handsomenesse preferred to be Patriarch William Archbishop of Tyre was violent against his election because of a prophesie That as Heraclius King of Persia wonne so an Heraclius should lose the Crosse. But others excepted that this exception was nothing worth For let God give the man and let the devil set the name As for those blind prophesies they misse the truth ofter then hit it so that no wise man will lean his belief on so slender a prop. But Heraclius had a worse name then his name the bad report of his vitious life keeping a Vintners wife whom he maintained in all state like an Empresse and owned the children he had by her Her name Pascha de Rivera and she was generally saluted The Patriarchesse His example infected the inferiour clergie whose corruption was a sad presage of the ruine of the realm For when Prelates the Seers when once those eye-strings begin to break the heart-strings hold not out long after In his time the Maronites were reconciled to the Romane Church Their main errour was the heresie of the Monothelites touching one onely will and action in Christ. For after that the heresie of Nestorius about two persons in our Saviour was detested in the Eastern Churches some thought not themselves safe enough from the heresie of two persons till they were fallen with the opposite extremity of one nature in Christ violence making men reel from one extreme to another The errour once broched found many embracers As no opinion so monstrous but if it hath had a mother it will get a nurse But now these Maronites renouncing their tenents received the Catholick faith though soon after when Saladine had conquered their countrey they relapsed to their old errours wherein they continued till the late times of Pope Gregory the thirteenth and Clement the eighth when they again renewed their communion with the Romane Church They live at this day on mount Libanus not exceeding twelve thousand households and pay to the great Turk for every one above twelve yeares old seventeen sultanines by the yeare and for every space of ground sixteen spanne square one sultanine yearly to keep themselves free from the mixture of Mahometanes A sultanine is about seven shillings six pence of our money To return to Heraclius Soon after he was sent Embassadour to Henry the second King of England to crave his personall assistance in the Holy warre delivering unto him the Royall standard with the keyes of our Saviours sepulchre the towre of David and the city of Jerusalem sent him by King Baldwine King Henry was singled out for this service before other Princes because the world justly reported him valiant wise rich powerfull and fortunate And which was the main hereby he might expiate his murder and gather up again the innocent bloud which he had shed of Thomas Becket Besides Heraclius entituled our Henry to the kingdome of Jerusalem because Geoffrey Plantagenet his father was sonne some say brother to Fulk the fourth King of Jerusalem But King Henry was too wise to bite at such a bait wherein was onely the husk of title without the kernel of profit Yet he pretended he would go into Palestine and got hereby a masse of money towards his voyage making every one as well Clerk as Lay saving such as went to pay that yeare the tenth of all their revenues moveables and chattells as well in gold as in silver Of every citie in England he chose the richest men as in London two hundred in York an hundred and so in proportion and took the tenth of all their moveables by the estimation of credible men who knew their estates imprisoning those which refused to pay sub eleemosynae titulo vitium rapacitatis includans saith Walsingham But now when he had filled his purse all expected he should fulfill his promise when all his voyage into Palestine turned into a journey into France Heraclius whilest he stayed in England consecrated the Temple-church in the suburbs of London and the house adjoyning belonging to the Templars since turned to a better use for the students of our municipall Law these new Templars defending one Christian from another as the old ones Christians from Pagans Chap. 40. Saladine fitteth himself with forrein forces The originall and great power of the Mammalukes with their first service IN the minority of King Baldwine who was but thirteen yeares old Milo de Plancia Noble-man was Protectour of the Realm Whose pride and insolence could not be brooked and therefore he was stabbed at Ptolemais and Reimund Count of Tripoli chosen to succeed him Now Saladine seriously intendeth to set on the Kingdome of Jerusalem and seeketh to furnish himself with souldiers for that service But he perceived that the ancient nation of the Egyptians had lasted so long that now it ranne dregs their spirits being as low as the countrey they lived in and they fitter to make merchants and mechanicks then military men For they were bred in such soft imployments that they were presently foundred with any hard labour Wherefore he sent to the Circassians by the lake of Meotis neare Taurica Chersonesus and thence bought many slaves of able and active bodies For it was a people born in a hard countrey no fewel for pleasure grew there nor was brought thither and bred harder so that warre was almost their nature with custome of continuall skirmishing with the neighbouring Tartars These slaves he trained up in military discipline most of them being Christians once baptized but afterwards untaught Christ they learned Mahomet and so became the worse foes to religion for once being her friends These proved excellent souldiers and speciall horsemen and are called Mammalukes And surely the greatnesse of Saladine and his successours stood not so much on the legs of their native Egyptians as it leaned on the staff of these strangers Saladine and especially the Turkish Kings after him gave great power and placed much trust in these Mammalukes Who lived a long time in ignorance of their own strength till at last they took notice of it and scorning any longer to be factours for another they would set up for themselves and got the sovereignty from the Turkish Kings Thus Princes who make their subjects over-great whet a knife for their own throats And posterity may chance to see the insolent Janizaries give the grand Seignor such a trip on the heel as may tumble him on his back But more largely of these Mammalukes usurping the kingdome of Egypt God willing in its proper place Thus Saladine having furnished himself with new souldiers went to handsel their valour upon the Christians invaded the Holy land burning all the countrey before him and raging in the bloud of poore Christians till he came and encamped about Askelon Mean time whilest Reimund Count of Tripoli Protectour of the Kingdome with Philip Earl of Flanders the chief strength of the Kingdome were absent in Celosyria wasting the countrey about
pleased himself in the style of Prince of Tyre then King of Jerusalem as counting it more honour to be Prince of what he had then King of what he had not And now the Christians began every where to build The Templars fortified Gaza King Richard repaired and walled Ptolemais Porphyria Joppa and Askelon But alas this short prosperity like an Autumne-spring came too late and was gone too soon to bring any fruit to maturitie It was now determined they should march towards Jerusalem for all this while they had but hit the butt that Holy citie was the mark they shot at Richard led the vantguard of English Duke Odo commanded in the main battel over his French James of Avergne brought on the Flemings and Brabanters in the rere Saladine serpent-like biting the heel assaulted the rere not farre from Bethlehem when the French and English wheeling about charged the Turks most furiously Emulation formerly poyson was here a cordiall each Christian nation striving not onely to conquer their enemies but to overcome their friends in the honour of the conquest King Richard seeking to put his courage out of doubt brought his judgement into question being more prodigall of his person then beseemed a Generall One wound he received but by losing his bloud he found his spirits and laid about him like a mad-man The Christians got the victory without the losse of any of number or note save James of Avergne who here died in the bed of honour But more of the Turks wore slain then in any battel for fourtie yeares before Had the Christians presently gone to Jerusalem probably they might have surprised it whilest the Turks eyes were muffled and blindfolded in the amazement of this great overthrow But this opportunitie was lost by the backwardnesse and unwillingnesse of King Richard and the English say the French writers To crie quits with them our English authours impute it to the enviâ— of the French who would have so glorious an action rather left undone then done by the English They complain likewise ofâ— the treacherie of Odo Duke of Burgundie who more carefull of his credit then his conscience was choked with the shame of the sinne he had swallowed and died for grief when his intelligence with the Turks was made known This cannot be denied that Saladine sent term them bribes or presents both to our King and the French Duke and they received them no wonder then if neither of them herein had a good name when they traded with such familiars But most hold King Richard attempted not Jerusalem because as a wise architect he would build his victories so as they might stand securing the countrey as he went it being senselesse to besiege Jerusalem a straggling citie whilest the Turks as yet were in possession of all the sea-ports and strong forts thereabout About this time he intercepted many camels loaden with rich commoditie those Eastern wares containing much in a little And yet of all this and of all the treasures of England Sicilie and Cyprus which he brought hither King Richard carried home nothing but one gold-ring all the rest of his wealth melted away in this hot service He wintered in Askelon intending next spring to have at Jerusalem Chap. 12. The little-honourable peace King Richard made with Saladine Of the value of Reliques BUt bad news out of Europe shaked his steadiest resolutions hearing how William Bishop of Ely his Vice-roy in England used unsufferable insolencies over his subjects So hard it is for one of base parentage to personate a King without over-acting his part Also he heard how the King of France and John Earl of Morton his own brother invaded his dominions ambition the Pope in their belly dispensing with their oath to the contrary Besides he saw this warre was not a subject capable of valour to any purpose the Venetians Genoans Pisans and Florentines being gone away with their fleets wisely shrinking themselves out of the collar when they found their necks wrung with the hard imployment Hereupon he was forced first to make the motion of in plain terms to begge peace of Saladine Let Saladine now alone to winne having all the game in his own hand Well knew he how to shoot at his own ends and to take aim by the exigencies wherein he knew King Richard was plunged For he had those cunning gypsies about him who could read in King Richards face what grieved his heart and by his intelligencers was certified of every note-worthy passage in the English armie Upon these terms therefore or none beggers of peace shall never be choosers of their conditions a truce for three some say five yeares might be concluded That the Christians should demolish all places they had walled since the taking of Ptolemais which was in effect to undo what with much charge they had done But such was the tyrannie of King Richards occasions forcing him to return that he was glad to embrace those conditions he hated at his heart Thus the voyage of these two Kings begun with as great confidence of the undertakers as expectation of the beholders continued with as much courage as interchangeablenesse of successe baned with mutuall discord emulation was ended with some honour to the undertakers no profit either to them or the Christian cause Some farre-fetched deare-bought honour they got especially King Richard who eternized his memory in Asia whom if men forget horses will remember the Turks using to say to their horses when they started for fear Dost thou think King Richard is here Profit they got none losing both of them the hair of their heads in an acute disease which was more saith one then both of them got by the voyage They left the Christians in Syria in worse case then they found them as he doeth the benighted traveller a discourtesie rather then a kindnesse who lendeth him a lantern to take it away leaving him more masked then he was before And now a little to solace my self and the reader with a merry digression after much sorrow and sad stories King Richard did one thing in Palestine which was worth all the cost and pains of his journey namely He redeemed from the Turks a chest full of holy Reliques which they had gotten at the taking of Jerusalem so great as foure men could scarce carry any way And though some know no more then Esops cock how to prize these pearls let them learn the true value of them from the Romane jewellers First they must carefully distinguish between publick and private Reliques In private ones some forgery may be suspected lest quid be put for quo which made S. Augustine put in that wary parenthesis Si tamen Martyrum If so be they be the Reliques of Martyrs But as for publick ones approved by the Pope and kept in Churches such no doubt as these of King Richards were oh let no Christian be such an infidel as to stagger at the
yeelded up this citie for nothing which cost so many lives they should betray themselves to the derision of the whole world That if these perished more men might be had but no more Damiata's being a place of such importance it would alwayes be a snaffle in the mouth of the Egyptian King On the other side the friends of the distressed Christians confessed That indeed their voyage was unadvised and justly to be blamed yet worse and more inconsiderate projects have armies oft undertaken which if crowned with successe have been above censure yea have passed not onely without questioning but with commendations But this is the misery of misery that those who are most afflicted of God shall be most condemned of men Wherefore they requested them to pity their brethren and not to leave them in this forlorn estate How clamourous would their innocent bloud be in the court of Heaven to sue for revenge on those who forsook them in this distresse And grant Damiata a citie of great consequence yet cities in themselves were but dead things and men were the souls to enliven them so that those souldiers which wonne Damiata if preserved alive might haply recover as strong a citie afterwards But finding their arguments not to prevail they betook themselves to arms by force to compell the adverse party to resigne the citie King John also threatned in case they denied to surrender it to give up to Meladine Ptolemais in Syria in exchange for Damiata At last according to the agreement Damiata was restored to the Turks and the Christian armie let out of the trap wherein it was taken Meladine out of his princely goodnesse furnished them with victuals and with horses to carry their feeble persons upon And thus the Christians had the greatest blow given them without a blow given them the Egyptians obtaining their victory not by bloud but by water Chap. 28. Iohn Bren resigneth the Kingdome of Ierusalem to Frederick the second Germane Emperour THere was also concluded a peace with the Turks for eight yeares And now matters being settled as well as they might be in Syria King John took a journey to Rome where he was bountifully feasted and honourably entertained by the Pope Here it was agreed whether at the first by his voluntary offer or working of others it appeareth not that he should resigne the Kingdome of Jerusalem to Frederick the second Germane Emperour who was to marry Iole the sole daughter of King John by his first wife though by a second he had another Martha married to Robert Emperour of Constantinople so that he was father in law both to Emperour of East and West Some condemned his resignation as an unadvised act as if he had first parted from his wits who would willingly part from a Kingdome whilest others commend his discretion For first his wife was dead in whose right he held his Kingdome and thereby a doore was opened for other litigious pretenders to the Crown Secondly it was policie fugere nè fugaretur yea this was no flight but an honourable departure Well he knew the Turks power to invade and his own weaknesse to defend what was left in Syria So that finding the weight too heavy for himself he did well to lay it on stronger shoulders Thirdly before his resignation he had little more then a title and after it he had nothing lesse men having so tuned their tongues to salute him King of Jerusalem that he was so called to the day of his death Lastly what he wanted in the statelinesse of his bed he had in the soundnesse of his sleep and though his commons perchance were shorter yet he battled better on them He got now more in a twelve-moneth then in seven yeares before going from countrey to countrey And yet the farther this stone rolled the more mosse he gathered In France besides rich gifts left to himself he had the managing of sixty thousand crowns the legacie which Philip Augustus the King on his death-bed bequeathed to the Templars and the Holy warre In England he received from Henry the third many great presents though afterwards he proved but unthankfull for them In Spain he got a rich wife Beringaria the daughter of the King of Castile In Italie he tasted very largely of the Popes liberalitie and lived there in good esteem But he went off the stage without an applause because he lost himself in his last act perfidiously raising rebellions against Frederick his sonne in law at the instigation of his Holinesse Nor recovered he his credit though after he went to his sonne Robert to Constantinople and there did many good offices He died anno 1237. Chap. 29. The true character of Frederick How the history of his life is prejudiced by the partialitie of Authours on both sides THe nuptiall solemnities of Frederick with the Lady Iole were performed at Rome in the presence of the Pope with all ceremonies of majesty and Frederick promised to prosecute in person his title in Palestine within two yeares Little hope have I to content the reader in this Kings life who cannot satisfie my self writers of that age are so possessed with partiality The faction of the Guelfes and Gibellines discovereth not it self more plainly in the Camp then in the Chronicles Yea Historians turn Schoolmen in matters of fact arguing them pro con And as it is in the Fable of the man that had two wives whilest his old wife plucked out his black hairs the evidence of his youth his young one ungray-haired him that no standards of antiquity might remain they made him bald betwixt them So amongst our late writers whilest Protestants cut off the authority from all Papized writers of that age and Romanists cast away the witnesse of all Imperialized authours then living such as Urspergensis is and generally all Germanes counting them testes domesticos and therefore of no validitie betwixt them they draw all historie of that time very slender and make it almost quite nothing We will not engage our selves in their quarrels but may safely beleeve that Frederick was neither saint nor devil but man Many vertues in him his foes must commend and some vices his friends must confesse He was very learned according to the rate of that age especially for a Prince who onely baiteth at learning and maketh it not his profession to lodge in Wise he was in projecting nor were his thoughts ever so scattered with any sudden accident but he could instantly recollect himself Valiant he was and very fortunate though this tendeth more to Gods praise then his Wondrous bountifull to scholars and souldiers whose good will he enjoyed for he payed for it But this Gold had its allay of Cruelty though this was not so much bred in him as he brought to it Treasons against him were so frequent he could not be safe but must be severe nor severe without incurring the aspersion of crueltie His Pride was excessive and so was
devoured the mother and wealth impaired religion Chap. 12. The qualitie and condition of those people who undertook the warre IT is not to be expected that all should be fish which is caught in a drag-net neither that all should be good and religious people who were adventurers in an action of so large a capacitie as this warre was We must in charitie allow that many of them were truly zealous and went with pious intents These were like to those of whom Bellarmine speaketh who had no fault praeter nimiam sanctitatem too much sanctitie which a learned man interpreteth too much superstition But besides these well-meaning people there went also a rabble-rout rather for companie then conscience Debters took this voyage on them as an acquittance from their debts to the defrauding of their creditours Servants counted the conditions of their service cancelled by it going away against their masters will Theeves and murderers took upon them the crosse to escape the gallows Adulterers did penance in their armour A lamentable case that the devils black guard should be Gods souldiers And no wonder if the successe was as bad as some of the adventurers especially seeing they retained their old conditions under a new climate And as if this voyage had been like to repentance never too soon nor too late for any to begin not onely green striplings unripe for warre but also decayed men to whom age had given a writ of ease became souldiers and those who at home should have waited on their own graves went farre to visit Christs sepulchre And which was more women as if they would make the tale of the Amazons truth went with weapons in mens clothes a behaviour at the best immodest and modesty being the case of chastitie it is to be feared that where the case is broken the jewel is lost This enterprise was also the mother of much non-residence many Prelates and Friars fitter to handle a pen-knife then a sword left their covents and pastorall charges to follow this businesse The totall summe of those pilgrime-souldiers amounted to three hundred thousand and some writers do double that number No doubt the Christians army had been greater if it had been lesse for the belly was too big for the head and a medley of nations did rather burden then strengthen it Besides the armie was like a cloth of many colours and more seams which seams though they were curiously drawn up for the present yet after long wearing began to be seen and at last brake out into open rents Chap. 13. The adventurers sorted according to their severall nations THe French Dutch Italian and English were the foure elementall nations whereof this army was compounded of these the French were predominant they were the cape-merchants in this adventure That nimble nation first apprehended the project and eagerly prosecuted it As their language wanteth one proper word to expresse Stand so their natures mislike a settled fixed posture and delight in motion and agitation of businesse Yea France as being then best at leisure contributed more souldiers to this warre then all Christendome besides The signall men were Hugh surnamed le Grand brother to the King of France Godfrey Duke of Bouillon Baldwine and Eustace his younger brethren Stephen Earl of Bloys father to Stephen afterwards King of England Reimund Earl of Tholouse Robert Earl of Flanders Hugh Earl of Saint-Paul Baldwine de Burge with many more besides of the Clergie Aimar Bishop of Puy and Legate to the Pope and William Bishop of Orange Germanie is slandered to have sent none to this warre at this first voyage and that other pilgrimes passing through that countrey were mocked by the Dutch and called fools for their pains It is true the Germane adventurers in number answered not the largenesse and populousnesse of their countrey for Henry the Emperour a Prince whom the Pope long hacked at and hewed him off at last being desirous to go this voyage was tied up at home with civill discords Yet we find a competencie of souldiers of that nation besides those under Godescalcus a Priest Emmicho the Rhene-grave and Count Herman their leaders But though Germanie was backward at the first yet afterwards it proved the main Atlas of the warre that nation like a heavie bell was long a raising but being got up made a loud sound Italy sent few out of her heart and middle provinces nigh Rome The Pope was loth to adventure his darlings into danger those white-boyes were to stay at home with his Holinesse their tender father Wherefore he dispensed with them for going as knowing how to use their help nearer and to greater profit Peters patrimonie must as well be looked to as Christs sepulchre But though the Pope would spend none of his own fewel he burnt the best stakes of the Emperours hedge and furthered the Imperiall partie to consume it self in this tedious warre Out of the furthermost parts of Italie Boemund Prince of Tarentum and Tancred his nephew both of the Normane seed though growing on the Apulian soyl led an army of twelve thousand men And Lombardy was also very liberall of her souldiers towards this expedition England the Popes pack-horse in that age which seldome rested in the stable when there was any work to be done sent many brave men under Robert Duke of Normandy brother to William Rufus as Beauchamp and others whose names are lost Neither surely did the Irish-mens feet stick in their bogs though we find no particular mention of their atchievements Spain had other use for her swords against the Saracens at home and therefore sent none of her men abroad As one saith The Spaniards did follow their own Holy warre a work more necessary and no lesse honourable Thus they acted the same part though not on the same stage with our Pilgrimes as being also imployed in fight against the infidels Poland had the same excuse for not much appearing clean through this warre because she lieth bordering on the Tartars in her appendant countrey of Lituania and therefore was busied in making good her frontiers Besides no wonder if Prussia Lituania and Livonia were not up in this service for it was scarce break of day with them and the sunne of the Gospel was newly if at all risen in those parts Yea Poland was so farre from sending men hither that she fetcht them from hence and afterwards implored the aid of the Teutonick order who came out of Palestine to assist her against her enemies Hungary might bring filling-stones to this building but few foundation or corner-stones and at this time had no commander of note in this action Scotland also presenteth us not with any remarkable piece of service which her men performed in all this warre It was not want of devotion which was hot enough in that cold countrey rather we may impute it to want of shipping that countrey being little powerfull at sea or which is most
the Albingenses Three severall opinions concerning that sect POpe Innocent the third having lately learned the trick of imploying the armie of Pilgrimes in by-services began now to set up a trade thereof For two yeares after he levied a great number of them whom he sent against the Albingenses in France These were reputed hereticks whom his Holinesse intended to root out with all crueltie that good shepherd knowing no other way to bring home a wandring sheep then by worrying him to death He fully and freely promised the undertakers the self-same Pardons and Indulgences as he did to those who went to conquer the Holy land and very conscionably requested their aid onely for fourty dayes hoping to chop up these Albingenses at a bit Though herein he was deceived and they stuck in his and his successours teeth for fifty yeares together The place being nearer the service shorter the work lesse the wages the same with the voyage into Syria many entred themselves in this imployment and neglected the other We will trace this armie by their footsteps and our penne must wait on their swords And I hope that his Holinesse who absolved many of their vows from Palestine and commuted them into a journey into France will also of his goodnesse dispense with my veniall digression herein in prosecuting their actions Yea indeed I need not his dispensation being still resident on my own subject this also being styled The Holy warre The warre for the Crucifix The army of the Church the souldiers also bearing the badge of the Crosse on their coat-armour But first let us throughly examine what these Albingenses were and what they held a question that will quit the cost in studying it They were a younger house of the Waldenses and branched from them not different in doctrine but later in time and distant in place so called from the countrey Albigeois in France where they lived I find three grand different opinions of Authours concerning them First Some make them to have been very monsters in life and doctrine so that the heaviest punishment was too light for them And this is the generall voyce of most writers in that age and all Romanists in our dayes Secondly Others clean contrary hold That these Waldenses for I make them and the Albingenses synonyma as others have done were onely the true Church of God in that age whilest all others being corrupted with abominable superstition were no true Church at all These alone were Gods Virgins his Witnesses in sackcloth his Woman in the wildernesse his sealed ones his seven thousand whose knees were not suppled with the Baalisme of that age This is the expresse opinion of some strict Protestants and of some who speak it not out yet mutter it to themselves Thirdly A third sort explode this opinion as trespassing on Divine providence that God who neither slumbereth nor sleepeth should be in so long a lethargie as to suffer hell to eat up his heaven on earth for so many yeares together leaving no true Church but so small a company of such simple people They conceive that the maintainers hereof engage themselves in a labyrinth of difficulties hanging too great a weight on so slender a string in making such an handfull of men the onely Church for so long continuance More moderately therefore they hold That these Albingenses were a purer part of the Church and though guilty of some errours as there must be a dawning before the day and charged with more yet they maintained the same doctrine in ore which since Luthers time was refined So that the main body of the Church visible at this time was much in dilapidations whilest the Albingenses as an innermost chapell thereof was best in repair Let the Reader choose the probablest opinion when he hath perused the evidences of all sides which we will now produce deducing the historie of these Albingenses from their first originall Chap. 19. The beginning of the Albingenses Their dispersion persecution increase names and nick-names ABout the yeare 1160 Peter Waldo a merchant of Lyons rich in substance and learning for a lay-man was walking and talking with his friends when one of them suddenly fell down dead Which lively spectacle of mans mortality so impressed the soul of this Waldo that instantly he resolved on a strict reformation of his life Which to his power he performed translating some books of the Bible instructing such as resorted to him in godlinesse of life teaching withall That Purgatorie Masses dedication of Temples worshipping of Saints prayers for the dead were inventions of the devil and snares of avarice That Monkery was a stinking carrion the Church of Rome the whore of Babylon the Pope that Antichrist Paramount He sharply lanced the vitious ulcers of Clergie-mens lives reproving their pride and luxury Soon got he many followers both because novelty is a forcible loadstone and because he plentifully relieved his poore disciples and those that use that trade shall never want custome The Archbishop of Lyons hearing such doctrines broched as were high treason against the Triple crown ferreted Waldo and his sectaries out of Lyons and the countrey thereabouts But persecution is the bellows of their Gospel to blow every spark into a flame This their division proved their multiplication Some fled into the Alpes living there on so steep hills and in so deep holes that their enemies were afraid to climbe or dive after them Here they had the constant company of the snow And as it by the height of the hills was protected from the sun-beams so they from the scorching of persecution even to Luthers time Others fled into Picardy Flanders England Alsatia Bohemia Bulgaria Croatia Hungaria and whither not the perfume of the Popes presence not keeping this supposed vermine out of Italy it self Many of them were cruelly massacred five and thirty Burgesses of Mayence burned at Bingen in one fire eighteen at Mayence fourescore at Strassburg at the instance of the Bishop thereof But Martyrs ashes are the best compost to manure the Church for others were wonne to their opinion by beholding their constancie and patience Strange that any should fall in love with that profession whose professours were so miserable But truth hath alwayes a good face though often but bad clothes They were called by sundry names Sometimes from the places where they lived As from Albigeois Tholose Lyons Picardy Bohemia Albingenses Tholousians Lyonists Picards Bohemians Sometimes from their principall pastour As from Waldo Joseph Henry Esperon Arnold Waldenses Josephists Henricians Esperonites Arnoldists In England they were termed Lolards from Lolard their teacher not as some Friar descanteth quasi Lolium in areâ Domini It appeareth not whether they were thus called of others or called themselves But grant the latter and if any object That they seemed ashamed of Christ their first godfather who gave them the name of Christians thus to denominate themselves from their teachers I answer It is the same
haven of Tyre after a most cruel and desperate battel And surely generally sea-fights are more bloudy then those on the land especially since gunnes came up whose shot betwixt wind and water like those wounds so often mentioned in the Scripture under the fifth rib is commonly observed mortall Yea farre harder it is for a ship when arrested and ingaged in a battel to clear it self then for souldiers by land to save themselves by flight Here neither his own two nor his horses foure legges can bestead any but like accidents they must perish with their subjects and sink with their ship And then why is a sea-victory lesse honour being more danger then one atchieved by land Is it because sea-service is not so generall nor so full of varieties and the mysteries thereof sooner learned or because in sea-fights fortune may seem to be a deeper sharer and valour not so much interested Whatsoever it is the laurel purchased on land hath a more lively verdure then that which is got at sea We return to the Venetians Who using or rather abusing this conquest enter Ptolemais cast out all Genoans thence throw down their buildings both publick and private demolish the fort which they had builded at S. Saba rifle and spoil their shops ware-houses and store houses onely the Pope prevailed so farre with them that they set at liberty the prisoners they had taken Ten yeares did this warre last betwixt these two States in Syria composed at last saith my Authour by the authority of Pope Clement the fourth and by famine the bad cause of a good effect which in Palestine starved them into agreement Longer these warres lasted betwixt them in Italy their successe like the sea they fought on ebbing and flowing In this costly warre Pisa was first beggered and for all her politick partaking Genoa at last trode so heavy upon her that ever since she hath drooped and hung the wing and at this day is maid to Florence who formerly was mistresse of a good part of Italy But I have no calling and lesse comfort to prosecute these bloudy dissensions For warres of Christians against Infidels are like the heat of exercise which serveth to keep the body of Christianity in health but these civil warres amongst themselves like the heat of a feaver dangerous and destructive of religion Chap. 25. Charles made King of Sicily and Ierusalem by the Pope Hugh King of Cyprus pretendeth also to go to Ierusalem WE have now gotten Pantaleon a Frechman who succeeded Robert in the titular Patriarchship Jerusalem to be Pope by the name of Urbane the fourth To advance the Holy cause after fourteen yeares interregnum in Syria he appointed Charles Duke of Anjou younger brother to King Lewis of France King of Sicily and Jerusalem and it was ratified by Clement the fourth his successour This honour was first offered to Lewis himself but piety had dried up in him all ambitious humours then to our Henry of England but his warre-wasted purse could not stretch to the Popes price At last this Charles accepted it But it is not for any speciall favour to the bush if a man runne under it in a storm it was no love to Charles but to himself to be sheltred from Maufred that the Pope conferred this honour upon him And the wife of Charles that she might go in equipage with her three sisters being Queens sold all her jewels to furnish her husband with money to purchase these Kingdomes that sex loving bravery well but greatnesse better Now the Pope whose well-grounded and bounded bountie will never undo him for where he giveth away the meat he selleth the sauce conditioned with Charles on these terms First that he should conquer Maufred then King of Sicily who molested the Pope and that he should finally subdue all the remaining race of Frederick the second Emperour who claimed that Kingdome Secondly in acknowledgement that he held these Kingdomes from the Pope he should pay him an annuall pension of foure some say fourty thousand pounds Provided if this Charles should chance to be chosen Emperour of Germany that then he should either resigne Sicily back again into the hands of his Holinesse or not accept the Empire For he knew that all Emperours would be possessed with an anti-papall spirit and that they would hold Sicily not in homage from the Church but as a member of the Empire Besides the Pope would not dispense that Princes should hold pluralitie of temporall Dominions in Italy especially he was so ticklish he could not endure the same Prince should embrace him on both sides Ever since the twinne-titles of Sicily and Jerusalem have gone together and fit it is that the shadow should follow the substance Charles subdued Maufred and Conradine his nephew the last of the Suevian race and grandchild to Emperour Frederick and was possessed of Sicilie and lived there but as for the gaining of Jerusalem he little regarded it nor came thither at all A watchfull King who never slept in his Kingdome His absence gave occasion to Hugh King of Cyprus to furbish up new his old title to the Kingdome as lineally descended from Almerick the second And coming to Ptolemais he there was crowned King of Jerusalem But the extremity of the famine all things being excessive deare much abated the solemnity and state of his Coronation Chap. 26. The Tartarians alienated from the Christians Bendocdar tyrannizeth over them and Lewis King of France setteth forth again for to succour them BUt betwixt two Kings the Kingdome went to the ground For Haalon the Tartarian Prince late Christian convert was returned home to succeed his brother Mango in the Empire leaving Abaga his sonne with competent forces in the city of Damascus which he had wonne from the Turks Soon after Abaga followed his father and substituted Guirboca his Lieutenant in Damascus This Guirboca upon the occasion of his nephew rashly slain by the Christians in a broil fell off wholly from Christianity with all the Tartarians his countreymen The occasion this The Dutch Christians return with great booty they had taken from the Turks Guirboca's nephew meeteth them demandeth it for himself the Christians deny him as souldiers are very tender-conscienced in that point counting it a great sinne to part with the spoil they are possessed of hence brawls then blows Guirboca's nephew is slain Hereat the Tartarians who were very humourous in their friendship if not observed to an inch lost for ever in discontent all either reel aside to Mahomet or fall back to Paganisme Herein the Christians cannot be excused Infant-converts must be well tended It had been discretion in them even against discretion to have yeelded a little to these Tartarians and so to continue their amity which was so advantageous to the Holy warre How-ever one may question the truth of their conversion whether reall at first This spring was too forward to hold and
and have at Italie Wherefore the Hospitallers left Nice and planted themselves at Syracuse in Sicilie Where they right valiantly behaved themselves in defending that countrey But Charles the fifth a politick Prince though he saw their help was usefull yet desired not much to have them live in his own countrey He liked their neighbourhood better then their presence to have them rather neare then in his Kingdome Wherefore he appointed them the Island of Malta to keep for themselves their grand Master onely paying yearly to the King of Spain a Falcon in acknowledgement they held it from him Loth were the Hospitallers to leave Sicilie that Paradise of pleasure and went very unwillingly from it Malta is an Island in the mid-land-sea seated betwixt Europe and Africa as if it meant to escape out of both as being in neither Here S. Paul suffered shipwrack when the viper stung him not but the men did condemning him for a murderer And here the Hospitallers seated themselves and are the bulwark of Christendome to this day giving dayly evident proof of their courage But their master-piece was in the yeare 1565 when they couragiously defended the citie of Malta besieged by Soliman When he discharged seventie eight thousand bullets some of them seven spans in compasse against it big enough not onely to overthrow walls but overturn mountains yet notwithstanding they held out valiantly five moneths and at last forced the Turk to depart These Knights of Malta are at this day a good bridle to Tunis and Algiers I am informed by a good friend who hath spent much yet lost no time in those parts that these Knights are bound by vow not to flie from the Turks though one man or one galley to foure half which ods Hercules himself durst not venture on but if there be five to one it is interpreted wisdome not cowardlinesse to make away from them Also if a Christian ship wherein there is a Knight of Malta take a Turkish ship that Knight is bound by his Order first to go aboard to enter it The grand Master of this Order hath a great command and is highly esteemed of insomuch that the authour of the Catalogue of the glory of the world beleeveth he is to take place next to absolute Kings above all other temporall Princes even above Kings subject to the Empire Sure he meaneth if they will give it him otherwise it seemeth improper that the alms-man should take place of his benefactours Yet the Lord Prior of the Hospitallers in England was chief Baron of the Realm and had precedencie of all other Lords and here his Order flourished with great pomp till their finall period which I now come to relate Chap. 6. The Hospitallers in England stoutly withstand three severall assaults which overthrew all other Religious foundations THe suppression of the Hospitallers in England deserveth especiall notice because the manner thereof was different from the dissolving of other Religious houses for manfully they stood it out to the last in despite of severall assaults 1. Cardinall Wolsey by leave from the Pope suppressed certain small houses of little value therewithall to endow his Colledges in Oxford and Ipswich He first shewed Religious places were mortall which hitherto had flourished in a seeming eternitie This leading case of Wolseys did pick the morter out of all the Abbey-walls in England and made a breach in their strongest gate-houses teaching covetousnesse an apt scholar a readie way to assault them For it is the dedication not the value of the thing dedicated stampeth a character of sacrednesse upon it And King Henry the eighth concluded if the Cardinall might eat up the lean Covents he himself might feed on the fat ones without danger of a sacrilegious surfet True it is Wolsey not wholly but in part alienated the lands of these pettie houses reserving them still to the generall end of pious uses But the King followed this pattern so farre as it was for his purpose and neglected the rest 2. For not long after the Parliament granted him all Religious houses of and under the value of two hundred pounds yearly and it was thought that above ten thousand persons masters and servants lost their livelihoods by the demolishing of them And for an introduction to the suppression of all the residue he had a strait watch set upon them and the Regulars therein tied to a strict and punctuall observation of their orders without any relaxation of the least libertie insomuch that many did quickly un-nunne and disfriar themselves whose sides formerly used to go loose were soon galled with strait lacing 3. Then followed the grand dissolution or judgement-day on the world of Abbeys remaining which of what value soever were seised into the Kings hands The Lord Cromwell one of excellent parts but mean parentage came from the forge to be the hammer to maul all Abbeys Whose magnificent ruines may lesson the beholders That it is not the firmnesse of the stone nor fastnesse of the morter maketh strong walls but the integritie of the inhabitants For indeed foul matters were proved against some of them as Sodomie and much uncleannesse Whereupon unwillingly willing they resigned their goods and persons to the Kings mercie But the Knights-Hospitallers whose chief mansion was at St-Johns nigh London being Gentlemen and souldiers of ancient families and high spirits would not be brought to present the King such puling petitions and publick recognitions of their errours as other Orders had done They complained it was a false consequence as farre from charitie as logick from the induction of some particular delinquents to inferre the guiltinesse of all Religious persons Wherefore like stout fellows they opposed any that thought to enrich themselves with their ample revenues and stood on their own defense and justification Chap. 7. The Hospitallers at last got on an advantage and suppressed BUt Barnabe's day it self hath a night and this long-lived Order which in England went over the graves of all others came at last to its own They were suffered to have rope enough till they had haltered themselves in a Praemunire For they still continued their obedience to the Pope contrary to their allegeance whose usurped authoritie was banished out of the land and so though their lives otherwise could not be impeached for any vitiousnesse they were brought within the compasse of the law The case thus standing their deare friends perswaded them to submit to the Kings mercie and not to capitulate with him on conditions nor to stop his favour by their own obstinacie but yeeld whilest as yet terms honest and honourable would be freely given them That such was the irresistiblenesse of the Kings spirit that like a torrent it would bear down any thing which stood betwixt him and his desires If his anger were once inflamed nothing but their bloud could quench it Let them not flatter themselves into their own ruine by relying on the aid of their friends at