lying asleep having by him a naked knife I the better to hide my offence did put my knife into the wound of the dead man and so all bloody laid it again by this Stranger This was my mischievious device to escape your Judgment whereunto now I remit me wholly rather than this Noble man Titus or this innocent Stranger should unworthily die The truth coming thus unexpectedly to light caused a general acclamation of the People and the Friendship betwixt Gisippus and Titus being declared was published extolled and magnified throughout the whole City The Senate consulting of this matter at the instance of Titus and the People discharged the Felon Titus acknowledged his negligence in forgetting Gisippus and having him home to his House where he was vvith incredible joy received of the Lady vvhom he should have vvedded honorably apparelled him offering him to use all his Goods and Possessions as his ovvn But Gisippus desiring to be again at Athens Titus by the consent of the Senate and People vvith a great Army vvent vvith him thither vvhere he had delivered to him all those vvhich vvere causers of banishing and despoyling Gisiptus on vvhom he did sharp execution and restoring to Gisippus his Lands and Substance established him in perpetual quietness and so returned unto Rome Of mount Aetna and of the fiery irruption there in the year 1669. Aetna called by Pindarus the Celestial column is the highest mountain of Sicilia for a great space leisurely rising insomuch as the top is ten miles distant from the uttermost Basis It appeareth tovvards the East vvith tvvo shoulders having an eminent head in the middle The lovver parts are luxuriously fruitful the middle vvooddy the upper rocky steep and almost covered vvith snovv yet smoaking in the midst like many conjoyning Chimneys and vomiting intermitted flames though not but by night to be discerned as if Heat and Cold had left their contentions and embraced one another This burning Beacon doth shevv her fire by night and her smoke by day a vvonderful vvay off some adjudging the matter to be diminished by so long an expence though our late times can evince the contrary This is that place which the Poets did report to be the Shop of Vulcan where Cyclops framed the Thunder-bolts for Jupiter whereof Virgil doth make his Tract called Aetna Under this Hill the Poets feign the Gyant Enceladus to be buried whose hot breath fireth the Mountain lying on his face whereof thus the Poet Virgil. Enceladus with lightning struck fame goes This mass o'revvhelmes vvho under Aetna laid Expireth flames by broken vents convey'd As often as he turns his vveary fides All Sicil quakes and Smoke Days beauty hides Into this Fiery Furnace it was that the Philosopher Empedocles affecting Divine honour withdrew himself privately from his Companions and leapt in at the mouth thereof but vvas revealed by his Brazen Shoos vvhich the fire had throvvn up again Deus immortalis haberi Dum cupit Empedocles ardentem fervidus Aetnam Insiluit Empedocles to be a God desires And casts himself into the Aetnean Fires The extraordinary eruption of this Mountain hath been accounted very ominous for so it did after the death of Caesar when not onely the Cities thereabout were damnified thereby but divers in Calabria And in the Year of the World 3982. hard before the Civil Wars of Sicilia wherein threescore and ten thousand Slaves were slain by the Praetors it raged so violently that Africa was thereof an astonisht witness In the Year 1614. it ran down like a combustible Flood which falling in a bituminous Soyl where Wine and Olives grew there seized spoiling the Lands of two Barons in Rindatza But the most prodigious was that Earthquake and Eruption in the Year 1669. which being so lately we shall give you a full relation of it as it was sent to His Majesty from Naples by the right Honourable the Earl of Winchelsea his Majesties late Ambassador at Constantinople who in his return from thence visited Catania and was an eye-witness of that dreadful spectacle May it please Your Majesty IN my Voyage from Malta to this place wherein I have used all the diligence the Season hath given me leave I touched at the City of Catania in Sicily and was there most kindly invited by the Bishop to lodge in his Palace which I accepted that so I might be the better able to inform your Majesty of that extraordinary fire which comes from Mount Gibel 15 miles distant from that City which for its horridness in the aspect for the vast quantity thereof for it is fifteen miles in length and seven in breadth for its monstrous devastation and quick progress may be termed an Inundation of Fire a Floud of Fire Cinders and burning Stones burning with that rage as to advance into the Sea 600 Yards and that to a mile in breadth which I saw and that which did augment my admiration was to see in the Sea this matter like ragged Rocks burning in four fathom water two fathom higher than the Sea it self some parts liquid and moving and throwing off not without great violence the stones about it which like a crust of a vast bigness and red hot fell into the Sea every moment in some place or other causing a great and horrible noise smoke and hissing in the Sea and thus more and more coming after it making a firm foundation in the Sea it self I stayed there from nine a Clock on Saturday morning to seven next morning and this Mountain of fire and stones with Cinders had advanced into the Sea twenty Yards at least in several places in the middle of this fire which burned in the Sea it hath form'd a passage like to a River with its Banks on each side very steep and craggy and in this Chanel moves the greatest quantity of this fire which is the most liquid with stones of the same composition and Cinders all red hot swimming upon the fire of a great magnitude From this River of fire doth proceed under the great mass of the stones which are generally three fathom high all over the Country where it burns and in other places much more there are secret Conduits or Rivolets of this liquid matter which communicates fire and heat into all parts more or less and melts the stones and cinders by fits in those places where it toucheth them over and over again where it meets with Rocks or Houses of the same matter as many are they melt and go away with the fire where they find other compositions they turn them to lime or ashes as I am informed The composition of this fire stones and cinders are Sulphur Nitre Quicksilver Sal-Armoniac Lead Iron Brass and all other Metals It moves not regularly nor constantly down-hill in some places it hath made the Valleys Hills and the Hills that are not high are now Valleys When it was night I went upon two Towers in divers places and could plainly see at ten Miles distance as we
within three days it rained which made them have a great belief in the Devil Nineteen Leagues from Longo is the Province of Mayombe which is all Woods and Groves so overgrown that a man may travel twenty days in the shadow without any Sun or Heat Here is no kind of Corn or Grain nor any kind of tame Cattel nor Hens so that the People live onely upon Plantans and Roots of sundry sorts very good and Nuts But they have great store of Elephants flesh which they highly esteem also they have many kinds of wild Beasts and great store of Fish The Woods are so covered with Baboons Monkeys Apes and Parrots that it will fear any man to travel in them alone Here is also two kinds of Monsters which are common in these Woods and very dangerous the greatest of these two Monsters is called Pongo in their Language and the lesser is called Eugeco This Pongo is in all proportion like a man but more like a Giant in stature for he is very tall and hath a Mans face hollow cyed with long Hair upon his Brows His Face and Ears are without Hair as also his Hands his Body is full of Hair but not very thick and it is of a Dunnish colour He differeth not from a Man but in his Legs for they have no Calf He goeth always upon his Legs and carrieth his Hands clasped on the nape of his Neck when he goeth upon the ground They sleep in the Trees and build shelters for the Rain They feed upon Fruit that they find in the Woods and upon Nuts for they eat no kind of Flesh They cannot speak and have no understanding more than a Beast The People of the Country when they travel in the Woods make Fires where they sleep in the nights and in the morning when they are gone the Pongoes will come and sit about the Fire till it goeth out for they have no understanding to lay the Wood together They go many in company and kill divers Negroes that travel in the Woods Many times they fall upon the Elephants which come to feed where they be and so beat them with their clubbed Fifts and pieces of Wood that they will run roaring away from them These Pongoes are never taken alive because they are so strong that ten men cannot hold one of them but yet they take many of their young ones for the young Pongo hangeth on his Mothers Belly with his Hands fast clasp'd about her so that when any of the Country people do kill the Female with their poisoned Arrows they easily take the young one so hanging about her When they die among themselves they cover the dead with great heaps of Boughs and Wood which is commonly found in the Forest One of these Pongoes took a Negro Boy of the Authors which lived a month with them for they hurt not those which they surprise at unawares except they look on them which he avoided He said their height was like a Mans but their bigness twice as great The Morombes use to hunt with their Country Dogs and kill many kinds of little Beasts and great store of Pheasants But their Dogs be dumb and cannot bark at all they hang wooden Clappers about their Necks and follow them by the rattling of their Clappers The Huntsmen have Petes which they whistle their Dogs withall The European Dogs are highly esteemed there because they do bark one of them having been sold up in the Country for 30 l. In the Town of Mani-Mayombe is a Feâ—isso or Idol called Maramba and it standeth in a high Basket made like a Hive and over it a great House This is their House of Religion for they believe onely in him and keep his Laws carrying his Reliques always with them They are for the most part Witches and use their Witchcraft for hunting and killing of Elephants Fishing helping of Sick and Lame men and to forecast Journies whether they shall speed well or evil By this Maramba are all Thefts and Murders tried for in this Country they use to bewitch one another to death therefore when any dieth their Neighbours are brought before Maramba and if it be a great man that dieth the whole Town cometh to swear The Order is when they come before Maramba to kneel and clasp the Idol in their Arms and to say Emeno eyge bembet Maramba that is I come to be tried O Maramba And if any of them be guilty they fall down stark dead for ever The same way of Tryal also they have for any other matter In this Country of Mayombe did Battel continue the space of twelve moneths going from thence to Mani-kesock North-east of which place live a kind of little people called Matimbas which are no bigger than Boys of twelve years old but very thick and live onely upon Flesh which they kill in the Woods with their Bows and Darts Several other places in Angola did he also see at last desirous to return to his Native Country he embarqued and arrived safely in England where he lived a long time after leaving in writing behind him at his death the Relation of these his Miraculous Travels and Deliverances A strange Deliverance of an English-man from a Desolate Island near to Scotland wherein he had long continued in extream penury and misery IN the Year 1616 a Flemming named Pickman who was well known in England and Holland for his Art and dexterity in getting out of the Sea the great Guns of that Spanish Fleet which was forced upon the Coasts of Scotland and Ireland in the Year 1588. This man coming from Dronthem in Norway in a Vessel loaden with Boards was overtaken by a Calm during which the Current carried him upon a Rock or little Island towards the Extremities of Scotland where he was in some danger to have been cast away To avoid a Wrack he commanded some of his men to go into the Shallop and to tow off the Ship They having done so would needs go up into a certain Rock to look for Birds Eggs But as soon as they were got up into it they at some distance perceived a man whence they imagined that there were others lurking thereabouts and that this man had made his escape thither from some Pyrats who if not prevented might surprise their Ship and therefore they made all the haste they could to their Shallop and so returned to their Ship But the Calm continuing and the Current of the Sea still driving them upon the Island they were forced to get into the Long-boat and to tow her off again The man whom they had seen before was in the mean time come to the Brink of the Island and made signs with his hands lifted up and sometimes falling on his knees and joyning his hands together begging and crying to them for relief At first they made some difficulty to go to him but at last being overcome by his lamentable signs they went nearer the Island where they saw something that
his Arms kissed him and promised him large Rewards if he would live in his Court but he with much Thankfulness refusing to receive any besought the King that he would not disclose what he had said in regard his Resolution was to continue in that Pilgrims state and so they there parted with Tears From whence the Earl bent his Course towards Warwick and coming thither not known of any for three days together took Alms at the hands of his own Lady as one of those twelve poor People unto which she daily gave Relief her self for the Safety of him and her and the Health of both their Souls And having rendred thanks to her he repaired to an Hermite that resided amongst the shady Woods hard by desiring by Conference with him to receive some Spiritual Comfort where he abode with that holy Man till his Death and then succeeded him in that Cell and continued the same course of Life for the space of two Years after but then discerning Death to approach he sent to his Lady their Wedding Ring by a trusty Servant wishing her to take care of his Burial adding also that when she came she should find him lying dead in the Chappel before the Altar and moreover that within fifteen days after she her self should depart this Life Whereupon she came accordingly and brought with her the Bishop of the Diocess as also many of the Clergy and other People and finding his Body there did honourably interr it in that Hermitage and was her self afterwards buried by him leaving her paternal Inheritance to Reynburn her only Son Which departure of our famous Guy hapned in the Year of our Lord 929. and of his own Age the 70. The Life of St. Patrick the Irish Apostle SAint Patrick was born in the Marches between England and Scotland in a Town by the Sea-side named Eiburn whose Fathers name was called Calphurnius a Deacon and Son to a Priest his Mother named Couches was Sister to St. Martin that famous Bishop of Tours in France Patrick of a child was brought up in Learning and well instructed in the Faith being much given to Devotion The Irish-men in those dayes assisted with some Scots and Picts were become arch-Pirates greatly disquieting the Seas about the Coasts of Britain and used to sack little small Villages that lay scatteringly along the shore and would lead away the Inhabitants captive home into their Countrey And as it chanced Patrick being a Lad of sixteen years old and a Scholar then in Secular Learning was taken among others and became Slave to an Irish Lord called Macbuaine from whom after the term of six years he redeemed himself with a piece of Gold which he found in a Clod of Earth that the Swine had newly turned up as he followed them in the time of his Captivity being appointed by his Master to take charge of them and keep them And as Affliction commonly maketh men Religious the regard of his former Education had stamped in him such remorse and humility that being thenceforth weaned from the World he betook himself to Contemplation ever lamenting the want of Grace and Truth in that Island and alluring one of that Nation to bear him company for exercise sake he departed thence and got him into France ever having in his mind a desire to see the Conversion of the Irish People whose Babes yet unborn seemed to him in his dreaming from forth their Mothers Wombs to call for Christendom In this purpose he sought out his Uncle Martin by whose means he was placed with Germanus the Bishop of Auxerre continuing with him as Scholar or Disciple for the space of forty Years all which time he bestowed in the study of Holy Scriptures Prayers and such godly Excercises Afterwards being renowned thorough the Latine Church for his Wisdom Vertue and Learning he went to Rome bearing Letters with him in his Commendation from the French Bishops unto Pope Celestine to whom he uttered his whole Mind and Secret Vow which long before he had conceived as touching Ireland Celestine invested him Arch-Bishop and Primate of the whole Island set him forward with all Favour he could bringing him and his Disciples onward to their Country In the twenty third Year of the Emperour Theodosius the younger being the year of our Lord 430 Patrick landed in Ireland and because he spake the Tongue perfectly and withal being a reverend Personage in the eyes of all Men many listened and gave ear to his preaching And the rather because as some Writers have recorded he confirmed his Doctrine with divers Miracles of which that called St. Patricks Purgatory is most remarkable the description of which out of Giraldus Cambrensis an eminent Irish Author take as followeth In the Parts of Ulster saith he there is a Pool or Lake which environeth an Island in the one part whereof there standeth a Church much enlightned with the brightsome recourse of Angels the other part is ugly and gastly as it were a Bedlam alotted to the visible Assemblies of horrible and grisly Bugs This part of the Island containeth nine Caves and if any dare be so hardy as to take his lodging a Night in one of them strait these Spirits claw him by the back and tug him so ruggedly and toss him so crabbedly that now and then they make him more frank of his Bum than of his Tongue a payment correspondent to his entertainment This place is called St. Patrick's Purgatory of the Inhabitants for when St. Patrick laboured the Conversion of the People of Ulster by setting before their eyes in great heat of Spirit the Creation of the World the Fall of our Progenitors the Redemption of man by the blessed and precious blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ the certainty of Death the Immortality of the Soul the general Resurrection the day of Judgment the Joyes of Heaven the Pains of Hell how that at length every man small and great young and old rich and poor King and Keisar Potentate and Pesant must either through God's gracious mercy be exalted to the one to flourish in perpetual Felicity or through his unsearchable Justice tumbled down to the other to be tormented in eternal misery These and the like grave and weighty Sentences wherewith he was abundantly stored so far sunk into their Hearts as they seemed very flexible in condescending to his Doctrine so that some proof of his strange preaching could have been verified whereupon without farther delay they spake to the Prelate after this manner Sir As we like of your preaching so we dislike not of our Liberty you tell us of many gew gaws and strange Dreams you would have us to abandon Infidelity to cage up our Liberty to bridle our Pleasure for which you promise us for our toyl and labour a Place to us as unknown so as yet uncertain You sermon to us of a Dungeon appointed for Offenders and Miscreants indeed if we could find that to be true we should the sooner be
he returned for England and quickly getting his Commission renevved makes with all speed for Ireland again but before his Arrival there he was prevented with the News of Queen Mary's Death and so the Lives of many and the Liberties of more poor Servants of God vvere preserved Of the horrid Murther of Duffe King of Scotland and how miraculously it came to be discovered THis Duffe began his Reign over Scotland about the Year of our Lord 968. being a Prince of an upright Justice and one who would not favour Offences in any Person whatsoever This his zeal of Justice was by his Subjects to whom former Kings had let loose the Reins of Government termed Severity so that the Nobles being restrained from insulting and making Slaves of the Commonalty brake forth into several Insurrections especially in Murray-land who all rose up against the King unless it were the Castle of Fores of which one Donwald was Governour These Rebels seeing they could not prevail upon the King by force hired certain Witches to bewitch him to Death these things being murmured amongst the People and at last coming to the King's Ear who then lay sick of a languishing Disease and could take no rest day nor night he sent two men into Murray-land to discover if they could the Truth of the Business These men dissembling the cause of their Journey did so effectually pursue the same that they were received into the Castle of Fores in the dark of the Night and declared unto Donwald the cause of their coming requiring his Aid for the Accomplishment of the King's pleasure The Souldiers which lay there in Garrison had an inkling that there was some such matter in hand as was talked of amongst the People by reason that one of them kept as Concubine a young Woman which was Daughter to one of the Witches as his Paramour who told him the whole manner used by her Mother and other her Companions with the Intent also which was to make away the King The Souldier having learned this of his Leman told the same to his Fellows who made report thereof to Donwald and he shewed it to the Kings Messengers and therevvith sent for the young Damsel which the Souldier kept as then being within the Castle and caused her upon strict Examination to confess the whole matter as she had seen and knew whereupon learning by her Confession in what House in the Town it was where they practised their hellish Mystery he sent forth Souldiers about the midst of the Night who breaking into the House found one of the Witches roasting upon a wooden Broach an Image of Wax at the Fire resembling in each Feature the King's Person devised as is to be thought by Craft and Art of the Devil another of them sate reciting certain Words of Enchantment and still basted the Image with a certain Liquor very busily The Souldiers finding them occupied in this wise took them together with the Image and led them into the Castle where being strictly examined for what purpose they went about such manner of Enchantment they answered to the end to make away the King for as the Image did waste before the Fire so did the Body of the King break forth in sweat and as for the words of Enchantment they served to keep him still waking from Sleep so that as the Wax ever melted so did the Kings Flesh by which means it should have come to pass that when the Wax were once clean consumed the Death of the King should immediately follow So were they taught by the Devil and hired by the Nobles of Murray-land to do the same The standers by that heard such an abominable tale told by the Witches strait ways brake the Image and caused the Witches according as they had well deserved to be burnt to death It is said that the King at the very same time that these things were a doing in the Castle of Fores slept that night without any Sweat breaking forth upon him at all and being thus restored to his Strength and certified what the Rebels of Murray-land had done he raised an Army and with the same marched against them pursuing them thence unto Rosse and from Rosse into Cathnesse where apprehending several of them he brought them back to the Castle of Fores and there caused them to be hanged on divers Gallowses and Gibbets Amongst those that were thus executed were some Gentlemen of note near of Kin unto Donwald the Captain of the Castle for whose lives he much interceded to the King but receiving from him a flat denial he conceived such an inward malice to his Sovereign and being further instigated by his Wife that he never left off till he found means to murther him which was brought to pass in this wise The King tarrying some time in that Country was accustomed to lie most commonly within the same Castle having a special Trust in Donwald as a man whom he never suspected but Donwald not forgetting the Reproach which his Lineage had sustained by the Execution of those his Kinsmen carried a sorrowful Countenance amongst his Family which his Wife perceiving ceased not to travel with him till she understood what the cause was of his Displeasure which when she had learned by his own Relation she as one that bare no less malice in her Heart towards the King for the like cause on her behalf than her Husband did for his Friends counselled him since the King oftentimes used to lodge in the Castle without any Guard about him other than the Garrison thereof which were wholly at his Command to devise some ways to rid him of his Life Donwald thus by her persuaded as he must needs go whom the Devil drives determined to follow her Advice and the Night before the King vvas to depart he being brought to Bed by tvvo of his Chamberlains those Chamberlains were invited by Donwald and his Wife to a Supper or Collation whereat they sat up so long till they had charged their Stomachs with such full Gorges that their Heads vvere no sooner got to the Pillow but a sleep they vvere so fast that a man might have removed the Chamber over them rather than to have awakened them out of their drunken Sleep These Chamberlains thus secured Donwald called to four of his Servants whom he had made privy to his purpose and declared to them which way they should work the Feat vvho according to his Instructions entered the Chamber wherein the King lay immediately before the Cocks crowing where they cut his Throat as he lay sleeping without any bustling at all which having done by a Postern Gate they conveyed the dead Body into the Fields and throwing it upon a Horse provided ready for that purpose conveyed it to a place distant about two miles from the Castle whereby ran a little River where they stayed and got certain Labourers to help them to turn the Course thereof and diging a deep hole in the Channel they bury the Body
made an Out-cry in the House wringing her hands pulling her Hair and weeping extreamly with pretence that missing him for some time out of Bed she went to see what the matter was and found him accidentally on the Close-stool in that Posture which subtile and feigned Shews of Sorrow she acted so to the Life as prevented all suspicion of his violent Death And not long after went to London setting so high a value upon her Beauty that Robinson her former Darling perhaps for not keeping touch with her as before is related became estranged But within two Years following it so hapned that this woeful deed of Darkness was brought to light and that by the means of the Groom one of the Actors thereof above specified who being entertained a Servant with Mr. Richard Smith Son and Heir to the murthered Knight and attending him to Coventry with divers other Servants his guilty Conscience which had oftentimes before flew in his Face made him become so sensible of his Villany and being in his Cups a bad cause of a good effect that out of good Nature he took his Master aside and upon his Knees humbly desiring Forgiveness of him for the Murther of his Father made him acquainted with all the Circumstances belonging thereunto which tho' it struck in Mr. Smith a great Amazement and Abhorrency of the Fact yet discreetly he gave him good Words but privately commanded some other of his Servants to have an especial Eye on him that he might not escape when he had slept and better considered what might be the Issue thereof but notwithstanding this strict Charge those careless Servants either not knowing the horridness of his Fact or out of love to his Person suffer'd him to escape and that on one of his Master's best Horses who being thus mounted hasted presently into Wales attempting to go beyond Sea but being hindred by contrary Winds after three Essays to launch out was so happily pursued by Mr. Smith who spared for no cost in sending to several Ports that he was apprehended and brought Prisoner to Warwick as was also about the same time the Lady and her Gentlewoman who notwithstanding the Circumstances before recited did all of them with great Boldness deny the Fact the Groom to his other Wickedness most impudently charging Mr. Smith endeavour of corrupting him to accuse the Lady his Mother-in-law falsely to the end he might possess her Joynture but afterwards upon his Arraignment he was so smitten at apprehension of that load of guilt which lay upon him that he publickly acknowledged it and stoutly justified what he had so said to be true to the Face of the Lady and her Maid who at first with a great deal of Confidence pleaded their Innocency but at last seeing each particular Circumstance so clearly discovered and avowed they both confessed the Fact for which having Judgment to dye the Lady was burnt at a Stake near the Hermitage on Wolvey Heath towards the side of Shirford Lordship where the Country People to this day shew the place and the Groom with the Maid suffer'd Death at Warwick This was on May 15. in the third Year of Queen Mary's Reign A remarkable Story of the occasion which made the Danes first to invade England and of their murthering St. Edmund AT such time as the West-Saxons had gotten the Sway of the whole Heptarchy there reigned under them in the Kingdom of Northumberland as Vice-roy one Osbright who as he followed his disport in Hunting came to the House of a Nobleman named Beorn Bocador whose Lady of passing Feature in his Absence gave him honourable Entertainment and intreated both himself and Train to repose themselves there a while after their wearisom Delights The Vice-roy already ensnared with her Beauty accepted her courteous offer not so much to tast her Meats as to surfeit his Eyes with her rare Beauty and lasciviously to dote in his own Affections The Dinner ended and all ready to depart as though some weighty matters were to be handled he commanded an Avoidance from the Presence and taking the Lady into a withdrawing Chamber under pretence of secret Conference greatly tending to the Advancement of her Lord and self most unnobly being not able to prevail by smooth Persuasions did by force violate her constant Chastity which Dishonour thus received and her Mind distracted like to Thamar's at her Husbands Return all ashamed to behold his Face whose Bed had so been wronged with floods of Tears she thus set open the Sluces of her Passions Had thy Fortunes accorded to thy own Desert or thy Choice proceeded as by Vow was obliged then had no stain of Blemish touched thine Honour nor cause of Suspicion once approached thy Thought nor had my self been my self these blushing Cheeks had not invited thy sharp peircing Eye to look into my guilty and defiled Breast which ow thou may'st see disfurnished of Honour and the Closet of pure Chastity broken up only the Heart and Soul is clean yet fears the Tincture of this polluted Cask and would have passage by thy revenging hand from this loathsome Prison and filthy Trunk I must confess our Sex is weak and accompanied with many Faults yet none excusable how small soever much less the greatest which Shame doth follow and inward Guilt continually attend Yours is created more inviolable and firm by whose Constancy as our flexible Weakness is guarded so our true Honours by your just Arms should be protected O Beorn Beorn for Husband I dare not call thee revenge therefore my Wrongs that am now made thy Shame and Scandal of my Sex upon that hideous Monster nay incarnate Devil Osbright O that very name like Poyson corrupts my Breath and I want Words to deplore my Grief who hath no Law but his Lust nor measure of his Actions but his Power nor priviledge for his loathsome Life but his Greatness whilst we with a self Fear and servile Flattery mask our Baseness with crowching Obedience and bear the Wrongs of his most vile Adulteries Thou yet art free from such dejected and degenerate Thoughts nor hast thou smoothed him in his wicked and ever-working Devices be still thy self then and truly noble as thou art It may be for his place thou owest him respect but what therewith the loss of Honour Thine Affection but not thy Bed thy Love but not thy beloved yet hast thou lost at once all these and he thy only Bereaver thou wast my Stay whilst I stayed by thee and now being down revenge my Fall The Instinct of Nature doth pity our Weakness the Law of Nations doth maintain our Honour and the Sword of Knight-hood is sworn by to be unsheathed for our just Defence much more the link of Wedlock claims it which hath lock'd two Hearts in one But alas that Ward is broken and I am thy Shame who might have been thy Honour Revenge thy self therefore on him and me else shall this hand let out the Ghost that shall still attend thee
of Hungary came thither accompanied with divers Noble-men and Gentlemen who notwithstanding found no deceit therein Thus she continued for the space of almost four years Her Torments seemed to increase more and more upon her At last the chief Magistrate of the City sent for her Parents and asked them whether they desired to have their Daughter delivered from so great Torments by the Physicians making incision into her Belly Her Father being a plain man answered that he was willing to leave his Daughter to God's Providence and to lawful Remedies of Physicians But the Mother being guilty of the Deceit said that she would not have them to attempt any thing to the endangering of her daughters life adding moreover that she would pray that God's Vengeance might light upon them if her Daughter miscarried under their hands Yet some were sent to the Maid to mind her that they had many times craved help of Physicians that now there was a proffer made of their help who by God's assistance might either wholly free her from her Distemper or at least asswage the violence of it But she being instructed of her Mother answered That she with a willing mind would patiently suffer what it should please God to inflict upon her that she desired not any Physick but that as for the space of four years she had undergone the extremity of her Pains so she was still willing to bear the Cross which God had laid upon her till it pleased him to remove it hoping that she should still be as able to bear the violence of her Disease as hitherto she had been But the Magistrate of Elsing being better pleased with her Father's Answer sent a Dr. of Physick with two Chirurgions and a Midwife to search the Maidens Belly by Incision These came to her and searching her Belly found it stuffed with Clouts very cunningly and with Pillows and such like Materials with divers Hoops wherewith her Belly was made round she crying out all the while and when all these were removed they saw the Maiden stark naked with as well a compact and as fair a Body as might be When now the Deceit was discovered the Parents with the Daughter and all they which were accessory with whom in the Night whilst others slept she made good cheer were carried to Prison and afterwards put to the Rack The counterfeit Belly was brought to the Town-house and there shewed to the Burgo-masters and the Maids Mother was found to be a Witch who by the Devils help had caused those strange noises which seemed to proceed out of the Maids Belly and upon strict examination she confessed that she had done all these things by the Devils perswasion and help for Gain-sake all these four years for which she was condemned by the Judge had first her Neck broke and afterwards was openly burned The Daughter had her Cheek burned through with an hot iron and was condemned to perpetual Imprisonment The Father who took his Oath that he was deceived by his Wife and Daughter even till that day wherein this wicked Fact vvas discovered vvas acquitted and freely dismissed the other Accessories vvere banished and some of them that vvere most guilty vvere othervvise punished Of People long-lived who have had their Teeth and Excrements of Hair renewed MR. Purchas in his Pilgrimage relateth that whilst the Portugals were busie in building a Fort in the Kingdom of Decan belonging to Asia that there came a certain Bengalan to the Governour which had lived as he affirmed three hundred thirty five years The old men of the Country testified that they had heard their Ancestors speak of his great Age and himself had a Son fourscore and ten years old and not at all Book-learned yet was a speaking Chronicle of those passed Times His Teeth had sometimes fallen out others growing in their places and his Beard after it had been very hoary by degrees returned into his former blackness About an hundred years before that time he had alter'd his Pagan Religion into the Arabian or Moorish For this his Miraculous age the Sultans of Cambaya had allowed him a Stipend to live on the continuance of which he sought and did obtain of the Portugals Fryar Joano dos Santos tells a Story of one who was alive Anno 1605 of whom the Bishop of Cochin had sent men to inquire who by diligent search found that he was then 380 years old and had married eight times the Father of many Generations They said his Teeth had thrice fallen out and were thrice renewed his hair thrice hoary and as oft black again He could tell of nineteen successive Kings which reigned in Horan his native Country in Bengala He was also born a Gentile and after turned Moor and hoped he said to dye a Christian rejoycing to see a Picture of St Francis saying as the Fryar tells us such a man when he was twenty five years old had foretold him that long life Nic-di Conti saith he saw a Bramane three hundred years old But to come nearer to our home Mr. Morison reporteth of the Irish Countess of Desmond that she lived to the age of a hundred and forty Years being able to go on foot four or five miles to the Market-Town and using weekly so to do in her last Years and not many years before she died she had all her Teeth renewed He also tells of one Jemings a Carpenter in Beverly a Town of Holdernes in England whom the men of those Parts reported to have lived a hundred and twenty years and that he married a young Woman some few years before his death by whom being of good Fame he had four Children and that his eldest Son by his first Wife then living was a hundred years old or thereabouts but was so decrepid as he was rather taken for the Father than the Son King James going a Progress into Hereford-shire the ingenious Serjeant Hoskin gave him an Entertainment where he provided ten aged People to dance the Morrice before him all of them making up more than a thousand years so that what was wanting in one was supplied in another A Nest of Nestors saith Mr. Fuller not to be found in another place In the Year 1634. Thomas Earl of Arundel a great Lover of Antiquities in all kinds brought out of the Country unto King Charles the First an old man named Thomas Parre Son of John Parre born at Alberbury in the Parish of Winnington in Shrop-shire who lived to be above a hundred and fifty Years of Age verifying his Anagram Thomas Parre Most rare hap He was born in the Reign of King Edward the Fourth 1483. and towards his latter end slept away most part of his time being thus character'd by an Eye-witness of him From Head to Heel his Body had all over A quick-set thick-set nat'ral hairy Cover Having been at Westminster about two Months change of Air and Diet better in it self but worse for him with the trouble of many Visitants or
whose Hairs be Threds of Gold their Eyes of Diamonds as big as the Moon their Lips of Cherries their Teeth of Pearl their Tongues of Rubies their Cheeks of Coral their Noses of Jaspar very rich Girls their Fore-heads of Saphyr their Eyes exceeding black and Bodies exceeding white round fac'd sweet as Musk amorous and very beautiful all over there shall they spend the time with these Virgins in pleasant Arbors who being enjoyed shall have their Virginities again renewed as often as lost In the midst of this delightful place saith he is a very high spreading Tree higher than all the Mountains in the World were they heap'd one upon another and so broad that it shadeth all Paradise The Trunk of this extraordinary rare Tree is all of Diamond the leaves of Ophirian Gold and the Boughs of Jett each Leaf hath an Antick Shape having on one side growing the Name of God and on the other that of Mahomet Nor were his ridiculous Fopperies of Hell less than the other namely that it was the Navel of the World compassed with a large high Wall of attractive Adamant having seven Gates of flaming Brass to enter in at that it was divided into several Cells or Dungeons whereof some were more loathsom and fuller of Torments than others which are prepared for those Souls who have highest transgressed Some of these Caves saith he are so deep that a Mill-stone in a thousand years cannot attain to the bottom and other places are without Bottom In the descent of these deep Caves or Dungeons are placed sharp Pikes and Swords to wound and torment the Souls that move there These Dungeons are full of flaming Oyl and Brimstone which striketh such a Terror that the very Devils themselves do howl screetch and rage there beyond measure other Dungeons be full of Serpents Toads and all manner of venemous and noisome Creatures that can be imagined Here shall the Wicked eat of the Fruit of the Tree Zacon which being in their guts shall flame like Sulphur they shall drink boyling water and every day of new Torments shall have alteration Some Rivers saith he be full of Crocodiles others so cold as makes them gnash and chatter others boyl with violence of heat yet saith the Alcoran shall not these pains endure for ever for after so many thousand years when each Soul hath suffer'd according to the demerits of the Sins which he hath committed then shall they be delivered by Mahomet yea his Charity is so great that he will deliver the Devils also first changing their affrighting shapes into others more tollerable and then by washing them in a River flowing out of Paradise called Alcanser they shall become whiter than the driven Snow and from thence forward Sing Lala Hillulaes unto Mahomet And this is that he delivers of Hell whose description he might the better give as being the place of his proper residence His Doctrine of Angels was that they were either good or bad yet both subject to death the good as consisting of Flame because Lucifer an Angel by Ambition was cast out of Paradise the bad Angels are imprisoned in Dogs Swine Toads Wolves Bears Tygers c. After the Judgment-day they must be tormented in Hell some Millions of years and afterwards be delivered by Mahomet and received into Paradise but as for the Women poor Souls be they never so good they have the Gates shut against them yet are consigned to a Mansion without where they shall live happily as wicked Women to another place repleat with all dolour and misery As absurd and ridiculous were his opinions concerning our Saviour Christ as that the Virgin Mary conceived him by smelling to a Rose presented to her by the Angel Gabriel and that he was born out of her Breasts also that she was free from Original Sin and the Temptations of the Devil Christ is called in the Alcoran the Breath and Word of God said to know the Secrets of Hearts to raise the dead to life cure diseases restore sight to the Blind and speech to the Dumb and that his Disciples wrought Miracles by his Vertue Yet visit they not his Sepulchre in their Pilgrimages not thinking him to have died as generally bruted for being as they say led towards the Place of Execution God not permitting so base a People to put to death so holy a Prophet did assume him into Heaven when mist and sought by the Souldiers in the throng they laid hold of one of the Judges that had condemned him who resembled him much in favour and proportion telling him that he should not escape from them again and so not believing whatsoever he said did Execute him in his Room They sharply punish all such as blaspheme him and say that he shall return to Judgment about forty years before the Worlds ending and that at the last day the Righteous shall enter into Heaven the Jews under the Banner of Moses the Christians under the Banner of Christ and the Saracens under his Banner Having with these and the like odd whimzies patched up his Alcoran to give it the better credit that the People might imagine it to come from Heaven he devised this cunning way He secretly caused a wild Ass to be taken and bound his Alcoran being fairly written about his Neck then as he preached unto the People he pretended a sudden Rapture of some extraordinary thing that was revealed to him from above and with a loud voice spake to the People Ye have desired a Law behold God hath sent you a Law from Heaven go to such a Desart there shall ye find an Ass and a Book tyed about his Neck which will direct you in the ways which God hath commanded Thereupon the People run in great haste and as they could do no other found it according as he had said so with great Pomp they bring back the Ass with the Book about his neck suitable to the Bearer and now as thoroughly convinced they give great Honour to this their new Prophet Thus were these silly Souls deluded by this cunning Impostor to imbrace a bruitish sensual Religion but fleshly People will have a fleshly Religion and a fleshly Paradise to inhabit But like Prophet like People and like Religion for Mahomet himself was such a fleshly Fellow that in glorying of his Strength he boasted that he had known his eleven Wives successively in one hour and permitting by his impure Law to his followers to take unto them four Wives though they be nigh of Kin yea five marrying them Virgins and to take besides as many of them which they have bought and taken Captives as their ability will serve to maintain These were his sensual bruitish baits to catch the credulous inconsiderate Multitude but his devices are so ridiculous that a wise man cannot chuse but smile at his conceits in Pleasure this indeed hath made many of the most serious of them to mislike his inventions and sensual delights Amongst the rest hear Avicena one
of his own Sect Mahomet saith he hath given us a Law which sheweth the perfection of felicity to consist in those things which concern the Body whereas the Wise and Sages of old had a greater desire to express the felicity of the Soul then of the Body as for the bodily felicity though it were granted them yet they regarded it not nor esteemed it in comparison of the felicity which the Soul requireth Mahomet had also in him a spice of the transmigration of Souls from one Body unto another by which means he devised how a Camel might pass through the Eye of a Needle the Soul of a Sinner for Purgation entring first into the Body of a Camel then of a lesser Beast and finally of a little Worm which should creep through the eye of a Needle and so become perfect The Saracens his Followers esteem Rice as a great Delicacy by reason of their Tradition that it came of Mahomet's Sweat for say they when Mahomet compassed the Throne of God in Paradise God turned and looked on him which made the modest Prophet sweat and wiping it off with his finger six drops fell out of Paradise one whereof produced the Rose the second Rice the other four his four Associates Concerning the Death of this Impostor there is several Opinions The Book of the Policy of the Turkish Empire saith That he was poysoned by one of his Disciples called Albunor to make Tryal of his boasting Prophecy That he would rise again within three days after his Death This Albunor after coming to see him found his body torn in pieces and devoured of Dogs whereupon gathering together the Bones that remained into a Coffin he caused them to be buried Mr. Smith in his Gods Arrows against Atheists saith That sitting up late one Evening in his Palace and having taken his fill of Wine wherein one of his Companions had poured some Poyson felt his wonted Sickness approaching and made haste forth saying He must needs depart to confer with the Angel Gabriel and go aside lest his glorious Presence should be an occasion of their Deaths forth he went and remembring that a soft place was best for his Falling Sickness down he fell upon a Dunghil groveling along with great Pain foming at the Mouth and gnashing his Teeth The Swine came about the Dunghil fell upon him wounded him sore and had eaten him up had not his Wife and others of his House heard the noise of the Hogs and rescued the false Prophet however he died fourteen days after His Death happened in the sixty third Year of his Age and in the eleventh after his Hegira or Flight dying at Medina and was buried there in the Grave of Avisee his Wife Here is a stately Temple and huge erected with elegant and magnificent Structures daily encreased and adorned by the Costs of the Othomans and Gifts of other Princes Within this Building is a Chappel not persectly square covered with a goodly Roof under which is the Urn of Stone called Hagiar Monauar sometimes belonging to Avisee aforesaid This is all covered with Gold and Silk and compassed about with Iron Grates gilded within this which shineth with Gold and Gems Mahomet's Carcass was placed and not lifted up by force of Load-stone or other Art but that stone Urn lieth on the ground The Musulman Pilgrims after their return from Mecha visit this Temple because Mahomet yet living was wont to say That he would for him which should visit his Tombe as well as if he had visited him living intercede with God for a life full of Pleasures Therefore do they throng thither with great veneration kiss and embrace the grates for none have access to the Urn of Stone and many for love of this Place leave their Country yea some madly put out their Eyes to see no Worldly thing after and there spend the rest of their days So zealous are these sottish People in this sensual senceless irreligious Religion Of the Talmud of the Jews their Dreams concerning Adam c. THIS Talmud saith that Adam's Body was made of the Earth of Babylon his Head of the Land of Israel his other members of other Parts of the World so R. Meir thought he was compact of the Earth gathered out of the whole Earth as it is written Thine eyes did see my Substance now it is elsewhere written The eyes of the Lord are over all the Earth There are twelve hours of the Day saith R. Aha in the first whereof the Earth of Adam or earthly matter was gathered in the second the Trunk of his Body fashioned in the third his Members stretched forth in the fourth his Soul infused in the fifth he stood upon his Feet in the sixth he gave Names to the Creatures in the seventh Eve was given him in Marriage in the eighth they ascended the Bed two and descended four in the ninth he received the Precept which in the tenth he brake and therefore was judged in the eleventh and in the twelfth was cast out of Paradise as it is written Man continued not one night in honour The Stature of Adam was from one End of the World to the other and for his Transgression the Creator by laying on his Hand lessened him for before saith R. Eleazar with his Hand he reached a reacher indeed the very Eirmament His Language was Syriack or Aramitish saith R. Juda and as Raschlakis addeth the Creator shewed him all Generations and the wise men in them His sin after Jehuda was Heresie R. Jsaac thinketh the nourishing his foreskin They farther tell that he was an Hermaphrodite a Man-woman having both Sexes and a double Body the Female part joyned at the Shoulders and back parts to the Male their Countenances turned from each other This they prove by Moses his words So God created Man in his Image Male and Female created he them and he called their name ADAM Yet after this is mention of Adam's solitariness and forming of Eve out of his side that is cutting the Female Part from the Male and so fitting them to Generation Thus doth Leo Hebraeus reconcile the Fable of Pluto's Androgynus with Moses's narration out of which he thinketh it borrowed For as he telleth that Jupiter in the first forming of Mankind made them such Androgini with two Bodies of two Sexes joyned in the Brest divided for their Pride the Navil still remaining as a Scar of the wound then made so with little difference is this their Interpretation of Moses As ridiculous and extravagant are their Opinions about their Womens Conceptions and Travel and of one Lilich a she Devil which should kill their children to prevent which they have divers expedients which take out of their own Writings as followeth When a Jewish Woman is great with Child and near her Time her Chamber is furnished with necessaries and then some holy and devout Man if any such may be had with Chalk maketh a Circular Line round and in the Chamber upon all the
walls and writeth on the Door and within and without on every wall and about the Bed in Hebrew Letters Adam Chama Chuts Lilich or after the Jewish pronuntiation Lilis Hereby they signifie their desire that if a woman shall be delivered of a Son God may one Day give him a Wife like to Eve and not a shrew like Lilis This Word Lilis is read in the Prophet Isaiah 34. 14. interpreted a Scritch-Owl but the Jews seem to mean by it a devillish Spectrum in Womans shape that useth to slay or carry away Children which are on the eighth Day to be circumcifed Elias Levita writeth that he hath read that a hundred and twenty years Adam contained himself from his wife Eve and in that space there came to him Devils which conceived of him whence were ingendred Devils and Spirits Faries and Goblins and there were four Devils Mothers or Dams of them Lilith Nuemah Ogereth and Machalath Thus is it read in Ben Sira When God had made Adam and saw it was not good for him to be alone he made him a Woman of the Earth like unto him and called her Lilis These disagree for Superiority not suffering Caesarve priorem Pompeiusve Parem Lilis made of the same mould would not be underling and Adam would not endure her his equal Lilis seeing no hope of agreement uttered that sacred word Jehovah with the Cabalistical interpretation thereof and presently did flye into the Air. Adam plaining his case God sent three Angels after her viz. Senot Sensenoi Saumangeleph either to bring her back or to denounce unto her that a hundred of her Children should dye in a day These overtook her over the troublesome Sea where one day the Egyptians should be drowned and did their message to her she refusing to obey they threatned her drowning but she besought them to let her alone because she was created to vex and kill Children on the eighth day if they were men if women Children on the twentieth day They nevertheless forcing her to go Lilis sware to them that whensoever she should find the name or figure of those Angels written or painted on Schedule Parchment or any thing she would do Infants no harm and that she would not refuse that punishment to lose an hundred Children in a day And for this cause do they write these names on a Scroll of Parchment and hang them on their Infants necks Thus far Ben Sira In their Chambers always is found such a scroll or painting and the names of the Angels of Health this office they ascribe to them are written over the Chamber-door In their Book Brandspiegel Printed at Cracovia 1597. is shewed the authority of this History collected by their wise men out of those words Gen. 1. 27. Male and female created he them compared with the forming of Eve of a Rib in the next Chapter saying That Lilis the former was divorced from Adam for her pride which she conceived because she was not made of Earth as well as he and God gave him another flesh of his flesh and concerning her R. Moses tells that Samael the Devil came riding upon a Serpent which was as big as a Camel and cast water upon her and deceived her When any Jewish Woman is in travel she must not send for a Christian Midwife except no Jewish can be gotten and then the Jewish Women must be very thick about her for fear of negligence or injury And if she be happily delivered of a Son there is exceeding joy through all the house and the Father presently makes festival provision against the Circumcision on the eighth day In the mean time ten Persons are invited neither more nor fewer which are all past thirteen Years of Age The night after her delivery seven of the invited Parties and some others sometimes meet at the Child's house and make there great cheer and sport all Night Diceing Drinking Fabling so to solace the Mother that she should not grieve too much for the Childs Circumcision Of the Opinion of the Chinesses concerning the peopling of the World after the Flood THAT after the waters of Heaven had overflowed the Earth so that all mankind was drowned by an universal Deluge God seeing that the World would be desolate and no body to inhabit it he sent the Goddess Amida the chief Lady of Honour to his Wife Nacapiran from the Heaven of the Moon that she might repair the loss of drowned mankind and that when the Goddess having set her feet upon a Land whence the waters were withdrawn called Calemphuy she was changed all into Gold and in that manner standing upright with her face looking up unto Heaven she sweat out at her arm-pits a great number of Children namely Males out of the right and Females out of the left having no other place about her body whence she might bring them forth as other Women of the World have who have sinned and that for a chastisement of their sin God by the order of Nature hath subjected them to a misery full of corruption and filthiness for to shew how odious unto him the sin was that had been committed against him The Goddess Amida having thus brought forth these Creatures which they affirm were thirty three thousand three hundred thirty and three two parts of them Females and the other Males for so say they the World was to be repaired she remained so feeble and faint with this delivery how could she do otherwise having no body to assist her at her need that she fell down dead in the place for which cause the Moon at that time in memory of this death of hers whereat she was infinitely grieved put her self into mourning which mourning they affirm to be those black spots we ordinarily behold in her face occasioned indeed by the shadow of the Earth and that when there shall be so many Years run out as the Goddess Amida brought forth Children which were as I have delivered thirty three thousand three hundred thirty and three then the Moon will put off her mourning and afterwards be as clear as the Day A strange and wonderful Relation of Ferdinand Mendez Pinto a Portugal which he saw in his Journey in China AFTER the Relation of many and divers things we came saith he to a Town anciently called Cohilonza that is the flower of the field and had in former times been in very great prosperity but about a hundred forty and two years before a certain stranger chanced to come thither being as it seems an holy man although the Bonzes which are their Priests said he was a Sorcerer by reason of the wonders he did having raised up five dead men and wrought many other miracles whereat all men were exceedingly astonished and that having divers times disputed with the Priests he had so shamed and confounded them as fearing to deal any more with him they incensed the Inhabitants against him and perswaded them to put him to death affirming that otherwise God would consume
last of all how he shall come again with Glory and Power to judge both the quick and the dead When the Morning was come Agbarus commanded his Citizens to be gathered together to hear the Sermon of Thaddaeus which being ended he charged that Gold coined and uncoined should be given him but he received it not saying insomuch that we have forsaken our own how can we receive other Mens These things saith Eusebius were done the three and fortieth Year which being translated word for word out of the Syrian Tongue he thought good to publish The Conversion of a Thief by St. John the Apostle related by Clemens and quoted by Eusebius Lib. 3. ch 20. HEAR saith he a Fable and yet not a Fable but a true Report of John the Apostle deliver'd unto us and committed to memory After the decease of the Tyrant when he had returned to Ephesus out of the Isle Patmos being requested he went unto the Countreys adjoyning partly to consecrate Bishops partly to set in order whole Churches and partly to chuse by Lot unto the Ecclesiastical function of them whom the holy Ghost had assigned When he was come unto a certain City not far distant the name whereof divers do express and among other things had recreated the Brethren beholding a young man of a goodly body gracious face and fervent mind he turned his face unto him that was appointed chief over all the Bishops and said I commend this young man unto thy Custody with an earnest desire as Christ and the Church bear me witness When he had received his charge and promised diligence therein he spake and protested unto him the second time in words to the like effect Afterwards he returned to Ephesus But the Elder taking the young man that was delivered unto him brought him up at home and ceased not but cherished him still and in process of time baptized him He came at length to be so diligent and serviceable that he made him a Phylacterie or Livery Garment signed with his master 's Arms. But this young man became very dissolute and perniciously accompanied himself with them of his own years idle dissolute and acquainted with ill behaviour First they bring him to sumptuous Banquets next they guide him in the night to steale and to rob after this they require that he consent to the committing of a greater offence Thus he acquainting himself by little and little through the greatness of his capacity much like a Horse of a hardened mouth fierce strong and hardy forsaking the right way with the biting of the Bridle bringeth himself into a bottomless pit of all misorder and outrage At length despairing of the Salvation that cometh of God being past all hope of Grace he practised no toy nor trifle but once being over shooes he proceeded forward and took the like lot with the rest of his Companions and a rout of Thieves being gathered together he became a most violent Captain over them wholly bent to slaughter murther and extream cruelty In the mean while necessity so constraining the Bishop sent for John He when he had ended and finished the cause of his coming Go to saith he O Bishop restore to us thy Charge which I and Christ have committed unto thy Custody the Church whereof thou art Head bearing witness The Bishop at the first was amazed supposing some deceit to be wrought touching Money which he had not received yet was he not able to answer him for that he had it not neither to mistrust John But when John had said I require the young man and the Soul of our Brother then the Elder looking down with a heavy Countenance sobbing and sighing said He is dead To whom John said How and by what kind of Death He answered He is dead to God for he is become wicked and pernicious and in short a Thief for he keepeth this Mountain over against the Church together with his Associates The Apostle then rending his Garment and beating his Head with great Sorrow said I have left a wise Keeper of our Brother's Soul prepare me a Horse and let me have a Guide He hastened out of the Church and rode in Post being come to the place appointed he is straitway taken of the thievish Watch he neither flyeth nor resisteth but exclaimeth for this purpose came I hither bring me unto your Captain who in the mean space as he was armed beheld him coming But when he saw his Face and knew that it was John he was stricken with Shame and fled away The old man forgetful of his Years with Might pursueth him flying and cryeth My Son why flyest thou from me thy Father unarmed and old Tender my Case O Son be not afraid as yet there remaineth hope of Salvation I will undertake for thee with Christ I will die for thee if need be as Christ died for us I will hazard my Soul for thine trust to me Christ sent me He hearing this first stood still casting his countenance to the Ground next shook off his Armour trembling for Fear and wept bitterly He embraced Saint John and coming unto him answered as well as he could for weeping so that again he seemed to be baptized with Tears the shaking of the Hand onely omitted The Apostle when he had promised and protested to procure for him Pardon of our Saviour and prayed and fallen upon his knees and also kissed his right hand now cleansed through repentance brought him unto the Church again When that also he had poured forth oftentimes prayers for him and strugled with him in continual fastings and mollified his Mind with divers and sundry Sermons and confirmed him departed not before he had fully restored him unto the Church and exhibited a great example of true repentance a great trial of new Birth and a singular token of the visible Resurrection The Conspiracy of Earl Gowry to have murthered King James in Scotland Anno 1600. WIlliam Lord Ruthen Earl Gowry was for Rebellion put to death at Sterlin Anno 1584 yet notwithstanding his eldest Son John not long after was restored in blood and had leave to travel beyond Seas where he carried a cankred Heart against the King for his Father's Death although his Majesty were then but two years old for at Padoua amongst other impressa's in a fencing School he caused a hand and Sword aiming at a Crown for his Device Returning home and too big in his own thoughts to be comprehended with Court observance he retired to his Family accompanied with such of his Creatures that could descend to observe him only a Brother of his named Alexander was designed to play the Courtier to take off the suspition being of the King's Bed-Chamber In the mean time the Earl gets what Confederates he could into his conspiracy and so the Murther of the King was resolved of on this manner The Earl sends his Brother Alexander from Saint Johnstons his House to the King at Faulkland to entice him thither with as
imprisoned by Act of Parliament and so continued afterwards in the Tower of London untill King James his Death but by King Charles restored to Liberty with a small Pension which kept him like a Gentleman untill discontinued by the Rump Parliament by which means that failing he walked the Streets poor only inrich'd in his Skill of Chymical Physick and in other parts of Learning which he got whilst he lost his Liberty Now remaineth to tell ye the King's Grace and Preferment unto his Rescuers Sir Thomas Erskin was created Earl of Kelly and by degrees Knight of the Garter Captain of the King's Guard and Groom of the Stool Dr. Herres was well rewarded but lived not long after Henderson had a large Pension confirmed by Act of Parliament which he lived to enjoy a long time Ramsey had the honour of Knight-hood with additional bearing of his Coat of Arms A Hand holding forth a Dagger moumed proper piercing a bloody Heart the Point crowned Imperial with this Motto Haec dextra vindex Principis Patriae Upon which one thus versified An Arm and Hand well arm'd with heavenly might That gripes a just drawn Sword thrust through a heart Adorned with a Royal Diadem This and this Motto was his own by Right Given by his Sovereign for his just Desert And in his Coat of Arms inserted them His right hand did revenge and overcame His Prince and Countries Foes and purchase Fame Next he attained to be Lord Viscount Hadington and Earl of Holderness living in great Love and Splendour all the days of King James whom he quickly after followed to the Grave dying on Tuesday the 24th of January 1625. and was buried in the Abbey Church of Westminster the last of February next following Seven notable Observations were remarkable in his Life happening each of them upon a Tuesday which one thus comprehended in a Sonnet Upon a Tuesday he his Birth began Upon a Tuesday he his Baptism had Upon a Tuesday he his Honour wan Upon the Gowries whose Intents were bad Upon a Tuesday he at first did wed The noble Sussex Daughter who deceast Upon a Tuesday then he married Sir William Cockain's Child by Heavens behest Upon a Tuesday he did taste Death's Cup And to his blest Redeemer gave his Spirit Upon a Tuesday he was closed up Within his Tomb which doth his Corps inherit Thus upon Tuesdays 't was his Lot to have Birth Baptism Honour two Wives Death and Grave Eight years after this treasonable Attempt of the Gowries George Sprot one of the Earl's Confederates Notary Publick at Aymouth in Scotland from some Words of his sparingly and unawares expressed and some Papers found in his House whereof being examined with little ado he confessed and was condemned and executed at Edenburgh August 12. 1608. He died very penitently and to those Ministers which visited him after his Condemnation he confessed his Guilt with great Humiliation Afterwards ganging up the Ladder with his Hands loose and unty'd he was again put in Mind of his Confessions and for the greater assurance thereof performed an Act marvellous promising by God's Assistance to give them an evident Token before the yielding up of his Spirit which was when he had hung a very good while he lift up both his hands a good height and clapped them together three several times to the Wonder of thousands of Spectators A notable Combat betwixt a Knight and an Esquire in the time of Richard the Second THIS Combat was fought before the King's Palace at Westminster on the Pavement there betwixt one Sir John Annesly Knight and one Thomas Katrington Esquire the seventh of June Anno 1380. the occasion thus The Knight accused the Esquire of Treason for that where the Fortress of S. Saviour within the Isle of Constantine in Normandy belonging sometime to Sir John Chandos had been committed to the said Katrington as Captain thereof to keep it against the Enemies he had for Money sold and delivered it over to the French-men whereas he was sufficiently provided of Men Munition and Victuals to have defended it against them And since the Inheritance of that Fortress and Lands belonging thereto had appertained to the said Annesly in right of his Wife as nearest Cousin by Affinity to Sir John Chandoz if by the false Conveyance of the said Katrington it had not been made away and alienated into the Enemies Hands he offered therefore to try the Quarrel by Combat against the said Katrington which being put to the Judgment of ancient Knights it was by them delivered That for such a Foreign Controversie that had risen within the Limits of the Realm but touched Possession of things on the further side the Sea it was lawful to have it tryed by Battel if the cause were first notified to the Constable and Marshal of the Realm and that the Combat was accepted by the Parties Hereupon was the Day and Place appointed and all things provided ready with Lists railed and made so substantially as if the same should have endured for ever The Concourse of People that came to London to see this tryed was thought to exceed that of the King's Coronation so desirous men were to behold a sight so strange and unaccustomed The King and his Nobles and all the People being come together in the morning of the day appointed to the place where the Lists were set up the Knight being armed and mounted on a fair Courser seemly trapped entereth first as Appellant staying till his Adversary the Defendant should come And shortly after was the Esquire called to defend his Cause in this form Thomas Katrington Defendant come and appear to save the Action for which Sir John Annesly Knight and Appellant hath publickly and by Writing appealed thee He being thus called thrice by a Herald at Arms at the third Call he cometh armed likewise and riding on a Courser trapped with Traps embroidered with his Arms. At his approaching to the Lists he alighted from his Horse lest according to the Law of Arms the Constable should have challenged the Horse if he had entred within the Lists but his shifting nothing availed him for the Horse after his Master was alighted ran up and down by the Rails thrusting his Head sometimes over and sometimes both Head and Breast so that the Earl of Buckingham because he was High Constable of England claimed the Horse afterwards swearing that he would have so much of him as had appeared over the Rails and so the Horse was adjudged unto him But now to the matter of the Combate for this Challenge of the Horse was made after as soon as the Esquire was come within the Lists the Indenture was brought forth by the Marshal and Constable which had been made and sealed before them with consent of both Parties in which were contained the Articles exhibited by the Knight against the Esquire and there the same was read before all the Assembly But the Esquire whose Conscience was thought not to be clear but
his fate and wish he had never come to Athens and these thoughts took such a deep impression upon him that what for lack of sleep and other perturbations he was brought into a very languishing condition His friend Gisippus perceiving this alteration and willing to remedy what was amiss in him demanded of Titus what was the cause of his disease blaming him for unkindness in not revealing it unto him protesting there was nothing which lay in his power which he would not undergo to pleasure his friend with which words the mortal sighs renewed in Titus and the salt tears brake out of his eys in such abundance as it had been a Land-flood running down off a Mountain after a storm so that Titus as it were constrained blushing and ashamed holding-down his head with much difficulty returned this answer My dear and most loving friend withdraw your friendly offers cease your courtesie refrain your tears and regrettings rather take a knife and slay me here where I lie or otherwise take vengeance on me most miserable and false Traitor unto you and of all other most worthy to suffer shameful death For whereas God of Nature like as he hath given to us similitude in all the parts of our body so had he conjoyned our wills studies and appetites together in one so that between men was never like concord and love as I suppose And now notwithstanding onely with the look of a woman those bonds of love be dissolved reason oppressed friendship excluded there availeth no Wisdom no Doctrine no Fidelity or trust yea you your self is the cause of all this Alas Gisippus what envious Spirit moved you to bring me with you to her whom ye have chosen to be your Wife where I received this poison I say Gisippus where was then your wisdom that you remembred not the frailty of our common Nature what needed you to call me for a witness of your private delights why would ye have me see that which you your self could not behold without ravishing of mind and carnal appetite Alas why forgot ye that our minds and appetites were ever one and that also what you liked was ever to me in like degree pleasant what will ye more Gisippus I say your trust is the cause that I am intrapped The rayes or beams issuing from the eyes of her whom you have chosen with the remembrance of her incomparable vertues hath pierced my heart in such wise that I desire nothing more than to be out of this wretched Life which is not worthy the company of so noble and loving a Friend as you be concluding his Speech with a profound Sigh and such plenty of Tears as as if his whole Body would be dissolved into salt drops But Gisippus nothing dismay'd at his words embracing and kissing him thus answered Why Titus Is this your only sickness and grief that ye so uncourteously have so long concealed and with much more unkindness kept from me than ye have conceived it I acknowledge my folly wherewith ye have rightly upbraided me that in shewing her to you whom I loved I remembred not the estate of our Nature nor the agreeableness or as I may say the unity of our two Appetites surely that default can be by no reason excused wherefore it is only I that have offended I confess to you Titus I love that Maid as much as any wise man may possible and took in her company more delight and pleasure than of all the Treasure and Lands that my Father left me which you know was very much howbeit for the servent love I bear to your Virtues here I renounce to you clearly all my title and Interest that I now have or might have in that Maiden And therefore call to you your former Courage abandon all the Heaviness the day appointed for our Marriage approacheth let us consult how without difficulty ye may wholly attain your desire Now you know that we two be so alike that being apart and in like Apparel few men do know us from each other also you know the custom is that notwithstanding any Ceremony done at the time of the Spousals yet the Marriage is not confirmed until at Night that the Husband puts a Ring on the Finger of his Wife and unlooseth her Girdle Wherefore I my self will be present with my Friends to perform all the parts of a Bridegroom and you shall abide in a secret place where I shall appoint you until it be Night when you shall be conveyed into the Maids Chamber and for the likeness of our Personages and of our Apparel you will not be known by the Women which have with us no acquaintance then get you to Bed and put your own Ring upon the Maids Finger and undo her Girdle of Virginity by which the Marriage will be consummated With these words Titus began to move as it were out of a Dream and doubting whether he heard Gisippus speak or else saw but a Vision lay still as a man abashed but having a little recovered himself he thanked Gisippus for his incomparable kindness but refused the Benefit that he offered saying that it were better a hundred such unkind wretches as he was should perish then so noble man as was Gisippus should suffer any reproach or dammage But Gisippus sware and protested that he freely resigned the Lady unto him and therewith embraced and kissed Titus who thereupon setting himself up in his Bed the blood somewhat resorted unto his visage and after a little good Meats and Drinks taken he was in a few days restored again to his former strength and vigour In short the day of Marriage was come when Gisippus accompanied with his Friends went to the Bride's House where they were nobly entertained and feasted and after the Covenants were read and sealed the Dowry appointed and all other things concluded the Friends of either part took their leave and departed the Bride with a few Women as was the custom brought into her Chamber then as it was before agreed Titus was conveyed into her Chamber and being taken for Gisippus into her Bed where he first demanded of her if that she loved him and vouchsafed to take him for her Husband forsaking all other which she with a blushing countenance half laughing and half mourning as in point to depart from her Maiden-head but supposing it to be Gisippus that asked her affirmed Then did he ask her if that she in ratifying that promise would receive his Ring whereto she consenting put the Ring on her Finger and unloosed her Girdle and so they lovingly sunk down into the Bed together where what they did there I leave to married mens imagination The morrow being come Gisippus thinking it expedient that the truth should be discovered assembled the Nobility of the City to his House where a full Assembly being come Titus made to them this following Oration Most noble Athenians there is at this time shewed amongst you an example almost incredible of the divine power