sort for his amendment and our example Albert Krantz chron 〈◊〉 lib. 6. Henry Earle of Schwartburge through a corrup◠custome vsed commonly to wish he might be drowned in a priuie and as he wished so it happened vnto him for he was so serued murdered at S. Peters monasterie in Erford in the year of our Lord 1148. Cyriac. Spangenb in elegantijs veteris Adami The like befell a young courtier at Mansfield whose custome was in any earnest asseueration to say the Deuill take me if it be not so the Deuill indeed tooke him whilest hee slept and threw him out of a high window where albeit by the good prouidence of God hee caught no great hurt yet he learnt by experience to bridle his tongue from al such cursed speeches this being but a tast of Gods wrath that is to fall vpon such wretches as he Theat histor At Oster a village in the Duchy of Megalopole there chanced a most strange and fearefull example vpon a woman that gaue her selfe to the Deuill both body and soule and vsed most horrible cursings and othes both against her selfe and others which detestable manner of behauiour as at many other times so especially she shewed at a marriage in the foresaid village vpon S. Iohn Baptists day the whole people exhorting her to leaue off that monstrous villany but shee nothing bettered continued her course till all the companie were set at dinner and very merry Then loe the Deuill hauing got full possession of her came in person and transported her into the aire before them all with most terrible outcries and roarings in that sort carried her round about the town that the inhabitants were ready to die with feare and by and by tore her in foure peeces leauing in four seuerall high waies a quarter that all that came by might be witnesses of her punishment And then returning to the marriage threw her bowels vpon the table before the Maior of the towne with these words Behold these dishes of meat belong to thee whome the like destruction awaiteth if thou doest not amend thy wicked life The reporters of this hystorie were Iohn Herman the minister of the said towne with the Maior himselfe and the whole inhabitants being desirous to haue it knowne to the world for example sake In Luthers conferences there is mention made of this story following Luther diuerse noble men were striuing together at a horse race and in their course cried the deuil take the last Now the last was a horse that broke loose whom the deuill hoisted vp into the aire and took clean away Which teacheth vs not to call for the deuill for hee is readie alwaies about vs vncalled and vnlooked for yea many legions of them compasse vs about euen in our best actions to disturbe and peruert vs. A cettaine man not farre from Gorlitz prouided a sumptuous supper inuited many guests vnto it Iob. Fincelius who at the time appointed refusing to come he in an anger cried then let all the Deuils in hell come neither was his wish friuolous fot a number of those hellish fiends came forthwith whome he not discerning from men came to welcome and entertain but as he tooke them by the hands and perceiued in steed of fingers clawes all dismaied he ran out of the dores with his wife and left none in the house but a young infant with a foole sitting by the fire whome the deuils had no power to hurt neither any man els saue the goodly supper which they made away withall and so departed It is notoriously knowne in Oundle a town in Northamptonshire amongst all that were acquainted with the partie namely one Hacket of vvhome more hath beene spoken before hovv he vsed in his earnest talke euer to curse himselfe on this manner If it be not true then let a visible confusion come vpon me Now hee wanted no◠his wish for hee came to a visible confusion indeed as hath ben declared more at large in the 20 chap. of this booke At Witeberg before Martin Luther and diuerse other learned men a woman whose daughter was possessed with a spirit confessed that by her curse that plague was fallen vpon her for being angry at a time she bad the deuil take her she had no sooner spoken the word but he tooke her indeed possessed her in most strange sort No whitlesse strange and horrible is that which happened at Neoburge in Germany to a son that was cursed of his mother in her anger with this curse Theat histor shee praied God shee might neuer see him return aliue for the same day the yoong man bathing himselfe in the water was drowned and neuer returned to his mother aliue according to her vngodly wish Theat histor But aboue all this is most strange which happened in a Towne of Misina in the yeere of our Lord God 1552 the eleuenth of September where a cholletick father seeing his sonne slacke about his businesse wished he might neuer stirre from that place Let not the strangenes of this example discredit the truth therof seeing wee read how Lots wife was turned into a pillar of salt Gen. 19. and Corah with his company swallowed of the earth Num. 16 which are more strange than this Acts and monuments pag. 2101. for it was no sooner said but done his sonne stucke fast in the place neither by any meanes possible could bee remoued no not so much as to sit or bend his body till by the praiers of the faithfull his paines were somewhat mitigated though not remitted three yeare he continued standing with a post at his backe for his ease and foure yeares sitting at the end whereof he died Nothing weakened in his vnderstanding but professing the faith and not doubting of his saluation in Christ Iesus When he was demanded at any time how he did he answered most vsually that hee was fastened of God and that it was not in man but in Gods mercy for him to be released Iohn Peter sonne in law to Alexander that cruel keeper of Newgate being a most horrible swearer and blasphemer vsed commonly to say If it be not true I pray God I may rot ere I die and not in vaine for he rotted away indeed so died most miserably Hether we may ad a notable example of a certain yoong gallant that was a monstrous swearer who riding in the company of diuerse gentlemen began to swear and most horribly blaspheme the name of God vnto whom one of the company with gentle words said hee should one day answere for that the yonker taking snuffe thereat why said hee takest thou thought for mee Acts and monuments pag. 2105. Take thought for thy winding sheet Well quoth the other amend for death giueth no warning as soone commeth a lambes skinne to the market as an old sheepes Gods wounds said he care not thou for me raging still on this manner worse and worse till at length passing
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
his faith and recoiled from Christ Iesus Christ Iesus would recoile from him and giue him ouer to death by depriuing him of his grace and spoiling him of the power of his quickning and sauing spirit These are the fearefull examples of Gods Iudgements which Saint Ciprian reporteth to haue light vpon Backsliders in his time adding moreouer that besides these many vvere possessed with Deuils robbed of their wits and enraged vvith furie and madnesse and all for this offence of Apostasie Amongst all the examples of our age of Gods seuere iustice vpon Apostataes the examples of Francis Spiera an Italian Lawier a man of credite and authoritie in his countrey is most pitifull and lamentable who hauing embraced the true religion vvith maruellous zeale and made open profession of the same Sleidan lib. 21.1 feared not freely to declare his opinion of euery point of doctrine that came in question and grew in knowledge euery day more and more But it was not long ere hee was complained off to the Popes Embassadour which when hee vnderstood and saw the danger wherein hee was like to fall After hee had long debated and disputed the matter in his owne conscience the counsaile of the flesh and wordlie wisedome preuailing hee resolued at last to goe to the Embassadour to the intent to appease his wrath and doe whatsouer hee should command Thus comming to Venice and ouerruled with immoderate feare he confessed that hee had done amisse and craued pardon for the same promising euer after to bee an obedient subiect to the Popes lawes and that which is more when it was enioined him that at his returne home hee should in his owne countrie openly recant his former profession hee refused not but performed his recantation in due sort But it chaunced very soone after that this miserable man fell sicke of bodie and soule and began to despaire of Gods mercie towardes him His Phisitian perceiuing his disposition iudged that the cause of his bodies disease was a vehement conceit and thought of mind and therefore gaue aduise to minister counsaile to his troubled mind verie carefully that the cause beeing taken away the effect also might surcease To this end many learned men frequented him euery day recalling into his mind and laying open before him manie expresse places of Scripture touching the greatnesse of Gods mercie which thinges hee auouched to bee true but said that those promises pertained not to him because hee had renounced Christ Iesus and forsworne the knowne truth and that for this cause nothing was prepared for him but hell fire which alreadie in soule hee saw and felt I would said hee willingly if it were possible loue God but it is altogether impossible I onely feare him without loue These and such speeches vsed he with a stedfast countenance neither did his tongue at any time run at randome nor his answers sauour of indiscretion or want of memorie but aduisedly warned all that stood by to take heed by his example how to listen too much to worldly wisdome especially then when they should bee called before men to professe the religion of Christ And lying in this extremity he refused all manner of sustenance rebuking and being angrie with his sonnes that opened his mouth to make him swallow some food to sustain him saying Since hee had forsaken his Lord and maister all his creatures ought to forsake him I am afeard of euery thing there is not a creature that hath not conspired to worke my destruction let me die let mee die that I may goe and feele that vnquenchahle fire which already consumeth mee and which I can by no means escape And thus he died indeed pined to death in despaire and horrible torment of conscience Centur. 3 cap. 12 Nichomachus a man that stoutly professed Christ Iesus in prosperity being brought to his triall at Troas and put into torments he denied him and being deliuered by that means consented to offer sacrifice vnto idols But assone as hee had finished his sacrifice he was hoisted vp by the spirit of darknesse whose darling now he was dashed against the earth so that his teeth biting his prophane tongue wherewith hee had denied his sauour in two he died incontinently Tamerus a professour of the true religion vvas seduced by his brother to cleaue vnto Poperie Theatrum historicum and to forsake his first loue but for his defection from the truth the Lord gaue him vp into a reprobat sence so that falling into despaire he hong himselfe Richard Denton a blacksmith dwelling at Wels in Cambridgeshire hauing beene a professor of the Gospell before time when William Wolsey Martyr whome the said Denton had first conuerted vnto the truth sent him certaine money out of prison at Ely with this commendations That he maruelled hee tarried so long behind him seeing he was the first that deliuered him the booke of scripture into his hand Acts monuments pag 1717. and told him that it was the truth his answere was this I confesse it is true but alasse I cannot burne But hee that could not burne in the cause of Christ was afterward burned against his will for in the yeare 1564 his house was set on fire and whilest hee went in to saue his goods hee lost his life There was also one Burton Bailife of Crowland in Lincolnshire who pretending an earnest friendship to the gospel in king Edwards time after the kings death began lustily to set vp the Popish masse againe and would haue beaten the poore Curate if hee had not setled himselfe thereto but see how the Lords iudgement ouertooke him as he came riding from Fennebancke one day a crow flying ouer his head let fall her excrements vpon his face so that it ran from the top of his nose downe to his beard Acts monuments pag. 2101 the poisoned sent and sauour whereof so annoied his stomacke that he neuer ceased vomiting vntill he came home and after falling deadly sicke would neuer receiue any meat but vomited stil and complained of that stincke cursing the crow that had poisoned him to be short within few daies he died desperately without any token of repentance of his former life Hither may wee ad the examples of one Hendrie Smith a Lawier of the middle temple Acts monuments and Arnoldus Bomelius a student of Louaine both which hauing professed the truth a while and after being seduced by euill companie the one of Gilford the other of Maister Tileman Smith afterward hanged himselfe in his chamber in the temple in the year of our Lord 1569. Bomelius murdered himselfe with his owne dagger And thus these two Apostataes felt the heauy scourge of Gods wrath for reuolting from the truth which they once professed CHAP. XVIII Of those which haue willingly fallen away THese kind of Apostataes which wee are now to speake of are such as without any outward compulsion threats or likelihood of daunger forsake freely Gods true Religion and
heauen and hell but as an old wiues fable hee beeing dead his disciples were brought forth into a large field neere Paris and there in the presence of the French king degraded and burnt the dead carkasse of Almaricus being taken out of the sepulchre and burnt amongst them It fell out that whilst they were in burning there arose so huge a tempest that heauen and earth seemed to mooue out of their places wherein doubtlesse the soules of these wicked men felt by experience that hell was no fable but a thing and such a thing as waited for all such rebels against God as they were Anastasius Emperour of Constantinople being corrupted with the heresie of Eutiches published an edict wherein all men were commanded to worship God not vnder three persons as a trinity but as a quaternitie containing in it foure persons and could not by any counsell be brought from that deuilish errour but repelled from him diuers bishops with great reproch which came to perswade him to the contrary for which cause not long after a flash of lightning from heauen suddenly seazed vpon him and so he perished when hee had reigned eight and twentie yeeres Iustinus the second also who after the death of Iustinian obtained the Imperiall crowne was a man of exceeding pride and crueltie contemning pouertie and murdering the nobilitie for the most part In auarice his desire was so insatiate that he caused iron chests to be prepared wherein hee might locke vp that treasure which by vniust exactions hee had extorted of the people Notwithstanding all this hee prospered well enough vntill he fell into the heresie of Pelagian soone after which the Lord bereft him of his wits and shortly after of his life also when he had reigned eleuen yeeres Mahomet by birth an Arabian and by profession one of the most monstrous heretikes that euer liued began his heresie in the yeere 625 his offspring was but out of a base stocke for being fatherlesse one Abdemonoples a man of the house of Ismael bought him for his slaue and loued him greatly for his fauour and wit for which cause he made him ruler ouer his marchandize and other businesse Now in the meane while one Sergius a monke flying for heresie into Arabia instructed him in the heresie of Nestorius a while after his master died without children and left behind him much riches and his wife a widow of fifty yeeres of age whome Mahomet married and when shee died was made heire vnto all her riches So that now what for his wealth and cunning in magicke he was had in high honour among the common people Wherefore by the counsell of Sergius he called himselfe The great Prophet of God And shortly after when his fame was published hee deuised a law and kind of religion called Alcaron wherein he borrowed something almost of all the heresies that were before his time with the Sabellians he denied the Trinitie with the Maniclies he said there was but two persons in the Deity hee denied the equalitie of the Father with the Sonne with Eunomius and said with Macedone that the Holy Ghost was a creature and approoued the community of women with the Nicholaits hee borrowed of the Iewes circumcision and of the Gentiles much superstition and somewhat he tooke of the Christian verity besides many deuilish fantasies inuented of his owne braine those that obeied his law he called Sarazins Now after he had liued in these monstrous abuses fourty yeeres the Lord cut him off by the falling sicknesse which he had dissembled a long time saying when hee was taken therewith that the Angell Gabriel appeared vnto him whose brightnesse hee could not behold but the Lord made that his destruction which he imagined would be for his honour and setting forth his sect Stow Chron. Infinite be the examples of the destruction iudgement of priuat heretikes in all ages therfore we will content our selues with them that be most famous In the yeere of our Lord 1561 and the third yere of the reigne of Q. Elizabeth there was in London one William Geffery that constantly auouched a companion of his called Iohn Moore to be Christ our Sauiour and could not be reclaimed from this mad perswasion vntill he was whipped from Southwarke to Bedlam where the said Moore meeting him was whipped also vntill they both confessed Christ to be in heauen and themselues to be sinfull and wicked men But most strange it is The same how diuers sensible wise meÌ„ were deluded caried beside themselues by the subtilty of Satan in the yeere 1591 the reigne of Q. Elizabeth 33 the memory thereof is yet fresh in euery mans head and mouth and therfore I will but briefly touch the same Edmond Coppinger Henry Arthington two gentlemen being associated with one William Hacket somtimes a profane very leud person but now coÌ„uerted in outward shew though not in inward affection were so seduced by his hypocriticall behauiour the deuils extraordinary deuices that from one point to another they came at last to thinke that this Hacket was anointed to be the Iudge of the world therfore comming on a day to Hackeâ—s lodging in London Hypocrisie in regard of Hacket lib. 1. c. 22. he told them that he had bin annointed of the H. ghost then Coppinger asked him what his pleasure was to be done Go your way saith he proclaime in the city that Christ Iesus is come with his fan in his hand to iudge the earth if they wil not beleeue it let them come kill me if they can Then Coppinger answered it should be don forthwith therupon like mad men he Arthington ran into the streets proclaimed their message aforesaid wheÌ„ by reason of the concourse of people they could not proceed any further they got vp into two empty carts in Cheap crying Repent repent for Christ Iesus is come to iudge the world then pulling a paper out of his bosom he read out of it many things touching the office calling of Hacket how he represented Christ by partaking part of his glorified body c. besides they called themselues his prophets one of Iustice another of mercy And thus these simple men were strangely deceiued by a miraculous illusion of Satan who no doubt by strange apparitions had brought them into this vain conceit But let vs obserue the end of it it was thus The whole citie being in a maze tooke Hacket the breeder of this deuise and arraigning him before the Maior other Iustices found him guilty as well of this seditious practise as of speaking traiterous words against the Queene Wherefore hee was shortly after hanged on a gibbet in Cheape-side counterfaiting to his last his old deuises and at length vttering horrible blasphemies against the maiestie of God As for his Prophets Coppinger died the next day in Bridewell and Arthington was kept in prison vpon hope of repentance This though it be no
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
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