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 â—ome 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
day of his Nativity which was the 13 th of the Calends of May. 13. The Emperour Charles the Fifth was born on the day of Matthias the Apostle on which day also in the course of his Life was King Francis taken by him in battel and the Victory likewise won at Biccoque he was also Elected and Crowned Emperour on the same day and many other great Fortunes befel him still on that day 14. M. Ofilius Hilarus an Actor of Comedies after he had highly pleas'd the people upon his birth-day kept a Feast at home in his own house and when Supper was set forth upon the Table he call'd for a mess of hot broth to sup off and withal casting his eye upon the Visor he had worn that day in the play he fitted it again to his face and taking off the Garland which he wore upon his bare head he set it thereupon in this posture disguized as he sat he was stark dead and cold too before any person in the company perceived any such thing 15. Augustus Caesar had certain Anniversary sicknesses and such as did return at a stated and certain time he commonly languished about the time of his birth-day which was the ninth of the Calends of October a little before Sun-rise M. Tullius Cicero and Antonius being Consuls 16. On the contrary the birth-days of some Men have been very fortunate to them as was that of the great Captain Timoleon general of the Syracusans who obtained for them the chiefest of his Victories upon the day of his birth which thereupon was annually and Universally celebrated by the Syracusans as a day of good and happy fortune to them 17. It is said of Iulius Caesar that he had often found the Ides of Iuly to be very happy and auspicious to him at which time he was also born 18. King Philip of Macedon us'd to celebrate the day of his birth with extraordinary joy as the most favourable and fortunate to him of all other for once upon that day he had a triplicity of good tydings that he was Victor in the Chariot race in the Olympicks that Parmenio his General had gain'd a most important victory and that the Queen Olympias was delivered of his Son Alexander 19. Ophioneus was one amongst the Messenians had the gift of Prophecy and Pausanias says of him that immediately after his birth-day he was annually stricken with blindness nor is that less wonderful in the same person that after a vehement fit of the Head-ach he would begin to see and then presently fall from thence into his former blindness 20. It is a note worthy to be remembred that Thursday was observ'd to be a day fatal to King Henry the Eight and to all his Posterity for he himself died on Thursday the 28 th of Ianuary King Edward the Sixth on Thursday the sixth of Iuly Queen Mary on Thursday the seventeenth of November and Queen Elizabeth on Thursday the four and twentyeth of March 21. Franciscus Baudinus an Abbot a Citizen of Florence and well known in the Court of Rome died upon the Anniversary return of his birth-day which was upon the 19 th day of December he was buried in the Church of St. Silvester in Rome and it was the observation of him that made his Funeral Elegy that the number nine did four times happen remarkably in his affairs he was born on the 19 th day and died on the same being aged twenty nine and the year of our Lord being at that time 1579. 22. Wednesday is said to have been fortunate to Pope Sixtus the Fifth for on that day he was born on the same day made a Monk on that day created General of his Order on the same made Cardinal then chosen Pope and finally on the same inaugurated 23. Friday was observ'd to be very lucky to the great Captain Gensalvo on that day having given the French many notable overthrows Saturday was as fortunate to Henry the Seventh King of England CHAP. VII Of the Signatures and natural marks upon the bodies of some Men. IN Sicily there have been often digg'd up bones of a monstrous and prodigious bigness in all appearance resembling those of a humane body but whether they were the Skeletons of deceased Gyants whether bred and form'd in the Earth by some peculiar influx of the Stars and secret propriety of the Mould whether made by the Artifice of Man and there buried to beget wonder in after times or by the Devils to promote some of their malicious ends is yet variously disputed So concerning the causes of those impressions which some bodies bring upon them from the Womb and carry with them to their Graves there is not so great a clearness as not to leave us in some doubts For if the most of them are occasion'd through the strength of the Mothers imagination there have been others of so peculiar a Form so remote from being thought to leave such lively touches upon a Womans fancy so continued to the Descendants of the same Family and so agreeable with the after fortunes of the person so signed as may possibly encline unto farther enquiries Marinus Barletius reports of Scanderbeg Prince of Epirus that most terrible enemy of the Turks that from his Mothers Womb he brought with him into the World a notable mark of Warlike Glory for he had upon his right Arm a Sword so well set on as if it had been drawn with the pencil of the most curious and skilful Painter in the World 2. Among the people called the Dakes the Children usually have the Moles and Marks of them from whom they are descended imprinted upon them even to the fourth generation 3. Laodice the Wife of Antiochus dream'd that she received a Ring from Apollo with an Anchor engraven upon it Seleucus the Child that she then went with who afterwards was remarkable for his famous exploits was born with an Anchor impress'd upon his Thigh and so also his Sons and Grand-children carry'd the same mark upon the same place from the time of their birth 4. In the Race and Family of the Lepidi it is said there were three of them not successively one after another but out of order and after some intermission who had each of them when thâ—â— were born a little pannicle or thin skin growing over the eye 5. It is observ'd by Plutarch that the resemblance of the Natural properties or corporal marks of some Parents are continued in their Families for many Descents yea and sometimes not appearing in the second or third generation do nevertheless shew themselves in the fourth or fifth or others ensuing some Ages after whereof he brings an example of one in his time call'd Python who being descended of the Spartiatae the Founders of Thebes and being the last of that Race was born with the figure of a Lance upon his body which had been in former Ages a natural
the one was born in Asia and the other beyond the Alps But when Antonius came after to the knowledge thereof and that the fraud was bewray'd by the Language of the Boys he sell into a furious sit of choler rating Toranius that he had made him pay two hundred Sesterces as for Twins and they were none such The wily Merchant answer'd that it was the cause why he held and sold them at so dear a rate For said he it is no marvel if two brethren Twins who lay in the same Womb resemble one another but that there should be any sound born as these were in divers Countries so like in all respects as they he held it as a most rare and wonderful thing Antonius at this was appeased and well contented with his Bargain 10. Anno 1598. There were with us at Basil two Twin-brothers who were born at one Birth in the seventh Month 1538. they were so like to one another in the features of the Body that I have often spoke to the one instead of the other though both were very well known to me and that they had been frequently conversant with me Nay they were so like in their natural inclinations that as they often have told me what the one thought has secretly come into the mind of the other at the same time if the one was sick the other was not well as it fell out when one was absent and sick in Campania the other at the same time was sick at Basil. 11. Martinus Guerre and Arnoldus Tillius in features and lineaments of the Face were so exceedingly alike that when Martinus was gone abroad to the Wars Tillius by the near resemblance of his form betray'd the chastity of Martinus his Wife and not only so but impos'd upon four of his Sisters and divers others both Neighbours and Kindred who were not able to discover the difference betwixt them and which is the strangest of all he liv'd with this Woman as her Husband for some years together the companion both of her board and bed 12. Sporus the freed-man of Nero the Emperour was very like unto Sabina a most beautiful Lady beloved also by the same Emperour he so resembled her in all lineaments that Nero caused him to be cut that so instead of Sabina he might filthily use him as his beloved Lady 13. Medardus and Gerardus were Twin-brothers and French men they were not only born one and the same day but also both of them in one day preferred to Episcopal Dignity the one to the See of Rhotomage and the other to that of Noviodunum and lest any thing should be wanting to this admirable parity they also both deceased in one and the same day So that the Philosophers Hypoclides and Polystratus are no way to be preferred before these remarkable Twins one of these Twins instead of Gerhardus is call'd Chiladius by Kornmannus 14. Lucius Otho the Father of Otho the Emperour one of very Noble Blood by the Mothers side and of many great Relations was so dear unto and not so unlike unto Tiberius the Emperour that most men did verily believe he was begotten by him 15. Even in our days we have heard of two young Children which were Brothers at Riez an Episcopal City of Provence in France who being perâ—ectly like one another if one of them was sick the other was so too if one began to have pain in the Head the other would presently feel it if one of them was asleep or sad the other could not hold up his Head or be merry and so in other things as I have been assured by Mr. Poitevin a very honest man and a Native of that City 16. At Mechlin there were two Twin-brothers the Sons of Petrus Apostolius a Prâ—dent Senator of that place and at whose House Vives had friendly entertainment the Boys were both lovely to look upon and so like that not only strangers but the Mother her self often erred in the distinction of them whilst she liv'd and the Father as often by a pleasing errour calling Peter for Iohn and Iohn for Peter 17. Babyrtus a Messenian was a man of the meanest degree and of a lewd and silthy life but was so like unto Dorymachus both in the countenance all the lineaments of the Body and the very voice it self that if any had taken the Diadem and Robe of State and put it upon him it would not have been easie to discover which was which whence it came to pass that when Dorymachus after many injuries to the Messenians had also added threats to the rest of his insolence Sciron one of the Ephori there a bold man and lover of his Country said openly to him Dost thou Babyrtus suppose that we matter either thee or thy threats at which he was so nettled that he rested not till he had rais'd a War against the Messenians 18. That in the two Gordiani is a most memorable thing that the Elder of them was so very like unto Augustus that he not only resembled him in the Face but also in Speech behaviour and stature The Son of this man was exceeding like unto Pompey the Great and the third of the Gordiani begotten by him immediately before mention'd had as near a resemblance to Scipio Asiaticus the Brother of Scipio Affricanus the Elder so that in one Family there were the lively pourtraiture of three illustrious persons dead long before 19. I have seen saith Fulgosus amongst the Soldiers of Franciscus Sfortia the Duke of Millain a young man who did so resemble that countenance of his then which nothing was more amiable to look upon nor more worthy of a Prince that by the general consent of the whole Court he was call'd the Prince Franciscus himself as he was most courteous in all things not without pleasure did sometimes contemplate his own Image in him as in a Glass and in most things beheld and acknowledged his own gestures and voice 20. Io. Oporinus the Printer at Basil was so like unto Henry the Eighth King of England in the Face but especially to Albertus the Marquess of Brandenburgh that they might well seem to be natural Brothers there was also this further similitude betwixt them that as one fill'd all Germany with Wars so the other replensh'd all the Christian World with Books 21. Sigismundus Malatesta Prince of Ariminum was so very like in all the features of his Face to Marchesinus the Mimick that when he went to Millain this Marchesinus was sent away elsewhere by Franciscus Sfortia Duke of Millain and Father-in-law to Sigismundus as being ashamed of him for Marchesinus in his prattle by reason of this resemblance used to call Sigismond his Son 22. A certain young Man came to Rome in the shape of his body so like unto Augustus that he set all the people at gaze upon that sight Augustus hearing of it sent for the young man who being come into
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
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 aâ—d 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 Tigranocerâ—a 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
a Table wating on her Master in the Apartment of the Women and over-reaching her self to take a Flagon that stood a little too far from her she chanced to break wind backwards which she was so much ashamed of that putting her Garment over her head she would by no means shew her face after but with an enraged violence taking one of her Nibbles of her Breasts into her mouth she bit it off with such fury that she died in the place 2. In the same Country anno 1639 there was a great Lord who having had an exact search made for all the young handsome Damosels in his Province to be disposed into his Ladies service amongst the rest there was one brought him whom he was so taken with that he made her his Concubine She was the Daughter of a poor Soldier 's widdow who hoping to make her some advantage of her Daughters good fortune wrote her a large Letter wherein she expressed her necessitous condition and how she was forced to sue to her for relief While the Daughter was reading this Letter her Lord comes into the Room when she being ashamed to discover her Mother's poverty endeavours to hide the Letter from him yet could she not convey it away so but that he perceived it The disorder he observed in her countenance made him suspect something of design so that he pressed her to shew him the Letter but the more importunate he was the more unwilling was she to satisfie him And perceiving there was no way to avoid it she thrust it into her mouth with such precipitation that thinking to swallow it down it choaked her This so incensed the Lord that he immediately commanded her Throat to be cut whereby they only discovered the Mother's poverty and the Daughter's innocency He was so mov'd thereat that he could not forbear expressing it by tears and it being not in his power to make any other demonstration of his affection to the deceased he sent for the Mother who was maintained amongst his other Ladies at the time we spake of with all imaginable respect 3. In the speech which Cyrus made to his Sons a little before his death we read this If any of you saith he desire to take me by the hand or to see my eyes let him come so long as I breath but after I am dead and shall be covered I require you my Sons that my body be not uncovered nor looked upon by you or any other person 4. Lucius Crassus when according to the custom of all Candidates he was compelled to go about the Forum as a Suppliant to the people he could never be brought to do it in the presence of Q. Scaevola a grave wise man and his Father-in-law and therefore he besought him to leave him while he was about a foolish business having more reverence to his Dignity and presence than he had respect to his white Gown in which was the custom for them to appear who were suiters to the people for any office in the Commonwealth 5. Iohannes Baptista Lignamineus Bishop of Concordia being sent by his Brother Francis Bishop of Ferrara to Venice was present at that Feast whereat the Duke entertains the whole Nobility four times a year here it was that out of modesty retaining too long the burden of his Belly he fell into a grievous disease of which he also died and was buried at Ferrara 6. Embassadors were sent to Rome from the Cities of Greece to complain of injuries done them by Philip King of Macedon and when the Affair was discussed in the Senate betwixt Demetrius the Son of Philip and the Embassadors forasmuch as Demetrius seem'd to have no way of defence for so many defaults as were objected against his Father with truth enough as also because out of Shamefacedness he exceedingly blushed the Senate of Rome moved with the Modesty of Demetrius acquitted both him and his Father of the Accusations 7. Certain Fishermen of Coos drawing up their Nets some Milesian Strangers agreed with them for their Draught whatsoever it should prove it fell out that they drew up a Table of Gold whereupon a contest grew betwixt the Fishermen and the Buyers and at last improv'd into a War betwixt both the Cities in favour of their Citizens At last it was resolv'd to consult the Oracle of Apollo who answered they should send the Table to that man whom they thought the wisest whereupon it was sent to Thales the Milesian Thales sent it to Bias saying he was wiser than himself Bias sent it to another as wiser than he and so it was posted from one to one till such time as it returned to Thales again who at length sent it from Miletum to Thebes to be consecrate to the Ismenian Apollo 8. The Emperour Maximilian the first of that name forbade expresly that his naked body should be seen after he was dead He was the modestest of all Mortals none of his servants ever saw him obey the necessity of nature nor but few Physicians his Urine 9. The Milesian Virgins were in times past taken with a strange Distemper of which the cause could not then be found out for all of them had a desire of death and a furious itch of strangling themselves many finished their days this way in private neither the prayers nor tears of their Parents or the consolation of their Friends prevailed any thing but being more subtle and witty than those that were set to observe them they daily thus died by their own hands It was therefore thought that this dreadful thing came to pass by the express will of the Gods and was therefore greater than could be provided against by humane industry Till at last according to the advice of a wise man the Council set forth this Edict That every such Virgin as from thenceforth should lay violent hands upon her self should dead as she was be carried stark naked along the Market-place By which means not only they were restrain'd from killing themselves but also their desire of dying was utterly extinguished A strange thing that those who trembled not at death the most formidable of all things should yet though an innate modesty not be able to conceive in their minds much lâ—ss endure a wrong and reproach to that modesty though dead 10. Alvilda the beautâ—ful Daughter of Suiardus King of the Goths is said to be of so great modesty that usually covering her face with her Veil she suffered it not to be sâ—en of any man 11. King Henry the Sixth of England was so modest that when in a Christmass a shew of women was presented before him with their naked Brests laid out he presently departed saying Fie fie for shame Forsooth you be to blame 12. One of the Athenians of decrepit Age came into the Theatre at Athens to behold the Plays and when none of the Citizens receiv'd him into any Seat by chance he came by the place
discourse of the nature and efficacy and virtues of them for whereas nature had made him liberal and bountiful though he did not abound in Gold and Riches yet he liberally and willingly did impart what was in his power and drawn out of the treasures of Learning and Experience for whereas he had many secrets in Physick imparted by the best Physicians of Germany France and Italy and many others which he himself had found out and experimented with great success of which had he been sordid and covetous he might have made a large encrease to his private estate yet all these he either published for the common use and good or else communicated to such Friends as desired them of him 11. Galepsus is a Town in Euboea where there be natural hot Baths it is a proper seat fitted by nature for sundry honest pleasures so that it is reputed the publick Hostelry of all Greece there is plenty of Fowl Fish and Venison The Town flourishes most in the midst of Spring in respect of the mighty concourse of people there is at that time who converse familiarly one with another and mutually feast together taking the benefit of the great affluence and abundance of all sorts of provisions that are there But whensoever Callistratus the Professor of Rhetorick is at home his house is open to all Strangers hardly may a man sup any where else than at his own house for he is a man so full of courtesie and hospitality that it is no easie matter to resist the importunity he uses in the invitation of Strangers Amongst other persons of ancient times he seems to imitate Cimon making it his whole and only pleasure to feast many in his house and to receive and entertain Strangers and those from all parts 12. It is written of Celeus that he was the first man who delighted to assemble to his House a number of honourable persons and of good mark which assembly he called Prytanaeum CHAP. XVIII Of the Blameless and Innocent Life of some Persons If Man alone is a wonder the good and virtuous man must certainly be a double one he is such a rarity that Diogenes thought a Candle and Lanthorn in the broad of day scarce a sufficient light to make his discovery by when he went up and down in quest of such a one Vir bonus cito nec fieri nec intelligi potest nam ille alter fortasse tanquam Phoenix Anno quingentessimo nascitur A good man is neither quickly made nor easily understood for like the Phoenix of Arabia there is possibly one of them born in the space of some five hundred years This was the opinion of Seneca and since the world is so seldom enriched with these Jewels the Reader will the less wonder at that poverty of instances that is to be met with in Writers and may do well to have in greater veneration the virtues of those illustrious persons which he is here presented with 1. Camerarius mentions an Inscription upon a Tombstone in Rome near the place of the Jews in these words Iulia B. Prisca vixit Annos XXVI Nihil unquam peccavit nisi quod mortua est i. e. In this only she did amiss that she dy'd 2. M. Portius Cato the Elder lived with that integrity that though he was fifty times accused was yet so many times adjudged innocent nor did he obtain this by favour or wealth but against the favour and riches of almost the whole City His honesty and severity had raised him up very many enemies and much of Envy for he spared no man nor was a friend to any who was not so to the Common-Wealth At last being accused in his old age he required and obtained that Tiberius Sempronius Gracchut one of the chiefest of his enemies should be appointed for his Judge but even he acquitted him and gave sentence that he was innocent through this his confident action he ever after lived both in great glory and equal security 3. It is said of King Henry the Sixth of England that he had one immunity peculiar that no man could ever be revenged of him seeing he never offered a man an injury Once for all let his Confessor be heard speak who in Ten years Confession never found that he had done or said anâ— thing for which he might justly be enjoyned pennance 4. When the Corps of Thomas Howard second Duke of Norfolk was carried to be interred in the Abby of Thetford Anno 1524. No person could demand of him one Groat for debt or restitution for any injury done by him 5. Aristophon the Athenian was used to boast amongst his Citizens of this that whereas he had been ninety five times cited and accused before the Tribunal of Justice yet he had ever been absolved and pronounced innocent in every of those Tryals 6. Iulius Drusus a Tribune of the people had a house that in many places lay open to the eyes of the Neighbourhood there came a workman to him and told him that at the price of five Talents he would so alter it that it should not be liable to that inconvenience I will give thee Ten Talents said he if thou canst make my house perspicuous in every Room of it that so all the City may behold after what manner I lead my life For he was a man of great temperance and moderation Lipsius calls him Livius Drusus and relates the story in somewhat a different manner though to the same purpose 7. Aristides was the most just and honest person amongst all the Greeks and by reason of the glory and Name he had gained was in danger of a Ten Years Exile which from the manner of the suffrage the Greeks call Ostracism While they were now giving in their voices and he himself was present standing in the Croud and Throng of the People there came one to him who not able to write himself desired him being next to him that he would write the Name of Aristides in his Shell viz. him that he would have condemned and banished Do you know him then said Aristides or has he any way injured you Neither said the other but this is that which vexes me and therefore I would he were condemned because I hear him called up and down Aristides the just or honest Aristides took his Shell and wrote his name in it as he had desired 8. Scipio Nasica was judged once by the Senate of Rome and each of those Senators were sworn to speak without passion or affection to be the best and honestest man that ever was from the beginning of the world yet this same man as upright and innocent as he was through the ingratitude of the people was not suffered to dye in his own Country besides he had a repulse from them when he sued for a dignity 9. M. Cato the younger was the admirer or flatterer of no mortal he frequently opposed Pompey â—earing his greatness for
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 Ioviniaâ—â—us 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
Whereas Anno Dom. 1535. The Roman Tyranny of Anti-Christ was ejected his Superstitions abolished the Holy Religion of Christ restored here in its proper purity the Church by the singular goodness of God put into better order the Enemy overcome and put to slight and the City it self by a remarkable miracle did then obtain its former liberty and freedom The Senate and People of Geneva have caused this Monument in perpetual Memory thereof to be made and erected in this place as also to leave a Testimony of their thankfulness to God and Posterity 10. In the time of the second Punick War when Fulvius besieg'd Capua there were two Women of Campania that were resolute in their good wishes to the Romans These were Vestia Opidia a Matron and Mistress of a Family and Cluvia Facula a common prostitute The one of these did daily sacrifice for the good fortune of their Army and the other ceased not to carry Provisions to such of ours as were made Prisoners amongst them When therefore Capua was taken these two had their liberty and goods restor'd by special order of the Senate of Rome and not only so but sent them a promise to grant what reward they should desire It is much that in so great and publick a Joy the Fathers had leisure to thank two poor Women of mean condition but it was more â—or them to make it a special part of their business and that by their own motion 11. Q. Fabius Maximus was the Person that sav'd the Roman State from being over-whelmed with the Torrent of Hannibal and had fortunately serv'd the Common-Wealth in five several Consul-ships When therefore he was dead the Roman people not unmindful of his good service did strive who should contribute most Money to render the pomp of his Funeral more glorious and that he might be interred with the greater magnificence 12. There was in Florence a Merchant whose name was Francis Frescobald of a noble Family and liberal mind who through a prosperous success in his affairs was grown up to an abundance of Wealth While he was at Florâ—nce a young Man presented himself to him asking his Alms for God's sake Frescobald beheld the ragged stripling and in despight of his Tatters reading in his countenance some significations of virtue was moved with pity demanded his Countrey and Name I am said he of England my Name is Thomas Cromwell my Father meaning his Father-in-law is a poor Man a Cloth-shearer I am stray'd from my Countrey and am now come into Italy with the Camp of French-men that were overthrown at Gaâ—ylion where I was Page to a Foot-man carrying after him his Pike and Burganet Frescobald partly in pity of his State and partly in love to the English Nation amongst whom he had receiv'd some civilities took him into his house made him his guest and at his departure gave him a Horse new Apparel and sixteen Duckets of Gold in his Purse Cromwell rendring him hearty thanks return'd into his Countrey where in Process of time he became in such favour with King Henry the Eight that he rais'd him to the Dignity of being Lord High Chancellour of England In the mean time Frescobald by great and successive losses was become poor but remembring that some English Merchants owed him fifteen thousand Ducats he came to â—â—ndon to seek after it not thinking of what had passed betwixt Cromwel and him But travelling earnestly about his business he accidentally met with the Lord Chancellour as he was riding to the Court. As soon as the Lord Chancellour saw him he thought he should be the Merchant of Florence of whose liberality he had tasted in times past immediately he alights embraces him and with a broken voice scarce refraining tears he demanded if he were not Francis Frescobald the Florentine Yes Sir said he and your humble Servant My Servant said Cromwel no as you have not been my Servant in times past so will I not now account you other than my great and especial friend assuring you that I have just reason to be sorry that you knowing what I am or at least what I should be would not let me understand of your Arrival in this Land Had I known it I should certainly have paid part of that debt which I confess I ow you but thanks be to God that I have yet time Wâ—ll Sir in conclusion you are heartily welcome but having now weighty affairs in my Princes cause you must hold me excused that I can no longer tarry with you Therefore at this time I take my leave desiring you with the faithful mind of a friend that you forget not to dine with me this day at my house Frescobald wonders who this Lord should be at last after some pause he remembers him for the same he had relieved at Florence he therefore repairs to his house not a little joyed and walking in the base Court attended his return He came soon after and was no sooner dismounted but he again embraced him with so friendly a countenance as the Lord Admiral and other Nobles then in his company much marvelled at He turning back and holding Frescobald by the hand Do you not wonder my Lords said he that I seem so glad of this man This is he by whose means I have atchieved this my present degree and therewith recounted to them all that had passed between them Then holding him still by the hand he led him to the Chamber where he dined and seated him next himself The Lords departed he would know what occasion had brought him to London Frescobald in few words truly opened his cause to him To which Cromwel returned Things already past Mr. Frescobald can by no power or policy of man be recalled yet is not your sorrow so peculiar to your self but that by the bond of mutual love I am to bear a part therein and that in this your distress you may receive some consolation It is fit I should repay some portion of that debt wherein I stand bound to you as it is the part of a thankful man to do and I further promise you in the word of a true friend that during this life and state of mine I will not fail to to do for you wherein my authority may prevail Then taking him by the hand he led him into a Chamber and commanded all to depart he locked the door then opening a Coffer he â—irst took out sixteen Ducats and delivering them to Frescobald My friend said he here is your money you lent me at my departure from Florence here are other ten you bestowed in mine Apparel with Ten more you disbursed for the Horse I rode upon But considering you are a Merchant it seemeth to me not honest to return your money without some consideration for the long detaining of it Take you therefore these four Bags in every of which is four hundred Ducats to receive and enjoy from the hand of your assured friend which the modesty of
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
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 â—led 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 â—led 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 â—loat 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
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 â—s 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. Aâ—athocles 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 â—irst 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
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 mâ—â—ner said he to thy purpled Minions for to Theodorus it is all one whether he purrefye under ground or on a Câ—oss 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 〈…〉 was a mischeivous enem◠〈…〉 advised him not to 〈…〉 little reason Massanissa 〈…〉 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
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
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 Laâ—tantius 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 signiâ—ie 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 laâ—et 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 tâ—e 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 â—inding 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
a pledge of his just meaning by means of these men he was brought into a safe place where promising to pay them in money he took back his Vessels and refused to give them any thing in lieu of them whereupon being deserted by the Cretans also he sled into Samothracia without other company than his Gold was taken by Aemylius and led in Triumph through Rome and lost both his Kingdom and Liberty as his Covetousness deserved 9. Pope Benedict the ninth was so very desirous of Gold that he sold the very Popedom it self to Gregory the sixth for money and 't is very probable that he would have sold himself his liberty and life too in case he could have found a purchaser that would part with good store of Coin 10. In the Siege of Cassilinum where Hannibal had reduced them within to a grievous Famine there was a Souldier that had taken a Mouse and sold it to another for two hundred pence rather than he would eat it himself to asswage his cruel hunger but the event was both to the buyer and seller as each did deserve for the seller was consumed with lamine and so enjoyed not his money the buyer though he paid dear for his Morâ—el yet saved his life by it 11. Quintus Cassius being in Spain M. Silius and A. Culpurnius were purposed to slay him as they went about it they were seized upon with their Daggers in their hands the whole matter was confessed by them but such was the extreme covetousness of Cassius that he let them both go having agreed with one for fifty and the other for sixty thousand Sesterces It is scarce to be doubted but that this man would willingly have sold his own Throat to them in case he had had another 12. Ptolomaeus King of Cypâ—â—s by sordid means had heaped up much Treasure and saw that for the sake of his Riches he must perish he therefore embarked himself together with all his Treasure in a Ship and put to Sea that he might bore the bottom of his Vessel die as himself pleased and withal disappoint the expectation of his enemies that gaped for the prey but alas the covetous wretch could not find in his heart to sink so much Gold and Silver as he had with him but returned back with those Riches which should be the reward of his death 13. Vespasian the Emperour practised such kind of Traffick as even a private man would shame to do taking up Commodities at a cheap that he might vend them at a dearer rate He spared not to sell Honours to such as sued for them or Pardons to such as were accused whether they proved guilty or guiltless He made choice of the most ravenous polling Officers he could any where find out advanced them to the highest Places that thereby being grown Rich he might condemn their persons and conâ—iscate their Estates These men he was commonly said to use as Spunges because he both moâ—stened them when dry and squeezed them when wet When some of his special Friends for his honour intended to erect to him a sumptuous Statue worth a Million of Sesterces â—os vero inquit mihi argentum daie he desired rather to receive from them the value thereof in ready Coin as being less troublesom to them and more acceptable to him 14. C. Caligula was the Successour of Tiberius as well in Vice as the Empire some with threats he forced to name him their heir and if they recovered covered after the making of their Wills he dispatched them by poyson holding it ridiculous that they should live long after their Wills were made For the bringing in of money he set up Stews both of Boyes and Women in the Palace it self and sent some through the Streets to invite persons thither for the increasing of the Emperours Revenues and having by this and such like wretched means amassed huge heaps of Treasure to satiate his appetite being inâ—lamed with a longing desire of touching money he would sometimes walk upon heaps of Gold and sometimes as the pieces lay spread abroad in a large Room he would rowle himself over them stark naked Most transcendent and excessive covetousness which blinded so great a Prince and cast him into such an extremity of baseness as to become a publick Pander and Poysoner for the love of money 15. Galba being Proconsul in Spain under Nero the Tarraconians sent him for a Present a Crown of Gold affirming that it weighed fifteen pounds he received it and caused it to be weighed found it to want three pounds which he exacted from them laying a side all shame as if it had been a true debt And to shew he was no Changling after his coming to the Empire he gave with his own hands to a certain Musician that pleased him out of his own Purse twenty Sesterces about three shillings English money and to his Steward at making up of his Books of Account a reward from his Table 16. Lewis the eleventh in fear of his father Charles the seventh abode in Burgundy where he contracted a familiarity with one Conon an Herb-man succeeding his father in the Kingdom Conon took his Journey to Paris to present the King with some Turnips which he had observed him to eat heartily oâ— when he sometimes came from Hunting in the way hunger constrained him to eat them all up save only one of an unusual bigness and this he presented the King with The King delighted with the simplicity of the man commanded him a thousand Crowns and the Turnip wrapt up in Silk to be reserved amongst his Treasures a covetous Courtier had observed this and having already in his mind devoured a greater summ bought a very handsome Horse and made a Present of him to the King who chearfully accepted the gift and gave order that the Tuâ—nip should be brought him when unwrapt and that it was seen what it was the Courtier complained he was deluded No said the King here is no delusion thou hast that which cost me a thousand Crowns for a Horse that is scarcely to be valued at an hundred CHAP. XXXII Of the Tributes and Taxes some Princes have imposed upon their Subjects I Have read of Henry the second King of England that he never laid any Tax or Tribute on his Subjects in all his Reign and yet when he died he left nine hundred thousand pounds in his Treasury a mighty and vast summ if we consider the time wherein this was There are waies it seems for Princes to be Rich without â—ullying their Consciences with heavy and unheard of Oppressions of their Subjects some indeed of the following imposts were but a moderate sheering of the Sheep but others were the â—â—eaing off skin and all and the Princes tyrannically sporting of themselves with the bitter Oppression and woful miseries of their overburdened people Thus 1. Iohannes Basilides the great and cruel Duke of Muscovia commanded from his Subjects a
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 thâ—â—r bodies to him as their Lord and Master and wâ—â—e 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 â—our 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 â—our 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 obsâ—rving 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 râ—pulse 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 aâ—â—erwards 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 â—irm 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
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 Lisâ—e 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 fuâ—y 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 said The horse said he pisses in a river where there is no want of water and so Caesar is liberal to them that are otherwise rich The Emperour observed that he was modestly tax'd for that as yet he had given nothing to him who had been his old servant and thereupon replyed that he had indeed been alwayes a faithful servant but that the gifts of Princes are not properly theirs that deserve well but theirs to whom they are destinied by fate and that he would convince him of the same assoon as he had some leisure Afterwards Caesar commanded two boxes to be made of the same bigness and form in the one he put gold in the other lead of the same weight caused his servant to be called and bade him choose which box he would who takes them up poises both in his hands and at last fixes upon that box that had the lead in it which when the Emperour saw at the opening of the box Now said he thou maist plainly see that not my good will has been hitherto wanting but that it was through thine own ill fortune that hitherto thou hast had no reward from me 5. It was observed as it were in the destiny of King Henry the sixth of England that although he was a most pious man yet no enterprize of war did ever prosper where he was present 6. Franciscus Busalus a Citizen of Rome was so extreamly unfortunate in his Children that he saw two of his Sons fall dead by mutual wounds they had received at each others hands two other of his Sons beheaded for a sedition which they had been authors of a fifth Son of his slew his Mother-in-law and his Daughter poysoned her self in the presence of her Husband 7. Helvius Pertinax commonly but corruptly called Aelius was so variously exercised with the chances of inconstant fortune and so often from a good thrust down into an adverse condition that by reason hereof he was called Fortunes Tennis-ball 8. Robert the Norman Son to William the Conqueror was chosen King of Ierusalem but he refused this honourable proffer whether he had an eye to the Kingdom of England now void by the death of William Rufus or because he accounted Ierusalem would be encumbred with continual war But he who would not take the Crown with the Cross was fain to take the Cross without the Crown and it was observed that afterwards he never prospered in any thing he undertook He lived to see much misery in prison and poverty and he felt more having his eyes put out by King Henry his Brother and at last sound rest when buried in the New Cathedral Church of Glocester under a wooden Monument bearing better proportion to his low fortunes than high birth and since in the same Quire he hath got the company of another Prince as unfortunate as himself King Edward the second 9. Tiberius being at Capreas fell into a lingring disease and his sickness encreasing more and more he commanded Euodus whom he most honoured amongst all his Freemen to bring him the young Tiberius and Caius because he intended to talk with them before he dyed and it should be at the break of day on the morrow next This done he besought the gods of that place to give him an evident sign whereby he might know who should succeed him for though he vehemently desired to leave the Empire to his Sons Son that was Tiberius yet made he more account of that which God should make manifest to him He therefore conceived a presage that he who the next day should enter first to salute him it should be he who in the Empire should necessarily succeed him And having setled this thing in his fancy he sent unto the young Tiberius his Master charging him to bring him unto him by break of day supposing that the Empire should be his But by the evil fortune of Tiberius it fell quite contrary to his Grand-fathers expectation For being in this thought he had commanded Euodus that as soon as day should arise he should suffer him of the two young Princes to enter in unto him who should arrive the first Who walking out met with Caius at the door of the Chamber and saying to him that the Emperour had called for him suffered him to enter Tiberius the mean while being at breakfast below When the Emperour beheld Caius he suddainly began to consider of the power of God who deprived him of the means to dispose of the Empire according as he had determined with himself so Caius was declared successor in the Empire and no sooner was the old Emperour dead but the young unfortunate Tiberius was made away 10. Antiochus was overcome in battle by his brother Seleucus whereupon he fled to Artamenes King of Cappadocia his brother-in-law where after some dayes he found there was a Conspiracy against him to betray his life He got him therefore away from thence with all speed and put himself into the protection of Ptolomaeus his Enemy supposing that he might better rely upon his generosity than any kindness he could expect from his brother But Ptolomaeus at his first arrival put him into custody under special guards Here he remained a while till by the help of a certain Harlot he escaped â—rom his prison and recovered his liberty but this unfortunate Prince had not travelled far but he was set upon by thieves and by them murdered 11. Ferdinand Mendez Pinto a Portuguese in the Book of his travels and adventures sets forth of himself that nothing being to be met with in his Fathers house besides poverty and misery an Uncle of his put him into the service of a Lady at Lisbon when he was about twelve years old where he remained but a year and a half before he was constrained by an accident to quit her house and service for the safety of his life With this unfortunate beginning he put himself upon travel and the seeing of remote parts where all along Fortune continued so extreamly unkind to him that in the space of twenty one years wherein he was abroad besides the hardships and variety of evil accidents that strangers are liable unto he suffered shipwrack five times was thirteen times a Captive and sold for a slave seventeen times in the Indies Aethiopia Arabia China Tartaria Madagascar Sumatra and divers other Kingdoms CHAP. LV. Of the Loquacity of some men their inability to retain intrusted secrets and the punishment thereof THe City of Amyclas is said to have perished through silence and it was on this manner Divers rumours and false reports had been brought to the Magistrates concerning the coming of an enemy against them by reason of which the City had several times been put into disorderly and tumultuous frights they therefore set forth an Edict that for the future no man should presume to make any such report by this means when the enemy came indeed no man durst discover it for fear
at Aken and his Motto was Vnita virtus valet 71. Henry the second Duke of Bavaria declared to be Emperour by the Princes Electors a wise valiant and good Emperour he subdued all his Rebels and expelled the Saracens out of Italy In his time Swaine King of Denmark invaded England and subdued it to his obedience he Reigned twenty two years say some eighteen saith Platina his Motto is Ne quid nimis 72. Conrade the second Duke of Franconia elected three years after the death of Henry in the interregnum many Cities of Italy desirous of Liberty deserted their subjection to the Emperour but Conrade was a wise and valiant Warriour and soon reduced them to their wonted obedience his Symbol was Omnium mores tuos imprimis obserâ—a he was buried at Spires 73. Henry the third Sirnamed Niger he removed three seditious Antipopes and appointed for the true Pope Clemens the second he married the daughter of Canutus the Dane then King of England Reigned seventeen years and died in the thirty fifth year of his age his Motto was Qui litem aufert execrationem in benedictionem mutat 74. Henry the fourth son of the former in whose daies the Popes began to usurp Authority over the Emperours insomuch that Leo the ninth having received the Popedom at the Emperours hands repented himself of it put off his Papal Vestments went to Rome a private person and was there new chosen by the Clergy This was done by the perswasion of a Monk called Hildebrand who being afterwards made Pope by the name of Gregory the seventh Excommunicated this Henry the first Prince that was ever Excommunicated by a Pope of Rome he was valiant wise and eloquent his son being stirred up against him he died partly of sickness and partly of sorrow his Motto Multi multa sciunt se autem nemo 75. Henry the fifth succeeded his Father went to Rome to be Crowned Emperour by Pope Paschalis the second The Pope would not consent to his Coronation except he did first give over all right of Election of the Pope and all right of investment of Bishops by Staff and Ring the Emperour griev'd with the proud carriage of the Pope laid hands upon him and his Cardinals and compelled them to perfect his Coronation and to confirm his Priviledges of Electing Popes and investiture of Bishops But the Emperour once returned into Germany the Pope revok'd all he had done and Cursed the Emperour who hearing what was done march'd to Rome with an Army the Pope fled into Apulia the Emperour departed into Germany again when wearied with his seditious Bishops over affectionate to the Pope he bought some Peace by yielding up his rights and was the last Emperour of the House of Franconia his Motto was Mortem optare malum timere pejus 76. Lotharius Duke of Bavaria seised on the Empire without any Election was reconciled to the German Princes by the means of St. Bernard Contention being betwixt Innocentius and Anacletus for the Popedom the Emperour with an Army established Innocentius he Reigned thirteen years his Motto was Audi alteram partem 77. Conrade the third Duke of Sueve and Sisters son to the Emperour Henry the fifth was Elected Emperour The Dukes of Saxony and Bavaria Rebelled against him whom he easily subdu'd After which he led an Army against the Turks and Saracens but was betrayed by the deceitful promises of Emanuel the Greek Emperour who sent him to the Siege of Iconium Meal mingled with Lime whereby the Army was empoysoned huge numbers of them died so that Conrade left the Siege of Iconium and went back to Thracia He Reigned fifteen years his Motto Pauca cum aliis tecum multa 78. Frederick the first Sirnamed Barbarossa Duke of Sueve Crowned at Rome by Adrian the fourth and not long after Excommunicated by Pope Alexander the third to whom he was fain at last to submit himself the Pope insolently treading on his neck and abusing the words of Scripture Super Aspidem Basiliscum ambulabis conculcabis leonem draconem the Emperour answered Non tibi sed Petro the proud Pope reply'd Et mihi Petro. The Emperour not willing to give any further occasion of offence held his peace and so was absolv'd and his son then Prisoner at Venice for love of whom he had done all this set at Liberty He went after to the Holy Land where he discomfited the Turks in three great Battels there he died being drown'd in a River into which he went to bathe himself he Reigned thirty and nine years was buried at Tyrus his Motto was Qui neseit dissimulare nescit regnare 79. Henry the sixth his son was declared Emperour Crowned by Pope Celestine the second who took Constantia the daughter of Rogerius out of a Monastery and gave her to him in Marriage with both Sicilyes in a way of Dowry Whereupon Henry took Tancredus the young King of Sicily put out his eyes thrust him into a Monastery and used great cruelty against the Bishops and other Inhabitants of Sicily the Pope did Excommunicate him for this but he went to Rome acknowledged his fault and obtained his pardon together with a confirmation of the Kingdom of Sicily After this the Pope solicited him to the holy War in his Journey towards Asia he died at Messina his Motto was Qui nescit tacere nescit loqui 80. Philip Duke of Sueve brother of Henry the sixth took on him the Imperial Title contrary to the mind of Innocentius the then Pope For this the Pope did Excommunicate him and caused the Bishop of Colen and other Electors to make Otho Duke of Saxony Emperour between whom and Philip were fought divers Battels but Philip so defended himself that he held the Crown Imperial all his life-time in despite of both In the end Peace was made betwixt the Emperour and the Pope not long after which the Emperour was cruelly murdered in his own Chamber by Otho Count Palatine he Reigned ten years his Motto was Satius est currere quam malè currere 81. Otho the fourth Duke of Saxony and Bavaria who married the daughter of Philip and was appointed his Successour was Crowned Emperour by Pope Innocent the third he neglecting the usual largess at his Coronation the Romans abused his Servants whereupon he departed Rome in great discontent fell upon certain Towns belonging to the Pope for whiâ—h he was Excommunicated and vanquished in Brabant by the Faction raised up against him he relinquished the Empire to his Competitor he Reigned nineteen years his Motto was Anser strepit inter olores 82. Frederick the second King of Sicily and Naples son to Henry the sixth was consecrated and called Augustus by Pope Honorius the third where he admitted what constitutions the Pope would who notwithstanding supported his Rebels against him The Emperour did expostulate the unseemliness of the deed with him who thereupon was so chafed that he Cursed and Excommunicated the Emperour but they were reconciled Then
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 Dâ—ke 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 alieâ—â 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 â—urfeited 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
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 â—iâ—th 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 beâ—ame 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 â—ly he is proscribed and put out of his Elâ—ctâ—rship Gustavus Adolphus King of Sweden like a tempest falls upon Germany and frâ—es divers oppressed Princes but at last was slain in the Battel at Lutzen uncertain whether by the â—nemy 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 brothâ—r 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 hâ—arken 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
you forgotten that our Sâ—nate 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 â—f 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 Sâ—rvice 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 Cuâ—â—na 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 â—ormer 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 â—reeing 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 â—irst 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 â—irst 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
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 Cappadoâ—ia 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
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 Rempubâ—icam 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 lâ—â—t 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 fâ—ee 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 â—ave 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 foâ—merly an Anchorite was chosen Pope was a man of pious simplicity though unskilful in the managâ—mâ—nâ— 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
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
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 Coâ—s 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 Câ—piola 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 â—our 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 sinâ—e 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 â—nd 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
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 aâ—ter 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
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 subiâ—â— 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 â—ollow 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. Richaâ—d 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 â—ifty 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 Arâ—tinus 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 Grandâ—ather by the Father's side 4. A while since in Herefordshire at their Maygaâ—â—es 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 togâ—ther 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