in charity 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 sanctity which a learned man interpreteth too much superstition But besides these well-meaning people there went also a rabble-rout rather for company 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 Thieves 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 visite 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 chastity 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 pilgrim-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 the medley of nations did rather burden then strengthen it Besides the army 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 broke out into open rents Chap. 13. The adventurers sorted according to their severall nations THe French Dutch Italian and English were the four 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 setled fixed posture and delight in motion and agitation of businesse Yea France as being then best at leasure contributed more souldiers to this warre then all Christendome besides The signall men were Hugh sirnamed le Grand brother to the King of France Godfrey Duke of Bouillon Baldwine and Eustace his younger brother Stephen Earl of Bloys father to Stephen afterwards King of England Reimund Earl of Tholo use Robert Earl of Flanders Hugh Earl of Saint-Paul Baldwine de Burge with many more besides of the Clergy Aimar Bishop of Puy and Legate to the Pope and William Bishop of Orange Germany is slandered to have sent none to this warre at this first voyage and that other pilgrims 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 competency of souldiers of that nation besides those under Godescalcus a Priest Emmicho the Rhene-grave and Count Herman their leaders But though Germany 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 patrimony 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 party to consume it self in this tedious warre Out of the furthermost parts of Italy 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 liberal 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 Irishmens feet stick in their bogs though we find no particular mention of their archievements 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 Pilgrims 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 searee 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 Hungarie 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 coid countrey rather we may impute it to want of shipping that countrey being little powerfull at sea or which is most probable the actions of this nation are hidden as wrapped up in the bundle with some others I should guesse under the French but the intimacy of those two people is of a farre later date Denmark and Norway near-acquainted with the Arctick pole though they lagged the last and may therein be excused because of the length of the way
all other people most to worship the sunne setting Chap. 6. Godfreys death and buriall AUthours differ on the death of this noble King some making him to die of that long-wasting sicknesse others of the plague It may be the plague took him out of the hands of that lingring disease and quickly cut off what that had been long in fretting He died July 18. having reigned one yeare wanting five dayes A Prince valiant pious bountifull to the Church for besides what he gave to the Patriarch he founded Canons in the temple of the Sepulchre and a monastery in the vale of Jehoshaphat We would say his death was very unseasonable leaving the orphane State not onely in its minority but its infancy but that that fruit which to mans apprehension is blown down green and untimely is gathered full-ripe in Gods providence He was buried in the temple of the Sepulchre where his tombe is inviolated at this day whether out of a religion the Turks bear to the place or out of honour to his memory or out of a valiant scorn to fight against dead bones or perchance the Turks are minded as John King of England was who being wished by a Courtier to untombe the bones of one who whilest he was living had been his great enemy Oh no said King John would all mine enemies were as honourably buried Chap. 7. Baldwine chosen King He keepeth Ierusalem in despite of the Patriarch GOdfrey being dead the Christians with a joynt consent dispatched an embassie to Baldwine his Brother Count of Edessa a city in Arabia the lord whereof had adopted this Baldwine to be his heir entreated him to accept of the Kingdome which honourable offer he courteously embraced A Prince whose body Nature cut of the largest size being like Saul higher by the head then his subjects And though the Goths had a law alwayes to choose a short thick man for their King yet surely a goodly stature is most majesticall His hair and beard brown face fair with an eagles nose which in the Persian Kings was anciently observed as a mark of magnanimity Bred he was a scholar entred into Orders and was Prebendary in the churches of Rhemes Liege and Cambray but afterwards turned secular Prince as our Athelwulphus who exchanged the mitre of Winchester for the crown of England Yet Bald wine put not off his scholarship with his habit but made good use thereof in his reign For though bookishnesse may unactive yet learning doth accomplish a Prince and maketh him sway his sceptre the steadier He was properly the first King of Jerusalem his brother Godfrey never accounted more then a Duke and was crowned on Christmas-day The reason that made him assume the name of a King was thereby to strike the greater terrour into the Pagans Thus our Kings of England from the dayes of King John were styled but Lords of Ireland till Henry the 8. first entituled himself King because Lord was sleighted by the seditious rebells As for that religious scruple which Godfrey made to wear a crown of gold where Christ wore one of thorns Baldwine easily dispensed therewith And surely in these things the mind is all A crown might be refused with pride and worn with humility But before his Coronation there was a tough bickering about the city of Jerusalem Dabert the Patriarch on the death of Godfrey devoured Jerusalem and the tower of David in his hope but coming to take possession found the place too hot for him For Garnier Earl of Gretz in the behalf of King Baldwine who was not yet returned from Edessa manned it against him But so it happened that this valiant Earl died three dayes after which by Dabert was counted a just judgement of God upon him for his sacriledge Now though it be piety to impute all events to Gods hand yet to say that this mans death was for such a sinne sheweth too much presumption towards God and too little charity towards our neighbour Indeed if sudden death had singled out this Earl alone it had somewhat favoured their censure but there was then a generall mortality in the city which swept away â— thousands and which is most materiall what this Patriarch interpreted sacriledge others accounted loyalty to his Sovereign As for that donation of the city of Jerusalem and tower of David which Godfrey gave to the Patriarch some thought that this gift overthrew it self with its own greatnesse being so immoderately large others supposed it was but a personall act of Godfrey and therefore died with the giver as conceiving his successours not obliged to perform it because it was unreasonable that a Prince should in such sort fetter and restrain those which should come after him Sure it is that Baldwine having both the stronger sword and possession of the citie kept it perforce whilest the Patriarch took that leave which is allowed to loosers to talk chafe and complain sending his bemoaning letters to Boemund Prince of Antioch inviting him to take arms and by violence to recover the Churches right but from him received the uselesse assistance of his pity and that was all Chap. 8. The Church-story during this Kings reigne A chain of successive Patriarchs Dabert Ebremare Gibelline and Arnulphus Their severall characters AFterwards this breach betwixt the King and Patriarch was made up by the mediation of some friends but the skinne onely was drawn over not dead flesh drawn out of the wound and Arnulphus whom we mentioned before discontented for his losse of the Patriarchs place still kept the sore raw betwixt them At last Dabertus the Patriarch was fain to flee to Antioch where he had plentifull maintenance allowed him by Bernard Patriarch of that See But he was too high in the instep to wear another mans shoes and conceived himself to be but in a charitable prison whilest he lived on anothers benevolence Wherefore hence he hasted to Rome complained to the Pope and received from his Holinesse a command to King Baldwine to be reestablished in the Patriarchs place but returning home died by the way at Messana in Sicily being accounted seven years Patriarch four at home and three in banishment Whilest Dabert was thrust out one Ebremarus was made Patriarch against his will by King Baldwine An holy and devout man but he had more of the dove then the serpent and was none of the deepest reach He hearing that he was complained of to the Pope for his irregular election posted to Rome to excuse himself shewing he was chosen against his will and though preferment may not be snatched it needs not be thrust away But all would not do It was enough to put him out because the King put him in Wherefore he was commanded to return home and to wait the definitive sentence which Gibellinus Archbishop of Arles and the Popes Legate should pronounce in the matter Gibellinus coming to Jerusalem concluded the election
fail Baronius hath a rasour shaveth all scruple clear away For saith he Quidquid sit fides purgat facinus So that he worshipeth the false Reliques of a true Saint God taketh his good intention in good worth though he adore the hand of Esau for the hand of Jacob. But enough of thesefooleries Chap. 13. King Richard taken prisoner in Austria sold and sent to the Emperour dearly ransomed returneth home KIng Richard setting sail from Syria the sea and wind favoured him till he came into the Adriatick and on the coasts of Istria he suffered shipwrack Wherefore he intended to pierce through Germany by land the next way home But the nearnesse of the way is to be measured not by the shortnesse but the safenesse of it He disguised himself to be one Hugo a merchant whose onely commodity was himself whereof he made but a bad bargain For he was discovered in an Inne in Austria because he disguised his person not his expenses so that the very policy of an hostesse finding his purse so farre above his clothes did detect him Yea saith mine Authour Facies orbiterrarum nota ignorari non potuit The rude people flocking together used him with insolencies unworthy him worthy themselves and they who would shake at the tail of this loose Lion durst laugh at his face now they saw him in a grate Yet all the weight of their cruelty did not bow him beneath a Princely carriage Leopoldus Duke of Austria hearing hereof as being Lord of the soil seised on this Royall stray meaning now to get his penny-worths out of him for the affront done unto him in Palestine Not long after the Duke sold him to Henry the Emperour for his harsh nature surnamed Asper and it might have been Saevus being but one degree from a tyrant He kept King Richard in bands charging him with a thousand faults committed by him in Sicilie Cyprus and Palestine The proofs were as slender as the crimes grosse and Richard having an eloquent tongue innocent heart and bold spirit acquitted himself in the judgement of all the hearers At last he was ransomed for an hundred and fourty thousand marks Colein weight A summe so vast in that age before the Indies had overflowed all Europe with their gold and silver that to raise it in England they were forced to sell their Church-plate to their very chalices Whereupon out of most deep Divinity it was concluded That they should not celebrate the Sacrament in glasse for the brittlenesse of it nor in wood for the sponginesse of it which would suck up the bloud nor in alchymie because it was subject to rusting nor in copper because that would provoke vomiting but in chalices of latine which belike was a metall without exception And such were used in England for some hundred years after untill at last John Stafford Archbishop of Canterbury when the land was more replenished with silver inknotteth that Priest in the greater excommunication that should consecrate Poculum stanneum After this money Peter of Blois who had drunk as deep of Helicon as any of that age sendeth this good prayer making an apostrophe to the Emperour or to the Duke of Austria or to both together Bibe nunc avaritia Dum puteos argenteos Larga diffundit Anglia Tua tecum pecunia Sit in perditionem And now thou basest avarice Drink till thy belly burst Whil'st England poures large silver showre To satisfie thy thirst And this we pray Thy money may And thou be like accurst The ransome partly payed the rest secured by hostages King Richard much befriended by the Dutch Prelacy after eighteen moneths imprisonment returned into England The Archbishop of Colein in the presence of King Richard as he passed by brought in these words in saying masse Now I know that God hath sent his angel and hath delivered thee out of the hand of Herod and from the expectation of the people c. But his soul was more healthfull for this bitter physick and he amended his manners better loving his Queen Beringaria whom he slighted before As souldiers too often love women better then wives Leave we him now in England where his presence fixed the loyalty of many of his unsetled subjects whilest in Austria the Duke with his money built the walls of Vienna So that the best stones and morter of that bulwark of Christendome are beholden to the English coin We must not forget how Gods judgements overtook this Duke punishing his dominions with fire and water which two elements cannot be Kings but they must be tyrants by famine the ears of wheat turned into worms by a gangrene seising on the Dukes body who cut off his leg with his own hand and died thereof Who by his testament if not by his will caused some thousand crowns to be restored again to King Richard Chap. 14. The death of Saladine His commendation even with truth but almost above belief SOn after Saladine the terrour of the East ended his life having reigned sixteen years Consider him as a man or a Prince he was both wayes admirable Many Historians like some painters which rather shew their skill in drawing a curious face then in making it like to him whom it should resemble describe Princes rather what they should be then what they were not shewing so much their goodnesse as their own wits But finding this Saladine so generally commended of all writers we have no cause to distrust this his true character His wisdome was great in that he was able to advise and greater in that he was willing to be advised Never so wedded to his own resolves but on good ground he would be divorced from them His valour was not over-free but would well answer the spurre when need required In his victories he was much beholden to the advantage of season place and number and seldome wrested the garland of honour from an arm as strong as his own He ever marched in person into the field remembring that his predecessours the Caliphs of Egypt brake themselves by using Factours and imploying of Souldans His temperance was great diet sparing sleep moderate not to pamper nature but to keep it in repair His greatest recreation was variety and exchange of work Pleasures he rather sipped then drank off sometimes more to content others then please himself Wives he might have kept sans number but stinted himself to one or two using them rather for posterity then wantonnesse His justice to his own people was remarkable his promise with his enemies generally well kept Much he did triumph in mercy Fierce in fighting mild in conquering and having his enemies in his hand pleased himself more in the power then act of revenge His liberality would have drained his treasure had it not had a great and quick spring those Eastern parts being very rich Serviceable men he would purchase on any rate and sometimes his gifts bare better proportion to his own greatnesse then
not out in the election of their Prince being in a manner all equall amongst themselves We see elective States in Christendome though bound with the straitest laws often sagge aside into schismes and factions whereas this strange Empire in their choice had no dangerous discords but such as were quenched in the kindling Lastly who ever knew a wall that had no better cement to stand so sure and so long Two hundred sixty and seven years this State endured and yet had it to do with strong and puissant enemies Some Kingdomes ow their greatnesse not so much to their own valour and wisdome as to the weaknesse of their neighbours but it fared not thus with the Mammalukes To omit Prester John who neighboured them on the south on all other sides they were encompassed with potent opposers From whom right valiantly they defended themselves till in the yeare 1517 they were overcome by Selimus the great Turkish Emperour To conclude As for the Amazons and their brave atchievements with much valour and no manhood they and their State had onely being in the brains of fabulous writers As for the Assasines or regiment of rogues it never spread to the breadth of any great countrey nor grew to the height of a Kingdome but being the jakes of the world was cast out in a place betwixt barren hills But this Empire of vassals was every way wonderfull stretching so farre over all Egypt and most of Syria and lasting so long A strange State wherein slavery was the first step to their throne and apostasle the first article in their religion Chap 20. The manner of the death of Frederick King of Ierusalem His Will and posterity after him An interregnum both in Germanie and the Kingdome of Ierusalem IN this same yeare Frederick King of Jerusalem and Emperour of Germanie ended his troublesome dayes A Prince who in the race of his life met with many rubs some stumbles no dangerous fall Besides the Turk he had to do with the Pope the Pope immortall in his succession And though his Holinesse was unfit for warre as being alwayes old and never ripe for that place till almost rotten yet he used his own head and commanded the hands of others whereby he kept Frederick in a continuall warre Yet never could he have beaten him with fair play had he not used a weapon if not against the law of Arms against the law of God and against which no guard Arming his subjects against him and Dispensing with the oath of allegeance But he gave Frederick the mortall wound in setting himself against himself I mean Henry his eldest sonne And though Frederick easily conquered that rebellious youth and made him fast enough keeping him in prison in Apulia where he died yet he carried the grief hereof to his grave For now he knew not where or in whom to place any confidence as suspecting the single cord of Loyalty would not hold in others which brake in his own sonne though twisted with Naturall affection The greatnesse of his spirit was a great hastening of his death and being of a keen eager and active nature the sharpnesse of the sword cut the scabbard the sooner asunder Bow he could not break he must What-ever is reported he died of no other poison then sorrow which ushered him into a wasting ague grief being a burden whereof the strongest shoulders can bear the least As for the same that Maufred his base son should stifle him with a pillow though I must confesse he might be taken on suspicion as likely enough to play such a devilish prank yet it is unreasonable that he who is acquitted by the Authours of the same time should be condemned on the evidence of the writers of after-ages He died at Florence in an obscure castle on S. Lucies day having reigned King of Jerusalem three and twenty years By his Will he bequeathed many ounces of gold to the Knights Templars and Hospitallers in recompence of the wrongs they had received by him He left a great summe of money for the recovery of the Holy land to be disposed at the discretion of the foresaid knights He forbad any stately funerall for himself though in his life immoderately excessive in pomp as if he would do penance for his pride after death A Prince who had he not been hindred with domesticall discords would have equallized Caesar himself For if thus bravely he â—aid about him his hands being tied at home with continuall dissentions what would he have done if at liberty A scandal is raised since his death That he was but a millers sonne but he would have ground them to powder who in his life-time durst have averred it Indeed he was very happy in mechanicall matters such as we may term Liberall handicrafts as casting founding carving in iron and brasse Nether did this argue a low soul to dabble in such mean imployments but rather proved the amplitude and largenesse thereof of so generall acquaintance that no Art was a stranger to him But the suspicion of his birth rose from the almost miraculous manner of it Constantia his mother bearing him when welnigh sixty years of age But both in Scripture and other writers we may see the sonnes of long barren-mothers to have been fruitfull in famous atchievements Pity it was that he had some faults yea pity it had been if he had not had some But his vices indeed were notorious and unexcusable Many wives and concubines he had and by them many children His wives His legitimate children Their preferment 1. Constantia Queen of Aragon Henry who rebelled against him King of the Romanâ—s 2. Iole daughter to John Bren. Conrade Duke of Suevia 3. Agnes daughter to the Marquesse of Moravia childlesse divorced 4. Rutina 5. Isabella of Bavaria Agnes Married to Conrade Landâ—grave of Hessen 6. Mawd daughter to John King of England Constance Wife to Lewis Landâ—grave of Hessen  His base sonnes His concubine Blanch. 1. Henzius King of Sardinâ—a 2. Maufred Usurper of Sicily 3. Frederick Prince of Antioch It is much that succession adventured in so many severall bottoms should miscarry Yet these foure sonnes dying left no lasting issue and in the third generation Fredericks stock and that whole raâ—e of Suevian Princes was extinct Which in the judgement of some men was a judgement of God on him for his lasciviousnesse We must not forget a memorable passage which happened more then twenty yeares after Fredericks death One Tylo Colupp a notable juggler sometime brought up at the Court cunningly sowing together all the old shreds of his Courtship and stretching them out with impudency pretended to be Frederick the Emperour long detained in captivity in Palestine The difference betwixt their aâ—pects was easily reconciled for few Physâ—ognomy marks are so deeply fixed in any face but that age and misery will alter them The credulity of the vulgar sort presently betrayed them to be couzened by him yea some
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 warehouses and storehouses onely the Pope prevailed so farre with them that they set at liberty the prisoners they had taken Ten years 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 Frenchman who succeeded Robert in the titular Patriarchship of Jerusalem to be Pope by the name of Urbane the fourth To advance the Holy cause after fourteen years interregnum in Syria he appointed Charles Duke of Anjou yonger 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 run 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 termes 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 four 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 dear 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 and 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 aud 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 humorous 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 yielded a little to these Tartarians and so to continue their amity which was so advantageous to the Holy warre However one may question the truth of their conversion whether reall at first This spring was too forward to hold and the speedy withering of their religion argueth it wanted root And as tame foxes if they break loose and return wild do ten times more mischief then those which are wild from the beginning so these renegadoes raged more furiously then any Pagans against religion Guirboca sacrificed many Christians to the ghost of his nephew destroyed Cesarea and burnt it using all cruelty against the inhabitants Nor lesse were the Christians plagued at the same time with Bendocdar the Mammaluke Prince in Egypt who succeeded Melechem and every where raging against them either killed or forced them to forswear their religion The city of Joppa he took and burned and then wonne Antioch slaying therein twenty thousand and carrying away captive an hundred
torment then generous spirits who are for the enduring of honourable danger and speedie death but not provided for torment which they are not acquainted with neither is it the proper object of valour Again it is produced in their behalf that being burned at the stake they denied it at their death though formerly they had confessed it and whose charitie if not stark-blind will not be so tender-eyed as to believe that they would not breath out their soul with a lie and wilfully contract a new guilt in that very instant wherein they were to be arraigned before the Judge of heaven A Templar being to be burned at Burdeaux and seeing the Pope and King Philip looking out at a window cried unto them Clement thou cruell Tyrant seeing there is no higher amongst mortall men to whom I should appeal for my unjust death I cite thee together with King Philip to the tribunall of Christ the just Judge who redeemed me there both to appear within one yeare and a day where I will lay open my cause and justice shall be done without any by-respect In like manner James grand Master of the Templars though by piece-meal he was tortured to death craved pardon of God and those of his Order that forced by extremitie of pain on the rack and allured with hope of life he had accused them of such damnable sinnes whereof they were innocent Moreover the people with their suffrage acquitted them happie was he that could get an handfull of their ashes into his bosome as the Relique of pious martyrs to preserve Indeed little heed is to be given to peoples humours whose judgement is nothing but prejudice and passion and commonly envie all in prosperitie pitie all in adversitie though often both undeservedly And we may believe that the beholding of the Templars torments when they were burned wrought in the people first a commiserating of their persons and so by degrees a justifying of their cause However vulgus non semper errat aliquando elìgit and though it matters little for the gales of a private mans fancie yet it is something when the wind bloweth from all corners And true it is they were generally cryed up for innocents Lastly Pope Clement and King Philip were within the time prefixed summoned by death to answer to God for what they had done And though it is bad to be busie with Gods secrets yet an argment drawn from the event especially when it goeth in company with others as it is not much to be depended on so it is not wholly to be neglected Besides King Philip missed of his expectation and the morsell fell besides his mouth for the lands of the Templars which were first granted to him as a portion for his youngest sonne were afterwards by the Council of Vienne bestowed on the Knights-Hospitallers Chap. 3. A moderate way what is to be conceived of the suppression of the Templars BEtwixt the two extremities of those that count these Templars either Malefactours or Martyrs some find a middle way whose verdict we will parcell into these severall particulars 1. No doubt there were many novices and punies amongst them newly admitted into their Order which if at all were little guiltie for none can be fledge in wickednesse at their first hatching To these much mercy belonged The punishing of others might have been an admonition to them and crueltie it was where there were degrees of offenses to inflict the same punishment and to put all of them to death 2. Surely many of them were most hainous offenders Not to speak what they deserved from God who needeth not pick a quarrel with man but alwayes hath a just controversie with him they are accounted notorious transgressours of humane laws yet perchance if the same candle had been lighted to search as much dust and dirt might have been found in other Orders 3. They are conceived in generall to be guiltlesse and innocent from those damnable sinnes wherewith they were charged Which hainous offenses were laid against them either because men out of modestie and holy horrour should be ashamed and afraid to dive deep in searching the ground-work and bottome of these accusations but rather take them to be true on the credit of the accusers or that the world might the more easily be induced to believe the crimes objected to be true as conceiving otherwise none would be so devilish as to lay such devilish offenses to their charge or lastly if the crimes were not believed in the totall summe yet if credited in some competent portion the least particular should be enough to do the deed and to make them odious in the world 4. The chief cause of their ruine was their extraordinary wealth They were feared of many envied of more loved of none As Naboths vineyard was the chiefest ground for his blasphemie and as in England Sr John Cornwall Lord Fanhop said merrily That not he but his stately house at Ampthill in Bedford-shire was guiltie of high treason so certainly their welath was the principall evidence against them and cause of their overthrow It is quarrell and cause enough to bring a sheep that is fat to the shambles We may believe King Philip would never have tooke away their lives if he might have took their lands without putting them to death but the mischief was he could not get the hony unlesse he burnt the bees Some will say The Hospitallers had great yea greater revenues nineteen thousand Mannors to the Templars nine thousand yet none envied their wealth It is true but then they busied themselves in defending of Christendome maintaining the Island of Rhodes against the Turks as the Teutonick order defended Pruss-land against the Tartarian the world therefore never grudged them great wages who did good work These were accounted necessary members of Christendome the Templars esteemed but a superfluous wenne they lay at rack and manger and did nothing who had they betook themselves to any honourable employment to take the Turks to task either in Europe or Asia their happinesse had been lesse repined at and their overthrow more lamented And certain it is that this their idlenesse disposed them for other vices as standing waters are most subject to putrifie I heare one bird sing a different note from all the rest in the wood namely that what specious shews soever were pretended the true cause of their ruine was that they began to desert the Pope and adhere to the Emperour If this was true no doubt they were deeply guiltie and deserved the hard measure they suffered Sure I am how-ever at this time they might turn edge they had formerly been true blades for his Holinesse All Europe followed the copie that France had set them Here in England King Edward the second of that name suppressed the Order and put them to death So by vertue of a writ sent from him to Sir John Wogan Lord chief Justice in Ireland were they served
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 city 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 believeth 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 motter out of all the Abbeys-walls in England and made a breach in their strongest gate-houses teaching covetousnesse an apt scholar a ready 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 far 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 goe 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 provided 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 allegiance 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 yield 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 home who would not substitute their own necks to save theirs from the ax nor by hoping for help from forrein parts who could send them no seasonable succour This counsell harsh at first grew tunable in the eares of the Hospitallers so that contented rather to exchange their clothes for worse then to be quite stript they resigned all into the Kings hands He allowed to Sr William Weston Lord Prior of the Order an annuall pension of one thousand pounds But he received never a penny thereof but died instantly struck to the heart when he first heard of the dissolution of his Priory and lieth buried in the Chancell of Clarkenwell with
the bastard of Cyprus that this list was taken about the yeare 1466. And now how would a Herald sweat with scouring over these time-rustie titles to shew whence these Princes derived their severall claims and in whom the right resteth at this day and when his work is done who should pay him his wages My clew of thread is not strong enough on the guidance thereof for me to venture into this labyrinth of Pedegrees we will content our selves with these generall observations 1. It seemeth this catalogue containeth as well those who had jus in Regno as those who had jus ad Regnum as namely the Prince of Thorone and Patriarchs of Jerusalem and State of Genoa whose ambition surely soared not so high as to claim the Kingdome of Jerusalem but rather perched it self upon some lands and Signories challenged therein 2. A small matter will serve to intitle a Prince to a titular Kingdome In this case Kings can better digest corrivals where they be many and all challenge what is worth nothing In this catalogue it seemeth some onely intitle themselves out of good fellowship and love of good company These like squirrels recover themselves and climbe up to a claim on the least bough twig yea leaf of a Right Thus the Counts of Brienne in France if any still remain of that house gave away their cake and kept it still in that John Bren parted with his right to this Kingdome in match with Iole his daughter to Frederick the second Emperour and yet the Earls of his familie pretend still to Jerusalem 3. We may believe that by matches and under-matches some of these titles may reside in private Gentlemen especially in France And what wonder seeing within fourteen generations the royall bloud of the Kings of Judah ran in the veins of plain Joseph a painfull carpenter 4. At this day some of those titles are finally extinct as that of the Emperours of the East conquered by the Ottoman family Their Imperiall Eagle was so far from beholding the sunne that the half-moon dazzled yea quite put out his eyes Rank in the same form the Kings of Armenia and Sultans of Egypt 5. Some of these titles are translated That of the Lusignans Kings of Cyprus probably passed with that Island to the State of Venice The claim of the Hungarian Kings seemeth at this day to remain in the Germane Emperour 6. Some united The claim of the Archdukes of Nize a style I meet not with elsewhere twisted with that of the Duke Savoy The Kings of Naples and Aragon now joyned in the King of Spain 7. Of those which are extant at this day Englands appearâ—â— first our Richard receiving it in exchange of King Guy 〈◊〉 the Island of Cyprus Guy's resignation was voluntarie and publick the world was witnesse to it He truly received a valuable consideration which his heirs long peaceably enjoyed and our English Kings styled themselves Kings of Jerusalem till afterwards they disused it for reasons best known to themselves Our Poet Harding in a paper he presented to King Henry the sixth cleareth another double title of our Kings thereunto And because some palates love the mouldie best and place the goodnesse of old verses in the badnesse of them take them as they fell from his penne To Ierusalem I say ye have great right From Erle Geffray that hight Plantogenet Of Aungeoy Erle a Prince of passing might The eldest sonne of Fouke and first beget King of Ierusalem by his wife dewly set Whose sonne Geffray foresaid gat on his wife Henry the second that was known full rise Yet have ye more from Bawldwyne Paralyticus King afterward to the same King Henry The Crown sent and his Banner pretious As very heire of whole Auncestrie Descent of bloud by title lineally From Godfray Boleyn and Robert Curthose That Kings were thereof and chose 8. Then cometh forth the Pope title who claimeth it many wayes Either because he was the first and chiefest mover and advancer of this warre Lord Paramont of this action and all the Pilgrimes no better then his servants and then according to the rule in Civil law Quodcunque per servum acquiritur id Domino acquiritur suo Or else he challengeth it from John Bren who subjected that Kingdome to the See of Rome and yet the said John used the style of Jerusalem all the dayes of his life and also gave it away in match with his daughter Or else he deriveth it as forfeited to him by the Emperour Frederick the second and his sonnes for taking arms against the Church But what need these farre-abouts They go the shortest cut who accounting the Pope Gods Lieutenant on earth though by a Commission of his own penning give him a temporall power especially in ordine ad spiritualia over all the Kingdomes of the world The originall right of Jerusalem he still keepeth in himself yet hath successively gratified many Princes with a title derived from him Nor shineth his candle the dimmer by lighting of others First he bestowed his title on Charles of Anjou King of Sicilie from which root spring the many-branched French competitours and since hath conferred the same on the house of Aragon or King of Spain Which King alone weareth it in his style at this day and maketh continuall warre with the Turk who detaineth Jerusalem from him Yea all West Christendome oweth her quiet sleep to his constant waking who with his galleys muzzleth the mouth of Tunis and Algier Yea God in his providence hath so ordered it that the Dominions of Catholick Princes as they term them are the case and cover on the East and South to keep and fense the Protestant countreys The quit-rent which the King of Spain payeth yearly to the Pope for the Kingdomes of Jerusalem Naples and Sicilie is foure thousand crowns sent to his Holinesse upon a hackney Who grudgeth his tenant so great a penie-worth yet cannot help himself except he would follow the Friars advice To send home the Spanish Hackney with a great Horse after him What credit there is to be given to that through-old if not doting prophecie That a Spaniard shall one day recover Jerusalem we leave to the censure of others and mean time we will conclude more serious matters with this pleasant passage When the late warres in the dayes of Queen Elisabeth were hot between England and Spain there were Commissioners on both sides appointed to treat of peace They met at a town of the French Kings and first it was debated what tongue the negotiation should be handled in A Spaniard thinking to give the English Commissioners a shrewd gird proposed the French tongue as most fit it being a language which the Spaniards were well skilled in and for these Gentlemen of England I suppose said he that they cannot be ignorant of the language of their fellow-subjects their Queen is Queen of France as well as England Nay in faith Masters replyed