with Arrows Those of his Company having almost reached the top of the Wall were slain with Stones or wounded and carried into the Camp 27. The Romans having won the Tower Antonia the Jews âled into the Inner Temple and there maintained sight from the ninth hour of the night to the seventh hour of the day at which time the Romans had the worst of it This was observed by Iulian a Centurion born in Bithinia who at that time stood by Titus in Antonia he therefore presently leaped down thence and all alone pursued the Jews who had the Victory in the Inner Temple And the whole multitude âled deeming him by his force and tourage not to have been a man in the midst of them he slew all he lighted upon whilst for haste the one overturned the othe This deed seemed admirable to Caesar and terrible to his Enemies Yet did the destiny befal him which no man can escape for having his Shooes full of sharp Nails as other Soldiers have running upon the Pavement he slipped and fell down his Armour in the fall making a great noise whereat his Enemies who before fled now turned again upon him Then the Romans in Antonia fearing his life cryed out but the Jews many at once strook him with Swords and Spears He defended many blows with his Shield and many times attempting to rise they strook him down again yet as he say he wounded many neither was he quickly slain because the nobler parts of his body were all armed and he shrunk in his neck a long time till other parts of his body being cut off and no man helping him his strength failed Caesar sorrowed to see a man of that force and fortitude slain in the sight of such a multitude The Jews took his dead body and did beat back the Romans and shut them in Antonia only the brave Iulian left behind him a renowned memory not only amongst the Romans and Caesar but also amongst his Enemies CHAP. XXXVII Of the fearless Boldness of some Men and their desperateâ solutions SOme men have within them a Spirit so daring and adventurous that the presence and more than probability of any disaster whatsoever is not able to conjure down To desperate Diseases they apply as desperate Remedies and therein Fortune sometimes so befriends them that they come off as successfully with their Presumptions and Temerities as others who mannage their Counsels with the greatest care and conduct they are able 1. A Dutch Sea man being condemned to death his Punishment was changed and he was ordered to be left at St. Hellen's Island This unhappy person representing to himself the horrour of that Solitude fell upon a resolution to attempt the strangest action that ever was heard of There had that day been interred in the same Island an Officer of the Ship The Sea-man took up the body out of the Coffin and having made a kind of Rudder of the upper board ventured himself to Sea in it It happened fortunately to him to be so great a Calm that the Ship lay immoveable within a League and half of the Island when his Companions seeing so strange a Boat âloat upon the Waters imagined they saw a Spectre and were not a little startled at the resolution of the man who durst hazard himself upon that Element in three boards slightly nailed together though he had no confidence to find or be received by those who had so lately sentenced him to death Accordingly it was put to the question whether he should be received or not some would have the Sentence put in execution but at last mercy prevailed and he was taken aboard and came afterwards to Holland where he lived in the Town of Horn and related to many how miraculously God had delivered him 2. The French King Charles the Eighth through the weakness of Peter de Medices in his Government had reduced the City of Florence unto such hard terms that he had the Gates of it set open to him he entred it not professing himself friend or foe to the Estate in a triumphant manner himself and his Horse armed with his Lance upon his thigh Many Insolences were committed by the French so that the Citizens were driven to prepare to fight for their Liberty Charles propounds intolerable Conditions demanding high summs of money and the absolute Rule of the State as by right of Conquest he having entred armed into it But Peter Caponi a principal Citizen catching these Articles from the King's Secretary and tearing them before his face bad him sound his Trumpets and they would ring their Bells Which bold and resolute words made the French better to bethink themselves and came readily to this Agreement that for forty thousand pounds and not half that money to be paid in hand Charles should not only depart in peace but restore whatever he had of their Dominion and continue their assured friend 3. Henry Earl of Holsatia sirnamed Iron because of his strength being gotten into great favour with Edward the Third King of England by reason of his Valour was envied by the Courtiers who one day in the absence of the King counselled the Queen that for as much as the Earl was preferred before all the English Nobility she would make tryal whether he was so nobly born as he gave out by causing a Lyon to be let loose upon him saying that the Lyon would not so much as touch Henry if he was Noble indeed They got leave of the Queen to make this Tryal upon the Earl He was used to rise before day and to walk in the base Court of the Castle to take the fresh Air of the morning The Lyon was let loose in the night and the Earl having a night Gown cast over his Shirt with his Girdle and Sword and so coming down the Stairs into the Court met there with the Lyon bristling his hair and roaring he nothing astonished said with a stout voice Stand stand you Dog At these words the Lyon couched at his feet to the great amazement of the Courtiers who looked out of their holes to behold the issue of this business The Earl laid hold of the Lyon and shut him within his Cage he left his Night-cap upon the Lyon's back and so came forth without so much as looking behind him Now said the Earl calling to them that looked out at the Windows let him amongst you all that standeth most upon his Pedigree go and fetch my Night-cap but they ashamed withdrew themselves 4. In the Court of Matthias King of Hungary there was a Polonian Soldier in the King's Pay who boasted much of his valour and who in a bravado would often challenge the Hungarians to wrastle or skirmish with the Sword or Pike wherein he had always the better One day as he stood by a great Iron Cage in which a Lyon was kept the greatest and fiercest that had been seen of a long time he began
Embassadours from Darius declaring that their Master would give him ten thousand Talents if he would set at liberty his Mother Wife and Children that were taken by him moreover if he would marry the daughter of Darius he would give with her in Dowry all the Land that lay betwixt Euphrates and the Hellespont The Contents of this Embassage were discussed in Alexanders Council when Parmenio said That for his part were he in Alexanders stead he would accept of those conditions and put an end to the War Alexander on the other side answered That were he Parmenio he would do so too but whereas he was Alexander he would return such answer as should be worthy of himself which was this That they should tell their Master that he stood in no need of his money neither would he accept of a part for the whole that all his money and Country was his own that he could marry the daughter of Darius if he pleased and could do it without his consent that if he would experience the humanity of Alexander he should speedily come in to him After this he sent other Embassadours with these offers Thanks for his civilities to his captive Relations the greater part of his Kingdom his daughter for his Wife and thirty thousand Talents for the rest of the Captives to which he replyed that he would do what he desired if he would content himself with the second place and not pretend to equality with him but as the World would not endure two Suns neither could the earth endure two Soveraign Emperours without permutation of the state of all things that therefore he should either yield up himself to day or prepare for War to morrow 5. Solon the Athenian Law-giver said it of one of his prime Citizens called Pisistratus That if he could but pluck out of his head the worm of Ambition and heal him of his greedy desire to Rule that then there could not be a man of more vertue than he 6. Richard Duke of Gloucester afterwards King of England by the name of Richard the third stopped at nothing how impious or villainous soever to remove all obstructions between him and the Crown He is said to have murthered King Henry the sixth in the Tower and his son Prince Edward at Tewksbury he caused his own brother George Duke of Clarence to be drown'd in a Butt of Malmsey he was suspected to have made away Edward the fourth his brother and King by poyson he beheaded Rivers Vaughan Grey and the Lord Hastings as the known impediments of his Usurpation and the Duke of Buckingham his old friend when he saw he declined his service in the murder of his Nephews which yet he got performed upon the bodies of those two innocent Princes But the just judgement of God overtook him for the spilling of all this innocent blood His only son was taken away by death his own conscience was so disquieted that he was in continual fears in the day and his sleeps disturb'd and broken with frightful Visions and Dreams At last he was slain in Bosworth Field his Carkass was found naked amongst the slain filthily polluted with blood and dirt trussed upon an Horse behind a Pursivant at Arms his head and arms hanging down on the one side of the Horse and his leggs on the other like a Calf and so he was interred at Leicester with as base a Funeral as he formerly bestowed upon his Nephews in the Tower 7. Caesar Borgia the son of Pope Alexander was a most ambitious man he caused his brother Candianus then General over the Popes Forces to be murdered in the Streets and his dead body to be cast into the River Tyber and then casting off his Priestly Robes and Cardinals habit he took upon him the leading of his Fathers Army and with exceeding prodigality he bound fast to him many desperate Ruffians for the execution of his horrible devices Having thus strengthened himself he became a terrour to all the Nobility of Rome he first drave out the honourable Family of the Columnii and then by execrable treachery poysoned or killed the chief Personages of the great Houses of the Vrsini and Cajetani seizing upon their Lands and Estates He strangled at once four Noble men of the Camertes drave Guido Feltrius out of Vrbin took the City of Faventia from Astor Manfredus whom he first beastly abused and then strangled In his thoughts he had now made himself Master of all Latium when he was cast down when he least feared Being at supper with his Father prepared on purpose for the death of certain rich Cardinals by the mistake of a Servant he and his father were empoysoned by deadly Wine prepared for the Guests CHAP. XXXVI Of the great desire of Glory in some Noble and other ignoble Persons PLiny considering with himself the Nature of the Element of fire how rapacious and devouring a thing it is and quickly consumes whatsoever it laies hold on what store of it is in the World how 't is in every House under every foot in Pebbles and Flints above us in fiery Meteors and beneath us in subterranean passages begins to marvel that all the World was not consumed with fire When I consider that almost every soul is wrapt about with this ardent desire of Glory how far a man is liable to be transported thereby and that as Tacitus hath well observed it is the last Garment that man parts with and denudes himself of I cannot sufficiently wonder that it hath done no more mischief in the World and that it hath burnt though destructively in some yet so harmlesly in others as some of the following Examples will declare 1. The Tower of Pharos had the reputation of the Worlds seventh wonder it was built by King Ptolomy Philadelphus but Sostratus who was employed therein as the chief Architect engraved upon it this Inscription Sostratus of Gnydos the son of Dexiphanes to the Gods Protectors for the safety of Sailers this Writing he covered with Plaister and upon the Plaister he inscribed the Name and Title of the King he knew that would soon waste away and then his own name written in Marble he hoped would as he had desired be celebrated to Eternity 2. We read of one who published a Book of his the Title whereof was Of the Contempt of Glory in this his work he endeavoured to shew by many and notable arguments that it was a vanity unworthy of a man to hunt for popular applause by any of his performances Yet this very person was afterwards convinced of the same errour he had so severely reproved in others in as much as he had set his name in the Frontispiece of his Book 3. Cicero accounted it so great a matter to speak eloquently and laboured therein with that anxiety that being to plead a Cause before the Centumviri when the day was come before he was prepared so fully as he desired and that his Servant Eros brought
to be men of a turbulent and contentious nature it was brought before King Philip that he might determine thereof according to his pleasure who is said to have passed this Sentence You said he to one of them I command immediately to run out of Macedon and you said he to the other see that you make all imaginable haste after him A good riddance of such Salamanders as delight to live in the fire of contention who commence quarrels upon trivial accounts and withall know no time wherein to end them 1. Gloucestershire did breed a Plaintiff and Defendant which betwixt them with many alternations traversed the longest suit that ever I read of in England For a suit was commenced betwixt the Heirs of Sir Thomas Talbot Viscount Lisâe on the one part and the Heirs of Lord Barkely on the other about certain possessions lying in this County not far from Woton Vnder-edge which suit began in the end of the reign of King Edward the fourth was depending untill the beginning of King Iames when and was it not high time it was finally compounded 2. There was in Padua an ancient House called de Limino two Brothers of this Family being in the Country on a Summers day went abroad after Supper talking of divers things together As they were standing and gazing upon the Stars that twinkled in the Firmament being then very clear one of them began in merriment to say to the other Would I had as many Oxen as I see Stars in that Skie The other presently returns And would I had a Pasture as wide as the Firmament and therewith turning towards his Brother where then said he wouldst thou feed thine Oxen marry in thy Pasture said his Brother But how if I would not suffer thee said the other I would said he whether thou wouldst or not What said he in despight of my teeth yea said the other whatsoever thou couldst do to the contrary Hereupon their sport turned to outragious words and at last to fuây in the end they drew their Swords and sell to it so hotly that in the turn of a hand they ran one the other through the body so that one fell one and the other the other way both weltring in their blood The people in the House hearing the bustle ran in to them but came too late they carried them into the House where both soon after gave up the Ghost 3. An extraordinary accident hath of late happened saith Iustinianus in the Confines of Tuscany Iohn Cardinal de Medices Son to Cosmo Duke of Florence a young Prince of Great estimation got on Horseback to ride on hunting accompanied with two of his Brethren Fernand and Cartia attended with some others their Dogs having followed a Hare a long time in the Plains at last killed her The Brothers thereupon began to debate about the first hold each of them attributing the honour thereof to his Dog one speech drew on another and from bare words they fell at last to taunts the Cardinal not enduring to be set light by and being of a haughty nature gave his Brother Cartia who expostulated with him a box on the Ear Cartia carried away with his choler drew his Sword and gave such a thrust into his brother Cardinals thigh that he presently dyed A Servant of the Cardinals in revenge of his Master gave Cartia a sore wound so that with the Venison they carried home to Duke Cosmo one of his Sons dead and for Cartia his wound was also such as within a while after he dyed of it thus for a matter of nothing the Father lost two of his Sons in a deplorable sort 4. Sigebert was King of Essex and the restorer of Religion in his Kingdom which had formerly apostatized after the departure of Mellitus a Valiant and Pious Prince but murdered by two Villains who being demanded the cause of their cruelty why they killed so harmless and innocent a Prince had nothing to say for themselves but they did it because his goodness had done the Kingdom hurt that such was his proneness to pardon offenders on their though but seeming submission that his meekness made many Malefactors The great quarrel they had with him it seems was only his being too good 5. The Chancellour of Theodoricus Arch-bishop of Magdeburg was attending upon the Duke of Saxony and was sate down with him at his Table in the City of Berlin when the Citizens brake in upon them drew out the Chancellour by a multitude of Lictors into the Market place of the City and there sever his head from his Shoulders with the Sword of the publick Executioner and all this for no other cause but that a few dayes before going to the Bath he met a Matron courteously saluted her and jesting asked her if she would go into the Bath with him which when she had refused he laughing dismissed her but this was ground sufficient for the mad multitude to proceed to such extremities upon 6. In the reign of Claudius Caesar Cumanus being then President in Iewry the Jews came up from all parts to Ierusalem for the celebration of the Passover there were then certain Cohorts of the Roman Souldiers that lay about the Temple as a guard whereof one discovered his privy parts perhaps for no other reason than to ease himself of his Urine but the Jews supposing that the uncircumcised Idolater had done this in abuse of the Iewish Nation and Religion were so incensed against the Souldiers that they immediately fell upon them with Clubs and Stones the Souldiers on the other side defended themselves with their arms till at last the Jews oppressed with their own multitudes and the wounds they received were enforced to give over the conflict but not before there were twenty thousand persons of them slain upon the place 7. Fabius Ambustus had two Daughters the elder he married to Servius Sulpitius then Consul the younger to Licinius Stolo a gallant man but of the Plebeian order It fell out that the younger Fabia sitting at her Sisters House upon a visit to her in the interim came the Lictors and smote upon the door of the Consul as the manner was when the Consul came home The younger Fabia was affrighted at the noise as being ignorant of the custom for which reason she was mocked at and derided by her Sister as one ignorant of the City affairs This contempt of her was afterwards an occasion of great troubles in Rome For the Father vehemently importuned by his young Daughter ceased not though contrary to the Law and the mind of the greater part of the Senate till he had made his Son Stolo Consul though a Plebeian and extorted a Decree through his practise with the people that from thenceforth Plebeians might be Consuls 8. In the reign of King Edward the sixth there were two Sisters in Law the one was Queen Katharine Parre late Wife to King Henry the eighth and then marryed to the Lord Thomas Seymour Admiral of England the
he led an Army into Asia where he recovered the Possession of the Realm of Ierusalem At his return again Excommunicated not long after poyson'd 83. Contradus the fourth son of Frederick last Emperour of the House of Schwaben subdu'd his Rebels in Apulia and the Kingdom of Naples but he was soon cut off by his brother Manfred who caused him to be empoysoned after he had Reigned two years 84. Rodolphus the first by the joint consent of the Princes Electors Assembled at Frankfort was chosen Emperour he was the raiser of the Austrian Family had deadly War with Ottocarus King of Bohemia whom he overthrew and slew in Battel he Reigned eighteen years was buried at Spires his Motto was Melius bene imperare quam imperium ampliare 85. Adolphus Count of Nassau was chosen Emperour he was unfortunate in all things he went about and therewith so needy and poor that when he had received money of King Edward the first of England to aid him against the French he spent the money upon his Houshold and had not wherewith to fulfil his promise when time required He was overthrown by Albert Duke of Austria in the Fields of Spire and there slain having Reigned six years his Motto was Animus est qui divites facit 86. Albert son of Rodulphus the Emperour himself being Duke of Austria in his time happened seven things remarkable As 1. The removal of the Papal seat from Rome to Avignion 2. The subversion of the Knights Templars 3. The setling of the Knights of St. Iohn in the Rhodes 4. The Scaligers in Verona 5. Estei in Ferrara 6. The first Jubilee at Rome in the West And 7. The beginning of the Ottomans in the East He Reigned ten years and was slain by his brothers son his Motto was Quod optimum illud jucundissimum 87. Henry the seventh Earl of Luxemburg a pious prudent and valorous Prince having composed matters in Germany he hastened to do the like in Italy where he omitted no opportunity to give all content Yet he was tumultuously driven out of Rome by the Faction of the Vrsini and through hatred of the Florentines poysoned in the Eucharist by one Bernard an hired Monk that passeth for his Motto which he uttered upon the first feeling of the operation of the poyson Calix vitae Calix mortis 88. Lewis the fourth Duke of Bavaria Crown'd at Aix in the wonted manner he was opposed by Frederick Dâke of Austria who was chosen by another Faction cruel Wars were between the Competitours wherein at last Lewis overcame took the other Prisoner then came to this agreement Both to keep the Title of Emperours but Lewis to have the right and power after which he was Excommunicated and the Electors commanded to chuse a new Emperour which they obeyed his Motto was Sola bona quae honesta 89. Charles the fourth son of Iohn King of Bohemia and Grandson to Henry the seventh against him were set up Edward the third of England Frederick of Misui and Gunter of Swartzburg whereof the first waved the dignity with such trouble the second was brib'd off with money the third made away by poyson Charles was Crowned with the Iron Crown at Millaine As he was Learned himself so was he a savourer of Learning Founded the University of Prague was the Author of the Golden Bull called Lex Carolina which requires Emperours to be good Linguists to confer themselves with Embassadours and prescribes the Solemnity of their Election he Reigned thirty two years procured at the hands of the Princes Electors That his son Wenceslaus should be proclaimed King of the Romans in his own life-time his Motto was Optimum est alieââ frui insaniâ 90. Wenceslaus granted divers Priviledges to the Norimbergers for a Load of Wine Executed Barthold Swartz for inventing Gunpowder a man very unlike his Father for he was sluggish and careless more inclin'd to riot excessive drinking and voluptuous pleasures than to any Princely vertue In his time Bajazet the Great Turk was enclosed in an Iron Cage by Tamberlain This Emperour for his beastliness was deprived of the Imperial Dignity by the Princes Electors he Reigned twenty two years his Motto was Morosophi moriones pessimi 91. Rupertus Duke of Bavaria and Count Palatine was elected in his place and from him came the four Palatine Families Heidleberg Neuberg Simmeren and Swibrooke He passed into Italy for the recovery of the Dukedom of Millaine sold by Wenceslaus but was well beaten by Iohn Galeazzes and so returned In his time two Popes were deposed by the Council of Pisa his merciful Motto was Miseria res digna misericordiâ he Reigned ten years 92. Iodocus Barbatus Marquess of Moravia and Uncle to Wenceslaus of whom I find so little that by divers he is not so much as mentioned in the Series and Succession of the Emperours 93. Sigismund brother of Wenceslaus King of Hungary and Bohemia and Earl of Luxembourg was Crowned at Rome on Whitsunday 1432. He travelled exceedingly for establishing the Peace of Christendom distracted at that time with three Popes at once a great promoter of the Council of Constance He is reported nine times to have assailed the Turk but never with success for though he was a Prudent Witty Learned Noble Prince yet was he ever unfortunate in his Wars at home and abroad he Reigned twenty seven years his Motto was Cedunt munera fatis 94. Albertus the second Duke of Austria Son-in-law of Sigismund whom he succeeded in all his Estates and Titles excepting only Luxembourg for his liberality justice and manhood in Wars he was greatly renowned he subdued the Bohemians carried a heavy hand over the Jews and Hussites subdued Silesia and the people of Moravia Governed eight years his Motto was Amicus optima vitae possessio 'T is thought he âurfeited upon Melons and died thereof in his time the Hungarians and other Christians received from the Turks that terrible blow in the Fields of Varna 95. Frederick the third Duke of Austria the son of Ernestus of Austria and next heir of Albert the second he procured the calling of the Council of Basil for the Peace of Christendom travelling for that cause to Rome he was there declared Emperour being a person of agreeable accomplishments to so high a Calling In his time Printing was Invented by Iohn Gutenberg at Mentz the Noble Scanderbeg defended with great valour his Dominions against all the Forces of the Turks Constantinople was taken by Mahomet and made the chief Seat of the Turkish Empire The Emperour Frederick Reigned fifty and three years his Motto was Rerum irrecuperabilium foelix oblivio 96. Maximilian son of Frederick Duke of Austria so great a Scholar that he spake Latine and other Tongues elegantly and in imitation of Iulius Caesar wrote his own Acts. Scaligers testimony of him was That he excelled all his Predecessours great stirs he had with the Venetians whom at last he brought to submit by his marriage with Mary of Burgundy
Body but that his dead Corps was abandon'd by his Nobles and Followers and by his meaner Servants he was dispoil'd of Armor Vessels Apparel and all Princely Furniture his naked Body left upon the Floor his Funeral wholly neglected till one Harluins a poor Country Knight undertook the carriage of his Corps to Caen in Normandy to St. Stephens Church which the dead King had formerly sounded At his entrance into Caen the Covent of Monks came forth to meet him but at the same instance there happen'd a great Fire so that as his Corps before so now his Herse was of all men forsaken every one running to quench the Fire That done they return and bear the Corps to the Church The Funeral Sermon being ended and the stone coffin set in the earth in the Chancel as the Body was ready to be laid therein there stood up one Anselm Fitz-Arthur and forbad the Burial alledging that that very place was the Floor of his Fathers House which this dead King had violently taken from him to build this Church upon Therefore said he I challenge this ground and in the name of God forbid that the body of this dispoiler be covered with the Earth of my Inheritance They were therefore inforced to compound with him for one hundred pounds Now was the Body to be laid in that stone Coffin but the Tomb prov'd too little for the Corps so that pressing it down to gain an entrance the Belly not bowel'd brake and sent forth such an intolerable stink amongst the assistants at the Funeral that all the Gums and Spices fuming in their Censers could not relieve them but in great amazement all of them hasted away leaving only a Monk or two to shuffle up the Burial which they did in haste and so gat them to their Cells Yet was not this the last of those troubles that the Corps of this great Prince met with but some years after at such time as Caen was taken by the French unner Chastilion 1562. his Tomb was rifled his Bones thrown out and some of them by private Soldiers brought as far as England again 2. Katherine de Vââois Daughter to Charles the Sixth King of France Widow of King Henry the Fifth she was marry'd after to and had Issue by Owen ap Tudor a Noble Welshman her Body lies at this day unburied in a loose Coffin at Westminister and shew'd to such as desire it It 's said it was her own desire that her Body should never be buried because sensible of her fault in disobeying her Husband King Henry upon this occasion There was a Prophecy amongst the English people that an English Prince born at Windsor should be unfortunate in loosing what his Father had acquir'd Whereupon King Henry forbad Queen Katherine being with Child to be delivered there but she out of the corrupt principle of nitimur in vetitum and affecting her Father before her Husband was there brought to bed of King Henry the Sixth in whose Reign the fair Victories woven by his Fathers Valor were by cowardice carelesness and contentions unravell'd to nothing Yet the Story is told otherwise by others viz. that she was bury'd by her Son King Henry the Sixth under a fair Tomb and continued in her Grave some years until King Henry the Seventh laying the foundation of a new Chappel caus'd her Corps to be taken up But why the said Henry being her great Grand-child did not order it to be re-inâerr'd is not recorded if not done by casualty and neglect it is very strange and stranger if out of design 3. Aristobulus King of the Jews was by Cn. Pompeius sent to Rome in bonds afterwards he was enlarged by Caesar when he had overcome Pompey and sent into Syria there by the favourites of Pompeys part he was taken away by poyson and for some time deny'd buryal in his Native Country the dead Body being kept preserv'd in Honey till at last it was sent by Marcus Antonius to the Jews to be laid in the Royal Monuments of his Ancestors 4. The great Alexander who had attain'd to the height of Military Glory dy'd at Babylon not without suspicion of poyson this great man for whom so much of the world as he had conquered was so much too little was compell'd to expect the leisure of his mutinous Captains till they would be so kind as to bury him Seven days together his dead Corps lay neglected in those heats of Mesopotamia greater than which are rarely to be found in any Country At last command was given to the Aegyptians and Chaldeans to embalm the Body according to their Art which they did yet was it two years before the miserable remainders of this Heroe could be sent away towards its Funeral then it was receiv'd by Ptolemaeus by him carry'd first to Memphis and some years afterwards to Alexandria where it lay and some ages after was shew'd to Augustus Caesar after his Victory over Antonius and Cleopatra 5. Michael Palaeologus Emperour of Constantinople in the Council at Lions under Pope Gregory the Twelfth was reconciled to the Latin Church there in sign of his agreement he and those that were with him publickly sang the Nicene Creed By reason of which he fell into such a hatred of the Greeks that when he dy'd the Monks and Priests forbad his Body to be bury'd and his Son Andronicus who succeeded him though otherwise dutiful enough not only deny'd him the honour of an imperial Funeral but scarce allow'd him that of a mean person he only commanded a few in the night to carry him far from the Camp and there cover him with Earth that the Body of so great a person might not be torn in pieces by wild Beasts 6. Iacobus Patius had conspired against the Medices for which he was publickly hang'd but by the permission of the Magistrates his dead body was laid in the Monuments of his Ancestors but the enraged multitude dragg'd it out thence and buryed it in the common Field without the Walls of the City where yet they would not suffer it to rest but in another popular fury they fetch'd it out thence drew it naked through the City by the same halter wherewith he had been before hanged and so threw it into the River Arnus 7. The Carcase of Pope Iulius the Second was digg'd up and his Ring taken from off his Finger by the Spaniards at such time as Rome was taken by the Army of the Emperour Charles the Fifth which was Anno Dom. 1527. 8. Scanderbeg the most famous Prince of Epirus dy'd in the sixty third year of his age upon the 17 th of Ianuary Anno Dom. 1466. when he had reigned about twenty four years his dead Body was with the great lamentation of all men buryed in the Cathedral Church of St. Nicholas at Lyssa where it rested in peace until that about nine years after the Turks coming to the siege of Scodra by the way took the
Lord Buckhurst was bred in Oxford took the degree of Barister in the Temple afterwards travelled into foreign parts was detained a time prisoner at Rome when his liberty was procured for his return into England he possessed the vâst inheritance left him by his Father whereof in a short time by his magnificent prodigality he spent the greatest part till he seasonably began to spare growing near to the bottom of his estate The story goes that this young Gentleman coming to an Alderman of London who had gained great pennyworths by his former purchases of him was made being now in the wane of his wealth to wait the coming down of the Alderman so long that his generous humour being sensible of the incivility of such attendance resolved to be no more beholding to wealthy pride and presently turn'd a thrifty improver of the remainder of his estate Others make him the Convert of Queen Elizabeth who by her frequent admonitions diverted the torrent of his profusion indeed she would not know him till he began to know himself and then heaped places of honour and trust upon him creating him Baron of Buckhurst in Sussex anno Dom. 1566 sent him Embassador into France 1571 into the Low Countries 1576 made him Knight of the Order of the Garter 1589 Treasurer of England 1599 he was also Chancellour of the University of Oxford Thus having made amends to his House for his mispent time both in encrease of estate and honour being created Earl of Dorset by King Iames he died April 19 1608. 10. Henry the Fifth while Prince was extremely wild the companion of riotous persons and did many things to the grief of the King his Father as well as to the injury of himself in his reputation with the subject but no sooner was he come to the Crown but the first thing that he did was to banish all his old companions ten miles from his Court and presence and reform'd himself in that manner that he became a most worthy and victorious King as perhaps ever reigned in England 11. S. Augustine in his younger time was a Manichee and of incontinent life he reports of himself that he prayed for continency but was not willing to be heard too soon for saith he I had rather have my lust satisfied than extinguished But being afterwards converted by the Ministry of S. Ambrose he proved a most excellent person as well in Learning as in all sorts of Virtues 12. The Ancients in old time attributed unto King Cecrops a double nature and form and that upon this ground not for that as some said of a good clement and gracious Prince be became a rigorous fell and cruel Tyrant but on the contrary because having been at first and in his youth perverse passionate and terrible he proved afterwards a mild and gentle Lord. 13. Gelon and Hiero in Sicily and Pisistratus the Son of Hippocrates were all Usurpers and such as attained to their Tyrannical Dominion by violent and indirect means yet they used the same virtuously and howsoever they attained the Sovereign Command and for some time in their younger years managed it injuriously enough yet they grew in time to be good Governours loving and profitable to the Common-wealth and likewise beloved and dear unto their Subjects for some of them having brought in and established excellent Laws in their Country and causing their Subjects to be industrious and painful in tilling the ground made them to be civil sober and discreet whereas before they were noted for a tatling playful and idle sort of people 14. Lydiades was a Tyrant in the City of Megalapolis but in the midst of his usurped Dominion he repented of his Tyranny and making conscience thereof he detested that wrongful oppression wherein he had held his Subjects in such sort that he restored his Citizens to their ancient Laws and Liberties yea and aâterwards died gloriously fighting manfully in the Field against the enemy in defence of his Country 15. Ceno Valchius King of the Western Saxons in the beginning of his Reign was an impious and debauched Prince whereupon he was expelled from his Kingdom and Government but at last being become a reformed man he was readmitted to his former command and he then ruled his Kingdom with great prudence justice and moderation 16. Offa King of the Mercians in the first flower of his age was immeasurable in his desires of acquiring wealth extreme ambitious of enlarging his Territories and highly delighted with the art of War and Military Discipline he was also all this while a contemner of all moral virtue but when he came to be of maturer and riper years he became famous and renowned for the integrity and modesty of his manners and the singular innocency of his life 17. Iohannes Picus Mirandula visited the most famous Universities of France and Italy and was so great a Proficient that while as yet he had no Beard he was reputed a perfect Philosopher and Divine Being ambitious and desirous of Glory he went to Rome where he proposed nine hundred Questions in all Arts and Sciences to dispute upon which he challenged all the Scholars of all Nations with a new kind of liberality promising to defray the charges of any such as should come from remote parts to dispute with him at Rome He stayed at Rome upon this occasion a whole year In the mean time there wanted not some that privily detracted from him and gave out that thirteen of his Questions were heretical so that he was constrain'd to set forth an Apology and while he studied to excuse himself of errours that were falsly objected to him he fell into others that were greater and worse for he entangled himself in the love of fair rich and noble women and at last was so engaged in quarrels upon this account that he thought it high time to forsake those youthful vanities whereupon he threw into the fire his Books of Love which he had writ both in the Latine and Hetruscan Languages and relinquishing the Dreams of prophane Philosophy he wholly devoted himself to the study of the sacred and holy Scriptures CHAP. III. Of punctual observation in matters of Religion and the great regard some men have had to it THe Athenians consulted the Oracle of Apollo demanding what Rites they should make use of in matters of their Religion The answer was the Rites of their Ancestors Returning thither again they said the manner of their Forefathers had been often changed they therefore enquired what custom they should make choice of in so great a variety Apollo replyed the best This constancy and strictness of the Heathens had been âighly commendable had their Devotions been better directed In the mean time they shame us by being more zealous in their Superstition than we are in the true Religion 1. Paulus Aemilius being about to give Battel to Perses King of Macedon at the first Break of Day made a Sacrifice to
England and marryed to David King of the Scots that she was familiarly called Iane make peace both for her earnest and successful endeavours therein 10. In old time the Month of March was the first Month amongst the Romans but afterward they made Ianuary tha first the reason of which is thus rendred by some Romulus being a Martial Prince and one that loved Feats of War and Arms and reputed the Son of Mars he set before all the Months that which carried the Name of his Father But Numa who succeeded him immediately was a man of peace and endeavoured to draw the hearts and minds of his Subjects and Citizens from War to Agriculture so he gave the prerogative of the first place unto Ianuary and honoured Ianus most as one who had been more given to politick and peaceable Government and to the husbandry of Ground than to the exercise of War and Arms. 11. The Lord Treasurer Burleigh was wont to say that he overcame Envy and Evil will more by patience and peaceableness than by pertinacy and stubbornness And his private Estate he so manag'd that he never sued any man neither did ever any man sue him whereby he lived and dyed with glory 12. Numa Pompilius instituted the Priests or Heraulds called Feciales whose office was to preserve peace between the Romans and their Neighbouring Nations and if any quarrels did arise they were to pacifiâ them by reason and not suffer them to come to violence till all hope of peace was past and if these Feciales did not consent to the Wars neither King nor people had it in their power to undertake them 13. Heraclitus was brought by the earnest prayers and entreaties of his Citizens that he would bring forth some sentence of his concerning Peace Unity and Concord Heraclitus got up into the Desk or Pulpit where he called for a cup of sair water which he sprinkled a little bran or meal upon then he put into it a little Glacon which is a sort of herb and so supped it off This done without speaking one word he departed leaving the more prudent and wiser sort of people to collect from thence that if they would cease from immoderate expences and costly matters and betake themselves to such things as were cheap and easie to be had that this was a sure way wherein the lovers of peace and concord might attain unto their desires 14. Otho the Emperour when he saw that he must either lay down the Empire or else maintain himself in the possession thereof by the blood and slaughter of a number of Citizens he determined with himself to die a voluntary death When his Friends and Soldiers desirâd him that he would not so soon begin to despair of the âvent of the War he replyed That his liâe to him was not of that value as to occasion a Civil War for the defânce of it Who can chuse but admire that such a spirit as this should be found in a Heathen Prince and he too not above thirty years of age 15. Alphonsus made use of Ludovicus Podius for the most part as his Embassador in Italy as having found him a person of singular diligence and fidelity when therefore this his Embassador gave him to understand that he might easily extort two hundred thousand Crowns for that peace which he was to grant to the Florentines and Venetians This noble and most generous Prince made him this return That his manner was to give peace and not to sell it 16. Servius Sulpitius was an Heathen Lawyer but an excellent person it is said of him that Ad facilitatem aequitatemque omnia tulit neque constituore litium actiones quam controversias tollere maluit He respected equity and peace in all that he did and always sought rather to compose differences than to multiply Suits of Law 11. Sertorius the more he prospered and prevailed in his Wars in Spain the more importunate he was with Metellas and Pompey the Roman Generals that came against him that laying down Arms they would give him leave to live in peace and to return into Italy again professing he preferred a private life there before the Government of many Cities CHAP. VI. Of the signal Love that some men have shewed to their Country JOhn the Second King of Portugal who for the nobleness of his mind was worthy of a greater Kingdom when he heard there was a Bird called a Peliâan that tears and gashes her Breast with her Bill that with her own blood thus shed she might restore her young ones to life that were leât as dead by the bitings of Serpents This excellent Prince took care that the figure of this Bird in this action of hers should be added to other his Royal Devices that he might hereby shew that he was ready upon occasion to part with his own blood for the wellfare and preservation of his people and Country Pity it is to conceal their names whose minds have been in this matter as pious and Princely as his not doubting to redeem the lives of their Fellow-Citizens at the price of their own 1. The Town of Calis during the Reign of Philip de Valois being brought to those straits that now there was no more hope left either of Succours or Victuals Iohn Lord of Vienna who there âommanded for the King began to treat about the surrender of it desiring only that they might give it up with the safety of their lives and Goods Which conditions being offered to Edward King of England who by the space of eleven months had straitly besieged it he being exceedingly enraged that so small a Town should alone stand out against him so long and withal calling to mind that they had often galled his Subjects by Sea was so far from accepting their petition that contrariwise he resolv'd to put them all to the Sword had he not been diverted from that resolution by some sage Counsellors then about him who told him that for having been faithful and loyal Subjects to thâir Sovereign they deserved not to be so sharply dealt with Whereupon Edward changing his âirst purpose into some more clemency promised to receive them to mercy conditionally that six of the principal Townsmen should present him the Keys of the Town bare-headed and bare-footed and with Halters about their Necks their lives being to be left to his disposition whereof the Governour being advertised he presently gets him into the Market place commanding the Bell to be tolled for the conventing of the people whom being assembled he acquainted with the Articles which he had received touching the yielding up of the Town and the assurance of their lives which could not be granted but with the death of six of the chief of them with this news they were exceedingly cast down and perplexed when on the sudden there rises up one of their own company called Stephen S. Peter one of the richest and most sufficient men of the Town
he esteemed the Common-Wealth more dearly than any other person or thing he was suspicious and jealous of any thing that was beyond measure as dreading an excess of power in any upon the score of the Republick He sided with the people in any thing for their advantage and would freely deliver his opinion in things that were just let the hazard and danger of doing it be as great as it would 10. Asclepiodorus went on Pilgrimage from the City of Athens into Syria and visited most Cities as he went along This he undertook for this only purpose that he might observe the manners of men and their way of life His journey being ended he said that in all his perambulation he had not met with more than three men that lived with modesty and according to the Rules of Honesty and Justice These three were Ilapius a Philosopher in Antioch Mares of Laodicea the honestest man of that Age and Domninus the Philosopher so that it should seem Heraclitus had reason for his Tears who is said to weep as oft as he came abroad in consideration of so many thousands of evil livers as he beheld about him 11. Biblius as we read of him was a man of that integrity and singular abstinence in respect of what was anothers right that if he casually light upon any thing as he passed upon the way he would depart without offering to take it up saying It was a kind of blossom of injustice to seise upon what was so sound Agreeable to which practice of his was that Law of Stagira Quod non posuisti ne tollas Take not that up which you never laid down 12. When the Senate of Rome was in debate about the Election of a Censour and that Valerianus was in nomination Trebellius Pollio writes that the Universal Acclamation of the Senators was The life of Valerianus is a Censourship let him be the judge of us all who is better than all of us let him judge of the Senate who cannot be charged with any crime let him pass sentence upon our life against whom nothing is to be objected Valerianus was almost a Censour from his Cradle Valerianus is a Censour in his whole life A prudent Senator modest grave a friend to good men an enemy to Tyrants an enemy to the vicious but a greater unto vice We receive this man for our Censour him we will all imitate he is the most noble amongst us the best in blood of exemplary life of excellent learning of choice manners and the example of Antiquity This was a glorious Character of a man given by so honourable an assembly and yet to see after what manner virtue is sometimes afflicted in the world it is remembred of so great a person that having attained to the Empire he was unfortunately taken by Sapores King of Persia and made his Footstool 13. Upon the death of Iulian the Emperour by the unanimous consent of the Army Salustius the Prefect of the Praetorian Soldiers was elected but he excused himself pretending his Age and the infirmities of his body so that Ioviniaââus was thereupon chosen when he also was dead by the means of this Salustius Valentinianus a Tribune was elected as Emperour of this Salustius the Prefect Suidas saith that he was a person of that integrity that when Valentinian was Emperour he commanded any that had ever received any injury from him that they should go to the Emperour to complain of him but there was no man found that had any such complaint to prefer against him 14. Richard the Second King of England was deposed and Henry Bullinbrook Crowned King in his stead it was also enacted in Parliament that the inheritance of the Crown and Realm of England should be united and remain in the person of King Henry and in the heirs of his Body lawfully begotten a motion was likewise made in the same Parliament what should be done with the deposed King Then it was that Thomas Merks Bishop of Carlisle shewed at once his great loyalty and integrity he rose up and with extraordinary freedom and constancy he made an honest and learned Oration wherein by Scripture reason and other Arguments he stoutly maintained the right of his deposed Soveraign resolutely opposed the usurpation of his Supplanter concluding that the Parliament had neither power nor policy to depose King Richard or in his place to elect Duke Henry and howsoever this first cost the good Prelate a Prison and then the loss of his life yet the memory of so gallant an action shall never dye so long as fidelity and loyalty shall have any respect amongst men CHAP. XIX Of the Choicest Instances of the most intire friendship THe Ancients had a most excellent Emblem whereby they used to express a true and sincere Friendship they pictured it in the shape of a young man very fair bare-headed meanly attired on the outside of his Garment was written VIVERE ET MORI to live and die and in his Forehead AESTATE ET HYEME In Summer and Winter his Brest was open so that his Heart might be seen and with his Finger he pointed to his Heart where was written PROPE LONGE Far and Near. But such faithful Friends saith Bishop Morton are in this age all for the most part gone in Pilgrimage and their return is uncertain we must therefore for the present be content to borrow instances from the Histories of former Ages 1. One Mesippus relates in Lucian how that he one day seeing a man comely and of eminent condition passing along in a Coach with a woman extremely unhandsome he was much amazed and said he could not understand why a man of prime quality and so brave a presence should be seen to stir abroad in the company of a Monster Hereupon one that followed the Coach over-hearing him said Sir you seem to wonder at what you now see but if I tell you the causes and and circumstances thereof you will much more admire Know this Gentleman whom you see in the Coach is called Zenothemis and born in the City of Marseilles where he heretofore contracted a firm amity with a Neighbour of his named Menecrates who was at that time one of the chief men of the City as well in wealth as Dignities But as all things in the world are exposed to the inconstancy of fortune it happened that as 't is thought having given a false sentence he was degraded of honour and all his Goods were confiscated every man avoyded him as a Monster in this change of Fortune but Zenothemis his good friend as if he had loved miseries not men more esteemed him in his adversity than he had done in prosperity and bringing him to his house shewed him huge treasures conjured him to share them with him since such were the Laws of Amity the other weeping for joy to see himself thus entertained in such sharp necessities said he was not so apprehensive of the want of worldly
withal that throughout the whole course of his Reign the Lydians lived in a most happy Tranquillity and so secure a Peace that every man lived void of fear and without apprehensions of any designs against them in the midst of a great abundance of Riches in which they had long flourished Alexander passed the Hellespont came to Troy where he sacrificed to Pallas and made a Libation to the Heroes He also poured Oyl upon the Tomb of Achilles and according to the accustomed manner he with his friends ran round about it naked and placed a Crown upon it pronouncing of Achilles that he was a most happy and fortunate person for that while he lived he had so good a friend as Patroclus and when dead that he had so famous a publisher of his Actions as Homer 15. Matilda or Maud the Empress had the same happiness for which Pherenice is admired she was Daughter of a King viz. Henry the First Mother of a King viz. Henry the Second of England and Wife of a King to wit Henry the Fourth Emperor of Germany On her was made this Epitaph Ortu magna viro major sed maxima prole Hic jacet Henrici filia nupta parens 16. Alexander the Great was a happy and a fortunate person in divers respects he had Philip for his Father the noblest Warrior of his time and he had for his Master in his Youth the Prince of Philosophers Aristotle Besides which Iustin observes of him that he never gave Battel to any Enemy whom he did not overcome never laid Siege to any City which at last he did not take nor never came unto any Nation whom he did not subdue and bring under his subjection Appius a Roman was proscribed by the Triumvirate this being known unto him he divided his Wealth amongst his Servants and with them got into a Ship intending to sail into Sicily In his passage there arose a mighty Tempest whereupon his Servants let him down from the Ship into a little Boat telling him that he should therein be safest from the Tempest in the mean time away they sailed with the Ship and all his Riches therein The event was that the Servants and Ship was cast away wherein they thought themselves secure and Appius by force of the Winds was driven with his little Boat unto his desired Sicily where he abode in safety CHAP. LIII Of the Gallantry wherewith some Persons have received Death or the Message of it AS they who remember they are but sojourners in their hired lodgings depart thence without any affliction or trouble of mind so as many as consider that Nature hath lent them this tabernacle of the body but for a little time are well contented to remove as soon as they receive a summons 1. Theodorus being threatned with death by Lysimachus Speak on this mââner said he to thy purpled Minions for to Theodorus it is all one whether he purrefye under ground or on a Câoss above it 2. Sophonisha was the Queen of Syphax the Numidian and he being made prisoner to the Romans she came and yeilded her self to Massanissa and vehemently besought him that she might not be delivered into the hands of the Romans Her youth and excellent beauty so commended her suit that he forth with granted it and to make good his promise marryed her himself that very day having bin contracted with her before her marriage with Syphax But Scipio the Roman General gave him to understand that the Romans had title to ãâ¦ã was a mischeivous enemâ ãâ¦ã advised him not to ãâ¦ã little reason Massanissa ãâ¦ã and finally having promised to be governed by Scipio he departed to his Tent where after he had spent some time in agony he called to him a Servant and tempering a Potion for Sophonisba sent it her with this message that gladly he would have had her to live with him as his Wife but since they who had power to hinder him of his desire would not yield thereto he sent her a Cup that should preserve her from falling alive into the hands of the Romans willing her to remember her Birth and Estate and accordingly to take order for her self At the Receipt of this Message and Present she only said that if her Husband had no better Present for his new Wife she must accept of this Adding that she might have dyed more honourably if she had not wedded so lately before her Funerals and herewithal she boldly drank off the Poyson 3. Calanus the Indian of great fame and name for Philosophy and held in great reverence by Alexander the Great when he had lived seventy three years in perfect health and was now seized upon by a Disease accounting that he had arrived at that term of felicity which both Nature and Fortune had allotted him determined to depart out of life and to that purpose desired of Alexander a Funeral pile to be erected and that as soon as he had ascended to the top of it he would appoint his Guard to put fire to it The King not able to divert him from his purpose commanded the Pile to be erected an innumerable multitude of people flocked together to behold so unusual a Spectacle Calanus as he had said with a marvelous alacrity ascended the top of the Pile and there laid him down wherein he was consumed to ashes 4. When the Tyrant sent his Messenger of death to Canius to tell him that he must die that day Canius was then playing at Chess and therefore desired the Messenger not to interrupt his play till the Game was out which he played in the same manner and with as much concern as he did before the Messenger came The Game done he submitted to the Sentence that was passed upon him 5. Queen Anne the Wife of Henry the Eighth when she was lead to be beheaded in the Tower she called one of the King 's Privy Chamber to her and said unto him Commend me to the King and tell him he is constant in his course of advancing me for from a private Gentlewoman he made me a Marquiss from a Marquiss a Queen and now that he hath left no higher degree of worldly honour for me he hath made me a Martyr 6. Dr. Fecknam was sent to the Lady Iane Gray that she must prepare her self to die the next day which Message was so little displeasing to her that she seemed rather to rejoyce at it The Doctor being earnest with her to leave her new Religion and to embrace the old she answered that she had now no time to think of any thing but of preparing her self to God by Prayer Feckman thinking she had spoken this to the end she might have some longer time of life obtained of the Queen three days longer and then came and told so much to the Lady Iane. Whereat she smiling said You are much deceived if you think I had any desire of longer life for I assure you since
perfumes of the East she would not wash her self but in the dews of Heaven which must be preserved for her with much skill her Garments were so pompous that nothing remained but to seek for new stuffes in Heaven for she had exhausted the Treasures of Earth her Viands so dainty that all the mouths of Kings tasted none so exquisite nor would she touch her meat but with Golden Forks and precious stones God to punish this cursed Pride and superfluity cast her on a bed and assailed her with a malady so hideous so stinking and frightful that all her nearest Kindred were enforced to abandon her none stayed about her but a poor old woman throughly accustomed to stench and death the delicate Seniora was infected with her own persumes in such manner that from all her body there began to drop a most stinking humour and a kind of matter so filthy to behold and so noysom to the smell that every man plainly perceived that her dissolute and excessive daintiness had caused this infection in her 2. Tigranes King of Armenia had ever in his Court divers Kings that waited upon him four of which alwaies attended upon his Person as his Foot-men and when he rode abroad they ran by his Stirrup in their Shirts when he sat in the Chair of State they stood about him holding their hands together with countenances that shewed the greatest bondage and subjection imaginable shewing thereby that they resigned all their liberty and offered thââr bodies to him as their Lord and Master and wââe persons more ready to suffer than to do any thing 3. Sesostris King of Aegypt though otherwise a Prince of great vertues was yet of a most intolerable Pride For he caused âour of his Captive Kings instead of Horses to draw his Chariot when he was disposeâ to be seen and to ride in Triumph One of these âour at such time as Sesostris was carried out to take the air cast his head continually back upon the two formost Wheels next him which Sesostris obsârving asked him What he found worthy of his admiration in that motion To whom the Captive King answered That in those he beheld the mutability of all worldly things for that both the lowest part of the Wheel was suddenly carried above and becamâ the highest and the uppermost part was as suddenly turned downwards and under all Which when Sesostris had judiciously weighed it helped to prick the blister of his Pride and he dismissed those Kings and all other from the like servitude in the future 4. Aldred Arch-bishop of York had a certain suit to William the Conquerour and having a râpulse therein the Arch-bishop in great discontent offered to depart The King standing in awe of his displeasure stayed him fell down at his feet desired pardon and promised to grant his suit The King all this while being down at the Arch-bishops feet the Noble-men that were present put him in mind that he should cause the King to arise Nay saith the Prelate let him alone let him find what it is to anger St. Peter 5. Anibal was so exalted with the Victory he had got at Cannas that aââerwards he admitted not any of his Citizens of Carthage into his Camp nor gave answer to any but by an Interpreter Also when Maherbal said at his Tent door That he had found out a way whereby in a few daies if he pleased he might sup in the Capitol he despised him So hard is it for felicity and moderation to keep company together 6. King Henry the second of England Anno Dom. 1170. caused his son Prince Henry at seventeen years of age to be Crowned King that he might in his own life-time participate in the Government with him And on his Coronation day for honours sake placed the first dish on the Table himself while the new King was sate down Whereupon the Arch-bishop of York said pleasantly to him Be merry my best Son for there is not another Prince in the whole World that hath such a Servitor at his Table To whom the young King scornfully answered Why do you wonder at this my Father doth not think that he doth more than becomes him for he being a King only by the Mothers side serveth me who have a King to my Father and a Queen to my Mother 7. Frederick the first Sirnamed Barbarossa in prosecution of Pope Alexander the third had sent his son Otho to pursue him with seventy five Galleys The Pope had saved himself at Venice and Otho was made Prisoner and carried to Venice by Cian the Venetian Admiral Whereupon Frederick grew more mild and accepted conditions of Peace prescribed by Alexander as that he should crave absolution on his knees and in his own person should lead his Army into Asia So Frederick comes to Venice and being prostrate at the Popes feet in a solemn Assembly he asketh pardon The Pope sets his foot on his neck and cries with a loud voice Super Aspidem Basiliscum ambulabis The Emperour moved with this disgrace answers Non tibi sed Petro The Pope replyed Et mihi Petro. This happened at Venice Anno 1171. in the presence of the Embassadours of the Kings and Princes and of the greatest States in Europe 8. Simon Thurway born in Cornwall bred in our English Universities until he went over unto Paris where he became so eminent a Logician that all his Auditors were his Admirers Most âirm his memory and fluent his expression and was knowing in all things save in himself For prophanely he advanced Aristotle above Moses and himself above both But his Pride had a great and sudden fall losing at the same instant both language and memory becoming compleatly ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã without Reason or Speech Polydor Virgil saith of him Iuvene nihil acutius sene nihil obtusius whilst others add That he made an inarticulate sound like unto lowing This great Judgement befell him about the year of our Lord 1201. 9. Iulius Caesar after he had overcome Pompey was created Dictatour in the Month of Iuly whereupon he gave it his name whereas before it was called Quintilis The Dictatorship which was a Dignity only of six Months he took upon him for perpetuity He greedily accepted of the Title of Imperatour given him by the Senate He challenged to himself the Title of Pater Patriae he placed his own Statua amongst those of the Kings In the Senate he used a Seat of Gold to sit in he also permitted divine honours to be given to him Nay he was arrived to that excess of pride that he would have whatever he spake to be received as Law nor would he give the least respect unto any that came to him Through this insolency he fell into an inexpiable hatred and was slain in the Senate-house with twenty three wounds in the fifty sixth year of his age 10. The felicity and vertue of Alexander the Great was obscured by three
meanness of his Spirit had cast a dishonour upon his Victory 5. Thomas Woolsey Cardinal when he went his last Embassy into France had in his retinue nine hundred Horse of Nobles Gentry and others he rode like a Cardinal very sumptuously on his Mule with his spare Mule and spare Horse trapped in Crimson Velvet upon Velvet and his Stirrups gilt Before him he had his two great Crosses of Silver his two great Pillars of Silver the Kings Broad Sâal of England and his Cardinals Hat and a Gentleman carrying his Valence of fine Scarlet all over richly embroydered with Gold wherein was his Cloak and his Harbingers before in every place to prepare lodging for his Train As he was great in power so no less in pride and insolence he told Edward Duke of Buckingham that he would sit on his skirts for spilling a little water on his Shooe and did afterwards procure his head to be cut off he presumed to carry the Great Seal of England with him beyond the Seas he demolished forty Monasteries to promote his own Buildings And dared in Conference to say familiarly Ego Rex meus I and my King But when once he was declined in his favour with the King and commanded to retire he was upon the way at Putney met by Mr. Norrice who had some comfortable words to deliver him from the King and a Ring of Gold in token of his good will to him The Cardinal at hearing of this quickly lighted from his Mule alone as though he had been the youngest of his men and incontinent kneeled down in the dirt upon both his knees holding up his hands for joy of the Kings comfortable Message Mr. Norrice said he considering the joyful news you have brought me I could do no less than rejoyce every word pierced so my heart that the sudden joy surmounted my memory having no regard or respect to the place but I thought it my duty that in the same place where I received âhis comfort to laud and praise God on my knees and most humbly to render to my Soveraign Lord my hearty thanks for the same Talking thus upon his knees to Mr. Norrice he would have pulled off a Velvet night-cap which he wore under his scarlet Cap but he could not undo the knot under his chin wherefore with violence he rent the Laces of his Cap and pulled his said Cap from his Head and kneeled bare-headed when Mr. Norrice gave him the Ring he said If I were Lord of the Realm one half were too small a reward for your pains and good news but desired him to accept a little Chain of Gold with a Cross of Gold wherein was a piece of the Holy Cross which he ware about his Neck next his body and said he valued at more than a thousand pounds CHAP. XXXIX Of the Vain-glorious Boasting of some men WHen Alcibiades then but young was boasting himself of his Riches and Lands Socrates took him into a room and shewed him the Map of the World Now said he where is the Country of Attica When Alcibiades had pointed to it Lay me then said he your finger upon your own Lands there When the other told him they were not there described and what said Socrates do you boast your self of that which is no part of the Earth He that hath most hath nothing to boast of and great boasts for the most part as they betray great folly so they end in as great derision 1. Oromazes had an inchanted Egg in which this Impostor boasted that he had enclosed all the happiness in the world but when it was broken there was found nothing in it but wind 2. Mr. Iohn Carter Vicar of Bramford in Suffolk an excellent Scholar and a modest person being at Dinner at Ipswich in one of the Magistratâs Houses where divers other Ministers were also at the Table one amongst the rest who was old enough and had learned enough to have taught him more humility was very full of talk bragged much of his parts and skill c. and made a challenge saying Here are many learned men if any of you will propound any question in Divinity or Philosophy I will dispute with him resolve his doubts and satisfie him fully All at the Table except himself were silent for a while then Mr. Carter when he saw that no other would speak to him calling him by his name I will said he go no further than my Trencher to puzle you here is a Sole now tell me the reason why this fish that hath alwayes lived in the salt water should come out fresh To this the forward Gentleman could say nothing and so was laughed at and shamed out of his vanity 3. Ptolomaeus Philadelphus was a wise Prince and learned amongst the best of the Egyptians but was so infatuated by unseasonable and high luxury that he grew to that degree of sottishness as to boast that he alone had found out immortality and that he should never dye Not long after being newly recovered of a sharp fit of the Gout and looking out of his Window upon the Egyptians that dined and sported on the banks of the River Nilus with a deep sigh he wished he was one of them 4. Eunomius the Heretick boasted that he knew the Nature of God at which time notwithstanding St. Basil puzled him in twenty one questions about the body of an Ant. 5. Paracelsus boasted that he could make a man immortal and yet himself dyed at fourty seven years of age 6. Pompey the Great at such time as the news of Caesars passing Rubicon came to Rome boasted that if he should but once stamp with his foot upon the âarth of Italy forthwith armed troops of Horse and Foot would leap out thence yet was he put to a shameful flight by that enemy he so much despised 7. Sigismund King of Hungary beholding the greatness of his Army which he led against Bajazaet the first hearing of the coming of the Turks army in his great jollity proudly said What need we fear the Turk who need not at all to fear the falling of the Heavens which if they should fall yet were we able to hold them up from falling upon us with the very points of our Spears and Halberds yet this Insolent was then vanquished and enforced to fly not unlike another Xerxes being driven to pass the Danubius in a single and little Boat this was at the Battle of Nicopolis Anno 1396. 8. Abel by bribes bestowed in the Court of Rome from Archdean of St. Andrews got himself to be preferred Bishop there and was consecrated by Pope Innocent the fourth at his return he carried himself with great insolence They write of him that in a vain-glorious humour one day he did with a little Chalk draw this line upon the Gate of the Church Haec mihi sunt tria Lex Cânon Philosophia Bragging of his knowledge and skill in those Professions and
solicited thereto by Eva an Anchoresse he sat three years one month and four daies 190. Clemens the fourth the greatest Lawyer in France had before his Election a Wife and three Children sent Octobonus into England to take the value of all Church Revenues he sat three years 191. Gregory the tenth an Italian held a Council at Lions wherein was present Michael Paleologus the Greek Emperour who acknowledged there the Procession of the Holy Ghost from Father and Son this Pope sat four years two months and ten daies 192. Adrianus the fifth a Genoway before called Octobonus and Legate here in England in the daies of Henry the third he died before he was consecrated in the fortieth day of his Popedom 193. Iohannes the twenty second a Spaniard and Physician though a Learned man yet unskilled in Affairs he did many things with folly enough he sat but eight months 194. Nicholaus the third first practised to enrich his Kindred he raised a quarrel betwixt the French and Sicilians which occasioned the Massacre in the Sicilian Vesper he sat three years 195. Martinus the fourth a French man he kept the Concubine of his Predecessour Nicholas removed all Pictures of Bears from the Palace lest his Sweet-heart should bring forth a Bear sat four years 196. Honorius the fourth confirmed the Augustine Friers and caused the white Carmelites to be called Our Ladies Brethren he did little more but died having sat two years and one day 197. Nicholaus the fourth preferred persons solely upon respect to their vertue and died of grief to see Church and State in a remediless combustion having sat four years one month 198. Celestinus the fifth an Hermit was easily perswaded to quit the Chair the Cardinals perswading it was above his ability so he resigned was imprisoned and died he sat one year and five months 199. Bonifacius the eighth by his general Bull exempted the Clergy from being chargeable with Taxes and Payments to temporal Princes first set forth the Decretals and instituted the Feast of Iubilee 200. Benedictus the eleventh a Lombard was a man of great humility desired to compose all Brawls but was poysoned in a Figg as some say having sat eight months and seventeen daies 201. Clemens the fifth first made Indulgences and Pardons saleable he removed the Papal See from Rome to Avignon in France where it continued for seven years he sat eight years 202. Iohannes the twenty third he Sainted Thomas of Aquine and Thomas of Hereford challenged Supremacy over the Greek Church and died having sat nineteen years and four months 203. Benedictus the twelfth a man of that constancy as by no means to be sway'd from that which he judged to be right he died in the seventh year and third month of his Papacy 204. Clemens the sixth a dreadful Pestilence in Italy was in his time so that scarce a tenth man remained alive he died having sat ten years six months and twenty eight daies 205. Innocencius the sixth a Lawyer burnt Iohn de Rupe scissâ for foretelling shrewd things of Anti-Christ he sat nine years 206. Vrbanus the fifth a great Stickler for Popish Priviledges he confirmed the Order of St. Brigitt being poysoned as 't is thought he died having sat eight years and four months 207. Gregorius the eleventh returned the Papal Chair again to Rome he Excommunicated the Florentines and sat seven years five months 208. Vrbanus the sixth Gunpowder was Invented in his time he made fifty four Cardinals held a Jubilee to gather money and died having sat eleven years and eight months 209. Bonifacius the ninth scarce thirty years old when made Pope very ignorant and a great seller of Church Livings he sat fourteen years and nine months 210. Innocentius the seventh demanded the Moiety of Ecclesiastical Benefices both in France and England but was stoutly denied he sat but two years 211. Gregorius the twelfth swore to resign for the peace of the Church but collusion discerned betwixt him and Benedict both were outed 212. Alexander the fifth a Cretan a man of great Sanctity and Learning he deposed Ladistaus King of Naples and Apulia and sat but eight months 213. Iohannes the twenty fourth of Naples by his consent a Council was Assembled at Constance where himself was deposed 214. Martinus the fifth condemned Wickcliffè burnt Iohn Husse and Ierome of Prague his Followers he sat fourteen years odd months 215. Eugenius the fourth a Venetian refused to appear at the Council of Basil who thereupon deposed him he sat sixteen years 216. Nicholaus the fifth of Genoua in his time the Turks took Constantinople he built the Vatican and died in the eighth year of his Papacy 217. Calistus the third a Spaniard sent Preachers throughout Europe to animate Princes to War against the Turks sat but three years 218. Pius the second an Italian approved of the marriage of the Clergy and turned out divers Cloystered Nuns and sat six years 219. Paulus the second exceeded all his Predecessours in Pomp and Shew enrich'd his Miter with all kind of precious Stones honoured the Cardinals with a Scarlet Gown and reduced the Jubilee from fifty to twenty five years 220. Sixtus the fourth ordained a Guard to attend his Person was the first Founder of the Vatican Library and brought in Beads sat thirteen years 221. Innocentius the eighth of Genoua much given to excess in drinking and venery he sat seven years and ten months 222. Alexander the sixth first openly acknowledged his Nephews as they call their Bastards to be his sons was incestuous with his daughter and gave himself to the Devil he sat eleven years 223. Pius the third sought to hunt the French men out of Italy but died in the interim of an Ulcer in his Leg having sat twenty five daies 224. Iulius the second more Souldier than Prelate passing over a Bridge of Tyber threw his Key into the River and brandished his sword Excommunicated Lewis of France and sat nine years three months 225. Leo the tenth burnt Luther's Books declaring him an Heretick Luther did the like at Wittenberge with the Popes Canon Law declaring him for a Persecutor Tyrant and the very Antichrist 226. Adrian the sixth a Low-Country man made shew at his entrance of Reformation but was diverted the Lutherans began to spread and the Turks to approach these and other things broke him so that he died in his second year 227. Clemens the seventh of Florence in his time Rome was Sack'd and the Pope made Prisoner by the Duke of Burbon the Popes Supremacy cast off in England by King Henry the eighth some say he died of the lowsie disease 228. Paulus the third called the Council at Trent prostituted his Sister committed incest with his daughter poysoned her husband attempted the chastity of his Neece found in the act he was marked by her husband he was a Necromancer 229. Iulius the third gave his Cardinals Hat to a Sodomitical boy called Innocentius in his time Casa
own time and King Canutus the sixth almost to the year of Christ 1200. but more like a Poet than Historian commonly also omitting an account of the time 30. Conradus Abbot of Vrsperga a Monastery in Suevia as worthy of reading as any of the German Writers hath described the Affairs of Germany beginning two hundred years after the Flood and carrying on his relation to the twentieth year of Frederick the second that is Anno Dom. 1230. 31. Iohannes Aventinus wrote the Annals of the Boii and memorable matters of the Germans in seven Books beginning from the Flood and continuing his History to Ann. 1460. 32. Iohannes Nauclerus born not far from Tubinga hath an intire Chronicon from the beginning of the World to his own time and the year of our Lord 1500. in two Volums 33. Albertus Crantzius hath brought down the History of the Saxons Vandals and the Northern Kingdoms of Denmark Sweden Gothland and Norway to Ann. 1504. 34. Iohannes Sleidanus hath faithfully and plainly written the History of Luther especially and the contests about matters of Religion in the Empire of Germany the Election and Affairs of Charles the fifth Emperour and other of divers of the Kings of Europe from Anno Dom. 1517. to Ann. 1556. 35. Philippus Comineus wrote five Books of the Expedition of Charles the eighth into Italy and Naples and eight Books of the Acts of Lâwis the eleventh and Charles Duke of Burgundy worthy to be read of the greatest Princes 36. Froisardus wrote the sharp Wars betwixt the French and English from Anno 1335. to Ann. 1400. 37. Hiâronymus Osorius wrote the Navigation of the Portugals round Africa into India and the Acts of Emanuel King of Portugal from Anno 1497. to his death in twelve Books 38. Antonius Bonfinius in four Decades and an half hath wrote the History of the Hungarian Kings to the death of Matthias the son of Huniades and the beginning of the Reign of Vladislaus 39. Polydor Virgil hath wrote the History of England in twenty six Books to the death of Henry the seventh 40. Iustinus flourished Anno Christi 150. and wrote a compendious History of most Nations from Ninus the Assyrian King to the twenty fifth year of Augustus compiled out of forty four Books of Trogus Pompeius a Roman Ecclesiastical Writers I have here no room for but am content to have traced thus far the steps of David Chytraeus in his Chronology whose help I have had in the setting down of this Catalogue CHAP. IX Of the most famous and ancient Greek and Latin Poets THE Reader hath here a short account of some of the most eminent of Apollo's old Courtiers as they succeeded one another in the favour of the Muses not but that those bright Ladies have been I was about to say equally propitious to others in after-times nor is it that we have given these only a place here as if our own Land were barren of such Worthies Our famous Spencer if he was not equal to any was superiour to most of them of whom Mr. Brown thus He sung th' Heroick Knights of Fairy Land In lines so elegant and such command That had the Thracian plaid but half so well He had not left Eurydice in Hell But it is fit we allow a due reverence to Antiquity at least be so ingenuous as to acknowledge at whose Torches we have lighted our own The first of these Lights 1. Orpheus was born in Libethris a City of Thrace the most ancient of all Poets he wrote the Expedition of the Argonauts into Colchis in Greek Verse at which he was also present this Work of his is yet extant together with his Hymns and a Book of Stones The Poets make him to be the Prince of the Lyricks of whom Horace in his Book De Arte Poeticâ Sylvestres homines sacer interpresque deorum Caedibus foedo victu deterruit Orpheus Dictus ob hoc lenire Tygres rabidosque leones His Father was Oeagrus his Mother Caliopea and his Master was Linus a Poet and Philosopher Orpheus is said to have flourished Anno Mundi 2737. Vid. Quenstedt Dial. de Patr. vir illustr p. 453. Voss. de Nat. Constit. artis Poet. cap. 13. sect 3. p. 78. Patrit de Instit. reipub l. 2. tâ 6. p. 83. 2. Homerus the Prince of Poets born at Colophon as Cluverius doubts not to affirm but more Cities besides that strove for the honour according to that in Gellius Septem urbes certant de stirpe illustris Homeri Smyrna Rhodos Colophon Salamis Ios Argos Athenae Many are the Encomiums he hath found amongst learned men as The Captain of Philosophy The first Parent of Antiquity and Learning of all sorts The original of all rich Invention The Fountain of the more abstruse Wisdom and the father of all other Poets à quo cen fonte perenni Vatum Pieriis ora rigantur aquis Of him this is part of Quintilians Charaâter In great things no man excelled him in sublimity nor in small matters in propriety In whom saith Paterculus this is an especial thing that before him there was none whom he could imitate and after him none is found that is able to imitate him He flourished Anno Mund. 3000. Vid. Quenstedt dialog p. 483. Gell. Noct. Attic. lib. 3. cap. 11. p. 104. Quintil. instit orator lib. 10. cap. 1. p. 466. 3. Hesiodus was born at Cuma a City in Aeolia bred up at Ascra a Town in Boeotia a Poet of a most elegant genius memorable for the soft sweetness of his Verse called the son of the Muses by Lipsius the purest Writer and whose labours contain the best Precepts of Vertue saith Heinsuis Some think he was contemporary with Homer others that he lived an hundred years after him I find him said to flourish Anno Mundi 3140. Vid. Quintil. instit orat lib. 10. cap. 1. p. 466. Vell. Pâtercul hist. lib. 1. ...... Voss. de Poet. Graec. cap. 2. p. 9. Quenstedt dial p. 478. 4. Alcaeus a famous Lyrick Poet was born in the Isle of Lesbos in the City of Miâylene whence now the whole Isle hath its name what Verses of his are left are set forth by Henricus Stephanus with those of the rest of the Lyricks Quintilian saith of him That he is short and magnificent in his way of speaking diligent and for the most part like Homer he flourished Olymp. 45. Vid. Quenstedt dialog p. 433. Quintil. instit orat lib. 10. cap. 1. p. 468. 5. Sappho an excellent Poetress was born in the Isle of Lesbos and in the City of Eraesus there she was called the ninth Lyrick and the tenth Muse she wrote Epigrams Elegies Iamâicks Monodies and nine Books of Lyrick Verses and was the Invetress of that kind of Verse which from her is called the Sapphick she attained to no small applause in her contention first with Stesichorus and then with Alcaeus she is said to flourish about the 46 Olympiad Voss. Instât Poet. lib. 3. cap. 15. p.
for the dead Emperours he was numbred amongst their Gods 28. When the Emperour Iulianus departed out of Antioch to march against the Persians where he lost his life being much displeased with that City for some seditious words and actions that had been amongst them turning himself to the people I will come hither no more said he And when he sacrificed to Mars near the City of Câesiphon and perceived that the entrails afforded no sign of prosperity he said he would sacrifice to Mars no more supposing when he spake that both these should remain in his choice but he was deceived they were as prâsages that he should be hindred both from the oâe and the other by death 29. Clodovaeus King of France when he had determined to wage War in Spain with Alarick King of the Goths before such time as he would begin to march against him he sent Messengers with Presents to the Shrine of St. Martin commanding them that upon their entrance of the Temple they should observe such things as might aââoâd a conjecture touching the event of the suture War Entring therefore the Temple they heard the Monks who were at their Vespers singing those words in the Psalms Thou O Lord hast gârded me with strength to the battel They took this as a presage of felicity to the King and departed who also hereupon full of hope undertook the War and having routed the Enemy compelled him to fly 30. Anibal was commanded back from Italy into Africa to look to the Carthaginian Affairs nearer home which at that time went but ill with them and drawing near the African shore he caused one of the Mariners to ascend the top of the Mast and thence to discover in what manner the Country did appear and what he should first observe therein He tells Anibal that he saw an old ruinated Sepulchre Anibal abominating this answer for that he thought the place ominous to land at turned aside and put his Forces ashore near the Town of Leptis whence sending a Hârald to Scipio the Roman General he demanded a personal Treaty with him in which he offered Conditions of Peace which being refused by Scipio he was constrained to decide the matter by Battel where he was overthrown and the whole Force and Power of the Carthaginians broken with him 31. The Emperour Dominitianus the day before he was slain when some Mushrooms were sent him for a Present he commanded that they should be kept for him till the next day adding if I may have leave to enjoy them then turning to them who stood about him he told them that the day following the Moon would be in Aquarius and that an Action should follow thereupon that should give occasion to the whole World to discourse upon it In like manner when he had scratched a Pustule upon his Forehead till such time as the blood dropt out of it I could wish said he that this is all the blood that shall be shed and that this little might suffice By all these words presaging that his end was not far off whether occasioned by some prediction he had met with or some evil abodement of his own mind or that they all proceeded casually from him 32. Pope Paul the Second upon that very day he had promoted Franciscus Ruvenus to a Cardinalship when by accident he was speaking of it I have this day said he chosen my Successour the event made it appâar that he had spoken the truth For Pope Paul being dead Franciscus Ruverus succeeded him in the Popedom by the name of Sixtus the Fourth 33. Leonardus Ruverus was Cousin to the forementioned Cardinal being his Brothers Son and upon the account of his poverty and mean parts was the mockery of his Country For when any man called him he told them they ought to call him the Count and if in a way of jest any man at any time propounded a Wife to him he would say that he would not marry any other than such a one as was the Kinswoman of a King And the Fortune of his Uncle brought all that to pass which he used to say of himself for being honouâed with the Dukedom and Earldom of the City Sora and especially being raised to the Dignity of the Roman Prefect he afterwards had for his Wife the Niece of Ferdinando King of Naples 34. The day before the Battel of Actium Octavianus Augustus went out of his Tent to take view of the Ships and meeting a Muletter he asked him his name who told him his name was Eutychus or good Fortune and being asked his Asâes name it was he said Nicon or Victory Octavianus took it for a good Omen that the names seemed to favour him so much and soon after he had that Victory that made him Lord of the whole Roman Empire without any Competitor able to stand against him 35. Richard the Second King of England being at Flint-Castle and having received in thither Henry the Duke of Lancaster he was by him conveyed thence to Chester Being about to remove they loosed a Grey-hound of the Kings as was usual whensoever the King got on Horse-back which Grey-hound used to leap upon the Kings shoulders and fawn upon him exceedingly Being loosed at this time he leapt upon the Duke of Lancaster and fawned upon him in the same manner as he used to do upon his Master The Duke asked the King what the Dog meant or intended It is an ill and an unhappy Omen to me said the King but a fortunate one to you for he acknowledges thee to be the King and that thou shalt reign in my stead This he said with a presaging mind upon a light occasion which yet in short time came to pass accordingly 36. The Swissers being besieged by the French in Novaria and both parts being intent upon the Battel to be the Sun being now ready to set all the Dogs of the French left their Camp and in a great Body made to Novaria where received by the Swissers they licked their legs shook their tails as if the Swissers were already become their Lords They therefore received it as a good Omen presaging that by an unfortunate Battel the French should lose the Lordship over them as indeed the success was 37. There was a noted Beggar in Paris called Mauritius who used to say he should be a Bishop and although he was never so hungry or in want yet would he not receive an alms at the hands of any man who before-hand as 't is usual to jest went about to make him promise that he would never be a Bishop This man from this abject condition came at last to be Bishop of Paris 38. Dr. Heylin in his Life of William Laâd Archbishop of Canterbury mentions these as the sad presages of his fall and death On Friday night the 27. of December 1639. there was raised such a violent tempest that many of the Boats which were drawn to Land
and may be a King but there is a Caput Algol which hinders it And what is that said the Baron Ask me not said la Brosse what it is I must know it replied he In the end he said to him My Son it is that he will do that which shall make him lose his head Whereupon the Baron beat him cruelly and having left him half dead he went down and carried with him the key of the Garret door whereof he afterwards brag'd He had also conference with one Caesar who was a Magician at Paris who told him that only a back blow of the Bourguignon would keep him from being a King He remembred this prediction being a Prisoner in the Bastille and intreated one that went to visit him to learn if the Executioner of Paris was a Bourguignon and having found it so he said I am a dead man and soon after was beheaded for his Conspiracy 23. Upon St. Nicholas day in the year 1422. Queen Katherine Wife to King Henry the Fifth was brought to bed of a Son at Windsor who was by the Duke of Bedford and Henry Bishop of Winchester and the Countesse of Holland christned by the name of Henry whereof when the King had notice out of a prophetick rapture he said Good Lord I Henry of Monmouth shall small time reign and much get and Henry born at Windsor shall long time reign and lose all but Gods will be done 24. On the 30. day of October 1485. was Henry the Seventh with great Solemnity anointed and crowned King of England and even this was revealed to Cadwallader last King of the Britains 797 years past that his Off-spring should reign and bear dominion in this Realm again 25. Although Henry the First came not to the Crown of England by the gift of his Father the Conqueror as his Brother William did yet he came to it by the Prophecy of his Father for when his Father made his Will and divided all his Estate in Land between his two eldest Sons giving to Henry his youngest only a Portion in Money with which division he perceived him to be much discontentend he said unto him Content thy self Harry for the time will come that thy turn shall be serv'd as well as theirs His prediction was accomplished August the 5. An. 1100. he being then crowned in Westminster 26. The Great Cham Cublai intending to besiege the Metropolis of the Province of Mangi made one Bajan Chiusan the General of his Army which name signifies the light of an hundred eyes the Queen that was within the Walls of the City with a Garrison sufficient hearing the name of the General not only delivered the City but also the whole Province into the hands of Cublai for that she had before heard it predicted by the Astrologers that the City should be taken by him that had an hundred eyes 27. Thrasyllus the Mathematician was in the Retinue of Tiberius when he lived at Rhodes as an Exile and though under that cloud and that Caius and Lucius were both alive whose pretences were before his yet he constantly told him that he should be Emperour Tiberius believed him not but suspecting he was suborned by his Enemies to betray him into dangerous words he determined privily to make him away He had a house in Rhodes in which there was a Tower built upon a Rock which was washed by the Sea hither he brought him accompanied by a Servant of his own of great strength resolved to cast him headlong from thence When therefore they were come up Tell me said he by all that is dear unto thee if that is true which thou hast hitherto so confidently affirmed to me concerning the Empire It is said Thrasyllus a certain truth and such is the pleasure of the Stars If then said Tiberius you have such assurance of my Destiny what say you of your own Presently be erected a Scheme and considering the situation and distance of the Stars he began to fear look pale and cryed out I am in doubtful and hazardous state and the last end of my life seems nearly to approach At this Tiberius embraced him and told him he doubted not his skill in predictions acquainting him with his design against his life The same Thrasyllus not long after walking with Tiberius upon the shore of Rhodes having discovered a Ship under Sail afar off told him that Ship came from Rome and therein were Messengers with Letters from Augustus concerning his return which also fell out accordingly 28. Apollonius Tyanaeus was at Ephesus in Asia reading a Lecture in a Grove there a great space both of Land and Sea interposed betwixt him and Rome when he began to speak low and then more slowly streight he looked pale and stood silent at last stepping hastily on some paces as one transported O brave Stephanus said he strike the Tyrant kill the Murderer thou hast struck him thou hast wounded him thou hast slain him This spoke in publick was carefully gathered up the time diligently observed and as it was after well known that Domitian the Emperour was slain in Rome that day and the same hour of the day by one Stephanus that was of his Bed-chamber 29. Diocletian being in Gallia with the Roman Army and at that time but a Knight of Rome and of a slender Fortune paid his quarters but indifferently his Hostess upbraided him that he paid her too sparingly and he on the other side jestingly replied that he would discharge his Reckoning more bountifully assoon as he should be Emperor the Woman who was a Witch told him that he should be Emperour assoon as he had slain the Boar he thereupon betook himself to hunting and had killed many wild Boars yet still found himself never the nearer at last Numerianus the Emperour being slain by the fraud of Aper his Father-in-law Diocletian slew Aper in the Council his name in English is a Boar and thereupon was elected Emperour 30. William Earl of Holland upon the death of Henry Lantgrave of Hassia and King of the Romans was chosen King in his stead after which he warred upon Frisia and subdued it when near unto a City there he light upon a Tomb adorned with great curiosity of Workmanship and asking who was intombed therein he was told by the Inhabitants that at present there was not any body interred therein but that by a secret Fate it was reserved for a certain King of the Romans The King having assured his new Conquest was marching out of Frisia and rode himself before with few of his Attendance to seek out a convenient place for the quartering of his Army when it chanced that his Horse breaking into the Ice overthrew him There were certain fugitive Frisons that lay hid in the reeds thereabouts who observing his misfortune brake out upon him and before any could come in to his assistance he was partly slain by them and partly choaked with his Helmet about him in
that City and all its Inhabitants and was more exactly obeyed in all his orders and commands than ever Monarch had the glory to be in his own Kingdom This most astonishing revolution in the City of Naples began upon Sunday the seventh of Iuly An. 1647. and ended with the death of Masaniello which was upon Iuly the 16. 1647 the tenth day from its beginning 3. The Lord Cromwel was born at Putney a Village in Surrey near the Thames-side Son to a Smith after whose decease his Mother was married to a Sheer-man This young Cromwel for the pregnancy of his wit was first entertained by Cardinal Wolsey and by him employed in many great Affairs The Cardinal falling the King that was Henry the Eighth took him to his service and finding his great abilities advanced him by degrees to these Dignities Master of the Kings Jewel-house and of the Kings Privy Council Secretary to the King and Master of the Rolls Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal made Lord Cromwel and Vicar General under the King over all the Spirituality created Earl of Essex and at last Lord High Chancellor of England 4. In the Reign of King Henry the Second one Nicholas Breakspear born at St. Albans or as others write at Langley in Hartfordshire being a Bond-man of that Abbey and therefore not allowed to be a Monk there went beyond Sea where he so profited in Learning that the Pope made him first Bishop of Alba and afterwards Cardinal and sent him as his Legate to the Norways where he reduced that Nation from Paganism to Christianity and returning back to Rome was chosen Pope by the name of Adrian the Fourth 5. The War betwixt the Chineses and Tartars began in the year 1206. which lasting 77 years at last the Tartars in the year 1288. having totally subdued all that mighty Empire extinguished the Imperial Family of the Sunga's and erected a new Royal Family which they called Iuena of which Tartarian Race nine Emperours by descent ruled the Kingdom of China for the space of 70 years in peace and quietness In this tract of time the Tartars declining from their ancient vigor and having their warlike Spirits softned by the pleasures and delights of the Country there was a contemptible person called Chu he was Servant to one of those that were deputed to offer Sacrifice to their Idols a Native of China and this man presumed to rebel against them At the first he acted the part of a Thief or High way man and being of a generous nature bold quick of hand and wit he gathered such a multitude in a short time that they made up the body of a great Army then deposing the person of a Thief he became a General set upon the Tartars and fought many Battels with them with such fortune and success that in the year 1368. he drove them quite out of the Empire of China receiving for so illustrious an action the whole Empire of China as a worthy reward of his Heroical Exploits It was he that first erected the Imperial Family of the Taminges and was the first Emperour of that Race stiling himself by the name of Hunguuâ which is the famous Warriour He placed his Court at Nanking near the great River of Kiang and having speedily ordered and established that Empire he made an irruption into Tartary it self and so followed the course of his Victories that he defeated them several times wasted their Territories and finally brought the Oriental Tartars to such streights as he forced them to lay down their Arms to pay Tribute and to beg an inglorious Peace 6. Sinan that great Bassa in the Court of Selymus the First was born of base Parentage as he being a child was sleeping in the shade he had his Genitals bitten off by a Sow The Turkish Officers which usually provided young Boys for the service of the Grand Signior being in Epirus for that was Sinans Country and hearing of this so extraordinary an Eunuch took him amongst others with them to the Court where under Mahomet the Great Bajazet the Second and his Son Selymus he so exceedingly thrived that he was made the chief Bassa of the Court and so well deserved it that he was accounted Selymus his right hand and was indeed the man to whose Valour especially the Turks owe their Kingdom of Egypt in which Kingdom then not fully setled he was also slain 7. Eumenes being a poor Carriers Son attained to such an ability in the Art of War that after the death of Alexander the Great under whom he served he seised on the Provinces of Cappadoâia and Paphlagonia and siding though a Stranger to Macedon with Olympias and the Blood Royal against the Greek Captains he vanquished and slew Craterus and divers times drove Antigonus afterwards Lord of Asia out of the field but being by his own Souldiers betrayed he was by them delivered to Antigonus and by him slain 8. When Alexander the Great had taken the City of Tyre he permitted Ephestion his chief Favourite to chuse whom he would to be King there Ephestion proffered it to him with whom he had lodged a rich and honourable person but he refused it as not touching the blood of their Kings in any degree Then being asked by Ephestion if he knew any of the Royal Lineage yet living he told him there was a wise and honest man remaining but that he was in extremity of poverty Ephestion went to him forthwith with the Royal Robes and sound him in a Garden lading water out of a pit for a little money and in ragged apparel Ephestion tells him the intent of his coming cloaths him in all the Royal Ornaments and brings him into the Forum where the people were convented and delivers him the Soveraignty over them The people chearfully accepted of a person that was so accidentally and wonderfully found out to rule over them His name was Abdolonymus or as others Ballonymus 9. Licungzus at first a common Thief then a Captain of a Troop of Robbers by degrees arrived to that force and power in China that he took all the Province of Honan subjected the Province of Xensi and gave Sigan the Metropolis of it as a prey to his Souldiers These and many other his fortunate Exploits caused him to take the name of King with the addition of Xungvan which sounds as much as Licungzus the prosperous and at last thinking himself secure of the Empire he took the name of Emperour upon him and stiled the Family wherein he thought to establish this Dignity Thienxunam as much as to say obedient to Heaven By which he endeavoured to perswade the Souldiers and people that it was by the disposition of the Heavens that he should reign He besieged Peking the Metropolis of all China and with his victorious Army he entred and took it An. 1644. and coming into the Palace sate him down in the Imperial Throne though it was observed in this first act
of Royalty he sate so totteringly as if even the Royal Chair it self would foretel the short durance of his felicity 10. Agilmond the Second King of the Lombards one morning went a hunting and as he was riding by a Fish-pond he espied seven children sprawling for life which one saith Paulus Diaconus it may be many Harlots had been delivered of and most barbarously thrown into the water The King amazed at this spectacle put the end of his Boar-spear or Hunting-pole amongst them one of the childrens hands fastned upon the Spear and the King softly drawing back his hand wafted the child to the shore This Boy he named Lamissus from Lama which in their language signifies a Fish-pond he was in the Kings Court carefully brought up where there appeared in him such tokens of vertue and courage that after the death of Agilmund he was by the Lombards chosen to succeed him in the Kingdom 11. Roger Waâden was at the first a poor Scholar of Oxford and the first step of his rising was to be a Chaplain in their Colledge of St. Maries from thence by degrees he got to be Dean of York and after this a higher step to be Treasurer of England and yet a higher after that upon the banishment of Thomas Arundel to be Archbishop of Canterbury he dyed in the ninth year of King Henry the Fourth 12. Francisco Pizarro who subdued the most potent and flourishing Kingdom of Peru and made it a member of the Spanish Empire was born at Trusiglio a Village in Navarre and by the poor Whore his Mother laid in the Church porch and so left to Gods Providence by whose direction there being none found that would give him the breast he was nourished for certain days by sucking a Sow At last one Gonsalles a Souldier acknowledged him for his Son put him to nurse and when he was somewhat grown set him to keep his Swine some of which being strayed the Boy durst not for fear return home but betook himself to his heels ran unto Sevil and there shipped himself for America where he attended Alphonso de Oreda in the discovery of the Countries beyond the Gulph of Vraba Balboa in his Voyage to the South Sea aâd Pedro de Avila in the Conquest of Panama Grown rich by these adventures he associated himself with Diego de Almagro and Fernando Luquez a rich Priest who betwixt them raised 220 Souldiers and in the year 1525. went to seek their fortunes on those Southern Seas which Balboa had before discovered After divers repulses at his landing and some hardships which he had endured Pizarro at the length took some of the Inhabitants of Peru of whom he learned the wealth of the Country and returning thereupon to Spain obtained the Kings Commission for the conquest of it excluding his Companions out of the Patent but taking in Almagro of his own accord Thus furnished he landed in Peru again at such time as the Wars grew hot betwixt the two Brethren for the Kingdom and taking part with the Faction of Guascar marched against Atabaliba whom he met with in the Plains of Caxamalca but rather prepared for a Parley than to sight a Battel Pizarro taking the advantage picked a quarrel with him and suddenly charged upon him with his Horse and Ordnance slaying his Guard without resistance and coming near the Kings person who was then carried on mens shoulders pulled him down by the cloaths and took him Prisoner with him he took as much gold as amounted to 80000 Castellans and as much silver as amounted to 7000 Marks every Mark weighing eight ounces of his Houshold Plate and in the spoil of Caxamalca almost infinite riches This with the Kings Ransom came to so great a sum that besides the fifth part which Pizarro sent to the King of Spain and that which he and his Brethren kept to themselves every Foot-man had 7200 Duckats and every Horse man twice as much for their part of the spoil besides what they had got in Plunder Pizarro in regard of so great service was made the first Viceroy of Peru and created Marquess of Anatilla 13. There was one Chinchilungus a Chinese born in the Province of Fokien he first served the Portugals in Macao then he served the Hollander in the Island Formosa where he was known to all strangers by the name of Iquon After this he became a Pirate and being of a quick and nimble wit he grew from this small and slender Fortune to such a height and power as he was held if not superiour yet equal to the Emperour of China For he had the Trade of India in his hand and he dealt with the Portugals in Macao with the Spaniards in the Philippines with the Hollanders in the Island Formosa and New Holland with the Iaponians and with all the Kings and Princes of the Eastern parts in all manner of rich Commodities He permitted none to transport the Wares of China but himself or his to whom he brought back the Riches and the Silver of Europe and the Iâdies For after he once rather extorted than obtained a pardon of the King of China for his Piracies he became so formidable and potent that he had no less than three thousand Ships oâ all which he was Lord and Master Not content with this Fortune he aspired privately to the Empire but knowing he should never be accepted with the Prefects and people so long as any of the Imperial Family of the Taminges were alive he hoped by the Tartars means to extinguish them wholly that done he resolved to display his Banners and Ensigns to the driving out of the Tartars which he knew would cause him to be well followed of the people The Tartars made him King Pingnan that is Pacifier of the South and many other Dignities and Offices of Trust they heaped upon him but all to illude him for they suspecting his power soon found means to make him a Prisoner in Peking though his Fleet was seised upon by his Brothers and Kindred 14. Agathocles was the Son of a Potter his childhood he spent in the filth of the clay his youth in intemperance and unchastity infamous in every respect and through the hatred of the Citizens and his own poverty he was forced to become a Robber upon the High-way soon after a Souldier and then a General but that too with infamy as one that married the Widow of Damascon the former General with whom before he had lived in Whoredom But having gained great riches by this Match twice he endeavoured to seise upon the Soveraignty of Syracuse and twice was repelled and at last forced into Exile He then joined with the Sicilians the Enemies of Syracuse and with them besieged it but through the Succours sent in by the Carthaginians it was stoutly defended against him at last he agreed with Hamilcar that he should depart and leave Syracuse to him It was done accordingly he entred Syracuse slew many of
that stood near him This young man will be the occasion that no man hereafter will resign a Dictatorship 7. When Sir Henry Wotton returned from his last Embassie into England at all those houses where he rested or lodged he left his Coat of Arms with this Inscription under them Henricus Wottonius Anglo-cantianus Thomae optimi viri filius natu minimus à Serenissimo Iacobo Primo Mag. Brit. Rege in Equestrem titulum adscitus ejusdemque ter ad Rempubâicam Venetam Legatus Ordinarius semel ad Confoederatorum Provinciarum Ordines in Iuliacensi Negotio bis ad Carolum Emanuel Subaudiae Ducem semel ad Vnitos Superiorie Germaniae Principes in Conventu Heilbrunensi postremò ad Archiducem Leopoldum Ducem Wittembergensem Civitates Imperiales Argentinam Vlmamque ipsum Romanorum Imperatorem Ferdinandum Secundum Legatus Extraordinarius tandem hoc didicit Animas fieri sapientiores quiescendo 8. Ramirus lived a Monk in a Monastery from whence upon the death of his Brother he was called by the Nobles and people of Arragon to succeed his Brother in the Kingdom the Pope also dispensed with his Vow and he had his allowance to accept of the Kingdom Ramirus therefore left the Monastery married a Wife of whom he had Daughter called Vrraca after which neither conjugal affection nor the desire of a Kingdom two of the strongest bonds amongst men were able to retain him but that he would return unto that Ecclesiastical humility which he had experienced in the Convent where he formerly had lived 9. The Parthians by civil discords had ejected Artabanus their King who endeavoured his Restauration to his Kingdom by the Arms of Iazates King of the Adiabeni The Parthians not only upon the account of an imminent War but moved also with other reasons repented that they had expelled Artabanus They sent therefore Ambassadors both to him and to Iazates giving them to understand that they would most willingly do what they did require them but that upon the expulsion of Artabanus they had set up Cynamus in his stead and having sworn Allegiance unto him as their King they durst not recede from their Oath Which when Cynamus understood he wrote to Artabanus and Iazates that they should come for he would resign up the Kingdom of Parthia to Artabanus When they were come Cynamus went forth to meet them adorned in Royal Robes and the Diadem upon his head assoon as he drew near to Artabanus dismounting from his Horse he thus spake When the Parthians had driven thee Artabanus from the Kingdom and were resolved to confer it on another at their intreaty I received it but so soon as I knew it was their desire to restore it to thee their true and lawful King and that the only hindrance of it was that they should do it without my consent I not only forbare to oppose them but as thou seest of mine own accord and without any other respect I restore it to thee And having so said he took the Diadem from his own head with his own hands he fitted it to that of Artabanus and freely returned to his former privacy 10. Albertus was a Dominick Fryer and for his great Learning sirnamed Magnus he was made Bishop of Ratisbone by Pope Alexander the Fourth but he freely left his Bishoprick and returned home again to Colen that he might retire himself and enjoy the greater quiet for reading and writing 11. In the year of our Lord 1179. and the Reign of King Henry the Second Richard de Lucy Lord Chief Justice of England resigned his Office and became a Canon in the Abbey of Westwood And in the Reign of King Henry III. upon the 29. of Iune An. 1276. Walter Maleclarke Bishop of Carlisle renounced the Pomp of the World and took upon him the Habit of a preaching Fryer 12. In a preliminary Discourse before the Monasticon Anglicanum we have an account of divers Kings in this our Island who for devotions sake left their Crowns and took upon them the Habit and Profession of Monks Such were Pertocus King of Cambria Constantinus King of Cornwal Sebby King of the East Saxons Offa King of the East Saxons Sigebert King of the East Angles Etheldredus King of the Mercians Kynred King of the Mercians Ceolwulphus King of the North Humbers and Edbricthus King of the North Humbers Whereupon one hath wrote these metrical Verses Nomina Sanctorum rutilant cum laude piorum Stemmate regali cum vestitu Monachali Qui Reges facti spreverunt culmina regni Electi Monachi sunt coeli munere digni 13. Prince Lewis the eldest Son of Charles King of Naples at the age of twenty one years and just when he should have been married to the youthful Princess of Majorica did suddenly at Barcellona put on the rough and severe Habit of the Franciscans The Queens and Princesses there met to solemnize the Marriage of his Sister Blanch with Iames King of Arragon employed their Rhetorick to disswade him from it but to no purpose he loved his Sackcloth more than their Silks and as Monsieur Mathieu alluding to the young Princess speaks of him lâât Roses to make a Conserve of Thorns 14. King Agrippa took the High Priesthood from Simon Canthara and gave it again to Ionathan the Son of Anani whom he esteemed more worthy than the other But Ionathan declared that he was not worthy of this Dignity and refused it saying O King I most willingly acknowledge the honour you are pleased to bestow upon me and know you offer me this Dignity of your fâee will notwithstanding which God judgeth me unworthy It sufficeth that I have once been invested with the sacred Habit for at that time I wore it with more holiness than I can now receive it at this present yet notwithstanding if it please you to know one that is more worthy of this honour than my self I âave a Brother who towards God and you is pure and innocent whom I dare recommend to you for a most fit man for that Dignity The King took great pleasure in these words and leaving Ionathan he bestowed the Priesthood on Mathias his Brother as Ionathan had desired and advised 15. Constantine the Third King of Scotland being wearied with the troubles of a publick life renounced his temporal Dignities and Kingdom and betook himself to a private life amongst the Culdees in St. Andrews with whom he spent his five last years and there dyed about the year 904. 16. Celestine the Fifth an Italian and foâmerly an Anchorite was chosen Pope was a man of pious simplicity though unskilful in the managâmânâ of Affairs this man was easily perswaded by his Cardinals that the employment he had was too great for his capacity so that he had thoughts of resigning and was furthered therein by the crafty device of Boniface who succeeded him For this man feigning himself to be an Angel spake through a Trunk
draught without taking his breath for that he fairly drank off his liquor and left no snuff behind him and after he had drank so very much he neither stammered in his speech nor unburdened his stomach by vomiting and how late soever he sate up at the Wine over-night he would be sure to relieve the Morning-watch and Sentinels For these rare qualities he was dubbed Knight by the sirname of Tricongius that is the three Gallon Knight 12. For the like quality C. Piso did first rise and afterwards was advanced to the Provostship of the City of Rome by the same Tiberius namely for that in his Court being now Emperour he sate two days and two nights drinking continually and never stirred foot from the table 13. In the time of William Rufus King of England there was one Roger a poor Priest serving a Cure in a Village near Caen in Normandy It chanced that Henry the Kings youngest Brother passing that way made some stay in the Village and being desirous to hear Mass this Roger then Curate was the man to say it which he dispatched with such celerity that the Souldiers who commonly love not long Masses commended him for it telling their Lord that there could not be found a fitter Priest for Men of War than he Whereupon Henry appointed him to follow him and when he came to be King preferred him to many great places and at last to be Chancellor of England and Bishop of Salisbury When King Stephen came to the Crown he held this man in as great account as his Predecessor King Henry had done and perhaps in greater He arrived to such wealth that he builded the Castles of Salisbury the Vies Sherburn Malmsbury and Newark to which there were no Structures comparable in the Kingdom He had also 40000 Marks in money which together with his Castles the King seised into his own hands upon displeasure 14. Claudius upon the rumour of C. Caligula's being slain was so extremely terrified and so doubtful and solicitous of his own safety that he slily crept forth of a Parlour at the Court wherein he then was and conveyed himself up into a Garret near thereabouts and there hid himself betwixt the Hangings that hung before the door Whiles he lurked close there a private Souldier chancing to run to and fro that way looking for plunder espied his feet and by earnest inquiry and asking who he was happened to take knowledge of him He drew him forth out of the place and when he for fear fell down humbly at his feet took hold of his knees to move his compassion saluted him Emperour From thence he immediately brought him to his Fellow-Souldiers who as yet stood wavering by them was he bestowed in a Litter and for that his own Servants were fled they by turns supported the Litter upon their shoulders and so he was brought into the Pretorian Camp all sad and amazed for fear pitied also by the multitude that met him upon the way as if some innocent had been haled to execution Being received within the Entrenchments he lodged in the Camp all night and in the morning the Souldiers swore Allegiance to him Thus was he unexpectedly made Emperour in the fiftieth year of his age 15. Regillianus was General in Illyricum and the Souldiers being ill-affected to Galienus the Emperour were busying themselves upon new designs It fortuned that many of them supped together and Valerianus a Tribune in his wine and mirth was asking Whence may we believe the name of Regillianus did first come A regno from reigning replied one then said all the Souldiers there present He may then be a King and thus upon the sole occasion of this one word spoken at all adventures he was fetched out of his Tent and saluted Emperour and behaved himself with great Gallantry against the Sarmatians 16. Tacitus the Emperour was dead and Florianus his Brother aspired to the Empire but while the Election was depending the Oriental Armies were resolved to have an Emperour of their own choice They were assembled together on purpose to pitch upon some one when the Tribunes as it was fit in that case advised them to chuse fortem clementem probum Imperatorem they catched at the word and suddenly cryed out Probus Augustus the Gods preserve thee so they clad Probus in Purple and other the Imperial Ornaments and proclaimed him Emperour 17. Pisistratus came this way to the chief Rule and sole Power in the City of Athens He shewed himself very affable and courteous to the Citizens and liberal where occasion required it so that he was looked upon as the sure refuge and Sanctuary of such as were oppressed with injury or poverty The Nobility held this course of his suspected and he was well aware thereof and therefore he bethought himself which way he might cajole the Nobility and procure a Guard about his own person to this purpose he gives himself several wounds and then all wounded and bloody comes into the Market-place tells the Citizens that these were the rewards of his goodness to them and theirs which he had now newly received at the hands of the men of power in the City as also that his life was in perpetual hazard unless they would take âome course to secure it unto whom alone he had devoted himself and life The people were moved with indignation they decreed him a Guard about his person by means of which he supprest the Nobility made himself the Tyrant of that City and oppressed the people 18. Phrynichus was chosen General of their Forces by the Athenians not because of any grace or favour he was in with them not for any Nobility in his descent nor that he had the reputation of a rich man for which reasons they had often preferred others but in a certain Tragedy having framed his Poem and Musick so much unto military motion that for this reason alone the whole Theatre cryed out that they would have him for their General supposing that he could not be without military skill who had composed a Poem that had in it a spirit not unfitted to the condition of men of War 19. Alfredus King of the West Saxons went out one day a hunting and passing by a certain Wood he heard as he supposed the cry of an infant from the top of a tree he diligently inquired of the Huntsmen what that was commanding one of them to climb the tree where in the top of it was found an Eagles Nest and therein a pretty sweet-fac'd Infant wrapt up in a Purple Mantle and upon each arm a Bracelet of Gold a sign of the Nobility of his Parents This Child the King carried with him caused him to be baptized and from the Nest wherein he was found he gave him the name of Nesting after he had given him noble Education he advanced him to the Dignity of an Earl CHAP. XI Of sundry Customs that were in use and force with
of Gerhardus Bacoldianus his Physician with whom he joyned a Gentleman of his Bed-chamber and at the end of twelve days finding by their relation that there could be no juggling in the business he gave her leave to return to her friends not without great admiration and princely gifts 3. The like Narration we have of Katherine Binder born in the Palatinate whom Iohn Casimir An. Dom. 1585. committed to the search of a Divine Statesman and two Doctors of Physick She is said to have fed only upon Air for the space of nine years and more the discourse whereof the above named Lentulus received from Fabritius and therewith the account of another Maid born in the Dukedom of Iuliers who being about the age of fourteen years was brought to Cullen and is certainly reported to have taken no kind of meat or drink by the space of at least three years 4. But saith Dr. Hakewel the strangest that I have met with in this kind is the History of Eve Fleigen out of Dutch translated into English and printed at London An. 1611. who being born at Meurs is said to have taken no kind of sustenance by the space of fourteen years together that is from the year of her age twenty two to thirty six and from the year of our Lord 1597. to 1611. and this we have confirmed by the testimony of the Magistrates of the Town of Meurs as also by the Minister who made tryal of her in his house thirteen days together by all the means he could devise but could detect no imposture Over the Picture of this Maid set in the Front of the Dutch Copy stand these Latine Verses Meursae haec quam cernis decies ter sexque peregit Annos bis septem prorsus non vescitur annis Nec potat sic sola sedit sic pallida vitam ' Ducit exigui se oblectat floribus horti Thus rendred in the English Copy This Maid of Meurs thirty and six years spent Fourteen of which she took no nourishment Thus pale and wan she sits sad and alone A Garden 's all she oves to look upon Vide Fabritium in cent 5. obs 34. p. 422. 5. Philip Melancthon wondred at Luther who being of a large bulk of body and so strong withal that yet he could live with so very little food For saith he I have seen him in the state of good health continue four days together without eating or drinking any thing at all and many days together to content himself with a little bread and one single Herring 6. I knew saith Poggius a man who lived for two years together without any food and he wrote this in the sixth year of the Popedom of Nicholas the Fifth he professes also to have read of a Girl who lived in the same manner for the space of twelve years in the Reign of the Emperour Lotharius An. Dom. 1322. 7. An. Dom. 1539. there lived in Scotland one Iohn Scot no way commended for his learning for he had none nor for his good qualities which were as few This man being overthrown in a Suit of Law and knowing himself unable to pay that wherein he was adjudged took Sanctuary in the Abbey of Halyrood house where out of discontent he abstained from all meat and drink by the space of 30 or 40 days together Fame having spread this abroad the King would have it put to tryal and to that effect shut him up in a private room within the Castle of Edenburgh whereunto no man had access He caused a little water and bread to be set by him which he was found not to have diminished in the end of thirty days and two Upon this he was dismissed and after a short time he went to Rome where he gave the like proof of his fasting to Pope Clement the Seventh from whence he went to Venice carrying with him a testimony of his long fasting under the Popes Seal and there also he gave the like proof thereof After long time returning into England he went up into the Pulpit in Pauls Church-yard where he gave forth many speeches against the Divorce of King Henry the Eighth from his Queen Katherine inveighing bitterly against him for his defection from the See of Rome whereupon he was thrust into prison where he continued fasting for the space of fifty days what his end was I read not 8. Hermolaus Barbarus saith there was a man at Rome that lived forty years only by sucking in of the Air he was a Priest and was all that time in health saith Iohnstons nat hist. cl 10. c. 2. p. 316. 9. Rondeletius saith he saw a Girl that to the tenth year of her age lived only upon Air and that she was afterwards married and had children Vid. Iohnst nat hist. clas 10. c. 2. p. 316. 10. Franciscus Citesius Physician to the King of France and the Cardinal Richelieu in his Opuscula hath a particular Treatise concerning Ione Balaam she was the Daughter of Iohn Balaam a Smith her Mothers name was Laurentia Chambela she was born in the City of Conflance lying upon the Borders of Limosin near the River Vien of a just stature according to her age somewhat rude of behaviour About the eleventh year of her age which was the thirteenth of the Calends of March An. 1599. she was seised with a continual Feaver accompanied with very bad Symptoms amongst the rest a continual Vomiting for twenty days together her Feaver somewhat remitting she grew speechless and so continued for the space of twenty four days After which her speech returned but full of raving and impertinence all motion and sense of the parts below the head began to grow dull and languish so that the Oesophagus it self the passage for meat and drink was resolved nor from thenceforth could the Girl be perswaded to take any food Yet almost six months after she recovered the use of her limbs only one Hip of which she is somewhat lame to this day only the inability to swallow remains whence she hath an extreme hatred to all sorts of meats and drink the parts of the belly are all contracted and clung together other parts of the body remaining in good plight her breasts large her paps indifferently swelling her arms and thighs fleshly her face somewhat round but swarthy her lips reddish her tongue somewhat contracted but her speech ready her hair long for her hair and nails and whole body grows No excrement proceeds from any part of her body and saving a small spittle and a few tears she has no purgation at her ears nostrils or by sweat the skin of her whole body to the touch is cold and dry nor is she made hot by any work except in the arm-pits and some places adjoyning to the heart though she is wholly employed in running to buy provisions sweeping of the house spinning and such like This Maid continued thus fasting for the space of almost
number of poor people on whom the new Pope having opened that Gate bestoweth his fatherly benediction and remitteth to them all their sins Then striketh he continually on the same door with a golden Mallet which whilst he is doing workmen without break it open The chips stones dust and dirt which fall from the Gate while it is opening are gathered and preserved as choicest Reliques and the golden Mallet is usually given to that Cardinal who is in most grace with the new Pope 4. The Tartarians when they chuse and elect their Prince they meet together in a large field and then they set him in a stately Throne richly gilded placed in the view of all that are then present and falling down before him they all proclaim after this sort and with one consent We beseech we will and command that thou bear rule over us Then their new King which is chosen answereth If you will have this done of me it is necessary that you be ready to do all that I shall command you when I call to come and wheresoever I send to go and to commit and put the whole Rule into our hands When they have answered We be ready he saith again Therefore my Word shall be my Sword then all the people clap their hands with great rejoicing Then the Noble-men take him from the Regal Seat and make him to sit softly upon a Cushion or Carpet upon the ground saying thus Look up and acknowledge God and look downward to the Cushion whereon thou fittest If thou dost govern and rule well thou shalt have all things according to thy desire but if thou dost ill thou shalt be brought so low and so bare that this small Cushion whereon thou sittest shall not be left thee At which saying they adjoin unto him his dearest and best beloved Wife and lifting them both up with the Cushion they salute them as their Emperour and Head 5. When the King of the Cumbae and Capi a people in Guinea dies his Son Brother or his next Kinsman succeeds but before he is admitted to the exercise of full Regality they bind him at his house and lead him bound to the Palace there they whip him after which he is loosed then they attire and lead him to the Judgment-seat where the eldest Counsellor makes an Oration concerning his Right and Duty which ended he puts a Hatchet into his hand which they use in Executions and after this all acknowledge their subjection to him 6. The Sâminaries or Alberges of Malta are seven France in general Auvergne Provence Castile Arragon Italy and Germany over every one of which they have a grand Prior. An eighth Seminary they had in England till the suppression of it by King Henry the Eighth yet they have one to whom they give the Title They have sixteen amongst them of great Authority called the great Crosses The Election of their Master is performed on this manner The several Seminaries nominate two Knights and two also are nominated for the English These sixteen from amongst themselves chuse eight these eight chuse a Knight a Priest and a Fryer-servant and they out of the sixteen great Crosses elect the great Master The great Master being thus chosen is stiled the most Illustrious and most Reverend Prince the Lord Fryer N. N. great Master of the Hospital of St. Iohn of Ierusalem Prince of Malta Gauls and Gosa 7. The Electors of the Emperour of Germany are six the Archbishops of Mentz Colen and Triers the Count Palatine of the Rhine the Duke of Saxony and the Marquess of Brandânburg upon equality of Voices the King of Bohemia comes in for a seventh The Election is usually celebrated at Frankford on the Main where the Electors meet on the day appointed by the Archbishop of Mentz as Chancellor of the Empire Being met they go into St. Bartholomews Church where after high Mass is said the three spiritual Electors laying their hands upon their breasts and the temporal Princes on the Book make Oath to chuse a fit temporal Head for the people of Christendom If in thirty days they are not agreed then must they have no other allowance but of bread and water nor may they go out of the City till necessity compel them to agree Being at last resolved on and declared the Prince so elected is presently saluted by the Title of King of the Romans not usually that of Emperour till he have received the Crown at the hands of the Pope CHAP. XXV Of the Games and Plays of sundry Nations by whom they were instituted and when THE troubles and cares of humane life are so many and so great that the spirit would fail under the weight and burden of them should there not be something of mirthful and pleasant found out wherewith to counterbalance and take off the Taedium of them All Nations therefore have thought it meet to make necessary provision of certain periodical Solemnities of Joy on purpose to recreate and renew the decayed and almost exhausted vigour of the mind and to sweeten the acerbities of the painful pilgrimage of their present life 1. The Nemaean Games were so called from Nemea where Hercules killed the dreadful Lion which annoyed the whole Country In honour of which noble act were instituted in time following the Games aforesaid which continued of great fame in Greece for many Ages The Exercises were Running with swift horses Whorlbats Running on foot Quoiting Wrastling Darting and Shooting celebrated first in honour of Opheltes afterwards by Hercules in honour of Iupiter the Crown at first was a Branch of Olive afterwards a Garland of Ivy. 2. The Olympick Games were instituted by Hercules in honour of Iupiter and celebrated on the Plains of the City Olympia in the Country of Elis A. M. 2757. The Exercises in them were for the most part bodily as running in Chariots running on Foot Wrastling fighting with Whorlebats and the like But so that there repaired thither also Orators Poets and Musicians and all that thought themselves excellent in any quality to make tryal of their several abilitiââ The rewards given the Victor were only Garlands of Palm or such slight remembrances and yet the Greeks no less esteemed that small sign of Conquest than the Romans did their most magnificent Triumphs Those who were Conquerors herein being met by the principal men of the City in which or under which they lived and a passage broken in the main Walls thereof for their reception Crotona a City of the higher Calabria was once so famous for this that one year all the Victors in these Games were of that City They were celebrated once in five years he who had been Victor the third time had his Statue erected agreeable to his own features and proportion which the Greeks call Icones 3. In the Isthmus near the City of Corinth were celebrated yearly the Isthmian Games ordained by Theseus in the honour of Neptune in imitation of the
about with a stony bark CHAP. IV. Of such persons as have made their entrance into the World in a different manner from the rest of mankind MIlle modis morimur uno tantum nascimur saith Tully we die a thousand ways but we are born but one But certainly as there is a marvellous diversity of accidents through which Man arrives to his last end So also curious Nature hath in a various manner sported her self in the birth of some And howsoever she brings most of us into the World as it were in a common Road yet hath she also her by-paths and ever and anon singles out some whom she will have to be her Heteroclites and so many exceptions from the general rule 1. Zoroastres was the only Man that ever we could hear of that laughed the same day wherein he was born his brain also did so evidently pant and beat that it would bear up their hands that laid them upon his head An evident presage saith Pliny of the great Learning which he afterwards attained unto 2. M. Tullius Cicero is said to have been brought into the World by his Mother Helvia upon the third of the Nones of Ianuary without any of those pains that are usual in child-bearing 3. Such as were born into the World with their feet forward the Latines were wont to call Agrippae and Agripina saith Pliny hath left in writing that her Son Nero the late Emperour who all the time of his Reign was a very enemy to mankind was born with his feet forwards 4. Some children are born into the World with Teeth as M. Curius who thereupon was sirnamed Dentatus and Cn. Papyrius Carbo both of them great Men and right honourable Personages In Women it was look'd upon as of ill presage especially in the days of the Kings of Rome for when Valeria was born toothed the Soothsayers being consulted answered that look into what City she was carried to Nurse she should be the cause of the ruine and subversion of it Whereupon she was conveyed to Suessa Pomeria a City at that time most flourishing in Wealth and Riches and it proved most true in the end for that City was utterly destroyed 5. Some are cut out of their Mothers Womb such was Scipio Affricanus the former so also the first of those who had the sirname of Caesar thus saith Schenckius was that Manilius born who entred Carthage with an Army and so saith Heylen was that Mackduffe Earl of Fife who slew Mackbeth the usurping King of Scotlaâd and so Edward the Sixth of England 6. Anno 959. Buchardus Earl of Lintzgow Buchorn and Monfort a person of great bounty to the Poor chosen Abbot of Sangal and confirmed therein by Otho the Great was vulgarly call'd unborn because he was cut out of his Mothers Womb. 7. Gebhardus the Son of Otho Earl of Bregentz was cut out of his Mothers Womb and was consecrated Bishop of Conslantia Anno 1001. 8. I saw saith Horatius Augenius a poor Woman of a âleshy and good habit of body who for nine months had an exulceration of the Ventricle and for twenty days space vomited up again all that she eat or drank as soon as she had taken it of this Disease she died and dissecting her womb we took out thence a living boy who by my direction had the name of Fortunatus given him at his Baptism and he is yet alive 9. I my self saith Cornelius Gemma have cut out of the Womb six living Children from six several persons 10. Amongst many strange examples appearing upon record in Chronicles we read of a Child in Saguntum that very year wherein it was forced and razed by Hanibal which so soon as it was come forth of the Mothers Womb presently returned into it again 11. Iohannes Dubravius hath observ'd of Lewis the Second King of Hungary and Bohemia that there were four things wherein he was over hasty That he became great in a very small time that he had a beard too soon that he had white hairs before he was past seventeen years of age and that he was over forward in his birth for he came into the World without any of that skin which is call'd Epidermis which yet he soon after got the Physiâians lending their assistance to that which Nature had not time to finish he died in the 21. of his Age Anno 1526. August the 29. 12. When Spinola besieg'd the City of Bergopsoma a Woman who was near her count going out to draw water was taken off in the middle by a Cannon-bullet so that the lower part of her feâl into the water such as were by and beheld that misfortune ran to her and saw there a child moving it self in the bowels of the Mother they drew it forth and carried it into the Tents of Don Cordua kept it with all care being afterwards brought thence to Antwerp the Infanta Isabella caused it to be baptiz'd and gave it the name of Albertuâ Ambrosius one of her Father's Captains 13. Anno 1647. Iacobus Egh in the City of Sarda in Bâlgia had a Bull which he fed tying him in a Close near his house but provok'd by the boys he brake his bonds and ran to the Cows the Herdsman endeavoured with his staff to return him to his former place the bull being incens'd with his blows ran upon him and with his horns bore him to the ground his Wife being now in the last month of her count seeing the danger of her Husband ran in to his assistance the bull with his horns hoisted her up into the Air the height of one story and tore the belly of the woman from the wound in her belly forthwith came the birth with its secundine and was thrown at some distance upon a soft place was carried home diligently look'd after by a Midwife and upon the first of September baptiz'd had his Fathers name given him and is yet alive the Man liv'd 36. hours the woman but 4. the bull was slain the day after by the command of the Magistrates 14. Gorgias a gallant Man of Epirus slipt from the Womb in the Funerals of his Mother and by his unexpected crying caused them to stand who carried the Bier affording thereby a new spectaâle to his Country having his birth and cradle in the Cossin of his Parent In one and the same moment a dead woman was deliver'd and the other was carried to the Grave before he was born 15. Fnâcho Arista the first King of Navarr being dead Garsias his Son succeeded who being one day in the Village of Larumbe was surprized ây some Moorish Robbers assaulted and slain they wounded Vrracha his Queen in the Belly with a Lance the Thieves put to flight the Queen at the wound was deliver'd of a Son and died the child to all Mens wonder was safe and was nam'd Sancius Garsia he was well educated by a noble person prov'd a gallant Man and
somewhat black and that of his left was grey 9. Olo the Son of Syward King of Norway by the Sister of Harold King of the Danes had so truculent an Aspect that what others did with Weapons that did he with his Eye upon his Enemies frighting the most valiant amongst them with the brandishes of his Eye 10. Apollonides tells that in Scythia there are a sort of Women which are call'd Bythiae that these have two sights in each Eye and that with the Eye they kill as many as they look upon when they are throughly angry 11. Theodorus Beza as was observ'd in him by those of his Family had Eyes of such a brightness that in the night time when it was dark they sent out such a light as form'd an outward Circle of it about the rounds of his Eyes 12. Mamertinus in his Panegyrick Orations saith thus of Iulian the Emperour while he warr'd upon the Barbarians Old men saith he have seen the Emperour not without astonishment pass a long life under the weight of Arms they have beheld large and frequent sweats trickle from his gallant Neck and in the midst of that horror of dust which had loaded both his Hair and Beard they saw his Eyes shining with a Star-like light 13. The Soldiers of Aquileia by a private sally set upon Attila being at that time attended with a small company they knew not then that Attila was there but they afterwards confess'd that nothing was so great a terrour to them as those fiery sparkles that seemed to break from his Eyes when he look'd upon them in the fury of the sight 14. It may seem incredible that there should be found a Nation that are born with one Eye alone And yet St. Augustine seems not to doubt of it but saith That he himself did behold such persons I was now saith he Bishop of Hippo when accompanied with certain of the Servants of Christ I went as far as Aethiopia that I might preach the holy Gospel of Christ to that people and in the lower parts of Aethiopia we saw men that had but one Eye and that placed in the midst of their Foreheads 15. Iulio de Este bad such a peculiar sweetness and alluring force in his Eyes that Cardinal Hypolito de Este his own Brother caused them to be put out because he had observed that they had been overpleasing to his Mistress 16. Maximus the Sophist a great Magician and of whom it was that Iulian the Emperour learn'd Magick at Ephesus Of this man it is reported that the Apples of his Eyes were voluble and turning and the vigor and agility of his swift and ready wit did seem to shine out of his Eyes whether he was seen or heard both ways he strangely affected such as had conversation with him while they were neither able to bear the sparkling motion of his Eyes nor the course and torrrent of his Speech so that even amongst eloquent persons and such as were improv'd by long practice and experience there was not one found that did dare to oppose him when he had conference with any of them 17. Edward the First King of England is describ'd by Polydor Virgil to be a Prince of a beautiful countenance his Eyes were inclining to black which when he was inflamed with anger would appear of a reddish colour and sparks of fire seemed to fly out of them CHAP. XVII Of the Face and Visage and admirable Beauty plac'd therein both in Men and Women THe Ancieâts were so great admirers of Beauty that whereas Gorgon had such a loveliness imprinted upon her Face that she ravish'd the Eyes of her Spectators with it and made them stand as men amazed and astonished They hereupon fain'd in their Fable that she convertted Men into Stone with the sight of her The barbarous Nations had also such veneration for it that they thought no Man capable of any extraordinary action unless his person was thus digniâied by Nature And further the accidental meeting of a beautiful person was held as a special passage of some future good whereas the sight of one deformed was reputed a most unlucky Omen Thus Beauty hath found its favourers amongst all sorts of persons it hath done so too in all places not excepting such as are the very Theatre of Blood and Death For 1. Parthenopaeus one of the seven Princes of the Argives was so exceeding beautiful that when he was in Battel if his Helmet was up no man would offer to hurt him or to strike at him 2. Tenidates the Eunuch was the most beautiful of all the Youth in Asia when Artaxerxes King of Persia heard that he was dead he commanded by his Edict that all Asia should mourn for him and he himself was difficultly comforted for his death 3. Antinous of Claudiopolis in Bythinia was a young Man exâeedingly dâar to Adrian the Emperour for the perfection of his Beauty so that when he was dead the Emperour in honour of him built a Temple at Mantinea and another at Ierusalem he also built a City near the River Nilus and call'd it by his name he caus'd his Coyn too to be stamp'd with his Essigies 4. Alcibiades the Athenian was a person of incomparable Beauty and which is remarkable the loveliness of his form continued constant to him both in his Youth Manhood and Age It seldom falls out that the Autumn of a Man should remain âlourishing as his Spring a thing which was peculiar to him with few others through the excellent temper of his constitution 5. Xerxes Army which he lead to Thermopylae against the Grecians is computed by Herodotus to amount to the number of five hundred twenty eight Myriad three thousand and twenty eight fighting men amongst all which almost incredible number of Mortals there was none found who could compare with Xerxes himself for extraordinary handsomeness in person or elevated Stature of Body nor any who in respect of Majestick port and meen seemed more worthy of that command than he 6. Dometrius Poliorcetes Son of Antigonus King of Asia was tall of Stature and of that excellent and wonderful Beauty in his Face that no Painter or Sratuary was able to express the singugar Graces of it there was Beauty and Gravity Terror And amiableness so intermingled a young and fierce Aspect was so happily confounded with an almost invincible heroick and kingly Majesty that he was the admiration of all strangers and was followed wheresoever he went on purpose to behold 7. Maximinus the younger was a most beautiful Prince In the Letter of Maximinus the Father to the Senate concerning him is thus written I have suffered my Son Maximinus to be saluted Emperour as in respect of the natural affection I bear him So also that the people of Rome and the Honourable Senate may swear they never had a more beautiful Emperour His Face had such Beauty in it that when it
the saddle and left a wound upon the back of the Horse The Mahometans observing that terrible blow provoked him no farther but departed as they came The Almain without mending his pace came up safely to the rest of the Army 26. Iohn Courcy Baron of Stoke Courcy in Somersetshire the first Englishman that subdued Vlster in Ireland and deservedly was made Earl of it he was afterwards surprised by Hugh Lacy corrivaâ to his title sent over into England and by King Iohn imprisoned in the Tower of London A French Castle being in controversie was to have the title thereof tryed by combat the Kings of England and France beholding it Courcy being a lean lank body with staring eyes is sent for out of the Tower to undertake the Frenchman and because enfeebled with long durance a large bill of Fare was allowed him to recruit his strength The Monsieur hearing how much he had eat and drank and guessing his courage by his stomach or rather stomach by his appetite took him for a Cannibal who would devour him at the last course and so he declined the Combat Afterwards the two Kings desirous to see some proof of Courcy's strength caused a steel Helmet to be laid on a block before him Courcy looking about him with a grim countenance as if he intended to cut with his eyes as well as with his arms sundred the Helmet at one blow striking his Sword so deep into the wood that none but himself could pull it out again Being demanded the cause why he looked so sternly Had I said he fail'd of my design I would have killed the Kings and all in the place Words well spoken because well taken all persons present being then highly in good humour He died in France anno Dom. 1210. 27. Polydamus the Son of Nicias born at Scotussa in Thessalia was the tallest and greatest man of that age his strength was accordingly for he slew a Lion in the Mount Olympus though unarm'd he singled out the biggest and fiercest Bull from a whole Herd took hold of him by one of his hinder feet and notwithstanding all his struggling to get from him he held him with that strength that he left his hoof in his hand being afterwards in a Cave under a Rock the earth above began to fall and when all the rest of his company fled for fear he alone there remain'd as supposing he was able with his Arms to support all those ruines which were coming upon him but this his presumption cost him his life for he was there crush'd to death 28. Ericus the second King of Denmark was a person of huge Stature and equal strength he would throw a Stone or a Javelin as he sate down with much greater force than another that stood as he sate he would struggle with two men and catching one betwixt his knees would there hold him till he had drawn the other to him and then he would hold them both till he had bound them He also would take a rope by both the ends of it and holding it thus in his hands sitting he gave the other part of it to four strong men to pull against him but while they could not move him from his seat he would give them such girds now with the right and then with the left hand that either they were forced to relinquish their hold or else notwithstanding all they could do to the contrary he would draw them all to the feat where he sate 29. The Emperour Tiberius had the joynts of his Fingers so âirm and strongly compacted that he could thrust his Finger through a green and unripe Apple and could give a âillip with that force that thereby he would break the head of a lusty man CHAP. XXV Of the marvelous fruitfulness of some and what number of their descendants they have liv'd to see also of superfoetation IN the front of this Discourse it will not be amiss to revive the memory of a Roman Matron in whom there were so many wonders concentred that it would almost be no less to forget her Ausonius calls her Callicrate and thus Epitapheth for her as in her own person Viginti atque novem genitrici Callicrateae Nullius Sexus mors mihi visa fuit Sed centum quinque explevi bene messibus annos Intremulam baculo non subeunte manum Twenty nine birth 's Callicrate I told And of both Sexes saw none sent to grave I was an hundred and five Summers old Yet stay from staff my hand did never crave A rare instance which yet in the two former respects you will find surpass'd in what follows 1. There lyes a Woman bury'd in the Church at Dunstable who as her Epitaph testifies bore at three several times three Children at a Birth and five at a Birth two other times 2. Elionora Salviata the Wife of Bartholomew Frescobald a Citizen of Florence was delivered of fifty and two Children never less than three at a Birth 3. One of the Maid-servants of Augustus the Emperour was delivered of five Children at a Birth the Mother together with her Children were bury'd in the Laurentine way with an Inscription upon them by the order of Augustus relating the same 4. Also Serapia a Woman of Alexandria brought forth five Children at one Birth saith Coelius 5. Anno 1553. The Wife of Iohn Gissinger a Tigurine was delivered of Twins and before the year was out brought at once five more three Sons and two Daughters 6. Here is at Bononia one Iulius Seutinarius yet living and is also a fruitful Citizen himself he came in the World with six Births and was himself the seventh his Mother was the Sister of D. Florianus de Dulphis my Kinsman saith Carpus 7. Thomas Fazel writes that Iane Pancica who in his time was marryed to Bernard a Sicilian of the City of Agrigentum was so fruitful that in thirty Childbirths she was delivered of seventy and three Children which saith he should not seem incredible seeing Aristotle affirms that one Woman at four Births brought forth twenty Children at every one âive 8. There is a famous story of the beginning of the Noble Race of the Welfs which is this Irmentrudes the Wife of Isenbard Earl of Altorf had unadvisedly accus'd of Adultery a Woman that had three Children at one Birth being not able to believe that one man could at one time get so many Children adding with all that she deserv'd to be sow'd up in a Sack and thrown into the River and accusing her in that regard to the Earl her Husband It hapned that the next year the Countess felt her self with Child and the Earl being from home she was brought to Bed of twelve Male-children but all of them very little She fearing the reproach of Adultery whereof yet she was not guilty commanded that eleven of them should be taken and cast into a River not far from the House
Others laid themselves backwards on their running Horses and taking their tails put them in their mouths and yet forgot not their aim in shooting Some after every shot drew out their Swords and flourished them about their heads and again sheathed them Others sitting betwixt three Swords on their right and as many on the left thinly cloathed that without geart care every motion would make way for death yet before and behind them touched the Mark. One stood upon two Horses running very swiftly his feet loose and shot also at once three Arrows before and again three behind him Another sitting on a Horse neither bridled nor sadled as he came at every Mark arose and stood upon his feet and on both hands hitting the Mark sat down again three times A third sitting on the bare Horse when he came to the Mark lay upon his back and lifted up his leg and yet missed not his shoot One of them was kill'd with a fall and two sore wounded in these their feats of activity All this is from Baumgustens relation who was an eye-witness thereof 10. Bemoine in an accident of Civil Wars in Gia laff came ro the King of Portugal for aid with his followers amongst whom some were of such admirable dexterity and nimbleness of body that they would leap upon a Horse as he gallopped and would stand upright in the Saddle when he ran fastest and turn themselves about and suddenly sit down and in the same race would take up stones laid in order upon the ground and leap down and up at pleasure CHAP. XXVII Of the extraordinary swiftness and footmanship of some Men. THe news of the overthrow of King Perseus by L. Paulus Aemylius is said to be brought from Macedonia to Rome in a day but then it is suspected to be performed by the ministration of Spirits who free from the burden of a body may well be the quicker in their intelligence We here have an account of some such who may seem to have divested themselves of flesh and almost to contend with Spirits themselves in the quickness of their conveyance of themselves from place to place 1. Philippides being sent by the Athenians to Sparta to implore their assistance in the Persian War in the space of two days ran one thousand two hundred and sixty furlongs that is one hundred fifty seven Roman miles and a half 2. Euchidas was sent by the same Athenians to Delphos to desire some of the holy Fire from thence he went and return'd in one and the same day having measured 1000 furlongs that is 125 Roman miles 3. When Fonteius and Vipsanus were Consuls there was a Boy of but nine years of age Martial calls him Addas who within the compass of one day ran 75 miles outright 4. But that amazes me saith Lipsius which Pliny sets down of Philonides the Courier or furlongs that he dispatch'd in nine hours of the day 1200 furlongs even as far as Scycione to Elis and returned from thence by the third hour of the night And the same Pliny speaks of it as a known thing We know those now a-days saith he who will dispatch 160 miles in the Cirque upon a wager 5. There was one Philippus a young man a Soldier and one of the Guard to Alexander the Great who on foot and arm'd and with his weapons in his hand did attend the King for 500 furlongs as he rode in his Charriot Lysimachus often profer'd him his Horse but he would not accept him I wonder not at the space he measured as that he perform'd it under such a weight of arms 6. King the Henry Fifth of England was so swift in running that he with two of his Lords without Bow or other Engine would take a wild Buck or Doe in a large Park 7. Harold The Son of Canutus the Second succeeded his Father in the Kingdom of England he was sirnamed Harefoot because he ran as swift as a Hare 7. Ethus King of the Scots was of that swiftness that he almost reached that of Stags and Grey-hounds he was therefore vulgarly call'd Alipes wing'd-foot though otherwise unâ it for Government cowardly and a slave of pleasure 9. Starchaterus the Suecian was a valiant Giant excelling in strength of body and of incredible swiftness of foot so that in the compass of one day he ran out of the upper Suecia into Denmark a journey which other men could hardly perform in the compass of twelve days though on horseback 10. The Piechi are a sort of Footmen who attend upon the Turkish Emperour and when there is occasion are dispatch'd hither and thither with his Orders or other Messages They run with such admirable swiftness that with a little Polaxe and a Viol of sweet Waters in their hands they will run from Constantinople to Hadrianople in a day and a night that is about 160 Roman miles 11. Luponus a Spaniard was of that strength and swiftness that with a Ram laid on his shoulder he equall'd any other in the Race that was to be found in his time 12. Under the Emperour Leo who succeeded Marcian there was a Greek named Indacus a valiant man and of a wonderful footmanship he would run faster than any other of the Athenian or Spartan Footmen before mentioned One might see him at parting but he vanished presently like lightning seeming as if he flew over Mountains and steep places rather than run he could ride more way in one day without being weary than the best Post could have done with so many Horses of release as he could take without staying in any place when he had made in a day much more way than a Post could do with all his speed the next day he return'd to the place from whence he departed the day before and went again from thence the next day for some other place and never left running nor could stay long in any place 13. Iustin tells how the Daughter of Gargoris King of the Curetes having suffer'd her self to be defil'd was delivered of a Son call'd Habides whom the Grand-father desirous to hide his Daughters shame caus'd to be expos'd and in a solitary place left to the mercy of the wild Beasts but an Hind brought him up tenderly as if he had been a Fawn of her own so that being grown somewhat great he would run swiftly like the Stags with which he leap'd and skip'd in the Mountains Finally he was taken in a snare presented to Gargoris and by peculiar marks upon his body known and owned by him to be the Son of his Daughter who admiring the strange way of preservation left the Crown to him as his Successor 12. Polymnestor a Boy of Milesia was set out by his Mother to keep Goats under a Master who was the owner of them while he was in this imployment he pursu'd a Hare in sport overtook and catch'd her which known he was by his Master
all the rest of his body so that nothing but his face did appear without it He died in the fifty fifth of his age when he had reigned thirty tree years excelling all the Kings his Predecessours for humanity and easiness of access 4. Sanctius King of Spain Son of Ranimirus carried such a heap of fat that thence he was called Crassus being now grown a burden to himself and having left almost nothing untried to be quit of it At length by the advice of Garsia King of Navarre he made peace with Miramoline King of Corduba went over to him was honourably receiv'd and in his Court was cured by an herb prescribed by the Physicians of that King 5. Gabriel Fallopius tells that he saw a man who being extremely fat his skin was so thickened that he lost all feeling by reason of the over impaction of the Nerves thereby 6. Philetas of Coos was an excellent Critick and a very good Poet in the time of Alexander the Great but withal he had a body of that exceeding leanness and lightness that he commonly wore shooes of Lead and carried Lead about him lest at some time or other he should be blown away with the wind 7. Ptolomaeus Euergetes the seventh King of Aegypt by reason of his sensuality and luxurious life was grown saith Possidonius to a vast bulk his Belly was swollen with fat his waste so thick that scarce could any man compass it with both his arms he never came out of his Palace on foot but he always lean'd upon a staff His Son Alexander who killed his Mother was much fatter than he so that he was not able to walk unless he supported himself with two Crutches 8. Agatharcides tells of Magan who reigned fifty years in Cyrene that living in peace and flowing in luxury he grew to a prodigious corpulency in his latter years insomuch that at last he was suffocated with his own fat which he had gained in part by his idleness and sloth and partly by his Epicurism and excessive gluttony 9. Panaretus the Scholar of Arcecilaus the Philosopher was in great estimation with Ptolomaeus Euergetes and retain'd by him with an annual stipend of twelve Talents It 's said of this man he was exceeding lean and slender notwithstanding which he never had any occasion to consult any Physician but passed his whole life in a most entire and perfect health 10. Cynesias was called by Aristophanes and others Philyrinus because he girt himself round within boards of the wood Philyra and that for this reason lest through his exceeding talness and slenderness he should break in the waste 11 I have seen a young Englishman who was carried throughout all Italy and suffered not himself to be seen without the payment of money he was of that monstrous both fatness and thickness that the Duke of Mantua and Montferat commanded his picture to be drawn to the life and naked as of a thing altogether extraordinary 12. Vitus a Matera was a learned Philosopher and Divine but so fat that he was not able to get up a pair of stairs he breathed with great difficulty nor could he sleep lying along without present danger of suffocation All this is well known to most of the Students in Naples 13. Alphonsus Avalus being dead his body was opened and the carcase taken care of by Physicians and dried as much as might be with salt and sand and other things yet for all this the fat of his body ran through his Chest of Lead whereinto he was put and larded the stones of the Vault upon which it stood 14. Anno 1520. there was a Noble Man born in Diethmarsia but living sometime in the City of Stockholm in Sueden this man was sent to prison by the command of Christierne the Second King of Denmark when he came to the prison door such was his extreme corpulency that they who conducted him were not able to thrust him in at it The Guard that went to convey him thither were to hasten back to assist in the torturing of some other persons so that being extreme angry to be thus delayed they thrust him aside into a corner thereabouts and by this means the man escaped being put into prison as was intended 15. Pope Leo the tenth of that name had so mighty a Belly and was so extremely corpulent that to this very day his fatness is proverbial in Rome so that when they would of a man that is extraordinary well fed they use to say of him that he is as fat as Pope Leo. CHAP. XXX Of the Longaevity and length of life in some persons HE who hath but dipped into Anatomy can easily apprehend that the life of man hangs upon very tender filaments considering this with the great variety of diseases that lie in ambush ready to surprise us and the multitude of accidents that we are otherwise daily liable unto it is not the least of wonders that any man should have his life drawn out but to a moderate space Sunt quos saliva crassior male lapsa per fauces subiââ strangulaverit saith Seneca Their very spittle has ended them so little is sufficient to thrust us out of this earthly tenement the nearer the felicity of them that âollow 1. There is a Memorial entred upon the wall of the Cathedral of Peterborough for one who being Sexton thereof interred two Queens therein Katharine Dowager and Mary of Scotland more than fifty years interceding betwixt their several sepultures This vivacious Sexton also buried two Generations or the people in that place twice over The instance of his long life is alledged by such who maintain that the smelling to perfect mould made of mens consumed bodies is a preservative of life 2. Richaâd Chamond Esquire receiv'd at God's hand an extraordinary favour of long life in serving in the office of a Justice of Peace almost sixty years he saw above âifty several Judges of the Western Circuit was Uncle and great Uncle to three hundred at the least and saw his youngest child above forty years of age 3. Garsias Arâtinus lived to a hundred and four years in a continued state of good health and deceased without being seised with any apparent disease only perceiving his strength somewhat weakened Thus writes Petrarch of him to whom Garcias was great Grandâather by the Father's side 4. A while since in Herefordshire at their Maygaââes saith my Lord of S. Albans there was a Morrice Dance of eight men whose years put together made up eight hundred that which was wanting of an hundred in some superabounding in others 5. I have been credibly inform'd that William Pawlet Marquess of Winchester and Lord Treasurer of England twenty years togâther who died in the tenth year of Queen Elizabeth was born in the last year of Henry the Sixth he lived in all an hundred and six years and three quarters and odd days during the
Pulpit where he Pray'd and Preach'd to us about an hour and a half his Text was Seek ye the Kingdom of God and all things shall be added unto you In my poor judgement he made an excellent good Sermon and went clearly through without the help of any Notes After Sermon I went with him to his house where I propos'd these several following Questions to him Whether it was true the Book reported of him concerning the Hair whether or no he had a new set of Teeth come Whether or no his Eye-sight ever fail'd him And whether in any measure he found his Strength renew'd unto him He answer'd me distinctly to all these and told me he understood the Newsbook reported his Hair to become a dark brown again but that is false he took his Cap off and shew'd me it It is come again like a Childs but rather flaxen than either brown or grey For his Teeth he had three come within these two years not yet to their perfection while he bred them he was very ill Forty years since he could not read the biggest print without Spectacles and now he blâsseth God there is no print so small no written hand so small but he can read it without them For his strength he think himself as strong now as he hath been these twenty years Not long since he walked to Alnwick to dinner and back again six North Country miles He is now one hundred and ten years of age and ever since lâst May a hearty body very chearfulâ and stoops very much he had five Children after he was eighty years of years four of them lusty Lasses now living with him the other dy'd lately his Wife yet hardly fifty years of age he writes himself Machel Vivan he is a Scottish man born near Aberdeen I forget the Towns name where he is now Pastor he hath been there fifty years Windsor Sept. 28. 1657. Your assured loving Friend Thomas Atkins 2. To this may sitly be annex'd a Letter which Plempius saith he saw under the hand of this wonderful old man himself dated from Lesbury Octob. the 19th 1657. to one William Lialkus a Citizen of Antwerp which is as followeth Whereas you desire a true and faithful messenger should be sent from New-castle to the Parish of Lesbury to enquire concerning John Maklin I gave you to understand that no such man was known ever to be or hath lived there for these fifty years last past during which time I Patrick Makel Wian have been Minister of that Parish Wherein I have all that time been present taught and do yet continue to teach there But that I may give you some satisfaction you shall understand that I was born at Whithorn in Galloway in Scotland in the year 1546. bred up in the Vniversity of Edenburgh where I commenc'd Master of Art whence travelling into England I kept School and sometimes preach'd till in the first of King James I was inducted into the Church of Lesbury where I now live As to what concerns the change of my body it is now the third year since I had two new Teeth one in my upper and the other in my nether Iaw as is apparent to the touch My sight much decay'd many years ago is now about the hundred and tenth year of my age become clearer Hair adorns my heretofore bald Skull I was never of a fat but a slender mean habit of body my diet has been and moderate nor was I ever accustomed to feasting and tippling hunger is the best sawce nor did I ever use to feed to satieây All this is most certain and true which I have seriously though over hastily confirmed to you under the hand of Patrick Makel Wian Minister of Lesbury 3. That worthy person D. Pieruccius a Lawyer of Padua and Host to the great Scioppius did assure me that a certain German then living in Italy had at sixty years of age recover'd to himself both new Teeth and black Hair and had extended his life to a great many years with the only use of an extract of black Hellebore with Wine and Roles 4. Alexander Benedictus tells of Victoria Fabrianensis a Woman of fourscore years of Age that then her Teeth came anew and that though the Hair of her Head was fallen off yet it also came afresh 5. Torquemada assures us that being at Rome about the year 1531. it was bruired throughout Italy that at Tarentum there liv'd an old man who at the age of an hundred years was grown young again he had chang'd his skin like unto the Snake and had recover'd a new being withall he was become so young and fresh that those who had seen him before could then scarce believe their own eyes and having continued above fifty yeas in this Estate he grew at length to be so old as he seemed to be made of Barks of Trees whereunto he further adds another story of the like Nature 6. Ferdinand Lopez of Castegnede Historiographer to the King of Portugal in the eighth Book of his Chronicle relateth that Nonnio de Cugne being Viceroy at the Indies In the year 1536. there was a man brought unto him as a thing worthy of admiration for that it was aver'd by good proofs and sufficient Testimony that he was three hundred and forty years old He remembred that he had seen that City wherein he dwelt unpeopled being then when he spake it one of the chief Cities in all the East Indies He had grown young again four times changing his white Hair and recovering his new Teeth when the Viceroy did see him he then had the Hair of his Head and Beard black although he had not much and there being by chance a Physician at the time present the Viceroy willed him to feel the old man's Pulse which he found as good and as strong as a young man in the prime of his age This man was born in the Realm of Bengala and did affirm that he had at times near seven hundred Wives whereof some were dead and some were put away The King of Portugal being advertiz'd of this wonder did often inquire and had yearly news of him by the Fleet which came from thence he liv'd above three hundred and seventy years 7. An old Abbatess being decrepit suddenly became young her monthly coârses return'd her rugged and wrinckled skin grew smooth her hoary hairs became black and new teeth in her head and paps swell'd after the manner as is usual with Virgins 8. The âlesh of a Viper prepar'd and eaten clariâies the eye-sight strengthens the sinews corroberates the whole body and according to Dioscorides procures a long and healthful age in somuch as they are proverbially said to have eaten a snake who look younger than accustomed nor is the Wine of Vipers less soveraign I have heard it credibly reported by those who were eye-witnesses how a Gentleman long desperately sick was restor'd by these means to health with more
were true was afterwards conâirm'd by the event 5. Charles the Eighth King of France invaded the Kingdom of Naples Alphonso was then King of it and howsoever before he brag'd what he would do yet when the French were in Italy and came so far as Rome he took such a fright that he cryed out every night he heard the Frenchmen coming and that the very Trees and Stones cry'd France And as Guicciardine affirmeth who was not a man either easily to believe or rashly write Fables it was credibly and constantly reported that the Spirit of Ferdinand his Father appear'd to one that had been his Physician and bad him tell his Son Alphonso from him that he should not be able to resist the Frenchmen for God had ordain'd that his Progeny should after many great afflictions be depriv'd of their Kingdom for the multitude and great enormity of their sins and especially for that he had done by the perswasion of Alphonso himself in the Church of St. Leander in Chaiae near to Naples whereof he told not the particulars the success was that Alphonso terrifi'd waking and sleeping with the representations of such Noblemen as he had caused secretly to be murdred in prison resign'd his Crown to his Son Ferdinando and ran away into Sicily in such haste that importun'd by his Mother-in-Law to stay for her only three days he told her that if she would not go presently with him he would leave her and that if any sought to stay him he would cast himself headlong out of the window His Son Ferdinand having assembled all his forces durst make no resistance but fled before the French from place to place till at length almost all his Subjects forsook him and rebelled against him whereupon he fled also into Sicily and within a while dyed there So Charles conquer'd the whole Kingdom his Soldiers having not had occasion so much as to put on their armour all the Voyage 6. Musânius and Chrysanthius both Bishops dy'd in the time of the Nicene Council before such time as all present had subscribed to the Articles of Faith then agreed unto The rest of the Bishops went to their Sepulchers and desiring there subscription also as if they were alive they left the Schedule of Subscription at their Tombs when aâter it was found that the dead persons had in a miraculous manner subscribed their names in this manner Chrysanthius and Musonius who were consenting with the Fathers in the sacred Oecumenical Synod of Nice though translated in respect of the Body yet with our own hands we have subscribed to this Schedule 7. Spâridion Bishop of Cyprus had a Daughter call'd Irene with whom a friend of his had left certain Ornaments of a great value which she being over careful of hid under the earth and shortly after dyed In some time after came he who had intrusted her and finding that she was dead demanded his goods at the hands of the Father both with entreaties and threats Spiridion that knew not what to do in the case and saw that the mans loss was become his calamity went to the Tomb of his Daughter beseeching God that he would shew something of promised Resurrection before the time nor was he deceiv'd in his hopes for his Daughter Irene appeared to him and having declared in what place she had disposed of the mans goods she vanished away CHAP. XLI Of the strange ways by which Murders have been discover'd WIlliam the Norman built a fair Monastery where he wan the Garland of England and in the Synod held Anno 1070. at Winchester King William being present as also the Legats of Pope Alexander it was by that Synod decreed amongst other things that whoever was conscious to himself that he had slain a man in that great Battle should do penance for one whole year and as many years as he had slain men and should redeem his Soul either by building a Church or by establishing a perpetual allowance to some Church already built so great a crime did they esteem the sheding of Humane Blood though as they suppose in a just War Sure I am that God Almighty as well to declare his detestation of that crimson sin of murther as to beget and retain in us a horror thereof hath most vigorously employ'd his providence by strange and miraculous ways to bring to light deeds of darkness and to drag the bloody Authors of them out of their greatest privacies and concealment unto condign punishments It were an infinite thing to trace the several footsteeps of Divine Providence in this matter It will be sufficient to produce some Examples wherein we shall find enough to make us adore at once the Wisdom and Goodness and Justice of God 1. Iulianus Malacava a Black-smith by Profession was vehemently in love with a certain Maid and not knowing any other way to obtain his desires besides that of Marriage with his beloved began to think how he might compass the death of his Wife he accomplish'd his divellish design with a Halter and strangled his Wife who was then big with child the third day after the Woman was found dead her Husband was gone into the Country and of all others was the least suspected the Child in the mean time was taken out of the Womb of the dead Mother and laid by but at the entrance of the cruel Father the dead Child bled fresh at the Nose This was upon the third of the Nones of February 1632. At the sight of this blood the Magistrare entred into some suspition of the Murderer he sent him to prison and laid him in irons when he came upon further examination he confess'd the whole as it was and was deservedly executed the twelfth of the Kalends of December 1633. this History was sent me from the publick Records of Caesena for an unquestionable truth 2. Parthenius Treasurer to Theodobert King of France had traiterously slain an especial friend of his call'd Ausanius together with his Wife Papianilla when no man accused or so much as suspected him thereof he detected himself in this strange manner As he slept in his bed he suddenly roared out crying for help or else he perished and being demanded what he ailed he half asleep answered That his friend Ausanius and his Wife whom he had murdered long before did now summon him to answer it before the Tribunal of God Upon this confession he was apprehended and after due examination stoned to death Thus though all witnesses fail yet the murderers own conscience is sufficient to betray him 3. Anno Dom. 867. Lothbroke of the Blood Royal of Denmark and Father to Humbar and Hubba entred with his Hawk into a Cock-boat alone and by tempest was driven upon the coast of Norfolk in England where being found he was detain'd and presented to Edmund at that time King of the East Angles The King entain'd him at his Court and perceiving his singular dexterity and activity in Hawking and
of so great a number of Ships as he thought might ply thereabouts 6. The melancholy Searchers after the Philosophers Stone never dote so much upon their project as then when it hath deluded them and never slatter themselves with stronger hopes to be enriched by their art than when it hath brought them unto Beggary CHAP. XVI Of the Scoffing aâd Scornful Dispositions of some men and how they have been rewarded AT Boghar a City of the Zagathian Tartars there is a River which causeth to them that drink thereof a Worm in the Leg which if not pulled out or pared away procures a certain death to him that hath it The intemperate use of the Tongue though it be but a little member hath been and ever will be the occasion of drawing down danger and death upon the heads of inconsiderate persons Some men dig their Graves with their tongues as effectually as others do with their Teeth and which is worst of all not only their own but others also while the petulant speeches and provocations of one man have involved thousands in a destiny as undeserved as unexpected 1. King William the First of England when he was in years was very corpulent and by that means much distempered in his body Once he had retired himself to Roan in Normandy upon that occasion the French King hearing of his Sickness scoffingly said That he lay in Child-bed of his great Belly which so incensed King William that he swore by God's Resurrection and his Brightness his usual Oath that as soon as he should be Churched of that Child he would offer a thousand Lights in France And indeed he performed it for he entred France in Arms and set many Towns and Corn Fields in fire 2. Henry the Fifth King of England had sent his Embassadours to France to demand the surrender of that Crown and to signifie that if he was denied he would endeavour to regain it by Fire and Sword It 's said that about that time the Dauphin who in the King of France's sickness managed the State sent to King Henry a Tun of Tennis Balls in derision of this youth as fitter to play with them than to manage Arms which King Henry took in such scorn that he promised with an Oath it should not be long ere he would toss such Iron Balls amongst them that the best in France should not be able to hold a Racket to return them Nor was he worse than his word as the Histories of that time do manifest at large 3. Antigonus a potent King of Macedonia had lost one of his eyes it fell out on a time that Theocritus the Chian was by some dragged along that he might come before the King his Friends to comfort him told him that no doubt but he would experience the King's clemency and mercy as soon as he should come before his eyes What then said he you tell me it is impossible I should be saved alluding to the King's misfortune Antigonus being informed of this his bitter as well as unseasonable scoff caused him to be slain although he had before sworn he would spare him 4. Narses the Eunuch was of the Bed-chamber to Iustinus the Emperour and from a Seller of Paper and Books arrived to the honour to succeed the famous Belisarius in the place of Generalissimo after he had renowned himself by a thousand gallant actions at last whether through envy or his ill fortune or the accusation of the people he fell into the hatred of the Emperour Iustinus and his Empress insomuch that the Emperour sent him Letters full of disgrace and reproach advising him also therein that he should return to the Spindle and Distaff Narses was so incensed hereat that he swore he would weave them such a Web as that they should not easily undo again and thereupon to revenge the injury he conceived to be done him he called in the Lombards to the invasion of the Roman Territories which they had been long desirous of but had hitherto been restrain'd by himself and was the occasion of many miseries 5. When the Flemmings revolted from Philip de Valois they out of derision called him the found King and advanc'd a great Cock on their principal Standard the device whereof was that when he should crow the found King should enter into their City This so exasperated the great courage of Philip that he waged them war gave them Battel and defeated them with such fury that Froysard assureth us that of a huge Army of Rebels there was not one left who became not a Victime of his vengeance 6. When Romulus had set up some part of the Walls of Rome his Brother Remus in derision of his Brother's Works and the lowness of those his Fortifications leaped over them whereat Romulus was so incensed that he made his life the price of that which he supposed so great an insolence 9. P. Scipio Nasica the same who being Consul decreed a war against Iugurth who with most holy hands received Mother Idaea passing from the Phrygian Seats to our Altars who oppressed both many and pestilent Seditions with the strength of his authority who for divers years was the Prince of the Senate this man when he was young was a petitioner for the office of the Edileship and as the manner of the Candidates is griping the hand of one who had hardened it with labour in the Country he jestingly asked him if he was accustomed to walk upon his Feet this scoff being heard by them that stood near was carried amongst the people and was the cause of Scipio's repulse for all the Rural Tribes judging they were upbraided with poverty by him discharged their anger upon him in refusing to give him their Votes 8. Tigranes King of Armenia came against Lucullus with so great Forces that when he saw the Romans marching up by way of scorn and derision he said to them about him that if they came to make war they were to few if as Embassadors they were to many yet those few Romans so distressed him and his numerous Army that he was glad to cut off his Tiara and cast it away lest thereby he should be known in his flight it was found by a Soldier and brought to Lucullus who soon after took Tigranocerâa it self from him 9. Monica afterwards the Mother of S. Augustin in her younger years began by degrees to sip and drink Wine lesser draughts by wedges widening her Throat for greater till at last she could fetch off her whole ones Now it happened that a young Maid formerly her partner in potting fell at variance with her and as malice when she shoots draws her Arrow to the head called her Toss-pot and Drunkard whereupon Monica reform'd her self and turn'd temperate Thus bitter Taunts and Scoffs sometimes make wholesome Physick and the malice of Enemies performs the office of good will 10. A Roman Legate returning out of Asia was carried in his
who thus spake aloud Sir I thank God for the Goods he hath bestowed upon me but more that he hath given me this present opportunity to make it known that I prize the lives of my Countrymen and Fellow-Burgesses above mine own At the hearing of which speech and sight of his forwardness one Iohn Daire and four others after him made the like offers not without a great abundance of prayers and tears from the common people who saw them so freely and readily sacrifice all their particular respects for the Weal of the publick And instantly without more ado they address themselves to the King of England with the Keys of the Town with none other hope but of death to which though they held themselves assured thereof they went as chearfully as if they had been going to a Wedding yet it pleasing God to turn the heart of the English King at the instance of the Queen and some of the Lords they were all sent back again safe and sound 2. When the Grecians of Doris a Region between Phocis and the Mountain Oeta sought counsel from the Oracle for their success in the Wars against the Athenians it was answered that then undoubtedly they should prevail and become Lords of that State when they could obtain any victory against them and yet preserve the Athenian King living Codrus the then King of Athens by some intelligence being inform'd of this answer withdrew himself from his own Forces and putting on the habit of a common Soldier entred the Camp of the Dorians and killing the first he encountred was himself forthwith cut in pieces falling a willing sacrifice to preserve the liberty of his Country 3. Cleomenes King of Sparta being distress'd by his Enemy Antigonus King of Macedon sent unto Ptolomey King of Aegypt for help who promised it upon condition to have his Mother and Child in pledge Cleomenes was a long time ashamed to make his Mother acquainted with these conditions went oftentimes on purpose to let her understand it but when he came he had not the heart to break it to her she suspecting asked his Friends if her Son had not something to say to her whereupon he brake the matter with her when she heard it she laughing said How comes it to pass thou hast concealed it so long Come come put me straight into a Ship and send me whether thou wilt that this body of mine may do some good unto my Country before crooked age consume it without profit Cratesiclea for so was her name being ready to depart took Cleomenes into the Temple of Neptune embracing and kissing him and perceiving that his heart yearn'd for sorrow of her departure O King of Sparta said she let no man see for shame when we come out of the Temple that we have wept and dishonoured Sparta Whilest she was with Ptolomey the Achaians sought to make peace with Cleomenes but he durst not because of his pledges which were with King Ptolomey which she hearing of wrote to him that he should not spare to do any thing that might conduce to the honour or safety of his Country though without the consent of King Ptolomey for fear of an old woman and a young boy 4. Sylla having overcome Marius in Battle commanded all the Citizens of Praeneste to be slain excepting one only that was his intimate Friend but he hearing the bloody sentence pronounced against the rest stepped forth and said That he scorn'd to live by his favour who was the destroyer of his Country and so went amongst the rest who were to be slain 5. Theomistocles the Athenian General after his many famous Exploits was banished the Country and sought after to be slain he chose therefore to put himself rather into the power of the Persian King his Enemy than to expose himself to the malice of his Fellow Citizens He was by him received with great joy insomuch that the King in the midst of his sleep was heard to cry out thrice aloud I have with me Themistocles the Athânian He also did him great honour for he allotted him three Cities âor his Table provisions and two others for the Furniture of his Wardrobe and Bed While he remain'd in that Court with such Splendour and Dignity the Aegyptians rebelled encouraged and also assisted by the Athenians The Grecian Navy was come as far Cyprus and Cilicia and Cimon the Athenian Admiral rode Master at Sea This caused the Persian King to levy Soldiers and appoint Commanders to repress them He also sent Letters to Themistocles then at Magnesia importing that he had given him the supreme command in that affair that he should now be mindful of his promise to him and undertake this War against Greece But Themistocles was no way mov'd with anger against his ungrateful Country-men nor incited to the War with them by the gift of all this honour and power for having sacrificed he called then about him his Friends and having embraced them he drank Bulls blood or as others say a strong poison and so chose rather to shut up his own life than to be an instrument of evil to that Country of his which yet had deserved so ill at his hands Thus died Themistocles in the sixty fiâth year of his age most of which time he had spent in the management of the Republick at home or as the chief Commander abroad 6. The Norvegians going out of their own Country upon any account whatsoever as soon as they return and set their first foot upon that earth they fall prostrate upon the ground and signing themselves with the Cross they kiss the earth And O thou more Christian Land cry they than all the rest of the world so highly do they admire their own Country and its worship with a contempt of all others 7. In the year three hundred ninety three from the Building of Rome whether by Earthquake or other mâans is uncertain but the Forum at Rome open'd and almost half of it was fallen in to a very strange depth great quantities of earth was thrown into it but in vain for it could not be fill'd up The Soothsayers therefore were consulted with who pronounced that the Romans should devote unto that place whatsoever it was wherein they most excelled Then Martius Curtius a person of admirable valour affirming that the Romans had nothing besides Arms and Virtue wherein they excelled he devoted himself for the safety of his Country and so arm'd on Horseback and his Horse well accoutred he rode into the gaping Gulph which soon after closed it self upon him 8. The Tartars in their invasion of China were prosperous on all sides and had set down themselves before the Walls of the renowned and vast City of Hangchen the Metropolis of the Province of Chekiang where the Emperour Lovangus was enclosed Lovangus his Soldiers refused to fight till they had received their arrears which yet at this time he was not able to pay them It
betwixt us that needed reconciliation 3. The Emperour of China on certain days of the year visiteth his Mother who is seated on a Throne and four times on his feet and four times on his knees he maketh her a profound reverence bowing his head even to the ground The same custom is also observed through the greatest part of the Empire and if it chance that any one is negligent or deficient in this duty to his Parents he is complain'd of to the Magistrates who punish such offenders very severely But generally no people express more filial respect and duty than they 4. Sir Thomas Moore being Lord Chancellour of England at the same time that his Father was a Judge of the King's Bench he would always at his going to Westminster go first to the King's Bench and ask his Father blessing before he went to sit in the Chancery 5. Alexander the Great sent his Mother Olympias many Royal Presents out of the Asian Spoils but withal forbade her to intermeddle with State affairs or to challenge to her self such offices as appertained to the Governour Olympias expostulated these things very sharply with him which yet he easily endured But upon a certain time when he had received long Letters from Antipater filled with complaints against her Antipater said he doth not know that one single tear of my Mother is able to blot out six hundred of his Epistles 6. There happened in Sicily as it hath often an eruption of Aetna now called Mount Gibel it murmurs burns belches up flames and throws out its fiery entrails making all the world to flie from it It happened then that in this violent and horrible breach of ââames every one flying and carrying away what they had most precious with them two Sons the one called Anapias the other Amphinomus careful of the wealth and goods of their Houses reflected on their Father and Mother both very old who could not save themselves from the fire by flight And where shall we said they find a more precious treasure than those who begat us The one took up his Father on his Shoulders the other his Mother and so made passage through the flames It is an admirable thing that God in the consideration of this piety though Pagans did a miracle for the monuments of all Antiquity witness that the devouring flames staid at this spectacle and the fire wasting and broiling all about them the way only through which these two good Sons passed was tapestryed with fresh verdure and called afterwards by posterity the Field of the Pious in memory of this Accident 7. Artaxerxes the First King of Persia was a fervent lover of Statyra his wife and though he knew that by the fraud of his Mother Parysatis she had been empoysoned and murdered yet piety to his Mother overcame his conjugal affection and he so dissembled the injury of his Mother that he not only spake nothing of revenging her wickedness but which is more strange he never gave the least sign of his being offended by any alteration of his countenance towards her unless in this that desiring to go to Babylon he gave her leave and said that he would not see Babylon while she lived 8. Q. Cicero Brother of Marcus being proscribed and sought after to be slain by the Triumvirate was hid by his Son who for that cause was hurried to torments but by no punishments or tortures could he be forced to betray his Father The Father mov'd with the piety and constancy of the Son of his own accord offered himself to death lest for his sake they should determine with utmost severity against his Son 9. Epaminondas the Theban General being asked what was the most pleasant thing that had happened to him throughout his whole life replyed it was this that he had carried away the Leuctrian Victory his Father and Mother being both alive Plut. in M. Coriolan p. 215. 10. There were three Brothers who upon the death of the King their Father fell out amongst themselves about succession in the Kingdom at last they agreed to stand to the judgment and determination of a Neighbour King to whom they fully referred the matter He therefore commanded the dead body of the Father to be fetched out of his monument and ordered that each of them should shoot an arrow at his heart and he that hit it or came the nearest to it should succeed The elder shot first and his arrow passed through the Throat of his Father the second Brother shot his Father into the Breast but yet missed the heart The youngest detesting this wickedness I had rather said he yield all to my Brothers and utterly resign up all my pretences to the Kingdom than to treat the body of my Father with this contumely This saying of his considered the King passed sentence that he alone was worthy of the Kingdom as having given evidence how much he excelled his Brothers in virtue by the piety he had shewed to the dead body of his Father 11. Caius Flaminius being a Tribune of the people had promulged a Law about the division of the Fields of Gallia man by man the Senate unwilling it should pass opposed it but he resisted both their entreaties and threats They told him they would raise an Army against him in case he should not desist from his intentions notwithstanding all which unaffrighted he ascends the Pulpit and being now ready with all the people about him by their suffrages to have it pass into a Law his own Father came and laid hands upon him enjoyning him to come down he broken with this private command descended from the Pulpit and was not so much as reproach'd with the least murmur of the people whom he had forsaken but the whole assembly seemed to approve this his piety to his Parent although so much to their own prejudice 12. The Pretor had sentenced to death a woman of good Birth for a capital crime and had consign'd her over to the Triumvir to be killed in prison The Jaylor that received her mov'd with compassion did not presently strangle her but besides permitted her Daughter to come often to her though first diligently searched lest she should convey in any sustenance to her the Jaylor expecting that she should die of famine When therefore divers days had passed wondring within himself what it might be that occasioned her to live so long he one day set himself to observe her Daughter with greater curiosity and then discovered how with the Milk in her Breasts she allayed the famine of her Mother The news of this strange spectacle of the Daughter suckling her Mother was by him carried to the Triumvir by the Triumvir to the Pretor from the Pretor it was brought to the judgment of the Consul who pardoned the woman as to the sentence of death passed upon her and to preserve the memory of that fact where her prison stood they caused an Altar
drawn thither with his Fleet Being agreed upon the terms the Captains must mutually entertain one another and the âirst lot fell upon Sextus who received them in his Ship there they supp'd and discoursed with all freedom and mirth when Mânas the freed man of Sextus and Admiral of the Navy came and thus whispered Sextus in the Ear Wilt thou said he that I sâall cut the Cables put off the Ship and make thee Lord not only of Sicily and Sardinia but of the whole World it self He said it and it was easie to do it there was only a Bridge which joyn'd the Ship and Shore together and that remov'd the other fell in and who could hinder or oppose the design and upon those two whom he had in his hand all the Roman welfare relyed but Sextus valued his faith given And said he thou Menas perhaps oughtest to have done it and unknown to me But since they are here let us think no more of it for Perjury is none of my property 12. Fabius had agreed with Hannibal for the exchange of Captives and he that had the most in number should receive money for the over-plus Fabius certifies the Senate of this agreement and that Hannibal having two hundred and forty more Captives the money might be sent to reduce them The Senate refused it and withal twitted Fabius that he had not done rightly and orderly nor for the honour of the Republick to endeavour to free those men whose Cowardise had made them the prey of their enemies Fabius took patiently this anger of the Senate but when he had not money and purposed not to deceive Hannibal he sent his Son to Rome with command to sell his Lands and to return with the money to the Camp He did so and speedily came back he sent Hannibal the money and received the Prisoners many of whom would afterwards have repaid him but he freely forgave them 13. Guy Earl of Flanders and his Son were freed from Prison by Philip the fair King of France upon their saith given that in case they could not return the Flemings to their obedience who rebelled and with the English molested Philip that then they should reuurn themselves to their wonted durance They were not able to effect the one and therefore perform'd the other and in that prison Guy shortly after dyed 14. Ferdinand the first King of Spain left three Sons behind him Sanctius Alphonsus and Garcius amongst whom he had also divided his Kingdoms but they lived not long in mutual peace for soon after the death of their Father Sanctius who was of a fierce and violent disposition made war upon his Brother Alphonsus overcame und took him Prisoner and thrust him into a Monastery constrained Religion lasts not long and therefore he privily deserted his Cloyster and in company with Petrus Ansurius an Earl he fled for protection to Almenon King of Toledo He was a Moor and an enemy to the others Religion but there had been friendship and peace betwixt him and Ferdinand the Father of this distressed Prince and upon this account he chose to commit himself unto his faith and was chearfully received by him Long he had not been with him when in the presence of the King the hair of this Prince was observed to stand up an end in such manner that being several times stroked down with the hand they still continued in their upright posture The Moorish Southsayers interpreted this to be a prodigy of evil abodement and told the King that this was the man that should be advanced to the Throne of Toledo and thereupon perswaded to put him to death The King would not do it but preferred his faith given to the fear he might apprehend and thought it sufficient to make him swear that during his life he should not invade his Kingdom A while after King Sanctius was slain by Conspirators at Zamora and his Sister Vrrata being well affected to this her Brother sent him a messenger with letters to invite him to the Kingdom advising him by some craft and with celerity to quit the borders of the Barbarians where he was Alphonsus bearing a grateful mind would not relinquish his Patron in this manner but coming to Almââon acquainted him with the matter And now said he noble Prince compleat your Royal savours to me by sending me to my Kingdom That as I have hitherto had my liâe I may also have my Scepter of your generosity The King embraced him and wished him all happiness But said he you had lost both Life and Crown if with an ungrateful mind you had fled without my privity for I knew of the death of Sanctius and silântly I awaited whaâ course you would take and had dispos'd upon the way such as should have return'd you back from your âlight had it been attempted But no more of this all I shall require of you is that during life you shall be a true friend to me and my elder Son Hissemus and so sent him away with money and an honourable retinue This Alphonsus did afterwards take the City and Kingdom of Toledo but it was after the death of Almenon and his Son 15. Iohn the first King of France was overthrown in battle and made prisoner by Edward the black Prince and afterwards brought over into England Here he remained four years and was then suffered to return unto France upon certain conditions which if he could make his Subjects submit to he should be free if otherwise he gave his faith to return He could not prevail to make them accept of the hard terms that were proffered whereupon he returned into England and there dyed 16. Renatus Duke of Berry and Lorrain was taken in Battle by the Soldiers of Philip Duke of Burgundy and was set at liberty upon this condition that as oft as he should be summon'd he should return himself into the power of the Duke while he was thus at liberty it fell out that upon the death of his Brother Lewis King of Naples he was called to succeed him in that Kingdom and at this time it was that the Duke of Burgundy demanded his return according to his oath Renatus well understood that this came to pass by the means of Alphonsus of Arragon who gaped after Naples and he was also proffered by Eugenius the fourth to be dispensed with in his oath notwithstanding all which he determin'd to keep his faith inviolate and so return'd to the Duke by him he was put in safe custody yet at last he was again set at liberty but not before such time as that through this his constrained delay the enemy had secured the Kingdom to himself 17. Antaâf King of some part of Ireland warring against King Ethelstan disguised himself like a Harper and came into Ethelstans Tent whence being gone a Soldier that knew him discovered it to the King who being offended with the Soldier for not declaring it sooner the Soldier made this
his own Posts to inform her of the danger and safety of her Son Though his Brother Domitian did manifestly conspire against him yet he did him no harm nor lessened him in any thing but dealt with him by entreaties that he would bear him a friendly mind and after all nominated him his colleague and successor in the Empire But all this goodness wrought little with this unnatural Brother for soon after he was empoysoned by him to the great loss of all mankind 4. Acacius Bishop of Amada was renowned and much spoken of for a notable work of mercy which he wrought in those days when the Romans had taken seven thousand Persian Captives at the winning of Azazâna and to the grief of the Persian King would not restore them but kept them in such condition that they were almost all starved for want of food Acacius lamented their estate and condition called his Clergy together and said thus unto them Our God hath no need either of Dishes or Cups for he neither eateth nor drinketh wherefore seeing the Church hath many precious things both of Gold and Silver bestowed of the free will and liberality of the faithful It is requisite that the Captive Soldiers should be therewith redeemed and delivered out of Prison and Bondage and that they also perishing with Famine should with some part thereof be refreshed and relieved This said he commanded the Vessels and gifts to be melted made money thereof and sent the whole price partly to redeem Captives out of Prison and partly to relieve them that they perished not with famine Lastly he gave the Persians necessary provisions for their voyage and sent them back to their King This notable act of the Renowned Acacius brought the King of Persia into great admiration that the Romans should endeavour to vanquish their enemies by both ways viz. wars and well-doing whereupon he greatly desired the sight of Acacius and Theodosius the Emperour commanded the Bishop to gratifie the King therein 5. When Pericles the noble Athenian lay a dying the better sort of the Citizens and his Friends that sate about him were discoursing amongst themselves of those virtues wherein he excelled his riches and eloquence his famous exploits the number of his victories as having erected Nine Trophies while he had the command of the City These things they were recounting amongst themselves as supposing that he no longer understood them but was now become senseless Pericles heard all that had passed and I wonder said he that you so celebrate those deeds of mine in which Fortune doth challenge a part and which are common to other Leaders and yet in the mean time pass over with silence that which is the greatest and most excellent of them all namely that none of my Fellow Citizens have ever put on mourning through my means And indeed it was worthy of high commendation that he retained so much of humanity and clemency in the midst of so many bitter enmities he was perpetually exercised with and that he had never shewed himself implacable to any enemy whatsoever in so great a power as he so long together had enjoyed 6. One Guydomer a Viscount having found a great treasure in the dominions of Richard the First surnamed Câur de Lion for âear of the King fled to a Town of the King of France for his safeguard Thither Richard pursued him but the Town denyed him entrance going therefore about the Walls to âind out the fittest places to assaâlt it one Bertram de Gurdon or as others call him Peter Basile shot at him with an empoysoned Arrow from a strong Bow and therewith gave him a wound in his Arm in the Eye saith Fuller which neglected at first and suffered to rankle or as others say handled by an unskilful Chirurgeon in four days brought him to his end Finding himself past hope of recovery he caused the party that had wounded him to be brought before him who being asked what had moved him to do this fact Answered that King Richard had killed his Father and two of his Brothers with his own hand and therefore he would do it if it were to do again Upon this insolent answer every one looked that the King should have adjudged him to some terrible punishment when contrary to their expectations in a high degree of clemency he not only freely forgave him but gave special charge he should be set at liberty and that no man should presume to do him the least hurt commanding besides to give him an hundred shillings to bear him away This was done Anno 1199. in the ninth year of this Kings Reign and the forty fourth of his Age. Dying he bequeathed his heart to Roan his body to be buried at Fount Everard and his Bowels at Chalons or as others at Carlisle in England 7. Charilaus the King of Sparta was of so mild and gentle a disposition that Archelaus his associate in the Kingdom used to say to those that spake high in the commendation of the young man How is it possible that Charilaus should be a good man seeing he is not able to be severe even against those that are wicked 8. Q. Fabius Maximus was of that meek and mild disposition throughout his whole life that he was commonly called the Lamb. 9. Augustus Caesar walking abroad with Diomedes his freedman a wild Boar had broken the place of his restraint and seemed to run directly towards Augustus The freedman in whom at that time there was more of fear than of prudence consulting his own safety took hold of the Emperour and placed him before himself for which yet Augustus never discovered any sign of anger or offence that he had taken He also managed the Common-wealth with that clemency and mercy that when in the Theatre it was recited O Dominum aquum bonum O Gracious and Good Governour all the people turned their eyes upon him and gave him their applause both with word and gesture 10. C. Iulius Caesar was not more famous for his valour in overcoming his enemies than he is for his clemency wherein at once he overcame both them and himself Cornelius Phagita one of the bloody emissaries of Sylla in the civil dissentions betwixt him and Marius industriously hunted out Caesar as one of the Marian party from all his lurking holes at last took him and was difficultly perswaded to let him escape at the price of two Talents when the times changed and that it was in his power to be severely revenged of this man yet he never did him the least harm as one that could not be angry at the Winds when the Tempest was over L. Domitius an old and sharp enemy of his held Corsinium against him with thirty Cohorts there were also with him very many Senators Knights of Rome and the flower or strength of the Pompeian party Caesar besieged the Town and the Soldiers talked of rendring both the Town and themselves to Caesar
it is more honourable for Noble men to make Beggars by their liberality then by their oppression 3. When Porsenna King of Hetruria had besieged Rome there was a great scarcity and dearth in the City but having made peace with them upon reasonable terms he commanded that of his whole Army not a man should carry any thing from his Tent but onely his arms and so left his whole Camp with all sorts of provisions and infinite riches as a free gift to the Romans 4. Sir Iulius Caesar Knight was advanced Chancellour of the Dutchy of Lancaster sworn privy Counceller 1607 and afterwards Master of the Rolls a person of prodigious bounty to all of worth or want so that he might seem to be Almoner Generall to the Nation The story is well known of a Gentleman who once borrowing his Coach which was as well known to poor people as any Hospital in England was so rendezvouz'd about with Beggars in London that it cost him all the money in his purse to satisfy their importunity so that he might have hired twenty Coaches on the same terms 5. Tigranes King of Armenia being sined by Pompey at six thousand Talents not only very readily layd down that sum but added of his own accord to every Roman Souldier in Pompeys Army 50 Drachmes of Silver 1000 Drachmes to each Captain and to every Tribune or Collonel a talent 6. Hiero King of Syracusa had built a Ship of a mighty bulk and adorn'd it with great magnificence upon which an Epigram was made by Archimelus a Poet it was witty and short consisting but of eighteen Verses but the King was so delighted therewith that as a reward of his pains he sent him from Sicily to Athens 1000 measures of Wheat causing it also to be laid down in the port of the Pyreum at his owne charge a Princely bounty if consider the furnishing out of the Ships and Persons therein together with their going and return 7. Cymon the Athenian being ariv'd to mighty riches by his wars against the Barbarians caused all the Walls and Fences about his lands to be beaten down and removed that all might freely carry away from thence whatsoever they pleased he releived at his house with meat and drink as many poor as came thither when he went abroad he caused those of his retinue to exchange their new and costly garments for the torn and ragged ones of such as they met in poor habit provided they were otherwise worthy persons and sometimes they gave Purses of Money to such as were in want if they were known to be men of merit This procedure of his occasioned once Leontinus Gorgias to say of him that Cymon had provided himself of Riches that he might use them and that the use he put them to was to produce him honour and glory 8. Antonius Caracalla the Emperour though not very praise worthy in other parts of his life was yet so delighted with those elegant Verses of Oppianus which we yet see dedicated to him that he commanded the Poet should be allowed out of his treasury a Crown for every Verse that is two of ours saith Lipsius and if we go about to number the Verses we shall find it a prodigious liberality 9. Dioclesian the Emperour assigned unto Eumenius the Rhetorician who also was the professor of his Art in the School at Augustodunum no less then the sum of fifteen thousand Phillippicks Lips Monit l. 2. c. 17. p. 411. 10. Alexander the Great was perhaps in nothing greater then in his Princely liberality when Perillus besought his assistance in making a Dowry for his Daughter he ordered 50 Tallents to be given him Perillus answered ten were sufficient although sayd he they may suffice him that is to receive they are yet too sparing for him that is to give Another time he had commanded his Steward to give Anaxarcus the Philosopher as much as he should desire and when he demanded an hundred Talents the Steward not daring to part with such a sum without acquainting the King himself his reply was that Anaxarchus knew he had such a friend as both could and would confer that and a far greater sum upon him Beholding once a Mulletter taking upon his own Shoulders his Mules burden that was laden with Gold and not able to carry it any further and perceiving him also to fail under the weight of it that said he thy burthen may seem less greivous to thee take to thine own Tent that Gold which thou carryest which from this hour I will shall be thine own 11. Ptolemeus Philadelphus King of Aegypt had taken care that the Jewish Law by the permission of Eleazar the High Priest should be translated out of the Hebrew into the Greâk Language and that the interpreters of it might have an agreeable reward for their pains he of his own accord sent a mighty sum of Gold as a present to the Temple of Ierusalem and not onely so but having sought out all those that were of the Jewish Nation who were made Prisoners in the Wars of his predecessors though the number of them amounted to an hundred thousand yet he ransomed them from their Lords at his own charge and sent them away with their liberty and that without the injury of his own people paying as the price of their ransom four hundred and sixty Talents 12. Richard King of England at a Royal Feast of his having observed two Knights who were discoursing together and intentively viewing some vessels of Gold that stood on the Cupboard he drew near to them and demanded what they conferred so earnestly about we were saying said one of them that we should both of us be sufficiently rich and contented if we had only two of those goblets that stand there in our possession The King smiling told them they should not depart unsatisfied upon that account and that he gave the two vessels they desired but in regard the graving of them was such as it would be some pity to have the work of an excellent Artist destroyed he commanded they should be weighed in his presence and it being found that the value of them amounted to twelve thousand Crowns he ordered they should receive so much in money in the lieu of the vessels themselves 13. Pope Alexander the fifth was so bountiful to persons of merit and vertue and so very magnificent in works of publick use that he used to say amongst his familiar friends that he had been formerly a rich Bishop and a poor Cardinal but that now being advanced to the Papacy he was almost reduced to absolute Beggary 14. Alphonsus the Elder King of Sicily used to wear upon his Fingers Rings of extraordinary value and that the Gems might receive no dammage as oft as he washed it was his manner to give them into the hands of such of his Servants as chanced to be next him He had once given them into the hands of one
who supposing the King had forgot them converted them to his own use Alphonsus dissembled the matter instead of those put on other Rings and kept on his accustomed way After some days the King being about to wash he who had received but not restored the former put forth his hand to take from him his Rings as he had used to do But Alphonsus putting his hand back whispered him in the Ear I will give thee these Rings to keep as soon as thou hast returned me those I did formerly entrust thee with and further than this he proceeded not with him 15. Sarizanarus was the Author of that Hexastick which was made of the famous City of Venice Viderat Adriacis Venetam Neptunus in undis Stare Vrbem et toti ponere Iura mari Nunc mihi Tarpeias quantumvis Iupiter Arces Objice illa tui moenia Martis ait Sic pelago Tibrim praefers Vrbem aspice utramque Illam homines dices hanc posuisse Deos. The Poet had small reason to repent of his ingenuity for as a reward of his pains he had assign'd him out of the publick treasury of that state an hundred Zecchins for every one of those verses which amounts to three hundred pounds of our money 16. When Henry of Lancaster sirnamed the Good Earl of Darby had taken Bigerac in Gascoign Anno 1341. He gave and granted to every Soldier the house which every one should seize first upon with all therein A certain Soldier of his brake into a Mint Masters house where he found so great a mass of money that he amazed therewith as a prey greater than his desert or desire signified the same unto the Earl who with a liberal mind answered It is not for my state to play Boys play to give and take Take thou the money if it were thrice as much 17. At the Battel of Poictiers Iames Lord Audley was brought to the black Prince in a Litter most grievously wounded for he had behaved himself with great valour that day To whom the Prince with due commendations gave for his good service four hundred Marks of yearly Revenues the which he returning to his Tent gave as frankly to his four Esquires that attended him in the Battle whereof when the Prince was advertised doubting that his gift was contemned as too little for so great good service the Lord Audley satisfied him with this answer I must do for them who deserved best of me these my Esquires saved my life amidst the enemies and God be thanked I have sufficient revenues left by my Ancestors to maintain me in your service Whereupon the Prince praising his prudence and liberality confirmed his gift made to his Esquires assign'd him moreover six hundred marks of like Land here in England 18. King Canutus gave great Jewels to Winchester Church whereof one is reported to be a Cross. worth as much as the whole Revenue of England amounted to in a year and unto Coventry he gave the Arm of St. Augustine which he bought at Papia for an hundred Talents of Silver and one of Gold 19. Clodoveus Son of Dagobert King of France in a great death caused the Church of St. Dennis which his Father had covered with Plates of Silver to be covered with lead and the Silver given to the relief of the Poor 20. Isocrates the Son of Theodorus the Erecthian kept a School where he taught Rhetorick to an hundred Scholars at the rate of one hundred drachms of silver a piece He was very rich and well he might for Nicocles King of Cyprus who was the Son of Evagoras gave him at once the summ of twenty Talents of Silver for one only oration which he dedicated unto him 21. The Poet Virgil repeated unto Augustus Caesao three Books of his Aeneads the Second Fourth and Sixth the latter of these chiefly upon the account of Octavia Sister to Augustus and Mother of Marcellus whom Augustus had adopted but he died in the Eighteenth year of his Age. Octavia therefore being present at this repetition when Virgil came to these Verses at the latter end of the sixth book wherein he describes the mourning for Marcellus in this manner Heu miserando Puer si qua fata asperarumpas Tu Marcellus eris Alas poor Youth if Fates will suffer thee To see the Light thou shalt Marcellus be Octavia swooned away and when she was recovered she commanded the Poet to proceed no further appointing him Ten Sesterces for every verse he had repeated which were in number twenty one So that by the bounty of this Princess Virgil received for a few Verses above the Summ of fifty thousand Crowns CHAP. XXVIII Of the Pious Works and Charitable Gifts of some men WHereas saith the Learned Willet the professors of the Gospel are generally charged by the Romanists as barren and fruitless of good works I will to stop their mouths shew by a particular induction that more charitable works have been performed in the times of the Gospel than they can shew to have been done in the like time in Popery especially since the publick opposition of that Religion which began about two hundred and fifty years since counting from tâe times of Iohn Wickliâfe or in twice so much time now going immediately before To make good this he hath drawn out a Golden Catalogue of persons piously and charitably devoted together with their works out of which I have selected as I thought the chiefest and most remarkable to put under this head only craving leave to begin with one or two beyond the compass of his prescribed time which I have met with elsewhere 1. In the Reign of King Henry the Fourth the most deservedly famous for works of Piety was William Wickham Bishop of Winchester his first work was the building of a Chappel at Tichfield where his Father and Mother and Sister Perrot were burled Next he founded at Southwick in Hampshire near the Town of Wickham the place of his Birth as a supplement to the Priory of Southwick a Chauntry with allowance of five Priests for ever He bestowed twenty thousand marks in repairing the houses belonging to the Bishoprick he discharged out of prison in all places of his Diocess all such poor prisoners as lay in execution for debt under Twenty pounds he amended all the high ways from Winchester to London on both sides the River After all this on the Fifth of March 1379. he began to lay the foundation of that magnificent structure in Oxford called New Colledg and in person laid the first Stone thereof In the year 1387. on the twenty sixth of March he likewise in person laid the first stone of the like Foundation in Winchester and dedicated the same as that other in Oxford to the memory of the Virgin Mary 2. In the Reign of King Edward the Fourth Sir Iohn Crosby Knight and late Lord Mayor of London gave to the Repairs of the Parish Church of Henworth in Middlesex forty
Sword and with force enough let drive at the place the Virgin had design'd him the sword entred so far into her throat that with one and the same blow he cut off his hopes of enjoying the Virgin and her fears of loosing her Virginty 19. Timoclea was a Lady of Thebes and at the sack of it was forcibly ravish'd by a Thracian Prince and she revenged the injury in this manner dissembling the extream hatred which she bare to her ravisher she told him she knew a place wherein much Treasure and store of Gold was conceal'd she led him to an out-place belonging to the house where there was a deep well while the over covetous Thracian lean'd over to look into it She tripp'd up his heels and sent him headlong to the bottom of it with a quantity of stones after him to hinder his resurrection from thence for ever to the world being afterwards brought before Alexander and charged with the death of this Captain of his she confessed the fact and when he asked who she was I am said she the Sister of that Theagenes who died sighting valiantly against thy Father in the Fields of Cheronaea the generous Prince freely dismiss'd her 20. There was a Maid called Lucia who lived a Virgin amongst many others and whose exquisite beauty was sought unto with vehement solicitation by a powerful Lord who having Command and Authority in his hands sent messengers to seise on this innocent Lamb and whilst they were at the gate menacing to kill her and set all on fire if this poor creature was not delivered into their hands the Maid came forth what is it said she you demand I beseech you tell me whether there be any thing in my power to purchase your Lord and Masters Love yea answered they in a flouting manner your eyes have gained him nor ever can he have rest tell he enjoy them Well go then said she only suffer me to go to my Chamber and I will give satisfaction in this point The poor maid seeing her self betwixt the Hammer and the Anvil she spake to her eyes and said how my eyes are you then guilty I know the reservedness and simplicity of your glances nor have I in that kind any remorse of conscience But howsoever it be you appear to me not innocent enough since you have kindled fire in the heart of a man whose hatred I have ever more esteemed than his love Quench with your blood the flames you have raised Whereupon with a hand piously cruel She digged out her eyes and sent the torn reliques embrewed in her blood to him who sought her adding Behold what you love He seized with horror hastned to hide himself in a Monastery where he remained the rest of his days 21. The Consul Manlius having overthrown the Army of Gallogrecians in Mount Olympus part were slain and part made prisoners amongst others was the Wife of Prince Orgiagon a woman of surpassing beauty who was committed to the custody of a Centurion and by him forcibly ravished Her ransome was afterwards agreed upon and the place appointed to receive it from the hands of her friends when they came thither and that the Centurion was intent both with his eyes and mind upon the weighing of the Gold she in her Language gave command to them that were present that they should kill him When his head was cut off she took it up in her hands went with it to her husband and having thrown it at his feet she related the manner of the injury she had received and the revenge she had taken who will say that any thing besides the body of this woman was in the power of her enemies for neither could her mind be overcome nor the chastity of it violated 22. I will shut up this Chapter with the illustrious Example of Thomas Aquinas this great person had determined with himself to consecrate the flower of his age to God and the desirable vertue of Chastity his Parents opposed this Noble resolution of his by flatteries and threats and such other Arts as they supposed might be of use to them upon this occasion but without any success their Son remained constant to his purpose in despite of all their endeavors Whereupon they took this other course When Thomas was one day in his Chamber all alone they sent in to him a young Damosel of an admirable beauty who with a countenance composed to lasciviousness began with various allurements and feminine flatteries to invite him to wickedness All things seemed to speak in her her voice and form her eyes and clothes her gestures and perfumes the youth perceived the delightful poison began to slide into his heart and therefore turning himself Lord Jesus said he suffer me not to commit this filthy wickedness in thy sight or for the sake of carnal lust to loose the joys of Eternal Life this said he catch'd up a burning brand out of the fire with which he drave out this Syren before him and shut his Chamber door upon her happily by this means escaping the snare that was spread before him and by which he was so near to have been entangled CHAP. XXXI Of Patience and what power some men have had over their Passion EVery man knows how to row in a calm and an indifferet Pilot will serve to direct the course of a Ship when the season is quiet and serene but the conduct of that Governor is most praise worthy who knows how to steer his vessel aright when the winds are enraged and some furious tempest has put the tumultuous waves into a vehement commotion In like manner it is a small commendation to appear mild when nothing is said or done to displease us but to repress our rising passions and to keep down our resentments in the midst of injurious provocations so noble a victory deserves an Elogy which perhaps the greatest of Conquerors never merited 1. King Robert was one of the greatest Kings that ever wore Crown of France on a time he surpriz'd a Rogue who had cut away half of his Cloak Furred with Ermins to whom yet so taken and in an act of that insufferable presumption he did no further evil but only said mildly to him save thy self and leave the rest for another who may have need of it 2. King Henry the sixth of England was of that admirable patience that to one who struck him when he was taken Prisoner he only said forsooth you wrong your self more then me to strike the Lords Anointed 3. It s said that Philip the second King of Spain having written a letter with his own hand with much study and labor to be sent to the Pope when he asked for sand to be cast upon it his Secretary half a sleep powred the Ink in the Standish upon it in stead of the former this would have put most into a fury yet behold a person of this eminency bare it without speaking one angry word to
to say to those that were in his company Which of you dares to take a piece of flesh out of this Lyon's throat when he is angry None daring to take it in hand You shall see added the Polonian the proof of my Speech All that day following the Lyon had not any meat given him the next day they threw him the fore Quarters of a Sheep the Lyon begins to grunt to couch down at his Prey and to eat greedily Herewith the Polonian enters and loâking the Lyon betwixt his legs gives him a blow with his fist upon the Jaw crying hah you Dog give me the flesh The Lyon amazed at such a bold voice let go his hold shewing no other Countenance but casting his eye after the Polonian that carried the flesh away 5. The City of Rome being taken by the Gauls and those that fled to the Capitol besieged in this distress some of the Romans that were fled to Veientum brought that same Camillus whom before they had ungratefully forced into Exile to take upon him the Supreme Command He answered that while those in the Capitol were safe he took them for his Country and should obey their Commands with all readiness but should not obtrude himself upon them against their will But all the difficulty was to send to them that were inclosed in the Capitol by the way of the City it was impossible as being full of Enemies But amongst the young men of Ardaea where Camillus then was there was one Pontius Cominius of a mean Birth but desirous of Glory and Honour who offered himself to this piece of service He took no Letters to them lest being taken the design should be betrayed to the Enemy But in meat habit and pieces of Cork under it he performed part of his journey by day-light as soon as it grew dark being near the City because the Bridge was kept by the Enemy he could not that way pass the River with his light Garment therefore bound about his head and bearing up himself upon his Cork he swam over the River and perceiving by the fire and noise that the Guards were awake he shunn'd them and came to the Carmental Gate there all was silent and the Capitoline Hill was most steep and hard to ascend By this way he climbs up and at last came to the Sentinels that watched upon the Walls he salutes them and tells them who he was He was taken up led to the Magistrates acquaints them with all his business They presently create Camillus Dictator and by the same way dismiss Pontius who with the same wonderful difficulty escaped the Enemy as before and came safe to Camillus and Camillus to the safety of his Countrey 6. In the Reign of Tham King of China there was a Colao an Officer not unlike that of our Duke who having been Tutor to the King was very powerful with him and to preserve himself in his Grace and Favour studied more to speak what would please the King then to tell him the truth for the good of his Estate The Chineses forbare not to speak of it amongst themselves and to tax the flattery of this Coloa once some Captains of the Guard were discoursing this Point at the Palace when one of them being a little warmed with the Discourse secretly withdrew himself went into the Hall where the King was and kneeling down upon his knees before him the King asked what he would have Leave said he to cut off the head of a flattering Subject And who is that said the King Such a one who stands there replied the other The King in a rage What said he against my Master darest thou to propound this and in my Presence too Take him away and strike off his head When they began to lay hands upon him he caught hold of a wooden balanster and as there were many pulling of him and he holding with a great deal of strength it brake by this time the King's heat was over he commands they should let him go and gave order that the balanster should be mended and that they should not make a new one that it might remain a witness of the Fact and a memorial of a Subject that was not afraid to advise his King what he ought to do 7. Phocion the Athenian was a man that stood with unmoveable constancy against the Multitude the Nobles Fortune and Death it self There was once an Oracle recited at Athens viz. that there was amongst them one single man that ever dissented from the agreeing opinions of all the rest All the people were enraged and enquired after that man Now pray said Phocion surcease your enquiry I am the man you seek for for not one thing of all that you do did ever please me 8. In a Parliament at Salisbury in the twenty fifth year of King Edward the First the King requires certain of his Lords to go to the Wars in Gascoigne which needed a present Supply by reason of the death of his Brother Edmund but all the Lords made excuses each for themselves Whereupon the King in great rage threatned they should either go or he would give their Lands to others that would Upon this Humphry Bohune Earl of Hereford High Constable and Robert Bigod Earl of Norfolk Marshal of England made their Declaration that if the King went in Person they would attend him otherwise not which Answer offended the King more and being urged again the Earl Marshal protested he would willingly go thither with the King and march before him in the Van-guard as by right of Inheritance he ought to do But the King told him plainly he should go with any other though he went not himself in person I am not so bound said the Earl neither will I take that Iourney without you The King swore By God Sir Earl you shall go or hang. And I swear by the same Oath said the Earl that I will neither go nor hang and so departed without leave 9. Avidius being General of the Army when a part of the Auxiliaries without his privity had slain three thousand of the Sarmatians upon the Banks of the Danubius and returned with a mighty Spoil the Centurions expecting mighty Rewards for that with so small Forces they had overthrown so great a number but he commanded them to be seized and crucifyed For said he it might have fallen out that by a sudden eruption of the Enemy from some Ambush the whole Army might have been hazarded But upon this Order of his a Sedition arose in the Army when he straight goes forth into the midst of the Mutineers unarmed and without any Life-Guard where unappalled he spake in this manner Kill me if you dare and give a glorious instance of your corrupted Discipline When they saw his undaunted boldness they all grew quiet and willingly submâtted themselves to Discipline which thing not only preserved the Romans themselves in obedience but struck such an awe into
Divine Device O Admirable Frame Whereby through th' Ocean in the darkest night Our hugest Carracks are conducted righâ Whereby w' are stor'd with trouchman guide and lamp To search all corners of the watry camp Whereby a Ship that stormy heav'ns have whirld Near in one night unto the other world Knowes where she is and in the card descries What degrees thence the Aequinoctial lyes It may well be then that Flavius the Milevitan was the first inventor of the guiding of a Ship by the turning of the needle to the North but some Germane afterwards added to the compass the 32 points of the wind in his own language whence other nations have since borrowed it 4. The Instrument of perpetual Motion was invented by Cornelius van Drebble a German here in England and by him presented to King Iames. 5. Sayling Coaches were invented by Simon Stevinius in the Netherlands of which wonderful kind of Coaches we are told that Peireskius made tryal in the yeare 1606. Purposing to see Grotius sayth Gassendus he diverted to Scheveling that he might satisfie himself in the carriage and swiftness of a Coach a few years before invented and made up with that Artifice that with expanded sayles it would âly upon the shore as a ship upon the Sea He had formerly understood that Count Mannice a little after his victory at Neuport had put himself thereinto together with Francis Mendozâ his prisoner on purpose to make tryal thereof and that within two hours they arrived at Putten which is distant from Scheveling 14 leagues that is 40 miles and more He had therefore a mind to make experiment of it himself and he would often tell us with what admiration he was seised when he was carried with a quick wind and yet perceived it not the Coaches motion being as quick as it self When he perceived that he flew over ditches and passed the interposed waters scarce touching the superâicies of them How those that travelld before seemed to come towards them as things that were at the remotest distance were almost in a moment left behind and other things of the like nature 6. In the Reign of Leo Isauricus Caliph Zulciman besieged Constantinople for the space of three years where by Cold and Famine 300000 of the Saracens were consumed At this seige was that fire invented which were for the violence of it call wild-sire and the Latines because the Greekes were the Authors of it call Graecus Ignis by this invention the Ships of the Saracens were not a lâttle molested It was invented by Callââicus Anno 678 7. The Lydians were the first inventors of Dice Ball Chesse and the like games necessity and hunger inâorcing them thereunto Ingenii largitor venter Famine sharpens the brain as well as the stomach In the time of Atys the Son of Manes the Lydians were vexed with it and then devised these games every second day playing at them they beguiled their hungry stomachs Thus âor twenty two years they continued playing and eating by times But then seeing that themâelves were more fruitful in getting and beaâing children then the soil was at that time fruitful in bringing forth sustenance to maintain them They sent a Colony into Italy under the conduct of Tyrrhenus the Son of Atys who planted in that Country first called Tyrrhenia and since Tuscany 8. The Phenicians by reason of their Maritime situation were great adventurers at Sea trading in almost all parts of the then known world they are said to have been the first Navigatours and first builders of Ships they first invented open vessells the Aegyptians Ships with decks and gallyes with two banks of Oars upon a side Great Ships of burden were first made by the Cypriots Cock-boats and Skiffs by the Illyrians or Liburnians Brigantines by the Rhodians Frigatts or light Barks by the Cyrenians men of War by the Phamphilians As for tackle the Boeotians invented the Oar Dâedalus of Creet Masts and sayles Anacharsis grappling hooks the Tuscans anchors The Rudder helm and art of steering was the invention of Typhis the chief Pilot in the famous Argo who noting that a Kite when she slew guided her whole body by her tayl effected that in the devices of Art which he had observed in the works of Nature 9. The Sicilians were heretofore famous for many notable inventions Pliny ascribes to them the finding out of hourglasses and Plutarch of military Engines brought to great perfection by Archimedes that Countreyman Palamedes the son of Nauplius is said to have first instituted centinels in an army and was the first inventor of the watch-word the battle ax was first found out by Penihesilea Queen of the Amazons who came to the seige of Troy in ayd of King Priamus where she was slain by Pyrrhus the Son of Achilles 10. The dying of Purple was first inâented at Tyrâ and that as Iulius Pollux sayth by a meer accident a Dogg having seised upon the Fiâh calld Conchilis or Purpura had thereby stained his lips with that delightful colour which gave the occasion of its seeking and it was afterwards the richest and most desirable colour to persons of greatest quality for ages together 11 The Inhabitants of Sidon are said to be the first makers of Glass the materials of the work being brought hither from the Sands of a River running not far from Ptolomais and only made fusible in this City About Anno. Dom 662. one Benault a forraign Bishop but of what place I âind not brought the mystery of making glass into England to the great beautifying of our houses and Churches 12. For Verses and writing in that way Aristotle ascribes the first making of pastoral Eclogues to the Sicilians Arion an excellent Musiâian and eminent Poet is said to be the first inventor of Tragoedies and the Author of the verse called Dithyrambick Sappho an Heroick woman and calld the tenth Muse was the Author of the verse called Sapphick and be it here remembred that the first Bishop of Sherborn when taken out of the Bishoprick of Winchester by King Ina which was Adâlme kinsman to the King was the first of our English Nation who wrote in Latine and the first that taught Englishmen to make Latine verse according to his promise Primus ego in patriam mecum modo vita supersit Aonio rediens deducam vertice Musas If life me last that I doe see that native soil of mine From Aon tops I l'e first with me bring downe the Muses nine 13. Unto the Flemings we are indebted for the making of Cloth which we learnt of them and also for Arras hangings Dornix the making of Worsted Sayes and Tapestries they restored Musick and found out divers musical Instruments To them belongeth also the invention of Clocks Watches Chariots the laying on of Colours with oyl and the working of Pictures in Glass 14. Brachygraphy or the Art of Wâiting by short Characters is said by Dion to be invented
they were that were his Confederates Zeno named not one of them but all such as were of most credit with the Tyrant these he rendred suspected to him and reproching the Citizens with their fear and cowardise he excited them to so suddain and vehement impulse of mind that they stoned the Tyrant Phalaris in the place 12. Theodorus a wise and excellent person wearied the hands of all the Tormentors that Hieronymus the Tyrant exposed him to the severity of his Scourges the Racks he was stretched upon the Burning Irons he was tortured with could never be able to extort from him a confession of the names of them that were with him in the Conspiracy or to betray the Secret he was intrusted with but instead of this in the extremity of his sufferings he impeached the principal Favourite of the Tyrant and that person he most relyed upon in the Government and thereby deprived him of one that was most faithful to him CHAP. XLVIII Of such who in their raised Fortunes have been mindful of their low Beginnings AT the Coronation of the Emperors of Constantinople it was customary to present them with several sorts of Marbles and of different colours by the hand of a Mason who was then to bespeak the new Emperor to this purpose Chuse mighty Sir under which of these Stones Your pleasure is that we should lay your bones They brought him Patterns for his Grave-stone that the prospect of death might contain his thoughts within the due bounds of modesty and moderation in the midst of his new Honours And it was doubtless to keep them humble that the following persons were so mindful of their obscure beginnings 1. Pope Benedict the Eleventh was born of mean Parentage nor was he unmindful of his primitive poverty when advanced to this high degree of honour While he was in the Monastery his Mother was a Laundress to the Monks and being now made Pope he sent for her to come to him she came and the great Ladies supposing it unfit to present her to his Holiness in her homely Attire had furnished her in such manner that she now appeared almost another woman Being thus brought into the presence of her Son the Popâ dissembled his knowledge of her And what mean you said he bring me my Mother as for this Lady I know her not âs my Mother is a Laundress and it is with her that I desire to speak They therefore withdrew her from the Presence stripp'd her of all her costly Ornaments and having dressed her up in her old rags they again returned with her then the Pope embraced her In this habit said he did I leave my Mother in this I know her and in this I receive her The Emperors of China elect their Wives out of their own Subjects and provided they are otherwise accomplished as in Beauty and inclinations to Vertue they regard not her Estate or Condition in so much that for the most part they are the Daughters of Artizans One of these was the Daughter of a Mason and when she was Queen kept ever by her an iron Trowel when the Prince her Son upon any occasion behaved himself more haughtily than became him she sent to shew him that instrument with which his Grand-father used to lay Stones for his Living by which means she reduced him to better temper 3. Aâathocles who from the Son of a Potter came to be King of all Sicily would yet never wear Diadem nor have any Guard about him He also caused his name to be engraven in Greek letters upon Vessels of Earth these Vessels he disposed amongst the richest of his Pots of Silver and Gold that he might be thereby imminded from whence he descended 4. Willegis Arch-Bishop of Mentz from a base condition ascended to the highest Dignities yet would he leave behind him a perpetual mark of his humility and a remembrance of his mean Quality to his Successors Being of a poor House and Son to a Carter he caused these words following to be written in great letters in his lodging Chamber Willegis Willegis recole unde veneris Willegis Willegis remember whence thou camest He caused also the Wheels and other Instruments of a Cart to be there hung up in remembrance of his Pedigree Lesâ the Second of that name of a base Descent was for his Vertues chosen King of Polonia Anno 780. But he ruled as a Prince descended from ancient Kings and all his life time upon solemn days when he was to appear in his Royal Robes he caused a Garment of course Cloth which he had worn before to be cast over them thereby to keep in remembrance his former life 6. When Libussa Princess of Bohemia had first ennobled and then married Primislaus the third of that name who before was a plain Husbandman In remembrance of his âirst condition he brought with him at such time as he was to receive the Royalties a pair of wooden Shooes and being asked the cause he answered that he brought them to that end that they might be set up for a Monument in the Castle of Visegrade and shewed to his Successors that all might know that the first Prince of Bohemia of that Race was called from the Cart to that high Dignity and that he himself who from a Clown was brought to wear a Crown might remember he had nothing whereof to be proud These Shooes are still kept in Bohemia as a precious Relick and the Priests of Visegrade carry them about in Procession upon every Coronation day This Prince having encreased his Kingdom built the City of Prague and walled it about did long reign happily and left a numerous Posterity 7. Iphicrates that noble General of the Athenians in the midst of his Triumphs cryed out ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã from what to what from how great misery and baseness to how great blessedness and glory are we exalted 8. Thomas Cromwel was born at Putney in Sussex his Father was a Black-smith and though he could do little to his Education by reason of his Poverty yet such was the pregnancy of the Son that through various Fortunes and Accidents he was first knighted by King Henry the Eighth then made Master of his Jewel house then one of the Privy Council then Master of the Rolls then Knight of the Garter and lastly Earl of Essex Great Chamberlain of England and the King's Vicegerent to represent his own Person Now whereas men advanced from mean and base degree to high Dignity usually grow proud forgetting what they were and whence they came and casting off their old friends who were formerly beneficial to them it was sar otherwise with this noble Earl as appears by sundry examples Riding in his Coach with Arch-Bishop Cranmer through Cheapside he spyed a poor woman of Hounslow to whom he was indebted for several old Reckonings to the value of forty shillings he caused her to be called unto him asked her whether he
Messenger is come to thee our will and pleasure is that thou send us by him thy head unto Constantinople In vain was it to dispute the command of his Lord and thus the miserble man perished 3. William the Conquerour for his game and the pleasure he took in hunting enforested thirty miles in Hamshire pulled down thirty six Parish Churches and dispeopled all the place chasing the inhabitants from the places of their inheritance But the just hand of God was visible and remarkable upon his posterity for this his grievous oppression for in this very New Forest his two Sons Richard by a pestilent air and King William Rufus by the shot of an Arrow and his Grandson Henry son of Duke Robert by hanging in a bough as Absolom came to their untimely ends 4. Anno Dom. 1570. at Ryâ in Sussex there was a strange example of Gods judgements upon a covetous oppressive Gentleman and one that desired to grind the faces of the Poor This Gentleman living near the Sea had a Marsh wherein upon poles Fishermen used to dry their Nets for which he received of them yearly a sufficient sum of money but at length not being content with it he caused his servants to pluck up the poles not suffering the Fishermen to come upon his ground any longer except they would compound at a larger rate but it came to pass the same night that the Sea breaking in overwhelmed all his Marsh which saith Hollinshead continueth in that manner to this very day 5. Lucullus the Roman Consul visiting the Cities of Asia found the poor country afflicted and oppressed with so many evils and miseries as no man living could believe nor tongue express for the extream and horrible covetousness of the Farmers Customers and Roman Usurers did not only devour it but kept the people also in such miserable bondage and thraldome that Fathers were forced to sell their goodly Sons and Daughters ready for marriage to pay the interest and use money of that which they had borrowed to pay their fines withall yea they were forced to sell the Tables dedicated to the Temples the statues of their gods and other Ornaments and Jewels of their Temples and yet in the end they themselves were adjudged for bondslaves to their cruel Creditors to wear out their dayes in miserable servitude And yet the worst of all was the pain and torment they put them to before they were so condemned for some they imprisoned and cruelly racked others they tormented upon a little brazen Horse set them in the Stocks made them stand naked in the greatest heat of Summer and on the Ice in the deepest of Winter so that bondage seemed to them a relief of their miseries and a rest from their torments Lucullus found the Cities of Asia full of such oppressions whereof in a short time he exceedingly eased them 6. King Iohn of England was a great oppressour on a time a Jew refusing to lend this King so much mony as he required the King caused every day one of his great teeth to be pulled out by the space of seven dayes and then the poor Jew was content to give the King ten thousand marks of silver that the one tooth which he had left might not be pulled out The same King assaulting the chastity of the Daughter of Robert Fitzwater called Mawd the fair and by her repulsed he is said to send a messenger to give her poyson in a poached Egg whereof she died not long after he himself had but little better fate being poysoned at Swinestead Abbey 7. Luther reports that he being at Rome a great Cardinal died and left behind him great store of mony Before his death he had made his Will and laid it in a Chest where his mony was After his death the Chest was opened and therein by the mony was found written in Parchment Dum potui rapui rapiatis quando potestis I scrap'd together while I could That you should do so too I would 8. Five Brethren of the Marshalls successively Earles of Pembrook dyed issueless Which Mathew Paris attributeth to the judgement of God upon them for their Fathers iniquity who detained from the Bishop of Firning certain Manours which he had violently taken from him 9. Lewis the eleventh King of France having been a great oppressour of his Subjects by excessive Taxes and enforced Contributions when he grew old resolved to redress that and other mischiefs whereby they had been oppressed but was in a short time after this purpose prevented by death 10. Anno Dom. 1234. in the reign of King Henry the third there was a great dearth in England so that many people died for want of victuals At which time Walter Grey Arch-bishop of York had great store of Corn which he had hoarded up for five years together yet in that time of scarcity refused to relieve the poor with it but suspecting lest it might be destroyed with Vermine he commanded it to be delivered to Husband-men that dwelt in his Mannors upon condition to return him as much New Corn after Harvest but behold a terrible judgement of God upon him for his covetousness and unmercifulness to the poor When men came to one of his great Stacks of Corn near to the Town of Rippon there appeared in the sheaves all over the heads of Worms Serpents and Toads so that the Bayliffs were forced to build a high wall round about the Stack of Corn and then to set it on fire lest the venemous creatures should have gone out and poysoned the Corn in other places CHAP. XIII Of the bloody and cruel Massacres in several places and their occasions THe Naturalists tell us of a Serpent who is therefore called Haemorrhois that wheresoever he bites he makes the man all over bloody It seems his poyson hath a particular command over the blood so as to call it all into the outward parts of the body The vulgar rout and headstrong multitude when once it is enraged is such another kind of Serpent wheresoever the scene of its insolency is it makes it all over bloody This unbridled torrent bears all down before it and being transported with its own fury it knows no difference of age sex or degree till it hath converted a flourishing place into an Akeldama or a field of blood In the year 1506. in Lisbon upon the tenth day of April many of the City went to the Church of Saint Dominicks to hear Mass On the left side of this Church there is a Chapel much reverenced by those of the Country and called Iesus Chapel Upon the Altar there stands a Crucifix the wound of whose side is covered over with a piece of Glass Some of those that came thither to do their devotions casting their eyes upon this hole it seemed to them that a certain kind of glimmering light came forth of it Then happy he that could first cry a miracle and every one said that God
Philip the fair afterwards seeing himself persecuted by Charles of Valois by an inexcusable temerity threw away his life For Charles sharply asking of him an account of the Treasures of the deceased King he freely answered It is to you Sir I have given a good part of them and the rest hath been employed in the Kings affairs Whereupon the Prince giving him the lie the other took the unseasonable boldness to reply By God Sir it is you your self this insolency sent him to the Gallows at Mountfaucon which he had caused to be built in his greatest authority 2. At Sir Henry Wotton's first going Embassadour into Italy as he passed through Germany he stayed some daies at Augusta where having been in his former Travels well known by many of the best note for learning and ingenuity with whom he passing an evening in merriment was requested by Christopher Flecamore to write some sânâence in his Albo a Book of white paper which for that purpose many of the German Gentry usually carry about them Sir Henry consenting to the motion took an occasion from some accidental discourse of the present company to write a pleasant definition of an Embassador in these words Legatus est vir bonus peregrè missus ad mentiendum Reipublicae causa which Sir Henry could have been contented should have been thus Englished An Embassadour is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his Country but the word for lie being the hinge upon which the conceit should turn was not so expressed in Latin as would admit of so fair a construction as Sir Henry thought of in English Yet as it was it slept quietly among other sentences in this Albo almost eight years till by accident it fell into the hands of Gasper Schioppius a Romanist a man of a restless spirit and malicious Pen who with Books against King Iames Prints this as a principle of that Religion professed by the King and his Embassadour Sir Henry Wotton then at Venice and in Venice it was presently after written in several glass windows and spitefully declared to be Sir Henry Wotton's This coming to the knowledge of King Iames he apprehended it to be such an over-sight such a weakness or worse in Sir Henry as caused the King to express much wrath against him and this caused Sir Henry to write two Apologieâ one to Velserus one of the chieâs of Augusta in the universal language and another to King Iames which was so ingenuous clear and so choicely eloquent that His Majesty at the receipt thereof said Sir Hânry Wotton had commuted suâficiently for a greater offence 3. Lewis the eleventh King of France one of the most Politick Princes that France ever had being at Wars with his own brother Charles Duke of Normandy Francis Duke of Britanny and Charles Duke of Burgundy and desiring greatly to separate the last from the other two that he might thâ better be revenged on them solicited him by his Embassadours to come to conâerence with him which the Duke yielded unto so that the meeting might be in a Town of his own in the Frontiers of Flanders and France for his better security wherewith the King was well contented The meeting therefore being appointed at Peronne whither the Duke was come with his Army and safe-conduct sent to the King by a Letter of the Dukes own hand the King went thither without any forces or guard to shew the confidence he had in the Duke to oblige him the more and to gain his good will But the Duke seeing now his enemy in his power and understanding at the same time that Leige ws revolted from him by the solicitation of certain Embassadours oâ the King took him prisoner and would not release him untâl he hâd recovered the Town of Leige whither he forced him to accompany him with no small danger of his Person and in the end having made him grant to some hard conditions in favour of his Confederates against whom the King had especially plotted that Conference and Treaty he released him Now who sees not how grossly this Politician ârred wherein it might be presumed that a man of any experience could not have been deceived First that having employ'd his Agents to stir up the Town of Lâige against the Duke he did not counteâmand it when he resolved to put himself into his hands and then that he would upon any security or safe-conduct put himself to the courtesie and mercy of his enemy without urgent and inevitable necessity 4. Thomas Ruthal was by King Henry the seventh âor his great abilities preferred to be Bishop of Durham King Henry the eighth made him of his Privy Council notwithstanding the hatred which Cardinal Woolsey bare unto him It happened that King Henry employed him as a Politick person to draw up a Breviate of the State of the Land which he did and got it fairly transcribed but it fell out that instead thereof he deceived with the likeness of the cover and binding Presented the King with a Book containing the Inventory of his own Estate amounting to an invidious and almost an incredible summ of one hundred thousand pounds Woolsey glad of this mistake told the King he knew where a mass of money was in case he needed it This broke Ruthals heart who had paid the third part of the cost of making the Bridge of Newcastle over Tyne and intended many more Benefactions had not death on this unexpected occasion surprized him Anno Dom. 1523. 5. The Duke of Ossuna a little man but of great fame and fortune was revoked from being Vice-Roy of Naples the best employment the King of Spain hath for a subject upon some disgust and being come to this Court where he was brought to give an account of his Government being troubled with the Gout he carried his sword in his hand instead of his staff the King misliking the manner of his posture turned his back to him and so went away Thereupon he was over-heard to mutter Esto es para servir muchachos This it is to serve Boyes This coming to the Kings oaâ he was apprehended and committed Prisoner to a Monastery not far off where he continued some years until his Beard came to his girdle then growing very ill he was permitted to come to his house in Madrid being carried in a bed upon mens shoulders where he died about the year 1622. 6. When Pope Iulius the second attempted to deliver Italy from the Vltra Montani he sent an Italian Embassadour to the King of England to perswade him to take Arms in his behalf against the King of France and the Embassadour having delivered all that he had in charge to say answer was given in the behalf of the King That he was most ready and willing to defend the Pope but that an Army was not so soon to be made ready for that the English by reason of their long Peace had in a manner lost the use
of Arms. And because they were to go against a King who was no less mighty and puissant than warlike as was the King of France there ought to be a time to make necessary provision for a War of so great importance The Embassador presently to no purpose or reason added these words Anchio hodetto piâ volte questo medesimo à sua sanctita which is to say And I have oftentimes said the same to his Holiness these words which shewed the will of the Embassadour to be different from that of his Prince gave great doubt and suspicion to the Kings Council and they began to doubt that the Embassadour was rather inclined to favour the King of France than the Pope his Master and setting secret Spies about him to observe his behaviour it was perceived that by night he spake secretly with the French Embassadour by which means he was undone and if he had fallen into the hands of the Pope he had peradventure put him to death However by his imprudent answer he both wronged himself and was the occasion that the King of England was constrained to begin the War sooner than he would who in deferring the succours had possibly accorded the controversie betwixt the Pope and the French King 7. Demaratus which should have succeeded in the Kingdom of Sparta was deprived thereof by Ariston his father for one only imprudent word uttered without consideration in the Senate Which was that news being brought unto him that he had a son born he counted upon his fingers how long his Wife had been with him and seeing that there were no more than sâven Months and that usually women are delivered at nine he said It is not possible that he should be my son these words turned to the great damage of Demaratus for after the death of Ariston his father the Spartans refused to give him the Kingdom because the Ephori bare record that Ariston had said that it was not possible that Demaratus born at the end of seven Months should be his son and that he had bound it with an Oath 8. Renzo de Ceri a most honourable Captain in hâs time was in the pay and âervice of Lawrence de Medici against Francis Maria Duke of Vrbin This Captain was advertised that certain Spanish Captains had plotted a Treason to deliver the Duke of Vrbin into the hands of the Duke of Florence wherefore the said Renzo talking with a Drum demanded of him in jest and laughing but with great inconsideration When will these Spaniards deliver your Duke Prisoner The Drum made no answer but being returned to the Camp he reported to his Duke the words which Renzo had used to him without any necessity or reason wherefore the Duke of Vrbin having engraven them in his heart stood upon his guard and marked the behaviour of the Spanish Captains In the end through certain Letters and writings found amongst their Baggage the truth appeared and the Conspirators against Duke Francis were known who were committed to Prison and convict of Treason Thus Renzo was the cause why the Treason took no effect the Captains were dispatched and that Lawrence his Master made not so soon an end of the Wars as otherwise he might probably have done 9. Famous was the Contention between Chrysostom on the one part and Thâophilus Cyril and Epiphanius on the other about the burning or not burning of Origens Books all good and great men yet they grow so hot that because Chrysostom would not consent to the burning Theophilus and Cyril would hardly acknowledge him a lawful Bishop and Epiphanius in bitter chiding fell to such choler as he said he hoped he should not die a Bishop To whom Chrysostom answered as eagerly again That he trusted he should never return alive into his own Country of Cyprus which chiding words were not so bitter in sound as afterwards they proved true indeed For both Epiphanius died before he gat home to Cyprus and Chrysostom being put out of his Bishoprick ended his life in banishment CHAP. XXI Of the dangerous and destructive curiosity of some men VEssalius was busied in the dissection of the body of a Person of Quality meaning to find out the root of that distemper which was supposed to have given him his death when to his grief he found that which he looked not for The heart panted and there appeared other convincing signs that the unfortunate Noble-man might have lived had not he been so unseasonably Butchered this cost the Anatomist much trouble and disgrace and it hath fallen out with many others in the like maâner who while they have been gratifying their curiosity have occasioned irreparable injuries to themselves or others 1. Cornelius Agrippa living in Lorrain had a young man who Tabled with him one day being to go abroad he left the Keys of his Study with his Wife but with great charge to keep them safe and trust them to no man The youth over-curious of Novelty never ceased to importune the woman till âhe had lent him the Key to take view of his Library he entred it and light upon a Book of Conjurations wherein reading he straight hears a great bouncing at the door but not minding that he reads on the knocking grew greater and louder but he making no answer the Devil breaks open the door and enters enquires what he commands him to have done or why he was called the youth amazed and through extreme fear not able to answer the Devil âeises upon him and wriths his neck in sunder Agrippa returns and finds the young man dead and the Devils insulting over the Corpse he retires to his Art and calls his Devil to an account of what had been done who told him all that had passed then he commanded the Homicide to enter the body and walk with him into the Market-place where the Students were frequent and after two or three turns there to forsake the body he did so the body falls down dead before the Scholars all judge the reason of it some sudden fit of an Apoplexy but the marks about his neck and jaws rendred it somewhat suspicious Agrippa concealed this story in Lorrain but being banished thence he afterwards feared not to publish it in Lorrain 2. The Emperour Carracalla had a curiosity to know the name of him who was most like to succeed him and employed one Maternianus to enquire amongst the Magicians of the Empire by whom accordingly he was advertised that Macrinus was to be the man the Letters being brought unto Carracalla as he was in his Charriot were by him delivered with the rest of his Pacquets to the hands of Macrinus who was Captain of his Guard and by his oâfice to attend upon the person of the Emperour that he might open them and signifie unto him the contents thereof at his better leisure Macrinus finding by these the danger in which he stood resolved to strike the first blow and to that end entrusted
and to celebrate the wisdom and goodness of the great Creator who hath not been so liberal in his impartments to our Progenitours but that he hath reserved something wherewith to gratifie the modest inquiries and industrious researches of after-times 1. That there were any such men as Antipodes was in former times reckoned a matter so ridiculous and impossible that Boniface Archbishop of Mentz happening to see a Tractate written by Virglius Bishop of Saltzburg touching the Antipodes not knowing what damnable Doctrine might be couched under that strange name made complaint first to the Duke of Bohemia and afterwards to Pope Zachary Anno 745. by whom the poor Bishop unfortunate only in being Learned in such a time of ignorance was condemned of Heresie Even S. Austin and Laâtantius and some other of the ancient Writers condemn this point of the Antipodes for an incredible ridiculous fable and venerable Bede esteemed it for no better 2. The famous King Ethelbert had this Epitaph set upon him which in those daies passed with applause Rex Ethelbertus hic clauditur in Polyandro Fana pians certus Christo meat absque Meandro King Ethelbert lies here Clos'd in this Polyander For building Churches sure he goes To Christ without Meander 3. And how low Learning ran in our Land amongst the native Nobility some two hundred years since in the Reign of King Henry the sixth too plainly appears by the Motto on the sword of the Martial Earl of Shrewsbury which was Sum Talboti pro occidere in imicos meos the best Latin that Lord and perchance his Chaplains too in that Age could afford 4. Rhemigius an Interpreter of St. Paul's Epistles Commenting upon these words A vobis diffamatus est sermo tells us that diffamatus was somewhat improperly put for divulgatus St. Paul being not very solicitous of the propriety of words Whereupon Ludovicus Vives demands What shall we say to these Masters in Israel who know not that St. Paul wrote not in Latin but in Greek 5. It appears by the rescript of Pope Zacchary to Boniface a German Bishop that a Priest in those parts baptized in this form Baptizo te in nomine patria filia spiritua sancta And by Erasmus that some Divines in his time would prove that Hereticks were to be put to death because the Apostle saith Haereticum hominem devita which it seems they understood as if he had said De vitâ tolle 6. Du Pratt a Bishop and Chancellour of France having received a Letter from Henry the eighth King of England to King Francis the first of France wherein amongst other things he wrote Mitto tibi duodecem Molossos I send you twelve Mastiff Doggs the Chancellour taking Molossos to signiâie Mules made a Journey on purpose to Court to beg them of the King who wondring at such a Present to be sent him from England demanded the sight of the Letter and smiling thereat the Chancellour finding himself deceived told him that he mistook Molossos for Muletos and so hoping to mend the matter made it worse 7. The ignorance of former Ages was so gross in the point of Geography that what time Pope Clement the sixth had elected Lewis of Spain to be the Prince of the Fortunate Islands and for his aid and assistance therein had Mustered Souldiers in France and Italy our Country-men were verily perswaded that he was chosen Prince of Britain as one of the Fortunate Islands And our very Leiger Embassadours there with the Pope were so deeply settled in this opinion that forthwith they with-drew themselves from Rome and hasted with all speed into England there to certifie their friends and Country-men of the matter 8. The head of Nilus was to the Ancients utterly unknown as witnesseth Herodotus Strabo and Diodorus Siculus to which Ovid alludes Nilus in extremum fugit perterrituâ orbem Occuluitque caput quod adhuc laâet Nile sled for fear to the Worlds utmost bound And hid his head which cannot yet be found But saith Pererius upon Genesis as many other things are found out unknown to the Ancients so likewise amongst others the head-spring of Nilus and that in vast Marishes near the Mountain of the Moon not far from the famous Promontory of Good Hope where is the utmost bound of the Continent according to the Latitude of the Globe of the earth Southward 9. It is very observable and indeed admirable that neither Herodotus nor Thucydides nor any other Greek Author contemporary with them have so much as mentioned tâe Romans though then growing up to a dreadful power and being both Europeans And for the Gauls and Spaniards the Grecians as witnesseth Budaeus in his Book De Asse were so utterly ignorant of them that Ephorus one of the most accurate Writers took Spain which he calls Iberia to be a City though the Cosmographers make the circuit of it to contain above 1136 French Miles 10. The Ancients held that under the middle or burning Zone by reason of excessive heat the earth was altogether uninhabitable but it is now made evident by experience that there is as healthful temperate and pleasant dwelling as any where in the World as appears by the relations of Benzo Acosta Herbert and others 11. They were also altogether ignorant of the New World which is known to us by the name of America or the West Indies till such time as it was discovered by Christopher Columbus a Genoan Anno 1492. 12. Arch-Bishop Parker in his Antiquitates Britannicae makes relation of a French Bishop who being to take his Oath to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and âinding the word Metropoliticae therein being not able to pronounce it he passed it over with Soit pour dict Let it be as spoken And others of the Clergy when they had most grossly broken Priscians head being taken in the fact their common defence was those words of St. Gregory Non debent verba coelestis oraculi subesse regulis Donati The wordâ of the Heavenly Oracles ought not to be subject to the Rules of Donatus 13. King Alfred in his Preface upon the Pastorals of St. Gregory which he translated into English saith That when he came first to his Kingdom he knew not one Priest on the South side of the River Humber that understood his service in Latin or that could translate an Epistle into English 14. Archelaus King of Macedon was so ignorant in the things of nature that upon an Eclipse of the Sun amazed with fear he caused the Gates of the Palace to be shut up and the hair of his son to be cut off as he used in solemn mournings A further survey of the ignorance of the Ancients may be taken from a re-collection of some of the instances of the newly discovered Phaenomena at least if we believe Mr. Glanvile which are scattered as he saith under the heads of the Arts and Instruments which are as follow In
of her Friends to receive the Kings Oath which he immediately gave them in an ancient Temple touching the Altar and Images of the gods cursing himself with horrid and utmost execrations if he did not sincerely desire the marriage of his Sister if he did not make her his Queen and her Children his Heirs and no other Arsinoe now full of hopes comes to an enterview and conference with him who in his countenance and eyes carried nothing but love he marries her sets the Diadem upon her head in sight of the People and Souldiery and calls her Queen Arsinoe overjoyed went before to Cassandrea a well fortified City where her Treasures and her Chilren were this was the only thing he sought she brings in her Husband to receive and feast him there the Wayes Temples and Houses were adorned sacrifices offered her Son Lysimachus of sixteen and Philip of thirteen years old were commanded to go meet their Unkle whom he met and greedily embraced without the Gates and brought along with him Being entred the Gate and Castle he layes aside his Mask and resumes his own countenance and affections having brought in his Souldiers he immediately commands the Royal youths to be slain and that in the lap of their Mother whither they had fled she the more miserable in this that she might not dye with them having in vain interposed her self betwixt them and the Swords of their Executioners was driven into exile with the allowance only of two Maids to attend her there But Ptolomy did not long triumph in his victory for an inundation of Gauls breaking into Macedonia overcame and took him cut off his head and fixing it at the end of a Spear carried it about to strike terrour into others 6. In the raign of Queen Elizabeth there was in the City of London one Ann Averies Widow who forswore her self for a little mony that she should have paid for six pound of Flax at a shop in Woodstreet upon which she was suddenly surprised with the justice of God and fell down immediately speechless casting up at her mouth what nature had ordained to pass another way and in this agony died 7. Mclech Bahamen a King that commanded many Hills and Dales in Gelack and Taurus was looked upon by the Covetous and ambitious eye of Shaw Abbas King of Persia he sent therefore Methicuculi Beg with an Army of Cooselbashawes to perfect his designs upon him commanding his General not to descend thence without victory Bahaman having intelligence hereof after he had like an experienced Souldier performed all other things requisite put Himself his Queen two Sons and ten thousand able men in a large and impregnable Castle victualled for many years not fearing any thing the Persian could attempt against him Methicuculi having viewed this inaccessible Fortress and finding force not valuable turns Politician summons them to a Parlee which granted he assaults them with protestations of truce and friendship entreating the King to descend and taste a Banquet swearing by Mortis Alli the head of Shaw Abbas by Paradise by eight Transparent Orbes he should have Royal quarter come and go as pleased him By these Paynim attestations and rich presents he so allured the peaceful King that was unused to deceit that at last he trained the King and his two Sons to his treacherous Banquet whereat upon a sign given three Cooselbashes standing by at one instant with their slicing Scimitars whipt off their heads e're this villany was spred abroad by vertue of their Seals he caused the men above to descend and yield up the Castle unto him some receiving mercy others destruction By this detested policy he yoked in slavery this late thought indomitable Nation 8. Stigand thrust himself into the Archbishoprick of Canterbury and with it held Winchester he raised the Kentish men against William the Conqueror who thereupon bore a grudge against him underhand procured Legates from Rome to deprive him and he was likewise clapt up in the Castle of Winchester and hardly used even well near famished which usage was to make him confess where his treasure lay But he protested with Oaths that he had no mony yet after his death a little Key was found about his neck the lock whereof being carefully sought out shewed a note or direction of infinite treasures hid under ground in divers places he dyed in the year 1069. 9. Elfrid a Noble man intending to have put out the eyes of King Ethelstan his treason being known was apprehended and sent to Rome where at the Altar of St. Peter and before Pope Iohn the tenth he abjured the fact and thereupon immediately fell down to the earth so that his Servants bore him to the English School where within three dayes after he dyed the Pope denying him Christian buryal till he knew King Ethelstan's pleasure 10. From Basham in Sussex Earle Harold for his pleasure putting to Sea in a small Boat was driven upon the Coast of Normandy where by Duke William he was detained till he had sworn to make him King of England after Edward the Confessors death he afterwards without any regard to his oath placed himself in the Throne Duke William thereupon arrived at Pensey and with his Sword revenged the perjury of Harold at Battel in the same County and with such severity that there fell that day King Harold himself with sixty seven thousand nine hundred seventy and four English men the Conquerour thereby putting himself into full possession 11. Ludovicus King of Burgundy made war upon the Emperour and being taken prisoner by him the Emperour gave him his liberty having first made him swear that he should never more make war upon him Ludovicus was no sooner free in his person but as if he had been free of his oath too he came upon the Emperour with greater preparations and a stronger Army than before But he was overcome the second time and lost all his eyes also were plucked out and upon his forehead from ear to ear were these words imprinted with a hot Iron This man was saved by Clemency and lost by Perjury 12. In the reign of the Emperour Ludovicus the Son of Arnulphus Adelbert Palatine of the Oriental France was accused of having slain the Emperours Son and thereupon was closely besieged by the Emperour in the Castle of Aldenburg near Pabeberg but the Castle was so well fortified both by Art and Nature that the Emperour despaired of forcing it or prevailing with the defenders of it to surrender themselves Hatto the Bishop of Mentz goes to Adelbert who was his near Kinsman and therefore the more liable to be overreached by his fraud and invites him to treat with the Emperour and that if things should not prove to his own mind he swore to him that he would see him safe returned into his Castle of Strength Adelbert accepts of the motion the Bishop and he went out of the Gates when the Bishop looking upon the Sun
other was the Dutchess of Sommerset Wife to the Lord Protector of England Brother to the Admiral These two Ladies falling at variance for precedence which either of them challenged the one as Queen Dowager the other as Wife to the Protector who then governed the King and all the Realme drew their Husbands into the quarrel and so incensed the one of them against the other that the Protector procured the death of the Admiral his Brother Whereupon also followed his own destruction shortly after For being deprived of the assistance and support of his Brother he was easily overthrown by the Duke of Northumberland who caused him to be convicted of Felony and beheaded 9. A famous and pernicious faction in Italy began by the occasion of a quarrel betwixt two Boys whereof the one gave the other a box on the Ear in revenge whereof the Father of the Boy that was stricken cut off the hand of the other that gave the blow whose Father making thereupon the quarrel his own sought the revenge of the injury done to his Son and began the Faction of the Neri and Bianchi that is to say Black and White which presently spread it self through Italy and was the occasion of spilling much Christian blood 10. A poor distressed wretch upon some business bestowed a long and tedious Pilgrimage from Cabul in India to Asharaff in Hircania where e're he knew how the success would be he rested his weary limbs upon a Field Carpet choosing to refresh himself rather upon the cool Grass than be tormented by those merciless vermine of Gnats and Muskettos within the Town but poor man he fell à malo in pejus from ill to worse for lying asleep upon the way at such time as Sha Abbas the Persian Monarch set forth to hunt and many Nobles with him his pampered Jade winded and startled at him the King examines not the cause but sent an eternal Arrow of sleep into the poor mans heart jesting as Iphicrates did when he slew his sleepy Sentinel I did the man no wrong I found him sleeping and asleep I left him The Courtiers also to applaud his Justice made the poor man their common mark killing him an hundred times over if so many lives could have been forfeiâed 11. Anno 1568. the King of Sian had a white Elephant which when the King of Pegu understood he had an opinion of I know not what holiness that was in the Elephant and accordingly prayed unto it He sent his Ambassadors to the King of Sian offering him whatsoever he would desire if he would send the Elephant unto him but the King of Sian would not part with him either for love mony or any other consideration Whereupon he of Pegu was so moved to wrath that with all the power he could make he invaded the other of Sian Many hundred thousand men were brought into the field and a bloody Battle was fought wherein the King of Sian was overthrown his white Elephant taken and he himself made tributary to the Monarch of Pegu. 12. A needy Souldier under Abbas King of Persia draws up a Catalogue of his good services and closing it in his pressing wants humbly intreats the favour and some stipend from his god of war for such and such his exploits The poor man for his sawciness with many terrible bastinadoes on the soles of his feet was almost drubbed to death Besides Abbas enquires who it was that wrote it the Clerk made his apology but the King quarrelled at his scurvy writing and that he should never write worse makes his hand to be cut off CHAP. XLIII Of such as have been too fearful of death and over desirous of Life A Weak mind complains before it is overtaken with evil and as Birds are affrighted with the noise of the Sling so the infirm soul anticipates its troubles by its own fearful apprehensions and falls under them before they are yet arrived But what greater madness is there than to be tormented with futurities and not so much to reserve our selves to miseries against they come as to invite and hasten them towards us of our own accord The best remedy against this tottering state of the soul is a good and clear Conscience which if a man want he will tremble in the midst of all his armed guards 1. What a miserable life Tyrants have by reason of their continual fears of death we have exemplified in Dionysius the Syracusan who finished his thirty eight years Rule on this manner Removing his Friends he gave the custody of his body to some strangers and Barbarians and being in fear of Barbers he taught his Daughters to shave him and when they were grown up he durst not trust them with a Rasor but taught them how they should burn off his hair and Beard with the white filmes of Wallnut kernels Whereas he had two Wives Aristomache and Doris he came not to them in the night before the place was throughly searched and though he had drawn a large and deep Moat about the Room and had made a passage by a wooden Bridge himself drew it up after him when he went in Not daring to speak to the people out of the common Rostrum or Pulpit for that purpose he used to make Orations to them from the top of a Tower When he played at Ball he used to give his Sword and Cloak to a Boy whom he loved and when one of his familiar Friends had jestingly said You now put your life into his hands and that the Boy smiled he commanded them both to be slain one for shewing the way how he might be killed and the other for approving it with a smile At last overcome in Battle by the Carthaginians he perished by the treason of his own Subjects 2. Heraclides Ponticus writes of one Artemon a very skilful Engineer but withal saith of him that he was of a very timerous disposition and foolishly afraid of his own shadow so that for the most part of his time he never stirred out of his House That he had always two of his men by him that held a Brazen Target over his head for fear lest any thing should fall upon him and if upon any occasion he was forced to go from home he would be carryed in a Litter hanging near to the ground for fear of falling 3. The Cardinal of Winchester Henry Beaufort commonly called the Rich Cardinal who procured the death of the good Duke of Gloucester in the reign of King Henry the sixth was soon after struck with an incurable disease and understanding by his Physicians that he could not live murmuring and repining thereat as Doctor Iohn Baker his Chaplain and Privy-councellor writes he fell into such speeches as these Fye will not death be hired Will mony do nothing Must I dye that have so great Riches If the whole Realm of England would save my life I am able either
appeared to him in the night he repeated a Greek verse which would have no credit given to dreams and so clearing his mind of that suspicion he had conceived gave opportunity to Cassander to administer that poyson which was already prepared for him 9. The last night that Iulius Caesar was alive upon earth he was told by Calpurnia his Wife that she had then newly dreamed that she saw him lye dead in her bosome done to death by many wounds and being in great perplexity and fright with her vision she desisted not with most importunate entreaties to deterr him from going the next morning to the Senate-house he had also notice by Spurina to beware of the Ides of March in which he was slain nay in the morning as he passed to the Senate one thrust into his hands a note of all the Conspirators which he also shuâfled amongst the rest of his Papers and never looked upon 10. Aterius Rufâus a Knight of Rome when a great Sword-play was to be performed by the Gladiators of Syracuse dreamed the night before that one of those kind of Fencers which are called Retiarii which use Nets in the Theatre to entangle their Adversaries with that they should neither offend nor defend gave him a mortal wound which dream he told to such of his Friends as sate next him It happened presently after that one of those Retiarii was forced by his Adversary to the place where Aterius and his Friends were seated as Spectators whose face he no sooner beheld but he started and told his Friends that he was the man from whose hands he had dreamed he received his death and would thereupon have departed his Friends endeavour to detain him by discussing his fear and so occasioned his murder for the Retiarius having then compelled his Adversary to that very place and overthrown him while he was busie to thrust his Sword through him as he lay prostrate he so wounded Aterius that he dyed upon it 11. Mauritius the Emperour dreamed that both himself and his whole Stock were killed by one Phocas not without some fearful apprehensions he discourses this dream of his unto Philippicus his Son-in-Law Exact enquiry is made if any could be found of that name and in so numerous an Army as he had then there was but one and he a Notary he therefore supposed himself secure enough from one of so low and mean a Fortune But before he took any further course therein there was a mutiny in the Army upon the detention of their pay in that tumult Phocas was saluted Emperour the Army returning towards Constantinople Mauritius fled to Chalcedon where both he and his whole Progeny by the commandment of Phocas were put to death 12. Marcus Antonius Taurellus Earl of Guastalla warring in the Kingdom of Naples one morning as he rose told the Souldiers that stood round about him that he dreamed that night that he was drowned in the Water and that thereupon he was determined to give over his swimming whereunto he had so much accustomed himself but the same day after Dinner walking by the side of a Lake and spying therein divers of his acquaintance and having only an upper Garment upon him he forgat his dream leapt in amongst them and was drowned before any of his Friends could come in to his assistance 13. Archias the Thebane Tyrant being at a Feast where were present all sorts of merriment and mirth there was brought him a Letter wherein he was certified of a plot that was upon his life he never read it but gave order that as a thing serious it should be deferred to the morrow but neglecting that warning he did not live to read it for he was slain that night 14. It is a very memorable thing which from the mouth of a very credible person who saw it George Buchanan relates concerning Iames the fourth King of Scotland that intending to make a Waâ with England a certain old man of a venerable aspect and clad in a long blew Garment came unto him at the Church of St. Michaels at Linlithgow while he was at his devotion and leaning over the Canons Seat where the King sate said I am sent unto thee O King to give thee warning that thou proceed not in the War thou art about for if thou do it will be thy ruine and having so said he withdrew himself back into the press the King after service was ended enquired earnestly for him but he could no where be found neither could any of the standers by feel or perceive how when or where he passed from them having as it were vanished in their hands but no warning could divert his destiny which had not been destiny if it could have been diverted His Queen also had acquainted him with the visions and affrightments of her sleep that her Chains and Armlets appeared to be turned into Pearls she had seen him fall from a great Precipice she had lost one of her eyes but he answered these were but dreams arising from the many thoughts and cares of the day he marched on therefore and fell with a number of his Nobility at the battle of Flodden field September 9. 1513. 15. There was an Italian called David Risio who had followed the Savoyan Embassadour into Scotland and in hope of bettering his fortune gave himself to attend the Queen Mary at first in the quality of a Musician afterwards growing in more favour he was admitted to write her French Letters and in the end preferred to be principal Secretary of State had only the Queens Ear and governed all the affairs at Court. To that excess of Pride and Arrogance was he grown that he would out-brave the King in his Apparel in his domestick Furniture in the number and sorts of his Horses and in every thing else This man had warning given him more than once by Iohn Damiott a French Priest who was thought to have some skill in Magick to do his business and be gone for that he could not make good his part he answered disdainfully The Scots are given more to brag than fight Some few days before his death being warned by the same Priest to take heed of the Bastard he replyed that whilest he lived he should not have credit in Scotland to do him any hurt for he took Earl Murray to be the man of whom he was advertised to take heed but the first stroke was given him by George Douglass base Son to the Earl of Angus after whom every man inflicted his wound till he was dispatched this was in the year 1565. CHAP. LIII Of such as have unwittingly or unwarily procured and hastned their own death and downfall THe Ancients erected no Altars to death because it is inexorable and no way to be prevailed upon or to be escaped by any of us agreeable to this is that of Mr. Benlows in his Divine Poem Time posts on loose rein'd Steeds the Sun er 't face To West
he added the Estates thereof to the house of Austria He was coursely used in the Low Countries by a company of rude Mechanicks detained in Prison which he endured with patience and after nine Months freed himself with admirable prudence He was joined Emperour with his Father in his Fathers life-time with whom he Reigned seven years and after his decease he Reigned alone twenty five years more his Motto was Tene mensuram respice finem 97. Charles the âiâth this man was the glory of the House of Austria a Puissant Prince he liked three Books especially Polybius's History Machiavel's Prince and Castalion's Courtier In fifteen Wars which he waged for the most part he was successful the last of which was by Cortez and Pizarro in the newly discovered parts of America where in twenty eight Battels he beâame Master of so many Kingdoms Near home he took Rome by the Duke of Burbon captivated the French King Francis in the Battel of Pavia frighted Solyman the Turk from Vienna setled Muly Hassen in his Kingdom in Africk he defeated Barbarossa that formidable Pirat and took Tunis By the Popes continual instigations he carried a hard hand towards the Protestants whose patience and perseverance with intervenient crosses abated his edge at last Wearied at length with the Worlds incessant troubles he devested himself of all Imperial Authority and retired to a Monastery his Motto was Plus Vltra opposite to that of Hercules He Reigned thirty and seven years 98. Ferdinand the first Arch-Duke of Austria the brother of Charles King of Hungary and Bohemia elected King of the Romans by the procurement of Charles Anno 1531. upon whose resignation he was chosen Emperour Anno 1558. a compleat and judicious Prince Under him in the treaty of Passaw was granted Liberty of Conscience to the Professours of the Augustane Confession which much startled the Fathers of the Trent Council as also did the grant to the Bohemians for receiving the Supper in both kinds He subdued Iohn Sepusius Vaywode of Transylvania and strongly kept back the Turk from encroachments upon his Dominions his Motto was Fiat Iustitia pereat mundus 99. Maximilian the second the son of Frederick elected King of the Romans in the life of his Father Anno 1562. succeeded in the Empire after his decease He was constant to the Tenent that mens Consciences are not to be forced in matters of Religion In his time began the Wars in the Low Countryes chiefly occasioned by the Spanish cruelty executed by the Duke of Alva the Civil Wars in France the Massacre of the Protestants began at Paris the famous defeat was given to the Turks in the Sea-sight at Lepanto he Reigned twelve years married his two daughters to two Puissant Princes Elizabeth to Charles the ninth King of France and Anna his eldest to Philip King of Spain his Motto was Dominus providebit 100. Rodolphus the second the eldest son of Maximilian a Prince much addicted to Chymistry he granted liberty of Religion to the Protestants had great Wars against the Turks with whom in the year 1600. he concluded a Peace but being undermined by his brother Matthias was forced to surrender to him the Kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia and to content himself with Austria and the Empire only In his time Henry the fourth King of France was stab'd by Ravilliac and the Gunpowder Treason was hatched here in England his Motto was Omnia ex voluntate Dei 101. Matthias brother of Rodolphus King of Hungary Bohemia and Arch-Duke of Austria succeeded in whose time were sown the seeds of that terrible War which had almost destroy'd the Empire the Protestants standing for their Priviledges in Bohemia were withstood by some of the Emperours Council of whom they threw Slabata and Fabritius Smesantius with a Secretary out of a Window at Prague his Motto was Concordia lumine major Having no children he declared 102. Ferdinand the second of the House of Gratz to be Emperour this Prince was more zealously affected to the See of Rome than any of his Predecessours and a great enemy of the Protestant Religion occasioning thereby that long and bloody War in the Empire of Germany The King and Queen of Bohemia forsaken of their States are forced to âly he is proscribed and put out of his Elâctârship Gustavus Adolphus King of Sweden like a tempest falls upon Germany and frâes divers oppressed Princes but at last was slain in the Battel at Lutzen uncertain whether by the ânemy or the Treason of his own his Motto was Legitime certantibus 103. Ferdinand the third son of Ferdinand the second broke the great power of the Swedes who were called in for the support of the German liberty against the violent resolutions of Ferdinand the second For he overthrew them at the Battel of Norlingen This Prince is the twelfth Emperour of the House of Hapsburg anâ the ninth of the House of Austria without intermission The cause of which is to be attributed to Charles the fifth who procured in his life-time that his brothâr might be chosen King of the Romans as his Successour in the Empire A Policy which hath ever since been continued by his Successours and the Germans are the more willing to hâarken to it because the Austrian Princes are not only Natives but also better able to back the Empire in its compleat Majesty than any other of the Nation The Motto of this Emperour is Pietate Iustitia In the Collection of these Emperours I have made use of Suetonius Zonaras Carion ....... Heylen Sympson Prideaux and others CHAP. II. Of the Eastern Greek and Turkish Emperours 1. COnstantinus aged thirty one in the year 306. took upon him the care of the Empire he overcame Maxentius and Licinius restored Peace to the Church took Byzantium and having enlarged it called it Constantinople and New Rome He died in Nicomedia Anno 337. aged sixty five Gault tab Chronogr p. 279. 2. Constantius his son succeeded him in the East he favoured the Arrians hearing that Iulianus his Kinsman conspired against him he made Peace with Sapores the Persian King and moved towards him but in his march seised with a Fevor he died Anno 361. Gaulter tab Chron. p. 283. 3. Iulianus succeeded Sirnamed the Apostate son of Constantius the brother of Constantine the Great at first a Christian afterwards a professed enemy of the Gospel fortunate in his Wars against the Almanes Franks and other Transalpine Nations whilest he was a Christian. Prodigiously slain in the Persian War when become a Persecutor aged thirty eight his Motto was Pennis suis perire grave he Reigned but one year and eight months dying he threw his blood up into the Air saying Satiare Nazarene Zon. tom 3. fol. 119. 4. Iovian or Iovinian chosen by the Army a Religious Prince made Peace with the Persian setled the affairs of the Church who being dead Valentinian one of mean birth but great abilities in War was elected Emperour he Reigned
Arch-bishop of Beneventum Printed a Book in defence of Sodomy England reconciled to the Mother Church in Queen Maries daies 230. Marcellus the second an Hetruscan he esteemed the Lutherans worse than Turks and perswaded Charles the fifth and Ferdinand rather to turn their Forces against them he was Pope but twenty three daies 231. Paulus the fourth the Neapolitane a great Patron of the Jesuites and Inquisition in which had been made away one hundred and fifty thousand persons for Religion being hated for his cruelty after his death his Statue was cast into Tyber 232. Pius the fourth continued the Council at Trent and brought it to an end and thereby setled and confirmed the interest of the Church of Rome caused it to be received as Oecumenical his Legates forbid footing in England by Queen Elizabeth Venery and Luxury shortned this Popes daies and then succeeded 233. Pius the fifth a Lombard commanded the Whores in Rome to be married or whipt He had a hand in the death of Prince Charles of Spain and of our King Iames his Father and in most of the Treasons against Queen Elizabeth whom he Excommunicated by Bull he left his Seat to 234. Gregorius the thirteenth a Bononian the Massacre at Paris was by this mans procurement He altered the Kalender to his New Stile which anticipates ten daies the old account he Excommunicated and outed the Archbishop of Collen because he married would have disposed of the Kingdom of Portugal but was prevented 235. Sixtus the fifth of Marca Anconae Excommunicates and praises the Murder of Henry the third of France by Iaquez Clement blesseth the Banner of Spain against England in 88. quarrels with Spain for Naples and wiped the Jesuites of a great mass of money The Cardinal Bellarmine Dedicates his Controversies to him yet being asked his judgement of him when dead said He thought he was damned 236. Vrbanus the seventh a Genoway ascended the Chair aâter him oâ whom there is the less to be said in that he enjoyed his Popedom but a fourteenth night and then he left it to who should come after dying before his inauguration The Seat not long empty was supplied by 237. Gregorius the fourteenth of Millaine he held a Jubilee and exhausted the Treasury of the Church which Sixtus before had sealed by an Oath to be employed in the recovery of the Holy Land he cursed King Henry of Navarre as a relapsed Heretick his Bulls were burnt by the hands of the Hangman he died of the Stone before he had sat one year out 238. Innocentius the ninth a Bononian for the two months he was in he expressed an hatred against the King of Navarre and a good liking of the Jesuites one year four months and three daies made an end of four Popes and then came 239. Clemens the eighth made Henry of France turn Papist to be quiet much troubled with the Gout but eased as he saith when the Arch-duke Maximilian had kissed his gouty Toes 240. Leo the eleventh came in with this Motto over his Arch-triumphal Pageant Dignus est Leo in virtute Agni accipere librum solvere septem signacula ejus but a Fevor ended him before he had sat twenty eight daies 241. Paulus the fifth an Italian promoted the Powder-plot interdicted the State of Venice whereupon the Jesuites were banished the Oath of Allegiance to King Iames forbidden by Breves from this Pope 242. Gregorius the fifteenth a Bononian Elected by way of Adoration he instigates the French against the Protestants Saints Ignat-Loyola and quarrels with the Venetians after two years was chosen 243. Vrbanus the eighth a Florentine he advances his Kindred in his time the Arch-bishop of Spalato turned from Papist to Protestant and thence to Papist again he was a politer Scholar than most of them 244. Innocentius the tenth 245. Alexander the seventh CHAP. IV. Of such men as have been the Framers and Composers of Bodies of Laws for divers Nations and Countries IT was the saying of Plato That there was a necessity that Laws should be made for men and that they should be obliged to live according to them or otherwise men would differ but very little from the Beasts themselves The reason of this is That no man is naturally so well composed as rightly to understand what things do best conduce to the publick good of humane life or if he do yet he either cannot or will not alwaies act according to that which in his judgement is the best Hence it is that so many Nations have submitted to the wisdom of some one that hath been eminent amongst them and contended to live by the rules they have prescribed 1. Lycurgus was the Law-giver to the Lacedemonians and when by his Institutions he had brought Sparta to that form of a Republick which he had desired He then Assembled them all where he told them that in most parts the Common-wealth was so framed as it might rightly serve to the improvement both of their vertue and felicity But that there was now behind the chiefest and most important head of all which he should not take upon him to impart unto them till such time as he had consulted the Oracle That they should therefore firmly cleave to the present Laws nor should deviate from nor change any thing therein till such time as he should return from Delphos They all promised him and having taken an Oath of the Kings Senate and People to that purpose he went to Delphos where when he came he enquired of Apollo if the frame and model of his Laws were such as that his Citizens might in the observation of them be made vertuous and prosperous Apollo made answer that all was well done and that so long as they lived thereby they should be most famous This answer he sent back to Sparta which done he resolved that the Spartans should never be freed from their Oath they had given him and to that purpose he underwent a voluntary banishment and death in Crcet saith Aristocrates having before-hand besought his Host and entertainer That as soon as he was dead he should cause his body to be burnt and the ashes thereof cast into the Sea that so no remainder of him might be brought to Sparta lest they thereby pretending he was returned should disengage themselves from their Oath and attempt any change in the Common-wealth 2. Solon was the Law-giver to the Athenians and when Anacharsis did deride his endeavours in this kind that went about to repress the injuries and extravagancies of his Citizens with a few written words Which said he are no better than Spiders Webs and which the stronger will break at their pleasure Solon return'd that men will be sure to stand to those Covenants which will bring manifest disadvantages to the infringers of them Adding that he had so framed and tempered his Laws for Athens that it should manifestly appear to all of them That it was more for their concern strictly to observe than
you forgotten that our Sânate is humane and moderate towards those they treat with But the people are high spirited and desirous of great matters If therefore in the Assembly of the people you shall declare you come with full power they will impose upon you what they please rather deal so with them as if you had not the full power and I for my part will do all I am able in favour of your State and confirm'd it to them with an Oath Next day at the Assembly of the people Alcibiades with great civility demanded of the Embassadours in what quality they came whether as Plenipotentiaries or not They denied what they had said before in the Senate and declared before the people that they had not full power to conclude matters Hereupon Alcibiades immediately cryed out That they were a sort of unfaithful and inconstant men no way to be trusted by this means he so excited both the Senate and People against them that they could do nothing CHAP. VI. Of such as were eminent Sea-men or discoverers of Lands or Passages by Sea formerly unknown WHen Anacharsis was once asked which he thought to be the greatest number of the living or the dead Of which sort said he do you take those to be that Sail upon the Seas He doubted it seems whether they were to be reputed amongst the living who permitted their lives to the pleasure âf the Winds and Waves Had all others been possessed with the same timerous Sentiments the World had wanted those Noble Spirits who could not rest satisfied till by their own hazards they had brought one Hemisphere to some acquaintance with the other 1. Christopher Columbus born at Nervy in the Signiory of Genoa being a man of great abilities and born to undertake great matters could not perswade himself the motion of the Sun considered but that there was another World to which that glorious Planet did impart both his life and heat when he went from us This World he purposed to seek after and opening his design to the State of Genoa Anno 1486. was by them rejected Upon this repulse he sent his Brother Bartholomew to King Henry the seventh of England who in his way happened unfortunately into the hands of Pirates by whom detain'd a long while at last he was enlarged As soon as he was set at liberty he repaired to the Court of England where his proposition found such a chearful entertainment at the hands of the King that Christopher Columbus was sent for to come thither also But Christopher not knowing of his brothers imprisonment and not hearing from him conceived the offer of his Sârvice to have been neglected and thereupon made his desires known at the Court of Castile where after many delayes and six years attendance on the business he was at last furnished with three Ships only and those not for conquest but discovery With this small strength he sailed on the Ocean more than sixty daies yet could see no Land so that the discontented Spaniards began to mutiny and refused to move a foot forwards just at that time it happened that Columbus did discern the Clouds to carry a clearer colour than they did before and therefore besought them only to expect three daies longer in which space if they saw not Land he promised to return toward the end of the third day One of the company called Roderigo de Triane descried fire an evident token they drew near unto some shore The place discovered was an Island on the Coast of Florida called by Columbus St. Saviours now counted one of the Lucaios Landing his men and causing a Tree to be cut down he made a Cross thereof which he erected near the place where he came on Land and by that ceremony took possession of the New World for the Kings of Spain October 11. 1492. Afterwards he discovered and took possession of Hispaniola and with much Treasure and content returned to Spain and was preferred by the Kings themselves for this good service first to be Admiral of the Indies and in conclusion to the title of the Duke De la Vega in the Isle of Iamaica The next year he was furnished with eighteen ships for more discoveries in this second Voyage he discovered the Islands of Cuba and Iamaica and built the Town of Isabella after called Domingo in Hispaniola from whence for some severities used against the mutinous Spaniards he was sent Prisoner to Castile but very honourably entertained and absolved of all the crimes imputed to him In 1497. he began his third Voyage in which he discovered the Countrys of Pana and Cuââna on the firm land with the Islands of Cubagna and Margarita and many other Islands Capes and Provinces In 1500. he began his fourth and last Voyage in the Course whereof coming to Hispaniola he was unworthily denyed entrance into the City of Domingo by Nicholas de Ovendo then Governour thereof After which scowring the Sea-Coasts as far as Nombre de Trias but adding little to the fortune of his âormer discoveries he returned back to Cuba and Iamaica and from thence to Spain where six years after he dyed and was buried honourably at Sevil Anno 1506. 2. Columbus having led the way was seconded by Americus Vesputius an adventurous Florentine employed therein by Emanuel King of Portugal Anno 1501. on a design of finding out a nearer way to the Molucca's than by the Cape of good Hope who though he passed no further than the Cape of St. Augustines in Brasile yet from him to the great injury and neglect of the first Discoverer the Continent or main Land of this Country hath the name of America by which it is still known and commonly called 3. To him succeeded Iohn Cabott a Venetian the Father of Sebastian Cabott in behalf of Henry the seventh King of England who discovered all the North Out-coasts of America from the Cape of Florida in the South to New-found-land and Terra de Laborador in the North causing the American Roytolets to turn homagers to the King and Crown of England 4. Ferdinandus Cortesius was as I suppose the most famous of all the Spaniards for the discovery of new Lands and People For passing the Promontory of Cuba that points directly to the West and is under the Tropick of Cancer and leaving Iucatana and Colvacana on the left hand he bent his course till he attained the entrance of the great River Panucus where he understood by Interpreters he had in his former Voyage that these were the Shores of the Continent which by a gentle turning was on this side connected with the Shores of Vraban but on the other Northward after a vast tract oâ Land did conjoyn it self with those Countreys which Seamen call Baccalaurae He also was informed that the large and rich Kingdoms of Mexico were extended from the South to the West these Kingdoms he was desirous to visit as abounding in Gold and all kind of plenty the
Clime temperate as scituate under the Aequator Here making advantage of the difference betwixt two Kings contending with each other having strengthned himself but especially by the terrour of his Guns and Horses he overcame Montezuma the most potent of all the Kings made himself Master of the great City Temistitana and took possession of that rich and fertile Country in the Name of his Master But long he did not enjoy it for the same of these great actions drew the envy of the Court upon him so that he was sent for back having as a reward of his virtue received the Town of Vallium from Charles the Emperour to him and his Posterity for ever He afterwards followed Caesar in his African Expedition to Algier where he lost his precious Furniture by Shipwrack Of a mean mans Son of the poor Town of Medelinum Caesar raised him to the degree of a Noble-man some few years after which he dyed at home not as yet aged 5. Sir Francis Drake was born nigh South Tavestock in Devonshire and brought up in Kent being the Son of a Minister who fled into Kent for fear of the six Articles and bound his Son to the Master of a small Bark which traded into France and Zealand his Master dying unmarried bequeathed his Bark to him which he sold and put himself into farther employment at first with Sir Iohn Hawkins afterwards upon his own account Anno 1577. upon the thirteenth of December with a fleet of five Ships and Barks and one hundred seventy four men Gentlemen and Saylers he began that famous Navigation of his wherein he sayled round about the world with great vicissitude of Fortune he finished that Voyage arriving in England November the third 1580. the third year of his setting out having in the whole Voyage though a curious searcher after the time lost one day through the variation of several climates He feasted the Queen in his Ship at Dartford who Knighted him for his service being the first that had accomplished so great a design He is therefore said to have given for his device a Globe with this Motto Tu primus circumdedisti me Thou first didst Sayl round me A Poet then living directed to him this Epigram Drake pererrati novit quem terminus Orbis Quemque simul Mundi vidit uterque Polus Si Taceant homines facient te sydera notum Sol nescit comitis non memor esse sui Drake whom th'encompast Earth so fully knew And whom at once both Poles of Heav'n did view Should Men forget thee Sol could not forbear To Chronicle his fellow Travailer 6. Sebastian Cabot a Venetian rigged up two Ships at the cost of Henry the seventh King of England Anno 1496. intending to the Land of Cathai and from thence to turn towards India to this purpose he aimed at a passage by the Northwest but after certain dayes he found the Land ran towards the North he followed the Continent to the fifty sixth degree under our Pole and there finding the Coast to turn towards the East and the Sea covered with Ice he turned back again sayling down by the Coast of that Land towards the Aequinoctial which he called Baccalaos from the number of fishes found in that Sea like Tunnies which the Inhabitants call Baccalaos Afterwards he sayled along the Coast unto thirty eight degrees and provisions failing he returned into England was made Grand Pilot of England by King Edward the sixth with the allowance of a large pension of one hundred sixty six pounds thirteen shillings and four pence during life 7. Mr. Thomas Candish of Trimley in the County of Suffolk Esquire departed out of Plimouth Thursday the twenty first of Iuly 1586. with the Desire a Ship of one hundred and twenty Tun the Content of sixty Tun and the Hugh-gallant a Bark of forty Tun with one hundred twenty three Persons of all sorts with these he made an admirable and successful Voyage into the South Sea and from thence about the circumference of the whole Earth and the ninth of September 1588. after a terrible Tempest which carried away most part of their Sayls they recovered their long wished for Port of Plimouth in England whence they set forth in the beginning of their Voyage CHAP. VII Of the Eloquence of some men and the wonderful power of perswasion that hath been in their Speeches and Orations AMongst the Heathen Mercury was accounted the God of Eloquence and with the rest of his Furniture they allotted him a Rod or Wand by virtue of which he had the power of conducting some souls to Hell and âreeing others from thence By which they would signifie that the power of Eloquence is such as it frees from death such as the Hangman waited for and as often exposes innocence to the utmost severity of the Law See something of the force of it in the following Examples 1. Hegesias a Cyrenean Philosopher and Oratour did so lively represent the miseries of humane life in his Orations and fixed the Images of them so deep in the minds and hearts of his Auditors that many of them sought their freedom thence by a voluntary death Insomuch that King Ptolomaeus was enforced to send him a command that he should forbear to make any publick Orations upon that Subject for the future 2. Pericles the Athenian was said to thunder and lighten and to carry a dreadful thunderbolt in his tongue by reason of his Eloquence Thucydides the Milesian one of the Nobles and long his enemy in respect of State matters being asked by Archidamus the Spartan King which was the best Wrastler of Pericles or him As soon saith he as wrastling with him I have cast him to the ground he denies it and perswades that he had not the fall and withall so efficaciously that he makes all the Spectators to believe it Whensoever Pericles was to make an Oration he was very solicitous in the composure of it and whensoever he was to speak in any cause he ever used âirst to pray to the gods that no single word might fall from his lips which was not agreeable to the present matter in hand 3. Many were famous amongst the Romans for Eloquence but this was never an hereditary priviledge save only in the family of the Curio's in which there were three Oratours in immediate succession to each other 4. Iohn Tiptoft Earl of Worcester was bred in Baliol Colledge he was the âirst English person of honour that graced Learning with the study thereof in the dayes of King Edward the fourth both at home and in foreign Universities He made so eloquent an Oration in the Vatican in the presence of Pope Pius the second one of the least bad and most learned of his Order that his Holiness was divided betwixt weeping and wondring thereat 5. Demades was the Son of Demaeas a Mariner and from a Porter betook himself to the Commonwealth in the City of Athens all men
at Lambeth were dasht one against another and were broke to pieces the snafts of two Chimneys were blown down upon the roof of his Chamber and beat down both the Lead and Rafters upon his Bed in which ruine he must needs have perished if the roughness of the water had not forced him to keep his Chamber at Whitehall The same night at Croyden a retiring place belonging to the Archbishop of Canterbury one of the Pinnacles fell from the Steeple beat down the Lead and Roof of the Church above twenty foot square The same night too at the Metropolitical Church in the City of Canterbury one of the Pinnacles upon the Belfrey Tower which carried a Vane with this Archbishops Arms upon it was violently struck down but born a good distance from the Steeple and fell upon the Roof of the Cloister under which the Arms of the Archiepiscopal See it self were engraven in stone which Arms being broken in pieces by the former gave occasion to one that loved him not to collect this inference That the Arms of the present Archbishop of Canterbury breaking down the Arms of the See of Canterbury not only portended his own fall but the ruine of the Metropolitical Dignity by the weight thereof Of these he took not so much notice as he did of an accident which happened on St. Simon and Iude's Eve not above a week before the beginning of the late long Parliament which drew him to his final ruine On which day going to his upper Study to send some Manuscripts to Oxon he found his Picture at full length and taken as near unto the life as the Pencil was able to express it to be fallen on the floor and lying flat upon its face the string being broke by which it was hanged against the Wall At the sight whereof he took such a sudden apprehension that he began to fear it as an Omen of that ruine which was coming towards him and which every day began to be threatned to him as the Parliament grew nearer and nearer to consult about it These things occasioned him to look back on a former misfortune which chanced on the 19. of Septemb. 1633. being the very day of his translation to the See of Canterbury when the Ferry-boat transporting his Coach and Horses with many of his Servants in it sunk to the bottom of the Thames CHAP. III. Of the famous Predictions of some men and how the Event has been conformable thereunto SOcrates had a Genius that was ever present with him which by an audible voice gave him warning of approaching evils to himself or friends by dehorting as it always did when it was heard from this or that counsel or design by which he many times saved himself and such as would not be ruled by his counsel when he had this voice found the truth of the admonition by the evil success of their affairs as amongst other Charmides did I know not whether by such way as this or some other as extraordinary the ministry of good or evil Spirits some men have come to the knowledge of future events and have been able to foretel them long before they came to pass 1. Anno Christi 1279. there lived in Scotland one Thomas Lermouth a man very greatly admired for his foretelling of things to come He may justly be wondred at for foretelling so many ages before the union of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland in the ninth degree of the Bruces blood with the succession of Bruce himself to the Crown being yet a Child and many other things which the event hath made good The day before the death of King Alexander he told the Earl of March that before the next day at noon such a tempest should blow as Scotland had not felt many years before The next morning proving a clear day the Earl challenged Thomas as an Impostor he replied that noon was not yet past about which time a Post came to inform the Earl of the Kings sudden death and then said Thomas this is the tempest I foretold and so it shall prove to Scotland as indeed it did 2. Duncan King of the Scots had two principal men whom he employed in all matters of importance Mackbeth and Banquho these two travelling together through a Forest were met by three Witches Weirds as the Scots call them whereof the first making obeysance unto Mackbeth saluted him Thane that is Earl of Glammis the second Thane of Cauder and the third King of Scotland This is unequal dealing said Banquho to give my friend all the honours and none unto me to which one of the Weirds made answer That he indeed should not be King but out of his loins should come a Race of Kings that should for ever rule the Scots And having thus said they all vanished Upon their arrival to the Court Mackbeth was immediately created Thane of Glammis and not long after some new service requiring new recompence he was honoured with the Title of Thane of Cawder Seeing then how happily the prediction of the three Weirds fell out in the two former he resolved not to be wanting to himself in fulfilling the third He therefore first killed the King and after by reason of his Command amongst the Souldiers he succeeded in his Throne Being scarce warm in his seat he called to mind the prediction given to his Companion Banquho whom hereupon suspecting as his Supplanter he caused to be killed together with his whole posterity only Fleance one of his Sons escaping with no small difficulty into Wales freed as he thought of all fear of Banquho and his issue he built Dunsinan Castle and made it his ordinary Seat afterwards on some new fears consulting with his Wizards concerning his future estate he was told by one of them that he should never be overcome till Bernane Wood being some miles distant came to Dunsinan Castle and by another that he should never be slain by any man which was born of a Woman secure then as he thought from all future dangers he omitted no kind of libidinous cruelty for the space of eighteen years for so long he tyrannized over Scotland But having then made up the measure of his iniquities Mackduffe the Governour of Fife with some other good Patriots privily met one evening at Bernane Wood and taking every one of them a bough in his hand the better to keep them from discovery marched early in the morning towards Dunsinan Castle which they took by storm Mackbeth escaping was pursued by Mackduffe who having overtaken him urged him to the Cambat to whom the Tyrant half in scorn returned that in vain he attempted to kill him it being his destiny never to be slain by any that was born of a Woman Now then said Mackduffe is thy fatal end drawing fast upon thee for I was never born of a Woman but violently cut out of my mothers belly which so daunted the Tyrant though otherwise a valiant man that he
in the judgment of himself and all his Citizens He made a solemn Feast upon his Birth-day and having invited all his friends setteth himself to the displaying of all his prosperity which himself magnifieth admireth and extolleth above the clouds and at last comes to this he asks one of his inward friends if there wanted any thing to make up his felicity compleat who considering what little stay there is in worldly matters and how they roll and flye away in a moment or rather inspired from above made this answer Certainly the wrath of God cannot be long from this thy so great prosperity Well the Forces of the Guelphs beginning to decay the Gibbellines run to Arms beset the house of this prosperous Hugolin break down the Gates kill one of his Sons and a Grandchild that opposed their entrance lay hold on Hugolin himself imprison him with two other of his Sons and three Granchildren in a Tower shut all the Gates upon them and throw the keys into the River of Arne that ran hard by Here Hugolin saw those goodly Youths of his dying between his arms himself also at deaths door He cryed and besought his enemies to be content that he might endure some humane punishment and to grant that he might be confessed and communicate e're he dyed But their hearts were all flint and all he requested with tears they denied with derision so he dyed pitifully together with his Sons and Grandchildren that were inclosed with him So sudden and oftentimes so tragical are the revolutions of that life which seems most to promise a continuance of prosperity 15. Amongst all those that have been advanced by the favour of mighty Princes there was never so great a Minion nor a more happy man in his life until his death than was Ibraim Bassa chief Vizier to Solyman the Great Turk This Bassa finding himself thus highly caressed by his Lord and Master he besought him on a day as he talked with him with great familiarity that he would forbear to make so much of him lest being elevated too high and flourishing beyond measure it should occasion his Lord to look a scance upon him and plucking him from the top of Fortunes wheel to hurl him into the lowest of misery Solyman then swore unto him that while he lived he would never take a way his life But afterwards moved against him by the ill success of the Persian War by him perswaded and some suspicion of Treachery yet feeling himself tyed by his oath he forbore to put him to death till being perswaded and informed by a Talisman or Turkish Priest that a man asleep cannot be counted amongst the living in regard the whole life of man is a perpetual watch Solyman sent one night an Eunuch who with a sharp razor cut his throat as he was quietly sâeeping upon a Pallet in the Court. And thus this great Favourite had not so much as the favour to be acquainted with his Masters displeasure but was sent out of the world at unawares his dead body was reviled and curst by Solyman after which a weight was tyed to it and it cast into the Sea 16. George Villiers was the third Son of Sir George Villiers Knight was first sworn Servant to King Iames then his Cupâbearer at large the Summer following admitted in ordinary the next St. Georges day he was Knighted and made Gentleman of the Kings Bedâchamber and the same day had an annual pension of a thousand pound given him out of the Court of Wards At New-years tide following the King chose him Master of the Horse After this he was installed of the most noble Order of the Garter In the next August he created him Baron of Whaddon and Viscount Villiers In Ianuary of the same year he was advanced Earl of Buckingham and sworn of his Majesties Privy Council The March ensuing he attended the King into Scotland and was likewise âworn a Councellor in that Kingdom At New-years Tide after he was created Marquess of Buckingham and made Lord Admiral of England Chief Justice in Eyre of all the Parks and Forests on the South-side of Trent Master of the Kings Bench Office head Steward of Westminster and Constable of Windsor Castle chosen by the King the chief Concomitant of the Heir apparent in his Journey into Spain then made Duke of Buckingham and his Patent sent him thither After his return from whence he was made Lord Warden of the Cinque-ports and Steward of the Mannor of Hampton-Court But in the midst of all these Honours of the Duke upon Saturday the 23. of August at Portsmouth when after break-fast he came out of the room into a kind of Lobby somewhat darker and which led to another Chamber where divers waited with Sir Thomas Fryer close at his ear in the moment as the said Knight withdrew himself from the Duke one Iohn Felton a younger Brother of mean fortunes in Suffolk gave him with a back blow a deep wound into his left side leaving the knife in his body which the Duke himself pulling out on a sudden effusion of spirits he sunk down under the table in the next room and immediately expired One thing in this enormous accident is I must confess to me beyond all wonder as I received it from a Gentleman of judicious and diligent observation and one whom the Duke well favoured that within the space of not many minutes after the fall of the body and removal thereof into the first room there was not a living creature in either of the Chambers with the body no more than if it had lain in the Sands of Ethiopia whereas commonly in such cases you shall note every where a great and sudden conâlux of people unto the place to hearken and see but it seems the horrour of the Fact stupisied all curiosity Thus dyed this great Peer in the thirty sixth year of his age compleat and three days over in a time of great recourse unto him and dependence upon him The House and Town full of Servants and Suitors his Dutchess in an upper room scarce yet out of her bed and the Court at this time not above six or nine miles from him which had been the Stage of his Greatness 17. Charles the Gross the twenty ninth King of France and Emperour of the West began to reign in the year 885. the eyes of the French were fixed upon him as the man that should restore their Estate after many disorders and confusions He went into Italy and expelled the Saracens that threatned Rome being returned he found the Normans dispersed in divers Coasts of his Realm Charles marches with his Army against them but at the first encounter was overthrown this check though the loss was small struck a great terrour and at last caused an apparent impossibility to succour Neustria and recover it from so great Forces He was therefore advised to treat with them to make them of enemies friends and to leave them that which
in the same sentences so that the Gentiles then present pronounced those Scriptures to have been translated by the inspiration of the holy Spirit of God 30. When Anterus had sate Bishop of Rome for one month only he died after whose death it was that Fabianus came from the Country together with certain others to dwell at Rome when such a thing as never was seen before at the Election of a Bishop happened then by the divine and celestial Grace of God For when all the Brethren had gathered themselves together for to make choice of a Bishop and many thought upon divers notable and famous men Fabianus being there present with others when as every one thought least nay nothing at all of him suddenly from above there came a Dove and rested upon his head after the example of the Holy Ghost which in likeness of a Dove descended upon our Saviour and so the whole multitude being moved thereat with one and the same Spirit of God cryed out chearfully with one accord that he was worthy of the Bishoprick and immediately he was taken and installed Bishop 31. Constantine the Emperour going against the Tyrant Maxentius had a certain Vision It was about noon the day somewhat declining when he saw in the Sky a lightsom Pillar in form of a Cross wherein these words were engraven In hoc vince i.e. In this overcome This so amazed the Emperour that he mistrusting his own sight demanded of them that were present whether they perceived the Vision which when all with one consent had affirmed the wavering mind of the Emperour understand it of Religion whether he should become a Christian or not was setled with that divine and wonderful sight The night following he dreamed that Christ came unto him and said Frame to thy self the form of a Cross after the example of the sign which appeared unto thee and bear the same against the enemies as a fit Banner or token of Victory which he accordingly did and was victorious 32. That was a rare instance of propitious Fortune which befel Thomas Serranus who in one and the same year was consecrated Bishop elected Cardinal and also attained to the Popedom by the name of Nicholas the Fifth 33. Franciscus Trovillon was a man of a middle stature a full body bald except in the hinder part of the head which had a few hairs upon it his temper was morose and his demeanour altogether rustick he was born in a little Village called Mezieres and bred up in the Woods amongst the Charcoal men About the seventh year of his age he began to have a swelling in his forehead so that about the seventeenth year of his age he had a horn there as big as a mans finger end which afterwards did admit of that growth and increase that when he came to be thirty five years old this horn had both the bigness and resemblance of a Rams horn It grew upon the midst of his forehead and then bended backward as far as the coronal âuture where the other end of it did sometimes so stick in the skin that to avoid much pain he was constrained to cut off some part of the end of it whether this horn had its roots in the skin or forehead I know not but probably being of that weight and bigness it grew from the skull it self nor am I certain whether this man had any of those teeth which we call Grinders For two months together the man was exposed to shew in Paris where saith Vrstitius in the year 1598. I in company with Dr. Iacobus Faeschius the publick Professor at Basil and Mr. Iohannes Eckenstenius did see and handle this horn From Paris he was carried to Orleance where as I am informed he died soon after he came 34. In the time of a grievous Persecution Felix Presbyter of the City of Nola by a divine instinct hid himself in the corner of a ruined Wall and before the Persecutors had pursued him thither a Spider had drawn her web at the mouth of the hole whereinto the Presbyter had put himself His enemies told them that Felix was crept in at that very place but they beholding the Spiders web could not be perswaded that any man could enter and lurk there where the Spiders lived and laboured so securely and thereupon by their departure Felix escaped Paulinus once Bishop of that City hath these Verses upon this occasion which I will also try to English Eccubi Christus adest tenuissima aranea muro est At ubi Christus abest murus aranea fiet Where God is present Spiders spin a wall He gone our Bulwarks like to cobwebs fall 35. In the Reign of King Henry the Eighth there was one Mr. Gresham a Merchant of London who was sailing homewards from Paâermo a City in Sicily wherein was dwelling at that time one Antonio sirnamed the Rich who had at one time two Kingdoms mortgaged to him by the King of Spain Mr. Gresham crossed by contrary winds was constrained to anchor under the Lee of the Island of Strombulo where was a burning Mountain Now about the mid-day when for a certain space the Mountain used to forbear sending forth flames he with eight of the Sailors ascended the Mountain approaching as near the vent as they durst where amongst other noises they heard a voice cry aloud Dispatch dispatch the Rich Antonio is a coming Terrified herewith they hasted their return and the Mountain presently vomited out fire but from so dismal a place they made all the haste they could and desiring to know more of this matter since the winds still thwarted their course they returned to Palermo and forthwith inquiring for Antonio they found that he was dead about the instant so near as they could compute when that voice was heard by them Mr. Gresham at his return into England reported this to the King and the Marinââs being called before him confirmed the same by their Oaths Upon Gresham this wrought so deep an impression that he gave over all merchandizing distributed his Estate partly to his Kindred and partly to good uses retaining only a competency for himself and so spent the rest of his days in a solitary devotion 36. That is much to be admired at as being little less than a Miracle which is related of Xenophilus a Musician who lived to the age of an hundred and five years without any manner of disease or indisposition of body throughout his whole life 37. The Governour of Mountmarine besieged by Augustus the base Son of the Prince of Salucia was called forth as it were to parley and then held Prisoner he was threatned with death if he yielded not up the place and was so frighted with the apprehensions of this undeserved death that he sweat blood over all his body CHAP. XX. Of matters of importance and high Designs either promoted or made to miscarry by small matters or strange accidents PLutarch tells us of a
was sirnamed the Ape because he was able to express any thing by a most ingenious imitation 10. Alexander the Great carried his neck somewhat awry and thereupon all the Courtiers and Great men took up the same as a fashion and framed themselves to his manner though in so mall a matter 11. The luxury of the Romans was exceeding great in their Feasts Cloaths Houshold-stuff and whole Families unto the time of Vespasian and it was so confirmed amongst them that it could not be restrained by the force of those many Laws that were made against it But when he came to be Emperour of it self it streight became out of fashion for while he himself observed the ancient manner both in his diet and attire the love and fear of the Prince swayed more with the people than the Law it self 12. It is said of the Emperour Titus Vespasian That he could write in Cyphers and Characters most swiftly striving by way of sport and mirth with his own Secretaries and Clerks whether he or they could write fastest also he could imitate and express exactly any hand-writing whatsoever he had once seen so that he would often profess he could have made a notable Forger and Counterfeiter of Writings 13. When King Henry the Eighth of England about the year 1521. did cut his hair short immediately all the English were so moved with his example that they were all shorn whereas before they used to wear long hair 14. Lewis the Eleventh King of France used to say he would have his Son Charles understand nothing of the Latine Language further than this Qui nescit dissimulare nescit reguare He that knows not how to dissemble knows not how to reign This advice of King Lewis was so evil interpreted by the Nobles of France that thereupon they began to despise all kind of learning On the contrary when Francis the First shewed himself a mighty Favourer of learning and learned men most men in imitation of his example did the like 15. Ernestus Prince of Lunenburg complaining to Luther of the immeasurable drinking that was at Courts Luther replied That Princes ought to look thereunto Ah! Sir said he we that are Princes do so our selves otherwise it would long since have gone down Manent exempla regentum In vulgus When the Abbot throweth the Dice the whole Covent will play 16. Queen Anne the Wife of King Iames had a Wen in her neck to hide which she used to wear a Ruff and this they say was the original and first occasion of that fashion which soon after spread it self over the most part of England 17. A certain Duke of Bavaria before he went to his Diet or Council used to call his Servant to bring him water in a Bason in the bottom whereof was stamped in Gold the Image of Cato Major that so he might fix the impression of his Image in his mind the imitation of whose vertues he had prudently proposed for his practice 18. The Emperour Charles the Fifth having resigned his Kingdom and betaken himself to a Monastery laboured to wash out the stains of his defiled Conscience by Confession to a Priest and with a Discipline of platted Cords he put himself to a constant and sharp Penance for his former wicked life This Discipline his Son King Philip ever had in great veneration and a little before his death commanded it to be brought unto him as it was stained in the blood of Charles his Father Afterwards he sent it to his Son Philip the Third to be kept by him as a Relique and a sacred Monument 19. Antoninus Caracalla being come to Troy visited the Tomb of Achilles adorning it with a Crown and dressing it with flowers and framing himself to the imitation of Achilles he called Festus his best beloved Freed-man by the name of Patroclus While he was there Festus died made away on purpose as it was supposed by him that so he might bury him with the same Solemnities as Achilles did his Friend Indeed he buried him honourably using all the same Rites as Achilles had done in the Funerals of Patroclus In this performance when he sought for hair to cast upon the funeral Pile and that he had but thin hair he was laughed at by all men yet he caused that little he had to be cast into the fire being clipped off for that purpose He also was a studious Imitator of Alexander the Great he went in the Macedonian Habit chose out a Band of young men whom he called the Macedonian Phalanx causing them to use such Arms as were used when Alexander was alive and commanded the Leaders of the Roman Legions to take upon themselves the names of such Captains as served Alexander in his Wars CHAP. XXII Of the Authority of some persons amongst their Souldiers and Country-men and Seditions appeased by them divers ways NEar Assos there are stones which in few days not only consume the flesh of dead bodies but the very bones too and there is in Palestine an Earth of the same operation and quality Thus there are some men who by their singular prudence and authority are able not only to cease the present tumult and disorder of a people but to take such effectual course that the very seeds and causes of their fermentation and distemper should be utterly consumed and removed Of what force the presence of some and the eloquence of others hath been in this matter see in the Chapter following 1. Caius Caesar the Dictator intending to transfer the War into Africa his Legionaries at Rome rose up in a general mutiny desiring to be disbanded and discharged from the War Caesar though otherwise perswaded by all his friends went out to them and shewed himself amongst the enraged multitude He called them Quirites that is Commoners of Rome by which one word he so shamed and subdued them that they made answer they were Souldiers and not Commoners and being then by him publickly discharged they did not without difficulty obtain of him to be restored to their Commissions and places 2. Arcagathus the Son of Agathocles had slain Lycifcus a great Captain for some intemperate words whereupon the friends of the dead put the Army into such a commotion that they demanded Arcagathus to death and threatned the same punishment to Agathocles himself unless he did yield up his Son Besides this divers Captains with their Companies spake of passing over to the Enemy Agathocles fearing to be delivered into the hands of the Enemy and so to be put to some ignominious death thought in case he must suffer he had better die by the hands of his own Souldiers so laying aside the Royal Purple and putting on a vile garment he came forth to them silence was made and all ran together to behold the novelty of the thing when he made a Speech to them agreeable to the present state of things he told them of the great
observable that amongst them that dyed was Henry Earl of Schwartzenburg who carried the presage of his death in a common imprecation of his which was this If I do it not I wish I might sink in a Privy This happened Anno 1184. 5. Mr. Perkins in his Book of the right government of the Tongue tells of certain English Souldiers in the time of King Edward the Sixth who were cast upon the French shore by a storm in which distress they went to prayer that they might be delivered But one Souldier instead of praying cryed out Gallows claim thy due and when he came home he was hanged indeed 6. Mr. Fox in his Book of Acts and Monuments tells of Iohn Peters Keeper of Newgate who was wont at every ordinary thing he spake whether true or false it made with him no great matter to aver it with this imprecation If it be not so I pray God I may rot before I dye and so it came to pass 7. I shall add one more which is fresh in the memory of many yet living of Sir Gervaise Elways who suffered at the Tower-hill about the business of Sir Thomas Overbury who then confessed it was just with God that he should undergo that ignominious death For said he in gaming I have often used this wish I pray God I be hanged if it be not so While I was preaching this a woman who came accidentally into the Congregation did afterwards by writing certifie me that she being convinced in conscience of her sin in wishing evil upon her self thereby to cover a sin which she had committed but denied did feel the sad effects of it according to her wish and therefore begged earnest prayers that it might be forgiven her and that God would be intreated to take off his hand Let them hear and fear that fear not to wish the Devil take them and God damn them lest God should take them at their word 8. I shall here set down that which was related to me by my Brother Ioachim Being saith he of late in the Court of Prince William the Lantgrave of Hesse I saw there a Boy that was both dumb and deaf but yet withal so ingenious that I could never enough admire the dexterity wherewith he apprehended and performed all things The Lantgrave observing my wonder That deaf and dumb Boy said he does presently understand any thing that is done in the Court and City and by notable signs uses to make discovery of it But withal hear an eminent instance of divine Justice the Mother of this Lad being accused of theft and having no other way to clear her self had recourse to imprecations and whereas she was at that time big with child to add greater weight to what she said she wished if she was guilty of that she was accused that the child she went with might be dumb while he lived and never be able to utter one word Which said the Lantgrave is come to pass as you see 9. Charles Burbon desired of the Citizens of Millain that they would furnish him with 30000 Crowns a month for the payment of his Souldiers but they affirming that they were already exhausted by War and frequent Exactions he desired them but this one time to comply with his request adding that if they should receive any further injury from him or his he prayed God that the first Bullet that was shot might take off his head They sent him the money according to his desire but then he forgetting his promise dealt never the more civilly with them suffered his Souldiers and Collectors to exact upon them while they in vain implored that faith he had given them This done he led his Army to Florence and from thence to Rome where he was killed by the first Cannot-bullet from the Walls 10. At Friburg a Town in Misnia are yet the footsteps to be seen of a stubborn Son who could not be removed from the place where he stood all his life long till he dyed of the plague with whose disobedience his father being one time exceedingly provoked had prayed God he might never stir from the place he was then inwhile he lived 11. Alphonso Henriques Son of Henry Duke of Lorrain put his Mother Theresia the Daughter of Alphonsus the Sixth King of Spain into prison for that she had married his Father-in-law She being in bonds thus bitterly cursed her Son Seeing saith she thou hast put my legs into chains and hast taken from me that honour which was left me by thy Father I pray God thou mayst become a Prisoner to thy Enemies as I am and that whereas my legs are tyed thou mayst live to behold thine own broke All this was fulfilled e're long for Alphonsus warring with Ferdinand King of Leon as he went out at the Gate of the City his foot caught at the bar of the Gate and his Horse passing on broke his leg after which marching out he was overthrown by King Ferdinand and made Prisoner 12. In the Court of a neighbour King one was accused of having spoken injurious words who to justifie himself said If he spake them he desired God to send an immediate token of his wrath upon his body and in case he should defer to do it he wished the Devil might Immediately he fell down in an Epileptick fit which he never had before and with horrible howling frighted them that stood by and to this day remains in this ill state of body 13. King Henry the First of England sought to Edgar King of Scotland for his Sister Mathilda in Marriage who had devoted her Virginity to God Edgar fearing to displease him married her to him by force who then prayed to God that none of those children that should be born of her might prosper and it fell out accordingly for Duke William and Mary his Sister with their whole Retinue of an hundred and fifty persons were all miserably cast away at Sea by a storm 14. In our memory such an accident as this fell out at Newburg A certain mother being in a great rage with her son broke into these words Go thy ways God grant thou mayst never return alive again to me the same day the young man going to wash himself was drowned 15. L. Furius Camillus was accused but falsely by L. Apuleius that he had converted the Hetruscan spoils to his own use and was thereupon condemned without having his cause heard and being impatient of this indignity he went without the City-gates lift up his hands to Heaven and prayed If said he I am innocent and thus injured only through the envy of the people then let this action speedily repent the people of Rome and let it be known to all the World that they stand in need of Camillus which accordingly fell out not long after in the invasion of the Gauls CHAP. XXIX Of the Errour and Mistakes of some men and what hath fallen out thereupon HVmanum
all the Rules of Art passed for miraculous One of the Souldiers of the Dukes Guards called Faure received a Cannon shot in his belly which passed quite through leaving an orifice bigger than a Hat-crown so that the Chirurgions could not imagine though it were possible the bowels should remain unoffended that Nature could have supplied so wide a breach which notwithstanding she did and to that perfectionâ that the party found himself as well as before Another of the same condition called Ramee and of the same place they being both Natives of St. Iean de Angely received a Musket-shot which entring at his mouth came out of the nape of his neck who was also perfectly cured Which two extravagant wounds being reported to the King his Majesty took them both into his own particular dependence saying Those were men that could not die though they afterwards both ended their days in his service 12. I was familiarly acquainted with a man of no mean condition who about sixteen years ago being accused of high matters was brought to Berne where he was several times put and tortured upon the Rack with great rigour notwithstanding he constantly affirmed in the midst of all his pain that he was innocent so that at last he was freed and restored to his dignity This person for many years past had been miserably tormented with the Gout but from the time of his torturâs before-mentioned and his use of the Valesian Baths his health was so far confirmed that being alive at this day he never was sensible of the least pain of his Gout but although he is now old he is able to stand and walk in a much better manner than before he could 13. A young Woman married but without chiâdren had a disease about her Jaws and under her Cheâk like unto Kernels and the disease so corrupted her face with stench that she could scaâcâ without great shame speak unto any man Tâis Woman was admonished in âer sleep to go to King Edward and get him to wash her face with water and she should be whole To the Court she came and the King hearing of the matter disdained not to undertake it but having a Bason of water brought unto him he dipped his hand therein and washed the Womans face and touched the diseased part oftentimes sometimes also signing it with the sign of the Cross. When he had thus washed it the hard crust or skin was softned the tumours dissolved and drawing his hand by divers of the holes out thence came divers little Worms whereof and of corrupt matter and blood they were full The King still pressed it with his hand to bring forth the corruption and endured the stench of it until by such pressing he had brought forth all the corruption This done he commanded her a sufficient allowance every day for all things necessary until she had received perfect health which was within a week after and whereas she was ever before barren within one year she had a child by her Husband This disease hath since been called the Kings Evil and is frequently cured by the touch of the Kings of England 14. Sir Iohn Cheeke was once one of the Tutors to King Edward the Sixth afterwards Secretary of State much did the Kingdom value him but more the King for being once desperately sick the King carefully inquiring of him every day at last his Physician told him there was no hope of his life being given over by him for a dead man No said the King he will not die at this time for this morning I begged his life from God in my prayers and obtained it which accordingly came to pass and he soon after contrary to all expectation wonderfully recovered This saith Dr. Fuller was attâsted by the old Earl of Huntington bred up in his childhood with King Edward to Sir Thomas Cheeke who was alive Anno 1654. and eighty years of age 15. Duffe the threescore and eighteenth King of Scotland laboured with a new and unheard of disease no cause apparent all remedies bootless his body languishing in a continual sweat and his strength apparently decaying insomuch as he was suspected to be bewitched which was increased by a rumour that certain Witches of Forest in Murry practised his destruction arising from a word which a Girl let fall that the King should die shortly who being examined by Donald Captain of the Castle and Tortures shewed her confessed the truth and how her mother was one of the Assembly When certain Souldiers being sent in search surprized them roasting the waxen Image of the King before a soft fire to the end that as the Wax melted by degrees so should the King dissolve by little and little and his life consume with the consumption of the other the Image broken and the Witches executed the King recovered his woâted health in a moment 16. When Albertus Basa Physician to the King of Poland returned out of Italy he diverted to Paracelfus who then lived at the City of St. Vitus with him he went to visit a sick person of whom all who were there present said That he could not possibly live above an hour or two and by reason of an indisposition in his brest a defect in his pulse and failing of his spirits they pronounced of him that he would not live out a few hours Paracelsus said it would be so indeed in despite of all that skill in Physick which the Humourists have but that he might easily be restored by that true Art which God had shut up in Nature and thereupon he invited the sick man to dine with him the next day then he produced a certain distillation three drops of which he gave to the Patient in Wine which immediately âo restored the man that he was well that night and the next day came to Paracelsus his Inn and dined with him in sound and perfect health to the admiration of all men CHAP. XXXVI Of Stratagems in War for the amusing and defeating of the Enemy and taking of Cities c. MArcellus was called the Roman Sword and Fabius their Shield or Buckler for as the one was a resolute and sharp Aâsaulter of the Enemy so the other was as cautious and circumspect a Preserver of his Army These two Qualities whensoever they are happily met together in one man they make an able Commander but to render a General compleat there ought to be a certain fineness of wit and invention and a quickness of apprehension and discerning by the one to intrap the Enemy and by the other to avoid the snares which the Enemy hath laid for him in these no man was perhaps a greater Master than he who is next mentioned 1. When the strength and power of the Carthaginians was broken Anibal betook himself to Antiochus the great King of Asia him he stirred up against the Romans and made him victoâious in a naval fight by this subtil device of his He had caused a great
at Brindis wherein he had inclosed birds of all kinds and by his example we began to keep birds and fowl within narrow ãâã and Cages as prisoners to which Nature had allowed the wide Air to flye in at Liberty 16. The Scarus was a fish that bore the price and praise of all others in Rome the first that brought these out of the Carpathian Sea and stored our Seas betwixt Ostia and Campania with them was Optatus first the Slave and then the Freed-man lastly the Admiral of a Fleet under Claudius the Emperour 17. Caius Hirtius was the man by himself that before all others devised a Pond to keep Lampreys in he it was that in the Triumph of Iulius Caesar lent him six hundred Lampreys to furnish out his Feasts which he kept at that time but on this condition to have the same weight and tale repaid him 18. The best way of making Oyls and also of making Honey was first found out and practised by one Aristaeus 19. The first that built a house in Athens is said to be Doxius the Son of Caelius who taking his pattern from the Nests of the Swallows began the way of making houses with clay whereas before men dwelt in Caves and Caverns of the Earth and I know not what kind of miserable Huts 20. Semiramis was the first that caused the castration of young Males and howsoever by this her unworthy act she has possibly lost as much reputation as she hath praise for the building of Babylon yet she is followed in this corrupted example of hers by most of the Eastern Monarchs who delight to be attended by Eunuchs 21. About Syrene in the Province of Thebais there is a Marble thereupon called Syrenites which was also called Pyrrhopoecilos of this stone in times past the Kings of Egypt made certain Radii or Obelisks and consecrated them to the Sun whom they honoured as a God They were inchased or had engraven upon them certain Characters and Figures which were the Egyptian Hieroglyphicks and therein a great part of their best Learning was contained These Obelisks were stones cut out of the solid Rock framed of one entire stone and of that mighty bigness that some of them have been on every side four cubits square and in length an hundred foot as was that of Ramises once King of Egypt The first that ever began to erect these Obelisks was Mitres King of Egypt who held his Court in the Royal City of Heliopolis the City of the Sun and it is said he was admonished in a Vision or Dream so to do 22. Edward the Third our most renowned King to his eternal memory brought cloathing first into this Island transporting some Families of Artificers from Gaunt hither 23. Cneius Manlius as Livy relates Anno ab Vrb. condit 567. was the first brought out of Asia to Rome singing Wenches Players Jesters Mimicks and all kind of Musick to their Feasts 24. Solon as writeth Philemon was the first who brought up Whores for the young men of Athens that the fervour of their lust being exonerated that way they might desist from the enterprize and thoughts of any thing that is worse 25. Antigonus King of Iudaea was beheaded by the command of M. Antonius the Triumvir and this was the first King that ever was put to death in this manner 26. A Cardinal named Os Porci or Swine-snout in the days of Ludovicus Pius the Emperour was chosen Pope and because it was a very unseemly name for so high a Dignity by a general consent it was changed and he was called Sergius the Second This was the first and from thence arose the custom of the Popes altering their names after their Election to the Popedom 27. Honorius the Fifth Archbishop of Canterbury was the first that divided his Province into Parishes that so he might appoint particular Ministers to particular Congregations he dyed Anno Dom. 653. 28. Cuthbert the Eleventh Archbishop of Canterbury was the first that got liberty from the Pope of making Cemeteries or Burial places within Towns and Cities for before within the Walls none were buried 29. Ralph Lane was the first that brought Tabaco into England in the twenty eight of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and in the year of our Lord 1585. 30. Servius Tullius King of the Romans caused Brass money to be coined and was the first that stamped it for before his days they used it at Rome rude in the mass or lump The mark he imprinted on his Coin was a Sheep which in Latine they call Pecus and from thence came the word Pecunia which signifies money CHAP. XLIII Of the witty Speeches or Replys suddenly made by some persons THE vein of wit doth not always answer a mans desire but at some times while we are writing or speaking something doth casually offer it self unto our thoughts which perhaps hath more of worth in it than we are able to compass with the utmost vehemence of our meditation and study Facetious men have many such fortunate hits lighting on the sudden upon that which is more graceful and pleasant to the hearer than their more elâborate endeavours would be 1. Poggius the Florentine tells a merry story condemning the folly and impertinent business of such especially mean persons as spend their time in hunting and hawking c. A Physician of Millain saith he that cured mad men had a pit of water in his house in which he kept his Patients some up to the knees some to the girdle some to the chin pro modo insaniae as they were more or less affected One of them by chance that was well recovered stood in the door and seeing a Gallant ride by with a Hawk on his fist well mounted with his Spaniels aâter him would needs know to what use all this preparation served he made answer To kill certain Fowl the Patient demanded again What his Fowl might be worth which he killed in a year he replied five or ten Crowns and when he urged him further what his Dogs Horse and Hawks stood him in he told him four hundred Crowns with that the Patient bade him be gone as he loved his life and welfare For said he if our Master come and find thee here he will put thee into the pit amongst mad-men up to the very chin 2. Mr. Bradford said of Popish Prelates magnifying the Church and contemning Christ That they could not mean honestly that make so much of the Wife and so little of the Husband 3. One asked a noble Sea-Captain Why having means sufficient to live upon the Land he would yet endanger his person upon the Ocean He told him That he had a natural inclination to it and therefore nothing could divert him I pray said the other where dyed your Father At Sea said the Captain And where your Grandfather At Sea also said he And said the other Are you not for that
cause afraid to go to Sea Before I answer you said the Captain I pray tell me Where dyed your Father In bed said he and where your Grandfather In his bed said he also and said the Captain Are you not afraid for that cause to go to bed 4. A certain Captain that thought he had performed much for his Country in the Fight with Xerxes in an insulting manner was comparing his deeds with those of Themistocles who thus returned There was said he a contention betwixt a Holy-day and the day after the day after boasted of the labours and sweat which it was spent in and that what was gained thereby was expended by those that kept Holy-day True said the Holy-day but unless I had been thou hadst not been and so said he Had I not been where had you all been 5. The Spaniards sided with the Duke of Mayenne and the rest of those Rebels in France which called themselves the holy League and a French Gentleman being asked the causes of their Civil Broils with an excellent allusion he replied They were Spania and Mania seeming by this answer to signifie ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Penury and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Fury which are indeed the causes of all intestine tumults but covertly therein implying the King of Spain and the Duke of Mayenne 6. Sir Robert Cateline Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench in the first of Queen Elizabeth had a prejudice against those who wrote their names with an alias and took exceptions at one in this respect saying That no honest man had a double name or came in with an alias The party asked him What exception his Lordship could take at Jesus Christ alias Jesus of Nazareth 7. The Goldsmiths of London had a custom once a year to weigh Gold in the Star-Chamber in the presence of the Privy Council and the Kings Attorney This solemn weighing by a word of Art they call the Pixe and make use of so exact Scales therein that the Master of the Company affirmed that they would turn with the two hundredth part of a grain I should be loth said Attorney Noy standing by that all my actions should be weighed in those Scales 8. Dr. Andrew Perne Dean of Ely was excellent at blunt sharp Jests and sometimes too tart in true ones he chanced to call a Clergy-man Fool who indeed was little better he replied That he would complain thereof to the Bishop of Ely Do saith the Dean when you please and my Lord Bishop will confirm you 9. Iohn Iegon D. D. Master of Bennet Colledge in Cambridge after made Bishop of Norwich by King Iames a most serious man and grave Governour yet withal of a most facetious disposition Take this instance While Master of the Colledge he chanced to punish all the Undergraduates therein for some general offence and the penalty was put upon their heads in the Buttery and because he disdained to convert the money to any private use it was expended in new whiting the Hall of the Colledge whereupon a Scholar hung up these Verses on the Screen Dr. Jegon Bennet Colledge Master Brake the Scholars head and gave the walls a plaister But the Doctor had not the readiness of his parts any whit impaired by his age for perusing the Paper eââtempore he subscribed Knew I but the Wag that writ these Verses in a bravery I would commend him for his wit but whip him for his knavery 10. When the Wars in Queen Elizabeths time were hot betwixt England and Spain there were Commissioners on both sides appointed to treat of Peace They met at a Town of the French Kings And first it was debated in what Tongue the Negotiation should be handled A Spaniard thinking to give the English Commissioners a shrewd guird proposed the French Tongue as most fit it being a Language the Spaniards were well skilled in and for these Gentlemen of England I suppose saith he that they cannot be ignorant of the Language of their fellow-Subjects their Queen is Queen of France as well as of England Nay in faith my Masters replied Dr. Dale a civil Lawyer and one of the Masters of Requests the French Tongue is too vulgar for a business of this secrecy and importance especially in a French Town we will therefore rather treat in Hebrew the Language of Ierusalem whereof your Master is King and I suppose you are therein as well skilled as we in the French 11. The Inhabitants of Tarracon as a glad presage of prosperous success brought tydings to Augustus how that upon his Altar a young Palm-tree was suddenly sprung up to whom he made this answer By this it appears how often you burn Incense in our honour 12. Thomas Aquinas came to Pope Innocent the Third in whose presence they were at that time telling a great sum of money Thou seest Thomas said the Pope that the Church need not say as she did at her beginning Silver and gold have I none Thomas without study replied You say true holy Father nor can the Church say now as the ancient Church said to the same Cripple Arise walk and be whole 13. There was in the Kings Wardrobe a rich piece of Arras presenting the Sea-fight in 88. and having the lively Portraictures of the chiefest Commanders wrought on the borders thereof on the same token that a Captain who highly prized his own service missing his Picture therein complained of the injury to his friend professing of himself that he merited a place there as well as some therein seeing he was engaged in the middle of the Fight Be content quoth his friend thou hast been an old Pirate and art reserved for another Hanging 14. A great Lord in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth that carried a white Staff in his hand as the Badge of his Office was spoken to by her Majesty to see that such a man had such a place conferred upon him Madam said that Lord the disposal of that place was given to me by your Majesty at such time as I received this Staff The Queen replied That she had not so bestowed any thing but that she still reserved her self of the Quorum Of the Quarum Madam said the Earl At which the Queen somewhat moved snatched his Staff out of his hand And Sir said she before you have this again you shall understand that I am of the Quorum Quarum Quorum and so kept his Staff for two or three days till upon his submission it was restored to him 15. Alexander Nequam or Bad in English was born at St. Albans an excellent Philosopher Rhetorician Poet and a deep Divine insomuch that he was called Ingenii Miraculum His name gave occasion to the Wits of the Age to be merry with Nequam had a mind to become a Monk in St. Albans the Town of his Nativity and thus Laconically wrote to the Abbot thereof for leave Si vis veniam sin autem tu autem
Reign of nine Kings and Queens of England He saw saith another the children of his children's children to the number of an hundred and three and died 1572. 6. Georgias Leontinus a famous Philosopher liv'd in health till he was an hundred and eight years of age and when it was asked him by what means he attained to such a fulness of days his answer was by not addicting himself to any voluptuous living 7. Most memorable is that of Cornarus the Venetian who being in his youth of a sickly body begaâ to eat and drink first by measure to a certain weight thereby to recover his health this cure turn'd by use into a diet that diet into an extraordinary long life even of an hundred years and better without any decay of his senses and with a constant enjoyment of his health 8. Hippocrates Coâs the famous Physician lived an hundred and four years and approved and credited his own art by so long a life 9. Mr. Carew in his Survey of Cornwal assures us upon his own knowledge that fourscore and ten years of age is ordinary there in every place and in most persons accompanied with an able use of the body and their senses One Polezew saith he lately living reached to one hundred and thirty A Kinsman of his to one hundred and twelve One Beauchamp to one hundred and six And in the Parish where himself dwelt he professed to have remembred the decease of four within fourteen weeks space whose years added together made up the sum of three hundred and forty The same Gentleman made this Epigram or Epitaph upon one Brawne an Irish Man but a Cornish Beggar Here Brawne the quondam Beggar lies Who counted by his tale Some sixscore winters and above Such Vertue is in Ale Ale was his Meat his Drink his Cloth Ale did his death deprive And could he still have drunk his Ale He had been still alive 10. Democritus of Abdera a most studious and learned Philosopher who spent all his life in the contemplation and investigation of things who liv'd in great solitude and poverty yet did arrive to an hundred and nine years 11. Galeria Câpiola a Player and a Dancer was brought upon the Stage as a Novice in what year of her age is not known but ninety nine years after at the Dedication of the Theatre by Pompey the Great she was shewn upon the Stage again not now for an Actress but a wonder Neither was this all for after that in the Solemnities for the life and health of Augustus she was shewn upon the Stage the third time 12. Simeon the Son of Cleophas called the Brother of our Lord and Bishop of Ierusalem lived an hundred and twenty years though he was cut short by Martyrdom Aquila and Priscilla first S. Paul's Hosts afterwards his fellow-labourers lived together in a happy and famous Wedlock at least to an hundred years a piece for they were both alive under Pope Christus the First 13. William Postel a Frenchman lived to an hundred and well nigh twenty years and yet the top of his beard on the upper lip was black and not gray at all 14. Iohannes Summer-Matterus my great Grandfather by the Mother's side of an ancient and honourable Family after the hundredth year of his age marryed a wife of thirty years by whom he had a Son at whose wedding which was twenty years after the old man was present and lived six years after that so that he completed an hundred and twenty six without complaining of any more grievous accidents than this that he could not prevent escapes by reason of wind Six years before his death my Father his Grandchild discoursing with him he told him that there were in that Diocess ten men yet left who were more aged than himself 15. Arganthonius was the King of the Tartessians and had been so for eighty years when the Phocensians who were the first of all the Greeks who opened the way into the Adriatick Sea and visited Tyrrhenia Iberia and Tartessus came to him He lived to an hundred and twenty years saith Herodotus 16. In the last Taxation Number and Review of the eighth Region of Italy there were found in the Roll saith Pliny four and fifty persons of an hundred years of age seven and fifty of an hundred and ten two of an hundred five and twenty âour of an hundred and thirty as many that were of an hundred five and thirty or an hundred of seven and thirty years old and last of all three men of an hundred and forty And this search was made in the times of Vespasian the Father and Son 17. Galen the great Physician who flourished about the reign of Antoninus the Emperour is said to have lived one hundred and forty years From the time of his twenty eighth year he was never seised with any sickness save only with the grudge of a Fever for one day only The rules he observed were not to eat nor drink his fill nor to eat any thing raw and to carry always about him some one or other perfume 18. Iames Sands of Horborne in Staffordshire near Birmingham lived an hundred and forty years and his Wife one hundred and twenty and died about ten years past He out-lived five Leases of twenty one years a piece made unto him after he was married 19. I my self saith Sir Walter Rawleigh knew the old Countess of Desmond of Inchequin in Munster who lived in the year 1589 and many years sinâe who was marryed in Edward the Fourth's time and held her joynture from all the Earls of Desmond since then and that this is true all the Gentlemen and Noble Men in Munster can witness The Lord Bacon casts up her age to be an hundred ând forty at the least adding withal Ter per vices dentisse that she recovered her teeth after the casting them three several times 20. Thomas Parre Son of Iohn Parre born at Alberbury in the Parish of Winnington in Shropshire he was born in the Reign of King Edward the Fourth anno 1483 at eighty years he married his first wife Iane and in the space of thirty two years had but two children by her both of them short lived the one liv'd but a Month the other but a few years Being aged an hundred and twenty he fell in love with Katherine Milton and with remarkable strength got her with child He lived to above one hundred and fifty years Two months before his death he was brought up by Thomas Earl of Arundel to Westminster he slept away most of his time and is thus characterised by an eye-witness of him From head to heel his body had all over A quick set thick set nat'ral hairy cover Change of air and diet better in it self but worse for him with the trouble of many Visitants or Spectators rather are conceived to have accelerated his death which happened Westminster November the fifteenth anno 1634
concerning his Love to Truth 17. Euricius Cordus a German Physician hath this honour done to his memory It is said of him that no man was more addicted to truth than he or rather no man was more vehemently studious of it none could be found who was a worser hater of ing and falshood he could dissemble nothing nor bear that wherewith he was offended which was the cause of his gaining the displeasure oâ some persons who might have been helpful to him if he would but have sought their favour and continued himself therein by his obsequiousness Thus much is declared in his Epigrams and he saith it of himself Blandire nescis ac verum Corde tacere Et mirare tuos displicuisse libros Thou canst not flatter but the truth dost tell What wonder is 't thy Books then do not sell. Paulus Lutherus Son to Martin Luther was Physician to Ioachimus the Second Elector of Brandenbuog and then to Augustus Duke of Saxony Elector It is said of him that he was verè ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a lover of liberty and freedom of Speech far from âlattery and assentation and in all points like unto that Rhesus in Euripides who saith of himself Talis sum et ego rectam sârmonum Viam secans nec sum duplex vir Such a one am I that rightly can Divide my Speech yet am no double man The virtues of this Luther were many and great yet I know not any wherein he more deservedly is to be praised than for this honest freedom of speaking wherein he mightily resembled his Father 19. When I lived at Vtricht in the Low Countries the Reply of that valiant Gentleman Colonel Edmonds was much spoken of There came a Country-man of his out of Scoâland who desiring to be entertained by him told him that my Lord his Father and such Knights and Gentlemen his Cousin and Kinsmen were in good health Colonel Edmonds turning to his friends then by Gentlemen said he believe not one word he says My Father is but a poor Baker in Edinburg and works hard for his living whom this Knave would make a Lord to curry favour with me and make you believe that I am a great man born when there is no such matter CHAP. V. Of such as have been great Lovers and Promoters of Peace THere is a certain Fish which Aelian in his History calls the Adonis of the Sea because it liveth so innocently that it toucheth no living thing strictly preserving peace with all the offspring of the Ocean which is the cause it is beloved and courted as the true darling of the Waters If the frantick world hath had any darlings they are certainly such as have been clad in Steel the destroyers of Cities the suckers of humane blood and such as have imprinted the deepest scars upon the face of the Universe These are the men it hath Crown'd with Lawrels advanc'd to Thrones and âlatter'd with the misbecoming Titles of Heroes and Gods while the Sons of peace are remitted to the cold entertainment of their own vertues Notwithstanding which there have ever been some who have found so many Heavenly Beauties in the face of Peace that they have been contented to love that sweet Virgin for her self and to Court her without the consideration of any additional Dowry 1. The Inâabitants of the Island Borneo not far from the Moluccas live in such detestation of war and are so great Lovers of peace that they hold their King in no other veneration than that of a God so long as he studies to preserve them in peace but if he discover inclinations to war they never leave till he is fall'n in Battle under the Arms of his Enemies So soon as he is slain they set upon the Enemy with all imaginable fierceness as Men that fight for their liberty and such a King as will be a greater Lover of peace Nor was there ever any King known amongst them that was the perswader and Author of a war but he was deserted by them and suffer'd to fall under the Sword of the Enemy 2. Datanes the Persian being employed in the besieging of Sinope received Letters from the King commanding him to desist from the Siege Having read the Letter he adored it and made gratulatory sacrifices as if he had received mighty favours from his Master and so taking Ship in the very next Night he departed 3. The Emperour Leo who succeeded Martianus having given to Eulogius the Philosopher a quantity of Corn one of his Eunuchs told him that such kind of largess was more fitly bestowed upon his Soldiers I would to God said the Emperour that the state of my Reign was such that I could bestow all the stipends of my Soldiers upon such as are learned 4. Constantinus the Emperour observing some differences amongst the Fathers of the Church called the Nicene Council at which also hmself was present At this time divers little Books were brought to him containing their mutual complaints and accusations of one another All which he received as one that intended to read and take cognizance of them all But when he found that he had received as many as were intended to be offered he bound them up in one bundle and protesting that he had not so much as looked into any one of them he burnt them all in the sight of the Fathers giving them moreover a serious exhortation to peace and a Cordial Agreement amongst themselvrs 5. It is noted of Phocion a most excellent Captain of the Athenians that although for his military ability and success he was chosen forty and five times General of their Armies by universal approbation yet he himself did ever perswade them to peace 6. At Fez in Africk they have neither Lawyers nor Advocates but if there be any controversies amongst them both parties Plaintiff and Defendant came to their Alsakins or Chief Judge and at once without any further appeals or pitiful delays the Cause is heard and ended It is reported of Caesar to his great commendation that after the defeat of Pompey he had in his custody a Castle wherein he found divers Letters written by most of the Nobles in Rome under their own hands sufficient evidence to condemn them but he burnt them all that no Monument might remain of a future grudge and that no man might be driven to extremities or to break the peace through any apprehension that he lived suspected and should therefore be hated 8. Iames King of Arragon was a great enemy to contentions and contentious Lawyers insomuch as having heard many complaints against Semenus Rada a great Lawyer who by his Quirks and Wiles had been injurious as well as troublesome to many he banished him his Kingdom as a man that was not to be endured to live in a place to the Peace of which he was so great an enemy 9. I read of the Sister of Edward the Third King of
by policy to get it or by riches to buy it But the king of Terrors is not to be bribed by the Gold of Ophir it is a pleasure to him to mix the Brains of Princes and Politicians with common dust and how loth soever he was to depart yet go he must for he dyed of that disease as little lamented as desired 4. C. Mecaenas the great Friend and Favourite of Augustus was so soft and effeminate a person that he was commonly called Malcinus He was so much afraid of death that saith Seneca he had often in his mouth All things are to be endured so long as life is continued of which those Verses are to be read Debilem facito mami Debilem pede coxa Tuber adstrue gibberum Lubricos quate dentes Vita dum superest bene est Make me lame on either hand And of neither foot to stand Raise a bunch upon my back And make all my teeth to shake Nothing comes amiss to me So that life remaining be 5. The Emperour Domitian was in such fear of receiving death by the hands of his Followers and in such a strong suspicion of treason against him that he caused the Walls of the Galleries wherein he used to walk to be set and garnished with the stone Phengites to the end that by the light thereof he might see all that was done behind him 6. Lewis the eleventh King of France when he found himself sick sent for one Fryer Robert out of Calabria to come to him to Toures the man was a Hermit and famous for his sanctity and while in his last sickness this holy man lay at Plessis the King sent continually to him saying that if he pleased he could prolong his life He had reposed his whole confidence in Monsieur Iames Cothier his Physician to whom he gave monthly ten thousand Crowns in hope he would prolong his life Never man saith Comines feared death more than he nor sought so many wayes to avoid it as he did Moreover as he adds in all his life time he had given commandment to all his Servants as well to my self as others that when we should see him in danger of death we should only move him to confess himself and dispose of his Conscience not sounding in his ear this dreadful word Death knowing that he should not be able patiently to hear that cruel sentence His Physician aforesaid used him so roughly that a man could not have given his Servant so sharp language as he usually gave the King and yet the King so much feared him that he durst not command him out of his Presence For notwithstanding that he complained to divers of him yet durst he not change him as he did all his other servants because this Physician said once thus boldly to him I know that one day you will command me away as you do all your other Servants but you shall not live eight days after it binding it with a great Oath which word put the King in such fear that ever after he flattered him and bestowed such gifts upon him that he received from him in five months time fifty four thousand Crowns besides the Bishoprick of Amiens for his Nephew and other Offices and Lands for him and his Friends 7. Rhodius being through his unseasonable liberty of speech cast into a Den by a Tyrant was there nourished and kept as a hurtful beast with great torment and ignominy his hands were cut off and his face disfigured with wounds In this wretched case when some of his Friends gave him advice by voluntary abstinence to put an end to his miseries by the end of his days he replied that while a man lives all things are to be hoped for by him 8. Cn. Carbo in his third Consulship being by Pompeys order sent into Sicily to be punished begged of the Souldiers with great humility and with tears in his eyes that they would permit him to attend the necessity of nature before he dyed and this only that he might for a small space protract his stay in a miserable life He delayed the time so long till such time as his head was severed from his body as he sate in a nasty place 9. D. Iunius Brutus bought a small and unhappy moment of his life with great infamy for Antonius having sent Furius to kill him when he was taken he not only did withdraw his Neck from the Sword but being also exhorted to lay it down with more constancy he swore he would in these words As I live I will give but some wretched delay to my fate 10. A certain King of Hungary being on a time very sad his Brother a jolly Courtier would needs know of him what ailed him Oh Brother said he I have been a great sinner against God and I fear to dye and to appear before his Tribunal These are said his Brother melancholy thoughts and withal made a jest of them The King replyed nothing for the present but the custome of the Country was that if the Executioner came and sounded a Trumpet before any mans door he was presently to be led to execution The King in the dead time of the night sends the Headsman to sound his Trumpet before his Brothers door who hearing it and seeing the messenger of death springs in pale and trembling into his Brothers presence beseeching him to tell him wherein he had offended Oh Brother replyed the King you have never offended me but is the sight of my Executioner so dreadful and shall not I that have greatly and grievously offended God fear that of his that must carry me before his Judgement-Seat 11. Theophrastus the Philosopher is said at his death to have accused nature that she had indulged a long life to Stags and Crows to whom it was of no advantage but had given to man a short one to whom yet the length of it was of great concern for thereby the life of man would be more excellent being perfected with all Arts and adorned with all kind of Learning he complained therefore that as soon as he had begun to perceive these things he was forced to expire yet he lived to the eighty fifth year of his age 12. Mycerinus the Son of Cleops King of Egypt set open the Temples of the Gods which his Father Cleops and Uncle Cephrenes had caused to be shut up he gave liberty to the people who were before oppressed and reduced to extremity of âalamity He was also a lover and doer of Justice above all the Kings of his time and was exceedingly beloved of his people But from the Oracle of the City Buti there was this prediction sent him that he should live but six years and dye in the seventh He resented this message ill and sent back to the Oracle reproaches and complaints expostulating that whereas his Father and his Uncle had been unmindful of the gods and great oppressors of men yet had they enjoyed a long
life but he having lived in great piety and justice must shut up his days so speedily The Oracle returned that therefore he dyed because he did not that which he should have done for Egypt should have been afflicted one hundred and fifty years which the two former Kings well understood but himself had not When Mycerinus heard this and that he was thus condemned he caused divers lamps to be made which when night came on he lighted by these he carowsed and indulged his genius this course he intermitted not night nor day but wandred through the Fenns and Woods and such places where the most convenient and pleasurable reception was and this he did for this purpose that he might deceive the Oracle and that whereas it had pronounced he should live but six years he intended this way to lengthen them out to twelve 13. Antigonus observing one of his Souldiers to be a very valiant man and ready to adventure upon any desperate piece of service and yet withal taking notice that he looked very pale and lean would needs know of him what he ailed And finding that he had upon him a secret and dangerous disease he caused all possible means to be used for his recovery which when it was effected the King perceived him to be less forward in service than formerly and demanding the reason of it he ingenuously confessed that now he felt the sweets of life and therefore was loth to lose it 14. The most renowned of the Grecian Generals Themistocles having passed the hundred and seventh year of his age and finding such sensible decayes growing upon him as made him see he was hastning to his end he grieved that he must now depart when as he said it was but now chiefly that he began to grow wise 15. The Emperour Hadrianus a little before his death made this complaint and sorrowful Soliloquy Animula vagula blandula Hospes comesque corporis Quae nunc abibis in loca Palidula rigida nudula Nec ut soles dabis Iocos 16. Titus Vespasianus the Emperour going towards the territories of the Sabines at his first lodging and baiting place was seised with a Fevor whereupon removing thence in his Litter it is said that putting by the Curtains of the Window he looked up to the Heavens complaining heavily that his life should be taken from him who had not deserved to dye so soon For in all his life he had not done one action whereof he thought he had reason to repent unless it were one only what that one was neither did he himself declare at that time nor is it otherwise known he dyed about the forty second year of his age 17. C. Caligula the Emperour was so exceeding afraid of death that at the least thunder and lightning he would wink close with both eyes cover his whole head but if it were greater and any thing extraordinary he would run under his Bed He fled suddenly by night from Messina in Sicily as affrighted with the smoak and rumbling noise of Mount Aetna Beyond the River Rhine he rode in a German Chariot between the Straights and the Army marched in thick squadrons together and when one on this occasion had said here will be no small hurliburly in case any enemy should now appear he was so affrighted that he mounted his Horse and turned hastily to the Bridges and finding them full and choaked up with Slaves and Carriages impatient of delay he was from hand to hand and over mens heads conveyed on the other side of the water Soon after hearing of the revolt of the Germans he provided to fly and prepared Ships for his flight resting himself upon this only comfort that he should yet have Provinces beyond Sea in case the Conquerors should pass the Alpes or possess themselves of the City of Rome 18. Amestis the Wife of the great Monarch Xerxes buryed quick in the ground twelve persons and offered them to Pluto for the prolonging of her own life CHAP. XLIV Of the gross Flatteries of some men AS the Heliotrope is alwayes turning it self according to the course of the Sun but shuts and closes up its leaves as soon as that great Luminary hath forsaken the Horizon So the Flatterer is alwayes fawning upon the Prosperous till their fortune begins to ârown upon them in this not unlike to other sorts of Vermine that are observed to desert falling Houses and the Carcases of the dying Hope and fear have been the occasions that some persons otherwise of great worth have sometimes declined to so low a degree of baseness as to bestow their Encomiums upon them who have merited the severest of their reproofs Even Seneca himself was a broad flatterer of Nero which may make us the less to wonder at that which 1. Tacitus saith of Salvius Otho that he did adorare vulgus projicere oscula omnia serviliter pro imperio adore the people scatter his kisses and salutes and crouch unto any servile expressions to advance his ambitious designs in the attainment of the Empire 2. The like unworthy Arts Menelaus objects to his Brother Agamemnon in the Tragedian thus You know how you the Rule o're Grecians got In shew declining what in truth you sought How low how plausible you apprehended The hands of meanest men how then you bended To all you met how your Gates open flew And spake large welcome to the pop'lar crew What sweetned words you gave ev'n unto those Who did decline and hate to see you gloze How thus with serpentine and guileful Arts You screw'd and wound your self into the hearts O'âh ' vulgar and thus bought the poor which now Makes you forget how then you us'd to bow 3. Tiridates King of Armenia when he was overcome by Corbulo and brought prisoner to Nero at Rome falââng down on his knees he said I am Nephew to the great Lord Arsaces Broâher to the two great Kings Vologesus and Pacorus and yet thy Servant and I am come to worship thee no otherwise than I worship my God the Sun Truly I will be such an one as thou shalt please to make me for thou art my fate and fortune Which Flattery so pleased Nero that he restored him to his Kingdom and gave him besides an hundred thousand pieces of Gold 4. Publius Asfranius a notable Flatterer at Rome hearing that Caligula the Emperour was sick went to him and professed that he would willingly dye so that the Emperour might recover The Emperour told him that he did not believe him whereupon he confirmed it with an Oath Caligula shortly after recovering forced him to be as good as his word and to undergo that in earnest which he had only spoken out of base and false Flaâtery for he caused him to be slain and as he said lest he should be âorsworn 5. Canutus King of England and Denmark was told by a Court Parasite that all things in his Realme were at his beck
and will and that his pleasure once known none durst oppose it The King therefore appointed his Chair of State to be set upon the Sands when the Sea began to âlow and in the presence of his Courtiers he said unto it Thou art part of my Dominion and the ground on which I sit is mine neither was there ever any that durst disobey my commaud that went away with impunity wherefore I charge thee that thou come not upon my Land neither that thou presume to wet the Clothes or Body of me thy Lord. But the Sea according to its usual course flowing more and more wet his Feet Whereupon the King rising up said Let all the Inhabitants of the world know that vain and frivolous is the power of Kings and that none is worthy the name of a King but he to whose command the Heaven Earth and Sea by the bond of an everlasting Law are subject and obedient After this it is said that the King would never more wear his Crown 6. Damocles was the Flatterer of Dionysius the Tyrant of Syracuse crying up his Riches and Majesty and the like affirming that no man was ever more happy than himself Wilt thou then said the Tyrant taste and make tryal of my fortune Damocles said he was very desirous of it He caused him therefore to be placed upon a Bed of Gold the most exquisite delights to be presented to him the Table covered with the most exquisite and far fetched dainties And now when Damocles thought himself very fortunate in the midst of all this preparation he pointed him to a bright and drawn Sword that hanged from the top of the Room directly over his head was the point of it and it tyed only with a Horâe hair Damocles therefore not daring to put his hand to any of the Dishes besought the Tyrant that he might have liberty to depart By this he convicted this Flatterer and shewed him that they were not happy that lived in perpetual dangers and fears 7. When Agrippa had raigned three whole years over all Iudea in the City of Cesaria which was formerly called the Tower of Straton he set forth publick shews in honour of Caesar to which resorted a multitude of the Nobles and great Persons throughout the Realm Upon the second day of this solemnity in the morning Agrippa entred the Theatre cloathed in a Garment all of Silver framed with a wonderful Art which glanced upon by the Beams of the rising Sun and sending forth a kind of divine fulgor begat a kind of veneration and honour in the beholders Whereupon there were a sort of pernicious Flatterers that saluted him as a god humbly beseeching him that he would be propitious to them saying that heretofore they had revered him as a man but now they did confess that thâre was something in him more excellent than humane nature This prophane kind of Flattery he neither rejected nor reproved them for soon after he beheld an Owl sitting upon a Rope which before had been to him a presage of good and of which it had been predicted that when he saw the like sight again it should be to him the sign of evil fortune at which he was exceedingly perplexed immediately he was taken with extream torments in his belly and pressures at his heart upon which he said to his Friends Behold I that am your God as you said am now ready to depart this life and he who you said was immortal is now haled away by death While he was speaking these things spent with pain he was carried into his Palace where having wrestled with his intolerable pains for âive dayes he departed this life aged fifty four and having reigned seven years four under Caiâs and three under Claudius 8. The Athenians were the first that gave to Demetrius and Antigonus the title of Kings they caused them to be set down in their publick records for Saviour Gods They put down their ancient Magistracy of the Archontes from whom they denominated the year and yearly elected a Priest to these Saviours whose name they prefixed to their decrees and contracts In the place where Demetrius dismounted from his Chariot they erected an Altar which they dedicated to Demetrius the dismounter They added two Tribes to the rest which they called Demetrias and Antigonis Above all that of Stratocles is to be remembred who was a known designer of the grandest flattery this man was author of a decree that those who by the people were publickly sent unto Demetrius and Antigonus should not be calâed Embassadors but Theoroi or Speakers to the gods 9. Valerius Maximus in the dedication of his book of memorable examples to Tiberius the Emperour thus flatteringly bespeaks him Thee O Caesar do I invoke in this my undertaking who art the most certain safety of our Country in whose hands is the power of Sea and Land by an equal consent of gods and men and by whose celestial providence all those virtues of which I am to speak are benignely cherished and the vices severely punished For if the ancient Oratours did happily take their Exordiums from the great and best Iupiter if the most excellent Poets did use to commence their Writings by the invocation of some one or other deity by how much the more justice ought my meanness to have recourse unto your favour seeing that all other divinity is collected by opinion but yours by present evidence appears equal unto your Grandfathers and Fathers Star by the admirable brightness of which there is an accession of a glorious splendour to our Ceremonies For as for all other gods we have indeed received them but the Caesars are made and acknowledged by our selves 10. Tiberius Caesar coming into the Senate one of them stood up and said that it was fit the words of free men should be free also and that nothing which was proâitable should be dissembled or concealed All men were attentive to an Oration with such a Preface there was a deep silence and Tiberius himself listned when the Flatterer proceeds thus Hear O Caesar what it is that we are displeased with in thee whereof yet no man dare openly make mention you neglect your self and have no regard to your own person you wast your body with continual cares and travails for our sakes taking no rest or repose either day or night CHAP. XLV Of such as have been found guilty of that which they have reprehended or disliked in others AMongst others who came to be Spectators of the Olympick games there was an old man of Athens he passed to and fro but no man afforded him a seat room when he came where the Spartan Ambassadours sate they who had been taught to reverence age rose up and gave him place amongst them Well said the old man the Grecians know well enough what they ought to do but the Spartans alone are they who do it The following examples afford too many too near allied to the Grecians
wherein we have any understanding it can never be suâficiently wondred at that it should be so very little that we are able to comprehend with any certainty concerning the Soul it self The most learned amongst men are at a loss as often as they would speak distinctly touching its nature manner of working the way of its conjunction with the body and principal place of its residence and so are they also for the manner of its retreat and the place of its retirement in such cases as are propounded in this Chapter 1. William Withers born at Walsham in Sussex being a child of eleven years of age did An. 1581. lye in a trance ten days without any sustenance and at last coming to himself uttered to the standers by many strange speeches against pride and covetousness coldness of charity and other outragious sins 2. Hermotimus the Clazomenian seemed frequently to have his body deserted of the soul and as if it had wandred about in the World at the return of it he would relate such things at a distance performed that none could tell of but such as were present by which means he was long the admiration of such as he dwelt amongst At last being in one of these trances his enemies seised upon his body and burnt it by which means the returning soul was disappointed of its usual place of residence and retreat Plin. lib. 7. cap. 52. pag. 184. 3. Iohannes Scotus the same who hath treated with such subtilty concerning divine matters is also said to have been in frequent raptures in such manner that he hath been observed to sit sometimes for the space of a whole day and more immoveable with his mind and senses bound up or at least wandring far off from the body In which condition at length he was taken up by some such as were unacquainted with him and so buried alive 4. Restitutus a Presbyter could at his pleasure deprive himself of all sense and would do it as oft as he was asked which many did as desirous to be the eye-witnesses of so admirable a thing At the imitation of some notes and the tone of lamenting persons he would lie as one that was dead altogether sensless of his being pulled or pricked nay once being burnt with fire he had no apprehension or feeling at all of it for the present only the wound was painful to him at his return to himself In these his trances he did not breathe at all only he would say that the voices of men only if they spake louder than ordinary were heard by him as if they were at some great distance from him 5. Thomas Aquinas by his daily and constant contemplations had so accustomed himself that frequently falling into an Ecstasie of the mind he seemed to all that were present to be dead yet in the mean time he gained the knowledge of the abstruser Mysteries in Divinity and being returned to himself he imparted to others the fruits of this his philosophick death both in his Writings and Converse 6. Hieronymus Cardanus of Millain writes of himself that he could pass as oft as he would into such an Ecstasie as only to have a soft hearing of the words of such as discoursed by him but not any understanding of them at all he felt not any pullings or pinches of him nor was at such times in the least manner sensible of the pains of the Gout or any other thing but only such things as were without him The beginnings of this were first in the head especially from the brain diffusing it self thence all along to the back bone At first he could perceive a kind of separation from the heart as if the soul were departing and this was communicated to the whole body as if a door did open He adds that he saw all that he desired with his eyes not by any force of the mind and that those images of things did perpetually move as Woods Mountains living Creatures and what else he pleased He imputes all this to the vigour of his fancy and the subtilty of his sight 7. The Father of Prestantius saith St. Augustine was often in such an Ecstasie that upon the return of his spirit he would affirm that he had been transformed into a Horse and that he with other Horses had carried relief and forrage into the Camp whereas his body lay then at his own house in the manner of a dead Corps 8. The English Histories relate that Elizabeth Burton a Maid of Canterbury had contracted a custom of entrancing her self and taking away her senses which first came upon her by reason of a disease which she had upon her CHAP. XIX Of extraordinary things in the Bodies Fortunes Death c. of divers persons TRavellers that have determined to pass through divers Countries lightly touch those common occurrences that present themselves to every mans eye but if they meet with any thing extraordinary these they set a special and particular remark upon as matter wherewith mens knowledge may be improved and their curiosity gratified If I have staid the longer upon this Chapter it is possibly for some such reason as this that the Reader may have something if not so profitable as he could wish yet not altogether unpleasant in the perusal 1. Antonius Cianfius a Book-seller at Pisa some few years since putting off a shirt which was made straiter to his body than usual flames were seen to issue from his back and arms and that also with a crackling noise to the affrightment of the whole family The truth of this is attested as well as the History related by Fortunius Licetus that great Philosopher of this Age in the second Book and 28. Chapter of his Commentary of the Causes of Monsters 2. That is strange which is recorded of M. Furius Camillus that though he had gained many important Victories was often General in the head of an Army was Censor was five times created Dictator and at four several times had triumphed and was also called the second Founder of Rome yet was he never chosen Consul 3. Nicholas Wotton was termed a Center of Remarkables so many met in his person he was Dean of the two Metropolitan Churches of Canterbury and York he was the first Dean of those Cathedrals he was Privy Counsellor to four successive Soveraigns King Henry the Eighth King Edward the Sixth Queen Mary Queen Elizabeth he was employed thirteen several times in Embassies to foreign Princes and which is not the least remarkable in the first of Queen Elizabeth he was offered the Archbishoprick of Canterbury and refused it he died 1566. 4. Iohn Story Doctor of Law a cruel Persecutor in the days of Queen Mary fled afterwards into Brabant being trained into the Ship of Mr. Parker an English man the Master hoised Sail and over was this Tyrant and Traitor brought into England where refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy and professing
himself a Subject to the King of Spain he was executed at Tyburn where being cut down half dead after his privy members were cut off he rushed on the Executioner and gave him a blow on the ear to the wonder of the by-standers 5. It is said of Crassus Grandfather to that Crassus who was slain in the Parthian War that he was never known to laugh all his life time and thereupon was called Agelastus or the man that never laught 6. Antonia the Wife of Drusus as it is well known never spit and Pomponius the Poet one that had sometimes been Consul never belched 7. It is memorable which is recorded of a King named Wazmund and was the Founder of Warwick Town that he had a Son named Offa tall of stature and of a good constitution of body but blind till he was seven years old and then saw and dumb till he was thirty years old and then spake 8. In the first year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth died Sir Thomas Cheney Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports of whom it is reported for a certain that his pulse did beat more than three quarters of an hour after he was dead as strongly as if he had been still alive 9. George Nevil fourth Son of Richard Nevil Earl of Salisbury was consecrated Bishop of Exeter when he was not as yet twenty years of age at twenty five he was made Lord Chancellor of England and discharged it to his great commendation his ability supplying the luck of age in him 10. When I was in Italy that Paradise of the World the outward skin of a Lady of Verona though lightly touched did manifestly sparkle with fire This spectacle so worthy of the research of the inquisitive and curious is faithfully exposed to the World by the publick Script of Petrus à Castro the learned Physician of Verona in his Book de Igne lambente whom I shall follow in the relation of this story The illustrious Lady Catherina Buri the Wife of the noble Io. Franciscus Rambaldus a Patritian of Verona of a middle age indifferent habit of body her universal temper hot and moist her liver hot and dry and so abounding with bilious and black blood with its innate fervour and an age fit for adustion increased by vehement grief This noble Lady the Creator endued with so stupendous a Dignity and Prerogative of Nature that as oft as her body was but lightly touched with linen sparks flew out plentifully from her limbs apparent to her domestick Servants as if they had been struck out of a flint accompanied also with a noise that was to be heard by all Oftentimes when she rubbed her hands upon the sleeve of her smock that contained the sparkles within it she observed a flame with a tailed ray running about as fired exhalations are wont to do insomuch that her Maids were oftentimes deluded supposing they had left fire in the bed after warming of it in Winter in which time also fire is most discernible This fire was not to be seen but in the dark or in the night nor did it burn without it self though combustible matter was applied to it nor lastly as other fire did it cease within a certain time but with the same manner of appearance of light it shewed it self after my departure out of Italy 11. I have read saith Rossâ of one who had a horn grew upon his heel a foot long which being cut off grew again and would doubtless have still renewed if the tough and viscous matter had not been diverted and evacuated by Issues Purges and Phlebotomy 12. Fernelius saith he saw a Girl that lived in near neighbourhood to him the ligaments of whose joynts were so very loose that you might bend and turn any of them this or that way at your pleasure and that it was so with her from the time of her birth 13. Sir Iohn Mason born at Abington bred at All souls in Oxford died 1566. and lies buried in the Quire of St. Pauls I remember this Distick of his long Epitaph Tempore quinque suo regnantes ordine vidit Horum à Consiliis quatuor ille fuit He saw five Princes which the Scepter bore Of them was Privy Counsellor to four That is to Henry the Eighth Edward the Sixth Q. Mary and Q. Elizabeth 14. Thomas Bourchier successively Bishop of Worcester Ely and Archbishop of Canterbury and Cardinal by the Title of St. Cyriacus in the Baths being consecrated Bishop of Worcester An. 1435. the fourteenth of Henry the Sixth he died Archbishop of Canterbury 1486. the second of King Henry the Seventh whereby it appears that he wore a Miter full fifty one years a term not to be parallel'd in any other person he saw the Civil Wars of York begun and ended having the honour to marry King Henry the Seventh to the Daughter of King Edward the Fourth Nor is it the least of wonders that he lost not himself in the Laâyrinth of such intricate times 15. Sir Thomas Frowick was made Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in the eighteenth year of the Reign of King Henry the Seventh four years he sate in his place accounted the Oracle of the Law in his Age though one of the youngest men that ever enjoyed that Office He ãâã reported to have died floridâ juventute before full forty years old so that he was Chief Justice at thirty five he died 1506. Octob. 17. 16. That was great and excellent in Socrates that whatever fell out of joy or otherwise he returned with the same countenance he went forth with and was never seen to be more merry or melancholy than at other times in any alteration of times or affairs 17. In the Reign of King Iames in the year 1613. on the 26. of Iune in the Parish of Christ-Church in Hampshire one Iohn Hitchel a Carpenter lying in bed with a young child by him was himself and the child burnt to death with a sudden Lightning no fire appearing outwardly upon him and yet lay burning for the space of almost three days till he was quite consumed to ashes 18. Lucius Fulvius being Consul of the Tusculani who at that time rebelled he deserted them and was thereupon made Consul at Rome and so it fell out that in one and the same year in which he was an Enemy to Rome he triumphed at Rome and a Consul over those to whom he had been Consul 19. It is said of Charles Earl of Valois that he was the Son of a King Brother to a King Uncle to a King and Father to a King and yet no King himself 20. There was amongst the Magnesians one Protophanes who in one and the same day won the Prize in the Olympick Games both at Wrastling and other Games when he was dead certain Thieves opened his Sepulchre and went into it hoping to have found something to prey upon after which