on the day called the Exaltation of the Crosse. This if it be true and not antedated by a Prolepsis then Heraclius gave the lustre not first originall to this festivall and scoured bright an old holy-day with a new solemnitie Chap. 6. Of the deluge of the Saracens in Syria the causes of the farre spreading of Mahometanisme BUt the sinnes of the Eastern countreys and chiefly their damnable heresies hastened Gods judgements upon them In these Western parts heresies like an angle caught single persons which in Asia like a drag-net took whole provinces The stayed and settled wits of Europe were not easily removed out of the old rode and tract of religion whiles the active and nimble heads of the East were more desirous of novelties more cunning to invent distinctions to cozen themselves with more fluent in language to expresse their conceits as alwayes errours grow the fastest in hot brains Hence it came to passe that Melchites Maronites Nestorians Eutycheans Jacobites overspread these parts maintaining their pestilent tenents with all obstinacy which is that dead flesh which maketh the green wound of an errour fester by degrees into the old sore of an heresie Then was it just with God to suffer them who would not be convinced with Christian Councels to be subdued by the Pagans sword For though Chosroes had not long a settled government in Palestine but as a land-floud came and went away quickly yet the Saracens who shortly followed as standing water drowned all for a long continuance These under Haumar Prince of Arabia took Jerusalem conquered Syria and propagated the doctrine of Mahomet round about It may justly seem admirable how that senselesse religion should gain so much ground on Christianitie especially having neither reall substance in her doctrine nor winning behaviour in her ceremonies to allure professours For what is it but the scumme of Judaisme and Paganisme sod together and here and there strewed over with a spice of Christianitie As Mahomets tombe so many sentences in his Alcoran seem to hang by some secret loadstone which draweth together their gaping independences with a mysticall coherence or otherwise they are flat non-sense Yet this wonder of the spreading of this leprosie is lessened if we consider that besides the generall causes of the growing of all errours namely the gangrene-like nature of evil and the justice of God to deliver them over to beleeve lies who will not obey the truth Mahometanisme hath raised it self to this height by some peculiar advantages First by permitting much carnall libertie to the professours as having many wives and no wonder if they get fish enough that use that bait Secondly by promising a paradise of sensuall pleasure hereafter wherewith flesh and bloud is more affected as falling under her experience then with hope of any spirituall delights Thirdly by prohibiting of disputes and suppressing of all learning and thus Mahomet made his shop dark on purpose that he might vent any wares Lastly this religion had never made her own passage so fast and so farre if the sword had not cut the way before her as commonly the conquered follow for the most part the religion of the conquerours By this means that cursed doctrine hath so improved it self that it may outvie with professours the Church of Rome which boasteth so much of her latitude and extent though from thence to inferre that her faith is the best is falsely to conclude the finenesse of the cloth from the largenesse of the measure Now the condition of the Christians under these Saracens was as uncertain as April-weather Sometimes they enjoyed the libertie and publick exercise of their religion and to give the Mahometans their due they are generally good-fellows in this point and Christians amongst them may keep their consciences free if their tongues be fettered not to oppose the doctrine of Mahomet Sometimes they were under fierce and cruel affliction their Bishops and Ministers forced to flie from their places were kept very poore as alwayes the Clergie under persecution count the God gives them living enough when he gives them their lives Tyrius mentioneth one memorable massacre which they narrowly escaped For a spitefull and malicious Saracen had secretly defiled one of their Mosques in Jerusalem which deed being imputed to the poore Christians they were all presently dragged to the place of execution to be put to death when behold a young man a zealous Christian by an officious lie the most lawfull of all unlawfull things confessed himself alone to be guilty of the fact and so being killed by exquisite torments saved the lives of many innocents In memorie of which act the Christians in Jerusalem kept a constant solemnity and once a yeare triumphantly marched with palms in their hands into the citie to perpetuate the remembrance of this deliverance The longest vacation from persecution they enjoyed was when Charles was Emperour of the West surnamed the Great a surname which he did not steal but justly win and deserve not like Pompey who got the title of the Great though as Cesar observed he gained his chief fame for martiall feats by conquering the weak and cowardly Bithynians But this Charles loved of his friends feared of his foes subdued the strong and lusty Lombards yet did he not Christianitie more good by his warre then by his peace concluded with Aaron Emperour of the Saracens under whom the Christians in Palestine obtained many priviledges and much prosperitie though this weather was too fair to last long Chap. 7. The originall and increase of the Turks their conquering the Saracens and taking of Ierusalem BUt the Christians in Palestine afterward changed their masters though not their condition being subdued by the Turks It will be worth our and the Readers pains to enquire into the originall of this nation especially because as the river Nilus they are famous and well known for their overflowing stream though hidden and obscure for their fountain Whence they first came authours onely do agree in disagreeing but most probable it is out Scythia Pomponius Mela reckoning them among the inhabitants of that countrey nigh the river Tanais This Scythia since called Tartaria was virgin-countrey never forced by forrein arms for the Monarchs who counted themselves conquerours of the world by a large Synecdoche taking a sixth part for the whole never subdued it Alexander sent some troups to assault Naura and Gabaza two out-counties thereof as an earnest that the rest of his army should follow but hearing how these were wellcomed willingly lost his earnest and disposed of his army otherwise The Romane eagles flew not thus farre and though heard of were never seen here The reasons that made the Turks leave their native soyl was the barrennesse thereof and therefore the Poet maketh famine which sometimes travelleth abroad into other countreys here to have her constant habitation And yet no doubt so vast a countrey would maintain her people if the wildnesse thereof were
the Holy land what need Kings roam The Pope can make an Holy land at home By making it his own Then for a fashion 'T is said to come by Constantines donation For all this Fox-craft I have leave I hope To think my friend farre wiser then the Pope And Hermite both He deals in Holy warres Not as a stickler in those fruitlesse jarres But a composer rather Hence this book Whereon whil'st I with greedie eyes do look Me thinks I travel through the Holy land Viewing the sacred objects on each hand Here mounts me thinks like Olivet brave sense There flows a Iordan of pure eloquence A Temple rich in ornament I find Presented here to my admiring mind Strange force of Art The ruin'd Holy citie Breeds admiration in me now not pitie To testifie her liking here my Muse Makes solemn Vows as Holy Pilgrimes use I vow deare friend the Holy warre is here Farre better writ then ever fought elsewhere Thousands have fought and died But all this while I vow there nothing triumphs but thy style Thy wit hath vanquisht Barbarisme more Then ever Godfrey's valour did before Might I but choose I rather would be farre Be authour of thy Book then of that Warre Let others fight I vow to reade thy works Prizing thy ink before the bloud of Turks J. BOOTH B. D. C. C. C. On the Title of this book HOw comes stern Warre to be accounted holy By nature fierce complexion melancholy I le tell you how Sh 'as been at Rome of late And gain'd an indulgence to expiate Her massacres and by the Popes command Sh 'as bin a Pilgrime to the Holy land Where freeing Christians by a sacred plot She for her pains this Epithet hath got HUGO ATKINS NOr need Ierusalem that holy mother Envy old Troy since she has found another To write her battels and her warres rehearse In prose as elegant as Homers verse Let Sueton's name august as Cesars be Curtius more worlds then Alexander see Let Joseph in his countreys siege survive And Phenix-like in his own ashes thrive Thy work great FVLLER will out-live their glory And make thy memorie sacred as thy Storie Thy style is clear and white thy very name Speaks purenesse and addes lustre to the frame All men could wish nay long the world would jarre So thou 'dst be pleas'd to write compose the Warre H. HUTTON M. A. C. Jes. To my friend Mr THOMAS FULLER on his book The Holy Warre WHile of thy book I speak Friend I le tâ—ink on Thy Iordan for my purest Helicon And for bifork'd Parnassus I will set My phansie on the sacred Olivet 'T is holy ground which now my measur'd feet Must tread on then as in due right 't is meet Let them be bare and plain for quâ—inter art May sacrifice to thee without a heart And while it praiseth this thy work may preach His glory rather then thy merits reach Here Reader thou may'st judge and well compare Who most in madnesse Iew or Romane share This not so blind yet in the clearest day Does stumble still on stocks on stones on clay The other will in bright and highest noon Choose still to walk by glimmering light o' th' Moon Here thou may'st represented see the fight Between our earthly Flesh and heavenly Sp'rit Lo how the Turk doth drive with flaming sword Salvation from him and Gods holy word As once the angel did rebellious vice With Adam force from blessed paradise And this in style diamond-like doth shine Which firmest parts and clearest do combine And o're the sad ground of the Iewish storie As light embroidrie explayes its glorie The Temple ras'd and ruin'd seems more high In his strong phrase then when it kiss'd the skie And as the Viper by those pretious tears Which Phaeton bemon'd of Amber wears A rich though fatall coat so here inclos'd With words so rare so splendent so compos'd Ev'n Mahomet has found a tombe which shall Last when the fainting Loadstone lets him fall HENRY VINTENER To his old friend Mr FULLER I Love no warres I love no jarres Nor strifes fire May discords cease Let 's live in peace This I desire If it must be Warre we must see So Fates conspire May we not feel The force of steel This I desire But in thy book When I do look And it admire Let Warre be there But Peace elswhere This I desire Tho. Jackson To his worthy Friend Mr THOMAS FULLER on his book The Holy Warre THere 's not a storie Friend in thy book told But is a jewell each line a thred of gold Though Warre sound harsh and doth our minds affright Yet cloth'd in well-wrought language doth delight Such is thy gilded phrase I joy to reade In thee massacres and to see men bleed Oft have I seen in hangings on a wall The ruines of great Troy and Priams fall A storie in it self so full of woe T' would make the Graecian weep that was the foe But being wrought in arras and made gay With rich embroydery makes th'beholder say I like it well This flame that scarre is good And then commends this wound that stream of blood Things in themselves distastfull are by art Made pleasant and do much delight the heart Such is thy book Though it of bloud relate And horrid Warre whose very name we hate Yet clad in arras-language and thy phrase Doth not affright but with delight amaze And with such power upon our senses seise That makes Warre dreadfull in it self to please WILLIAM JOHNSON Q. Coll. To his deare Friend Mr FULLER WE need not now those zealous vot'ries meet Or pilgrimes turn but on our verses feet Thy quill hath wing'd the earth the Holy land Doth visit us commanded by thy hand If envy make thy labours prove thy losse No marvel if a Croisade wear the Crosse. CLEMENT BRETTON Sidn Coll. Errata Page 10 Sabell Aen. Reade Sabell Enn. 12 Sabell Aen. Reade Sabell Enn. 72 For Paulinus Reade Pontius 114 For Charatux Reade Characux 155 For Noradine Reade Coradine 205 For Nanse Reade Nuise 243 For Burbant Reade Bourbon 264 For foure Albergies Reade seven Albergies 267 For necessarie security Reade necessarie severity 275 For offertures Reade offers Last page of the Chronol For Peter Belius Reade Peter Belvise In the Table For Charatux Reade Characux The Historie of the HOLY WARRE Book I. Chap. 1. The destruction of the citie and temple of Ierusalem by the Romanes under the conduct of Titus WHen the Jews had made the full measure of their sinnes runne over by putting to death the Lord of life Gods judgements as they deserved and our Saviour foretold quickly overtook them for a mighty army of the Romanes besieged and sackt the citie of Jerusalem wherein by fire famine sword civil discord forreigne force eleven hundred thousand were put to death An incredible number it seemeth yet it cometh within the compasse of our belief if we consider that the siege began at the time of
secretly stole away whereat the rest were no whit discomfited counting the losse of cowards to be gain to an armie At last they generally resolved rather to lose their lives by whole-sale on the point of the sword then to retail them out by famine which is the worst of tyrants and murdereth men in state whilest they die in not dying It did not a little encourage them that they found in the church of S. Peter that lance wherewith our Saviours bodie was pierced They highly prized this militarie relique of Christ as if by wounding of him it had got vertue to wound his enemies and counted it a pawn of certain victorie Whether this spear was truly found or whether it was but invented to cozen men with we will not dispute However it wrought much with these Pilgrimes for conceit oftentimes doeth things above conceit especially when the imagination apprehendeth something founded in religion Marching forth in severall armies they manfully fell upon their enemies and being armed with despair to escape they sought to sell their lives at the dearest rate Valour doth swell when it is crushed betwixt extremities and then oftentimes goeth beyond her self in her atchievements This day by Gods blessing on their courage they got a noble conquest Some saw S. George in the aire with an armie of white horses fighting for them but these no doubt did look through the spectacles of fansie And yet though we should reject this apparition we need not play the Origens with the story of S. George and change all the literall sense into an allegorie of Christ and his Church for it is improbable that our English nation amongst so many Saints that were would choose one that was not to be their patrone especially seeing the world in that age had rather a glut then famine of Saints And here let me advertise the Reader once for all not to expect that I should set down those many miracles wherewith Authours who write this warre so lard their stories that it will choke the belief of any discreet man to swallow them As the intent of these writers was pious to gain credit and converts to the Christian faith so the prosecuting of their project must be condemned in thinking to grace the Gospel in reporting such absurd falsities But let us know that heaven hath a pillorie whereon Fraus pia her self shall be punished and rather let us leave religion to her native plainnesse then hang her eares with counterfeit pearls The pride of the Turks being abated in this battel and an 100000 of them being slain the Christians grew mightily insolent and forgot to return to God the honour of the victorie Whereupon followed a great mortalitie and 50000 died in few dayes whether this proceeded from the climate the bodies of Europe not being friends with the aire of Asia til use by degrees reconcileth them or whether it was caused by their intemperance for after long fasting they would not measure their stomacks by the standard of physick and dieting themselves till nature by degrees could digest the meat but by surfeting digged their graves with their own teeth And now we are come to the skirts and borders of Palestine Wherefore as Heralds use to blazon the field before they meddle with the charge so let us describe the land before we relate the actions done therein If in bowling they must needs throw wide which know not the green or alley whereon they play much more must they misse the truth in storie who are unacquainted with that countrey whereon the discourse proceedeth Briefly therefore of the Holy land as not intending to make a large and wide description of so short and narrow a countrey Chap. 18. A Pisgah-sight or short survey of Palestine in generall and how it might maintain 1300000 men PAlestine is bounded on the North with mount Libanus West with the mid-land-sea South with the wildernesse of Paran parting it from Egypt and East with the mountains of Gilead and the river of Arnon To give it the most favourable dimensions From the foot of Libanus to Beersheba North and South may be allowed 210 miles and from Ramoth-Gilead to Endor East and West seventie which is the constant breadth of the countrey In which compasse in Davids time were maintained thirteen hundred thousand men besides women children and impotent persons and yet the tribes of Benjamin and Levi were not reckoned True this must needs be for Truth hath said it Yet is it wonderfull For though the united Provinces in the Low-countreys maintain as many people in as little a plot of ground yet they feed not on home-bred food but have Poland for their granarie the British ocean for their fish-pond High-Germanie for their wine-cellar and by the benefit of their harbours unlock the store-houses of all other countreys It fared not thus with the Jews whose own countrey fed them all And yet the seeming impossibilitie of so many kept in so small a land will be abated if we consider these particulars 1. People in those hot countreys had not so hot appetites for the quantitie of the meat eaten nor gluttonous palates for the varietie of it 2. The countrey rising and falling into hills and vales gained many acres of ground whereof no notice is taken in a map for therein all things presented are conceived to be in planâ— And so the land was farre roomthier then the scale of miles doth make it 3. They had pasturage to feed their cattel in in out-countreys beyond Palestine Thus the tribe of Reuben grased their cattel east-ward even to the river Euphrates 4. Lastly the soyl was transcendently fruitfull as appeareth by that great bunch of grapes carried by two men For though many a man hath not been able to bear wine it is much that one should be loaden with one cluster of grapes If any object against the fruitfulnesse of this countrey That there were many wildernesses therein as those of Maon Ziph Carmel Gibeon Judah and these must needs cut large thongs out of so narrow a hide it is answered That these wildernesses took up no great space as probably being no bigger then our least forrests in England As for the greater deserts we must not conceive them to lie wholly waste but that they were but thinly inhabited for we find six cities with their villages in the wildernesse of Judah Principall commodities of this countrey were 1. Balm which wholly failed not long after our Saviours passion whether because the type was to cease when the truth was come or because that land was unworthy to have so sovereigne bodily physick grow in her where the Physician of the soul was put to death 2. Hony and that either distilled by bees those little chymists and the pasture they fed on was never a whit the barer for their biting or else rained down from heaven as that which Jonathan tasted when his sweet meat had like to have
swallow as easily credible Neither let any censure this discourse as a parenthesis to this history seeing that to see these reliques was one principall motive with many to undertake this pilgrimage To begin without the citie On the south there remain the ruines of Davids palace too neare to which was Uriahs house and the fountain is still shewed where Bathsheba's washing of her bodie occasioned the fouling of her soul. Next Davids tombe is to be seen wherein he was buried his monument was inriched with a masse of treasure saith Josephus out of which Hircanus 850 yeares after took three thousand talents But surely David who despised riches in his life was not covetous after his death And I am sure they are his own words that Man shall carry nothing away with him neither shall his great pomp follow him Thirdly Aceldama that burying-place for strangers and the grave that every where hath a good stomack hath here a boulimia or greedy worm for it will devoure the flesh of a corpse in 48 houres Fourthly Absaloms pillar which he built to continue his memorie though he might have saved that cost having eternized his infamy by his unnaturall rebellion Fifthly the houses of Annas and Caiaphas to passe by others of inferiour note On the east First mount Olivet from whence our Saviour took his rise into heaven The chapell of Ascension of an eight-square round mounted on three degrees still challengeth great reverence and there the footsteps of our Saviour are still to be seen which cannot be covered over Secondly the fig-tree which Christ cursed for he who spake many here wrought a parable this whole tree being but the bark and Christ under it cursing the fruitlesse profession of the Jews Thirdly the place where S. Stephen was stoned and the stones thereabouts are over-grown with a red rust which is forsooth the very bloud of that holy martyr Fourthly the place where Judas surprised our Saviour and he fell down on a stone in which the print of his elbows and feet are still to be seen Fifthly the sepulchre of the blessed Virgin whose body after it had been three dayes buried was carried up by the Angels into heaven and she let fall her girdle to S. Thomas that his weak faith might be swaddled therewith otherwise he who in the point of Christs resurrection would have no creed except he made his own articles and put his finger into his side would no doubt hardly have beleeved the Virgins assumption With this legend we may couple another which though distant in place will be beleeved both together They shew at Bethlehem a little hole over the place where our Saviour was born through which the starre which conducted the wise-men fell down to the ground But who will not conclude but there was a vertigo in his head who first made a starre subject to the falling-sicknesse Sixthly the vale of Hinnom or Tophet in which wise Solomon befooled by his wives built a temple to Moloch Seventhly Cedron a brook so often mentioned in Scripture The west and north-sides of Jerusalem were not so happily planted with sacred monuments and we find none thereon which grew to any eminencie We will now lead the Reader into Jerusalem Where first on mount Moriah the place where Isaac was offered though not sacrificed stood Solomons temple destroyed by the Chaldeans rebuilt by Zorobabel Afterward Herod reedified it so stately saith Josephus that it exceeded Solomons temple if his words exceed not the truth But no wonder if he that never saw the sunne dare say that the moon is the most glorious light in the heavens Secondly Solomons palace which was thirteen yeares in building whereas the temple was finished in seven Not that he bestowed more cost and pains because more time on his own then on Gods house but rather he plied Gods work more throughly and entertained then more builders so that contrary to the proverb Church-work went on the most speedily Thirdly the house of the forrest of Lebanon which was as appeareth by comparing the text fourtie cubits longer and thirtie cubits broader then the temple it self But no doubt the holy Spirit speaking of holy buildings meaneth the great cubit of the Sanctuary but in other houses the ordinary or common cubit It was called the house Lebanon because hard by it Solomon planted a grove the abridgement of the great forrest so that the pleasures of spacious Lebanon were here written in a lesse character Fourthly Pilates palace and the Common hall where the Judge of the world was condemned to death Fifthly the pool of Bethesda the waters whereof troubled by the Angel were a Panpharmacon to him that first got into them Here was a spittle built with five porches the mercy of God being seconded by the charitie of man God gave the cure men built the harbour for impotent persons Sixthly the house of Dives the rich glutton and therefore saith Adricomius it was no parable But may we not retort his words It was a parable and therefore this is none of Dives his house Sure I am Theophylact is against the literall sense thereof and saith They think foolishly that think otherwise But my discourse hasteth to mount Calvarie which at this day hath almost ingrossed all reverence to it self It is called Calvarie Golgotha or the place of a scull either because the hill is rolled and rounded up in the fashion of a mans head as Pen in the British tongue signifieth both an head and a copped hill or because here the bodies of such as were executed were cast As for the conceit that Adams scull should here be found it is confuted by S. Hierome who will have him buried at Hebron Neither is it likely if the Jews had a tradition that the father of mankind had here been interted that they would have made his sepulchre their Tiburn where malefactours were put to death and the charnel-house where their bones were scattered Over our Saviours grave stood a stately church built say some by Helen say others by Constantine but we will not set mother and sonne at variance it might be she built it at his cost In this church are many monuments As the pillar whereunto Christ was bound when scourged wherein red spots of dusky-veined marble usurped the honour to be counted Christs bloud Secondly a great cleft in the rock which was rent in sunder at the Passion whereby the bad thief was divided from Christ the signe of his spirituall separation and they say it reacheth to the centre of the earth a thing hard to confute Thirdly certain pillars which being in a dark place under ground are said miraculously to weep for our Saviours suffering But I referre those who desire the criticismes of these places without going thither to read our English travellers for in this case as good wares and farre cheaper peny-worths are bought at the second hand To conclude our
Eustace The Turks retired to Solomons temple so called because built in the same place there to take the farewell of their lives In a desperate conflict there the foremost of the Christians were miserably slain thrust upon the weapons of their enemies by their fellows that followed them The pavement so swam that none could go but either through a rivulet of bloud or over a bridge of dead bodies Valour was not wanting in the Turks but superlatively abundant in the Christians till night made them leave off Next morning mercie was proclaimed to all those that would lay down their weapons For though bloud be the best sauce for victorie yet must it not be more then the meat Thus was Jerusalem wonne by the Christians and twentie thousand Turks therein slain on the fifteenth of July being Friday about three of the clock in the afternoon Tyrius findeth a great mysterie in the time because Adam was created on a Friday and on the same day and houre our Saviour suffered But these Synchronismes as when they are naturall they are pretty and pleasing so when violently wrested nothing more poore and ridiculous Then many Christians who all this while had lived in Jerusalem in most lamentable slaverie being glad to lurk in secret as truth oftentimes seeketh corners as fearing her judge though never as suspecting her cause came forth joyfully wellcomed and embraced these the procurers of their liberty Three dayes after it was concluded as a necessarie piece of severitie for their defense to put all the Turks in Jerusalem to death which was accordingly performed without favour to age or sex The pretense was for fear of treason in them if the Emperour of Persia should besiege the citie And some slew them with the same zeal wherewith Saul slew the Gibeonites and thought it unfit that these goats should live in the sheeps pasture But noble Tancred was highly displeased hereat because done in cold bloud it being no slip of an extemporany passion but a studied and premeditated act and that against pardon proclaimed many of them having compounded and paid for their lives and libertie Besides the execution was mercilesse upon sucking children whose not-speaking spake for them and on women whose weaknesse is a shield to defend them against a valiant man To conclude Severitie hot in the fourth degree is little better then poyson and becometh crueltie it self and this act seemeth to be of the same nature The end of the first Book The Historie of the HOLY WARRE Book II. Chap. 1. Robert the Normane refuseth the kingdome of Ierusalem Godfrey of Bouillon chosen king his parentage education and vertues FIght dayes after Jerusalem was wonne they proceeded to the election of a King but they had so much choice that they had no choice at all so many Princes there were and so equally eminent that Justice her self must suspend her verdict not knowing which of them best deserved the Crown Yet it was their pleasure to pitch on Robert the Normane as on the man of highest descent being sonne to a King for great Hugh of France was already returned home pretending the colick though some impute it to cowardlinesse and make the disease not in his bowels but his heart Robert refused this honourable profer whether because he had an eye to the kingdome of England now void by the death of William Rufus or because he accounted Jerusalem would be incumbred with continuall warre But he who would not take the Crown with the Crosse was fain to take the Crosse without the Crown and never thrived afterwards in any thing he undertook Thus they who refuse what God fairly carveth for them do never after cut well for themselves He lived to see much misery and felt more having his eyes put out by king Henry his brother and at last found rest when buried in the now Cathedrall church of Glocester under a woodden monument bearing better proportion to his low fortunes then high birth And since in the same quire he hath got the company of another Prince as unfortunate as himself King Edward the second They go on to a second choice and that they may know the natures of the Princes the better their servants were examined on oath to confesse their masters faults The servants of Godfrey of Bouillon protested their masters onely fault was this That when Mattens were done he would stay so long in the church to know of the Priest the meaning of every image and picture that dinner at home was spoiled by his long tarrying All admired hereat that this mans worst vice should be so great a vertue and unanimously chose him their King He accepted the place but refused the solemnity thereof and would not wear a crown of gold there where the Saviour of mankind had worn a crown of thorns He was sonne to Bustace Duke of Bouillon and Ida his wife daughter and heir to Godfrey Duke of Lorein born saith Tyrius at Bologne a town in Champaigne on the English sea which he mistaketh for Bouillon up higher in the continent neare the county of Lutzenburg Such slips are incident to the pennes of the best authours yea we may see Canterbury mistaken for Cambridge not onely in Munster but even in all our own printed Statute-books in the 12. of Richard the second He was brought up in that school of valour the court of Henry the 4. the Emperour Whilest he lived there there happened an intricate suit betwixt him and another Prince about title of land and because Judges could not untie the knot it was concluded the two Princes should cut it asunder with their sword in a combat Godfrey was very unwilling to fight not that he was the worse souldier but the better Christian he made the demurre not in his courage but in his conscience as conceiving any private title for land not ground enough for a duell Yea we may observe generally that they who long most to fight duells are the first that surfet of them Notwithstanding he yeelded to the tyranny of custome and after the fashion of the countrey entred the lists when at the first encounter his sword brake but he struck his adversary down with the hilt yet so that he saved his life and gained his own inheritance Another parallel act of his valour was when being standard-bearer to the Emperour he with the imperiall ensigne killed Rodulphus the Duke of Saxony in single fight and fed the Eagle on the bowels of that arch-rebell His soul was enriched with many vertues but the most orient of all was his humility which took all mens affections without resistance And though one saith Take away ambition and you take away the spurres of a souldier yet Godfrey without those spurres rode on most triumphantly Chap. 2. The establishing of Ecclesiasticall affairs and Patriarchs in Antioch and Ierusalem the numerosity of Palestine-Bishops BUt now let us leave the Helmets and look
Bernards bow Wherefore this miscarriage came very seasonably to abate their over-towring conceits of him and perchance his own of himself And no doubt he made a good use of this bad accident The lesse his fame blazed the more his devotion burned and the cutting off of his top made him take deep root and to be made more truly humbled and sanctified In his book of Consideration he maketh a modest defense of himself whither we referre the reader To conclude The devotion of this man was out of question so neglecting this world that he even did spit out that preferment which was dropped into his mouth But as for his judgement it was not alwayes the best which gave occasion to the proverb Bernardus non vidit omnia Chap. 31. Vnseasonable discords betwixt King Baldwine and his mother Her strength in yeelding to her sonne UPon the departure of Emperour Conrade and King Lewis Noradine the Turk much prevailed in Palestine Nor was he little advantaged by the discords betwixt Millesent Queen-mother and the Nobility thus occasioned There was a Noble-man called Manasses whom the Queen governing all in her sonnes minority made Constable of the kingdome This man unable to manage his own happinesse grew so insolent that he could not go but either spurning his equals or trampling on his inferiours No wonder then if envy the shadow of greatnesse waited upon him The Nobility highly distasted him but in all oppositions the Queens favour was his sanctuary who to shew her own absolutenesse and that her affection should not be controlled nor that thrown down which she set up still preserved the creature she had made His enemies perceiving him so fast rooted in her favour and seeing they could not remove him from his foundation sought to remove him with his foundation instigating young King Baldwine against his mother and especially against her favourite They complained how the State groned under his insolency He was the bridge by which all offices must passe and there pay toll He alone sifted all matters and then no wonder if much bran passed He under pretense of opening the Queens eyes did lead her by the nose captivating her judgement in stead of directing it He like a by-gulf devoured her affection which should flow to her children They perswaded the King he was ripe for government and needed none to hold his hand to hold the sceptre Let him therefore either untie or cut himself loose from this slavery and not be in subjection to a subject Liberty needeth no hard pressing on youth a touch on that stamp maketh an impression on that waxen age Young Baldwine is apprehensive of this motion and prosecuteth the matter so eagerly that at length he coopeth up this Manasses in a castle and forceth him to abjure the kingdome Much stirre afterwards was betwixt him and his mother till at last to end divisions the kingdome was divided betwixt them She had the city of Jerusalem and the land-locked part he the maritime half of the land But the widest throne is too narrow for two to sit on together He not content with this partition marcheth furiously to Jerusalem there to besiege his mother and to take all from her Out of the citie cometh Fulcher the good Patriarch his age was a patent for his boldnesse and freely reproveth the King Why should he go on in such an action wherein every step he stirred his legs must needs grate and crash both against nature and religion Did he thus requite his mothers care in stewarding the State thus to affright her age to take arms against her Was it not her goodnesse to be content with a moyety when the whole kingdome in right belonged unto her But ambition had so inchanted Baldwine that he was penetrable with no reasons which crossed his designes so that by the advice of her friends she was content to resigne up all lest the Christian cause should suffer in these dissensions She retired her self to Sebaste and abridged her train from State to necessity And now the lesse room she had to build upon the higher she raised her soul with heavenly meditations and lived as more private so more pious till the day of her death Chap. 32. Reimund Prince of Antioch overcome and killed Askelon taken by the Christians The death of King Baldwine THese discords betwixt mother and sonne were harmonie in the eares of Noradine the Turk Who coming with a great army wasted all about Antioch and Prince Reimund going out to bid him battel was slain himself and his army overthrown nor long after Joceline Count of Edessa was intercepted by the Turks and taken prisoner As for Constantia the relict of Reimund Prince of Antioch she lived a good while a widow refusing the affections which many princely suiters proffered unto her till at last she descended beneath her self to marry a plain man Reinold of Castile Yet why should we say so when as a Castilian Gentleman if that not a needlesse tautologie as he maketh the inventory of his own worth prizeth himself any Princes fellow And the proverb is Each lay-man of Castile may make a King each clergie-man a Pope Yea we had best take heed how we speak against this match for Almericus Patriarch of Antioch for inveighing against it was by this Prince Reinold set in the heat of the sunne with his bare head besmeared with hony a sweet-bitter torment that so bees might sting him to death But King Baldwine mediated for him and obtained his liberty that he might come to Jerusalem where he lived many yeares in good esteem And Gods judgements are said to have overtaken the Prince of Antioch for besides the famine which followed in his countrey he himself afterwards fighting unfortunately with the Turks was taken prisoner But let us step over to Jerusalem where we shall find King Baldwine making preparation for the siege of Askelon Which citie after it had long been blocked up had at last an assaultable breach made in the walls thereof The Templars to whom the King promised the spoil if they took it entred through this breach into the citie and conceiving they had enow to wield the work and master the place set a guard at the breach that no more of their fellow-Christians should come in to be sharers with them in the booty But their covetousnesse cost them their lives for the Turks contemning their few number put them every one to the sword Yet at last the citie was taken though with much difficulty Other considerable victories Baldwine got of the Turks especially one at the river Jordan where he vanquished Noradine And twice he relieved Cesarea-Philippi which the Turks had straitly besieged But death at last put a period to his earthly happinesse being poisoned as it was supposed by a Jewish physician for the rest of the potion killed a dog to whom it was given This Kings youth was stained with unnaturall discords with his
knew he did it onely to gain time to fetch new breath and if he yeelded to him his bounty had not been thanked but his fear upbraided as if he durst not denie him Yea in anger King Richard commanded all the Turkish captives which were in his hands seven thousand in number to be put to death except some choice persons on that day whereon the articles should have been but were not performed For which fact he suffered much in his repute branded with rashnesse and crueltie as the murderer of many Christians For Saladine in revenge put as many of our captives to death On the other side the moderation of the French King was much commended who reserving his prisoners alive exchanged them to ransome so many Christians Chap. 9. The unseasonable return of the King of France MEan time the Christians were rent a sunder with faction Philip the French King Odo Duke of Burgundie Leopold Duke of Austria most of the Dutch all the Genoans and Templars siding with King Conrade King Richard Henry Count of Champaigne the Hospitallers Venetians and Pisans taking part with King Guy But King Conrades side was much weakened with the sudden departure of the French King who eighteen dayes after the taking of Ptolemais returned home pretending want of necessaries indisposition of body distemper of the climate though the greatest distemper was in his own passions The true cause of his departure was partly envie because the sound of King Richards fame was of so deep a note that it drowned his partly covetousnesse to seise on the dominions of the Earl of Flanders lately dead Flanders lying fitly to make a stable for the fair palace of France If it be true what some report that Saladine bribed him to return let him for ever forfeit the surname of Augustus and the style of The most Christian Prince His own souldiers disswaded him from returning beseeching him not to stop in so glorious a race wherein he was newly started Saladine was already on his knees and would probably be brought on his face if pursued If he played the unthrift with this golden occasion let him not hope for another to play the good husband with If povertie forced his departure King Richard profered him the half of all his provisions All would not do Philip persisted in his old plea How the life of him absent would be more advantageous to the cause then the death of him present and by importunitie got leave to depart solemnly swearing not to molest the King of Englands dominions Thus the King of France returned in person but remained still behind in his instructions which he left with his armie to the Duke of Burgundie to whom he prescribed both his path and his pace where and how he should go And that Duke moved slowly having no desire to advance the work where King Richard would carrie all the honour For in those actions wherein severall undertakers are compounded together commonly the first figure for matter of credit maketh ciphres of all the rest As for King Philip being returned home such was the itch of his ambition he must be fingering of the King of Englands territories though his hands were bound by oath to the contrary Chap. 10. Conrade King of Ierusalem slain Guy exchangeth his Kingdome for the Island of Cyprus ABout the time of the King of France his departure Conrade King of Jerusalem was murdered in the market-place of Tyre and his death is variously reported Some charged our King Richard for procuring it And though the beams of his innocencie cleared his own heart yet could they not dispell the clouds of suspicions from other mens eyes Some say Humphred Prince of Thoron killed him for taking Isabella his wife away from him But the generall voice giveth it out that two Assasines stabbed him whose quarrel to him was onely this That he was a Christian. These murderers being instantly put to death gloried in the meritoriousnesse of their suffering and surely were it the punishment not the cause made martyrdome we should be best stored with Confessours from gaols and Martyrs from the gallows Conrade reigned five yeares and left one daughter Maria Iole on whom the Knight-Templars bestowed princely education And this may serve for his Epitaph The Crown I never did enjoy alone Of half a Kingdome I was half a King Scarce was I on when I was off the throne Slain by two slaves me basely murdering And thus the best mans life at mercie lies Of vilest varlets that their own despise His faction survived after his death affronting Guy the anti-King and striving to depose him They pleaded that the Crown was tied on Guy's head with a womans fillet which being broken by the death of his wife Queen Sibyll who deceased of the plague with her children at the siege of Ptolemais he had no longer right to the Kingdome they objected he was a worthlesse man and unfortunate On the other side it was alledged for him that to measure a mans worth by his successe is a square often false alwayes uncertain Besides the courtesie of the world would allow him this favour That a King should be semel semper once and ever Whilest Guy stood on these ticklish terms King Richard made a seasonable motion which well rellished to the palate of this hungrie Prince To exchange his Kingdome of Jerusalem for the Island of Cyprus which he had redeemed from the Templars to whom he had pawned it And this was done accordingly to the content of both sides And King Richard with some of his succeeding English Kings wore the title of Jerusalem in their style for many yeares after We then dismisse King Guy hearing him thus taking his farewell I steer'd a state warre-tost against my will Blame then the storm not th' Pilots want of skill That I the Kingdome lost whose emptie style I sold to Englands King for Cyprus Isle I pass'd away the land I could not hold Good ground I bought but onely aire I sold. Then as a happy Merchant may I sing Though I must sigh as an unhappy King Soon after Guy made a second change of this world for another But the family of the Lusignans have enjoyed Cyprus some hundred yeares and since by some transactions it fell to the state of Venice and lately by conquest to the Turks Chap. 11. Henry of Champaigne chosen King The noble atchievements and victories of King Richard COnrade being killed and Guy gone away Henry Earl of Champaigne was chosen King of Jerusalem by the especiall procuring of King Richard his uncle To corroborate his election by some right of succession he married Isabella the widow of King Conrade and daughter to Almerick King of Jerusalem A Prince as writers report having a sufficient stock of valour in himself but little happie in expressing it whether for want of opportunitie or shortnesse of his reigne being most spent in a truce He more
sinnes which are glued unto them by their profit Thus the avarice of the Romish officers as of late the shamefull shamelesse covetousnesse of their Indulgence-mongers occasioned Luthers falling from them caused the Grecians wholly to renounce their subjection to that See and Germanus Patriarch of Constantinople now grew absolute of himself without any dependencie on the Pope His Holinesse despairing to reduce them by fair means proclaimed warre against them And as formerly against the Albingenses so now against the Grecians resolved to send an army of Croised souldiers It being his custome to make the secular power little better then an hangman to execute those he shall please to condemn Yea he hath turned the back of the sword towards Infidels and the edge against Christians dissenting from him in small matters But few voluntaries were found for this service because of a pious horrour and religious reluctancie against so odious an imployment Onely in Cyprus I beleeve in a private persecution rather then open warre some Grecians were put to death the Pope using the same severity against wolves and wandring sheep foes and prodigall children Chap. 5. Wherein the Greeks dissent from the Latines What must charitably be conceived of them BEsides their rejecting of the Popes both Ecclesiasticall and Temporall tyranny the Greeks differ from the Latines in other matters of moment For they maintain the procession of the holy Spirit from the Father alone As for their other tenents they stand in some middle terms of opinion betwixt Papists and Protestants yet so that they approch nearer the Papists in more to us in more weighty and dominative points With Rome they concurre in Transubstantiation in the whole sacrifice of the Masse in praying to Saints and for the dead in Auricular Confession in worshipping of Pictures onely of Christ and our Lady but all Images they detest a kind of Purgatory they hold but not in hell or the skirts thereof nor by any outward torment With us they consent in the Sufficiency of the Scriptures to salvation in denying the Infallibility of the Church much more of the Pope the overplus of Merits Service ununderstood Indulgences Liberaties out of Purgatorie and the like Hereupon the Romanists condemn them all for hereticks and castawayes killing more then a third of all Christians as Cain did a quarter of mankind with a blow with this their uncharitable censure But heaven-gate was not so easily shut against multitudes when S. Peter himself wore the keyes at his girdle And let us not with rash judging thrust all into the pit of hell whom we see walking neare the brink thereof We shall think better of them if we consider That First their tenets wherein they dissent from the Romanists are sound enough save that of the holy Ghost Concerning which it is an usefull quaere Whether granting the first authours and ringleaders of that errour in a bad condition there be not some favour to be allowed to those who in simplicity succeed to hereditary errours received from their ancestours if they do not wilfully barre nor bolt their eyes against the beams of the truth but be willing as we charitably conceive of the Greeks to receive and embrace better instruction Secondly the Master of the Sentences waited on herein with other learned men is of opinion That in the sense of the Greek Church A Filio and Per Filium is no reall difference but a question in modo loquendi Sure it would have grated the foundation if they had so denied the procession of the holy Ghost from the Sonne as thereby to make an inequality betwixt the two Persons But since their form of speech is That the holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father by the Sonne and is the Spirit of the Sonne without making any difference in the consubstantiality of the Persons their doctrine may passe with a favourable interpretation Thirdly our quickest sight in the matters of the Trinity is but one degree above blindnesse Wherefore as concerning it let our piety lodge there where in other disputes the deceit of sophisters used to nestle it self namely in universalibus in large and generall expressions and not descend to curious particulars To search into the manner of the Spirits procession is neither manners nor religion and rather falleth under an awfull adoration and belief then an exact and curious enquirie Lastly this their tenet doth not infect any other point in Divinity with its poysonous inferences Some errours are worse in their train then in themselves which as the Dragon in the Revelation drew down a third part of the starres with his tail by their bad consequences pervert other points of religion But this Grecian opinion as learned men propound it concerning the holy Ghost hath this happinesse that it is barren and begetteth no other bad tenets from it being entire in it self More may be alledged for the lessening of this errour But grant it in its full extent yet surely the moderate judgement of that learned Divine whose memory smelleth like a Field the Lord hath blessed will abide triall who in effect thus concludeth Their schismes are sinfull wicked and inexcusable their doctrine dangerous but not so damnable as excluding from all possibilitie of salvation As for the observation of a Schoolman That afterwards the Turks wonne Constantinople on Whitsunday the day dedicated to the memoriall of the holy Spirit as if God herein pointed at the sinne of the Grecians in dishonouring the holy Ghost we leave it to the readers discretion desiring rather to be scepticall then definitive in the causes of Gods judgements Chap. 6. A comparative estimate of the extent of the Greek and Latine Church What hope of reconcilement betwixt them The influence this breach had on the Holy warre IF that religion were surely the best which is of the greatest latitude and extent Surveyers of land were fitter then Divines to judge of the best religion Neither is it any matter of great moment to measure the greatnesse of either Church But because Rome maketh her Universality such a masterpiece to boast of let us see if the Greek Church may not outshoot her in her own bow If we begin with the Grecian Church in Africa under the Patriarch of Alexandria thence proceeding into Asia and fetch a compasse about Syria Armenia Asia the lesse with Cyprus Candie and other Islands in the mid-land-sea and so come into Grecia if hence we go into Russia and Muscovia who though differing in ceremonies dissent not in doctrine as a sundry dialect maketh not a severall language to take onely entire Kingdomes and omit parcels it is a larger quantity of ground then that the Romish religion doth stretch to since Luther cut so large a collop out of it and withdrew North-Europe from obedience to his Holinesse Perchance the Romanists may plead they have lately improved the patrimony of their religion by new purchases in both Indies But who knoweth not that those people
this day confesse not to the beholders that any such cost was ever bestowed there He also caused the corpses of the Christians killed at the late battel at Gaza and hitherto unburied decently to be interred and appointed an annuall salarie to a Priest to pray for their souls Hereby he had the happinesse with little cost to purchase much credit and the living being much taken with kindnesse to the dead this burying of those Christians with pious persons wonne him as much repute as if he killed so many Turks At last the truce for ten yeares was concluded with the Sultan all Christian captives were discharged and set free many forts of them restored and matters for the main reduced to the same estate they were at the first peace with Frederick the Emperour and Richard returning through Sicily and by Rome where he visited his Holinesse safely came home to England Where he was welcomed with bad news that a discontented Cornish man banished for his misdemeanours had found out tinne-mines in Bohemia which afterwards more asswaged the swelling of this Earls bags then all his voyage to Palestine For till that time that metall was onely fetched from England which afforded meat to some forrein countreys and dishes to all His voyage was variously censured The Templars which consented not to the peace flouted thereat as if all this while he had laboured about a difficult nothing and as good never a whit as never the better for the agreement would never hold long Others thought he had abundantly satisfied any rationall expectation For he compelled saith one the Saracens to truce a strange compulsion without violence except the shewing of a scabbard he restored many to the life of their life their liberty which alone was worth all his pains the peace he concluded was honourable and a cheap Olive-branch is better then deare Bayes Two of our English Richards were at Palestine one famous for drawing his sword the other his purse He was also remarkable herein that he brought all his men and ships safe home next of kin to a miracle and none will deny but that in such dangerous adventures a saver is a gainer One good he got hereby This journey brought him into play amongst forrein Princes henceforward the beyond-sea-world took notice of him and he of it Never would he have had the face to have courted the Crown Imperiall if these his travels had not put boldnesse and audacity into him which made him afterwards a stiff rivall to bid for the Empire of Germany Chap. 9. The Corasines cruelly sack the city of Ierusalem and kill the Christians therein ABout this time though we find not the punctuall date thereof happened the death of Reinoldus Fredericks Lieutenant in Syria who by his moderation had been a good benefactour to the Holy warre But the Templars counted him to want metall because he would not be mad and causelesly break the truce with the Sultan In his grave was buried the happinesse of the Christians in Palestine for now the lawlesse Templars observe no other rule but their own will And now the inundation of the Tartarians in spite of all dammes and banks overranne the North of Asia and many nations fled from their own countreys for fear of them Amongst other the Corasines called by some Choermines and Groissoms a fierce and warlike people were notwithstanding by the Tartarians forced to forsake their land Being thus unkennelled they had their recourse to the Sultan of Babylon and petitioned him to bestow some habitation upon them Their suit he could neither safely grant nor deny A deniall would egge their discontents into desperatenesse and such sturdy dangerous vagabonds might do much harm to admit them to be joynt-tenants in the same countrey with the Turks was a present inconvenience and would be a future mischief In stead therefore of giving them a house he sent them to a work-house yet so that they apprehended it a great courtesie done unto them For he bestowed on them all the lands which the Christians held in Palestine liberall to give away what was none of his and what the others must purchase before they could enjoy The Sultan encouraged them to invade that countrey whose people he pretended were weak and few the land wealthy and fruitfull so that the conquest would be easie especially they having his assistance in the present service and perpetuall patronage hereafter Animated herewith in come the Corasines with their wives and children bringing their housholds with them to win houses and lands for them into Syria and march directly to Jerusalem which being a weak and unfortified place was taken without resistance Weak and unfortified Strange It is confessed on all sides that Frederick the Emperour and Reinoldus his Lieutenant spared no expense in strengthening this city since which time we find no solemn taking it by the Turks Who then can expect lesse then an impregnable place where so much cost was sown Which driveth us to conceive one of these three things Either that the weaknesse of this citie was chiefly in the defenders hearts Or else that formerly there happened some blind and silent dispoiling of this place not mentioned by Authours Or lastly that Jerusalem was a Jericho I mean a place cursed in building like Pharaohs lean kine never a whit the fatter for devouring much meat and which still went in rags though her friends bestowed change of raiment upon her Thus this city after that it had been possessed fifteen yeares by the Christians was wonne by this barbarous people never since regained to our religion Sleep Jerusalem sleep in thy ruines at this day of little beauty and lesse strength famous onely for what thou hast been The Christians flying out of Jerusalem with their families took their course towards Joppa but looking back beheld their own ensignes advanced on the citie-walls so done in policie by their enemies Whereupon their credulity thus commented That their fellows had beaten the Corasines in Jerusalem and by these banners invited them to return But going back they found but cold or rather too hot entertainment being slain every mothers child of them Dull nostrils not to sent so stale and rank a stratageme of their foes so often used so easily defeated not to send some spies to tast the bait before all swallowed it But men marked out for destruction will runne their own heads into the halter Chap. 10. Robert Patriarch of Ierusalem with the whole strength of the Christians conquered by the Corasines THe desperatenesse of the disease priviledgeth the taking of any Physick The Christians being now in deep distresse resolved on a dangerous course but as their case stood thought necessary For they made peace with the Sultan of Damascus and Seisser and with the Sultan of Cracci These were Dynastes in Syria of some good strength and were at discord with the Sultan of Babylon and swearing them to be faithfull borrowed an armie of their forces
Fredericks stock and that whole race of Suevian Princes was extinct Which in the judgement of some men was a judgement of God on him for his lasciviousnesse We must not forget a memorable passage which happened more then twenty yeares after Fredericks death One Tylo Colupp a notable juggler sometime brought up at the Court cunningly sowing together all the old shreds of his Courtship and stretching them out with impudency pretended to be Frederick the Emperour long detained in captivity in Palestine The difference betwixt their aspects was easily reconciled for few Physiognomy-marks are so deeply fixed in any face but that age and misery will alter them The credulity of the vulgar sort presently betrayed them to be couzened by him yea some Princes took this brasse for gold without touching it But the best engine which gave this puppet his motion was a bruit constantly buzzed That Frederick was not dead For Princes the manner of whose deaths hath been private and obscure fame commonly conjureth again out of their graves and they walk abroad in the tongues and brains of many who affirm and beleeve them to be still alive But the world soon surfeted of this cheaters forgerie and this glow-worm when brought into the light shined no more but at Nanse was burnt to ashes by Rodulphus the Emperour After Fredericks death there was an interregnum for three and twenty yeares in the Empire of Germany True it is that of some William Earl of Holland one without a beard not valour was nominated Emperour The Spirituall electours chose Richard brother to our King Henry the third And as in Cornwall he got much coin so Germany gave him a bottomlesse bag to put it in A third party named Alphonse King of Castile an admirable Mathematician But the ointment of his name is marred with the dead flie of his Atheisticall speech That if he had been in Gods stead he could have framed the world better then now it is Notwithstanding the best Dutch writers make an interregnum as counting the Empire still a widow and all these rather her suiters then any her husband In like manner also in Palestine there was not any King for fourteen yeares after Fredericks death The right indeed lay in Conrade Duke of Sueviâ— Fredericks sonne by Iole daughter to John Bren King of Jerusalem But he was so imployed in defending himself in Sicily against Maufred his base brother who soon after dispatched him out of the way that he had no leisure to prosecute his title to the fragments of the Kingdome of Jerusalem Chap. 21. The Pastorells killed in France King Lewis returned home GO we back to King Lewis who all this while stayed in Palestine busying himself partly in building and fensing of Sidon and Cesarea partly in composing discords betwixt the Pisans and Genoans even proceeding to threaten them into agreement But these armed men little cared for his naked menacing He being also an excellent religious Antiquary and Critick on holy monuments much employed himself in redeeming of old sacred places from the tyranny of time and oblivion Mean time in his Kingdome of France happened this strange accident An Hungarian pesant who is said to have been an apostate to Mahomet and well learned gathered together many thousands of people pretending they had intelligence from heaven to march to the Holy land These took on them the name and habit of Pastorelli poore shepherds in imitation belike as the Devil is Gods ape of those in the Gospel who were warned by Angels in a vision to go to Bethlehem Being to shape their course into Palestine they went into France shewing they had a vertigo in their heads mistaking the West for the East or else that like vagabonds they were never out of their way The Holy Lambe was their ensigne but their actions neither holy nor lambe-like They pillaged and killed the poore Jews as they went an unhappy nation whose heads lie pat for every ones hands to hit and their legges so stand in mens way that few can go by them without spurning at them Where they wanted Jews they made Jews of Christians especially if they were rich using them with all cruelty But at last neare Burdeaux threescore thousand of them were slain and the rest dispersed A rhymer of that age or in courtesie call him a Poet made this Epitaph on them M semel bis C L I conjungere disce Duxit Pastorum saeva Megaera chorum Learn to put together well What M C C L I do spell When some devilish fiend in France Did teach the Shepherds how to dance By this time Lewis in Syria had stayed out the death and buriall of all his hopes to receive succour from his own countrey Long expecting in vain that France should come to him he at last returned to it The greatnesse of the burden he bore made him go the faster and being loaden with debts to his Italian creditours he secretly hasted home Where safely arriving besides loyaltie to their Prince love to a stranger was enough to make him welcome Chap. 22. The conversion of the Tartarians Haalon conquereth Persia and extinguisheth the Caliphs of Babylon LEwis is gone and left the Christians in Syria in a wofull condition without hope of amendment Now can any good come out of Tartary Can the Northern wind blow a comfortable warmth Yea see a strange vicissitude of things Haito the Christian King of Armenia had travelled to Mango the Cham of Tartary to communicate to him the present danger of the Turks and to consult of a remedy He shewed how if order were not taken with them in time they would over-runne all Asia Let him not count that he lay out of their rode because of his remote situation For what is the way wanderers will not trace He might expect onely this courtesie to be last devoured In conclusion Haito prevailed so farre with this Pagan that he not onely promised his assistance but also was baptized and took the Christian religion on him So also did his whole countrey by his example and Christianity being the Court-fashion none would be out of it Never since the time of Constantine the Great did the devil at once lose a greater morsel or was there made a more hopefull accession to the Faith Understand we this conversion of Tartary though Authours predicate it universally of that whole countrey onely of Cathaia the Eastern and most refined part of that Empire For Cannibals were still in the North who needed first to be converted to reason and to be made men before they could become Christians Also at this same time we find a swarm of Western Tartarian heathens forraging Poland So it seemeth so vast was the Empire that it was still night in the West though it was day in the Eastern part thereof Now whether the conversion of these Tartarians was solemnly deliberately and methodically wrought by preaching first those things wherein the
the very ruines as thirsty of revenge killing those that ruined them Serapha evened all to the ground and lest the Christians should ever after land here demolished all buildings the Turks holding this position That the best way to be rid of such vermine is to shave the hair clean off and to destroy all places wherein they may nestle themselves Some say he plowed the ground whereon the city stood and sowed it with corn but an eye-witnesse affirmeth that still there remain magnificent ruines seeming rather wholly to consist of divers conjoyned castles then any way intermingled with private dwellings No fewer then an hundred thousand Latine Christians all that were left in Syria fled at this time into Cyprus It is strange what is reported That above five hundred matrones and virgins of noble bloud standing upon the shore of Ptolemais and having all their richest jewels with them cried out with lamentable voice and profered to any mariner that would undertake safely to land them any-where all their wealth for his hire and also that he should choose any one of them for his wife Then a certain mariner came and transporting them all freely safely landed them in Cyprus nor by any enquiry could it after be known when he was sought for to receive his hire who this mariner was nor whither he went The Hospitallers for haste were fain to leave their treasure behind them and hide it in a vault which being made known from time to time to their successours was fetched from thence by the galleys of Malta about three hundred yeares afterwards Henry King of Cyprus to his great cost and greater commendation gave free entertainment to all Pilgrimes that fled hither till such time as they could be transported to their own countreys and thanks was all the shot expected of these guests at their departure Thus after an hundred ninety and foure yeares ended the Holy warre for continuance the longest for money spent the costliest for bloudshed the cruellest for pretenses the most pious for the true intent the most politick the world ever saw And at this day the Turks to spare the Christians their pains of coming so long a journey to Palestine have done them the unwelcome courtesie to come more then half the way to give them a meeting The end of the fourth Book A Supplement of the Historie of the HOLY WARRE Book V. Chap. 1. The executing of the Templars in France MY task is done Whatsoever remaineth is voluntary over-measure onely to hemme the end of our historie that it ravel not out As to shew What became of the Templars the Teutonick Order and the Hospitallers What were the hindrances of this warre What nation best deserved in it What offers were afterwards made to recover Jerusalem By how many challengers that title at this day is claimed What is the present strength of Jerusalem What hope to regain it with some other passages which offer attendance on these principall heads Know then Some nineteen yeares after the Christians had lost all in Palestine the Templars by the cruel deed of Pope Clement the fifth and foul fact of Philip the Fair King of France were finally exstirpated out of all Christendome The historie thereof is but in twilight not clearly delivered but darkened with many doubts and difficulties We must pick out letters and syllables here and there as well as we may all which put together spell thus much Pope Clement having long sojourned in France had received many reall courtesies from Philip the King yea he owed little lesse then himself to him At last Philip requested of him a boon great enough for a King to ask and a Pope to grant namely all the lands of the Knights Templars through France forfeited by reason of their horrible heresies and licentious living The Pope was willing to gratifie him in some good proportion for his favours received as thankfulnesse is alwayes the badge of a good nature and therefore being thus long the Kings guest he gave him the Templars lands and goods to pay for his entertainment On a sudden all the Templars in France they clapt into prison wisely catching those Lions in a net which had they been fairly hunted to death would have made their part good with all the dogs in France Damnable sinnes were laid to their charge as sacrificing of men to an idol they worshipped rosting of a Templars bastard and drinking his bloud spitting upon the crosse of Christ conspiring with Turks and Saracens against Christianitie Sodomie bestialitie with many other villanies out of the rode of humane corruption and as farre from mans nature as Gods law Well the Templars thus shut in prison their crimes were half-proved The sole witnesse against them was one of their own Order a notorious malefactour who at the same time being in prison and to suffer for his own offenses condemned by the Master of their Order sought to prove his own innocency by charging all his own Order to be guiltie And his case standing thus he must either kill or be killed die or put others to death he would be sure to provide water enough to drive the mill and swore most heartily to whatsoever was objected against the Order Besides the Templars being brought upon the rack confessed the accusations to be true wherewith they were charged Hereupon all the Templars through France were most cruelly burned to death at a stake with James the grand Master of their Order Chap. 2. Arguments produced on either side both for the innocencie and guiltinesse of the Templars THere is scarce a harder question in later historie then this Whether the Templars justly or unjustly were condemned to suffer On the one side it is dangerous to affirm they were innocent because condemned by the Pope infallible in matters of such consequence This bugbear affrighteth many and maketh their hands shake when they write hereof If they should say the Templars were burned wrongfully they may be fetched over the coals themselves for charging his Holinesse so deeply yea hereby they bring so much innocent bloud on the Popes head as is enough to drown him Some therefore in this matter know little and dare speak lesse for fear of after-claps Secondly some who suspect that one eye of the Church may be dimme yet hold that both the eyes the Pope and generall Councel together cannot be deceived Now the Councel of Vienne countenanced the exstirpation of the Templars determined the dissolution of their Order and adjudged their lands to be conferred on the Knights-Hospitallers Men ought then to be well advised how they condemn a generall Councel to be accessorie post factum to the murder of so many men For all this those who dare not hollow do whisper on the other side accounting the Templars not malefactours but martyrs First because the witnesse was unsufficient a malefactour against his Judge and secondly they bring tortured men against themselves Yea there want not those that
maintain that a confession extorted on the rack is of no validitie If they be weak men and unable to endure torment they will speak any thing and in this case their words are endited not from their heart but outward limbes that are in pain and a poore conquest it is to make either the hand of a child to beat or the tongue of the tortured man to accuse himself If they be sturdie and stubborn whose backs are paved against torments such as bring brasen sides against steely whips they will confesse nothing And though these Templars were stout valiant men yet it is to be commended to ones consideration whether slavish and servile souls will not better bear torment then generous spirits who are for the enduring of honourable danger and speedie death but not provided for torment which they are not acquainted with neither is it the proper object of valour Again it is produced in their behalf that being burned at the stake they denied it at their death though formerly they had confessed it and whose charitie if not stark-blind will not be so tender-eyed as to beleeve that they would not breathe out their soul with a lie and wilfully contract a new guilt in that very instant wherein they were to be arraigned before the Judge of heaven A Templar being to be burned at Burdeaux and seeing the Pope and King Philip looking out at a window cried unto them Clement thou cruel tyrant seeing there is no higher amongst mortall men to whom I should appeal for my unjust death I cite thee together with King Philip to the tribunal of Christ the just Judge who redeemed me there both to appear within one yeare and a day where I will lay open my cause and justice shall be done without any by-respect In like manner James grand Master of the Templars though by piecemeal he was tortured to death craved pardon of God and those of his Order That forced by extremitie of pain on the rack and allured with hope of life he had accused them of such damnable sinnes whereof they were innocent Moreover the people with their suffrage acquitted them happie was he that could get an handfull of their ashes into his bosome as the Relique of pious martyrs to preserve Indeed little heed is to be given to peoples humours whose judgement is nothing but prejudice and passion and commonly envie all in prosperitie pitie all in adversitie though often both undeservedly And we may beleeve that the beholding of the Templars torments when they were burned wrought in the people first a commiserating of their persons and so by degrees a justifying of their cause However vulgus non semper errat aliquando eligit and though it matters little for the gales of a private mans fansie yet it is something when the wind bloweth from all corners And true it is they were generally cried up for innocents Lastly Pope Clement and King Philip were within the time prefixed summoned by death to answer to God for what they had done And though it is bad to be busie with Gods secrets yet an argument drawn from the event especially when it goeth in company with others as it is not much to be depended on so it is not wholly to be neglected Besides King Philip missed of his expectation and the morsel fell besides his mouth for the lands of the Templars which were first granted to him as a portion for his youngest sonne were afterwards by the Councel of Vienne bestowed on the Knights-Hospitallers Chap. 3. A moderate way what is to be conceived of the suppression of the Templars BEtwixt the two extremities of those that count these Templars either Malefactours or Martyrs some find a middle way whose verdict we will parcel into these severall particulars 1. No doubt there were many novices and punies amongst them newly admitted into their Order which if at all were little guiltie for none can be fledge in wickednesse at their first hatching To these much mercie belonged The punishing of others might have been an admonition to them and crueltie it was where there were degrees of offenses to inflict the same punishment and to put all of them to death 2. Surely many of them were most hainous offenders Not to speak what they deserved from God who needeth not pick a quarrel with man but alwayes hath a just controversie with him they are accounted notorious transgressours of humane laws yet perchance if the same candle had been lighted to search as much dust and dirt might have been found in other Orders 3. They are conceived in generall to be guiltlesse and innocent from those damnable sinnes wherewith they were charged Which hainous offenses were laid against them either because men out of modestie and holy horrour should be ashamed and afraid to dive deep in searching the ground-work and bottome of these accusations but rather take them to be true on the credit of the accusers or that the world might the more easily be induced to beleeve the crimes objected to be true as conceiving otherwise none would be so devilish as to lay such devilish offenses to their charge or lastly if the crimes were not beleeved in the totall summe yet if credited in some competent portion the least particular should be enough to do the deed and to make them odious in the world 4. The chief cause of their ruine was their extraordinary wealth They were feared of many envied of more loved of none As Naboths vineyard was the chiefest ground for his blasphemie and as in England Cornwall Lord Fanhop said merrily That not he but his stately house at Ampthill in Bedfordshire was guiltie of high treason so certainly their wealth was the principall evidence against them and cause of their overthrow It is quarrel and cause enough to bring a sheep that is fat to the shambles We may beleeve King Philip would never have took away their lives if he might have took their lands without putting them to death but the mischief was he could not get the hony unlesse he burnt the bees Some will say The Hospitallers had great yea greater revenues nineteen thousand Mannors to the Templars nine thousand yet none envied their wealth It is true but then they busied themselves in defending of Christendome maintaining the Island of Rhodes against the Turks as the Teutonick order defended Spruce-land against the Tartarian the world therefore never grudged them great wages who did good work These were accounted necessarie members of Christendome the Templars esteemed but a superfluous wenne they lay at rack and manger and did nothing who had they betook themselves to any honourable employment to take the Turks to task either in Europe or Asia their happinesse had been lesse repined at and their overthrow more lamented And certain it is that this their idlenesse disposed them for other vices as standing waters are most subject to putrifie I heare one bird sing a different note
from all the rest in the wood namely that what specious shews soever were pretended the true cause of their ruine was that they began to desert the Pope and adhere to the Emperour If this was true no doubt they were deeply guiltie and deserved the hard measure they suffered Sure I am how-ever at this time they might turn edge they had formerly been true blades for his Holinesse All Europe followed the copie that France had set them Here in England King Edward the second of that name suppressed the Order and put them to death So by vertue of a writ sent from him to Sir John Wogan Lord chief Justice in Ireland were they served there and such was the secrecie of the contrivance of the businesse that the storm fell upon them before they saw it and all crannies were so closely stopped that none could steal a glimpse of the mischief intended against them In Germanie they found some mercie and milder dealing for Hugh Wildgrave coming with twenty of his Order all in armour into a Councel of Dutch Bishops who intended to execute the sentence of the Pope upon them there protested his innocencie and appealed to the next Pope who should succeed Clement as to his competent judge Hereupon their lives were spared onely they were forced to renounce the name of Templars and to enter themselves into other Orders chiefly of Hospitallers and Teutonicks on whom their lands were bestowed We will conclude all with that resolution of a brace of Spanish writers who make this epilogue to this wofull tragedie Concerning these Templars whether they were guiltie or not let us suspend our censure till the day of judgement and then and no sooner shall we certainly be informed therein Chap. 4. Of the Teutonick Order When they left Palestine and on what conditions they were entertained in Prussia Their Order at last dissolved FRequent mention hath been formerly made of the Teutonick Order or that of Dutch Knights who behaved themselves right valiantly clean through the Holy warre And which foundeth much to their honour they cannot be touched either for treason or faction but were both loyall and peaceable in the whole service But at last they perceived that by the course of the cards they must needs rise losers if they continued the warre in the Holy land and even resolved to abandon it It happened at the same time that Conrade Duke of Mazovia offered them most honourable conditions namely the enjoying of Prussia on condition they would defend it against the Infidels which annoyed it Indeed the fratres gladiferi or sword-bearing brothers brave slashing lads undertook that task but finding either their arms too weak or swords too blunt to strike through their enemies they imployed the aid of and conjoyned themselves to this Teutonick Order Hereupon in the yeare of our Lord 1239 Hermannus de Saltza fourth Master of these Dutch Knights came with most of his Order into Prussia yet so that he left a competent number of them still in Palestine which continued and did good service there even to the taking of Ptolemais But the greater number of these Dutch Knights in Prussia did knight-service against the Tartarians and were Christendomes best bank against the inundations of those barbarous people By their endeavours the Prussians which before were but heathen-Christians were wholly converted many a brave citie builded specially Marienburg where formerly a great oak stood who would think so many beautifull buildings would spring out of the root of one tree and those countreys of Prussia and Livonia which formerly were the course list are now become the rich fringe of Europe At last the Prussians grew weary of the tyrannous oppression of those Dutch Knighâ—â— as appeareth by the grievances they presented and applied themselves to Casimire King of Poland He took to task Lewis Erlinsufe the Master of their Order and so ordered him that whereas before he pleaded himself to be a free Prince of the Empire hereafter he should acknowledge the King of Poland for his Lord and Master The successours to this Lewis fretted against this agreement as prejudiciall to them They could do no lesse then complain and could do little more for the King of Poland in spite of their resistance held them to their agreements Albert of the house of Brandenburg was the last grand Master of this Order and first Duke of Prussia He brake the vow of their Order losing his virginitie to keep his chastitie and married Dorothie daughter to the King of Denmark The other Teutonicks protested against him and chose Gualther Croneberg in his room Yea Albert was proscribed in a Diet in Germanie and his goods confiscated but the proscription never executed the Emperour of Germanie being the same time employed in matters of greater moment which more nearly concerned himself And thus in this Albert for ought we can find to the contrarie the Teutonick Order had its end and was quite dissolved Chap. 5. The severall flittings of the Knights-Hospitallers from Cyprus by Rhodes Nice Syracuse to Malta WE must now wait on the Hospitallers to their lodgings and we have done We left them driven from Ptolemais and landed at Cyprus where King Henry courteously entertained them But a friends house is no home Hence therefore they were conveyed to their severall Alberges in Europe But such active spirits could not long be idle such running streams would not end in a standing pond Wherefore they used all their own strength and improved their interest with all their benefactours to furnish out a fleet Which done under Fulk de Vilderet their grand Master they wonne the Island of Rhodes from the Turks eighteen yeares after Ptolemais was lost and there seated themselves Besides Rhodes they also enjoyed these five adjacent Islands saith my Authour Nicoria Episcopia Iolli Limonia and Sirana places so small that consulting with maps will not find them out enough almost to make us think with Tertullian of Delos that once there were such Islands which at this day are quite vanished away Two hundred and fourteen yeares to the terrour of the Turks comfort of the Christians and their own immortall fame they maintained this Island and secured the seas for the passage of Pilgrimes to Jerusalem till at last in the yeare 1523 after six moneths siege they surrendred the citie to their own honour and shame of other Christians who sent them no succour in season Yet changing their place they kept their resolution to be honourably imployed Hence they sailed to Nice in Piemont a citie lying opposite to Africa from whence the Moores and Saracens much infested Christendome Wherefore Charles Duke of Savoy bestowed that citie upon them to defend it counting the courtesie rather done to him then by him that they would accept it Afterwards they perceived it was more needfull to stop the Turks invasions then their pillagings They had lately wonne Buda and as it was thought would quickly stride over the Adriatick sea
was King of France the Duke of Burbant sailed over into Africa with a great armie there to fight against the Saracens The Saracen Prince sent an herald to know of him the cause of his coming The Duke answered it was to revenge the death of Christ the Sonne of God and true Prophet whom they had unjustly crucified The Saracens sent back their messenger again to demonstrate their innocencie how they were not Saracens but Jews which put Christ to death and therefore that the Christians if posteritie should be punished for their predecessours fault should rather revenge themselves on the Jews which lived amongst them Another relateth that in the yeare of our Lord 1453 the great Turk sent a letter to the Pope advertising him how he and his Turkish nation were not descended from the Jews but from the Trojans from whom also the Italians derive their pedegree and so would prove himself a-kinne to his Holinesse Moreover he added that it was both his and their dutie to repair the ruines of Troy and to revenge the death of their great grand-father Hector upon the Grecians to which end the Turk said he had already conquered a great part of Greece As for Christ he acknowledged him to have been a noble Prophet and to have been crucified of the Jews against whom the Christians might seek their remedie These two stories I thought good to insert because though of later date and since the Holy warre in Palestine was ended yet they have some reference thereunto because some make that our quarrel to the Turks But grant the Christians right to the Turks lands to be lawfull and the cause in it self enough deserving to ground a warre upon yet in the prosecuting and managing thereof many not onely veniall errours but unexcusable faults were committed no doubt the cause of the ill successe To omit the book called the Office of our Lady made at the beginning of this warre to procure her favourable assistance in it a little manual but full of blasphemies in folio thrusting her with importunate superstitions into Gods throne and forcing on her the glory of her Maker superstition not onely tainted the rind but rotted the core of this whole action Indeed most of the pottage of that age tasted of that wild gourd Yet farre be it from us to condemn all their works to be drosse because debased and allayed with superstitious intents No doubt there was a mixture of much good metall in them which God the good refiner knoweth how to sever and then will crown and reward But here we must distinguish betwixt those deeds which have some superstition in them and those which in their nature are wholly superstitious such as this Voyage of people to Palestine was For what opinion had they of themselves herein who thought that by dying in this warre they did make Christ amends for his death as one saith Which if but a rhetoricall flourish yet doth hyperbolize into blasphemie Yea it was their very judgement that hereby they did both merit and supererogate and by dying for the Crosse crosse the score of their own sinnes and score up God for their debtour But this flieth high and therefore we leave it for others to follow Let us look upon Pilgrimages in generall and we shall find Pilgrimes wandring not so farre from their own countrey as from the judgement of the ancient Fathers We will leave our armie at home and onely bring forth our champion Heare what Gregorie Nyssene saith who lived in the fourth Centurie in which time voluntary Pilgrimages first began though before there were necessarie Pilgrimes forced to wander from their countrey by persecution Where saith he our Lord pronounceth men blessed he reckoneth not going to Jerusalem to be amongst those good deeds which direct to happinesse And afterwards speaking of the going of single-women in those long travels A woman saith he cannot go such long journeys without a man to conduct her and then whatsoever we may suppose whether she hireth a stranger or hath a friend to wait on her on neither side can she escape reproof and keep the law of continencie Moreover If there were more Divine grace in the places of Jerusalem sinne would not be so frequent and customarie amongst those that live there Now there is no kind of uncleannesse which there they dare not commit malice adultery thefts idolatrie poysonings envies and slaughters But you will say unto me If it be not worth the pains why then did you go to Jerusalem Let them heare therefore how I defend my self I was appointed to go into Arabia to an holy Councel held for the reforming of that Church and Arabia being neare to Jerusalem I promised those that went with me that I would go to Jerusalem to discourse with them which were presidents of the churches there where matters were in a very troubled state and they wanted one to be a mediatour in their discords We knew that Christ was a man born of a Virgin before we saw Bethlehem we beleeved his resurrection from death before we saw his sepulchre we confessed his ascension into heaven before we saw mount Olivet But we got so much profit by our journey that by comparing them we found our own more holy then those outward things Wherefore you that fear God praise him in what place you are Change of place maketh not God nearer unto us wheresoever thou art God will come to thee if the Inne of thy soul be found such as the Lord may dwell and walk in thee c. A patrone of Pilgrimages not able to void the blow yet willing to break the stroke of so pregnant and plain a testimonie thus seeketh to ward it That indeed Pilgrimages are unfitting for women yet fitting for men But sure God never appointed such means to heighten devotion necessary thereunto whereof the half of mankind all women are by their very creation made uncapable Secondly he pleadeth That it is lawfull for secular and lay-men to go on Pilgrimages but not for Friars who lived recluse in their cells out of which they were not to come and against such saith he is Nyssens speech directed But then I pray what was Peter the leader of this long dance but an Hermite and if I mistake not his profession was the very dungeon of the Monasticall prison the strictest and severest of all other Orders And though there were not so many cowls as helmets in this warre yet alwayes was the Holy armie well stocked with such cattel So that on all sides it is confessed that the Pilgrimages of such persons were utterly unlawfull Chap. 10. Of superstition in miracles in the Holy warre ranked into foure sorts BEsides superstition inherent in this Holy warre there was also superstition appendant or annexed thereunto in that it was the fruitfull mother of many feigned miracles Hitherto we have refrained to scatter over our storie with them it will not be amisse now to shovel up some of
same One principall motive which incited him was That it was told him he should not die till he had heard Masse in Jerusalem But this proved not like the revelation told to old Simeon for King Henry was fain to sing his Nunc dimittis before he expected and died in the chamber called Ierusalem in Westminster By comparing this prophesie with one of Apollo's oracles we may conclude them to be brethren they are so alike and both begotten of the father of lies For the Devil eartheth himself in an homonymie as a fox in the ground if he be stopped at one hole he will get out at another How-ever the Kings purpose deserveth remembrance and commendation because really and seriously intended Farre better I beleeve then that of Charles the eighth King of France Who in a braving Embassage which he sent to our Henry the seventh gave him to understand his resolutions to make re-conquest of Naples but as of a bridge to transport his forces into Grecia and then not to spare bloud or treasure if it were to the impairing of his Crown and dispeopling of France till either he had overthrown the Empire of the Ottomans or taken it in his way to Paradise and hence belike he would have at Jerusalem invited as he said with the former example of our Henry the fourth But our King Henry the seventh being too good a fenser to mistake a flourish for a blow quickly resented his drift which was to perswade our King to peace till Charles should perform his projects in little Britain and elsewhere and dealt with him accordingly And as for the gradation of King Charles his purposes Naples Grecia Jerusalem a stately but difficult ascent where the stairs are so farre asunder the legs must be long to stride them the French nation was weary of climbing the first and then came down vaulting nimbly into Naples and out of it again More cordiall was that of James the fourth King of Scotland that pious Prince who being touched in conscience for his fathers death though he did not cause it but seemed to countenance it with his presence ever after in token of his contrition wore an iron chain about his body and to expiate his fault intended a journey into Syria He prepared his navie provided his soudiers imparted his project to forrein Princes and verily had gone if at the first other warres and afterwards sudden death had not caused his stay Chap. 26. The fictitious voyage of William Landt-grave of Hesse to Palestine confuted THese are enough to satisfie more would cloy Onely here I must discover a cheat and have it pilloried lest it trouble others as it hath done me The storie I find in Calvisius anno 1460 take it in his very words William the Landt-grave appointed an Holy voyage to Palestine chose his company out of many Noblemen and Earls in number ninetie eight He happily finished his journey onely one of them died in Cyprus He brought back with him six and fourtie ensignes of horse Seven moneths were spent in the voyage Fab. So farre Calvisius avouching this Fab. for his authour Each word a wonder not to say an impossibilitie What in the yeare 1460 when the deluge of Mahometans had overrun most of Grecia Asia and Syria William a Landt-grave of Hesse no doubt neither the greatest nor next to the greatest Prince in Germanie farre from the sea unfurnished with shipping not within the suspicion of so great a performance Six and fourtie horse-ensignes taken Where or from whom Was it in warre and but one man killed A battel so bloudlesse seemeth as truthlesse and the losing but of one man savoureth of never a one But seven moneths spent Such atchievements beseem rather an apprentiship of yeares then moneths Besides was Fame all the while dead speechlesse or asleep that she trumpeted not this action abroad Did onely this Fab. take notice of it be he Faber Fabius Fabianus Fabinianus or what you please Why is it not storied in other writers the Dutch men giving no scant measure in such wares and their Chronicles being more guiltie of remembring trifles then forgetting matters of moment Yet the gravitie of Calvisius recording it moveth me much on the other side a Chronologer of such credit that he may take up more belief on his bare word then some other on their bond In this perplexitie I wrote to my oracle in doubts of this nature Mr Joseph Mead fellow of Christs Colledge in Cambridge since lately deceased Heare his answer Sir I have found your storie in Calvisius his posthume Chronologie but can heart of it no-where else I sought Reusners Basilica Genealogica who is wont with the name of his Princes to note briefly any act or accident of theirs memorable and sometimes scarce worth it But no such of this William Landt-grave So in conclusion I am resolved it is a fable out of some Romainza and that your Authour Fab. is nothing but Fabula defectively written But you will say Why did he put it into his book I answer He himself did not but had noted it in some paper put into his Chronologie preparing for a new and fuller Edition which himself dying before he had digested his new Edition as you may see I think somewhere in the Preface those who were trusted with it after his death to write it out for the presse foolishly transferred out of such paper or perhaps out of the margin into the text thinking that Fab. had been some Historian which was nothing but that she-authour Fabula If this will not satisfie I know not what to say more unto it Thus with best affection I rest Yours JOSEPH MEAD Christ. Coll. June 20. 1638. This I thought fit to recite not for his honour but to honour my self as conceiving it my credit to be graced with so learned a mans acquaintance Thus much of offertures I will conclude with that speech of the Lady Margaret Countesse of Richmond and Derbie and mother to our King Henry the seventh a most pious woman as that age went though I am not of his faith who beleeved her to be the next woman in goodnesse to the Virgin Mary She used to say that if the Christian Princes would undertake a war against the Turks to recover the Holy land she would be their laundresse But I beleeve she performed a work more acceptable in the eyes of God in founding a Professours place in either Universitie and in building Christs and S. Johns Colledges in Cambridge the seminaries of so many great scholars and grave Divines then if she had visited either Christs sepulchre or S. Johns church in Jerusalem Chap. 27. The fortunes of Ierusalem since the Holy warre and her present estate SEven yeares after the Latine Christians were finally expelled out of Syria some hope presented it self of reestablishing them again For Casanus the great Tartar Prince having of late subdued the Persians and married the daughter of the Armenian King