mouth nostrils ears and all open passages of his body with unslaked lime this was the only embalming and conditure he required and that for this purpose that his body might by this eating and consuming thing be the sooner resolved into its earth 2. Saladine that great Conquerour of the East after he had taken Ierusalem perceiving he drew near unto death by his last Will forbad all funeral pomp and commanded that only an old and black Cassock fastned at the end of a Lance should be born before his body and that a Priest going before the people should aloud sing these verses as they are remembred by Boccace Vixi divitiis regno tumidusque trophaeis Sed pannum heu nigrum nil nisi morte tuli Great Saladine the Conqu'rour of the East Of all the State and Glory he possess'd O frail and transitory good no more Hath born away than that poor Shirt he wore 3. The Emperour Severus after many wars growing old and about to dye called for an Urn in which after the ancient manner the ashes of their burnt bodies were to be bestowed and after he had long looked upon it and held it in his hands he uttered these words Thou said he shalt contain that man whom all the world was too narrow to confine Mors sola fatetur Quantula sint hominum Corpuscula 'T is only death that tells How small he is that swells 4. Philip King of Macedon had a fall and after he was risen perceiving the impression of his body upon the sand Good Gods said he what a small parcel of earth will contain us who aspire to the possession of the whole world 5. Luther after he had successfully opposed the Pope and was gazed and admired at by all the world as the invincible Champion of the true Christian faith not long before his death sent a fair Glass to Dr. Iustus Ionas his friend and therewith these following verses Dat vitrum vitro Jonae vitrum ipse Lutherus Se similem ut fragili noscat uterque vitro Luther a Glass to Jonah Glass a Glass doth send That both may know our selves to be but Glass my Friend 6. Antigonus lay sick a long time of a lingring disease and afterwards when he was recovered and well again We have gotten no harm said he by this long sickness for it hath taught me not to be so proud by putting me in mind that I am but a mortal man And when Hermodorus the Poet in certain Poems which he wrote had stiled him the Son of the Sun he to check that unadvised speech of his He who useth to empty my Close-Stool said he knoweth as well as I that it is nothing so 7. Croesus that rich King of Lydia shewed unto Solon his vast riches and asked of him who it was that he could esteem of as an happier man than he Solon told him that riches were not to be confided in and that the state of a man in this life was so transitory and liable to alteration and change that no certain judgment could be made of the felicity of any man till such time as he came to dye Croesus thought himself contemned and despised by Solon while he spake to him in this manner and being in his great prosperity at that time thought there was little in his speech that concerned him But afterwards being overthrown by King Cyrus in a pitcht battle his City of Sardis taken and himself made prisoner when he was bound and laid upon a pile of wood to be publickly burnt to death in the sight of Cyrus and the Persians then it was that he began to see more deep into that conference he heretofore had with Solon And therefore being now sensible of the truch of what he had heard he cryed out three times O Solon Solon Solon Cyrus admired hereat and demanded the reason hereof and what that Solon was Croesus told him who he was and what he had said to him about the frailty of man and the change of condition he is subject to in this life Cyrus at the hearing of this like a wise Prince began to think that the height of his own fortune could as little excuse from partaking in this fragility as that of Croesus had done and therefore in a just sense and apprehension of those sudden turns which the destinies do usually allot to mankind he pardoned Croesus set him at liberty and gave him an honourable place about him 8. Antiochus at the first stood mute and as one amazed and afterwards he burst out into tears when he saw Achaeus the Son of Andromachus who had married Laodice the Daughter of Mithridates and who also was the Lord of all that Country about the Mountain Taurus brought before him bound and lying prostrate upon the earth That which gave the occasion to these tears of his was the consideration of the great suddenness of these blows which Fortune gives and how impossible it is to guard our selves from them or prevent them 9. Sesostris was a Potent King of Aegypt and had subdued under him divers nations which done he caused to be made for him a Chariot of gold and richly set with several sorts of precious Stones Four Kings by his appointment were yoked together herein that they instead of Beasts might draw this Conquerour as oft as he desired to appear in his glory The Chariot was thus drawn upon a great Festival when Sesostris observed that one of the Kings had his eyes continually fixed upon the wheel of the Chariot that was next him He then demanded the reason thereof the King told him that he did wonder and was amazed at the unstable motion of the wheel that rowled up and down so that one while this and next that part was uppermost and the highest of all immediately became the lowest King Sesostris did so consider of this saying and thereby conceived such apprehensions of the frailty and uncertainty of humane affairs that he would no more be drawn in that proud manner 10. Xerxes Son of Darius and Nephew to Cyrus after five years preparation came against the Grecians to revenge his Fathers disgraceful repulse by Miltiades with such an Army that his men and Cattel dried up whole Rivers he made a Bridge over the Hellespont where looking back on such a multitude considering mans mortality he wept knowing as he said that no one of all those should be alive after an hundred years CHAP. LII Of such as were of unusual Fortune and Felicity MEn in a Dream find themselves much delighted with the variety of those images of things which are presented to their waking fancies that felicity and happiness which most men count so and please their thoughts with is more of imaginary than real more of shadow than substance and hath so little of solidity and stableness in it that it may be â—itly looked upon as a dream All about us is so liable to the blows of fortune
fasting beyond all measure he dyed in the sixty fourth year of his age 23. Thomas Aquinas otherwise called Doctor Angelicus was Disciple to Albertus Magnus and profited in Philosophy and Theology above others while he was young at School he was quiet and still more enclined to hear others than himself speak whereupon he was called by his School-fellows The Ox because he was so silent yet afterwards by his Pen this Ox lowed lowder than all his Compeers and filled all Nations with the sound of his Doctrine He was of the Order of the Dominick or Preaching Fryers and defended his Order against Gulielmus de Sancto Amore. He dyed in the way as he was journying to the Council of Lyons and was Canonized by Pope Iohn the twenty second and was supposed to have wrought Miracles after his death The End of the Fifth Book THE SIXTH BOOK CHAP. I. Of Dreams and what hath been revealed to some persons therein ALthough it is too great a vanity to give over-much credit to our Dreams and to distress and distract our selves about the â—ignifications and successes of them yet they are not altogether unuseful to us Zeno Eleates was wont to say that any of his Scholars might judge of their proficiency in Philosophy by their Dreams for if they neither did nor suffered any thing therein but what was vertuous they had made some good progress in Philosophy By the same way we may discover much of our own natural inclinations and the constitution we are of Besides this there hath been so much of highest concernment revealed to some in their sleep that is enough to make us believe there is not altogether so much of vanity in Dreams as some men are of opinion 1. Astyages the last King of the Medes saw in his dream a Vine to spring forth from the womb of his only daughter and at last so to flourish and spread out it self that it seemed to overshadow all Asia with its very fruitful branches He consults with the Soothsayers upon this dream who answer him that of his daughter should be born a Son that should seise on the Empire of Asia and divest him of his terrified with this prediction he forth with bestowed his daughter upon Cambyses a Foreigner and then an obscure person when his daughter drew near the time of delivery he sends for her to himself that whatsoever should be born of her should perish by his own command The Infant therefore is delivered to Harpagus to be slain a man of known fidelity and with whom he had long communicated his greatest secrets But he fearing that upon Astyages his death Mandane his daughter would succeed in the Empire since the King had no issue Male and that then he should be sure to be paid home for his obedience doth not kill the Royal Babe but delivers it to the Kings chief Herds-man to be exposed to the wide world It fell out that the wife of this man was newly brought to bed and having heard of the whole affair she earnestly importunes her Husband to bring the child home to her that she might see him the Husband is overcome goes to the Wood where he had left him he finds there a Bitch that at once saved the Babe and kept off the birds and beasts from it and also suckled it her self Affected with this miracle and thus instructed by a brute in humanity he takes up the child carries it to his wife she sees and loves it breeds him up till he grew â—irst to a man and then to a King he overcomes Astyages his Grandfather and translates the Scepter from the Medes to the Persians 2. Alexander the Great in the long and difficult Siege of Tyrus bordering upon Iudaea sent to the Jews for assistances but was by them rejected as having a more ancient League with Darius When therefore he had taken the City full of indignation he leads his Army against the Jews resolved upon revenge and devoting all to slaughter and spoil But Iaddus the then High-Priest admonished by God in a dream meets him upon the way accompanied with a number both of Priests and people himself with his Priestly attire with his Mitre upon his head and upon that the Name of God whom assoon as Alexander saw with all mildness and submission he approaches him salutes him and adores that wonderful Name Those who accompanied him were some of them amazed others displeased amongst these was Parmenio who asks the King wherefore he adored a man himself being now almost every where reputed as a God To whom Alexander reply'd that he worshipped not the man but God in him who heretofore in that form had appeared to him in Dio a City of Macedonia in his dream encouraging him to a speedy Expedition against Asia which through his divine power and assistance he would subject to him And therefore 〈◊〉 not only pardoned but honoured and enriched the City and Nation of the Jews pronounced them at liberty to live after their own Laws and made choice of some of them to serve him in his own Troops 3. Ertucules having slept after dinner when he awaked was confounded with the thoughts of what he had seemed to see in his dream and therefore according to the Religion of the Turkish Nation he first bathes his body in water to purifie himself and then goes to Edebales a person in great reputation amongst them as well for his wisdom as sanctitie and thus he speaks I dreamed venerable Sir that the brightness of the Moon did proceed from your bosome and thence afterwards did pass into mine when it was thither come there sprang up a tree from my navel which overshadowed at once many Nations Mountains and Valleys From the roots of this tree there issued waters sufficient to irrigate Vines and Gardens and there both my dream and my sleep forsook me Edebales when he had heard him after some pause thus bespake him There will be born unto you my good Friend a Son whose name shall be Osman he shall wage many Wars shall acquire to himself Victory and Glory and your posterity shall be Lords and Kings of many Nations But my Daughter must marry to your Son Osman and she is that brightness which you saw come from my bosome into yours and from both sprang up the tree A strange prediction and the more remarkable for that of the Moon seeing we know that the Crescent is the prime and most remarkable Ensign of the Turkish Nation 4. There was amongst the Tartars that of old lived in Imaus a part of the Mountain Taurus a sort of Shepherds who lived after the manner of wild beasts without Law or truth wandring up and down in the Woods Amongst these there were certain Families called Malgotz that kept together in one place and at first chose themselves Leaders but yet were subject to their neighbour Nations and oppressed with excessive burdens Till at last there was an old Black-smith
himself a Subject to the King of Spain he was executed at Tyburn where being cut down half dead after his privy members were cut off he rushed on the Executioner and gave him a blow on the ear to the wonder of the by-standers 5. It is said of Crassus Grandfather to that Crassus who was slain in the Parthian War that he was never known to laugh all his life time and thereupon was called Agelastus or the man that never laught 6. Antonia the Wife of Drusus as it is well known never spit and Pomponius the Poet one that had sometimes been Consul never belched 7. It is memorable which is recorded of a King named Wazmund and was the Founder of Warwick Town that he had a Son named Offa tall of stature and of a good constitution of body but blind till he was seven years old and then saw and dumb till he was thirty years old and then spake 8. In the first year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth died Sir Thomas Cheney Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports of whom it is reported for a certain that his pulse did beat more than three quarters of an hour after he was dead as strongly as if he had been still alive 9. George Nevil fourth Son of Richard Nevil Earl of Salisbury was consecrated Bishop of Exeter when he was not as yet twenty years of age at twenty five he was made Lord Chancellor of England and discharged it to his great commendation his ability supplying the luck of age in him 10. When I was in Italy that Paradise of the World the outward skin of a Lady of Verona though lightly touched did manifestly sparkle with fire This spectacle so worthy of the research of the inquisitive and curious is faithfully exposed to the World by the publick Script of Petrus à Castro the learned Physician of Verona in his Book de Igne lambente whom I shall follow in the relation of this story The illustrious Lady Catherina Buri the Wife of the noble Io. Franciscus Rambaldus a Patritian of Verona of a middle age indifferent habit of body her universal temper hot and moist her liver hot and dry and so abounding with bilious and black blood with its innate fervour and an age fit for adustion increased by vehement grief This noble Lady the Creator endued with so stupendous a Dignity and Prerogative of Nature that as oft as her body was but lightly touched with linen sparks flew out plentifully from her limbs apparent to her domestick Servants as if they had been struck out of a flint accompanied also with a noise that was to be heard by all Oftentimes when she rubbed her hands upon the sleeve of her smock that contained the sparkles within it she observed a flame with a tailed ray running about as fired exhalations are wont to do insomuch that her Maids were oftentimes deluded supposing they had left fire in the bed after warming of it in Winter in which time also fire is most discernible This fire was not to be seen but in the dark or in the night nor did it burn without it self though combustible matter was applied to it nor lastly as other fire did it cease within a certain time but with the same manner of appearance of light it shewed it self after my departure out of Italy 11. I have read saith Rossâ— of one who had a horn grew upon his heel a foot long which being cut off grew again and would doubtless have still renewed if the tough and viscous matter had not been diverted and evacuated by Issues Purges and Phlebotomy 12. Fernelius saith he saw a Girl that lived in near neighbourhood to him the ligaments of whose joynts were so very loose that you might bend and turn any of them this or that way at your pleasure and that it was so with her from the time of her birth 13. Sir Iohn Mason born at Abington bred at All souls in Oxford died 1566. and lies buried in the Quire of St. Pauls I remember this Distick of his long Epitaph Tempore quinque suo regnantes ordine vidit Horum à Consiliis quatuor ille fuit He saw five Princes which the Scepter bore Of them was Privy Counsellor to four That is to Henry the Eighth Edward the Sixth Q. Mary and Q. Elizabeth 14. Thomas Bourchier successively Bishop of Worcester Ely and Archbishop of Canterbury and Cardinal by the Title of St. Cyriacus in the Baths being consecrated Bishop of Worcester An. 1435. the fourteenth of Henry the Sixth he died Archbishop of Canterbury 1486. the second of King Henry the Seventh whereby it appears that he wore a Miter full fifty one years a term not to be parallel'd in any other person he saw the Civil Wars of York begun and ended having the honour to marry King Henry the Seventh to the Daughter of King Edward the Fourth Nor is it the least of wonders that he lost not himself in the Laâ—yrinth of such intricate times 15. Sir Thomas Frowick was made Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in the eighteenth year of the Reign of King Henry the Seventh four years he sate in his place accounted the Oracle of the Law in his Age though one of the youngest men that ever enjoyed that Office He 〈◊〉 reported to have died floridâ juventute before full forty years old so that he was Chief Justice at thirty five he died 1506. Octob. 17. 16. That was great and excellent in Socrates that whatever fell out of joy or otherwise he returned with the same countenance he went forth with and was never seen to be more merry or melancholy than at other times in any alteration of times or affairs 17. In the Reign of King Iames in the year 1613. on the 26. of Iune in the Parish of Christ-Church in Hampshire one Iohn Hitchel a Carpenter lying in bed with a young child by him was himself and the child burnt to death with a sudden Lightning no fire appearing outwardly upon him and yet lay burning for the space of almost three days till he was quite consumed to ashes 18. Lucius Fulvius being Consul of the Tusculani who at that time rebelled he deserted them and was thereupon made Consul at Rome and so it fell out that in one and the same year in which he was an Enemy to Rome he triumphed at Rome and a Consul over those to whom he had been Consul 19. It is said of Charles Earl of Valois that he was the Son of a King Brother to a King Uncle to a King and Father to a King and yet no King himself 20. There was amongst the Magnesians one Protophanes who in one and the same day won the Prize in the Olympick Games both at Wrastling and other Games when he was dead certain Thieves opened his Sepulchre and went into it hoping to have found something to prey upon after which
that City and all its Inhabitants and was more exactly obeyed in all his orders and commands than ever Monarch had the glory to be in his own Kingdom This most astonishing revolution in the City of Naples began upon Sunday the seventh of Iuly An. 1647. and ended with the death of Masaniello which was upon Iuly the 16. 1647 the tenth day from its beginning 3. The Lord Cromwel was born at Putney a Village in Surrey near the Thames-side Son to a Smith after whose decease his Mother was married to a Sheer-man This young Cromwel for the pregnancy of his wit was first entertained by Cardinal Wolsey and by him employed in many great Affairs The Cardinal falling the King that was Henry the Eighth took him to his service and finding his great abilities advanced him by degrees to these Dignities Master of the Kings Jewel-house and of the Kings Privy Council Secretary to the King and Master of the Rolls Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal made Lord Cromwel and Vicar General under the King over all the Spirituality created Earl of Essex and at last Lord High Chancellor of England 4. In the Reign of King Henry the Second one Nicholas Breakspear born at St. Albans or as others write at Langley in Hartfordshire being a Bond-man of that Abbey and therefore not allowed to be a Monk there went beyond Sea where he so profited in Learning that the Pope made him first Bishop of Alba and afterwards Cardinal and sent him as his Legate to the Norways where he reduced that Nation from Paganism to Christianity and returning back to Rome was chosen Pope by the name of Adrian the Fourth 5. The War betwixt the Chineses and Tartars began in the year 1206. which lasting 77 years at last the Tartars in the year 1288. having totally subdued all that mighty Empire extinguished the Imperial Family of the Sunga's and erected a new Royal Family which they called Iuena of which Tartarian Race nine Emperours by descent ruled the Kingdom of China for the space of 70 years in peace and quietness In this tract of time the Tartars declining from their ancient vigor and having their warlike Spirits softned by the pleasures and delights of the Country there was a contemptible person called Chu he was Servant to one of those that were deputed to offer Sacrifice to their Idols a Native of China and this man presumed to rebel against them At the first he acted the part of a Thief or High way man and being of a generous nature bold quick of hand and wit he gathered such a multitude in a short time that they made up the body of a great Army then deposing the person of a Thief he became a General set upon the Tartars and fought many Battels with them with such fortune and success that in the year 1368. he drove them quite out of the Empire of China receiving for so illustrious an action the whole Empire of China as a worthy reward of his Heroical Exploits It was he that first erected the Imperial Family of the Taminges and was the first Emperour of that Race stiling himself by the name of Hunguuâ— which is the famous Warriour He placed his Court at Nanking near the great River of Kiang and having speedily ordered and established that Empire he made an irruption into Tartary it self and so followed the course of his Victories that he defeated them several times wasted their Territories and finally brought the Oriental Tartars to such streights as he forced them to lay down their Arms to pay Tribute and to beg an inglorious Peace 6. Sinan that great Bassa in the Court of Selymus the First was born of base Parentage as he being a child was sleeping in the shade he had his Genitals bitten off by a Sow The Turkish Officers which usually provided young Boys for the service of the Grand Signior being in Epirus for that was Sinans Country and hearing of this so extraordinary an Eunuch took him amongst others with them to the Court where under Mahomet the Great Bajazet the Second and his Son Selymus he so exceedingly thrived that he was made the chief Bassa of the Court and so well deserved it that he was accounted Selymus his right hand and was indeed the man to whose Valour especially the Turks owe their Kingdom of Egypt in which Kingdom then not fully setled he was also slain 7. Eumenes being a poor Carriers Son attained to such an ability in the Art of War that after the death of Alexander the Great under whom he served he seised on the Provinces of Cappadoâ—ia and Paphlagonia and siding though a Stranger to Macedon with Olympias and the Blood Royal against the Greek Captains he vanquished and slew Craterus and divers times drove Antigonus afterwards Lord of Asia out of the field but being by his own Souldiers betrayed he was by them delivered to Antigonus and by him slain 8. When Alexander the Great had taken the City of Tyre he permitted Ephestion his chief Favourite to chuse whom he would to be King there Ephestion proffered it to him with whom he had lodged a rich and honourable person but he refused it as not touching the blood of their Kings in any degree Then being asked by Ephestion if he knew any of the Royal Lineage yet living he told him there was a wise and honest man remaining but that he was in extremity of poverty Ephestion went to him forthwith with the Royal Robes and sound him in a Garden lading water out of a pit for a little money and in ragged apparel Ephestion tells him the intent of his coming cloaths him in all the Royal Ornaments and brings him into the Forum where the people were convented and delivers him the Soveraignty over them The people chearfully accepted of a person that was so accidentally and wonderfully found out to rule over them His name was Abdolonymus or as others Ballonymus 9. Licungzus at first a common Thief then a Captain of a Troop of Robbers by degrees arrived to that force and power in China that he took all the Province of Honan subjected the Province of Xensi and gave Sigan the Metropolis of it as a prey to his Souldiers These and many other his fortunate Exploits caused him to take the name of King with the addition of Xungvan which sounds as much as Licungzus the prosperous and at last thinking himself secure of the Empire he took the name of Emperour upon him and stiled the Family wherein he thought to establish this Dignity Thienxunam as much as to say obedient to Heaven By which he endeavoured to perswade the Souldiers and people that it was by the disposition of the Heavens that he should reign He besieged Peking the Metropolis of all China and with his victorious Army he entred and took it An. 1644. and coming into the Palace sate him down in the Imperial Throne though it was observed in this first act
and one only brought up It so fell out that Isenbard met the Woman that was carrying the little Infants to their death and asking her whither she went with her Pail she reply'd she was going to drown a few baggage Whelps in the River of Scherk The Earl came to her and in despite of her resistance would see what was there and discovering the Children press'd her in such wise that she told him all the matter He caus'd them to be secretly educated and so soon as they were grown great and brought home to him he set them in the Hall by him whom his Wife had brought up Being thus by their Faces all known to be Brethren there Mother mov'd in Conscience confess'd the fact and obtained pardon for her fault In remembrance whereof the honourable Race of the Welfs that is whelps got that name which ever since it hath kept 9. Iohn Francis Earl of Mirandula tells of one Dorothy a German by birth who in Italy at two several births brought forth twenty Sons nine at the one and eleven at the other while she went with this burden by reason of the mighty weight she was wont to tye a swathing band about her neck and shoulders and with that to bear up her swollen belly which fell down to her very knees Mathias Golancevius was Bishop of Vladislavia in Poland in the time of Vladislaus Loctitius the King it is said of his Mother that she was delivered of twelve Sons at once and that of all these he only liv'd the rest dying as soon as they were born saith Cromerus 11. Alexander de Campo Fregoso Bishop of Ventimilium profess'd to me saith Carpus upon the faith of a Bishop that at Lamia a woman of the Noble Family of the Buccanigers brought forth sixteen humane births of the bigness of a man's palm all which had motion and that besides these sixteen which had humane likeness she brought forth at the same time a Creature in the likeness of a Horse which had also motion All seventeen were wrap'd in one and the same secundine which is Monstrous 12. Anno 1217. Upon the 20 th of Ianuary the Lady Margaret wife to the Earl Virboslaus was in Country of Cracovia brought to bed of thirty living bodies all at once saith Cromerus 13. In the Annals of Silesia it is recorded that a woman at one birth was delivered of thirty and six Children 14. Count Flons the Fourth of that name Governor of the Netherlands had amongst others his Children one Daughter call'd Mathild some say Margaret she was marryed to Count Herman of Henneberg William King of the Romans and Earl of Holland was her Brother Otto Bishop of Vtrecht her Uncle by the Fathers side and Henry Duke of Brabant her Uncle by the Mothers side Alix Countess of Henault her Aunt Otto of Gelders and Henry Bishop of Leige her Cousins On a time this Countess of Henneberg did see a poor Widow Woman begging her bread for God's sake having in either Arm a Child which she had at one birth This poor Woman craving her Alms the Countess rejected with reproachful words saying That it was a thing against Nature in her opinion for a Woman that is honest to conceive by her Husband two Children of one birth and therefore that this her deliverance had bewrayed that she had lewdly abandoned her self to some others The poor Woman having her heart full of discontent for her bitter speeches lifted up her eyes to Heaven and said O great and mighty God I beseech thee for a testimony of mâ—ne innocency that it will please thee to send this Lady at one burden so many Children as their are days in the year A while after this Countess was big with Child by her Husband and for her lying in she went into Holland to see the Earl of Holland her Nephew lodging in the Abby of Religious Women at Losdunen where she grew so exceeding great that the like was never seen Her time being come the Fryday before Palm-Sunday in the year 1276. she was delivered of three hundred sixty and five Children half Sons and half Daughters the odd one being found to be an Hermaphrodite all complete and well fashioned of the bigness of Chickens new hatch'd saith Camerarius These were laid in two Basins and Baptiz'd by Guidon Suffragan to the Bishop of Vtrecht who named the Sons Iohn and the Daughters Elizabeth in the presence of some great Lords and notable persons as soon as they were baptiz'd they all dy'd together with their Mother The two Basins are yet to be seen in the said Church of Losdunen not far from the Hague with an Epitaph both in Latin and Dutch which at large express the whole story 15. Albertus Magnus writes that a woman of Germany made abortion of twenty two Children at one time all having their perfect shapes and another Woman seventy and that another Woman delivered into a Basin an hundred and fifty every one of the length of ones little finger 16. In the History of the Acts of Augustus Caesar we find upon Record that in his twelfth Consulship upon the eleventh day of April C. Crispinus Helarus a Gentleman of Fesulae came with solemn pomp into the Capital attended upon with his nine Children seven Sons and two Daughters with seven and twenty Grand-children that were the Sons of his Children and nine and twenty more who were his great Grand-children the Sons of his Sons Sons and besides these with twelve Females that were his Childrens Daughters and with all these he solemnly sacrificed 17. There was a Noble Lady of the Family of the Dalburges who saw of her race even to the sixth degree whereof the Germans have made this Distich Mater 1 ait Natae 2 dic Natae 3 Filia Natam 4 Vt moneat Natae 5 plangere Filiolam6. Which because I have not found already translated I shall venture at it in this Tetrastick The aged Mother to her Daughter spake Daughter said she arise Thy Daughter to thy Daughter take Whose Daughters Daughter cries 18. In the memory of our Fathers saâ—th Vives there was a Village in Spain of above a hundred Houses whereof all the inhabitants were issu'd from one certain old man who then liv'd when as that Village was so peopled the name of propinquity how the youngest should call him could not be given for our Language saith he meaning the Spanish affords not a name above the great Grand-fathers Father 19. In the place and parish where I was born viz. in the Burrough of Leicester in the Church of St. Martin I my self have seen and it is there yet to be seen by others a very remarkable Epitaph which is this Here lyeth the body of of John Heyrick of this Parish who departed this life the second of April 1589. being about the age of seventy six years he did marry Mary the Daughter of John Bond of Wardâ—nd in the
County of Warwick Esquire He liv'd with the said Mary in one house full fifty two years and in all that time never buried Man Woman nor Child though they were sometimes twenty in houshold He had Issue by the said Mary five Sons and seven Daughters The said John was Mayor of the Town 1559. And again Anno 1572. The said Mary liv'd to ninety seven years and departed the eight of December 1611. She did see before her departure of her Children and Childrens Children and their Children to the number of one hundred forty and two 20. In St. Innocents Church-yard in the City of Paris is to be seen the Epitaph of Yoland Baily Widow to Mounsieur Dennis Capel a Proctour at the Chastelet which doth shew that she had lived eighty four years and might have seen 288. Verstegan saith 295 of her Children and Childrens Children she dy'd the seventeenth of April 1514. Imagine how she had been troubled to call them by a proper denomination that were distant from her in the fourth and fifth degree 21. In Markshal Church in Essex on Mrs. Honywoods Tomb is this Inscription Here lyeth the body of Mary Waters the Daughter and coheir af Robert Waters of Lenham in Kent Esquire wife of Robert Honywood of Charing in Kent Esquire her only Husband who had at her decease lawfully descended from her 367. sixteen of her own body 114 Grand-children 228. in the third Generation and nine in the fourth She liv'd a most pious life and in a Christian manner dyed here at Markshal in the ninety third year of her age and in the forty fourth of her Widowhood May 11. 1620. 22. Dame Esther Temple Daughter to Miles Sands Esquire was born at Latmos in Buckinghamshire and was marryed to Sir Thomas Temple of Stow Baronet She had four Sons and nine Daughters which liv'd to be marry'd and so exceedingly multiplyed that this Lady saw seven hundred extraâ—ted from her body Reader I speak within compass and have left my self a reserve having bought the truth hereof by a wager I lost saith Dr. Fuller Besides there was a new Generation of marriageable Females just at her death Had the Off-spring of this Lady been contracted into one place they were enow to have peopled a City of a competent proportion though her Issue was not so long in succession as broad in extent I confess very many of her descendants dy'd before death the Lady Temple dy'd Anno 1656. 23. Iohn Henry and Thomas Palmer were the Sons of Edward Palmer Esquire in Sussex It happened that their Mother being a full Fortnight inclusively in labour was on Whitsunday deliver'd of Iohn her Eldest Son on the Sunday following of Henry her second Son and the Sunday next after of Thomas her third Son This is that which is commonly call'd superfoeâ—ation usual in other Creatures but rare in Women the cause whereof we leave to the disquisition of Physicians These three were Knighted for their Valour and success as in their Nativiâ—ies 24. Another Example of superfoetation I will set down for the stories sake in the year of our Lord 1584. dyed the Noble Lord Philip Lewis of Hirshorne at his mansion House in the Palatinate three Miles from Heydelberg he left no Heir but his Lady was with Child his Kindred forthwith enter upon the Rents and Royalties and to gain the more full and perfect knowledge of them soon after the death of her Lord they pluck from her waste the Keys of all private places and that not without violence the better to enable them for the search they intended This outrage redoubled the grief of the poor Lady so that within few days after she fell in travel and brought forth a Son but dead and wanting the Skull Now were the next Heirs of the deceased Noblemam exceeding jocund as having attained to their utmost hopes and therefore now us'd the Estate as their own But it pleased God as out of a stone to raise up a Son to that desolate and disconsolate Widow For though she was not speedily deliver'd of him after the 〈◊〉 yet she remained somewhat big after her delivery suspecting nothing but that it was some prâ—â—ternatural humour or some disease that was remaining in her body She therefore consulted the Physicians who all thought any thing rather to be the cause of her disease than that in the leaâ—â— they suspected a second Birth so long after the â—irst They therefore advis'd her to go to the Baths by the Rhine she accordingly did as a sad and comfortless Widow attended only with one Maid came thither Iuly 1584. where it so fell out she found Augustus the Elector of Saxony together with the Princess his Wiâ—e as also many other Princes and their Ladies by which means all lodgings were so foretaken up that she could not find entertainment in any Inn especially being not known of what quality she was coming thither with so private a retinue as a single Maid At last discovering to the Governour of the place who she was and her last misfortunes not without some difficulty she procured lodging in his House for that night wherein she came thither But that very night when it was the tenth week from her former delivery it pleased God to send her in her aâ—â—liction and amongst strangers a lovely Boy The fame of which came to the ears of the Illustrious Princes who were then in Town The Elector of Mentz made her a noble provision for her Lying in The Elector of Saxony also sent her by way of Present one thousand Dollers Also all the Rents and Royalties before seiz'd upon were restored to this lawful Heir of her Husbands and Child of hers who also is yet alive saith Câ—spar Bauhinâ—s Superâ—oetation is by the distant Births of divers not raâ—ely confirmed A Dutch Woman in Southwark some twenty years since having invited divers of her Neighbours to her Upsitting found her self not well on a sudden and rising from the table was forthwith brought to bed of another This falling on a time into our discourse one then present reported that the like befel a Sister of his who three months after the birth of her first Son was delivered of a second CHAP. XXVI Of the strange Agility and Nimbleness of some and their wonderful feats HOmer in the commendation of the activity of Meriones calls him the Dancer in which Art he was so famous that he was known not only amongst the Greeks but to the Trojans also his enemies probably because that in time of Battel he made shew of an extraordinary quickness and nimbleness of body which he had acquired unto himself by the practice of this Art some of these who follow though they wanted an Homer to recommend them to posterity have excell'd not only Meriones in point of agility but have attain'd the utmost of what a humane body in this kind is capable of acquiring 1. Amongst those shews which were presented to the people
Others laid themselves backwards on their running Horses and taking their tails put them in their mouths and yet forgot not their aim in shooting Some after every shot drew out their Swords and flourished them about their heads and again sheathed them Others sitting betwixt three Swords on their right and as many on the left thinly cloathed that without geart care every motion would make way for death yet before and behind them touched the Mark. One stood upon two Horses running very swiftly his feet loose and shot also at once three Arrows before and again three behind him Another sitting on a Horse neither bridled nor sadled as he came at every Mark arose and stood upon his feet and on both hands hitting the Mark sat down again three times A third sitting on the bare Horse when he came to the Mark lay upon his back and lifted up his leg and yet missed not his shoot One of them was kill'd with a fall and two sore wounded in these their feats of activity All this is from Baumgustens relation who was an eye-witness thereof 10. Bemoine in an accident of Civil Wars in Gia laff came ro the King of Portugal for aid with his followers amongst whom some were of such admirable dexterity and nimbleness of body that they would leap upon a Horse as he gallopped and would stand upright in the Saddle when he ran fastest and turn themselves about and suddenly sit down and in the same race would take up stones laid in order upon the ground and leap down and up at pleasure CHAP. XXVII Of the extraordinary swiftness and footmanship of some Men. THe news of the overthrow of King Perseus by L. Paulus Aemylius is said to be brought from Macedonia to Rome in a day but then it is suspected to be performed by the ministration of Spirits who free from the burden of a body may well be the quicker in their intelligence We here have an account of some such who may seem to have divested themselves of flesh and almost to contend with Spirits themselves in the quickness of their conveyance of themselves from place to place 1. Philippides being sent by the Athenians to Sparta to implore their assistance in the Persian War in the space of two days ran one thousand two hundred and sixty furlongs that is one hundred fifty seven Roman miles and a half 2. Euchidas was sent by the same Athenians to Delphos to desire some of the holy Fire from thence he went and return'd in one and the same day having measured 1000 furlongs that is 125 Roman miles 3. When Fonteius and Vipsanus were Consuls there was a Boy of but nine years of age Martial calls him Addas who within the compass of one day ran 75 miles outright 4. But that amazes me saith Lipsius which Pliny sets down of Philonides the Courier or furlongs that he dispatch'd in nine hours of the day 1200 furlongs even as far as Scycione to Elis and returned from thence by the third hour of the night And the same Pliny speaks of it as a known thing We know those now a-days saith he who will dispatch 160 miles in the Cirque upon a wager 5. There was one Philippus a young man a Soldier and one of the Guard to Alexander the Great who on foot and arm'd and with his weapons in his hand did attend the King for 500 furlongs as he rode in his Charriot Lysimachus often profer'd him his Horse but he would not accept him I wonder not at the space he measured as that he perform'd it under such a weight of arms 6. King the Henry Fifth of England was so swift in running that he with two of his Lords without Bow or other Engine would take a wild Buck or Doe in a large Park 7. Harold The Son of Canutus the Second succeeded his Father in the Kingdom of England he was sirnamed Harefoot because he ran as swift as a Hare 7. Ethus King of the Scots was of that swiftness that he almost reached that of Stags and Grey-hounds he was therefore vulgarly call'd Alipes wing'd-foot though otherwise unâ— it for Government cowardly and a slave of pleasure 9. Starchaterus the Suecian was a valiant Giant excelling in strength of body and of incredible swiftness of foot so that in the compass of one day he ran out of the upper Suecia into Denmark a journey which other men could hardly perform in the compass of twelve days though on horseback 10. The Piechi are a sort of Footmen who attend upon the Turkish Emperour and when there is occasion are dispatch'd hither and thither with his Orders or other Messages They run with such admirable swiftness that with a little Polaxe and a Viol of sweet Waters in their hands they will run from Constantinople to Hadrianople in a day and a night that is about 160 Roman miles 11. Luponus a Spaniard was of that strength and swiftness that with a Ram laid on his shoulder he equall'd any other in the Race that was to be found in his time 12. Under the Emperour Leo who succeeded Marcian there was a Greek named Indacus a valiant man and of a wonderful footmanship he would run faster than any other of the Athenian or Spartan Footmen before mentioned One might see him at parting but he vanished presently like lightning seeming as if he flew over Mountains and steep places rather than run he could ride more way in one day without being weary than the best Post could have done with so many Horses of release as he could take without staying in any place when he had made in a day much more way than a Post could do with all his speed the next day he return'd to the place from whence he departed the day before and went again from thence the next day for some other place and never left running nor could stay long in any place 13. Iustin tells how the Daughter of Gargoris King of the Curetes having suffer'd her self to be defil'd was delivered of a Son call'd Habides whom the Grand-father desirous to hide his Daughters shame caus'd to be expos'd and in a solitary place left to the mercy of the wild Beasts but an Hind brought him up tenderly as if he had been a Fawn of her own so that being grown somewhat great he would run swiftly like the Stags with which he leap'd and skip'd in the Mountains Finally he was taken in a snare presented to Gargoris and by peculiar marks upon his body known and owned by him to be the Son of his Daughter who admiring the strange way of preservation left the Crown to him as his Successor 12. Polymnestor a Boy of Milesia was set out by his Mother to keep Goats under a Master who was the owner of them while he was in this imployment he pursu'd a Hare in sport overtook and catch'd her which known he was by his Master
Reign of nine Kings and Queens of England He saw saith another the children of his children's children to the number of an hundred and three and died 1572. 6. Georgias Leontinus a famous Philosopher liv'd in health till he was an hundred and eight years of age and when it was asked him by what means he attained to such a fulness of days his answer was by not addicting himself to any voluptuous living 7. Most memorable is that of Cornarus the Venetian who being in his youth of a sickly body begaâ— to eat and drink first by measure to a certain weight thereby to recover his health this cure turn'd by use into a diet that diet into an extraordinary long life even of an hundred years and better without any decay of his senses and with a constant enjoyment of his health 8. Hippocrates Coâ—s the famous Physician lived an hundred and four years and approved and credited his own art by so long a life 9. Mr. Carew in his Survey of Cornwal assures us upon his own knowledge that fourscore and ten years of age is ordinary there in every place and in most persons accompanied with an able use of the body and their senses One Polezew saith he lately living reached to one hundred and thirty A Kinsman of his to one hundred and twelve One Beauchamp to one hundred and six And in the Parish where himself dwelt he professed to have remembred the decease of four within fourteen weeks space whose years added together made up the sum of three hundred and forty The same Gentleman made this Epigram or Epitaph upon one Brawne an Irish Man but a Cornish Beggar Here Brawne the quondam Beggar lies Who counted by his tale Some sixscore winters and above Such Vertue is in Ale Ale was his Meat his Drink his Cloth Ale did his death deprive And could he still have drunk his Ale He had been still alive 10. Democritus of Abdera a most studious and learned Philosopher who spent all his life in the contemplation and investigation of things who liv'd in great solitude and poverty yet did arrive to an hundred and nine years 11. Galeria Câ—piola a Player and a Dancer was brought upon the Stage as a Novice in what year of her age is not known but ninety nine years after at the Dedication of the Theatre by Pompey the Great she was shewn upon the Stage again not now for an Actress but a wonder Neither was this all for after that in the Solemnities for the life and health of Augustus she was shewn upon the Stage the third time 12. Simeon the Son of Cleophas called the Brother of our Lord and Bishop of Ierusalem lived an hundred and twenty years though he was cut short by Martyrdom Aquila and Priscilla first S. Paul's Hosts afterwards his fellow-labourers lived together in a happy and famous Wedlock at least to an hundred years a piece for they were both alive under Pope Christus the First 13. William Postel a Frenchman lived to an hundred and well nigh twenty years and yet the top of his beard on the upper lip was black and not gray at all 14. Iohannes Summer-Matterus my great Grandfather by the Mother's side of an ancient and honourable Family after the hundredth year of his age marryed a wife of thirty years by whom he had a Son at whose wedding which was twenty years after the old man was present and lived six years after that so that he completed an hundred and twenty six without complaining of any more grievous accidents than this that he could not prevent escapes by reason of wind Six years before his death my Father his Grandchild discoursing with him he told him that there were in that Diocess ten men yet left who were more aged than himself 15. Arganthonius was the King of the Tartessians and had been so for eighty years when the Phocensians who were the first of all the Greeks who opened the way into the Adriatick Sea and visited Tyrrhenia Iberia and Tartessus came to him He lived to an hundred and twenty years saith Herodotus 16. In the last Taxation Number and Review of the eighth Region of Italy there were found in the Roll saith Pliny four and fifty persons of an hundred years of age seven and fifty of an hundred and ten two of an hundred five and twenty â—our of an hundred and thirty as many that were of an hundred five and thirty or an hundred of seven and thirty years old and last of all three men of an hundred and forty And this search was made in the times of Vespasian the Father and Son 17. Galen the great Physician who flourished about the reign of Antoninus the Emperour is said to have lived one hundred and forty years From the time of his twenty eighth year he was never seised with any sickness save only with the grudge of a Fever for one day only The rules he observed were not to eat nor drink his fill nor to eat any thing raw and to carry always about him some one or other perfume 18. Iames Sands of Horborne in Staffordshire near Birmingham lived an hundred and forty years and his Wife one hundred and twenty and died about ten years past He out-lived five Leases of twenty one years a piece made unto him after he was married 19. I my self saith Sir Walter Rawleigh knew the old Countess of Desmond of Inchequin in Munster who lived in the year 1589 and many years sinâ—e who was marryed in Edward the Fourth's time and held her joynture from all the Earls of Desmond since then and that this is true all the Gentlemen and Noble Men in Munster can witness The Lord Bacon casts up her age to be an hundred â—nd forty at the least adding withal Ter per vices dentisse that she recovered her teeth after the casting them three several times 20. Thomas Parre Son of Iohn Parre born at Alberbury in the Parish of Winnington in Shropshire he was born in the Reign of King Edward the Fourth anno 1483 at eighty years he married his first wife Iane and in the space of thirty two years had but two children by her both of them short lived the one liv'd but a Month the other but a few years Being aged an hundred and twenty he fell in love with Katherine Milton and with remarkable strength got her with child He lived to above one hundred and fifty years Two months before his death he was brought up by Thomas Earl of Arundel to Westminster he slept away most of his time and is thus characterised by an eye-witness of him From head to heel his body had all over A quick set thick set nat'ral hairy cover Change of air and diet better in it self but worse for him with the trouble of many Visitants or Spectators rather are conceived to have accelerated his death which happened Westminster November the fifteenth anno 1634
it he return'd to life to the admiration of all that were present he declared several strange and prodigious things which he had seen and known during all that time that he had remained in the state of the dead 11. One of the Noble Family of the Tatoricdi being seised with the Plague in Burgundy was supposed to die thereof was put into a Cofâ—â—n to be carry'd to the Sepulchers of his Ancestors which were distant from that place some four German miles Night coming on the Corps was dispos'd into a Barn and there attended by some Rusticks These perceiv'd a great quantity of fresh Blood to drain through the chinks of the Coffin whereupon they opened it and found that the Body was wounded by a Nail that was driven into the shoulder through the Coffin and that the wound was much torn by the jogging of the Chariot he was carry'd in but withal they discover'd that the natural heat had not left his brest They took him out laid him before the fire he recover'd as out of a deep sleep ignorant of all that had pass'd He afterwards marryed a Wife by whom he had a Daughter marryed afterwards to Huldericus a Psirt from his Daughter came Sigismundus a Psirt chief Pastor of St. Maries Church in Basil. CHAP. XL. Of such who after death have concerned themselves with the affairs of their Friends and Relations THe Platonists speak of some Souls that after they are departed from their bodies they have yet a strange hankering after them whereupon it is that they haunt the dormitories of the dead and keep about the places where their bodies lye interr'd and are therefore call'd by the Philosophers Body-lovers I know not under what restraints souls are when once separate from their bodies nor what priviledges some of them have above others but if the following relations are true some of these here spoken of have been as mindful of their Friends and Families as others were affected to the bodies they had before deserted Ludovicus Adolisius Lord of Immola sent a Secretary of his upon earnest business to Ferrara in which journey he was met by one on Horseback attir'd like an Hunts-man with an Hawk upon his fist who saluted him by his name and desired him to intreat his Son Lodowick to meet him in that very place the next day at the same hour to whom he would discover certain things of no mean consequence which much concerned him and his estate The Secretary returning and revealing this to his Lord at first he would scarce give credit to his report and jealous withal that it might be some train laid to intrap his life he sent another in his stead to whom the same Spirit appeared in the shape aforesaid and seemed much to lament his Sons disâ—idence to whom if he had come in person he would have related strange things which threatned his Estate and the means how to prevent them Yet desired him to recommend him to his Son and tell him that after twenty two years one month and one day prefix'd he should loose the government of that City which he then possessed and so he vanished It hapned just at the same time the spirit had predicted notwithstanding his great care and providence that Philip Duke of Milain the same night besieged the City and by the help of the ice it being then a great Frost past the Moat and with scaling Ladders scaled the Wall surpriz'd the City and took Lodowick Prisoner He was in League with Philip and therefore feared no harm from him 2. Two wealthy Merchants travelling through the Taurine Hills into France upon the way met with a man of more than Humane Stature who thus said to him Salute my Brother Lewis Sforza and deliver him this Letter from me They were amaz'd and asking who he was he told them that he was Galeacius Sforza and immediately vanish'd out of sight They made haste to Milain and delivered the Dukes Letter wherein was thus written O O O Lewis take heed to thy self for the Venetians and French will unite to thy ruine and to deprive thy Posterity of their Estate But if thou wilt deliver me 3000 Guilders I will endeavour that the Spirits being reconcil'd thy unhappy fate may be averted and this I hope to perform if thou shalt not refuse what I have requested Farewel The Subscription was The Soul of Galeacius thy Brother This was laugh'd at by most as a fiction but not long after the Duke was dispossess'd of his Government and taken Prisoner by Lewis the Twelfth King of France Thus far Bernard Arulnus in first Section of the History of Milain who also was an eye witness of what hath pass'd 3. Caesar Baronius tells that there was an intire friendship betwixt Michael Mercatus the Elder and Marsilius Ficinus and this friendship was the stronger betwixt them by reason of a mutual agreement in their studies and an addictedness to the Doctrines of Plato It fell out that these two discoursed together as they us'd of the state of man after death according to Plato's opinions and there is extant a Learned Epistle of Marsilius to Michael Mercatus upon the same subject but when their disputation and discourse was drawn out somewhat long They shut it up with this firm agreement That which soever of them two should first depart out of this life if it might be should ascertain the survivor of the state of the other Life and whether the Soul be immortal or not This agreement being made and mutually sworn unto they departed In a short time it fell out that while Michael Mercatus was one Morning early at his Study upon the sudden he heard the noise of a Horse upon the gallop and then stoping at his door withal he heard the voice of Marsilius his friend crying to him O Michael O Michael those thing are true they are true Michael wondring to hear his friends voice rose up and opening the Casement he saw the backside of him whom he had heard in white and gallopping away upon a white Horse He call'd after him Marsilius Marsilius and follow'd him with his Eye But he soon vanish'd out of sight He amaz'd at this extraordinary accident very solicitously enquired if any thing had happened to Marsilius who then liv'd at Florence where he also breath'd his last and he found upon strict enquiry that he dyed at that very time wherein he was thus heard and seen by him 4. We read in the life of Iohn Chrysostom of Basiliscus the Bishop of the City Comana the same who with Lucianus a Priest of Antioch suffer'd Martyrdom under Maximianus the Emperour that he appeared to St. Chrysostom in his exile and said Brother John be of good heart and courage for to morrow we shall be together Also that before this he had appear'd to the Priest of that Church and said Prepare a place for our Brother John for he is to come presently And that these things
a Table wating on her Master in the Apartment of the Women and over-reaching her self to take a Flagon that stood a little too far from her she chanced to break wind backwards which she was so much ashamed of that putting her Garment over her head she would by no means shew her face after but with an enraged violence taking one of her Nibbles of her Breasts into her mouth she bit it off with such fury that she died in the place 2. In the same Country anno 1639 there was a great Lord who having had an exact search made for all the young handsome Damosels in his Province to be disposed into his Ladies service amongst the rest there was one brought him whom he was so taken with that he made her his Concubine She was the Daughter of a poor Soldier 's widdow who hoping to make her some advantage of her Daughters good fortune wrote her a large Letter wherein she expressed her necessitous condition and how she was forced to sue to her for relief While the Daughter was reading this Letter her Lord comes into the Room when she being ashamed to discover her Mother's poverty endeavours to hide the Letter from him yet could she not convey it away so but that he perceived it The disorder he observed in her countenance made him suspect something of design so that he pressed her to shew him the Letter but the more importunate he was the more unwilling was she to satisfie him And perceiving there was no way to avoid it she thrust it into her mouth with such precipitation that thinking to swallow it down it choaked her This so incensed the Lord that he immediately commanded her Throat to be cut whereby they only discovered the Mother's poverty and the Daughter's innocency He was so mov'd thereat that he could not forbear expressing it by tears and it being not in his power to make any other demonstration of his affection to the deceased he sent for the Mother who was maintained amongst his other Ladies at the time we spake of with all imaginable respect 3. In the speech which Cyrus made to his Sons a little before his death we read this If any of you saith he desire to take me by the hand or to see my eyes let him come so long as I breath but after I am dead and shall be covered I require you my Sons that my body be not uncovered nor looked upon by you or any other person 4. Lucius Crassus when according to the custom of all Candidates he was compelled to go about the Forum as a Suppliant to the people he could never be brought to do it in the presence of Q. Scaevola a grave wise man and his Father-in-law and therefore he besought him to leave him while he was about a foolish business having more reverence to his Dignity and presence than he had respect to his white Gown in which was the custom for them to appear who were suiters to the people for any office in the Commonwealth 5. Iohannes Baptista Lignamineus Bishop of Concordia being sent by his Brother Francis Bishop of Ferrara to Venice was present at that Feast whereat the Duke entertains the whole Nobility four times a year here it was that out of modesty retaining too long the burden of his Belly he fell into a grievous disease of which he also died and was buried at Ferrara 6. Embassadors were sent to Rome from the Cities of Greece to complain of injuries done them by Philip King of Macedon and when the Affair was discussed in the Senate betwixt Demetrius the Son of Philip and the Embassadors forasmuch as Demetrius seem'd to have no way of defence for so many defaults as were objected against his Father with truth enough as also because out of Shamefacedness he exceedingly blushed the Senate of Rome moved with the Modesty of Demetrius acquitted both him and his Father of the Accusations 7. Certain Fishermen of Coos drawing up their Nets some Milesian Strangers agreed with them for their Draught whatsoever it should prove it fell out that they drew up a Table of Gold whereupon a contest grew betwixt the Fishermen and the Buyers and at last improv'd into a War betwixt both the Cities in favour of their Citizens At last it was resolv'd to consult the Oracle of Apollo who answered they should send the Table to that man whom they thought the wisest whereupon it was sent to Thales the Milesian Thales sent it to Bias saying he was wiser than himself Bias sent it to another as wiser than he and so it was posted from one to one till such time as it returned to Thales again who at length sent it from Miletum to Thebes to be consecrate to the Ismenian Apollo 8. The Emperour Maximilian the first of that name forbade expresly that his naked body should be seen after he was dead He was the modestest of all Mortals none of his servants ever saw him obey the necessity of nature nor but few Physicians his Urine 9. The Milesian Virgins were in times past taken with a strange Distemper of which the cause could not then be found out for all of them had a desire of death and a furious itch of strangling themselves many finished their days this way in private neither the prayers nor tears of their Parents or the consolation of their Friends prevailed any thing but being more subtle and witty than those that were set to observe them they daily thus died by their own hands It was therefore thought that this dreadful thing came to pass by the express will of the Gods and was therefore greater than could be provided against by humane industry Till at last according to the advice of a wise man the Council set forth this Edict That every such Virgin as from thenceforth should lay violent hands upon her self should dead as she was be carried stark naked along the Market-place By which means not only they were restrain'd from killing themselves but also their desire of dying was utterly extinguished A strange thing that those who trembled not at death the most formidable of all things should yet though an innate modesty not be able to conceive in their minds much lâ—ss endure a wrong and reproach to that modesty though dead 10. Alvilda the beautâ—ful Daughter of Suiardus King of the Goths is said to be of so great modesty that usually covering her face with her Veil she suffered it not to be sâ—en of any man 11. King Henry the Sixth of England was so modest that when in a Christmass a shew of women was presented before him with their naked Brests laid out he presently departed saying Fie fie for shame Forsooth you be to blame 12. One of the Athenians of decrepit Age came into the Theatre at Athens to behold the Plays and when none of the Citizens receiv'd him into any Seat by chance he came by the place
Lord Buckhurst was bred in Oxford took the degree of Barister in the Temple afterwards travelled into foreign parts was detained a time prisoner at Rome when his liberty was procured for his return into England he possessed the vâ—st inheritance left him by his Father whereof in a short time by his magnificent prodigality he spent the greatest part till he seasonably began to spare growing near to the bottom of his estate The story goes that this young Gentleman coming to an Alderman of London who had gained great pennyworths by his former purchases of him was made being now in the wane of his wealth to wait the coming down of the Alderman so long that his generous humour being sensible of the incivility of such attendance resolved to be no more beholding to wealthy pride and presently turn'd a thrifty improver of the remainder of his estate Others make him the Convert of Queen Elizabeth who by her frequent admonitions diverted the torrent of his profusion indeed she would not know him till he began to know himself and then heaped places of honour and trust upon him creating him Baron of Buckhurst in Sussex anno Dom. 1566 sent him Embassador into France 1571 into the Low Countries 1576 made him Knight of the Order of the Garter 1589 Treasurer of England 1599 he was also Chancellour of the University of Oxford Thus having made amends to his House for his mispent time both in encrease of estate and honour being created Earl of Dorset by King Iames he died April 19 1608. 10. Henry the Fifth while Prince was extremely wild the companion of riotous persons and did many things to the grief of the King his Father as well as to the injury of himself in his reputation with the subject but no sooner was he come to the Crown but the first thing that he did was to banish all his old companions ten miles from his Court and presence and reform'd himself in that manner that he became a most worthy and victorious King as perhaps ever reigned in England 11. S. Augustine in his younger time was a Manichee and of incontinent life he reports of himself that he prayed for continency but was not willing to be heard too soon for saith he I had rather have my lust satisfied than extinguished But being afterwards converted by the Ministry of S. Ambrose he proved a most excellent person as well in Learning as in all sorts of Virtues 12. The Ancients in old time attributed unto King Cecrops a double nature and form and that upon this ground not for that as some said of a good clement and gracious Prince be became a rigorous fell and cruel Tyrant but on the contrary because having been at first and in his youth perverse passionate and terrible he proved afterwards a mild and gentle Lord. 13. Gelon and Hiero in Sicily and Pisistratus the Son of Hippocrates were all Usurpers and such as attained to their Tyrannical Dominion by violent and indirect means yet they used the same virtuously and howsoever they attained the Sovereign Command and for some time in their younger years managed it injuriously enough yet they grew in time to be good Governours loving and profitable to the Common-wealth and likewise beloved and dear unto their Subjects for some of them having brought in and established excellent Laws in their Country and causing their Subjects to be industrious and painful in tilling the ground made them to be civil sober and discreet whereas before they were noted for a tatling playful and idle sort of people 14. Lydiades was a Tyrant in the City of Megalapolis but in the midst of his usurped Dominion he repented of his Tyranny and making conscience thereof he detested that wrongful oppression wherein he had held his Subjects in such sort that he restored his Citizens to their ancient Laws and Liberties yea and aâ—terwards died gloriously fighting manfully in the Field against the enemy in defence of his Country 15. Ceno Valchius King of the Western Saxons in the beginning of his Reign was an impious and debauched Prince whereupon he was expelled from his Kingdom and Government but at last being become a reformed man he was readmitted to his former command and he then ruled his Kingdom with great prudence justice and moderation 16. Offa King of the Mercians in the first flower of his age was immeasurable in his desires of acquiring wealth extreme ambitious of enlarging his Territories and highly delighted with the art of War and Military Discipline he was also all this while a contemner of all moral virtue but when he came to be of maturer and riper years he became famous and renowned for the integrity and modesty of his manners and the singular innocency of his life 17. Iohannes Picus Mirandula visited the most famous Universities of France and Italy and was so great a Proficient that while as yet he had no Beard he was reputed a perfect Philosopher and Divine Being ambitious and desirous of Glory he went to Rome where he proposed nine hundred Questions in all Arts and Sciences to dispute upon which he challenged all the Scholars of all Nations with a new kind of liberality promising to defray the charges of any such as should come from remote parts to dispute with him at Rome He stayed at Rome upon this occasion a whole year In the mean time there wanted not some that privily detracted from him and gave out that thirteen of his Questions were heretical so that he was constrain'd to set forth an Apology and while he studied to excuse himself of errours that were falsly objected to him he fell into others that were greater and worse for he entangled himself in the love of fair rich and noble women and at last was so engaged in quarrels upon this account that he thought it high time to forsake those youthful vanities whereupon he threw into the fire his Books of Love which he had writ both in the Latine and Hetruscan Languages and relinquishing the Dreams of prophane Philosophy he wholly devoted himself to the study of the sacred and holy Scriptures CHAP. III. Of punctual observation in matters of Religion and the great regard some men have had to it THe Athenians consulted the Oracle of Apollo demanding what Rites they should make use of in matters of their Religion The answer was the Rites of their Ancestors Returning thither again they said the manner of their Forefathers had been often changed they therefore enquired what custom they should make choice of in so great a variety Apollo replyed the best This constancy and strictness of the Heathens had been â—ighly commendable had their Devotions been better directed In the mean time they shame us by being more zealous in their Superstition than we are in the true Religion 1. Paulus Aemilius being about to give Battel to Perses King of Macedon at the first Break of Day made a Sacrifice to
Upon which Lipsius justly cries out I know not what I should herein chiefly wonder at whether that a man could so do or so speak 5. Solyman the Magnificent Emperour of the Turks having obtained a Victory over the Germans finding amongst the Captives a Bavarian Souldier a man of an exceeding high Stature he caused him to be delivered to his Dwarf to be by him slain whose head was scarce so high as the others knees and that goodly tall man was mangled about the legs for a long time by that apish Dwarf with his little Scimiter till falling down with many feeble blows he was at last slain in the presence of Solyman who took marvellous pleasure in this scene of cruelty 6. Mahomet the Great first Emperour of the Turks after the winning of Constantinople fell in love with a most beautiful young Greekish Lady called Irene upon whose incomparable perfections he so much doted that he gave himself up wholly to her love But when he heard his Captains and chief Officers murmured at it he appointed them all to meet him in his great Hall and commanding Irene to dress and adorn her self in all her Jewels and most gorgeous apparel not acquainting her in the least with any part of his design taking her hand he led this miracle of beauty into the midst of his Bassaes who dazzled with the brightness of this Illustrious Lady acknowledged their errour professing that their Emperour had just cause to pass his time in solacing himself with so peerless a Paragon But he on a sudden twisting his left hand in the soft curls of her hair and with the other drawing out his crooked Scimiter at one blow struck off her head from her shoulders and so at once made an end of his love and her life leaving all the assistants in a fearful amaze and horror of an act of that cruelty 7. Novellus Carrarius Lord of Padua enflamed with an ambition of greater Rule took away by poyson William Scaliger the Lord of Verona and Vincentia though a familiar friend of his And to enjoy Verona the more securely having betrayed into his power Antonius and Bruno his two sons he caused them also to be slain Being in the City of Vincentia he fell in love with a Maid of singular beauty and required her parents to send her to him but being refused he sent his Guards to fetch her when brought he basely violated her chastity two daies after he caused her to be cut in small pieces and sent her so back in a Basket to her Parents The father amaz'd with the atrocity of the fact represented the whole to the Senate beseeching their assistance in so great an injury The Senate having deliberated upon the matter sent the body of the Maid so inhumanely mangled to the Venetians declaring that they did commit themselves to their care and Patronage The Venetians took upon them their defence and having wearied out Carrarius with war at last pen'd him up in Padua and compelled him to yield himself being taken they strangled him together with his two sons Francis and William 8. Vitoldus Duke of Lithuania was a man of a truculent and cruel disposition if he had destin'd any to death his way was to cause them to be sew'd up in the skins of Bears and so expose them to be torn in pieces by doggs In all his Military expeditions he never was without a Bow in his hand and if he saw any Souldier to march out of his rank he used to shoot him dead with an arrow This fierceness of his that Nation though otherwise haughty and a contemner of death did so stand in awe of that many under his dominion at his command without expectation of an Executioner either hang'd or poyson'd themselves 9. Perotine Massey her Husband was a Minister in Q. Maries Reign he fled out of the Land for fear but she with her mother was condemn'd to be burnt as Hereticks which was done Iuly 18. 1556. she was near the time of her delivery and by force of the flame her young child burst out of her belly this babe was taken out alive by W. House a by-stander and by the command of Elier Gosseline the Bayliff supreme Officer in the then absence of the Governour of the Island Guernsey cast again into the fire and therein consumed to ashes here was a Spectacle without precedent a cruelty built three Generations high for the Grandmother Mother and Grandchild suffered all in the same flame at the same time 10. Demetrius the King of Syria after he had overcome Alexander the Jew in a Battel he led the Prisoners taken in that fight to Ierusalem where he caused eight hundred of them in the midst of the City to be Crucified the sons in the very sight of the mothers and after commanded the mothers themselves to be slain 11. In the Reign of King Edward the sixth upon the alteration of Religion there was an Insurrection in Cornwall and divers other Countries wherein many were taken and Executed by Martial Law The chief Leaders were sent to London and there Executed The Sedition being thus supprest it is memorable what cruel sport Sir William Kingston made by vertue of his Office which was Provost Martial upon men in misery One Boyer Major of Bodmin in Cornwall had been amongst the Rebels not willingly but enforced To him the Provost sent word that he would come and dine with him for whom the Major made great Provision A little before dinner the Provost took the Major aside and whisper'd him in the ear That an Execution must that day be done in the Town and therefore required that a pair of Gallows should be set up against dinner should be done The Major failed not of his charge presently after dinner the Provost taking the Major by the hand entreated him to lead him to the place where the Gallows was which when he beheld he asked the Major if he thought them to be strong enough Yes said the Major doubtless they are Well then said the Provost get you up speedily for they are provided for you I hope answered the Major you mean not as you speak In faith said the Provost there is no remedy for you have been a busie Rebel and so without respite or defence he was hang'd to death Near the said place dwelt a Miller who had been a busie actor in that Rebellion who fearing the approach of the Martial told a sturdy Fellow his servant that he had occasion to go from home and therefore bad him that if any came to enquire after the Miller he should not speak of him but say that he was the Miller and had been so for three years before So the Provost came and called for the Miller when out comes the servant and saith He was the man The Provost demanded how long he had kept the Mill These three years answered the servant then the Provost commanded his men to lay hold
command in the midst of struglings and sighs bore him away to that Judgment of which Benno had foretold him 15. A Master of the Teutonick Order whose name I spare to mention proposed a Match betwixt a young Merchant and a Woman of a doubtful fame in respect of her chastity The young man refused the overture the rather because he that perswaded the Marriage was supposed to be no hater of the woman The Master resented this refusal so ill that he determined that the life of the refuser should pay for it he therefore contrived that he should be accused of theft and being condemned he commanded he should be hanged prayers and tears were of no avail and therefore the innocent had recourse to the safest Sanctuary of Innocency and therefore as he was led to Execution he said with a loud voice I suffer unjustly and therefore appeal to the supreme Lord of life and death to him shall he render an account after the thirteenth day from hence who hath unjustly condemned me The Master scoffed at this but upon the same thirteenth day he was taken with a sudden sickness and said Miserable that I am behold I die and must this day appear before the all-seeing Judge and so died 16. Otho the First Emperor of Rome being freely reprehended for his Marriage with Adelaida by his Son William then Bishop of Mentz sent his Son to prison The Bishop cited his Father Otho to the Tribunal of Christ And said he upon Whitsunday both of us shall appear before the Lord Christ where by divine Judgment it shall appear who hath transgressed the limits of his duty Upon the Nones of May and the day of Pentecost Otho died suddenly in Saxony when his Son the Bishop had deceased some time before him CHAP. XXVII Of the Apparition of Demons and Spectres and with what courage some have endured the sight of them THere are some who deny the very Being of Spirits these I look upon as men possessed with such an incurable madness as no Hellebore is sufficient to quit them of Others who believe they are yet think them so confined to their own Apartments that they may not intermeddle with humane affairs at least not shew themselves to men there is no doubt variety of impostures in the stories of them but to reject all such appearances as fabulous is too severe a reflection upon the credit of the best Historians 1. When Cassius and Brutus were about to pass out of Asia into Europe and to transport their Army into the opposite Continent an horrible spectacle is said to be shewed to Brutus for in the dead of the night when the Moon shined not very bright and all the Army was in silence a black image of a huge and horrid body standing by him silently is said to offer it self to Brutus his candle being almost out and he musing in his Tent about the issue of the War Brutus with an equal constancy both of mind and visage inquired of him what either Man or God he was The Spirit answered O Brutus I am thine evil Genius and thou shalt see me again at Philippi Brutus couragiously replied I will see thee there then The Spirit disappeared but as he had said appeared to him again in those fields of Philippi the night before the last fight The next morning he told Cassius what he had seen and he expounded to him out of the doctrine of the Epicureans what was to be thought concerning such Spectres 2. The learned and pious Melancthon tells that he had an Aunt who sitting sad by the fire side one night after the death of her Husband there entred two persons into the house one of whiâ—â— who bore the resemblance of him told her that he was her dead Husband the other was in the habit of a Franciscan The Husband came to the fire side saluted his Wife and bad her to fear nothing for that he only came to give order for some things whereupon having wished the Monk to withdraw he wished her to hire certain Priests to say Masses for his Souls health and then desired her to give him her hand The frighted woman durst not but he promising she should have no hurt she then complied with his desire but though she had no hurt upon her hand yet by that touch it seemed so burnt that it was black to the day of her death When he had taken her by the hand he called the Franciscan and both of them departed 3. There was a house in Athens wherein in the dead of the night a tall and meagre Ghost used to walk and with the dreadful ratling of his chains had not only frighted away the inhabitants but was also a great terrour to the neighbourhood The house was a very fair one but for as much as there was no man found that durst dwell in it it had stood long vacant though there was writ upon the door that it was to be lett for a very inconsiderable Rent It fortuned that Athenodorus the Philosopher came to Athens and allured with the cheapness of the Rent more than affrighted with the relation of the Phantasme that disturbed it he hired it forthwith And sitting up purposely somewhat late at his studies the chained Ghost appears to him and beckned to him to follow which he boldly did from room to room till at last in a certain place he observed it to vanish which having diligently noted he caused to be digged and there found the carcass of a man in chains and in all points resembling the appearance he had seen He caused the Corps to be removed and elsewhere committed to the ground which done the house from thenceforth continued to be quiet 4. Take a Narration of that which happened to Alexander of Alexandria a Witness worthy of credit as himself hath set it down thus Being saith he once sick at Rome as I lay in my bed broad waking there appeared unto me a very fair Woman looking upon her with mine eyes wide open I lay still a long time much troubled without speaking a word casting and discoursing with my self whether I waked or was in a dream and whether it was a phantasie of mine or a true sight which I saw Feeling all my senses whole and perfect and seeing the shape to continue in the same posture I began to ask her who she was she smiling and repeating the same words that I had spoken as if she had mocked me after she had looked upon me a long while vanished away 5. Dion the Syracusan after with great glory to himself he had freed his Country from Tyranny sitting in his house at mid-day a Woman in the habit of a Fury of huge stature and horrid ugliness offered her self to his eyes without speaking a word and beginning to sweep the house with a Besome Dion affrighted called for some of his friends upon which the Spectre disappeared but so did not the evil which