with this iudgement he caused his wife to bring forth a child with a head like a dog that seeing hee preferred his dogs before the seruice of God he might haue one of his owne getting to make much of At Kimstat a town in France Iob. Fincel lib. 3. de mirac there liued in the yere of our Lord 1559 a certaine couetous woman who was so eager vpon the word and greedy of gaine that she would neither frequent the Church to heare the word of God her selfe nor suffer any of her family to do it but continually abode labouring and toiling about drying and pilling flax and doing other domesticall businesses neither would shee be reclaimed by her neighbors who admonished and dehorted her from such vntimely workes One Sabbath day as they were thus busily occupied fire seemed to issue among the flaxe without doing any hurt the next Sabbath day it tooke fire indeed but was quickly extinct for all this shee continued obstinate in her prophanenesse euen the third Sabbath when the flax againe taking fire could not be quenched till it had burnt her two of her children to death for though they were recouered out of the fire aliue yet the next day they all three died And that which was most to be wondred at a young infant in the cradle was taken out of the midst of the flame without any hurt Thus God vseth to exercise his iudgements vpon the contemners of his commandements Cent. 12. cap. 6. The Centuriators of Magdeburge intreating of the manners of Christians made report out of another history that a certaine husbandman in Parochia Gemilacensi grinding corne vpon the Lords day the meale began to burne Anno Dom. 1126 which though it might seeme to be a thing more casuall Ecclesiast hist. Cent. 12. ibid. yet they set it down as a iudgement of God vpō him for breaking the Sabbath As also of that which they speake in the same place of one of the kings of Denmark who when as he contrary to the admonition of the priests who desired him to defer it would needs vpō the day of Pentecost make war with his enemy died in the battell But that may be better known to vs all which is written in the 2 book of Machabes of Nicanor the Iewes enemy who would needs set vpon them on the Sabbath from which whē other the Iewes that were compelled to be with him could no way dissuade him he was slaine in the battell and most miserably but deseruedly handled euen the parts of his body shamefully dismembred as in that history you may read more at large Concil Paris lib. 1. cap. 50. Therfore in the councill at Paris euery one labouring to persuade vnto a more religious keeping of the Sabbath day when they had iustly cōplained that as many other things so also the obseruation of the Sabbath was greatly decaied through the abuse of Christian liberty in that men too much followed the delights of the world and their owne worldly pleasures both wicked and dangerous they further adde Multi nanque nostrum visu multi etiam quorundam relatu didicimus c. For many of vs haue bene eye witnesses many haue intelligence of it by the relation of others that some men vpon this day being about their husbandry haue beene stricken with thunder some haue beene maimed and made lame some haue had their bodies euen bones and all burnt in a moment with visible fire and haue consumed to ashes and many other iudgements of God haue bene and are daily whereby it is declared that God is offended with the dishonor of so high a day And our time hath not wanted examples in this kind whosoeuer hath obserued them when sometimes in the faires vpon this day the wares haue swom in the streets somtimes the scaffolds at plaies haue fallen downe to the hurting endangering of many somtime one thing somtime another haue fallen out and that which is most strange within these late yeres a whole town hath bene twise burnt for the breach of the Sabbath by the inhabitants The iust report thereof because I probably know not I passe ouer here to set downe vntill such time as I shall be better instructed Famous and memorable also is that example which happened at London in the yeere 1583 at Paris garden where vpon the Sabbath day were gathered togither as accustomably they vsed great multitudes of prophane people to behold the fport of bearbaiting without respect of the Lords day or any exercise of religiō required therin which profane impiety the Lord that he might chasten in some sort shew his dislike therof he caused the scaffolds suddenly to breake and the beholders to tumble headlong downe so that to the number of eight persons men women were slain therwith besides many others which were sore hurt bruised to the shortning of their daies Surely a friendly warning to such as more delight themselues with the cruelty of beasts vaine sports than with the works of mercy religion the fruits of a true faith which ought to be the sabbath daies exercise And thus much for the examples of the first table wherof if some seeme to exceed credit by reason of the strangenes of them yet let vs know that nothing is impossible to God and that he doth often worke miracles to controll the obstinate impietie and rebellion of mortall men against his commaundements Besides there is not one example here mentioned but it hath a credible or probable authour for the auoucher of it Let vs now out of all this that hath beene spoken gather vp this wholsome lesson to loue God with all our heart and affection to the end wee may worship him inuocate his holy name and repose all the confidence of our saluation vpon him alone through Christ Iesus seeking by pleasing and obeying his will to set forth his glorie and render him due thankes for all his benefits FINIS The second Booke CHAP. I. Of rebellious and stubborne children towards their parents WEe haue seene in the former booke what punishments they haue incurred that either malitiously or otherwise haue transgressed and broken the commandements of the first Table Now it followeth to discouer the chastisements which God hath sent vpon the transgressours of the second Table And first concerning the first commandement thereof which is Honour thy father and mother that thy daies may be prolonged in the land which the Lord thy God hath giuen thee Cham one of old Noahs sonnes Gen. 9. was guilty of the breach of this commandement who instead of perfourming that reuerence to his father which hee ought and that presently after the deluge which being yet fresh in memory might haue taught him to walke in the feare of God came so short of his duty that when he saw his nakednesse hee did not hide it but mocked and iested at it for which cause hee was cursed both of his father and of God
where Gods word is generally despised not regarded nor profited by there some notable destruction approcheth Philip Melanc in collectaneis Manlij In a certain place there was acted a tragedie of the death and passion of Christ in shew but indeed of themselues for hee that plaied Christs part hanging vpon the crosse was wounded to death by him that should haue thrust his sword into a bladder full of blood tied to his side who with his fall slew another that plaied one of the womens part that lamented vnder the crosse his brother that was first slaine seeing this slew the murderer and was himselfe by order of iustice hanged therfore so that this tragedie was concluded with four true not counterfeit deaths and that by the diuine prouidence of God who can endure nothing lesse then such prophane and ridiculous handling of so serious and heauenly matters In the Vniuersitie of Oxford the historie of Christ was also plaied and cruelly punished that not many years since for he that bore the person of Christ the Lord stroke him with such a giddinesse of spirit braine that he became mad forthwith crying when he was in his best humour that God had laid this iudgement vpon him for playing Christ Three other actors in the same play were hanged for robbing as by credible report is affirmed Most lamentable was the iudgement of God vpon one Iohn Apowel somtimes a seruingman for mocking iesting at the word of God this Iohn Apowell hearing one William Malden reading certaine English praiers mocked him after euery word with cōtrary gauds flouting termes insomuch that at last he was terribly afraid so that his hair stood vpright on his head and the next day was found besides his wits crying night and day without ceasing The deuill the deuill Acts and monuments pag. 2103. O the deuill of hell now the deuill of hell there he goeth for it seemed to him as the other read Lord haue mercie vpon vs at the end of the praier that the deuill appeared vnto him and by the permission of God depriued him of his vnderstanding this is a terrible example for all those that bee mockers at the word of God to warne them if they do not repent least the vengeance of God fall vpon them in like manner Thus wee see how seuerely the Lord punisheth all despisers and prophaners of his holy things and thereby ought to learne to carrie a most dutifull regard and reuerence to them as also to note them for none of Gods flocke whosoeuer they be that deride or contemne any part of religion or the ministers of the same CHAP. XXXV Of those that prophane the Sabboth day IN the fourth last commandement of the first table it is said Remember to keep holy the sabboth day by which words it is ordained and enioined vs to seperate one day of seuen from al bodily and seruile labor not to idlenes loosenes but to the worship of God which is spirituall and wholesome Which holy ordināce whē one of the childrē of Israel in contempt broke as they were in the wildernesse Numb 15. by gathering stickes vpon the sabboth he was brought before Moses Aaron the whole congregation by them put in prison vntill such time as they knew the Lords determination concerning him knowing well that he was guiltie of a most grieuous crime And at length by the Lords owne sentence to his seruant Moses condemned to be stoned to death without the host as was speedily executed wherin the Lord made known vnto them both how vnpleasant odious the prophanation of his Sabboth was in his sight and how seriously and carefully euery one ought to obserue and keepe the same Now albeit that this strict obseruation of the sabboth was partly ceremoniall vnder the law and that in Christ Iesus wee haue an accomplishment as of all other so also of this ceremonie hee being the true sabboth and assured repose of our soules yet seeing wee still stand in need of some time for the instruction and exercise of our faith it is necessarie that we should haue at least one day in a weeke to occupie our selues in and about those holy and godly exercises which are required at our hands and what day fitter for that purpose then sunday Which was also ordained in the Apostles time for the same end and called by them Des dominicus that is The day of our Lord Because vpon that day he rose from the dead to wit the morrow after the Iewes sabboth being the first day of the weeke to which sabboth it by cōmon consent of the church succeeded to the end that a difference might be put betwixt Christians Iews Therfore it ought now religiously to be obserued as it is also commanded in the ciuil law with expresse prohibition not to abuse this day of holy rest in vnholy sports pastimes Cod. lib. 3. tit 12. leg 10. of euill example Neuerthelesse in steed hereof we see the euill emploiance abuse and disorder of it for the most part for beside the false worship and plentifull superstitions which raigne in so many places all manner of disorder and dissolutenesse is in request beareth sway in these daies this is the day for tipling houses and tauernes to be fullest fraught with ruffians and ribalds and for villanous and dishonest speech with lecherous and baudie songes to be most rise this is the day when gourmandise and drunkennesse shew themselues most frollick othes blasphemies flie thickest and fastest this is the day when dicing dancing whoring and such noisome and dishonest demeanours muster their bands and keep ranke togither from whence fome out enuies hatreds displeasures quarrels debates bloodsheddings and murders as daily experience testifieth All which things are euident signes of Gods heauy displeasure vpon the people where these abuses are permitted and no difference made of that day wherin God would be serued but is cōtrarily most dishonored by the ouerflow of wciked examples And that it is a thing odious and condemned of God these examples following will declare Gregory Turonensis reporteth that a husbandman who vpon the Lords day went to plow his field as he cleansed his plowshare with an iron the iron stucke so fast into his hand that for two yeeres hee could not be deliuered from it but carried it about continually to his exceeding great paine and shame Discipulus de tempore ser 117. Another profane fellow without any regard of God or his seruice made no conscience to conuey his corne out of the field on the Lords day in sermon time but hee was well rewarded for his godlesse couetousnesse for the same corne which with so much care he gathered togither was consumed with fire from heauen with the barne and all the graine that was in it A certaine noble man vsed euery Lords day to go a hunting in the sermon while Theatr. hist which impietie the Lord punished
the prime of his yeeres with all his strength had assaied to do it And when a certaine Cardinall came to visit him in this extremity hee could not abide his sight his paines encreasing therby but cried out assoone as he perceiued him departed that it was the Cardinall that brought them all to damnation When hee had bene thus a long time tormented at last in extreme anguish and feare he died Sleidan lib. 9. Sir Thomas More L. Chancellour of England a sworne enemy to the Gospell and a profest persecutour by fire and sword of all the faithfull as if thereby hee would grow famous and get renowme caused to be erected a sumptuous sepulchre and thereby to eternize the memory of his profane cruelty to be engrauen the commendation of his worthy deeds amongst which the principall was that hee had persecuted with all his might the Lutherens that is the faithfull but it fell out contrary to his hope for being accused conuicted and condemned of high treason his head was taken from him and his body found no other sepulchre to lie in but the gibbet Cardinall Croscentius the Popes ambassadour to the Councill of Trent in the yeere of our Lord 1552 being very busie in writing to his master the Pope and hauing laboured all one night about his letters behold as he raised himselfe in his chaire to stirre vp his wit and memory ouerdulled with watching a huge blacke dogge with great flaming eies and long eares dangling to the ground appeared vnto him which comming into his chamber and making right towards him euen vnder the table where he sate vanished out of his sight wherat he amazed a while senslesse recouering him selfe called for a candle when he saw the dog could not be found he fell presently sicke with a strong conceit which neuer left him till his death euer crying that they would driue away the blacke dogge which seemed to clime vpon his bed and in that humour he died 27 booke of his histories Albertus Pighius a great enemy of the truth also in so much that Paulus Iouius calleth him the Lutheranes scourge beeing at Bologne at the coronation of the Emperour vpon a scaffold to behold the pompe and glory of the solemnization the scaffold bursting with the weight of the multitude hee tumbled headlong amongst the guard that stood below vpon the points of their halberds piercing his body cleane through the rest of his company escaping without any great hurt for though the number of them which fell with the scaffold was great yet very fewe found themselues hurt thereby saue only this honourable Pighius that found his deaths wound and lost his hearts blood as hath bene shewed Poncher 2. Booke of martyrs The burning chamber was a court in France which adiudged the Christians to be burned Archbishop of Tours pursuing the execution of the burning chamber was himselfe surprised with a fire from God which beginning at his heele could neuer be quenched till member after mēber being cut off he died miserably An Augustine frier named Lambert doctor and Prior in the city of Liege one of the troope of cruell inquisitours for religion whilst he was preaching one day with open mouth against the faithfull was cut short of a sudden in the midst of his sermon beeing bereaued of sense and speech in so much that he was faine to be carried out of the pulpit to his cloister in a chaire and a few daies after was found drowned in a ditch In the yeere of our Lord 1527 there was one George Hala a Saxon minister of the word and sacraments Luther and a stout professour of the reformed religion who being for that cause sent for to appeare before the Archbishop of Mentz at Aschaffenburge was handled on this fashion they tooke away his owne horse and set him vpon the Archbishops fooles horse and so sent him backe homewards conducted by one appointed for the purpose who not suffering him to ride the common and beaten way but leading him a new course thorough by and vncoth pathes brought him into an ambush of theeues placed there by the bishops appointment who set vpon him and murdred him at once but it is notoriously knowen that not one of that wicked rable came to a good end but were consumed one after another In a city of Scotland called Fanum Ianius the chiefe mart towne of that countrey foure of the chiefest citizens were accused by a monke before the Cardinall for interrupting him in a sermon and by him condemned to be hanged like heretiques when no other crime could be laid to their charge History of martyrs part 7. saue that they desired the monke to tie himselfe to his text and not to roue vp and downe as he did without any certen scope or application of matter Now as they went to execution their wiues fell downe at the Cardinals feete beseeching and intreating pardon for their husbands liues which he was so farre from graunting that hee accused them also of heresie and especially one of them whose name was Helene for hee caused her young infant to be pulled out of her armes and her to be put to death with her husband for speaking certaine words against the virgine Mary which by no testimonies could be prooued against her Which doome the godly woman taking cheerefully and desiring to hang by her husbands side they would not doe her that last fauour but drowned her in a riuer running by that it might truly be said that no jot of mercy or compassion remained in them But ere long the cruell Cardinall found as little sauour at another butchers hands that slue him in his chamber when hee dreamed of nothing lesse and in his Cardinals robes hanged him ouer the wall to the view of men And thus God reuenged the death of those innocents whose bloods neuer ceased crying for vengeance against their murder vntill he had justly punished him in the same kind and after the same fashion which he had dealt with them Theatrum historicum Thomas Blauer one of the priuie counsellours of the king of Scots was a sore persecutour of the faithfull in that land for which cause lying on his death bed he fell into despaire and said hee was damned Refer this also to hypocrisie Lib. 1. cap. 22. and a castaway and when the monkes came about him to comfort him hee cried out vpon them saying that their Masses and other trash would doe him no good for he neuer beleeued them but all that he did was for loue of lucre not of religion not respecting or beleeuing there was either a God or a deuil or a hel or a heauē and therefore he was damned there was no remedy And in this miserable case without any signe of repentance he died But let vs come to our homebred English stories and consider the iudgements of God vpon the persecutors of Christs Gospell in Queene Maries time And first to begin with Steuen
a wise man to preuent all mischiefes was found dead the day before hauing his throat cut and as most likelihood was finding himselfe guilty of the fact and too weake to ouerway the other side forestalled the infamie of a most shamefull death by killing himselfe although there be that say that the Emperour sent one of purpose to dispatch him in this manner Lib. 3. cap. 4. Of the Northren people Olaus Magnus telleth of one Methâ—tin a noble magitian in old time that by his delusions did so deceiue and blind the poore ignorant people that they accounted him not only for some mightie man but rather for some demy god in token of the honour and reuerence they bare him Refer this also to the lib. 1. cap 24. they offered vp sacrifices vnto him which he refused not but at last his knaueries and cousenages being laid open they killed him whom before they so much esteemed because his dead carkasse with filthy stinke infected the approchers they digged it vp and broched it vpon the end of a stake to be deuoured of wild beasts Chap. 18. of the foresaid book Another called Hollere as the same authour witnesseth plaied the like tricks in abusing the peoples minds as strongly as the other did insomuch that he was reputed also for a god for he ioined with his craft strength and power to make himselfe of greater authority in the world WheÌ„ he listed to passe ouer the sea hee vsed no other ship but a bone figured with certaine charmes wherby he was transported as if both sailes wind had helped driuen him forwards yet his enchanted bone was not of power to saue him from being murdered of his enemies The same authour writeth that in Denmarke there was one Otto a great rouer pirat by sea who vsed likewise to passe the seas without the helpe of ship or any other vessell sunke drowned all his enemies with the waues which by his cunning he stirred vp but at last this cunning practiser was ouerreached by one more expert in his Art then himselfe and as hee had serued others so was hee himselfe serued euen swallowed vp of the waues There was a coniurer at Saltzbourg that vaunted that he could gather togither all the serpents within halfe a mile round about into a ditch and feed them and bring them vp there and being about the experiment behold the old and grand serpent came in the while which whilst he thought by the force of his charmes to make to enter into the ditch among the rest he set vpon and enclosed him round about like a girdle so strongly that he drew him perforce into the ditch with him where he miserably died Marke here the wages of such wicked miscreants that as they make it their occupation to abuse simple folke they are themselues abused cousened of the deuill who is a finer iuggler then them all It was a very lamentable spectacle that chanced to the gouernour of Mascon a magitian whome the deuill snatched vp in dinner while and hoisted aloft carrying him three times about the towne of Mascon in the presence of many beholders to whome hee cryed on this manner Helpe helpe my friends Hugo de Clam so that the whole towne stood amazed thereat yea and the remembrance of this strange accident sticketh at this day fast in the minds of all the inhabitants of the countrey and they say that this wretch hauing giuen himselfe to the deuill prouided store of holy bread as they call it which hee alwaies carried about with him thinking thereby to keepe himselfe from his clawes but it serued him to small stead as his end declared About the yeere 1437 Charles the seuenth being king of France Sir Giles of Britaine lord of Rayes and high Constable of France was accused by the report of Enguerran de Monstrelet for hauing murdered many infants and women great with child Vol. 2. to the number of eight score or more with whose blood he either writ or caused to be written books full of coniurations hoping by that abominable meanes to attaine to high matters but it happened cleane crosse contrary to his expectation and practise for being conuinced of those horrible crimes it being Gods will that such grosse and palpable sinnes should not go vnpunished hee was adiudged to be hanged and burned to death which was also accordingly executed at Nantes by the authoritie of the Duke of Britaine Iohn Francis Picus of Mirand saith that hee conferred diuers times with many who being enticed with a vaine hope of knowing things to come were afterwards so grieuously tormented by the deuill with whome they had made some bargaine that they thought themselues thrise happy if they escaped with their liues He saith moreouer that there was in his time a certaine coniurer that promised a too curious no great wise prince to present vnto him vpon a stage the siege of Troy and Achilles and Hector fighting togither as they did when they were aliue but he could not performe his promise for another sport and spectacle more hideous ougly to his person for hee was taken away aliue by a deuill in such sort that he was neuer afterward heard of In our owne memory the Earle of Aspremont and his brother lord of Orne were made famous and in euery mans mouth for their straunge and prodigious feats wherein they were so vnreasonably dissolute and vainglorious that sometime they made it their sport and pastime to breake downe all the windowes about the castle Aspremont where they kept which lieth in Lorraine two miles from S. Michael and threw them peece meale into a deep well to heare them crie plumpe but this vaine excesse prefaged a ruine and destruction to come aswell vpon their house which at this present lieth desolate and ruinous in many respects as vpon theÌ„selues that finished their daies in miserie one after another as wee shall now vnderstand of the one the Lord of Orne a Albeit the author forget himselfe for there is no more mentioÌ„ made of him in the whole booke as for the Earle how he died wee shall see more at large in the second booke 28 chapter to which place his history properly belongeth Now it chanced that as this Lord of Orne was of most wicked and cruell conditions so he had an euil fauoured looke answerable to his inclination and name to be a coniurer the report that went of his cruelty was this that vpon a time he put the baker one of his seruants whose wife he vsed secretly to entertaine into a tunne which he caused to be rouled from the top of a hill into the bottome bounsing some times as high as a pike as the place gaue occasion but by the great mercy of God notwithstanding all this this poore man saued his life Furthermore it was a common report that wheÌ„ any Gentlemen or Lords came to see him they were entertained as they
thought very honorably being serued with al sort of most dainty fare and exquisite dishes as if hee had not spared to make them the best cheare that might bee but at their departure they that thought themselues wel refreshed found their stomacks empty almost pined for want of food hauing neither eaten nor drunk any thing saue in imagination only it is to bee thought that their horses found no better fare then their masters It happened one day that a certaine Lord being departed from his house one of his men hauing left something behind returned to the castle entering sodainly into the hal where they dined a little before he espied a Munkie beating the maister of the house that had feasted them of late very sore And there be others that say that hee hath ben seene through the chinke of a dore lying on a table vpon his belly all at length a Monkie scourging him verie strangely to whome he should say Let me alone let me alone Wilt thou alwaies torment me thus And thus he continued a long time but at length after he had made away all his subhance hee was brought to such extremitie that being destitute of maintenance and forsaken of all men hee was faine for want of a better refuge to betake himself to the hospitall of Paris which was his last mansion house wherein he died See here to how pitifull miserable an end this man fell that hauing beene esteemed amongst the mighties of this world for making no more account of God and for following the illusions of Satan the common enemie of mankind became so poore and wretched as to die in an hospitall among creeples and beggers It is not long since there was in Lorraine a certaine man called Coulen that was ouermuch giuen to this cursed Art amongst whose tricks this was one to be wondred at that he would suffer Harquebouses or a pistoll to be shot at him and catch their bullets in his hand without receiuing any hurt but vpon a certaine time one of his seruants being angry with him hot him such a knock with a pistoll notwithstanding all his great cunning that he killed him therewith Moreouer it is worthy to be obserued that within these two hundred yeeres hitherto more monkes and priests haue bene found giuen ouer to these abominations and deuilishnesses then of all other degrees of people watsoeuer as it is declared in the second volume of Enguerran de Monstrelet more at large where he maketh mention of a monke that vsed to practise his sorceries in the top of a tower of an Abbey lying neere to Login vpon Marne where the deuils presented themselues to be at his commaundement and this was in the raigne of Charles the sixt In the same booke it is recorded that in the raigne of Charles the seuenth one Master William Ediline Doctor in Diuinitie and Prior of S. Germaine in Lay hauing bene an Augustane frier gaue himselfe to the denill for his pleasure euen to haue his will of a certaine women he was vpon a time in a place where a synagogue of people were gathered togither where to the end that he might quickly be as he himselfe confessed he tooke a broome and rode vpon it he confessed also that hee had done homage to that enemie of God the deuill who appeared vnto him in the shape of a sheepe and made him kisse his hinder parts as he reported for which causes A sweet kisse doubtlesse he was placed vpon a scaffold and openly made to weare a paper containing his owne faults and afterwards alotted to liue prisoner all the rest of his life laden with irons in the bishop of Eureux his house which was accordingly executed this happened in the yeere 1453. In the reigne of the same king 1457 there was a certaine curat of a village neere to Soissons who to reuenge himselfe of a farmer that reteined from him the tenths which were appointed to the knights of the Rhodes went to a witch of whome he receiued in gift a fat tode in an earthen pot which shee had a long while fed and brought vp which shee commanded him to baptize as hee also did and called it by the name of Iohn Contempt of sacraments Lib. 1. cap. 34. albeit I tremble to recite so monstrous vile a fact yet that euery man might see how deadly besotted those sort of people are that giue themselues ouer to Satan and with what power of errour he ouerwhelmeth them and beside how full of malice this vncleane spirit is that as it were in despight of God would profane the holy sacrament of baptisme This good holy curar after he had consecrated the holy ghost gaue it also to the toad to eat and afterward restored it to the witch againe who killing the toad and cutting it in pieces with other such like sorceries caused a young wench to carry it secretly into the farmers house and to put it vnder the table as they were at dinner whereupon immediatly the farmer and his chldren that were at the table fell suddenly sicke three daies after died the witch her selfe being detected was burned but the Curat suffred only a litle imprisonment in the bishop of Paris house and that not long for what with frieÌ„dship mony he was soon deliuered Froissard who was treasurer canon of Chymay reporteth of another Curat in the countrey of Beare â—nner Charles the seuenth that had a familiar spirit which he called Orthon whose helpe he vsed to the disturbance of the lord of Corasse by causing a terrible noise to be heard euery night by him and his seruants in his castle because the said lord withheld his tithes from him and conuerted them to his owne vse In the yeere 15â—0 at Nuremberg a certaine priest studied Art magicke Wierus and being very couetous of gold and siluer the deuill whome he serued shewed him through a chrystall certaine treasures hidden in the city he by and by greedy of this rich prey went to that part of the city where hee supposed it to haue lien buried being arriued at the place with a companion whome he brought to this pretie pastime fell a searching and digging vp a hollow pit vntill he perceiued a coffer that lay in the bottome of the hole with a great blacke dog lying by it whether he was no sooner entred but the earth fell downe and filled vp the hole and smothered and crushed him to death so this poore priest was intrapped and rewarded by his master no other waies then hee deserued but otherwise then he expected or looked for Naucler vinc c. Howbeit they are not onely simple priests and friers that deale with these cursed artes but euen Popes themselues Siluester the second who as Platina and others report was first a coniuring frier and gaue himselfe to the deuill vpon condition he might be Pope as he was indeed and hauing obtained his purpose as it seemed hee began
vnderstand another so that with shame they were constrained to leaue their begun worke And besides instead of that strong and sure habitation which they dreamed on to maintaine and defend themselues by against all enemies and the fortresse castle wereby they went about to keepe other in subiection to them they were forced to forsake the place by the iust iudgement of God who scattered and dispersed them hither and thither that hee might bring them to that estate condition which they most of all feared and stroue to shun And thus God resisteth the proud and fauoureth the humble loe here the punishment wherwith God punished their sinne remaining still vpon them vntill this day for a chastisement of their proud spirits with the staine of this sinne most commonly the mightiest potentates of this world are defiled who although both by word and writing auouch confesse their power to be by the grace of God yet for the most part they are very vnthankfull for the same and so proud and high minded that they shew themselues most obstinate and vngratefull of all men for oftentimes they robbe him of the honour and glory which is peculiar vnto himselfe and attribute it to themselues in setting forth their braue and sumptuous shewes and triumphes this is the sinne whereof Nabuchadnezzar king of Babell was reprooued for God hauing bestowed vpon him a kingdome with such pompe and renowme that hee made whole nations to tremble before his face and putting many people in subiection vnder him hee in stead of giuing thankes for these great benefits exalted himselfe suffering his heart to swell and his vnderstanding to waxe hard with pride not regarding the Lord who extolled him so high and yet notwithstanding he was constrained to confesse and acknowleege him for the true God to haue an euerlasting kingdome and an infinite power as well by the forewarning of dreames which Daniel interpreted as by the miraculous deliuerance of the three yong men out of the burning furnace therefore as hee walked one day in his roiall pallace at Babylon and vaunted of his greatnesse and magnificense saying to himselfe Dan. 4. Is not this great Babel which I haue built for the house of the kingdome by the might of my power and for the honour of my maiestie Now whilst the word was yet in his mouth a voice was heard from heauen saying O king to thee it is spoken Thy kingdome shall depart from thee and according to the tenor of the voice hee was immediatly deposed from his roiall seat spoiled of all his glory driuen from the society of men depriued of sense made a companion for the bruit beasts and wild asses eating grasse like oxen euen so long vntill his haire was growen stiffe like Eagles feathers and his nailes like the clawes of birds In which estate hee continued the space of seuen yeeres euen hee that a little before was so proud and arrogant and hee that had conquered so many kingdomes and nations that triumphed ouer Iewry and Ierusalem with the kings thereof This is a most excellent looking glasse for kings to behold the ficklenesse and instabilitie of all their power and pompe when it pleaseth God to humble and bring them vnder there is neither sceptet crowne stay or strength of man that is able to hinder and turne aside the hand of the Almightie the King of kings from abasing and weakening the most high and strong of this world let them be neuer so braue and iolly and bringing them vnto a low contemptible and brutish estate Besides this which we haue already touched there is another kind of pride and presumption most damnable and detestable of all and it is when a man doth so much forget himselfe as to sease and take vpon him that honour which appertaineth only to God ascribing to himselfe a certaine deity one would hardly thinke that there were any such in the world so proud as to commit this sinne did not experience by certaine examples teach vs the contrary As first of all the king of Tyre whose heart was so exalted with the multitude of â—iches and the renowme and greatnesse of his house that hee doubted not to esteeme himselfe a god and to desire maiesty and power correspondent thereunto for which presumption Chap. 28.1 2 3 c. God by the Prophet Ezechiel reprooued him and threatned his destruction which afterward came vpon him when by the power of a strange and terrible nation his goodly godhead was ouercome and murdered feeling in deed that he was no god as he supposed but a man subiect to death and misery King Herod sirnamed Agrippa which put Iames the brother of Iohn to death Act. 12. and imprisoned Peter with purpose to make him tast of the same cup was puffed vp with no lesse sacrilegious pride for being vpon a time seated in his throne of iudgement and araied in his roiall robes shewing forth his greatnesse and magnificense in the presence of the Embassadours of Tyre and Sidon that desired to continue in peace with him as he spake vnto them the people shouted and cried That it was the voice of God and not of man which titles of honour hee disclaimed not and therefore the Angell of the Lord smote him suddenly because hee gaue not the glory to God so that he was eaten with worms and gaue vp the ghost Iosephus reporteth the same story more at large on this manner Vpon the second day of the solemnization of the plaies which Herod caused to be celebrated for the Emperours health there being a great number of gentlemen and Lords present that came from all quarters to this feast Iewish antiquities Lib. 19. cap. 7. hee came betime in the morning to the Theatre clad in a garment all wouen with siluer of a marueilous workmanship vpon which as the sunne rising cast his beames there glittered out such an excellent brightnesse that thereby his pernicious flatterers tooke occasion to call him with a loud voice by the name of God for the which sacrilegious speech hee not reproouing nor forbidding them was presently taken with most grieuous and horrible dolours and gripes in his bowels so that looking vpon the people hee vttered these words Behold here your goodly god whome you but now so highly honoured ready to die with extreame paine And so hee died in deed most miserably euen when hee was in the top of his honour and iollitie and as it were in the midst of his earthly paradise being beaten downe and swallowed vp with confusion and ignominie not stroken with the edge of sword or speare for that had beene far more honourable but gnawen in pieces with lice and vermine Simon Magus otherwise called Simon the Samaritane borne in a village called Gitton after hee was cursed of Peter the Apostle for offering to buy the giftes of the spirit of God with money went to Rome Euseb lib. 2. cap. 12. Philip. in Chron. Cent. â— lib. 2. cap.
bitter and vnlooked for death which depriued him at once of all his pleasures to make him drinke the cup of Gods fierce wrath and to throw him down headlong into euerlasting paines and torments which were prouided for him Pope Leo saith S. Martin of Belay in his second book of memorable things hearing of the great losse which the French men sustained at Millan tooke so great ioy thereat that a catar and an ague insuing killed him within three daies after a happie man indeed to die with ioy Pope Iulius the third was one of the same stampe Bale Veag nothing inferiour to the former in all manner of dissolute and infamous liuing and vile and cursed talke making knowne by his impietie that hee had none other God but his belly Vide lib. 1. cap. 21. Heresie and that hee was none of Christs fold but one of Epicures crew hee was such a glutton and so passionate in his lusts and so prophane a despiser of God and his word that once at supper being enraged blaspheming because they had not serued in a cold pecock which he commanded to bee kept whole at dinner though there were other hote on the table a Cardinal that was present desired him not to be so moued for so small a trifle What quoth he if it pleased God to bee so angry for eating of an apple as to thrust Adam and Eue out of Paradise should not I which am his vicar be angrie for a pecocke which is far more worth then any apple See how this wicked wretch prophaned the holy scripture and like an Epicure and Atheist mocked God but hee died of the gout after he had ben long plagued with it together with other diseases leauing none other good name behind him saue the report of a most wicked and abominable man Philip Strozze whom Paulus Iouius reporteth to haue ben commonly bruted to be an Atheist Tom. 2. lib. 36. was an exile of Florence and afterwards prisoner there in the time of Cosimus Medius the Prince of that Commonwealth against whom this Philip had enterprised to make warre and being in prison hee killed himselfe with a sword of a Spaniard his keeper which by ouersight hee had left behind setting the point against his throat falling down vpon it so may all Atheists perish and come to naught Francis Rabelais hauing suckt vp also this poison vsed like a prophane villaine to make all religion a matter to laugh and mocke at but God depriued him of his sences that as hee had led a brutish life so he might die a brutish death for he died mocking all those that talked of God or made any mention of mercy in his eares How miserable was the end of Periers the author of that detestable booke intituled Symbalum mundi wherin he openly mocked at God and his religion euen hee fell finally into despaire and notwithstanding all that guarded him killed himselfe Iodelle also a Frenel tragicall Poet being an Epicure and an Atheist made a very tragicall and most pittifull end for he died in great miserie and distresse euen pined to death after he had rioted out al his substance and consumed his patrimonie Lignereles the courtier to make himselfe seeme a man of seruice made open profession of Atheisme but his end and destruction came from thence whence hee looked for credit and aduancement To bring the matter to an end I will here set downe a notable and strange thing that chanced in the reigne of Lewis the ninth as Enguerran de Monstrelet in his second volume of Hystories recordeth it vpon the fifteenth day of Iune in the yeare of our Lord God 1464 there happened a strange thing in the pallace at Paris so it was that there was a matter in law to bee tried betwixt the Bishop of Angiers and a rich Cittizen whome the Bishop charged to haue spoken before manie witnesses that hee beleeued not that there was eithere God or Deuill Heauen or hell Now whilest the Bishops Lawier laid to his charge these things the place began to tremble verie much wherein they were and a stone fell downe from the roofe amongst them all without hurting any yet euery man was sore afraid and departed out of the house vntill the morrow when the matter was begun againe to bee pleaded which was no sooner in hand but the chamber begun afresh to shake and one of the summers came forth of his mortise hole falling downwards two foot and there staied so that all that were within the hall looking to haue beene slaine outright ran out so violently that some left behind them their caps others their hoodes others their slippers summarily glad was hee that could get out first neither durst they plead any more causes in that place vntill it was mended Thus much reporteth Enguerran without mention of any decision of that matter now for as much as nothing happeneth by chance it is most likely that God by that accident would giue vs to vnderstand both how monstrous and detestable all such speeches are as also how men ought to feare abhorre them seeing that the dumbe senslesse creatures wood beames planckes and stones and the earth at selfe by nature stedfast and fixed are so farre from enduring them that they are moued withall There was a certaine blasphemous wretch that on a time being with his companions in a common Inne carousing and making merrie Discipulus de tempore Sermon 132. asked them if they thought a man was possessed with a soule or no wherevnto when some replied that the soules of men were immortall and that some of them after release from the body liued in heauen others in hell for so the writings of the Prophets and Apostles instructed them hee answered and swore that hee thought it nothing so but rather that there was no soule in man to suruiue the bodie but that Heauen and hell were meere fables and inuentions of Priests to get gaine by and for himselfe hee was ready to sell his soule to any that would buy it then one of his companions tooke vp a cup of wine and said sell mee thy soule for this cup of wine which hee receiuing bad him take his soule and dranke vp the wine Now Sathan himselfe was there in a mans shape as commonly hee is neuer farre from such meetings and bought it againe of the other at the same price and by and by bad him giue him his soule the whole companie affirming it was meet hee should haue it since hee had bought it not perceiuing the Deuill but presentlie hee laying hold on this soule seller carried him into the aire before them all toward his owne habitation to the great astonishment and amazement of the beholders and from that day to this hee was neuer heard of but tried to his paine that men had soules and that hell was no fable according to his godlesse and profane opinion Pherecides by birth a Syrian a tragicall Poet and a
Philosopher by profession Aelianus de var. hist lib. 4. boasted impudently amongst his schollers of his prosperity learning and wisdome saying that although hee offered no sacrifices vnto the gods yet hee lead a more quiet and prosperous life then those that were addicted to religion and therefore hee passed not for any such vanitie But ere long his impietie was iustly reuenged for the Lord strooke him with such a strange disease that out of his bodie issued such a slimie and filthie sweat and engendered such a number of lice and wormes that his bowels being consumed by them hee died most miserably Theat historicum At Hamburge not long since there liued an impious wretch that despised the preaching of the Gospell and the ministers thereof accounting it as a vaine thing not worthie the beleeuing of any man neither did he thus himselfe only but also seduced many others bringing them to all Atheisme and vngodlinesse Wherfore the Lord iustly recompenced him for his impiety for he that before had no sence nor feeling of God in his conscience being touched with the finger of the almightie grew to the contrary euen to too much feeling and knowledge of God that hee fell into extreame despaire affirming now his sins to be past forgiuenes because he had withdrawne others from the truth aswell as himselfe whereas before he thought himselfe guiltie of no sinne and that God was so iust that he would not forgiue him wheras before he thought there was no God so mighty is the operation of the Lord when he pleaseth to touch the conscience of man finally continuing in this desperate case hee threw himselfe from the roofe of a house into a well and not finding water enough to drowne him hee thrust his head into the bottome thereof till hee had made an end of his life Theat historicum In the yeare of our Lord 1502 there liued one Hermannus Biswick a grand Atheist and a notable instrument of Sathan who affirmed that the world neuer had beginning as foolish Moses dreamed and that there was neither Angels nor deuils nor hell nor future life but that the soules of men perished with their bodies besides that Christ Iesus was nothing els but a seducer of the people and that the faith of Christians and whatsoeuer else is contained in holy writs was meere vanity These articles full of impietie and blasphemie hee constantly auouched to the death And for the same cause was togither with his bookes burnt in Holland A certaine rich man at Holberstadium abounding with all manner of earthly commodities Theatr. histor gaue himselfe so much to his pleasure that he became besotted therewith in such sort that hee made no reckening of religion nor any good thing but dared to say that if he might lead such a life continually vpon earth hee would not enuie heauen nor desire any exchange Notwithstanding ere long contrary to his expectation the Lord cut him off by death and so his desired pleasure came to an end But after his death there appeared such diabolicall apparitions in his house that no man daring to inhabit in it became desolate for euery day there appeared the image of this Epicure sitting at a boord with a number of his guests drinking carousing and making good cheare and his table furnished with delicates and attended on by many that ministred necessaries vnto them beside with minstrels trumpetters and such like In summe whatsoeuer he delighted in his life time was there to be seene euery day the Lord permitting Satan to bleare mens eies with such strange shewes to the end that others might be terrified from such epicurisme and impietie Not inferiour to any of the former in Atheisme impiety and equall to all in maner of punishment was one of our own nation of fresh and late memory called Marlin Marlow by profession a scholler brought vp from his youth in the Vniuersitie of Cambridge but by practise a play-maker and a Poet of scurrilitie who by giuing too large a swinge to his owne wit and suffering his lust to haue the full raines fell not without iust desert to that outrage and extremitie that hee denied God and his sonne Christ and not only in word blasphemed the trinitie but also as it is credibly reported wrote bookes against it affirming our Sauiour to be but a deceiuer and Moses to be but a coniurer and seducer of the people and the holy Bible to be but vaine and idle stories and all religion but a deuice of pollicie But see what a hooke the Lord put in the nosthrils of this barking dogge It so fell out that in London streets as he purposed to stab one whome hee ought a grudge vnto with his dagger the other party perceiuing so auoided the stroke that withall catching hold of his wrest he stabbed his owne dagger into his owne head in such sort that notwithstanding all the meanes of surgerie that could be wrought hee shortly after died thereof The manner of his death being so terrible for hee euen cursed and blasphemed to his last gaspe and togither with his breath an oth flew out of his mouth that it was not only a manifest signe of Gods iudgement but also an horrible and fearefull terrour to all that beheld him But herein did the iustice of God most notably appeare in that hee compelled his owne hand which had written those blasphemies to be the instrument to punish him and that in his braine which had deuised the same I would to God and I pray it from my heart that all Atheists in this realme and in all the world beside would by the remembrance and consideration of this example either forsake their horrible impietie or that they might in like manner come to destruction and so that abominable sinne which so flourisheth amongst men of greatest name might either be quite extinquished and tooted out or at least smothered and kept vnder that it durst not shew it head any more in the worlds eye CHAP. XXVI Touching the transgressours of the second commandement by Idolatrie WEe haue hitherto seene how and in what sort they that either by malice or impiety or Apostasie or heresie or otherwise haue transgressed the first commandement haue beene punished Let vs now consider the iudgements that haue befallen Idolatours the breakers of the second commaundement But before wee proceed wee must know that as it is required of vs by the first commaundement to hold God for our true and onely God to repose all our whole trust and confidence in him and call vpon him serue and worship him alone so in the second the contrary to this is forbidden which is to doe any manner of seruice honour and reuerence by deuotion to Idols forasmuch as he is a spirit that is to say Iohn 4. of a spirituall nature and essence which is infinite and incomprehensible so loueth he a spirituall worship and seruice which is answerable to his nature and not by
the Emperor Sigismond had in all his affaires after the violation of his faith giuen to Iohn Hus Theatr. histor and Ierome of Prage at the councill of Constance whome though with direct protestations and othes he promised safe conduct returne yet he adiudged to be burned doth testifie the odiousnesse of his sinne in the sight of God But aboue all this one example is most worthy the marking of a fellow that hearing periurie condemned in a pulpit by a learned preacher and how it neuer escaped vnpunished said in a brauery I haue oft forsworne my selfe and yet my right hand is not a whit shorter then my left which words hee had scarse vttered when such an inflammation arose in that hand that he was constrained to go to the surgeon and cut it off least it should infect his whole body and so his right hand became shorter then his left in recompence of his periury which hee lightly esteemed of In the yeere of our Lord 1055 Goodwine Earle of Kent sitting at the table with king Edward of England Stow Chron. it happened that one of the cupbearers stumbled and yet fell not whereat Goodwine laughing said That if one brother had not holpen another meaning his legges all the wine had beene spilt with which words the king calling to mind his brothers death which was slaine by Goodwine answered So should my brother Alphred haue holpen me had not Goodwine beene then Goodwine fearing the kings new kindled displeasure excused himselfe with many words at last eating a morsell of bread wished it might choke him if he were not guiltlesse of Alphreds blood but he swore falsly as the iudgement of God declared for he was forthwith choaked in the presence of the king ere hee remooued one foote from that place though there be some say he recouered life againe Stow Chron Long time after this in the reigne of Queene Elizabeth there was in the city of London one Anne Aueriâ—â— widdow who forswore her selfe for a little mony that she should haue paid for six pound of tow at a shop in Woodstreet for which cause being suddenly surprized with the iustice of God shee fell downe speechlesse forthwith and cast vp at her mouth in great aboundance with horrible stinke that matter which by natures course should haue bene voided downwards and so died to the terrour of all periured and forsworne wretches There are in Histories many more examples to be found of this hurtfull and pernicious sinne exercised by one nation towards another and one man towards another in most profane and villanous sort neither shaming to be accounted forsworne nor consequently fearing to displease God and his maiestie But forasmuch as when we come to speake of murderers in the next booke we shall haue occasion to speake of them more or of such like I will referre the handling thereof vnto that place only this let euery man learne by that which hath bene spoken to be sound and fraudlesse and to keepe his faith and promise towards all men if for no other cause yet for feare of God who leaueth not this sinne vnpunished nor holdeth them guiltlesse that thus take his name in vaine CHAP. XXXI Of Blasphemers AS touching Blasphemie it is a most grieuous and enormous sinne and contrary to this third commandement when a man is so wretched and miserable as to pronounce presumptuous speeches against God whereby his name is slandered and euill spoken of which sinne can not choose but be sharpely and seuerely punished for if so be that God holdeth not him guiltlesse that doth but take his name in vaine must hee not needs abhorre him that blasphemeth his name See how meritoriously that wicked and peruerse wretch that blasphemed and murdered as it were the name of God among the people of Israel in the desert was punished hee was taken Leuit. 24. put in prison and condemned and speedily stoned to death by the whole multitude and vpon that occasion as euil manners begat euermore good lawes the Lord instituted a perpetual law and decree that euery one that should blaspheme and curse God of what estate or degree soeuer should be stoned to death in token of detestation which sentence if it might now a daies stand in force there would not raigne so many miserable blasphemers deniers of God as the world is now filled and infected with It was also ordained by a new law of Iustinian Cod. lib. 3. tit 43. that blasphemies should be seuerely punished by the Iudges magistrates of commonweales but such is the corruption and misery of this age that those men that ought to correct others for such speeches are oftentimes worst themselues there are that thinke that they can not be sufficiently feared and awed of men except by horrible bannings swearings they despite maugre God nay it is further come to that passe that in some places to sweare and ban be the marks ensignes of a Catholike they are best welcome that can blaspheme most How much then is that good king S. Lewes of France to be commended Nichol. Gil. vol. 1. Of French Chronicles who especially discharged all his subiects from swearing blaspheming within his realme insomuch that when he heating a a Lord of Ienville noble man blaspheme God most cruelly he caused him to be laid hold on his lips to be slit with an hor iron saying he must be content to endure that punishment seeing he purposed to banish othes out of his kingdome Now we call blasphemie according to the scripture phrase euery word that derogateth either from the bountie mercy iustice eternity soueraigne power of God of this sort was that blasphemous speech of one of king Iorams princes who at the time of the great famine in Samaria when it was besieged by the Sirians hearing Elizaeus the Prophet say that the next morow there should be plenty of victuals and good cheape reiected this promise of God made by his Prophet 2. King 7. saying that it was impossible as if God were either a lyar or not able to performe what he would for this cause this vnbeleeuing blasphemer receiued the same day a deserued punishment for his blasphemie for hee was troden to death in the gate of the citie vnder the feet of the multitude that went out into the Sirians camp forsaken and left desolate by them through a feare which the Lord sent among them 2. King 19. Sennacherib king of Assyria after he had obtained many victories subdued much people vnder him also laid siege to Ierusalem became so proud arrogant as by his seruants mouthes to reuile and blaspheme the liuing God speaking no otherwise of him then of some strange idoll and one that had no power to helpe and deliuer those that trusted in him for which blasphemies he soone after felt a iust vengeaÌ„ce of God vpon himselfe his people for although in mans eies he seemed
to be without the reach of danger seeing hee was not assailed but did assaile was guarded with so mighty an army that assured him to make him lord of Ierusalem in short space yet the Lord ouerthrew his power destroied of his men in one night by the hand of his Angell 185 thousand men so that he was faine to raise his siege returne into his own kingdome where finally he was slain by his own sonnes as he was worshipping on his knees in the temple of his God In the time of the Machabees those men that were in the strong hold called Gazara 2. Mach. 10. fighting against the Iews trusting to the strength of the place wherein they were vttered forth most infamous speeches against God but ere long their blasphemous mouths were encountred by a cōdigne punishmēt for the first day of the siege Machabeus put fire to the towne consumed the place with the blasphemers in it to ashes Holofernes when Achior aduanced the glory of the God of Israel Iudith 6.7 replied on this fashion Since thou hast prophesied vnto vs that Israel shall be defended by their god thou shalt prooue that there is no God but Nabuchadonosor when the sword of mine army shall passe through thy sides and thou shalt fall among their slaine but for this blasphemy the Lord cut him short and preuented his cruell purpose by sudden death and that by the hand of a woman to his further shame Nay this sinne is so odious in the sight of God that he punisheth euen them that giue occasion therof vnto others yea though they be his dearest children as it appeareth by the words of the Prophet Nathan vnto king Dauid 2. King 12. Because of this deed saith he of murdering Vriah and defiling Bathshabe thou hast made the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the child that is borne vnto thee shall surely die In the Empire of Iulian the Apostata there were diuers great men that for the Emperors sake forsooke Christ abiured his religion Theod. llb. 3. cap. 11 12. Contempt of holy things Lib. 1. cap. 3 4. amongst whom was one Iulian vncle to the Emperor gouernor of the East another Faelix the Emperors treasurer the first of which two after he had spoiled all Christian Churches and temples pissed against the table whereon the holy sacraments were vsed to be administred in contempt and stroke Euzoius on the eare for reproouing him for it the other beholding the holy vessels that belonged to the Church said See what precious vessels Maries sonne is serued withall After which blasphemie the Lord plagued them most strangely for Iulian fell into so strange a disease that his entrails beeing rotten hee voided his excrements at his mouth because when they passed naturally hee abused them to the dishonour of God Foelix vomited blood so excessiuely night and day at his blasphemous mouth that hee died forthwith About the same time there liued a famous sophister Epicure called Libanius who beeing at Antioch Theatr. hist demaunded blasphemously of a learned godly schoolmaster what the Carpenters sonne did and how he occupied himselfe Mary quoth the schoolmaster full of the spirit of God the creator of this world whome thou disdainfully callest the carpenters sonne is making a coffin for thee to carry thee to thy graue whereat the sophister iesting departed and within few daies dying was buried in a coffin according to the prophesie of that holy man Vide lib. 1. c. 21. Heres Philip. Chron. Abb. Vrusperg The Emperour Heraclius sending Embassadours to Cosroe the king of Persia to entreat of peace returned with this answer that he would neuer cease to trouble them with warre till he had constrained them to forsake their crucified Christ and to worship the Sunne But ere long he bore the punishment of his blasphemie for what with a domesticall calamitie a forraine ouerthrow by the hand of Heraclius he came to a most wofull destruction Michael that blasphemous Rabbine that was accounted of the Iewes as their Prince and Messias Fincelius de miraculis lib. 2. as he was on a time banketting with his companions amongst other things this was chiefest sauce for their meat to blaspheme Christ his mother Mary insomuch as he boasted of a victory alreadie gotten ouer the Christians God But marke the issue as hee descended downe the staires his foot slipping hee tumbled headlong broke his neck wherin his late victory proued a discomfiture ouerthrow to his eternal shame confusion Three soldiers amongst the Tyrigetes a people of Sarmatia passing through a wood there arose a tempest of thunder and lightning which though commonly it maketh the greatest Atheists to tremble yet one of them to shew his contempt of God and his iudgements burst forth into blasphemie despitings of God But the Lord soone tamed his rebellious tongue for he caused the wind to blow vp by the root a huge tree that fell vpon him crushed him to pieces the other escaping to testifie to the world of his destruction No lesse notable is the example of a young gyrle named Denis Benifield of twelue yeres of age Acts and Monuments of the Church who going to schoole amongst other gyrles when they fell to reason among themselues after their childish discretion about God one among the rest said that he was a good old father what hee said the foresaid Denyse he is an old doting foole which being told to her mistresse shee purposed to correct her the next day for it but it chanced that the next day her mother sent her to London to the market the wench greatly entreating her mother that shee might not goe so that she escaped her mistrisses correction But the Lord in vengeance met with her for as she returned homeward sodainly she was so stricken dead all the one side of her being blacke and buried at Hackney the same night A terrible example no doubt both to old and young what it is for children to blaspheme the Lord and God and what it is for parents to suffer their yoong ones to grow vp in blindnesse without nurturing them in the feare of God and reuerence of his maiesty and therfore worthy to be remembred of all In the yeare 510 an Arrian bishop called Olimpius being at Carthage in the bathes reproched and blasphemed the holy and sacred trinitie and that openly Paul Diacon in the historie of Anastatius Sabell Aenead 8. lib. 2. Anton. Panor of the acts of Alphonsus Aeneas Siluius of the acts of Alphonsus but lightning fell downe from heauen vpon him three times and he was burnt and consumed therewith There was also in the time of Alphonsus king of Arragon and Sicily in an Isle towards Affrica a certaine Hermite called Antonius a monstrous and prophane hypocrite that had so wicked a heart to deuise and so filthy a throat to belch out vile and iniurious speeches against Christ Iesus
truth taking the witnesse of the two women touching that which they had seene Here wee may see the strange and terrible euents of Gods iust vengeance vpon such vile caitifes which doubtlesse are made manifest to strike a feare and terror into the heart of euery swearer and denier of God the world being but too full at this day of such wretches that are so inspired with Sathan that they cannot speak but they must name him euen him that is both an enemie to God man and like a roaring lion runneth and roueth to fro to deuoure them not seeking any thing but mans destruction And yet when any paine assaileth thē or any trouble disquieteth their minds or any danger threatneth to oppresse their bodies desperately they cal vpon him for aid whē indeed it were more needful to commend themselues to God and to pray for his grace and assistance hauing both a commandement so to doe and a promise adioined that hee will helpe vs in our necessitie if we come vnto him by true hearty praier It is not therfore without iust cause that God hath propounded and laid open in this corrupt age a Theatre of his iudgements that euery man might be warned thereby CHAP. XXXIII More examples of Gods Iudgements vpon cursers BVt before wee goe to the next commandement we will adioine a few more examples of this diuellish cursing Martin Luther hath left registred vnto vs a notable example showne vpon a Popish priest that was once a professour of the sincere religion Ex colliquij◠Lutheri and fell away voluntarily vnto papisme whereof Adam Budissina was the reporter this man thundered out most bitter curses against Luther in the pulpit at a towne called Ruthnerwald and amongst the rest wished that if Luthers doctrine was true a thunderbolt might strike him to death Now three daies after there arose a mighty tempest with thunder and lightning whereat the cursed priest bearing in himselfe a guilty conscience for that he had vntruly and maliciously spoken ran hastily into the church and there fell to his praiers before the altar most deuoutly but the vengeance of God found him out and his hipocrisie so that he was stroken dead with the lightning and albeit they recouered life in him againe yet as they led him homewards through the churchyard another flash so set vpon him that it burnt him from the crowne of the head to the sole of his foot as blacke as a shoe so that he died with a manifest marke of Gods vengeance vpon him Homil. 26. in hist passionis Theodorus Beza reporteth vnto vs two notable histories of his owne knowledge of the seuerity of Gods iudgement vpon a curser and a periurer the tenour whereof is this I knew saith he in France a man of good parts well instructed in religion and a master of a family who in his anger cursing and bidding the Deuill take one of his children had presently his wish for the child was possessed immeadiately with a spirit from which though by the feruent continual praiers of the church he was at length released yet ere hee had fully recouered his health he died The like we read to haue happened to a woman whom her husband in anger deuoted with bitter curses to the deuill for Satā assaulted her presently and robbed her of her wits so that she could neuer be recouered Discipulus de tempore sermon 116. Periurie lib. 1. cap. 29. Another example saith he happened not far hence euen in this countrie vpon a periurer that forswore himselfe to the end to deceiue and preiudice another thereby but hee had no sooner made an end of his false oth but a greeuous apoplexie assailed him so that without speaking any one word he died within few daies Iob Fincelius lib. 3. de mirac In the year of our Lord 1557 the day before good friday at Forchennum a citie in the bishoprick of Bamburge there was a certain crooked priest both in body mind through age euil conditions that could not go but on crutches yet would needs be lifted into the pulpit to make a sermon his text was out of the 11 chap. of the first epistle to the Corinthians touching the Lords supper whereout taking occasion to defend the papisticall errors the masse he vsed these or such like blasphemous speeches O Paul Paul if thy doctrin touching the receiuing the sacrament in both kinds be true if it be a wicked thing to receiue it otherwise then would the deuill might take me turning to the people if the popes doctrin concerning this point be not true then am I the deuils bondslaue neither do I fear to pawn my soule vpō it these many other blasphemous words he vsed till the deuil came indeed transformed into the shape of a tall man black terrible sending before him such a fearful noise and such a wind that the people supposed that the church would haue fallen on their heads but he not able to hurt the rest took away the old priest being his deuoted bondslaue caried him so far that he was neuer heard of the bishop of Rugenstines brother hardly escaped his hands for he came back to fetch him but he defēding himselfe with his sword wounded his own body very narrowly escaped with his life Beside after this there were many visions seen about the city as armies of men ready to enter surprise them so that wel was he that could hide himself in a corner At another time after the like noise was heard in the church whilst they were baptising an infant al this for the abominable cursing and blasphemie of the prophane priest In the yeare of our Lord 1556 at S. Gallus in Heluetia Iob. Fincelius lib. 2. de mirac a certaine man that earned his liuing by making clean rough and foule linnen against the sunne entring a tauerne tasted so much the grape that his wits were drowned and his tongue so inspired that hee vomited out terrible curses against himselfe and others among the rest he wished if euer he went into the fields to his old occupation that the deuil might come break his neck but when sleep had conquered drink sobriety restored his senses he wēt again to his trade remēbring indeed his late wordes but regarding them not howbeit the deuill to shew his double diligence attended on him at his appointed houre in the likenes of a big sworthy man and asked him if he remembred his promise and vow which he had made the day before if it were not lawful for him to break his necke and withall stroke the poore man trembling with feare ouer the shoulders that his feet and his hands presently dried vp so that hee lay there not able to stirre till by helpe of men he was caried home the Lord not giuing the deuill so much power ouer him as hee wished himselfe but yet permitting him to plague him on this
sort for his amendment and our example Albert Krantz chron 〈◊〉 lib. 6. Henry Earle of Schwartburge through a corrup◠custome vsed commonly to wish he might be drowned in a priuie and as he wished so it happened vnto him for he was so serued murdered at S. Peters monasterie in Erford in the year of our Lord 1148. Cyriac. Spangenb in elegantijs veteris Adami The like befell a young courtier at Mansfield whose custome was in any earnest asseueration to say the Deuill take me if it be not so the Deuill indeed tooke him whilest hee slept and threw him out of a high window where albeit by the good prouidence of God hee caught no great hurt yet he learnt by experience to bridle his tongue from al such cursed speeches this being but a tast of Gods wrath that is to fall vpon such wretches as he Theat histor At Oster a village in the Duchy of Megalopole there chanced a most strange and fearefull example vpon a woman that gaue her selfe to the Deuill both body and soule and vsed most horrible cursings and othes both against her selfe and others which detestable manner of behauiour as at many other times so especially she shewed at a marriage in the foresaid village vpon S. Iohn Baptists day the whole people exhorting her to leaue off that monstrous villany but shee nothing bettered continued her course till all the companie were set at dinner and very merry Then loe the Deuill hauing got full possession of her came in person and transported her into the aire before them all with most terrible outcries and roarings in that sort carried her round about the town that the inhabitants were ready to die with feare and by and by tore her in foure peeces leauing in four seuerall high waies a quarter that all that came by might be witnesses of her punishment And then returning to the marriage threw her bowels vpon the table before the Maior of the towne with these words Behold these dishes of meat belong to thee whome the like destruction awaiteth if thou doest not amend thy wicked life The reporters of this hystorie were Iohn Herman the minister of the said towne with the Maior himselfe and the whole inhabitants being desirous to haue it knowne to the world for example sake In Luthers conferences there is mention made of this story following Luther diuerse noble men were striuing together at a horse race and in their course cried the deuil take the last Now the last was a horse that broke loose whom the deuill hoisted vp into the aire and took clean away Which teacheth vs not to call for the deuill for hee is readie alwaies about vs vncalled and vnlooked for yea many legions of them compasse vs about euen in our best actions to disturbe and peruert vs. A cettaine man not farre from Gorlitz prouided a sumptuous supper inuited many guests vnto it Iob. Fincelius who at the time appointed refusing to come he in an anger cried then let all the Deuils in hell come neither was his wish friuolous fot a number of those hellish fiends came forthwith whome he not discerning from men came to welcome and entertain but as he tooke them by the hands and perceiued in steed of fingers clawes all dismaied he ran out of the dores with his wife and left none in the house but a young infant with a foole sitting by the fire whome the deuils had no power to hurt neither any man els saue the goodly supper which they made away withall and so departed It is notoriously knowne in Oundle a town in Northamptonshire amongst all that were acquainted with the partie namely one Hacket of vvhome more hath beene spoken before hovv he vsed in his earnest talke euer to curse himselfe on this manner If it be not true then let a visible confusion come vpon me Now hee wanted no◠his wish for hee came to a visible confusion indeed as hath ben declared more at large in the 20 chap. of this booke At Witeberg before Martin Luther and diuerse other learned men a woman whose daughter was possessed with a spirit confessed that by her curse that plague was fallen vpon her for being angry at a time she bad the deuil take her she had no sooner spoken the word but he tooke her indeed possessed her in most strange sort No whitlesse strange and horrible is that which happened at Neoburge in Germany to a son that was cursed of his mother in her anger with this curse Theat histor shee praied God shee might neuer see him return aliue for the same day the yoong man bathing himselfe in the water was drowned and neuer returned to his mother aliue according to her vngodly wish Theat histor But aboue all this is most strange which happened in a Towne of Misina in the yeere of our Lord God 1552 the eleuenth of September where a cholletick father seeing his sonne slacke about his businesse wished he might neuer stirre from that place Let not the strangenes of this example discredit the truth therof seeing wee read how Lots wife was turned into a pillar of salt Gen. 19. and Corah with his company swallowed of the earth Num. 16 which are more strange than this Acts and monuments pag. 2101. for it was no sooner said but done his sonne stucke fast in the place neither by any meanes possible could bee remoued no not so much as to sit or bend his body till by the praiers of the faithfull his paines were somewhat mitigated though not remitted three yeare he continued standing with a post at his backe for his ease and foure yeares sitting at the end whereof he died Nothing weakened in his vnderstanding but professing the faith and not doubting of his saluation in Christ Iesus When he was demanded at any time how he did he answered most vsually that hee was fastened of God and that it was not in man but in Gods mercy for him to be released Iohn Peter sonne in law to Alexander that cruel keeper of Newgate being a most horrible swearer and blasphemer vsed commonly to say If it be not true I pray God I may rot ere I die and not in vaine for he rotted away indeed so died most miserably Hether we may ad a notable example of a certain yoong gallant that was a monstrous swearer who riding in the company of diuerse gentlemen began to swear and most horribly blaspheme the name of God vnto whom one of the company with gentle words said hee should one day answere for that the yonker taking snuffe thereat why said hee takest thou thought for mee Acts and monuments pag. 2105. Take thought for thy winding sheet Well quoth the other amend for death giueth no warning as soone commeth a lambes skinne to the market as an old sheepes Gods wounds said he care not thou for me raging still on this manner worse and worse till at length passing
thus subdued sued for pardon and release at the conquerours hand but he was so farre from pitying his estate that hee corrupted one Iringus a noble man and Irminfrides subiect to murder his master which he perfourmed kneeling before Theodoricke running him through with his sword at his backe which traiterous deed assoone as it was finished Theodoricke though the setter of it yet hee could not abide the actour but bad him be packing for who could put trust in him that had betraied his owne master At which words Iringus mad with anger and rage ran at Theodoricke also with purpose to haue slaine him too but his hand missing the marke returned his sword into his owne bowels so that he fell downe dead vpon his masters carkasse What more notable and wonderfull iudgement could happen surely it is an example worthy to be written in golden letters to be read and remembred of euery one to teach men allegiance and obedience to their princes and superiors least more sudden destruction than this fall vpon them Tit. Liuius After the death of Ieronimus king of Siracusa Andronodorus and Themistius prouoked by their wiues descending of the blood roiall affected an vsurpation of the crowne and wrought much hurt to the common wealth but their practises being discouered the Pretours by the consent of the Seniours slew them both in the market place as rotten members of their common body and therefore fit to be cut off And when they vnderstood how their wiues Damarata and Harmonia were breeders and incensers of this mischiefe they sent to kill them also yea and Heraclia Harmonia her sister guiltlesse and witlesse of the crime for no other cause but because shee was sister vnto her was pluckt from the altar and slaine in the tumult with two of her daughters that were virgins And thus is treason plagued not only in traitors themselues but also in those that are linked vnto them in friendship and affinity The glory and reputation of Fabritius the Romane is eternized by that noble act of his Cic. offic lib. 9. in sending bound to Pyrrhus a traitour that offered to poison him For albeit that Pyrrhus was a sworne enemy to the Romane Empire and also made warre vpon it yet would not Fabritius treacherously seeke his destruction but sent backe the traitour vnto him to be punished at his discretion What notable treasons did Hadrian the fourth Pope of Rome practise against the Emperor Fredericke Barbarossa yet all was still frustrate for the Lord protected the Emperour and punished the traitour with a sudden and straunge death for he was choked with a fly which went downe his throat and stopped his breath and could by no meanes be pulled out till it made an end of him Besides many others that went abour the same practise were brought to notable destructions as that counterfait foole whome the Italians set on to murder Fredericke in his chamber which had beene perfourmed had he not leaped out of a window into a riuer and so saued his life for the foole being taken was throwne headlong out of the same window and broke his necke As also an Arabian doctor a grand poisoner who going about to infect with poison his bridle his saddle his spurs and stirrops that assoone as hee should but touch them he might be poisoned was discouered and hanged for his labour In the yeere of our Lord 1364 Albert. Crantz when as the Emperour Charles the 4 and Philip duke of Austria were readie to ioine battaile in the field Charles distrusting his owne power vndermined his foe by subtilty on this fashion he sent for three of duke Philips captains priuily perswaded them with promises of rewards to worke some means to terrifie the duke dissuade him from that battell which they performed with all diligence for they told the duke that they had stolne into the Emperors tents by night viewed his power which they found to exceed his by three parts and therefore counselled him not to trie the hazard of the battell but to saue his souldiers liues by flight which if they tarried they were sure to loose Wherewithall the Duke mistrusting no fraud sore affrighted tooke the next occasion of flight returned home with dishonour Now when these three traitours came to the Emperour for their compacted rewards he caused them to be paid in counterfait mony not equiualing the summe of their bargaine by the twentieth part which though at first they discerned not yet afterwards finding how they were cousened they returned to require their due and complaine of their wrong But the Emperor looking sternly vpon them answered That counterfait mony was good enough for their counterfait seruice and that if they tarried long they should haue a due reward of their treason CHAP. III. More examples of the same subiect WHen Manuel the Emperour of Constantinople lay about Antioch with an army prepared against the Turke Otto Frisingensis de rebus Freder prin lib. 1. cap. 47. one of his chiefest officers namely his Chancellour put in practise this notable piece of treason against him he waged three desperate yong men with an infinite summe of mony to kill him on a day appointed and then with a band of souldiers determined to possesse himselfe of the crowne and of the city and to slay all that any way crossed his purpose But the treason being discouered secretly to the Empresse shee acquainted her lord with it who tooke the three traitours and put them all to cruell deaths and as for the Chancellour he first bored out his eyes and plucking his tongue through his throat tormented him to death with a rigorous and most miserable punishment When the Turke besieged Alba Graca certaine souldiors conspired to betray the citie into his hands Bonfiâ—â—us lib 3. Decad. 5. for hee had promised them large rewards so to doe howbeit it succeeded not with them for they were detected and apprehended by Paulus Kynisius gouernour of Hungarie who constrained theÌ„ to eat one anothers flesh seething euery day one to feed the other withall but hee that was last was faine to deuour his owne body Scr bonianus a Captaine of the Romanes in Dalmatia rebelled against the Emperour Claudius Lanquet chron and named himselfe Emperour in the â—rmy but his rebellion was miraculously punished for though the whole army fauoured him verie much yet they could not by any meanes spread their banners or remoue their standerds out of their places as long as hee was called by the name of Emperour with which miracle being mooued they turned their loues into hatred and their liking into loathing so that whome lately they saluted as Emperour him now they murdered as a traitor To rehearse all the English traitors that haue conspired against their kings from the conquest vnto this day Lanquet it is a thing vnnecessarie and almost impossible Howbeit that their destructions may appeare more euidently and the cutse of God vpon traitors bee made
fared till king Charles the sixt sent an army of men to his succour Cap. 125 126. for he was his subiect by whose support he ouercame those rebels in a battaile foughten at Rose Be◠to the number of forty thousand the body of their chieftaine Philip Arteuill slaine in the throng hee caused to bee hanged on a tree Nic. Gil. vol. 2. And this was the end of that cruell Tragedy the countrie being brought againe into the obedience of their old Lord. A while before this Froiss vol. r. cap. 182. whilest king Iohn was held prisoner in England there arose a great cōmotion of the cōmon people in France against the nobilitie and gentilitie of the realme that oppressed them this tumult began but with an hundred men that were gathered togither in the countrey of Beauvoisin but that small handfull grewe right quickly to an armefull euen to nine thousand that ranged and robbed throughout al Brie along by the riuer Marne to Laonoise and all about Soissons armed with great bats shod with iron an headlesse crue without gouernour fully purposing to bring to ruine the whole nobility In this disorder they wrought much mischief broke vp many houses and castles murdered many Lords so that diuerse Ladies and knights as the Dutchesses of Normandy Orleance were faine to flee for safegard to Meaux whither when these rebels would needes pursue them they were there ouerthrowen killed and hanged by troupes In the yere of our Lord 1525 Sleid. lib. 4. there were certaine husbandmen of Souabey that began to stand in resistance against the Earle of Lupsfen by reason of certaine burdens which they complained themselues to be ouerlaid with by them their neighbors seeing this enterprised the like against their lords And so vpon this small beginning by a certaine contagion there grew vp a most dangerous and fearfull commotion that spread it selfe almost ouer all Almaine the sedition thus increasing in all quarters and the swaines being now full fortie thousand strong making their owne liberty and the Gospels a cloake to couer their treason and rebellion and a pretence of their vndertaking armes to the wonderfull griefe of all that feared God did not only fight with the Romane Catholikes but with all other without respect as well in Souabe as in Franconia they destroied the greater part of the nobility sacked and burnt many castles and fortresses to the number of two hundred and put to death the Earle of Helfestin making him passe through their pikes But at length their strength was broken they discomfited and torne in pieces with a most horrible massacre of more than eighteene thousand of them During this sedition there were slaine on each side fifty thousand men The captaine of the Souabian swaines called Geismer hauing betaken himselfe to flight got ouer the mountaines to Padua where by treason hee was made away In the yeere of our Lord 1517 in the Marquesdome of the Vandales the like insurrection and rebellion was of the comminaltie especially the baser sort against the nobilitie spirituall and temporall by whom they were oppressed with intollerable exactions their army was numbred to stand of ninety thousand men all clownes and husbandmen that conspired togither to redresse and refourme their owne grieuances without any respect of ciuill magistrate or feare of Almightie God This rascality of swaines raged and tyranized euery where burning and beating downe the castles and houses of noble men and making their ruines euen with the ground Nay they handled the noble men themselues as many as they could attaine vnto not contumeliously only but rigorously and cruelly for they tormented them to death and carried their heads vpon speares in token of victory Thus they swaied a while vncontrolled for the Emperour Maximilian winked at their riots as beeing acquainted with what iniuries they had bene ouercharged but when he perceiued that the rude multitude did not limit their fury within reason but let it runne too lauish to the damnifying as well the innocent as the guilty hee made out a certaine small troupe of mercenary souldiers togither with a band of horsemen to suppresse them who comming to a city were presently so inuironed with such a multitude of these swaines that like locusts ouerspread the earth that they thought it impossible to escape with their liues wherefore feare and extremitie made thē to rush out to battel with thē But see how the Lord prospereth a good cause for all their weake number in comparison of their enemies yet such a feare possessed their enemies hearts that they fled like troupes of sheepe and were slaine liee dogs before them insomuch that they that escaped the sword were either hanged by flockes on trees or rosted on spits by fires or otherwise tormented to death And this end befell that wicked rebellious rout which wrought such mischiefe in that countrey with their monstrous villanies that the traces and steppes thereof remaine at this day to be seene In the yeere of our Lord 1381 Stow Chron. Richard the second being king the commons of England and especially of Kent and Essex by meanes of a taxe that was set vpon them suddenly rebelled and assembled togither on Blackheath to the number of 60000 or more which rebellious rout had none but base and ignoble fellowes for their captaines as Wat Tilour Iacke Straw Tom Miller but yet they caused much trouble and disquietnesse in the realme and chiefly about the citie of London where they committed much villanie in destroying many goodly places as the Sauoy and others and being in Smithfield vsed themselues very proudly and vnreuerently towards the king but by the manhood and wisdome of William Walworth Maior of London who arrested their chiefe captaine in the midst of them that rude company was discomfited and the ringleaders of them worthily punished In like manner in the raigne of Henry the seuenth Stow Chron. a great commotiō was stirred vp in England by the commons of the North by reason of a certaine taxe which was leuied of the tenth penny of all mens lands good within the land in the which the Earle of Northumberland was slaine But their rash attempt was soone broken and Chamberlaine their captaine with diuers others hanged at Yorke for the same Howbeit their example scared not the Cornish men frō rebelling vpon the like occasion of a taxe vnder the conduct of the lord Audley vntill by wofull experience they felt the same scourge for the king met them vpon blacke heath and discomfiting their troupes tooke their captains and ringleaders and put them to most worthy and sharpe death Thus we may see the vnhappie issue of all such seditious reuoltings and thereby gather how vnpleasant they are in the sight of God Let all people therefore learne by these experiences to submit themselues in the feare of God to the higher powers whether they be lords kings princes or any other that are set ouer them CHAP. VI. Of Murderers AS
who vpoÌ„ condition of hir yeelding to his lust and payment of 200 duccats promised safe deliuerance for him the poor woman seeing that nothing could redeeme her husbands life but losse shipwrack of her owne honesty told her husband who willed her to yeeld to the captains desire not to pretermit so good an occasion wherfore she consented but after the pleasure past the traiterous and wicked captaine put her husband to death notwithstanding which iniury when she complained to Gonzaga duke of Ferrara hee caused the captaine first to restore backe her 200 dukats with an addition of 700 crowns secondly to marry her to his wife and lastly when hee hoped to enioy her body to be hanged for his trecherie O noble Iustice and comparable to the worthiest deeds of antiquitie and deseruing to be held in perpetuall remembrance As these before mentioned excelled in punishing this sin so this fellow following excelled in committing it and in being punished for it Theat histor his name is Nouellus Cararius Lord of Pauie a man of note and credite in the world for his greatnesse but of infamy and discredit for his wickednesse This man after many cruell murders and bloodie practises which he exercised in euery place where he came fell at last into this notorious and abhominable crime for lying at Vincentia hee fell in loue with a young maid of excellent beautie but more â—ent honestie an honest citizens daughter whome hee â—anded her Parents to send vnto him that hee might haue his pleasure of her but when they regarding their credit and shee her chastitie more then the Tyrants command refused to come he tooke her violently out of their house and constrained her body to his lust and after to ad crueltie to villanie chopt her into small peeces and sent them to her Parents in a basket for a present wherewith her poore father astonished caried it to the Senate who sent it to Venice desiring them to consider the fact and to reuenge the cruelty The Venetians vndertaking their defence made war vpon the Tyrant and besieging him in his own city took him at last prisoner and hanged him with his two sons Francis and William Diocles sonne of Pisistratus Tyrant of Athens for rauishing a maid Lanquet was slain by her brother whose death when Hippias his brother vndertooke to reuenge and caused the maidens brother to be racked that he might discouer the other conspirators he named al the tyrants friends which by commandement being put to death the Tyrant asked whither there were any more none but only thy selfe quoth hee whome I would wish next to be hanged wherby it was perceiued how abundantly he had reuenged his sisters chastitie by whose notable stomacke all the Athenians being put in remembrance of their libertie expelled their tyrant Hippias out of their city Mundus a young Gentleman of Rome Lanquet chron rauished the chast Matron Paulina in this fashion when he perceiued her resolution not to yeeld vnto his lust hee persuaded the priests of Isis to say that they were warned by an Oracle how that Anubius the god of Aegypt desired the company of the said Paulina to whome the chast Matrone gaue light credence both because she thought the Priests would not lie and also because it was accounted a great renowne to haue to do with a god and thus by this meanes was Paulina abused by Mundus in the temple of Isis vnder the name of Anubius which thing being after disclosed by Mundus himself was thus iustly reuenged the Priests were put to death the temple beaten downe to the ground the image of Isis throwne into Tiber and the young men banished In the yeare of our Lord 955 Edwine succeeding his vncle Eldred was king of England Lanquet This man was so impudent that in the very day of his Coronation hee soddainely withdrew himselfe from his lords and in sight of certaine persons rauished his owne kinswoman the wife of a Nobleman of his realme and afterward slew her husband that he might haue vnlawfull vse of her beautie for which act he became so odious to his subiects and nobles that they iointly rose against him and depriued him of his crowne when hee had raigned foure yeares CHAP. XX. Other examples of Gods Iudgements vpon Adulterers AMongst all other things this is especially to bee noted how God for a greater punishment of the disordinate lust of men stroke them with a new yet filthy and stinking kind of disease called the French pocks though indeed the Spaniards were the first that were infected therewith by the heat which they caught among the women of the new found lands Paulus Iouius Ben. b. sowed the seeds thereof first in Spaine and from thence sprinkled Italy therewith where the Frenchmen caught it when Charles the eight their king went against Naples Guicciardine froÌ„ whence the contagion spread it selfe throughout diuers places of Europe Barbary was so ouergrowen with it that in all their cities the tenth part escaped not vntouched nay almost not a family but was infected From thence it ranne to Aegypt Siria and to the great Cair and it may nerehand truly be said that there was not a corner of the habitable world where this not only new and strange for it was neuer heard of in ancient ages but terrible and hideous scourge of Gods wrath stretched not it selfe They that were spotted with it and had it rooted in their bodies led a languishing life full of aches and torments and carried in their visages filthy markes of vncleane behauiour as vlcers boiles and such like that greatly disfigured them And herein we see the words of S. Paul verified 1. Cor. 6.18 That an Adulterer sinneth against his owne body Now for so much as the world is so brutishly carried into this sinne as to none more the Lord therefore hath declared his anger against it in diuers sorts so that diuers times hee hath punished it in the very act or not long after by a strange death Sabell Of which Alcibiades one of the great captaines of Athens may stand for an example who being polluted with many great and odious vices and much giuen to his pleasures and subiect to all vncleannesse ended his life in the middest thereof for as he was in companie of a Phrigian strumpet hauing flowne thither to the king of Persia for shelter was notwithstanding set vpon by certaine guards which the king induced by his enemies sent to slay him but they though in number many through the coÌ„ceiued opinion of his notable valor durst not apprehend him at hand but set fire to the house standing theÌ„selues in arms round about it to receiue him if need were Hee seeing the fire leaped through the midst of it and so long defended himselfe amongst them all till strength failed in himselfe and blowes encreasing vpon him constrained him to giue vp his life amongst them Plinie telleth of Cornelius Gallus and Q.
Iulia adulterers were without difference adiudged to death insomuch that Iulius Antonius a man of great parentage and reputation among the Romanes Lib. 4. Annal. whose sonne was nephew to Augustus sister as Cornelius Tacitus reporteth was for this crime executed to death Aurelianus the Emperour did so hate and detest this vice that to the end to scare and terrifie his souldiers from the like offence he punished a soldier which had committed adultery with his hostesse in most seuere manner euen by causing him to be tied by both his feet to two trees bent downe to the earth with force which being let goe returning to their course rent him cruelly in pieces the one halfe of his body hanging on the one tree and the other on the other Yea and at this day amongst the very Turkes and Tartarians this sinne is sharply punished So that we ought not wonder that the Lord should ordaine death for the adulterer If a man saith the law lie with another mans wife â—euit 20.10 if I say he commit adultery with his neighbours wife the adulterer and the adulteresse shall die the death Deut. 22.22 And in another place If a man be found lying with a woman married to a man they shall die both twaine to wit the man that lay with the wife and the wife that thou maist put away euill from Israel Yea and before Moses time also it was a custome to burne the adulterers with fire Genes 38. as it appeareth by the sentence of Iuda one of the twelue Patriarchs vpon Thamar his daughter in law because he supposed her to haue plaied the whore Beside all this to the end this sinne might not be shuffled vp and kept close there was a meanes giuen whereby if a man did but suspect his wife for this sin though shee could by no witnes or proofe be conuinced her wickednesse notwithstanding most strangely and extraordinarily might be discouered Numb 5. And it was this The woman publikely at her husbands sute called in question before the priest who was to giue iudgement of her after diuers ceremonies and circumstances perfourmed and bitter curses pronounced by him her belly would burst and her thigh would rot if shee were guilty and she should be a curse amongst the people for her sinne but if she was free no euill would come vnto her Thus it pleased God to make knowne that the filthinesse of those that are polluted with this sinne should not lie hid This may more clearely appeare by the example of the Leuites wife of whome it is spoken in the 19 20 and 21 chapters of Iudges who hauing forsaken her husband to play the whore certaine moneths after hee had againe receiued her to be his wife she was giuen ouer against her will to the villanous and monstrous lusts of the most wicked and peruerse Gibeonites Rape li. 2. c. 19. that so abused her for the space of a whole night togither that in the morning shee was found dead vpon the threshold which thing turned to a great destruction and ouerthrow in Israel for the Leuit when hee arose and found his wife newly dead at the dore of his lodging hee cut and dismembred her body into twelue pieces and sent them into all the countries of Israel to euery tribe one to giue them to vnderstand how vile and monstrous an iniurie was done vnto him whereupon the whole nation assembling and consulting togither when they saw how the Beniamites in whose tribe this monstrous villanie was committed make no reckening of seeing punishment executed vpon those execrable wretches they tooke armes against them and made warre vpon them wherein though at the first conflict they lost to the number of forty thousand men yet afterward they discomfited and ouerthrew the Beniamites and slew of them 25000 rasing and burning downe the city Gabea where the sinne was committed with all the rest of the cities of that tribe in such sort that there remained aliue but sixe hundred persons that saued their liues by flying into the desart and there hid themselues foure moneths vntill such time as the Israelites taking pitty of them least they should vtterly be brought to nought gaue them to wife to the end to repeople them againe foure hundred virgins of the inhabitants of Iabes Gilead reserued out of that slaughter of those people wherein man woman and child were put to the sword for not comming forth to take part with their brethren in that late warre And forasmuch as yet there remained two hundred of them vnprouided for the Ancient of Israel gaue them libertie to take by force two hundred of the daughters of their people which could not be but great iniury and vexation vnto their parents to be thus robbed of their daughters and to see them married at all aduentures without their consent or liking These were the mischiefes which issued and sprang from that vile and abominable adultery of the wicked Gabaonites with the Leuits wife One sin punished with another whose first voluntary sinne was in like manner also most iustly punished by this second rape and this is no new practise of our most iust God to punish one sinne by another and sinners in the same kind wherein they haue offended When king Dauid after hee had ouercome the most part of his enemies 2. Sam. 11. and made them tributaries vnto him and enioyed some rest in his kingdome whilst his men of war pursuing their victory destroied the Ammonites and were in besieging Rabba their chiefe citie hee was so inflamed with the beauty of Bathshabe Vriahs wife that hee caused her to be conueied to him to lie with her to which sinne hee combined another more grieuous to wit when he saw her with child by him to the end to couer his adultery he caused her husband to be slaine at the siege by putting him in the vantgard of the battaile at the assault and then thinking himselfe cocksure married Bathshabe But all this while as it was but vaine allurements no solid ioy that fed his mind and his sleep was but of sinne not of safety wherein he slumbered so the Lord awakened him right soone by afflictions and crosses to make him feele the burden of the sinne which hee had committed 2. Sam. 12. first therefore the child the fruit of this adultery was stricken with sicknesse and died next his daughter Thamar Absoloms sister was rauished by Ammon one of his owne sonnes 2. Sam. 13. 2. Sam. 15. thirdly Ammon for his incest was slaine by Absolom and fourthly Absolom ambitiously aspiring after the kingdome and conspiring against him raised warre vpon him and defiled his concubines and came to a wofull destruction All which things being grieuous crosses to king Dauid were inflicted by the iust hand of God to chastise and correct him for his good not to destroy him in his wickednesse neither did it want the effect in him for he was so farre from swelling
and luxurious life in the midst of his drunkennes killed his owne mother great with child Paricid lib. 2. cap. 11. and his father that sought to restraine his fury would haue rauished his sister had she not escaped from him with many wounds Bonosus the Emperour Flauius Vopisc is reported to haue bene such a notorious drunkard that he was said to be borne not to liue but to drinke if any embassadours came vnto him hee would make them drunke to the end to reueale their secrets hee ended his life with misery euen by hanging with this epitaph That a tunne not a man was hanged in that place Philostrates being in the bathes at Sinvessâ— Martâ—d lib. 11. deuoured so much wine that hee fell downe the staires and almost broke his necke with the fall Zeno the Emperor of the East Platina was so notoriously giuen to excesse of meats and drinks that his senses being benummed he would often lie as one that was dead wherfore being become odious to all men by his beastly qualities his wife Ariadâ—e fell also indetestation of him one day as he lay sensles she transported him into a tombe throwing a great stone vpon it pined him to death not suffering any to remoue the stone or to yeeld him any succour and this was a iust reward of his drunkennesse Pope Paulus the second beside the exceeding pompe of apparel which he vsed he was also very careful for his throat for as Platina writeth of him he delighted in all kind of exquisite dishes and delicate wine and that in superfluitie by which immoderate and continuall surfetting hee fell into a grieuous apoplexy which quickly made an end of his life It is reported of him that hee ate the day before he died two great melons and that in a very good appetite when as the next night the Lord stroke him with his heauy iudgement Alexander the sonne of Basilius Phil. Melancth lib. 4. and brother of Leo the Emperour did so wallow and drowne himselfe in the gulfe of pleasure intemperance that one day after he had stuffed himselfe too full of meat as he got vpon his horse he burst a vaine within his bodie whereat vpwards and downwards issued such abundance of blood that his life and soule issued forth withall Concerning Daunsing the vsuall dependants of feasts and good chear there is none of sound iudgement that know not that they are baits end allurements to vncleannesse and as it were instruments of bawdry by reason whereof they were alwaies condemned among men of honour and reputation whether Romans or Greekes and left for vile and base minded men to vse And this may appeare by the reproch that Demosthenes the oratour gaue to Philip of Macedonie and his courtiers in an oration to the Athenians wherein hee tearmed them common dauncers and such as shamed not assoone as they had glutted their bellies with meat and their heads with wine to fall scurrilously a daunsing As for the honourable dames of Rome truly wee shall neuer read that any of them accustomed themselues to daunce according to the report of Salust touching Sempronia whome hee iudged to bee too fine a dauncer and singer to be honourable withall as if these two could no more agree than fire and water Cicero in his apologie of Muraena Muraena rehearseth an obiection of Cato against his client wherein he chalenged him for dancing in Asia which he maketh a matter of so great reproch that not daring to maintaine or excuse the fact he flatly denieth it saying That no sober and discreet man euer would commit that fault vnlesse his sence and reason was bereft him Plutarch also setting forth the vertues of women putteth in this among the rest that she ought to be no dancer and speaking in a not her place to all others aswell as women biddeth them to repulse euen their friends if they should lead and entise them to that exercise Besides all the ancient Doctours of the Church haue vtterly condemned them as vnlawfull Thou learnest to sing prophane and idle songs saith Basil and forgettest the godly Psalmes and Hymns which were once taught thee thou caperest and leapest with thy feet in daunses vnwise as thou art when as thou shouldst rather bend thy knees in praier to the almighty but what gaine is got hereby Marry this that virgines return robbed of their Virginities and maried wiues of their troth to their husbands both and all lesse chast than they went and more dishonest then they should if not in act which peraduenture may bee yet stained in thought which cannot be eschewed Heare saith Chrisostome you maids and wiues which are not ashamed to daunse and trip it at others marriages and to pollute your sexes wheresoeuer a lasciuious daunce is daunced there the deuill beareth the other part and is the author of it It is better saith Ambrose to dig and delue vpoÌ„ holy daies than to dance And in another place writing to his sister he saith that he need not care for dissolute behauiours and songs which are vsed at marriages to make him merry with all for when banquets are concluded with daunces then is chastity in an euill case and in great danger to suffer shipwracke by those suspicious allurements Besides this Orig. lib. 1. contra Cels Can. 5. 52. dancing hath beene absolutely forbidden by consent of the whole church of Christ before time vnder paine of excoÌ„munication as it may appeare by the Constantinoplitane counsell vnder Iustinian the Emperour what answere can they make then to this that are Christians and allow of these forbidden sports Is it the denying of a mans selfe The spirituall regeneration The putting off the old man touching our conuersation in this life And if al adulterie vncleannesse Ephes 5.4 all filthinesse and foolish talking iesting and such like ought not once to bee named amongst vs because they are things not comely If I say it bee not lawfull to ieast or speake the least lasciuious word that is how shall it be lawfull to doe an action with the motion consent of the whole body which representeth nothing else but folly vanity and lasciuiousnes And this is for theÌ„ that demand where dancing is forbidden in the scripture which I touch as it were by the way and do but point at not minding to frame any long discourse therof seeing there is a particular treatise touching the same matter which hee may read that desireth to know any more touching it Now let vs see what goodly fruits and commodities haue risen therfrom The daughters of the children of Israell being dancing in Silo vpoÌ„ a feastiual day after the maner of the vncircumcised Idolaters were rauished by the Beniamites for to be their wiues Iudg. 11. and that mixtly without regard of one or other were they of neuer so high or base condition At the feast which Herod the Tetrarch made to the princes and captains and nobles
contenteth at the first but it infecteth all his possessions sucketh out the marrow of them ere it be long Seing theÌ„ it is so abhominable both by the law of God and nature let vs shun it as a toad and flie from it as a cockatrice but when these persuasions will not serue let them turne their eies to these examples following wherin they shal see the manifest indignations of God vpon it In the Bishopricke of Coline a notable famous Vsurer lying vpon his death bed readie to die mooued vp and downe his chops and his lips as if hee had beene eating something in his mouth D sâ—ipul de temporâ— and being demaunded what hee ear hee answered his money and that the Deuill thrust it into his mouth perforce so that hee could neither will nor choose but deuour it in which miserable temptation he died without any shew of repentance The same Author telleth of another Vsurer that a little before his death called for his bags of gold and siluer and offered them al to his soule vpon condition it would not forsake him but if hee would haue giuen all the world it could not ransome him from death wherefore when hee saw there was no remedie but hee must needes die hee commended his soule to the deuill to bee carried into euerlasting torments which wordes when hee had vttered hee gaue vp the ghost Another Vsurer being ready to die made this his last Will and testament My soule quoth he I bequeath to the Deuill who is owner of it my wife likewise to the Deuill who induced mee to this vngodly trade of life Iohannes Auglus and my Deacon to the Deuill for soothing me vp and not reprouing me for my faults and in this desperate persuasion he died incontinently Vsurie consisteth not onely in lending and borrowing but in buying and selling also and all vniust and craftie bargaining yea and it is a kind of Vsurie to detaine through too much couetousnesse those coÌ„modities from the people which concerne the publicke good and to hoord them vp for their priuate gaine till some scarsitie or want arise and this also hath euermore ben most sharply punished as by these examples may appeare About the yeare 1543 at what time a great famine and dearth of bread afflicted the world there was in Saxony a countrie peasant that hauing carried his corne to the market and sold it cheaper than hee looked for as hee returned homewards hee fell into most heauie dumpes and dolours of mind with greife that the price of graine was abated and when his seruants sang merrily for ioy of that blessed cheapenesse hee rebuked them most sharpely and cruelly yea and was so much the more tormented and troubled in mind by how much the more he saw any poore soule thankfull vnto God for it but marke how God gaue him ouer to a Reprobate and desperate sence Whilest his seruants rode before hee hung himselfe at the cart taile being past recouery of life ere any man looked backe or perceiued him A notable example for our English cormorants who ioine barne to barne and heap to heap and will not sell nor giue a handfull of their superfluitie to the poore when it beareth a low price but preserue it til scarsity and want come and then they sell it at their owne rate let them feare by this least the Lord deale so or worse with them Another couetous wretch when hee could not sell his corne so deare as hee desired said the mise should eat it rather then he would lessen one iot of the price thereof which words were no sooner spoken but vengeance tooke them for all the mise in the countrie flocked to his barnes and fields so that they left him neither standing nor lying corne but deuoured all this story was written to Martin Luther Luther vpon occasion whereof hee inueighing mightilie against this cruell vsurie of husbandmen told of three misers that in one yeare hung themselues because graine bore a lower price than they looked for adding moreouer that all such cruell and muddie extortioners deserued no better a doome for their vnmercifull oppression D. Pomeranus Another rich farmer whose barnes were full of graine and his stackes vntouched was so couetous withall that in hope of some dearth and dearenesse of corne hee would not deminish one heape but hoorded vp daily more and more and wished for a scarsitie vpon the earth to the end hee might enrich his coffers by other mens necessities this cruell churle reioiced so much in his abundance that euery day hee would goe into his barnes and feed his eies with his superfluity now it fell out as the Lord would that hauing supped drunke very largely vpon a night as hee went according to his custome to view his riches with a candle in his hand behold the wine or rather the iustice of God ouercame his senses so that hee fell downe sodainely into the mow and by his fall set on fire the corne being drie and easie to be incensed in such sort that in a moment all that which he had scraped togither and preserued so charily and delighted in so vnreasonably was consumed and brought to ashes and scarce hee himselfe escaped with his life Another in Mifina in the yeare 1559 hauing great store of corne hoorded vp refused to succour the necessitie of his poore and halfe famished neighbours Iob. Flucel li. 2. for which cause the Lord punished him with a strange and vnusuall iudgement for the corne which hee so much cherished assumed life and became feathered soules flying out of his barns in such abundance that the world was astonished thereat and his barnes left emptie of all prouision in most woonderfull and miraculous maner No lesse strange was that which happened in a Towne of Fraunce called Stenchansen to the gouernour of the Towne The same author who being requested by one of his poore subiects to sell him some corne for his money when there was none to be gotten els where answered hee could spare none by reason hee had scarce enough for his owne hogs which hoggish disposition the Lord requited in it owne kind for his wise at the next litter brought forth seuen pigs at one birth to increase the number of his hogs that as he had preferred filthy ougly creatures before his poore brethren in whome the image of God in some sort shined forth so hee might haue of his owne getting more of that kind to make much of since he loued theÌ„ so well Equall to all the former both in cruelty touching the person and miracle touching the iudgement The same was that which is reported by the same author to haue happened to a rich couetous woman in Marchia who in an extreame dearth of vittailes denied not onely to relieue a poore man whose children were ready to starue with famine but also to sell him but one bushel of corne when â—e wanted but a penny of hir price
mightily the hand of God was stretched foorth to the reuenge of those wicked deedes and villanies which were committed by the Spaniards in those quarters Peter Loys bastard son to Pope Paule the third Sleidan lib. 19. Bal. was one that practised many horrible villanies robberies murders adulteries incest and Sodomitries thinking that because his father was Pope therefore no wickednesse was vnlawfull for him to commit He was by the report of all men one of the most notorious vildest and filthiest villaines that euer the world saw he forced the Bishop of Faence to his vnnaturall lust so that the poore Bishop with meere anger and griefe that hee should be so abused died immediately being made Duke of Plaisence and Parme hee exercised most cruell tyrany towards many of his subiects insomuch that diuerse gentlemen that could not brooke nor endure his iniuries conceiued an inward hate against him and conspired his death and for to put in practise the same they hired certaine ruffians and roisters to watch the oportunitie of slaying him yea and they themselues oftentimes went apart with these roisters keeping themselues vpon their guards as if some priuate and particular quarrels had beene in hand one day as the Duke went in his horselitter out of his castell with a great retinue to see certaine fortifications which he had prepared being aduertised by his father the Pope by the helpe of Magicke which he practised to looke diligently to himselfe the tenth day of September in which notwithstanding he was slaine for as he returned into his castell the conspirators to the number of sixe and thirtie marched before him as it were to do him honor but indeed to doe him villany for assoone as he was entred the castell they drew vp the drawbridge for feare of his retinue that were without and comming to him with their naked swords cast in his teeth his tyrannie and so slew him in his litter togither with a Priest the maister of his horse and fiue Almaignes that were of his guard his dead body they hung by a chaine ouer the wals and shaking it to and fro to the view of the people threw it downe headlong at last into the ditch where the multitude to shew their hates wounded it with daggers and trampled it vnder their feet and so whome they durst not touch in his life him being dead they thus abused and this befell vpon the tenth day of September in the yeere of our Lord 1547. Some of the Bishops of Rome for their rare and notable vertues and the glory of their braue deeds may be honoured with this dignity to be placed in this worthy ranke for their good conditions and behauiours were such that no tyrant butcher theefe robber ruffian nor any other euer excelled them in crueltie robbery adulterie and such like wickednesse or deserued more the credit and reputation of his place than they And hereof we haue a manifest example in Iohn the thirteenth who pulling out the eies of some of his Cardinals cutting out the tongues of others hewing off the hands noses and priuy members of others shewed himselfe a patterne of such crueltie as the world neuer saw the like Hee was accused before the Emperour Otho in a synode first of incest with two of his owne sisters secondly for calling the deuill to helpe him at dice thirdly for promoting young infants to bishoprickes bribed thereto by the gift of certaine peeces of gold fourthly for rauishing maides and wiues and lying with his fathers concubine yea and lastly for lying with his owne mother and many other such monstrous villanies for which cause hee was deposed from the papacie though reinstalled againe by the sute and cunning practise of his whores by whome as hee recouered his triple crowne so he lost shortly after his vicious life by the meanes of a married whore that betraied him Benno Bal. Pope Hildebrand sirnamed Gregory the seuenth was adorned with all these good qualities namely to be bloody minded a poisoner a murderer a coniurer also a consulter with spirits and in a word nothing but a lumpe and masse of wickednesse hee was the stirrer vp of many battels against the Emperor Henry the fourth and a prouoker of his own son to depose and poyson his father as hee did but this wicked I would say holy Pope was at last banished his Cathedrall citie to Salernum where he ended his daies in miserie Pope Clement the sixt of name contrary to his nature for his inclemencie crueltie pride towards the Emperor Lewis of Bauarie was intollerable he procured many horrible wars against the Empire and caused the destruction of twenty thousand Frenchmen by the king of England yea and poysoned the good Emperour also so well he wished to him Howbeit ere long himselfe was stifled to death and that sodainly not by any practise of man as it was thought but by the speciall hand of God in recompence of all his notable acts Iohn the foure and twentith was deposed by the councell of Constance for these crimes following heresie Simonie Benno Bal. manslaughter poysonings cousenings adultry Sodomitry and was cast into prison where remaining three years he falsly made shew of amendment of his wicked life therefore was graced with a Cardinals hat but it was not that which he expected for which cause with despight griefe he died It would bee too long to run ouer the discourse of euery particular Pope of like conditions and therefore wee will conteÌ„t our selues in briefe with the legend of Pope Alexander the sixt reported by two authors of credite and renowne vnsuspected to wit Guicciardine a Florentine gentlemaÌ„ Guicciardine lib. 2. Bembus Bembus a Venetian cardinall this man saith Guicciardine attained to the Papacy not by worthinesse of vertues but by heauinesse of bribes and multitude of faire promises made to the cardinals for his election promising large recompence to them that stood on his side whereupon many that knew his course of life were filled with astonishment amongst whome was the king of Naples who hearing of this election coÌ„plained to his queene with tears that there was such a pope created that wold be a plague to Italy al ChristeÌ„dome beside the great vices which swaied in him of which the same author speaking maketh this catalogue and pettigree in his own language which followeth Guiâ—â—tardine lib. 2. Costum d it il oscensimi non sincerita non verita non fede non religione auaritia insatiabile ambitione immoderata crudelta pinque barbara eo ardentissima cupidita di escaltare in qualunque modo i figli voli i quali erano molti that is to say He was endued with most filthie conditions and that neither sincerity truth faith nor religion was in him but in steed of them couetousnesse vnquenchable ambition vnmeasurable more then barbarous crueltie and a burning desire of promoting his owne children for he had many by what meanes soeuer He
himselfe executioner of his wrath and murdered Achimelech with al the nation of the priests and smote Nob the city of the priests with the edge of the sword both man woman child suckling oxe and asse not leauing any aliue so beastly was his cruelty saue Abiathar only one of the sons of Achimelech that fled to Dauid brought him tidings of this bloudy massacre But did this cruel accuser escape scotfree No the spirit of God in the 52 Psalm proclaimeth his iudgement Psal 52.1.2.5 Why beastest thou in thy wickednes thou tyrant thy tongue imagineth mischeife and is like a sharpe rasor that cutteth deceitfully c. but God shall destroy thee for euer hee shall take thee and pluck thee out of thy tabernacle and root thee out of the land of the liuing Next to this man 1. Kin. 21. we may iustly place Achab the king of Israel Iesabel his wife who to the end to get the possession of Naboths vineyard which being his inheritance hee would not part from suborned by his wiues pernicious councell false accusers wicked men to witnesse against Naboth that he had blasphemed God the king by that means caused him to bestoned to death but mark the iudgemēt of God denoūced against them both by the mouth of Elias for this wicked fact Hast thou killed saith he and taken possession Thus saith the Lord In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs euen licke thy bloud also as for Iezabel dogs shal eat her by the wall of Israell thy house shall be like the house of Ieroboam the son of Nebat I will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall c. Neither was this onely denounced but executed also as we may read 1. Kin. 22.38 2. Kin. 9.36.37 c. 2. Kin. 10.7 c. Amos. 7.17 Amaziah the priest of Bethel vnder Ieroboam the wicked king of Israel perceiuing how the Prophet Amos prophecied against the idolatry of that place of the king he falsly accused him to Ieroboam to haue cōspired against him also he exhorted him to flie frō Bethel because it was the kings chappell flie into Iudah and prophecy there but what said the Lord vnto him by the prophet Thy wife shall be an harlot in the city thy sons and thy daughters shall fal by the sword thy land shall be deuided by liue and thou shalt die in a polluted land loe there was the punishment of his false accusation Ester 7.10 How notable was the iudgement that the Lord manifested vpon Haman the Syrian for his false accusing of the Iewes to be disturbers of the Commonwealth breakers of the laws of king Ahasuerash did not the Lord turne his mischiefe vpon his owne head The same day which was appointed for their destruction the Lord turned it to the destructiō of their enemies and the same gallows which hee prepared for Mordecai was he himselfe hanged vpon Daniel 6. The mē that falsly accused Daniel to king Darius for breaking the kings edict which was that none shold make any request vnto any for 30 daies space saue only to the king himself fared no better for when as hee found Daniell praying vnto God they presently accused him vnto the king vrging him with the stability which ought to bee in the decrees of the kings of Medea and Persia that ought not to bee altered in such sort that king Darius though against his will commanded Daniell to be throwne amongst the lions to be deuoured of them but when he saw how miraculously the Lord preserued him from the teeth of the lyons and thereby perceiued his innocency hee caused his enuious accusers to be throwne into the lyons den with their wiues and children who were deuoured of the lyons ere they could fall to the ground Notorious is the example of the two iudges that accused Susanna both how she was deliuered and they punished the credit of which history because it is doubtfull I here omit to speake further of But let vs come to prophane histories Apelles that famous painter of Ephesus felt the sting and bitternesse of this venomous viper for hee was falsly accused by Antiphillus another painter an enuier of his art and excellent workmanship to haue conspired with Theodota against king Ptolomie and to haue ben the cause of the defection of Pelusium from him which accusation hee laid against him to the end that seeing hee could not attaine to that excellencie of art which he had Theat histor he might by this false pretence work his disgrace and ouerthrow as indeed hee had effected had not great persuasions been vsed and manifest proofes alledged of Apelles innocency and integrity wherefore Ptolomie hauing made trial of the cause and found out the false and wrongful practise he most iustly rewarded Apelles with an hundred talents Antiphillus the accuser with perpetual seruitude vpō which occasion Apelles in remembrance of that danger painted out calumniation on this maner a woman gaily attired and dressed with an angrie and furious countenance holding in her left hand a torch and with her right a young man by the hair of the head before whome marched an euill fauoured sluttish vsher quicke sighed and palefaced called Enuie at her right hand sat a fellow with long eares like king Midas to receiue tales and behind her two waiting maids Ignorance Suspition and thus the wittie painter to delude his owne euill hap expressed the liuely image and nature of that detracting sin Vide li. 1. ca. 12. example of Nero. Euseb li. 9. ca. 5. This tricke vsed Maximinus the tyrant to deface the doctrine and religion of Christ in his time for when he saw that violence torments preuailed not Nicep li. 7. c. 27. but that like the palme the more it was trodden and oppressed the more it grew hee vsed this subtlety and craft to vndermine it he published diuerse bookes full of blasphemie of a conference betwixt Christ and Pilate and caused them to bee taught to children in steed of their first elements that they might no sooner speake thà n hate and blaspheme Christ moreouer he constrained certain wicked and lend women to auouch that they were Christians and that vile filthinesse was daily committed by them in their assemblies which also he published farre and neer in writing howbeit for all this the Lords truth quailed not but swum as it were against the streame and encreased in despight of enuy as for these false accusers they were punished one after another with notable iudgements for one that was a chiefe doer therein became his own murderer and Maximinus himselfe was consumed with wormes and rottennesse as hath ben shewed in the former booke It was a law among the Romans that if any man had enformed an accusation against another Euse li. 5. ca. 21. either wrongfully vnlawfully or without probability both his legs should be brokē in