his three and thirtieth Sermon Ad fratres in eremo relateth this strange example of one Cyril a Cittizen of Hippo a man well esteemed and beloved in the Citie He having one onely sonne did so cocker him forbearing either to checke him or correct him but loving him as that holy Father saith not onely above all things but even above God himselfe that by his too much liberty and indulgence his sonne grew wonderfull debaushed and gave himselfe to filthy drunkennesse Upon a time being vilely overtaken with drinke he came home and tumbled over his mother being great with childe would have ravished his sister slew his father and wounded to death two of his other sisters O fearefull effect of drunkennesse thus God punished the father for his too much love and indulgence of his sonne and the sonne for his vile impiety Not unlike to this I finde in Philip Lonicerus Page 486. A certain man saith he that gave himselfe to the studie of Godlinesse was daily assaulted with the temptation of the Divell who perswaded him if hee would bee quiet to choose one of these three sinnes either to make himselfe drunke or to commit adulterie with his neighbours wife or to kill his neighbour himselfe The poore man thinking drunkennesse the least sinne chose that but being enraged with wine he was easily drawn to the committall of the other sinnes for being with wine enflamed with lust he feared not to vitiate his neighbours wife nor yet to kill her husband comming in the meane while seeking to be revenged of him so giving himselfe to drunkennesse hee wraps himselfe in all other wickednesse On the eighteenth of August 1629 one Thomas Wilson labourer a knowne and common blasphemer of Gods name by oathes and curses and given much to drinking to excesse upon a slight occasion moved to displeasure against his wife and not daring to doe much violence unto her turned it upon himselfe and with his knife stabbed himselfe many of his friends and neighbours being present and so he died On the 10 day of May 1629 one Iohn Bone of Ely coachman unto one Master â—aluâ—â—â— of Beenham a fellow very vitious and exceeding in those two evils of prophane swearing and drunkennesse on the Sabbath day in the Sermon-time dranke himselfe drunke so that when he was to sit in the coach-box to drive the coach he fell out thereof under the horses feet where he was trodden to death or so hurt at least that he died shortly On the six and twentieth of November 1621 one Richard Borne servant to Iaspâ—r Bâ—rch Gardiner of Ely accustomed to travell upon the Lords day and making no reckoning of the Sabbath seldome or never comming to Church on that day but went onwards to Saint Iâ—es market and so spent the day and being drunke was at length overtaken by the just judgement of God and going up the streame in his boate which he had loaden with marketable wares he fell into the river and was so drowned On the third day of August 1618 one Thomas Alred of Godmanchester in the Countie of Huntington Butcher an accustomed Drunkard being entreated by a neighbour to unpitch a load of hay and being at that very time in drinke letting his pitch-forke slip out of his hand and stooping to take it up againe slipped from the cart with his head down-wards his fork standing 〈◊〉 with the tines he fell directly upon them which it once ran into his breast and stroke his heart so that he died suddenly On the sixteenth day of July 1628 one Iohn Vintner of 〈…〉 Gardiner a knowne drunkard and one that would prophanely especially in his 〈◊〉 scoffe at religion and abuse good men fell from the top of a 〈…〉 the ground and brake his necke and so died These â—ive lust examples were reported unto me and written with his owne hand by a worthy Minister Master Goorge Nelson Preacher of the Word of God in Godmanchester CHAP. IX Of rebellious and disobedient Children to their Parents AGathias in his Booke of the Persian manners reporteth this storie That certaine Philosophers going into Aegypt and finding there a promiscuous commixture of fathers and mothers with their daughters and sonnes and a miserable neglect of children towards their parents returned speedily into Greece and in a certaine Citie there finding the dead body of a man wanting buriall they in compassion committed the same into the earth the next day comming the same way againe they found the same body digged out of the earth which whilest they went about to bury the second time a fearefull spectrum appeared unto them and forbad them to doe it saying That he was a man unworthy to be buried because he had committed incest with his mother and despised and contemned his father This narration sheweth that the very earth doth execrate and abhorre such unnaturall lust and disobedience Laâ—terbius in his Booke of the discipline of children reports a storie of a certaine young man who had a father very old that had bestowed upon him all his substance This old man being by the fault of age unmannerly at the table of his sonne his sonne caused a woodden trough to be made for his father to eate his meate in like a hogge which when his sonnes young childe perceived he asked his father for what use it should serve his father answered That it was for his Grandfather to eate his meate in and what saith the childe must I provide the like for you when you are old Whereat his father being astonished threw away the trough and ever after entertained his old father with greater reverence and obedient respect CHAP. X. Of Murtherers ROmulus having marked out with a plough the compasse of the walls of the Citie of Rome which he was a building and had forbidden that no man should leape over the same his brother Rhâ—mus in scorne leaped over the wall which Romulus taking in evill part slew his brother and reigned alone but at length being hated of the people for his insolencie he himselfe was slaine by the fathers of the Senate at Caprea Constantine the Great after he had overcome Licinius his partner in the Empire and obtained the sole Monarchie grew both insolent and cruell for he first put to death his owne sisters next his owne sonne Crispâ—â— which he had by Minervea then he slew his owne wife Fausta in the bathes and lastly a number more of his friends For which cruelty though hee was a man endued with excellent vertues yet God strucke him with a filthy Leprosie which continued upon him untill such time that he was converted to the faith of Christ and baptised by Pope Silvester after which he proved a most famous protector of the Church of Christ. Perillus that devised the brasen Bull for the Tyrant Phalaris wherein men being inclosed and scorched with the heat that was under the Bull did imâ—tate the lowing of an Oxe to the end that there should be no compassion shewed unto them by
his companions where threats were blowne out on every side against the Faithful swore before them all That before he died he would â—ide up to his spurs in the bloud of the Lutherans But it hapned in the same night that the hand of God so stroke him that he was strangled and choaked with his own bloud and so he rode not but bathed himselfe not up to the spurs but up to the throat not in the bloud of Lutherans but in his owne bloud before he died In the raign of Francis de Valois of late memory the first King of France of that name those men that shewed themselves frowardest sharpest and most cruell in burning and murthering the holy Martyrs were also forwardest examples of the vengeance of God prepared for all such as they are For proofe whereof the miserable end of Iohn Roma a Monke of the Order of the White Friers may serve who although in regard of his hood and habit ought not to be placed in the number of men of note yet by reason of the notable example of Gods vengeance upon him wee may rightly place him in this ranke This man therefore at that time when the Christians of Cabrier and Merindol began to suffer persecution having obtained a Commission from the Bishop of Provence and the Embassadour Avignion to make inquisition after and seise upon the bodies of all them that were called Lutherans ceased not to afflict them with the cruellest torments he could devise Amongst many of his tortures this was one To cause their boots to be filled with boiling grease and then fastning them overthwartwise over a bench their legs hanging over a gentle fire to seeth them to death The French King advertised of this cruelty sent out his Letters Patents from the Parliament of Provence charging That the said Iohn de Roma should be apprehended imprisoned and by processe of law condemned Which news when the Caitife heard he fled backe as fast as he could trot to Avignion there purposing to recreate and delight himselfe with the excrements of his oppression and robbery which hee had wrung out of the purses of poor people but see how contrary to his hope it fell out for first he was robbed of his evill gotten goods by his owne servants and presently upon the same hee fell sicke of so horrible and strange a disease that no salve or medicine could be found to asswage his paine and beside it was withall so loathsome that a man could not endure his company for the stinke and corruption which issued from him For which cause the white Fryers his Cloysterers conveyed him out of their Covent into the hospitall where increasing in ulcers and vermine and being become now odious not onely to others but to himselfe also hee would often cry either to be delivered from his noysomnesse or to bee slaine being desirous but not able to performe the deed upon himselfe And thus in horrible torments and most fearfull despaire he most miserably died Now being dead there was none found that would give Sepulture to his rotten carkasse had not a Monke of the same Order dragged the carrion into a ditch which he provided for the purpose The Lord of Revest who a while supplied the place of the chiefe President in the Parliament of Provence by whose meanes many of the Faithfull were put to death after hee was put beside his office and returned home unto his owne house was attached with so grievous a sicknesse and such furious and mad fits withall that his wise and neerest allyance not daring to come near him he like a frantick bedlam enraged and solitarily ended his life A Counsellor of the same Court called Bellemont was so hot and zealous in proceeding against the poor prisoners for the Word of Gods sake that to the end to pack them soon to the fire he usually departed not from the Judgement Hall from morning to evening but caused his meat and drinke to bee brought for his meales returning not home but onely at night to take his rest But whilest hee thus strongly and endeavourously imployed himselfe about these affaires there began a little sore to rise upon his foot which at the first being no bigger than if a waspe had stung the place grew quickly so red and full of paine and so increased the first day by ranckling over all his foot and inflaming the same that by the judgement of Physicians and Chirurgions through the contagious fire that spread it selfe over his whole body it seemed incurable except by cutting off his foot the other members of the body might be preserved which hee in no case willing to yield unto for all the medicines that were applied unto it sound the second day his whole leg infected and the third his whole thigh and the fourth day his whole body insomuch that he died the sameday his deadbody being all partched as if it had been rosted by a fire And thus he that was so hot in burning poore Christians was himselfe by a secret flame of Gods wrath as by slow and soft fire burned and consumed to death Lewes du Vaine brother in law to Meniâ—r the President of the said Parliament of Provence with the brother and son of Peter â—urand chiefe butcher of the city Ajax the evening before the horrible cruelty was executed at Merindoll fell at debate amongst themselves and the morrow as instruments of Gods judgements slew one another The Judge of the City Aix one of that wretched crew drowned himselfe in his returne as he passed over the river Durance As for the chiefe Judge that was principall in that murtherous action touching the condemnation of those poore soules of Merindoll and Cabrieres he likewise suddainly died before he saw the execution of that decree which himselfe had set downe Iohn Mesnier Lord of Oppede another chiefe Officer of the aforesaid Parliament that got the leading of the murthering Army against the poore Christians aforesaid committing such excesse of cruelty that the most barbarous heathen in the world would have yearned to doe For which cause hee was also summoned to appeare personally at the Parliament of Paris there to answer those extortions robberies and oppressions which were layd to his charge and being convinced and found guilty theieof was neverthelesse released and set at liberty and that which is more restored to his former estate Howbeit though hee escaped the hands of men yet was hee overtaken by the hand of God who knew well enough the way how to entrap and abate his proud intents for even then when hee was in the height of worldly prosperity and busier than ever in persecuting Christians even then was hee pulled downe by a flux of bloud which provoking his privy parts engendred such a carnositie and thicknesse of flesh therein and withall a restraint of urine that with horrible outeries and raving speeches hee died feeling a burning fire broyling his entrailes from his navill upwards
corrupt custome used commonly to wish he might be drowned in a privy and as he wished so it hapned unto him for he was so served and murthered at S. Peters Monastery in Erford in the yeare of our Lord 1148. The like befell a young Courtier at Mansfield whose custome was in any earnest asseveration to say The Devill take me if it be not so the Devill indeed tooke him whilest hee slept and threw him out of a high window where albeit by the good providence of God he oâ—ught no great hurt yet he learnt by experience to bridle his tongue from all such cursed speeches this being but a tast of Gods wrath that is to fall upon such wretches as he At Oster a village in the duchy of Megalopole there chanced a most strange and fearefull example upon a woman that gave her selfe to the Devill both body and soule and used most horrible cursings and oathes both against her selfe and others which detestible manner of behaviour as at many other times so especially shee shewed at a marriage in the foresaid village upon S. Iohn Baptists day the whole people exhorting her to leave off that monstrous villany but she nothing bettered continued her course till all the company were set at dinner and very merry Then loe the Devill having got full possession of her came in person and transported her into the aire before them all with most horrible outcries and roarings and in that sort carried her round about the towne that the Inhabitants were ready to die with feare and by ct by tore her in foure pieces leaving in four severall high wayes a quarter that all that came by might be witnesses of her punishment And then returning to the marriage threw her bowels upon the table before the Major of the towne with these words Behold these dishes of meat belong to thee whom the like destruction awaiteth if thou doest not amend thy wicked life The reporters of this history were Iohn Herman the Minister of the said towne with the Major himselfe and the whole Inhabitants being desirous to have it knowne to the world for example sake In Luthers conferences there is mention made of this story following Divers noblemen were striving together at a horse race and in their course cried The Devill take the last Now the last was a horse that broke loose whom the Devill hoisted up into the aire and tooke cleane away Which teacheth us not to call for the Devill for he is ready alwayes about us uncalled and unlooked for yea many legions of them compasse us about even in our best actions to disturbe and pervert us A certaine man not far from Gorlitz provided a sumptuous supper and invited many guests unto it who at the time appointed refused to come he in anger cried Then let all the Devils in hell come Neither was his wish frivolous for a number of those hellish fiends came forthwith whom he not discerning from men came to welcome and entertaine but as he tooke them by the hands and perceiued in stead of fingers clawes all dismaied he ran out of the doores with his wife and left none in the house but a young infant with a foole sitting by the fire whom the Divels had no power to hurt neither any man else save the goodly supper which they made away withall and so departed It is notoriously knowne in Oundle a towne in Northamptonshire amongst all that were acquainted with the partie namely one Hacket of whom more hath spoken before how he used in his earnest talke to curse himselfe on this manner If it be not true then let a visible confusion come upon me Now he wanted not his wish for he came to a visible confusion indeed as hath been declared more at large in the twentieth chapter of this booke At Witeberg before Martin Luther and divers other learned men a woman whose daughter was possessed with a spirit confessed That by her curse that plague was fallen upon her for being angry at a time she bad the Divell take her and she had no sooner spoken the word but he tooke her indeed and possessed her in most strange sort No whit lesse strange and horrible is that which happened at Neoburg in Germanie to a sonne that was cursed of his mother in her anger with this curse she prayed God she might never see him returne aliue for the same day the yong man bathing himselfe in the water was drowned and never returned to his mother alive according to her ungodly wish The like judgement of God we read of to have beene executed upon another sonne that was banned and cursed by his mother in the citie of Astorga The mother in her rage cursed one of her sons with detestable maledictions betaking him to the Diuels of hell and wishing that they would fetch him out of her presence with many other horrible execrations This was about ten a clocke at night the same being very darke and obscure the boy at last through feare went out into a little court behind the house from the which hee was suddenly hoised up into the ayte by men in shew of grim countenance great stature and loathsome and horrible gesture but indeed cruell fiends of hell and that with such swiftnesse as he himselfe after confessed that it was not possible to his seeming for any bird in the world to fly so fast and lighting downe amongst certaine mountaines of bushes and briers was trailed through the thickest of them and so all torne and rent not only in his cloaths but also in his hands and face and almost his whole body At last the boy remembring God and beseeching him of helpe and assistance the cruell fiends brought him backe againe through the aire and put him in at a little window into a chamber in his fathers house where after much search and griefe for him hee was found in this pittifull plight and almost besides himselfe And thus though they had not power to deprive him of his life as they had done the former yet the Lord suffered them to afflict the parents in the sonne for the good of both parents and sonne if they belonged unto the Lord. But above all this is most strange which hapned in a town of Misina in the yeare of our Lord God 1552 the eleventh of September where a cholericke father seeing his sonne flacke about his businesse wished hee might never stirre from that place for it was no sooner said but done his sonne stucke fast in the place neither by any meanes possible could be removed no not so much as to fit or bend his body till by the praiers of the Faithfull his paines were somewhat mitigated though not remitted three yeares he continued standing with a post at his backe for his ease and foure yeares sitting at the end whereof he died nothing weakened in his understanding but professing the faith and not doubting of his salvation in
people for which cause the Lord first sent among them such a contagious plague that the living were scarce sufficient to bury the dead and when by this punishment they were not reclaimed then by their owne counsels and procurement the Lord brought upon them a fierce and mighty nation even the Saxons of Germany who albeit they came at first as helpers and succorers of them against their enemies yet ere long proved their sorest foes themselves and after much bloudshed drave them almost quite out of their Kingdome confining them into a haven nooke and corner of the same where they remaine till this day and all this came upon them saith that reverend Authour for their ingratitude for Gods mercies and contempt of the Word of God Againe we reade a little before this how that God stirred up Gildas a godly learned man to preach to the old Brittons and to exhort them to repentance and amendment of life and to forewarne them of plagues to come if they repented not but what availed it Gildas was laughed to scorne and taken for a false Prophet the Brittons with whorish faces and unrepentant hearts went forward in their sins and what followed God to punish their contempt of his Word and Ministers sent in their enemies on every side and destroying them gave their land to other nations Againe not many yeares past Almighty God seeing idolatry superstition hypocrisie and wicked living used in this land raised up that godly learned man Iohn Wickliffe to preach unto our fathers repentance and to exhort them to forsake their idolatry and superstition but his exhortations were not regarded he with his sermons was despised his bookes and himselfe after his death were burnt What ensued A most grievous and heavy vengeance they slew their lawfull King and set up three other on a row under whom all the noble bloud was slaine up and halfe the Commons destroyed what by warre in France and civile discord among themselves the cities and towns were decayed and the land brought half to a wildernesse O extrem plagues of Gods just vengeance But these examples be generall over whole nations now let us descend to particular judgments upon private persons for contemning scorning or despising the Word of God the holy Sacraments and the Ministers of the same Hemingius a learned Divine in his exposition upon the first chapter of S. Iohns Gospell reporteth That about the yere 1550 there was a certain lewd companion in Denmark who had long made profession to mocke at all Religion and at devout persons This fellow entering into a Church where there was a sermon made by the Minister of the place began contrary to all those that were present to behave himselfe most prophanely and to shew by lewd countenances and gestures his dislike and contempt of that holy exercise to whom the preacher being instant upon his businesse in hand spake not a word but only sighing praied unto God that this mocker might be suppressed who seeing that the Preacher would noâ— contest against him but contemned his unworthy behaviour goeth out of the Church but yet not out of the reach of Gods vengeance for presently as he passed out a tyle fell from the house upon his head and slew him upon the place a just judgement upon so prophane a wretch From whence all scorners and deriders of godly sermons and the preachers of the same may take example for their amendment if they have any grace in them Christopher Turke a Counsellor of Estate to a great Nobleman in Germany going one day to horse and mocking at a certaine godly Nobleman who was then prisoner in his enemies hands uttered these or such like speeches See what is become of these gallants that sung so much one with anotheâ— When any one doth wrong us God is our succor and defence but he had scarce ended his words when as a sudden griefe tooke him so that he was forced to alight from his horse and to be carried to bed where in stead of singing he dyed in dispaire drawing forth his tongue as blacke as a cole and hanging out of his mouth This happened the ninth of Iune 1547. The contempt of the Sacrament of baptisme was most notably punished in a certaine Curate of Misnia in Thuring whose custome was whensoever hee had baptised any women children in contempt of the foeminine sex and without any regard to the holy Sacrament to say That they should not carry them backe to the house but cast them into the River This prophane Curate looking one day over the bridge of Elbe which is a large and a deepe River how the boats did passe no man touching him nor his braine any way altered but by a secret judgement of God fell over the bridge into the water and was presently drowned that he which so impiously wished drowning to other and that at the Sacrament of Baptisme was drowned himselfe This happened in the yeare 1505. The contemptuous and irreverent handling of the Word of God in the pulpit together with open hatred of the Gospel was most famously revenged in one Nightingale the Parson of Gondal besides Canterbury in the raigne of Queen Mary Anno 1555. This wretched Parson upon Shrove Sunday which was the third day of the moneth of March making a Sermon to his parishioners entred beside his text into an impertinent discourse of the Articles lately set forth by the Popes authority in commendation thereof and to the disgrace of the Gospell saying more over thus unto the people My masters and neighbours rejoice and be merry for the prodigall sonne is come home for I know that the most part of you are as I am I know your hearts well enough and I shall tell you what happened to me this weeke past I was before my Lord Cardinall and he hath made me as cleane from sinne as I was at the Font-stone and he hath also appointed me to notifie unto you the Bull of the Popes pardon and so reading the same unto them he thanked God that ever he lived to see that day adding moreover that he beleeved that by the vertue of that Bull he was as cleane from sinne as that night that he was borne which words he had no sooner uttered but the Lord to shew that he lyed stroke him with sudden death and so he fel down out of the pulpit never stirring hand nor foot not speaking word but there lay an amazement and astonishment to all the people Denterius an Arrian Bishop being at Bizantium as he was about to baptise one Barbas after his blasphemous manner saying I baptise thee in the name of the Father through the Sonne in the holy Ghost which forme of words is contrary to the prescript rule of Christ that bad his disciples to baptise all nations In the Name of the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost the water suddenly vanished so that he could not then be baptised wherefore Barbas all amased
speedily executed Wherein the Lord made knowne unto them both how unpleasant and odious the prophanation of his Sabbath was in his sight and how seriously and carefully every one ought to observe and keepe the same Now albeit that this strict observation of the Sabbath was partly ceremoniall under the Law and that in Christ Iesus we have an accomplishment as of all other so also of this ceremony He being the true Sabbath and assured repose of our soules yet seeing we still stand in need of some time for the instruction and exercise of our Faith it is necessary that we should have at least one day in a weeke to occupy our selves in and about those holy and godly exercises which are required at our hands and what day fitter for that purpose than Sunday which was also ordained in the Apostles time for the same end and called by them Dies Dominicus that is the day of our Lord because upon that day he rose from the dead to wiâ— the morrow after the Iewes Sabbath being the first day of the weeke to which Sabbath it by common consent of the Church succeeded to the end that a difference might be put betwixt Christians and Iewes Therefore it ought now religiously to be observed as it is also commanded in the civill law with expresse prohibition not to abuse this day of holy rest in unholy sports and pastimes of evill example Neverthelesse in stead hereof we use the evill imployance abuse and disorder of it for the most part for beside the false worship and plentifull superstitions which reigne in so many places all manner of disorder and dissolutenesse is in request and beareth sway in these dayes this is the day for tipling houses and tavernes to be fullest fraught with ruffians and ribalds and for villanous and dishonest speech with lecherous and baudy songs to be most riâ—e this is the day when dicing dauncing whoring and such noysome and dishonest demeanors muster their bands and keep ranke together from whence foame out envies hatreds displeasures quarrels debates bloud sheddings and murthers as daily experience testifieth All which things are evident signes of Gods heavy displeasure upon the people where these abuses are permitted and no difference made of that day wherein God would be served but is contrarily mostdishonored by the overflow of wicked examples And that it is a thing odious and condemned of God these examples following will declare Gregory Turonensis reporteth That a husbandman who upon the Lords day went to plough his field as he cleansed his plow-share with an yron the yron stucke so fast into his hand that for two yeares hee could not be delivered from it but carried it about continually to his exceeding great paine and shame Another prophane fellow without any regard of God or his service made no conscience to convey his corne out of the field on the Lords day in Sermon time but hee was well rewarded for his godlesse covetousnesse for the same corne which with so much care he gathered together was consumed with fire from heaven with the barne and all the graine that was in it A certaine Nobleman used every Lords day to goe a hunting in the Sermon while which impiety the Lord punished with this judgement he caused his wife to bring forth a childe with a head like a dog that seeing he preferred his dogs before the service of God hee might have one of his owne getting to make much of At Kimstaâ— a towne in France there lived in the yere of our Lord 1559 a certain covetous woman who was so eager upon the world and greedy of gaine that she would neither frequent the Church to heare the word of God her selfe nor suffer any of her family to doe it but continually abode labouring and toyling about drying and pilling flax and doing other domesticall businesses neither would she be reclaimed by her neighbours who admonished and dehorted her from such untimely works One Sabbath day as they were thus busily occupied fire seemed to issue among the flax without doing any hurt the next Sabbath day it tooke fire indeed but was quickly extinct for all this she continued obstinate in her prophanenesse even the third Sabbath when the flax againe taking fire could not be quenched till it had burnt her and two of her children to death for though they were recovered out of the fire alive yet the next day they all three died And that which was most to be wondred at a young infant in the cradle was taken out of the midst of the flame without any hurt Thus God useth to exercise his judgements upon the contemners of his commandements The Centuriators of Magdeburge intreating of the manners of Christians made report out of another history that a certaine husbandman in Parochia Gemilacensi grinding corne upon the Lords day the meale began to burne Anno Dom. 1126 which though it might seeme to be a thing meere casuall yet they set it downe as a judgement of God upon him for breaking the Sabbath As also of that which they speake in the same place of one of the Kings of Denmarke who when as hee contrary to the admonition of the Priests who desired him to deferre it would needs upon the day of Pentecost make warre with his enemy died in the battell But that may be better knowne to us all which is written in the second booke of Macchabees of Nicanor the Iewes enemy who would needs set upon them on the Sabbath from which when other the Iewes that were compelled to be with him could no way disswade him he was slaine in the battell and most miserably but deservedly handled even the parts of his body shamefully dismembred as in that History you may read more at large Therefore in the Councell at Paris every one labouring to perswade unto a more religious keeping of the Sabbath day when they had justly complained that as many other things so also the observation of the Sabbath was greatly decayed through the abuse of Christian liberty in that men too much followed the delights of the world and their owne worldly pleasures both wicked and dangerous They further adde Multi nánque nostrum visu multi etiam quorundam relatu dedicimus c. For many of us have been eye-witnesses many have intelligence of it by the relation of others that some men upon this day being about their husbandry have been strucken with thunder some have been maimed and made lame some have had their bodies even bones and all burnt in a moment with visible fire and have consumed to ashes and many other judgements of God have been and are daily Whereby it is declared that God is offended with the dishonour of so high a day And our time hath not wanted examples in this kind whosoever hath observed them when sometimes in the faires upon this day the Wares have swumme in the streetes sometimes the scaffolds at Playes have falne downe
who having conspired treacherously and raised warre against his father together with the Earle of Brittaine his supporter were both vanquished and put to flight but the Earle was slaine in the pursuit The Prince himselfe also thinking to escape by sea where lay provided certaine ships ready to receive him was in the mid way overtaken together with his wife and children whom he purposed to make partakers of his fortune and were altogether by the expresse commandement of his father shut up in a little house and there burned together In this wise did Clotarius revenge the treachery and rebellion of his sonne after a more severe cruell and fierce manner than King David did who would have saved his sonne Absolons life notwithstanding all his wickednesse and malitious and furious rebellion but this man contrariwise being bereft of all fatherly affection would use no compassion towards his sonne but commanded so cruell an execution to bee performed not onely upon him but upon his daughter in law also and their children perchance altogether innocent and guiltlesse of that crime A very rare and strange example seeing it is commonly seene that grandfathers use more to cherish and cocker their childrens children than their own Therefore we must think that it was the providence of God to leave behind a notable example of his most just and righteous severity against disobedient and rebellious children to the end to amase and feare all others from enterprising the like Philip Comineus hath recorded the treacherous tragedy of a most wicked and cruell sonne called Adolphus for the world waxeth every day worse than other that came in an evening suddenly to take his father the Duke of Gilderland prisoner even as he was going to bed and would not give him so much liberty as to pull on his hose for he was bare legged but carried him away in all haste making him march on foot without breeches five long Almaine miles in a most cold weather and then clapt him up in the bottome of a deep tower where there was no light save by a little window and there kept him close prisoner six moneths together After which cruell fact he himselfe was taken prisoner in like manner and carried bound to Namur where he lay a long time untill the Gaunts reprived him forthwith and led him with them against Tournay where he was slain in the while of his imprisonment his father yeelding to nature disinherited him of all his goods for his vile ingratitude and unnaturall cruelty and left the succession of his dukedome to the Duke of Bourgondy In the yeare of our Lord 1461 in a village called Iuchi neere to Cambray there dwelt a certaine man or rather a beast that in a great rage threw his owne mother out of his doores thrice in one day and the third time told her in fury That hee had rather see his house on fire and burnt to coles than that she should abide there but one day longer It happened that the very same day according to his cursed speech his house was indeed fired but how or whence no man could judge and the fire was so fierce that it consumed to ashes not only that house but also twelve other houses adjoyning which was an evident figure of Gods just judgement in punishing so vile and unnaturall a deed by fire seeing he deserved at the least to lose his house for banishing her out of it that had borne him in her belly and nourished him with the milke of her paps In this place I may fitly insert two memorable examples of the same subject gathered by an author of credit and fame sufficient to this effect It is not long saith he since a friend of mine a man of a great spirit and worthy to be beleeved recounted to me a very strange accident which he said hapned to himselfe and proved his saying by the testimony of many witnesses which was this That being upon a time at Naples at a kinsmans and familiars house of his he heard by night the voice of a man crying in the street for aid which caused him to rise and light a candle and run out to see what the matter was being come out of the doores he perceived a cruell and ougly shaped divell striving with all his force to catch and get into his clouches a yong man that strove on the other side to defend himselfe and for feare raised that outcry which he had before heard the yong man seeing him ran to him forthwith and catching fast hold by his cloathes and pitifully crying to God would in no case let go his hold untill his cruell enemy forsooke him and being brought into the house all dismaied and beside himselfe would not let go his hold untill he came to his sences againe out of that exceeding feare The cause of which assault was he had led all his time a most wicked life and had been a contemner of God and a Rebell against his parents using vile railing and bitter speeches against them in such sort that in stead of blessing they had layd a curse upon him And this is the first example Concerning the second I will also set downe the Authors owne words as followeth Of all the strange things saith he that ever I heard report of that which happened not long since at Rome is most worthy to be remembred of a certaine yong man of Gabia borne of a base and poore family but endued with terrible and furious nature and addicted to a loose and disordinate life This gallant picking a quarrell with his owne father in his anger reviled him with most grosse and reprochfull tearmes In which mad fits as one wholly given over to the Divell he purposely departed to Rome to practise some naughty device against his father but his ghostly father the Divell met him in the way under the shape of a cruell and ougly fellow with a thicke bushie beard and haire hanging disorderly and cloathes all rent and tattered who as they walked together enquired of him why he was so sad He answered that there had passed some bitter speeches betwixt his father and him and now he devised to work him some mischiefe The Divell by and by like a crafty knave soothed him up said that he also upon the like occasion went about the same practise and desired that they might pursue both their voyage and enterprise together it was soone agreed upon betwixt them being like to like as the proverbe goeth Therefore being arrived at Rome and lodged at the same Inne one bed did serve them both where whilest the yong man securely and soundly slept the old malicious knave watching his opprtunity caught him by the throat to strangle him whereat the poore wretch awoke and cried for help to God so that the wicked spirit was constrained to forsake him without performing his purpose and to flee out at the chamber with such force and violence that the house roofe crackt and the tyles
clattered downe aboundantly The host of the house being awaked with the noyse cryed out to know what the matter was and running into the chamber where this noyse was with a candle in his hand found the poore young man all alone betwixt dead and alive of whom recovered he learnt out the whole truth as hath been told but he after this terrible accident repented him of his wicked life and was touched with the sence of his grievous sinne so nearly that ever after he led a more circumspect and honest life Thus much we finde written in that Author Henry the fifth inspired with the furies of the Pope of Rome made warre upon his father Henry the fourth vexing him with cruell and often battels and not ceasing till he had spoiled him of his Empire and till the Bishop of Mentz had proudly and insolently taken from him his Imperiall ornaments even in his presence but the Lord in recompence of his unnaturall dealing made him and his army a prey unto his enemies the Saxons and to flie before them stirring up also the Pope of Rome to be as grievous a scourge unto him as he had beene before time to his father Now as the ambition of a Kingdome was the cause of this mans ingratitude so in the example following pride and disdaine ruled and therefore he is so much the more to be condemned by how much a Kingdome is a stronger cord to draw men to vice than a mans owne affection There was saith Manlius an old man crooked with age distressed with poverty and almost pined with hunger that had a sonne rich strong and fat of whom he intreated no gold or silver or possession but food and sustenance for his belly and clothes for his backe but could not obtaine it at his hands for his proud heart exalted with prosperity thought it a shame and discredit to his house to be borne of so poore and base parentage and therefore not onely denied him reliefe but also disclaimed him from being his father and chased him away with bitter and crabbed reproaches The poore old man thus cruelly handled let teares fall as witnesse of his griefe and departed comfortlesse from his Tygre minded sonne But the Lord that gathereth up the tears of the innocent looked down from heaven in justice and sent a fury into the sences and understanding of this monstrous son that as he was void of nature and compassion so he might bevoid of reason and discretion for ever after Another not so cruell and disdainfull as the former yet cruell and disdainfull enough to plucke downe vengeace upon his head would not see his father beg indeed nor yet abjure him as the other did but yet undertaking to keepe him used him more like a slave than a father for what should be too deare for him that gives us life yet every good thing was too deare for this poore father Vpon a time a dainty morsell of meat was upon the boord to be eaten which as soone as he came in he conveied away and foisted in courser victuals in the roome But marke what his dainties turned to when the servant went to fetch it againe he found in stead of meat snakes and of sauce serpents to the great terrour of his conscience but that which is more one of the serpents leaped in his face and catching hold by his lip hung there till his dying day so that hee could never feed himselfe but he must feed the serpent withall And this badge carried he about as a cognisance of an unkinde and ungratefull sonne Moreover this is another judgment of God that commonly as children deale with their parents so doe their children deale with them and this in the law of proportion is most just and in the order of punishing most usuall for the proofe whereof as experience daily teacheth so one example or two I will subjoyne It is reported how a certaine unkind and perverse sonne beat his aged father upon a time and drew him by the haire of his head to the threshold who when hee was old was likewise beaten of his sonne and drawne also by the haire of the head not to the threshold but out of doores into the durt and how hee should say he was rightly served if he had left him at the threshold as he left his father and not dragged him into the streets which hee did not to his Thus did his owne mouth beare record of his impiety and his owne conscience condemne him before God and men Another old man being persuaded by his son that had maried a yong wise with faire and sugred promises of kindnesses and contentments to surrender his goods and lands unto him yeelded to his request and found for a space all things to his desire but when his often coughing annoyd his yong and dainty wise he first removed his lodging from a faire high chamber to a base under roome and after shewed him many other unkinde and unchildly parts and lastly when the old man as ked for cloathes he bought foure elnes of cloath two wherof he bestowed upon him and reserved the other two for himselfe Now his young sonne marking this niggardise of his father towards his grandfather hid the two elles of cloath and being asked why hee hid them whether by ingeniousnesse or instinct of God he answered To the end to reserve them for his father against he was old to be a covering for him Which answer touched his father so neere that ever after hee shewed himselfe more loving and obsequious to his father than he did before Two great faults but soone and happily amended Would it might be an example to all children if not to mitigate them yet at least to learne them to feare how to deale roughly and crookedly with their parents seeing that God punisheth sinne with sinne and sinners in their owne kinde and measureth the same measure to every man which they have measured unto others The like we read of another that provided a trough for his old decrepit unmannerly father to eat his meat in who being demanded of his sonne also to what use that trough should serve answered for his grandfather What quoth the childe and must we have the like for you when you are old Which words so abashed him that he threw it away forthwith At Millan there was an abstinate and ungodly sonne that when he was admonished by his mother of some fault which he had committed made a wry mouth and pointed his fingers at her in scorne and derision Whereat his mother being angry wished that he might make such a mouth upon the gallowes Neither was it a vaine wish for within few daies he was taken with a theft and condemned by law to be hanged and being upon the ladder was perceived to wryth his mouth in griefe after the same fashion which he had done before to his mother in derision Henry the second of that name
dreaming of nothing lesse whereat they being at the instant amazed quickly gathered their spirits together and putting themselves in defence fought it out with such courage and eagernesse that the traitors Army was wholly discomfited and he himselfe with one of his sonnes slain The Gothes having gotten this victory broke off their voyage to France and turned their course backe again to Italie with purpose to destroy and spoil and so they did for they laid waste all the Countrey of Piemont and Lumbardy and elsewhere and besieged Rome it selfe so that from that time Italie never ceased to be scourged and tormented with the Gothes for the space of eighteen yeers Moreover whosoever else have been found to follow the steps of these truce peace and promise-breakers void of truth and regard of reputation alwayes underwent worthy punishment for their unworthy acts and fell headlong into confusion and ignominy making themselves subjects worthy to be curst and detested of all men CHAP. XVI Of Queenes that were Murtherers IF these and such like cruelties as we have spoken before be strange and monstrous for men what shall we then say of wicked and bloudy women who contrary to the nature of their sex addict themselves to all violence and bloudshedding as cursed Iezabel Queen of Israel did of whom sufficient hath been spoken before Athaliah Ahabs daughter and wife to Ioram King of Judah was a bird of the same feather for she was possessed with such a spirit of fury and rage that after the death of her son Ochosias that died without issue she put to death all the bloud royall to wit the posterity of Nathan Solomons brother to whom by right of succession the inheritance of the Crown appertained to the end that she might install her selfe into the kingly diadem after this cruell butchery of all the royall male children except Ioas who by Gods providence was preserved alive she usurped the Crowne and Scepter of Juda full seven yeeres at the end of which date Ioas was exalted to the Crowne and she not onely deposed but slain by the hands of her Guard that attended upon her Semiramis the Queen of Assyria was a woman of an ambitious spirit who through her thirst of reigning counterfeited her sex and attired her selfe like a man to get more authority and reverence to her selfe She was the destruction of many thousand people by the unjust war which she stirred up besides that she was a notorious strumpet and withall a murderer of those that satisfied her lust for still as they came from her bed some lay privily in watch to kill them lest they should bewray her villany it is reported that she was so shamelesse that she solicited her owne son to commit incest with her who in detestation of her filthinesse and cruelty raised a power against her and conquering her in one great battell caused her most deservedly to be put to death Brunchild whom Histories call Brunhault a Queen of France by marriage but a Spaniard by birth was a woman that bred much mischiefe in her age and that wrought many horrible and death-deserving crimes for partly with her subtle devices and partly with her owne hands she murdered ten Kings of France one after another she caused her husband to slay his owne brother she procured the death of her nephew Meroveus whom against all equity and honesty she had secondly espoused for her husband for he being hated of his father for that vile incest and perceiving himselfe in danger of taking made one of servants thrust him through After she had committed these and many other foul facts she went aboutalso to defraud Clotairius the son of Chilpericke of the right of the Crowne which pertained unto him and to thrust in another in his room whereupon arose great war in the which as she dealt more boldly and manfully than the condition of her sexe would bear so she received the due wages of her brave and vertuous deeds for she was taken prisoner with three of her nephewes whose throats she saw cut before her face and after her selfe was set upon a Camell and led through the hoste three dayes together every man reviling mocking reproaching and despighting her and at last by the award and judgement of the Princes and Captaines of the Army she was adjudged to be tied by the hair of her head one arme and one foot to the tail of a wilde and unâ—â—med horse and so to be left to his mercy to be drawne miserably to her destruction which was no sooner executed but her miserable carkase the instrument of so many mischiefes was with mens feet spurned bruised trampled and wounded after a most strange fashion and this was the wofull end of miserable Brunchild Edilburga the daughter of Offa King of Mercia in England who was married to Brigthricus King of the West Saxons was a woman so passing all the bounds of humanity and so given to cruelty and other beastly conditions that she first poysoned divers of the Nobles of the Kingdom and then having practised this wickednesse upon them she at length poysoned also the King her husband for which cause flying over into France unto Charles the Great for fear of punishment among her owne people when by reason of her beautie it was offered unto her that she should marry either with the King himselfe or with his son because she chose the son before the father married neither the one nor yet the other but was thrust into a Monastery where she not forgetting her old trade playing the harlot with a Monke was expulsed from thence and ended her life in great penury and misery About the same time that this Edilburga was thus working her feats in England Irene another most idolatrous and cruell minded woman being Emperesse of the Greekes was as busie for her part at Constantinople This wicked woman through the meanes of Pope Adrian took up the body of Constantine Emperour of Constantinople her owne husbands father and when she had burned the same she caused the ashes to be cast into the sea because he disannulled images Afterward reigning with her son Constantine the sixth son to Leo the fourth and being at dissention with him for disallowing the worshipping of images caused him to be taken and laid in prison who afterward through power of friends being restored to his Empire again at last she caused the same her owne son to be cast in prison and his eyes to be put out so cruelly that within short space he died After this the said Emperesse as it were triumphing in her cruelty and idolatry caused a Councell to be held at Nice where it was decreed That images should again be restored to the Church but this Councell was after repealed by another Councell holden at Frankford by Charles the Great and at length this wicked woman was deposed by Nicephorus who reigned after and was expulsed the Empire and after the example of Edilburga
in many witnesseth they are intolerable in that kinde for which cause they have borâ—â— the markes of Gods Justice for their rigorous and barbarous handling of the poor West Indians whom they have brought to that extremity by putting them to such excessive travels in digging their mines of Gold as namely in the island Hispagnola that the most part by sighes and teares wish by death to end their miseries many first killing their children have desperately hung themselves on high trees some have throwne themselves headlong from steep mountaines and others cast themselves into the sea to be rid of their troubles but the Tyrans have never escaped scot-free but came alwayes to some miserable end or other for some of them were destroyed by the inhabitants others slew one another with their owne hands provoked by insatiable avarice some have been drowned in the sea and others starved in the Desart in fine few escaped unpunished Bombadilla one of the Governours of Hispagnola after he had swayed there a while and enriched himselfe by the sweat and charge of the inhabitants was called home again into Spain whitherward according to the commandment received as he imbarqued himselfe shipping with him so much treasure as in value mounted to more than an hundred and fifty thousand duckats beside many pieces and graines of Gold which he carried to the Spanish Queen for a Present whereof one weighed three thousand duckats there arose such a horrible and outragious tempest in the broad sea and beat so violently against his ships that four and twenty vessels were shivered in pieces and drowned at that blow there perished Bombadilla himselfe with most of his Captaines and more than five hundred Spaniards that thought to returne full rich into the Country and became with all their treasures a prey unto the fishes In the year of our Lord 1541. The eight day of September there chanced in the City Guatimala which lyeth in the way from Nicaragna Westward a strange and admirable judgement After the death of Alvarado who subdued this province and founded the City and was but a little before slain in fight it rained so strangely and vehemently all this whole day and night that of a sudden so huge a deluge and floud of waters overflowed the earth streaming from the bottom of the mountains into the lower grounds with such violence that stones of incredible bignesse were carried with it which tumbling strongly downewards bruised and burst in pieces whatsoever was in their way In the mean while there was heard in the air fearfull cries and voices and a blacke Cow was seen running up and downe in the midst of the water that did much hurt The first house that was Overthrowne by this tempest was dead Alvarado's wherein his widow a very proud woman that held the Government of the whole Province in her hand and had before despited God for her husbands death was slain with all her houshold and in a moment the Citie was either drowned or subverted there perished in this tempest of men and women sixscore persons but they that at the beginning of the floud â—ted saved their lives The morrow after the waters were surceased one might see the poor Spaniards lie along the fields some maimed in their bodies other with broken armes or legs or otherwise miserably wounded And thus did God revenge the monstrous Spanish cruelties exercised upon those poor people whom instead of inâ—icing by fair and gentle meanes to the knowledge of the true God and his Son Christ they terrified by extraordinary tyranny for such is the Spanish nature making them thinke that Christians were the cruellest and most wicked men of the earth In the year of our Lord 1514. happened the horrible sedition and butchery of the Croysadoes in Hungary the story is this There was a generall discontent amongst the people against the King and chiefest of the Realme because they went not about to conquer those places again from the Turke which he held in Hungary Thereupon the Popes Legate published Pardons for all those that would crosse themselves to go to war against the Turke Whereupon suddenly there gathered together a wonderfull company of thieves and robbers from every corner of Hungary who together with great multitudes of the common people that were oppressed by the insolency of the Nobility creating themselves a Generall committed a most horrible spoil almost over all Hungary murdering all the Gentlemen and Bishops they could meet withall the richest and those which were noblest descended they empailed alive This cruell rage continuing at last the King raised Forces against them and ere long they were defeated in a set battle by Iohn the son of Vayvod Stephen who having cut the most of them in pieces took their Leaders and put them to death by such strange torments as I have horrour to remember for the Generall of this seditious troop called George he caused to be stript naked and a Crowne of hot burning iron to be set upon his head then some of his veines to be opened and made Lucatius his brother to drinke the bloud which issued out of them After that the chiefest of the Peasants who had been kept three dayes without meat were brought forth and forced to fall up on the body of George yet breathing with their teeth and every one to tear away and eat a piece of it Thus he being torne in pieces his bowels were pulled out and cut into morsels whereof some being boyled and the rest roasted the Prisoners were constrained to feed on them which done all that remained were put to most horrible and languishing deaths An example of greater cruelty can hardly be found since the world was a world and therefore no marvell if the Lord hath punished the King and Realme of Hungary for such strange cruelties by suffering the cruell Turkes to make spoil of them Cruell chastisements are prepared for them that be cruell and inhumane During the Peasants war in Germany in the year 1525. a certain Gentleman not content to have massacred a great number even of those which had humbly craved pardon of him used in all company to glory of his exploits and to tell what murders and thefts he had committed But some moneths after he fell sicke and languished many dayes of an extreme pain in the reines of his back through the torment whereof he fell into despair and ceased not to curse and deny his Creatour who is blessed for ever untill that both speech and life failed him Neither did the severity of Gods justice here stay but shewed it selfe on his posterity also for his eldest son seeking to exalt the prowesse and valour of his father vaunted much of his fathers exploits in an open assembly at a banquet wherewithall a countriman being moved stabbed him to the heart with his dagger and some few dayes after the Plague fals among the residue of his Family and consumeth all that remaineth CHAP. XX. Of Adulteries IT
and required justice that though his life was lost yet his reputation might bee preserved and to prove his innocency she miraculously handled Iron red with heat without any hurt which when the Emperour saw searching out the cause very narrowly he found out his wives villany and for her paines caused her to be burned at a stake but on the Earles wife he bestowed great rewards even foure Castles in recompence of her husband though no reward could countervaile that so great a losse Rodoaldus the eighth King of Lumbardy being taken in Adultery even in the fact by the husband of the Adulteresse was slaine without delay Anno 659. In like sort Iohn Malatesta slew his wife and the Adulterer together when he tooke them amidst their embracements So did one Lodowicke steward of Normandy kill his wife Carlotta and her lover Iohn Lavernus as they were in bed together Hedion in his Chronicle telleth of a Doctor of the Law that loved his Proctors wife with whom as he acquainted himselfe over familiarly and unhonestly both at her owne house when her husband was absent and at a bath in an olde womans house hard by the Proctor watched their haunt so neere that he caught them naked together in the bath and so curried the lecherous Doctor with a curry-combe that he scraped out his eyes and cut off his privy members so that within three dayes after he dyed his wife he spared because she was with childe otherwise she should have tasted the same sauce Another storie like unto this he telleth of a Popish Priest that never left to lay siege to the chastity of an honest Matron till she condescending to his desire brought him into the snare and caused her husband to geld him I would to God that all that dishonour their profession by filthy actions might be served after the same manner that there might be fewer bastards and bauds and common strumpets than there are now adaies and that since the feare of God is extinguished in their soules the feare and certainty of sudden judgements might restraine them Wolfius Schrenk reported to Martin Luther how in Vaitland foure murders were committed upon the occasion of one Adultery for whilest the Adulteresse strumpet was banqueting with her lovers her husband came in with a hunting speare in his hand and struck him through that sat next unto her and then her also other two in the mean while leapt downe staires with feare and haste broke their armes and shortly after dyed A certaine Cardinall committed daily Adultery with a mans wife that winked and as it were subscribed unto it wherefore her brother taking this dishonour to his house in evill part watched when the lecher had promised to come but upon occasion came not and in the darke slew his sister and her husband supposing it to have been the Cardinall but when he perceived his errour he fled the countrey for feare of the Law Howbeit before his departure he wrought such meanes that whom he missed in his purpose of the sword him he murdered by poyson This judgement is not only for Adulterers but for Wittals also that yeeld their consents to the dishonouring of their owne wives a monstrous kinde of creatures and degenerate not only from the law of humanity but of nature also Martin Luther hath left recorded in his writings many examples of judgements on this sin but especially upon Clergy men whose profession as it requireth a more strict kinde of conversation so their sins and judgements were more notorious both in their owne natures and in the eye and opinion of the world some of which as it is not amisse to insert in this place so it is not unnecessary to beleeve them proceeding from the mouth of so worthy a witnesse There was saith he a man of great authority and learning that forsaking his secular life betooke himselfe into the Colledge of Priests whether of devotion or of hope of liberty to sin let them judge that reade this history this new adopted Priest fell in love with a Masons wife whom hee so wooed that he got his pleasure of her and what fitter time but when Masse was singing did he daily chuse for the performing of his villany In this haunt he persisted a long season till the Mason finding him in bed with his wife did not summon him to law nor penance but tooke a shorter course and cut his throat Another Nobleman in Thuringa being taken in adultery was murthered after this strange fashion by the Adulteresses husband he bound him hand and foot and cast him into prison and to quench his lust seeing that Ceres that is gluttony is the fewell of Venus that is lust denied him all manner of sustenance and the more to augment his paine set hot dishes of meate before him that the smell and sight thereof might more provoke his appetite and the want thereof torment him more In this torture the wretched lecher abode so long untill he gnew off the flesh from his owne shoulders and the eleventh day of his imprisonment ended his life His punishment was most horrible and too too severe in respect of the inflicter yet most just in respect of God whose custome is to proportion his judgements to the quality of the sin that is committed Luther affirmeth this to have hapned in his childhood and that both the parties were known unto him by name which for honor and charity sake he would not discose There was another nobleman that so delighted in lust and was so inordinate in his desires that he shamed not to say that if his life of pleasure and passing from harlot to harlot might endure ever he would not care for heaven or life eternall What cursed madnesse and impiety is this a man to be so forgetfull of his Maker and himselfe that he preferred his whores before his Saviour and his filthy pleasure before the grace of God Doth it not deserve to be punished with Scorpions Yes verily as it was indeed for the polluted wretch dyed amongst his strumpets being strucken with a sudden stroke of Gods vengeance In the yeare 1505. a certaine Bishop well seen in all learning and eloquence and especially skilfull in languages was notwithstanding so filthy in his conversation that he shamed not to defile his body and name with many adulteries but at length he was slaine by a Cobler whose wife hee had often corrupted being taken in bed with her and so received a due reward of his filthinesse In the yeare of our Lord 778. Kenulphus King of the West Saxons in Britaine as he usually haunted the company of a certaine harlot which hee kept at Merton was slaine by one Clito the kinsmun of Sigebert that was late King Sergus a King of Scotland was so foule a drunkard and glutton and so outragiously given to harlots that he neglected his owne wife and drove her to such penury that she was faine to serve other noble-women
worth for he survived not three daies after the vile excesse besides the rest that strove with him in this goodly conflict of carousing one and forty of them dyed to beare him company The same Alexander was himselfe subject to wine and so distempered divers times therewith that he often slew his friends at the table in his drunkennesse whom in sobriety he loved dearest Plutarch telleth us of Armitus and Ciranippus two Syracusians that being drunk with wine committed incest with their owne daughters Cleomenes King of Lacedemonia being disposed to carouse after the manner of the Scythians dranke so much that he became and continued ever after sencelesse Anacreon the Poet a grand consumer of wine and a notable drunkard was choaked with the huske of a grape The monstrous and riotous excesses of divers Romane Emperours as Tiberius by name who was a companion of all drunkards is strange to be heard and almost incredible to be beleeved he loved wine so well that in stead of Tiberius they called him Biberius and in stead of Claudius Caldus and in stead of Nero Mero noting by those nicknames how great a drunkard he was The Earle of Aspremont after he had by infinite excesse exhausted all his substance being upon a day at S. Michael dranke so excessively that he dyed therewith Cyrillus a Citizen of Hippon had an ungracious son who leading a riotous and luxurious life in the middest of his drunkennesse killed his owne mother great with childe and his father that sought to restraine his sury and would have ravished his sister had she not escaped from him with many wounds Bonosus the Emperour is reported to have been such a notorious drunkard that he was said to be borne not to live but to drinke if any Embassadours came unto him he would make them drunke to the end to reveale their secrets he ended his life with misery even by hanging with this Epitaph That a tun not a man was hanged in that place Philostrates being in the bathes at Sinuessa devoured so much wine that he fell downe the staires and almost broke his neck with the fall Zeno the Emperour of the East was so notoriously given to excesse of meates and drinkes that his sences being benummed he would often lie as one that was dead wherefore being become odious to all men by his beastly qualities his wife Ariadne fell also in detestation of him and one day as he lay sencelesse she transported him into a tombe and throwing a great stone upon it pined him to death not suffering any to remove the stone or to yeeld him any succour and this was a just reward of his drunkennesse Pope Paulus the second beside the exceeding pompe of apparell which he used he was also very carefull for his throat for as Platina writeth of him he delighted in all kinde of exquisite dishes and delicate wine and that in superfluity by which immoderate and continuall surfeiting he fell into a grievous Apoplexy which quickly made an end of his life It is reported of him that he eat the day before he dyed two great Melons and that in a very good appetite when as the next night the Lord struck him with his heavy judgement Alexander the son of Basilius and brother of Leo the Emperour did so wallow and drowne himselfe in the gulfe of pleasure and intemperance that one day after he had stuffed himselfe too full of meat as he got upon his horse he burst a veine within his body whereat upwards and downewards issued such abundance of blood that his life and soule issued forth withall The moderne examples of Gods fearefull judgements upon drunkards not only in other countries but even in this Nation of ours are many and terrible all which if I should stand to report it would be matter for a whole booke Our reverend Judges in their severall circuits doe finde by experience that few murthers and manslaughters are committed which are not from this root of drunkennesse for when mens braines are heat with wine and strong drinke then their tongues are let loose to opprobrious speeches and thence proceed both sudden quarrels and deliberate challenges wherewith thousands are brought to their untimely ends Besides the Lord punisheth the Drunkard many waies first in his soule with impenitency and hardnesse of heart which commonly followeth this vice for as Saint Augustine saith As by too much raine the earth is resolved into durt and made unfit for tillage so by excessive drinking our bodies are altogether unfitted for â—he spirituall tillage and so can bring forth no good fruits of holinesse and righteousnesse but rather like biggest and marishes are fit to bâ—â—ed nothing but serpents frogâ— and vershine that is all manner of abominable sins and leathsome wickednesse Secondly in his body with deformednesse of feature filthy diseases and unseasonable death for excessive drinking breedeth crudities Rheumes Imposthumes Gouts Consumptions Apoplexies and such like whereof men perish before they are come to the halfe of their naturall yeares and this is one principall cause why men are now so short lived in respect of that they have â—â—en heretofore Thirdly in his estate for commonly poverty yea penury followeth this vice at the heeles as Solomon teacheth Pâ—ov 21. 27. And lastly with sudden death and destruction even in the middest of their drunken fits as wofull experience doth make manifest every day and almost in every corner of this land Within these few yeares of mine owne knowledge three not far from Huntington being overcome with drinke perished by drowning when being not able to rule their horses they were carried by them into the maine streame from whence they never came out alive againe but left behinde them visible markes of Gods justice for the terrour and example of others and yet what sin is more commonly used and lesse feared than this Concerning Dancing the usuall dependants of feasts and good cheare there is none of sound judgement that know not that they are baits and allurements to uncleanenesse and as it were instruments of bawdrie by reason whereof they were alwaies condemned among men of honour and reputation whether Romanes or Greekes and left for vile and base minded men to use And this may appeare by the reproach that Demosthenes the Orator gave to Philip of Macedony and his Courtiers in an Oration to the Athenians wherein he termed them common dancers and such as shamed not as soone as they had glutted their bellies with meate and their heads with wine to fall scurrilously a dancing As for the honourable Dames of Rome truly we shall never reade that any of them accustomed themselves to dance according to the report of Salust touching Sempronia whom he judged to be too fine a dancer and singer to be honourable withall as if these two could no more agree then fire and water Cicero in his apologie of Muraena rehearseth an objection of Cato against his client wherein
the woman asked her before them all whether she durst say that he had ravished her to whom she replyed yea I sweare and vow that thou hast done it for shee supposed it to have beene Athanasius whom shee never saw whereat the whole Synod perceived the cavill of the lying Arrians and quitted the innocency of that good man Howbeit these malicious hereticks seeing this practise not to succeed invented another worse then the former for they accused him to have slaine one Arsenius whom they themselves kept secret and that hee carried one of his hands about him wherewith he wrought miracles by enchantment but Arsenius touched by the spirit of God stole away from them and came to Athanasius to the end he should receive no damage by his absence whom he brought in to the Judges and shewed them both his hands confounded his accusers with shame of their malice insomuch as they ranne away for feare and satisfied the Judges both of his integrity and their envious calumniation the chiefe Broker of all this mischiefe was Stephanus Bishop of Antioch but he was degraded from his Bishopricke and Leontius elected in his roome In our English Chronicles we have recorded a notable history to the like effect of King Canutus the Dane who after much trouble being established in the Kingdome of England caused a Parliament to bee held at London where amongst other things there debated it was propounded to the Bishops Barons and Lords of that Assembly Whether in the composition made betwixt Edmond and Canutus any speciall remembrance was made for the children or brethren of Edmond touching any partition of any part of the land which the English Lords flattering the king though falsly and against the truth yea and against their owne consciences denied to be and not onely so but for the Kings pleasure confirmed their false words with a more false oath that to the uttermost of their powers they would put off the bloud of Edmond from all right and interest by reason of which oath and promise they thought to have purchased with the King great favour but by the just retribution of God it chanced farre otherwise for many of them or the most part especially such as Canutus perceived to have sworne fealtie before time to Edmond and his heires he mistrusted and disdained ever after insomuch that some he exiled many he beheaded and divers by Gods just judgement died suddenly In the Scottish Chronicles we read how Hamilton the Scot was brought unto his death by the false accusation of a false Frier called Campbel who being in the fire ready to be executed cited and summoned the said Frier to appeare before the high God as generall Judge of all men to answer to the innocency of his death and whether his accusation were just or not betwixt that and a certaine day of the next moneth which he there named Now see the heart and hand of God against a false witnesse ere that day came the Frier died without any remorse of conscience and no doubt he gave a sharpe account to Almighty God of his malicious and unjust accusation In the yeare of our Lord 1105 Henry Archbishop of Mentz being complained of to the Pope sent a learned man a speciall friend of his to excuse him named Arnold one for whom he had much done and promoted to great livings and promotions but this honest man in stead of an excuser became an accuser for hee bribed the two chiefest Cardinals with gold and obtained of the Pope those two to be sent Inquisitors about the Archbishops case The which comming into Germany summoned the said Henry and without either law or justice deposed him from his Archbishoprick and substituted in his place Arnold upon hope of his Ecclesiasticall gold Whereupon that vertuous and honourable Henry is reported to have spoken thus unto those perverse Judges If I should appeale to the Apostolike Sea for this your unjust processe had against me perhaps I should but lose my labour and gaine nothing but toyle of body losse of goods affliction of minde and care of heart Wherefore I doe appeale to the Lord Jesus Christ as to the most highest and just Judge and cite you before his judgement seat there to answer for this wrong done unto me for neither justly nor godly but corruptly and unjustly have you judged my cause Whereunto they scoffingly said Goe you first and we will follow Not long after the said Henry dyed whereof the two Cardinals having intelligence said one to the other jestingly Behold he is gone before and wee must follow according to our promise And verily they spoke truer than they were aware for within a while after they both dyed in one day the one sitting upon a jakes to ease himselfe voyded out all his entrailes into the draught and miserably ended his life the other gnawing off the fingers of his hands and spitting them out of his mouth all deformed in devouring of himselfe died And in like wise not long after the said Arnold was slaine in a sedition and his body for certaine dayes lying stinking above the ground unburied was open to the spoyle of every raskall and harlot And this was the horrible end of this false accuser and those corrupted Judges Thus were two Cardinals punished for this sinne and that we may see that the holy father the Pope is no better than his Cardinals and that God spareth not him no more than he did them let us heare how the Lord punished one of that ranke for this crime It is not unknowne that Pope Innocent the fourth condemned the Emperour Fredericke at the Councell at Lyons his cause being unheard and before hee could come to answer for himselfe For when the Emperour being summoned to appeare at the Councell made all haste hee could thitherward and desired to have the day of hearing his cause prorogued till that he might conveniently travell thither the Pope refused and contrary to Gods law to Christian Doctrine to the prescript of the law of nature and reason and to all humanity without probation of any crime or pleading any cause or hearing what might be answered taking upon him to be both Adversary and Judge condemned the Emperour being absent What more wicked sentence was ever pronounced What more cruell fact considering the person might be committed But marke what vengeance God tooke upon this wicked Judge The writers of the Annals record that when Fredericke the Emperour and Conrade his sonne were both dead the Pope gaping for the inheritance of Naples and Sicilie and thinking by force to have subdued the same came to Naples with a great hoast of men where was heard in his court manifestly pronounced this voyce Veni miser ad judicium Dei Thou wretch come to receive thy judgement of God And the next day the Pope was found in his bed dead all black and blew as though he had beene beaten with bats And this was the judgement of God which he came
unto To this Pope and these Cardinals let us adde an Archbishop and that of Canterbury to wit Thomas Arundel upon whom the justice of God appeared no lesse manifestly than on the former For after hee had unjustly given sentence against the Lord Cobham he died himselfe before him being so striken in his tongue that he could neither swallow nor speake for a certaine space before the time of his death Hither might be adjoyned the vengeance of God upon Justice Morgan who condemned to death the innocent Lady Iane but presently after fell madde and so dyed having nothing in his mouth but Lady Iane Lady Iane. In the reigne of King Henry the eighth one Richard Long a man of armes in Calice bore false witnesse against master Smith the Curate of our Lady Parish in Calice for eating flesh in Lent which hee never did but hee escaped not vengeance for shortly after he desperately drowned himselfe A terrible example unto all such as are ready to forsweare themselves on a Booke upon malice or some other cause a thing in these dayes over rise every where and almost of most men little or nothing regarded About the same time one Gregory Bradway committed the same crime of false accusation against one Broke whom being driven thereunto by feare and constraint he accused to have robbed the Custome-house wherein hee was a Clerke of foure groats every day and to this accusation he subscribed his hand but for the same presently felt upon him the heavy hand of God for being grieved in his consciene for his deed hee first with a knife enterprised to cut his owne throâ—t but being not altogether dispatched therewith the Gaoler comming up and preventing his purpose hee fell forthwith into a furious frenzie and in that case lived long time after Hitherto we may adde the example of one William Feming who accused an honest man called Iohn Cooper of speaking trayterous words against Queene Mary and all because he would not sell him two goodly bullockes which he much desired for which cause the poore man being arraigned at Berry in Suffolke was condemned to death by reason of two false witnesses which the said Feming had suborned for that purpose whose names were White and Greenwood so this poore man was hanged drawne and quartered and his goods taken from his poore wife and nine children which are left destitute of all helpe but as for his false accusers one of them died most miserably for in harvest time being well and lusty of a sudden his bowels fell out of his body and so he perished the other two what ends they came unto it is not reported but sure the Lord hath reserved a sufficient punishment for all such as they are Many more be the examples of this sinne and judgements upon it as the Pillories at Westminster and daily experience beareth witnesse but these that we have alledged shall suffice for this purpose because this sinne is cousin Germane unto perjury of which you may read more at large in the former booke It should now follow by course of order if wee would not pretermit any thing of the law of God to speak of such as have offended against the tenth Commandement and what punishment hath ensued the same but forsomuch as all such offences for the most part are included under the former of which wee have already spoken and that there is no adultery nor fornication nor theft nor unjust warre but it is annexed to and proceedeth from the affection and the resolution of an evill and disordinate concupiscence as the effect from the cause therefore it is not necessary to make any particular recitall of them more than may well bee collected out of the former examples added hereunto that in evill concupiscence and affection of doing evill which commeth not to act though it be in the sight of God condemned to everlasting torments yet it doth not so much incurre and provoke his indignation that a man should for that onely cause be brought to apparent destruction and be made an example to others to whom the sinne is altogether darke and unknowne therefore we will proceed in our purpose without intermeddling in speciall with this last Commandement CHAP. XLVII That Kings and Princes ought to looke to the execution of Iustice for the punishment of naughty and corrupt manners NO man ought to be ignorant of this that it is the duty of a Prince not onely to hinder the course of sin from bursting into action but also to punish the doers of the Jame making both civill justice to be administred uprightly and the law of God to be regarded and observed inviolably for to this end are they ordained of God that by their meanes every one might live a quiet and peaceable life in all godlinesse and honesty to the which end the maintenance and administration of justice being most necessary they ought not so to discharge themselves of it as to translate it upon their Officers and Judges but also to looke to the execution thereof themselves as it is most needfull for if law which is the foundation of justice be as Plato saith a speechlesse and dumbe Magistrate who shall give voyce and vigor unto it if not hee that is in supreame and soveraigne authority For which cause the King is commanded in Deuteronomy To have before him alwayes the Booke of the Law to the end to doe justice and judgement to every one in the feare of God And before the creation of the Kings in Israel the chiefe Captaines and Soveraignes amongst them were renowned with no other title nor quality than of Judges In the time of Deborah the Prophetesse though she was a woman the weaker vessell yet because she had the conducting and governing of the people they came unto her to seeke judgement It is said of Samuel that he judged Israel so long till being tyred with age and not able to beare that burden any longer hee appointed his sonnes for Judges in his stead who when through covetousnesse they perverted justice and did not execute judgement like their father Samuel they gave occasion to the people to demaund a King that they might be judged and governed after the manner of other Nations which things sufficiently declared that in old time the principall charge of Kings was personally to administer justice and judgement and not as now to transferre the care thereof to others The same we read of King David of whom it is said That during his reigne he executed justice and judgement among his people and in another place That men came unto him for judgement and therefore he disdained not to heare the complaint of the woman of Tekoah shewing himselfe herein a good Prince and as the Angel of God to heare good and evill for this cause Solomon desired not riches nor long life of the Lord but a wise and discreet heart to judge his people and to discerne betwixt good and
that after she had once beene spared by the meanes of the Prophet Ionas who fore-told her of her destruction being returned to her former vomit againe to wit of robberies extortions wrongfull dealings and adulteries she was wholly and utterly subverted God having delivered her for a prey into the hands of many of her enemies that spoiled and pilled her to the quicke and lastly into the hands of the Medes who brought her to a finall and unrecoverable desolation as it was prophesied by the Prophet Nahum Babylon was wont to be the seat of that puissant Monarchie under Nabuchadnezzar where flourished the famous Astrologers and notable wise men of the world where the spoyles and riches of many nations and countries were set up as Trophies and kept as the remembrance of their victories where also vices reigned and all manner of excesse and villanie overflowed for by the report of Q. Curtius the Citie did so exceed in whoredome and adulteries that fathers and mothers were not ashamed to be bawdes unto their daughters no nor husbands to their wives a thing most strange and odious wherefore it could not chuse but in the end bee sacked and quite destroyed with an extreame ruine and destruction the signes and apparance whereof yet are seen in the ruine of old wals and ancient buildings that there remaine Amongst sea-bordering Cities and for renowne of merchandise Tyre in former ages was most famous for thither resorted the merchants of all Countries for traffique of Palestina Syria Aegypt Persia and Assyria they of Tarshis brought thither Iron Lead Brasse and Silver the Syrians sold their Carbuncles Purple broidered worke fine linnen corall and pearle the Jewes Hony Oyle Treacle Cassia and Calamus the Arabians traffiqued with Lambs Muttons and Goats the Sabeans brought merchandise of all exquisite spices and Apothecary stuffe with gold and precious stones by meanes whereof it being growne exceeding wealthy inriched by fraud and deceit and being lifted up to the height of pride and plunged in the depth of pleasures it was at length by the just judgement of God so sacked and ruinated that the very memory thereof at this day scarce remaineth The like judgement fell upon Sidon and upon that rich and renowned Citie of Corinth which through the commodiousnesse of the haven was the most frequented place of the world for the entercourse of Merchants out of Asia and Europe for by reason of her pride and corruption of manners but especially for her despising and abuse of the heavenly graces of Gods spirit which were sowed and planted in her she underwent this punishment to be first finally destroyed and brought into cinders by the Romans and then after her re-edification to be debased into so low and vâ—le an estate that that which remaineth is no wise comparable to her former glory Againe Athens the most flourishing and famous Citie of Greece for her faire buildings large precincts and multitude of inhabitants but especially for her Philosophie by meanes whereof recourse was made from all parts to her as the fountaine and well-spring of Arts and the Schoole and University of the whole world whose policie and manner of governement was so much esteemed by the Romanes that they drew from thence their lawes but now she lies dead and buried in forgetfulnesse not carrying any of her former proportion or apparance Carthage that noble Citie mistresse of Africa and paragon to Rome may not brag of any better issue than her fellowes for though she resisted and made her part good with Rome for many yeares yet at length by means of her owne inward and civile jarres she was utterly destroyed by them for the inhabitants not able to stand any longer in defence were constrained to yeeld themselves to the mercy of their enemies the women to the number of five and twenty thousand marching first forth and after them the men in number thirty thousand following all which poore captives were sold for bond-slaves a few onely of the principall excepted and then fire was put to the Citie which burnt seventeene dayes without ceasing even till it was cleane consumed It is true that it was re-edified after this but which lasted not long for it was againe brought to destruction that at this day there remaineth nothing but old and rotten ruines And thus fared many other Cities of which may be verified that which was spoken of Troy that fields and corne are where Cities were Numantium in Spaine being besieged by the Romans after it had borne the brunt of warre and sacking a long while made many desperate sallies upon their enemies and lastly seeing themselves consumed with famine rather than they would bow their necks to the yoke of servitude barring their gates set fire on all and so burning themselves with their whole City left the enemy nothing but ashes for his prey and triumph as the Saguntines not long before served Anniball It is a marvellous and strange thing to consider how that proud Citie hath lifted up her head above all others and usurped a tyrannie over Nations and which Lactantius Ierome and Augustine three learned fathers entituled Babylon how I say she hath beene humbled for all her pride and impoverished for all her riches and made a prey unto many Nations It was sacked and ransacked twice by the Visigothes taken once by the Herulians surprised by the Ostrogothes destroyed and rooted up by the Vandales annoyed by the Lumbards pilled and spoiled by the Graecians and whipped and chastised by many others and now 〈◊〉 Sodome and Gomorrah it is to expect no more punishment but the last blow of the most mightiest his indignation to throw it headlong into everlasting and horrible desolation CHAP. LI. Of such punishments which are common to all men in regard of their iniquities THese and such like effects of Gods wrath ought to admonish and instruct every man to looke unto himselfe for doing evill and to abhorre and detest sinne since it bringeth forth such soure and bitter fruits for albeit the wayes of the wicked seeme in their owne eyes faire and good yet it is certaine that they are full of snares and thornes to entrap and pricke them to the quicke for after that being fed with the licorous and deceitfull sweetnesse of their owne lusts they have sported themselves their fils in their pleasures and wicked affections then in stead of delights and pastimes they shall finde nothing but punishment and sadnesse their laughter joy pompe magnificence and glory shall be turned into torments and dolors weepings opprobries ignominies confusion and miserie everlasting for if God spared not great Cities Empires Monarchies and Kings in their obstinate misdeeds shall we thinke he will spare little Cities Hamlets and Villages and men of base estate when by their sinnes they provoke him to anger no it cannot be for God is alwayes of one and the same nature alwayes like unto himselfe A God executing
and sweare the more and goe he would But he was encountred by the way with an army of infernall souldiers which beset the nobleman on all sides and threw him from his horse Now there was in his company a vertuous and valiant gentleman who set him againe upon his horse and held him on one side whom when the spirits durst not attempt by reason of his innocency they vanished out of sight and they conveyed the nobleman into a monasterie that was hard by where he lay three dayes and died such is the end of horrible and fearefull blasphemers A Vintner that accustomed himselfe to blaspheming swearing and drunkennesse and delighting to entertaine such that were like himselfe to swallow downe his wine upon the Lords day standing at the dore with a pot in his hand to call in more guests there came suddenly a violent whirlew inde and carried him up into the aire in the sight of all men and he was never seene more CHAP. VI. Of Conjucers Magitians and Witches IOhn Faustus a filthie beast and a sinke of many devils led about with him an evill spirit in the likenesse of a dog being at Wittenberg when as by the Edict of the Prince he should have beene taken he escaped by his magicall delusions and after at Noremberg being by an extraordinary sweat that came upon him as he was at dinner certified that hee was beset payed his host suddenly his shot and went away and being scarce escaped out of the walls of the Citie the Sergeants and other officers came to apprehend him But Gods vengeance following him as he came into a Village of the Dukedome of Wittenberg he sat there in his Inne very sad the host required of him what was the cause of his sadnesse he answered that he would not have him terrified if he heard a great noise and shaking of the house that night which happened according to his presage for in the morning hee was found dead with his necke wrung behinde him the Devill whom he served having carried his soule into hell This story is set downe by many in other termes but Philip Lonicerus expresseth it in this manner in his Theatre of Histories Anno 1553. two Witches were taken which went about by tempest haile and frost to destroy all the corne in the countrey these women stole away a little infant of one of their neighbours and cutting it in pieces put it into a Cauldron to be boyled but by Gods providence the mother of the childe came in the meane while and found the members of her childe thus cut in pieces and boyled Whereupon the two Witches were taken and being examined answered That if the boyling had beene finished such a tempest of â—aine and haile would have followed that all the fruits of the earth in that countrey should have been destroyed but God prevented them by his just judgement in causing them to be put to death Anno 1558. in a Village neare to Ihaena in Germany a certaine Magitian being instructed by the Devill in the composition of divers hearbs restored many unto their healths He had daily commerce with that evill spirit and used his counsell in the curing of diseases but it happened that there fell a quarrell betwixt him and a neighbour of his a carpenter who so exasperated him with his taunting words that in few dayes after he caused the Carpenter by his magicall art to fall into a grievous disease The poore Carpenter sent for this Magitian and entreated him to helpe him in his need The Magitian feigning an appeased minde but desiring to revenge the injuries done unto him gave unto him a potion confected of such venomous hearbs and roots that being taken the poore man presently died Whereupon the Carpenters wife accused the Magitian of murther the cause is brought to the Senate of Ihaena who examining the matter caused him by torments to confesse the murther and many other wickednesses for which he was fastened to a stake and burnt to death CHAP. VII Of the prophanation of the Sabbath A Certaine nobleman prophaning the Sabbath usually in hunting had a childe by his wife with a head like a dog and with eares and chaps crying like a hound Stratford upon Sluon was twice on the same day twelve-month being the Lords day almost consumed with fire chiefly for prophaning the Lords day and contemning his Word in the mouth of his faithfull Minister Feverton in Devonshire whose remembrance makes my heart bleed was oftentimes admonished by her godly Preachers that God would bring some heavie judgement on the Towne for their horrible prophanation of the Lords day occasioned chiefly by their Market on the day following Not long after his death on the third of Aprill Anno Dom. 1598. God in lesse than halfe an houre consumed with a sudden and fearfull fire the whole Towne except onely the Church the Court-house and the Almes-houses or a few poore peoples dwellings where a man might have seene foure hundred dwelling houses all at once on fire and above fiftie persons consumed with the flame And now againe since the former Edition of this booke on the fifth of August last 1612 fourteene yeares since the former fire the whole Towne was againe fired and consumed except some thirty houses of poore people with the School-house and Almes-houses they are blinde which see not in this the finger of God God grant them grace when it is next built to change their Market-day and to remove all occasions of prophaning the Lords day Let other Townes remember the Tower of Siloe Luke 13. 4. and take warning by their neighbours chastisements Feare Gods threatnings Ieremie 17. 27. and beleeve Gods Prophets if they will prospet 1 Chron. 20. 20. CHAP. VIII Of Drunkennesse AN Ale-wise in Kesgrave neare to Ipswich who would needs force three Serving-men that had been drinking in her house and were taking their leaves to stay and drinke the three ou ts first that is Wit out of the head Money out of the purse Ale out of the barrell as shee was comming towards them with the pot in her hand was suddenly taken speechlesse and sickher tongue swolne in her head she never recovered speech but the third day after died This Sir Anthony Felton the next Gentleman and Justice with divers others eye-witnesses of her in sicknesse related to me whereupon I went to the house with two or three witnesses and enquired the truth of it Two servants of a Brewer in Ipswich drinking for a rumpe of a Turkey strugling in their drinke for it fell into a scalding Caldron backwards whereof the one died presently the other lingringly and painfully since my comming to Ipswich A man comming home drunk would needs goe and swimme in the mill pond his wife and servants knowing he could not swimme dissuaded him once by intreaty got him out of the water but in he would needs goe again and there was drowned I was at the house to enquire of this and found it to be
reported in Colloq of Luther Luther doth report that a man of great name and fame did so burne with continuall lust that he blasphemously said That if that pleasure was perpetuall he would never desire to have any part in the Kingdome of Heaven so that he might be carried from one Stewes to another and from one Harlot unto another I could adde more examples of this kinde but these shall suffice to shew that God doth not onely punish this horrible sinne in the life to come but also in this life with fearefull judgements CHAP. XII Of Theeves and Robbers SPiredon a Bishop of a certaine Citie in Cyprus was also delighted with keeping of irrationall sheepe upon a night certaine theeves entered into his sheepe-fold with an intent to steale away some of his sheepe but God protecting the sheepheard and his sheepe infatuated the theeves that they could not stirre out of that place till the morning at what time the Bishop comming to view his flock found them thus bound who presently prayed to God for their delivery and wished them to get their living hereafter by honest labour and not by stealth yet withall gave them a Ramme with this pleasant tant I give you this Ramme that you may not seeme to watch it in vaine and so set them free A certaine young man being bitten with a mad dogge fell presently after into madnesse himselfe and was faine to be bound with chaines The parents of this young man brought their sonne to an Abbot called Ammon entreating him that by his prayers hee would restore him to his former health the holy Abbot answered that they demanded that of him that passed his power But this I can signifie unto you that the Devill holdeth you all bound in his chaines by reason of a Bull which you stole from a poore widdow and untill you restore that Bull backe againe to the widdow your sonne shall never be healed The parents presently confessed their fault restored the Bull and presently their sonne was delivered from this grievous disease A certaine Baker merrily talking with his neighbour bragged that in that great time of dearth which was then he gained out of every bushell of Wheat above a crowne which words being related unto the Governour of the Citie hee sent for the Baker to supper and examined him about those speeches which the Baker could not deny whereupon the Governour commanded him presently to put off his upper garments and to knead so much dowe before him that hee might finde out the manner of his deceit which being done hee and all his fellow Bakers in the towne was cast into prison to their great disgrace The same Authour reporteth That at Prague in Bohemia a Jew being dead his friends desired that he might be buried at Ratisbone forty miles off which becaâ—se it could not bee done without paying of great tribute they put his carkasse into a hog sheâ—d full of sweet wine and committed it to a carter to convey to Ratisbone The theevish carters in the way being greedy of the wine pierced the hogshead and drinking themselves drunke with the wine mixed with the stinke of the dead carkasse most of them died The same Luther reporteth that at Wittenberge three theeves having stolne a silver dish brought it to a Goldsmiths wife to sell who desired them to come againe within an houre and then shee would bargaine with them In the meane while she related this businesse unto the Magistrates who sending presently the Sergeants to apprehend the theeves they seeing themselves to be betrayed resisted with their swords but notwithstanding one of them was taken and executed another escaped by flight and the third being pursued over a bridge leaped into the river Albis and there was drowned This example is more remarkable saith Luther because this fellow was a most notorious wicked wretch and had cut off two fingers of his owne fathers at which very instant his father not knowing of it being asked what was become of his sonne answered that he wished hee was drowned in the river Albis which wish was really performed at that very instant for it was the voyce of Gods anger out of the mouth of a father About Ailton in Huntington-shire a lewd fellow stole one of his neighbours fat weathers and bringing him home bound about his neck 〈…〉 upon a great stone in the field to â—ase himselfe where the weather stâ—â—gling fell over the stone and pulled the thiefe after him and so both striving one for life another for liberty the theefe was found dead in the morning and the weather alive CHAP. XIII Of Trecherie WHen the two Earles of Northumberland and Westmoreland had rebelled against Q. Elizabeth and being defeated in the field fled into Scotland the Earle of Northumberland hid himself in the house of Hector of Harlawe an Armestrange having confidence in him that he would be true to him he notwithstanding for money betrayed him to the Regent of Scotland from whence the Earle was sent into England condemned of high treason and beheaded But it was observed that this Hector being before a rich man fell poor of a sudden and was so hated generally that he never durst go abroad insomuch that the Proverbe to take Hectors cloake is continued to this day among them when they would expresse a man that betrayeth his friend who trusted him The like example we have of Banister who betrayed the Duke of Buckingham in the raigne of Richard the third CHAP. XIV Of the molestation of evill Spirits and their execution of Gods Iudgements upon men ALmighty God sometimes doth execute his judgements himselfe as he did upon Pharaoh in the Red Sea and upon Sodome and Gomorrah sometimes hee useth the creatures as instruments as frogs and lice c. to plague Pharaoh and the Aegyptians Sometimes hee imployeth the good Angels to that purpose as an Angell to destroy the Armie of Zenacherib before Jerusalem but most ordinarily he useth the ministery of evill Angels who being forward enough of their owne malice he giveth more strength unto by his command to execute vengeance upon wicked men Thus Sathan under the shape of a Serpent beguiled our first parents Adam and Eve and promised them great good in the stead of punishments which God had threatned unto them Gen. 3. The same Sathan vexed King Saul 1 Reg. 16. This Sathan rose against Israell and stirred up David to number the people whereat God being offended strooke Israell with a grievous peltilence 1 Chronic. 21. It was Sathan that got leave of God that hee might torture Iob with loathsome botches and boyles Iob 2. It was Sathan that slew seaven husbands to whom Sarah the daughter of Raguel had married Tobit It was Sathan that entred into Iudas Iscariots heart and moved him to betray Christ and hang himselfe Iohn 13. Acts 7. It was Sathan that instigated Ananias and Saphira to lye to the Holy Ghost whereupon they both died suddenly Acts 5. Lastly it was Sathan