her body occasioned the fouling of her soul. Next Davids tomb is to be seen wherein he was buried his monument was inriched with a masse of treasure saith Josephus out of which Hircanus 850 years after took three thousand talents But surely David who despised riches in his life was not covetous after his death And I am sure they are his own words that Man shall carry nothing away with him neither shall his great pomp follow him Thirdly Aceldama that burying-place for strangers and the grave that every where hath a good stomach hath here a boulimia or greedy worm for it will devoure the flesh of a corpse in 48 hours Fourthly Absaloms pillar which he built to continue his memory though he might have saved that cost having eternized his infamy by his unnaturall rebellion Fifthly the houses of Annas and Caiaphas to passe by others of inferiour note On the east First mount Olivet from whence our Saviour took his rise into heaven The chappel of Ascension of an eight-square round mounted on three degrees still challengeth great reverence and there the footsteps of our Saviour are still to be seen which cannot be covered over Secondly the fig-tree which Christ cursed for he who spake many here wrought a parable this whole tree being but the bark and Christ under it cursing the fruitlesse profession of the Jews Thirdly the place where S. Stephen was stoned and the stones thereabouts are over-grown with a red rust which is forsooth the very bloud of that holy martyr Fourthly the place where Judas surprised our Saviour and he fell down on a stone in which the print of his elbows and feet are still to be seen Fifthly the sepulchre of the blessed Virgin whose body after it had been three dayes buried was carried up by the Angels into heaven and she let fall her girdle to S. Thomas that his weak faith might be swaddled therewith otherwise he who in the point of Christs resurrection would have no creed except he made his own articles and put his finger into his side would no doubt hardly have believed the Virgins assumption With this legend we may couple another which though distant in place will be believed both together They shew at Bethlehem a little hole over the place where our Saviour was born through which the starre which conducted the wise men fell down to the ground But who will not conclude but there was a vertigo in his head who first made a starre subject to the falling-sicknesse Sixthly the vale of Hinnom or Tophet in which wise Solomon befooled by his wives built a temple to Moloch Seventhly Cedron a brook so often mentioned in Scripture The west and north-sides of Jerusalem were not so happily planted with sacred monuments and we find none thereon which grew to any eminency We will now lead the Reader into Jerusalem Where first on mount Moriah the place where Isaac was offered though not sacrificed stood Solomons temple destroyed by the Chaldeans rebuilt by Zorobabel Afterward Herod reedified it so stately saith Josephus that it exceeded Solomons temple if his words exceed not the truth But no wonder if he that never saw the sunne dare say that the moon is the most glorious light in the heavens Secondly Solomons palace which was thirteen years in building whereas the temple was finished in seven Not that he bestowed more cost and pains because more time on his own then on Gods house but rather he plied Gods work more throughly and entertained then more builders so that contrary to the proverb Church-work went on the most speedily Thirdly the house of the forrest of Lebanon which was as appeareth by comparing the text fourty cubits longer and thirty cubits broader then the temple it self But no doubt the holy Spirit speaking of holy buildings meaneth the great cubit of the sanctuary but in other houses the ordinary or Common cubit It was called the house Lebanon because hard by it Solomon planted a grove the abridgement of the great forrest so that the pleasures of spacious Lebanon were here written in a lesse character Fourthly Pilates palace and the common hall where the Judge of the world was condemned to death Fifthly the pool of Bethesda the waters whereof troubled by the Angel were a Panpharmacon to him that first got into them Here was a spittle built with five porches the mercy of God being seconded by the charity of man God gave the cure men built the harbour for impotent persons Sixthly the house of Dives the rich glutton and therefore saith Adricomius it was no parable But may we not retort his words It was a parable and therefore this is none of Dives his house Sure I am Thâ—ophylact is against the literall sense thereof and saith They think foolishly that think otherwise But my discourse hasteth to mount Calvary which at this day hath almost ingrossed all reverence to it self It is called Calvarie Golgotha or the place of a skull either because the hill is rolled and rounded up in the fashion of a mans head as Pen in the Brittish tongue signifieth both an head and a copped hill or because here the bodies of such as were executed were cast As for that conceit that Adams skull should here be found it is confuted by S. Hierom who will have him buried at Hebron Neither is it likely if the Jews had a tradition that the father of mankind had here been interred that they would have made his sepulchre their Tiburn where malefactours were put to death and the charnel-house where their bones were scattered Over our Saviours grave stood a stately Church built say some by Helen say others by Constantine but we will not set mother and sonne at variance it might be she built it at his cost In this Church are many monuments As the pillar whereunto Christ was bound when scourged wherein red spots of dusky-veined marble usurped the honour to be counted Christs bloud Secondly a great clift in the rock which was rent in sunder at the Passion whereby the bad thief was divided from Christ the sign of his spirituall separation and they say it reacheth to the centre of the earth a thing hard to confute Thirdly certain pillars which being in a dark place under ground are said miraculously to weep for our Saviours suffering But I referre those who desire the criticismes of those places without going thither to read our English travellers for in this case as good wares and far cheaper peny-worths are bought at the second hand To conclude our description of Palestine let none conceive that God forgot the Levites in division of the land because they had no entire countrey allotted unto them Their portion was as large as any though paid in severall summes They had 48 cities with their suburbs tithes first-fruits free-offerings being better provided for then many English ministers who may preach of hospitality to their people
the Virgin Mary to make this warre the more happy her Office was instituted containing certain prayers which at Canonicall houres were to be made unto her If fame which hath told many a lie of others be not herein belyed her self the things concluded in this Council were the same night reported at impossible distance in the utmost parts of Christendome What spirituall intelligencers there should be or what echoes in the hollow arch of this world should so quickly resound news from the one side thereof to the other belongeth not to us to dispute Yet we find the overthrow of Perseus brought out of Macedon to Rome in four dayes fame mounted no doubt on some Pegasus in Domitians time brought a report 2500 miles in one day Chap. 9. Arguments for the lawfulnesse of the Holy war IT is stiffely canvased betwixt learned men whether this war was lawfull or not The reasons for the affirmative are fetcht either from piety or policy And of the former sort are these 1. All the earth is Gods land let out to tenants but Judea was properly his demesnes which he kept long in his own hands for himself and his children Now though the infidels had since violently usurped it yet no prescription of time could prejudice the title of the King of Heaven but that now the Christians might be Gods champions to recover his interest 2. Religion bindeth men to relieve their brethren in distresse especially when they implore their help as now the Christians in Syria did whose intreaties in this case sounded commands in the ears of such as were piously disposed 3. The Turks by their blasphâ—mies and reproches against God and our Saviour had disinherited and devested themselves of all their right to their lands and the Christians as the next undoubted heirs might seize on the forfeiture 4. This war would advance and increase the patrimony of Religion by propagating the Gospel and converting of infidels If any object that Religion is not to be beaten into men with the dint of sword yet it may be lawfull to open the way by force for instruction catechising and such other gentle means to follow after 5. The beholding of those sacred places in Palestine would much heighten the adventurers devotion and make the most frozen heart to melt into pious meditations 6. This enterprise was furthered by the perswasions of sundry godly men S. Bernard and others Now though a lying spirit may delude the prophets of Achab yet none will be so uncharitable as to think God would suffer his own Michaiah to be deceived 7. God set his hand to this war and approved it by many miracles which he wrought in this expedition and which are so confidently and generally reported by credit-worthy writers that he himself is a miracle that will not believe them Neither want there arguments derived from policie 1. Palestine was a parcell of the Romane Empire though since won by the Saracens and though the Emperour of Constantinople could not recover his right yet did he alwayes continue his claim and now as appeared by his letters read in the Placentine Councel Alexius requested these Princes of the West to assist him in the recovery thereof 2. A preventive warre grounded on a just fear of an invasion is lawfull But such was this holy war And because most stresse is laid on this argument as the main supporter of the cause we will examine and prove the parts thereof Though umbrages and light jealousies created by cowardly fansies be too narrow to build a fair quarrel on yet the lawfulnesse of a preventive warre founded on just fear is warranted by reason and the practice of all wise nations In such a case it is folly to do as countrey-fellows in a fence-school never ward a blow till it be past but it is best to be before-hand with the enemy lest the medicine come too late for the malady In such dangers to play an after-game is rather a shift then a policy especially seeing war is a tragedy which alwayes destroyeth the stage whereon it is acted it is the most advised way not to wait for the enemy but to seek him out in his own countrey Now that the Mahometans under whom the Turks and Saracens are comprehended differing in nation agreeing in religion and spite against Christians were now justly to be feared cannot be denyed So vast was the appetite of their sword that it had already devoured Asia and now reserved Grecia for the second course The Bosphorus was too narrow a ditch and the Empire of Grecia too low an hedge to fence the Pagans out of West-Christendome yea the Saracens had lately wasted Italy pillaged and burned many Churches near Rome it self conquered Spain inroded Aquitain and possessed some islands in the mid-land-sea The case therefore standing thus this Holy warre was both lawfull and necessary which like unto a sharp pike in the bosse of a buckler though it had a mixture of offending yet it was chiefly of a defensive nature to which all preventive warres are justly reduced Lastly this warre would be the sewer of Christendome and drain all discords out of it For active men like mill-stones in motion if they have no other grist to grind will set fire one on another Europe at this time surfeited with people and many of them were of stirring natures who counted themselves undone when they were out of doing and therefore they employed themselves in mutuall jarres and contentions But now this holy warre will make up all breaches and unite all their forces against the common foe of Christianity Chap. 10. Reasons against the Holy warre YEt all these reasons prevail not so forcibly but that many are of the contrary opinion and count this warre both needlesse and unlawfull induced thereunto with these or the like arguments 1. When the Jews were no longer Gods people Judea was no longer Gods land by any peculiar appropiation but on the other side God stamped on that countrey an indeleble character of desolation and so scorched it with his anger that it will never change colour though Christians should wash it with their bloud It is labour in vain therefore for any to endeavour to re-establish a flourishing Kingdome in a blasted countrey and let none ever look to reap any harvest who sow that land which God will have to lie fallow 2. Grant the Turks were no better then dogs yet were they to be let alone in their own kennel They and the Saracens their predecessours had now enjoyed Palestine four hundred and sixty years prescription long enough to soder the most crackt title and not onely to corroborate but to create a right Yea God himself may seem herein to allow their title by suffering them so long peaceably to enjoy it 3. To Visit those places in Jerusalem the theatre of so many mysteries and miracles was as uselesse as difficult and might be superstitious if any went as it is
not be content with their arms full they might perchance return with their hands empty But the Legate would no wayes consent alledging this voyage was undertaken not onely for the recovery of Palestine but for the exstirpation of the Mahometane superstition And herein no doubt he followed the instructions of his master whose end in this warre was That this warre should have no end but be alwayes in doing though never done He knew it was dangerous to stop an issue which had been long open and would in no case close up this vent of people by concluding a finall peace Besides an old prophesie â— That a Spaniard should win Jerusalem and work wonders in those parts made Pelagius that countrey-man more zealous herein Coradine angry his profer was refused beat down the walls of Jerusalem and all the beautiful buildings therein save the tower of David and the temple of the Sepulchre Not long after Damiata having been besieged one year and seven moneths was taken without resistance a plague and famine had made such a vastation therein The Christians entred with an intent to kill all but their anger soon melted into pity beholding the city all bestrawed with corpses The sight was bad and the sent was worse for the dead killed the living Yea Gods sword had left their sword no work Of â— three-score and ten thousand but three thousand remained who had their lives pardoned on condition to cleanse the city which imployed them a quarter of a year Hence the Christians marched and took the city of Tanis and soon after the Pope substituted â— John de Columna a Cardinall Legate in the place of Pelagius Chap. 26. New discords betwixt the King and the Legate They march up to besiege Cairo GReat was the spoil they found in Damiata wherein as in strong barred chests the merchants of Egypt and India had locked up their treasure A full yeare the Christians stayed here contented to make this Inne their home Here arose new discords betwixt the King and the new Legate who by virtue of his Legation challenged Damiata for his Holinesse which by publik agreement was formerly assigned to the King Bren in anger returned to Ptolemais both to puff out his discontents in private and to teach the Christians his worth by wanting him For presently they found themselves at a losse neither could they stand still without disgrace nor go on without danger The Legate commanded them to march up but they had too much spirit to be ruled by a Spirituall man and swore not to stirâ—e a step except the King was with them Messengers therefore were sent to Ptolemais to fetch him They found him of a steelie nature once through hot long in cooling yet by promising him he should have his own desires they over-perswaded him not to strave an armie by feeding his own humours Scarce after eight moneths absence was he returned to Damiata but new divisions were betwixt them the Legate perswaded the armie to march up and besiege Cairo he promised if they would obey him they should quickly command all Egypt by present invading it Let defenders lie at a close game and offer no play Delayes are a safe shield to save but celerity the best I word to winne a countrey Thus Alexander conquered the world before it could bethink it self to make resistance And thus God now opened them a doore of victorie except they would barre it up with their own idlenesse But the King advised to return into Syria That Cairo was difficult to take and impossible to keep That the ground whereon they went was as treacherous as the people against whom they fought That better now to retire with honour then hereafter flie with shame That none but an empirick in warre will deny but that more true valour is in an orderly well grounded retreat then in a furious rash invasion But the Legate used an inartificiall argument drawn from the authority of his place thundering excommunication against those that would not march forward And now needs must they go when he driveth them The crafty Egyptians of whom it is true what is said of the Parthians Their flight is more to be feared then their fight ran away counterfeiting cowardlinesse The Christians triumphed hereat as if the silly fish should rejoyce that he had caught the fisherman when he had swallowed his bait The Legate hugged himself in his own happinesse that he had given so successefull advice And now see how the garland of their victory proved the halter to strangle them Chap. 27. The miserable case of the drowned Christians in Egypt Damiata surrendred in ransome of their lives EGypt is a low level countrey except some few advantages which the Egyptians had fortified for themselves Through the midst of the land ran the river Nilus whose stream they had so bridled with banks and sluces that they could keep it to be their own servant and make it their enemies master at pleasure The Christians confidently marched on and the Turks perceiving the game was come within the toil pierced their banks and unmuzzling the river let it runne open mouth upon them yet so that at first they drowned them up but to the middle reserving their lives for a further purpose thereby in exchange to recover Damiata and their countreys liberty See here the land of Egypt turned in an instant into the Egyptian sea See an army of sixty thousand as the neck of one man stretched on the block and waiting the fatall stroke Many cursed the Legate and their own rashnesse that they should follow the counsel of a gowned man all whose experience was clasped in a book rather then the advice of experienced captains But too late repentance because it soweth not in season reapeth nothing but unavoidable miserie Meladine King of Egypt seeing the constancy and patience of the Christians was moved with compassion towards them He had of himself strong inclinations to Christianity wearie of Mahometanisme and willing to break that prison but for watchfull jaylers about him He proferred the Christians their lives on condition they would quit the countrey and restore Damiata They accepted the conditions and sent messengers to Damiata to prepare them for the surrendring of it But they within the citie being themselves safe on shore tyrannized on their poore brethren in shipwrack pretending That this armie of Pilgrimes deserved no pity who had invited this misfortune on themselves by their own rashnesse That if they yielded up this citie for nothing which cost so many lives they should betray themselves to the derision of the whole world That if these perished more men might be had but no more Damiata's being a place of such importance it would alwayes be a snaffle in the mouth of the Egyptian King On the other side the friends of the distressed Christians confessed That indeed their voyage was unadvised and justly to be blamed yet worse and more inconsiderate projects have armies oft
situation thereof is very uneven rising into hils and sinking into dales the lively embleme of the fortunes of the place sometimes advanced with prosperitie sometimes depressed in misery Once it was well compacted and built as a citie that is at unitie in it self but now distracted from it self the suspicious houses as if afraid to be infected with more miserie then they have alreadie by contiguousnesse to others keep off at a distance having many waste places betwixt them not one fair street in the whole citie It hath a castle built as it is thought by the Pisans tolerably fortified Good guard is kept about the citie and no Christians with weapons suffered to enter But the deepest ditch to defend Jerusalem from the Western Christians is the remotenesse of it and the strongest wall to fence it is the Turkish Empire compassing it round about Poor it must needs be having no considerable commoditie to vent except a few beads of Holy earth which they pay too deare for that have them for the ferching There is in the citie a covent of Franciscans to whom Christians repair for protection during their remaining in the citie The Padre Guardian appointeth these Pilgrimes a Friar who sheweth them all the monuments about the citie Scarce a great stone which beareth the brow of reverend antiquitie that passeth without a peculiar legend upon it But every vault under ground hath in it a deep mysterie indeed Pilgrimes must follow the Friar with their bodies and belief and take heed how they give tradition the lie though she tell one never so boldly The survey finished they must pay the Guardian both for their victuals and their welcome and gratifie his good words and looks otherwise if they forget it he will be so bold as to remember them The Guardian farmeth the Sepulchre of the Turk at a yearly rent and the Turks which reap no benefit by Christs death receive much profit by his buriall and not content with their yearly rent squeez the Friars here on all occasions making them pay large summes for little offenses The other subsistence which the Friars here have is from the benevolence of the Pope and other bountifull benefactours in Europe Nor getteth the Padre Guardian a little by his fees of making Knights of the Sepulchre of which Order I find some hundred yeares since Sr John Chamond of Lancels in Cornwall to have been dubbed Knight But I believe no good English subject at this day will take that honour if offered him both because at their creation they are to swear loyaltie to the Pope and King of Spain and because honours conferred by forrein Potentates are not here in England acknowledged neither in their style nor precedency except given by courtesie Witnesse that famous case of the Count Arundel of Wardour and Queen Elisabeths peremptory resolve That her sheep should be branded with no strangers mark but her own The land about it as Authours generally agree is barren Yet Brochard a Monk who lived here some two hundred yeares since commendeth it to be very fruitfull Sure he had better eyes to see more then other men could or else by a Synecdoche he imputeth the fertilitie of parcels to the whole countrey But it is as false a consequence as on the other side to conclude from the basenesse of Bagshot-heath the barrennesse of all the Kingdome of England We may rather believe that since the fall of the Jews from Gods favour the once-supernaturall fertilitie of the land is taken away and the naturall strength thereof much abated and impaired Chap. 28. Whether it be probable that this Holy warre will ever hereafter be set on foot again THus we state the question Whether this Holy warre I mean for the winning of the citie of Jerusalem and recovering of Palestine will probably ever hereafter be projected and acted again We may believe this tragedie came off so ill the last acting that it will not be brought on the stage the second time 1. The Pope will never offer to give motion to it as knowing it unlikely to succeed Policies of this nature are like sleights of hand to be shewed but once lest what is admired at first be derided afterwards 2. Princes are grown more cunning and will not bite at a bait so stale so often breathed on The Popes ends in this warre are now plainly smelt out which though prettie and pleasing at first yet Princes are not now like the native Indians to be cozened with glasse and gaudie toyes The loadstone to draw their affection now out of non-age must present it self necessary profitable and probable to be effected 3. There is a more needfull work nearer hand to resist the Turks invasion in Europe Heark how the Grecians call unto us as once the man in the vision did to S. Paul Come over into Macedonia and help us Yea look on the Popes projects of the last Edition and we shall find the businesse of the Sepulchre buried in silence and the Holy warre running in another chanel against the Turks in Christendome 4 Lastly who is not sensible with sorrow of the dissensions better suiting with my prayers then my penne wherewith Christian Princes at this day are rent in sunder wounds so wide that onely Heavens chirurgerie can heal them Till which time no hope of a Holy warre against the generall and common foe of our Religion We may safely conclude that the regaining of Jerusalem and the Holy land from the Turks may better be placed amongst our desires then our hopes as improbable ever to come to passe except the Platonick yeare turning the wheel of all actions round about bring the spoke of this Holy warre back again Chap. 29. Of the many Pretenders of titles to the Kingdome of Ierusalem NO Kingdome in the world is challenged at this day by such an armie of Kings as this of Jerusalem It is sooner told what Princes of Europe do not then what do lay claim to it they be so many Take their names as I find them in the Catalogue of Stephen a Cypriot 1. The Emperours of the East 2 The Patriarchs of Ierusalem 3 The Lusignans Kings of Cyprus 4 Emfred Prince of Thorone 5 Conrade de la-Rame Marquesse of Montferrat 6 The Kings of England 7 His Holinesse 8 The Kings of Naples 9 The Princes of Antioch 10 The Counts of Brienne 11 The Kings of Armenia 12 The Kings of Hungarie 13 The Kings of Aragon 14 The Dukes of Anjou 15 The Dukes of Loraine 16 Lewis the eleventh King of France 17 The Dukes of Bourbon 18 The Dukes of Savoy 19 Iames de Lusigna base sonne to the King of Cyprus 20 Charles de Lusigna sonne to the Prince of Galilee 21 The State of Genoa 22 The Marquesse of Montferrat 23 The Count of la-Vall 24 The Arch Duke of Nize 25 The Sultan of Egypt 26 The Emperour of the Turks It seemeth by the naming of Lewis â—he eleventh and James