at the change of every dish every man again commanded by a law to go to his woman And thus from meat to women from women to meat they beastly and brutishly entertained their Epicurial lust wherein these Gorgons reposed their chief felicity Certainly if Quéen Semitamis of Babylon had been matched with Heliogabulus Emperour of Rome it had béen as méet a match if time had served as one beast should be for another for he was not so filthy but she was as shameless not onely in procuring divers to lie with her but in alluring her own son Ninus to lust and as writers report being a beast matched her self with a beast a horse Had Pasiphae Quéen of Creet been well matched she had forsaken King Minos and come to the Emperour Caligula where she might have been as bold with others as she was with Minotaurus father Had the Empresse Mestalina been deservedly according to her life married she had been more meet for Nero then for Claudius for his life and her life did well agree together for she passed all the Courtesans of Corinth all the strumpets of Athens and all the whores of Babilon for she was onely mistresse and ruler of all the stews and brothel houses in Rome What wickednesse procéedeth from lust what ungodly incest is brought to passe by lust what secret vengeance commeth by lust Lust assured Queen Cleopatra to use her brother Ptolomy as her husband Lust deceived King Cynar to lie with his daughter Myrrha Lust brought Macarius to his sister Canaces bed By lust did Menepron defile his own mother Lust stayeth the purpose of all men hindereth and hurteth all kind of persons Lust stayed King Antiochuâ— of Syria in Chalâ—idea a whole winter for one maid he fancied there Lust stayed Hannibal in Capua a long season to his great hurt Lust stayed Julius Caesar in Alexandria a long time unto his infamy Lust was the first cause of wars between the Romans and the Sabines for Romuâ—us had hardly built Rome but he lusted to ravish the women and to steal the Sabine maids to Rome whereby the war first began The great wars between King Cambyses of Persia and King Amasis of Egypt wherein was a great slaughter and murther of men grew by lust to one woman The ten years betwixt the Thebans and the Phoceans was for the lust of one young man in Phoca towards a young woman in Thebes The cruel conflicts that was between the Troyan Prince Aeneas and stout Turnus was the lust which either of them did bear to Lavinia King Latinus Daughter What bloud what tyranny was between the Egyptians and the Assyrians betwéen Ptolomy and Alexander the one King of Egypt the other King of Assyria and all for one woman Cleopatra Augustus the Emperour made long wars for Octavia his sister whom Antonius abused to the spoyl and murther of many Romans Had Hesione King Priamus sister not lusted to go with Telamon from Troy to Greece had likewise Helen the wife of Menelaus not lusted to come with Paris from Greece to Troy the bloudy wars and ten years siege between the Greeks and the Troyans had never been writâ—en by Homer Had not lust ruled the five cities called Pentapolis where Sedom and Gomorrha were they had not been consumed with fire and brimstone from heaven to the destruction of all the people saving Lot his children If lust had not ruled all the world the deluge of Noah had not drowned the whole earth and all living creatures saving Noah his wife and children Thus lust from time to time was the onely Monster and scourge of the World And in this our Age lust is nothing diminished but much encreased and though we shall not be plagued again with Water according to promise yet to be punished with Fire most sure we be unlesse we detest and abhor this vice There is a History in Justine worthy to be noted of Princes that will not punish these offences Pausanias a Noble Gentleman of Macedonia being a very fair young man whom Attalus by lust abused and Attalus not contented to handle the young man so wickedly and ungodly did bring him also to a banquet where Attalus would have used him as before making all men privy how Pausanias was his paramour as a woman The young man being ashamed of it often complained unto Philip King of Macedonia and after many and divers complaints having no redresse but being rather flouted and scoffed at by Philip Pausanias took it so grievously that after this sort he requited his shame and injuries At the marriage of Cleopatra King Philips daughter with Alexander King of Epirus in great triumphs and pomps King Philip in the midst of his joys walking between his own son Alexander the great who then was but young and Alexander King of Epirus his son in law being married then to his daughter Cleopatra Pausanias thrust him into the heart saying Minister Iustice and punish Lust Thus died that mighty Prince as well for the bearing of Attalus fault as also for his own wickednesse using the same sin sometime with a brother in law of his natural brother to his first wife Olympias Lust and intemperancy do never escape without just punishment and due vengeance Amnon the son of King David for that he misused his own sister Tamar was afterward slain Absalom for that he did lie with his fathers Concubines died for it David was plagued for Uriah's wife The two Elders that would ravish Susanna were put to death This sin is the onely enemy of man For all sin saith St. Paul is without the body but uncleannesse and lust sinneth against the body Had not Olofernes séen the beauty of Judith yea marked the comelinesse of her slippers he had not lost his head by it Had not Herod séen Herodias daughrer dancing he had not so rashly granted her John Baptists head Had not Eve séen the beauty of the Apple she had not eaten thereof We read in Genesis that when the sons of men viewed the beauty of women many evils happened thereby By sight was Potiphars wife moved with lust toward Joseph her servant By sight and beauty was Solomon allured to commit Idolatry with false Gods By sight was Dina the daughter of Iacob ravished by Shechem These evils procéed from sudden sights therefore saith the Prophet Turn away thine eys lest they sée vanities The Philosopher likewise saith That the first offer or motion is in the eye from sight proceedeth motion from motion election from election consent from consent sin from sin death Wherefore with the Poet I say resist the violence of the first assault I mean the eys The evil that happened thereby too long it were to write Lust again hath its entrance by hearing as Justine in his twelfth Book doth testifie of Thalestris Quéen somtime of the Amazons who having heard the great commendations the fame and renown of Alexander the great ventered her life to hazard to come from Scythia to Hircania which
the cause thereof being demanded by Marius and orderly declared by Trebonius where as it was thought he should be hanged drawn and quartered and suffer most ignominious death he was rewarded with a Crowne of gold upon his head written about with this sentence This crowne and garland won Trebonius by temperance Had Demetrius King of Macedonia embraced sobriety of féeding Democles had not béen so famous by abstinence as Demetrius might have béen renownes through temperance Had that Roman Lucius loved continency as Trebonius honored chastity Trebonius had not had of Marius Lucius his uncle the praise the garlaÌ„d of commendations and he so vile and shameful a death Certainly when the people of Athens fed on figs the Arcadians on Acorns or Walnuts the Argives on Parsly the Terinthians on Pears the Scythians on herbs the inhabitants of Carmenia and Meâ—cica on poor fare yea when the whole world fed on those fruits which our old mother the earth naturally brought forth before corne was sowne then kingdomes and nations were ruled by the law of nature to imbrace temporance to honour abstinence and to observe chastity which since grew to that aboundance and excesse that the law of God which was first the law of nature which was the second the law of Princes which was the last could not kéep men from the excesse of meat which onely was the cause of the sinking of Sodom and Gamorrha of the often plaguing of the Israelites of the just confusion of gluttony and drunkards When the Gymnosophistes of India fed onely with apples when the Priests of Egypt abstained from flesh and wine and fed on bread and oyl when the Sages of Persia fed on fruits and herbs then temperance bare rule then sobriety governed then abstinence was honoured then Egypt flourished through temperance and is now destroyed by gluttony Then India prospered through continencie and sobriety and is now vanquished by drunkennesse and temerity Then Persia was famous and conquered Kingdomes by abstinencie and is now convicted and conquered by abundance and excesse Where is learned Athens famous Sparta stately Thebes These while temperance ruled were feared of all kings and are now by meanes of excesse hated and despised of all Princes All the while that the Lacedemonians observed the laws of Lycurgus in abstaining from brave banquets and excesse of chéer yea when they might not passe unto Asia for fear they should be allured and entiled with the sight of the junkets of Asia then saith Cicero were the people of Sparta so temperate that the men did never sit with women nor the women with the men The Milesians made a straight law as Theophrastus doth witnesse that neither their wives their daughters nor maids might taste wine neither durst any man by the same law praise any wine in presence of women for wine causeth heat heat moveth lust lust causeth murther Wherefore wise men write that it is dangerous to prayse three things in presence of the people As for a man to prayse the beauty of his wife for fear of fornicators for so did King Candaules of Lidia praise his wife unto his friend Giges and he was murthered thereby and the Queene his wife afterward married unto Giges for a man to brag of his riches and substance for so did Sichaeus shew his substance unto Pigmalion king of Tyre who married the kings daughter named Eliza and was slaine by the selfe same Pigmalion king of Tyre and his owne brother in law lastly to commend swéet wine in presence of the people doth bréed a desire unto lust and lust unto death The famous Romans for a long while kept so streight an order to observe temperance so streightly was this law looked unto that Eg. Maecenius having slain his own wife as Pliny recordeth for that she loved wine he was by the law of Romulus made for that purpose saved from death In the same place of Plini it is read that a certain matron of Rome was adjudged to die for that she had a privy key unto a cellar of wine So much did they observe this temperance that Cato the Censor appointed by a law certain men to kisse the women of Rome to know whether they smelled of wine by their breath No man of what degree soever he was Consul Censor Tribune or Senatour might drink wine in Rome before he was thirty and five years of age The people of Messaliâ—tica made and ordained that the women should drink no other drink then water Amongst the Egyptians there was by a law appointed how much wine their Princes might drink and no more The Persians fed onely then on bread salt and water The prophets of Jupiter in Créet abstained from flesh and wine In Rhodes he was taken a grosse brained man that fed on any thing else but on fish The Lacedemonians were most severe against those that waxt fat by féeding insomuch that they would punish their own children with hunger if they waxed fat either by feeding or by idlenesse Thus abstinence was fostred as a nurse unto chastity and temperance then Princes lothed vice and loved vertue then they abhorred gluttony and drunkennesse and honoured abstinence and sobriety The learned and sage Phylosophers and men of passing abstinence and sobriety being no lesse studious then careful of temperance despised banquets refused feasts lothed and defied belly chéere and being allured of Princes enticed of noble men sought of all men they forsook and fled from the same saying we eat to live we live not to eat A golden sentence and worthy to be observed Rather had Diogenes féed and lick dishes at Athens then to féed daintily at Alexanders table Rather had that learned Gréek noble Zeno drink water and féed poorly as an example unto his schollers of temperance then to pamper his belly at Antigonus princely table to shew them the way unto gluttony and drunkennesse Rather had Plato forsake Dionisius table than to abstain from his wonted Philosophicall cheere This vertue of abstinence was of noble Socrates maintained with bread and milk onely and learned Homer honoured it with pottage made of herbs and ancient Pythagoras with beans Anacharsis a Scythian Phylosopher being demanded of his estate how he fed how he did lye and how he was clothed answered I feed on hunger I lye on the ground and am clothed like a Scythian The famous Athenian Aristides at what time king Dionisius made sute for his daughter in marriage though he was a puissant Prince a mighty king yet for his gluttony and prodigal drinking for his tyranny and excesse Aristides who abhorred such vices in Princes soberly and temperately answered that he would rather kill his daughter with his own hands then to give his daughter in marriage unto Dionisius So odious unto good Princes was that excesse of eating and prodigal drinking and so highly esteemed was abstinence and temperance that in Athens a long while in the temple of Ceres of all the laws of Triptolemus three onely commandements as
that the souls of the dead do live in great felicity beyond the Ocean Seas The Egyptians judged with Pythagoras that the souls of men should pass from one place to another and then to enter into another man again The Stoicks are of that opinion that the soul forsaketh the body in such sort that the soul which is diseased in this life and advanced by no vertue dyeth together with the body but they judge it if it be adorned with noble and heroical vertues that it is then accompanied with everlasting natures Divers of the Pagans hold that the soul is immortal but yet they suppose that reasonable souls enter into unreasonable bodies as into plants or trées for a certain space There were again some frivolous Philosophers as Euripides and Archelaus which say that men first grew out of the earth in manner of herbs like to the fables of Poets who fain that men grew of the sowen téeth of Serpents Some again very childishly affirm that there be nine degrées of punishment or rather nine mansions in Hell appointed and prepared for the soul The first seat is appointed for young infants the second for Idiots and fools I fear that place will be well filled the third for them that kill themselves the fourth for them that be tormented with love the fifth for those that were found guilty before Iudges the sixth appointed for strong men and champions the seventh is a place where the souls be purged the eight seat is where the souls being purged do rest the ninth and last is the pleasant field Elisium And to joyn these Legends of Lies of old women with frivolous figments of Poets they likewise affirm the like folly of fiery Phlogeton of frosty Cocytus of the water of Styx of the sloud Lethes and of Acheron with other such whence all Paganical rites and fond foolish observations first grew I mean of fables of Poets and not by the reading of the Holy Scriptures O blind baiards in séeking that which they could never find And as they could prove and say that the body came out of the earth the moysture out of the water the breath of man by the air and the heat of man by the fire so could they not know the worker thereof how wit and wisedome came from God how all things were made by him of nothing This knew they not not that they wanted learning but that they wanted the knowledge of true Divinity They could appoint planets in their several places in their due seats and just mansions as Iupiter in the liver Saturn in the spleen Mars in bloud Sol in the heart the Moon in the stomack and Venus in the reins but they could not agrée in appointing a place for the soul They could likewise appoint seats for the bodies superior in man as the Ram in the head the Bull in the neck and the Crab in the brost the Lion in the heart and the Fish in the foot and so others but they could in no wise find a seat for the soul Truly is it said that God revealeth wisedome unto Babes and hideth the same from the Sages of the world Hence groweth the beginning of all Heresies according to the proverb The greatest Philosophers the greatest Hereticks Hereby I say grew almost the invention of Philosophy coequal unto the verity of the Gospel and therfore Paul the Apostle cryeth upon all men to take héed of flattering Philosophers If in this place I should shew their opinions concerning our God and Creator I should séem tedious For Diagoras and Theodorus affirm that there is no God Epicurus judged that there is a God but that he had no care over earthly things Thales said that God was a mind which made all things of water Cleanthes supposed God to be the air onely Alcineon judged the Sun the Moon and the Stars to be onely God Parmenides maketh God to be a continuall circle of light which is called Stephanen Crisippus nameth God a divine necessity Anaxagoras supposed God to be an infinit mind moveable of it self so doth Pythagoras likewise judge yea Aristotle imagined God to be a proper nature as the world or the heat of the heavens or the divinity of the mind which either of these thrée he nameth God and so infinite are they that so simply conceive the majesty of the Godhead that far wiser had they seemed unto us by silence therein then by uttering such fond fantastical opinions wherein their too much folly and errour is to all men evident CHAP. XXII Of worshipping of Gods and religion of Gentiles NUma Pompilius the second King of Rome being studious to draw the ignorant and rude people to some profession of religion was the first that appointed sacrifices to Jupiter to Mars In Rome he elected Virgins to Vesti and appointed certain orders in chusing of the same None by the law of Numa might be taken under six years old and none above ten to be a Vestal Virgin which virgins should be thirty years religious and vowed to Vesta of the which thirty years the first ten years they should learn the order and fashion of the sacrifices and religion of the Goddesse Vesta The second ten years they should sacrifice and imploy the ceremonies with rites and honours belonging to Vesta The third ten years they should as grave matrons learn the others late chosen to be perfect in the rites and ceremonies of Vesta then if any of them would marry they might after thirty years continuance so do If any of these Vestal virgins were convicted of whoredome the law was that in open sight of the City of Rome she should be brought to the gate called Collina and there alive be burned Again if the fire at any time in the Temple had gone out by any means their kéepers with scourges should whip and scourge them almost to death The same Numa to make the people more religious appointed twelve men called Salii with painted garments singing verses in the praise and commendation of Mars with soleman dancing and playing round about the City Amongst other sacred orders he made certain priests called Feciales these punished effendours these revanged the wrongs done to Ambassadours these redressed all injuries offered and committed within the City of Rome these Priests appointed rites and ceremonies made sacrifices to the Goddesse Bona Dea in a Temple erected upon mount Aventine here might no men come to do sacrifice but all women Of this Goddesse Bona Dea doth Cicero make oft mention in divers of his orations and invectives made against divers pernitious and wicked Citizens as Catelin Clodius and others There was in Rome another kind of religion dedicated to Flora the sacrifice whereof was called Floralia This Flora as both Livius and Dionisius do report was a common strumpet which for that she made the whole City of Rome her heir being wealthy at her death she was therefore thought to be of the Romans the Goddesse of fruits and was honoured of
Cibeles in Phrigia Venus in Ciprus Ceres in Sicilia Again Pan was in reverence amongst the Arcadians Osiris amongst the Egyptians Bacchus in the Isle of Naxus Vulcan in Lemnos In fine blocks and stones dogs and cats oxen and calves were honoured and worshipped as Gods Thus they wandred in this vale of misery like pilgrims far from the countrey that we ought to travel to where that true and living God is the God of salvation and health which is without end to be worshipped He is the God of all men and yet of the fewest worshipped he is the Saviour and yet he is neglected yea and more rejected of us that be Christians then the blocks and stones that were honored of the Gentiles And for proof hereof I mean to shew the severe laws that were both in Athens and Rome the two lights of the world for observing of their Gods and Religion Neither the Philosophers in Athens nor the Senators in Rome nor the Magistrates and Princes of the world then would in any wise permit injuries towards the Gods or suffer any evil report toward their religion in such care were they lest they should offend their Gods and break their laws Certain husbandmen found in the lands of L. Petilius by plowing therein two stones whereupon an Epitaph of Numa Pompilius was written in one in the other were found fourteen books seven latin books entituled Jus pontificum the law of the Priests concerning religion and sacrifices of their Gods these books with great diligence and care were not onely commanded to be kept but also in all points to be observed The other were Greek books entituled Disciplina sapientâ—ae the rule of wisedome which for that they tasted of Philosophy condemned the vain superstitious religions of their Gods Petilius fearing lest by reading of wisedome and Philosophy their folly and religion should be destroyed being then Proe or in Rome at which time Cornelius and Bebâ—us were Consuls by authority of the Senate in open sight of all the City of Rome burned the Greek books For the old and ancient men would have nothing kept within their city that might hinder their Gods For before all things they preferred their Gods and their religions and so honoured their Priests their sacrifices and their vestal Virgins more then they honoured the Emperours and Senators as it appeareth by a History in Valerius that when Rome was taken and conquered by the Gauls and the vestal Virgins were enforced to bear those things away shifting more for the sacrifices and rites of their religion in carrying their books their garments and their Gods then they cared for their countrey friends children and goods Insomuch that L. Alvanius when he saw the vestal Virgins taking pains to maintein the honour of Vesta undefiled her sacrifices unpolluted in saving the ceremonies and religion of their Goddesse from the enemies as one that had more regard and respect to their vain religion then carefull of his wife and children which then being in a Chariot to be carried and conveyed from Rome he commanded his wife and children to come down from the Chariot and to go a foot and placed in their room the vestal Virgins with all their burthens belonging to Vesta their sacrifices and other necessaries and brought them honourably to the countrey of Créet where with great honour they were received and for memory hereof till this time the people of Creet for that they did succour the vestal Virgins in adversity were by the Goddesse Vesta recompensed no lesse for their humanity in receiving of her maids into their town then she gratified Alvanius for his reverence to her religion insomuch that the coach where her Virgins and her sacrifices were carried was afterward more honoured and esteemed than any triumphant or imperial chariot In the self same time and troubles of Rome when the Capitol was besieged with the enemies Caius Fabius perceiving how religion was then estéemed girded himself like a sacrificer and carryed in his hand an host to be offered to Jupiter and was suffered to passe through the middest of his enemies to mount Quirinal where solemnities and sacrifices were done to Jupiter and that being accomplished he likewise went to the Capitol through the middest of the Army with all his company and by this means got the victory over his enemtas more by religion then by strength So much was superstition and idolatry honoured and observed every where that the Persians sailed with a thousand ships to do sacrifice and solemnity to Apollo at Delphos The Athenians slew and destroyed all those that envied or repugned their religion Diagoras was exiled for that he wrote that he doubted whether any Gods were or no and if Gods were what they were Socrates was condemned for that he went about to traduce their religion and speak against their Gods Phidias that noble and cunning workman was no longer suffered at Athens then while he wrought the picture of Minerva in Marble for it was more durable then Ivory which when Phâ—dias thought to draw in Ivory he was threatned with death to vilipend so great a Goddesse and to make her in Ivory which was wont to be honoured in Marble The Romans made a law at the destruction of Canna for that great slaughter of the Romans which at that war happened that the matrons of Rome who bewailed and lamented the deaths of their husbands their childrenâ— their brethren and friends incessantly should not pâ—â—se thirty days in mourning lest the Gods should be angry ascriving all fortunes good and bad to their Gods Wherefore it was decreed by the Senatours that the Mothers and Wives the sisters and the daughters of them that were slain at Canna at the thirty days end should cast away their mourning apparel and banish their tears and come altogether in white garments to do sacrifice to the Goddesse Ceres For it was thought and truly believed among the Gentiles and heathens that the Gods would justly revenge those that would at any time neglect their sacrifices Brennus for that he went to Delphos and spoiled Apollo's temple and neglected his Godhead was plagued grievously and worthily revenged So King Xerxes whose Navies covered the whole Seas whose Armies of men dried up rivers and shadowed almost the whole earth because he sent four thousand souldiers to Delphos to rob Apollo was therfore discomfited in his wars forsaken of his souldiers prosecuted of his enemies and compelled to flee like a vagabond from hill to hill till he came to his Kingdome of Persia to his great infamy and shame The like was in Carthage when the City was oppressed by the Romanes Apollo's temple neglected and he himself not esteemed he revenged the same for the first that laid hand upon him lost his hand and his arm Thus in Delphos and in Carthage did Apollo revenge his injuries His son Aesculapius a great God in divers countreys for that Turulius chief ruler of the Navies of Antonius hewed the Groves which were
decay The Athenians have such care of the dead that being dressed with all kind of swéet odours they put them in such sumptuous tombs and gorgeous graves that the sepulchres are made over with fine glasse The Scythians when their Kings and noble men die they must have to bear them company to the grave one of their concubines and one of their chief servants and one of their friends that loved them best alive they I say must accompany and follow them to the grave being dead The Romans had this custome that if any man of countenance and credit should die his sons and daughters his nigh kinsmen and best beloved friends as Cicero doth write of Metellus did put him in the fire made for that purpose unlesse he were one of the Emperours whose funeral pomp was much more sumptuous for then his body was to be carried to the market or common Hall of Rome on the second day he was to be carried by certain young noble men to Martius field where a great pile of wood was raised much like a Tower and there after much solemnity and ceremonies done he that succéeded him as an Emperour did first put fire to that work and then all men were busie to sée the body burned and when they had burned him to ashes they would let an Eagle flie from the top of some high Tower which as they supposed should carry his soul unto heaven The Assyrians did use to anoint the dead bodies with honey and wax and with study and care did preserve them from putrifaction Such strange order of burial was in India that the women of that country thought there could be no greater fame nor worthier renown then to bee burned and buried together with their husbands The Thracians are much to be commended herein who at the birth of any of their friends children use to wéep and bewail the misery and calamity that man is born to and at the death of any of their friends they rejoice with such mirth and gladnesse that they past these worldly miseries that at the burial of them even when the corps doth go out of the house they altogether say with one voice Farewel friend go before and we will follow after So the corps goeth before and all his friends follow after him with trumpets musick and great mirth for joy that he is gone out of the vale of misery Plato that divine Greek and noble Philosopher made the like laws in Athens that when any of the chief officers should die he appointed that no mourning weeds should be worn there but all in white apparel and that fifteen young maids and fifteen young boys should stand round about the corps in white garments while the Priests commended his life to the people in an open oration then he was brought very orderly to the grave all the young children singing their country hymns and the ancient men following after them and the grave was covered with fair broad stones where the name of the dead with his vertuous commendations and great praise was set upon the stone The like grave the Italians use at this day and divers other countries And as these and others had the like ceremonies to the praise and commendations of the dead so others little esteemed and regarded such things insomuch that the Persians were never buried till Fowls of the ayr and dogs did eat some part thereof The Messagetes thought it most infamous that any of their friends should die by sicknesse but if the Parents waxed old the children and the next kinsmen they had did eat them up supposing that their flesh was more méet for them to eat then by worms or any other beasts to be devoured The people called Tibareni had a custome that those whom they loved best in their youth those would they hang in their age even so the Albans being inhabitants about mount Cancasus thought it unlawfull for any to care for the dead but straight buried them as Nabatheans bury their Kings and rulers in dung-hils The burial of the Parthians was nothing else but to commend them to the birds of the air The Nasomones when they bury their friends they set them in the grave sitting But of all most cruelly deal the Caspians and the Hircanians which kill their parents their wives their brethren their kinsmen and friends and put them in the high way half quick half dead for to be devoured of birds and beasts The fashion and custome with the Issidones a rude people in some part of Scithia as Plini in his fourth book affirmeth is to call their neighbours and friends together were the dead lie and there merrily singing and banquetting they eat the flesh of the dead and make the scull of the dead a drinking cup and cover it with gold to drink withall Again the people called Hyperborei think no better grace for their friends vvhen they be old then to bring them to some high bank of vvater or great rock and thence after much feasting eating and drinking in the middest of their mirth their own friends do throw them down into the water headlong To seek into histories many such burials might be found amongst so many rude and barbarous nations Notwithstanding in divers regions the funerals of the dead are so esteemed that the greatest infamy the severest punishment for any offendour vvas not to be buried this the Athenians used tovvards those that vvere traitors to their country and the Egyptians if any lived amisse he should be carried dead to the vvildernesse to be devoured of vvild beasts The Persians likewise brought the bodies of men condemned to be eaten of dogs The Lybians thought them most worthy of solemn buriall that died either in wars or were killed by wild beasts The Macedonians had great care in burying the dead souldiers in the field Amongst the Gentiles there were certain days appointed for mourning at the death of their friends Licurgus law amongst the Lacedemonians was that they should mourn but eleven days Numa Pompilus decreed that children after their parents death the wives their husbands c. should mourn ten moneths though by the Senatours it was enacted in the wars at Canna that the Romans should mourn but thirty days Amongst the Egyptians they had a custome to mourn after their kings died thréescore and twelve days but generally the most custome was to bewail the dead nine days In some places mourning was forbidden at their burial as at Athens by the law of Solon in Locretia in Thracia in Coos in Lybia and in divers other places The diversity of mourning was such that amongst the Gréeks they shaved their heads and beards and threw them into the grave with the dead Amongst the Lacedemonians when the Kings of Sparta died certain horsemen were appointed to travell over all the whole Kingdome certifying the death of the King and the women in every city did beat their brasen pots and made a great and heavy noise for the soone the Egyptians
Demetrius and Alexanders wife who then was a widdow and a Quéen in Corinth for in the midst of triumphs and preparations to the marriage Antigonus by deceit took the Castle commanded his souldiers in arms and proclaimed himself King in Corinth In the same book of Polinaeus the like History is written of Lysander of Sparta and Nearchus of Creet the one promising to the inhabitants of Miletum his aid and help in defending their liberties and the people giving credit to a Kings promise and trusting to have Lysander their special friend they found him their mortal foe for he deceived them thereby and took the City of Miletum unto himself The other sailing to the haven of Telmessus to renue friendship with Antripatridas who then governed the City of Telmessus under the color of friendship he had his men at arms ready on the Sea to destroy his friend and to take the City to himself This deceit was not onely séen in wars where much falshood and perjury is practised but in all things men use craft according to the proverb There is craft in daubing To speak of Theodectes craft toward his Master Aristotle to defraud him privily of his glory to speak of Sertorius deceit in winning authority among the common people to describe the means that Dionisius used to get mony amongst the Syracusans or how Pythius deceived Cannius in his bargain of fish or how Darius became King of Persia by the neighing of a Mare and a million more of such deceits and crafts were infinite I therefore refer the Reader to Poliaenus where he shall have enough of falshood But because craft is used diversly I will somewhat touch those that used craft in altering themselves into the form of women some for filthy lust some for vertues sake and some for vice What kind of dissimulation was in Sardanapalus King of Assyria to forsake the Empire to forgo his Kingdome to become like a woman to spin and card with his Concubines and so from the shape of a man to dissemble himself to be a woman What kind of dissimulation did that renowned and mighty Hercules even the off-spring of the Gods and son to Jupiter use after that he tamed monsters slew Giants overcame Dragons Lions wild beasts and yet he did translate himself from a champion and a conquerour into womans apparel and fashioned himself like a woman with such dissimulation he served Omphale Quéen of Lydia like a woman in the apparel of a woman at the whéel and at the cards at Omphales commandement What kind of craft used Clodius to bring his purpose to pass with Pompeia Caesars wife dissembling himself to be a woman as Cicero taunteth him in an Epistle that he writeth to Lentulus where he saith that Clodius dissembled with the Npmph Bona Dea as he was wont to use the thrée sisters Thus Clodius would at all times go unto Pompeia in the apparel of a woman to use such feats that he made Caesar to divorce his wife Pompeia Dissimulations and subtilties as they are most evil to practise so somtimes they are necessary to do good for example Euclides used the like craft as before but to a better purpose for he practised it not to féed lust or to pleasure affectioÌ„ but he used it to hear Socâ—ates to read Philosophy to learn wisedome from him For there was a law betwéen Athens and them of Megaris for the great hatred the one bare unto the other that whosoever came from Athens to Megaris should die and whosoever would go from Megaris to Athens should likewise die Thus death frighted not Euclides but the love thâ—t he bare to Socrates and to Philosophy and wisedome so emboldned him that he would in the night travel from Megaris to Athens in the apparel of a woman least he should be known and he returned before day from Athens to Megaris again This dissimulation and craft of Euclides was far better and more to be commended then the doings of the former Better is Semiramis Quéen of Babylon thought of in that she perceiving her young son Ninus to be too tender to govern the stout Babylonians and Assyrians and knowing the nature of the people to be impatient of a womans government became in her apparel like a man and ruled the Kingdome till her son came to ripe age More praâ—ie ought â—â—lâ—gia a woman of Antioch to have who though she fained her self to be a man and dissembled with the world in that case yet this was to avoid incontinence and to live chast and solitary without the company of men For this cause is the Greek Virgin Mâ—rina and Euphrosina a maid of Alexandria worthily preferred before Cleocritus and Clisthenes for that they went in the apparel of men to live in the wildernesse to avoid lust and sensuality the others went in the apparell of women to beguile women Caelius doth report that certain women as Mantinia Lasthenia Axâ—othea and Phliasia would come in their apparel like men to hear Plato read philosophy in the schools The cause of their dissimulations was vertue and honest life the cause of the others dissimulation was vice and a wicked life so that dissimulation is both good and bad For we read at what time the armed youth of Gréece had determined co fetch home again fair Helene Menelaus wife from Troy where she was deteined by Paris King Priamus son that then Achilles the stoutest and worthiest of all the Gréeks while yet he slept in the Tent of Chiron his mother Thetis suddenly took him from Chiâ—ons house and changed his apparel into the apparel of a woman and appointed where he should hide himself with the daughters of King Lycomedes where he got one of them with child and commanded her to betray him to no man for she knew that her son Achilles should die in Troy if he should go thither There Achilles was a long while at the commandement of his mother Thetis untill the Oracle was given that the City of Troy should never be destroyed without the help of Achilles Ulisses being most subtill and crafty taking upon him to séek out Achilles took a little pack full of fine wares such as women buy and a strong bow and arrows thus when Ulisses came to King Lycomedes daughters though he knew Achilles to be there yet because he was in the apparel of a woman he knew him not and therefore shewed his fine ware unto the Kings daughters having a strong bow bent by him while Deidamia the mother of Pyrrhus and the rest of her sisters viewed the glistering ware of Ulisses Achilles stept in and took Ulisses bow in hand and drew it whereby Ulisses séeing him draw so strong a bow he straight perceived that he was Achilles And thus one craft beguileth another one deceit deceiveth another and one dissembling man findeth out another For by the means of Ulisses was the dissimulation of Achilles known I might have just occasion here to speak of those that were
should be cut off offered to Jupiter in the Capitol of Rome his family to the temple of Ceres his children should be sold as bondmen to the Tribunes and Censors The Lacedemonians were most studiouâ— to expel idlenesse and brought their children up always in hardnesse to practise them in the Arts of Industry and hated Idlenesse so much that if any in the City of Sparta waxed grosse or fat they straight suspected him of idlenesse and if any young man waxed fat they had appointed laws that he should fast and live poor untill he were again changed into his first estate The Egyptians an ancient people when the country of Egypt began to be populous to avoid idlenesse as Pliny reporteth made the great building called the Pyramides which for the mightinesse and strange working thereof was named one of the seven wonders of the World in which there were kept at work thréescore thousand young men who continued a long time in the making thereof and onely to avoid and banish idlenesse The Athenians so abhorrid and detested idlenesse that when a certain man was condemned to die for that he was found idle in Athens a citizen thereof named Herondas as Plutarch testifieth was as desirous to see him as though he had been a prodigious Monster so strange and so marvellous was it to hear or to see any idle man in Athens The people called the Massilians would suffer no travellers neither Pilgrim nor Sacrificer nor any other stranger to come within their City lest under colour of religion or of pilgrimage they might corrupt the youth of the City with the sight thereof to be idle The Indians had a law made by their Wise-men called Gymnosophists that after meat was set on the table the youth should be examined what they had done for their meat and what pain and labour they had used all the morning before if they could make account of their travel they should goe to dinner but if they had béen idle they should have no meat except they had deserved the same The like did the young men of Argis who made an account to their Magistrates of their occupations and works The Areopagites as Valerius affirmeth did imitate the Athenians in commanding their youth to avoid idlenesse and to exercise travel the one as necessary to any Commonwealth as the other is most dangerous So that some countreys are naturally given to travel as the Lydians Phrygians French men with others Some again are given to idlenesse as the Persians Corinthians and others Some by law were forced to slie idlenesse some by punishment were feared from it some by death were enforced to labour for their living Thus this Monster Idlenesse is beaten every where and yet embraced in most places every man speaks against idlenesse yet a number are in love with it Magistrates and Officers are appointed to punish it and yet they often favour it CHAP. XL. Of Wrath and Anger and the hurts thereof THe famous and noble Philosopher Aristotle did charge his schollers always being in Anger or Wrath to behold themselves in a glasse where they might see such alteration of countenance such a palenesse in color that being before reasonable men they appear now like brutish beasts Wherefore that great Philosopher perceiving the furious and hastie nature of Alexander wrote from Athens unto India where this noble conqueror was at wars with King Porus to take heed of Wrath and Anger saying Anger ought not to be in any Prince toward his inferiour for he was to be mended with correction nor toward his equal for he might be redressed with power so that Anger ought not to be but against superiours but Alexander had no coequals Yet in vain was Aristotles doctrine to Alexander in this point for being in a baÌ„quet when Clitus his dear friend coÌ„mended his father King Philip in the former age to be the worthiest most renowned Prince Alexander wexed upon a sudden so angry that any man should be preferred before him though Philip was his own father which was comended and Cliâ—us his especial friend that did commend him that he thrust Clitus into the heart with a spear So hastie was this Prince that Calisthenes and Lysiâ—achus the one his Historian and counsellour the other his companion and friend for a few words spoken were either of them slain Silence therefore saith Aristotle is the surest reward to a Prince We read that King Tigranes of Armenia whom Pompey the great did conquer waxed so angry by a fall from his horse because his son was present and could not prevent his fathers fall that he thrust him with his dagger into the heart and was so sorry afterward and angry withal that he had likewise killed himself had not Anaxarchus the Phllosopher perswaded him Anger in a Prince saith Solomon is death terrible is the countenance of a King when he is oppressed with Wrath hurtfull to many and dangerous to all is the anger thereof Nero was so furious in anger that he never heard any thing if it were not to his liking but he would requite it one way or other with death insomuch that in his rage and anger he would often throw down tables being at dinner and dash cups of gold wrought with pearls against the walls and fling all away more like to a furious Gorgon of hell then a sober Emperor in Rome Such fury reigneth in anger that Orestes the son of Agamemnon slue his own mother Clytemnestra suddenly in his Wrath. Such madnesse reigneth in Anger that Ajax Telamon that famous and valiant Gréek after that Achilles was slain in the temple of Pallas by Paris at the destruction of Troy waxed so Angry because he might not have Achilles Armor which was given before to Ulisses that he beat stones and blocks fought with dead trées killed beasts thinking to méet with Ulisses amongst them If Anger make men murtherers if Wrath make men mad without wit or reason to know themselves or others let them imitate Plato in his anger who being angry with any of his scholers or servants would give the rod to Zenocrates to correct them Because he was angry the learned Philosopher misdoubted himself that he could not use moderate correction Even so Archicas would always speak unto his servant that had offended him Happy art thou that Architas is not angry Thereby giving his man to understand how dangerous Wrath is Aristotle saith the angry man séeth not the thing which lieth under his féet Augustus Caesar Emperour of Rome destred Athenedorus a Philosopher of Gréece which a long time accompanied Augustus in Rome and now was ready to depart to Athens that he would write som sentence that the Emperour might think of him in his absence The Philosopher took a pen and wrote in a little Table this sentence Caesar when thou art moved to anger speak nothing till thou hast recited the Greekes Alphabet a worthy lesson and a famous sentence well worthy to be learned of all
but one year a ruler in the Empire was poysoned by his mother in Law named Martina The very cause of the Emperor Conradus death who was Fredericks son was onely the Empire and rule of Rome for Manfredus his successour hired the Physitians to poyson him that he might have the onely sway O unhappy state of Princes whose lives are desired both of friends and foes No lesse danger it is to be in favour with Princes sometime then perillous to be Princes We read of a Quéen named Rosimunda the daughter of King Cunimund of Gepida who after she had poysoned Albonius King of the Longobards her first husband did marry a Prince of Ravenna named Helinges whom likwise she thought to poison but being warned in the middest of his draught he caused his wife to drink the rest which drink was the cause of both their deaths How many noble Princes in the middest of their pilgrimages have died that death as Dioclesian the Emperour of Rome Lotarius King of France Charls the eight of that name with divers others as Hannibal prince of Carthage Aristobulus King of Iudea and Lucullus Generall of Rome Princes and noble men do sometime poison themselves lest they should be inforced to serve their foes as Themistocles being banished from his country of Athens being in service under Artaxerxes King of Persia poisoned himself with the bloud of a Bull in presence of all the Persians lest he should be compelled to fight in wars against Gréece his country Even so Aratus prince of Sicionia perceiving Philip the younger would banish and exile him out of his country was inforced with poison to drink his own death out of his own hand Even after this sort after long administration of the Commonwealth did noble Socrates learned Anaxagoras worthy Seneca and famous Demosthenes poison themselves Thus their pilgrimages were ended and their lives finished their honour and dignity their fame and renown did purchase them death Happy then are those whom the world knows not who desire not to be acquainted with the world but quiet and contented do finish the course of their pilgrimages Had not Jugurthus thirsted for the Kingdom of Numidia he had not slain his two brethren Adherbal and Hempsal which were partakers of the Crown for the which vengeance fell upon him being subdued by Marius and dying afterwards in prison Had not King Siphax thirsted after the Empire of Rome he had never béen taken captive and prisoner by Tiberius where he at length out of his Kingdome died in prison Henry the third was of his own son named Henry put again in prison where he died Aristonicus for all his businesse and great doings was vanquished by the Consull Aquilius and put in prison where likewise he died In prison divers princes have ended their lives in forrein countries Strange kinds of deaths happen upon Princes more then on any other men as orderly I shall prove by their pilgrimages and lives Some by fire as the Tyrant Phalaris of Agrigentum who was burned with all his children and his wife in the Brasen Bull which Perillus made for others was first of all put into it himself By fire was the Emperour Valentine burned by the Goths by fire was that famous Greek Alcibiades destroied in Phrygia and burned in bed with his mistresse Timandra after he had ruled Athens and all Greece a long while Sardanapalus that great King and last prince of Assyria fearing to fall into the hands of Arbactus and detesting to die by his enemies made a solemn fire when after his lewd life wantoning in lust and following his desires he burned himself it was the end of the renowned Hercules who conquered Monsters subdued Serpents Lions Dragons and wild beasts at the last he put on the shirt of Nestus the Centaur which burned him alive What shall I speak of Boges the dear friend sometime of King Xerxes who when he knew that he could not escape the hand of Cimon and the power of Atâ—ens he made a great fire where he caused his wife and concubines his children and family to be burned and then his gold silver and treasure and last of all he burned himself Empedocles Catullus Luctatius Asdrubal and Poâ—tia died this death So desirous were men alwaies to become princes so ambitious of honour so greedy of wealth that having the name of a King they thought to avoid and escape that which alwaies waits on the heels of Princes I mean death Were not princes hanged by their own subjects which is the vilest and most ignominious death that can be Achaeas King of Lidia for that he troubled his subjects with new taxes and subsedies was hanged by his own subjects at the river of Pactolus Bomilchar a Prince of Libia being suspected by the Carthaginians that he had conspired with Agathocles unto the annoiance of the subjects was hanged in the City of Carthage in the middest of the Market Policrates who was supposed to be the happiest Prince that ever reigned in Samos and never sustained any losse by fortune was at last by Orontes the Persian King Darius General hanged in sight of Samos Herodotus doth affirm that Leonides that famous King of Sparta who long ruled the Lacedemonians with great fame and renown was by Xerxes King of Persia after his head was smitten off commanded notwithstanding to be hanged Trogus doth write of Hanno a prince of Carthage which flourished in the time of King Philip father to Alexander the great who for his prosperous successe that he had in all his attempts waxed to be such a tyrant that his own people first bound him with cords whipt him with rods pluckt out his eys brake his legs cut off his hands and at last to recompence his tyranny they hanged him up in Carthage These were no mean men that thus were hanged in their own country and by their own people Thus Princes in the middest of their lives have béen arrested by death and by divers kinds of death Some as you have heard by poison some by fire some by hanging have ended their pilgrimages some again have been devoured by their own horses as Diomedes King of Thracia became food himself to those beasts which before he fed with mens bodies The King of Eubea for his tyranny in Boetia was given by Hercules to be eaten by his own horses Licinius the Emperour at what time he had appointed that his daughter Hâ—rina should be given to his horses to be eaten he himself giving her as food unto them was torn in pieces It hâ—ppened that Neocles the son of that noble Greek Themistocks was by a horse likewise devoured And this was not strange unto princes for they were alwaies subject unto all kind of deaths After that the famous prince Mâ—â—us Captain of the Lybians had broken truce with the Romans he was afterward as Livi doth witnesse taken and drawn by four great horses alive at the cemmandement of Tullus Hostilius being then King of Rome Hâ—ppâ—litus son
son to Theseus being falsly accused by his mother in law Quéen Phedra and flying to avoid the fury and rage of his father at the request of the Queen was torn in pieces by wild horses But let us passe further and we shall read that as some were devoured by horses so others were by Serpents stung to death as Laocoon that worthy Troyan was by two Serpents destroyed yea that famous and warlike woman Cleopatra Quéen of Egypt after her lover and friend Marcus Antonius was overcome by Augustus Caesar the Emperour did chuse rather to be overcome with Serpents then subdued by Caesar With this death was Opheltes the son of Licurgus King of Menea vanquished Again some have perished by wild Bores and raging Lions as Anceus King of Samos and Paphages King of Ambracia the one by a Bore the other by a Lion Some have béen devoured by dogs as Linus the son of Apollo Pliny in his seventh book metions a Quéen in Bithinia named Cosinges K. Nâ—comedes wife whom her own dogs flew tare in pieces Euripides that learned Gréek coming in the night time from Archelaus King of Macedonia with whom he had been at supper was incountered by his enemy Promerus who set his dogs on him and did tear him to pieces Even so were Herachtus and Diogenes both Philosophers by dogs likewise killed I may not forget so great a prince as Basilius the Emperour of Macedon who in hunting amongst his Lords and Nobles yea amongst thousands of his Commons he onely meeting a Hart in the chase was hurt by him in the leg whereof he died As for Seleucus King of Syria son to Antiochus surnamed the Great and Bâ—la King of Panonia they were both thrown by their horses and died If these mischance happen unto princes in the midst of their state what is their glory but misery since nothing expelleth fate nor can avoid death Some have been so weary of life some so fearfull of death that they have thrown themselves into the water to be drowned others for all their diligent fear and watching for death have most shamefully notwithstanding been by death prevented Frederick the Emperour marching towards Ierusalem after that he had taken several Cities and Townes in Armenia in passing through a little river was drowned Decius that noble King being enforced to take his flight from the Goths with whom he then was in wars was drowned in the Marish ground Marcus Marcellus after that he had béen a Consul in Rome thrée times before the third wars betwixt the Romans and the Carthaginians was likewise by shipwrack cast away How many noble Princes have béen drowned as Pharaoh King of Egypt in the red sea of whom we read in the sacred scriptures How many have the seas despoyled of life and with their own names christened the names of seas and waters in which they were drowned As by the death of Aegeus King of Athens the sea Aegeum was so called by the death of Tyrrhenus King of Lydia the sea was called The Tyrrhen Sea And so King Tyberinus altered the river called Aelbula by his death to be the river of Tyber Again the sea Hellespont was so called by a woman named Helle drowned in it So by Iâ—arus and Myrtilus the sea of Icarus and the sea Myrton were so called Divers Princes have also perished by famine and have been compelled to eat their own flesh as Erisicthon and Neocles a Tyrant of Scicioma It is written in Curtius that Sysigambis King Darius mother died of hunger Ulysles the Gréek lest any off-spring of Hector should rise in Phrygia to revenge the fall of Troy and his countrey did cast Astianax the son of Hector over the walls alive Lycurgus King of Thrace was by his own subjects thrown headlong into the sea for that he first mingled water with wine How many famous and noble Princes have been stoned to death as valiant Pyrrhus King of the Epyrotes being in wars with Antigonus was slain by an old woman with a a tile-stone at Argos Pyrander at what time the Athenians warred against Eumolpus for that he feared famine hiding the wheat from his souldiers was therefore by them stoned to death Even so was Cinna the Roman in the wars betwixt the Gauls and the Romans for the like offence stoned to death Stout Cebrior King Priaâ—'s son was slain by a stone hurled at him by Patroclus at the siege of Troy so died Cygnus the son of Achilles at the same time O unstedfast fortune that stones should end the many lives of famous princes O imprudent princes that know not how nigh ye are always to death How many hath God punished with sudden death for their offences as Mithridates King of Pontus and Nicanor the son of Parmenio of Macedonia died suddenly Sertorius was slain suddenly at a banquet by Upenna The Emperour Heliâ—gabalus was killed upon his stool at his easement and thrown into Tyber That renowned and famous Conquerour Julius Caesar was in the middest of the City of Rome where he was Emperor yea in the Senate-house murthered and mangled by Brutus and Cassius Divers Consuls in Rome died this death as Fabius Maxâ—mus Gurges the Senator And Manlius Torquatus even at his supper died presently Some with Thunder-bolts did God likewise punish thus Capaneus was slain at the wars of Thebes Tullus Hostilius King of Rome was with a Thunderbolt for his insolency and pride slain Zoroastres King of the Bactrians the first inventer of Magick was likewise by that kind of death encountred Pride in princes was the onely cause of their falls insomuch that the poets feign that the great and monstrous Giant Eâ—câ—ladus for his proud enterprise against Jupiter was thrown by a Thunderbolt into the bottome of Aetna a fiery and flaming mountain The uncertain state of princes is séen and tried by their death Who liveth so short a time as a prince who dieth so strange a death as a prince Who liveth in care who dieth living but a prince Was not Sergius Galba and Commodus the son of Marcus sirnamed Anbilius two Emperors of Rome the one by Otho strangled in the Market place of Rome the other imprisoned by Martia his own concubine Minos King of Creet travelling after Dedalus into Sicily was by his great friend King Cocalus slain by deceit So was Alebas chief governour of Larissa murthered by his own souldiers The desire that men bear unto honour and dignity is commonly accompanied with death as Spurius Cassius and Spurius Melius for their greedinesse of the Empire of Rome were both worthily beheaded God hath shewed just vengeance upon Princes for their iniquity with plagues and pestilences which spoiled the Emperor Constantine and the Empresse Zoae his wife And by this were Marcus Antonius Alphonsus and Domitius justly and worthily punished God hath wonderfully punished the pride of Princes even with shamefull and horrible deaths insomuch that Lice and vermine have consumed their bodies alive As Maximilian the Emperour Arnulphus