Gallis nec calliditate poenis nec artibus Graecis par fuit Roma ita Graecia cum ciuibus vnita quae gens par potuit esse Graecis at diuisa quanto facilius noÌ„ à Persis nec à Macedonibus sed Graecia à Graecis victa QuaÌ„ta virtus victoria Iudaeorum dum vna vniti lege religione Quanta vtriusque regni clades diuisa dici non potest Quid multa nihil aliud maius fuisse fertur exitio Graecis quam iura ciuitatis externis interdicere leges quas Solon Athenis quas Lycurgus Spartae sanxerunt nam vti omnis virtus vnita praestantior ita omnis vis vnita fortior vt Anglia sine Scotia minus vigeret ita Scotia sine Anglia magis langueret ita regnum omne ita orbis totus langueret diuisus Quid opus est itaque cuÌ„ctari de vnitate Britaniae de perpetua vtriusque regni pace de fortitudine imperij de magnitudine regis saepe tamen non nocet cum fabio cunctari qui cunctando vicit Hanibalem ita saepe non nocet cum popilio imperare qui imperando vicit Antiochum At penes te est inuictissime Princeps cunctari imperare quiad sacram Henrici 7. tui Attani sedem cuÌ„ lauro oliua venis cum regina foecundissima cuÌ„ Principe prudentissimo cum caeteris regijs liberis quasi fidissimis Britaniae Scipionibus de quibus ac de sacris regnorum anchoris omnis plaudit Anglia gestunt parietes Scotiae Hibernia cuncta laetatur Cambria tota triumphat The Tragicomedie of Serpents I Haue promised to adde something to my last little Treatise The practise of pollicie I thought I should write but of the pollicie of men yet I haue cause to speake of diuers kinds of Serpents of Diuels Serpents of Idols Serpents of Image Serpents of beasts serpents and of men serpents which are the most perilous serpents of all according to the old saying Homo homini Lupus not only a Wolfe but a Lyon a Tygre a Diuell to a man Hanniball a sworne enemy to the Romans not only himselfe but soliciting the great Antiochus with Camels and Pirrhus before him with his Elephants and he himselfe with serpents and vipers to throwe in the faces of the Roman army to amaze their souldiers and to put them in fright in their fight Stratagems allowed in warre but not among peaceable christians But these stratagems were of Affrica and Asia against the Romans who had but Camels ElephaÌ„ts for their chiefe pollicy with the which the Romans became well acquainted and exceeded them in their owne stratagems and ouerthrew their Hanniball But now in Rome their is another kind of Hanniball whose stratagems are furnished with Wolues Beares Dragons and Tygres and those in the habit of men that farre passe Tarquine the proud with his furious priests with Snakes in one hand and firebrands in the other and their Affrican Hanniball with his Serpents in one vessell and vipers in the other but these would haue Lyons in one hand and Vnicornes in the other But we feare not the Camels of Asia nor the Elephants of India nor the Serpents of Affrick neither do we feare the Basilisks of Rome and the Romish broode in great Brittane which would faine ride on Lyons and Vnicornes For it was a long custome among the Romans to fight with Lyons on the Theators and with wilde cruell beasts that the Romans became more cruell then Serpents and such Serpents that Rome and Asia are full of them In Asia they carie Serpents in their armes to clense their aire to purifie their temples and to driue diuels away from their Townes and Cities In Rome they sent for Serpents in any plague time to Epidaurus to the jmage of Esculap whome they worshipped in the forme of a Serpent to heale them We ouercame the old Dragon the great Serpent in Paradise by the seede of the woman The children of Israell ouercame the serpents of Cadis-barne by looking vpon the brasen Serpent in that wildernes and Moses with his Hebrew army escaped the serpents in the deserts of Ethiopia by their continuall enemies the birdes Ibides of Egipt But we haue armed serpents engendred of the serpents teeth which Medea not of Colchos but of Babilon where they carry such serpents in their armes I meane their golden and siluer Gods to bee worshipped of men in the streetes these be the dangerous serpents After such serpents ran Laban after Iacob of more complaining for his jdols and images the Gods of Mesopotamia thaÌ„ for his two daughters Iacobs wiues saying cur fuâ—atus es Deos meos why hast thou stolne my Gods away from me Micah ran for such serpents after the Tribe of Dan exclaiming more for his idols then for all the wealth and goods that they took from him saying Cur Deos quos mihi feci tulistis why haue you taken my Gods which I made to my selfe from me Many ran from great Brittane after such Gods and such images to Rome to Spaine and many yet lurkes like Hydra in Laerna in their secret labyrinths more greedy for the spoyle like moabites than true catholikes for religion these be the Roman wolues in sheeps clothing like Camelions in al kind of colors scattered ouer all England these be the domesticall serpents tanquam lemures nocturni lares domestici in Cities in townes yea in our houses vnknowne and not vnseene enemies I meane those rebels and Trators which vnder colour of religion attempted sundry times our late queene and now our soueragine Lord and King That neither Hanniball with his fiery oxen was so furious against Fab. Max and his Roman armie Neither was Darius with his barking dogs and braying Asses left in his tents to deceiue the Scythians so crafty Neither desperate Tarquine so cruell to vnbridle all the horses of his army and so to rush vnto the middest of the Sabins his enemies as these late fierie oxen these barking Dogs and braying Asses left too long to barke and braye in great Brittaine these desperate horses too long suffered to bee vnbridled in England The subiect of this booke is to write of Serpents because we are troubled with serpents Plinis writes of some kind of Serpents that dare not approach the wild ash-tree nor the shadow of this tree that if they bee walled round about with great fire they will rather run through the fire then abide nigh the Ash tree or his shaddow I wish there were more such trees in great Brittaine for trees are aptly compared to men so are Kings Princes and Potentates of the earth compared to the hygh great Caedar trees in Libanon the palme trees to the constant martyres the Oliue trees to the iust and godly men and Christ himselfe to the vine tree too many like the Plantan tree with fayre and florishing showe without substance called in
practise this exercise And these be the souldiers of Pope Leo the 10 which had euer this wicked verse in his mouth Flectere sinequeo superos Acheronta mouebo There be other Souldiers called Retiarij milites exercising and practising feats of Armes with nets named fitter for priests and preachers than for Traitors and Rebels which will not lay their nets for small fishing but for Kings and Kingdomes Yet there is the third of Souldiers called Cunicularij milites these Soldiers are most dangerous which keepes their Dens and Caues vnder ground where they haue as many Labyrinths windings and turnings with so many subtill and crooked walkes as the Riuer Maeander hath which both for the crooked wayes and for their winding and turning about Britane they may be well called Maeandri These three kindes of Captaines haue their meeting places though they be dispersed and scattered others found taken and executed yet they haue their places prouided for them that escape to consult againe of further treason It was a policie of the Roman Sertorius in Spaine when hee saw his Armie compassed round about by the enemies hee counselled his souldiers to flye and their flight to scatter and disperse and from the other to auoide the sword of Q. Metellus and his Armie appointing to them a place where to meete againe where Sertorius the Romane Captaine appointed So these Rebels disperse themselues ouer all England hauing their meeting places and Synod of consultation to take breath and to deliberate of their treason and they that scape are sent for more Iesuits and Seminaries to supply the rowmes of those that were executed These Iesuites vse often times three kinds of stratagems an Egiptian stratageme to pitch their combate nigh some marish ground which they doe couer ouer with sea reedes and in the middest of their fighting they flye to drawe their enemies to these bogges and marish ground and there to fall vppon them They also vse a Spanish stratageme which viriatus the Spaniard vsed against the Romanes much like to the same of the Egiptians to faine to flye to quabbie places bogs and quicke-sands they knowing how to escape vppon hard ground betweeene those bogges These Iesuits these Seminaries vse too many Romish Spanish and Egiptian stratagems in their owne Countrey and natiue soyle against their owne countrey men I thinke neither the Macedonians nor the Greeks were so glad to see King Xerxes Palace on fire in Persepolis as these Traytors would haue reioyced to haue seene such a bone-fier in Westminster Palace These bee right Cuniculares milites that are instructed with all kinde of stratagemes by Spaniards by Romanes yea and by Egiptians these bee they that throw the keyes of Peter into Tiber with Pope Iulian the 2 these be soldiers of Hyldebrandus which made himselfe Pope and made Rodolph an Emperor Gaza a great stronge Citie which Alexander the Great long time besieged in the middest of his great toyle a Conie started out of a hole which assoone as the great Alexander sawe Haec vltima pestis Gazae these Conie holes shall ouerthrow the strong Citie of Gaza and so it came to passe The like ruine fell to the Vients and Fidenates whose Cities were ouerthrowne by such Caues and Dens wrought vnder-ground by Conies But we haue such Conies that workes not onely vnder-ground but also vpon the ground May not we stoppe their holes as Ioshua did the fiue Kings of the Amorites which fled from Israel and hid them in Spelunca vrbis Maceda We must either so doe with Ioshua or as Lucullus the Romane Consull did at the besieging of Temâ—shira get Beares and wild beasts and hiues of Bees and put them vnto their Dens to fright them and to skirmish with them vnder the ground in the darke As the Lacedemonians did teach their yong Soldiers to fight in the darke which was the practise of Iugurth with the Romanes and the policie of Pompei with King Mythridates to fight in the night time Securitie is daungerous and negligence amonge Captaines verie perilous Thrasybulus forgetting to looke to his watch was taken in his Tent and slaine he that recouered Athens and slew the 30 Tyrants a noble Captaine was slaine in carelesse securitie Lu Martius for the Romans in Spaine and the 2 valiant Scipioes after much god seruice for their Countrey for the same fault were betrayed taken and slaine as Thrasybulus was We are not so secure but they are as resolute we are not so slacke but they are as forward and yet they seeme to be cowching and dormiants sed non omnibus dormiunt and therefore King Osyris had the likenesse of a mans eye in his Scepter to looke and to watch regia pericula Camillus perceiuing his Armie slacke and not willing to goe forward snatcht an ensigne into his hand and sayd You soldiers that meane to follow Camillus follow me and withall hee spur'd his horse into the middest of the Volscans and the Latines his enemies his souldiers for verie shame followed and fought desperately and so got the Victorie Our treacherous souldiers want no Camillus to lead them to recouer their old religious flagges and banners lost here in Queene Maries time the Romans were not more greedy to recouer their chiefe Ensigne the Eagle lost in Parthia by M. Crassus the Consull than these are to winne their banners in great Britane Lu Silla finding his souldiers timorous and fearefull to sight with Archelaus King Mythridates Generall drew out his sword and sayd as Camillus sayd You souldiers that meane to flye to Rome tell them at Rome that you left Silla your Generall fighting in the middest of the battell with the enemies in Boetia I doubt some treacherous papist some Rebell will so say in Rome as Lu Silla sayd in Boetia that they left many such Sillaes and many like Camillus to reuenge the quarrell in Britane These be Sagittae volantes in die These be diuelish arrowes and in the Diuels hands these be Daemones meridiani the verie line ouer Rome and the verie Daemon Maeridianus which with their diuelish deuise thought to make Acheldama of England Scotland and Ireland and that with one shot It seemed that euerie Traytor euerie Rebell was led by a Legion of Diuels and truely they had more Deuils to practise their last stratageme than the Romanes had Souldiers to ouercome Asia Europe and Affrica and yet it was fiue hundred and fiftie yeeres before they could doe it But their Arrowes were broken though they were the Diuels Arrowes their fire was quenched though it was couered ouer with Iunipers ashes and their diuellish stratageme found out though it was inuented by Diuels that wee may say and pray with the Prophet In Chamo froeno maxillas eorum constringit Deus Pau Aemilius a Romane Consull found the snares of the Boians by flying of
multitude of birds in the Etruscan warre for those fowles fledde in such fright from a thicke wood that the Consull sent scowt-watch and found 10 Thousand Boyans in watch for Aemilius and his Romane Armie We should finde greater birds in great Britane if we should send scowt-watch abrode and yet I stand in doubt that as Ioshua sent some of euerie Tribe to search the Land of Chanan at their returne they would not open the fertilitie of the Land for feare of great men of higher stature than the Israelites were lest they should fight with those mightie men the brood of Enachims saying Nuncij cor nostrum terruerunt those Israelites feared men more thaÌ„ God they had rather returne to Egipt than otherwise They came from Rome to great Britane as Cleonimus the Athenian with his souldiers went to Tracaena with a dart in his hand which hee threw ouer the wals which had written vpon his dart that Cleonimus came to deliuer the Trocenians from Craterus their enemie by this policie Cleonimus wan Trocaena by sedition of the souldiers The like did Haniball after he had gotten the great Victorie at Thrasymenum wrote diuers Letters to sundry Cities and Townes in Italy saying that Haniball came from Carthage to Italy to deliuer Italy from the Romans Many vse Hanibals speach and letters that come in one hand with pardons indulgences not onely promising on earth absolution for their treacherie and murther but also to be canonized Saints in heauen and in the other hand Cleonimus dart yea Sauls dart to throw to King Dauids face such darts would these cursed Crew throwe to Kinges and Princes faces Not what lawes should bee sought for these Rebels but what punishment might bee inuented for these Traytors Antiochus inuented torments to torture the Iewes that would not eate Swines flesh Phalaâ—is had by perillous inuention a brazen Bull to torment Offendors Among the Greekes it was lawfull for any man to bring such Offenders to Delphos and there to offer them quicke in sacrifice to Apollo Among the Romanes to bring such to the Theators and there to bee hewd and cut in peeces Per Gladiatores the Sword-players Among the Persians such should be quick buried the Massilians had a naked Sword and a great Vessell full of poyson hanged vp in publicke sight to terrifie such Traytors Sectio 4. THemistocles before compared himselfe to a Plantane tree for that the Athenians vsed it for to shadow them and to defend them in times of warres with the Persians so in like sort said Themistocles That Athenians vse him at their pleasure sometime for their drinking Cup and sometime for their Chamber pot and so often vsed him off and on to cast him of at their pleasure and to call him againe at their will that Themistocles would sometime speake to the Athenians Illos non laudo homines qui eodem vase pro calice matula vtuntur I like not those kinde of people that vseth one vessell for to drinke out wine of it in the morning and to make water in it at night So vngratefull people were the Athenians that they wayed for nothing but for three Monsters of Athens Noctua populus draco so full of flattery and dissimulation was Athens that euerie one stood in doubt whome to trust Many vse such dissembling speaches and countenances in great Britane like counterfeit Tragedians at Smyrna with their false Solaescismes holding vp to heauen their bloodie hands and looking downe to the earth with wicked malicious eyes longing to see their tree at Rome bring forth such fruits as the wild Oliue tree did at Megara a Citie of Achaia in Greece There was a Citie in the Market-place a wilde Oliue tree on which the Captaines and the souldiers vsed to hange their armors a long season that in continuance of time this tree by hanging on of these armors bred of it selfe Armors which was prophecied that when this tree should breed of it selfe Armors for souldiers this Citie should be destroyed for this tree was Arbor fatalis There was a great Tree likewise in Babilon which shadowed all beasts of the field and on whose boughes all the fowles of the ayre made their neasts and all the Kings of the earth hanged their Swords their Targets their Helmets and all their Militarie Armors But there was a rotteÌ„ Tree a long time in Rome Religiosa arbor on which the Dominick Franciscans Benedicts Friars hanged their Caputium their weeds and religious garments so long that this Tree bred more Armors and armed men in Rome and out of Rome than the wilde Oliue did at Megara or the mightie high Tree at Babilon But as the fatall Tree of Megara had an end so the great Tree of Babilon was cut downe and so the rotten Tree of Rome is as readie to fall downe for vnder this Tree were more Traytors bredd more Scysmes and heresies brought vp than were Souldiers at Megara either beasts or fowles in Babilon For these hold it a principle or a maxim of their laws that it was as lawfull to burne a Protestant in England as to kill a Tyrant in Greece and the reward was a like Spolia opima Ioui a rich spoyle to their Iupiter It was counted great tyrannie in Tamberlane King of Scythia to vse Baizates the great Turke though as great a Tyrant as himselfe being taken captiue to carrie him in his tryumph from Countrey to Countrey in a Cage and to feede him like a dogge vnder his table in that Cage And it is greater tyrannie to feed Turkes and Tamberlanes to cut our throats in England Sapor King of Persia after his great Victorie ouer the Romanes and had taken the Roman Emperour Valerianus he kept him as his Prisoner vsed him as a blocke on his knee for the King of Persia to mount on horse-backe to the great disgrace of the Romans These were tryumphs of Tyrants and not of Kings The King of great Britane may vse his enemies as Tamberlane vsed the great Turke or as Sapor vsed the Romanes I remember the tyrannie of Sesostris whom the Ethiopians call the Hercules of Egipt which was caried in a Coach as Melancthon saith In curru ex auro lapidibusque praeciosis constructo by â—ower Kinges in a Charriot wrought with gold and precious stones But one of these 4 Kings euer looked back vpon the wheele of the chariot Sesostris asked him why he so ofteÌ„ looked back he said I look vpon the wheele how by course the staues of the whele are somtimes aboue sometimes belowe Histories report that he dismissed those Kinges and freed them from such bondage vpon these words Such was the fortune of Tygranes the great King of Armenia though he had 4 Kings wayted on him at his Table and ranne sometime as foot-men at his stirrope yet was hee forced to throw his Diademe at Pompeis feet Thus Fortuna ambiguo vagatur