hath hitherto therein preserued and led mee by the hand will not of his goodnesse suffer mee to goe alone For the other part the manner of your petition I doe well like and take it in verie good part because that it is simple and contayneth no lymitation of place or person if it had beene otherwise I must needs haue misliked it verie much and thought it in you a verie great presumption beeing vnfitting and altogither vnmeete for you to require them that may commaunde or those to appoint whose partes are to desire or such to binde and limit whose duties are to obey or to take vpon you to drawe my loue to your likings or to frame my will to your fantasie For a guerdon constrained and a guift freely giuen can neuer agree together Neuerthelesse if any one of you bee in suspect that whensoeuer it may please God to incline my heart to another kinde of life you may well assure your selues my meaning or resolution is not to doe or determine any thing wherewith the Realme may or shall haue iust cause to bee discontented or complaine of imposed iniurie And therefore put that cleane out of your heads and remooue such doubtfull thoughts for I doe assure you what credit my assurance may haue with you I cannot tell but what credit it shall deserue to haue the sequell shall declare I will neuer in that matter conclude any thing that shal be preiudiciall to the Realme for the benefit weale good and safetie whereof I will neuer shunne to spend my life And whomsoeuer my chance shal be to light vpon I trust he shal be such as shal be as carefull for the Realme and you I will not say as my selfe because I cannot so certainelie determine of any other but at the leastwise by my good will and desire hee shal be such as shal be as carefull for the preseruation of the Realme and you as my selfe And albeit it might please Almightie GOD to continue mee still in this minde to liue out of the estate of marriage yet is it not to bee feared but hee will so worke in my heart and in your wisdomes as good prouision by his helpe may bee made in conuenient whereby the Realme shall not remaine and stand destitute of an heire to succeed mee that may bee a fit Gouernour and peraduenture more beneficiall to the Realme and generality then such off-spring as may come of mee For though I bee neuer so carefull of your well doings and minde euer so to bee yet may issue growe out of kinde and become perhaps vngratious And in the end this shal be for mee verie sufficient that a marble stone shall declare that a maiden Queene hauing raigned and ruled such a long time liued and died a virgine And heere I end and take your comming vnto mee in good part and giue vnto you all eft-somes my hearty thankes more yet for your zeale and good meaning then for your petition And thus farre Stowe THIS good Queene ELIZABETH was the last of the Royall issue of King Henry the eight shee died without any issue her selfe and left the Kingdome vnto Iames King of Scotland and next heire to the crowne of England King Iames the first of that name since the Conquest by the death of Queene Elizabeth vnited the two famous Kingdomes of England and Scotland which had beene long deuided the crowne of England rightfully and linially descending vnto him from Margueret eldest daughter to Henry the seuenth and Elizabeth wife of the sayd Henry eldest daughter to Edward the fourth which Margueret was maried to Iames the fourth King of Scotland who had issue Iames the fifth father vnto Mary the last Queene of Scots who was mother vnto Iames the sixth King of Scotland and of great Britan France and Ireland the first To omit Ireland an Island vnder our Kings dominion the people wherof of late yeeres haue growne to more ciuility by conuersing with other nations and to speake something more in perticular of this Island as now it is wee may deuide the whole Island of Britanny into three partes that is to say England Wales and Scotland Scotland the North of this Island hauing for a long time beene a Kingdome of it selfe seuered and distinct from England is now by this happy vnion as I said before made one againe with England and both of them gouerned by one King and Monarch This Country in respect of England is very barren and mountanous and the Inhabitants especially the vulgar sort farre more rude and barbarous their language in effect is all one with the English the Northerne Scots excepted which speake and liue after the Irish fashion nor is their any difference in their religion but all causes and controuersies bee there determined by the ciuill law as in most other Countries for with our common lawes of England they are little acquainted Wales an other part of this Island and the proper habitation of the Britans expelled thither out of England by the Englishmen was gouerned by Princes of their owne bloud vntil the raigne of Henry the third who slue Lhewellen ap Griffith the last Prince of the British race vnited that Prouince vnto the Kingdome of England and forced the Inhabitants to sweare fealty and alleagiance vnto Edward of Carnaruan his eldest sonne whom hee made Prince of Wales After the decease of Edward the first this title of Prince of Wales lay dormant during all the raigne of Edward the Second and was againe reuiued by Edward the Third who created his sonne Edward surnamed the Blacke Prince Duke of Cornwall Earle of Chester and Prince of Wales and euer since hath this title beene duely conferred vnto the
holy father which art ordained of God to be the consecrator and sanctifier of all nations and the possessor of Saint Peters seate to you bee giuen the keyes of the kingdome of heauen and whatsoeuer you either binde or loose vpon earth shall be bound or loosed in heauen as Christ himselfe hath said and as S. Mathew hath written in his Gospell I the King whose name the Lyons doe worship by the grace of God called Athani Tingil that is to say virgins incense which name I receiued in baptisme but now when I first tooke vpon mee the gouernment of the kingdome I assumed vnto me the name of Dauid the beloued of God the piller of faith the kinsman of the stock of Iuda the son of Dauid the son of Salomon the son of the piller of faith the son of the seed of Iacob the son of the hand of Mary the son of Nav by the flesh Emperour of great high Ethiopia and of great kingdomes dominions lands King of Xoa of Caffate of Fatigar of Angote of Baru of Baaligaze of Adea of Vangue of Goiame where is the head of the riuer Nilus of Damaraa Vaguemedri Ambeaa Vague Tigri Mahon of Sabain where Saba was Queene of Bernagaes and Lord vnto Nobia in the end of Egypt All these Prouinces be within my power and many other which now I haue not reckoned nor haue I expressed these kingdomes prouinces in their proper names for pride or vaine-glory but for this cause onely that God may be praised more and more who of his singular benignity hath giuen vnto the kings my predecessors the gouernement of such great and ample kingdomes of the Christian religion and yet surely hee hath made me worthy of a more excellent fauour and grace then other Kings that I might continually deuote my selfe to religion because he hath made me Adell that is the Lord and enemie of the Moores and Gentiles which worship idols I send vnto you to kisse your holines feete after the manner of other Christian Kings my brethren to whom I am nothing inferior neither in religion nor power for I within mine owne kingdomes am the piller of faith neither am I aided with any forreine helpe for I repose my whole trust and confidence in God alone who gouerneth and sustaineth me vp from the time wherein the Angell of God spake vnto Phillip that hee should instruct in the true faith the Eunuch of the mighty Queene Candace the Queene of Ethiopia as shee was going from Ierusalem to Gaza And Phillip did then baptize the Eunuch as the Angell commaunded and the Eunuch baptized the Queene with a great part of her houshold and of her people which hath euer sithence continued Christians remaining for all times after that firme and stable in the faith of Christ And my predecessors hauing no other aid but onely Gods asistance haue planted the faith in very large kingdomes which I my selfe doe likewise daily contend to effect For I remaine in the great bounds of my kingdomes like a Lyon incompassed about with a mightie wood and hedged and inclosed against the Moores that lye in waite for me and other nations which bee enemies to the Christian faith and refuse to heare the word of God or my exhortations But I my selfe being girded with my sword doe persecute and expell them out by little little indeed by Gods diuine helpe which I neuer found wanting which happeneth otherwise to Christian kings for if the limits of their kingdoms be large it may easily be obtained for that one may assist minister helpe vnto another and receiue further helpe by your holines benediction of which I am partaker seeing in my bookes be contained certain letters which long since Pope Eugenius sent with his benediction vnto the king of the seed of Iacob which blessing giuen by his own hands being accepted and taken I do enioy and thereof greatly reioyce And I haue the holy temple which is at Ierusalem in great veneration vnto which I oftentimes send oblations due by our pilgrimes and many more and fatter I would haue sent but that the passages bee hindred by Moores and Infidels for besides the taking away from our messengers our gifts and treasures they will not suffer them to passe freely but if they would suffer vs to trauell I would come into the familiarity fellowship of the Romane Church as other Christian Kings do to whom I am nothing inferior in the christian religion for euen as they belieue I confesse one true faith and one Church and I most sincerely beleeue in the holy Trinity in one God and the virginity of our Lady the virgin Mary and I hold and obserue all the articles of the faith as they were written by the Apostles Now our good God hath by the hand of the most mighty and Christian King Emanuell made the passage open and plaine that we may meete by our Embassadors and that we being Christians ioyned in one faith might serue God with other Christians But while his Embassadors were in my Court it was reported vnto me that K. Emanuel was dead that his son my brother Iohn had the rule of his fathers kingdome wherupon as I was sorrowful for my fathers death euen so I reioyced greatly at the happy entrance of my brother into his kingdome so as I hope that we ioining our power and forces together may make open the passages both by sea and land by the regions of the wicked Moores and greatly terrifying them vtterly expell them from their seates and kingdomes that the way being made fit peaceable christians may freelie come and go to the temple of Ierusalem And then shall I bee pertaker of his diuine loue in the Church of the Apostles S. Peter and S. Paul And I couet greatly to obtaine the sacred benediction of the Vicar of Christ for without doubt your holinesse is Gods Vicar and when I heare many things of your holines by trauellers pilgrimes that go and come miraculously from our countries to Ierusalem from thence to Rome they breed in me an incredible ioy pleasure but I should bee more glad if my Embassadors could make a shorter cut in their iourneies to bring newes vnto me as my hope is they will once do before I dye by the grace of almighty God who euer keepe you in health and holines Amen And I kisse your holines feet and humbly beseech you to send me your blessing These letters also your holines shall receiue at the hands of my brother Iohn King of Portugall by our said Embassador Francis Aluarez These Epistles translated by Paulus Iouius I haue ioined to this worke for the better knowledge of this historie wherein we haue changed nor altered nothing although in many places they require alteration some few excepted which being badly translated into Spanish out of the Arabian and Abesenicke language did cleane alter the whole order of the Epistles The same Iouius also in his
Abraham and his seed The Israclites lawes ordained by Moses Moses lawes The manner of the Iewes oblations The opinion of Heathen writers concerning the Iewes Three sectes of the Iewes The Pharises The Saduces The Esseians Media why so called The confines of Parthia Foureteene kingdomes vnder the Parthians The Confines of Persia and why so called The Persian gods The Persians create their Kings all of one family The discription and bignesse of India Fiue thousand Cities and 〈◊〉 walled townes in India The long liues of the Jndians The Jndians haue neither written lawes nor learning Their Kings are committed to the keeping of women The people of India once deuided into seauen orders The first was the order of Philosophers The second order of husbandmen The third order is of sheepheards Artificers the fourth order The fifth of of soudiers Tribunes in the sixth order The common Councell the seuenth order No slaues amongst the Jndians The Padae kill their friends when they be sicke The Cymnosophists The people called Cathiae Monstrous and prodigious people The Cathaeians Scythia why so called The Scythians delight in humane slaughter The Scythian gods How the Scythians bury their kings The Massagetae The Seres in Scythia The Tauro-Scythians The Agathirsi The Neuri The Anthropophagi The Melanchlaeni The Budini The Lyrcae The Argyphaei The Issedones The scituation of Tartaria Tartaria why it is so called Tartaria aboundeth with cattaile Foure sorts of Tartarians Canguista first King of Tartaria How the Tartarians are apparrelled Some Tartarians are Christians but very bad ones How the Tartarlans elect their Kings The Georgians a kinde of Christians The Armenians were Christians likewise till they were vanquished by the Tartarians The limits of Turkie Turkie inhabited by people of sundry nations Mahomet his parentage Sergius the Munck a helper of Mahomet Mahomets lawes compounded of diuerse sects The manner of the Turkes warfare Three sorts of footmen Friday a solemne holy day with the Turkes VVhereof the Clergie be so called The Creed The 10. Commandements The seuen Sacraments The festiuall dayes throughout the yeare Europe why so called The limits of Europe The commendations of Evrope The discription of Greece Thermopilae The Region of Greece Athens and why so called Dracoes lawes to the Atheninians The citty of Athens diuided into societies by Solon The councellin Areopagus A strange law for women Mony dowries forbidden Against slaunderers The punishment for adultery A law for the maintenance of souldiers children A law for the benefit of Orphanes and VVards The original of the Athenians Their inuentions The three lawes made by Cecrops against women How the Athenians bury those which are slaine in the warres Marathron is a city not far from Athens Lycurgus law giuen to the Lacedemonians Eight and twenty Elders elected Democratia Olygarchia or gouernment of the Tribunes The diuision of their land by the Olygarthy The vse of money prohibited and iron money made Men called their wiues their mistresses Maides exercises Old men that had young wiues permitted young men to lye with theÌ„ The manner of electing officers Lycurgus exild himself voluntarily The discipline of Creete No venimous creatures in Creete No King admitted that hath children because their Kingdome shal not be hereditary The King that offendeth is famished to death The diuision and bounds of Russia One seed time yeeldeth three haruests Russia aboundeth with Bees VVood turned â—nto stone The Russians cannot indure to call their Gouernor a King but a Duke as a name more popular Many Russians make themselues bondmen Lithuania is full of moores and fennes Samogithia The limits of Hungaria The limits of Boemia The ancient limits of Germany Germany deuided into superior and inferior Germany why so called The punishmeÌ„t for murder Drunkennesse a commendation amongst the Germaines The Germains were great dicers The later manners of the Germanes The Germains diuided into foure sorts of people whereof the first is the Clergie The second order is of the Nobilitie The third order is of cittizens Citizens deuided into two sects The fourth order is of husbandmen The limits of Spaine Saxony why so called The Saxons deuided into noble-men free-men libertines and slaues Merccury obserued as a god by the Saxons A Temple in Alberstade de dicated to our Lady The Saxons immoderate drinkers The bounds of VVestphalia Secrete Judges ordained by Charles the Great ouer the VVestphalians Franconia why so called The bounds of Franconia The fertility of Franconia The Princes of Franconia The Bishop of Herbipolis one of the Princes of Franconia The limits of Sueuia Sueuia why so called There may no wines bee brought into Suevia Much cloth made in Sueuia Bauaria why so called The bounds of Bauaria Bauaria heretofore gouerned by Kings but now by Dukes The lawes vsed in Bauaria which they receiued when they receiued Christianity The manner how the Carinthians elect their Duke A seuere punishment against theeues The discription of Stiria Italy first called Hesperià and then Ocnotria Italy why so called The length of Jtaly Jtaly deuided into many Prouinces The hill Apenine deuideth Italy into two parts The praise of Jealy Italy the nurse of all nations The commendations of Rome The stature and complexion of the Italians and how they differ Three sorts of Cittizens Three orders of Free-men The Dictator their chiefest officer Three sorts of Citties How Romulus disposed the cittizens of Rome into sundry orders and degrees The ground deuided into thirty equall parts The office of the Patritij How the Patritians and Plebeians behaued themselues one towards another The Centumviri elected which were after called Senators of Rome The election of three hundred yong men called Celeres The office of the King The office of Senators The priuileges of the Plebeians The office of Celeres The Milites elected The lictores ordayned â—â—wes made by Romulus VViues made equall to their husbands Jt was Death for a woman to drincke wine VVhat power parents had ouer their children Numa Pompilius and his lawes The Feciales ordained The people deuided into sunday bands called Classes and centuries The first Classis The second Classis The third order or Classis The fourth Classis The fift and last degree The Kings put downe and Senators ordained The Dictator elected Tribunes of the people ordained The Decemviri created and Consuls put downe The two Censors created A Praetor ordained The manner of celebration of the games called Ludi Circenses Jnterludes how they began How the Romanes deified their Emperors The apparel of the Italians Galatia why so called The bounds of Gallia Gallia why so called The diuision of France The seuerall prouinces of Gallia Belgica The French men a factions people The office of the Druides The Equites an other sort of people Husbands had power to kil their wiues The latter customes of the French Capricorne ruleth in France The Parlament of France The 12. Peeres of France The commendations and riches of Spain and her bounds Spaine why so called The bounds of Portugall England also called great Brittaine England once called Albion The Saxons once Lords of England Anglia why so called The compasse of England England the first Christian Island London the chiefe city The auncient manners of the Britans Scotland denided from England Of Scotland Stowes Annal Anno Eliz. primo Syllura The Jsles called Eubudes The Island called Thyle now called Jsland The Gymnesiae or Baleares Of the Jsland found out by Iambolus They haue a time prefixed how long to liue An admirable herbe A rare beast Seuen other Jslands Of Taprobane The conclusion of the booke Of the Thyni Of the Aritonâ— Of the Dardani Of the Gelactophagi Of the Iberi Of the Vmbrici Of the Celtae Of the Pedalij Of the Telchines Of the Tartessij Of the Lucani Of the Samnites Of the Limyrnij Of the Sauromatae Of the Cercetae Of the Mosyni Of the Phryges Of the Lycij Of the Pisidae Of the Ethiopians Of the Buaei Of the Basuliei Of the Dapsolybies Of the Ialchleueians Of the Sardolibies Of the Alitemij Of the Nomades Of the Apharantes Of the Baeoti Of the Assirij Of the Persae Of the Indi Of the Lacedemonij Of the Cretenses Of the Autariatae Of the Triballi Of the Cusiani Of the Cij Of the Tauri Of the Sindi Of the Colchi Of the Panebi The stature and disposition of the Barbarians The age of the Barbarians The Barbarians neglect all worldâ—y things All Barbarians go naked
and wonderfull as yeelding to the husbandman in some places a hundred fould increase It is strange that is reported of the fruitfulnes of Mauritania in Affricke that there be Vines bigger then two men can fatham and clusters of Grapes of a cubite in compasse that there be stalkes of wilde Parsley wilde Fennell and thistles of twelue cubits in length and of a wonderfull thicknesse much like vnto the Indian Cane the knots or ioynts whereof will fill eight bushels there are also herbes called Sperage of no lesse notable bignesse Their Cipres trees about the hill Atlas be of an exceeding height without knots and with a bright leafe but of all their Cytron tree is the most noble and of the Romaines accounted most daintie Affricke breedeth Elephants and Dragons which lying in waite for other beasts kill all they can catch as Lyons Libards Bufles Goates and Apes whereof there bee great store in many places There bee also beasts like Camels and Panthers and beasts called Rhizes which bee like vnto Bulls And according to the opinion of Herodotus that country breedeth horned Asses besides Dragons Hyaenaes Porcupines wilde Rammes and a kinde of beast begotten betwixt the Hyaena and the Wolfe which is some-what bigger then the ordinary kinde of Wolues Panthers Storckes Egles Estridges and sundry kinds of Serpents but especially the Cerastes which hath a little body and hornes like a Ramme and the Aspe which is little likewise but very venimous against whose mischiefe the Ratte a very little creature is by nature opposed for a remedy Of Aethiopia and the ancient customes of that Country CAP. 4. EThiopia is deuided into two regions whereof one lyeth in Asia the other in Affricke That in Asia is now called India and is washed on the East with the red and Barbarian Sea and lieth Northward next vnto Libia and Aegipt vpon the west it hath the inner Libia and vpon the south it ioyneth to the other Aethiopia which is bigger and more southward This Aethiopia in Affrick is so called of Aethiops the sonne of Vulcan who gouerned there as Plinie is of opinion or else of the Greeke word aitho which signifieth to burne and ops which is the countenance because that country is parched and burned by reason of the neerenesse of the sunne for the heat there is exceeding great and continuall as being directly vnder the Meridian line Towards the west it is mountanous full of sand and grauell in the middle and desert in the east It containeth many sorts of people of diuerse and monstrous countenances and horrible shapes They were thought to bee the first people that liued and that they being in that country naturally bred continued free-men and were neuer subiect to slauery the gods were there first honoured and sacred ceremonies ordained they had a double vse of letters for some letters were called holy and were only known to the Priests the other serued for the common people nor were there formes of letters such as thereof could sillables bee framed but either like some liuing creature or the outward parts of mens bodies or resembling sundry instruments of worke-men and euery figure or forme of letter had his proper signification as by the Hawke was signified swiftnesse mischiefe and craft by the Crocadile watchfulnesse by the eye and so like-wise of other things Who-so-euer of their Priests was most troubled with vaine visions him they accounted the most holiest and creating him for their King adored him as though he were either a God or at the least giuen them by diuine prouidence and yet his supreame authority exempted him not from the obedience of their lawes but that hee was to doe all things according to their ancient customes and not to reward or punish any man himselfe but vpon whome soeuer he intended to take punishment to him hee sent the executioner to present him with the signe of death which was no sooner viewed by him to whome it was sent but forthwith who euer he were hee would goe home to his owne house and there procure his owne death for so great honour and affection did the subiect beare to his soueraigne that if it happened at any time by an accident the King to bee weakned or faint in any one part of his body all his friends and followers would of their owne accord weaken that part in themselues accounting it an odious thing that their King should be lame or blind of one eye and all his friends not to bee in like manner blind and lame also Their custome was also as is reported that their King being dead all his friends would willingly depriue themselues of life accounting that death most glorious and the surest testimony of true frindshippe The people by reason of the neerenesse of the heauens went for the most party naked couering onely their priuities with sheeps tayles and some few clothed them-selues with skinnes some of them also wore breeches made of haire their greatest imployments were about their Cattell their sheepe bee very little and of a hard and rough fleese their Dogges bee little likewise but very sharpe and eager Millet and Barley are their cheefest graines which serueth them both for bread and drinke and they haue no kinde of fruites vnlesse it be Dates and those be very rare also Many of them liued with hearbes and the slender rootes of reedes they eate also flesh milke and cheese The Isle of Meroê was once the head of the kingdome the forme thereof is like vnto a sheeld and it lyeth along by the riuer of Nylus for the space of three thousand stadia The Sheapheards that Inhabited that Ile were great huntsmen and the husbandmen had mines of gold Herodotus saith that those people of Aethiopia which be called Macrobij esteemed more of brasse than of golde for their gold they put to such base and vile vses as the Embassadors of Cambyses King of Persia being sent thether saw diuerse offenders fettered in prison in chaines of gold Some of them sowe their ground with a kinde of pulse and some others plant the Lote tree they haue Hebon wood and Pepper in great aboundance Elephants they hunt and eate they haue also Lyons Rhinocerots which bee enemies to the Elephant Basilisks Libbards and Dragons which winding and intangling themselues about the Elephants destroy them by sucking out their bloud There is found the Iacint stone and the Chrisophrasus which is a greene stone mixt with a golden brightnesse there is Cynamon gathered likewise Their weapons were bowes made of wood that was parched in the fire and foure cubits in length their women were good warriors the most of them hauing their lips thrust through with a ring of brasse Some of the Aethiopians worshipped the Sunne at his rising and inueighed bitterly against him at his going downe many of them cast their dead bodies into riuers some other put them into earthen
vessels or glasse vessels and kept them in their houses for the space of a yeare during which time they reuerenced them very religiously offering vnto them the first fruits of their increase Some say that thee that did most excell others in comlinesse of body skill in breeding cattell strength and riches him they elected for their King And that they had an ancient lawe that the Priests of Memphis might when they pleased depriue the King of his life by sending vnto him the messenger that caryed the signe of death and ordaine an other to raigne in his steed They beleeued that there was one immortall God and that hee was maker of the world and gouernor of all things any other God they esteemed mortall who was their vncertaine King as is said And hee that best deserued of their citty him next vnto their King they reuerenced as God And such was the state of Aethiopia at the beginning and for a long continuance these their customes and manners of their nation But at this day as Marcus Antonius Sabellicus out of whose history wee haue taken most matters which wee treate of both in this and the bookes following saith that hee had intelligence from some that were borne in those countries that the King of Aethiopia whome wee call Pretoian or Presbiter Ioan or Ioan and they Gyam which in their language signifieth mighty is so potent a Prince that hee is sayd to haue vnder him as his vassalls three-score and two Kings And that all their great Bishops and states of all those kingdomes are wholy guided by him at whose hands the order of Priesthood is obtained which authority was by the Pope of Rome giuen and annexed to the Maiesty of their Kings and yet hee himselfe is no Priest nor neuer entred into any holy orders There be a great number of Archbishops and euery one of them who euer hath the least hath twenty Bishops vnder his iurisdiction The Princes and other Bishops of great dignity when they goe abroad haue carried before them a crosse and a golden vessell filled with earth that the sight of the one may put them in minde of their mortality and the other of our Sauiours passion Their Priests are suffered to mary for procreations sake but if they bury one wife it is vtterly vnlawfull for them to mary an other Their Temples are very large and farre richer then ours and for the most part builded vp to the topp arch-wise They haue many religious houses and families of holy orders as Antonians Dominicks Calaguritans Augustines and Macarians who be all arrayed by permission of their Archbishops with apparell of one coulour Next vnto Almighty God and his Mother the blessed Virgin Mary Saint Thomas surnamed Didimus is chiefly honoured in that country They hold an opinion that their great King whom they call Gyam was ingendred of King Dauid and that the race of that one family hath continued euer since hee is not black as most of the Aethiopians are but rather white The citty Garama is now the Kings seate which consisteth not of Bulwarkes and houses with strong wals but of tents or tabernacles made of fine flaxe or silke imbrodered with purple and placed in decent and seemely order The King according to his custome liueth for the most part abroade not contayning himselfe within the circuite of the Citty aboue two daies together ether because they account it absurde and effeminate or that they are prohibited by some lawe They haue in redinesse vpon any little occasion tenne hundred thousand men well instructed in feates of armes fiue hundred Elephants besides an infinit number of Horses and Camels There be also throughout the whole kingdome certaine stipendary families the issue whereof haue a gentle incision made in their skinne and bee marked with a hot iron with the signe of the Crosse In warres they vse bowes speares cotes of male and helmets the order of Priesthood is in greatest dignity next vnto whome are the sages or wizards whom they call Balsamati and Tenquati They esteeme much also of innocency and honesty accounting them the first step to wisdome the Nobility are the third in honor and dignity and the stipendary the last the Iudges discerne of causes of life and death but referre the decree to the Praefect of the citty who is called Licomagia who alwaies representes the person of the King written lawes they haue none but iudge according to equity and right If any man bee convicted of adultery hee shall pay for his punishment the fortith part of his goods but the adulteresse shal receiue a domesticall reuenge by her husband for he shall punish her whome it doth most concerne The husbands assigne dowers for their wiues requiring noe portion with them There women are attired with gold wherof that country doth much abound pearles also and silke both men and women weare garments downe to the feete with sleeues and not open in any place all colours are alike vnto them except blacke which is there vsed onely for mourning garments They bewaile the dead for the space of forty dayes The second courses in their greatest banquets consist of raw flesh which beeing finely minced into small peeces and strawed ouer with sweete spices they feed vpon most hungerly wollen cloath they haue none insteed wherof they are clothed either with silke or flax they vse not all one language but diuers and distinguished by diuers names They exercise them-selues eyther in husbandry or about cattle they haue euery yeare two haruests two summers All the people of Lybia from this Aethiopia or India to the vtmost part of the west honour the impiety of Mahomet and liue in the same kinde of religion that those Barbarians practise which are now in Aegipt and bee called Moores as it is thought of their wandring or straying abroad for that country of Libia also was no lesse hatefull than the Sarasins in those accursed times wherein was the greatest alteration in humaine matters the manners of people loue of deuotion and names of all Nations being for the most part changed Of Aegipt and the ancient customes of that country CAP. 5. EGipt a region in Affricke or as some will haue it next adioyning to Affricke was so called of Aegiptus the brother of Danaus King of Argyues before which time it was called Aeria This country as Plinie in his first booke witnesseth ioyneth Eastward to the red sea and to Palaestyne vpon the West it hath Cyrene and the residue of Affricke and extendeth from the South to Aethiopia and from the North to the Aegyptian sea The most famous citties of that country were Thebes Abydos Alexandria Babilon and Memphis now called Damiata and the great citty Cayrus or Alcir which is the Soldans seate In Egypt as Plato reporteth it doth neuer raine but the riuer of Nylus ouer-flowing the whole land once euery yeare after the summer Solstice maketh the whole
ready and willing mindes to vnder-goe all perils and dangers of warfare Their common-wealth also consisteth of three sorts of common people of husbandmen shepheards and craftsmen The husbandmen buy their ground at an easie rate of the Priests of the King or of the Souldiours and apply their husbandry without intermission all their time from their infancie by which meanes they are farre more expert in husbandry then others both for the precepts they receiue from their parents as also by reason of their continuall practise The sheapheards likewise receiuing the charge and skill of keeping cattell from their fathers follow that kinde of exercise for all their life long And arts and sciences amongst the Aegiptians are most exquisite and brought to the highest straine of perfection for the Egiptian tradesmen without intermedling in publicke affaires exercise no other labour but such onely as is eyther permitted by the law or taught by their fathers so as neither the enuy of the teacher nor ciuill hatred nor any other thing whatsoeuer can hinder them from that course of life they haue entred into The Egiptians censured not of things at hap hazard but with reason and discretion for they esteemed things rightly done to be very beneficiall for mans life and that the onely way to auoyde euil was to punish the offenders and to succor the oppressed but that the punishment due for an offence should bee forborne in regarde eyther of meede or money they held to be the vtter confusion of their publicke life and therefore they setled the best and choisest men of the most famous citties as at Heliopolis Memphis Thebes and set them as iudges ouer the rest which sessions of Iudges were thought to be nothing inferior to the Iudges of Areopagus in Athens nor to the Senate or councell of the Lacedemonians established long time after them when these Iudges being thirty in number were assembled together they made election of the worthiest man amongst them to bee their chiefe Iudge or Iustice in whose absence the whole company assembled appointed an other Iudge to be his substitute These Iudges were all maintained at the Kings cost but the cheefe Iudge was farre better allowed then the rest who alwayes had hanging about his neck in a chaine of gold bedeckt with diuers precious stones an Image which they called Truth and when they were set in Iudgment the Image of Truth being laid before them by the chiefe Iudge and all their lawes which were contained in eight volumes placed in the middle of the Iudges their maner was that the accuser should set downe his accusation in writing the maner of the iniury or losse committed and done and how much he esteemed him-selfe damnified then was there a time allotted for the accused to answer his aduersaries accusations by writing and eyther to purge himselfe that he did not the iniury or to auerre that what he did was iustly done or that the wrong or losse hee did was not of such value as was supposed after this the plaintiffe replied and the defendant made answer to his replication So as the pleading of both parties being twise heard after the Iudges had examined and reasoned of the matter in controuersie the chiefe Iudge turning the signe of Truth towards him that had truth of his side pronounced the sentence and this was the maner of their Iudgments And now because occasion is offered to speake of the Institution of their lawes I thinke it not impertinent to our purpose to make mention of the ancient lawes of the Egyptians that thereby we may know how farre they excelled others both in order and vtility And first of all periured persons were punished with death as those which had committed a double offence both in violating their duty towards the gods and in breaking and abolishing faith and truth amongst men which is the chiefest bond of humaine society if a Traueller finde one that is set vpon with theeues and robbed and beaten or suffered any other iniury and doth not set to his helping hand to ayde him if it lye in his power hee shall dye for it but if hee could not assist him then ought hee to make the theeues knowne and to prosecute the iniury with his accusation which if hee doe not he shall be whipped with a certaine number of stripes and bee bard from all sustenance for three whole dayes together hee which accuseth an other falsely and is called in question for it shall vndergoe the punishment prouided for false accusers and all the Aegiptians were at certaine times constrained to giue vp theyr names in writing to the Presidents and Gouernors and what trade of life they exercised in dooing whereof if any say vntruly or liued by vnlawfull gaine hee was punished with death if any one kill eyther free-man or seruant willingly he shall dye for it by the lawes which regarding not the quallity of the estate but the heynousnesse of the deed and the euill mind of the dooer deliuer men from euill so as by reuenging the death of seruants and slaues free-men may liue in more security The paines of death were not afflicted vpon fathers which had slaine their sonnes but they were inioyned to stand for three daies and three nights about the dead corps the publike watch standing by to see it done for they thought it vniust to depriue him of life that was author of his sonnes life but rather that he should be afflicted with continuall griefe and repentance of the fact whereby others might shunne the like offence To Paracides was imposed a most exquisite and extreame punishment for the lawe was that the liuing body and the dead corps should be bound together ioynt by ioynt vpon sharpe Pikes or stakes and burned vpon a heape of thornes adiudging it to be the most heynous offence that could bee amongst men for one to doe him to death violently of whom hee had receiued life If any woman great with child were adiudged to dye her death was deferred till she was deliuered for they thought it meere iniustice that an infant which committed no euill should perish with the guilty or that two should bee punished whereas but one offended Those which in warres did eyther breake theyr array or would not obey their Leaders and Captaines were not punished with death but with the reproch ignominy of all men which disgrace after they had blotted out by their vertue and valiant acts they recouered their former estate and dignities and that law brought it to passe in continuance of time that men accounted that dishonour to bee the greatest euill could hap vnto them and much more greeuous then death Those which reuealed any secrets to their enemies had their toungs cut out and those which clipped money or counterfetted any false coyne or altered it eyther in weight or fashion or stamped it with letters or defaced the letters or forged any false deeds were punished with the
was kild without any fault of his owne These beasts be kept with great cost and charge within the circuit of their Temples by men of no small account eating fine flower and porredge made of Oate-meale which in their banquets are mingled with milke They giue them Geese also dayly both sodde and broylde and catch birds for those which eate raw flesh To conclude they bee all nourished with maruelous great charge and diligence and their deaths as much bewayled of the people as the deaths of their owne Sonnes yea and their funeralls are farre more sumptuous than their ability can afford in so much as when Ptolomaeus Lagus was gouernour of Aegypt an oxe dying for age in the City of Memphis hee which had the charge of keeping him bestowed a great summe of mony vpon his buriall which was giuen to him to defray that charge besides fifty talents of siluer which he borowed of Ptolomy These things which we haue spoken of perhaps will seeme strange to some but no lesse strange will it seeme to any that shall consider the ceremonies of the Aegiptians in the buriall of thé dead for when one dyeth there all his neere friends and kinsfolkes defile and spoyle their heads with earth and goe round about the Citty wayling vntill the dead body be buryed in which Interim they nether wash themselues nor drinke wine nor eate any meate but that which is very vile and grosse nor yet weare any good apparrell They haue three formes or kinds of buriall for some be buried sumptuously some indifferently and some basely In the first manner of buryall is spent and layd out one talent of siluer in the second twentie minae and some small cost is bestowed in the last Those which haue charge of the funeralls which course of life decendeth from their auncestors as by Inheritance bring the funerall expences in writing to the houshoulders demanding at what rate they will haue the funeralls performed and the bargaine being made and concluded betwixt them the body is deliuered vnto them to be buried at the charge agreed vpon And then the Gramarian for so he is called the body being laid in the ground marketh and assigneth out a place about the flanck how farre from the left part the incisition must bee made after that hee which is called the breaker vp or vnboweler openeth his side with a sharp Aethiopian stone so wide as by the law is permitted which done he instantly runneth away as fast as he can all the standers by following after cursing him and throwing stones at him for they esteemed those men worthy of hate which had mangled or misused the body of their friend but those which haue charge and ouersight of the body which they cal Salitores they account worthy of honour and estimation this done they carry the dead corpes into the Temple before the Priests who standing by the dead body on of them plucketh out of the hole or wound in his side all the entralls except the kidneyes and heart al which an other washeth away with red wine compounded with odoriferous spices and perfumes after that they annoynt the whole body first with iuyce of Cedar tree and other pretious oyntments for thirty daies space and more and then they rub it ouer with mirhe and cinamon and other like stuffe wherby it is not only preserued the longer but yeeldeth a sweet sauour also the body being thus dressed they deliuer it to the dead mans kinsfolke euery part of him yea the heaires of his browes and eie lidds being so preserued as the forme of his body remaineth whole as though he were not dead but a sleepe before the body be interred the funerall day is declared to the Iudges and the dead mans friends saying that vpon that day the dead body is to passe ouer the fens the Iudges being aboue forty in number assemble them selues together and sit vpon a round scaffold beyond the poole then is there a shippe prouided for that purpose and brought thither by those to whome the charge is committed and before the body bee laid in the coffin euery one hath liberty that will to accuse the party deceased and if hee bee proued to bee an euillliuer the iudges proceed to sentence wherby they adiudge that his body shall bee depriued of Sepulture and if any one accuse him vniustly hee shall bee seuerely punished but if no one accuse him or that it is euident that hee was accused falsely and of malice his kindred leauing off their mourning fall to praysing him yet speaking nothing of his stock and parentage as the Greekes are accustomed to doe for the Aegiptians account them-selues all noble alike but beginning at his child-hood they recite his bringing vp and education the beginning of his life and learning and from that ascending to his mans estate they remember his religion and deuotion towards the gods his Iustice his Continency and all his other vertues and then inuocating the infernall gods they beseech them to place him amongst the Saints to which request all the multitude make answer extolling the dead-mans worth and renowne as if he should liue for euer below amongst the blessed which done each one buryeth his friends in his owne proper sepulcher and those which want sepulchers bury them in the strongest walls of their house setting the chest wherein the body lyeth on the one end But those which are forbidden buryall eyther for vsury or some other offence are buryed at home without a coffin whom his posterity growing of better ability and satisfying for his misdeeds doe afterwards bury very solemnly The Aegyptians custome is to giue the bodyes of their dead parents as pawnes to theyr creditors and those children that redeeme them not shall bee disgraced and want sepulture them-selues one may iustly maruell to see how the authors of all these ordinances did not onely prouide for things profitable for mans life but also regarded those things which appertained to the honour and buryall of dead bodies in so much that by this meanes mens liues were disposed as much as might be to good manners The Greekes which by their fained fables and Poeticall fictions farre exceeding truth deliuered many things of the rewards of the godly and punishment of the wicked could not with all their writings draw men to vertue but were rather derided and contemned themselues But with the Aegiptians due punishment being rendred to the wicked and commendation to the iust not in shew but in substance they did euery day admonish both the good and the bad what things were profitable for them for they saw before their eyes that to euery one according to his deeds was giuen a remembrance of his merits or demerits which was a cause that all men immitated the best course of life and stroue to doe well for those are not to bee esteemed the best lawes whereby men become rich but whereby they prooue honest and wise And thus much of the Aegiptians and
spices which grow vpon trees They vse trafficke into Aethiopia with shippes couered with lether their fuell is the barke or rind of Cynamon which is of the nature of wood The Metrapolitan and chiefe citie of this kingdome is situated vpon an hill and is called Saba their Kings are of one kindred and raigne by succession to whom the multitude yeeld honours indifferently as well to the bad as to the good They neuer dare venter out of their Court or chiefe citie fearing lest they should be stoned to death by the common people by reason of an answer which they receiued long since from one of their Oracles At Saba where the King keepeth his Court be siluer iewels and pots of gold of all sorts the beds and three-footed stooles haue siluer feete and all the houshold stuffe is sumptuous and rich beyond credit The porches and galleries also bee vnderpropped with great pillars the heads whereof are siluer and gold the roofes and dores being set with golden bosses intermingled with pretious stones do manifest the sumptuous decking of the whole house for here one place shineth with gold another with siluer another with pretious stones and Elephants tooth and with many other ornaments besides of great woorth and estimation these people haue for many ages flowed in perpetuall felicitie for they bee vtterly voyde of ambition and desire to possesse other mens goods which bringeth many to ruine The people called Garraei be no lesse rich then these for almost all their houshold-stuffe is of gold and siluer and of Iuorie whereof they make the thresholds roofes and walles of their houses The people called Nabathaei of all men be most continent in getting riches they bee very industrious but much more carefull in keeping them for hee that diminisheth his priuate estate hath publicke punishment And on the other side hee is honoured and exalted that increaseth his patrimonie The Arabians vse in their warres swords bowes launces and slings and many times axes also That accursed stocke of the Sarrasins which were the greatest scourges that euer happened to mankind had their beginning in Arabia and as it is very credibly thought a great part of the Arabians became followers of the Sarrasins sect and tooke their name Yet now they haue betaken them to their old names againe The Arabians that dwell about Aegypt liue for the most part by stealing trusting in the swiftnesse of their Camels The manners and customes Of Panchaia and of the manners of the Panchaians CAP. 2. PANCHAIA is a Region of Arabia Diodorus Siculus calleth it an Iland of two hundred Stadia in bredth and that there be in it three stately Citties that is to say Dalida Hyracida and Oceanida the whole countrie is fruitfull enough liuing onely where it is sandie It aboundeth with wine and with frankinsence of which there is so great store as is sufficient to serue all the world for sacrifices it yeeldeth much myrrhe also and other odoriferous spices of diuers kinds which the Panchaians gather and sell to the Marchants of Arabia of whom others buy them transport them into Phaenicia Syria and Egypt from whence they are conveyed into all parts of the world The Panchaians vse Chariots in the warres for so they haue bin alwaies accustomed their common-wealth is diuided into three degrees of people first the Priests who possesse the prime place to whome the artificers are added the husbandmen haue the second and souldiers the third to whom the shepheards be annexed The Priests be gouernours and rulers ouer all the rest to whom the deciding of controuersies and arbittement of all publike affaires and iudiciall causes are committed punishment of death onely excepted The husbandmen imploy themselues onely in tilling and manuring the ground the increase whereof goeth in common to all Out of the husbandmen there be ten elected by the Priests which bee most expert and industrious in husbandrie to bee Iudges ouer the rest aswell for the exhortation of others in the art of husbandrie as for the distribution of their fruites The shepheards likewise bring all their increase as well of such things as appertaine to sacrifices as of all things else to the publike vse some by number and some by weight in doing whereof they be maruellous precise and no one there possesseth any thing in priuate to himselfe but only their houses and gardens for the Priests receiue all the custome and tribute-money and all other things else whatsoeuer into their custodie making diuision thereof as occasion requireth whereof two parts is euer due vnto themselues The Panchaians bee clothed in soft garments for the sheepe of that countrie differ much from others in softnesse and finenesse of wooll both men and women weare ornaments of gold adorning their neckes with chains their hands with bracelets their eares with eare-rings like the Persians and their feet with new shooes of diuers colours The souldiers are maintained onely to defend the countrie from forraine inuasions the Priests liue more sumptuously and in far greater delights then others wearing for the most part fine lightlinnen vestiments downe to the foot and somtimes garments made of the best and purest wooll Vpon their heads they haue myters wrought and imbrodered with gold and in stead of shooes sandals of diuers colours wrought very artificially They weare ornaments of gold also like women excepting eare-rings and be for the most part continually conuersant about the seruice of their gods reciting their worthy and memorable deeds in laudes and hymnes They deriue their pedegree from Iupiter Manasses alledging that when hee was conuersant with men and gouerned the whole world hee was banished into Panchaia The country abounds with gold siluer brasse tin and iron of which it is not lawfull to carry any out of the Iland neither is it tollerable for the Priests to stir out of their holy Temples for if any of them be found abroad it is lawfull to kill them Many oblations of gold and siluer which were long since offered and dedicated to their gods they preserue in their temple the doores whereof are of a very curious building beset with gold siluer and yuorie The bed for their god is all of gold being sixe cubits in length and foure in bredth and of a rare and wonderfull workmanship In like maner the table for their god which is placed neare vnto his bed is equall vnto it both for state quantity and cost They haue one great and magnificent temple which is all erected of white stone vnderset with great pillars carued columnes the length thereof is two acres and the breadth answerable to the length It is adorned with goodly Idols of their gods composed and framed with admirable art and cunning The Priests that haue charge of the sacrifices haue their houses about the temple and all the ground round about the temple for the space of two hundred Stadia is consecrated to the gods and the yearely reuenew thereof spent
to marry whom he pleased That they should bewaile and lament for the dead for the space of thirty daies and no more which time he thought sufficient for a wise man to lament the losse of his friends That the sonne which was iniurious to his parents should be hanged without the Cittie That the enemy that was slaine in battaile should not want buriall That if a creditor receiue a pledge or pawne of a poore man hee should restore it againe before night That if one buy one of his kindred as a slaue the bond-seruant shold be free the sixth yeere after That hee that found gold or siluer should make proclamation thereof by the mouth of the Crier That if cattell went astray they should either be brought backe to the right owner or else kept till the right owner were knowne That no Israelite should make or temper any poyson nor buy any that was made elsewhere And that he which mingled poyson to the end to poyson an other beeing conuicted of the offence should drinke the same poison himselfe That he which wilfully and wrongfully pulleth out an other mans eye should bee punished with the losse of an eye That if a bull kill a man with his horne he should bee stoned to death and his flesh cast a-away and not eaten That a thing committed to an other to keepe should be kept warily as a thing holy That the sonne should not bee punished for the fathers offence nor the sonnes offence be imputed as a fault in the father And these were the domesticall lawes ordained by Moses and in warfare these following That before warre were offerred the goods wrongfully taken away should be demanded againe by Ambassadors and Heralds and if they were not restored that then if they pleased they might warre lawfully That the whole charge and gouernment of the warres should be committed to him that most excelled others in strength and wisdome that the strongest souldier of all the campe should be sent as Ambassador That if the enemie were besieged their fruite trees should be spared for the trees themselues if they could speake would certainely reprehend and reproue him that destroied them That the conqueror might kill all such as were rebels but the rest which he ouercame vanquished should be made tributary and pay yeerely pensions That during the time of war no woman should touch her husbands priuities nor no man his wiues that it should be vtterly prohibited for the Israelites to eate bloud That those which were either infected with leaprosie or which had caused any fluxure of their natural seed should be expelled the city Menstruous women in like manner were kept out of the city for seauen daies after the beginning of their disease and might returne in the eight and so many daies were they forced to absent themselues that had their houses defiled and polluted with any dead body That the Priest should sacrifice tow evve Lambs for him whose naturall seed flovved from him in his sheepe and that the party should be washed in cold water and by the same sacrifice was he purged and hallowed that had laine with his wife at vnlawfull and prohibited times That a woman after she was deliuered of a child if it were a man child should be restrained from comming to the Church for the space of forty daies and if it were a woman child for the space of eighty daies That he that supposed his wife to be vnchast should for a certaine measure of barley meale called assarim and that then the wife being placed at the postes of the temple should sweare after the Priest whether shee had defiled her chastitie or no and if she swore false shee should dye for it hauing her right hamme disioynted and her wombe putrified but if shee were chaste and swore truly she should bee deliuered of her childe in the tenth month without harme of her wombe and that then the Priest of God blotting out her name from out the scedule should giue her drinke out of a potte with a wide mouth That the paines of death should bee inflicted for adultery incest and the sinne of Sodome That the Priest that was lame or weakned in his body should be forbidden to ascend the Altar and that hee should be maintained notwithstanding with the holy oblations That if the Iewes attained to the land of Chanaan they should suffer their grounds to lye lea and vnplowed euery seuenth yeare that such fruites as the earth did naturally produce should euery fortith yeare which was called the yeare of Iubily be common as well to strangers and forreners as to their owne kindred and that in that yeare money which was owing should be released and forgiuen slaues and bondmen made free and infranchised and possessions gotten with small cost restored to their first owners With these institutions and ordinances both for home and abroade did Morses instruct the Israelites not long before his death adding more-ouer a solemne prayer for the good successe of those that obserued and fulfilled his lawes and ordinances rightly and as they ought and bitter execrations and curses against the transgressors and offenders thereof And last of all hee bound the people with an oath that they should for euer obserue and keepe those diuine and humaine lawes which he had instituted and ordained and that if any one did violate them they should not suffer him to goe vnpunished And now seeing it is manifest that there was neuer any people more ceremonious and religious then the Israelites I thinke it worth while briefly to expresse the manner of their sacrificing as it was first ordained The Iewes had two sorts of sacrificing from the beginning the one whereof was done by the better sort of people and that they called Holocaustus that is a sacrifice layde whole on the Altar and was done in this manner hee which intended to doe sacrifice eyther with Oxe or Lambe or what thing else hee meant to offer for the beast which hee sacrificed must bee a male beast and of one yeare old brought the beast to the Altar and then the Priest powring forth and sprinkling the bloud of the sacrifice vppon the Altar and cutting the oblation in peeces burned it whole vpon the Altar The other sort of sacrificing was for the common people wherein they offered beasts of aboue a yeare old the bloud whereof beeing shedde and the kidnees fatte and suet set on fire on the Altar the hearts and right legges were giuen to the Priests and the residue they for whom the sacrifice was solemnized did eate within two dayes after Those which were poore might offer two Pigions or two Turtle Doues whereof the one serued for a whole burnt sacrifice and for the other the Priests did cast lottes Hee which offended vnawares did sacrifice for satisfaction of that sinne a Yew Lambe of an yeare old or else a Kidde and those which were guilty of any secret fault in them-selues were by the very letter of the
land such other commodities as the country affoordeth as colour medicines wooll or such like and somtimes cattel also It is not lawfull for the King to put any man to death for one onely cause nor for one Persian to commit any heynous offence against another of his owne family or kindered The Persians haue many wiues a peece and keepe diuerse concubines besides for increase of issue and the Kings reward those most liberally that haue begot most children in a yeare nor bee their children once brought into their fathers sight before they bee fiue yeares of age but all that while are brought vp with their mothers chiefly for this cause that if any of them in those yeares of education should miscarry and dye their losse should be no greefe or molestation to the father They celebrate their mariages all at one time of the yeare that is in the vernall Aequinoctium and the Brides-groome eateth nothing the first night he lieth with his wife but an Apple or the marrow of a Cammell The Persian children from the first yeare of their age to the foure and twentith practise nothing but riding shooting throwing the dart and chiefly to learne to speake the truth Their schoole-maisters are men of great continencie and seuerity and such as sometimes in rime some-times in prose rehearse vnto them for their instructions tales and histories containing the commendations of their gods and the deeds of worthy men They haue a place appointed them to practise in whether they are summoned by the sound of some winde instrument at vsuall houres and their teachers are often demanded and examined by others how their children do profit They practise running also choosing one of the Princes sonnes to be their Captaine and guide the field wherein they run their races is at the least thirty stadia in length and that they may the better indure both heate and cold they often exercise themselues in swimming and wading ouer great waters insomuch as they will eate their meate and go about their husbandry and other businesse with weapons in their hands and wet garments on their backs their meate is the gumme or turpentine that issueth out of Firre trees Acornes and wilde Peares but that which they vsually eat after their runing other exercises of their bodies is a kinde of heard bread and salt herbes called garden Cresses and flesh either broyled or boyled and their vsual drinke is water They hunt alwaies on horsbacke with darts bowes and slings In the fore-noone they either plant trees dig vp rootes make weapons or practise fishing their children be addorned with gold and many other dainties The stone Pyropus which is a kind of Carbuncle stone of a firy rednesse is with them in great estimation therefore they apply it not to any dead bodie nor yet the fire for the great honor reuerence they yeeld vnto it from the twentith yeere vnto the fiftith they be souldiours and follow the warres they haue no vse of pleading neither doe they buy or sell any thing They bee armed in the warres with a kinde of target in form of a wheele and besides their quiuer of arrowes they haue weapons called sangars and short swords caps with high crowns and on their breasts rough brest-plates ful of skales The Princes weare a kind of garment that is three double about their shoulders and cotes with sleeues hanging downe to their knees the out-side whereof is of diuers collours and the lyning white In the Sommer time the Persians be clothed in purple and in winter in changeable collours The head attires for their Priests or Magi be like vnto Bishops miters The common people bee clothed with two coates hanging downe to the middle of their legs and a great bundel of linnen cloath bound about their heads Their beds and pots be trimmed with gold siluer They consult of no serious matter but when they be halfe drunke esteeming that consultation to be more firme thē that which is with sobriety deliberatiō kinsmen equals salute one an other with a kisse the baser sort of people reuerence their betters by bowing their bodies vnto them They bury their dead bodies in the earth annoynting them first with wax but their Priests or wise-men they cast out without burial to be deuoured of birds their custome was also for sonnes to lie with their owne mothers and these in times past were the manners and customes of the Persians Herodotus also reciteth more of their maners very worthy of remembrance as that it was held a horrible and heynous offence to laugh or spit before the King That they scoffed at the Greekes who were of opinion that the gods tooke their original from men That whatsoeuer was vnlawful to be done was by them thought vnfitting to be spoken That it was a vile thing to bee in debt but to lie was most abhominable That they did not bury their dead bodies before they were pulled in peeces by dogges and which in the opinion of other nations was thought most absurde that parents being brought to pouertie might get money by being Pandars to their owne daughters which custome was alowed amongst the Babylonians also The Persians at this day being ouercome by the Sarrasins and infected with the madnesse of Mahomet liue altogether in darkenesse It was once a warlike nation and had for a long space the gouernment of the East but now for want of excercise in armes it fayleth much of his ancient glory Of India and of the monstrous and prodigious customes and manner of liuing of the people of India CAP. 8. INDIA a Country in the East and the vtmost bound of all Asia is so vast and large a country as it is thoght to be the third part of the whole world Pomponius writeth that it is as much in compasse by the sea shore as a ship will saile in forty daies and forty nights with a full winde It is called India of the riuer Inde where it finisheth his course vpon the West part and beginning at the meridionall sea stretcheth out vnto the vttermost part of the East extending Northward to the hill Caucasus It containeth sundry sorts of people and hath such great aboundance of Cities and walled townes therein as some are of opinion that there is no fewer then fiue thousand nor may it seeme strange that it hath so great numbers of people and Cities considering that the Indians of all other people neuer departed from their natiue soile The most famous riuers in that Country are Ganges Indus and Hypanis but the greatest of them is the riuer Ganges The Country by reason of the Westerne windes is most holsome they haue two haruests in the yeere and the wind bloweth Easterly all winter wine they haue none although there be that affirme that the Musican soile yeeldeth some wine in the South part of India is great store of Narde Cynamon Pepper and Sugar-cane as in Arabia and Aethiopia It produceth Ebon-trees
together like beasts skinnes and thereof make them short garments or cloakes and weare them Some others flea the right hands of their slaine enemies and with the same make couerings for their quiuers and many flea the whole bodies and stretching out the skinnes vppon blockes of wood carrie them about vpon their horses the heads being cut off in this manner as I haue sayd they couer the vtmost side of them with Oxe leather and those which be rich guild them within with gold and so vse them for pots to drinke in And such men of estimation as giue intertainement to strangers will shew vnto them that those were the heades of such men as they had vanquished in the wars bragging thereof as a point of great man-hood Once euery yeare all the Princes and gouernors of the region fill a pot full of wine of which all the Scythians which haue slaughtered any of their enemies do drinke but they which haue done no notable exploit tast not thereof but sit by without honor or regard which among them is the greatest ignominie that may be And those which haue committed the most slaughters shall drinke of two pots which they haue there readie prouided for the purpose Their gods which they worship and adore are the virgin Vesta as principall next vnto her Iupiter and Tellus for Tellus they suppose to be the wife of Iupiter after these they honor Apollo Venus Mars and Hercules but they thinke it not fit to make Idols Altars or Temples to any of these gods or goddesses but onely to Mars to whom they sacrifice euery hundreth captiue to the rest of their gods they sacrifice beasts and especially horses Hogges are in no account amongst them neither breed they any throughout the whole region When the King punisheth any man by death hee spareth none of his male-children but slayeth them all but he hurteth no woman-kind When the Scythians confirme friendship or make a league or peace one with another they put wine into a great earthen pot and then cutting some part of their bodies which make the peace with a knife or with a sword they mingle their bloud with the wine after that they dip their swords arrowes axes and iauelins into the cuppe which when they haue done they vow friendship one to another with many protestations And then is the wine drunke vp not onely by those which make the league but all their followers and partakers which bee of most dignitie and estimation drinke of it also The maner of buriall of Kings which is vsed of the people that inhabite about the riuer of Gerrus where Borysthenes is now nauigable is in this maner when their King is deceased they digge a great foure-square hole in the earth and there lay him for a space after that they take the dead bodie and bowell it and ceare it with waxe and fill it full of ozier branches brused a sweet perfume called red Stirax the seed of percely smallage and annis-seeds and so sow it vp againe and then putting the carcase into a cart they conuey it into another country where it is vsed as before and so interred But the Scythians cut off their dead kings eares clip his haire round cut his armes about wound him in the forehead and nose strike his left hand through with a dart and then carry the carcase into another nation which is vnder their gouernment the people whereof attend vpon them vnto another country And when they haue beheld all nations and the kings corps with them they leaue it to bee buried of those people that inhabite the vttermost parts of their kingdome who when they haue put it into a coffin and laid it vpon a bed they sticke downe certaine speares and laying him vpon the speares couer him with a coat then do they strangle one of his strumpets which he loued most dearely in his life time one groome one cooke one horse-keeper or muletor one sergeant one butler or cup-bearer and one horse and bury them altogether with golden cups and the first fruites of all their increase in the spatiousnesse of the Tombe or Sepulchre And when hee hath lyen there a yeare they take the most neere of the kings houshold seruants and all the Scythian seruants attending on the king he free borne and by him commanded to serue and no seruant bought with money doth minister to the king And after they haue strangled fiftie of these men-servants and as many of the best horses the mens bowels beeing first taken out and their garments stretched abroade and sowed together they set vp round about the circuit of the Kings tombe vppon arched worke those fiftie horses and the seruants sitting vppon their backes so as they may seeme afarre off to the beholders like a troupe of horsemen keeping their dead King And this is the maner and custome of interring and sepulture of their Kings in Scythia Priuate men also obserue a certaine custome in their burials for when one dyeth all his neighbours laying him in a cart carrie him about to his friends and each one of his friends receiuing him maketh a banket as well to his neighbours and kinsfolke as to the rest which accompany the coarse His bodie beeing thus carried from place to place for the space of fortie dayes is then interred his head beeing first emptied and cleane washed aboue the bodie they set three stickes bending one towards another vppon which they set wollen cappes as many as they can and then they put the carcase into a chest or coffin made of one tree like a trough and set it vnder the cappes and so fill vp the coffin with bright stones The men of Scythia do neuer wash themselues but their wiues infusing water vppon their bodies rubbe them against a rough stone with Cypresse Cedar or the wood of Frankinsence and after their bodies are rubbed and beginne to smell they besmeare their faces ouer with medicines or oyntments these oyntments make them to haue an odoriferous smeâ—â— And the next day after they remooue those medicines and make their faces cleane and bright againe Their manner of swearing and ministring an oath to others is by the Kings throne whereby if any one be conuinced of periurie by the Deuinors which make triall thereof with willow rods or wands hee is put to death without delay and forfeiteth all his goods to those which prooued him periured The Massagetae a people of Scythia in Asia beyond the Caspian sea in apparell and liuing be very like vnto these Scythians and therefore supposed of many to be Scythians indeed They fight both on foote and horse-backe and in both sorts of fight be almost invincible Their weapons be darts and speares and a certaine sword or weapon which they vsually weare about them called a sangar they vse gold in their belts sword-hangars and head attires and in guilding their pottes they put vppon their horses breasts brest-plates of gold their bridles and trappings be
shall equally inherit their fathers goods only this is obserued that one sonne shall haue as much as two daughters no one may keepe two or more wiues in one house nor yet in one cittie for auoyding of scolding contention and vnquietnesse that would bee amongst them but in euery city they may keepe one and the husbands háue liberty to be diuorced from their wiues three sundrie times and so oft to take them againe and the woman diuorced may stay with her husband that receiueth her againe if she please The Turkish women be very decent in their apparell vpon their heades they weare myters set vpon the top of their veiles wherwith their heads beeing bound in a comely fashion one side or edge of the veile hangeth downe vpon the right or left side of their heades wherewith if they go from home or come into their husbands presence at home they may foorth-with couer or maske their whole faces but their eyes for the wife of a Turke dare neuer come where a company of men be gathered together neither is it lawfull for them to go to markets to buy and sell Likewise in their great Temple the women haue a place farre remote from men and shut vp so close as no one can come to them nor hardly see them Which closet is not allowed for all women but onely for the wiues of noble men or heade Officers and that onely vpon Friday at their noone-tide prayer which they obserue with great solemnitie as is said and at no times else There is seldome any speech or conference betwixt men and women in any publike place it beeing so out of custome as if you should stay with them a whole yeare you shold hardly see it once but for a man to sit or ride with a woman is accounted monstrous married couples do neuer dally or chide in the presence of others for the husbands do neuer remitte the least iot of their authoritie ouer their wiues neither will the wiues omit their obedience towards their husbands The great Lords that cannot alwaies tarry with their wiues themselues depute and set Eunuchs to be keepers ouer them which obserue and watch them so warily as it is vnpossible for them to talke with any man but their husbands or to play false play with their husbands To conclude the Sarrafins yeeld so much credit to Mahomet and his lawes as they promise assured happines and saluation to the keepers thereof to wit a paradise abounding with all pleasures a garden situated in a pure and temperate Climate watered on all parts with most sweete and delectable waters where they shall enioy all things at pleasure dainties of all sorts to feede them silkes and purple to cloath them beautifull damfels euer readie at a call to attend them with siluer and golden vessels and that Angels shall bee their cuppe-bearers and minister vnto them milke in golden cuppes and red wines in siluer And on the other side they threaten hell and eternall damnation to the transgressors of his lawes And this also they firmely beleeue that though a man haue beene neuer so great a sinner yet if at his death he onely beleeue in God and in Mahomet he shall be saued The manners and customes Of the Christians and of their originall and Customes CAP. 12. CHRIST Iesus the true and euerlasting Sonne of God the Father omnipotent the second Person in the holy indiuidual coequall and eternall Trinitie by his incomprehensible decree and mysterie hidden from the world to the end that hee might raise and reduce vs miserable and vnfortunate wretches lost and forlorne by the disobedience of our fore-fathers Adam and Eue and therefore for many ages exiled and excluded out of the heauenly countrie and in heauen to repaire the auncient ruine of Lucifer and the Angels for pride expelled thence for supply of which vacancie we were chiefly created was one thousand sixe hundred and ten yeares since by the co-operation and working of the holy Ghost conceiued man and borne in Iudaea of the blessed Virgin Mary being of the house and lineage of Dauid from the thirtith yeare of whose age vnto the 34. at which time through the enuie and hatred of the Iewes he was crucified he trauersed ouer all the land of Iudaea exhorting the Iewes from the ancient law of Moses and the Gentils from the prophane worship of Idols vnto his new doctrine and religion those followers which he could get he called his disciples out of which electing twelue and appearing vnto them aliue after his death as hee had fore-told them he would he gaue them commission that as his Legats and Apostles they shold go into all places of the world and preach to all people such things as they had seene and learned of him Simon Peter who long before was by Christ ordained chiefe head ruler of his Church after him when after the receiuing of the holy Ghost the Apostles went some to one people some to another to preach as they were allotted and sent came first to Antioch where consulting and erecting a Church or chief seat or Chaire for the practise of Religion he with many other of the Apostles which often repaired vnto him celebrated a Councel in which amongst other things it was decreed that the professors and imbracers of Christs doctrine and true religion should after him be called Christians This chiefe Chaire of the Church beeing afterwards translated from Antioch to Rome he and his successours were very carefull and vigilant to reduce the Christian religion being as yet indigested vnpolished and little practised and the professors thereof into better order vniformity Out of the law of Moses which Christ came not to abolish but to fulfill out of the ciuill and politick gouernment of Romans Greeks and Aegyptians and out of both sacred and prophane rites lawes ceremonies of other nations but most especially by the wholesome doctrine and direction of Christ Iesus and the inspiration of the holy Spirit when they had vndertaken this busines and saw that not only among the Hebrewes but in al other nations else the people be diuided into religious and laitie and that all of them by an excellent subordination are in dignity and degrees different one from another as that the Emperor of Rome was Monarch of the whole world and that next vnto him were Consuls Patricians Senators by whose direction and aduice the state and common-wealth was well gouerned Again that in euery other country of the world were Kings Dukes Earles Presidents Lieutenants Deputies Tribunes of souldiers Tribunes of the common-people Praetors Captains Centurions Decurions Quaternions Sheriffes Treasurers Ouer-seers Portars Secretaries and Sergeants and many priuate people of both sexe That in the temple of the fained gods the king was chiefe sacrificer and that there were Arch-Flammins Proto-Flammins Flammins and Priests That also amongst the Hebrewes the High Priest was chiefe sacrificer vnder whome were inferiour Priests Leuites Nazareans Extinguishers of lights Exorcists
were chosen of purpose to be Arbitrators and indifferent vmpires betwixt the power of the Kings and the force of the multitude to the end that neither the one should rebel through contumacie and stubbornesse nor the other oppresse by reason of their gouerment and greatnesse of these Seniors or elders according to Aristotle there were eight and twenty who were euer assisting and aiding the Kings carefully prouiding that neither the gouernment of the people should be of two great force nor that the Kings should tyrannize ouer the commons and that all the rest of the multitude should be made acquainted with whatsoeuer was decreed by this order Many yeeres after this vnto the gouernment of the people was added the power and authority of the Ephori or Tribunes which were Protectors of the liberties and benefits of the commons against the power of the Nobles which kinde of gouernment in the Greeke tongue is called Oligarchia that is the gouernment of a few and this manner of gouernment was purposely ordained as a bridle or restrainte vnto the administration of the Kings and Elders when they seemed ouer violent and outragious towards the commons and was annexed vnto the other in the hundreth yeere after the death of Lycurgus when Theopompus raigned in Lacedemonia One institution ordained by the Olygarchia or Protectors of the cōmons was the diuision of their grounds for those Protectors perswaded the multitude of the commons that euery one should yeeld vp al the grounds they formerly had in their possession occupation that thē to each one shold be distributed an euen equal portion For their opinion was that euery Citizen should contend to excell others in vertue and vnderstanding and not in riches and ryoting The whole land was therefore deuided into nine and thirty thousand parts the fields adioyning to the City and belonging to the Citty into nine thousand and the rest of the land which lay in the country and was occupied by farmers was three times as much more so that euery portion was such as would yeeld seuenty measures of corne caled Medimni yeerely to a man and to a woman twelue Lycurgus was once in a minde to make like diuision of all moueable goods but fearing the enuy that for that cause might insue for many seemed to take it discontentedly hee forbore to doe it yet he vtterly tooke away all vse both of siluer and gold from amongst them and brought in iron money and stamping it crosse wise like the letter X commanded that it should be of little value whereby all occasion of stealing was auoided and to the end that the iron whereof that money was coyned should not be desired for other purposes he caused it when it was burning and glowing hote to be quenched with vineger that being thereby mollified and softned it might serue to no other vse This done he reiected all arts as things meere vnprofitable and friuolous which were then easie to be reiected for the vse of siluer and gold being once prohibited the artificers departed thence of their owne accord considering that iron coyne would stand them in no steed in other places After this that he might vtterly extirpate and roote out of the City all ryotting and excesse he instituted publike feasts wherein he commanded that both poore and rich should sit and eate together in one place and at one table without difference or exception of persons And if any came to that diet in that publike place so gallant and gorgeous that his queasie stomake would not serue him to eate with such companions or that he would not be pleasant at his meate hee was chidden and reuiled of all those that sat at the Table with him as an vnthrift and a waster by which ordinance all pompe and sumptuousnesse was vtterly auoided at this institution the great and welthy men beganne to grudge and repine and were so much incensed against him as in a rage they violently rushed vpon him and strooke out one of his eyes with a staffe wherevpon hee ordained that no Spartane whatsoeuer should euer after that time come to meate with any staffe or other weapon This their manner of dyeting together they called Philias which is as much to say as friendship for doubtlesse it was an argument of publike friendship and great humanity and might well be tearmed Phiditia that is fellowship or fraternitie besides that by this their dyeting together they were very much giuen to sparingnesse and parsimony Those which by reason of their sacrifycing or hunting were absent from their meales were permitted to dine and sup at home but all others ought to bee there present all excuses set apart and euery one allowed for the vpholding and maintaining of this common diet yeerely a certaine measure full of fine meale or flower called Medimnum eight measures called Corus full of wine fiue pounds of cheese and two pound and a halfe of figs. Children also frequented this common banquetting place as the schoole or vniuersity of temperature and all ciuil discipline for there they accustomed to commune and confer together soberly ad discreetly their they learned to iest and bourd pleasantly and merily and to quippe and taunt one an other without scurility or offence The Spartans in their wiuing and accompanying with women by reason of their continuall warres regarded not chastitie so much as procreation and increase of issue and the husbands were so louing and obsequious to their wiues as they would call them their mistresses Maides practised and exercised themselues in running wrestling throwing stones slinging and darting that flying and shunning idlenesse and all womanish nicenesse they might bee thereby more strong and lustie and better able to indure the paines of child-bearing in doing which excercises they went naked like boies in sight of all men and would daunce and sing at solemne feasts in the presence of young men which nakednesse was neither inconuenient nor dishonest for they were couered with shamefastnesse without the least touch of impudency or wantonnesse and hereof insued a towardnesse and naturall aptnesse in the women of Laconia for any action They which liued single and were neuer married were excluded from those publike games and exercises of naked virgins and the more to disgrace them were constrained to goe naked themselues about the market place in the winter season least they should haue as much honour and estimation with young men as those had which were married The marriageable virgins were maried or rather stolne away perforce and the bride being conducted into her chamber sheared the haire of her head close to the skin and then the bride-groome going in to her vnlooseth her girdle and accompanieth with her in the night time onely without once seeing her in the day time before he hath got her with child The care and regard of their children and issue was committed to worthie men and it was lawfull for any old man for cause
cittie to be sacrificed to Apollo a measure of fine wheate flower called Medimnum containing sixe Modia and a measure of wine called a Laconian quart In the beholding of single combats the Kings preceded and gouerned certaine places hauing for their assistants what Cittizens they pleased And each king might choose two Pitheans which were such as were wont to be sent to Delphos to aske counsell of the Oracle and these did commonly diet with the Kings The Kings allowance when they came not to meales in the vsuall place was two measures full of fine flower called Chaenices or Chaeniae which is much about halfe one of our peckes and a measure full of wine called Cotyla that is as much as Sextarius which is about a pinte and an halfe English but when they were present they had double in quantitie as much of euery thing as all the rest that sate with them The Kings were to determine who should be husbands of orphane maydes whose parents were deceased whether he to whome the father bequeathed her or hee on whome the mother bestowed her they had power also ouer common wayes and ouer such as made adopted sons against the kings minds they had seates in the Councell or Senate-house which consisted of 28. Senatours wherein they might sit at their pleasures but if they would not come thither then two of the Senatours which were most neere and deare vnto them represented their persons and had power to pronounce to voyces or suffrages for the Kings and two other for themselues And such were the honors and dignities giuen to the Kings by the Common-wealth of Sparta while they liued and when they were dead these following First certaine hors-men proclaimed and divulged the Kings death throughout all Laconia the like was done also by certaine women which walked vppe and downe about the cittie striking and beating vpon pots or kettles which done there must of euery house two one man and one woman and both free-borne be stayned soyled and defiled with weeping and lamenting which if they refused to do they were seuerally punished The Lacedemonians vsed the same orders in their Kings Funeralles as the barbarous people of Asia did for in this manner did most of those barbarous people bury their Kings The death of the King beeing thus divulged the cittizens of Sparta summoned all their friends and kinsfolkes out of all the Countrey of Lacedemonia to the funerall And after many thousands both of them and of their seruants as also of the Spartans themselues were there assembled both men and women mingled together they lamented and wept beating and striking vppon their forheads and roaring and howling most bitterly concluded their lamentation with this saying That this last deceased king was the best of all their kings And if any of their kings were slaine in the wars they fashioned and pourtrayed an image like vnto him and laying it vpon a bed very richly furnished spent some ten dayes in the interring thereof during which time there was continual vacation and ceasing from prosecuting lawes and exercising iustice in places iudiciall nor was there any Sessions of Magistrates or Officers in all that time but continuall lamentation and bewayling And in this the Lacedemonians agreed with the Persians for when the Lacedemonian King was dead he which succeeded him pardoned and released euery Spartane of all his debt what euer it was that he owed either to the King or Common-wealth And so likewise in Persia he which was newly created king remitted and forgaue vnto all the Cittizens their tribute which they owed In this also the Lacedemonians imitated the Aegiptians for in Lacedemonia as wel as in Aegipt both Cryers Minstrels and Cookes succeeded their fathers in their arts and occupations so as a Cooke was begott by a Cooke a Trumpetter by a Trumpetter and a Cryer by a Cryer Nor did any intrude themselues into another mans function or calling but perseuered and continued in their fathers trade and vocation Of the I le of Creete and of the customes most common amongst the Cretensians CAP. 4. CREETE which is also called Candy is an Iland-situated in the Mediterranian sea and very famous and renowned for hauing in it an hundred Citties This Iland as Strabo writeth is compassed vppon the north with the Aegean Creetish sea and with the Libican or Africane sea vppon the South it lyeth towards Egila and Cythera vpon the west and hath vppon the East the I le Carpathus which lyeth in the midst betwixt Rhodes and Creete The whole Iland containeth in length two hundred and seuentie myles and fiftie myles in breadth and the circuite or compasse round about the Island is fiue hundred eightie and eight myles The most renowned Citties of Creete be Gortyna Cydonea Cnossus and Minois or Minon which is the Kings seate And of all the hilles in the countrey the hill Ida is most famous as beeing of an exceeding and wonderfull height the length whereof as Apollodorus saith is two thousand and three hundred Stadia and fiue thousand and more in compasse but Artimedorus saith That it is not so much in compasse by a thousand stadia In Creete liue no noysome or offensiue creatures there be neither Serpents nor owles bredde and if any be brought thither from other places they dye instantly There be aboundance of Goates but few or no Deere at all it yeeldeth great store of the best and daintiest wines and produceth an herbe called Diptamus which is a byting and drawing hearbe and by vs called Dittanie Dittander or garden Ginger and the Alunosa which beeing eaten is a present remedie against extreame hunger It bringeth foorth also the poysoned and venimous Sphalangi and a pretious stone called Idaeus Dactylus It was first called Cureta of the Inhabitants of Curetes and now by contraction Creete Some others say it was called Creete of one Cres who was sonne vnto Iupiter king of the Curetes and some of Crete the Nymph who was daughter to Hesperides The people at the first were very rude and barbarous till Rodomanthus reduced them to more ciuilitie and better manners after whome succeeded Minois who adorned and furnished them with more equitie and iustice Plato sayth that the Lacedemonians and other auncient citties of Greece deriued their lawes and ordinances from Creete But the good estate of that nation was ouerthrowne and turned vp-side downe first by the gouernement of Tyrants and afterwards by the robberie and warres of the people of Cilicia For the Cretans were very studious in diuers sciences and desirous of libertie which they esteemed their Summum bonum and supposed they possessed all such things as were not subiect to the wanton lusts and vnlawfull desires of Tyrants They had a great care prouident respect and regard of Concord and Amitie as they be mortall enemies to Discord and Sedition which are the nurses and fosterers of Couetousnesse and vnsatiable desire of riches and therefore the people of Creete in auncient
the world presently all his kinsfolke and friends flocke about him bewayling greatly his natiuity and saying that seeing he is borne he must of necessity suffer and indure all humaine and worldly calamities and againe when one is departed out of this life they commit him to the ground with great ioy and exultation shewing what and how many euills he hath escaped to liue for euer in eternal happinesse But those which dwell beyond the Crestonae haue many wiues a yeere and when a man dieth there is great controuersie amongst his wiues all their friends being accited to giue their iudgements of the matter which of those wiues was best beloued of her husband and she that is adiudged to haue beene deerest vnto him in his life time which shee esteemeth a great honour vnto her is both by the men and women adorned and gallantly decked vp and so brought vnto her husbands tombe and there killed by one of her own deerest friends and interred with her dead husband all the other wiues lamenting and accounting that a great crosse and disgrace vnto them All other Thracians in generall sell their children openly nor be virgins there restrained from accompanying with their neerest kin no not with their owne fathers but may lie with whom they please and yet husbands be very chary of their wiues chastity for they buy them of their parents with great summes of money and the signe them in the forheads with certaine markes which kind of marking is held a very generous and worthy thing but to be without those markes is an argument of ignominy and basenesse where diuers maides are to be married those which be most beautifull be first taxed and prized and beeing once prized their parents will not by any meanes giue them in marriage for lesse money then they were rated at and when all the fairest bee bought then those which be deformed be sold at more easier prices so as in conclusion all goe away In their banquets both men and women sit round about a fire whereinto they cast the seeds of certaine herbes which grow in those parts the very smell and sauour whereof doth so stop and stifle them as their senses be dulled and they as pleasant and iocund as if they were merry drunke To liue idlely and by theft they account an honest course of life but to labour and husband the ground they hold base and ignoble The gods which they chiefly worship and religiously adore be Mars Bacchus Diana and Mercury but they swere onely by Mars accounting him as the author and orignall of their race The people of Thrace exceed all other men in bignesse and stature of body their eyes be gray their lookes grim frowning and menacing their speech terrible and themselues long of life Their buildings be very low and base their diet is nothing dainty they haue no vines but great store of apples the King is elected as well by the voices of the commons as by the nobility and they elect such a one as is of approued good manners singular clemency and by reason of his age of very great grauity and one that hath no children for hee which is a father is not admitted amongst them to bee a gouernor bee his life and conuersation neuer so vprigh◠and lawdable and if at any time in all his raigne he chance to haue a child he is therfore depriued of his gouernment For by no meanes will they admit that their Kingdome should become hereditary and though the King be neuer so iust and rightfull Yet will they not allow him the whole power in his owne hands and to rule as he list himselfe but he must bee assistwith forty Rectors or Iudges to the end he should not be sole Iudge in capital causes and if the King himselfe bee found faulty of any offence he is punished with death yet not with such a death as any one shall lay violent hands vpon him but by the common consent of all he is deposed from his Kingly authority and then famished to death whom when hee is dead the great men bury on this manner First they lay forth his body vpon the ground for the space of three daies and then fall to banquetting and slaying of all sorts of beasts for sacrifices which done they weepe ouer him burne his body and bury his bones in the ground and lastly vpon his monument they proclaime and set out combats of all sorts and especially the Monomachia which is the single combat or fighting of two hand to hand The armour and weapons which as Herodotus writeth they vsed in the warres against Darius were helmets made of foxes skinnes souldiours coates and short cassockes ouer them and vpon their legges they were buskins made of fawnes skinnes their weapons wore dartes targets short poyniardes and bowes wherein they bee so skilfull and expert as they alleadge that they were the first inuentors of that weapon Their language and the Scythians is al one Pliny writeth that all Thrace was once deuided into fifty Stratageas which are counties or captainships that part of Thrace which was once called Getica where Darius the sonne of Hydaspis was wel-nigh ouerthrowne is now called Valachia of the Flacci a family of Rome For the Romaines after they had ouercome and vtterly vanquished the Getes sent thither a Colony vnder the conduct of one Flaccus wherevpon the countrie was first called Flaccia and afterwards by corruption Valachia which opinion carrieth more likely-hood of truth for that the Romaine language is yet spoken in that Countrie but they speake it so corruptly as a Romane can scarce vnderstand it the Romaine letters also bee there vsed sauing that the forme or fashion of the letters is somewhat alterred their rites and ceremonies of Religion doe ioyntly agree cohere and are all one with the Greekes The Daci afterwardes possessed this Countrie of whom for a certaine space it was called Dacia but now it is enioyed by the Almaines the Siculi and the Valachians The Almaines or Teutones were a verie valiant and hardie people sent thether out of Saxonie by Charles the Great who in their owne naturall language and dialect were called Seibemburges of the seuen Cities which they inhabited The Siculi or Sicilians were an ancient people of Hungaria and such as abandoning their owne Countrie first came thither from out of Scythia and seated themselues in that Countrie Of the Valachians were two sortes of people and of two sundrie factions the Dragulae and the Dani otherwise called Davi for there doe some Greeke writers reporte that the Getes and Daui were the names of seruantes which in times past came thither from other places The Dragulae being neither equall nor matchable to the Danes nor able to make their partie good with them not much aboue a hundred yeere since brought the Turkes into that coūtry by whose force armes the Dani were almost vtterly killed and vanquished had not that valiant man Iohn Huniades brought aide
vnto them who rescuing them and recouering the land againe from the enemy tooke seisure thereof for himself the chiefe excercise of the Valachians is husbandry and keeping of cattaile which argueth and declareth the originall of that people They pay tribute to the Kings of Thrace and but once to euery King and then by the Kings declaration each family giueth him an oxe in the name of a tribute and the number of families in Valachia is said to be aboue sixtie thousand Those which be commanded to goe to the warres and refuse to goe are punished with death Valachia vpon the West bordereth vpon Transiluania and runneth East-ward into the Euxine sea vpon the North-east and North it ioyneth to Russia and vpon the South it is washed with the riuer of Ister about which whatsoeuer those wandring people be that therein inhabite the ayre is very intemperate and cold and their winter in a maner continuall the soile in Valachia was heretofore very barren yeelding them but slender sustainance and their chiefe defence against raine and ill wether was either reedes or leaues they would goe ouer great pooles and waters vpon the Ise and their victuals was such wild beasts as they could catch mansion houses or set places of abode they had none but rested where euer they were weary Their diet was very vile and base by reason of the horrible intemperatnesse of the aire and they went alwaies bare-headed Of Russia or Ruthenia and of the latter manners and customes of the Russians CAP. 6. RVSSIA which is also called by two other names Ruthenia and Podolia is deuided into three parts viz Russia Alba Russia superior and Russia inferior That part which extendeth in lengthwise towards Sarmatia or Poland is bounded North with the riuer Peucis towards the East lieth the riuer Moscus and West-ward are Liuonia and Prussia the furthest partes of Germany The bounds and limits of the Ruthenians or Roxallanians for by that name they bee also called at this day is the space of eight daies iourney ouer from the riuer Tanais to the North Ocean and from the Germaine Ocean which they call the Balthean sea to the Caspian sea is the space of aboue ninty daies iourney The country is so fertill and fruitfull as though the soile bee but rudely and vnhusbandlike tilled and corne throwne vpon it will yeeld increase three yeeres together and that without plowing the two latter yeeres for the corne which shedeth at reaping will be seed sufficient to yeeld an other haruest and the second a third likewise and the graine which it produceth groweth vp a ful perch in height There is such great store of Bees in Russia that for want of hiues and hollow trees they build in rockes and holes of the earth there is great store of the bast Meth and waxe which is carried thence into diuers other countries in great aboundance The Russians store not their ponds and pooles with fish because as they say fishes doe their naturally breede and multiply by the influence of the heauens In a certaine lake there called Katzibe when the wether is drie is salt gotten for which there is much warre betwixt the Russians and the Tartarians and it is very strang which is reported that in the Country of the Chelmenses if the armes and braunches of pine trees be cut off from the trees and lie vpon the ground for the space of two or three yeeres they will bee hardned and turned into stones there is also good plenty of chalke And towardes the riuer Tanais and Maeotis poole groweth great store of sweete cane or reed called Callamus Aromaticus or Callamus Reuponticus and many other herbes and rootes which bee not found in other places There chiefe Citty and Kings seat is called Moscouia it is seitutated vpon the riuer Moscus and is foureteene miles in circuit coine or stamped siluer they haue none in that City and in the middle of the market place standeth a foure-square stone vpon the toppe whereof hee that can clime vp and ascend and in performance thereof bee not violently thrust downe by others obtaineth the principality and gouernment of all the City wherevpon oftentimes arise great contentions and debate amongst the people each one indeauouring to supplant his corriuall that himselfe may ascend The Country is so populous and strong that not long since in a certaine warlike assembly in the Kings campe were numbred and reckoned a hundred and twenty thousand horsemen euery one whereof were able to leade an armie In their warres they vse bowes which weapon by longe vsage is most familiar and proper to that nation and launces of twelue foote long their horsemen which serue in compleat armour weare iron brest-plates vpon their brigandines or cotes of maile with the belly or middle standing out In steed of helmets they haue hattes made sharpe vpon the crowne and this kinde of horsemen bee more seruiceable and in greater request in the warres then footemen Some foote-men fight with a certaine weapon called Scorpio because it is like a scorpion wherewith they shoote small arrowes or quarrels it is the same which the Italians call Balista and with vs a Crosse-bow Stocke-bow or Tiller some others doe vse for to shoote leaden bullets out of brazen peeces after the manner of the Almaines The Russians cannot indure for to haue their Gouernors called Kings but Dukes as beeing a name more popular and hee that is Duke hath the dominion and gouernment ouer the whole nation betwixt whom and the Nobles there is no difference in their apparell sauing that the Duke weareth a cappe some-what higher then the rest Their garments bee of all collours sauing blacke and both men and women are apparelled in fine linnen cassockes or shirtes hanging downe to their knees This garment they trimme and garnish rounde about the necke with gold and redde silke it is wide and loose and but little differente from those which the Grecians weare the like also is worne by the Turkes and all the Northerne people but that the Ruthens garments haue wider sheeues and bee hemmed or garded with gold about the breasts and shoulders edged or welted round about the skirtes with Otters skinne None but onely the wife lamenteth and bewaileth the death of her husband and then is her head couered with a white linnen cloath hanging downe to her elbowes the richer sort of people haue a banket made them vpon the forteeth daie after the funeralls in remembrance of him that is dead but the poorer sorte bee feasted fiue times within the fortie daies the daies of their deathes be likewise obserued wherein they celebrate yeerly feastes And those which suruiue keepe a register of all their friends which bee dead to the end they may know vpon what daies the obites and Annuall feasts are to bee celebrated for euery one that is departed the dead bodies bee buried and interred with weeping and lamentation The women vsually hange at their eares
bee often-times dipped it will bee turned into Copper The men weare garments that bee made hollow about the shoulders and linnen coates or shirts vnder them the collers whereof appeare about their necks higher then their vppermost garments and bee wrought with silke and gold They bee indifferent what manner of stockings they weare for that they euer haue buskins ouer them They be very curious in annointing and trimming of their haire and they euer go in linnen hatts which they sildome put of or once remooue from their heads vnlesse when they sit still and bee idle but womens peticotes bee made more straiter to their bodyes then mens coates bee and reach higher towards their chinnes to couer their neckes and breasts ouer which they weare gownes and their faces bee masked with linnen Veales richly wrought and imbrodered so as you can see no part of them but their noses and eyes Their heads be couered with linnen kerchers or coyfes set with pearls and precious stones and they as well as men weare buskins that come vp to the calues of their legges Their time of mourning in Hungary is for some a yeare and for some two and they shaue of their beards all but the vpper lippe They iudge of matters concerning the true religion according to their law but in disciding of other matters their course is if the matter in question be difficult or doubtfull and cannot other wise be determined that the plaintife or defendant shall fight it out by combat in the presence of the King or his deputy who is to iudge of the victory for of his tryall by batell death doth not alwaies follow for it is conquest sufficient for one if his enimy ether faint or fight vnwillingly or fly out of the lists appointed for the combat The horsemens fight in Hungary is first with lances and then with swords and foote soldiars fight naked on all parts but their priuities They haue a proper speach but not much differing from the Boemian language and though they haue a forme of letters of their owne yet vse they altogether the Roman character They be a cruell kind of people very hardy valiant in war much more fit to fight on foote than on horsebacke They be vnder the gouernment of a King or rather a Duke that hath Kingly authority They vse barbed horses in the wars but weare light armor themselues and they fight one after another and not all together And surely there is no one Christian country in the world that hath held warres so long against the Turke as the Hungarians haue don the other Hungary in Scithia which is the mother of this Hungary is almost like vnto this in language and manners sauing that the people bee more barbarous and liue still in Idolatry Of Boemia and of the manners of the Boemians CAP. 11. BOHEMIA is a country on the North side of Germanie and included in the limits of Germany it hath vpon the East Hungaria Bauaria on the South Noricum on the west and Poland on the North It is in a manner as broad as it is long too and about three dayes iourney either way beeing on all sides compassed and inuironed with the Hircanian wood as with a naturall wall Through the middle thereof runneth the riuer Albis and an other riuer called Multauia vpon the banckes whereof standeth that goodly Citty Praga the chiefe and Metropolitan City of the whole nation The country affoordeth great store of Wheate and Barley and aboundeth with all kinde of victualls both flesh and fish Oyle there is none neither there nor in any other part of Germany nor doth it yeeld much Wine but great store of Beere and that of the best of any other country which for the goodnesse is carryed thence as farre as Vienna in Austria The Boemians notwithstanding they bee hemmed and compassed round about with Germaines yet doe they not speake the Germaine language it beeing expelled thence by the comming of the Dalmatae for their Chronicles report as Volateranus affirmeth that two brethren borne in Croatia departing thence and seating themselues one in Boemia the other in Poland altered the countries both in their names and languages and yet there bee many in Boemia at this day that obserue and retaine both the language and ancient customes of the Germaines for in their Sermons the Germaine tongue is spoken and the Boemian in their funerals And Friars Mendicant of all others onely had power heretofore when there was any Friars there to preach instruct the people in what language they listed The people be very licencious as hauing no strict lawes nor statutes to restraine them but euery one doth what best pleaseth himselfe without controulement for they haue reiected the authority and rites of the Romaine Church and receiued the Waldensian doctrine which they defend tooth and naile This doctrine not many yeares since was first preached by one Hus and by him generally receiued whereby the traditions of the Romaine Church are at this day there vtterly neclected and derided for this is now their practise of religion First they esteeme of the Bishop of Rome no otherwise then of other Bishops denying him to be of any more reuerence and authoritie than other Bishoppes are holding also that there is no difference among Priests and that it is not the dignity of Priesthood that maketh one better but his deserts and well liuing That soules as soone as they bee departed out of the bodyes goe instantly eyther to perpetuall paines or eternall pleasures And that there is no Purgatory at all to purge and purifie them of their sinnes after this life To pray for the dead they account foolish and absurde and a thing inuented onely for the profit of Priests The Images of our Sauiour Christ and of his Saints they vtterly abandon and contemne and deride and scoffe at the Benedictions and hollowings of Water Palmes or any other things whatsoeuer They hold that the religion and practise of Fryers mendicant was inuented by the Diuell and that the Priests ought to bee poore and not to possesse mony nor substance but to liue onely of the almes of the people that euery one hath free power and liberty to preach and expound the word of God That no mortall sinne is in any sort to bee tollerated although by the committing of that sinne a greater inconuenience may bee avoyded and that hee that is conuinced of deadly sinne is not worthy to possesse and inioy any secular office nor Church dignity nor is fit to be obeied confirmation and extreame vnction they exclude from the number of the Sacraments and esteeme of auricular consession as friuolous and vayne and that it is sufficient to acknowledge their sinnes vnto GOD secretly in their chambers That Baptisme is to be ministred with water onely without any commixtion of holy oyle That Church-yards are vayne and superfluous inuented onely for coueteousnesse and that no one place is fitter for buryall than
him at his pleasure but to the end that no one should be ouerthrowne or spoiled by anothers enuie or malice without cause there was this prouision made that the accused might challenge the single combat with one of his accusérs and if he ouercame the other he scaped free and forfeited nothing He that killed his Duke was killed himselfe and all his goods confiscate for euer without redemption and he that stirred vp sedition against him forfeited to the Duke 600. shillings When an armie was conducted into the enemies land the souldiers had no cause to fall out amongst thēselues for prouision for euery one might take what would serue his turn but he which wrangled without cause was forced either to yeeld himselfe to the law of armes in that case prouided or suffer fifty stripes with a truncheon before his Lieutenant And the Lieutenants and Gouernors were to haue a special care euery one with in his limits or county that the souldiers did not spoile prey vppon the enemie before they were commanded by the Duke for if any fault were committed through their negligence they were to make it good If a free-man damnified or wronged another he was constrained to make good as much as the party was hindred and was amerced besides at 40. shil but such offences were death in seruants and their master made restitution for them because they forbad them not the committing of such crimes If a seruant stole or purloyned any thing from the soldiers in the campe and was therof conuicted he lost his hand for that offence and his master notwithstanding restored the value of the goods stolne and a free-man for such a fault was mulcted at forty shillings ouer and aboue the due restitution of the thing stolne If any one were commanded by the king or duke to kill another and he did it the king or duke which commanded him ought for euer after to defend and protect him from danger if the king or duke which was his protector died his next successor did take vpon him the like warrantie and protection of that man If the Duke were so stubborn and rebellious as to contemne and despise the decrees of the king he was depriued of his Duke-dome and was vtterly void of all hope euer to recouer his former estate and dignity If the Duke had a son so froward foolish or arrogant as through the counsell and abetting of lewd and euil persons he went about to depose his father from his gouernment so that his father were yet well able to gouerne to conduct an armie to get vp vpon his horse and to carry armes and was neither deafe nor blind well able to performe the kings command he was dis-inherited and for euer after vncapable of the Dukedome or if his father pleased he was banished to perpetuall euile for offending his father in so high a degree against the law He that by rashnesse indiscretion or drunkennesse bred a scandall in the Dukes Court forfeited forty shillings and was for euer after lyable to make good the value of the inconuenience that arose of that ill example but a seruant for such a fault lost his hand If any thing were found in the Dukes Court and taken vp and concealed one night vnreuealed it was accounted theft and such an offendor forfeited into the Dukes Exchequer fifteene shillings because the Dukes house was accounted a publike house He that detracted or by his ill speeches depraued the Dukes gouernement was punished at fifteen shillings and forced to finish and make perfect all that he was commanded to do that all pleas or suites might be dispatched and ended euery fifteenth day in each seuerall Countie of the countrie for the doing wherof all the free-men assembled together and they which neglected the meeting forfeited fifteene shillings the Iudge to the end hee might do iustice and iudge vprightly had a booke of the law lying open before him which serued as a rule and pattern wherby to iudge of all controuersies And if the inditement were without partialitie and that he iudged vprightly without respect of persons or rewards hee then had and enioyed to himselfe the ninth part of the composition but if the iudgement were partiall or smelled of briberie he forfeited the double value of that which by his false sentence and corruption was payed and was fined moreouer at forty shillings He which killed the Duke payd either vnto his friends or vnto the king for composition 1460. shillings whereof his friends had six hundred And it was euer obserued that the composition for the death of the Duke was three times as much as for the death of any of his friends The Agilolsingi out of which family the Dukes be euer created had the fourth part of the composition and then the Huosi the Trozzi the Sagavi the Hahilingi and the Aennonni had the one halfe of that which remained Hee that killed a free-man payd either vnto the Duke or vnto his parents that was slaine 8. pounds hee that put out a free-mans eye or cut off his hand or foot payed 40. shillings he that lamed him payd 12. shillings and for a maim 20. shillings for a wound 3. shillings for striking out a cheeke tooth or grinding tooth 12. shillings and for euery other tooth 6. shillings They were very strictly forbidden to molest or hurt strangers in so much as he which iniured any of them payd vnto the party grieued the double value of the wrong sustained and besides forseited 8. pounds into the Dukes Exchequer he that slue a stranger forfeted an hundred pounds in gold If a seruant molested or sold a free-man were complained of to the Iudg he escaped not without some great punishment as the losse of hand or eye Libertines which had bin manumitted made free had more easie compositions by the one halfe then those which were free-born All incestuous mariages were there vtterly prohibited so as it was not lawful for any man to marry his first wiues mother his sonnes wife his daughter-in-law his step mother his brothers or sisters daughter his brothers wife or wiues sister and those which offended in any of these points all his goods were confiscate by the Iudge hee that prophaned the Lords day with any manner of worke after the first warning and admonition had fiftie lashes vpon the backe with a whip and if he offended againe the second time he forfeited the third part of all his goods and for the third offence he lost his libertie for it is fitting that he which will not be free vpon that day shold be a slaue for euer after A seruant for labouring vpon the Lords day was beaten but if he held on his course without amendement his right hand was cut off And a stranger for the like fault hauing beene warned aforehand paid 12. shillings He that detained a freeman against his will in seruitude and bondage or forcibly tooke away his inheritance or goods was forced to
carkasse himselfe and gaue vnto the owner an other beast as good as his was If hee strooke out his eye he paide vnto the owner the third part of the price that the beast was worth and if he cut off either taile or eare hee paide twelue pence a tremissis for euery horne But hee which committed any of these outrages either for hatred contempt or despite his penalty was doubled hee which tooke an other mans horse or oxe to keepe for hire and lost him by his owne default paide the full price for him and had no hire but if hee purged himselfe by his oth that the beast was not lost by his neglect then hee had the hide allowed him Hee which receiued into his house an other mans goods were it gold siluer apparell or any thing else either to sell or to keepe and that his house together with those goods were burned by misfortune if hee would depose that his owne goods were burned with them and that hee had no profit nor commodity by those goods so committed vnto him hee made no restitution for them If a house were on fire and one making shew to quench the fire did steale and purloine any thing thence he paide fouretimes the value of that which he stole and made composition besides according to the Statutes If a thing was in contention betwixt two to whom the propertie belonged it was not lawfull for any one whatsoeuer either to giue it or sell it vntill it was decided to whom the right property did appertaine If a woman buried her husband and remained a widdow afterwards she had an equall portion with one of his children both of the goods and of the yeerely profit of the liuing but if shee married an other husband she then tooke such goods onely as she had of her owne and her dower and departed the house the same day shee married and that portion which was allotted vnto her after the death of her husband during her widdow-hood was equally deuided amongst her children If a man had children by diuers wiues they all of them equally inherited but the mothers children inherited such goods onely as belonged vnto her and the sonne of a bond-woman might not inherit with the sonne of a free-woman If a man died without issue and made no will his wife so long as shee kept her selfe widdow enioyed the one halfe of all her husbands goods and the other halfe remained to his kinsfolke But if she died or married againe shee then presently departed and carried with her such goods onely as were her owne and due vnto her by the law and that part which she had was distributed to her husbands kinsfolkes likewise If either man or woman died and neither deuised their goods by testament nor gaue them away in their life time and had no kindred liuing within seuen degrees then were all their goods confiscate and escheated into the Dukes Exchecker He which sold any thing and tooke money for it was to confirme the sale either by writing or in the presence of two witnesses at the least and no sale was firme and good vnlesse hee which sold it did it voluntarily and vnconstrained Hee which sold an other mans goods without the owners consent or priuity restored the same againe and an other as good as that was besides but if the thing so sold could not be gotten againe then he paide two other things as good as that was which he sold Hee which bought any thing and gaue earnest for it was forced to stand to his bargaine vnlesse the other party were willing to release him or else he lost the thing hee gaue earnest for and paide the full price agreed vpon notwithstanding If a man sold a thing which was nought hee was constrained to take it againe at any time within three daies or else hee was deposed and brought one other to sweare with him that hee knew not of the fault and so the bargaine stood currant If a bond-man purchased his free-dome by his owne purse and not with his maisters money and the deceite were discerned hee was restored againe to his maister because his maister receiued no other thing for him but that which was his seruants which hee knew not of And the same law that was in buying and selling was likewise in exchanging If any one entred into an other mans ground and claimed it for his owne hee paide for his rashnesse sixe shillings and restored the ground to the owner againe A witnesse produced to giue testimony neither could nor ought to bee resisted vnlesse in case of one that is dead in which case hee was to make good his euidence by battaile and if he hap to get the victory hee was then creditteds and no longer impugned If there were many witnesse then one was elected by lot to sweare and the manner of his oth was thus I am elected as a witnesse and I offer my selfe to be deposed and as God shall helpe mee and him whose hand I hold I am produced as a witnesse to speake the truth touching this matter now in question and then ioyning all their hands together to sweare and protest the truth hee alone holding in his other hand one other that sweareth with him deposed as seemeth him good and if hee swore false and was conuicted of periury hee restored and made good vnto the partie damnified by his false oth as much as hee was hindred thereby and paide twelue shillings more for composition or else defended his innocency by battaile If one champion killed the other in battaile if he were a free-man then the party that vniustly procured him to vndertake the combate paide twelu shillings for composition but no more He which solde any thing from a freeman that was dead and buried paide vnto his parents or friends forty shillings and restored that which hee stole away He that murthered a freeman secretly casting his body either into a riuer or other base place whereby hee was depriued of due sunerals and exequies did first pay forty shillings and afterwards a were-geld If a freeman was slaine and cast into a riuer or into the sea and after his body hapt to be cast vpon shore if any one tumbled him into the water againe hee forfeted forty shillings And if a seruant or bond-man were so slaine and cast vp then hee which aduentured to throw him in againe forfeted nine pounds Hee which slue a man and tooke his apparell from him paide twise the worth of his apparell and hee which cut or mangled the carcasse of a dead man paide twelue shillings for euery member hee so cut or mangled Hee which found the body of a dead man and out of his compassion affoorded it buriall lest it should bee deuoured by beasts or birds the friends or maister of the dead man gaue him twelue pence for his paine He which remoued an other mans ship or boate out of his place restored vnto the owner either the same againe in
differ from them in their weapons sauing that they wore no bootes The fourth order was taxed at fiue and twenty thousand asses and they wore no other weapons but little Iauelins or darts And the fift and last degree consisted of thirty centuries their warlike weapons were slings and stones and they were valued at forty thousand and with these were cessed and taxed the cornetters and trumperters which were three centuries in number the rest whose substance was but small hee both spared from the wars by reason of their pouerty and remitted their tribute After this diuision he ministred an oth to the Citizens that they should make a iust estimation of their goods and declare out of what family stocke they were descended what children they had and of what age and by what names they were called and whether any of them had wiues and where euery of them dwelt and if any of them dealt doubly with him and falsifyed their othes and fidelity all their goods were ipso facto confiscate and taken from them and they themselues first whipped and then sold for slaues The companies of footmen being thus distributed hee elected out of the chiefest of the Citizens nine orders of horsmen so as the whole number of horseme reckoning those that were ordained by Romulus and those which were afterwards added by Tarquinius were now two and twenty centuries to euery centuary hee allowed ten thousand peeces of money out of the common treasury to buy them horses and two thousand peeces a yeere to keepe them besides all the widdowes of the city paide vnto the horsemen yeerely pensions towards their better maintainance euery one according to her ability And so all the whole number of horsmen and footemen were a hundred ninty and three centuries and euery century kept their place and dignity in giuing their voices they that were best able bore the greatest charge in the warres and gaue their voices first For Seruius thought it fitter that the centuries should pay tribute according as they were valued and not perticularly by the pole as they did before The centuries of horsemen were to mingle their voices amongst the centuries of the first ranke of footemen which were fourescore centuries as is saide before and so Dionysius reckoneth that there were fourescore and eighteene centuries that had the first place in giuing their voices which were more then all the centuries of the other orders whereof insues that what euer was concluded by the suffrages of the first order was immutable but if the voices of the first degree were deuided which happened but seldome then the centuries of the second order were called and if they could not agree then the others after them in their course but it was very rare that euer it should come to the centuries of the last order And thus by the wisdome of King Tullius all the orders seemed to haue an equality of voices but yet the priority was granted to those which were at greatest charge and though none were excluded yet was all in a manner done by the centuries of the first order and the equites or horsmen For they created magistrates whom they pleased they established lawes and denounced wars which three priuiledges and prerogatiues were before by Romulus giuen to the Plebeians or communalty But when Taquin the last Romaine King was deposed and banished Rome the forme of this gouernment was cleane altered and changed for in steed of Kings they created Consuls who had all the types and ornaments of honour giuen vnto them that the Kings had before sauing onely the crowne and the gowne wrought with palmes which the Kings vsed to weare after they had atchiued any conquest And when Brutus the defender of their liberties was by the voices of the centuries made fellow Consul with Collatinus hee bound the Citizens by an oth that they should neuer after that suffer any one man to raigne ouer them as their King Then hee ordained three hundred Senators and one chiefe ruler ouer the sacrifices whose office was to performe all things belonging to sacrifices that the King before was wont to doe Valerius who was the third Consul permitted it lawfull to appeale from the Consuls to the comminalty forbidding vnder paine of death that no one should accept of any office without the consent of the commons and that the Citizens should bee eased of tribute which made men more willing to fall to trading and other labours adding therevnto an other law whereby it was present death for any one to affect any kinde of gouernment for his owne priuate profit Hee then appointed the Temple of Saturne to bee the common treasury wherein to keepe the reuenewes of the City and suffered the people to create two Treasurers or Chamberlanes to see the disposing thereof Not longe after this they agreed to haue such a magistrate as from whom they might not appeale and him they called a Dictator a dictando by reason of the authority hee had to command or rather a dicende because he was not elected by the voices of the people but by him onely that bore the chiefest sway in the city In ordayning this high office of Dictatorship the Romanes may seeme to haue imitated the Greekes who as Theophrastus writeth in his booke Deregno were wont to make certaine chiefe officers whom they called Esimnetes to rule ouer them for a time limited For the Dictator of Rome continued in his place and dignity but halfe a yeere and was neuer created but in time of warre or other imminent danger of the Citie and then hee had power to elect new magistrates and officers vnder him as the maister or captaine of the horsmen who in authority was next vnto him especially ouer the horsemen and best souldiors and was assistant to the Dictator as the Tribune was to the King And when Spurius Cassius and Posthumius Cominius were Consuls they gaue the people commission to choose them magistrates of great reuerence and authority to bee their protectors against the violence of the Consuls expresly forbidding that no Patritian should take that office vpon him and these high officers were called the Tribunes of the people These Tribunes grew in short time so proude and insolent as they would cassire and make voide the decrees of the Consuls and Senate at their pleasure vnlesse they agreed with their humors and of them at the first whether it were by general consent or foreshewed by diuination or whether religion mooued them were but two in number created shortly after there was an other added to them and in the end they came to bee fiue There was in Rome three sorts of Parliaments or societies of people to chuse officers the first called Curiata or assembly of the wards which was euer summoned by the Lictors or Sergeants the second Centuriata which was of such as were diuided into sundry Centuries or degrees according to their age and abilitie as is said before
gates of their houses be neuer shut but stand alwayes open Amongst the Pedalians a people of India not hee which is cheefe in the sacrifice but hee that is most prudent of all those which be present deuineth and they desire nothing of the gods in their prayers but Iustice onely the Praysij or Phrasij succour with sustenance their neighbours afflicted by famine The people called Telchines dwelled first in the I le of Creete and afterwards inhabited the I le of Cyprus also from whence they remooued into Rhodes and inioyde that Iland where they began to bee very malicious and enuious and exercising themselues in Mechanicall Artes and imitating the workes of their elders they were the first that erected the Idoll of Telchinian Minerua which is as much to say as enuious Minerua It is not lawfull amongst the Tartessians for the younger to giue testimony against the elder The people of Lucania excercise iudgement and inflict punishment as well for luxury and sloth as for any other offence what-so-euer and hee which is proved to lend any thing to a luxurious person is fined at the value of the thing lent Amongst the Saunites or Samnites is once euery yeare a publike Iudgement pronounced both of young men and maides and which of the youngmen is adiudged best by the censure of the Iudges shall first make his choyse which of the Virgins hee will haue to his wife and the second to him chooseth next and so of all the rest in order The Limyrnij haue their wiues in common their children be likewise brought vp at their common charge vntill they accomplish the age of fiue yeares and in the sixt yeare they be brought together into one place where all the fathers be assembled to make coniecture whom euery childe doth most resemble which done they assigne vnto euery father the child that is likest vnto him and by that meanes euery one acknowledgeth his owne child as neere as he can and bringeth him vp as his owne whether he be so or noe The Sauromatae or Sarmatae pamper and gorge themselues with meate for the space of three daies together that they may be throughly filled they obey their wiues in all things as their Ladies and Mistresses and noe maide there is admitted to marry before she hath beene the death of som enimy The Cercetae punish all offenders so seuerely as they prohibite them to sacrifice And if any marryner or gouernor of a boate split or runne his shippe or boate vpon a rocke all men that passe by him spit at him in contempt The Mosyni keepe their Kings in strong castles and if any of them be adiudged carelesse of the common-wealth hee is there famished to death The graine which the earth yeeldeth there is equally distributed amongst the people sauing some small part thereof which is reserued in common to releeue strangers The Phryges or Pryges abstaine from al swearing so as they will neither sweare themselues nor constraine others to sweare And if any man amongst them kill a labouring or draught oxe or priuily taketh or stealeth any instrumēt of husbandry he is punished with death They bury not their Priests when they bee dead in the ground but place or set them vpright vpon pillers of stone of tenne cubits high The Lycij attribute more honor to their women then to men and all of them take their names after their mothers In like manner they make their daughters their heires and not their sonnes And if any freeman be conuicted of theft hee is punished with perpetuall seruitude They giue not their testimony in deciding controuersies at an instant but alwaies at the Months end that they may haue time inough to delibrate what testimony to giue The Pisidae at their bankets sacrifice the first of their feasts to their parents as vnto the Gods the protectors of alliance and friendshippe Their sentence for the misusing of things laid to gage is most seuere for hee which is there conuicted deceytfully to put them to other vse then taken in adultery he together with the addulteresse woman are for a punishment led through the citty sitting vpon an asse and that for the space of certaine dayes appoynted The Aethiopians attribute the chiefest honour vnto their sisters and the Kings leaue their sisters children to succeed them in their Kingdomes and not their owne but if there bee no such children to whome the right of succession belongeth then they choose for their King hee that is most indued with valour and comlinesse of personage piety and iustice are much practised amongst them dwelling houses they haue none but liue altogether without doors and when as many times it happeneth much of their goods lieth abroad in the common waies yet they be so true as no one stealeth any thing from them Amongst the Buaei a people of Libia or affricke a man hath dominion ouer the men and a woman ouer the women The Basuliei a people of Lybia when they make wars ioyne their battells in the night and keepe peace all the day The Dapsolybies assemble them-selues together into one place and marry at the same time they be so assembled after the setting of the seauen starres their manner of marrying is thus after they haue banqueted a while their lights or torches for their meetings for this purpose are in the night are put forth and extinguished and then they go vnto the women sitting by themselues in the darke and which of the women any man shal take at aduentures her hee hath to his wife Amongst the Ialchleueians a people of Libya when many corriuals goe about to obtaine the loue of one woman they suppe all together with the father of the woman they desire in mariage where they spend the supper time in taunting and scoffing one another with pleasant quippes and Iests and hee whome the woman doth most arride and best conceiue of hath her to his wife The Sardolybies make no prouision of houshold stuffe but onely of a cuppe and a sword The Alytemij a people of Libia choose the most pernicious Kings they can get but for the rest of the people hee which is most iust is of greatest dignity The Nomades a people of Libia also in their computation of times account by the nights and not by the dayes The Apharantes a people of Libia are not distinguished and knowne by proper names as other people bee they reuyle the Sunne at his rysing because hee produceth and bringeth all euills to light and they account those daughters the best which keepe their virginity longest When any of the Baeotians are become banckrupts and not able to pay their debts they are brought into the common market place and there constrayned to sit together and be couered all ouer with a basket and those which haue this punishment inflicted vpon them are accounted for euer
of Ieson the sonne of Nav in Galgale and of Gedeon in the Coast and of Sampson when hee was a thirst in the land of drought and of Samuell in Rhama of the Prophet and of Dauid in Nacira and of Salomon in the Cittie of Gabeon and of Helias in mount Carmell when hee raised from death the Widdow womans sonne from Rhicha aboue the pit and of Iosaphat in battell and of Manasses when hee sinned and conuerted againe vnto God and of Daniell in the Lyons Denne and of the three brethren Sydrach Mysaach and Abednago on the firy furnace and of Anna before the Altar and of Nehemias which made walles with Zorababell and of Mathathia with his sonnes ouer the fourth part of the world and of Esau vppon his blessing euen so our Lord wil receiue your sacrifices and supplications and will helpe you and stand with you against all persuersnes and ouerth wartnes at all seasons and euery day Peace bee with you and I embrace you with the armes of sanctitie and in like manner I embrace all those which be of your Councell of the kingdome of Portugall Archbishops likewise and Bishops Priests and Deacons and all men and women whatsoeuer The grace of God and blessing of the Virgine Mary the mother of God be with you and with you all Amen Letters from the same most renowned Dauid Emperour of Ethiopia vnto the Pope of Rome written in the yeare of our Lord 1524. and translated into Latine by Paulus Iouius IN the name of God the Father Almighty maker of heauen and earth and of all things visible and inuisible in the name of God the Sonne Iesus Christ which is the same with the Father from the beginning of the world and is light of light and true God of true God in the name of the holy spirit of the liuing God who proceeded from God Father These letters I the King doe send whose name the Lyons doe worship and by the grace of God I am called Athani Tinghil that is to say the incense of a virgin the Sonne of King Dauid the sonne of Solomon the sonne of a king by the hand of Mary the son of Nav by the flesh the son of of the holy Apostles S. Peter and S Paul by grace Peace bee vnto you most iust Lord holy mighty pure and sacred Father vnto you which are the head of all Princes and fearest no man seeing no one can speake euill of thee vnto you which are the most vigilant Curate and obseruer of soules and friend of strangers and and peregrines O holy maister and preacher of the faith enemy of all those things which offend the conscience louer of good manners sanctified man whom all men laud and praise O happy and holy Father I yeeld obedience vnto you with great reuerence for you are the peace of all things and deserue all good and therefore it is fitting that all men should shew their obedience vnto you as the holy Apostles command to yeeld obedience to God This truly belongeth vnto you for so also they command vs to worship Bishops Archbishops and Prelats In like manner that we should loue and reuerence you as our father feare you as our King and haue confidence in you as in God Wherefore I humbly confesse and with my bending knees say vnto you O holy father that you are my father and I your son O holy most mighty father why did you neuer send any vnto vs that you might better vnderstand of my life and health seeing you be the sheepheard and I your sheepe For a good sheepeheard will neuer forget his flocke neither ought you to thinke that I dwel so farre remote from your regions that messengers cannot come vnto mee seeing your sonne Emanuell the King of Portugall hath sent Embassadors vnto me very conueniently from his kingdome which is the furthest from vs in the world and if God had spared him life and not incited him so suddenly to heauen without doubt those things which we then had in hand had beene brought to a happy conclusion But now I much desire to bee certified by some trusty messengers of your holinesse health and happinesse for I neuer yet heard any message from your holinesse but something I heard of our owne people who to performe their vows went a pilgrimage into those parts but seeing they went not in my name nor brought with them my letters from you their reports are but an vncertaine beleefe for I questioning with them they said they came from Ierusalem where hauing performed their vowes they went to Rome to visite the Churches of the Apostles vnderstanding that they might easily come to those places which bee inhabited by Christians And surely I take great pleasure in their speeches because in my sweete cogitation I doe behold the similitude of thy holy countenance which seemeth vnto mee like the countenance of an Angell And I confesse that I doe loue and reuerence that image as an Angellicall likenesse but yet were it more acceptable and pleasant vnto mee deuoutely and diligently to consider and view your words and Letters And therefore I most humbly beseech you to send Messengers vnto me with your benediction thereby to cheere and exhilerate my heart for seeing wee agree in faith and religion before all things I desire and intreate that you will set my loue and friendship in the principallest part of your heart as the ring which you weare vpon your finger and the chaine of gold which you put about your neck that so the remembrance of me may neuer be blotted out of your memory for with thankefull words letters frendship is increased it is embraced with sacred peace from whence all humane ioy springeth ariseth for euen as hee that is thirsty greatly desireth cold water as the scripture saith so doth my heart conceiue an incredible ioy from the messengers letters which come to me from the furthest parts of the world neither shall I only reioice to heare from your holines but also I shall be glad to heare certaine newes from all the Kings of Christendome And full as ioyfull as those that in battell doe get the best spoyles And this may bee done with great facility seeing the King of Portugall hath made the whole iourney plaine vnto them who long sithence hath sent his Embassadors vnto vs with strong Armies but neither when my father was liuing nor sithence haue wee receiued any Message or Letters from any other Christian King or from the Pope himselfe although in our treasuries of Monuments and Charters of my great Grand father is preserued the memory of those Letters which Pope Eugenius sent into this Countrie when the King of Kings of all Ethiopia being the seede of Iacob and a King to bee feared had the gouernment of this kingdome The forme of which letters were thus Eugenius the Bishop of Rome to our beloued sonne the King of the seede of Iacob the King of all the kings of Ethiopia and
declaration of these Epistles hath promised to translate into Latine the booke which Francis Aluarez composed concerning the scituation manners and behauiour of the Ethiopians in which booke he expresseth and setteth forth his whole iourney or trauels One coppy of which booke I my selfe haue in my keeping But if Iouius surcease to translate it I would not bee strange to take the matter in hand although not willingly vnlesse most holy father it please you to command and then shall I be more free and safe from all malitious detractors who may happily suppose that I vndergoe the busines not with a desire to further the Christian common-wealth but rather in aemulation of Iouius glory For the doing of which busines effectually faithfully I suppose I am sufficiently instructed for when I had executed my embassage into Germany and Sarmatia was returned vnto my king Iohn the third of that name of whose great courtesie and bountie in receiuing of me I had sufficient triall I fell in conference with the Ethiopian Embassador at Lisbon a man honoured and indued with the dignity of a Bishop admirable for his credit doctrine and eloquence in the Chaldean and Arabian tongue and in briefe a man most fit to bee sent from the most mighty Emperour of Ethiopia vnto great and potent princes for vrgent and weightie affaires his name was Zaga Zabo and after an assured and firme friendship was established betwixt vs I had often conference with him and reasoned and debated with him especially of the manners and Religion of the Christians of Aethiopia for I desired to know those things not by the bare narration of trauelling interpreters but from a man borne in that Country and that in his presence and receiuing it from his mouth Amongst other things I shewed vnto him an Epistle sent into Portugall by Mathew the Embassador which Epistle together with the Articles which he proposed before King Emmanuel I translated as I haue sayd into the Latine tongue and many things I haue corrected by his direction where the interpretation obtained not sufficient credit nor likelihood which he affirmed did oftentimes happen both to me and to Iouius for as then I had with me the Epistles of the same Iouius which we conferred with great diligence and after vnfained friendship and the true loue of Christ flourished and was esteemed amongst vs I was imboldened to require of him a plaine and sincere declaration of the faith and religion of the Aethiopians and to haue it penned downe with his owne hands which hee graunted vnto me with great alacritie and foorthwith beganne to make description thereof which relation of his I haue faithfully translated into Latin as by the sequele will appeare wherein I went forward with greater desire my conscience vrging me that I was not ignorant that if these things should haue perished with me they could neuer after that be published by any other man for because they were so framed and composed after the Chaldean and Aethiopian phrase as they could hardly of any man bee vnderstood but of my selfe who by much familiaritie might attaine to the knowledge of all those things as well from the mouth as from the writings of the sayd Aethiopian Ambassadour In the name of our Lord Iesus Christ Amen THese be the things which be vsed obserued amongst vs Aethiopians as touching our faith and religion First we beleeue in the name of the holy Trinity the Father Sonne and holy Ghost who is one Lord three in name but one in Diuinity three representations but one similitude the coniunction of the three persons is equall equall I say in Diuinitie one Kingdome one throne one Iudge one Charity one Word and one Spirit but the word of the Father and of the Sonne the word of the holy Ghost and the Sonne is the same word and the word with God and with the holy Ghost and with himself without any defect or diuision the Sonne of the Father and the Sonne of the same Father without beginning to wit first the Sonne of the Father without mother For no one knoweth the secret and mysterie of his Natiuity but the Father Sonne and the holy Ghost and the same in beginning was the Word the Word was the Word with God and God was the Word the Spirit of the Father the holy Spirit and the Spirit of the Sonne is the holy Spirit but the holy Spirit of his Spirit is without any diminution or augmentation for that the holy Ghost the Aduocate or Comforter the true God which proceedeth from the Father and the Sonne spake by the mouth of the Prophets and descended in the fierie flame vppon the Apostles in the porch of Syon who declared and preached throughout the whole world the Word of the Father which Word was the Sonne himselfe Moreouer the Father is not first in that hee is Father nor the Sonne last in that he is the Sonne euen so the holy Ghost is neither first nor last for they be three persons but one God which seeth and is seene of no man and who by his onely counsell created all things and after that the Sonne of his owne accord for our saluation the Father himselfe being willing and the holy Ghost consenting thereunto descended from his high and heauenly habitation and was incarnate by the holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary which Mary was adorned with a double Virginity the one spirituall the other carnall he was also borne without any corruption the same Mary his mother after her child-bearing remaning a Virgin inspired with great wonder and hidden fire of Diuinity brought foorth without bloud paine or dolors her Sonne Iesus Christ who was a man innocent and without sinne perfect God and perfect man hauing one onely aspect As he was an infant he grew vp by little and little sucking the milk of his mother Mary the Virgin and when he attained to the age of thirty yeares he was baptized in Iordan he walked like other men he was wearie he sweat he was both hungrie and thirstie and all these things he suffered freely and voluntarily working many miracles and by his Diuinitie he restored sight to the blind healed those which were lame cleansed the leapers and raised vp the dead and last of all he was willingly apprehended and taken scourged beaten with buffets and crucified he languished and died for our offences and by his death he ouercame death and the diuell and by his sorrow in his life time hee dissolued our sinnes and bare our griefes and with the Baptisme of his bloud which Baptisme was his death he baptized the Patriarchs and Prophets and he descended into hell where was the soule of Adam and his sons the soule of Christ himselfe which is of Adam which soule of Adam Christ himself took of the blessed Virgin Mary and in the brightnes of his diuinity and strength of his crosse he brake the brazen gates of hell binding Satan in chaines of yron and
simple and they couet for nothing but to suffice nature they eate flesh some-times boylde and sometimes broyld and dresse their meate them-selues reiecting the Arte of Cookery and all seasoning of their meates with salte or spices as friuolous and vnnecessary They worship the Firmament the Sunne and the rest of the celestiall bodyes they catch diuerse sorts of fishes and birds and they haue great store of Olyue trees and Vines which naturally hold their increase so as they haue Oliues and Grapes in aboundance without trauell or cost These Ilands also produce serpents that bee great ones but nothing hurtfull the flesh whereof is maruelous sweete and delicious Their garments are of a sine white Cotton or Downe which groweth in the middle of Reedes which being dyed with the Iuyse of these sea fishes that coloureth purple they make themselues purple garments thereof There be also diuerse sorts of liuing creatures of strange and almost incredible natures They obserue a certaine order and strict course in their dyet eating but onely one kinde of meate vppon one day for some day they eate fishes an other day fowles an other flesh of beasts and some-times Oyle and the table where they eate theyr meate is very meane and simple They bee addicted to diuerse exercises for some serue and are serued in course some are imployed in fishing some in fowling some in sundry Artes and manuall occupations and all of them in generall are busied in some one thing or other that redoundeth to their common good In their sacred ceremonies and vpon holy dayes they sing lawdes and himnes in honor of their gods and especially of the Sunne to whome they dedicate themselues and their Islands They bury their dead bodyes vpon the sea coast couering the carcasse with sand that by the flowing and inundation of the waters there may bee a great heape of sand in the place where the corpes are buryed The canes whereof they eate the fruite as they say doe increase and decrease according to the disposition of the Moone The water of their fountaines is both sweet and holsome alwayes hotte vnlesse it bee mingled either with wine or cold water When Iambolus and his companion had liued in that Iland seauen yeares they were forced to depart for the Ilanders held them to bee euill liuers and of bad behauiour and conuersation and therefore prouiding their shippe ready and victualling her they set forward on their iourney though fore against their wills and at the foure months end they came to the King of India by whome they were afterwards safely conducted through Persia and brought into Greece Of the Iland called Taprobane and of the manners of the Inhabitants CAP. 26. TAPROBANE before mans venterousnesse by exquisit searching into euery creeke and corner of the sea had truely and throughly discouered it was held to be as it were an other world that wherein the Antipodes were supposed to dwell But Alexander the great by his prowesse and valour remooued the ignorance of this common error which did much augment and increase the glory of his name for Onesicritus the praefect of his nauie being by him sent to search out what manner of land it was what commodities it yeelded and how and by whom it was inhabited made it most apparent and manifest vnto vs. The length of the Iland is seauen thousand stadia and fiue thousand in breadth and it hath a riuer running through the middle of it that deuideth it into two parts Some part of this Iland is wholy replenished with beasts and Elephants which be farre bigger then India breedeth any and some part of it is well peopled There bee great store of Pearles and precious stones of diuerse kindes It is situated East and West and beginneth at the sea called fretum Indioe from Prasla a countrie in India into Taprobane at the first discouery thereof was the space of 25. dayes sayling but it was with such boates as the riuer of Nilus carried that were made of reedes for at this day with our shippes it is not aboue seuen dayes sayle The sea that deuideth the Iland in twaine in many places is very shallow being not aboue seuen foote deepe but in some other places againe the channell is so exceeding deepe that no anchor can reache the bottome In sayling they obserue not the course of the starres for the North pole and the seauen starres doe neuer appeare to their view and the Moone is no longer seene in their Horizon but from the sixt day after his change to the sixteenth but the cleere and radiant starre called Canopus shineth there very bright and the Sunne riseth vppon their right hands and setteth vppon their left With coyne they were altogether vnacquainted vntill the raigne of the Emperour Claudius and it is reported that they were greatly amazed at the sight of money because it was stamped with sundry figures and similitudes and yet in weight and substance was all one In stature and bignesse of body they exceed all other men of what nation so euer They dye and coulour their hayre browne their heires bee gray or blew their visage grimme and sterne and their voyce harshe and terrible Those which dye an vntimely death liue commonly till they bee a hundred yeare old but those which spend out the full course of nature liue till they bee maruelous old farte exceeding mans ordinary frayltie They neuer sleepe in the day time and but part of the night neyther for they risâ— exceeding early Their buildings bee meane and lowe and their victualls alwayes alike they haue great store of Apples but no Vines They honor Hercules as their God Their Kings are elected as well by the voyces of the commons as by the nobility for the peoples care is to choose one of great clemencie and vnprooueable manners and such a one as is well striken in yeares and withall that hath no children for he which is a father is not there admitted to be a King be he neuer so good and vertuous and if the King at any time during his raigne hap to haue a child he is therefore instantly deposed and depriued of all Princely iurisdiction and this they doe for because they will not haue their kingdome become hereditary Moreouer bee their King neuer so iust and vpright yet will they not commit the absolute gouernment wholy into his hands for to the end he should not be sole Iudge in capitall causes there be forty Rectors or Guides annexed vnto him as his assistants and if the iudgement of the King and his forty assistants seeme partiall or distastfull to any one he may from them appeale to the people who haue likewise seuenty Iudges allowed them for the determining of such causes as come to them by way of appeale and the sentence that is pronounced by these seuenty Iudges must of necessity stand inuiolable The King in his apparell differeth much from the people and if he be found guilty of any offence
and thereof conuicted he dyeth for it yet not with such a death as any one should lay violent hands vpon him but by common consent hee is shut vp in some close place from the sight and company of all men and there famished to death This people bee generally addicted to husbandry and hunting of Tygers and Elephants for other common beasts they little regarde and some delight in fishing for shell fishes the shells weereof bee so bigge as one shell will make a house sufficient to containe a whole family The greater part of this Iland is burned with the heate of the Sunne and is therefore desert vppon the side of the Iland beateth a sea that is very greene They esteeme much of gold whereof and of all sorts of precious stones they garnish and beautifie their pots They haue great store of Marbles and Margarites and very bigge ones And these bee the people countries and nations whose manners customes and institutions are commended vnto vs by Historiographers and which by any meanes I could collect out of them yet I confesse there be many other which I haue eyther wholy omitted or lightly passed ouer because I could not write more of them than I found in other Authors hauing neuer by trauelling into those parts beene eye witnesse of them my selfe nor could otherwise attaine to the perfect knowledge thereof neyther doe I thinke it possible for mee or any man else to know and declare the manners of all nations but God onely to whom nothing is hidden nor nothing vnpossible for hee onely it is that first laide the foundation of the earth it was hee that first founded the depth and bottome of the sea and pointed vnto vs the passages through the deepe hee onely it is that so bountifully hath bestowed vpon vs wealth dignities honor and riches and all other commodities necessary for our beeing and hee it is that hath allotted vnto euery one his profession and course of life wherein to imploy himselfe for some hee hath ordained to bee husbandmen permitting then to growe wealthy by vnripping the bowels of the earth to some others hee hath giuen the sea wishing them to prouide their liuings some by fishing and some by merchandize some others he hath addicted to the study of Sciences and Philosophie that thereby they may attaine to honor and estimation and some others he hath put in places of authority to gouerne and praecede the rest And therefore it is no maruell that all men are not of one condition nor of one nature nor yet indued with like manners seeing wee perceiue such difference and variety in kingdomes and countries as that one country produceth white people an other swaithy an other tawny and some cleane black or like vnto flowers which grow in Assyria and euen so hath God appointed that people should be of variable mindes and dispositions as other things are and that euery one should rest contented with that course of life that God hath appointed for him FINIS The manners of diuerse nations collected out of the workes of NICHOLAS DAMASCEN THE Thyni which bee a people of Thrace receiue such as haue suffered shipwracke or fallen into pouerty by their owne defaults very courteously and friendly and all strangers likewise which come willingly vnto them are highly honored but those which come perforce whether they will or no are as seuerely punished The Aritoni kill no kinde of beast they haue their Oracles written in lots which they keepe in golden couers The Dardani a people of Illyrium bee washed onely three times in all their liues that is to say when they bee borne when they be marryed and when they lye a dying The Galactophagi a people of Scythia liue not in houses as most of the other Scythians doe their sustenance consisteth for the most part of Mares milke which serueth them both for meat and drinke They bee seldome ouer-come in battaile for that their prouision of victuals is in euery place and at all turnes in readinesse This people forced Darius to returne home without conquest they bee maruellous iust one towards an other as hauing both wiues and wealth in common to all they salute old men by calling them their fathers the yong men their children and their equals brethren of this people was Anacharsis one of the seuen wise men who came into Greece to learne the laws ordinances of other nations Homer remembreth this people where he saith the Mysi fight nigh at hand the Agaui milke Mares and the Galactophagi and Abij be most iust men And the reason why he calleth them Abij is either because they would not till the earth or for that they liued without houses or else because they onely vsed bowes in the warres for a bow of the Poets is often called Bios there is not one amongst them all as is reported that is either stirred with enuy swelled with hatred or striken with feare by reason of their exceeding great Iustice and communitie of all things The women there be as warlike as the men and go with them to the warres when need requireth and therefore it may well be true that the Amazons be women of such valerous and generous spirits as that they went forth with an army vnto Athens and Scicily at such time as their abode was about the poole of Maeotis The women of Iberia do once euery yeare being their whole yeares worke into an open and publicke place in presence of all the people where certaine men be elected by voyces as Iudges to censure of their labours and those which by them are adiudged most laborious are most honored and in highest estimation they haue also a girdle of a certaine measure within the compasse wherof if the belly of any will not bee comprehended they be thereby much disgraced The Vmbrici in their battels against their enimies hold it vnfitting for the vanquished to suruiue and that it is necessary eyther to ouer-come the enemy or to bee slaine themselues This people when any controuersie happeneth amongst themselues fight armed as if they made warre against their open enimies and hee which killeth his aduersary in fight is supposed to haue the iustest cause The Celtae a people inhabiting neere the Ocean account it a disgrace for any one to withdraw himselfe or leane his body to a wall or house when any inundation commeth towards them from the sea they arme themselues to meete the floud and make resistance vntill they be drowned neuer retiring back nor shewing the least feare of death any manner of way They weare their swords aswell when they bee occupied in the affaires of their common-wealth as in the warres and a greater punishment is infllicted vpon those which kill strangers then Cittizens for the first is punished with death the other with banishment And those aboue all others bee most honoured which atchiuing any victory haue thereby purchased any ground for their publicke vse the
many languages into Portugale to King Emanuell and that his Embassage might carry more credit and authority she sent with him a noble yong man called Abesynus which two I haue often met in our Court and haue had familiar conference with them This Mathew came by diuers iournies to Goa vnto Alphonsus Albuquercus viceroy there of whome hee being receiued very curteously and dispached thence liberally rewarded he arriued in our nauy at Vlispone in the yeare of Christ 1513. who shewing to the King the cause of his Ambassage presented him with a crosse finely wrought made of that tree whereof our Sauiour Christ was Crucified which crosse I haue oftentimes seene and worshipped while my brother Fructus a Goes was the Kings chamberlaine and had it in his custody the Queenes letters which hee brought vnto King Emanuell purported thus much A letter of Helena the grand-mother of Dauid Precious Iohn Emperor of Aethiopia written vnto Emanuell King of Portugall in the yeare of our Lord. 1509. IN the name of God the Father the Sonne and Holy Ghost one God in three presons the health grace and benediction of our Lord and Redeemer Iesus Christ Sonne of the blessed Virgin Mary borne in Bethlem bee vpon our deere brother the most Christian King Emanuell gouernor of the sea and conqueror of the Barbarous and incredulous Moores Our Lord God prosper thee and giue thee victory ouer all thine enimies and that your Kingdomes and dominions by the deuout prayers of the Messengers of our Sauiour Christ to witte the foure Euangelists S. Iohn Luke Marke and Mathew whose sanctity and prayers be euer thy defence may extend and stretch them-selues wide and broad These are to certyfie you most deere brother that there came vnto vs from your great and famous Court two Messengers whereof one was called Iohn who affirmed him-selfe to be a Preest and the other Iohn Gomez and desired of vs souldiors and prouision for the warres wherefore wee haue sent vnto you our Embassador Mathew the Brother of our seruice with the lycence of Marke the Patriarch who giueth vs his benediction sending vs Preests from Ierusalem hee is our father and father of all our dominions the piller of the faith of Christ and of the Holy Trynitie hee at our request sent vnto your great Captaine and leader of those Souldiers which make warres in India for the faith of our Sauiour Iesus Christ to signifie vnto him that wee were ready and willing to send vnto him Souldiers and prouision for the warres if neede required and because wee haue heard it reported that the Prince of Caire hath sent forth a great Nauy against your Forces to be reuenged as we be well assured of the losses and dammages which hee hath often receiued of the Captaines of your Armie which you haue in India whom God of his great goodnesse vouchsafe to assist and so to prosper their proceedings euery day more and more that all those vnbeleeuers may once become subiect to your gouernment We therefore to withstand their assaults will forthwith send an Armie which shall stay at the sea of Mecha that is to say at Babel mendell or if you thinke it more fitting at the hauen of Inda or Thor that so you may destroy and roote out all those Moores and miscreant vnbeleeuers from the face of the earth so as the gifts and obiations which be brought and offered at the holy Sepulcher be no more deuoured of dogges for now is come that time promised which as is said Christ and his mother Mary foretold to wit that in the latter daies a King should arise from out some Christian Region that should abolish and bring to nought the vniuersall stocke of the Barbarians and Moores And now certainely is that time come which Christ promised to his blessed Mother Moreouer what euer our Embassador Mathew shall say vnto you accept it and giue credit vnto it as that which proceedeth from our owne person for he is one of the chiefest of our Court and therefore haue wee sent him vnto you Wee would haue committed these things vnto your Messengers which you sent hither but that wee were afraide lest our businesses might bee taken otherwise then wee intended We haue sent vnto you by this Mathew our Embassador a Crosse made vndoubtedly of a peece of that Tree whereupon our Sauiour Christ was crucified at Ierusalem Which peece of sacred wood was brought to vs from Ierusalem and thereof wee made two Crosses whereof one remaineth with vs the other we haue deliuered to our Embassador to be presenred to you the wood is of a blacke colour and hangeth at a little siluer ring Furthermore if it shall seeme good vnto you either to giue your daughters in marriage to our sonnes or that we shall giue oue our sonnes to your daughters it shall be very acceptable vnto me and profitable to vs both and the beginning of a brotherly league betwixt vs which coniunction of matrimony we shall euer desire to enter into with you as well hereafter as for the present time And thus wee end with our praier vnto God that the saluation and grace of our redeemer Iesus Christ and of our blessed Lady the Virgin Mary may extend and remaine both vpon you your sonnes and your daughters and all your family Amen Moreouer these are to certifie you that if wee would make warres and ioyne our Armies together wee should by Gods helpe be strong inough vtterly to destroy and root out all the enemies of the faith of Christ But our kingdomes and dominions are so scituated in the middle of the land as by no meanes wee can haue passage into the sea In the sea therefore wee haue no power wherein praise be giuen to God you bee the strongest of all Princes Iesus Christ bee your guide for your affaires which you haue done and atchieued heere in India seeme rather to bee done by miracle then by man but if you would furnish a Nauy of a thousand shippes we will giue you prouision and aboundantly minister vnto you all things necessary for such a Nauy This letter with some other Articles of the Faith religion manners and state of the Ethiopians which Mathew expressed before King Emanuell and his Councell I haue by the intreaty of Iohn Magnus Gothus Archbishop of Vpsalia in the kingdome of Suetia with whom I had extraordinary familiarity and frindship in Prussia translated out of the Portingall language wherein I found it written into Lattine which letter together with the said articles were afterwards imprinted at Antwerp without my priuity These things vnderstood from the Aethiopian Embassadors King Emanuell as he was exceeding wise and most desirous to encrease the Christian religion instituted an Embassage sufficiently furnished with very graue and reuerend men the chiefest whereof were Edward Galuanus a man well stricken in yeares and of great wisedome and experience And Francis Aluarez a Priest and of very renowned authority with the King who was also old
and of vnreproueable manners both which I haue knowne by sight These two and Mathew the Ethiopian Embassador sayled towards India vnder the conduct of Lupo Soarez the Viceroy and after his death vnder Viceroy Didaco Lupeza a Sequeira who was Lupos successor with a Nauy well furnished which hee had prepared against the Turkes by whom they were brought to a hauen called Arquicum situated vpon the Erythraean shore vnder the dominiō of Prester Iohn into which hauen the ship ariued vpon the second day of Aprill in the yeare of Christ 1520. In which iourney Edward Galuanus dyed in Camara an Island in the Erythraean sea Rhodericus Limius was placed in his stead who with his fellowes in Embassage set forwards on their iourney from the said hauen of Arquicum towards the Court of Prester Iohn hauing Mathew with them as their guide and companion for that young man Abesynus whom I formerly mentioned was dead before this time And in this iourney Mathew dyed likewise and was buried in a famous Monastery called Bisayn after whose funerals performed they set forwards on their intended iourney and after great trauels infinite labours and many dangers they arriued at the Court of Prester Iohn of whom Rhodoricke with his associates were very honorably receiued and he hauing perfected his businesse and receiued new message was sent backe againe vnto King Emanuell which done hee went to the hauen of Arquicum but found not the Nauy there of whom Ludouicus Menesius was gouernour and which came purposely thither to carry them backe againe for they stayed so long that the ship could no longer expect their comming by reason of the outragious and vehement tempests within those coasts by an admirable secret of nature blow sixe monethes together from one climate and the other sixe monethes from the other At Arquicum hee found letters with the Gouernor of the towne left there by Pretor Ludouicus perporting the death of king Emanuell wherefore he determined to returne againe to Prestor Iohns Court at whose returne Prester Iohn writ letters vnto the Pope of Rome committing them to Francis Aluarez to bee carried to him at Rome All these hauing remained in those prouinces for the space of sixe yeares in the the end together with the Ethiopian Embassador whom Prester Iohn sent anew vnto our King entred into one of the Kings ships at Arquicum which was there laid for the purpose in the moneth of Aprill in the yeare of Christ 1526. and disankering thence sailed towards India and at length by tedious trauels at sea they returned to King Iohn at Lisbon in the moneth of Iuly in the yeare 1527. who retained the Ethiopian Embassador with him touching certaine poynts of his Embassage vnto the yeare 1539. and sent Francis Aluarez vnto Pope Clement the seuenth with letters from Prester Iohn from whom he came as Embassador Which letters the Pope receiued at the hands of the said Francis Aluarez at Bononia in the moneth of Ianuary 1533. In the presence of the Emperour Charles the fift of which letters and of others written to Emanuell and Iohn King of Portugall Paulus Iouius a very learned man was interpretor who hath translated them out of the Portingall language wherein they were written into Latine as here you may see A letter from Dauid the most renowned Emperour of Aethithiopia written to Emanuell King of Portugall in the yeare of our Lord 1521. Paulus Iouius being interpretor IN the name of God the Father as hee alwaies hath beene voyd of all beginning in the name of God his onely sonne who is like vnto him and was before the starres gaue light and before hee laid the foundation of the Ocean who at another time was conceiued in the wombe of the blessed Virgin without the seede of man without mariage for in this maner was the knowledge of his dutie in the name of the holy Ghost the Spirit of sanctity who knoweth all secrets that be where he was before that is of al the altitudes of heauen which is sustained without any pillers or props hee who amplified the earth which before was not created nor knowne through all parts from the east to the west from the north to the south Neither is this the first or second but the vndiuided Trinity in the only eternall Creator of all things of one only councell and one word for euer and euer Amen These letters are sent by Atani Thingil that is to say the incense of a virgin which name was giuen him in baptisme but now at his first entrance into his kingdome he tooke the name of Dauid the beloued of God the piller of faith a kinsman of the tribe of Iuda the son of Dauid the son of Salomon the son of the piller of Sion the son of the seed of Iacob a son of the hand of Mary and the carnal son of Nav Emperour of great and high Ethiopia and of great kingdoms lands and dominions king of Xoa Caffate Fatigar Angote Boru Baaligaze Adea Vangue Goiame where is the head of the riuer Nilus of Damaraa of Vaguemedri Ambeaa Vagne Tigri Mahon of Sabain where Saba was Queene and of Bermagaes and Lord vnto Nobia the end of Egypt These letters I say bee sent from him and directed to the high mightie and inuincible Lord Emanuell who dwelleth in the loue of God and remaineth firme in the Catholicke faith the sonne of the Apostles Peter and Paul King of Portingall and of the Algarbians friend of Christians enemy iudge Emperour and vanquisher of the Moores and of the people of Affricke and of Guiennea from the Promontory and Island of the Moone of the redde sea of Arabia Persis and Armutia of great India and of all places and of those Islands and adiacent Countries spoyler and ouerthrower of the Moores and strange Paganes Lord of Castles high Towers and Walles and increaser of the faith of Christ Peace be vnto you King Emanuell who by Gods assistance destroyest the Moores and with your Nauy your Armie and your Captaines driuest them vp and downe like vnbeleeuing dogges Peace be vnto your wife the Queene the friend of Iesus Christ hand-maide of the virgine Mary the mother of the Sauiour of the world Peace bee vnto your Sonnes who bee as a Table well furnished with dainties in a greene Garden amongst the flourishing Lillies Peace bee vnto your Daughters who are attired with garments and costly ornaments as Princes Palaces bee garnished with Tapestry Peace bee vnto your kinsfolkes which bee procreated of the seede of the Saints as the Scripture saith the sonnes of the Saints be blessed both within doores and without Peace be vnto your Councellors officers your Magistrates Lawyers Peace be vnto the captains of your castles borders and of all matters of munition Peace bee vnto all your Nation and to all your inhabitants Moores and Iewes excepted Peace be vnto all your parishes and to all that be faithfull to Christ and to you Amen I vnderstand