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
obtained the sole regiment without controlment Besides hee corrupted so by bribes the Senators of Rome that had soueraigne authority in and ouer his kingdome that in stead of punishment which his murder cried for he was by the decree of the Senat allotted to the one halfe of the kingdome Wherevpon being growne yet more presumptuous hee made excursions and riots vpon Adherbals territories and did him thereby much iniurie and from thence falling to open war put him to flight and pursued him to a citie where hee besieged him so long till hee was constrained to yeeld himselfe And then hauing gotten him within his power put him to the cruellest death he could deuise which villanous deed gaue iust cause to the Romanes of that warre which they vndertooke against him wherein he was discomfited and seeing himselfe vtterly lost fled to his sonne in law Bochus king of Mauritania to seeke supply of succour who receiuing him into safegard prooued a false guard vnto him and deliuered him into the hands of his enemies and so was he carried in triumph to Rome by Marius fast bound being come to Rome cast into perpetual prison where first his gowne was torne off his back by violence next a ring of gold pluckt off his eare lap and all and lastly himselfe starke naked throwne into a deep ditch where combating with famine six daies the seuenth miserably ended his wretched life according to the merits of his misdeeds Orosius saith he was strangled in prison Oros Sabel Treason lib. 2. cap. 3. Methridates king of Parthia put to death the king of Cappadocia to get his kingdome and after vnder pretence of parlying with one of his sons slew him also for which cause the Romanes tooke vp the quarrell and made warre vpon him by means whereof much losse and inconuenience grew vnto him as well by sea as by land After his first ouerthrow where one of his sisters was taken prisoner and when he saw himselfe in so desperate a case that no hope of helpe was left he slew two other of his sisters with two of his wiues hauing before this war giuen his fourth sister who also was his wife a dram of poison to make vp the tragedie Afterward beeing vanquished in the night by Pompey the Romane and put to flight with onely three of his company as hee went about to gather a new supply of forces behold tidings was brought him of the reuolt of many of his Prouinces and countries and of the deliuering vp of the rest of his daughters into Pompeis hand and of the treason of his yoong sonne Pharnax the gallantest of his sonnes and whome hee purposed to make his successour who had ioined himselfe to his enemie which troubled and astonished him more then all the rest so that his courage being quite dashed and all hope of bettering his estate extinguished his other two daughters he poysoned with his owne handes and sought to practise the same experiment vpon himselfe but that his body was too strong for the poison and killed the operation thereof by strength of nature but that which poyson could not effect his owne sword performed Though Pompey the great was neuer any of the most notorious offenders in Rome Plâ—tarch yet did this staine of cruelty ambition and desire of rule cleaue vnto him for first he ioining himselfe to Silla dealt most cruelly vnnaturally with Carbo whom after familiar conference in shew of friendship hee caused sodainly to be slaine without shew of mercie And with Quintius Valerius a wise and well lettered man with whome walking but two or three turnes hee committed to a cruel and vnexpected slaughter He executed seuere punishment vpon the enemies of Silla sepecially those that were most of note and reputation and vnmercifully put Brutus to death that had rendered himselfe vnto his mercie It was he that deuised that new combate of prisoners and wild beasts to make the people sport withall a most inhumane and bloodie pastime to see humane and manly bodies torne and dismembred by brute and sencelesse creatures which if we will beleeue Plutarch was the only cause of his destruction Now after so many braue gallant victories so many magnificent triumphs as the taking of king Hiarbas the ouerthrow of Domitius the conquest of Africa the pacifying of Spaine and the ouerwelding of the commotions that were therein the clearing of the sea coasts from Pyrates the victory ouer Methridates the subduing of the Arabians the reducing of Siria into a prouince the coÌ„quest of Iudea Pontus Armenia Cappadocia Paphlagonia I say after all these worthy deeds of armes and mighty victories he was shamefully ouercome by Iulius Caesar in that ciuil war wherin it was generally thought that hee had vndertaken the better cause in maintaining the authority of the Senat defeÌ„ding the liberty of the people as he pretended to do being thus put to flight making towards Aegypt in hope the king for that before time hee had ben his tutor would protect furnish him that he might recouer himselfe again he found himself fo far deceiued of his expectation that in stead thereof the kings people cut him short of his purpose of his head both at once sending it for a token to Caesar to gratifie him withall Neuerthelesse for all this his murderers betraiers as the yong king all others that were causers of his death were iustly punished for their cruelty by the hands of him whom they thought to gratifie for as Cleopatra the kings sister threw her selfe downe at Caesars feet to intreat her portion of the kingdome and he being willing also to shew her that fauor was by that meanes gotten into the kings pallace forthwith the murderers of Pompey beset the pallace went about to bring him into the same snare that they had caught Pompey in But Caesar after that he had sustained their greatest brunt frustrated their purposes recouered his forces into his hands assailed them with such valor prowesse on al sides that in short space he ouercame this wicked traiterous nation Amongst the slain the dead body of this young and euill aduised king was found ouerborn with durt Flor. lib. 4. Theodotus the kings schoolemaster by whose instigation and aduise both Pompey was slaine and this war vndertaken being escaped fled towards Asia for his safety found euen there sufficient instruments both to abridge his iourney shorteÌ„ his life As for the rest of that murdering felowship they ended their liues some here some there in that merciles element the sea and by that boisterous element the wind which though senslesse yet could not suffer them to escape vnpunished Although that Iulius Caesar concerning whom more occasion of speech will be giuen in the 39 chapter did tyranously vsurpe the key of the Romane common-wealth Plutarch intruded himselfe into the Empire against the lawes customs and authority of the people and Senat yet was it accounted a
and consent of parties is committed bee condemned how much more greeuous and hainous is the offence and more guiltie the offendour when with violence the chastity of any is assailed and enforced This was the sinne wherwith Sichem the sonne of Hemor the Leuit is marked in holy scripture for hee rauished Dina Iaacobs daughter Gen. for which cause Simeon and Lui her brethren reuenged the iniury done done vnto their sister vpon the head of not onely him and his father but all the males that were in the citie by putting them to the sword It was a custome among the Spartanes Messenians during the time of peace betwixt them to send yearely to one another certaine of their daughters to celebrate certaine feasts and sacrifices that were amongst them now in continuance of time it chanced that fiftie of the Lacedemonian Virgines being come to those solemne feasts were pursued by the Messenian gallants to haue their pleasures of theÌ„ but they iointly making resistance and fighting for their honesties stroue so long not one yeelding themselues a prey into their hands till they all died wherevpon arose so long miserable a warre that all the countrie of Messena was destroied thereby Aristoclides a Tyrant of Orchomenus a city of Arcadia fell enamoured with a maid of Stymphalis who seeing her father by him slaine because hee seemed to stand in his puâ—poses light fled to the Temple of Diana to take Sanctuarie neither could once bee pluckt from the image of the goddesse vntill her life was taken from her but hir death so incensed the Arcadians that they fell to armes sharpely reuenged her cruell iniury Appius a Romane a man of power and authoritie in the city â—â—us Liuius enflamed with the loue of a Virgin whose father hight Virginius would needs make her his seruant to the end to abuse her the more freely whilst he endeuoured with all his power and pollicie to accomplish his immoderate lust her father slew her with his own hands more willing to prostitute her to death than to so foule an opprobrie and disgrace but euery man prouoked and stirred vp with the wofulnesse of the euent with one consent pursued apprehended and imprisoned the foule lecher who fearing the award of a most shamefull death killed himselfe to preuent a further mischiefe In the yeare of our Lord 1271 vnder the raign of the Emperour Rodolphe Nic. Gil. vol. 1. the Sicilians netled and enraged with the horrible whoredomes adulteries Rapes which the Garrisons that had the gouernment ouer them committed not able to endure any longer their insolent outragious demeanor entred a secret coÌ„mon conspiracy vpon a time appointed for the purpose which was on Easter sunday at the shutting in of the euening to set vpon them with one accord and to murder so many as they could as they did for at that instant they massacred so many throughout the whole island that of all the great multitude there suruiued not one to beare tidings or bewaile the dead At Naples it chaunced in the Kings pallace Bâ—mb lib. 3. hist Venet. as young King Fredericke Ferdinands sonne entered the priuie chamber of the Queene his mother to salute her and the other Ladies of the court that the Prince of Bissenio waighting in the outward chamber for his returne was slaine by one of his owne seruants that suddainely gaue him with his sword three deadly strokes in the presence of many beholders which deed hee confessed that hee had watched three yeares to performe in regard of an iniurie done vnto his sister and in her to him Benzoni Milan of the new found land whome hee rauished against her will The Spaniards that first tooke the Isle Hispaniola were for their whoredomes and Rapes whhich they committed vpon the wiues and Virgins all murdered by the inhabitants The inhabitants of the Prouince Cumana when they saw the beastly outrage of the Spanish nation The same author that lay along their coasts to fish for pearle in forcing and rauishing without difference their women young and old set vpon them vpon a Sunday morning with all their force and slew all that euer they found by the sea coasts Westward till there remained not one aliue And the fury of the rude vnciuill people was so great that they spared not the Monkes in their cloisters but cut their throates as they were mumbling their Masses burnt vp the Spanish houses both religious and priuate burst in peeces their belles drew about their Images hurld downe their crucifixes and cast them in disgrace and contempt ouerthwart their streetes to bee trodden vpon nay they destroyed whatsoeuer belonged vnto them to their very dogges and hennes and their owne Countriemen that serued them in any seruice whether religious or other they spared not they beate the earth and cursed it with bitter curses because it had vpholden such wicked and wretched caitifes Now the report of this massacre was so fearefull and terrible that the Spaniards which were in Cubagna doubted much of their liues also and truly not without great cause for if the Indians of the Continent had beene furnished and prouided with sufficient store of barkes they had passed euen into that Island and had serued them with the same sauce which their fellows were serued with for they wanted not will but hability to doe it And these are the goodly fruits of their adulteries and Rapes which the Spanish nation hath reaped in their new found land The great calamity and ouerthrow which the Lacedemonians endured at Leuctria wherein their chiefest strength and powers were weakened and consumed was a manifest punishment of their inordinate lust committed vpon two Virgines â—i Mel. lib. 2. whome after they had rauished in that very place they cut in peeces and threw them into a pit and when their father came to complaine him of the villanie they made so light account of his words that in stead of redresse he found nothing but reproch and derision so that with griefe hee slew himselfe vpon his daughters sepulchre but how greeuously the Lord reuenged this iniurie hystories doe sufficiently testifie and that Leuctrias calamitie doth beare witnesse Pausan lib. 2. Brias a Grecian captaine being receiued into a Citizens house as a guest forced his wife by violence to his lust but when he was asleepe to reuenge her wrong she put out both his eies and afterward complained to the citizens also who depriued him of his office and cast him out of their city Macrinus the Emperour punished two souldiours that rauished their hostesse on this manner hee shut them vp in an oxes bowels with their heads out and so partly with famishment and partly with wormes and rottennesse they consumed to death Iohan magnus Rodericus king of the Gothes in Spaine forced an Earles daughter to his lust for which cause her father brought against him an army of Sarasens and Moores and not onely slew him
Iulia adulterers were without difference adiudged to death insomuch that Iulius Antonius a man of great parentage and reputation among the Romanes Lib. 4. Annal. whose sonne was nephew to Augustus sister as Cornelius Tacitus reporteth was for this crime executed to death Aurelianus the Emperour did so hate and detest this vice that to the end to scare and terrifie his souldiers from the like offence he punished a soldier which had committed adultery with his hostesse in most seuere manner euen by causing him to be tied by both his feet to two trees bent downe to the earth with force which being let goe returning to their course rent him cruelly in pieces the one halfe of his body hanging on the one tree and the other on the other Yea and at this day amongst the very Turkes and Tartarians this sinne is sharply punished So that we ought not wonder that the Lord should ordaine death for the adulterer If a man saith the law lie with another mans wife â—euit 20.10 if I say he commit adultery with his neighbours wife the adulterer and the adulteresse shall die the death Deut. 22.22 And in another place If a man be found lying with a woman married to a man they shall die both twaine to wit the man that lay with the wife and the wife that thou maist put away euill from Israel Yea and before Moses time also it was a custome to burne the adulterers with fire Genes 38. as it appeareth by the sentence of Iuda one of the twelue Patriarchs vpon Thamar his daughter in law because he supposed her to haue plaied the whore Beside all this to the end this sinne might not be shuffled vp and kept close there was a meanes giuen whereby if a man did but suspect his wife for this sin though shee could by no witnes or proofe be conuinced her wickednesse notwithstanding most strangely and extraordinarily might be discouered Numb 5. And it was this The woman publikely at her husbands sute called in question before the priest who was to giue iudgement of her after diuers ceremonies and circumstances perfourmed and bitter curses pronounced by him her belly would burst and her thigh would rot if shee were guilty and she should be a curse amongst the people for her sinne but if she was free no euill would come vnto her Thus it pleased God to make knowne that the filthinesse of those that are polluted with this sinne should not lie hid This may more clearely appeare by the example of the Leuites wife of whome it is spoken in the 19 20 and 21 chapters of Iudges who hauing forsaken her husband to play the whore certaine moneths after hee had againe receiued her to be his wife she was giuen ouer against her will to the villanous and monstrous lusts of the most wicked and peruerse Gibeonites Rape li. 2. c. 19. that so abused her for the space of a whole night togither that in the morning shee was found dead vpon the threshold which thing turned to a great destruction and ouerthrow in Israel for the Leuit when hee arose and found his wife newly dead at the dore of his lodging hee cut and dismembred her body into twelue pieces and sent them into all the countries of Israel to euery tribe one to giue them to vnderstand how vile and monstrous an iniurie was done vnto him whereupon the whole nation assembling and consulting togither when they saw how the Beniamites in whose tribe this monstrous villanie was committed make no reckening of seeing punishment executed vpon those execrable wretches they tooke armes against them and made warre vpon them wherein though at the first conflict they lost to the number of forty thousand men yet afterward they discomfited and ouerthrew the Beniamites and slew of them 25000 rasing and burning downe the city Gabea where the sinne was committed with all the rest of the cities of that tribe in such sort that there remained aliue but sixe hundred persons that saued their liues by flying into the desart and there hid themselues foure moneths vntill such time as the Israelites taking pitty of them least they should vtterly be brought to nought gaue them to wife to the end to repeople them againe foure hundred virgins of the inhabitants of Iabes Gilead reserued out of that slaughter of those people wherein man woman and child were put to the sword for not comming forth to take part with their brethren in that late warre And forasmuch as yet there remained two hundred of them vnprouided for the Ancient of Israel gaue them libertie to take by force two hundred of the daughters of their people which could not be but great iniury and vexation vnto their parents to be thus robbed of their daughters and to see them married at all aduentures without their consent or liking These were the mischiefes which issued and sprang from that vile and abominable adultery of the wicked Gabaonites with the Leuits wife One sin punished with another whose first voluntary sinne was in like manner also most iustly punished by this second rape and this is no new practise of our most iust God to punish one sinne by another and sinners in the same kind wherein they haue offended When king Dauid after hee had ouercome the most part of his enemies 2. Sam. 11. and made them tributaries vnto him and enioyed some rest in his kingdome whilst his men of war pursuing their victory destroied the Ammonites and were in besieging Rabba their chiefe citie hee was so inflamed with the beauty of Bathshabe Vriahs wife that hee caused her to be conueied to him to lie with her to which sinne hee combined another more grieuous to wit when he saw her with child by him to the end to couer his adultery he caused her husband to be slaine at the siege by putting him in the vantgard of the battaile at the assault and then thinking himselfe cocksure married Bathshabe But all this while as it was but vaine allurements no solid ioy that fed his mind and his sleep was but of sinne not of safety wherein he slumbered so the Lord awakened him right soone by afflictions and crosses to make him feele the burden of the sinne which hee had committed 2. Sam. 12. first therefore the child the fruit of this adultery was stricken with sicknesse and died next his daughter Thamar Absoloms sister was rauished by Ammon one of his owne sonnes 2. Sam. 13. 2. Sam. 15. thirdly Ammon for his incest was slaine by Absolom and fourthly Absolom ambitiously aspiring after the kingdome and conspiring against him raised warre vpon him and defiled his concubines and came to a wofull destruction All which things being grieuous crosses to king Dauid were inflicted by the iust hand of God to chastise and correct him for his good not to destroy him in his wickednesse neither did it want the effect in him for he was so farre from swelling
of meat Fides fit apud Authorem snakes and of sauce serpents to the great terror of his conscience but that which is more one of the serpents leaped in his face and catching hold by his lip hung there till his dying day so that hee could neuer feed himselfe but hee must feed the serpent withall And this badge carried he about as a cognisance of an vnkind and vngratefull sonne Moreouer this is another iudgement of God that coÌ„monly as children deale with their parents so doe their children deale with them this in the law of proportion is most iust in the order of punishing most vsuall for the proofe wherof as experience daily teacheth so one example or two I wil subioine Theat histor It is reported how a certaine vnkind peruerse son beat his aged father vpon a time and drew him by the haire of his head to the threshold who when he was old was likewise beaten of his sonne and drawne also by the haire of the head not to the threshold but out of dores into the durt and how he should say he was rightly serued if he had left him at the threshold as he left his father and not dragged him into the streets which he did not to his thus did his owne mouth beare record of his impietie his own conscience condemn him before God and men Guiliel Lugdi Another old man being persuaded by his sonne that had married a young wife with faire and sugred promises of kindnesses and contentments to surrender his goods and lands vnto him yeelded to his request and found for a space all thinges to his desire Discipulus de temp but when his often coughing annoied his young and daintie wife hee first remooued his lodging from a faire high chamber to a base vnder roome and after shewed him many other vnkind and vnchildish parts and lastly when the old man asked for clothes hee bought foure elnes of clothes two whereof he bestowed vpon him and reserued the other two for himselfe Now his yoong sonne marking this niggardise of his father towards his grandfather hid the two elles of cloth and being asked why hee hid them whether by ingeniousnesse of wit or instinct of God he answered to the end to reserue them for his father against hee was old to be a couering for him Which answere touched his father so neere that euer after hee shewed himselfe more louing and obsequious to his father then hee did before Two great faults but soone and happily amended Would it might bee an example to all children if not to mitigate yet at least to learne them to feare how to deale roughly and crookedly with their parents seeing that God punisheth sinne with sinne and sinners in their owne kind and measureth the same measure to euerie man which they haue measured vnto others George Lanter de disciplina liberorum The like wee read of another that prouided a trough for his old decrepite vnmannerly father to eate his meat in who being demanded of his sonne also to what vse that trough should serue answered for his grandfather What quoth the child and must wee haue the like for you when you are old Which words so abashed him that hee threw it away forthwith At Millan there was an obstinate and vngodly sonne that wheÌ„ he was admonished by his mother of some fault which hee had committed made a wrie mouth Theat histor and pointed his fingers at her in scorne and derision Whereat his mother bâ—ing angrie Mandat 3. Cursing lib. 1. cap. 33. wished that he might make such a mouth vpon the gallows Neither was it a vaine wish for within few daies he was taken with a theft and condemned by law to be hanged and being vpon the ladder was perceiued to wryth his mouth in griefe after the same fashion which hee had done before to his mother in derision Henry the second of that name king of England sonne of Geffrey Plantagenet and Maud the Empresse Stow. chron after hee had raigned twentie yeares was content to admit his yoong sonne Henrie married to Margaret the French kings daughter into participation of his crowne but he like an vnnaturall sonne to requite his fathers loue sought to dispossesse him of the whole for by inciting the King of Fraunce and certaine other Nobles hee tooke armes and raised deadly warre against his owne naturall father betwixt whome diuerse strong battailes being foughten as well in England by the Deputies and friends of both parties as also in Normandie Poytou Guyan and Brittaine the victorie alwaies enclined to the father so that the rebellious sonne with his allies were constrained to bend to his fathers will and to desire peace which hee gently granted and forgaue his offence Howbeit the Lord for his disobedience did not so lightly pardon him but because his hasty mind could not tarrie for the crowne till his fathers death therefore the Lord cut him short of it altogether causing him to die sixe yeares before his father being yet but yoong and like to liue long Languet chron Lothair King of Soyssons in Fraunce committed the rule of the Prouince of Guyan to his eldest sonne Cramiris who when contrary to the mind of his father he oppressed the people with exactions and was reclaimed home hee like an vngratious and impious sonne fled to his vncle Childebert prouoked him to war vpon his owne father wherein he himselfe was by the iust vengeance of God taken burned with wife and children to death Leuit. 20. Furthermore it is not doubtles but to a very good end enacted in the law of God that he which curseth his father or mother shold dy the death that rebellious childreÌ„ such as be incorrigable should at the instance and pursute of their owne parents by order of law be stoned to death As children by all these examples ought not onely to learne to feare to displease and reuile their parents but also to fear and reuerence them least that by disobedience they kindle the fire of Gods wrath against theÌ„ so likewise on the other side parents are here aduertised to haue great care in bringing vp and instructing their children in the fear of God and obedience to his will least for want of instruction and correction on their part they themselues incurre a punishment of their carelesse negligence in the person of their children And this is prooued by experience of the men of Bethel 2. King 2. of whose children two and fortie were torne in peeces by beares for that they had beene so euill taught as to mocke the holy Prophet Elizeus in calling him bald pate 1. Sam. 2.4 Heli likewise the high Priest was culpable of this fault for hauing two wicked and peruerse sonnes whome no feare of God could restraine being discontent with that honourable portion of the sacrifices allotted them by God like famished and insatiable wretches fell to share
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 head wherewith finding himselfe hurt to death he commanded one of his souldiers to kill him outright And thus this wicked murderer that had shedde the blood of many men yea of his owne brethren had his braines knockt out by a woman and died a most desperate death The bloody treacherie of Baana and Rechab 2. Sam. 4. chiefe captaines of Ishbosheth Sauls sonne in conspiring against and murdering their master whilst hee slept abode not long vnpunished for hauing cut off his head they presented it for a present to king Dauid hoping to gratifie the king Treason lib. 2. cap. 3 4. and to receiue some recompence for their paines But Dauid beeing of an vpright and true kingly heart could nor endure such vile treachery though against the person of his enemie but entertained them as most vile traitours and master murderers commaunding first their hands and feet to be cut off which they had especially imploied as instruments about that villany and afterwards caused them to be slaine and then hanged for an example to all others that should attempt the like For the like cause was Ioab generall of king Dauids host for killing Abner traiterously who forsaking Ishbosheth had yeelded himselfe to the king cursed of Dauid with all his house Treason lib. 2. cap. 3. with a most grieuous and terrible curse And yet notwithstanding a while after he came againe to that passe as to murder Amasa one of Dauids chiefe captaines making shew to salute and imbrace him 2. Sam. 20. For which cruell deed albeit that in Dauids time he receiued no punishment yet it ouertooke him at last and the same kind of crueltie which hee had so traiterously and villanously committed towards others fell vpon his owne head being himselfe also killed as he had killed others which happened in king Salomons raigne who executing the charge and commandement of his father put to death this murderer in the tabernacle of God 1. King 2. and by the altar whither he was fled as a place priuiledged for safety CHAP. VII A suit of Examples like vnto the former LEauing the Scripture wee find in other writers notable examples of this subiect Herod lib. 1. As first of Astyages king of the Medes who so much swarued from humanitie that hee gaue in straight charge that young Cyrus his owne daughters sonne now ready to be borne should be made away by some sinister practise to auoid by that meanes the danger which by a dreame was signified vnto him Notwithstanding the yong infant finding friends to preserue him aliue and growing vp by meanes of the peeres fauor to whom his grandfather by his cruell dealings was become odious obtained the crowne out of his hands and dispossessing him seated himselfe in his roome This Cirus was that mighty and awfull king of Persia whome God vsed as an instrument for the deliuery of his people out of the captiuity of Babylon as he foretold by the Prophet Isaiah who yet following kind made cruell war in many places for the space of thirty yeres and therfore it was necessary that he should tast some fruits of his insatiable and bloodthirstie desire as hee indeed did for after many great victories and conquests ouer diuers cuntries atchieued Oros lib. 2. going about to assaile Scithia also hee and his army togither were surprised ouercome and slaine to the number of two hundred thousand persons and for his shame receiued this disgrace at a womans hand who triumphing in her victory threw his head into a sacke full of blood with these tearmes Now glut thy selfe with blood which thou hast thirsted after so long time Cambyses Cyrus sonne was also so bloody and cruel a man Herod lib. 3. that one day he shot a noble mans sonne to the heart with an arrow for being admonished by his father of his drunkennes to which he was very much giuen which he did in indignation and to shew that hee was not yet so drunken but he knew how to draw his bow Hee caused his owne brother to be murdered priuily for feare hee should raigne after him and slew his sister for reproouing him for that deed In his voiage to Aethiopia when his armie was brought into so great penury of victuals that they were glad to feed vpon horse flesh hee was so cruel and barbarous that after their horses were spent hee caused them to eate one another But at his returne from Aegypt the Susians his chiefe citizens welcomed him home with rebellion and at last as hee was riding it so chanced that his sword fell out of the scabberd and himselfe vpon the point of it so that it pierced him through and so hee died After that Xerxes by his ouerbold enterprise had distuâ—bed the greatest part of the world Diodor. lib. 11. passed the sea trauersed many countries to the end to assaile Greece with innumerable forces he was ouercome both by sea by land and compelled priuily to retire into his countrie with shame discredit where he had not long beene but Artabanus the captaine of his guard killed him in his pallace by night who also after that many other mischiefes committed by him was himselfe cruelly murdered The thirtie gouernours which the Lacedemonians set ouer the Athenians by compulsion were such cruell Tyrants oppressors and bloodsuckers of the people that they made away a great part of them vntil they were chased away themselues violently and then being secretly dogged pursued were all killed one after another Pirrhus King of Epire that raigned not long after Alexander the great was naturally disposed to such a quicknesse heat of courage that he could neuer be quiet but wheÌ„ he was either doing some mischiefe to another or when another was doing some vnto him euer deuising some new practise of molestation for pastimes sake This his wild and dangerous disposition began first to shew it selfe in the death of Neoptolemus who was conioined King with him whom hauing bidden to supper in his lodging vnder pretence of sacrifice to his gods he deceitfully slew preuenting by that meanes Neoptolemus pretended purpose of poisoning him when occasion should serue After this he conquered Macedonia by armes and came into Italie to make warre with the Romanes in the behalfe of the Tarentines and gaue them battaile in the field and slew fifteene thousand of them in one day he took their campe reuoked many cities from their alliance spoiled much of their country euen to the wals of Rome and all this in a trice without breathing Againe by Ascoly he encountred them the second time where there was a great ouerthrow of ech side of fifteen thousand meÌ„ But the Romans had the worst took their heeles WheÌ„ he was intreated by the Sicilian Embassadours to lend them aid to expulse the Carthaginians out of their isle hee yeelded presently and chased them out Being recalled by the Tarentines into Italy for their succour hee was conquered
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.
wife daughter to Philip the Faire king of France vpon no other occasion but onely to satisfie his owne appetite and the better to follow his delights And thus by this meanes shee was chased out of England and driuen to retire to king Charles her brother where hoping to find rest and refuge shee was deceiued for what by the crafts and practises of the English and what by the Popes authoritie who thrust himselfe into this action as his custome is shee was constrained to dislodge her selfe and to change her countrey very speedily wherefore from thence shee went to craue succour of the Countie of Henault who furnished her with certaine forces and sent her towards England where being arriued and finding the people generally at her commaund and ready to doe her seruice shee set vpon her enemie Hugh Spencer tooke him prisoner and put him to a shamefull death as hee well deserued For hee was also the causer of the deaths of many of the Nobles of the Realme therefore he was drawne through the streets of Herford vpon a hurdle and after his priuie members his heart and head were cut off his foure quarters were exalted in foure seuerall places to the view of the world Now if these be found guiltie that either directly make or indirectly procure diuorcements shall wee excuse them that allow and authorize the same without lawfull and iust occasion No verily Guicciard li. 4. no though they be popes that take it vpon them as we read pope Alexander the sixt did who for the aduancement of his hautie desires to gratifie and flatter Lewis the twelft king of France sent him by his son a dispensation to put away his wife daughter to king Lewis the eleuenth because shee was barren and counterfait and to recontract Anne of Bretaigne the widdow of Charles the eight lately deceased But herein though barrennesse of the former was pretended yet the dutchie of the latter was aimed at which before this time he could neuer attaine vnto But of what force and vertue this dispensation by right was or at least ought to be it is easie to perceiue seeing that it is not only contrary to the words of the Gospell Mat. 19 but also to their own decrees secund part quaest 7. Hi qui matrimoniū wherein is imported that marriage ought not to be infringed for any default or imperfection no not of nature but Popes may maime and clip both the word of God and all other writings and doe whatsoeuer themselues liketh be it good or bad CHAP. XXXI Of Incestuous persons ALthough incest be a wicked and abominable sinne and forbidden both by the law of God and man in so much that the very heathen held it indetestation yet are there some so inordinately vicious and so dissolute that they blush not once to pollute themselues with this filthinesse Genes 35. Reuben the Patriarch was one of this vile crew that shamed not to defile himselfe with Bilba his fathers concubine but hee was cursed for his labour for whereas by right of eldership and birth Genes 49. he ought to haue had a certaine prerogatiue and authoritie ouer his brethren his excellencie shed it selfe like water and he was surpassed by his brethren both in encrease of progenie and renowme Ammon one of king Dauids sonnes 2. Sam. 13. was so strongly enchaunted with the loue of his sister Thamar that to the end to fulfill his lust hee traiterously forced her to his will Rape lib. 2. cap. 21. but Absolom her natural brother hunting for opportunitie of reuenge for this indignity towards his sister inuited him two yeeres after to a banquet with his other brethren and after the same caused his men to murder him for a farewell The same Absolom that slew Ammon for incest with his sister 2. Sam. 16. committed himselfe incest with his fathers concubins mooued thereto by the wicked counsell of Achitophel that aduised him to that infamous deed of defiling his fathers bed but it was the forerunner of his ouerthrow as wee haue already heard Diuers of the Romane Emperours were so villanous and wretched Suet. Lamprid as to make no bones of this sinne with their owne sisters as Caligula Antoninus and Commodus and some with their mothers as Nero so much was he giuen ouer and transported to all licentiousnesse Oros lib. 7. c. 4. Plutarch telleth vs of one Cyanippus that being ouercome with wine defloured his owne daughter Cyane but hee was slaine of her for his labour Neither doe I thinke it so vnnaturall a part for her to kill her father as in him to commit incest with his own daughter for the oracle lessened or rather approoued her fault when it abhorred and chastened his crime for when Siracusa was grieuously infected with the pestilence it was pronounced by the oracle that the plague should continue till the wicked person was sacrificed which darke speech when no man knew Cyane haled her father by the head to the altar telling them that hee was that wicked person pointed at by the Oracle and there sacrificed him with her owne hands killing her selfe also with rhe same knife that her innocencie might be witnessed euen by her blood Thus it pleased God euen among the idolatrous heathen to execute iustice iudgement vpon the earth though by the meanes of the deuill himselfe who is the authour of all such villany Valeria Thusculana was in loue with her owne father Plutarch and vnder colour of another maid got to lie with him which as soone as hee vnderstood hee slew himselfe in detestation of his owne ignorant abomination and wickednesse nay so monstrous and horrible is this sinne euen in the sight of man Valerius that Nausimenes a woman of Athens taking her owne sonne and daughter togither was so amazed and grieued therewith that shee neuer spake word after that time but remained dumbe all the rest of her life time as for the incestours themselues they liued not but became murderers of their owne liues Papyrius a Romane got with child his owne sister Canusia which when their father vnderstood hee sent each of them a sword wherewith they slue themselues But aboue all the vengeance of God is most apparant in the punishment of Heraclius the Emperour Zonar lib. 3. who to his notorious wickednesses heresie persecution and paganisme hee added this villany Paul Diac. lib. 18. to defile carnally his owne sister so to his notorious punishments the Saracens sword dropsie and the ruine of the Empire the Lord added this infamous and cruell iudgement that he could not giue passage to his vrine but it would flie into his face had not a pentise beene applied to his belly to beat it downward And this last plague was proper to his last sinne wherein the very member which he had abused sought reuenge of him that abused it for that hee had confounded nature and most wickedly sinned against his owne flesh Agathias
sole possessor of the whole Island after this he inuaded many other Islands besides many cities in the same land he raised the Lacedemonians from the siege of Samos which they had begirt And when hee saw that all things fell out so well to his owne wish that nothing could be more fearing so great prosperity could not but carry in the taile some terrible sting of aduersitie and mischance attempted by voluntary losse of something of value to preuent the mischiefe which he feared to ensue and this by the aduise of his deare friend and ally the king of Aegypt therefore hee threw a ring which hee had in great price into the sea to the end to delude fortune as he thought thereby but the ring was after found in a fishes belly and offered as a present vnto him and this was an euident presage of some ineuitable misfortune that waited for him neither did it proue vaine and friuolous for hee was hanged vpon a gibbet of Sardis by the commandement of Orates the gouernour of the city who vnder pretence of friendship and coulor of rendering his treasure into his hands and bestowing vpon him a great part thereof promising also to passe the rest of his daies vnder his wing for fear of the rage of Cambises drew him to come priuately to speak with him and so easily wrought his will vpon him Aristodemus got into his hands the gouernment of Cuma Dionâ—s Halicar lib. 7. after hee had made away the principall of the citie and to keepe it the better being obtained hee first won the vulgars hearts by presents then banished out of the Citie their children whome hee had put to death and entertained the rest of the youth with such varietie of pleasures and delights that by those deuises hee kept himselfe in his tyrannous estate many yeares but assoone as the children of those slaine Citizens were growne to ripe yeares of strength and discretion being desirous to reuenge their fathers deaths they set vpon him in the night so at vnawares that they put him and all his family to the slaughter Plutarch Tymophanes vsurped a principality power and rule in Corinth a free citie and became so odious thereby to the whole people yea and to his owne brother Tymoleon also that laying aside all respect of nature hee slew him with his owne hands preferring the libertie of his countrie before any vnity or bond of bloud When the cities of Greece sayth Orosius would needes through too greedie a desire and Ambition of raigne Lib. 3. cap. 12. get euery one the maisterie and soueraigntie of the rest they altogither made shipracke of their owne liberties by encroching vpon others as for instance The Lacedemonians how hurtfull and vncommodious the desire of bringing their neighbour adioining citties vnder their dominion was vnto them the sundrie discomfitures and distresses within the time of that warre vndertaken vpon that onely cause befell them Oros lâ—b 3. ca. 2. beare sufficient record Seruius Tullus the sonne to a bondman addicted himselfe so much to the exploits of warre that by Prowesse hee got so great credite and reputation among the Romanes that hee was thought worthie to bee made the sonne in law of king Tarquinius by marrying one of his daughters Titus Liuius after whose death hee also vsurped the crowne vnder colour of the Protectorship of the kings two yong sonnes Who when they came to age and bignesse maried the daughters of their brother in law Tullius by whose exhortation and continuall prouokement the elder of them which was called Tarquinius conspired against his father in law and practised to make himselfe king and to recouer his rightfull inheritance and that by this means he watched his oportunitie when the greatest part of the people were out of the citie about gathering their fruit in the fields and then placing his companions in readinesse to serue his turne if need should be he marched to the pallace in the roiall robes guarded with a company of his confederats and hauing called a Senate as hee began to complaine him of the trecherie and impudencie of Tullius behold Tullius himselfe came in would haue run violently vpon him but Tarquinius catching him about the middle threw him headlong down the staires and presently sent certaine of his guard to make an end of the murder which hee had begun But herein the cruelty of Tullia was most monstrous that not only first moued her husband to this bloudy practise but also made her coach to be driuen ouer the body of her father which lay bleeding in the middest of the street scarce dead Manlius after hee had maintained the fortresse of Rome against the Gaules glorying in that action Parricide lib â— cap. 11. and enuying the good hap and prosperity of Camillus went about to make himselfe king vnder pretence of restoring the people to their ancient entire libertie but his practise being discouered he was accused found guiltie and by the consent of the multitude adiudged to be throwne headlong downe from the top of the same fortresse to the end that the same place which gaue him great glory might bee a witnesse and memoriall of his shame and last confusion for all his valiant deedes before done were not of so much force with the people to excuse his fault or saue his life as this one crime was of weight to bring him to his death In former times there liued in Carthage one Hanno Oros lib. 4. c. 6. who because hee had more riches than all the Commonwealth beside began to aspire to the domination of the citie which the better to accomplish he deuised to make shew of marrying his only daughter to the end that at the mariage feast he might poyson the chiefest men of credit and power of the citie whome hee knew could or would any waies withstand or countermand his purpose but when this deuise tooke no effect by reason of the discouerie thereof by certain of his seruants he sought another meanes to effect his will He got togither a huge number of bondslaues and seruants which should at a sodaine put him in possession of the citie but being preuented herein also by the citizens hee seased vpon a castle with a thousand men of base regard euen seruants for the most part whither thinking to draw the Affricanes and king of the Moores to his succour he was taken first whipped next had his eies thrust out and then his armes and legs broken in peeces and so was executed to death before al the people his carcas being thus mangled with blows was hanged vpon a gallowes and all his kindred and children put to death that there might not one remaine of his straine either to enterprise the like deed or to reuenge his death That great and fearefull warriour Iulius Caesar one of the most hardie and valiants peeces of flesh that euer was after he had performed so many notable exploits ouercome all his enemies
woman to the Emperour Adrian is very worthy to be remembred Fulgos lib. 6. cap. 2. who appealing and complaining to the Emperour of some wrong when hee answered that he was not at leisure then to heare her sute shee told him boldly and plainly That then he ought not to be at leisure to be her Emperour which speech went so neare the quicke vnto him that euer after he shewed more facilitie and courtesie towards all men that had any thing to do with him The kings of Fraunce vsed also this custome of hearing and deciding their subiects matters as wee read of Charlemaigne the king and Emperour who commanded that he should be made acquainted with all matters of importance and their issues throughout his realme King Lewes the first treading the steps of his father Charlemaigne accustomed himselfe three daies in a weeke to heare publikely in his pallace the complaints and grieuances of his people and to right their wrongs and iniuries King Lewes sirnamed the Holy Aimo a little before his death gaue in charge to his sonne that should succeed him in the crowne amongst other this precept To be carefull to beare a stroke in seeing the distribution of iustice and that it should not be peruerted not depraued CHAP. XLVI Of such princes as haue made no reckening of punishing vice nor regarded the estate of their people IT cannot choose but be a great confusion in a common-wealth when iustice sleepeth and when the shamelesse boldnesse of euill doers is not curbed in with any bridle but runneth it owne swinge and therefore a Consull of Rome could say That it was an euill thing to haue a prince vnder whome license and libertie is giuen to euery man to doe what him listeth for so much then as this euill proceedeth from the carelesnes and slothfulnesse of those that hold the sterne of gouernment in their hands it can not be but some euill must needs fall vpon them for the same The truth of this may appeare in the person of Philip of Macedonie whome Demosthenes the oratour noteth for a treacherous and false dealing prince after that he had subdued almost all Greece not so much by open warre as by subtilty craft and surprise and that being in the top of his glory hee celebrated at one time the marriage of his sonne Alexander whome hee had lately made king of Epire and of one of his daughters with great pompe and magnificense as hee was marching with all his traine betwixt the two bridegroomes his owne sonne his sonne in law to see the sports and pastimes which were prepared for the solemnitie of the marriage behold suddenly a young Macedonian gentleman called Pausanias ran at him and slew him in the midst of the prease for not regarding to doe him iustice when hee complained of an iniury done vnto him by one of the peeres of his realme Plutarch Tatius the fellow king of Rome with Romulus for not doing iustice in punishing certaine of his friends and kinsfolkes that had robbed and murdered certaine Embassadors which came to Rome and for making their impunitie an example for other malefactours by deferring and protracting and disappointing their punishment was so watcht by the kindred of the slaine that they slew him euen as he was sacrificing to his gods because they could not obtaine iustice at his hands What happened to the Romanes for refusing to deliuer an Embassadour Tit. Liuius Plutarch who contrary to the law of nations comming vnto them plaid the part of an enemie to his own country euen well nigh the totall ouerthrow of them and their citie for hauing by this meanes brought vpon themselues the calamitie of warre they were at the first discomfited by the Gaules who pursuing their victory entred Rome and slew al that came in their way whether men or women infants or aged persons and after many daies spent in the pillage spoiling of the houses at last set fire on all and vtterly destroied the whole city Childericke king of France Paul Aemil. is notified for an extreame dullard and blockhead and such a one as had no care or regard vnto his realme but that liued idly and slothfully without intermedling with the affaires of the common wealth for he laid all the charge and burden of them vpon Pepin his lieutenant generall therefore was by him iustly deposed from his roiall dignity mewed vp in a cloister of religion to become a monke because he was vnfit for any good purpose albeit that this sudden change mutation was very strange yet there ensued no trouble nor commotion in the realme thereupon so odious was hee become to the whole land for his drowsie and idle disposition Paul Aemil. For the same cause did the princes Electours depose Venceslaus the Emperour from the Empire and established another in his roome King Richard of England amongst other foule faults which he was guilty of incurred greatest blame for this because he suffered many theeues and robbers to roue vp and down the land vnpunished for which cause the citizens of London coÌ„menced a high sute against him coÌ„pelled him hauing raigned 22 yeres to lay aside the crown resigne it to another in the presence of all the states died prisoner in the Tower Moreouer this is no small defect of iustice when men of authority do not only pardon capitall and detestable crimes but also grace and fauour the doers of them and this neither ought nor can be done by a soueraigne prince without ouerpassing the bounds of his limited power which can in no wise dispence with the law of God Exod. 21. whereunto euen kings themselues are subiect for as touching the willing and considerate murderer Dâ—ut 19. Thou shalt plucke him from my altar saith the Lord that hee may die thy eye shall not spare him to the end it may goe well with thee which was put in practise in the death of Ioab 1 King 2. who was slaine in the Tabernacle of God holding his hands vpon the hornes of the Altar for hee is no lesse abominable before God that iustifieth the wicked Prou 17. than hee that condemneth the iust and hereupon that holy king S. Lewes when hee had granted pardon to a malefactour Nich. Gilles reuoked it againe after better consideration of the matter saying That hee would giue no pardon except the case deserued pardon by the law for it was a worke of charitie and pittie to punish an offender and not to punish crimes was as much as to commit them In the yeere of our Lord 978 Egebrede the sonne of Edgare end Alphred king of England was a man of goodly outward shape and visage but wholly giuen to idlenesse and abhorring all princely exercises besides he was a louer of riot drunkennesse and vsed extreame cruelty towards his subiects hauing his eares open to all vniust complaints in feats of armes of all men most ignorant so
Oracle from their God which when hee approched neere vnto the Alexandrians prepared to entertaine him most honourably and being entered hee went first to visite their Temples where to cast more colours vpon his trecherie hee offered many sacrifices and in the meane while perceiuing the people gathered togither from all quarters to bid him welcome finding oportunity fitting his wicked and traiterous enterprise bee gaue commandement that all the young men of the city should assemble together in one place saying that hee would acquaint them to range themselues in battaile after the manner of the Macedonians in honour of king Alexander But whilest they thus assembled together in mirth and brauerie hee making as though hee would bring them in aray by going vp and downe amongst them and holding them in talke his army enclosed them on all sides then withdrawing himselfe with his guard hee gaue the watch-word that they should rush vpon them which was performed with such outrage that the poore credulous people beeing surprised at vnawares were all most cruelly massacred There might you see the most horrible barbarous and incredible butcherie of men that euer was heard of for besides those that were actors in this bloody Tragedy there were others that drew the slaine bodies into great ditches and very often haled in them that were scarse dead yea and sometimes that were altogether aliue which was the cause that diuerse souldiours perished at the same time when those that hauing some strength of life left being haled to the ditch held so fast by the halers that diuerse times both fell in together The blood that was shead at this massacre was so much that the mouth of the riuer Nilus and the sea shore were died with the streames thereof that ran down by smaller riuers into those plaine places Furthermore being desirous to obtaine a victorie ouer the Parthians that hee might get himselfe fame and reputation thereby hee passed not at what rate he bought it He sent therefore Embassadors with letters and presents to the king of Parthia to demand his daughter in marriage though hee neuer entended any such thing and being nonsuted at the first with a deniall yet pursued he his counterfeit purpose with much earnestnesse and with solemne oath protested his singular good affection and loue that he bore vnto her so that in the end the match was condiscended vnto by all parties whereof the Parthian people were not a little glad in hope of so durable a peace which by this marriage was like to be established betwixt thē The king therefore with all his subiects being ready to entertaine this new bridegroome went out with one consent to meet him in the midway their encounter was in a fair plain where the Parthians hauing sent backe their horses being vnarmed and prepared not for a day of battaile but of marriage and disport gaue him the most honourable welcome they could but the wicked varlet finding oportunity so fit set his armed souldiors vpon the naked multitude hewed in peeces the most part of them and had not the king with a few followers bestirred him well he had ben serued with the like sauce After which worthy exploit Treason lib. 2. cap. 3. and bloody stratageme he took his voiage backward burning and spoiling the towns and villages as he went till hee arriued at Charam a city in Mesopotamia where making his abode a while hee had a fancie to walke one day into the fields and going apart from his companie to vnburden nature attended vpon by one onely seruant as hee was putting downe his breeches another of his companie ranne in and stroke him through with his dagger Thus God blessed the world by taking out of it this wicked Tyrant who by treason and trechery had spilt so much innocent blood Seturus Galba another bird of the same feather exercised no lesse perfidious cruelty vpon the people of three cities in Lusitania for he assembled them togither in colour of prouiding for their common affaires but when hee had gotten them into his hands vnarmed and weaponlesse he took nine thousand of the flower of their youth and partly committed them to the sword and partly sold them for bondslaues The disloiall and treacherous dealing of Stilico towards the Gothes how deare it cost him and all Italy beside Iornand Paul Aemil histories doe sufficiently testifie for it fell out that the Gothes vnder the conduct of Allaricus entred Italy with a puissant and fearefull army to know the cause why the Emperour Honorius withheld the pension which by vertue of a league and in recompence of their aid to the Empire in time of war was due vnto them which by riper iudgement and deliberation of the councill was quieted to preserue their countrey from so imminent a tempest Treason lib. 2. cap. 3. offer was made vnto them of the Spaniards and Frenchmen if they could recouer them out of the hands of the Vandales which vsurped ouer them so that incontinently they should take their iourney ouer the Alpes towards them and depart their coasts Which offer and gift the Gothes accepting did accordingly fulfill the condition and passed away without committing any riot or any dammage in their passages But as they were vpon mount Cinis making towards France behold Stilico Honorius his father in law a man of a stirring stubborne and rash spirit pursueth and chargeth them with battaile vnawares and dreaming of nothing lesse whereat they being at the instant amazed quickly gathered their spirits togither and putting themselues in defence fought it out with such courage and eagernesse that the traitours army was wholly discomfited and he himselfe with one of his sonnes slaine The Gothes hauing gotten this victory broke off their voiage to France and turned their course backe againe to Italy with purpose to destroy and spoile And so they did for they laid wast all the countrey of Piemont and Lumbardy and elsewhere and besieged Rome itselfe so that from that time Italy neuer ceased to be scourged and tormented with the Gothes for the space of eighteene yeeres Moreouer whosoeuer else haue bene found to follow the steps of these truce peace promise breakers void of truth and regard of reputation alwaies vnderwent worthy punishment for their vnworthy actes and fell headlong into confusion and ignominy making themselues subiects worthy to be curst detested of all men CHAP. XIIII Of Queenes that were Murderers IF these and such like cruelties as we haue spoken of before be strange and monstrous for men what shall wee then say of wicked and bloody women who contrary to the nature of their sexe addict themselues to all violence and bloodshedding as cursed Iezabel Queene of Israel did of whome sufficient hath beene spoken before Athaliah Achabs daughter and wife to Ioram king of Iuda was a bird of the same feather for shee was possessed with such a spirit of fury and rage 2. King 11. that after the death of her
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
with his sonne but also quite extinguished the Gothicke kingdome in Spaine in this warre and vpon this occasion seuen hundred thousand men perished as hystories record and so a kingdome came to ruine by the peruerse lust of one lecher Anno 714. At the sacking and destruction of Thebes by king Alexander a Thracian captaine which was in the Macedonian army tooke a noble Matron prisoner called Tymoclea whome when by no persuasion of promises he could entise to his lust he constrained by force to yeeld vnto it Plut. in vita Alexand. Sabel lib. 5. c. 6. but this noble minded woman inuented a most witty subtile shift both to rid her selfe out of his hands and to reuenge his iniurie she told him that she knew where a rich treasure lay hid in a deepe pit whether when with greedinesse of the gold he hastened standing vpon the brinke pried and peared into the bottome of it she thrust him with both her hands into the hole and tumbled stones after him that he might neuer find meanes to come forth for which fact she was brought before Alexander to haue iustice who demanding her what she was she answered that Theagenes who led the Thebane army against the Macedonians was her brother Alexander perceiuing the maruellous constancie of the woman and knowing the cause of her accusation to bee vniust manumitted and set her free with her whole family When Cn. Manlius hauing conquered the Gallo-Grecians pitched his army against the Tectosages people of Narbonia towards the Piren mountains amongst other prisoners a very fair womā wife to Orgiagous Regulus was in the custodie of a Centurion that was both lustfull and couetous Liuiu◠lib. 38. This lecher tempted her first with faire persuasions and seeing her vnwilling compelled her with violence to yeeld her body as a slaue to fortune so to infamy and dishonor after which act somewhat to mitigate the wrong he gaue her promise of release and freedome vpon condition of a certaine summe of money and to that purpose sent her seruant that was captiue with her to her friends to puruey the same which hee bringing the Centurion alone with the wronged lady met him at a place appointed and whilest hee weighed the money by her counsaile was murdered of her seruants so she escaping caried to her husband both his money and threw at his feet the villaines head that had spoiled her of her chastitie Andreas king of Hungary hauing vndertaken the voiage into Siria for the recouety of the holy land together with many other kings and Princes committed the charge of his kingdome and family to one Bannebanius Chronica Hungariae a wise and faithfull man who discharged his office as faithfully as hee tooke it willingly vpon him now the Queene had a brother called Gertrude that came to visite and comfort his sister in her husbands absence and by that meanes soiourned with her a long time euen so long till hee fell deadly in loue with Bannebanus lady a faire vertuous woman one that was thought worthie to keepe company with the Queene continually to whome when hee had vnfolded his suit and receiued such stedfast repulse that hee was without all hope of obtaining his desire he began to droupe and pine vntill the Queene his sister perceiuing his disease found this peruerse remedie for the cure thereof shee would often giue him oportunitie of discourse by withdrawing her selfe from them being alone and many times leaue them in secret and dangerous places of purpose that he might haue his will of her but she would neuer consent vnto his lust and therefore at last when hee saw no remedie hee constrained her by force and made her subiect to his will against her will which vile disgracefull indignitie when shee had suffered shee returned home sad and melancholy and when her husband would haue embraced her she fled from him asking him if he would embrace a whore and related vnto him her whole abuse desiring him either to rid her from shame by death or to reuenge her wrong make knowne vnto the world the iniury done vnto her There needed no more spurs to pricke him forward for reuenge he posteth to the court and vpbraiding the Queene with her vngratefull and abhominable trecherie runneth her through with his sword and taking her heart in his hand proclaimeth openly that it was not a deed of inconsideration but of iudgement in recompence of the losse of his wiues chastitie foorthwith hee flieth towards the King his Lord that now was at Constantinople and declaring to him his fact and shewing to him his sword besmeared with his wiues blood submitteth himselfe to his sentence either of death in rigour or pardon in compassion but the good King enquiring the truth of the cause though greeued with the death of his wife yet acquite him of the crime and held him in as much honour and esteeme as euer hee did condemning also his wife as worthy of that which shee had endured for her vnwomanlike and traiterous part A notable example of iustice in him and of punishment in her that forgetting the law of womanhood and modestie made her selfe a baud vnto her brothers lust whose memory as it shall be odious and execrable so his iustice deserueth to be engrauen in marble with caracters of gold Equall to this king in punishing a Rape was Otho the first Albert. Krant lib. 3. for as he passed through Italy with an armie a certaine woman cast her selfe downe at his feet for iustice against a villaine that had spoiled her of her chastitie who deferring the execution of the law till his returne because his hast was great the woman asked who should then put him in mind thereof hee answered This church which thou seest shall be a witnesse betwixt mee and thee that I will then reuenge thy wrong Now when hee had made an end of his warfare in his returne as hee beheld the church hee called to mind the woman and caused her to be fetcht who falling down before him desired now pardon for him whom before she had accused seeing he had now taken her to wife redeemed his iniury with sufficient satisfaction Not so I sweare quoth Otho your compacting shall not infringe or collude the sacred ◠but hee shall die for his former fault and so he caused hi◠be put to death A notable example for them that after they haue committed filthinesse with a maid thinke it no sin but competent amends if they take her in marriage whom they abused before in fornication Nothing inferiour to these in punishing this sin was Gonzaga duke of Ferrara as by this historie following may appear in the yeare 1547 a citizen of Comun Theat histor was cast into prison vpon an accusation of murder whome to deliuer frō the iudgement of death his wife wrought all means possible therefore comming to the captaine that held him prisoner she sued to him for her husbands life
sirname was Nicholas as he passed from one town to the other being at Nocera lodged diuers times in the castell in the keepers and captaines house whome hee had there substituted to defend the place with an ordinary band of souldiors now as he made his abode there a few daies hee grew to cast a more lasciuious eie vpon the captains wife than was meet and from looking fell to lusting after her in such sort that in short space hee got very priuy familiar acquaintance with her oftentimes secret suspicious meetings which being perceiued by her husband he after watched so narrowly their haunts that once hee spied thē together without being seen of thē Neuerthelesse disgesting and swallowing vp this sorrow with silence and without giuing forth any tokens therof he cōsulted in himself to reuenge the iniury by the death rasing out not only of the Adulterer but also of the whole race fraternity Now when hee had hammered this enterprise laid forth the plot thereof in his head he dispatched presently a messenger to the three gentlemen brethrē to inuite thē against the next day to the hunting of the fairest wild bore that was this many a day seene in the forrests of Nocera Signior Nicholas failed not to come at the time appointed accompanied with Duke Camerino who desired to be one of this iolly crue they supped in the towne but lodged in the castel where being at rest about midnight the captain rushed into his chamber with the greatest part of his guard there handled Signor Nicholas on this maner he first cut off his priuy mēbers as being principal in the offence thē thrust him through on both sides with a spear next pluckt out his heart lastly tore the rest of his body into a thousand peeces As for the duke Camerino hee shut him vp in a deep darke dungeon with all the strangers of his retinue At day breake another of the brethren called Caesar that lay that night in the town was sent for to come speak with his brother assoone as he was entred into the court of the castell seuen or eight of the guard bound him his followers caried him into the chamber where his dead brother lay chopt as small as flesh to the pot there murdered him also Conrade the third brother being by reason of a marriage absent from this feast when hee receiued the report of these pitifull newes gathered togither a band of men from all quarters and with them assisted with the friends and allies of the duke Camerino then prisoner laid siege to the castle they battered the walles made a breach and gaue the assault of entrance and were manfully resisted fiue houres long till the defendants beeing but thirtie or fortie men at the most not able to stand any longer in defence were forced to retire and lay open way of entrance to the enemie then began a most horrible butchery of men for Conrade hauing woon the fort first hewed them in pieces that stood in resistance then finding the captaines father slue him and cast him piecemeale to the dogs some he tied to the tailes of wild horses to bee drawne ouer hedges ditches thornes and briers others hee pinched with hote yrons and so burnt them to death which when the captaine from the top of the dungeon where hee had saued himselfe beheld he tooke his wife whome hee held there prisoner and binding her hand and foot threw her headlong from the top of the tower vpon the pauemēt which the souldiors perciuing put fire to the tower so that he was constrained through heat and smoke himself his brother and his little child to sally downe the same way which he had taught his wife a little before to goe and so all three broke their neckes their carcasses were cast out to bee meat for wolues as vnworthy of humane sepulture And this was the catastrophe of that wofull tragedy where by the occasion of one adulterie so heauie is the curse of God vpon that sin a number of men came to their ends Luth. prand lib. 5. cap. 15. In the time of Pope Steuen the eight there was a varlet priest that was captaine in the house of a Marques of Italy who although he was very mishapen and euill fauoured yet was entertained of the lady Marques his mistres to her bed and made her paramour vpon a night as hee was going to lie with her according ro his wont his Lord being from home behold a dog barked so fiercely leaping biting at him that all the seruants of the house being awaked ran thitherward and finding this gallant in the snare tooke him and for all his bald crowne stripped him naked and cut off cleane his priuy and adulterous parts and thus was this lecherous Priest serued Luth. prand lib. 6. cap. 6. Pope Iohn the thirteenth a man as of wicked conuersation in all thinges so especially abhominable in whoredomes and adulterie which good conditions whilest he pursued he was one day taken tardy in the plaine fields whether hee went to disport himselfe for hee was found in the act of adultery and slaine forthwith and these are the godly fruits of those single life louers to whom the vse of mariage is counted vnlawfull and therefore forbidden but adultery not once prohibited nor disallowed CHAP. XXIX Of such as are diuorced without cause BY these and such like iudgements it pleaseth God to make knowne vnto men how much hee desireth to haue the estate of mariage maintained and preserued in the integritie and how much euery one ought to take heed how to depraue or corrupt the same now then to proceed if it be a sinne to take away rauish or entise to folly another mans wife shall we not thinke it an equall sinne for a husband to forsake his wife and cast her off to take another shee hauing not disanulled and cancelled the band of marriage by adultery Yes verily for as concerning the permission of diuorce to the Israelits vnder the law Mat. 19. our sauiour himselfe expoundeth the meaning and entent therof in the gospell to be nothing els but a tolleration for the hardnesse and stubbornnesse of their hearts and not a constitution from the beginning vpon which occasion speaking of mariage and declaring the right strength of the same he saith That whosoeuer putteth away his wife except it bee for adulterie and marrieth another committeth adulterie and he that marrieth her that is put away committeth adultery also Al which notwithstanding the great men of this world let loose themselues to this sinne too licentiously as it appeareth by many examples As of Antiochus Theos sonne of Antiochus Soter king of Siria who to the end to goe with Ptolomie Philadelphus king of Aegypt and marry his daughter Bernice cast off his wife Laodicea that had borne him children and tooke Bernice to bee his wife but ere long hee reiected her also and betraied her to
her enemies namely his sonne Callinicus who slew her with one of her sonnes and all that belonged vnto her and then he tooke again his old wife for which cause Ptolomie Euergetes sonne to Philadelphus renued war vpon him Herod the Tetrarch was so bewitched with the loue of Herodius his brother Philips wife Ioseph of the Iewish antiquitie lib. 18. cap. 7.9 that to the end hee might enioy her hee disclaimed his lawfull wife and sent her home to her father king Aretas who being touched netled with this indignity and disgrace sought to reuenge himselfe by armes and indeed made so hote war vpon him and charged his army so furiously that it was discomfited by him after which shameful losse he was by the Emperor Caligulas commandement banished to Lions there to end the residue of his daies Amongst the Remans Marcus Antonius was noted for the most dissolute and impudent in this case of diuorce Plutarch for albeit that in the beginning of his triumphirship he forsooke his first wife to mary Octauius his sister yet he proceeded further not content herewith but must needs forsake her to to bee with Cleopatra the queen of Aegypt from whence sprung out many great euils which at length fel vpon his own head to his finall ruin destruction for when he saw himself in such streights that no means could be found to resist Octauius hee sheathed with his own hands his sword into his bowels whē all his seruants being requested refused to performe the same being thus wounded hee fell vpon a little bed intreating those that were present to make an end of his daies but they all fled and left him in the chāber crying tormēting himself vntill such time that he was cōueied to the monumēt wherin Cleopatra was enclosed that he might die there Cleopatra seeing this pitifull spectacle all amased let down chains cords from the high window with the help of her two maids drew him vp into the monument vniting their forces and doing what they could to get his poore carcasse though by a shamefull vndecēt maner for the gate was locked might not be opened it was a lamentable sight to see his poor body al besmeared with bloud breathing now his last blast for he died assoon as he came to the top to be drawne vpon that cruell fashion As for Cleopatra who by her flattering allurements rauished the hart of this miserable man was cause of his second diuorce she plaied her true part also in this woful tragedy as she partaked of the sin so she did of the punishment for after she saw her self past hope of help her sweet heart dead she beat her own breasts tormented her self so much with sorrow that her bosome was brused halfe murdered with her blows her body in many places exulcerate with inflamations she puld off her hear rent her face with her nailes altogether in phrensied with grief melancholy distresse was found fresh dead with her two maids lying at her feet this was the miserable end of those two who for enjoying of a few foolish cursed pleasures together receiued in exchange infinite torments and vexations and at length vnhappy deaths togither in one the same place verifieng the old prouerbe For one pleasure a thousand dolours Charles the eight king of France Philip. de Cont. after he had ben long time married to the daughter of the king of the Romanes sister to the Archduke of Austria was so euill aduised as to turne her home again vpō no other occasion but to mary the duchesse of Britaine the sole heire to her fathers dukedome wherein he doubly iniured his father in law the Roman king for he did not only reiect his daughter but also depriued him of his wife the duchesse of Britaine whom by his substitute according to the maner of great Princes he had first espoused Bembus Bembus in his Venetian history handling this story somewhat mollifieth the fault when he saith that the Roman kings daughter was neuer touched by king Charles in the way of mariage all the while she was there by reason of her vnripe oueryong yeares After a while after this new maried king had giuen a hote alarme to all Italy and conquered the realme of Naples as the Venetians were deliberating to take the matter in hand of themselues to resist him Maximilian the Roman king sollicited them in the same thrust them forward aswell that he might confederate himselfe with the duke of Millan as that he might reuēge the iniury touching his repelled daughter so that by this means the French king was sore troubled at his return hauing to withstād him al the Venetian forces with the most part of the Potentates of Italy notwithstāding he broke through thē al after he had put the Venetians to the worst Philip. de Com. but being returned after this victorious triumphant voiage it happened that one day as hee led the queen to the castle of Amboise to see some sport at tenise he stroke his forehead against the vpper dore post of the gallory as he went in that he fel presently to the ground speechles Surseuil died incontinently in the place from whence though the filthiest sluttishest place about the castle they remoued not his body but laid it on a bed of straw to the veiw of the world from two of the clocke in the afternoone till eleuen at midnight and this good successe followed at last his so much desired diuorce CHAP. XXX Of those that either cause or authorise vnlawfull diuorcements Mat. 19. ALthough the commandement of our Sauiour Christ bee very plaine and manifest That man should not seperate those whome God hath ioined together yet there are some so void of vnderstanding and iudgement that they make no conscience to dissolue those that by the bond of mariage are vnited Iudg. 15. of which number was Sampsons father in law who took his daughter first giuen in mariage to Sampson and gaue her to another without any other reason saue that he suspected that Sampson loued her not but what got he by it Marry this the Philistims prouoked against him consumed him and his daughter with fire because that by the meanes of his iniury Sampson had burned their corne their vineyards and their oliue trees 1. Sam. 25. After the same sort dealt king Saule with Dauid when he gaue him his daughter Michol to wife and afterward in despight and hatred of him tooke her away againe and bestowed her vpon another wherein as in many other things hee shewed himselfe a wicked and prophane man and was worthely punished therefore as hath ben before declared Froysard vol. 1. Hugh Spencer one of king Edward of Englands chiefest fauourits insomuch that his eare and heart was at his pleasure was he that first persuaded the king to forsake and repudiate the Queene his