him to prison but the two unknowne witnesses who were indeed two fiends of hell began to say you shall not need for we are sent to punish his wickednesse and so saying they hoisted him up into the ayre where he vanished with them and was never after found In the yeare of our Lord 1055 Goodwine Earle of Kent sitting at the table with King Edward of England it happened that one of the cupbearers stumbled and yet fell not whereat Goodwine laughing said That if one brother had not holpen another meaning his legs all the wine had been spilt with which words the King calling to mind his brothers death which was slaine by Goodwine answered So should my brother Alphred have holpen me had not Goodwine been then Goodwine fearing the Kings new kindled displeasure excused himselfe with many words and at last eating a morsell of bread wished it might choke him if he were not guiltlesse of Alphreds bloud But he swore falsly as the judgement of God declared for he was forthwith choaked in the presence of the King ere he removed one foot from that place though there be some say he recovered life againe Long time after this in the raigne of Queene Elizabeth there was in the city of London one Anne Averies widow who forswore her selfe for a little money that she should have paid for six pounds of tow at a shop in Woodstreet for which cause being suddenly surprised with the justice of God shee fell downe speechlesse forthwith and cast up at her mouth in great abundance and with horrible stinke that matter which by natures course should have been voided downewards and so died to the terrour of all perjured and forsworne wretches There are in histories many more examples to be found of this hurtfull and pernitious sin exercised by one nation towards another and one man towards another in most prophane and villanous sort neither shaming to be accounted forsworne nor consequently fearing to displease God and his majesty But forasmuch as when we come to speak of murtherers in the next book we shall have occasion to speake of them more or of such like I will referre the handling thereof unto that place onely this let every man learne by that which hath been spoken to be sound and fraudlesse and to keep his faith and promise towards all men if for no other cause yet for feare of God who leaveth not this sin unpunished nor holdeth them guiltlesse that thus taketh his name in vaine CHAP. XXIX Of Blasphemers AS touching Blasphemy it was a most grievous and enormous sin and contrary to this third Commanmandement when a man is so wretched and miseble as to pronounce presumptuous speeches against God whereby his name is slandered and evill spoken of which sinne cannot chuse but be sharply and severely punished for if so be that God holdeth not him guiltles that doth but take his name in vain must he not needs abhor him that blasphemeth his Name See how meritoriously that wicked and perverse wretch that blasphemed and murdered as it were the name of God among the people of Israel in the desart was punished he was taken put in prison and condemned and speedily stoned to death by the whole multitude and upon that occasion as evill manners evermore begat good lawes the Lord instituted a perpetuall law and decree that every one that should blaspheme and curse God of what estate or degree soever should be stoned to death in token of detestation which sentence if it might now adaies stand in force there would not raign so many miserable blasphemers and deniers of God as the world is now filled and infected with It was also ordained by a new law of Iustinian That blasphemies should be severely punished by the judges and magistrates of Commonweales but such is the corruption and misery of this age that those men that ought to correct others for such speeches are oftentimes worst themselves and there are that thinke that they cannot be sufficiently feared and awed of men except by horrible bannings and swearings they despight and maugre God nay it is further come to that passe that in some places to swearc and ban be the markes and ensignes of a Catholike and they are best welcome that can blaspheme most How much then is that good King Saint Lewis of France to be commended who especially discharged all his subjects from swearing and blaspheming within his realm insomuch that when he heard a nobleman blaspheme God most cruelly he caused him to be laid hold on and his lips to bee slit with an hot yron saying hee must be content to endure that punishment seeing he purposed to banish oathes out of his kingdome Now wee call blasphemy according to the Scripture phrase every word that derogateth either from the bounty mercy justice eternity and soveraigne power of God Of this sort was that blasphemous speech of one of King Iorams Princes who at the time of the great famine in Samaria when it was besieged by the Syrians hearing Elizeus the Prophet say that the next morrow there should be plenty of victuals and good cheap rejected this promise of God made by his Prophet saying that it was impossible as if God were either a lyar or not able to performe what he would for this cause this unbeleeving blasphemer received the same day a deserved punishment for his blasphemy for he was troden to death in the gate of the city under the feet of the multitude that went out into the Syrians campe forsaken and left desolate by them through a feare which the Lord sent among them Senaccherib King of Assyria after he had obtained many victories and â—â—odued much people under him and also layd siege to Ierusalem became â—â—proud and arrogant as by his servants mouth to revile and blaspheme the living God speaking no otherwise of him than of some strange idoll and one that had no power to help and deliver those that trusted in him for which blasphemies he soone after felt a just vengeance of God upon himselfe and his people for although in mans eyes he seemed to be without the reach of danger seeing he was not assayled but did assayle and was guarded with so mighty an army that assured him to make him lord of Ierusalem in short space yet the Lord overthrew his power and destroyed of his men in one night by the hand of his Angell 185 thousand men so that he was faine to raise his siege and returne into his owne kingdome where finally he was slaine by his owne sons as he was worshipping on his knees in the temple of his god In the time of the Machabees those men that were in the strong hold called Gazara fighting against the Iewes trusting to the strength of the place wherein they were uttered forth most infamous speeches against God but ere long their blasphemous mouths were encountred by a condigne punishment for the first day of
King of Macedonia had a minion called Cratenas whom hee loved most entirely but he againe requited him not with love but with hatred and stretched all his wits to install himselfe in his kingdome by deposing and murthering him which though he accomplished yet his deserts were cut short by the vengeance of God for he continued not many dayes in his royalty but he was served with the same sauce that he had made Archelaus before him to taste of even betraied and murthered as he well deserved Lodovicus Sfortia to the end to invest himselfe with the Dukedome of Millain spared not to shed the innocent bloud of his two Nephewes the sonnes of Galenchus together with their tutors and one Francis Calaber a worthy and excellent man but the Lord so disposed of his purposes that he in stead of obtaining the kingdome was taken prisoner by the King of France so that neither he nor any of his off spring injoyed that which he so much affected When Numerianus was to succeed â—arus his father in the Empire Arrius Axer his father in law to the end to translate the Empire unto himselfe entered a conspiracy and slew his sonne in law that nothing mistrusted his disloyalty but the Pretorian army understanding the matter discharged Arrius and elected Dioclesian in his roome who laying hold upon his competitour laied an action of treason to his charge and put him to death in the sight of the multitude Theodoricke and Fredericke conspired against their owne brother Thurismund King of the Visigothes to the intent to succeed him in his Kingdome And albeit that nature reclaymed them from the act yet they slew him without all compassion But after thirteene yeres reigne the same Theodericke was requited by his other brethren with the same measure that he before meted to his brother Thurismund And so though vengeance slept a while yet at length it wakened Aelias Antonius Gordianus Emperour of Rome though so excellent a young Prince that he deserved to be called the Love and Iewell of the World yet was he slaine by one promoted by himselfe to high honour called Philip Arabs when he was but two and twenty yeres old after whose decease this Philip got himselfe elected Emperour by the Band and confirmed by the Senate All which notwithstanding after five yeres Decius rebelled and his owne souldiers conspired against him so that both he at Verona and his sonne at Rome were slaine by them about one time After the death of Constantine the Great his three sonnes dividing the Empire betwixt them succeeded their father Constantine the eldest had for his share Spaine France the Alpes and England Constance the second held Italy Africa Graecia and Illyricum Constantine the younger was King and Emperour of the East But ambition suffered them not to enjoy quietly these their possessions for when the eldest being more proud and seditious than the other not content with his alotted portion made warre upon his brother Constance his Provinces and strove to enter Italy he was slaine in a battell by Aquileia when he was but five and twenty yeares old by which meanes all the provinces which were his fell to Constance and therewithall such a drowsinesse and Epicurisme for want of a stirrer up after his brothers death that he fell into the gout and neglected the governement of the Empire Wherefore in Aâ—sourge and in Rhetia they created a new Emperour one Magnentius whose life before time Constance had saved from the souldiers and therefore his treachery was the greater This Magnentius deprived and slew Constance but was overcome by Constantine the third brother in Illyricum yet in such sort that the conqueror could not greatly brag for he lost an infinit company of his men and yet missed of his chiefe purpose the taking of Magnentius for he escaped to Lyons and there massacring all that he mistrusted at last growing I suppose in suspition with his owne heart slew himselfe also and so his traiterous ingratefull and ambitious murther was revenged with his owne hands Victericus betrayed Lnyba king of Spaine and succeeded in his place seven yeares after another traitour slew him and succeeded also in his place Mauritius the Emperor was murthered by Phocas together with his wife and five of his children he seating himselfe Emperour in his roome Howbeit traitors and murtherers can never come to happy ends for as he had slaine Mauritius so Priscus Heraclianus and Phorius three of his chiefest captaines conspiring against him with three severall armies gave him such an alarme at once at his owne doores that they soone quailed his courage and after much mangling of his body cut him shorter by the head and the kingdome at one blow In the time of Edward the second and Edward the third in England one Sir Roger Mortimer committed many villanous outrages in shedding much bloud and at last King Edward himselfe lying at Barkley castle to the end that he might as it was supposed enjoy Isabel his wife with whom he had very suspitious familiarity After this he unjustly accused Edmund Earle of Kent of treason and caused him to bee put to death therefore and lastly he conspired against King Edward the third as it was suspected for which cause he was worthily and deservedly beheaded Among this ranke of murtherers of Kings we may fitly place also Richard the third usurper of the Crowne of England and divers others which he used as instruments to bring his detestable purpose to effect as namely Sir Iames Tirrèl Knight a man for natures gifts worthy to have served a much better Prince than this Richard if he had well served God and beene endued with as much truth and honesty as he had strength and wit also Miles Forest and Iohn Dighton two villaines fleshed in murthers But to come to the fact it was on this sort When Richard the usurper had enjoyned Robert Brackenbury to this piece of service of murthering the young King Edward the fifth his Nephew in the Tower with his brother the Duke of Yorke and saw it refused by him he committed the charge of the murther to Sir Iames Tirrel who hasting to the Tower by the Kings Commission received the keyes into his owne hands and by the helpe of those two butchers Dighton and Forest smothered the two Princes in their bed and buried them at the staires feet which being done Sir Iames rode back to king Richard who gave him great thankes and as some say made him knight for his labour All which things on every part well pondered it appeareth that God never gave the world a notabler example both of the unconstancy of worldly wâ—ale and also of the wretched end which ensueth such despightfull cruelty for first to begin with the ministers Miles Forest rotted away peecemeale at Saint Martins Sir Iames Tirrel died at the Tower hill beheaded for treason King Kichard himselfe as it is declared elsewhere was slaine
grace of Gods spirit saw his Sorbonicall errors and renounced them betaking himselfe to the profession of the purer religion and the company and acquaintance of godly men amongst whom was Bucer that excellent man who sent him also to Nurnburge to oversee the printing of a booke which he was to publish Whilest Diazius lived at this Nurnburge a city scituat upon the river Dimow his brother a lawyer and judge laterall to the Inquisition by name Alphonsus came thither and by all meanes possible endevoured to dissuade him from his religion and to reduce him againe to Popery But the good man persisted in the truth notwithstanding all his perswasions and threats wherefore the subtill fox took another course and faining himselfe to be converted also to his religion exhorted him to goe with him into Italy where he might do much good or at the least to Angust but by the counsell of Bucer and his friends he was kept back otherwise willing to follow his brother Wherefore Alphonsus departed and exhorted him to constancy and perseverance giving him also fourteene crowns to defray his charges Now the wolfe had not been three dayes absent when he hired a rakehell and common butcher and with him flew again to Nurnburge in post hast and comming to his brothers lodging delivered him a letter which whilest he read the villain his confederat cleft his head in pieces with an axe leaving him dead upon the floore and so fled with all expedition Howbeit they were apprehended yet quit by the Popes justice so holy and sacred are the fruits of his Holinesse though not by the justice of God for within a while after hee hung himselfe upon his mules necke at Trent Duke Abrogastes slew Valentinian the Emperour of the West and advanced Eugenius to the crowne of the Empire but a while after the same sword which had slain his lord and master was by his owne hands turned into his owne bowels Mempricius the sonne of Madan the fourth King of England then called Britaine after Brute had a brother called Manlius betwixt whom was great strife for the soveraigne dominion but to rid himselfe of all his trouble at once he slew his brother Manlius by treason and after continued his raigne in tyranny and all unlawfull lusts the space of twenty yeeres but although vengeance all this while winked yet it slept not for at the end of this space as he was hunting he was devoured of wilde beasts In the yeare of our Lord God 745 one Sigebert was authorised king of the Saxons in Britaine a cruell and tyrannous Prince towards his subjects and one that changed the ancient Lawes and customes of his Realme after his owne pleasure and because a certaine Nobleman somewhat sharpely advertised him of his evill conditions hee maliciously caused him to bee put to death But see how the Lord revenged this murder hee caused his Nobles to deprive him of his kingly authority and at last as a desolate and forlorne person wandring alone in a wood to be slaine of a swineheard whose master he being king had wrongfully put to death About the yeare of our Lord 793 Ethelbert king of the East Angles a learned and right godly Prince came to the court of Offa the king of Mercia perswaded by the counsell of his nobles to sue for the marriage of his daughter well accompanied like a prince with a great traine of men about him whereupon Offa's Queene conceiving a false suspition of that which was never minded That Ethelbert under the pretence of this marriage was come to worke some violence against her husband and the kingdome of Mercia so perswaded with king Offa and certaine of his Councell that night that the next day following Offa caused him to be trained into his palace alone from his company by one called Guymbertus who tooke him and bound him and after strooke off his head which forthwith he presented to the king and Queene Thus was the innocent King wrongfully murdered but not without a just revenge on Gods hand for the aforesaid Queene worker of this villany lived not three moneths after and in her death was so tormented that she bit and rent her tongue in pieces with her teeth which was the instrument to set abroach that murtherous practise Offa himselfe understanding at length the innocency of the king and the hainous cruelty of his fact gave the tenth part of his goods to the Church bestowed upon the Church of Hereford in remembrance of this Ethelbert great lands builded the Abbey of S. Albons with certaine other Monasteries beside and afterward went to Rome for his penance where hee gave to the Church of S. Peter a peny through every house in his dominion which was commonly called Romeshot or Peterpence and there at length was transformed from a king to a monke Thus God punished not only him and his wife but the whole land for this vile murder One principall cause of the conquest of this land by the Normans was a vile and horrible murder committed by one Goodwin an Earle in England upon certaine Mormans that came overwith Alfred and Edward to visit their mother Emma that had beene married to King Canutus This matter thus fell out When these two came from Normandy to England to visit their mother as I have said Earle Goodwin having a daughter called Godith whom hee thought to marry to Edward and advance him to the kingdome to bring his purpose to passe used this practise that is to perswade King Hardeknout and the Lords not to suffer those Normans to bee within the Realme for jeopardy but rather to punish them for example by which meanes hee got authority to order the matter himselfe Wherefore hee met them on Guild downe and there wretchedly murdered or rather martyred the most part of the Normans killing nine and leaving the tenth alive throughout the whole company and then tything againe the said tyth he slew every tenth knight and that by cruell torment as winding their guts out of their body after a most savage manner among the rest he put out the eyes of the elder of the two brethren Alfred and sent him to an Abbey at Elie where being fed with bread and water hee ere long ended his life Now albeit hee obtained his purpose hereby and married his daughter to Edward who was after King called Edward the Confessor yet did not Gods justice sleepe to punish this horrible murder for he himselfe died not long after suddenly having forsworne himselfe and the Normanes with William their Duke ere long came into this Iland to revenge this murder as also to claime a right of inheritance bequeathed unto him by Edward his Nephew and how hee succeeded and what misery he brought this whole Nation unto who knoweth not But heere is the justice of God As the Normans comming with a naturall English Prince were most cruelly and barbarously murdered of Englishmen so afterwards the Englishmen were slaine and
conquered by the Normans comming with a forreine King being none of their naturall countrey In the yeare of our Lord sixe hundred threescore and eighteene Childerich King of France caused a Nobleman of his Realme called Bolyde to bee bound to a stake and there beaten to death without the pretence of any just crime or accusation against him For which cruelty his Lords and Commons being grievously offended conspired together and slew him and his wife as they were hunting In the raigne of Edward the second and Edward the third Sir Roger Mortimer committed many villanous outrages in shedding much humane bloud but he was also justly recompenced in the end first he murdered King Edward the second lying in Barkeley Castle to the end he might as it was supposed enjoy Isabel his wife with whom he had very suspitious familiarity Secondly he caused Edward the third to conclude a dishonorable peace with the Scots by restoring them all their ancient writings charters and patents whereby the Kings of Scotland had bound themselves to be feudaries to the Kings of England Thirdly he accused Edmund Earle of Kent uncle to King Edward of treason and caused him unjustly to bee put to death And lastly he conspi redagainst the King to worke his destruction for which and divers other things that were laid to his charge he was worthily and justly beheaded In the reigne of Henry the sixt Humfrey the good duke of Gloucester and faithfull protectour of the King by the meanes of certaine malicious persons to wit the Queene the Cardinall of Winchester and especially the Marquesse of Suffolke as it was supposed was arrested cast into hold and strangled to death in the Abbey of Bure For which cause the Lords hand of judgement was upon them all for the Marquesse was not onely banished the land for the space of five yeares but also banished out of his life for ever for as hee sailed towards France hee was met withall by a Ship of Warre and there presently beheaded and the dead corps cast up at Dover that England wherein he had committed the crime might be a witnesse of his punishment The Queene that thought by this meanes to preserve her husband in honour and her selfe in estate thereby both lost her husband and her state her husband lost his realme and the Realme lost Anjou Normandy with all other places beyond the sea Calice onely excepted As for the Cardinall who was the principall artificer of all this mischiefe he lived not long after and being on his death bed murmured and grudged against God asking wherefore hee should die having so much wealth and riches and saying That if the whole Realme would save his life he was able either by policy to get it or by riches to buy it but death would not be bribed for all his aboundant treasure he died miserably more like a Heathen than a Christian without any shew of repentence And thus was the good Dukes death revenged upon the princiall procurers thereof As the murder of a gentleman in Kent called master Arden of Feversham was most execrable so the wonderfull discovery thereof was exceeding rare This Arden being somewhat aged had to wife a young woman no lesse faire than dishonest who being in love with one Mosbie more than her husband did not onely abuse his bed but also conspired his death with this her companion for together they hired a notorious Ruffin one Blacke Will to strangle him to death with a towell as he was playing a game at tables which though secretly done yet by her owne guilty conscience and some tokens of bloud which appeared in his house was soone discovered and confessed Wherefore she her selfe was burnt at Canterbury Michael master Ardens man was hanged in chaines at Feversham Mosbie and his sister were hanged in Smithfield Greene another partner in this bloudy action was hanged in chaines in the high way against Feversham And Blacke Will the Ruffian after his first escape was apprehended and burnt on a seaffold at Flushing in Zeeland And thus all the murderers had their deserved dues in this life and what they endured in the life to come except they obtained mercy by true repentance is easie to judge CHA. XI Of the admirable discovery of Murders AS the Lord hath shewed himselfe a most just Judge in punishing most severely this horrible sinne of shedding mans bloud so hath he alwaies declared his detestation thereof and his will to have it punished by those who are in his stead upon the earth and have the sword of vengeance committed unto them by his miraculous and superhaturall detecting of such murderers from time to time who have carried their villanies so closely as the eye of man could not espy them plainely shewing thereby that the bloud of the slaine crieth to the Lord for vengeance from the earth as Abels did upon Cain and that God will have that law stand true and firme which he made almost before all other lawes He that sheddeth mans bloud by man shall his bloud be shed If I should commit to writing all the examples of this kinde which either are recorded in Authors or which dayly experience doth offer unto us it would require rather a full Booke than a short Chapter for that subject And therefore I will be content with some few and those for truth most credible and yet for strangenesse most incredible And to begin with our owne countrey About the yeare of our Lord 867 a certaine Nobleman of the Danes of the kings stock called Lothebrocus father to Inguar and Hubba entring upon a certaine time with his hawke into a cockboat alone by chance through tempest was driven with his hawke to the coast of Northfolke in England named Rodham where being found and detained he was presented to king Edmund that raigned over the East-Angles in Northfolke and Suffolke at that time The King as hee was a just and good man understanding his parentage and seeing his cause entertained him in his Court accordingly and every day more and more perceiving his activity and great dexterity in hunting and hawking bare speciall favour unto him insomuch that the Kings Faulconer bearing privy malice against him for this cause secretly as they were hunting together in a wood did murther him and threw him in a bush Lothebroke being thus murthered and shortly missed in the Kings house no tydings could be heard of him untill it pleased God to reveale the murther by his dog which continuing in the wood with the corps of his Master at sundry times came to the Court and fauned on the King so that the King suspecting some such matter at length followed the trace of the hound and was brought to the place where Lothebroke lay Whereupon inquisition being made at length by some circumstances of words and other suspitions it was knowne that he was murdered by Berikâ— the Kings Faulconer who for his punishment he was set into the same boat of Lothebroke
together riches for he exercised his wit in devising new tributes and payments and rejoyced his heart in nothing more for which causes there arose a grievous sedition at Constantinople against him wherein not onely the excellent and famous monuments of the Empire were burned but also forty thousand men slain and this was no small punishment for his oppression At Paris there is to be seene in the corne market a certaine monument hard at the mouth of the common sinke which conveyeth away all the filth out of the City the occasion whereof is reported to be this A certaine courtier seeing the king sad and melancholly for want of treasure counselled him to exact of every countriman that brought ware into the city but one penny and that but for two yeares together which when the King put in practise and found the exceeding commodity thereof he not onely continued that tax but also invented divers others to the great dammage of the common-wealth and enriching of his owne treasurie Wherefore he that put it first into his head when hee saw that he had not so much authority in dissuading as he had in persuading it to take punishment of himselfe for that inconsiderate deed and to warne others from attempting the like he commanded by his testament that his body should be buried in that common sinke to be an example of exaction and the filthinesse thereof Barnabe Vicount of Milan by the report of Paulus Iovius was an unconscionable oppressor of his subjects and tenants for he did not onely extort of them continuall imposts and payments but enjoyned them to keepe every one a dogge which if they came to any mishap or were either too fat or too leane the keeper was sure to be beaten or at least some fine to be set on his head This Tyran was taken by Iohn Galeacius and after seven moneths imprisonment poysoned to death Archigallo brother to Gorbonianus in nature though unlike in conditions for he was a good Prince whereas this was a tyran was crowned King of Britaine in the yeare of the world 3671 we may well place him in the ranke of oppressours for he deposed the Noblemen and exalted the ignoble he extorted from men their goods to enrich his treasure for which cause the Estates of the Realme deprived him of his royall Dignity and placed his younger brother Elydurus in his room after he had raigned five yeares Hardiknitus King of Denmarke after the death of Harold was ordained King of England in the year of our Lord 1041. This King as he was somewhat cruell for he caused the body of Harold to be taken up out of the Sepulclire and smiting off his head to be cast out into the River Thames because he had injured his mother Emma when he was alive so he was burdensom to his Subjects in tributes and exaction for which cause growing into hatred with God and his Subjects he was strucken with sudden death not without suspition of poysoning after he had raigned three yeares William Rufus second son of William the Conquerour succeeded his father as in the Kingdom of England so in disposition of nature for they were both cruell inconstant and covetous aud burdened their people with unreasonable taxes insomuch that what by the murraine of men by postilence and oppressions of them by exactions the tillage of the earth was put off for one year being the year 1099 whereby ensued great scarcity the year following throughout all the Land but for the oppression William was justly punished by sudden death when being at his disport of hunting he was wounded with an arrow glauncing from the bow of Tyrill a French Knight and so his tyranny and life ended together And here is further to be noted that the place where this King was slain was called New Forest in which same place Richard the Cousin germane of King William son to Duke Robert his brother was likewise slain This New Forest was made by William the Conquerour their father who plucked downe and depopulated divers Townes and Churches the compasse of 30. miles about to make this a Forest for wilde Beasts a most beastly sin yea a bloudy crying sin too too much practised in these dayes and that by great persons that make no conscience to turne Townes into pastures and men into sheep but let all them behold the just vengeance of God upon this Kings posterity for when then either cannot or will not revenge then God revengeth either in them or their posterity In the year 1548. the Commons of Guyenne Santonge and Augoulemois fell into a great Rebellion by reason of the extortions of the Customers and Farmours of Salt the Rebels in a few weekes grew to the number of fourty thousand men armed with clubs and staves who joyning with the Islanders by a generall consent ran upon the Officers of the Custome and with extreme sury put to sword all that they could take notwithstanding the King of Navarre sought by all meanes to appease them About the same time the Commons of Gascoigne rose in divers places upon the same causes and notwithstanding all that the Lord of Monneins the Kings Lieutenant and all other Officers could do they made a great spoil of many honourable Houses and massacre of much people insomuch that the Lord of Moneins himselfe was slain by them whilest he was making an Oration to them to pacifie their rage but at length these Rebels were suppressed by Francis of Lorraine Earle of Aumale and Anne of Mommorancye high Constable of France and the chief King-leaders and Captaines of them executed according to their deserts La Vergne was drawne in pieces by four horses L'Estonnac and the two brothers of Saulx had their heads cut off Tallemoigne and Galeferâ— the two Colonels of the Commons were broken upon the Wheele being first crowned with a crowne of burning iron as a punishment of the Soveraignty which they had usurped Thus the Lord punished both the one and the other and the one by the other the exactors for their oppression and the tumultuous Commons for their Rebellion Neither doth the Lord thus punish oppressours themselves but also they that either countenance or having authority do not punish the same as it appeareth by this example following In the year of our Lord 475. there lived one Corrannus a King of Scots who though he governed the people in peace and quietnesse a long space and was indeed a good Prince yet because his Chancellour Tomset used extortion and exaction amongst his Subjects and he being advertised thereof did not punish him he was slain traiterously by his owne Subjects It is not unworthy to be noted how Edward the Third King of England prospered a long while in the warres against France and got many worthy and wonderfull victories but when Prince Edward son unto the aforesaid Edward after conditions of peace concluded began to set taxes and impositions upon the Country
of ours though after a corrupt and sacrilegious forme and that the Jew did not so much aime at their religion as at Christ the subject of it the Lord might shew a miracle not to establish their errour but to confound the Jews impiety especially in those young yeares of the Church In our English Chronicles are recorded many histories of the malitious practises of the Jews against Christians in hatred of Christ Jesus our Saviour whom they in contempt call our crucified God and especially this devillish practise was most frequent amongst them here in England as in Germany France and other places where they were suffered to inhabite namely every year to steale some Christian manâ— childe from the parents and on good Friday to crucifie him in despight of Christ and Christian religion Thus they served a childe at Lincolne named Hugo of nine years of age in the yeare 1255 in the reigne of Henry the third and another at Norwich about the same time having first circumcised him and detained him a whole yeare in custody In which two facts they were apprehended and at Lincolne thirty two of them put to death and at Norwich twenty But this was not all the punishment that they endured as they proceeded and increased in their malice against Christ and his religion so he proceeded in vengeance and indignation against them First therefore at the coronation of Richard the first whereas some of them presumed to enter into the Court-gate contrary to the Kings expresse commandement a great tumult arising thereupon a number of them were slaine and their houses fired in the City of London by the raging multitude and from thence the example spred into all other countries of the Land for they following the example of the Londoners havocked spoyled killed and fired as many Jewes as they could come by untill by the Kings Writs unto the Sheriffe of every County the tumult was appeased and some few of the principall authors and stirrers of this outrage punished And it is to bee noted that this yeare the Iewes held for their Iubilie but it turned to them a yeare of confusion Neither were they thus massacred onely by the Christians but they became butchers of themselves also For in the City of Yorke when as they had obtained the occupying of a certaine Castle for their preservation and afterward were not willing to restore it to the Christians againe and being ready to bee vanquished and offering much money for their lives when as that would not be accepted by the counsell of an old Jew among them every one with a sharpe rasor cut anothers throat whereby a thousand and five hundred of them were at that present destroyed At North-Hampton a number of them were burnt for enterprizing to fire the City with wilde-fire which they had prepared for that purposes besides many grievous impositions and taxes which were laid upon them At last by King Edward the first they were utterly banished this Realme of England in the yeare 1291 For which deed the Commons gave unto the King a Fifteen And about the same time also they were banished out of France for the like practices and still the wrath of God ceaseth not to punish them in all places wheresoever they inhabit But that their Impiety may bee yet more discovered I will here set downe the confession of one of their own Nation a Jew of Ratisbone converted to the Faith one very skilfull in the Hebrew tongue This man being asked many questions about their superstition and ceremonies answered very fitly and being demanded why they thirsted so after Christian mens bloud He said it was a mystery onely knowne to the Rabbines and highest persons but that this was their custome he knew when any of them was ready to dye a Rabbine anointed him with this bloud using these or such like words If hee that was promised in the Law and Prophets hath truly appeared and if this Iesus crucified bee the very Messias then let the bloud of this innocent man that diedin his Faith cleanse thee from thy sins and help thee to eternall life Nay Epiphanius affirmeth That the Jews of Tyberias did more confidently affirme it than thus for they would whisper into a dying mans eare Beleeve in Iesus of Nazareth whom our princes crucified for he shall come to judge thee in the latter day All which declareth how impious they are to goe against their owne conscience and upon how fickle ground all their Religion standeth CHAP. XII Of those that in our age have persecuted the Gospell in the person of the Faithfull AS the Religion of Christ hath beene hitherto cruelly crossed and besieged by the mightiest captaines of this world as hath been partly declared so it hath not been any better entertained by the Potentates of this age that ceased not to disturbe the quiet and pursue to death the lives of Gods children for their professions sake and to bring them utterly to ruine to addresse all the engines and subtilties of their malicious and wicked counsels without leaving any one device unthought of that their wit could imagine or their power afford they joyned craft with force and vile treason with horrible cruelty thereby to suppresse the truth and quench that faire and cleere light which God after long time of blindnesse and ignorance had caused of his infinite mercy to shine upon us There fires were kindled every where with the bones of Martyrs whilest for the space of forty yeares or thereabouts they never ceased to burne those that were followers of that way Now when they saw that all their butcheries and burnings were not able to consume this holy seed but that the more they went about to choake it the more it grew up and increased they tooke another course and raised up troubles and seditions in all quarters as if by that means they should attaine the end of their purpose Hell vomited up all her Furies of warre the whole earth was in a tumult young and old with tooth and naile were imployed to root out the Church of Christ but God stretching forth his arme against all their practises shewed himselfe not only a Conqueror but also a most sharpe revenger of all his adversaries This is most apparent in that which happened to Thomas Arondel an English man Archbishop of Canterbury an enemy and persecutor of the Truth of Christ who having put to death divers holy and upright men thinking that all he did was gain was rooted out at last himselfe by a most strange and horrible death for he that sought to stop the mouth of God in his Ministers and to hinder the passage of the Gospell had his owne tongue so swolne that it stopped his owne mouth that before his death hee could neither swallow nor speake and so through famine died in great despaire Foelix Farle of Wartemberg one of the Captaines of the Emperour Charles the fifth being at supper at Ausburg with many of
and sufficiently he was confuted and that he was reputed an accursed and confounded wretch for his labour in terrible despaire and anguish of soule he died Iulian the Emperour sirnamed the Apostate cast himselfe headlong into the same gulfe for having been brought up and instructed from his childehood in the Christian faith and afterward a while a profest reader thereof to others in the Church as soone as he had obtained the Empire malitiously revolted from his profession and resisted with all his power the Faith and Church of Christ endeavouring by all means possible either by force to ruinate and destroy it or by fine sleights and subtilties to undermine it And because his purpose was to doe what hurt hee could to Christians therefore he studied by all he could to please content and uphold the contrary party I meane the Painims he caused their temples first to be opened which Constantine his predecessor had caused to be shut up he tooke from the Christian Churches and their Ministers those priviledges liberties and commodities which the said Constantine had bestowed upon them and not content with this he confiscated the Church revenues and imposed great taxes and tributes upon all that professed the name of Christians and forbad them to have any schooles of learning for their children And yet more to vexe and grieve them he translated many orders of the Church discipline and policy into Paganisme After he had thus by all means striven to beat down the Scepter of Christs kingdome it turned quite contrary to his expectation for in stead thereof the scepter of his owne kingdome was broken and brought to nought at that time when making warre upon the Persians he was wounded with an arrow which pierced his armour and dived so deep into his side that he died thereof When he undertooke this voyage he was furnished with such bravery both of apparell and all things else as it might seeme it appertained to him and none else to overwhelme and oversway the world still belching out threats against poore Christians whom he hed determined at his returne from Persia utterly to destroy and leave none alive as was afterwards reported by one of his Councell The number of his souldiers was so innumerable and his strength so impregnable that he made no other reckoning but to be lord of Persia in a very short space But loe how the Lord overturneth the attempts of his enemies This great army as S. Chrysostome reporteth against the Heathen in which he put so much confidence seemed ere long to be rather a vaste and weak multitude of women and infants than an host of Warriours for by evill and foolish conduct and government there rose so great a famine amongst them that their horses which were provided for the battell served for their bellies yea and for want of that too many hundreds died for hunger and thirst Even when he skirmished his owne side came to the worse doing more scath to themselves than to their enemies and lastly leading them so undiscreetly they could not by any means escape out were constrained after he was slaine to intreat the Persians to suffer them to retyre and so as many as could escaped and fled away to save their lives And thus this brave army was thus miserably dismembred and discomfited to the everlasting shame of that wicked Apostate One of the Treasurers of this wicked Emperour who to please his Master forsooke also the Religion of Christ being on a time mocking and deriding the ministry of the holy Word died miserably on a sudden vomiting his owne bloud out of his mouth and as Chrysostome saith his privy parts being rotten and purrified and consumed with lice for all that ever he could doe to remedy the same It is recorded of Trebellius the first King of the Bulgarians that being converted with his people to the faith of Christ to the end to give himselfe more quiet to the meditation and exercise of Religion resigned over his kingdome to his eldest sonne whom when hee perceived to renounce the Faith and to follow strange gods he not only deprived of all his Royall dignity but also caused his eyes to be put out for a punishment of his Apostacie and bestowed the kingdome upon his other sonne shewing thereby that he that abandoneth the true light of salvation is not worthy to enjoy the comfortable light of the world During the heptarchy of the Saxons here in England there raigned in Northumberland two Kings one called Ostrich who was King of the Deirians and the other Eaufride King of the Bernirians for into those two Provinces was that countrey antiently divided These two Kings before they came to their Crownes were by the preaching of Paulinus converted to the Faith of Christ and baptised into the same Faith but as soone as God advanced them to their Kingly dignities presently they expelled the King of Glory out of their hearts and renouncing Christ betooke themselves againe to their filthy Idols But they joyed not long in this their Apostacie for within one yeare they were both slaine by Cedwalla King of the Britaines the one in battell the other comming to sue for peace And so they forsaking Christ in their prosperity were forsaken by him in their adversity and given over to be a prey into the hands of their enemies This yeare wherein these two Kings thus revolted and were slaine hath upon it the marke of vengeance to this day for by the common consent of all Chronicles that the memory of these Apostates might be utterly defaced and blotted out it was reckoned in the account of the next Kings raigne to wit Oswold a holy and religious man and so both the name of the Kings and the time of their raigne is in detestation of the Apostacie utterly left out of our English stories as if they were unworthy to have a place among men much more among Kings that forsooke Christ of their owne accord without any constraint or compulsion thereunto A Divine at Louvaine one Iames Laâ—onus who was well instructed at the first in the knowledge of the Truth afterwards renouncing the same endeavoured with all his power to oppugne and oppresse it This man being on a time mounted into a pulpit to preach before the Emperour Charles the fifth was at the very instant so amased and astonished that no man could perceive what he said and so made himselfe a laughing stocke to all that audience Seeing himselfe thus disgraced he returned from Brussels to Louvaine where he fell into such griefe and sorrow of minde for the dishonour which he had gotten that it turned at length into despaire and in his dayly Lectures these or like words oftentimes escaped after that goodly Sermon That he had impugned the truth of God which when divers of his owne Coat heard they caused him to be shut up fast in a house where in desperation he died telling every man he was damned and that he could
name and title of Caesar and to oppugne the Emperor Henry by armes even by foure unjust battels in the last of which Rodolph being overcome lost his right hand and was sore wounded otherwise wherefore being ready to die when one brought unto him his hand that was cut off in the battell he in detestation of the Popes villanie burst forth into these termes many Bishops standing by Behold here the hand wherewith I swore fealtie to the Emperor this will be an argument of my breach of faith before God and of your traiterous impulsion thereunto And thus he deceased justly punished even by his owne confession for his perjurie Howbeit for all this manifest example the Pope and Bishops continued to persecute the poore Emperor yea and to stir up his owne sonnes Conrade and Henry to fight against him so hardned are their hearts against all Gods judgments Narcissus Bishop of Ierusalem a man famous for his vertues and sharpe in reproving and correcting vice was accused by three wicked wretches of unchastity and that falsly and maliciously for to prove their accusation true they bound it with oaths and curses on this wise the first said If I ly I pray God I may perish by fire The second If I speake aught but truth I pray God I may be consumed by some filthie and cruell disease The third If I accuse him falsely I pray God I may be deprived of my sight and become blinde Thus although the honesty and chastity of Narcissus was so well knowne to all the faithfull that they beleeved none of their oaths yet the good Bishop partly mooved with griefe of this false accusation and partly with desire of quietnesse from worldly affaires forsooke his bishopricke and lived in a desart for many yeares But his forsworne accusers by their death witnessed his innocencie which by their words they impugned for the first his house being set on fire extraordinarily perished in flame with all his family and progenie The second languished away with an irkesome disease that bespread his bodie all over The third seeing the wofull ends of his companions confessed all their villanie and lamenting his case and crime persisted so long weeping till both his eyes were out Thus God in his just judgement sent upon each of them their wishes and thereby cleered his servant from shame and opprobry Burghard Archbishop of Magdeburg though in regard of his place and profession he ought to have given good example of honestie in himselfe and punish perjurie in others yet he thrice broke his promise and oath with his owne Citisens the Senat and people of Magdeburg for first hee besieged them with a power of men and though they redeemed their liberty with a summe of money he swearing not to besiege them any more yet without respect of truth and credit he returned afresh to the siege but his persidie was soone tamed for they tooke him prisoner at that assault howbeit he so asswaged their angrie mindes with his humble and lowlie entreaties and counterfe it oathes never to trouble them any more but to continue their stedfast friend that they not onely freed him from imprisonment but restored him to all his dignities with solemnitie neverthelesse the traiterous Archbishop returning to his old vomit got dispensation for his oath from Pope Iohn the xxiij and began afresh to vex molest and murther them whom he had sworne to maintaine but it was the will of God that he should be once againe caught and being enclosed in prison whilest his friends sought meanes to redeeme him the gaoler beat him to death with a dore barre or as some say with an yron rod taken out of a window and so at last though long his perjurie found its desert The small successe that the Emperor Sigismund had in all his affaires after the violation of his faith given to Iohn Hus and Hierome of Prague at the Councell of Constance whom though with direct protestations and oathes he promised safe conduct and returne yet he adjudged to be burned doth testifie the odiousnesse of his sin in the sight of God But above all this one example is most worthie the marking of a fellow that hearing perjury condemned in a pulpit by a learned preacher and how it never escaped unpunished said in a braverie I have oft forsworne my selfe and yet my right hand is not a whit shorter than my left Which words he had scarce uttered when such an inflamation arose in that hand that he was constrained to go to the Chirurgion and cut it off lest it should infect his whole bodie and so his right hand became shorter than his left in recompence of his perjurie which he lightly esteemed of About the yeare of our Lord 925 when King Ethelstane otherwise called Adelstane raigned here in England there was one Elfrede a Nobleman who with a faction of seditious persons conspired against the King presently after the death of his Father and at Winchester went about to put out his eyes but the King by the good providence of God escaped that danger and Elfrede being accused thereof fled to Rome to the end to purge himself of the crime by oath before the Pope who beeing brought to the Church of Saint Peter and there swearing or rather forswearing himself to be cleere when indeed he was guilty behold the Lords hand on him suddenly as soon as his oath was pronounced he fell down in a strange sicknesse and from thence being brought to the English house in Rome within three daies after departed this life The Pope sent word hereof to King Ethelstane with demand Whither he would have him buried among Christians or no Who through the perswasions of his friends and kinsfolke granted that though he neither lived nor died like a Christian yet he should have Christian buriall In the towne of Rutlinquen a certaine passenger came into an Inne and gave a budget to his hoast to be kept in the which there was a great sum of money but when he demanded it againe at his departure the host denied it and gave him injurious words with many mocks and taunts Whereupon the passenger calleth him in question before the Iudge and because he wanted witnesses desireth to have him sworne who without all scruple offered to sweare and protest That he never received or concealed any such budget of money from him giving himselfe to the Devill if he swore falsely The passenger seeing his forwardnesse to damne himself demanded respit to consider of the matter and going out hee meets with two men who enquire the cause of his comming thither and being informed by him offer their help unto him in his cause thereupon they returne before the Iudge and these two unknowne persons justifie that the budget was delivered unto the host and that hee had hidden it in such a place whereat the host being astonished by his countenance and gesture discovered his guiltinesse the Iudge thereupon resolved to send
King of England sonne of Geffrey Plantagenet and Maud the Empresse after he had raigned twenty yeares was content to admit his young sonne Henry married to Margaret the French Kings daughter into participation of his Crowne but he like an unnaturall son to requite his fathers love sought to dispossesse him of the whole for by inciting the King of France and certaine other Nobles hee tooke armes and raised warre against his owne naturall father betwixt whom divers strong battels being fought as well in England by the Deputies and friends of both parties as also in Normandy Poytou Guian and Britain the victory alwayes inclined to the father so that the rebellious son with his allies were constrained to bend to his fathers will and to desire peace which he gently granted and forgave his offence Howbeit the Lord for his disobedience did not so lightly pardon him but because his hasty mind could not tarry for the Crowne till his fathers death therefore the Lord cut him short of it altogether causing him to die six yeares before his father being yet but young and like to live long Lothair King of Soissons in France committed the rule of the province of Guian to his eldest son Cramiris who when contrary to the mind of his father he oppressed the people with exactions and was reclaimed home he like an ungratious and impious son fled to his uncle Childebert and provoked him towarre upon his owne father wherein he himselfe was by the just vengeance of God taken and burned with his wife and children to death Furthermore it is not doubtlesse but to a very good end enacted in the law of God That he which curseth his father or mother should die the death and that rebellious children and such as be incorrigible should at the instance and pursuit of their owne parents by order of law be stoned to death As children by all these examples ought not onely to learne to feare to displease and revile their parents but also to feare and reverence them lest that by disobedience they kindle the fire of Gods wrath against them so likewise on the other side parents are here advertised to have great care in bringing up and instructing their children in the feare of God and obedience to his will lest for want of instruction and correction on their part they themselves incurre a punishment of their carelesse negligence in the person of their children And this is proved by experience of the men of Bethel of whose children two and forty were torne in pieces by Beares for that they had been so evill taught as to mocke the holy Prophet Elizeus in calling him bald-pate Heli likewise the high priest was culpable of this fault for having two wicked and perverse sonnes whom no feare of God could restraine being discontent with that honourable portion of the sacrifices allotted them by God like famished and unsatiable wretches fell to share out more than was their due and by force to raven all that which by faire meanes they could not get and that which is worse to pollute the holy Tabernacle of God with their filthy whoredomes in such sort that the Religion of God grew in disgrace through their prophane dealings And albeit it may seem that their father did his duty in some sort when he admonished and reproved them yet it is manifest by the reprehension of the man of God that he did no part of that at all or if he did yet it was in so carelesse loose and cold manner using more lenity than hee ought or lesse severity than was necessary that God turned their destructions when they were slaine at the overthrow of Israel by the Philistins to be his punishment for understanding the dolefull newes of his sonnes death and the Arkes taking at once he fell backewards from his stoole and burst his necke being old and heavy even fourescore and eighteene yeares of age not able either to help or stay himselfe David also was not free from this offence for hee so much cockered some of his children that they proved the greatest plagues and scourges unto him especially Absolon and Adonijah for the one openly rebelled against him and almost drove him out of his kingdome the other usurped the title and honour of the kingdome before his fathers death of this it is recorded That David so cockered and pampered him that he would never displease him from his youth But see how he was punished in them for this too great lenity both of them came to an untimely death and proved not onely the workers of their owne destruction but also great crosses to their father Ludovicus Vives saith That in his time a certain woman in Flanders did so much pamper and cocker up two of her sonnes even against her husbands will that she would not suffer them to want money or any thing which might furnish their roiotous life both in drinking banquetting and dicing yea she would stoale from her husband to minister unto them but as soone as her husband was dead she was justly plagued in them both for they fell from royoting to robbing which two vices are commonly linked together and for the same one of them was executed by the sword and the other by the halter she her selfe looking on as a witnesse of their destructions whereof her conscience told her that her indulgence was the chiefest cause Hither may we referre that common and vulgar story and I suppose very true which is almost in every childes mouth of him that going to the gallowes desired to speake with his mother in her care ere he dyed and when she came unto him in stead of speaking bit off her care with his teeth exclaiming upon her as the causer of his death because she did not chastise him in his youth for his faults but by her flatteries established him in vice which brought him to this wofull end and herein she was doubly punished both in her sonnes destruction and her owne infamy whereof she carried about her a continuall maâ—ke This ought to be a warning to all parents to looke better to the education of their children and to root out of them in time all evill and corrupt manners lest of small sprigs they grow to branches and of qualities to habits and so either be hardly done off or at least deprave the whole body and bring it to destruction but above all to keep them from idlenesse and vaine pleasures the discommodity and mischiefe whereof this present example will declare At a towne called Hannuel in Saxony the Devill transforming himselfe into the shape of a man exercised many jugling trickes and pretty pastime to delight young men and maids withall and indeed to draw after him daily great companies one day they followed him out of the city gates unto a hill adjoyning where he played a jugling tricke indeed with them for he carried them all away with him so that they were never
despightfull manner for the Daulphin escaping their hands by night and safegard in his castle after that he heard of the seisure of the citie found meanes to assemble certuine forces and marched to Montereaufautyon with 20000 men of purpose to be revenged on the Duke for all his brave and riotous demeanors hither under colour of parling and devising new means to pacifie these old civill troubles he enticed the Duke and being come at his very first arrivall as he was bowing his knee in reverence to him he caused him to be slaine And on this manner was the Duke of Orleance death quitted and the evill and cruelty shewed towards him returned upon the murderers owne necke for as he slew him trecherously and cowardly so was he also trecherously and cowardly slaine and justly requited with the same measure that he before had measured to another notwithstanding herein the Daulphin was not free from a grievous crime of disloyaltie and truth-breach in working his death without shame of either faith-breach or perjury and that in his owne presence whom hee had so often with protestation of assurance and safetie requested to come to him Neither did he escape unpunished for it for after his fathers decease he was in danger of losing the Crowne and all for this cause for Philip Duke of Burgundie taking his fathers revenge into his hands by his cunning devices wrought meanes to displace him from the succession of the kingdome by according a marriage betwixt the King of England and his sister to whom he in favor agreed to give his kingdome in reversion after his owne decease Now assoone as the King of England was seised upon the governement of France the Daulphin was presently summoned to the marble Table to give answere for the death of the old Duke whither when he made none appearance they presently banished him the realme and pronounced him to be unworthy to be succeeder to the noble Crowne which truely was a very grievous chastisement and such an one as brought with it a heape of many mischiefes and discomfitures which happened in the warre betwixt England and him for the recovery of his kingdome Peter sonne to Alphonsus King of Castile was a most bloudy and cruell Tyran for first he put to death his owne wife the daughter of Peter Duke of Burbon and sister to the Queene of France next hee slew the mother of his bastard brother Henrie together with many Lords and Barons of the realme for which he was hated not onely of all his subjects but also of his neighbor and adjoyning countries which hatred moved the foresaid Henrie to aspire unto the Crowne which what with the Popes avouch who legitimated him and the helpe of certaine French forces and the support of the Nobility of Castile he soone atchieved Peter thus abandoned put his safest gard in his heeles and fled to Bordeaux towards the Prince of Wales of whom he received such good entertainment that with his aid he sonne re-entred his lost dominions and by maine battell chased his bastard brother out of the confines thereof but being re-installed whilest his cruelties ceased not to multiply on every side behold Henrie with a new supply out of France began to assayle him afresh and put him once again to his shifts but all that he could doe could not shift him out of Henries hands who pursued him so hotly that with his owne hands hee soone rid him out of all troubles and afterwards peaceably enjoyed the kingdome of Castille But above all the horrible murders and massacres that ever were heard or read of in this last age of the World that bloudy massacre in France under the reigne of Charles the ninth is most famous or rather infamous wherein the noble Admirall with many of the nobility and gentrie which were Protestants were most traiterously and cruelly murdered in their chambers and beds in Paris the foure and twentieth of August in the night in this massacre were butchered in Paris that very night ten thousand Protestants and in all France for other cities followed the example of Paris thirty or as some say forty thousand I will not stand to relate the particular circumstances and manner thereof it being at large described by divers writers both in French and English only to our purpose let us consider the judgements and vengeance of Almightie God upon the chiefe practisers and plotters thereof which were these Charles the ninth then King by whose commission and commandement this massacre was undertaken his brother and successour the Duke of Aniou the Queene mother his bastard brother and the Duke of Guise yea the whole towne of Paris and generally all France was guilty thereof Now observe Gods just revenge Charles himselfe had the thred of his life cut off by the immediat hand of God by a long and lingring sickenesse and that before he was come to the full age of 24 yeres in his sicknesse bloud issued in great abundance out of many places of his body insomuch that sometimes he fell and wallowed in his owne bloud that as he had delight to shed the bloud of so many innocents so he might now at the latter end of his dayes be glutted with bloud And surely by this meanes the Lord did put him in minde of his former bloudy murders to draw him to repentance if it were possible The Duke of Anjou who succeeded this Charles in the Crowne of France and was called Henrie the third was murdered by a young Iacobine Monke called Frier Iaques Clement at the instigation of the duke de Maine and others of the league and that wherein appeareth manifestly the hand of God in the selfe same chamber at S. Cloves wherein the Councell for the great massacre had beene taken and plotted as it is constantly affirmed The Duke of Guise in the yeare 1588 the 23 of December was murdered by the kings owne appointment being sent for into the kings chamber out of the councell chamber where attended him 45 with rapiers and poniards ready prepared to receive him The Queene mother soone after the slaughter of the Duke of Guise tooke the matter so to heart that shee went to bed and dyed the first of Ianuarie after Touching all the rest that were chiefe actors in the tragidie few or none escaped the apparant vengeance of God and as for Paris and the whole realme of France they also felt the severe scourge of Gods justice partly by civile wars and bloudshed and partly by famine and other plagues so that the Lord hath plainly made knowne to the world how precious in the sight of his most Holy Majestie is the death of innocents and how impossible it is for cruell murderers to escape unpunished CHAP. X. Of divers other Murderers and their severall punishments MAximinus from a shepheard in Thracia grew to be an Emperor in Rome by these degrees his exceeding stength and swiftnesse in running commended him so to Severus then Emperour that he made
dreaming of nothing lesse whereat they being at the instant amazed quickly gathered their spirits together and putting themselves in defence fought it out with such courage and eagernesse that the traitors Army was wholly discomfited and he himselfe with one of his sonnes slain The Gothes having gotten this victory broke off their voyage to France and turned their course backe again to Italie with purpose to destroy and spoil and so they did for they laid waste all the Countrey of Piemont and Lumbardy and elsewhere and besieged Rome it selfe so that from that time Italie never ceased to be scourged and tormented with the Gothes for the space of eighteen yeers Moreover whosoever else have been found to follow the steps of these truce peace and promise-breakers void of truth and regard of reputation alwayes underwent worthy punishment for their unworthy acts and fell headlong into confusion and ignominy making themselves subjects worthy to be curst and detested of all men CHAP. XVI Of Queenes that were Murtherers IF these and such like cruelties as we have spoken before be strange and monstrous for men what shall we then say of wicked and bloudy women who contrary to the nature of their sex addict themselves to all violence and bloudshedding as cursed Iezabel Queen of Israel did of whom sufficient hath been spoken before Athaliah Ahabs daughter and wife to Ioram King of Judah was a bird of the same feather for she was possessed with such a spirit of fury and rage that after the death of her son Ochosias that died without issue she put to death all the bloud royall to wit the posterity of Nathan Solomons brother to whom by right of succession the inheritance of the Crown appertained to the end that she might install her selfe into the kingly diadem after this cruell butchery of all the royall male children except Ioas who by Gods providence was preserved alive she usurped the Crowne and Scepter of Juda full seven yeeres at the end of which date Ioas was exalted to the Crowne and she not onely deposed but slain by the hands of her Guard that attended upon her Semiramis the Queen of Assyria was a woman of an ambitious spirit who through her thirst of reigning counterfeited her sex and attired her selfe like a man to get more authority and reverence to her selfe She was the destruction of many thousand people by the unjust war which she stirred up besides that she was a notorious strumpet and withall a murderer of those that satisfied her lust for still as they came from her bed some lay privily in watch to kill them lest they should bewray her villany it is reported that she was so shamelesse that she solicited her owne son to commit incest with her who in detestation of her filthinesse and cruelty raised a power against her and conquering her in one great battell caused her most deservedly to be put to death Brunchild whom Histories call Brunhault a Queen of France by marriage but a Spaniard by birth was a woman that bred much mischiefe in her age and that wrought many horrible and death-deserving crimes for partly with her subtle devices and partly with her owne hands she murdered ten Kings of France one after another she caused her husband to slay his owne brother she procured the death of her nephew Meroveus whom against all equity and honesty she had secondly espoused for her husband for he being hated of his father for that vile incest and perceiving himselfe in danger of taking made one of servants thrust him through After she had committed these and many other foul facts she went aboutalso to defraud Clotairius the son of Chilpericke of the right of the Crowne which pertained unto him and to thrust in another in his room whereupon arose great war in the which as she dealt more boldly and manfully than the condition of her sexe would bear so she received the due wages of her brave and vertuous deeds for she was taken prisoner with three of her nephewes whose throats she saw cut before her face and after her selfe was set upon a Camell and led through the hoste three dayes together every man reviling mocking reproaching and despighting her and at last by the award and judgement of the Princes and Captaines of the Army she was adjudged to be tied by the hair of her head one arme and one foot to the tail of a wilde and unâ—â—med horse and so to be left to his mercy to be drawne miserably to her destruction which was no sooner executed but her miserable carkase the instrument of so many mischiefes was with mens feet spurned bruised trampled and wounded after a most strange fashion and this was the wofull end of miserable Brunchild Edilburga the daughter of Offa King of Mercia in England who was married to Brigthricus King of the West Saxons was a woman so passing all the bounds of humanity and so given to cruelty and other beastly conditions that she first poysoned divers of the Nobles of the Kingdom and then having practised this wickednesse upon them she at length poysoned also the King her husband for which cause flying over into France unto Charles the Great for fear of punishment among her owne people when by reason of her beautie it was offered unto her that she should marry either with the King himselfe or with his son because she chose the son before the father married neither the one nor yet the other but was thrust into a Monastery where she not forgetting her old trade playing the harlot with a Monke was expulsed from thence and ended her life in great penury and misery About the same time that this Edilburga was thus working her feats in England Irene another most idolatrous and cruell minded woman being Emperesse of the Greekes was as busie for her part at Constantinople This wicked woman through the meanes of Pope Adrian took up the body of Constantine Emperour of Constantinople her owne husbands father and when she had burned the same she caused the ashes to be cast into the sea because he disannulled images Afterward reigning with her son Constantine the sixth son to Leo the fourth and being at dissention with him for disallowing the worshipping of images caused him to be taken and laid in prison who afterward through power of friends being restored to his Empire again at last she caused the same her owne son to be cast in prison and his eyes to be put out so cruelly that within short space he died After this the said Emperesse as it were triumphing in her cruelty and idolatry caused a Councell to be held at Nice where it was decreed That images should again be restored to the Church but this Councell was after repealed by another Councell holden at Frankford by Charles the Great and at length this wicked woman was deposed by Nicephorus who reigned after and was expulsed the Empire and after the example of Edilburga
and the whole Army of threescore thousand men by bare eight thousand English discomfited divers great Lords were found slain in the field and divers others with the King himselfe carried Prisoners into England which was a great shake to the whole Realme and the occasion of many tumults and disorders that ensued afterwards Moreover as it is a rash part to hazard the doubtfull event of battell indiscreetly and without cause so it is a point of no lesse folly to thrust ones selfe voluntarily into any action of war without charge not being particularly called and bound thereunto or having a body unsufficient and unfit for the same And this was also one of the warlike points of Discipline which the antient Romans used That none should presume to fight for his Countrey before he had been admitted by some Captain by a solemne Oath Of all the Histories that I ever read I know none more strange in matter of war than this which I now go about to recite of Henry of Luxenbourg Emperour of Germany who when he heard that his son Charles King of Bohemia was in the French Army and that Philip of Valois King of France was ready to give battell to the English albeit he was blinde and consequently unfit for war yet would needs take part with the French and therefore commanded his men at Armes to guide him into the place where the Field was to be fought that he might strike one blow They as foolish as himselfe not willing to crosse his minde and fearing to lose him in the prease tied him faste to the raines of their bridles being by this meanes so coupled together as if they meant all to perish together if need were as indeed they did for they were overcome in battell and the next day found all dead horse and men faste bound together This accident befell at Crecy neer Abrevile in which journey the French King sustained an inestimable damage for he lost fifteen of his chiefest Princes fourscore Ensignes twelve hundred Knights and about thirty thousand men In the yeer 1455. the Hungarians without any just cause or pretence made war upon the Emperour Otto onely moved with a desire of bringing under their subjection the Germane powers and the rather at this time because they supposed the Emperours strength of war to be weakened and his power of men lessened by those continuall troubles and wars which he had been daily occupied in notwithstanding Otto as by his former deeds of Armes he deserved the sirname of Great so in this exploit especially for he conscribed eight Legions of men out of Franconia Bavaria and Bohemia and with that small valiant handfull overturned and destroyed the huge unchristened multitude of his enemies for albeit the Bohemians being placed in the Rereward were as suddenly and unexpectedly assaulted by the enemy that craftily passed over the River Lycus to set upon them behinde as unhappily put to flight with the losse of the carriages and victuals which they were set to protect yet Otto with his other Legions renuing the battell and encouraging his souldiers gave the enemy such an encounter and repulse that he put them to flight and slew them with a miserable slaughter three of their Kings he took Prisoners and few of that vaste Army escaped with their lives On the Emperours side died many worthy men among whom Conrade the Emperours son in law and Burghard Duke of Suevia were two beside many other In this successive battell it is to be noted above the rest how religiously the Emperour both began and finished it the day before the Fight he enjoyned a Faste in his Army and directed his prayers to the Almighty relying more upon the presence of Gods helpe than his owne power after the Conquest gotten he caused solemne thankes to be given in all Churches to God for the great deliverance I would our moderne Generals and Captaines would learne by this example to follow his footsteps and not to make their prayers quaffings and their thanksgiving carousings as they use to do even as it were purposely to tempt the Lord and to stir up his wrath against them Penda King of middle England making war upon Anna King of East Angles slew him in open field with which victory being puffed up by pride he sent defiance to Osway King of Northumberland also who hearing of his approach proffered him great gifts and fair conditions of peace which when Penda obstinately refused he was slain in battell with thirty of his most noble Captaines although he had thrice the number of people which Osway had And thus the heathen and bloudy Pagan ended his cruelty and paid dear for his too much forwardnesse in war CHAP. XVIII Of such as please themselves overmuch in seeing Cruelties THe Romanes were so accustomed by long use of war to behold fightings and bloudshed that in time of peace also they would make themselves sports and pastimes therewith for they would compell poor captives and bondslaves either to kill one another by mutuall blowes or to enter combate with savage and cruell beasts to be torne in pieces by them The first according to Seneca that devised and put in practice this unkindely Combate of Beasts and Malefactours was Pompey who provided an Army of eighteen Elephants to fight with men and thought it a notable and commendable spectacle to put men to death after this new and strange fashion Oh how mens mindes are blinded with over much prosperity He esteemed himselfe at that time to be higher in dignity than all other when he thus threw to wilde beasts people of farre Countries and in the presence of the people caused so much bloud to be shed but not long after himselfe was betrayed by the treachery of the Alexandrians and slain by a bondslave a just quittance for murdering so many of that condition thus much of Seneca Now it is manifest that this was an ordinary pastime among the Romans albelt it is strange that any pastime or pleasure could arise by seeing poor Creatures interchangeably strike one another to death and humane bloud to run like water along the streets It was not then without cause but by a speciall will of God to revenge cruelty that the bondslaves conducted by Spartacus the Fencer rebelled against their masters in Rome after they had broken through the guards of Lentulus his house and issuing out of Capua gathered together above ten thousand fighting men and encamped themselves in mount Vesuvius where being besieged by Clodâ—us Glaber they sallied so rudely and boisterously upon him that the victory and spoil of their enemies tents remained on their sides after this they ran over all the Land forraged the Countrey and destroyed many Villages and Townes but especially these four Nola Nocera Terrenevae and Metaponte were by them sacked and spoiled with a strange and bloudy overthrow after all which having encountred two Consuls they overcame Lentulus on mount Appennine and discomfited Gaiuâ—
besieging him in his owne City took him at last prisoner and hanged him with his two sons Francis and William Diocles son of Pisistratus Tyran of Athens for ravishing a maid was slain by her brother whose death when Hippias his brother undertook to revenge and caused the maidens brother to be racked that he might discover the other conspiratours he named all the Tyrans friends which by commandment being put to death the Tyran asked whether there were any more None but onely thy selfe quoth he whom I would wish next to be hanged whereby it was perceived how abundantly he had revenged his sisters chastity by whose notable stomacke all the Athenians being put in remembrance of their liberty expelled their Tyran Hippias out of their City Mundus a young Gentleman of Rome ravished the chaste Matron Paulina in this fashion when he perceived her resolution not to yeeld unto his lust he perswaded the Priests of Isis to say that they were warned by an Oracle how that Anubius the god of Egypt desired the company of the said Paulina to whom the chaste Matron gave light credence both because she thought the Priests would not lie and also because it was accounted a great renowne to have to do with a god and thus by this meanes was Paulina abused by Mundus in the Temple of Isis under the name of Anubius Which thing being after disclosed by Mundus himselfe he was thus justly revenged the Priests were put to death the Temple beaten downe to the ground the Image of Isis throwne into Tiber and the young man banished A principall occasion of the Danes first arrivall here in England which after conquered the whole Land and exercised among the Inhabitants most horrible cruelties and outrages was a Rape committed by one Osbright a deputy King under the King of the West-Saxons in the North part This Osbright upon a time journeying by the way turned into the house of one of his Nobles called Bruer who having a wife of great beauty he being from home the King after dinner allured with her excellent beauty took her to a secret Chamber where he forcibly contrary to her will ravished her whereupon she being greatly dismayed and vexed made her mone to her husband at his returne of this violence and injury received The Nobleman forthwith studying revenge first went to the King and resigned to his hands all such services and possessions which he held of him and then took shipping and sailed into Denmarke where he had great friends and had his bringing up there making his mone to Codrinus the King desired his aid in revenging of the great villany of Osbright against him and his wife Codrinus glad to entertain any occasion of quarrell against this Land presently levied an Army and preparing all things for the same sendeth forth Inguar and Hubba two brethren with a mighty Army of Danes into England who first arriving at Holdernesse burnt up the Countrey and killed without mercy both men women and children then marching towards Yorke encountered with wicked Osbright himselfe where he with the most part of his Army was slain and discomfited a just reward for his villanous act as also one chief cause of the Conquest of the whole Land by the Danes In the year of our Lord 955. Edwine succeeding his uncle Eldred was King of England this man was so impudent that in the very day of his Coronation he suddenly withdrew himselfe from his Lords and in sight of certain persons ravished his owne kinswoman the wife of a Nobleman of his Realme and afterward slew her husband that he might have unlawfull use of her beauty for which act he became so odious to his Subjects and Nobles that they joyntly rose against him and deprived him of his Crowne when he had reigned four yeares CHAP. XXII Other examples of Gods Judgements upon Adulterers AMongst all other things this is especially to be noted how God for a greater punishment of the disordinate lust of men strucke them with a new yet filthy and stinking kinde of Disease called the French Pox though indeed the Spaniards were the first that were infected therewith by the heat which they caught among the women of the new-found lands and sowed the seeds thereof first in Spain and from thence sprinkled Italy therewith wherethe French men caught it when Charles the Eighth their King went against Naples From whence the contagion spread it selfe throughout divers places of Europe Barbary was so over-growne with it that in all their Cities the tenth part escaped not untouched nay almost not a Family but was infected From thence it ran to Aegypt Syria and the graund Cair and it may near hand truly be said that there was not a corner of the habitable world where this not onely new and strange for it was never heard of in antient ages but terrible and hideous scourge of Gods wrath stretched not it selfe They that were spotted with it and had it rooted in their bodies led a languishing life full of aches and torments and carried in their visages filthy markes of unclean behaviour as ulcers boyles and such like that greatly disfigured them And herein we see the words of Saint Paul verified That an Adulterer sinneth against his owne body Now for so much as the world is so brutishly carried into this sin as to none more the Lord therefore hath declared his anger against it in divers sorts so that divers times he hath punished it in the very act or not long after by a strange death Of which Alcibiades one of the great Captaines of Athens may stand for an example who being polluted with many great and odious vices and much given to his pleasures and subject to all uncleannesse ended his life in the midst thereof for as he was in company of a Phrygian strumpet having flowne thither to the King of Phrygia for shelter was notwithstanding set upon by certain Guards which the King induced by his enemies sent to stay him but they though in number many through the conceived opinion of his notable valour durst not apprehend him at hand but set fire to the house standing themselves in armes round about it to receive him if need were he seeing the fire leaped through the midst of it and so long defended himselfe amongst them all till strength failed in himselfe and blowes encreasing upon him constrained him to give up his life amongst them Pliny telleth of Cornelius Gallus and Q. Elerius two Roman Knights that died in the very action of filthinesse In the Irish History we finde recorded a notable judgement of God upon a notorious and cruell lecher one Turgesnis a Norwegian who having twice invaded Ireland reigned there as King for the space of thirty yeares This Tyran not onely cried havocke and spoil upon the whole Countrey abusing his victory very insolently but also spared not to abuse virgins and women at his pleasure to the satisfying
be whereof all they are guilty that either make up such Marriages or give their good will or consent to them or do not hinder the cause and proceedings of them if any manner of way they can Now that this confusion and mixture of Religion in Marriages is unpleasant and noysom to God it manifestly appeareth Gen. 6. where it is said that because the sonnes of God to wit those whom God had separated for himselfe from the beginning of the world to be his peculiar ones were so evill advised as to be allured with the beauties of the daughters of men to wit of those which were not chosen of God to be his people and to marry with them corrupting themselves by this contagious acquaintance of prophane people with whom they should have had nothing to do that therefore God was incensed against them and resolved simply to revenge the wickednesse of each party without respect Beside the monstrous fruits of those prophane Marriages do sufficiently declare their odiousnesse in Gods sight for from them arose gyants of strength and stature exceeding the proportion of men who by their hugenesse did much wrong and violence in the world and gained fearfull and terrible names to themselves but God provoked by their oppressions drowned their tyrannies in the Floud and made an end of the world for their sakes In the time of the Judges in Israel the Israelites were chastised by the hand of God for this same fault for they tooke to wives the daughters of the uncircumcised and gave them their daughters also In like sort framed they themselves by this meanes to their corrupt manners and superstitions and to the service of their Idolatrous gods but the Lord of heaven raigned downe anger upon their heads and made them subject to a stranger the King of Mesopotamia whom they served the space of eight yeares Looke what hapned to King Solomon for giving his heart to strange women that were not of the houshold of Gods people he that before was replenished with such admirable wisdome that he was the wonder of the world was in his olde age deprived thereof and besotted with a kinde of dulnesse of understanding and led aside from the true knowledge of God to serve Idols and to build them Altars and Chappels for their worship and all this to please forsooth his wives humours whose acquaintance was the chiefe cause of his misery and Apostasie CHAP. XXIV Touching incestuous Marriages NOw as it is unlawfull to contract marriages with parties of contrary religion so it is as unlawfull to marry those that are neare unto us by any degree of kindred or affinity as it is inhibited not only by the law of God but also by civill and politique constitutions whereunto all nations have ever by the sole instinct of nature agreed and accorded except the Aegyptians and Persians whose abhominations were so great as to take their owne sisters and mothers to be their wives Cambyses King of Media and Persia married his owne sister but it was not long ere he put her to death a just proofe of an unjust and accursed marriage Many others there were in protract of time that in their insatiable lusts shewed themselves no lesse unstaied and unbriedled in their lawlesse affections then he One of which was Antigonus King of Judea son of Herodes sirnamed Great who blushed not to marry his sister the late wife of his deceased brother Alexander by whom she had borne two children but for this and divers other his good deeds he lost not only his goods which were confiscated but was himselfe also banished out of his countrey into a forraine place from Judea to Vienna in France Herod also the Tetrarch was so impudent and shamelesse that he tooke from his brother Philip his wife Herodias and espoused her unto himselfe which shamelesse and incestuous deed Iohn Baptist reproving in him told him plainly how unlawfull it was for him to possesse his brothers wise but the punishment which befell him for this and many other his sins we have heard in the former booke and need not here to be repeated Anton. Caracalla tooke to wife his mother in law allured thereunto by her faire enticements whose wretched and miserable end hath already been touched in the former booke The Emperour Heraclius after the decease of his first wife married his owne neece the daughter of his brother which turned mightily to his undoing for besides that that under his raigne and as it were by his occasion the Saracens entred the borders of Christendome and spoiled and destroyed his dominions under his nose to his foule and utter disgrace he was over and above smitten corporally with so grievous and irksome a disease of dropsie that he dyed thereof Thus many men run ryot by assuming to themselves too much liberty and breake the bounds of civill honesty required in all Contracts and too audaciously set themselves against the commandement of God which ought to be of such authority with all men that none be they never so great should dare to derogate one jot from them unlesse they meant wholly to oppose themselves as profest enemies to God himselfe and to turne all the good order of things into confusion All which notwithstanding some of the Romish Popes have presumed to encroach upon Gods right and to disanull by their foolish decrees the lawes of the Almighty As Alexander the sixth did who by his Bull approved the incestuous marriage of Ferdinand King of Naples with his owne Aunt his father Alphonsus sister by the fathers side which otherwise saith Cardinall Bembus had been against all law and equity and in no case to be tollerated and borne withall Henry the seventh King of England after the death of his eldest son Arthur caused by the speciall dispensation of Pope Iulius his next son named Henry to take to wife his brothers widdow called Katherine daughter to Ferdinando King of Spaine for the desire he had to have this Spanish affinity continued who succeeding his father in the Crowne after continuance of time began to advise himselfe and to consult whether this marriage with his brothers wife were lawfull or no and found it by conference both of holy and prophane lawes utterly unlawfull whereupon he sent certaine Bishops to the Queene to give her to know That the Popes dispensation was altogether unjust and of none effect to priviledge such an act to whom she answered That it was too late to call in question the Popes Bull which so long time they had allowed of The two Cardinals that were in Commission from the Pope to decide the controversie and to award judgement upon the matter were once upon point to conclude the decree which the King desired had not the Pope impeached their determination in regard of the Emperour Charles nephew to the said Queene whom he was loath to displease wherefore the King seeing himselfe frustrate of his purpose in this behalfe sent into divers
French K. was fore troubled at his returne having to withstand him all the Venetian forces with the most part of the Potentates of Italie notwithstanding he broke through them all after he had put the Venetians to the worst but being returned after this victorious and triumphant voyage it happened that one day as he led the Queen to the Castle of Amboise to see some some sport at Tenise he stroke his forehead against the upper door-poste of the gallery as he went in that he fell presently to the ground speechlesse and died incontinently in the place from whence though the filthiest and sluttishest place about the Castle they removed not his body but laid it on a bed of straw to the view of the world from two of the clocke in the afternoon till eleven at midnight and this good successe followed at last his so much desired divorce CHAP. XXVII Of those that either cause or authorise unlawfull Divorcements ALthough the Commandment of our Saviour Christ be very plain and manifest That man should not separate those whom God hath joyned together yet there are some so void of understanding and judgement that they make no conscience to dissolve those that by the bond of marriage are united Of which number was Sampsons father in Law who took his daughter first given in marriage to Sampson and gave her to another without any other reason save that he suspected that Sampson loved her not But what got he by it Marry this the Philistims provoked against him consumed him and his daughter with fire because that by the meanes of his injury Sampson had burned their corne their vineyards and their olive-trees After the same sort dealt Saul with David when he gave him his daughter Michol to Wife and afterward in despight and hatred of him took her away again and bestowed her upon another wherein as in many other things he shewed himselfe a wicked and prophane man and was worthily punished therefore as hath been before declared Hugh Spencer one of King Edward of Englands chiefest favourites insomuch that his ear and heart was at his pleasure was he that first persuaded the King to forsake and repudiate the Queen his Wife daughter to Philip the Faire King of France upon no other occasion but onely to satisfie his owne appetite and the better to follow his delights And thus by this meanes she was chased out of England and driven to retire to King Charles her brother where hoping to finde rest and refuge she was deceived for what by the crafts and practises of the English and what by the Popes authority who thrust himselfe into this action as his custom is she was constrained to dislodge her selfe and to change her countrey very speedily wherefore from thence she went to crave succour of the County of Henault who furnished her with certain forces and sent her towards England where being arrived and finding the people generally at her command and ready to do her service she set upon her enemy Hugh Spencer took him prisoner and put him to a shamefull death as he well deserved for he was also the causer of the deaths of many of the Nobles of the Realme therefore he was drawne through the streets of Hereford upon an hurdle and after his privie members his heart and head were cut off his four quarters were exalted in four severall places to the view of the world Now if these be found guilty that either directly make or indirectly procure divorcements shall we accuse them that allow and authorize the same without lawfull and just occasion No verily no though they be Popes that take it upon them as we reade Pope Alexander the sixth did who for the advancement of his haughty desires to gratifie and flatter Lewis the twelfth King of France sent him by his son a dispensation to put away his Wife daughter to King Lewis the eleventh because she was barren and counterfeit and to recontract Anne of Bretaigne the widow of Charles the eighth lately deceased But herein though barrennesse of the former was pretended yet the Duchie of the later was aimed at which before this time he could never attain unto But of what force and vertue this dispensation by right was or at least ought to be it is easie to perceive seeing it is not onely contrary to the words of the Gospel Matth. 19. but also to their owne decrees secund part quest 7. Hi qui matrimonium where in is imported that marriage ought not to be infringed for any default or imperfection no not of nature But Popes may maim and clip both the Word of God and all other writings and do what soever themselves liketh be it good or bad CHAP. XXXIII Of Incestuous persons ALthough Incest be a wicked and abominable sin and forbidden both by the Law of God and man in so much that the very heathen held it in detestation yet are there some so inordinately vicious and dissolute that they blush not once to pollute themselves with this filthinesse Reuben the Patriarch was one of this vile crue that shamed not to defile himselfe with Bilha his fathers concubine but he was cursed for his labour for whereas by right of eldership and birth he ought to have had a certain prerogative and authority over his brethren his excellency shed it selfe like water and he was surpassed by his brethren both in encrease of progeny and renowne Ammon one of King Davids sonnes was so strongly enchanted with the love of his sister Thamar that to the end to fulfill his lust he traiterously forced her to his will but Absalom her naturall brother hunting for opportunity of revenge for this indignity towards his sister invited him two yeares after to a banquet with his other brethren and after the same caused his men to murder him for a farewell The same Absalom that slew Amnon for Incest with his sister committed himselfe incest with his fathers concubines moved thereto by the wicked counsell of Achitophel that advised him to that infamous deed of defiling his fathers bed but it was the forerunner of his overthrow as we have already heard Divers of the Roman Empetours were so villanous and wretched as to make no bones of this sin with their owne sisters as Caligula Antonius and Commodus and some with their mothers as Nero so much was he given over and transported to all licentiousnesse Plutarch telleth us of one Cyanippus that being overcome with wine defloured his owne daughter Cyane but he was slain of her for his labour Neither do I thinke it so unnaturall a part for her to kill her father as in him to commit incest with his owne daughter for the Oracle lessened or rather approved her fault when it abhorred and chastened his crime for when Syracusa was grievously infected with the pestilence it was pronounced by the Oracle That the plague should continue till the wicked person was
of Aquitain then did King Edwards part begin to incline and the successe of war which the space of fourty yeares never forsook him now frowned upon him so that he quickly lost all those lands which by composition of peace were granted unto him CHAP. XLI Of such as by force of armes have either taken away or would have taken away the goods and lands of other men NOw if they that oppresse their Subjects and devour them in this manner be found guilty then must they needs be much more that are carried with the wings of their owne hungry ambitious desire to invade their lands and Seigniories attended on with an infinite retinue of pillages sackings ruines of Cities and people which are alwayes necessary companions of furious unmercifull war There are no flouds so broad nor mountaines so steep nor rokces so rough and dangerous nor sea so long and furious that can restrain the rash and headstrong desire of such greedy minded Sacres so that if their body might be proportioned to the square and greatnesse of their mindes with the one hand they would reach the East and with the other hand the West as it is said of Alexander howbeit hereof they boast and glory no lesse than they that took delight to be sirnamed City-spoilers others burners of Cities some conquerours and many Eagles and Faulcons seeking as it were fame by infamy and by vice eternity But to these men it often commeth to passe that even then when they thinke to advance their Dominion and to stretch their bounds and frontiers furthest they are driven to recoil for fear of being dispossessed themselves of their owne lands and inheritances and even as they dealt with others rigorously and by strength of weapons so shall they be themselves rehandled and dealt withall after the same measure according to the Word of the Prophet denounced against such as they Cursed be thâ—â— that spoilest and dealest unfaithfully when thou hast made an end of spoiling others thâ—â— thâ— selfe shalt be spoiled and when thou hast done dealing traiterously then treason shall begin to be practised against thee And this curse most commonly never faileth to seise upon these great Theeves and Robbers or at least upon their children and successours as by particular examples we shall see after we have first spoken of Adonias who not content with his owne estate of being a Kings son which God had allotted him went about to 〈◊〉 the Crowne and Kingdome from his brother Solomon to whom by right it appertained for God had manifested the same by the mouth of his father David but both he and his assistants for their overbold and rash enterprise were iustly by Solomon punished with death Crassus King of Lydia was the first that made war against Ephesus and that subdued the Greekes of Asia to wit the Phrygians Mysians Chalybeans Paphlagonians Thracians Bythinians Ionians Dorians Aeolians and Pamphilians and made them all tributeries unto him by meanes whereof he being growne exceeding rich and puissant by the detriment and undoing of so many people vanted and gloried in his greatnesse and power and even then thought himselfe the happiest man in the world when most misery and adversity grief and distresse of his estate and wholehouse approuched nearest for first and formost one of his sonnes that was dear unto him was by oversight slain at the chase of a wilde Bore next himselfe having commenced war with Cyrus was overcome in battell and besieged in Sardis the chief City of his Kingdom and at last taken and carried captive to Cyrus despoiled of all his late glory and dominion And thus Crassus as saith Plutarch after Herodotus bore the punishment of the offence of his great Grandfather Gigas who being but one of King Caâ—daules attendants slew his master and usurped the Crowne at the provokement of the Queen his mistresse whom he also took to be his wife And thus this Kingdom decayed by the same meanes by which it first encreased Polycratâ—s the Tyran was one that by violence and tyrannous meanes grew from a base condition to an high estate for being but one of the vulgar sort in the City Samos he with the assistance of fifteen armed men seised upon the whole City and made himselfe Lord of it which dividing into three parts he bestowed two of them upon his two brethren but not for perpetuity for ere long the third part of his usurpation cost the elder of them the best part of his life and the younger his liberty for he chased him away that he might be sole possessour of the whole Island After this he invaded many other Islands besides many Cities in the same Land he raised the Lacedemonians from the fiege of Samos which they had begirt and when he saw that all things fell out so well to his owne wish that nothing could be more fearing so great prosperity could not but carry in the â—ail some terrible sting of adversity and mischance attempted by voluntary losse of something of value to prevent the mischief which he feared to ensue and this by the advice of his dear friend and allie the King of Aegypt therefore he threw a ring which he had of great price into the sea to the end to delude Fortune as he thought thereby â—ut the ring was after found in a fishes belly and offered as a present unto him and this was an evident presage of some inevitable this for tune that waited for him neither did it prove vain and frivolous for he was hanged upon a gibbet of Sardis by the commandment of Orates the Governour of the City who under pretence of friendship and colour of rendring his treasure into his hands and bestowing upon him a great part thereof promising also to passe the rest of his dayes under his wing for fear of the rage of Cambyses drew him to come privately to speak with him and so easily wrought his will upon him Aristodemus got into his hands the government of Câ—ma after he had made away the principall of the City and to keep it the better being obtâ—ined he first worme the vulgars hearts by presents then banished out of the City their children whom he had put to death and entertained the rest of the youth with such variety of pleasures and delights that by those devices he kept himselfe in his tyrannous estate many yeares but as soon as the children of those slain Citizens were growne to ripe yeares of strength and discretion being desirous to revenge their fathers deaths they set upon him in the night so at unawares that they put him and all his family to the slaughter Timophanes usurped a principality power and rule in Corinth a free City and became so odious thereby to the whole people yea and to his owne brother Tymoleon also that laying aside all respect of nature he slew him with his owne hands preferring the liberty of his Countrey before any unity or bond of
enforced to shoot and shooting God so directed his shaft that the apple was hit and the childe untoucht and yet for all this he adjudged him to perpetuall prison out of which he miraculously escaping watched the tyrans approach in so fit a place that with the shaft that should have beene the death of his sonne he strooke him to the heart whose unluckie end was a luckie beginning of the Switzers deliverance from the bondage of tyrans and of the recovery of their antient freedome which ever after they wisely and constantly maintained The Emperour Albert purposing to be revenged upon them for his injury as also for slaying many more of his men and breaking downe his castles of defence which he had caused to be builded in their countrey determined to mak war upon them but he was slaine ere he could bring it hat determination to effect by one of his owne nephews from whom being his overseer and gardant for bringing up he withheld his patrimonie against all equity neither by prayers or entreatie could be perswaded to restore it These things according to Nic. Gils report in his first volume of the Chronicles of France happened about the reigne of Saint Lewis Hither may be referred the history of Richard the first King of England called Richard Coeur de Lyon though not so much a fruite of ambition in him as of filthie covetousnesse This King when as Widomarus Lord of Linionice in little Britaine having found a great substance of treasure in the ground sent him a great part thereof as chiefe Lord and Prince of the countrey refused it saying That he would either have all or none but the finder would not condiscend to that whereupon the King layed siege to a castle of his called Galuz thinking the treasure to lye there but as he with the Duke of Brabant went about viewing the Castle a souldier within stroke him with an arrow in the arme the yron whereof festering in the wound caused that the King within nine daies after died And so because he was not content with the halfe of the treasure that another man found lost all his owne treasure that he had together with his life the chiefest treasure of all CHAP. XLII Of Vsurers and their theft IF open larcenies and violent robberies and extortions are forbidden by the law of God as we have seene they are then it is no doubt but that all deceit and unjust dealings and bargains used to the dammage of others are also condemned by the same law and namely Usurie when a man exacteth such unmeasurable gaine for either his mony or other thing which hee lendeth that the poore borrower is so greatly indammaged that in stead of benefitting and providing for his affaires which he aimed at he hitteth his further losse and finall overthrow This sinne is expressely prohibited in Leviticus 25 Deuteronomy 23 and Psalme 15 where the committants thereof are held guilty before Gods judgement Seat of iniquitie and injustice and against them it is that the prophet Ezechiel denounceth this threatening That he which oppresseth or vexeth the poore and afflicted he which robbeth or giveth to usurie and receiveth the encrease into their bags shall die the death and his bloud shall bee upon his pate Neither truely doth the justice of God sleepe in this respect but taketh vengeance upon all such and punisheth them after one sort or other either in body or goods as it pleaseth him I my selfe knew a grand usurer in the countrey of Vallay that having scraped together great masses of gold and silver by these unlawfull meanes was in one night robbed of fifteene hundred crownes by theeves that broke into his house I remember also another usurer dwelling in a town called Argental nigh unto Anovay under the jurisdiction of Tholosse in high Vivaria who being in hay time in a meadowe was stung in the foot by a serpent or some other venomous beast that he died thereof an answerable punishment for his often stinging and biting many poore people with his cruell and unmercifull usurie Nay it is so contrarie to equitie and reason that all nations led by the instinct of nature have alwayes abhorred and condemned it insomuch that the conditions of theeves hath bin more easie and tollerable than usurers for theft was wont to be punished but with double restitution but usurie with quadruple and to speake truely these rich and gallant usurers do more rob the common people and purloine from them than all the publike theeves that are made publike examples of justice in the world It is to be wished that some would examine usurers bookes and make a bond-fire of their obligations as that Lacedemonian did when Agesilaus reported that hee never saw a â—leerer fire or that some Lucullus would deliver Europe from that contagion as the Romane did Asia in his time Licurgus banished this canker worme out of his Sparta Amasis punished it severely in his Aegypt Cato exiled it out of Sicilie and Solo condemned it in Athens how much more should it he held in detestation among Christians S. Chrysostome compareth it fitly to the biting of an aspe as he that is stung with an aspe falleth asleepe as it were with delectation her hand to reach it miraculously turned into a serpent and bit her so fast that by no meanes it could be loosened from her arme untill it had brought her to a woefull and miserable end Sergius Galba before hee came to be Emperor being President of Africa under Claudius when as through penurie of victuals corne and other food was very sparingly shared out and divided amongst the armie punished a certaine souldier that sould a bushell of wheat to one of his fellows for an hundred pence in â—ope to obtaine a new share himselfe in this manner he coÌ„manded the Quaestor or Treasurer to give him no more sustenance since hee preferred lucre before the necessity of his owne body and his friends welfare neither suffered he any man else to sell him any so that hee perished with famine and became a miserable example to all the army of the fruits of that foule droupsie covetousnesse And thus wee see how the Lord rained downe vengeance upon all covetous Usurers and oppressors plaguing some on this fashion and some on that and never passing any but either in this life some notable judgement overtakes them either in themselves or their off-springs for it is notoriously knowne that usurers children though left rich yet the first or second generation became alwayes beggers or in the life to come they are thrown into the pit of perdition from whence there is no redemption nor deliverance CHAP. XLIII Of Dicers and Card-players and their theft IF any recreation be allowed us as no doubt there is yet surely it is not such as whereby we should worke the damage and hurt of one another as when by gaming we draw away another mans mony with his great losse and this
reported in Colloq of Luther Luther doth report that a man of great name and fame did so burne with continuall lust that he blasphemously said That if that pleasure was perpetuall he would never desire to have any part in the Kingdome of Heaven so that he might be carried from one Stewes to another and from one Harlot unto another I could adde more examples of this kinde but these shall suffice to shew that God doth not onely punish this horrible sinne in the life to come but also in this life with fearefull judgements CHAP. XII Of Theeves and Robbers SPiredon a Bishop of a certaine Citie in Cyprus was also delighted with keeping of irrationall sheepe upon a night certaine theeves entered into his sheepe-fold with an intent to steale away some of his sheepe but God protecting the sheepheard and his sheepe infatuated the theeves that they could not stirre out of that place till the morning at what time the Bishop comming to view his flock found them thus bound who presently prayed to God for their delivery and wished them to get their living hereafter by honest labour and not by stealth yet withall gave them a Ramme with this pleasant tant I give you this Ramme that you may not seeme to watch it in vaine and so set them free A certaine young man being bitten with a mad dogge fell presently after into madnesse himselfe and was faine to be bound with chaines The parents of this young man brought their sonne to an Abbot called Ammon entreating him that by his prayers hee would restore him to his former health the holy Abbot answered that they demanded that of him that passed his power But this I can signifie unto you that the Devill holdeth you all bound in his chaines by reason of a Bull which you stole from a poore widdow and untill you restore that Bull backe againe to the widdow your sonne shall never be healed The parents presently confessed their fault restored the Bull and presently their sonne was delivered from this grievous disease A certaine Baker merrily talking with his neighbour bragged that in that great time of dearth which was then he gained out of every bushell of Wheat above a crowne which words being related unto the Governour of the Citie hee sent for the Baker to supper and examined him about those speeches which the Baker could not deny whereupon the Governour commanded him presently to put off his upper garments and to knead so much dowe before him that hee might finde out the manner of his deceit which being done hee and all his fellow Bakers in the towne was cast into prison to their great disgrace The same Authour reporteth That at Prague in Bohemia a Jew being dead his friends desired that he might be buried at Ratisbone forty miles off which becaâ—se it could not bee done without paying of great tribute they put his carkasse into a hog sheâ—d full of sweet wine and committed it to a carter to convey to Ratisbone The theevish carters in the way being greedy of the wine pierced the hogshead and drinking themselves drunke with the wine mixed with the stinke of the dead carkasse most of them died The same Luther reporteth that at Wittenberge three theeves having stolne a silver dish brought it to a Goldsmiths wife to sell who desired them to come againe within an houre and then shee would bargaine with them In the meane while she related this businesse unto the Magistrates who sending presently the Sergeants to apprehend the theeves they seeing themselves to be betrayed resisted with their swords but notwithstanding one of them was taken and executed another escaped by flight and the third being pursued over a bridge leaped into the river Albis and there was drowned This example is more remarkable saith Luther because this fellow was a most notorious wicked wretch and had cut off two fingers of his owne fathers at which very instant his father not knowing of it being asked what was become of his sonne answered that he wished hee was drowned in the river Albis which wish was really performed at that very instant for it was the voyce of Gods anger out of the mouth of a father About Ailton in Huntington-shire a lewd fellow stole one of his neighbours fat weathers and bringing him home bound about his neck 〈…〉 upon a great stone in the field to â—ase himselfe where the weather stâ—â—gling fell over the stone and pulled the thiefe after him and so both striving one for life another for liberty the theefe was found dead in the morning and the weather alive CHAP. XIII Of Trecherie WHen the two Earles of Northumberland and Westmoreland had rebelled against Q. Elizabeth and being defeated in the field fled into Scotland the Earle of Northumberland hid himself in the house of Hector of Harlawe an Armestrange having confidence in him that he would be true to him he notwithstanding for money betrayed him to the Regent of Scotland from whence the Earle was sent into England condemned of high treason and beheaded But it was observed that this Hector being before a rich man fell poor of a sudden and was so hated generally that he never durst go abroad insomuch that the Proverbe to take Hectors cloake is continued to this day among them when they would expresse a man that betrayeth his friend who trusted him The like example we have of Banister who betrayed the Duke of Buckingham in the raigne of Richard the third CHAP. XIV Of the molestation of evill Spirits and their execution of Gods Iudgements upon men ALmighty God sometimes doth execute his judgements himselfe as he did upon Pharaoh in the Red Sea and upon Sodome and Gomorrah sometimes hee useth the creatures as instruments as frogs and lice c. to plague Pharaoh and the Aegyptians Sometimes hee imployeth the good Angels to that purpose as an Angell to destroy the Armie of Zenacherib before Jerusalem but most ordinarily he useth the ministery of evill Angels who being forward enough of their owne malice he giveth more strength unto by his command to execute vengeance upon wicked men Thus Sathan under the shape of a Serpent beguiled our first parents Adam and Eve and promised them great good in the stead of punishments which God had threatned unto them Gen. 3. The same Sathan vexed King Saul 1 Reg. 16. This Sathan rose against Israell and stirred up David to number the people whereat God being offended strooke Israell with a grievous peltilence 1 Chronic. 21. It was Sathan that got leave of God that hee might torture Iob with loathsome botches and boyles Iob 2. It was Sathan that slew seaven husbands to whom Sarah the daughter of Raguel had married Tobit It was Sathan that entred into Iudas Iscariots heart and moved him to betray Christ and hang himselfe Iohn 13. Acts 7. It was Sathan that instigated Ananias and Saphira to lye to the Holy Ghost whereupon they both died suddenly Acts 5. Lastly it was Sathan
the Duke that they had stolne into the Emperours tents by night and viewed his power which they found to exceed his by three parts and therefore counselled him not to try the hazard of the battell but to save his souldiers lives by flight which if they tarried they were sure to loose Wherewithall the Duke mistrusting no fraud sore affrighted tooke the next occasion of flight and returned home with dishonour Now when these three traitors came to the Emperour for their compacted rewards he caused them to bee payed in counterfeit money not equivaling the summe of their bargaine by the twentieth part which although at first they discerned not yet afterwards finding how they were cousened they returned to require their due and complaine of their wrong But the Emperor looking sternely upon them answered That counterfeit money was good enough for their counterfeit service and that if they tarried long they should have a due reward of their treason Ladislaus Lerezin Governour of Alba Iulia in Hungary under Maximilian the Emperour in the yeare 1566 the City being besieged and in some danger of losing albeit hee was advertised That within two dayes he should receive some reliefe yet yeelded the City traiterously into the hands of the Turkes upon composition The cruell Turks forgetting their faith and all humanity massacred all the souldiers within the City and sent Ladislaus the traitour bound hand and foot to Selym the great Turke where he was accused for his cruell slaying of some Turkish prisoners and delivered to his accusers to be used at their pleasure who a just reward of his former treason put him into a great Pipe stickt full of long nailes and then rolled him downe from a high mountaine so as the nailes ran through him and ended his life in horrible torment Besides his sonne that was also partaker of this treason died miserably without meanes and abandoned of all men in great poverty and extremity When as the City of Rhodes was besieged by the Turke there was in it a certaine traiterous Nobleman who upon promise to have one of Solymans daughters given him in marriage did many services to the Turke in secret to the prejudice of the City The Island and towne being woon he presented himselfe to Solyman expecting the performance of his promise but hee in recompence of his treason caused him to be flayed alive saying That it was not lawfull for a Christian to marry a Turkish wife except he put off his old skinne being thus flayed they layed him upon a bed all covered with salt and so poudered him that in short space he died in unspeakable tormenes CHAP. III. More examples of the same subject WHen Manuel the Emperour of Constantinople lay about Antioch with an army prepared against the Turke one of his chiefest officers namely his Chancellour put in practise this notable piece of treason against him he waged three desperate young men with an infinite summe of money to kill him on a day appointed and then with a band of souldiers determined to possesse himselfe of the Crowne and of the City and to slay all that any way crossed his purpose But the treason being discoured secretly to the Empresse she acquainted her Lord with it who tooke the three traitours and put them all to cruell deaths and as for the Chancellour he first bored out his eyes and plucking his tongue through his throat tormented him to death with a rigorous and most miserable punishment When the Turke besieged Alba Graeca certaine souldiers conspired to betray the City into his hands for he had promised them large rewards so to doe howbe it it succeeded not with them for they were detected and apprehended by Paulus Kynifius Governour of Hungary who constrained them to eat one anothers flesh seething every dayone to feed the other withall but he that was last was faine to devour his owne body Scribonianus a captaine of the Romans in Dalmatia rebelled against the Emperor Claudius and named himselfe emperor in the army but his rebellion was miraculously punished for though the whole army favored him very much yet they could not by any meanes spread their banners or remove their standers out of their places as long as he was called by the name of Emperor with which miracle being moved they turned their loves into hatred and their liking into loathing so that whom lately they saluted as Emperor him now they murthered as a traitor To rehearse all the English traitors that have conspired against their Kings from the Conquest unto this day it is a thing unnecessary and almost impossible Howbeit that their destructions may appeare more evidently and the curse of God upon traitors be made more manifest I will briefely reckon up a catalogue of the chiefest of them In the yere 1295 Lewline Prince of Wales rebelled against King Edward the first and after much adoe was taken by Sir Roger Mortimer and his head set upon the Tower of London In like sort was David Lewline's brother served Râ—â—s and Madok escaped no better measure in stirring the Welchmen up to rebellion No more did the Scots who having of their owne accord committed the government of their kingdome to king Edward after the death of Alexander who broke his neck by a fall from an horse and lest no issue male and sworne fealty unto him yet dispensed with their oath by the Popes commission and Frenchmens incitement and rebelled divers times against King Edward for he overcame them sundry times and made slaughter of their men slaying at one time 32000 and taking divers of their Nobles prisoners In like manner they rebelled against King Edward the third who made three voyages into that land in the space of foure yeares and at every time overcame and discomfited them insomuch that well neere all the nobility of Scotland with infinite number of the common people were slaine Thus they rebelled in Henry the sixths time and also Henry the eights and divers other kings reignes ever when our English forces were busied about forraine wars invading the land on the other side most traiterously In the reigne of King Henry the fourth there rebelled at one time against him Sir Iohn Holland D. of Excester with the Dukes of Aumarle Surrey Salisbury and Gloucester and at another time Sir Thomas Percy Earle of Worcester and Henry Percy son to the Earle of Northumberland at another Sir Richard Scroope Archbishop of Yorke and divers others of the house of the Lord Moubray at another time Sir Henry Percy the father Earle of Northumberland and the Lord Bardolph and lastly Ryce ap Dee and Owen Glendour two Welchmen all which were either slaine as Sir Henry Percy the younger or beheaded as the rest of these noble Rebels or starved to death as Owen Glendour was in the mountaines of Wales after he had devoured his owne flesh In the reigne of Henry the fifth Sir Richard Earle of Cambridge Sir Richard Scroope
Treasurer of England and Sir Thomas Gray were beheaded for treason No lesse was the perfidious and ungratefull treachery of Humphry Banister an Englishman towards the Duke of Buckingham his Lord and master whom the said Duke had tenderly brought up and exalted to great promotion For when as the Duke being driven into extremity by reason of the separation of his army which he had mustered together against King Richard the usurper fled to the same Banister as his trustiest friend to be kept in secret untill he could find opportunity to escape this false traitor upon hope of a thousand pounds which was promised to him that could bring forth the Duke betraied him into the hands of Iohn Mitton Shirife of Shropshire who conveied him to the city of Salisbury where King Richard kept his houshold where he was soone after put to death But as for ungratefull Banister the vengeance of God pursued him to his utter ignominy for presently after his eldest sonne became mad and died in a bores stiâ— his eldest daughter was suddenly stricken with a foule lepry his second sonne marvellously deformed of his lims and lame his youngest sonne drowned in a puddle and he himselfe in his old age arraigned and found guilty of a murther and by his Clergy saved And as for his thousand pounds King Richard gave him not a farthing saying That he which would be nutrue to so good a master must needs be false to all other To passe over the time of the residue of the Kings where in many examples of treasons and punishments upon them are extant and to come neerer unto our owne age let us consider the wonderfull providence of God in discovering the notorious treasons which have been so oftenpretended and so many against our late Soveraigne Queene Elizabeth and protecting her so fatherly from the dint of them all First therefore to begin with the chiefest the Earles of Northumberland and Westmerland in the eleventh yeare of her raigne began a rebellion in the North pretending their purpose to be sometimes to defend the Queenes person and government from the invasion of strangers and sometimes for conscience sake to seeke reformation of Religion under colour whereof they got together an army of men to the number of six thousand souldiers against whom marched the Earle of Suffex Lieutenant of the North and the Earle of Warwicke sent by the Queene to his ayde Whose approch strucke such a terrour into their hearts that the two Earles with divers of the arch Rebels fled by night into Scotland leaving the rest of their company a prey unto their enemies whereof threescore and six or thereabout were hanged at Durham As for the Earles one of them to wit of Northumberland was after taken in Scotland and beheaded at York Westmerland fled into another Countrey and left his house and family destroyed and undone by his folly A while after this what befell to Iohn Throgmorton Thomas Brooke George Redman and divers other Gentlemen at Norwich who pretended a rebellion under the color of suppressing strangers were they not discovered by one of their owne conspiracy Thomas Ket and executed at Norwich for their paines The same end came Francis Throgmorton to whose trecheries as they were abhominable and touching the Queens owne person so they were disclosed not without the especiall providence of God But above all that vile and ungratefull traitor William Parry upon whom the Queene had powred plentifully her liberality deserveth to be had in everlasting remembrance to his shame whose treasons being discovered he payed the tribute of his life in recompence thereof What shall I say of the Earle of Arundell and a second Earle of Northumberland Did not the justice of God appeare in both their ends when being attainted for treason the one slew himselfe in prison and the other died by course of nature in prison also Notorious was the conspiracy of those arch traitours Ballard Babington Savadge and Tylney c. yet the Lord brought them downe and made them spectacles to the World of his justice Even so that notorious villaine Doctor Lopez the Queenes Physitian who a long time had not onely beene an intelligencer to the Pope and King of Spaine of our English Counsells but also had poisoned many Noblemen and went about also to poyson the Queene her selfe was he not surprised in his treachery and brought to sudden destruction In summe the Lord preserved her Majesty not only from these but many other secret and privy foes and that most miraculously and contrary to all reason and spread his wings over her evermore to defend her from all her enemies and in despight of them all brought her being full of yeares in peace to her grave All these treasons had their breeding and beginning from that filthy sinke of Romish superstition from whence the poison was conveied into the hearts of these traiterous wretches by the means of those common firebrands of the Christian World the wicked Iesuites whose chiefest art is Treason and whose profession is equivocation and practise to stir up rebellion and therefore as long as they breath in the world let us looke for no better fruits from such trees And hath the reigne of our now Soveraigne King Iames beene free from these Sinons He hath as yet swayed the Scepter of this Kingdome not fully nine yeres and how many treasons have beene complotted and practised against his Majesty and the State and how miraculously hath the Lord preserved him evermore even as the apple of his eye and the signet on his right hand To omit the treason of Raleigh and Cobham and that also of Watson and Clerke that late and last divellish and damnable practise of blowing up the Parliament house with gunpowder together with the King Prince and all the Nobles and chiefe Pillars of the Land is never to be omitted nor forgotten but to be remembred as long as the Sunne and Moone endureth to the shame of their religion and the professours thereof never Nation so barbarous that ever practised the like never any religion so odious that maintained the like but such are the fruits of their so much advanced religion such the clusters of their grapes How be it the Lord prevented their malice and turned it upon their owne pates not only by a Divine and miraculous discovery of their treason the very night before it should have beene effected but also by bringing the chiefe plotters thereof unto confusion some by the ordinary proceeding of justice and some by slaughter in resistance and that which is not to bee overpast some of the principall of them being together in a chamber were so scorched by their owne powder which was in drying that they were driven to confesse the heavy judgement of God to be upon them I pray God such may ever bee the end of all traitours and that the religion which bringeth forth such horrible fruits may not onely be suspected but abhorred of all Moreover there is yet another