more manifest I will briefly reckon vp a catalogue of the cheifest of them In the yeare 1275 Lewline Prince of Wales rebelled against King Edward the first and after much adoe was taken by Sir Roger Mortimer and his head set vpon the tower of London In like sort was Dauid Lewlines brother serued Ries Madok escaped no better measure in stirring the Welchmeâ— vp to rebellion No more did the Scots who hauing of their owne accord committed the gouernment of their kingdome to king Edward after the death of Alexander who broke his necke by a fall from an horse and left no issue male and sworn feaulty vnto him yet dispensed with their oth by the Popes commission and Frenchmens incitement and rebelled diuerse times against King Edward for hee ouercame them sundrie times and made slaughter of their men slaying at one time 32000 and taking diuerse of their Nobles prisoners In like manner they rebelled against King Edward the third who made three voiages into that land in the space of foure yeares and at euerie time ouercame and discomfited them in so much that well neare all the nobilitie of Scotland with infinite number of the common people were slaine Thus they rebelled in Henry the sixts time and also Henrie the eights and diuerse other kings raignes euer when our English forces were busied about forraine warres inuading the land on the other side most traiterously And thus it is to bee feared they will euer doe except they degenerate from their old natures and therefore it ought to bee a Caueat to vs how wee trust them in any extremity but neuerthelesse they euer yet were whipped for their treason as the histories of our English Chronicles doe sufficiently record â—â—nquet In the raigne of king Henry the fourth there rebelled at one time against him Sir Iohn Holland D. of Excester with the Dukes of Aumarle Surrey Salisburie and Gloucester and at another time Sir Thomas Percie Earle of Worcester and Henry Percie sonne to the Earle of Northumberland at another Sir Richard Scroope Archbishop of Yorke and diuerse others of the house of the Lord Moubray at another time Sir Henry Percie the father Earle of Northumberland the Lord Bardolph And lastly Ryce ap Dee and Owen Glendour two Welchmen all which were either slaine as Sir Hendry Percie the yoonger or beheaded as the rest of these noble rebels or starued to death as Owen Glendour was in the mountains of Wales after he had deuoured his owne flesh In the raigne of Henry the fift Sir Richard Earle of Cambridge Sir Richard Scroope treasurer of England and Sir Thomas Gray were beheaded for treason No lesse was the perfidious and vngratefull trecherie of Humfrey Banister an Englishman towards the duke of Buckingham his Lord maister whom the said duke had tenderly brought vp exalted to great promotion For when as the duke being driuen into extremity by reason of the seperation of his army which he had mustered together against king Richard the vsurper fled to the same Banister as his trustiest friend to be kept in secret vntill hee could find oportunity to escape This false traitor vpon hope of a thousand pounds which was promised to him that could bring forth the duke betraied him into the haÌ„ds of Iohn Mitton sheriefe of Shropshire who conueied him to the citie of Salisbury where king Richard kept his houshold where he was soon after put to death But as for vngrateful Banister the vengeaÌ„ce of God pursued him to his vtter ignominy for presently after his eldest son became mad died in a bores stie his eldest daughter was sodainly stricken with a foule leprie his second sonne marueilously deformed of his lims and lame his yoongest sonne drowned in a puddle And he himself in his old age arraigned and found guiltie of a murder and by his clergie saued And as for his thousand pounds king Richard gaue him not a farthing saying that hee which would bee vntrue to so good a master must needs be false to all other To passe ouer the time of the residue of the kings wherein many examples of treasons punishmeÌ„ts vpon them are extant to come nearer vnto our own age let vs consider the wonderfull prouidence of God in discouering the notorious treasons which haue ben preteÌ„ded so often so many against our soueraign now liuing Queen Elizabeth protecting her so fatherly from the dint of them all First therefore to begin with the chiefest the Earle of NorthumberlaÌ„d Westmerland in the eleuenth year of her raign began a rebellioÌ„ in the North pretending their purpose to bee sometimes to defend the Queens person gouernment from the inuasion of strangers and sometimes for conscience sake to seeke reformation of religion vnder colour whereof they got together an army of men to the number of sixe thousand souldiors against whom marched the Earle of Sussex leiutenant of the North and the Earle of Warwick sent by the Queen to his aid whose approch stroke such a terror into their hearts that the two Earles with diuerse of the Archrebels fled by night into Scotland leauing the rest of their companie a prey vnto their enemies whereof threescore and sixe or thereabout were hanged at Durham As for the Earles one of them to wit of Northumberland was after taken in Scotland and beheaded at Yorke Westmerland fled into another countrie and left his house and family destroied and vndone by his folly A while after this what befell to Iohn Throgmorton Thomas Brooke George Redman and diuerse other Gentlemen at Norwich who pretended a rebellion vnder the colour of suppressing strangers were they not discouered by one of their owne conspiracy Thomas Ket and executed at Norwich for their paines The same end came Francis Throgmorton to whose trecheries as they were abominable touching the Queens owne person so they were disclosed not without the especial prouidence of God But aboue all that vile and vngratefull Traitor William Parry vpon whome the Queene had poured plentifully her liberalitie deserueth to bee had in euerlasting remembrance to his shame whose Treasons being discouered hee paied the tribute of his life in recompence thereof What shall I say of the Earle of Arundell and a second Earle of Northumberland Did not the iustice of God appeare in both their endes when being attainted for Treason the one slew himselfe in prison and the other died by course of nature in prison also Notorious was the conspiracie of those Arch-traitors Ballard Babington Sauadge and Tylney c. yet the Lord brought them downe and made them spectacles to the world of his iustice Euen so that notorious villaine doctor Lopus the Queens Phisitian who a long time had not onely beene an intelligencer to the Pope and King of Spaine of our English counsailes but also had poysoned many Noblemen and went about also to poyson the Queene her selfe was he not surprised in his trecherie and brought to suddaine destruction In summe
in the person of his youngest sonne Chaanan and made a seruant to the seruants of his brethren Num 33. Deut. 7. which curse was fulfilled in his posterity the Canaanites who beeing forsaken of God were rooted vp and spued out of their land because of their sinnes and abominations Marueilous strange was the malice of Absolom to rebell so furiously against his father Dauid as to wage warre against him 2. Sam. 15. which hee did with all his strongest endeauours without sparing any thing that might further his proceedings insomuch that he grew to that outrage and madnesse through the wicked and pernicious counsell of Achitophel that hee shamed not villanously to commit incest with his fathers concubines 2. Sam. 16. and pollute his bed euen before the eies of the multitude by which meanes being become altogither odious and abominable 2. Sam. 18. he shortly after lost the battell wherein though himselfe receiued no hurt nor wound yet was hee not therefore quit but being pursued by Gods iust iudgement fell vnwittingly into the snare which he had deserued for as hee rode along the forrest to saue himselfe from his fathers armie his mule carrying him vnder a thicke oake left him hanging by the haire vpon a bow betwixt heauen and earth vntill being found by Ioab hee was wounded to death with many blowes Whereby euery man may plainly see that God wanteth no meanes to punish sinners when it pleaseth him but maketh the dumbe and senslesse creatures instruments of his vengeance for hee that had escaped the brunt and daunger of the battell and yet not hauing therefore escaped the hand of God was by a bruit beast brought vnder a senslesse tree which God had appointed to catch hold of him as an executioner of his iust iudgement which if wee consider is as straunge and wonderfull an accident as may possible happen and yet such an one as God himselfe prouided to punish this wicked proud and rebellious wretch withall for seeing his outrage and villany was so great as to rebell against his father and so good and kind a father towards him as hee was it was most iust that hee should endure so vile a punishment Beside herein God would doubtlesse lay open to the eies of all the world a fearefull spectacle of his iudgements against wicked and disobedient children thereby to terrifie the most impudent and malicious wtetches that liue from this horrible sinne And for the same cause it was his pleasure that that wicked and false Achitophel should fall into extreame ignominy and confusion for forsaking Dauid and setting forward with counsell and presence young Absolom against his father for which cause with despaire he hung himselfe Now by this example it is easie to perceiue how vnpleasant this sinne is in Gods sight and how much he would haue euery man to hate and detest it seeing that nature her selfe teacheth and instructeth vs so farre as to yeeld duty and obedience vnto those that begat nourished and brought vs vp Notwithstanding all this yet is the world full of ill aduised and ill nourtured youth that are little lesse disobedient vnto their parents then Absolom was as Adramalech and Sarasar that slew their father Sennacherib as he was worshipping in the temple of Nisroth his god but whereas they looked for the soueraignty they lost the benefite of subiection and were banished into Armenia their brother Esarhaddon reigning in their stead Gregory of Tours maketh mention of one Crannius the sonne of Clotarius king of France Greg. of Tours 4. booke who hauing conspired treacherously and raised warre against his father togither with the Earle of Britaine his supporter were both vanquished and put to flight but the Earle was slaine in the pursute the Prince himselfe also thinking to escape by sea where lay prouided certaine shippes ready to receiue him was in the midde way ouertaken togither with his wife and children whome hee purposed to make partakers of his fortune and were all togither by the expresse commaundement of his father shut vp in a little house and there burned togither In this wise did Clotarius reuenge the treacherie and rebellion of his sonne after a more seuere cruell and fierce manner then king Dauid did who would haue saued his sonne Absoloms life notwithstanstanding all his wickednes malicious and furious rebellion but this man contrariwise being bereft of all fatherly affection would vse no compassion towards his sonne but commanded so cruell an execution to be perfourmed not only vpon him but vpon his daughter in law also and their children perchance altogither innocent and guiltlesse of that crime A very rare and strange example seeing it is cōmonly seene that grandfathers vse more to cherish and cocker their childrens children than their own Therfore we must thinke that it was the prouidence of God to leaue behind a notable example of his most iust and righteous seueritie against disobedient and rebellious children to the end to amaze and scare all others from enterprising the like Philip Comineus in the reign of Lewis the twelfth chap. 63. Philip Comineus hath recorded the treacherous tragedy of a most wicked and cruel sunne called Adolphus for the world waxeth euery day worse then other that came in an euening suddenly to take his father the Duke of Gilderland prisoner euen as he was going to bed and would not giue him so much liberty as to pull on his hose for he was bare legged but carried him away in all hast making him march on foot without breeches fiue long Almaine miles in a most cold weather and then clapt him vp in the bottome of a deepe tower where there was no light saue by a little window and there kept him close prisoner sixe moneths togither After which cruell fact he himselfe was taken prisoner in like manner and carried bound to Namur where hee lay a long time vntill the Gaunts repriued him forth and led him with them against Tournay where he was slaine in the while of his imprisonment his father yeelding vnto nature disinherited him of all his goods for his vile ingratitude and vnnatural cruelty and left the succession of his dukedome to the Duke of Burgundy In the yeere of our Lord 1461 in a village called Iuchi neere to Cambray Enguerr de Monstr vol. 2. there dwelt a certaine man or rather a beast that in a great rage threw his owne mother out of his dores thrise in one day and the thitd time told her in furie that hee had rather see his house on fire and burnt to coales then that she should abide there but one day longer It happened that the very same day according to his cursed speech his house was indeed fired but how or whence no man could iudge and the fire was so fierce that it consumed to ashes not onely that house but also twelue other houses adioining which was an euident figure of Gods iust iudgement in punishing so vile and vnnaturall a
prouidence whereby albeit he guideth and directeth especially his owne to wit those that in a speciall and singular maner worship and trust in him as by the sacred histories touching the state and gouernment of the auncient and primitiue Church it may appeare yet he ceaseth not for all that to stretch the arme of his power ouer all and to handle and rule the prophane and vnbeleeuing ones at his pleasure for he hath a soueraigne empire and predominance ouer all the world And vnto him belongeth the direction and principall conduct of humane matters in such sort that nothing in the world commeth to passe by chance or aduenture but onely alwaies by the prescription of his wil according to the which he ordereth disposeth by a straight and direct motion as well the generall as the particular and that after a strange and admirable order And this a man may perceiue if he would but marke and consider the whole body but especially the end issue of things wherein the great and marueilous vertues of God as his bountie iustice and power doe most clearely shine when hee exalteth and fauoureth some and debaseth and frowneth vpon others blesseth and prospereth whome hee please and on the contrary curseth and destroieth whome he please and that deserue it It is hee also which erecteth principalities and which maintaineth commonwealths kingdoms and empires vntill by the summe and weight of their iniquities they sinke themselues into ruine and destruction And herein is hee glorified by the execution of his most iust and righteous iudgements when the wicked after the long abuse of his lenitie benignitie and patience doe receiue the wages and reward of their iniquities In this I say once againe shineth out the wonderfull and incomprehensible wisedome of God when by the due ordering of things so different and so many hee commeth still to one and the same marke which hee once prescribed to wit the punishment of the world according to their demerits And this same is most manifest and apparant euen in the histories of prophane writers albeit in their purpose it was neuer intended nor thought vpon nor yet regarded almost of any that read the same men contenting themselues for the most part with the simple recitall of the storie therein to take pleasure and passe away time without respecting any further matter Notwithstanding the true and principall vse of their writings ought to be diligently to marke the effects of Gods prouidence and of his iustice thereby to learne to containe our selues within the bonds of modestie and the feare of God seeing that they which haue carried themselues any thing vprightly in equitie temperance and other naturall vertues haue beene in some sort spared and the rest bearing the punishment of their iniquities haue fallen into ruine and destruction This consideration ought to persuade euerie man to turne from euill and to follow that which is good seeing that the Lord sheweth himselfe so incensed against all them which lead a wicked damnable and peruerse life And this is the cause why I hauing noted the great and horrible punishments wherewith the Lord in his most righteous iudgement hath scourged the world for sin according to that which is contained as well in sacred as prophane histories hauing gathered them togither and sorted them one after another in their seuerall roomes according to the diuersitie of the offences and order and course of time which as neare as I could I endeauoured to follow To the end to lay downe as it were in one table and vnder one aspect the great and fearefull iudgements of God vpon them that haue rebelled or repugned his holy will And this I doe not with purpose to comprehend them all for that were not onely difficult but impossible but to lay open the most notable and markeable ones that came to my knowledge to the end that the most wicked dissolute and disordered sinners that with loose raines runne fiercely after their lust if the manifest tokens of Gods seueritie presented before their eyes doe not touch them yet the cloud and multitude of examples through the sight of the ineuitable anger vengeance of God vpon euill liuers might terrifie and somewhat curbe them Periurers idolatours blasphemers and other such wicked and prophane wretches with murderers whoremongers adulterers rauishers and tyrants shall here see by the mischiefe that hath fallen vpon their likes that which hangeth before their eies and is ready to lay hold of them also For albeit for a time they sleepe in their sinnes and blindnesse delighting in their pleasures and taking sport in cruelties and euill deeds yet they draw after them the line wherewith being more ensnared than they are aware they are taken and drawn to their finall destruction And this may teach and aduertise both those that are not yet obstinate in their sinnes to bring themselues to some amendment and those that feare God already to strengthen and incourage them in the pursure and continuance in their good course For if God shew himselfe so seuere a reuenger of their sins that take pleasure in displeasing him there is no doubt but on the contrary hee will shew himselfe bountifull gracious and liberall in rewarding al them according to his promise which striue to please him and conforme their liues vnto his will Great and small yong and old men and women and all other of what degree and condition soeuer may here learn at other mens charges how to gouerne themselues in duty towards God and betwixt themselues by a holy and vnblameable life in mutuall peace and vnity and by shunning and eschewing sinne against the which God a most iust iudge poureth forth his vengeance euen vpon the heads of them that are guiltie thereof Beside here is ample matter and argument to stoppe the monthes of all Epicures and Atheists of our age and to leaue them confounded in their errours seeing that such and so many occurrents and punishments are manifest proofes that there is a God aboue that guideth the sterne of the world and that taketh care of humane matters and that is iust in punishing the vniust and malicious Againe whereas so much euill and so many sinnes haue raigned and swaied so long time and doe yet raigne and sway vpon the earth we may behold the huge corruption peruersitie of mankind and the rotten fruits of that wormeaten roote originall sinne when wee are not directed nor guided by the holy spirit of God but left vnto our owne nature And hereby true faithfull Christians may take occasion so much the more to acknowledge the great mercy and singular fauour of God towards them in that they being receiued to mercie are renewed to a better conuersation of life than others In briefe a man may heare learne if he be not altogither void of iudgement and vnderstanding to haue sinne in hatred and detestation considering the wages and reward thereof and how the iustice of God pursueth it continually euen to
put to death by the hand of a woman That which hapned to the Madianites in the time of Gedeon Iudg. 7. is admirable and very strange who being furnished with a mighty army of soldiers with the Amalekites other their allies to destroy Israel were so scarred scattered at the sound of the trumpets brightnes of torches of three huudred men at the most that were with Gedeon that through the marueilous astonishment they were in they turned their blades into their owne bosomes murdred one another till the greatest part of them were destroied and the residue being put to flight and pursued by the men of Ephraim two of their kings Oreb Zeb were taken and slaine A while after it came to passe that the princes of the Philistims Iudg. 16. who had oppressed the people of God by the space of 40 yeres being assembled togither with all their people in the temple of Dagon their god euen then whē after their sacrifices they thought to make themselues most sport pastime with poore Samson whose eies in mockery contemp◠they had put out were altogither massacred by the fall of the house which Samsō by his strength pulled vpon their heads which was the greatest ouerthrow that beforetimes by his means they had receiued In the reigne of Saul king of Israel 1. Sam. 15. Agag king of Amalech the posterity or those that laid wait for Israel in the desart as they came out of Aegypt were by Saul following the commandemēt of the Lord set vpon who running vpon him his people made a great slaughter butchery of them not sparing man woman nor child except the king only whom he tooke to mercy led captiue which he ought not to haue done This captaine being thus spared by one that was but little better then himselfe could not so escape for the Prophet Samuel became the executioner of Gods vengeance vpon him since Saul refused it with his own hand slue him euen then when he thought he should liue A litle while after Golia a gyant of the Philistims who as well through the hugenes of his stature strength of body 1. Sam. 17. as thorough the horrible cruelty which appeared in him seemed in mans eies inuincible proudly presumptuously defied the army of the liuing God offring daring any one mā of Israel to enter combat with him this proud fellow was notwithstanding all his brags by yong vnarmed Dauid saue a litle stick a few stones which he had in his hands vanquished trode vnder foot for he gaue this great beast such a knocke with one of his stones on the forhead that at the first blow he tumbled him groueling on the earth quickly leaping vpon him caught hold of his huge sword therwithall cut off his monstrous head which the Philistims perceiuing turned thair backs and fled and were pursued and slaine by the Israelites CHAP. X. More examples like vnto the former IN the time of Achah Benhadad king of Syria accompanied with two and thirty kings 1. King 20. came very proudly against Israel as it were in despight of God to bid him battaile but it turned to his owne shame and confusion being first dishonourably put to flight by two hundred thirty seruants of the Princes of Israel a small handfull to encounter so mighty an army And secondly returning to seeke reuenge found the losse of an hundred thousand footmen at one clap besides seuen and twenty thousand which escaping by flight were crushed in peeces by the ruine of a wall in the city Aphec And so this braue gallant that earst bragged that the gold and siluer of Israel yea their wiues and children were his was now glad to flie for his life among the rest and in his returne to hide himselfe all dismaid in a little chamber and from thence being aduised thereto by his seruants to send to intreat Achab for his owne life which a little before thought him sure of the liues of all Israel Yet for all this ere long he enterprised a new practise against the Prophet Elizaeus 2. King 6. 2. King 7. and besieged also the city of Samaria so long that certaine women constrained by extreme famine deuoured their children but in the end hee was compelled through fearfull terrour which God sent into his army by the noise of infinite chariots and horses which sounded in their eares as if some puissant host of men of warre had bene marching towards them to forsake the siege and flie with all his forces leauing behind them their tents horses cariages vitailes and munitions to be a prey for them that pursued them not And lastly falling sicke Hazael one of his own seruants that succeeded him in the kingdome 2. King 8. to the end he might dispatch him quickly and without tumult early in the morning tooke a thicke cloth dipt in water and spreading it ouer his face stifled him to death 2. Chron. 20. When the Moabites and Ammonites rose vp in arms against Iehosaphat king of Iuda assoone as this good king humbled him selfe togither with all his people before the face of God by fasting and praier forthwith God sent such a giddinesse of spirit amongst his enemies that they killed one another and the men of Iuda without being troubled with fighting gathered the spoile which they had scattered and enriched themselues with their reliques Aman Ester 7. 9. promoted in honour and credit aboue all the Princes of the court of king Assuerus conceiued so deadly an hatred against the poore dispersed Iewes being at that time the onely Church of God that malitiously he conspired in one day to destroy and put to death the whole nation to the very women infants and in accomplishing this his purpose he mightily abused the authoritie of the king whome he falsly enformed that this nation would not be subiect to his ordinances and lawes which his other people were subiect vnto and that therefore he ought not to permit suffer them any longer But God that carieth alwaies a watchfull eie ouer his Church and knoweth how to breake dash all the enterprises of his enemies brought all this wretches purposes to nought by preseruing miraculously those whome he would haue destroied making him doe reuerence to Mardocheus whom he especially sought to bring to infamy and for whome he had of purpose prouided a gibbet to hang him on but was hanged thereon himselfe with ten of his sonnes beside all those which had conspired with him against the Iewes were vpon the same day which they had set downe for their massacre by the kings commandement slaine by the hands of them whom they had appointed to the slaughter Balthasar king of Babylon as he was feasting among his princes Dan. 5. commanded amidst his cups the golden and siluer vessels which Nabuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple of Ierusalē to be brought that both he
in his affaires whilest hee abstained from sheading the blood of Christians but assoone as hee gaue himselfe ouer vnto that villanie his prosperitie kingdome and life diminished and decreased at once for within two yeares hee and his sonne Vâ—lusianus in the war against Aemilian vvere both slain through the defection of his souldiors vvho in the point of necessitie forsooke him Beside the Lord in his time sent vpon the prouinces of Rome a generall and contagious pestilence which lasted vvhole tenne yeares without intermission to make satisfaction for the much innocent blood vvhich was spilled amongst them Phil. Melanct. chron lib. 4. Sebast franc chron Polon Arnolphus the fourescorth Emperour raged like a Tyger against all men but especially against those that professed the religion and name of Christ Iesus for which cause the Lord stirred vp a woman the wife of Guido to minister vnto him the dregs of his wrath in a poysoned cup by meanes whereof such a rottennesse possessed all his members that lice and wormes issuing out continually hee died most miserably in Oringe a city of Bauarie the twelfth yeare of his raigne Philip Melan. chron lib. 5. Baiaset the Turke to what a miserable and ludibrious end came hee to for his outragious hatred against all Christendome but especially against Constantinople which hee had brought to so low an eb that they could scarce haue resisted him any longer had not Tamerlane the Tartarian reuoked him from the siege and bidden him leaue to assaile others and looke vnto his owne Campofulus lib. 9. cap. 5. And indeed hee welcommed him so kindly that hee soone tooke him prisoner and binding him with chaines of gold caried him vp and downe in a cage for aspectacle vsing his backe for a footstoole to get vpon his horse by And thus God plaugeth one Tyrant by another and all for the comfort of his chosen Gensericus king of the Vandals Phil. Melan. chron lib. 3. exercised cruell tyrannie against the professors of the truth So did Honoricus the second also but both of them reaped their iust deserts for Gensericus died being possessed with a spirit And Honoricus being so rotten and putrified that one member dropped off after another Greg. Taron lib. 2. cap. 3. Some say that hee gnew off his owne flesh with his teeth Autharis the twelfth King of Lumbardie Paulus Diaconus lib. 3. cap. 18. de gestis Lâ—rgo bard forbad children to bee baptised or instructed in the Christian faith seeking by that meanes to abolish and plucke downe the kingdome of Christ but he raigned not long for ere sixe yeares vvere complet hee died with poison at Pauia And so hee that thought to vndermine Christ Iesus vvas vndermined himselfe most deseruedlie in the yeare of our Lord. 592. When Arcadius the Emperour through the persuasion of certaine enuious fellowes and his wife Endoxia Euagriur lib. 5. cap. 34. had banished Iohn Chrisostome bishop of Constantinople into Bosphorus the next night there arose such a terrible earthquake that the Empresse and the whole Cittie vvas sore affrighted therewith so that the next morrow messengers after messengers vvere sent vvithout ceasing till they had brought him backe againe out of exile Mandat 9. Calumniation lib. 2. cap. 44. and his accusers vvere all punished for their vvrongfull accusation Thus it pleased God to testifie the innocencie of his seruant euen by terrifying his enemies Smaragdus an exarch of Italie vvas transported by a Deuill for tyrannising ouer Christians in the first yeare of the Empire of Mauritius Paul Diacon lib 3. cap. 12. de gestis Longab Cent. 6. cap. 3. Anton. lib. 15. cap. 15. Mamucha a Sarasen being equall to Pharao in persecuting the church of God God made him equall to him also in the manner of his destruction for as he returned from the spoile of the monasterie of Cassime and Messana and the slaughter of many Christians the Lord caused the sea to swallow vp his whole armie euen an hundred ships Paul Diacon lib. 21. so that few or none escaped Another time euen in the yeare 719 they vvere miraculously consumed vvith famine sword pestilence water and captiuity and al for their infestious ranckor and tyranny towards Christians for whom the famine spared the sword deuoured vvhome both these touched not the pestilence eate vp and they that escaped all three yet perished in the vvaters and tenne ships that escaped the vvaters vvere taken by the Romans and the Syrians surely an egregious signe of Gods heauy wrath and displeasure To conclude there was neuer any that set themselues against the church of God but God set himself against them by some notable iudgement so that some vvere murthered by their subiects as Bluso king of the Vandals others by their enemies as Vdo Prince of Sclauonia some by their wiues Helmold cap. 24. Sclauon cap. 34. as Cruco another Sclauonian Prince others discomfited in war as Abbas the king of Hungaria some destroied by their owne horses Bonfinus as Lucius the Emperor who had first put his owne daughter because she was a Christian amongst the same horses And generally few persecutors escaped without some euident and markable destruction CHAP. XIIII Of the Iews that persecuted Christ BY how much the offence of the Iews was more hainous not onely in despising and reiecting the Lord of glory whom God had sent amongst them for their saluation but also in being so vvicked as to put him to death by so much the more hath God shed his fearfull indignation vpon them as at many other times so especially by that great calamitie and desolation which they abode at their last destruction begun by Vespasian and perfected by Titus which was so great and lamentable as the like was neuer heard of vntill this day for if the sacking and ouerthrow of Ierusalem then when Ieremie the Prophet made his booke of Lamentations ouer it was reputed more grieuous then the subuersion of Sodome which perished suddenly How much more then is this last destruction without all comparison by reason of those horrible strange miseries which were there both suddenly and in continuance of time committed Neither truly is there any history which containeth a description of so many miseries as this doth as it may appeare by Iosephus record of it For after that they had bene afflicted in diuers countries and tossed vp and downe by the deputies a long while there were slaine at Caesarea in one day twenty thousand at Alexandria another time fifty thousand at Zabulon and Ioppe eight thousand and foure hundred besides the burning of the two townes at Damascus ten thousand that had their throates cut As for Ierusalem when it had a long time endured the brunt of the warre both within and without it was pinched with so sore a famine Ioseph of the warres of the Iewes lib. 2. cap. 19 21 22 23. Lib. 6. cap. 16. Lib. 7. cap. 7.8 Lib. 6. c. 16. that
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
giuing him the crowne he most vnthankfully recompenced by putting to death his sonne Zacharias 2. Chron. 24. whome he caused for reproouing and threatning his idolatry in a publicke assembly incited thereto by the spirit of God to be stoned to death in the porch of the Temple But seeing he did so rebelliously set himselfe against the holy spirit as if he would haue quite oppressed and extinguished the power thereof by the death of this holy Prophet by whome it spake God hissed for an armie of Syrians that gaue him battell and conquered his souldiers who in outward shew seemed much to strong for them His princes also that had seduced him were destroied himselfe vexed with grieuous diseases till at length his owne seruants conspired against him for the death of Zacharia and slue him on his bed yea and his memory was so odious that they could not afford him a burying place among the sepulchres of their kings Amazias the sonne of this wicked father 2. Chro 25. caried himselfe also at the first vprightly towards God in his seruice but it lasted not long for a while after he was corrupted and turned aside from that good way which he had begun to tread after the by paths of his father Ioas for after he had conquered the Idumeans and slaine twenty thousand men of war and spoiled diuers of their cities in stead of rendring due thankes to God who without the aid of the Israelites had giuen him that victory he set vp the gods of the Edomites which he had robbed them of to be his gods and worshipped and burned incense to them so void of sense and reason was he And being rebuked by the Prophet of his aduerse dealing hee was so farre from humbling and repenting himselfe thereof that quite contrary he proudly withstood and reiected the Prophets threatnings menacing him with death if he ceased not Thus by this meanes hauing aggrauated his sinne and growing more and more obstinate God made him an instrument to hasten his owne destruction for being proud and puffed vp with the ouerthrow which he gaue the Edomites hee defied the king of Israel and prouoked him to battell also but full euill to his ease for he lost the day and was carried prisoner to Ierusalem where before his face for more reproch foure hundred cubits of the wall was broken downe the temple and pallace ransackt of his treasures his children caried for hostâ—ges to Samaria And not long after treason was deuised against him in Ierusalem so that he fled to Lachish and being pursued thither also was there taken and put to death 2. Chron. 28. Likewise king Ahaz for making molten images for Baalim and walking in the idolatrous waies of the kings of Israel and burning his sonnes with fire after the abominations of the heathen in the valley of Ben-Hinnon was forsaken of the Lord and deliuered into the hands of the king of Syria who caried him prisoner to Damascus and not only so but was also subdued by Pekah king of Israel in that great battell wherein his owne sonne with fourescore thousand men at armes were slaine yea and two hundred thousand of all sorts men women and children taken prisoners for all these chastisements did hee not once reforme his life but rather grew worse and worse To make vp the number of his sinnes he would needs sacrifice to the gods of Damascus also thinking to find succour at their hands so that hee vtterly defaced the true seruice of God at Ierusalem broke in pieces the holy vessels lockt vp the temple dores and placed in their stead his abominable idols for the people to worship and erected altars in euery corner of the city to doe sacrifice on But as hee rebelled on euery side against his God so God raised vp enemies on euery side to disturbe him The Edomites and Philistims assaulted him on one side beate his people tooke and ransackt his cities on the other side the Assyrians whome he had hired with a great summe for his helpe turned to his vndoing and vtter ouerthrow and confusion What shall wee thinke of Manasses who reedified the high places and altars which the zeale of Ezechias his father had defaced and throwen downe 2. Chron 33. and adored and worshipped the plannets of heauen the Sunne the Moone and the Starres profaned the porch of Gods Temple with altars dedicated to strange gods committing thereon all the abominations of the Gentiles Idolatrie Lib. 1. cap. 26. yea and caused his sonnes to passe thorough the valley of Benhinnon and was an obseruer of times and seasons and gaue himselfe ouer to witchcraft charming and sorceries and vsed the helpe of familiar spirits and soothsayers and that which is more placed a carued Image in the house of God flat against the second commaundement of the law So that hee did not onely go astray and erre himselfe in giuing ouer his mind to most wicked and damnable heresies but also seduced the people by his pernitious example and authoritie to doe the like mischiefe And that which is yet more and worst of all hee made no account nor reckening of the admonitions of the Prophets but the rather and the more hardened his heart to runne out into all manner of crueltie and wickednesse that his sinnes might haue their full measure For the very stones of the streetes of Ierusalem were stained from one corner to another with the guiltlesse and innocent blood of those that either for disswading him from or not yeeldihg vnto his abominable and detestable Idolatry were cruelly murdered amongst the number of which slaine innocents many suppose that the Prophet Esaias although hee was of the blood royall was with a straunge manner of torment put to death 2. King 12. Wherefore the flame of Gods ire was kindled against him and his people so that they stirred vp the Assyrians against them whose power and force they being not able to resist were subdued and the king himselfe taken and put in fetters and bound in chaines caried captiue to Babylon but being there in tribulation he humbled his soule and praied vnto the Lord his God who for all his wicked cruell and abominable Apostasie was intreated of him and receiued him to mercy yea and brought him againe to Ierusalem into his vnhoped for kingdom Then was hee no more vnthankefull to the Lord for his wonderfull deliuerance but being touched with true repentance for his former life abolished the strange gods broke downe their altars and restored againe the true religion of God and gaue straight commandement to his people to do the like Wherein it was the pleasure of the Highest to leaue a notable memorial vnto all posterity of his great and infinite mercy towards poore and miserable sinners to the end that no man be his sinnes neuer so heinous should at any time despaire for where sinne aboundeth Rom. 5. there grace aboundeth much more Admit that this reuolt of Manasses
Socrat. lib. 3. hist ecclesiast cap. 20. that hee died thereof When he vndertooke this voiage hee was furnished with such brauery both of apparell and all things else as it might seeme it appertained to him and none else to ouerwhelme and ouersway the world still belching out threats against poore Christians whome he had determined at his returne from Persia vtterly to destroy and leaue none aliue as was afterwards reported by one of his counsaile The number of his souldiers was so innumerable and his strength so impregnable that hee made no other reckening but to be lord of Persia in a verie short space But loe how the Lord ouerturneth the attempts of his enemies this great army as S. Chrysostome reporteth against the heathen in which he put so much confidence seemed ere long to be rather a vast and weake multitude of women infants then an host of warriours for by his euil and foolish conduct and gouernment there rose so great a famine amongst them that their horses which were prouided for the battell serued for their bellies yea and for want of that too many hundreds died for hunger and thirst Euer when he skirmished his own side came to the worst doing more scath to themselues then to their enemies and last leading them so vndiscretely they could not by any meanes escape but were constrained after he was slaine to intreat the Persians to suffer them to retire and so as many as could escaped and fled away to saue their liues And thus this braue armie was thus miserably dismembred and discomfited to the euerlasting shame of that wicked Apostate One of the treasurers of this wicked Emperour who to please his master Theod. lib. 3. cap. 13. Sozom. lib. 5. cap. 8. Contempt the word Lib. 1. cap. 34. forsooke also the religion of Christ being on a time mocking and deriding the ministery of the holy word died miserably on a sudden vomiting his owne blood out of his mouth and as Chrysostome saith his priuie parts being rotten and putrified and consumed with lice for all that euer he could doe to remedy the same It is recorded of Trebellius the first king of the Bulgarians that being conuerted with his people to the faith of Christ to the end to giue himselfe the quieter to the meditation exercise of religion resigned ouer his kingdome to his eldest sonne whome when he perceiued to renounce the faith and to follow strange gods he not only depriued of all his roiall dignity but also caused his eies to be put out for a punishment of his Apostasie and bestowed the kingdome vpon his other sonne shewing thereby that hee that abandoneth the true light of saluation is not worthy to enioy the comfortable light of the world A Diuine of Louaine one Iames Latonus who was well instructed at the first in the knowledge of the truth afterwards renouncing the same endeuoured with all his power to impugne oppresse it this man being on a time mounted into a pulpit to preach before the Emperor Charles the fift was at the very instant so amased astonished that no man could perceiue what he said so made himself a laughing stock to all that audience seeing himselfe thus disgraced he returned frō Brussels to Louaine where he fell into such grief sorow of mind for the dishonor which hee had gotten that it turned at length into despaire and in his daily lectures these or like words oftentimes escaped him after that goodly sermon that he had impugned the truth of God which when diuers of his own coat heard they caused him to be shut vp fast in a house where in desperation he died telling euery man he was damned and that hee could not hope for saluation or remission of his sinnes because that of meere malice hee had resisted and made war with God Cardinal Poole an Englishman had also somtimes professed himself to be wel seene in the sincerity of the gospel yet contrary to his conscience he sent into his countrie the trophees and ensignes of Antichrist the Pope which before had been rased out and abolished the realme but he died two or three daies after queene Mary in horrible griefes terrors and fearefulnesse without any shew of repentance Stephan Gardiner bishop of Winchester and afterward Chancelor of England shewed in his yoong yeares some forwardnesse to withstand the Popish abuses and superstitions but assoone as he was exalted to honor he turned ouer a new leafe began freshly and furiously to afflict and to rend the poor and faithfull seruants of Christ putting them to the cruellest deaths hee could deuise And yet more to discouer his profanesse rebellion he wrot many books against the pure religion of God being thus swolne with venomous spight against the son of God beside the extreame couetousnesse whoredomes extortions which raigned in him behold the Lord laid his hand of wrath vpon him stroke him with so strange a malady that before his death such horrible stincke issued from him that none of his friends and seruants no not himselfe could endure the sauour therof his belly was swoln like a taber his eies distracted and sunke into his head his cheeks thin the appearance of his whole face very terrible his breath sauoured of a filthie intollerable stincke and all his members were rotten with continual griefes sownings yet this vile wretch in the middest of al these torments ceased not to yell out continual blasphemies and infamous speeches and so despighting and maugring God died Peter Castellan bishop of Maston hauing attained to great riches and renowne by the meanes of the gospell turned notwithstanding his backe to Christ and mightily inueyed in his sermons at Orleance against the profession of his religion seeking to make it knowne that he had not onely abiured and denied it but also that hee was a profest aduersarie vnto it This man sitting at a time in his chaire fell into a strange disease which no Phisition had euer seen or could search out the cause of for one halfe of his body was extreme hote and burned like fire the other extreame cold and frozen like I se and in this torment with horrible cries and gronings hee ended his life A gray frier called Picard who once was not ashamed of the Gospell afterwards set himselfe to preach against that which he had professed being in the pulpit at Orleance after infinit blasphemies which he disgorged against the truth at last said That he protested before God and the whole assemblie that hee would neuer preach more after that day because he was an Apostatae which saying hee by and by impudently and constantly denied to the perill damnation of his owne soule thinking by his horrible curses forswearings to abuse the poore ignorant and superstitious people but he no sooner came into the field but the puissant hand of God ouerreached him and stroke him speechlesse so that he was caried thence
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
much lesse will he spare any other kingdome and monarchie which continue by their images and idoll worship to stirre vp his indignation against them CHAP. XXVII Of many euils that haue come vpon Christendome for idolatrie IF wee consider and search out the cause of the ruine of the East Empire and of so many famous and florishing Churches as were before-time in the greatest part of Europe namely in Greece wee shall find that Idolatry hath beene the cause of all for euen as it got footing and increase in their dominions so equally did the power of Saracens and Turkish tyrany take root and foundation amongst them and prospered so well that the rest of the world trembled at the report thereof God hauing raised and fortified them as beforetime he had done the Assyrians and Babylonians as whips and scourges to chasten the people and nations of the world that wickedly had abused his holy gospell bearing the name of Christians had become idolaters for no other name then this can be giuen them that in deuotion do any maner of homage to images pictures whatsoeuer may superficially be alledged to the contrary For be it the image either of Prophet Apostle or Christ Iesus himself yet it is necessary that the law of God stand whole and sound which saith Thou shalt make thy selfe no grauen image nor any likenes of things either in heauen aboue or in earth beneath Epiphan Iohn Bishop of Ierusalem thou shalt not bow downe to them nor worship them c. Wherefore he perfourmed the part of a good bishop that finding a vaile spred in the entrance of a Church dore wherein the image of Christ or of some other Saint was pictured rent it in peeces with these words That it was against the authoritie of the sacred scripture to haue any image of Christ set vp in the Church After the same manner Serenus bishop of Marseilla beate down banished all images out of his Churches as occasions of idolatry to shun them the more it was ordained in the Elibertine councill that no image nor picture should be set vp in any Church for which cause also the Emperour Leo the third by an open edict commanded his subiects to cast out of their temples all pictures and statues of Saints Paul Diacon Lib. 6. cap. 14. Angels and whatsoeuer to the intent that all occasions of Idolatry might be taken away yea and he burned some and punished diuers otherwise that in this regard were not pliant but disobedient to his commaundement After which time when images were recalled into Greece into Constantinople the chiefe city and seat of the east Empire it came to passe by a great and dreadfull yet iust iudgement of God that this famous and renowmed city in the worlds eie impregnable after long siege and great and furious assaults was at length taken by the Turkes who hauing wonne the breach and entred with fury droue the poore Emperour Paleologus euen till then fighting for the cities defence to that extremity that in retiring among the prease of his owne souldiers he was thronged and trampled to death and his slaine body being found was beheaded and his head contemptuously caried about the city vpon a launce Now after the massacre of many thousand men to make vp a complete and absolute cruelty they drew the Empresse with her daughters and many other Ladies gentlewomen to a banquet where after many vile and horrible wrongs and disgraces they killed and tore them in pieces in most monstrous manner In all which the execution of Gods most iust wrath for idolatry did most liuely appeare which sinne accompanied with many other execrable and vile vices must needs draw after it a grieuous and terrible punishment to serue for example to others that were to come neither was it a thing by chance or haphazzard that the christians were made a mocking stocke vnto them in that wofull day when in their bloody triumphes they caused a crucifixe to be caried through the streets in contempt and throwing durt vpon it cried in their language This is the gallant God of Christians And thus did God license and permit these sauage Turkes to commit eueryday grieuous outrages and to make great wastes and desolations in all Christendome till that they grew so mighty that it is to bee feared least the saying of Lactantius touching the returne of the Empire into Asia be not verified and accomplished verie shortly if there bee no amendment practised for we see by wofull experience that almost all the forces which Christian Princes haue mustered together from all quarters in pretence to resist their furie and rage haue not onely beene bootlesse and vnprofitable but also that which is worse giuen them further occasion by their bloodie victories and wonderfull slaughter of so many millions of men to make them more obstinate in their detestable Mahumetisme and Turkish religion then they were before for they make their boasts thereof and reare vp trophees of their cruelties taking no more pittie of the vanquished then a butcher doth of sheepe alotted to the slaughter Whereof we haue a pittifull example in rhe ouerthrow of the French armie which Iohn the sonne of Philip duke of Burgundie led against the Turke Pazaite and by the trecherie and cowardise of the Hungarians who in the time of battaile turned their backes and fled was ouercome in that this wicked and cruell tyger expresly charged that all the prisoners in number many should be murdered one after another which was readily executed before his eies so that sauing the chiefe captaine and certain few lords of the companie that were spared in respect of great ransoms there scaped not one aliue Besides these generall calamities the Lord hath particularly showne foorth his indignation against priuate persons and places for Idolatrie Cent. 4. cap. 3. as in Spoletium at one rime there perished by an earthquake three hundred and fiftie whilst they were offering sacrifice vnto their Idols At Rome vnder the empire of Alexander Seuerus after that the left hand of the image of Iupiter was miraculously melted Cent 3. cap. 14. the priests going about to pacifie the anger of their gods with Lectisterns and Sacrifices foure of them togither with the altar and Idoll were stricken in peeces with a thunderbolt and sodenly such a horrible darkenesse ouerspread all the Citty that most of the inhabitants ran out into the fields all amazed Moreouer did not the Lord send lightning from Heauen to inflame that notorious Temple for Idolatrie of Apollo Theodor. lib. 3. cap. 9. 10. or rather the Deuill of Delphos in the time of Iulian the wicked Apostatae whilest hee was exercising tortures vpon one Theodorus a Christian and did it not consume the image of Apollo to ashes The famous and rich Temple of Iupiter at Apamea how strangely did it come to ruine and destruction Nicâ—phor lib. 12. cap. 27. For when the President and Tribunes
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
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
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
the duke of Orleance was a vertuous and commendable action and the authour of it to be void of fault and therefore ought to be void of punishment The preface which this braue oratour vsed was That he was bounden in duty to the duke of Burgundy in regard of a goodly pension which he had receiued at his hands and for that cause he had prepared his poore tongue in token of gratitude to defend his cause Hee might better haue said thus That seeing his tongue was poore and miserable and he himselfe a senslesse creature therfore he ought not to allow or defend so obstinately such a detestable and traiterous murder committed vpon a Duke of Orleance and the same the kings brother in such vile sort and that if hee should do otherwise he should approoue of that which God and man apparantly condemned yea the very Turkes and greatest Painyms vnder heauen that he should iustify the wicked condemne the innocent which is an abomination before God should put darknes in stead of light and call that which is euill good for which the Prophet Esai in his 1 chapter denounceth the iudgemēts of God against false prophets should follow the steps of Balaam which let out his tongue to hire for the wages of iniquity but none of these supposes came once into his mind But to returne to our history The duke of Burgundy hauing the tongues of these braue doctors at his commaundement and the Parisians who bore themselues partially in this quarrel generally fauourers of his side came to Paris in armes to iustifie himselfe as he pretended and stroke such a dreadfull awe of himselfe into all mens minds that notwithstanding all the earnest pursuit of the Duchesse the widow of Orleance for iustice he escaped vnpunished vntill God by other meanes tooke vengeance vpon him which happened after a while after that those his complices of Paris being become lords and rulers of the city had committed many horrible and cruell murders as of the Constable and Chancellour two head officers of the realme whose bodies fast bound togither they drew naked through the streets from place to place in most despitefull maner for the Daulphin escaping their hands by night and safeguarded in his castle after that hee heard of the seasure of the citie found meanes to assemble certaine forces and marched to Montereaufautyon with twenty thousand men of purpose to be reuenged on the Duke for all his braue riotous demeanors hither vnder colour of parling deuising new means to pacifie these old ciuill troubles he enticed the duke being come at his very first arrtuall as he was bowing his knee in reuerence to him he caused him to be slaine And on this manner was the duke of Orleance death quitted the euill and cruelty shewed towards him returned vpon the murderers owne necke for as hee slew him treacherously cowardly so was hee also treacherously and cowardly slaine and iustly requited with the same measure that he before had measured to another Treason lib. 2. cap. 3. notwithstanding herein the Daulphin was not free from a grieuous crime of disloialtie truth breach in working his death without shame of either faith-breach or periury and that in his owne presence whom he had so often with protestation of assurance and safety requested to come vnto him Neither did hee escape vnpunished for it for after his fathers decease hee was in danger of loosing the crowne and all for this cause For Philip duke of Burgundy taking his fathers reuēge into his hands by his cunning deuises wrought meanes to displace him from the succession of the kingdome by according a marriage betwixt the king of England and his sister to whome he in fauour agreed to giue his kingdome in reuersion after his owne decease Now assoone as the king of England was seased vpon the gouernment of Fraunce the Daulphin was presently summoned to the marble table to giue answer for the death of the old duke whither when he made none appearance they presently banished him the realme and pronounced him to be vnworthy to be succeeder to the noble crowne which truly was a very grieuous chastisement and such an one as brought with it a heape of many mischiefes and discomfitures which happened in the warre betwixt England and him for the recouery of his kingdome Peter sonne to Alphonsus king of Castill Froiss lib. r. hist was a most bloodie and cruell tyrant for first hee put to death his owne wife the daughter of Peter duke of Burbone and sister to the Queene of France Next he slue the mother of his bastard brother Henry togither with many Lords and Barons of the realme for which he was hated not only of all his subiects but also of his neighbour and adioyning cuntries which hatred mooued the aforesaid Henry to aspire vnto the crowne which what with the Popes aduouch who legitimated him and the helpe of certaine French forces and the support of the nobility of Castill he soone atchieued Peter thus abandoned put his safest-guard in his heeles and fled to Bordeaux towards the Prince of Wales of whome he receiued such good entertainment that with his aid he soone reentred his lost dominions and by maine battell chased his bastard brother out of the confines thereof But being reinstalled whilst his cruelties ceased not to multiply on euery side behold Henry with a new supply out of France began to assaile him afresh and put him once againe to his shifts but all that hee could doe could not shift him out of Henries hands who pursued him so hotly that with his owne hands he soone rid him out of all troubles and afterwards peaceably enioyed the kingdome of Castill CHAP. X. Of diuers other murderers and their seuerall punishments MAximinus from a shepheard in Thracia grew to be an Emperor in Rome by these degrees his exceeding strength and swiftnes in running commended him so to Seuerus then Emperour that he made him of his guard from that hee arose to be a Tribune and at last to be an Emperour which place he was no sooner in possession of but immoderate crueltie all this while buried began to shew it selfe for he made hauocke of all the nobilitie and put to death those that hee suspected to be acquainted with his estate insomuch as some called him Cyclops some Busiris others Anteus for his cruelty Wherfore the Senat of Rome seeing his indignity proclaimed him an enemy to their commonwealth and made it lawfull for any man to procure his death which being knowen his souldiers lying at the siege of Aquileia mooued with hatred entred his tent at noone day and slew him and his sonne togither Iustinian the younger no lesse hatefull to his subiects for his cruelty than Maximinus was deposed from the Empire by conspiracie and hauing his nosthrils slit exiled to Chersona Leontius succeeding in his place Howbeit ere long hee recouered his crowne and scepter and returned to
and being demanded what he ailed he halfe asleep answered That his friend Ausanius and his wife whome hee had slaine long agoe summoned him to Iudgement before God vpon which confession he was apprehended and after due examination stoned to death Thus though all witnesses faile yet a murderers owne conscience will bewray him Pipin and Martellus his sonne kings of France enuying prosperity and ease Casp hed lib. 6. cap. 17. fell into diuers monstrous sinnes as to forsake their wiues and follow whores which filthinesse when the Bishop of Tungria reprooued Dodo the harlots brother murdered him for his labour but he was presently taken with the vengeance of God euen a lousie and most filthie disease with the griefe and stinke whereof being mooued he threw himselfe into the riuer Mosa and there was drowned How manifest and euident was the vengeance of God vpon the murderers of Theodoricke hishop of Treuerse Martian Scotus Conrade the author of it died suddenly the souldier that helped to throw him downe from the rocke Hermanus contractus was choaked as he was at supper two other seruants that laid too their hands to this murder slew themselues most desperately About the yeere of our Lord 700 Geilian the wife of Gosbert prince of Wurtiburg Casp Hed. lib. 6. cap. 10. being reprooued by Kilianus for incest for she married her husbands brother wrought such meanes that both hee and his brethren were depriued of their liues but the Lord gaue her vp to Satan in vengeance so that she was presently possessed with him and so continued till her dying day A certaine woman of Millaine in Italy hung a young boy and after deuoured him instead of meat when as she wanted none other victuals and when shee was examined about the crime shee confessed that a spirit persuaded her to doe it telling her that after it she should attaine vnto whatsoeuer she desired for which murder shee was tormented to death by a lingring and grieuous punishment This Arlunus reporteth to haue happened in his time And surely howsoeuer openly the deuill sheweth not himselfe yet hee is the moouer and persuader of all murders and commonly the detector For hee delighteth in mens bloods and their destruction as in nothing more At Winsheime in Germanie a certaine theefe after many â—obberies murders committed by him vpon trauailers and women with child went to the shambles before Easter and bought three calues heads which when he put into a wallet they seemed to the standers by to be mens heads Theat histor Though strange yet not incredible since God can as well turne calues heads into mens as a rod into a serpent or water into blood Whereof being attached searched by the officers and found so indeed hee being examined how hee came by them answered and proued by witnesses that he bought calues heads how they were transformed hee knew not Whereat the Senat amazed not supposing this miracle to arise of naught cast the partie into prison and tortured him to confesse the villany whereof the Lord would haue him detected as hee did indeed and was worthely punished for the same and then the heads recouered their old shapes Another theefe at Tubing betraied his murder robbery by his own sighes 8. Mandat lib. 2 cap. 35. which were so incessant in griefe not of his fact but of his small bootie that being but asked the question he confessed the crime and vnderwent worthy punishment Another murderer in Spaine was discouered by the trembling of his heart for when many were suspected of the murder and all renounced it the iudge caused all their breasts to bee opened and him in whom he saw most trembling of breast hee condemned who also could not deny the fact but presently confessed the same At Isenacum a certaine young man being in loue with a maid not hauing wherewith to maintain her vsed this vnlawfull means he vpon a night slew his host 8. Mandat lib. 2. cap. 35. throwing his body into the seller tooke away all his money and then hasted away but the terror of his owne conscience and the iudgement of God so besotted him that he could not stirre a foot vntill he was appreheÌ„ded At the same time Martin Luther Philip Melancton abode at Isenacum were eie witnesses of this miraculous iudgement who also dealt with the murderer that in most humble and penitent confession of his sins comfort of soule he ended his life By all these exaÌ„ples we see how hard it is for a murderer to escape without his reward Nay rather then he shal go vnpunished sencelesse creatures and his owne soule riseth to giue sentence against him In the yeare of our Lord 1546 Iohn Diazius a Spaniard by birth liuing a student and professor in Paris came first to Geneua and then to Strasbrough and there by the grace of Gods spirit saw his Sorbonicall errors and renounced them betaking himselfe to the profession of the purer religion and the company and acquaintance of godly men amongst whome was Bucer that excellent man who sent him also to Nurnburge to ouersee the printing of a booke which he was to publish Sleid. lib. 17. Whilst Diazius liued at this Nurnburge a citie scituate vpon the riuer Dimow his brother a lawier and iudge lateriall to the inquisition by name Alphonsus came thither and by all meanes possible endeuoured to dissuade him from his religon and to reduce him againe to Poperie But the good man persisted in the truth notwithstanding all his persuasions and threats wherfore the subtile foxe tooke another course and faining himselfe to bee conuerted also to his religion exhorted him to goe with him into Italy where he might doe much good or at the least to August but by the counsaile of Bucer and his friends hee was kept backe otherwise willing to follow his brother Wherefore Alphonsus departed exhorteth him to constancy perseuerance giuing him also foureteeene crownes to defray his charges Now the Wolfe had not ben three daies absent when he hired a rakehell and common butcher and with him flew again to Nurnburge in post hast and comming to his brothers lodging deliuered him a letter which whilest he read the villain his confederate cleft his head in peeces with an axe leauing him dead vpon the floore and so fled with all expedition Howeit they were apprehended yet quit by the Popes iustice so holy and sacred are the fruits of his holinesse though not by the iustice of God for within a while after hee hung himselfe vpon his mules necke at Trent Duke Abrogastes slew Valentinian the Emperour of the West and aduanced Eugenius to the crowne of the Empire but a while after the same sword which had slaine his Lord and maister was by his owne hands turned into his own bowels Mempricius the sonne of Madan the fourth king of England then called Britaine after Brute Lanquet chron had a brother called Manlius
herewith he poisoned also the heires of Fredericke to the end hee might attaine vnto the crowne as Conrade his elder brother and his nephew the sonne of Henry the heire which Henry died in prison now only Conradinus remained betwixt him and the kingdome whome though he assailed to send after his father yet was his intention frustrate for the Pope thundered out his curses against him and instigated Charles duke of Angiers to make warre against him wherein bastard and vnnaturall Manfred was discomfited and slaine and cut short of his purpose for which he had committed so many tragedies Luther Martin Luther was wont to report of his owne experience this wonderfull history of a locksmith a young man riotous and vicious who to find fuell for his luxury was so bewitched that he feared not to slay his owne father and mother with a hammer to the end to gaine their mony and possessions after which cruell deed he presently went to a shomaker and bought him new shoes leauing his old behind him by the prouidence of God to be his accusers for after an houre or two the slaine bodies being found by the magistrate and inquisition made for the murderer no manner of suspition being had of him hee seeming to take such griefe thereat But the Lord that knoweth the secrets of the heart discouered his hypocrisie and made his owne shoes which he had left with the shoemaker rise vp to beare witnesse against him for the blood which ran from his fathers wounds besprinkled them so that thereof grew the suspition from thence the examination very soone the confession last of all his worthy lawfull execution From hence wee may learne for a generall truth that murder neuer so secret will euer by one means or other be discouered the Lord will not suffer it to goe vnpunished so abominable it is in his sight Another sonne at Bosil in the yere of our Lord God 1560 bought a quantitie of poison of an Apothecary Casp Hed. 4. part chron ministred it to none but to his owne father accounting him worthiest of so great a benefit which when it had effected his wish vpon him the crime being detected in stead of possessing his goods which he aimed at hee possessed a vile and shamefull death for he was drawne through the streets burnt with hot irons and tormented nine houres in a wheele till his life forsooke him As it is repugnant to nature for children to deale thus cruelly with their parents so it is more against nature for parents to murder their children insomuch as naturall affection is of greater force in the descent then in the ascent the loue that parents beare their children is greater then that which children redound to their parents because the child proceedeth from the father and not the father from the child as part of his fathers essence and not the father of his Can a man then hate his owne flesh or be a rooter out of that which himselfe planted It is rare yet sometimes it commeth to passe Howbeit as the offence is in a high degree so it is alwaies punished by some notable and high iudgement as by these examples that follow shall appeare The ancient Ammonites had an idoll called Moloch to the which they offered their children in sacrifice this idoll as the Iewes write was of a great stature and hollow within hauing seuen chambers in his hollownesse whereof one was to receiue meate another turtle doues the third a sheepe the fourth a ram the fift a calfe the sixt an oxe and the seuenth a child his hands were alwaies extended to receiue gifts and when a child was offered they were made fire hot to burne it to death none must offer the child but the father to drowne the cries of it the Chemarims for so were the priests of that idoll called made a noise with bels cymbals and hornes thus it is written that king Achab offered his son yea many of the children of Israel beside as the Prophet Dauid affirmeth They offered saith he their sonnes and daughters to deuils shed innocent blod Psal 106 37 38. euen the blood of their children whom they offered vnto the idols of Canaan and their land was defiled with blood this is the horrible crime Now mark the iudgemēt touching the Canaanites the land spued them out for their abominations Achab with his posterity was accursed himselfe being slaine by his enemies and the crowne taken from his posterity not one being left of his off-spring to pisse against the wal according to the saying of Elias as for the Iewes the Prophet Dauid in the same place declareth their punishment when he saith That the wrath of the Lord was kindled Vers 40. and he abhorred his inheritance and gaue them into the hands of the heathen that they that hated them were lords ouer them In the yeere of our Lord 1551 in a towne of Hassia called Weidenhasten Iob. Fincel llb. 1. de mirac the 20 day of Nouember a cruell mother inspired with Satan shut vp all her dores and began to murder her foure children on this manner shee snatcht vp a sharpe axe and first set vpon her eldest sonne being but eight yeeres old searching him out with a candle behind a hogs-head where he hid himselfe and presently notwithstanding his pitifull praiers and complaints claue his head in two peeces and chopped off both his armes next shee killed her daughter of fiue yeeres old after the same manner another little boy of three yeeres of age seeing his mothers madnes hid himselfe poore infant behind the gate whome assoone as the tygre espied she drew out by the haire of the head into the floore and there cut off his head the youngest lay crying in the cradle but halfe a yeere old him shee without all compassion pluckt out and murdered in like sort These murders being finished the deuill incarnate for certen no womanly nature was left in her to take punishment of her selfe for the same cut her owne throat and albeit shee suruiued nine daies and confessing her fault died with teares and repenrance yet we see how it pleased God to arme her own hands against her selfe as the fittest executioners of his vengeance Theatr. hist The like tragicall accident we read to haue happened at Cutzenborff a city in Silesia in the yeere 1536 to a woman and her three children who hauing slaine them all in her husbands absence killed her selfe in like maner also to make vp the tragedie Concerning stepmothers it is a world to read how many horrible murders they haue vsually practised vpō their children in law to the end to bring the inheritance to their owne brood or at least to reuenge some iniury supposed to be done vnto them of which one or two examples I will subnect as a tast out of many hundred leauing the residue to the iudgement and reading of the learned Constantius the sonne of
Heraclius hauing raigned Emperour but one yeere was poisoned by his stepmother Martina Zonoras tom 3. to the end to install her owne sonne Heraclon in the crowne but for this cruell part becomming odious to the Senat they so much hated to haue her or her sonne raigne ouer them that in stead thereof they cut off her tongue and his nose and so banished them the city Fausta the wife of Constantine the Great fell in loue with Constantine her sonne in law begotten vpon a concubine Zonoras 3. Annal. Sex Aur. whom when she could not persuade vnto her lust shee accused vnto the Emperour as a sollicitour of her chastitie for which cause hee was condemned to die but after the truth was knowen Constantinus put her into a hote bath and suffered her not to come forth vntill the heat had choaked her reuenging vpon her head his sonnes death and her owne vnchastitie CHAP. XII Of Subiect Murderers SEing then they that take away their neighbours liues doe not escape vnpunished as by the former examples it appeareth it must needs folow that if they to whom the sword of iustice is committed by God to represse wrongs and chastise vices doe giue ouer themselues to cruelties and to kill and slay those whome they ought in duty to protect and defend must receiue a greater measure of punishment according to the measure and quality of their offence Such an one was Saul the first king of Israel who albeit he ought to haue bene sufficiently instructed out of the law of God in his duty in this behalfe yet was hee so cruell and bloody minded as contrary to all iustice to put to death Abimelech the high priest with fourescore and fiue other priests of the family of his father 1. Sam. 22. onely for receiuing Dauid into his house small or rather no offence And yet not satisfied herewith h◠vomited out his rage also against the whol city of the priests and put to the mercilesse sword both man woman and child without sparing any Hee slew many of the Gibeonites who though they were reliques of the Amorites that first inhabited that lād yet because they were receiued into league of amity by a solemne oth and permitted of long continuance to dwell amongst them should not haue bene awarded as enemies nor handled after so cruell a fashion Thus therefore he tyranizing and playing the butcher amongst his own subiects for which cause his house was called the house of slaughter practising many other foul enormities he was at the last ouercome of the Philistims sore wounded which when he saw fearing to fall aliue into his enemies hands and not finding any of his owne men that would lay their hands vpon him desperately slew himselfe The same day three of his sonnes and they that followed him of his owne houshold were all slaine The Philistims the next day finding his dead body despoiled among the carcasses beheaded it and caried the head in triumph to the temple of their god and hung vp the trunke in disgrace in one of their cities to be seene lookt vpon and pointed at And yet for all this was not the fire of Gods wrath quenched for in king Dauids time there arose a famine that lasted three yeeres the cause whereof was declared by God to be the murder which Saul committed vpon the Gibeonites 2. Sam. 21. wherefore Dauid deliuered Sauls seuen sonnes into the Gibeonites hands that were left who put them to the most shamefull death that is euen to hanging Amongst all the sinnes of king Achab and Iezabel which were many and great 1. King 21. the murder of Naboth standeth in the forefront for though hee had committed no such crime as might any way deserue death yet by the subtill and wicked deuise of Iezabel foolish and credulous consent of Achab and false accusation of the two suborned witnesses he was cruelly stoned to death but his innocent blood was punished first in Achab who not long after the warre which hee made with the king of Siria receiued so deadly a wound that hee died thereof the dogges licking vp his blood in the same place where Naboths blood was licked 2. King 9. according to the foretelling of Elias the Prophet And secondly of Iezabel whome her owne seruants at the commandement of Iehu whome God had made executour of his wrath threw headlong out of an high window vnto the ground so that the walls were died with her blood and the horses trampled her vnder their feet and dogs deuoured her flesh till of all her dainty body there remained nothing sauing only her scull feet and palme of her hands Ioram sonne of Iehosaphat king of Iudah being after his fathers death possessed of the crowne and scepter of Iudah 2. Chron. 21. by and by exalted himselfe in tyranny and put to death sixe of his owne brethren all younger than himselfe with many princes of the realme for which cause God stirred vp the Edomites to rebell the Philistims and Arabians to make war against him who forraged his countrey sacked and spoiled his cities and tooke prisoners his wiues and children the yongest only excepted who afterwards also was murdered when he had raigned king but a small space And lastly as in doing to death his owne brethren hee committed crueltie against his owne bowels so the Lord stroke him with such an incurable disease in his bowels and so perpetuall for it continued two yeeres that his very entrails issued out with torment and so died in horrible misery Albeit that in the former booke we haue already touched the pride and arrogancie of king Alexander the Great yet wee can not pretermit to speake of him in this place his example seruing so fit for the present subiect for although as touching the rest of his life hee was verie well gouerned in his priuat actions as a monarch of his reputation might be yet in his declining age I meane not in yeeres but to deathward he grew exceeding cruell not only towards strangers as the Cosseis whome he destroied to the sucking babe but also to his houshold and familiar friends Insomuch that being become odious to most fewest loued hi◠and diuers wrought all meanes possible to make him away but one especially whose sonne in law and other neare friends he had put to death neuer ceased vntill he both ministred a deadly draught vnto himselfe Iustine whereby he depriued him of his wicked life and a fatall stroke to his wiues and children after his death to the accomplishment of his full reuenge Phalaris the tyrant of Agrigentum made himselfe famous to posterity by no other meanes Oros then horrible cruelties exercised vpon his owne subiects inuenting euery day new kinds of tortures to scourge and afflict the poore soules withall In his dominion there was one Perillus an artificer of his craft one expert in his occupation who to flatter and curry fauour with him deuised a new torment
sonne Ochosias that died without issue shee put to death all the blood roiall to wit the posterity of Nathan Salomons brother to whome by right of succession the inheritance of the crowne appertained to the end that shee might install her selfe into the kingly diademe after this cruell butchery of all the roiall male children except Ioas who by Gods prouidence was preserued aliue shee vsurped the crowne and scepter of Iuda full seuen yeeres at the end of which date Ioas was exalted to the crowne and she not onely deposed but slaine by the hands of her guard that attended vpon her Brunchild whome histories call Brunhault a Queene of France by marriage Aimon Nic. Gil. vol. 1. but a Spaniard by birth was a woman that bred much mischiefe in her age and that wrought many horrible and death-deseruing crimes for partly with her subtill deuises and partly with her owne hands shee murdered ten kings of France one after another shee caused her husband to slay his owne brother she procured the death of her nephew Meroueus whome against all equity and honestie she had secondly espoused for her husband for he being hated of his father for that vile incest and perceiuing himselfe in danger of taking made one of his owne seruants thrust him through After shee had committed these and many other foule factes shee went about also to defraud Clotairius the sonne of Chilpericke of the right of the crowne which pertained vnto him and to thrust in another in the roome Whereupon arose great warre in the which as shee dealt more boldly and manfully then the condition of her sexe would beare so she receiued the due wages of her braue and vertuous deeds for shee was taken prisoner with three of het nephewes whose throats she saw cut before her face and after her selfe was set vpon a camell and led through the host three daies togither euery man reuiling mocking reproching and despiting her and at last by the award and iudgement of the princes and captaines of the army shee was adiudged to be tyed by the haire of her head one arme one foot to the taile of a wild and vntamed horse and so to bee left to his mercy to be drawen miserably to her destruction which was no sooner executed but her miserable carkasse the instrument of so many mischiefes was with mens feet spurned bruised trampled and wounded after a most strange fashion and this was the wofull end of miserable Brunchild Let euery one both great and small learne by these examples to containe themselues within the limits of humanitie and not to bee so readie and prompt to the shedding of humane blood knowing nothing to be more true than this That he that smiteth with the sword shall perish with the sword CHAP. XV. Of such as without necessitie or conference vpon euery light cause mooue warre AS in surgerie so in a commonwealth we must account warre as a last refuge and as it were a desperate medicine which without very vrgent necessity when all other meanes of maintaining our estate against the assaults of the enemy faile ought not to be taken in hand and indeed the chiefe scope and marke that all those that lawfully vndertake warre Cic. Off. lib. 1. ought to propound to themselues should be nothing els but the good and quiet of the commonwealth with the peace and repose of euery member thereof And therefore so oft as any reasonable offers and conditions of peace are propounded they ought to be accepted to the end to auoid the masse of euils as ruines bloodsheds robberies which alwaies accompany warre as necessary attendants for whosoeuer doth not so but vpon euery light occasion runneth to armes and to trie the hazard of battaile they manifest their owne foolish and pernicious rashnes and their small conscience in shedding humane blood Amongst the good kings of Iuda Iosias for piety zeale in the seruice of God was most renowmed for hee purged the realme from all drosse of idolatry repaired the decaied temple and restored it to the first glory and yet for all this for committing this one crime he lost his life for as Nechao king of Aegypt was passing with an army towards the king of Babylon in Charcamis beside Euphrates to bid him battaile he would needs encounter him by the way 2. Chron. 35. and interrupt his iourney by vnprouoked warre yea though Nechao had by embassage assured him not to meddle with him but intreated onely free passage at his hand yet would not Iosias in any wise listen so opinionatiue and selfe willed was he but gaue him battaile in the field without any iust cause saue his owne pleasure which turned to his paine for he caught so many wounds at that skirmish that shortly after he died of them to â—he great griefe of the whole people and the Prophet Iereâ—â—e also that lamented his death King Iohn of France for refusing reasonable conditions of peace at the English mens hands was ouerthrowen by them two miles from Poytiers with a great ouerthrow Froiss vol. 1. Nic. Gil. vol. 2. for the Englishmen in regard of their owne small number and the huge multitude of the French to encounter with them timorously offered vp a surrender of all that they had either conquered taken or spoiled since their comming from Bordeaux and so to be sworne not to beare armes against him for seuen yeeres so that they might quietly depart But the king that crowed before the conquest affying too much in the multitude of his forces stopt his eares to all conditions not willing to heare of any thing but war war euen thinking to hew them in pieces without one escaping but it fell out otherwise for the Englishmen intrenching themselues in a place of aduantage and hard of accesse inclosed with thicke hedges and brambles disturbed and ouerthrew with their archers at the first onset the French horsemen and wounded most of their men and horses with multitude of arrowes it tarried not long ere the footmen also were put to flight on the other side the whole army of threescore thousand men by bare eight thousand English discomfited diuers great lords were found slaine in the field and diuers others with the king himselfe carried prisoners into England which was a great shake to the whole Realme and the occasion of many tumults and disorders that ensued afterwards Moreouer as it is a rash part to hazard the doubtfull euent of battaile indiscretely and without cause so it is a point of no lesse folly to thrust ones selfe voluntarily into any action of war without charge not being particularly called and bound thereunto or hauing a body vnsufficient and vnfit for the same And this was also one of the warlike points of discipline which the ancient Romans vsed That none should presume to fight for his countrey before hee had beene admitted by some captaine by a solemne oath Of all the histories that I euer read I know none
same game Oros lib. 5. c. 24. whereat they had often times made themselues merry at their costs and to kill one another as they had beforetime caused them to doe How curious and desirous the people of Rome was wont to be of beholding these bloody and mischieiuous games Cornel. Tacit. Annal. lib. 4. Cornelius Tacitus in the fourth boooke of his Annales declareth at large where he reporteth That in the city of the Fidenauts in the twelfth yeere of the raigne of Tiberius the people being gathered togither to behold the fencers prises were fiftie thousand of them hurt and maimed at one time by the Amphitheatre that fell vpon them â— cruell pastime indeed and a strange accident not comming by aduenture as some suppose but by the iust vengeance of God to suppresse such pernicious and vnciuill sports The same storie is registred by Paulus Orosius in his seuenth booke with this adiection That at that time were slaine more than twenty thousand persons I can not passe ouer in silence two notable and memorable histories of two lyons Senec. lib. 1. de benefic recorded by two famous Authors Seneca the one and Aulus Gellius the other The first of whom reporteth that he saw on the Theatre a lyon who seeing a slaue that sometimes had beene his keeper throwen among the beasts to be deuoured acknowledged him and defended him from their teeth and would not suffer any of them to doe him hurt Aul. Gell. Noct. Attic. l. 5. c. 14. The second bringeth the testimony of one Appianus that affirmed himselfe to haue seene at Rome a lyon who for old acquaintance sake which he had with a condemned seruant fawned vpon him and cleared him in like manner from the fury of the other beasts the history was this A certaine bondslaue too roughly handled by his master forsooke him and fled away and in his flight retiring into a desart and not knowing how to bestow himselfe tooke vp a caue for his lodging where hee had not long abode but a mightie lyon came halting to his denne with a sore and bloody legge the poore slaue all forgone at this strange and ougly sight looked euery minute to be deuoured but the lyon in another moode came fawningly and softly towards him as if he would complaine vnto him of his griefe whereat somewhat heartened hee bethought himselfe to apply some medecine to his wound and to bind vp the sore as well as he could which hee had no sooner done but the lyon made out for his prey and ere long returning brought home to his host and surgeon certaine gobbets of raw flesh which he halfe rosting vpon a rocke by the sunne beames made his daily sustenance for the time of his abode there notwithstanding at length wearied with this odde sauage life and hating to abide long in that estate he forsooke the desart and put himselfe againe to aduenture now it chaunced that hee was taken by his old master and carried from Aegypt to Rome to the end to be an actour in those beastly tragedies but by good chance his old patient the lyon taken also since his departure being ready amongst other beasts to play his part knew him by and by and ranne vnto him fawning and making much of him the people wondering at this strange accident after enquiry made of the cause therof gaue him the Lion and caused him to lead him in a string through the city for a miracle for indeed both this and the former deserue no other name Thus God reprooueth the sauadge inhumanitie of men by the example of the wild and furious beasts at whose teeth poore seruants found more fauor than at their masters hands The Emperour Constantine weighing the indignitie of these and such like pastimes and knowing how farre they ought to be banished from the society of men by a publike edict abolished all such bloody and monstrous spectacles In like manner these monomachies and single combats perfourmed in places inclosed for the purpose wherein one at the least if not both must of necessitie die ought to be abrogated in a Christian pollicy as by the Laterane councill it was well enacted with this penalty That whosoeuer should in that manner be slaine his body should be depriued of Ecclesiasticall buriall and truely most commonly it commeth to passe that they that presuming most vpon their owne prowesse and strength are most forward in offering combat either loose their liues or gaine discredit which is more grieuous than death CHAP. XVII Of such as exercise too much rigor and Seueritie FVrthermore we must vnderstand that God doth not only forbid murder and bloodshed but also all tyranny and oppression therin prouiding for the weake against the strong the poore against the rich and bondslaues against their masters to the end that none might be trode vnder foote and oppressed of others vnder paine of his indignation Insomuch therefore as the Romans vsed such rigour towards their seruants it came to passe by a iust iudgement of God that they being lords ouer all the world were three sundry times driuen by their seruants into great extremities As first in Rome within the walles at the same time when they also were troubled with the seditious factioÌ„s of their tribunes Secondly in Sicily where they horribly laid wast the whole country the cause of which commotion was because the Romans had chained a multitude of slaues togither and in that order sent them to manure til the ground for a certain Sirian first assembled two thousand men of them that came next hand then breaking vp the prisons multiplied his army to forty thousand and with them pulled downe castles razed vp townes destroied euery where The third vndertaken by a shepheard who hauing killed his master set at liberty all the bondmen and prepared an army of them wherewith he spoiled cities townes castles discomfited the armies of Seruâ—lius and Lucullus who were Pretours at that time but at last they were destroied and rooted out by little and little and this good seruice got the Romanes at their seruants hands As euery nation hath his proper vertue and vice ascribed to it so the Spaniards for their part are noted famous for cruelty towards their subiects and vassals insomuch that as experience in many witnesseth they are intollerable in that kind for which cause they haue borne the marke of Gods iustice for their rigorous bâ—rbarous handling of the poore west Indians whom they haue brought to that extremity by putting them to such excessiue trauels in digging their mines of gold as namely in the island Hispagnola that the most part by sighes and teares wish by death to end their miseries Bonzoni Milan of the new world many first killing their children haue desperatly hung theÌ„selues on high trees some haue throwen themselues headlong from steepe mountaines and others cast themselues into the sea to be rid of their troubles but the tyrants haue neuer escaped
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.
Elerius Plinie lib. 7. two Romane knights that died in the very action of filthinesse Theodebert the eldest sonne of Clotharius Mich. Rit Neap. died amidst his whores to whom he was though married too too much addicted The like befell one Bertrane Ferrier Lib. de obedi at Barselon in Spaine according to the report of Pontanus In like manner there was one Giachet Geneue of Saluces Fulgos lib. 9. cap. 12. a man that had both wife and children of his owne of good yeares well learned and of good esteeme amongst his neighbor citizens that secretly haunted the company of a yong woman with whō being coupled one euening in his studie he sodainly died his wife and children seeing his long tarriance when time required to goe to bed called him and knockt at his dore very hard but when no answere was made they broke open the dores that were locked on the inner side and found him to their great griefe and dismay lying vpon the woman starke dead and her dead also Claudius of Asses counsellour of the Parliament of Paris a man very euill affected towards the professors of the Gospell committed villanie with one of his waighting maids in the very middest whereof hee was taken with an apoplexie which immediately after made an end of him CHAP. XXI Shewing that Stues ought not to be suffered amongst Christians BY this which hath beene spoken it appeareth manifestly how infamous a thing it is among Christians to priuiledge and allow publike places for adulteries albeit it is a common thing in the greatest cities of Europe yea and in the very bowels of Christendome where no such villanie should be tollerated There is nothing that can cast any coulor of excuse vpon it seeing it is expressely contrarie to Gods edict in many places as first Thou shalt not commit Adulterie And in the 19 of Leuit. 29. Thou shalt not pollute thy daughter in prostituting her to be a whore least the land bee defiled with whoredome and filled with wickednesse And in Deut. 23.17 Let there bee no whore of the daughters of Israell neither a whorekeeper of the sonnes of Israel this is the decree of God and the rule which hee hath giuen vs to square our affections by and it admitteth no dispensation But some doe obiect that those things are tollerated to auoid greater mischiefes as though the Lord were not well aduised when he gaue forth those commandements or that mortall men had more discretion than the immortall God This truly is nothing els but to reiect and disanull that which Saint Paul requireth as a duty of al Christians Ephes 5. namely That fornication and all vncleannesse should not once be named amongst vs neither filthinesse foolish talking or ieasting which are things not comely for so much as no whoremonger nor vncleane person can haue any inheritance in the kingdome of God Dial 3. Plato the Philosopher though a Panym and ignorant of the knowledge of the true God forbad expressely in his Commonwealth Poets and Painters to represent or set to the view any vncleane and lasciuious counterfeit whereby good manners might bee any waies depraued Lib. 7. cap. 7. Aristotle following his maisters steps ordained in his Politiques That all filthie communication should bee banished out of his city How farre were they then from giuing leaue and libertie for filthie and stinking brothel-houses to bee erected and maintained In this therefore the very Heathen are a shame and reproch to those that call themselues Christians and Catholiques Besides the goodly reason which they alledge for their vpholding of their stewes is so farre from the truth that the contrarie is euer truer namely that by their odious and dishonest libertie more euill ariseth to the world than otherwise would in so much as it setteth open a wide dore to al dissolutenesse and whoredomes an occasion of lecherie and vncleannesse euen to those that otherwise would abstaine from all such filthie actions How many young folke are there aswell men as women that by this means giue themselues ouer to loosenesse and vndoe themselues vtterly how many murthers are haue beene and still will bee committed thereby What a disorder confusion and ignomie of nature is it for a father to lie with her with whom his son had been but a little before Or the sonne to come after the father and such like but by the iust iudgement of God it commeth to passe that that which is thought to be enclosed within the precincts of certaine appointed places spreadeth it selfe at large so farre that oftentimes whole streetes and cities are poysoned yea euen their houses who in regard of their place either in the law or pollicie ought to stop the streame of such vices nay which is more meruaile they that with open mouth vaunt themselues to bee Gods Leiutenants on earth Christs vicars and successors to his Apostles are so filthie and abhominable as to suffer publicke bauds and whores to be vnder their noses vncontrouled and which is more to enrich their treasures by their traffique Cornelius Agrippa saith that of all the hee-bauds of his time Pope Sextus was most infamous for hee builded a most glorious and stately Stues if any state or glorie can abide in so bad a place aswell for common Adulterie as vnnaturall Sodomy to bee exercised in Hee vsed as Heliogabalus was wont to doe to maintain heards of whores with whom he participated his friends and seruants as they stood in need and by Adulteries reared yearely great reuenues into his purse Baleus sayth that at this day euery whore in Rome paies tribute to the Pope a Iulle which amounted then to twentie thousand dukats by the yeare at least but now the number is so encreased that it ariseth to fortie thousand I thinke there is none ignorant how Pope Paule the third had by computation fiue and fortie thousand whores and courtizans that paid him a monthly tribute for their whoredomes and thus also this holy father was a protector and vpholder of the Stues and deserued by his villanous behauiour for hee was one of the lewdest Adulterers of that time to beare the name of the maister and erector of these filthie places And herein both hee and the rest of that crue haue shewed themselues enemies to God and true Antichrists indeed and haue not onely imitated but farre surpassed shamelesse and wicked Caligula in all filthie and monstrous dealings Deut. 23. Thou shalt not saith Moses bring the hire of a whore into the house of the Lord thy God for any vow by what title then can these honest men exact so great a rent from their whorish tenants seeing it is by the law of God a thing so abhominable truly it can no otherwise bee but a kind of art of bauderie as may bee gathered out of the law which is in F. de ritu nuptius L. palam Qui habet mancipia c. the meaning whereof is That hee which for gaine
had vnto them both to the end to auoid those mischiefes and enormities which oftentimes happen when either by an ouer hardy foolish and rash presumption a man would nestle himselfe in an higher nest than his estate and calling requireth or by a sensuall and fleshly lust passing the bounds of reason goeth about to constraine and interrupt the law of nature The chiefest thing that is required in marriage is the consent of parties as well of themselues that are to be ioyned togither as of each of their parents the contrary whereof is constraint where either partie is forced Iudg. 21. as it happened to those two hundred maides which the Beniamites tooke by force and violence to be their wiues This was a reproch to Romulus the first king of Rome when hee rauished the Sabine virgins that came to see their sports which was cause of great warre betwixt them Moreouer besides the mutuall ioynt of loue which ought to be betwixt man and wife it is necessary that they that marrie doe marry in the Lord to serue him in greater puritie and with lesse disturbance which can not be if a Christian marrie an infidell for the great difficulties and hinderances that vsually spring from such a roote Exod. 34 16 Deut. 7 3. Therefore it was straightly forbidden the people of God to contract mariages with Idolatours yea and the holy Patriarchs before any such law was giuen had carefully great regard in the marriages of their childrē to this thing as the example of Abraham doth sufficiently declare Therefore they that haue any manner of gouernment and authority ouer vnmarried folkes whether they be fathers mothers kinsmen or tutours ought to haue especiall care and regard thereof Yea Christian princes and lords or rulers of commonwealths should not in this respect be so supine and negligent in the performance of their offices as once to permit and suffer this amongst them which is so directly contrary to the word of God but rather by especiall charge forbid it to the end that both their lawes might be conformable and in euery respect agreeable to the holy ordinances of God and that the way might be stopped to those mischiefes which were likely to arise from such euill concluded marriages For what reason is it that a yong maide baptized and brought vp in the Church of Christ should bee giuen in marriage to a worshipper of images and idols and sent to such a countrey where the worship of God is not so much as once thought vpon Is not this to plucke a soule out of the house of God and thrust it into the house of the deuill out of heauen into hell than which what greater Apostasie or falling from God can there be whereof all they are guilty that either make vp such marriages or giue their good will and consent to them or doe not hinder the cause and proceedings of them if any manner of way they can Now that this confusion and mixture of religion in marriages is vnpleasant and noisome to God it manifestly appeareth by the sixt chapter of Genesis where it is said That because the sonnes of God to wit those whome God had separated for himselfe from the beginning of the world to be his peculiar ones were so euill aduised as to be allured with the beauties of the daughters of men to wit of those which were not chosen of God to be his people and to marry with them corrupting themselues by this contagious acquaintance of prophane people with whome they should haue had nothing to doe that therefore God was incensed against them and resolued simply to reuenge the wickednes of ech party without respect Beside the monstrous fruits of those prophane marriages doe sufficiently declare their odiousnes in Gods sight for from them arose gyants of strength and stature exceeding the proportion of men who by their hugenes did much wrong and violence in the world and gained fearefull terrible names to themselues but God prouoked by their oppressions drowned their tyrannies in the flood and made an end of the world for their sakes In the time of the Iudges in Israel the Israelites were chastised by the hand of God for this same fault for they tooke to wiues the daughters of the vncircumcised and gaue them their daughters also Iudg. 3. In like sort framed they themselues by this means to their corrupt manners and superstitions and to the seruice of their idolatrous Gods But the Lord of heauen rained downe anger vpon their heads and made them subiect to a stranger the king of Mesopotamia whome they serued the space of eight yeeres 1. King 11. Looke what happened to king Salomon for giuing his heart to strange women that were not of the houshold of Gods people Hee that before was replenished with such admirable wisdome that he was the wonder of the world was in his old age depriued thereof and besotted with a kind of dulnes of vnderstanding and led aside from the true knowledge of God to serue idols and to build them altars and chappels for their worship and all this to please forsooth his wiues humours whose acquaintance was the chiefe cause of his misery and apostasie CHAP. XXIIII Touching Incestuous marriages NOw as it is vnlawfull to contract marriages with parties of contrary religion so it is as vnlawfull to marry those that are neare vnto vs by any degree of kindred or affinitie as it is inhibited not only by the law of God but also by ciuill and politique constitutions whereunto all nations haue euer by the sole instinct of nature agreed and accorded except the Aegyptians and Persians whose abominations were so great as to take their owne sisters and mothers to be their wiues Cambyses king of Media and Persia married his owne sister but it was not long ere he put her to death a iust proofe of an vniust and accursed marriage Many others there were in protract of time that in their insatiable lustes shewed themselues no lesse vnstaied and vnbridled in their lawlesse affections than hee One of which was Antiochus king of Iuda sonne of Herodes sirnamed Great Ioseph antiq lib. 17. cap. 15. who blushed not to marrie his sister the late wife of his deceased brother Alexander by whome shee had borne two children but for this and diuers other hi◠good deeds hee lost not only his goods which were confiscated but was himselfe also banished out of his countrey into a forraine place from Iudea to Vienna in France Herode also the Tetrarch was so impudent and shamelesse The same lib. 18. cap. 9. that hee tooke from his brother Philip his wife Herodias and espoused her vnto himselfe which shamelesse and incestuous deed Iohn Baptist reproouing in him told him plainly how vnlawfull it was for him to possesse his brothers wife but the punishment that befell him for this and many other his sinnes wee haue heard in the former booke and need not here to be repeated Anton.
and hardening himselfe in his sinne that contrariwise he cast downe and humbled himselfe and craued pardon and forgiuenesse at the hand of God with all his heart and true repentance not like to such as grow obstinate in their sinnes and wickednesse and make themselues beleeue all things are lawfull for them although they be neuer so vile and dishonest This therefore that wee haue spoken concerning Dauid is not to place him among the number of leud and wicked liuers but to shew by his chastisements beeing a man after Gods owne heart how odious and displeasant this sinne of Adultery is to the Lord and what punishment all others are to expect that wallow therein since hee spared not him whome he so much loued and fauoured CHAP. XXVI Other examples like vnto the former THe history of the rauishment of Helene registred by so many worthy and excellent authours and the great euils that pursued the same Herodot lib. 2. is not to be counted altogither an idle fable Thucyd. or an inuention of pleasure seeing that it is sure that vpon that occasion great and huge warre arose betweene the Greeians and the Troianes during the which the whole countrey was hauocked many cities and townes destroied much blood shed and thousands of men discomfited amongst whome the rauisher and adulterer himselfe to wit Paris the chiefe moouer of all those miserable tragedies escaped not the edge of the sword no nor that famous citie Troy which entertained and maintained the adulterers within her wals went vnpunished but at last was taken and destroied by fire and sword In which sacking old and gray headed king Priam with all the remnant of his halfe slaine sonnes were togither murdered his wife and daughters were taken prisoners and exposed to the mercy of their enemies his whole kingdome was entirely spoiled and his house quite defaced and well nigh all the Troiane nobilitie extinguished and as touching the whore Helene her selfe whose disloialtie gaue consent to the wicked enterprise of forsaking her husbands house and following a stranger shee was not exempt from punishment for as some writers affirme shee was slaine at the sacke but according to others Anton. Vols vpon Ouids epist of Hermione to Orestes she was at that time spared and entertained againe by Menelaus her husband but after his death shee was banished in her old age and constrained for her last refuge beeing both destitute of reliefe and succour and forsaken of kinsfolkes and friends to flie to Rhodes where at length contrary to her hope shee was put to a shamefull death euen hanging on a tree which shee long time before deserued Tit. Liu. The iniury and dishonour done to Lucrece the wife of Collatinus by Sextus Tarquinius sonne to Superbus the last king of Rome Rape l. 2. c. 19. was cause of much trouble and disquietnesse in the city and elsewhere for first shee not able to endure the great iniury and indignity which was done vnto her pushed forward with anger and despite slue her selfe in the presence of her husband and kinsfolke notwithstanding all their desires and willingnesse to cleare her from all blame with whose death the Romans were so stirred prouoked against Sextus the sonne and Tarquinius the father that they rebelled forthwith and when hee should enter the city shut the gates against him neither would receiue or acknowledge him euer after for their king Whereupon ensued warre abroad and alteration of the state at home for after that time Rome endured no more king to beare rule ouer them but in their roome created two Consuls to be their gouernours which kind of gouernment continued to Iulius Caesars time Thus was Tarquinius the father shamefully deposed from his crowne for the adultery or rather rape of his sonne and Tarquinius the sonne slaine by the Sabians for the robberies and murders which by his fathers aduise he committed amongst them and hee himselfe not long after in the warre which by the Tuscane succours hee renued against Rome to recouer his lost estate Plutarch in the life publick was discomfited with them and slaine in the midst of the rout In the Emperour Valentinianus time the first of that name many women of great account and parentage were for committing adulterie put to death as testifieth Ammianus Marcellinus When Europe after the horrible wasting and great ruines which it suffered by the furious inuasion of Attilia Lib. 28. began to take a litle breath and find some ease behold a new trouble more hurtfull and pernicious than the former came vpon it by meanes of the filthy leachery and lust of the Emperour Valentinianus the third of that name who by reason of his euill bringing vp Procop. and gouernment vnder his mother Placidia being too much subiect to his owne voluptuousnesse and tied to his owne desires dishonoured the wife of Petronius Maximus a Senatour of Rome by forcing her to his pleasure an act indeed that cost him his life and many more beside and that drew after it the finall destruction of the Romane Empire and the horrible besacking and desolation of the city of Rome For the Emperour being thus taken and set on fire with the loue of this woman through the excellent beauty wherewith shee was endued endeauoured first to entice her to his lust by faire allurements and seeing that the bulwarke of her vertuous chastity would not by this meanes be shaken but that all his pursuit was still in vaine hee tried a new course and attempted to get her by deceit and pollicy which to bring about one day setting himselfe to play with her husband Maximus he woon of him his ring which he no sooner had but secretly he sent it to his wife in her husbands name with this commaundement That by that token shee should come presently to the court to do her duty to the Empresse Eudoxia shee seeing her husbands ring doubted nothing but came forthwith as shee was commanded where whilst she was entertained by certaine suborned women whome the Emperour had set on he himselfe commeth in place and discloseth vnto her his whole loue which he said he could no longer represse but must needs satisfie if not by faire meanes at least by force and compulsion and so he constrained her to his lust Her husband aduertised hereof Rape l. 2. c. 19. intended to reuenge this iniury vpon the Emperor with his owne hand but seeing he could not execute his purpose whilst Actius the captain generall of Valentinianus army liued a man greatly reuerenced and feared for his mighty and famous exploits atchieued in the warres against the Burgundians Gothes and Attila he found meanes by suggesting a false accusation of treason against him which made him to be hated and suspected of the Emperour to worke his death After that Actius was thus traiterously and vnworthily slaine the griefe of infinite numbers of people for him in regard of his great vertues and good seruice which he had
done to the commonwealth gaue Maximus fit occasion to practise the Emperours destruction and that by this means He set on two of Actius most faithfull followers partly by laying before them the vnworthy death of their master and partly by presents and rewards to kill the Emperour which they perfourmed as he was sitting on his seat of iudgement in the sight of the whole multitude amongst whome there was not one found that would oppose himselfe to Maximus in his defence saue one of his Eunuchs who stepping betwixt to saue his life lost his owne and the amazement of the whole city with this sudden accident was so great that Maximus hauing reuenged himselfe thus vpon the Emperor without much a doe not only seased vpon the Empire but also vpon the Empresse Eudoxia and that against her will to be his wife for his owne died but a little before Now the Empresse not able to endure so vile an indignity being aboue measure passionate with griefe and desire of reuenge conspired his destruction on this manner She sent secretly into Africa to sollicite and request most instantly Gensericus king of the Vandals by praiers mingled with presents to come to deliuer her and the citie of Rome from the cruell tyranny of Maximus and to reuenge the thrise vniust murder of her husband Valentinian adding moreouer that he was bound to doe no lesse in consideration of the league of friendship which by oth was confirmed betwixt them Gensericus well pleased with these newes laid hold vpon the offred occasion which long time he had more wished than hoped for forthwith being alreadie tickled with hope of a great and inestimable booty rigged his ships and made ready his army by sea launching foorth with three hundred thousand men Vandales and Moores and with this huge fleet made straight for Rome Maximus meane while mistrusting no such matter especially from those parts was sore affrighted at the sodaine brute of their comming not yet vnderstanding the full effect of the matter perceiuing the whole city to bee in dismay and that not onely the common people but also the nobilitie had for feare forsaken their houses and fled to the mountains or forrests for safety hee I say destitute of succour tooke himselfe also his heeles as his surest refuge but all could not serue to rid him from the iust vengeance of God prepared for him Mandat 6. lib. 2. cap. 8. for the murders which he had ben cause of For certaine Senators of Rome his priuate secret foes finding him alone in the way of his flight and remembring their old quarrels fell vpon him sodainly felled him downe with stones and after mangled him in peeces and threw his body into Tiber. Three daies after arriued Gensericus with all his forces and entring Rome found it naked of all defence and left to his owne will and discretion where albeit he professed himselfe to be a Christian yet hee shewed more pride and cruelty and lesse pity than either Attila or Allaricus two Heathen kings For hauing giuen his souldiors the pillage of the city they not only spoiled all priuate houses but also the Temples and monasteries in most cruell and riotous manner All the best beautifullest things of the city they tooke away and carried a huge multitude of people prisoners to Affrica amongst the which was Eudoxia the Empresse with her two daughters Eudocia and Placidia who was the cause of al this calamity but her trechery saued not her selfe nor them from thraldome Treason lib. 2. cap 3. And thus was Rome sacked and destroied more than euer it was before insomuch that the Roman Empire could neuer after recouer it selfe but decaied euery day and grew worse and worse These were the calamities which the adultery of Valentinian brought vpon himselfe and many others to his owne destruction and the vtter ruine of the whole Empire Paulus Aemil. Nichol. Gil. Childericke king of France son to Merouee for laying siege to the chastitie of many great ladies of his realme the Princes and Barons conspired against him and droue him to flie for his life Paulus Aemil. Eleonor the wife to king Lewis of France hee that first cut through the sea furrowes towards Ierusalem against the Turks Sarasens would needs couragiously follow her husband in that long and dangerous voiage but how Marry whilst he trauailed night day in perrill of his life she lay at Antioch bathing her selfe in all delights that more licentiously than the reputation or duty of a maried womā required wherefore being had in suspition euill reported of for her lewd behauiour it was thought meet that she should bee diuorced from the king vnder pretence of consanguinitie to the end she should not altogether be defamed Fulgo lib. 6. c r. The faire daughter of Philip the fair king of France escaped not at so good a rate for the king as soone as he smelt out the haunt of their vnchastity caused them to bee apprehended and imprisoned presently howbeit one of them namely the Countesse of Poyters her innocency being knowne was set at liberty and the other two to wit the Queene of Nauar and the wife of Iohn de la March being found guilty by proofe were adiudged to perpetuall imprisonment And the Adulterers two brethren of the countrie of Aniou with whom these ladies had often lien were first cruelly slain and after hanged Froysard vol. 1. cap. 22. Charles son of the foresaid Philip the faire had to wife the daughter of the Earle of Artois that also offended in the like case and in recompence receiued this dishonor and ignominy to be diuorced and put in prison and to see him married to another before her face Froysard vol. 3. cap. 45. In the raigne of Charles the sixt there befell a notable memorable accident which was this One Iaques le Grys of the country of Alanson being enamoured with a lady no lesse faire than honourable the wife of the Lord of Carouge came vpon a day when hee knew her husband to bee from home to her house faining as if hee had some secret message to vnfold vnto her on her husbands behalfe for their familiarity was so great entred with her all alone into a most secret chamber Rape lib. 2. cap. 19. where assoone as he had gotten her hee locked the dore and throwing himselfe vpon her forced her vnto his lust and afterward saued himselfe by speedy flight Her husband at his returne vnderstanding the iniury and wrong which was done him by this vile miscreant sought first to reuenge himselfe by iustice and therefore put his cause to bee heard by the Parliament of Paris where being debated it could not well bee decided because hee wanted witnesses to conuince the crime except his own wiues words which could not bee accepted so that the court to the end that there might some end be made of their quarrell ordained a combate betwixt
nature also Martin Luther hath left recorded in his writings many examples of iudgements on this sin but especially vpon clergie men whose profession as it requireth a more strict kind of cōuersation so their sins and iudgements were more notorious both in their owne natures and in the eie and opinion of the world some of which as it is not amisse to insert in this place so it is not vnnecessary to beleeue them proceeding from the mouth of so worthie a witnesse There was saith he a man of great authoritie learning that forsaking his secular life betooke himselfe into the colledge of preists Luther in epist consolat ad Lucum Cranach whether of deuotion or of hope of libertie to sin let thē iudge that read this history this new adopted priest fell in loue with a Masons wife whom he so woed that he got his pleasure of her what fitter time but whē Masse was singing did he daily chuse for the performing of his villany In this haunt hee persisted a long season till the Mason finding him in bed with his wife did not summon him to law nor pennance but took a shorter course cut his throat Luther Another nobleman in Thuringa being taken in Adulterie was murdered after this strange fashion by the adulteresses husband he bound him hand foot cast him into prison to quench his lust seeing that Ceres that is gluttony is the fewel of Venus that is lust denied him al maner of sustinance the more to augment his pain set hote dishes of meat before him that the smel sight thereof might more prouoke his appetite the want therof torment him more In this torture the wretched lecher abode so long vntil he gnew off the flesh frō his own shoulders and the eleuenth day of his imprisonment ended his life this punishmēt was most horrible too too seuere in respect of the inflicter yet most iust in respect of God whose custome is to proportion his iudgements to the quality of the sinne that is committed Luther affirmeth this to haue happened in his childhood and that both the parties were known vnto him by name which for honor and charity sake he would not disclose There was another nobleman that so delighted in lust Luther Mandat 1. Atheisme li. 1. cap. 25. was so inordinat in his desires that he shamed not to say that if this life of pleasure passing from harlot to harlot might endure euer he would not care for heauē or life eternal what cursed madnesse impiety is this a man to be so forgetful of his maker himself that he preferred his whores before his Sauiour and his filthy pleasure before the grace of God doth it not deserue to be punished with scorpions Yes verily as it was indeed for the polluted wretch died amongst his strumpets being stroken with a suddaine stroke of Gods vengeance In the yeare 1505 a certaine Bishop well seene in all learning and eloquence and especially skilfull in languages was notwithstanding so filthy in his conuersation that he shamed not to defile his bodie and name by many Adulteries but at length hee was slaine by a cobler whose wife hee had often corrupted being taken in bed with her and so receiued a due reward of his filthinesse Lanquet chron In the yeare of our Lord 778 Kenulphus king of the West Saxons in Britaine as hee vsually haunted the company of a a certaine harlot which he kept at Merton was slaine by one Clito the kinsman of Sigebert that was late king The same Sergus a king of Scotland was so foule a drunkard glutton and so outragiously giuen to harlots that hee neglected his owne wife and droue her to such penurie that shee was faine to serue other noblewomen for her liuing wherefore she murdered him in his bed and after slew her selfe also Arichbertus eldest son vnto Lotharius king of France died euen as he was imbracing his whores In summe to conclude this matter our English Chronicles report that in the yeare of our Lord 349 there was so great plentie of corne and fruit in Britaine that the like had not ben seene many yeares before but this was the cause of much idlenesse gluttony lechery and other vices in the land for vsually ease and prosperitie are the nurses of all enormitie but the Lord requited this their riotous and incontinent life with so great a pestilence mortalitie that the liuing scantly sufficed to bury the dead Petrarch Petrarch maketh mention of a certaine Cardinall that though hee was seuenty yeares old yet euery night would haue a fresh whore to this end had certain bauds purueiors and prouiders of his trash but he died a miserable and wretched death And Martin Luther reported that a bishop being a common frequenter of the Stues in Hidelberge came to this miserable end The bords of the chamber whither hee vsed to enter were loosened that assoone as hee came in hee flipt through and broke his necke But aboue all that which wee find written in the second booke of Fincelius is most strange and wonderfull Iob. Fincelius lib. 2. of a Priest in Albenthewer a towne neare adioining to Gaunt in Flaunders that persuaded a yong maid to reiect and disobey all her parents godly admonitions to become his concubine whē she obiected how vile a sinne it was and how contrary to the law of God hee told her that by the authority of the Pope hee could dispence with any wickednesse were it neuer so great and further alledged the discommodities of marriage and the pleasure that would arise from that kind of life in fine he conquered her vertuous purpose and made her yeeld vnto his filthie lust But when they had thus pampered their desires together a while in came the deuill and would needs conclude the play for as they were banquetting with many such like companions he tooke her away from the priests side and notwithstanding her pittifull crying and all their exorcising and coniuring carried her quite away telling the Priest that very shortly he would fetch him also for hee was his owne darling CAAP. XXVIII More examples of the same argument I Cannot passe ouer in silence a history truly tragical touching the death of many men who by reason of an Adulterie slew one another in most strange and cruell manner indeed so strangely that as farre as I euer red or knew there was neuer the like particular deed heard of wherein God more euidently poured forth the stream of his displeasure turning the courage and valor of ech part into rage and furie to the end that by their owne meanes he might bee reuenged on them In the Dukedome of Spoleto which is the way from Ancona to Rome of the ancient Latines called Vmbria there were three brethrē who kept in their possession three cities of the said dukedome namely Faligno Nocera and Treuio the eldest of whom whos 's
owne humours with their abominations and approoue and cleare themselues therein yet are they rewarded by death not onely by the law of God Leuit. 20. but also by the law Iulia. When Charlemaigne reigned in France there happened a most notable iudgement of God vpon the monkes of Saint Martine in Tours for their disordinate lusts they were men whose food was too much and dainty whose ease was too easie and whose pleasures were too immoderate being altogither addicted to pastimes and meriments In their apparell they went clad in silke like great lords Nic. Gil. vol. 1. and as Nichol. Gill. in his first volume of French Chronicles saith their shoes were gilt ouer with gold so great was the superfluity of their riches and pride in summe their whole life was luxurious and infamous for which cause there came forth a destroying angell from the Lord by the report of Eudes the Abbot of Clugny and slew them all in one night as the first borne of Aegypt were slaine saue one onely person that was preferued as Lot in Sodome was preserued this strange accident mooued Charlemaigne to appoint a brotherhood of Canons to be in their roome though little better and as little profitable to the common wealth as the former It is not for nothing that the law of God forbiddeth to lie with a beast Leuit. 18. and denounceth death against them that commit this foule sinne for there haue been such monsters in the world at sometimes Exod. 22. Leuit. 20. Deut. 27. as we read in Caelius and Volaterranus of one Crathes a sheepheard that accompanied carnally with a shee goat but the Buck finding him sleeping offended and prouoked with this strange action ran at him so furiously with his hornes that hee left him dead vpon the ground God that opened an asses mouth to reproue the madnesse of the false Prophet Balaam and sent lions to kill the strange inhabitants of Samaria emploied also this bucke about his seruice in executing iust vengeance vpon a wicked varlet CHAP. XXXIII Of the wonderfull euill that ariseth from this greedinesse of lust IT is to very good reason that the scripture forbiddeth vs to abstaine from the lust of the flesh and the eies 1. Ioh. 2. which is of the world and the corruprion of mans owne nature for so much as by it we are drawne and enticed to euill it being as it were a corrupt root which sendeth forth most bitter soure and rotten fruit Iam. 1. and this happeneth not onely when the goods and riches of the world are in quest but also when a man hunteth after dishonest and vnchast delights this concupiscense is it that bringeth forth whoredoms adulteries and many other such sinnes whereout spring forth oftentimes floods of mischiefes and that diuers times by the selfe will and inordinate desire of priuat and particular persons Gen. 39. what did the lawlesse lust of Putiphars wife bring vpon Ioseph was not his life endangered and his body kept in close prison where hee cooled his feet two yeeres or more We haue a most notable example of the miserable end of a certaine woman with the sacking and destruction of a whole city and all caused by her intemperance and vnbridled lust About the time that the Emperour Phocas was slaine by Priscus Sabell one Gysulphus gouernour and chieftaine of a cuntry in Lumbardie going out in defence of his cuntry against the Bauarians which were certaine reliques of the Hunnes gaue them battaile and lost the field and his life withall Now the conquerours pursuing their victory laid siege to the chiefe citie of his prouince where Romilda his wise made her abode who viewing one day from the wals the young and faire king with yellow curled locks gallopping about the city fell presently so extreamely in loue with him that her mind ran of nothing but satisfying her greedy and new conceiued lust wherefore burying in obliuion the loue of her late husband with her young infants yet liuing and her countrey and preferring her owne lust before them all shee sent secretly vnto him this message That if hee would promise to marry her shee would deliuer vp the citie into his hands he well pleased with this gentle offer through a desire of obtaining the citie whioh without great bloodshed and losse of men he could not otherwise compasse accepted of it and was receiued vpon this condition within the wals and least hee should seeme too perfidious hee performed his promise of marriage and made her his wife for that one night but soone after in scorne and disdaine hee gaue her vp to twelue of his strongest leachers to glut her vnquenchable fire and finally nailed her on a gibbet for a finall reward of her treacherous and boundlesse lust Marke well the misery whereinto this wretched woman threw her selfe and not onely her selfe but a whole city also by her boiling concupiscense which so dâ—zled her vnderstanding that shee could not consider how vndecent it was dishonest and inconuenient for a woman to offer her selfe nay to sollicite a man that was an enemy a stranger and one that shee had neuer seene before to her bed and that to the vtter vndoing of her selfe and all hers But euen thus many more whose hearts are passionate with loue are blindfolded after the same sort like as poeticall Cupid is fained to be that not knowing what they take in hand they fall headlong into destruction ere they be aware Let vs then be here aduertised to pray vnto God that hee would purifie our drossie hearts and diuert our wandring eies from beholding vanity to be seduced thereby CHAP. XXXIIII Of vnlawfull gestures Idlenesse Gluttony Drunkennes Daunsing and other such like dissolutenes LIke as if we would carry our selues chastly and vprightly before God it behooueth vs to auoid all filthines and adultery so wee must abstaine from vnciuill and dishonest gestures which are as it were badges of concupiscense coles to set lust on fire and instruments to iniury others withall Sabel from hence it was that Pompey caused one of his souldiers eyes to be put out in Spaine for thrusting his hand vnder a womans garment that was a Spaniard and for the same or like offence did Sertorius command a footman of his band to be cut in pieces Oh that we had in these daies such minded captaines that would sharply represse the wrongs and rauishments which are so common and vsuall amongst men of warre at this day and so vncontrolled they would not then doubtlesse be so rife and common as in these daies they are Kissing is no lesse to be eschewed than the former if it be not betwixt those that are tied togither by some bond of kindred or affinitie as it was by auncient custome of the Medes and Persians and Romanes also according to the report of Plutarch and Seneca and that which is more Sueton. Tiberius Caesar forbad the often and daily practise thereof in that
haue their equals in follies in better account Basill calleth such sports and pastimes The workehouse forge and common shop of all wickednesse Homil. 4. therefore Chrisossome praieth and admonisheth the faithfull of his time to abstaine from frequenting such places S. Augustine also forbiddeth to bestow our money vpon tumblers Homil 6. in 1. cap. Gen. Can. 51. iugglers and plaiers and such like Beside by the Constantinoplitane councell vnder Iustinian it was inhibited to be once present at such sports vnder the paine of excomunication and that the ancient Christians did by common consent not only condemne but also vtterly abstaine from such pastimes it may appeare by the testimony of Tertullian writing to the Gentiles to this effect Apolog. We renounce and send backe saith hee sports plaies vnto you as to the head and fountain from whence they were first deriued wee make no reckoning of those thinges which we know were drawne from superstition we loue not to behold the folly of turning with chariots nor the vnchastity of the Theatre nor the cruelty of sword playing nor the vanity of leaping wrestling and dancing but take pleasure in exercises of better report and lesse hurt Moreouer how odious and irkesome in the sight of the Lord such spectacles are and what power and sway the deuill beareth therein the iudgement of God vpon a Christian woman reported by Tertullian Tertul. de spect may sufficiently instruct vs There was a woman saith he that went to the Theatre to see a play and returned home possessed with an vncleane spirit who being rebuked in a coniuration for daring to assault one of the faith that professed Christ answered that he had done well because he found her vpon his owne ground The same author reporteth another example as strange of a woman also that went to see a tragedie acted to whome the night following appeared in a dreame the picture of a sheet a presage of death casting in her teeth that which she had done and fiue daies after death himselfe seazed vpon her As touching wanton songs and vnchast and ribald bookes that I may be briefe I will content my selfe onely with that which is alledged by Ludiuicus Viues coÌ„cerning that matter The Magistrate saith hee ought to banish out of his dominion all vnhonest songs and Poemes Lib. of instruction of a Christian woman and not to suffer nouelties to bee published day by day in rimes and Ballades as they are as if a man should heare in a city nothing but foolish and sturrilous dirties such as would make euen the younger sort that are well brought vp to blush and stir vp the indignation of men of honour and grauitie this ought Magistrate to preuent and to discharge the people from reading Amadis Tristram Launcelot du lake Melusine Poggius scurrilities and Boccace nouelties with a thousand more such like toies and thus much out of Viues CAAP. XXXV Of Theenes and Robbers IT followes that wee speake in the next place of such as by their greedy couetousnesse and vnquenchable desire of lucre transgresse the fourth commandement of the second table to wit Thou shalt not steale wherein not only simple theft but also sacriledge is condemned and first of Sacriledge Into this sinne fell wretched Achan in the time of Ioshua Ioshua 7. when in the sacke of Ierecho hee seeing a Babilonish garment with certaine gold and siluer couered it and stole it away and hid it in his tent contrary to the commandement of the Lord for which cause the Lord was offended with his whole people as if they all had beene necessarie to the crime and infer bled them so before their enemies that they were be at â—â—ndowne at Hay and shamefully put to flight neither was his anger appeased vntill that the offendant being diuinely and miraculously descried was stoned to death and burnt with his children and all his substance But to come vnto prophane stories let vs begin with Heliodorus measurer of Seleuchus king of Asia who by the Kings commandement and suggestion of one Simon gouernour of the Temple came to take away the gold and siluer which was kept in the treasurie of the Temple and to transport it vnto the kings treasurie whereat the whole city of Ierusalem put on sackcloth and poured out praiers vnto the Lord so that when Heliodorus was present in the Temple with his souldiours readie to seaze vpon the treasure the Lord of all spirits and power shewed so great a vision that hee fell suddainely into extreame feare and trembling for there appeared vnto him an horse with a terrible man sitting vpon him most richly barbed which came fiercely and smote at him with his foreseer moreouer there appeared two young men notable in strength excellent in beautie and comely in aparrell which stood by him on either side and scourged him with many striples so that Heliodorus that came in with so great a company of souldiours and attendants was stroken dumbe and caried out in a litter vpon thens shoulders for his strength was so abated that he could not helpe himselfe but lay destitute of all hope of recouery so heauy was the hand of God vpon him vntil by the praiers of Onias the high priest he was restored then loe he confessed that hee which dwelt in heauen had his eie on that place and defended it from all those that came to hurt and spoile it Another of this true was in Crassus the Romane who entring Ierusalem robbed the Temple of two thousand talents of siluer and gold Iosephus Zonar beside the rich ornaments which amounted in worth to eight thousand talents and a beame of beaten gold coÌ„taining three hundred pound in weight Campoful lib. 1. for which sacraledge the vengeance of God so pursued him that within a while after he was ouercome by the Parthians and together with his sonne slaine his euil gotten goods being dispersed and the scull of his head being made a ladle to melt gold in that it might be glutted with that being dead which aliue it could neuer be satisfied with Iosephus lib. 17. Herod following the steps of Hircanus his predecessor that tooke out of the sepulchre of king Dauid three thousand talents of money Zonar Annal. 1 thinking to find the like treasure broke vp the sepulchre in the night and found no money but rich ornaments of gold which hee tooke away with him howbeit to his cost for two of his seruants perished in the vaut by a diuine fire as it is reported and he himself had small successe in his worldly affaires euer after Iulian the Apostatae robbed the church of the reuenues thereof and tooke away all beneuolences and contributions to schooles of learning to the end the children might not be instructed in the liberall arts nor in any other good literature Hee exaggered also his sacriledge with scornefull ieasts saying that hee did further then saluation by making them poore seeing it was written in their
owne bibles Blessed are the poore for theirs is the kingdome of heauen but how this sacreligious theefe was punished Lib. 2. cap. 20. is already declared in the former booke Zonaras Leo Croponymus tooke out of the Temple of Constantinople an excellent crowne of gold beset with precious stones which Mauritius had dedicated to the Lord but assoone as he had set it on his head a cruell feuer seased vpon him that he died very shortly Fulg of lib. 1. chap. 2. The punishment of the sacriledge of Queene Vrratha in Spaine was most wonderful and speedie for when in her war against her son Alphonsus she wanted money she robbed the church dedicated to S. Isidore and tooke with her own hands the treasures vp which her souldiours refused to doe but ere she departed out of the church vengeance ouertook her and stroke her dead in the place Moreouer the Lord so hateth this ireligious sinne that he permitteth the deuil to exercise his cruelty vpon the spoilers of prophane and idolatrous temples as he did vpon Dionisius the tyrant of Siracusa Aelianus who after many robberies of holy things and spoiling the churches died sodainly with extream ioy as authors report hee spoiled the temple of Proserpina at Locris and shaued off the golden beard of Aesculapius at Epidamnum saying it was an vnseemely thing for Apollo to be beardlesse and his sonne bearded hee depriued Iupiter Olimpus of his golden raiment and gaue him a woollen coat in steed thereof saying it was too heauie for him in the summer and too cold in winter and that this was more conuenient for both seasons the pretext of al his sacriledge was this that seeing the Gods were good why should not he be pertaker of their goodnesse Such another was Cambises king of Persia Sabel lib. 4. c. 3. Herod lib. 1. who sent fiftie thousand men to rob and destroy the temple of Iupiter Ammon but in their iourney so mighty a tempest arose that they were ouerwhelmed with the sand not one of them remaining to carry news of their successe Brennus was constrained to slay himselfe for enterprising to rob the Temple of Apollo at Delphos Philomelus Fulgo lib. 1. c. 2. Onomarchus and Phayllus went about the same practise and indeed robbed the Temple of all the treasures therein but one of them was burned another drowned and the third broke his necke to conclude the Athenians put to death a yong child for taking but a golden plate out of Dianaes Temple but first they offered him otheriewels trinckets which when hee despised in respect of the plate they rigorously punished him as guilty of sacriledge Cardinal Wolsey being determined to erect two new colledges Stow. chron one at Oxford and the other at Ipswich obtained license and authoritie of Pope Clement the seuenth to suppresse about the number of fortie Monasteries to furnish and set forward the building of his said colledge which irreligious sacriledge I call it sacriledge because not done of conscience but to patch vp pride was furthered by fiue persons who were the chiefe instruments of the dissolution of Daintrey Monasterie because the Prior and Couent would not graunt them certaine lands in farme at their owne price But what punishment ensued vpon them at Gods hand the world was witnesse of for of those fiue persons two fell at discord amongst themselues and the one slue the other for the which the suruiuour was hanged the third drowned himselfe in a well the fourth being then worth two hundred pounds within three yeares became so poore that hee begged vntill his dying day and the fift called Doctor Allane was cruelly maymed in Ireland the Cardinall himselfe falling into the Kings displeasure was deposed from his Bishopricke and died miserablie the Colledges which hee ment to haue made so glorious a building came neuer to any good effect the one at Ipswich being cleane defaced the other at Oxford vnfinished And thus much of Sacriledge now let vs come and see the punishment of simple theft the principall cause whereof is couetousnesse which is so vnruly an euill and so deepe rooted in the heart of man that euer yet it hath vsed to encroch vpon the goods of others and to keepe possession of that which was none of it owne breaking all the bandes of humanity equity and right without being contained in any measure or mean whereof we haue a most notable example in the old world before the floud which by Moses report ouerflowed with iniquitie and extortion the mightie ones oppressed the weake the greater trod vnder foot the lesse and the rich deuoured the poore when the Lord saw the generall deluge of sinne and disorder thus vniuersally spread which indeed was a signe of great defection and contempt of him hee like a iust iudge that could not endure these monstrous iniquities sent a deluge of waters amongst them by opening the windows of heauen and breaking vp the fountaines of the great deepes and giuing passage to the waters both by heauen and by earth so that it rained fortie daies and fortie nights without ceasing and the waters preuailed vpon the earth and ouercouered the high mountaines by fifteene cubites the earth being reduced into the same estate which it had in the beginning before the waters were tooke away from the face thereof verily it was a most hideous and sad spectacle to see first the vallies then the hils and last the highest mountaines so ouerflowne with water that no shew or appearance of thē might be perceiued it was a dreadful sight to behold whole houses tossed to and fro vp and downe in the waues and at last to be shiuered in peeces there was not a citie nor village that perished not in the deepe not a tree nor tower so high that could ouerpeere the waters as they encreased more and more in abundance so feare horror and despaire of safetie encreased in the heart of euery liuing soule And on this fashion did God punish those wicked rebels not at one blow but by little and little encreasing their paine that as they had a long time abused his patience and made no reckoning of amendment so the punishment of their sinne might bee long and tedious Now in this extremitie one could not helpe another nor one enuie another but all were concluded vnder the same destruction all surprised assieged and enuironed alike aswell he that roued in the fields as he that staied in the houses he that climed vp vnto the mountains as hee that abode in the vallies the merciles water spared none it was to no purpose that some ascēded their high houses some climed vpon trees and some scaled the rockes neither one nor other found any refuge or safety in any place the rich were not saued by their riches nor the strong by the pith of their strēgth but all perished and were drowned togither except Noah and his familie which punishment was correspondent vnto the worlds iniquitie for
and brought all high and haughtie purposes to their desired effect being prickt forward with the spur of ambition and a high mind through the meanes and assistance of the mightie forces of the Commonwealth which contrary to the constitution of the Senate were left in his hands hee set footing into the state and making himself maister Lord of the whole Romane Empire vsurped a soueraigntie ouer theÌ„ But as he attained to his dignitie by force and violence so he inioied it not long Plutarch Sueton. â—â—â—rop neither gained any great benefit by it except the losse of his life may bee counted a benefite which shortly after in the open Senat was bereft him for the conspirers therof assoon as he was set down in his seat coÌ„passing him about so vehemently ouercharged him on all sides that notwithstanding al the resistance he could make for his defence tossing amongst them and shifting himselfe vp and downe he was ouerthrowne on the earth and abode for dead through the number of blowes that were giuen him euen three and twentie wounds The monarchie of Assyria was at one instant extinguished in Sardanapalus and of Babylon in Balthasar Arbaces being the worker of the first and Darius king of Persia of the latter both of them receiuing the wages not of their wickednesse but also of their predecessours great grandfathers crueltie and oppressions by whome many people and nations had bene destroied Moreouer as the Babylonian Empire was ouerthrowne by Darius of Persia so was his Persian kingdome in Darius the last king of that country his time this mans successour ouerturned by Alexander Againe the great dominion of Alexander who suruiued not long after was not continued to any of his by inheritance but deuided like a prey amongst his greatest captaines and from them the most part of it in short time descended to the Romans who spreading their wings and stretching their greedie talents far and neere for a while rauened and preyed ouer all the world and enriched and bedecked themselues with the spoiles of many nations and therefore it was necessarie that they also should be made a prey and that the far fetcht Gothes and Vandales should come vpon them as vpon the body of a great Whale that suffers shipwracke vpon the sea shore since which time the Romane Empire went to decay and grew euery day weaker than other yea and many princes setting themselues against and aboue it haue robbed it of the realmes and prouinces which it robbed others of before and thus wee may see how all things runne as it were in a circle and how great the vncertentie of this world is seeing that the mightiest are subiect to so many and great changes For if there be any thing vnder the sunne that may carry any shew of stabilitie or continuance surely it is a monarchie or common wealth grounded vpon the vnitie and consent of all people maintained by the authority of the greatest and most mightie and vnderpropped with the shores of much strength and wealth as that Romane Empire was and yet for all that there was neuer any though neuer so well reared and furnished and deepe rooted which at the length hath not bene demolished ransacked and pulled vp by some notable and strange calamity And this is that which the spirit of God would giue vs to know by the vision of that great image represented to Nabuchadnezzar in a dreame according to Daniels interpretation thereof to wit that the foure great and puissant monarchies of the world should at last bee ruinated and dispersed like the chaffe before the wind till they were consumed and brought to nothing albeit they were glorious and excellent as gold and siluer or strong and mightie as brasse and iron How much more foolish and euill aduised are they then that for a certaine apparant splendour and shew of worldly honour which is as fraile as any rose as variable as the wind as light and vaine as a shadow or smoke as vnassured as a rotten planke haue the eies of their minds so dazled and their wits so bewitched all their affections so transported as to mingle heauen and earth togither to dash the East against the West to stirre vp discord and dissention betwixt man and man and to shed so many thousand mens blood and all for a paltry desire of raigne though to their owne finall ruine and destruction Sabellicus And thus came it to passe in the time of the Emperor Otho to a duke of Venice called Peter Caudian who not content with his dukedome went about to vsurpe a tyrannicall rule ouer the whole segniory and that by pride and threats desiring rather to make himselfe terrible to the people by those bad means than amiable and beloued by any meanes whatsoeuer and thus daily he grew as in age so in insolencie hee placed a garrison of men about his pallace and so fortifying himselfe presently he shewed himselfe in his colours namely a cruell tyrant which when the multitude perceiued and remembred withall their liberty which they were like to lose they tooke vp armes forthwith in purpose to beat downe his hautie mind therefore they first set on fire his house and caused him to forsake his fortresse and to betake himselfe to his shifts but when by reason of the stopping of the passages he could not escape they tooke him and his young sonne also which was with him and put them to a most cruell and suddaine death and cast their carcasses to be deuoured of dogs In the Empire of Maximilian Lewes Sforce Bemhâ—â— lib. 2. of the Venâ—â—â— historie a prince of an inconstant and turbulent spirit ambitious and one that made no account of his promises nor faith tooke vpon him the gouernment of Millaine after the death of his brother Galeaz duke of Millaine who was traiterously slaine in which action the first wrong which he did was to his brothers widow whome hee deposed the second to his young nephew his brother Galeaz sonne whome he so brought vp as if hee neuer meant he should come to honour or goodnes for hee suffered him not to be trained vp either in learning or armes but let him runne into all possible occasions that might corrupt and spoile his tender age thus hee enioyed the principalitie thirteene yeeres all the while vnder his nephewes raine to whome when Alphonsus king of Naples had giuen in marriage one of his daughters and perceiued what small reckoning his vncle made of restoring him his dukedome after hee had often and instantly entreated him without preuailing at length he fell to threaten him with warre he fearing to haue the worse and to loose so great a dignitie wrought so by his owne shifts and deuices togither with the helping hand of Pope Alexander that he put it in the head of Charles the eight of Fraunce to goe and conquer Naples for the hatred which his heart possessed against Alphonsus supposing by this meanes the better to accomplish
persuaded king Charles the eight of Fraunce to vndertake war against Naples and after hee had brought him to it presently he forsooke him and entred a new league with the Venetians Venetian histor lib. 6. and the other princes of Italy to driue him home again This was he saith Cardinall Bembus that set benefices and promotions to sale that hee which would giue most might haue most and that poysoned Iohn Michell the Cardinall of Venice at Rome for his gold and treasure which hee abounded with whose insatiable couetousnesse prouoked him to the committall of all mischiefe to the end he might maintaine the forces of his son who went about to bring the whole lands and dominions of all Italy into his possession in adulteries hee was most filthy and abhominable in tyrany most cruell and in Magicke most cunning and therefore most execrable supping one night with Cardinall Adrian his very familiar friend in his gardē hauing foreappointed his destruction that night by poyson through the negligence and ouersight of his butler to whom hee had giuen the exploit in charge that was deceiued by mistaking the bottles hee dranke himselfe the medicine which he had prepared for his good friend the Cardinall and so hee died saith Bembus not without an euident marke of Gods heauy wrath in that he which had slaine so many Princes and rich men to enioy their treasures and went now about to murder his host which entertained him with friendship and good cheare into his house was caught in the same snare which he had laid and destroied by the same meanes himselfe which he had destinated for another being thus dead the whole city of Rome saith Guicciardine ran out with greedines ioy to behold his carcasse not being able to satisfie their eies with beholding the dead serpent whose venime of ambition trecherie cruelty adultry auarice had impoisoned the whole world Some say that as he purposed to poyson certaine Cardinals he poysoned his owne father that being in their company chanced to get a share of his dregs and that hee was so abhominable to abuse his owne sister Lucrece in the way of filthines When Gemen the brother of Baiazet the Emperor of the Turkes came and surrendred himselfe into his hands was admitted into his protection he being hired with two hundred duccats by Baiazet gaue poyson to his new client euen to him to whom hee had before sworne and vowed his friendship besides that he might mainteine his tyranny hee demanded and obtained aid of the Turke against the king of France which was a most vnchristian and antichristian part he caused the tongue two hands of Antony Manciuellus a very learned wise man to be cut off for an excellent oration which he made in reproofe of his wicked demeanours and dishonest life It is written moreouer by some that hee was so affectionated to the seruice of his good Lord and master the deuil that he neuer attempted any thing without his counsel and aduise who also presented himself vnto him at his death in the habite of a post according to the agreement which was betwixt them and although this wretched Antichrist straue against him for life saying that his terme was not yet finished yet he was enforced to diflodge and depart into his proper place where with horrible cries and hideous fearefull grones he died Thus we see how miserable such wretched and infamous miscreants and such pernicious cruell Tyrants haue ended their wicked liues their force power being execrable and odious In his book of the clemencie of a prince and therfore as saith Seneca not able to continue any long time for that gouernment cannot bee firme and stable where there is no shame nor feare to doe euill nor where equity iustice saith and piety with other vertues are contemned and troden vnder foot for when cruelty once beginnerh to predominate it is so vnsatiable that it neuer ceaseth but groweth euery day from worse to worse by striuing to maintaine and defend old faults by new vntill the fear and terror of the poore afflicted and oppressed people with a continuall source and enterchange of euils which surcharge them conuerteth it selfe from forced patience to willing fury breaketh forth to doe vengeance vpon the tyrants heads with all violence whence ariseth that saying of the Satyricall Poet to the same sence Where he saith Ad generum cereris sine cede sanguine pauci Descendunt reges sicca morte tyranni Few tyrants die the death that nature sends But most are brought by slaughter to their ends CHAP. XLIIII Of calumniation and false witnesse bearing WEe haue seene heretofore what punishments the Lord hath laid vpon those that either vex their neighbours in their persons as in the breakers of the fift sixt and seuenth commandements or dammage thē in their goods as in the eight now let vs looke vnto those that seeke to spoile them of their good names and rob them of their credite by slanderous reproches and false and forged calumniations and by that means goe against the ninth commandement which sayth Thou shalt not beare false witnesse against thy neighbour in which words is condemned generally all slanders all false reports all defamations and all euill speech els whatsoeuer wherby the good name and credit of a man is blemished stained or impouerished and this sin is not onely inhibited by the diuine law of the almighty but also by the lawes of nature and nations for there is no country and people so barbarous with whom these pernicious kind of creatures are not held in detestation of tame beasts sayth Diogenes a flatterer is worst and of wild beasts a backbiter or a slaunderer and not without great reason for as there is no disease so daungerous as that which is secret so there is no enemy so pernicious as hee which vnder the colour of friendship biteth and slandereth vs behind our backes but let vs see what iudgements the Lord hath shown vpon them to the end the odiousnesse of this vice may more clearely appeare And first to begin with Doeg the Edomir 1. Sam. 22.9 who falsly accused Achimelech the high priest vnto Saul for giuing succor vnto Dauid in his necessity flight for though he told nothing but that which was true yet of that truth some he maliciously peruerted some he kept back falshood cōsisteth not only in plain lying but also in concealing or misusing the truth for Achimelech indeed asked counsell of the Lord for Dauid ministred vnto him the shew bread the sword of Goliah but not with any intent of malice against king Saul for he supposed and Dauid also made him beleeue that he went about the kings businesse that he was in great fauor with the king which last clause the wicked accuser left out by that means not only prouoked the wrath of Saul against the high priest but also when al other refused became
that it is but a tast and a scantling of those torments and punishments which are prepared and made readie for them in the world to come And therefore it often commeth to passe that they passe out of this life most quietly without the disturbance of any crosse or punishment but it is that they might be more strangely tormented in another world Some not considering this point nor stretching the view of their vnderstanding beyond the aspect of their carnal eies haue fallen into this foolish opinion to thinke that there is neither iustice nor iudgement in heauen nor respect of equitie with the highest when they see the wicked to florish in prosperity and the good and innocent to be ouerwhelmed with aduersity yea and many holy men also haue fallen into this temptation as Iob and Dauid did Iob. 12. 21. Psal 73. who when they considered the condition of the wicked and vniust how they liued in this world at their hearts ease compassed about with pleasures and delights and waxing old in the same were carried to their sepulchres in peace they were somewhat troubled and perplexed within themselues vntill being instructed and resolued by the word of God they marked their finaâ—â—end and issue and the euerlasting perdition which was prâ—â—â—â— for them and by no meanes could be escaped And thus it commeth to passe saith S. Augustine that many sinnes are punished in this world Epist. 5â— that the prouidence of God might be more apparant and many yea most reserued to be punished in the world to come that wee might know that there is yet iudgement behind CHAP. LI. How the afflictions of the godly and punishments of the wicked differ WHich seeing it is so it is necessary that the wicked and peruerse ones should feele the rigor of Gods wrath for the presumption and rebellion wherewith they daily prouoke him against them and although with those that feare God and striue to keepe themselues from euill and take paines to liue peaceably and quietly it often times goeth worse here below than with others being laid open to millions of iniuries reproches and cruelties and are as it were sheepe appointed to the slaughter whereof some are massacred some hanged some hedded some drowned some burned or put to some other cruell death yet notwithstanding their estate and condition is farre happier than that of the wicked for so much as all their sufferings and aduersities are blessed and sanctified vnto them of God who turneth them to their aduantage according to the saying of S. Luke Rom. 8.28 That all things worke for the good to them that feare God for whatsoeuer tribulation befalleth them they cannot be separated from the loue of God which hee beareth vnto them in his well beloued sonne Christ Iesus be it then that God visiteth them for their faults for there is none that is cleare of sinne it is a fatherly chastisement to bring them to amendment be it that he exerciseth them by many afflictions as he did Iob it is to prooue their faith and patience to the end they may be better purified like gold in the furnace and serue for examples to others If it be for the truth of the Gospell that they suffer then they are blessed because they are conformed to the image of the sonne of God that they might also be partakers of his glory for they that suffer with him are assured to raigne with him hence it is that in the midst of their torments and oppressions in the midst of fires and fagots flaming about them beeing comforted with the consolations of Gods spirit through a sure hope of their happie repose and incorruptible crowne which is prepared for them in the heauens they reioice and are so chearefull contrariwise the wicked seeing themselues ensnared in the euils which their owne sinnes brought vpon them gnash their teeth fret themselues murmure against God and hlaspheme him like wretches to their endlesse perdition There is therfore great difference betwixt the punishments of ech of these for the one tendeth to honour and life the other to shame and confusion and euen as it is not the greatnes of torments that maketh the martyr but the goodnes of the cause so the infliction of punishment vniustly neither maketh the partie afflicted guilty nor any whit diminisheth his reputation wheras the wicked that are iustly tormented for their sinnes are so marked with infamie and dishonour that the staine thereof can neuer be wiped out Let euery one therefore learne to keepe himselfe from euill and to containe himselfe in a kind of modestie and integritie of life seeing that by the plagues and scourges wherewith the world is ordinarily afflicted Gods fierce wrath is clearely reuealed from heauen vpon all impiety and iniustice of men to consume all those that rebell against him Thinke vpon this you inhabitants of the earth small and great of what qualitie or condition soeuer you be If you be mighty puissant and fearfull know that the Lord is greater thaÌ„ you for he is almighty all-terrible al-feareful in what place soeuer you are he is alwaies aboue you ready to hurle you downe and ouerturne you to breake quash crush you in pieces as pots of earth he is armed with thunder fire and a bloody sword to destroy consume and cut you in peeces heauen threatneth from aboue and the earth which you trample on from below shaking vnder your feet and being ready to spue you out from her face or swallow you vp in her bowels in briefe all the elements creatures of God looke a skew at you in disdaine and set themselues against you in hatred if you feare not your Creatour your Lord and Master Esai 40. of whome you haue receiued your scepters and crownes and who is able when he please to bring princes to nothing and make the rulers of the earth a thing of nought Forsake therefore if you tender the good honour and repose of your selues and yours the euill and corrupt fashions of the world and submit your selues in obedience vnder the scepter of Gods law and gospell fearing the iust retribution of vengeance vpon all them that doe the contrarie Heb. 10.31 for it is a horrible thing to fall into the hands of the Lord. And you which honour and reuerence God alreadie be now more quickened and stirred vp to his loue and obedience and to a more diligent practising of his will and following his commaundements to the end to glorifie him by your liues looking for the happie end of your hope reserued in the heauens for you by Christ Iesus our Lord to whome be glorie euerlastingly Amen A Table of all the principall points contained in the first and second Booke AS touching the corruption and peruersitie of this World how great it is Pag. 1 What the cause is of the great overflow of Vice in this age Pag. 3 That great men which will not abide to be admonished of their faults can
betwixt whome was great strife for the soueraigne dominion but to rid himselfe of all his trouble at once hee slew his brother Manlius by treason and after continued his raigne in tyranny and all vnlawfull lusts the space of twentie yeares but although vengeance all this while wincked yet it slept not for at the end of this space as hee was hunting hee was deuoured of wild beasts In the yeare of our Lord God 745 one Sigebert was authorised king of the Saxons in Brittaine a cruell and tyrannous Prince towards his subiects and one that chaunged the ancient lawes and customes of his realme after his owne pleasure and because a certaine Nobleman somewhat sharpely aduertised him of his euill conditions he malitiously caused him to bee put to death but see how the Lord reuenged this murder hee caused his Nobles to depriue him of his kingly authority and at last as a desolate and forlorne person wandering alone in a wood to bee slaine of a swine-heard whose maister hee being king had wrongfully put to death In the yeare of our Lord 678 Childerich king of Fraunce caused a Nobleman of his Realme called Bolyde to bee bound to a stake and there beaten to death without the pretence of any iust crime or accusation against him for which cruelty his Lords and commons being grieuously offended conspired togither and slew him with his wife as they were in hunting In the raigne of Edward the second and Edward the third Sir Roger Mortimer committed many villanous outrages in sheading much humane blood but hee was also iustlie recompenced in the end first he murdered king Edward the second lying in Barkley castell to the end hee might as it was supposed enioy Isabell his wife with whome hee had very suspitious familiarity Secondly hee caused Edward the third to conclude a dishonourable peace with the Scots by restoring to them all their ancient writings charters and patents whereby the kings of Scotland had bound themselues to be feudaries to the kings of England Thirdly he accused Edmund Earle of Kent vncle to king Edward of treason and caused him vniustly to be put to death And lastly he conspired against the king to worke his destruction for which and diuerse other things that were laid to his charge he was worthely and iustly beheaded In the raigne of Henry the sixt Humfry the good duke of Gloucester faithfull protector of the king by the meanes of certaine malicious persons and especially the Marques of Suffolke as it was suspected was arrested cast into hold strangled to death in the Abbey of Bury for which cause the Marques was not only banished the land for the space of fiue yeares but also banished out of his life for euer for as he sailed towards France he was met withall by a ship of warre and there presently beheaded and the dead corps cast vp at Douer that England wherein hee had committed the crime might be a witnesse of his punishment As the murder of a gentleman in Kent called maister Arden of Feuersham was most execrable so the wonderfull discouerie thereof was exceeding rare this Arden being somewhat aged had to wife a young woman no lesse faire then dishonest who being in loue with one Mosby more then her husband did not onely abuse his bed but also conspired his death with this her companion for togither they hired a notorious ruffian one Blacke Will to strangle him to death with a towell as hee was playing a game at tables which though secretly done yet by her own guiltie conscience and some tokens of blood which appeared in the house was soon discouered and confessed Wherfore she her selfe was burnt at Canterbury Michael maister Ardens man was hanged in chaines at Feuersham Mosby and his sister were hanged in Smithfield Greene another partner in this bloody action was hanged in chaines in the high way against Feuersham And Blacke Will the ruffian after his first escape was apprehended and burnt on a scaffold at Flushing in Zealand And thus all the murderers had their deserued dewes in this life and what they endured in the life to come except they obtaine mercy by true repentance it is easie to iudge CHAP. XI Of Paricides or parent murderers IF all effusion of humane blood bee both horrible to behold and repugnant to nature then is the murdering of parents especially detestable when a man is so possessed with the deuill or transported with a hellish fury that he lifteth vp his hand against his owne naturall father or mother to put thē to death this is so monstrous and inormious an impiety that the greatest Barbarians euer haue had it in detestation wherefore it is also expressely commanded in the law of God that vvhosoeuer smiteth his father or mother in what sort soeuer though not to death Exod. 21. yet he shall die the death If the disobedience vnreuerence and contempt of children towards their parents are by the iust iudgement of God most rigorously punished as hath ben declared before in the first commandement of the second table how much more then when violence is offered aboue all when murder is cōmitted Diodor. Sic. Thus the Aegyptians punished this sin they put the cōmittants vpon a stack of thorns and burnt thē aliue hauing beaten their bodies before hand with sharp reeds made of purpose Solon being demanded why hee appointed no punishment in his lawes for Parricides answered that there was no necessity thinking that the wide world could not affoord so wicked a wretch It is said that Romulus for the same cause ordained no punishment in his Common-wealth for that crime but called euery murderer a Parricide the one being in his opinion a thing execrable and the other impossible And in truth there was not for 600 years space according to Plutarchs report found in Rome any one that had cōmitted this execrable fact The first Parricide that Rome saw was Lucius Ostius after the first Punick war although other writers affirme that M. Malliolus was the first and Lucius the second howsoeuer it was they both vnderwent the punishment of the law Pompeia which enacted that such offendors should be thrust into a sack of lether an ape a cock a viper a dog put in to accōpany them then to be thrown into the water to the end that these beasts being enraged animated one against another might wreke their teene vpon them so depriue thē of life after a strange fashion being debarred of the vse of aire water earth as vnworthy to participate the very elements with their deaths much lesse with their liues which kind of punishmēt was after practised and confirmed by the constitution of Constantine the great And albeit the regard of the punishmēt seemed terrible the offence it self much more monstrous yet since that time there haue ben many so peruerse exceedingly wicked as to throw themselues headlong into that desperat gulfe As Cleodorick son of Sigebert king of