there be many that in giuing counsell be very cold but in speaking malicious taunts very skilfull Sir I will doe my indeuour to do and say the best I can with an admonition that I gyue before all things vnto him that shall heare or reade the same that he prepare not to take so greate a tast in reading these counsels as profit by vsing them The olde men of your age they oughte to be so aduised in that they speake and such examplers of that they do that not only they are not to be séene to do euill works either so much as to speake vnhonest words For the olde man that is absolute and dissolute is sufficieÌ„t to corrupt or cast away a whole Towne or common wealth The old men of your age ought to giue not onely good examples but also good counsell for the inclination of the yong man is to erre and to varie and the condition of the old man ought to be to correct by discretion and giue good counsell to amende The old men of youre age ought to be gentle modest and patieÌ„t for if in times past they were bréeders of discorde now they ought to be makers of peace The olde men of youre age ought to be masters of such as know little and defenders of such as can do little and if they may not giue them remedie they leaue not to gyue them comfort For the hart that is tormented despited and in great distresse sometimes receyueth more comfort with the wordes which they speake than with that whiche they giue them The old men of youre age now haue no time to be occupied but in visiting of hospitalles and reléeuing the poore for there may not be a thing more iust than that so many paces as haue bin spent to brothel houses should now be spent to visit TeÌ„ples The old men of your age ought not to be busied but in making their discharges when they be in the house and to bewaile their sinnes when they go to Church for hée standeth in great suertie of saluation that in his life doth that he ought to do and in his death what he can do The olde men of youre age ought to vse great measure in the words they speake and pleasant breuitie in that they recount and also they ought to beware to tell newes and much lesse to vse to relate fables for in such a case if they call yong men light and foolish they wil say that old men dote and babble The old men of your age ought to be remoued from contentions and from troubles in law and if it be possible to redéeme them by the waight of money to the end to be frée from infinite trauells for yong men onely do feele the trauell but the old men do féele vexation and bewaile the displeasure The olde men of youre age ought to haue their communicatioÌ„ with persons wel complexioned not euil conditioned with whome they may repose and pleasantly be conuersant for there is not in this mortall life a thing that doth so recreate the hart as is swéete conuersation The old men of youre age ought to séeke men and chuse honest friends and muche to consider that the friendes whiche they shall chuse and the men with whome they shall be conuersant be not tedious in their spéech and importunate in crauing â—or friendship and importunitie neuer féede at one dish either name themselues to be of one band The old men of your age ought not as nowe to vse vayne and light pastimes but to haue regarde to the bestowing of their goodes and to consider for their houses for the olde man that lookes not to his substance shall want to eate and hée that watcheth not his house shall not lacke wherefore to wéepe The old men of your age be bound to go cleanly and well clad but they haue not licence to be curious either with nicenesse to weare their garmentes for in yong men to bée neat is a good curiositie but in old men it is great vanitie The olde men of your age ought much to flée brawling with your aduersaries either trauerse in words with your neighbours for if they replie any ouerthwart words or speake any bitter iniury the hurt is that you haue a hart to feele it and not strength to reuenge it The old men of your age oughte to be charitable pitifull and almes giuers for yong menne without experience walke so bedolted of the things of thys world that it seemeth vnto them sufficieÌ„t to be termed Christians but the old men that time hath aduised and age deliuered from disceit let them hold it for certaine that God of theÌ„ will neuer haue pitie if they haue not charitie The old men of your age ought to haue some good Bookes to profite and other histories to passe away the time for as nowe their age doth not suffer to walke muche lesse to trauell and as they are forced all day to be idle and pensiue so is it of more deseruing that they fill themselues with reading in bookes than too be tired in thinking of times past The old men of youre age ought to auoyde entering into conuocations sessions and Sises for in such places they intreat not but causes of the coÌ„mon wealth and interest for goodes and that by the iudgement of froward yong men and men passioned where they neuer beléeue the wise either heare the olde of experience The olde men of your age when you shall be in counsell or called to counsell ought not to be rash ianglers or contentious for it apertayneth to yong men to folow their opinion the old men but only reason The olde men of your age ought to be sober pacient and chast and to presume more to be named vertuous than old for in these times and also in time past they haue more respect to the life he leadeth than to the hoare heares he weareth The olde men of your age ought to hold for their chiefe exercise to go euery day to Church and to heare seruice on the holyday and if this shall séeme painefull or tedious I giue him licence to go no ofter to Church being old than he went to visite his innamored when he was yong The olde men of your age ought to haue all things well prouided for their soules to vnderstaÌ„d also for the health of their persons for as Galene sayth old age is so monstrous in condition that it is neither a sicknesse finished or a perfect health The old men of your age before all thinges ought to procure their houses good and healthy scituate in a gladsome sound ayre for I am of opinion that there is no goodes better imployed than that whiche old men bestowe vpon a good house The old men of your age ought to procure not only to dwell in a good house but also to sléepe in a good chamber in a bedde very clenly and the chamber very close for as the old man
stilled water Although Doctor Soto tolde me this tale in iest I did firmly beléeue it bicause you Master Doctor did once saye vnto mée in Madrid that in all the days of your life you neuer receiued compound purgation either proued the fast of stilled water Ther is no arte in this world that makes me lose the stirops or to say better my wits but the maner that Physitions do vse to cure For wée sée them desirous to cure and enimies to be cured And bicause Master Doctor you write vnto me also you sweare and coniure me by the desire I wishe to the welfare of my father that I write vnto you what is my iudgement of Physike and what I haue read of the inuenters birth and first rising thereof I will performe your request although it be more than others would wish for it is a matter that the wise Physitions will delight in but wherefore the foolish will giue both you and me to the diuell Of the moste auncient inuenters of Physike and medicine IF Plinie doe not deceyue vs there is no arte of the seuen liberall Artes wherein there is practised lesse trouth and whiche hath passed more mutabilitie than the Arte of Medicine Bicause there hath not bin kingdom people either notable natiō in this world wher she hath not bin receiued and after entertaynment againe throwne out of the same For if as she is a medicine she were a man immesurable wer the trauels that she wold report that she had suffred and many and very many are the kingdoms that she hath traueled and prouinces that she hath wandred not bycause they neglected to be cured but for that they helde Phisitions suspitious to be doubted The first that amongst the Greekes found the art of curing was the Philosopher Apollo and hys Sonne Aesculapius which for being so famous in Phisicke they concurred vnto him as vnto an Oracle throughout all Grecia but the chaunce was thus This Aesculapius was but a yong man and by greate mischaunce was slayne with lightning And as he left no disciple that knew his secretes neither that could make his medcines the master and the Art of medcine ioyntly did perish Four hundred and forty yeres was the Art of Phisicke lost in suche wise that in all the worlde there was not a man founde that did cure publikely or was called Phisition for so many yeares passed from the time that Esculupius died vntill the birth of Arthaxerxes the second in whose time Ipochras was borne Strabo Diodoro also Plini maketh mention of a woman of Grecia that in those most aunciente times did florish in the art of Phisicke of whome they recite so many mōstrous things and so incredible that to my iudgemēt they be al or the more part of thē fayned for if they shuld be true it séemed rather that she raysed the dead than cured the sicke In these days there did rise in the prouince of Achaia an other womā that began to cure with psalmes and words without applying any medcine simple or compound whyche being knowne in Athens was condemned by decrée of the Senate to be stoned to death saying that the Gods neyther nature had giuen remedies for sicknesse in words but in herbes and stones In the dayes that they had no phisitions in Asia the Gréekes held for custome when any man had made experiēce of a medcine and did heale with the same he was bound to write it in a table and to hang it vp in the temple of Diana that was at Ephesus for that in the like case any other might vse the same remedy Trogos Laertios and also Lactantius saith that the cause whereby the Gréekes did sustayne themselues so long time without Phisitions was that in May they dyd gather swéete herbes whiche they kept in their houses they were let bloud once in the yeare did bath once euery monthe and also they did eate but once a day Conformable to this Plutarch doth say that Plato being demaunded by the philosophers of Athens if he had seene any notable thing in Tinacria which is now called Sicilia made aunswer vidi monstrum in natura bominem bis saturum in die whiche is to say I did see a monster in mās nature which did fill or féede himselfe twice in one day he sayde thus by Dionysius the tyrant which was the first that inuented to eate at noone and afterwards to suppe at night for in the olde worlds they did vse to suppe but not to dine I haue curiously considered and in great varietie of bookes I haue sought and that whiche I found in this case is that all the nations of this world did eate at night and onely the Hebrewes did féede at none but following our intent it is to vnderstand that the temple most estéemed in all Asia was the Temple of Diana the one cause was for that it was stately of buildings another for that it was serued with many Priests but the most principall cause was for that the tables of Medicines were hanged there to cure the diseased Strabo sayeth that eleuen yeares after the battells of the Peloponenses the great Philosopher Ipochras was borne in a little Iland named Coe in whiche also were borne those glorious personages Licurgus and Brias the one Captayne of the Athenians and the other Prince of the Lacedemonians Of this Ipochras it is written that he was of small stature somewhat poare blind with a great head of much silēce paynefull in study and aboue all of a high and delicate iudgement From xviij yeares vnto thirtie fiue Ipochras continued in the scholes of Athenes studying Philosophie and reading and notwithstanding that in his time many Philosophers did flourish he was more famouse renoumed and estéemed than all the rest After that Ipochras departed from the studies of Athenes he wandred throughout diuers kingdomes and prouinces inquiring and searching of all men and women what they did knowe of the properties and vertues of herbes and planets and what experience they had seene of them At which things he did write and incommend vnto his memorie Also Ipochras did search with most great diligence for other bookes of Phisick written by any other auncient Philosophers and it is sayd that he found some written bookes in whyche theyr authours had written no medcine that they had made but such as they had séene made Of the Kingdomes and Prouinces where Phisitions were banished TWelue yeares Ipochras did trauell in this peregrination after which time he retired vnto the temple of Diana that was in Ephesus and translated al the tables of medcines and experiments that were there preserued many yeares he put in order all that was before confused and added many things that he had founde out and other things that he had experimented This Philosopher Ipochras is Prince of all Phisitions in the world for he was the first that tooke penne to write and to put Phisicke in order Also it is
that Numantine warre Caius Crispus Trebellius Pindarus Rufus Venustus Eskaurus Paulus Pilos Cincinatus and Drusius nine Consuls that were very famous and Captaines of much experience These nine Consuls being slaine with an infinite number of Romanes it happened in the twelfth yere of the siege of Numantia that a Romane Captaine named Cneius Fabricius did ordaine and capitulate with the Numantins that they and the Romanes for euermore should be friendes and in perpetual confederation And in the meane time while they sent aduertisement therof to Rome they confirmed a long truce But the Romanes vnderstaÌ„ding the whole order to be greatly to the honour of the Numantins and to the perpetuall infamie of the Romanes they commaunded the Consulles throte to bée cut and to prosecute the warres Then in the yere following which was the thirtenth of the siege the Romans did sende the Consull Scipio with a newe armie to Numantia the whiche being come the first thing he did was to deliuer the Campe from all maner men that were vnprofitable and women that were leude of disposition saying that in greate armies more hurte is done with prepared vices than with determined enimies A yere and seuen monethes was Scipio at the siege of Numantia all which time he neuer gaue battaile or skirmish but only gaue order that no succour might come at them or vitayles might enter to them When a certain Captaine demaunded of Scipio why he did not skirmish with those that came foorth neither fight with them within He made answer Numantia is so fortunate the Numantins so luckie that we must rather think their fortune to come to an end than hope to ouercome them Many times the Numantins did sallie to fight wyth the new Romaines and it hapned one daye that there passed betwixt them so bloudie a skirmishe that in an other place it might be counted for a battaile And in the end the Romanes receyued suche foyle that if the fortune of Scipio had not holpen that day the name of Rome had ended in Spaine Scipio considering the Numantins to encrease in pride and the Romaines to discourage aduised to retire his campe more than a myle from the citie bicause they should giue no attempt vpon the sodaine and to auoyde by the néernesse of the place the hurts that might happen But in the end the Numantins waÌ„ting vitayles and hauing lost many of their men did ordeyn amongst themselues and did make a vowe vnto their gods no day to breake their faste but with the fleshe of Romaines neither to drinke water or wyne before they had tasted and dronken the bloud of some enimie they had slayne A monstrous thyng then to sée as it is nowe to heare that euen so the Numantins euery daye went in chase of Romanes as hunters doe in hunting Coneys and with as great apetite they did eate and drinke the flesh and bloud of enimies as if it had bin shoulders and loynes of mutton Verie greate were the hurtes that euery day the Consul Scipio receiued in the stege bicause the Numantins like most fierce beastes with Romanes bloud imbrued did not fighte as enimies but as men desperate Among the Numantines hée was holden excused that tooke any Romane alyue and muche lesse to giue him a buriall For at the houre that anye were slaine they did take hym slay him quarter him and in the shambles did waigh him In suche wise that a Romane was more being dead than alyue and raunsomed Verie manie tymes Scipio was perswaded prayed and importunated of his captaines to raise his siege and to â—…urue to Rome but hée would neuer doe it neyther could in any wise abide to heare of it for at his comming out of Rome a Nigromantik priest did aduertise him that he should not dismay neither retyre from that conquest although in the same he shoulde passe immeasurable perilles bicause the goddes had determined that ende of the fortunate Numantia shoulde be the beginning of all his glorie Howe Scipio dyd take Numantia SCipio perceiuyng the Numantins not to be ouercome by prayers neyther by armes he caused to be made in compasse of the citie a stately ditche the which was in depth seueÌ„ fadoms and in bredth fiue in such sorte that to the discomfortable Numantins neither mighte there any vitayles enter that they mighte eate neither they come out with the enimies to fighte Many times did the Consull Scipio requeste the Numantines to commende themselues to the clemencie of Rome and that they shoulde credit and giue faithe vnto his words to which thyngs they made answere that since they had liued thrée hundred and thirtie eight yeres free they would not now die slaues Great cryes did the women giue within the citie greate clamoures did the Priestes make vnto their Gods with great and loude voyces did the men exclame vpon Scipio that he should lette them out to fight as men of worthynesse and not to kill them with hunger like wretches And said more thou oh Scpio being a yong man of Rome valiant and bolde considerest not what thou dost neyther do they counsel thée what thou oughtest to doe For to kéepe vs in as thou doest is but a pollicie of warre but if thou shouldest ouercome vs in battel it shold be for thée an immorall glorie But in the ende the Numantins séeing them selues so infamously and miserably inclosed and that now their vitayles fayled them the moste strongest did ioyne themselues together and killed al the old men children and women and did take all the riches of the Citie and of the temples and heaped them vp in the market place and gaue fire to all partes of the Citie and poysoned themselues in suche wise that the Temples the houses the riches and the persons of NumaÌ„tia ended all in one day A monstrous thing it was to sée that which the Numantins did while they were aliue and a thing no lesse fearefull whiche they dydde when they were a dying Bicause they left to Scipio neyther goods to spoile neyther man or woman of whom to triumph During the tyme that Numantia was besieged no Numantin entred into prison or to any Romane was prisoner but suffered death before he consented to yelde When the Consul Scipio did sée the Citie burne and entred the same founde all the Citizens dead and burned there came ouer his heart great heauines and out of his eyes he poured out many teares and sayde O righte happie Numantia whyche the goddes willed to haue an ende but not to bée ouercome Foure hundreth threescore and syxe yeares endured the prosperitie of the Citie of Nmantia For so manye yeares had passed since the foundation thereof by Numa Pompilius vntill it was destroyed by Scipio the Affricane In those old tymes there were thrée Cities verie enemies and rebelles to Rome that is to wit Helia in Asia Carthage in Africa and Numantia in Europa the whiche thrée were vtterly destroyed but by the
that I do owe no more will I denie the fault that I haue committed in neglecting my dutie in visiting and writing vnto you for with our friendes we ought to accomplishe vntill we may doe no more and spende vntill we haue no more let it auayle what it may auayle and my excuse serue what it may serue The very troth is that I go in this court with myne offices so occupied and so bewandred in my busines that scarsely I knowe any man neither yet remember my selfe and this which I say is not so muche to excuse my fault as it is to accuse my liuing For in the time when I was aliue and abode in my monastery I did rise earely to go to Church I studied my bookes preached my sermons fasted the aduents performed my disciplines bewailed my sinnes and prayed for sinners in such sort that euery night I made a reckening of my life and euery day did renewe my conscience But afterwards I died afterwards they buried me and afterwards they brought me vnto the Court I grew negligent in fasting I brake holy days I forgot my disciplines I dyd no almes I prayed with negligence I preached sildome I spake at large I suffred little I celebrated wyth dulnesse I presumed much and ouer much and the worst of all is that I gaue my selfe to vnprofitable conuersations the which lead me vnto some tedious passions and also affectiōs to be auoyded Beholde here my Lorde and Vncle after what manner we goe in Court neither know we kindred or speake to friends neither be sensible of the mischiefe or profit vs of the time neyther do we séeke rest or haue any wit but wandring here and there we goe as certaine men bedolted and charged with a thousand thoughts But setting this apart since in time to come there shal be amends and for that which is past I may obtaine pardon I shall promise you by the faith of an honest nephew that the court hauing passed these ports I shall come to visit you and wil write by euery messēger Sir Ladron your sonne and my cosin willed me here in Madrid that I shoulde write vnto you the sorow which I conceyued of the sicknesse your Lordship hath had and the long diseases you haue passed The excesse you vsed is grief vnto mée the ague that held you sorroweth me the sorowes you haue paste displeaseth me the syropes you receyued irketh mée the purgations you vsed lothed me the oyntmentes you experimented despiteth me the bathes you proued are tedious and tormenteth mée the lauatories you tasted payneth me the money you wasted vexeth me bycause the sicke man consideryng the goodes he expended and the little that medicines haue profited many tymes it dothe more gréeue hym that he giueth to the Physition and Apoticarye than the maladie whiche hée suffered Behold here my Lorde howe I am not a man that giueth one sorowe but an hundreth if néed bée although it be true that a thousand tymes it soroweth me is not so much worth as one it pleaseth me Licurgus in the lawes that he gaue to the Lacedemonians did commaund that no man should bring euill newes to any man but that the pacient should diuine it or by discourse of tyme he shoulde vnderstande it The diuine Plato in the bookes of his common wealth did counsell the Athenians that they should not visite any of their neyghbours in tyme of aduersitie except they coulde by some meanes remedie them For he sayd and sayd well that colde and vnsauorie is that comfort when it commeth not be wrapt in some remedie Of a trouth to remedie and giue counsell bée two distinct offices very seldome conteyned in one person for counsel is to be giuē by the wife the remedy by him that possesseth the same My Lord vncle I would God that your remedie were in my hands as it is to desire it that I myght rather say It pleaseth me of your helth than that it soroweth me of your sicknes Sir you haue to vnderstand I beare you much enuie not of Paradilla where you dwel not to the newe plāted vineyard which you possesse or to the mil that you make either to the nintie yeares that you possesse but of the order that you vse in your house for that in nurtour it is a palace and in honest ciuilitie a Colledge Cato the iudge in his old age did withdrawe himselfe to a countrey house which stoode betwixt Nola and Caieta all the Romanes that past thereby did say iste solus scit viuere whiche is to vnderstand this man knoweth to liue by himself wherfore they reported that he had withdrawn himself thither in time and sequestred himselfe from the hurly burly of the worlde The greatest mercy that God vseth to an old man is to giue him to vnderstand that he is become old for if he know this of himself of a trouth he shal fynd that the olde man hath not of any thing more certaintie than euery day to look for death Plato saide Iuuenes citò moriuntur senes autē diu viuere nō possunt that is to say it is true that yong men die quickly but the old men can not liue long The stéele being spente the knife may not cut the talow consumed the candle goeth out the Sunne being set the day can not tarie the floure being fallen ther is no hope of fruite By that which is sayd I would say that after an olde man is past foure score yeres he ought to make more readinesse to die thā prouisiōs to liue Diodorus Siculus sayth that it was a lawe amongst the Aegyptians that no king after he had children either any old man hauing passed thréescore yeares shoulde presume to buylde an house without first for himselfe he had made a sepulcher My Lord thus much I say that not as an Aegyptian but as a good Christian you haue in the Monastery of Cuenca made a sepulture and indued a chapell where your bones shall rest and whereof your kynred may boaste Peter of Reynosa your neyghbour and my greate friende hathe aduertised mée that in the pleasant Peradilla the storm hath spoyled youre wheate and that in lowe places the vines be blasted with which lamentable and straunge chaunce although you féele much grief your lordship must shewe good courage and haue great pacience for that you now stande in suche an age as you shall rather wante yeares to lyue than corne to eate Those that ingrosse wynes to make it deare kéepe their corne against the moneth of May vpon such men heauinesse ought to fall and vpon suche losse is wel employd for there is nothing so méete eyther more iust than the man that wisheth an euill yeare to the common wealth shoulde neuer sée a good yeare enter his owne house It is a propertie of such as be muche couetous and little vertuous to murmure at that which nature doth performe and God doth permit in such sort that
they shoulde bée caried to the Church of Oiendo to be kept and gaue great rewards vnto such as had hid them This good King Alonso was the firsts that commaunded that all the greate writers and singers should resort to Leon to the end they should write great singing bookes and litle breuiaries to pray on the which he gaue and deuided amongst all the Monasteries and Churches that he had founded for the cursed Moores had not left a Church in Spaine that they did not ouerthrow either booke that they did not burne This good king Alonso was the first that did begin to make all the Bishops houses ioyning to the Cathedrall Churches bycause the heate in the Sōmer either the colde in Winter should not let them to be resident in the Quier and to sée how they worshipped God. This good king Alonso the first died in the age of .lxiiij. yeres in the Citie of Leon in the yeare of our Lord. 793. And hys death of the Castilians and Nauarrois was as much bewayled as of all men his life was desired How acceptable his life was vnto God it appeared most cleare in that the Lord shewed by him at his death whiche is to wit that at the point of his last breath they heard ouer his chamber Angelike voices sing and say Beholde how the iust dieth and no man maketh account thereof his dayes be ended and his soule shall bée in rest The lamentation was so great that was made through out Spaine for the deathe of this good King Alonso that from thence forward euery time that any named his name if hée were a man he put off his cap and if a woman she made a reuerence Not thrée months after the death of the good King Alonso all the mightie of the Kingdome ioyned in parliament wherein they did ordeyne and commaund by a publique Edict that from thence forward and for euermore none should presume to say coldly or driely the king Alonso but for his excellencie they should cal him the king Alonso the Catholique for that he had bin a prince so glorious and of the diuine seruice so zelouse This good king was sonne in law of sir Pelaius he was the third King of Castile after the destruction thereof he was the first king of this name Alonso he was the firste that founded Churches in Spaine he was the first King at whose death such Angelike voyces were heard he was the first king that was intituled Catholike by whose deseruings and vertues all the kings of Spaine his successors be called to thys day Catholike Kings My Lorde it séemeth to me that since the kings of Spaine presume to inherit the name they should also presume to follow his life which is to wit to make warre vpon the Moores and to be fathers and defendours of the Church And for that in the beginning of this letter I did vse the spéech of a friend and in this I haue accomplished what you craued as a seruāt I say no more but that our Lord be your protector and gyue vs all his grace From Segouia the xij of May. 1523. A letter vnto Mosen Rubin of Valentia beeing enamoured wherein is touched the displeasures that the amorous dames giue vnto their louers MAgnificent and old enamored being in Madrid the fourth of August where I receyued a letter of youres and for that it was torne and the firme somewhat blotted I sweare vnto you by the law of an honest mā I could not find meanes to read it or imagine or cal to remembrance who should write it For notwithstanding we were acquainted when I was Inquisitor in Valencia it is almost a thousand yeares since we saw eche other after I awakened and called my selfe to remembrance and did read and read againe your letter I fell in the reckoning that it was of Mosen Rubin my neighbour I say Mosen Rubin the enamored I remēber that sometimes we were wont to play at the chesse in my lodging and cannot aduise me that you gaue me the dame but I do certainly remember that you did not suffer me to sée your enamored I remember that at the rock of Espadon at the encounter we had with the Moores I escaped wounded and you with a broken head where wée could neyther finde Chirurgion to cure vs or as muche as a clout to bind vs I remember that in reward for that I caused your bill to be firmed by the Quéene you sent me a Mule which I did gratifie and not receyue I remember that when we went to accompany the French King to Requena whē we came to the seuen waters I complayned for want of meate and you for lacke of lodging and in the ende I receyued you into my lodging and you went foorth to prouide victualles I remember when Caesar commaunded me to repaire vnto Toledo you gaue me a letter to be deliuered vnto the Secretarie Vrias vppon a certaine businesse of yours to whome I dyd not only speake but also obtained your sute I remember that chiding with a Chaplayne of youre wiues in my presence when he said vnto you that it were not conuenient you shuld deale fowly with him for that he had charge of soules was a Curat you made answer that he was not a Curat of soules but of fooles I remember that I counselled you and also perswaded you being in Xatina that you shoulde giue to the Diuell the loue that you wot of and I also doe knowe bycause they were tedious perillous and costly I remember that after in Algezira you reported wéeping and sighing that you had no power to chase them from your minde either roote them from your hart and ther I returned to say and sweare that it was no loue eyther pleasant to your persone or too your estate conuenient I remember that after we mette at Torres where I demaunded to what conclusion you had framed your loue you answered in a thousand sorrowes and trauelles for that you had escaped from thence wounded abhorred beflouted infamed and also be pilled Of many other things I remember I haue both séene and hard you speake and do in that time that we were neighbours and couersant in Valentia whereof although we may talke they are not too be written In this present letter you aduertise me that now you are enamored and taken with other new loues and that since I sayd the troth in the first you pray me to write my opinion in the second holding it for certaine that my skil serueth to let bloud in the right vayne and also to bind vp the wound Sir Mosen Rubin I woulde you had written or demaunded some other matter for speaking the very troth in this matter of loue you are not in the age to follow it eyther may it be contained with my ingrauitie to write it of my habit of my profession and of my authoritie and grauitie you shoulde haue demaunded cases of counsell and not remedies of loue
proper sinnes we discharge vpō others And in Iesus Christ charitie is so great That he taketh the sinnes of others vpon him selfe in such maner that he confesseth to haue many sinnes for as much as he is the redéemer of many sinners Behold honorable Rabbis what it is that the Christiās doe vnderstand of his diuinitie and that which we confesse of his humanitie Vnto which faith I extéeme to lyue and protest to dye And for that I haue sayd more then I thought to haue done yea and more then ye would haue heard we wyll remitte for another disputacion both your doubtes and my aunsweres Considering that my Lordes the Prelates And the noble men that be here do staye to goe to dinner and to withdrawe them selues c. ¶ A Letter to Syr Ferdenando of Cordoua wherein is discoursed the eleuen persecutions of the Church when and by whom they were persecuted WOrshipful Syr and Christian Knight Iohn de Cabreta your Steward deliuered me a letter from your worship which was as long as betwéen Madrid Almagro where at this present you do remaine wherby if you thinke to receiue no short answere by writing so long a Letter you do much abuse your selfe for wanting oportunity leasure to studie I maie not imploye my selfe to write such long tedious Epistles especiallye when he to whom they are written is simply but a friend Yet true friends delight not only in reading lōg letters but are grieued if their friends write not euery day al which aboue sayd is not to say that I estéeme not to place you in the chiefestes rankes of my best friends And if you imagine the contrarie you are much deceiued For your friendes mine do wel know that Don Ferdenand de Cordoua and Friar Anthony de Gueuarra Bishop of Mondoneto be twoo bodies ioyned in one wyll linked in a chaine of in dissoluble amitie But omitting this discourse retorning to your letter I assure you it pleased me very much chieflie in that I perceiued your good dispositiō which is no smal matter in the middest of these perillous heates Now touching the persecutions of the myllitant Church wherof you haue written wherof the Prior of Calatrana you haue liberally discoursed I aunswere that there haue beene many persecutions of the Church done at sundry times and by seuerall Princes And for that I greatly desire to do you that seruice which lyeth in my power I haue not fayled to sende you the sayde persecutions in order as followeth The first persecution was in the raigne of the Emperour Nero the which possessed with the Deuil in whose bonds his offēces did imprisō him perceiuing the nūber of Christiās daily to increase at Rome by grace of the euangelical worde which Peter Paul preached there where they were martered for such conuersion of the people determined with his power to persecute destroye the Church whereby he murdred many Christiās as wel in Rome as els where which was the first persecution of the Church For albeit the Church since the suffering of Christ hath béen continually persecuted in hir perticuler members yet notwithstanding vntyll the comming of Nero there went forth no commaundement to persecute the Christians Touching the constancy of the Martyrs and the diuersitie of the tormentes which they endured beside the Catholique Historiographers which write therof Cornelius Tacitus a Painim writer and enemie to the Christians yet verye credible in his writing doth report the same who making recitall of the persecutions made by the ordinaunce of the Emperour Nero of whome Sueton maketh also mencion doth say of the slaughter of Christians both men and women that amongest a thousande diuersities of punishmentes and deathes they cast the Christians to be torne in péeces with dogges And to make the dogges more fierce vpon them the men were braced in skinnes of Beares and other sauadge Beastes Which persecution was performed as witnesseth Cornelius Tacitus and Suetonius after the huge fire of Rome In the eleuenth yéere of the Empyre of Nero by whose decrée the glorious Apostles Peter and Paul were martyrred It maye well bée as I also beléeue that this martyrdome continued lytle more then thrée yéeres For though it were done at that time according to the Prior of Calatrana his opinion yet God would preserue his Apostles and deferre their martyrdoms vntyll the foresayde time The second persecution was in the time of the Emperour Domitian This wicked and accursed monster vnderstanding that there should one spring out of the lyne of Dauid which should expell him out of the Empyre he caused search to be made with much diligence for all those whiche descended from the race of Dauid amongst the Iewes and caused them to be put to death onelye raunsoming as Eusebius sayth twoo persons of the same familie who further for the accomplishment of his deuillishe deuices at the motion of the fiende he determined to persecute the Catholique Churche Whereby at his commandement a great slaughter was made of Christians within Rome and without In which persecution multitudes of the Christians were at the first committed to banishment who after were tormented and then murdered by most horrible paines and cruell deaths as affirmed Eusebius Orosius and many other Christian Historiographers This was the second general persecution of the primitiue Church in which S. Iohn the Euangelist was confined or exiled into the Yle of Pathinos where he sawe the visions of the Apocalips It were hard to know how long this persecution endured but as we may gather by Eusebius it continued twoo yéeres a lytle more For he sayth that Domician dyd moderate and cease his execution and yet notwithstanding aswel by reason of the sayd persecution as for his other vices the same Domician hath béene holden to be one of the most wicked and cruell Princes that euer liued The third persecution of the Church was vnder the gouernment of the Emperour Traian who allured by the Deuill his other ministers determined by torments to punishe the Christians and therfore by publique edict ordayned that the Christians should worship the Idol of the Gentiles vpon paine of death Wherevnto the Christians not wylling to obey he made a great slaughter of them This was the third persecution of the Church Catholique whereof Eusebius and diuers other Historiographers Christians do make plentiful mencion that was in the tenth yéere of the Empyre of Traian which afterward also commaunded this persecution to be stayed as doth apeare by some writers especially in the letters of Plyny directed to Traian in the answeres thereto sent by the same Emperor which are at this presēt extant where he prescribed that the christians should be permitted to lyue in their Lawes and vnder theyr liberties If they dyd not commit any other wickednesse therewith The fourth persecution was in the time and vnder the dominion of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius surnamed the Philosopher whose lyfe we haue discribed in