Aristotle Theophrastus and others curious searchers into all kinds of learning never so much as once mention either their names or their writings nor any of these mysteries While the Church of Christ was yet in her infancie many such kind of bookes were forged therby to make the doctrine of the Gospell more passible among the Gentiles and no marvell then that these of the Sybils passed for current among the rest That Saint George was a holy Martyr and that he conquered the dragon whereas Dr. Reynolds proues him to haue beene both a wicked man and an Arrian by the testimonie of Epiphanius Athanasius and Gregory Nazianzen And Baronius himselfe in plaine tearmes affirmes apparet totam illam de actis Georgij fabulam fuisse commentum Arrianorum It appeares that the whole story of George is nothing else but a forgery of the Arrians yet was he receiued as we know as a Canonized Saint through Christendome to be the Patron both of our nation and of the most honorable order of Knighthood in the world That the wise men which came out of the East to worship our Saviour were Kings and from hence their bodies being translated to Cullen they are at this day commonly called the three Kings of Cullen and the day consecrated to their memory is by the French tearmed Le jour de trois Rois the day of the three Kings yet Mantuan a Munke feares not to declare his opinion to the contrary and giues his reason for it Nec reges vt opinor erant neque enim tacuissent Historiae sacrae Authores Genus illud honoris Inter mortales quo non sublimius ullum Adde quod Herodes ut magnificentia Regum Postulat hospitibus tantis regale dedisset Hospitium secumque lares duxisset in amplos Had they beene Kings nor holy History Would haue conceal'd their so great Majesty Higher then which on Earth none can be named Herods magnificence would eke haue framed Some entertainment fitting their estates And harbour'd them within his Royall gates SECT 4. In History Ciuill IN History Ciuill or Nationall it is commonly receiued that there were foure and but foure Monarchies succeeding one the other the Assyrian the Persian the Grecian and the Roman Yet Iohn Bodin a man of singular learning specially in matter of History dares thus to begin the seuenth Chapter of his Method Inveteratus error de quatuor Imperijs ac magnorum Virorum opinione pervulgatus tam altè radices egit ut vix evelli posse videatur that inveterate errour of foure Empires made famous thorow the opinion of great men hath now taken such deepe roots as it seemes it can hardly be pluckt vp thorow a great part of that Chapter labours he the Confutation of those who maintaine that opinion That the Saxons called the Remainder of the Brittaines Welch as being strangers vnto them whereas that word signifies not a strangers either in the high or low Dutch as Verstigan a man skilfull in those Languages hath obserued that the Saxons gaue them the name of Welch after themselues came into Brittaine is altogether vnlikely For that inhabiting so neere them as they did to wit but ouer against them on the other side of the Sea they could not want a more particular and proper name for them then to call them strangers It seemes then more likely that the Brittaines being originally descended from the Gaules the Saxons according to their manner of speech by turning the G into W insteed of Gallish termed them Wallish and by abbreviation Walch or Welch as the French at this day call the Prince of Wales Prince de Galles That Brute a Troian by Nation and great grand-childe to Aeneas arriued in this Iland gaue it the name of Brittaine from himselfe here raigned and left the gouernment thereof diuided among his three sonnes England to Loegrius Scotland to Albanak and Wales to Camber Yet our great Antiquary beating as he professeth his braines and bending the force of his wits to maintaine that opinion hee found no warrantable ground for it Nay by forcible arguments produced as in the person of others disputing against himselfe he strongly proues it in my judgment altogether vnsound and vnwarrantable Boccace Vives Adryanus Iunius Polydorus Buchanan Vignier Genebrard Molinaeus Bodine and other Writers of great account are all of opinion there was no such man as this supposed Brute And among our owne ancient Chronicles Iohn of Wethamsted Abbot of S. Albon holdeth the whole narration of Brute to haue beene rather Poëticall then Historicall which me thinkes is agreable to reason since Caesar Tacitus Gildas Ninius Bede William of Malmesbery and as many others as haue written any thing touching our Countrey before the yeare 1160 make no mention at all of him nor seeme euer so much as to haue heard of him The first that euer broached it was Geffry of Monmoth about foure hundred yeares agoe during the raigne of Henry the second who publishing the Brittish story in Latine pretended to haue taken it out of ancient monuments written in the Brittish tongue but this Booke assoone as it peeped forth into the light was sharply censured both by Giraldus Cambrensis and William of Newberry who liued at the same time the former tearming it no better then Fabulosam historiam a fabulous history and the latter ridicula figmenta ridiculous fictions and it now stands branded with a blacke cole among the bookes prohibited by the Church of Rome That the Pigmies are a Nation of people not aboue two or three foot high and that they solemnely set themselues in battle array to fight against the Cranes their greatest enemies of these notwithstanding witnesseth Cassanion Fabulosa illa omnia sunt quae de illis vel Poetae vel alij Scriptores tradiderunt all those things are fabulous which touching them either the Poëts or other writers haue deliuered And with him fully accordeth Cardan in his eight Booke De rerum varietate Apparet ergò Pigmeiorum historiam esse fabulosam quod Strabo sentit nostra aetas cùm omnia nunc firmè orbis mirabilia innotuerint declarat It appeares then that the Historie of the Pigmies is but a fiction as both Strabo thought and our age which hath now discouered all the wonders of the world fully declares Gellius also Rhodogin referre these Pigmies if any such there be to a kinde of Apes SECT 5. In History Naturall IN Naturall History it is commonly receiued that the Phaenix liues fiue hundred or six hundred yeares that there is of that kinde but one at a time in the World that being to die he makes his nest of sweet spices and by the clapping of his wings sets it on fire and so burnes himselfe and lastly that out of the ashes arises a worme and from that worme another new Phaenix Neither am I ignorant that sundry of the Fathers haue brought this narration to confirme the
apud parentes nostros fuerunt dies laetiores fuerunt dies meliores O si interrogares ipsos parentes tuos similiter tibi de diebus suis murmurarent Fuerunt beati Patres nostri nos miseri sumus malos dies habemus Doe you not daily murmurre and thus say how long shall wee suffer these things All things grow worse worse Our Fathers saw better merrier dayes But I wish thou would'st aske the question of thy Fathers thou shalt finde them murmurre likewise in regard of their daies saying Oh our Fathers were happy wee miserable wee see nothing but badde dayes But had this complaint beene as true as ancient as just as vsuall in all ages wee had not beene left at this day to renue it wee should by this time haue had no weather to ripen our corne or fruites in any tollerable manner For my selfe then mine opinion is that men for the most part being most affected with the present more sensible of punishments then of blessings growing in worldly cares consequently in discontent as they grow in yeares and experience they are thereby more apt to apprehend crosses then comforts to repine murmurre for the one then to returne thankes for the other Whence it comes to passe that vnseasonable weather the like crosse accidents are printed in our memories as it were with red letters in an Almanacke but for seasonable faire there stands nothing but a blanke the one graven in is brasse the other written in water SECT 3. Of contagious diseases and specially the plague both heere at home and abroad in former ages NOW for contagious diseases specially the plague it selfe it is well known that this land hath now by Gods favour been in a mannerall together free from it since the first yeare of his Majesties raigne whereas heretofore it hath commonly every seaven or eight yeares at farthest spread it selfe through the greatest part of the land and swept away many thousands in the yeare one thousand three hundred forty eight it was so hot in Wallingford a Towne of Barkeshire that in a manner it dispeopled the Towne reducing their twelue Churches to one or two which they now only retaine In London it had so sharpe and quick an edge and mowed downe such multitudes that within the space of twelue moneths there were buried in one Churchyard commonly called the Cistersians or Charterhouse aboue fifty thousand They writ further that through the kingdome it made such a ravage as it tooke away more then halfe of men Church-yards could not suffice to burie the dead new grounds are purchased for that purpose And it is noted that there died onely in London betweene the first of Ianuary and the first of Iuly 57374. Other Citties and townes suffering the like according to their portions The earth being every where filled with graues and the aire with cries In the tenth yeare likewise of Edward the second there was so great a pestilence and generall sickenesse of the common sort caused by the ill nutriment they receiued as the liuing scaree sufficed to bury the dead Now if wee cast our eyes abroad vnder the Emperours Vibius Gallus Volutianus his son about two hundred fiftie yeares after Christ there arose a plague in Ethiopia which by degrees spread it selfe into all the provinces of the Romane Empire and lasted by the space of fitteene yeares together without any intermission and so great was the mortallity that in Alexandria as Dyonisius himselfe at that very time Bishop of that sea reports it there was not one house of the whole citty free the whole remainder of the inhabitants did not equall the number of old men in former times By meanes whereof S. Cyprian Bishop of Carthage who liued in the same age tooke occasion to write that his excellent Treatise de Mortalitate And Lypsius his censure of this pestilence is Non alia vnquam maior lues mihi lecta spatio temporum siue terrarum I neuer read of a more greivous contagion whether wee regard the long lasting or the large spreading thereof Yet was that certainely for the time more impetuous and outragious vnder Iustinian the fiercenes whereof was such that onely in Constantinople and the places neere adjoyning therevnto it cut off at least fiue thousand sometimes tenne thousand persons in one day Which my selfe should hardly bee drawne either to report or to beleeue but that I finde it recorded by faithfull Historiographers of those times Neither lesse wonderfull was that pestilence in Africa which snatcht away onely in Numidia Octingenta hominum millia saith Orosius eight hundred thousand men Or that vnder Michael Duca in Greece which was so sharpe and violent Vt viui prorsus pares non essent mortais sepeliendis they bee the words of Zonaras the liuing were no way sufficient to burie the dead But that which scourged Italy in Petrarches time in the yeare one thousand three hundred fiftie nine as himselfe relates it in my minde exceedes all hitherto spoken of there being scarely left aliue tenne ofa thousand thorow the whole countrey Whereby the way I cannot let passe that vnder David though by most Diuines held to bee supernaturall and miraculous in which there died of the people seuenty thousand men within the space of three dayes Now for other infectious â—…idemicall diseases in former ages Pasquier assignes a whole chapter to them which hee thus intitles Des maladies qui ont seulement vnifois Cours par La disposition de L' air Of those diseases which haue but once had their course through the distemper of the aire Heere with vs wee haue not heard of late dayes of any such diseases as the shaking of the sheetes or the sweating sickenesse touching which it is very memorable that Mr Camdem hath deliuered in his description of Shrewesbury as for the cause thereof saith hee let others search it out for my own part I haue obserued that this malady hath run through England thrise in the ages afore-going yet I doubt not but long before also it did the like although it were not recorded in writing First in the yeare of our Lord 1485 in which King Henry the seventh first began his raigne a little after the great Coniunction of the superiour Planets in Scorpio A second time yet more mildly although the Plague accompanied it in the 33d yeare after Anno 1518 vpon a great opposition of the same Planets in Scorpio Taurus at which time it plagued the Netherlands and high Almany also Last of all 33 yeares after that againe in the yeare 1551 when another Coniunction of those Planets in Scorpio tooke their effects so that by Gods goodnes for the space now of these last seuenty three yeares wee haue not felt that disease Twise thirty three yeares more and the same Coniunction and opposition of the Planets haue passed ouer yet it hath
bin only disproportionable but exceeding weake aswell for offence as defence whereas he is described as a mighty man and of wonderfull strength Lastly if we shall imagine him to haue beene a transcendent Gyant and yet measure him by his owne cubit double to the ordinary his length will then arise to twenty foure foote at least a stature most incredible After this in Davids time we reade that Goliath the Philistin of Gath was a Gyant of six cubits and a spanne long Neither doe I remember that in sacred Scriptures we haue the measure of any precisely observed saue of him onely the armour which he wore weighed fiue thousand shekels of brasse the sheft of his speare was like a weavers beame and his speare head weighed six hundred shekels of yron Also in tho second of Samuell there is mention of a brother to this 〈◊〉 a man of like stature and strength And of two 〈◊〉 the one of which was slaine by Iehonathan Davids Nephew hee who had twelue fingers and as many toes foure and twenty in number And that before these Sampson was of surpassing strength and of a stature answerable the 〈◊〉 no man need to doubt considering he tore a Lyon as it had beâ—…o a kidde slew thirty of the Philistins at once and after that a thousand more of them with the iaw-bone of an asse And lastly he tooke the gates of Assah and the two postes lifted them away with the barres and put them vpon his shoulders and carried them to the toppe of the mountaine before Hebron SEC 3. That latter times haue also afforded the like both at home and abroad specially in the Indies where they liue more according to nature THE like may be said of all succeeding ages downe to the present times It is the confession of Cassanion in his booke of Gyants Noâ—… vno tantum seculo aut altero visi sunt sed fermè ab initio mundi ad Davidis vsque tempora propagatum id genus hominum magnitudine prorsus admiranda They haue not beene seene in one onely or two ages but almost from the beginning of the world euen to Davids time hath that kinde of men of a monstrous bignesse beene deduced S. Augustine goes farther Quasi vero Corpora hominum modum nostrum longe excedentia non etiam nostris temporibus nata sint as if some bodies of men much exceeding our ordinary stature were not likewise borne in these our times And yet more fully in the ninth Chapter of the same booke Nunquam fermè defuerunt qui modum aliorum plurimum excederint they haue almost at no time beene wanting who haue much exceeded the ordinary stature I will insist onely vpon the most signall instances drawne from the testimonies of the most approved Authours In the Gospells or writings of the Apostles wee reade not of any they intending matters of greater weight and consequence But Pliny tells vs that during the reigne of Claudius the Emperour a mighty man one Gabbara by name was brought out of Arabia to Roome nine foote hith was he and as many inches There were likewise in the time of Augustus Caesar two others named Pusio and Secondilla higher then Gabbara by halfe a foote whose bodies were preserved kept for a wonder within the Salustian gardens Maximinus the Emperour as Iulius Capitolinus affirmes exceeded eight foote And Andronichus Comninus tenne as Nicetas In the dayes of Theodosius there was one in Syria as Nicephorus reports fiue cubits high and an hand-breadth Eginhardus and Krantzius affirme that Charlemaigne was seven foot high But in that they adde of his own feet they both leaue his heighth altogether vncertaine as was before said in the description of the stature of Ogge and his body very disproportionable there being no man whose body is rightly featured who exceedes fix of his owne feete But to draw neerer to our owne times Iulius Scaliger hath left it vpon record that at his being at Millane he there saw in a publique hospitall a young man of so monstrous an heighth that he could not stand vpright he was therefore layd vpon two beds the one ioyned longwise vnto the other both which he filled with his length Goropius Becanus Physitian to the Lady Mary Queene of Hungary regent of th Netherlands and sister to the Emperour Charles the fifth assures vs thae himselfe saw a woman tenne foote high and that within fiue miles of hit dwelling there was then to be seene a man almost of the same lengths wherevpon his assertion is Audacter affirmamus wee boldly affirme that men in former ages were commonly nothing taller then now they are Their Gyants were of six or seaven cubits high so are ours nay hee goes farther Considenter de philosophiae preceptis statuimus nihil in humana statura ab inevnte mundi aetate immutatum esse Wee confidently auerre out of the grounds of Philosophie that since the Creation of the world nothing is altered in the stature of man-kind But to returne to the Gyants of latter ages Iohn Cassanion who seemes to haue vndertaken his treatise of Gyants purposely to censure and confute Goropius yet mentions one himselfe commonly called the Gyant of Burdeaux whom King Francis passing that way beheld with admiration commaunding he should bee of his guard but being a pesant of a grosse spirit not able to apply himselfe to a Courtiers life hee soone quited his halbard and getting away by stealth returned to the place whence he came An honorable person who had seene him archer of the guard did assure me saith Cassanion that he was of such an heighth as any man of an ordinary stature might goe vpright betwixt his legges when hee did stride There is at this present to bee seene heere in England one Parsons by trade a blacke-smith now Porter at the Kings Court who by iust measure is found to be no lesse then seaven foote two inches And I heere that a Welch-man is lately entertained by the Prince in the like place who outstrips the Smith in heighth by fiue inches and yet is he still growing so as in time he may well come vnto eight foote But it may well bee that in these parts of the world where luxury hath crept in together with Ciuility there may be some diminution of strength and stature in regard of our Ancestours yet if wee cast our eyes abroad vpon those nations which still liue according to nature though in a fashion more rude and barbarous we shall finde by the relation of those that haue liued among them that they much exceede vs in stature still retaining as it seemes the vigorous constitution of their Predecessours which should argue that if any decay be it is not vniversall and consequently not naturall but rather adventitious and accidentall For proofe heereof to let passe the stories of Olaus Magnus touching the Inhabitants of the Northerne Climate I will content
that should seeme probable to any man by reason of the countenance of so graue Authours which is no way to be approved and partly that from hence it may appeare how much the Church of Christ from that time to this hath profited in the knowledge of holy Scriptures divine mysteries Nam multa quondam vel doctissimis viris aut obscura dubia aut etiam incognita nunc vel mediocriter eruditis perspicua indubitata exploratèque percepta sunt for many things anciently either obscure or doubtfull or altogether vnknowne to the most learned among them are now become euen to meane Clarkes cleere certaine And with him fully accords Andradius in his defence of the Tridentine Councill God hath revealed many things to vs that they never saw And Dominicus Bannes a famous schoole-man It is not necessary that by how much the more the Church is remote from the Apostles times by somuch there should be the lesse perfect knowledge of the mysteries of faith therein because after the Apostles times there were not the most learned men in the Church which had dexterity in vnderstanding and expounding matters of faith Roffensis likewise our Countrey-man strikes vpon the same string It cannot be vnknowne to any but that many things are more narrowly sifted cleerely vnderstood by the helpes of latter wits aswell in the Gospells as other parts of the Scriptures then formerly they haue beene and lastly to make vp the musicke full Cardinall Caietan beares a part Let no man thinke it strange if sometimes wee bring a new sence of holy writ different from the auncient Doctours but let him diligently examine the Text context and if he find it to agree therewith let him praise God who hath not tyed the exposition of the sacred Scriptures to the sences giuen by the auncient Doctours These testimonies I the rather vouch for that the Authours of them being professed Champions of the Romane Church withall professe themselues to bee the greatest friends to the ancient Fathers SECT 2. Of ensuing ages YEt not to conceale a truth these were lightsome times in regard of those succeeding ages that followed after when Divinity was wouen into distinctions which like Cobwebbs were fine and curious in working but not much vsefull And in the meane time for the most part in the Scriptures and holy Languages there was so great ignorance vt Graecè nosse suspectum fuerit Hebraicè propè Haereticum that as witnesseth Espencaeus himselfe a Doctour of the Sorbon to bee skilled in Greeke was suspitious in the Hebrew almost haereticall which suspition Rhemigius an Interpreter of S. Pauls Epistles surely was not guilty of for commenting vpon these words à vobis diffamatus est sermo hee tells vs that diffamatus was somewhat improperly put for divulgatus S. Paul being not very sollicitous of the propriety of words wherevpon Ludovicus Vives demaunds Quid facias principibus istis Scholarum qui nondum sciunt Paulum non Latinè sed Graecè scripsisse What shall we say to these Masters in Israel who know not that S. Paul wrote not in Latine but in Greeke It appeares by the rescript of Pope Zacharie to Boniface a German Bishop that a Priest in those parts baptized in this forme Baptizo te in nomine Patria Filia Spiritua sancta And by Erasmus that some Divines in his time would take vpon them to prooue that Heretiques were to be put to death because the Apostle saith Haereticum hominem devita which it seemes they vnderstood as if he had said de vita tolle I haue somewhere read that two Fryars disputing whether God made any more worlds then one the one wisely alleadging that passage of the Gospell touching the ten Lepers which were cleansed Annon decem facti sunt mundi as if God had made tenne worlds the other looking into the text replies as wisely with the words immediatly following Sed vbi sunt novem but what is become of the nine so as from thence hee would prooue but one to be left He that is disposed to make himselfe merry in this kinde may finde in Henry Stevens his Apologie of Herodotus a number of like stuffe I will only touch one or two of the choisest Du Prat a Bishop and Chauncellour of France hauing receiued a letter from Henry the eight King of England to Francis the first of France wherein among other things he wrote mitto tibi duodecem Molossos I send you twelue mastife dogs the Chauncellour taking Molossos to signifie Mules made a journey of purpose to the Court to begge them of the King who wondring at such a present to be sent him from England demaunded the sight of the letter and smiling thereat the Chauncellour finding himselfe to be deceiued told him that hee mistooke Molossos for Muletos and so hoping to mend the matter made it worse Another tale he tels of a Parish Priest in Artois who had his Parishioners in sute for not paving the Church and that the charge thereof lay vpon them and not vpon him he would proue out of the 17 of the Prophet Ieremie Paveant illi non paveam ego I remember Arch-Bishop Parker somewhere in his Antiquitates Britannicae makes relation of a French Bishop who being to take his oath to the Archbishop of Canterburie finding the word Metropoliticae therein being not able to pronounce it he passed it ouer with Soit pour dict let it be as spoken when they had most grossely broken Priscians head being taken in the fact their common defence was those words of S. Gregorie non debent verba coelestis Oraculi subesse regulis Donati the wordes of the heavenly Oracles ought not to be subiect to the rules of Donatus But about 200 yeares since together with the Arts the languages likewise began to reuiue in somuch as Hebrew Greeke are now as commō as true Latine then was for the true sence of holy Scripture neuer had the Church more judicious faithfull Interpreters then by the Diuine prouidence it hath injoyed these last 100 yeares besides the Sermons of this latter age specially in this land haue doubtles bin more exquisite effectuall then ordinarily they haue bin in any precedent age insomuch as it is obserued that if there were a choice collection made of the most accurate since the entrance of Queen Elizabeth to these present times leauing out the largenesse of applications therevpon it would proue one of the rarest peeces that hath beene published since the Apostles times Heerevnto might be added for practicall divinitie the decisions of cases of conscience which the Ancients did not handle professedly but onely vpon the Bye and the many singular treatises tending to deuotion which I wish they were aswell practised as they are written And no doubt but the great agitation of controuersies which these latter times haue produced hath not only sharpned the spirits of Diuines but made the
out against him so long and withall calling to mind that they had often galled his subjects by sea was so farre from accepting of their petition that contrariwise hee resolved to put them all to the sword had he not beene diverted from that resolution by some sage Counsellours then about him who told him that for having beene faithfull and loyall subjects to their Soveraigne they deserved not to be so sharpely dealt with Wherevpon Edward changing his first purpose into some more clemencie promised to receiue them to mercy conditionally that six of their principall Towensmen should present him the keyes of the Towne bare-headed bare-footed with halters about their neckes their liues being to bee left to his disposition Whereof the Governour being advertised he presently gets him into the market-place commaunding the bell to be sounded for the conventing of the people whom being assembled hee acquainted with the articles which he had received touching the yeelding vp of the towne and the assurance of their liues which could not bee graunted but with the death of six of the chiefe of them With which newes they being all of them exceedingly cast downe perplexed on the suddaine there rises vp one of their Company called Stephen S. Peter one of the richest most sufficient men of the town who thus spake alowd Sir I thanke God for the goodes he hath bestowed on me but more that he hath given me this present opportunity to make it known that I prize the liues of my Countrey-men fellow burgesses aboue mine owne At the hearing of whose speech and sight of his forwardnes one Iohn Daire and foure others after him made the like offers not without great abundance of teares prayers from the common people who saw them so freely and readily sacrifice all their particular respects for the weale of the publique instantly without any more adoe they addressed themselues to the King of England with the keyes of the towne with none other hope but of death to which though they held themselues assured thereof they went as cheerefully as if they had bin going to a wedding Yet it pleasing God to turne the heart of the English King at the instance of his Queene and some of the Lords they were sent backe againe safe and sound Now who can say that our France hath not her Horatij Quinti Curtij Decij Wee haue ours aswell as the Romanes had theirs but a certaine kind of basenes in vs more ready to apprehend and admire the worth of strangers then of our owne Nation makes vs happily not to beleeue so Now that which Pasquier writes of his Nation and truly as I thinke in comparison with the Roman valour in suffering for their countrey wee may as confidently speake of ours others perchaunce of theirs SECT 8. That as the Christians haue surpassed the Romans in the passiue part of fortitude so haue they matched them in the actiue and that the partiall overvaluing of the Romane manhood by their owne Historians is it chiefely which hath made the world to think it vnmatchable FOurthly and lastly as the Romans were thus surpassed in the passiue part of fortitude so were they matched in the Actiue many times meeting with those that either put backe their forces without losse or with victory put them to the worst Iulius Caesar their great experienced and most renowned Captaine after all his valiant acts and triumphs what adoe did hee make to doe any thing worth the remembrance vpon this Iland then inhabited by naked Brittains and those divided And though Velleius Paterculus the Court Historiographer beare vs in hand bis penetratam Britanniam à Caesare that Brittainy was twice throughly invaded by Caesar yet Lucan tels vs another tale Territa quaesitis ostendit terga Britannis To th' Britons whom he sought his coward backe he turnd And Tacitus a graue Authour Britanniam tantum ostendisse non tradidisse Romanis that he only shewed but delivered not Britannie to the Romans And sure he did so little that both Horace and Propertius agree in it that he left them vntouched or at least vnconquered Intactus aut Britannus vt descenderet Sacra Catenatus via Or that the Britons yet vntouched may Be led in chaines along the sacred way Sayes the one And the other Te manet invictus Romano Marte Britannus Vnconquered Britannie By Romane armes reserved is for thee The Gaules in their contention with them they found so stout hardy as Tully himselfe confesseth that with other Nations the Romans fought for dominion but with the Gaules for preservation of their owne safety who once vnder the conduct of Brennus entred the citty of Rome it selfe sacked it and burnt it Pyrrhus King of the Epirots encountred them in Italy it selfe and vanquished them in two severall battailes in the former of which they were through feare stricken with such a consternation forgetfulnes of their discipline that they tarried not somuch as to defende their campe but ran quite beyond it leaving both it and the honour of the day entirely to Pyrrhus though the Consull himselfe were then in the field with a select army But Hanniball was indeed the man who made the Romanes know that they were but men made of like mettall as others are Like a haile storme he came thundring downe from the Alpes Pyrrenaean mountaines vpon Italy At Ticinum now called Pavia after a long tedious journey having scarce refreshed his wearied army consisting of severall Nations and therefore the harder to be held together commaunded he beate Scipio the Consull and sent him with the losse of almost all his horses wounded out of the field And within a while after fighting with both the Consuls Scipio Sempronius at Trebia there escaped of six thirty thousand of the Romans but tenne thousand of all sorts horse and foote Not long after this againe he encountred with Flaminius another Consull at the lake of Thrasymene who was slaine in the place accompanied with fifteene thousand dead carkases of his Countrey-men And Cetronius being sent by Servilius the other Consull to the ayde of Flaminius his strength only served to increase the misadventure being charged and the greatest part of them cut in peeces by Maharball the rest yeelding themselues to mercy The Romans being put to these straights choose a Dictator that was Fabius Maximus who like a cloud hung vpon the toppes of the hils but durst not come downe into the plaines to fight with Hanniball though he saw the countrey fired spoiled by him before his eyes Wherevpon two new Consuls are chosen Aemilius Paulus Terentius Varro For the dispatch of the warre great forces are leavied and at Cannae they come powring vpon him with assurance of victorie The whole summe of Hanniball's army in the field this day was tenne thousand horse and forty thousand foote his enimies having two to one against him in foote he fiue to three against