So vaine a thing is man his soule of nothing lighter then vanitie in the infusion created and in the Creation infused to be the dweller in this house of clay and habitation of dust yea not a house but a Tabernacle continually in dissolution Such is the Maker and matter of Man The forme was his conformitie to GOD after whose Image he was made Christ only is in full resemblance The Image of the inuisible GOD the brightnesse of his glory the ingraued forme of his Person Man was not this Image but made adimaginem According to this Image resembling his Author but with imperfection in that perfection of human Nature This Image of GOD appeared in the soule properly secondly in the body not as the Anthropomorphite Heretikes and Popish Image-makers imagine but as the instrument of the soule and lastly in the whole Person The soule in regard of the spirituall and immortall substance resembleth him which is a Spirit and euerlasting which seeth all things remayning it selfe vnseene and hauing a nature in manner incomprehensible comprehendeth the natures of other things to which some adde the resemblance of the holy Trinitie in this that one soule hath those three essentiall faculties of Vnderstanding Will and Memory or as others of Vegetation Sense and Reason In regard of gifts and naturall endowments the soule in the vnderstanding part receiued a Diuine Impression and Character in that knowledge whereby shee measureth the Heauens bringeth them to the Earth lifteth vp the Earth to the Heauen mounteth aboue the Heauens to behold the Angels pierceth the Center of the Earth in darknesse to discerne the infernall Regions and Legions beneath and aboue them all searcheth into the Diuine Nature whereby Adam was without study the greatest Philosopher who at first sight knew the nature of the beasts the originall of the VVoman and the greatest Diuine except the second Adam that euer the Earth bare The will also in free choice of the best things in righteous disposition towards man and true holinesse towards GOD was conformed to his will for whose wils sake it is and was created The body cannot so liuely expresse the vertue of him that made it but as it could in that perfect constitution so fearefully and wonderfully made and as the Organ of the soule whose weapon it was to righteousnesse had some shadow therefo The whole Man in his naturall Nobility beyond and Princely Dominion ouer the other Creatures that we mention not the hope of future blessednesse sheweth after what Image Man was created and to what he should be renued The end whereunto GOD made Man is GOD himselfe who hath made all things for himselfe the subordinate end was Mans endlesse happinesse the way whereunto is religious obedience Moses addeth He created them Male and Female thereby to shew that the Woman in Oeconomicall respect is the Image and glory of the Man beeing created for the Man and of the Man but in relation to GOD or the World She as a Creature was also framed after the same Image As for that monstrous conceit of the Rabbins that the first man was an Hermaphrodite it deserueth not confutation or mention The order of the Womans Creation is plainly related GOD finding not a meete helpe for Adam in his sleepe tooke one of his ribs whereof he built the Woman This in a Mystery signified that deadly sleepe of the heauenly Adam on the Crosse whose stripes were our healing whose death was our life and out of whose bleeding side was by Diuine dispensation framed his Spouse the Church This may be part of the sense or an application thereof as some say to this Mystery or the signification rather of the thing it selfe here declared then of the words which properly and plainly set downe the Historie of a thing done after the litterall sense to bee expounded According to this sense Moses expresseth the Creation the making and marrying of the Woman The Maker was GOD the matter a Rib of Adam the forme a building the end to be a meete helpe The Man was made of Dust the Woman of the Man to bee one flesh with the Man and of a Rib to be a helpe and supporter of him in his calling which requireth strength neyther could any bone be more easily spared in the whole body which hath not such variety of any other kind nor could any place more designe the Woman her due place not of the head that she should not arrogate rule not of the feet that the husband should not reckon her as his slaue but in a meane betweene both and that neere the heart in which they should as in all Diuine and Humane Lawes else bee fast ioyned The building of this body of the Woman was in regard of the Progeny which was in that larger roome to haue the first dwelling The soule of the Woman is to be conceiued as the soule of the Man before mentioned immediately infused and created by GOD herein equall to Man Being thus made she is marryed by GOD himselfe vnto Adam who brought her vnto him to shew the sacred authority of Marriage and of Parents in Marriage A mutuall consent and gratulation followeth betweene the parties lest any should tyrannically abuse his fatherly power And thus are two made one flesh in regard of one originall equall right mutuall consent and bodily coniunction And thus were this goodly couple glorious in nakednesse not so much in the ornaments of beautie which made them to each other amiable as of Maiestie which made them to other creatures dreadfull the Image of GOD clothing that nakednesse which in vs appeareth filthy in the most costly clothing GOD further blessed them both with the power of multiplication in their owne kind and dominion ouer other kinds and gaue them for food euery herbe bearing seed which is vpon all the earth and euery tree wherein is the fruit of a tree bearing seed He doth as it were set them in possession of the Creatures which by a Charter of free gift he had conueyed to them to hold of him as Lord Paramount But lest any should thinke this but a niggardly and vnequall gift whereas since the Floud more hath beene added and that in a more vnworthinesse through mans sinne let him consider that since the Fall the Earth is accursed whereby many things are hurtfull to mans nature and in those which are wholsome there is not such variety of kinds such plentie in each variety such ease in getting our plenty or such quality in what is gotten in the degree of goodnesse and sweetnesse to the taste and nourishment which had they remayned in this sickly and elder Age of the World we should not need to enuie Cleopatra's vanitie or Heliogabilus his superfluitie and curiositie And had not Man sinned there should not haue needed the death of beasts to nourish his
by faith and not by sight This that Moses telleth of the fall of Man Experience doth in manner proclaime through the World in the manifold effects thereof which we daily see For whereas the World was made for Man as before is shewed who alone in regard of his bodily and spirituall nature can need and vse it no creature in the world is in his kind so imperfect as man Hee that was before as an earthly God is now become an incarnate Deuill and for aspiring to be like his Lord was made a seruant of his seruants the noblest part in him becomming a base Officer to degrade him Reason it selfe deiected at the feet of Sense to be a slaue and a very Bawd to sensuall pleasures a very Broker for dung-hill profits And what is this but to metamorphose man into a beast vnlesse that some in a lower degree liuing onely to liue suffocated with eating drinking sleeping are degenerated into plants And if he descend not lower to become torpide and liuelesse yet doth he participate the imperfections of those things and that without their perfections as if with an imperfect retrograde hee would returne into his first elements or in a perfected imperfection to his first nothing What stone so hard as mans heart is relentlesse remorselesse to his best good What dust more subiect to the wind or water more flexible then hee to temptation and sinne But those things remaine in their nature or naturall place Man is a fuming smoke a passing shadow And yet if wee could stay at our Elements it were somewhat better but wee are seruants and drudges beneath all names of basenesse vnbowelling the Earth and our selues in the earth for a little hardened earth that neuer had the dignitie to see no not to be seen of the Sunne We seeme to rule the Skie Winds and Seas indeed we aduenture our liues to their mercy and not three fingers thicknesse doth separate vs from death that we may bring home an idle discourse or somewhat almost lesse then nothing that we call a Iewell Once we inuert Nature subuert others peruert our selues for those things which sometimes kill the body and alway except a power with whom all things are possible preuent the Soule And yet Thou Foole this night may they fetch away thy Soule and whose then shall these things bee And whose then and where then shalt thou be Thou gainest faire to loose thy selfe to be taken with thy taking to bee thus bad to others that thou mayest be worse to thy selfe and when-as like an Asse thou hast been laden all the dayes of thy life with those things which euen in hauing thou wantedst now to be more intollerably burthened now to be in Hell which will neuer bee satisfied in thee whose Character was before engrauen in thy vnsatiable heart Tell me not then of the reasonable power of our soules whereby we resemble GOD seeing that reason may tell thee and me that by abusing it we are like and are of our Father the Deuill That erected countenance to be still groueling in and poring on the Earth that immortall soule to mind onely such things as haue not the imperfect priuiledge to be mortall those high excellencies to bee abused to mischiefe blaspheming denying forswearing GOD and all for the basest of the basest creatures Well might this deluge of corruption mooue that Cynick in a throng of men to make search for a Man this Man which is now left vs beeing but the ruines the carkasse of himselfe Well might the Greekes call this body of ours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sepulchre of the soule the Latines Corpus where by reason of mans fall from his first estate the first syllable is falne off Cor the heart is gone we are Vecordes Socordes onely pus remaines corruption and filthinesse and doe not wee call it body because both die the soule also hereby infected and that both deaths internall and externall The Spirit the better part of man is spirit indeed a puffe and vaine blast of emptinesse animus is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a winde that passeth that passeth the wind in vanitie But what needes all this Why are we fallen into so long and tedious discourse of our fall Euen because some are fallen further beyond all sense and feeling of their fall and beleeued not that man was euer any other creature then now they see that if their goodnesse cannot yet their wickednesse might teach them that so perfect a World should not haue beene framed for so imperfect a wretch now onely perfect in imperfection Our fall must teach vs to rise our straying to returne our degeneration a regeneration And therefore was not that Image of GOD wholly done out but some remainder continued to the Posteritie to conuince them of miserie in themselues that so denying themselues they might take vp their Crosse and follow the second Adam vnto a durable happinesse But how may some aske as the Pelagian did came this misery to vs Non peccat ille qui genuit non peccat ille qui condidit per quas igitur rimas inter tot praesidia innocentiae fingis peccatum ingressum Doth it agree with diuine Iustice that if the Fathers haue eaten sowre Grapes the Children-teeth should be set on edge I answere We are Heires of our Father we need not seeke some secret cranie we see an open gate by one man sinne entred into the World and death by sinne A little leaue let vs borrow to cleere this difficultie Sinne is a transgression of the Law or a defect of conformitie to the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and cannot properly be said to haue an efficient but a deficient cause being in it owne nature and subsistence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Schoole-men say in sinne are two things to bee considered the substance and the qualitie essence and priuation the act and defect whereof that they call the Materiall this the Formall part of sinne beeing nothing else but a deformitie irregularitie and vnlawfulnesse in our naturall condition and conditions as easily to be distinguished though not to be diuided from the action as lamenesse from the working hand or iarring in an Instrument both from the Instrument and sound The Sinner is termed nequam as nequicquam naught as not ought Not that sinne is simply norhing Non negatiue sed priuatiuè Nihil nor is it a meere and pure priuation but to bee considered with that subiect wherein and whereof it is such a distortion and destruction the want of this consideration draue the Manichees to their Hereticall opinion of two beings and beginnings Sinne was first seene in the Deuill who voluntarily strayed from the right way and as hee abode not in the Truth himselfe so hee beguiled our first Parents from whom by the Conduit of Nature it is conueyed to vs I speake of Originall sinne which is
the Sacrifices of Aaron Gedeon Manoah Dauid Salomon Elias or by some other meanes both comfortable to Abel and enuied of Caine who therefore slew him thus in this member bruising the heele of that blessed seed as a type of that which the Head himselfe should after sustaine Here is the first Apostasie after that first Euangelicall promise and the first diuision of Religion Caine beeing the first builder of the Earthly Citie not that which hee called after the name of his Sonne Henoch but of that spirituall City of the Wicked the seed of the Serpent which he founded in his Brothers bloud euen as that later Compendium thereof which called her selfe Caput mundi the head of the World and indeed the World is vsually in Scripture applyed to that seed of the Serpent as it is opposite to the seed of the Woman was by Romulus her first Founder by like example of Fratricide in the murther of Remus dedicated as it were to the future mysterie of iniquitie the seat of the Beast and of the Whore by whose authoritie Christ himselfe was slaine drunken after with the blood of his Saints and still breathing blood and slaughter to euery Abel that will not communicate in her spirituall whooredomes that will not with her offer the fruits of the ground the Sacrifice of Caine which neither came from heauen nor can guide to Heauen being earthly sensuall deuillish Caine was for this his fact conuented by that All-seeing Iustice who both by open sentence and inward terrors accused and accursed him continuing his life euen for the same cause that other Murtherers loose it that he might liue an example which then in that vnpeopled world by his death he could not haue been to the future generation branded also by the Lord with some sensible marke to exempt him and terrifie others from that bloudy crueltie this mercy being mixed with this iudgement a longer time of repentance GOD before cursed the earth for Adam he now cursed CAINE from the earth to be a runnagate and wanderer thereon For how could he that had so forsaken God but be forsaken of the Earth and of himselfe the stable and mercifull earth which before had opened her mouth to receiue his Brothers bloud shrinking and as it were grudging to support such wicked feet and by denying him her strength forcing him to his manifold shifts and shiftlesse remoouing Wretched man alwayes bleeding his brothers bloud not daring to looke vp to Heauen fearing to looke downe to Hell the World without him threatning a miserable life his Body branded to contempt and shame till his death his soule become a stage of Anguish Feare Horrour and other Furies the Harbingers of Hell not able to suffer which yet he cannot but suffer the guilt of passed wickednesse gnawing him the waight of present misery pressing him the dread of a death and a death attending him restlesse in himselfe hated of the World despairing of reliefe from God a liuely Map of the deadly and damnable state of sinne and sinners without Christ dead whiles they liue moouing sepulchres the Deuils captiues hels heires exiled from heauen and vagabonds on the earth euen on that which they call their owne land Caine more vexed with the punishment then at the fault of his sinne departed from the presence of the Lord which is meant either of his iudiciall conuenting him or in regard of the visible societie of the Church cradled yet in his Fathers houshold where God did especially shew his present prouidence protection and grace who otherwise filleth the Heauen and Earth of whom in whom they are from hence as Adam before out of Paradise so Cain was as it were excommunicated expelled out-lawed and dwelt in the Land of Nod which some take to be appellatiuely spoken as if his miserie had giuen name of Moouing vnto the place where he dwelled or roamed rather Iosephus saith hee built Naida applying it to a proper place which was either Eastward from Eden or Eastward towards Eden from Canaan where Adam is supposed to haue dwelt and after with his Wife to haue beene buried at Hebron Afterward his posteritie beeing multiplied his Wife Epiphanius out of Leptogenesis calleth Shaue Comestor calleth her Chalmana Philo Themech he built a Citie which he called by the name of his sonne Henoch to crosse that curse of his wandering to and fro on the earth or to arme him against others which his guilty conscience caused him to feare or to be a receptacle and store-house of those spoyles which Iosephus saith hee robbed from others by violence when as the earth was barren to him Philo if we may so entitle that Author which hath written of the Antiquities of the Bible ascribeth vnto him other Cities Mauli Leed Tehe Iesca Celet Iebbat adding that hee liued 730. yeeres These things may bee probable although that Author be otherwise fabulous considering that men did ordinarily liue many hundred yeeres in those times and were also exceeding fruitfull especially after that Polygamy was embraced of that Family And if that in Abrahams posterity the seed of Iacob in lesse then three hundred yeares was multiplyed to so great a people it is like that the Cainites were no lesse populous liuing in more freedome Hee first saith Iosephus found out weights and measures and assigned proprieties in possessions of Land before common as the ayre and light and was Author to lewd persons of a lewd and vngodly life Probable it is that the Citie was called Henoch because the Curse suffered not the father to stay in a place but to leaue a hasty inheritance to his Son to finish and rule it Iabal and Iubal and Tubalcain were inuenters of Arts the first to dwell in Tents and keepe Cattell the second of Musicall instruments the third of working in Mettals and making of Armour which some thinke to be Vulcan by the neerenesse of name and occupation His Sister Naamah is accounted by some Rabbines the first inuenter of making Linnen and Woollen and of vocall Musique yea they make her the wife of Noah also Thus let vs leaue this Family multiplying in numbers in Sciences in wickednesse sauouring nothing diuine or at least nothing but humane in their Diuinitie therefore called the sonnes of men and let vs looke backe to Adam who in this wicked fruit of his body might read continual Lectures of repentance for the sinne of his soule Adam begat a child in his own likenesse that is not in that likenesse of God wherein he was created but like vnto himselfe both in humane nature natural corruption his name he called Seth of whose posteritie the whole world was by Noah re-peopled Vnto Seth was born Enosh Then began men saith MOSES to call vpon the name of the Lord This some interpret of the beginning of Idolatry that men began to profane the name of the Lord
in the yeere from the Creation 1656. The Septuagint and the Fathers that followed them reckon farre otherwise which errour of theirs differing from the Hebrew verity Agustine ascribes to the first Coppiers of that Translation others to their own set purpose that they might contend with other Nations in the challenge of Antiquitie for that cause and least the often halfing of ages should trouble the faithlesse saith Master Broughton they faine Cainan betwixt Arphaxad and Selah in which account if Luke in his Genealogie had followed them it is to be ascribed to them which would correct Luke by their corrupt translation of the Septuagint for some Copies of the Gospel haue wanted it The place is commonly thought to be Armenia The Sybilline Oracles if at least we may so call those eight bookes in Greeke verse translated into Latine by Castalion doe place Ararat in Phrygia and say it is the Hill whence the Riuer Marsyas issueth But Scaliger censureth our Sybils to be counterfeit inuented with zeale to vp-hold the Truth by falshood in which our later Legendaries haue followed them Goropius after his wont paradoxicall holdeth it to be the Hill Paropanisus or Paropamisus a part of the Hill Taurus vnproperly ascribed to Caucasus which riseth betweene the Euxine and Hircan Sea supposed the highest part of the Earth called now Naugracot Hee imagined that the place first inhabited after the Floud was Margiana whence those Colonies passed that with Nimrod built Babylon His reason is because they went from the East to the Plaine of Shinar whereas Armenia beareth somewhat Westward from thence As though that iourney had been presently after the Floud which was an hundred yeares after in which space it is likely they followed the Mountainous Countries Eastward a long time and from Assyria Adiabena turned backe into that fertile Plaine where pride fulnesse of bread and abundance of idlenesse set them on worke against God I hold it not meet that a fewe coniectures should counterpoize the generall consent of all Ages Iosephus saith the place in Armenia was called Apobaterion of this their going forth of the Arke and alleadgeth Berosus testimonie that a part of this Arke was then said to remaine in the Cordyaean or Gordyaean Hils the pitch whereof some scraping away wore the same for Amulets And out of Nich. Damascenus lib. 96. There is saith he aboue the Region of the Minyae a great Hil in Armenia by name Baris wherein they say many saued themselues in the time of the Floud and one brought in an Arke there stayed the remnants of the wood thereof continuing there long time after which happily was he that Moses the Iewish Law-giuer writ of This mountaine or mountainous Region the Caldean Paraphrast calleth Kardu Curtius Cordaei montes Ptolomaeus Gordiaei the people are called Cardyaei or Gordyaei In this Tract saith Epiphan there is one high Mountaine called Lubar which signifieth the descending place Lubar in the Armenian and Egyptian language signifying the same that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before mentioned and the word Baris before cited out of Damascenus seemeth to be corruptly written for Lubaris The Armenians through all ages haue as it seemeth reserued the memorie hereof and euen in our daies there standeth an Abbey of Saint Gregories Monkes neere to this Hill which was able to receiue Shaugh Thamas and a great part of his Armie These Monkes if any list to beleeue them say that there remaineth yet some part of the Arke kept by Angels which if any seeke to ascend carrie them backe as farre in the night as they haue climed in the day Cartwright an eye-witnesse saith that this Hill is alwaies couered with snow at the foote thereof issue a thousand Springs there are adioyning three hundred Villages of the Armenians He saith also that there are seene many ruinous foundations supposed to be the workes of this first people that a long time durst not aduenture into the lower Countryes for feare of an other floud Abidenus saith that the Ship or Arke was still in Armenia in his time and that the people vsed the wood thereof against many diseases with maruellous effect After that Noah had obtained his deliuerance and was now gone out of the Arke his first care was Religion and therefore he hee built an Altar to the Lord and tooke of euery cleane beast and of euery cleane fowle and offered burnt offerings vpon the Altar And the Lord smelled a sauour of rest and renued the auncient blessings and promises to Noah and his posteritie The liuing creatures were also permitted to their food and submitted to their rule by whom they had in the Arke escaped drowning Onely the bloud was prohibited to them as a ceremoniall obseruation to instruct them in lenitie and hatred of crueltie the politicall Ordinance being annexed touching the bloud of man against man or beast that should shead the same This difference being alleadged of the life of Man and Beast that the life of the Beast is his bloud the life of Man is in his bloud Not that the bloud which we see shed is the life of the beast for that is properly Cruor not Sanguis that is the matter whose forme was the life or vitall spirit which being separated from the body is seuered also from the forme or life And the life of Beasts hath no other forme but that which is vnited with the bloud as the life of trees is the sappe of trees their bloud being as it were their soule But the life of man is in his bloud hauing his seate therein liuing when it is by death separated from the bloud meane while the Spirits being the purest part of the bloud as conduits conueying life to the bodily members and as firme bands of a middle nature between the body and soule vniting them together which bands and carriages being broken by effusion of bloud the soule subsisteth a spirituall substance without the body not subiect to substantiall corruption or mortalitie God did also make a couenant for Man with the beasts of the field infusing into the Nature of all things a dread and feare of man whereby they feare the power the snares and sleights of man and therefore flee or else submit themselues not by that willing instinct as to Adam in innocencie but rather with a seruile feare And although by hunger or prouocation or feare of their owne danger they sometimes rebell yet otherwise there remaines some impression of this naturall decree in them as experience in all places hath shewed Euen the Lyon King of Forrests and sauage Creatures doth not easily giue on-set but on such occasions yea the Moores meeting with this Beast doe rate and brawle at him this magnanimous beast passing by with a leering countenance expressing a mixt passion of dread and disdaine fearing the voice of one that feareth not the weapons of many and which himselfe by the terrour of
as if he had touched a stranger They liue long feare not death not by any tortures of the Romans could be compelled to transgresse their lawes but derided their tormentors rather beleeuing to receiue their soules againe presently holding the bodies to be corruptible and the prisons of the immortall soules which if they haue been good haue a pleasant place assigned them beyond the Ocean but the euill to be in tempestuous stormie places of punishments Some of these Essens also foretell things to come And another sort is of them which allow of marriage but make a three yeeres tryall first of the woman and if by a constant purgation they appeare fit for child-bearing they wed them not for pleasure but procreation and therefore after conception do not accompanie with them These women when they wash haue their sacred linnen garments also as the men Thus far Iosephus who in his Antiq. addeth to these their opinions of Gods prouidence ruling all things and that they thinke their Ceremonies more holy then those of the Temple and therefore send thither their gifts but do not there sacrifice but by themselues following the same course of life which the Plisti do amongst the Dacians Some of these Essees liued solitarie like to Hermites as is said before Happily that Baenus was of this sort to whom Iosephus resorted for imitation He liued in the wildernesse cloathing and feeding himselfe with such things as the trees and plants of their owne accord yeelded him and with often cold washings in the night and day cooling the heate of lust with him Iosephus abode three yeeres §. VI. Of the Scribes THE Gaulonites or Galilaans had their beginning of Iudas elsewhere hee calleth him Simon a Galilaean whose doctrine was That Only GOD was to be accounted their Lord and Prince In other things they agreed with the Pharises but for their libertie they would rather endure any the most exquisite tortures together with their kindred and friends then call any mortall man their Lord Theudas happily mentioned Act. 5. and that Egyptian Act. 21. were of this rebellious and trayterous Sect and those Sicarij which wore short weapons vnder their garments therewith murthering men in assemblies That Egyptian Iosephus cals a false Prophet who vnder pretence of Religion and name of a Prophet assembled almost thirtie thousand men to Mount Oliuet hee was defeated by Foelix the Gouernour Such were their Zelotae in the siege of Ierusalem vnder the mantle of Religion all of them harbouring and cloaking Treason and villanie The Scribes are not a Sect but a function of which were two sorts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one expounders of the Law the other publike Notaries or Actuaries Recorders Secretarie Epiphanius maketh difference betwixt the Scribes that were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Teachers of the Law and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Lawyers which prescribed formes of Law Law-cases and taught Ciuill actions But these are often taken one for the other Ezra is called a Scribe whose Pulpit is mentioned Nehem. 8. and Moses Chaire was the Seate of the Scribes that is they taught the Law of Moses which they vsed to do sitting as Christ also did Math. 5.2 Their expositions Epiphanius saith were of foure sorts one in the name of Moses the second in the name of their Rabbine Akiba he is said to haue liued a hundred and twentie yeeres and to be standard-bearer to Barchozba the third in Andan or Annan the fourth after the Assamonai But little is to bee said of these Scribes more then what is before said of the Pharises this being not a differing Sect but an Office or Ministerie wherof the Pharises also were capable and are for false teaching blamed by our Sauiour together with the Scribes The Scribes are said in their expositions to haue beene more textuall the Pharises more in their Glosses and Traditions The Scribes had chiefe reputation for learning the Pharises for holinesse taking more paines saith our English Iosephus to goe to hell The Scribes professed both disputation and obseruation of many things saith Arias Montanus but not so exact as the Pharises For the Pharises though not so learned as the other thought themselues more holy then them because they obserued not onely those things which in the common opinion were thought meete but those things which were least which the people obserued not which others had added This they were ambitious of as of some great perfection for there was a threefold state of men The Doctors Pharises and people of the Land The Prouerbe was The people of the Land are the foote-stoole of the Pharises And this The people of the Land is not holy and they discerne not the Law nor wisedome yea saith the booke Musar hee shall not take the daughter of the people of the Land because they are abomination and their wiues are abomination and of their daughters it is said Cursed be hee that lyeth with a beast Thus did these proud Doctors and Pharises treade the way to the Popish Clergie in contemning the Laytie as vnworthie of the Law and Scripture which in an vnknowne tongue was sealed from them and feasted them at high Feasts with an halfe Sacrament and in their ordinarie priuate Masse with none at all Were not these faire reasons The Laytie might if they had a whole Communion touch the Cup and some of them haue beards and some haue the palsie and their dignitie is inferior to the Priestly c. The Booke Aboth sheweth how the people of the Lord required this supercilious generation talking of them and scoffing at them for their obseruations When I was of the people of the Land R. Aquiba there saith I said Who will giue me a Disciple of the wise I would bite him as an Asse for that insolence and because they would not suffer themselues to be touched of them The people were tyed to obserue the precepts mentioned or by necessitie of consequence drawne out of the Bible The Pharises as is said added their Traditions The Scribes manner of teaching was colde and weake consisting in certaine arguments which rather afflicted then affected the mindes of the hearers in certaine niceties and scrupulous questions and sometimes inextricable And therefore the people heard Christ as speaking with authoritie and not as the Scribes But to let passe these Schoole-men and those Canonists let vs come to their other Sects and sorts of professions §. VII Of many other Iewish Sects and Heresies THe Hemerobaptists are numbred by Epiphanius among the Iewish heresies which saith hee in other things differ not from the Scribes and Pharisies but in their doctrine of the resurrection and in infidelitie are like to the Sadduces And euerie day in all times of the yeere they are baptized or washed whence they haue their name But this custome of daily washing saith Scaliger was common
lockes of light the keyes of pietie Aboue the heauens are the sea of life aboue that the cloudie sea then the arie sea the stony sea the darke sea the sea of solace the Moone the Sun the Name of GOD Supplication Gabriel the parchment rased the parchment full written all these in order one ouer another Then aboue all these the threescore and ten spaces of light then threescore and ten thousand hils with threescore and ten thousand spaces betweene and threescore and ten thousand troupes of Angels on them in euery troupe fiue thousand Angels alway praising the Lord of the world aboue these the limits or bounds of Angelical dignitie and aboue the same the banner of glory and then spaces of pearles and in their orders one aboue another the spaces of Grace of Power of Diuinitie of Dispensation the Foot-stoole the Throne the house of the Vniuerse Ab. Are the Sunne and Moone faithfull or not Mah. They are faithfull and obey euery command of GOD. Ab. Why then are they not of equall light Mah. GOD created them equall but by this it came to passe that the vicissitude or intercourse of day and night was vncertaine till Gabriel flying by the Moone darkened her with the touch of his wing Ab. How many orders are there of the Starres Mah. Three the first of those which hang by chaines from the Throne of GOD giuing light to the seuenth Throne the second chase away the deuils when they would enter into heauen the third in the sight of the Angels There are seuen seas betweene vs and heauen There are three windes the first barren the second tempestuous which shall blow the fire in the day of Iudgement the third ministreth to the earth and sea Ab. Where is the Sunne Mah. In a hot fountaine this in a Serpent which is a great space in the mount Kaf and this Kaf is in the hand of the Angell which holdeth the world till the day of Iudgement Abd. What is the manner of them which beare vp the Seat of GOD Mah. Their heads are vnder the Seat of GOD their feet vnder the seuen Thrones their neckes are so large that a bird in a thousand yeeres continuall flight should not reach from the one eare to another They haue hornes and their meate and drinke is the praise and glory of GOD. Abd. How farre is it to heauen Mahom. Fiue hundred yeeres iourney to the lowest and so from each to other Abd. What birds are betweene vs and heauen Mahom. Some which touch neither heauen nor earth hauing manes like horses haire like women wings like birds and lay their Egges and hatch them on their tailes till the day of Iudgement Ab. What was the forbidden tree Mah. Of wheat which had seuen eares whereof Adam plucked one wherein were fiue graines of which two hee eat two hee gaue to Eue and one hee carried away This graine was bigger then an Egge and being bruised brought forth all kindes of seed Ab. Where was Adam receiued after his expulsion from Paradise Mah. Adam in India Eue in Nubia Adam was recouered with three leaues of Paradise Eue with her haire They met together in Arafe Further as concerning Eue she was made of a rib of the left side for otherwise she had beene as strong as the man Ab. Who dwelt in the earth before Mah. First the Deuils seuen thousand yeeres after them the Angels lastly Adam a thousand yeeres after the Angels Ab. Who beganne the Pilgrimage Mah. Adam Gabriel shaued his head and hee circumcised himselfe and after him Abraham Ab. To what land spake GOD at any time Mah. To Mount Sinai that it should lift vp Moses to heauen Abitabil and Moses are the two men whose sepulchers are knowne Moses by chance found a sepulcher which while hee measured with his bodie the Angell of Death drew from him his soule out of his nostrils by the smell of an Apple of Paradise Ab. Where is the middle of the earth Mah. In Ierusalem Ab. Who made the first ship Mah. Noe hee receiued the keyes thereof of Gabriel and going forth of Arabia compassed Mecca seuen times and likewise Ierusalem In the meane while Mecca was receiued vp into heauen and the Mount Abikobez preserued Ierusalem in her belly Ab. What shall become of the children of the Infidels Mah. They shall come in at the day of Iudgement and GOD shall say vnto them Would yee doe that thing which shall be commanded you And he shall command to flow forth one of the riuers of hell and bid them leape into the same They which obey shall goe into Paradise This shall bee the triall of the children of the faithfull also which are borne deafe blinde c. Abd. What resteth vnder these seuen earths Mah. An Oxe whose feet are on a white stone his head in the East his taile in the West he hath fortie hornes and as many teeth it is a thousand yeeres iourney from one horne to another Vnder that stone is Zohot a mountaine of hell of a thousand yeeres iourney All the Infidels shall ascend vpon the same and from the top shall fall into Hell Vnder that Mount is the land Werelea vnder that the Sea Alkasem the Land Aliolen the sea Zere the land Neama the sea Zegir the land Theris the land Agiba white as Milke sweet as Muske soft as Saffron bright as the Moone the sea Alknitar the fish Albehbut with his head in the East his taile in the West all these in order one after another And beneath all these in like infernall order the Winde the Mountaine the Thunder the Lightning the bloudie Sea Hell closed the fierie Sea the darke Sea the Sea Po the cloudie Sea Prayses Glorification the Throne the Booke the Pen the greater Name of GOD. Ab. What hath come out of Paradise into the World Mah. Mecca Iesrab Ierusalem as on the contrarie out of Hell Vastat in Egypt Antiochia in Syria Ebheran in Armenia and Elmeden of Chaldaea Ab. What say you of Paradise Mah. The ground of Paradise is of gold enameled with Emeralds and Hiacinths planted with euery fruitfull Tree watered with streames of Milke Hony and Wine the day is of a thousand yeeres continuance and the yeere of fortie thousand yeeres The people shall haue whatsoeuer can be desired they shall be clothed in all colours except black which is the proper colour of Mahomet they all shall bee of the stature of Adam in resemblance like Christ neuer encreasing or diminishing As soone as they are entered shall bee set before them the Liuer of the Fish Albehbut and whatsoeuer dainties they can desire They shall not need going to stoole any more then the childe in the wombe but they shall sweat out all superfluities of sent like Muske They shall eat but for delight not for hunger Vnlawfull meates as Swines flesh they shall refraine And if you list to know why this beast is vnclean vnderstand that Iesus on a time called forth Iaphet to
and besides them come in no company of men nor doe they speake with a man or in any part of their body are seene of any man because they thinke sight especially where beautie or comlinesse is cannot bee without sinne Onely the brother may bee permitted to see the sister but not the husbands brother Yea their sonnes when they come to growth are separated from them For this cause that sexe is not suffered to buy and sell but is closely mewed saue that their law alloweth them to frequent the publike Baths The wife and Concubine differ in the right to a dowrie which the later wanteth but the wife must cause the other to bee her husbands bed-fellow when hee commandeth without gaine-saying except on their Sabbath or Friday night which is the wiues peculiar Yet are the Turkes giuen in both Sexes to vnnaturall lust in these times euen the women in publike Baths sometimes are so enflamed in that filthinesse as is intollerable Busbequius tells of one woman which falling in loue with a young maide and no way else preuailing clothed her selfe in mans apparell and hyring a house neere procured the fathers good will to haue that his daughter in marriage which being solemnized betweene them and the truth discouered which the blacke mantle of night could not couer from Hymaeneus complaint was made and the Gouernour quenched the hot flames of this new Bridegroome causing her to bee drowned for that offence If the man abuse the wife to vnnaturall lust shee may haue her remedie by diuorce if shee accuse her husband which modestie forbiddeth to bee done in words and therefore shee puts off her shooe and by inuerting the same accuseth her to her husbands peruersenesse One Master Simons which liued amongst them told me that there are some which keepe boyes gallantly arraied to serue for the worse then beastly lust of such as will hyre them He affirmed also That they haue this lothsome punishment for that lothsome sinne of whoredome to take the panch of a beast new killed and cutting a hole thorow to thrust the adulterers head in this dung-wallet and so carrie him in pompe thorow the streets It is death either to the bodie by iudiciall sentence or the soule by turning Turke for a Christian to haue carnall dealing with any of their women A Iew which had dealing with a Turkes wife with her husbands consent could not escape hanging therefore this indeed was a fauour for hee should haue beene burned notwithstanding his rich countrey-men offered 2000. Duckets to saue him Her husband was hanged for his wittoldly permission and she her selfe drowned George Dousa reporteth the like danger which an Armenian hardly escaped but for talking with a Turkish woman both of them being therefore imprisoned and thence deliuered at a deere rate Hee telleth of their Paederastie that they buy boyes at an hundred or two hundred Duckets and mew them vp for their filthy lust till they proue bearded they will also steale boyes for that villanie as hee instanceth of one which came with the Polonian Embassadour so stolne and neuer could after bee heard of Murther prohibited in their eight Commandement they hold vnpardonable if it bee done wilfully Often will the Turkes braule but neuer in priuate quarrels strike one another for feare of this Law and the seueritie of the Magistrate And if one bee found dead in street or house the Master of the house or the Parish must finde out the murtherer otherwise hee himselfe shall be accused of it and the whole Contado shall be fined and likewise in case of robberie During the time that I remained amongst them you heare Mr. Sandys it being aboue three quarters of a yeere I neuer saw Mahometan offer violence to a Mahometan nor breake into ill language If any giue a blow hee hath many gashes made in his flesh and is led about for a terrour but the man-slayer is deliuered to the friends of the slaine to bee by them tortured to death For publike punishments to mention that heere they haue impaling on stakes thrust in at their fundament ganching on hookes on which they are cast from some high place there to hang till famine if some more gentle crueltie haue not made a suddenner dispatch consumed them they also haue another inuention to twitch the offender about the waste with a towell enforcing him by often prickings to draw vp his breath till they haue drawne him within the compasse of a spanne then tying it hard they cut him off in the middle and setting the bodie on a hot plate of copper which seareth the veynes vp-propping him during their cruell pleasure who not onely retaineth sense but discourse also till hee be taken downe and then departeth in an instant Little faults are chastised by blowes on the soles of their feet by hundreths at a time Parents correct their children by stripes on their bellies §. II. Of other their Opinions and Practices in Religion MEnaninus reckoneth seuen mortall sinnes Pride Auarice Lecherie Wrath Enuie Sloth and Gluttonie The first they say cast Lucifer out of heauen The second is the root of many other sinnes The third is most rise amongst them and that in the most filthy and vnnaturall kinde of Sodomie their Law to the contrarie notwithstanding Their fourth maketh a man a beast The fifth shutteth men out of Paradise and so forth of the rest Wine is also forbidden them but yet they will bee drunke with it if they can get their fill of it And Mahomet the third Anno 1601. imputing diuers insolencies of the Ianizaries to their excessiue drinking of Wine by the Musties perswasion commanded on paine of death all such in Constantinople and Pera as had Wine to bring it out and staue it except Embassadours onely so that the streets ranne therewith One drinking Wine with Busbequius made great clamors being asked the cause hee said hee did it to warne his soule to flee into some corner of the bodie or else be quite gone lest it should bee polluted with that sinne Yet in their Fast or Lent they abstaine very religiously If it be proued against a Priest that he hath drunke wine but once hee shall neuer be beleeued as a witnesse after it Swines flesh is prohibited too in abstaining from which they are more obedient it being vtterly abhorred The Turkes generally hate saith Septemcastrensis that lightnesse in apparell speech gesture c. vsed of the Christians whom for this cause they call Apes and Goates Likewise they are not sumptuous in their priuate buildings They go to the warre as it were to a wedding esteeming them blessed which are therein slaine The wiues and women-sernants agree in one house without iealousie and grudging they are in their habite and behauiour modest and where himselfe dwelt the Father-in-law had not seene the face of his Daughter-in-law liuing in the same house with him in twentie yeeres space so religiously doe they veyle themselues
out of Berosus and Nicolaus Damascenus of old and Cartwrights later trauels what may be thought thereof Armenia as Strabo affirmeth receiued the name of one of Iasons companions which followed him in his Nauigation out of Harmenia a Citie of Thessaly betweene Pherae and Larissa The wealth of this Region appeared when Ptolomey appointing Tigranes to bring in to the Romans sixe thousand Talents of Siluer he added voluntarily beyond that summe to euery Souldier in the Campe fiftie drammes of Siluer to euery Centurion a thousand to euery Deputie of a Countrey and Chiliarch a Talent Their Religion must at first be that which Noah and his Family professed after by time corrupted Here saith our Berosus Noah instructed his posteritie in Diuine an Humane Sciences and committed many naturall secrets vnto writing which the Scythian Armenians commend to their Priests onely none else being suffered to see or reade or teach them He left also Rituall Bookes or Ceremoniall of the which hee was termed Saga that is Priest or Bishop Hee taught them also Astronomy and the distinction of yeeres and moneths For which they esteemed him partaker of Diuine Nature and surnamed him Olybama and Arsa that is the Heauen and the Sunne and dedicated to him many Cities some saith he remaining at this day which beare these names And when hee went from thence to gouerne Cytim which now as bee affirmeth they call Italy the Armenians were much affected to him and after his death accounted him the Soule of the heauenly bodies and bestowed on him Diuine Honors Thus Armenia where hee began and Italy where he ended doe worship him and ascribe to him Names Heauen Sunne Chaos the Seed of the World the Father of the greater and lesse Gods the Soule of the World mouing Heauen and the Creatures and Man the GOD of Peace Iustice Holinesse putting away hurtfull things and preseruing good And for this cause both Nations signifie him in their writings with the course of the Sunne and motion of the Moone and a Scepter of Dominion persecuting and chasing away the wicked from among the societie of men and with the chastitie of the bodie and sanctimony of the minde the two keyes of Religion and Happinesse They called also Tidea the mother of all after her death Aretia that is the Earth and Esta that is the Fire because shee had beene Queene of the Holy Rites and had taught maidens to keepe the holy euerlasting fire from euer going out Noah before he went out of Armenia had taught men Husbandry more ayming at Religion and Manners then Wealth and Dainties which prouoke to vnlawfull things and had lately procured the wrath of GOD. And first of all men he found out and planted Vines and was therefore called Ianus which to the Aramaeans soundeth as much as The Author of Wine Thus farre Berosus lib. 3. and in the fourth Booke hee addeth that Nymbrot the first Saturne of Babylon with his sonne Iupiter Belus stole away those Rituall or Ceremoniall bookes of Iupiter Sagus and came with his people into the land Sennaar where he appointed a Citie and laid the foundation of a great Tower a hundred thirtie and one yeeres after the Floud but neither finished this nor founded the other Old Ianus when hee went hence left Scytha with his mother Araxa and some inhabitants to people Armenia being the first King thereof Sabatius Saga being consecrated High Priest from Armenia vnto the Bactrians all which space saith he in our Age is called Scythia Saga In his fifth booke hee reporteth That Iupiter Belus possessed with ambition of subduing the whole world closely endeuoured to make or take away Sabatius Saga who being not able otherwise to escape his treachetie fled away secretly But Ninus the sonne of Belus pursued his fathers intent against Sabatius who substituted his sonne Barzanes in his place and fled into Sarmatia and after from thence into Italy to his father Ianus Barzanes was subdued by Ninus But to come to an Author of better credite Strabo saith The Armenians and Medes haue in veneration all the Temples of the Persians but the Armenians especially esteeme the Temples of Tanais as erecting them in other places so in Acilesina They dedicate vnto them men-seruants and women-seruants the most noble of that Nation there dedicating shall I say or prostituting their daughters where after long prostitution with their Goddesse they are giuen in marriage none refusing such matches How much can the shadow how little can the substance of Religion perswade men to The Image of Tanais or Anaitis was set vp in her Temple all of solid gold and when as Antonius warred against the Parthians this Temple was robbed The same went That hee which first had layed sacrilegious hands on the spoyles was smitten blind and so diseased that he died thereof But when Augustus being entertained of an ancient warriour at Bononia asked him of the truth of this report he answered Thou now O Emperour drinkest that bloud for I am the man and whatsoeuer I haue came by that bootie This Goddesse is supposed to be the same with Diana A Region of Armenia bare the same name Anaitis How bloudy Rites the Armenians sometimes vsed appeareth by the Historie of the Riuer Araxes before called Halmus borrowing this later name of a King there raigning to whom in warres betwixt him and the Persians the Oracle prescribed the sacrifice of his two faire daughters Pietie forbade what pietie commanded and whiles the King would be an Vmpire between Nature and the Oracle which is the vsuall euent in arbitrements he satisfied neither That the Oracle might bee fulfilled he sacrificed two of noble birth of notable beautie that Nature might not be wronged hee wronged Iustice the true touch-stone of true pietie hee spared his owne and offered the daughters of Miesalcus but so hee lost both his daughters by Miesalcus reuenging sword and himselfe in this Riuer by himselfe drowned Bacchus loued Alphoesibaea an Armenian Damsell and while Tygris then if you beleeue the Story called Sollax was too coole a Mediatour betweene the two hot louers hee swam ouer on a Tygers backe Hence the Fable of his Metamorphosis into a Tygre hence that name left to the Riuer Armenia was subdued to the Persians by Cyrus one part thereof payed to the Persians twentie thousand Colts for yeerely tribute Sariaster sonne to Tigranes the Armenian King conspired against his father the Conspirators sealed their bloudie faith with a bloudie ceremonie they let themselues bloud in the right hands and then dranke it Wonder that in such a treachery as immediately before the same Author affirmeth of Mithridates his sonne that any man would helpe or that hee durst importune the Gods no wonder that so bloudie a seale was annexed to such euidence The Temple of Baris mentioned by Strabo may happily be some Monument of Noahs descent by corruption of the word Lubar as before said Iosephus out of
storie is not yet because I haue done thus in other Nations and haue so worthy a patterne in this as the Worthy of our Age Iosephus Scaliger pardon mee to trouble thee with this Chronicle of their Kings The first was Vitey a Gyant-like man a great Astrologer and Inuenter of Sciences hee reigned an hundred yeeres They name after him an hundred and sixteene Kings whose names our Author omitteth all which reigned two thousand two hundred fiftie and seuen yeeres all these were of his linage and so was Tzintzon the maker of that huge wall of China which killed many of the Chinois of whom hee tooke euery third man to this worke For which cause they slue him when he had reigned fortie yeeres with his sonne Aguizi They ordained King in his stead Auchosau who reigned twelue yeeres his sonne Futey succeeded and reigned seuen yeeres his wife eighteene his sonne three and twentie then followed Guntey foure and fiftie Guntey the second thirteene Ochantey fiue and twentie Coantey thirteene Tzentzey sixe and twentie and foure moneths Anthoy sixe Pintatcy fiue Tzintzumey three and seuen moneths Huy Hannon sixe Cuoum two and thirtie Bemthey eighteene Vnthey thirteene Othey seuenteene Yanthey eight moneths Antey nineteene yeeres Tantey three moneths Chitey one yeere Linthey two and twentie yeeres Yanthey one and thirtie yeeres Laupy one and fortie yeeres Cuythey fiue and twntie yeeres Fontey seuenteene yeeres Fifteene other Kings reigned in all one hundred seuentie and sixe yeeres The last of which was Quioutey whom Tzobu deposed who with seuen of his linage reigned threescore and two yeeres Cotey foure and twentie yeeres Dian sixe and fiftie yeeres Tym one and thirtie yeeres Tzuyn seuen and thirtie yeeres Tauco with his linage which were one and twentie reigned two hundred ninetie and foure yeres Bausa a Nunne wife of the last of them whom she slue one and fortie yeeres Tautzon slue her and reigned with his posteritie which were seuen Kings one hundred and thirtie yeeres Dian eighteene yeeres Outon fifteene yeeres Outzim nine yeeres and three moneths Tozon foure yeeres Auchin ten yeeres Zaytzon and seuenteene of his race three hundred and twentie yeeres Tepyna the last was dispossessed by Vzon the Tartar vnder whom and eight of his Tartarian successours China endured subiection ninetie and three yeeres Gombu or Hum-vu expelled Tzintzoum the last of them He with thirteene successours haue reigned about two hundred and fortie yeeres There computation of times is more prodigious then that of the Chaldaeans after which this present yeere of our Lord 1614. is in their account from the Creation 884793. CHAP. XIX Of the Religion vsed in China §. I. Of their Gods and Idols in former times HOw much the greater things are reported of this so large a Countrey and mightie a Kingdome so much the more compassion may it prouoke in Christian hearts that amongst so many people there is scarce a Christian who amongst so ample reuenues which that King possesseth payeth either heart or name vnto the King of Heauen till that in so huge a Vintage the Iesuites of late haue gleaned a few handfulls to this profession Before wee come to the Narration of their gods I thinke it fit to deliuer what our ancienter Authors haue obserued of their Religion and then to come to the Moderne They were before the Tartarian Conquest giuen to Astrologie and obserued Natiuities and gaue directions in all matters of weight These Astrologers or Magicians told Farfur the King of China or Mangi that his Kingdome should neuer be taken from him but by one which had a hundred eyes And such in name was Chinsanbaian the Tartarian Captaine which dispossessed him of his state and conquered it to the great Can about 1269. This Farfur liued in great delicacie nor did euer feare to meet with such an Argus He brought vp yeerely two hundred thousand Infants which their Parents could not prouide for and euery yeere on certaine of his Idoll-holy-dayes feasted his principall Magistrates and all the wealthiest Citizens of Quinsay ten thousand persons at once ten or twelue dayes together There were then some few Nestorian Christians one Church at Quinsay two at Cinghianfu and a few others They had many Idoll-Monasteries They burned their dead the kinsmen of the dead accompanied the corps clothed in Canuas with Musicke and Hymnes to their Idols and when they came to the fire they cast therein many papers wherein they had painted Slaues Horses Camels c. as of the Cathayans is before reported to serue him in the next world They returne after their Funerall Rites are finished with like harmony of Instruments and Voyces in honor of their Idols which haue receiued the soule of the deceased They had many Hospitals for the poore where idle persons were compelled to worke and poore impotents relieued Odoricus affirmeth that at Kaitan or Zaiton hee found two Couents of Minorite-Fryers and many Monasteries of Idolaters in one whereof hee was in which as it was told him were three thousand Votaries and eleuen thousand Idols One of those Idols lesse then some others was as big as the Popish Christopher These Idols they feed euery day with the smoake of hot meates set before them but the meate they eate themselues At Quinsay a Chinian conuert led him into a certaine Monastery where hee called to a Religious person and said This Raban Francus that is this Religious French-man commeth from the Sunne-setting and is now going to Cambaleth to pray for the life of the great Can and therefore you must shew him some strange sight Then the said Religious person tooke two great baskets full of broken reliques and led mee into a little walled Parke and vnlocked the doore We entred into a faire greene wherein was a Mount in forme of a steeple replenished with Hearbs and Trees Then did hee ring with a Bell at the sound whereof many Creatures like Apes Cats and Monkeyes came downe the Mount and some had faces like men to the number of some thousand and two hundred putting themselues in good order before whom he set a platter and gaue them those fragments Which when they had eaten he rung the second time and they all returned to their former places I wondred at the sight and demanded what creatures they were They are quoth he the soules of Noble-men which we here feed for the loue of GOD who gouerneth the World And as a man was honourable in his life so his soule entereth after death into the body of some excellent beast but the soules of simple and rusticall people possesse the bodies of more vile and brutish creatures Neither could I disswade him from the opinion or perswade him that any soule might remaine without a body Nic. di Conti saith that when they rise in the morning they turne their faces to the East and with their hands ioyned say God in Trinitie keepe vs in his Law §. II. Of their present Gods and Idols THeir Religion
fit to answer that These Brethren holding much resemblance in name nature and feature yet differ both in the obiect and subiect This being mine own in matter though borrowed and in forme of words and method Whereas my Pilgrims are the Authors themselues acting their owne parts in their owne words onely furnished by me with such necessaries as that stage further required and ordered according to my rules here is a Pilgrimage to the Temples of the Worlds Citie religionis ergo with obuious and occasionall view of other things there is a full Voyage and in a method of Voyages the whole Citie of the World propounded together with the Temples here the soule and some accessories there the body and soule of the remoter World with 98 her rarer furniture this from the eare that from the eye this briefer notes that the Text it selfe How euer such was his Maiesties fauour as to adde for my further encouragement his promise to heare at large all those Pilgrims which was nightly also performed vntill his fatall sicknesse called him to enioy a nightlesse day in the heauenly Kingdome Euen the last day on which this Citie saw him it pleased him with gracious approbation of the former to impose another taske on me by an Honourable messenger with promise of reward which had almost in a dangerous sickenesse buried me and was buried with those hopes in his Maiesties graue whose Funerals this Citie hath beene forced euer since to solemnise with armies of Mourners pressed by Pestilence to attend follow His Corps with their owne And if some liuing remaines of him had not shined in his Sonne King CHARLES in that Sun-set what a Chaos of darkenesse had befalne vs which lost that day and yet saw no night And long may your Grace shine as a Starre of greatest magnitude attending neere our happy Charles-waine and euer may that Royall Race bee the Load-starre of our Church and State vnder the Sunne of righteousnesse euen so long as Bootes shall attend on that bright constellation May it please your Grace to pardon this talkatiue boldnesse and to permit mee also to mention your late fauour and seconding that Royall testimonie when notwithstanding the dreadfull infection your gracious affection admitted free communication with me intended a free and bountifull Collation on me and extended so large a collaudation to those my Pilgrimes neither by their voluminous prolixitie deterred from reading them nor then deterring my suspended scrupulous thoughts by your iudicious seueritie but with ingenuous sinceritie yeelding a testimonie so able and ample that though I blush to record it yet I now repent not of so vast vndertakings which such iudgement deemeth so profitable that the studious in this kind of literature neede goe no further which was the scope of those voluminous Collections to coniure as it were all Trauelling spirits into that one Pilgrime-centre and at once to make the World Eye-witnesse to it selfe Let me glorie further that my Volumes are admitted into your Graces Librarie and my selfe an appendix of your family and Your Graces vnworthy Chaplaine S. P. To the Reader AND now READER The PILGRIME comes vnto thee the fourth time with whom hee dares be somewhat bolder Being I know not by what naturall inclination addicted to the studie of Historie my heart would sometimes obiect a selfe-loue in following my priuate delights in that kinde At last I resolued to turne the pleasures of my studies into studious paines that others might againe by delightfull studie turne my paines into their pleasure I heere bring Religion from Paradise to the Ark and thence follow her round about the World and for her sake obserue the World it selfe with the seueral Countries and Peoples therin the chiefe Empires and States their priuate and publique Customes their manifold chances and changes also the wonderfull and most remarkeable effects of Nature Euents of Diuine and Humane Prouidence Rarities of Art and whatsoeuer I finde by Relations of Historians as I passe most worthie the writing Religion is my more proper aime and therefore I insist longer on the description of whatsoeuer I finde belonging thereto declaring the Religion of the first Men the corrupting of it before and after the Floud the Iewish obseruations the Idols Idolatries Temples Priests Feasts Fasts Opinions Sects Orders and sacred Customes of the Heathens with the Alterations and Successions that haue therein happened from the beginning of the World hitherto This Worke I diuide into foure parts This first exhibiteth the Relations and Theologicall discouerie of ASIA AFRICA and AMERICA The second when God will shall doe the same for EVROPE The third and fourth in a second visitation shall obserue such things in the same places as I holde most remarkeable in the Christian and Ecclesiasticall Historie and that according to the same Method which is squared in the Whole by order of Place going still out of one Countrie into the next in each particular part and seuerall Countrie by the order of Time deducing our Relations so farre as we haue Others foot-prints to guide vs though not exactly naming the day and yeere and determining questions in Chronologicall controuersies yet in some conuenient sort from the ancient times and by degrees descending to the present If thou demandest what profit may be hereof I answere that heere Students of all sorts may finde matter fitting their studies The naturall Philosophers may obserue the different constitution and commixtion of the Elements their diuers working in diuers places the varietie of heauenly influence of the yeerely seasons of the Creatures in the Aire Water Earth They which delight in State-affaires may obserue the varietie of States and Kingdomes with their differing Lawes Polities and Customes their Beginnings and Endings The Diuine besides the former may heere contemplate the workes of God not in Creation alone but in his Iustice and Prouidence pursuing sinne euery where with such dreadfull plagues both bodily in rooting vp and pulling downe the mightiest Empires and especially in spirituall Iudgements giuing vp so great a part of the World vnto the efficacie of Errour in strong delusions that hauing forsaken the Fountaine of liuing waters they should dig vnto themselues these broken Pits that can hold no water deuout in their superstitions and superstitious in their deuotions agreeing all in this that there should bee a Religion disagreeing from each other and the TRVTH in the practice thereof Likewise our Ministers may be incited vnto all godly labours in their function of preaching the Gospel seeing otherwise for outward and bodily ceremonies the Turkes and Iewes in their manifold deuotions in their Oratories euery day and other Heathen would conuince vs of idlenesse And let mee haue leaue to speake it for the glory of God and the good of our Church I cannot finde any Priests in all this my Pilgrimage of whom wee haue any exact History but take more bodily paines in their deuotions than is performed by not preaching Ministers especially in Countrie-villages
measured by Time proclaime that they had a beginning of Time Are not Motion and Time as neere Twinnes as Time and Eternitie are implacable enemies Nay how canst thou force thy mind to conceiue an Eternitie in these things which canst not conceiue Eternitie which canst not but conceiue some beginning and first terme or point from whence the motion of this Wheele began And yet how should we know this first turning of the Worlds wheele whose hearts within vs mooue be we vnwitting or vnwilling the beginning whereof thou canst not know and yet canst not but know that it had a begginning and together with thy body shall haue an ending How little a while is it that the best Stories in euery Nation shew the cradle and child-hood thereof Their later receiued Letters Arts Ciuilitie But what then say they did GOD before he made the World I answer that thou shouldest rather thinke Diuinely of Man then Humanely of GOD and bring thy selfe to be fashioned after his Image then frame him after thine This foolish question some answer according to the foolishnesse thereof saying He made Hell for such curious Inquisitors Aliud est videre aliud ridere saith Augustine Labentius responderim nescio quod nescio Quae tempora fuissent quae abs te condita non essent Nec tu tempora tempore praecedis sed celsitudine semper praesentis aeternitatis c. Before all things were GOD onely was and he vnto himselfe was in stead of the World Place Time and all things hauing all goodnesse in himselfe the holy Trinitie delighting and reioycing together To communicate therefore not to encrease or receiue his goodlinesse he created the World quem Graeci 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Plinie nomine ornamenti appellant nos à perfecta absolutaque elegantia Mundum But for this matter it is also of the wisest and most learned in all Ages confessed as their testimonies alleadged by Iustin Martyr Lactantius and other Ancients and especially by Philip Morney doe plainely manifest To him therefore to Viues and others which haue vndertaken this taske by reason and by humane authoritie to conuince the gaine-sayers of our faith let such resort as would be more fully resolued in these curious doubts As for all such strange and phantasticall or phreneticall opinions of Heretikes or Philosophers which haue otherwise related of this mysterie of the Creation then Moses they need not confuting and for relating these opinions we shall find fitter place afterwards I will here adde this saying of Viues to such vnnaturall Naturalists as vpon slight and seeming naturall reasons call these things into question Quà m stultum est de mundi creatione ex legibus huius Naturae statuere cùm creatio illa naturam antecesserit Tum enim natura est condita quando mundus nec aliud est natura quam quod Deus iussit alioqui minister esset Deus naturae non Dominus Hence was Aristotles Eternitie Plinies Deitie ascribed to the World Democritus Leucippus and Epicurus their Atomi the Stoikes Aeterna materia PLATO'S Deus exemplar materia as Ambrose tearmeth them or as others vnum or bonum Mens Anima a Trinitie without perfect Vnitie the Manichees two beginnings and an endlesse world of errors about the Worlds beginning because they measured all by Naturall axiomes Orpheus as Theophilus the Chronographer cited by Cedrenus alleadgeth him hath his Trinitie of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to which he ascribeth the Worlds Creation but the Poets dreames are infinite which might make and marre their Poetical Worlds at pleasure CHAP. III. Of Man considered in his first state wherein hee was created and of Paradise the place of his habitation HItherto we haue spoken of the framing of this mightie Fabrike the Creation of the visible World leauing that Inuisible to the Spirituall Inhabitants which there alway behold the face of the Heauenly Father as not daring to pry too farre into such Mysteries aduancing our selues in those things which wee neuer saw Rashly puft vp with a fleshly minde This whereof we treat they need not as finding all sufficience in their All-sufficient Creator The inferiour Creatures which hither to haue beene described know it not but content themselues with themselues in enioying their naturall being mouing sense Onely man in regard of his body needeth it and by the reasonable power of his soule can discerne and vse it Man therefore was last created as the end of the rest an Epitome and Mappe of the World a compendious little other World consisting of a visible and inuisible heauenly and earthly mortall and immortall Nature the knot and bond of bodily and spirituall superiour and inferiour substances resembling both the worke and the worke-man the last in execution but first in intention to whom all these Creatures should serue as meanes and prouocations of his seruice to his and their Creator Man may be considered in regard of this life or of that which is to come of this life in respect of Nature or Grace and this Nature also sustayneth a two-fold consideration of integritie and corruption For GOD made man righteous but they sought to themselues many inuentions His first puritie in his Creation his fall from thence by sinne his endeuour to recouer his former innocency by future glory eyeher in the by-wayes of Superstition which Nature a blind guide leadeth him into through so many false Religions or by the true new and liuing way which GOD alone can set him and doth conduct him in is the subiect of our tedious taske the first two more briefly propounded the two last historically and largely related In that first state his Author and Maker was Iehoua Elohim GOD in the pluralitie of Persons and vnitie of Essence the Father by the Sonne in the power of the Spirit wherevnto he did not only vse his powerfull Word as before saying Let there be Man but a consultation Let vs make Man not that he needed counsaile but that hee in this Creature did shew his counsell and wisdome most apparantly The Father as first in order speaketh vnto the Sonne and Holy Ghost and the Sonne and Holy Ghost in an vnspeakeable manner speake and decree with the Father and the whole Trinitie consult and agree together to make Man which for Mans instruction is by Moses vttered after the manner of Men. The manner of his working was also in this Creature singular both in regard of his body which as a Potter his Clay he wrought and framed of the dust into this goodly shape and of his soule which he immediately breathed into his nostrils Thus hath Man cause to glorie in his Creators care in himselfe to bee humbled hauing a body framed not of solid Earth but of the dust the basest and lightest part of the basest and grossest Element
life which without such stay should haue beene immortall the vse whereof was after granted rather to supply necessitie when the Floud had weakened the Earth then to minister a greater abundance then before it had and least of all to satisfie the greedie and curious appetites of more then beastly men Liberall and bountifull was GODS allowance which yet as man abused in eating the forbidden fruit so whether any sinfull man did transgresse by eating the flesh of beasts as iniquity increased it is vncertaine And yet it is likely that when the Earth was filled with crueltie as men escaped not beastly butcherie so beasts escaped not butcherly inhumanitie and men that stay not now for commission to eate mans flesh would then much lesse aske leaue to feed on beasts Then did the godly Patriarchs liue many hundred yeares without such food whereas now we reach not to one with this helpe that I speake not of those which by abuse hereof are as cruell to themselues in shortning their dayes by surfets as to the Creatures making their bellies to become Warrens Fish-pooles Shambles and what not saue what they should bee Had not Man beene Deuillish in sinning hee had not beene beastly in feeding nay the beasts had abhorred that which now they practise both against their Lord and their fellow-seruants The Wolfe should haue dwelt with the Lambe the Leopard should haue lyon with the Kid and the Calfe and the Lyon and the fat Beast together and a little Childe might leade them And this in the time of the Floud appeared when all of them kept the peace with each other and dutifull allegeance to their Prince in that great Family and little moueable World Noahs Arke The place of Adams dwelling is expressed by MOSES And the Lord GOD planted a Garden East-ward in Eden and there he put the man whom hee had made Genes 2.8 Maruell it is to see the confusion which sinne bringeth which appeareth not onely in the bodie soule dyet and other Prerogatiues of our first Parents but in this place also then a place of pleasure a Paradise and Garden of delights after a place prohibited and kept by the blade of a Sword shaken now the place cannot bee found in Earth but is become a common place in mens braines to macerate and vexe them in the curious search hereof Some doe conuert this History into an Allegory as did the Manichees and the Originists confuted by Methodius as Epiphanius witnesseth Hierome in Dan. 10. saith that seeking for shadowes in the truth they ouer-turne the Truth it selfe Vmbras imagines in veritate quaerentes ipsam conantur euertere veritatem vt flumina arbores Paradisum putent Allegoriae legibus se debere subruere Such Mysticall Mist-all and Misse-all Interpreters are our Familists in these times by vnseasonable and vnreasonable Allegories raysing mysts ouer the Scripture-sense which thereby they misse and cannot find Augustine relateth three opinions that Allegoricall which he confuteth the literall and that which followeth both the one and the other as himselfe doth The Hermians and Seleucians are said to denie that there was any such place and the naked Adamites accounted their Church to be Paradise Others are as prodigall ascribe hereunto all the Earth which was a Paradise till sinne brought in a Curse Thus holdeth Wolfgangus Wissenburg Goropius also Vadianus are of like minde That mans exile was but the alteration of their happy cōdition that the fiery sword was the fiery Zone A great while it went for currant that it was a pleasant Region by a long tract of Sea and Land separated from our habitable World and lifted vp to the Circle of the Moone whereby it was out of the reach of Noahs floud as truly perhaps as Patricius and others haue found another World in the Moone with men and beasts therein of greater stature and longer life then here with vs Thus hath Petrus Comestor and Strabus and many Trauellers in old times haue trauelled with this conceit of their Fooles Paradise and brought forth a lie as appeareth by their Legends That Saint Brandon sayled thither from Ireland is as true as that he met Iudas in the way released from his paines as he was alway from Saturday to Sunday Euen-song or that they made fire on a fish supposing it to bee an Iland as that Legend telleth It should seeme the Man in the Moone called him and shewed him the way to this Paradise or that Dinias which according to the Relations of Antonius Diogenes trauelling beyond Thule went so farre North that hee came to the Moone which seemed a shining Earth where he saw many strange sights as credible as the former or else great Lucifer himselfe who as a later Traueller reporteth hath lately bequeathed a Lieutenancie to Ignatius and his Colony of Iesuites in the New Hell in that New-found-World of the Moone the care of the foundation whereof he committeth to that Iebusiticall societie But let vs descend from this Lunaticke Paradise Others place it Eastward in the highest top of the Earth where the foure Riuers mentioned by Moses haue their originall whence they runne and are swallowed vp of the Earth and after rising in diuers places of the World are knowne by the names of Nilus Ganges Tigris Euphrates Hugo de S. Victore and Adrichomius are of this opinion yea the great Cardinall Caretane and Bellarmine place Henoch and Elias in Earthly Paradise yet liuing there vntill the time of Antichrist which wood he cannot see beeing in the middest of it for Trees But the discouery of the World by Trauellers 〈◊〉 description thereof by Geographers will not suffer vs to follow them to the want of which Art I meane Geographie such fantasies may be imputed whereby also is confuted the opinion of them which place it vnder the Equinoctiall Circle as Durandus and Bonauentura Others account so much to Paradise as those foure Riuers doe water euen the chiefe part of Afrike and Asia and some confine it in streighter limits of Syria Arabia and Mesopotamia as if Adam had been so couetous as his Posteritie or so laborious as to husband so large Countries The false interpretation of those Riuers to bee Nilus Ganges c. was the cause of this errour the Septuagint translating in stead of Sichor which is Nilus Gihon the name of one of these streames Moses as it were of purpose by an exact Chorography and delineation of the situation doth meete with those errours and with other the like which I doe not here relate Neither is their opinion to be followed which drowne all altogether in the Deluge seeing that after that time Moses wrote this Franciscus Iunius in his readings on Genesis hath largely and learnedly handled this matter and added a Map also of Heden in which it stood and the course of the Riuers with the Countries adiacent In
à religendo of choosing againe Hunc eligentes vel potius religentes amiseramus enim negligentes vnde religio dicta perhibetur This word Religens is cited by Nigidius Figulus in Aulus Gellius Religentem esse oportet Religiosum nefas Religiosus being taken in bad sense for Superstitiosus The same Father elsewhere in his booke de vera Religione acknowledgeth another originall of the word which Lactantius before him had obserued à religando of fastning as beeing the bond betweene vs and GOD. Ad Deum tendentes saith Augustine ei vni religantes animas nostras vnde religio dicta creditur Religet ergo nos Religio vni omnipotenti Deo Lactantius his words are Diximus nomen religionis a vinculo pietatis esse deductum quòd hominem sibi Deus religauerit pietatè constrinxerit quia seruire nos ei vt Domino obsequi vt patri necesse est Melius ergo quà m Cicero id nomen Lucretius interpretatus est quia ait se religionum nodo exoluere And according to this Etymologie is that which M. Camden saith Religion in old English was called Ean-fastnesse as the one and onely Assurance and fast Anchor-hold of our soules health This is the effect of sinne and irreligion that the name and practise of Religion is thus diuersified else had there beene as one GOD soone religion and one language wherein to giue it with iust reason a proper name For till men did relinquere relinquish their first innocencie and the Author of whom and in whom they held it they needed not religere to make a second choice or seeke reconciliation nor thus relegere with such paines and vexation of spirit to enquire and practise those things which might religare bind them surer and faster vnto God and in these respects for seuerall causes Religion might seeme to be deriued from all those fountaines Thus much of the word whereby the nature of Religion is in part declared but more fully by the description thereof Religio est saith Augustine quae superioris cuiusdam naturae quam diuinam vocant curam ceremoniamque affert Religion is here described generally whether false or truely professing the inward obseruation and ceremoniall outward worship of that which is esteemed a higher and diuine nature The true Religion is the true rule and right way of seruing GOD. Or to speake as the case now standeth with vs True Religion is the right way of reconciling and reuniting man to GOD that hee may be saued This true way hee alone can shew vs who is the Way and the Truth neither can we see this Sunne except he first see vs and giue vs both eyes to see and light also whereby to discerne him But to come to Adam the subiect of our present discourse His religion before his fall was not to reunite him to GOD from whom he had not been separated but to vnite him faster and daily to knit him neerer in the experience of that which nature had ingrafted in him For what else was his Religion but a pure streame of Originall Righteousnesse flowing from that Image of GOD whereunto he was created Whereby his mind was enlightened to know the onely very GOD and his heart was engrauen not with the Letter but the life and power of the Law louing and proouing that good and acceptable and perfect will of GOD. The whole man was conformable and endeauoured this holy practise the body being plyant and flexible to the rule of the Soule the Soule to the Spirit the Spirit to the Father of Spirits and God of all Flesh which no lesse accepted of this obedience and delighted as the Father in his Child in this new modell of himselfe How happy was that blessed familiarity with God societie of Angels subiection of Creatures enuied onely of the Deuills because this was so good and they so wicked Nature was his Schoolmaster or if you will rather GODS Vsher that taught him without learning all the rules of Diuine Learning of Politicall Oeconomicall and Morall wisedome The whole Law was perfectly written in the fleshie Tables of his heart besides the especiall command concerning the trees in the middest of the Garden the one being an vniuersall and euerlasting rule of righteousnesse the other by speciall authority appointed as the manifestation of GODS diuine prerogatiue in commanding and a triall of mans integritie in obeying For the first part hereof since it was so blurred in our hearts it was renued by the voyce and finger of God on mount Sinai giuen then immediately by GOD himselfe as GOD ouer all whereas the other parts of the Law containing the Ceremoniall and Politicall ordinances were immediately giuen by the Ministerie of Moses as to that particular Nation Neither know I any that make doubt of this whole Law naturally and originally communicated saue onely that some make question of the Sabbath Howbeit I must confesse that I see nothing in that Commandement of the Decalogue prescribed but is Naturall and Moral for both the Rest is so farre Morall as the outward acts of Diuine worship cannot be performed without suspending for a while our bodily labours although Rest as a figure bee Iewish and in it selfe is either a fruit of wearinesse or idlenesse And that the seuenth dayes obseruation is naturall I meane the obseruing of one day of seauen in euery weeke appeareth both by the first order established in Nature when GOD blessed and sanctified the seuenth day the streame of Interpreters especially the later running and ioyning in this interpretation the Elder beeing somewhat more then enough busied in Allegories by the reason in the Commandement drawne from Gods example and Sanctification in the Creation by the obseruation of a Sabbath before this promulgation of the Law Exod. 16. and by the diuision of the dayes into weekes both then and before by Noah Gen. 8.10.12 by the necessitie of a Sabbath as well before the Law in the dayes of the Patriarkes as in the times of Dauid or Salomon by the perfection of the number of seuen in the Scriptures by the generall consent of all that it is Morall to set apart some time to the Lord of times and an orderly set time to the God of order which men might generally agree on for their publike deuotions which the Patriarkes practised in their Sacrifices and Assemblies the Heathens blindly as other things in their Feasts Thus saith Philo This is a feast day not of one Citie or Region but of the whole world and may be properly called the generall birth-day of the world And Clemens Alexandrinus sheweth out of Plato Homer Hesiod Callimachus and Solon that the seuenth day was not sacred alone to the Hebrewes but to the Greekes also and how mysticall was the number of seuen not onely among the Iewes but also among the Heathens both Philosophers and Poets as Philo Macrobius and others haue related Hereunto
our inheritance for actuall sinnes are our owne purchase and improuement and yet bought with that stocke which our Parents left vs Our first Parents are to bee considered not as singular persons onely whereby they defiled themselues but as the roote of Mankind which had receiued Originall Righteousnesse to keepe or to lose to them and theirs as a perpetuall inheritance As in the Bodie Politike the Act of the Prince is reputed the Act of the whole the consent of a Burgesse in Parliament bindeth the whole Citie which he representeth and as in the naturall Bodie the whole bodie is lyable to the guilt of that fact which the head or hand hath committed as a root to his branches a Fountaine to his streames doth conuey the goodnesse or badnesse which it selfe hath receiued So stands it betwixt vs and Adam our naturall Prince the Burgesse of the World the Head of this humane Bodie and Generation the Root and Fountaine of our Humanitie When hee sinned hee lost to himselfe and vs that Image of GOD or that part of the Image of GOD which he had receiued for himselfe and vs not the substance nor the faculties of bodie or soule but the conformitie in that substance and faculties to the will of GOD in righteousnesse and holinesse of truth Not so much therefore are wee here to consider the ordinary course of Nature wherein the soule that sinneth it shall dye as the Ordinance of GOD who appointed the first Adam the Wel-spring of Nature which he receiued incorrupted the second of Grace that as men we all by Generation are of the first and with the first one old man in whom we all sinned of and with the second Adam we are all one new man in the Lord euen one bodie one Spirit one Seed one Christ in whom and with whom wee as members of that Head obeyed the Precepts and suffered the curse of the Law Other sinnes of Adam are not our naturall but his personall because he could be no longer a publike person then while he had somewhat to saue or lose for vs all being alreadie forfeited in this first sinne The Authour then of Originall Sinne is the Propagator of our Nature his actuall sinne is originally ours the Guilt being deriued by imputation the Corruption by naturall generation First that Person corrupted Nature after Nature infected our Persons The matter of this Originall corruption in regard of the subiect is All and euery man and All and euery part of all and euery man subiect to all sinne that if all be not as bad as any and the best as the worst it must be ascribed to GODS restrayning or renewing not vnto vnequall degrees in this originall staine In regard of the Obiect the matter of it is the want of originall Righteousnesse and a contrary inclination to Euill The imaginations of our hearts being onely euill continually No Grapes can grow on these Thornes The forme of this corruption is the deformitie of our corrupted Nature not by infusion or imitation but by default of that first instrument by which this Nature descendeth It is the roote of actuall sinnes and whereas they as fruits are transient this still remayneth vntill Christ by his death destroyeth this death in vs But here ariseth another difficulty How this sinne can bee deriued by Generation seeing it is truely beleeued that God is Father of Spirits the For men of our Soules which doth by infusion create and by Creation infuse theme corruptible Elements beeing vnable to procreate an incorruptible substance or generation to produce in corruption Neither standeth it with reason that he which communicateth not the substance should communicate the accidents or with Iustice that an innocent Soule should necessarily be stayned by inuoluntary infusion into a polluted bodie I answere hereunto That although the Soule be not traducted as they terme it and by Generation conferred yet is it coupled to the body in that manner and order which GOD had appointed for the coniunction thereof though man had not sinned Neither was it the Soule alone in Adam or the body alone but the Person consisting of both which sinned Neither can we be partakers of Natures sinne till we be partakers of humane Nature which is not till the Soule and Body bee vnited Wee are not so much therefore to looke to the concupiscence and lust of the Parents in generation as Lumbard teacheth vs but to the Person which Scotus saith is filia Adae debitrix iustitiae originalis And although the Soule be not in the seed yet it is communicated to the Body saith Aquinas by a dispositiue preparatiue power of the Seed which disposeth and prepareth the Body to the receiuing of the Soule where it is receiued after the generall rule according to the measure and nature of that which receiueth The Father is then a perfect Father not because he begetteth the Soule but because he begetteth the Person or at least all whatsoeuer in the Person is begotten and though he doth not beget the substance thereof yet as it is such a subsistence he may be said to procreate it because his generation worketh towards the Vnion of the Soule and Body which Vnion is made by the Spirits Animall and Vitall And these Spirits are procreated by the Seed and consist of a middle nature as it were betwixt bodily and spirituall so that the production of the Soule and incorporating thereof may be counted in the middle way betweene Creation and Generation And therefore this originall corruption did not reach to Christ Iesus although hee were true Man because hee was the Seed of the Woman and did not descend of Adam by generation per seminatem rationem tanquam à principio actiuo saith Aquinas but was miraculously framed in the wombe and of the substance of the Virgin by the power of the Holy Ghost Thus haue I presumed to offer my crude and rude Meditations to the wiser World about the deriuation of Originall sinne which it selfe is the cause why we can no better see it as darkenesse hideth it selfe But the whole Citie of Mankind being here with set on fire it behoueth euery one to be more carefull to quench it then ouer-curiously to enquire how it came It is sufficient that nothing descended hereby to vs by corruption or was made ours by imputation which is not fully cured by Christ who is made vnto vs both by imputation of his actiue and passiue obedience and by reall infusion of his Spirit Wisdome Righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption if wee haue faith to receiue it and Charitie to expresse it an absolute renewer and perfecter of the Image of God beyond what wee had in our first Parents lost CHAP. VI. Of the Reliques of the Diuine Image after the Fall whereby naturally men addict themselues vnto some Religion and what was the Religion of the World before the Floud THis sinne of our first
Parents whereby they were almost no sooner made then marr'd being as some suppose formed and deformed in one day so interpreting the Psalme That he lodged not one night in honour but became as the beasts that perish This sinne I say did not wholly depriue vs of the Image of GOD whereunto wee were created A remainder and stumpe thereof continued like to the stumpe of Dagon whose head and hands were cut off by his fall or like the stumpe of Nabuchodonosor Tree whose rootes were left in the Earth bound with woâ—nd of Yron and Brasse among the grasse of the field So was mans head and hands fallen off before the Arke that his Wisdome remayning was foolishnesse with God not sufficient to one good thought not able either to will or to doe that which might please GOD. And though the stumpe remained the substance and the faculties of Body and Soule yet was this stumpe left in the earth fast bound with yron and brasse his earthly mind captiued and chained with worldly vanities and deuillish villanies Or to vse Lumbards comparison he was like the man fallen among theeues wounded and spoyled wounded in his naturall parts spoyled and robbed of the gifts of Grace which GOD by especiall grace added to his Nature in that first beautifying of this his Image In the state of Creation Man was made able to commit no sinne in the state of Corruption he cannot but sinne vntill a third state of grace doe free him not from the being but from the raigning and imputation of sinne whereby he is prepared to a fourth state of glory wherein shall be no possibilitie of sinning or necessitie of striuing against sinne And howsoeuer in this corrupt state of Nature in our spirituall actions which meerely concerne the Kingdome of Heauen we cannot but sinne yet hath not God left himselfe without witnesse euen in this darkenesse to conuince vs of sinne Such are those notions sowne by Natures hand in euery of our hearts according to which euidence Conscience as a Witnesse Patron or Iudge within vs accuseth excuseth condemneth or absolueth that hereby GOD may bee iustified and all the World inexcusibly sinnefull and that hereby also a way may be left in GODS infinite mercy for Mans recouery His intent was not to destroy vs vtterly as iustly he might and as it befell the rebellious Angels but by this punishment to recall vs to subiection not to breake vs to pieces in his wrath but by wrath to reclaime vs to mercy Thus Nature suggesteth Reason conuinceth and is conuinced That there is a GOD that that GOD hath created the World as we before haue shewed and that for Man that Man to whom all things serue is to serue GOD who hath subiected them to him Doth not Nature teach the Sonne to honour his Father and the Seruant his Lord If he then bee our Father where is his honour if our Lord where is his feare Nature inferreth Reason vrgeth this and from that ground of Reason doth Scripture reason the nature whereof in our nature is written Euen by Reasons Principles we learne That so perfect a hand as made all these inferiour things in such perfection would not haue been so imperfect in the perfectest of them all so to haue left him in the Creation as wee now see him in Corruption The Philosophers saw Man was a little World for whom the greater was made who himselfe was made for more then the World and that he for whom so durable and substantiall a thing was made must needs be made for another then this fraile and wretched life that is for the euerlasting life with him that is the Euerlasting And that is the foundation of all Religion For what else is Religion but the Schoole wherein we learne Mans dutie towards GOD and the way to be linked most straitly to him And what are all the Exercises of Religion but acknowledgements of the Godhead of the Creation of the World of the prouident order therein and ordering thereof of the Soules immortalitie of Mans fall and imperfection of our Soueraigne and supreame good to be sought out of our selues Of all which Nature and Reason are witnesses not to the learned alone whose testimonies in this kind may easily be produced but euen to the Vulgar and rudest Idiots yea whereas neither Art nor Industry nor ciuill Society hath bound men as men together yet the grounds of these things haue bound them as men by the meere bond of humane Nature to GOD in some or other Religion GOD Man and Religion are necessarily linked as a Father a Sonne and Obedience as a Lender a Debter and a Bond. The Wit no sooner conceiueth that there is a GOD but the Will inferreth that he ought to be worshipped What Philosophers or what Politicians euer taught the Easterne and Westerne Islands discouered in this last Age of the World this necessitie of Religion And yet as followeth in this History to bee shewed they which neuer wore clothes on their bodies neuer furnished their mindes with Arts neuer knewe any Law besides Reason growne almost lawlesse or Magistrate but their Fathers which when they saw other men could not tell whether they were heauenly Wights or earthly Monsters these yet wearied themselues in Superstitions shewing it easier to put off our selues then to put the Principles of Religion out of our selues Yea among all the Lessons which Nature hath taught this is the deepliest indented not Arts not Policie nay not Rayment not Food not Life it selfe esteemed so deare and that naturally to men as their Religion Hereof let this Historie ensuing be witnesse which will shew the Reader euery where in manner ouer the World this naturall zeale of that which they esteeme Religion beyond all things else esteemed most naturall Some in the guilty conscience of their owne irreligion as Aesops Foxe that beeing by casualtie depriued of his tayle sought to perswade all Foxes to cut off theirs as vnprofitable burthens would tell vs that which they cannot tell to themselues which they dare not tell but as they dare whisper That Religion is but a continued Custome or a wiser Policie to hold men in awe But where had Custome this beginning And what is Custome but an vniforme manner and continuance of outward Rites Whereas Religion it selfe is in the heart and produceth those outward ceremoniall effects thereof In one Country men obserue one habite of attire another in another So likewise of dyet and yet is it naturall to bee clothed more naturall to eate but naturall most of all as is said to obserue some kind of Religion The Grecians burned their dead Parents the Indians incombed them in their own bowels Darius could not by great summes procure the Grecians to the Indian or these to the Grecian custome yet was that which mooued both and began either Custome one and the same principle of pietie and religious dutie howsoeuer
some to call the name of the Lord that is after Rabbi Salomo to apply the name of God to Images Stars and Men But the more likely opinion is that when Adam had obtained a more holy posteritie which was now multiplyed in diuers families Religion which before had been a priuate In-mate in Adams houshold was now brought into publike exercise whereof Prayer hath alwaies been accounted a principall part and God himselfe in both Testaments calleth his house a house of Prayer the calues of the lips and the ejaculations of the heart being the body and soule of Diuine worship whereof Sacrifices were in a manner but the apparel fashioned to that infancy of the Church Of the names of the posteritie of Adam and his hundred yeeres mourning for Abel of Seth his remoouing after Adams death to a mountaine neere Paradise and such other things more sauouring of fabulous vanity in the false-named Methodius Philo and others that follow them I list not to write And wel might Genebrard haue spared his paines in searching for the antiquitie of Popery in this first Age of the World Easily may we grant a Church then truely Catholike in the Posteritie of Seth instructed partly by Reuelations partly by Traditions concerning the Creation the fall the good and euill Angels the promised Seed the Vnitie and Trinitie punishments and repentance for sinne publike and priuate Deuotions and other like Articles gathered out of Moses but for the Rabble of Rabbinicall Dreames which hee addeth herevnto we had need of the implicite faith of some simple credulous Catholike to receiue them as namely Purgatory resembled in the fiery Sword at the entrance of Paradise Free-will grounded on that which GOD speaketh to CAINE Thou shalt rule ouer him the prerogatiue of the elder Brother ouer the yonger falsly applyed to the rule of the minde ouer sinfull lusts the choice of meates in the first Fathers abstinence from flesh fish and wine as hee saith which had not beene permitted to them as it is to vs Traditions when as yet they had no Scripture Superstitious Obsequies to the dead because the Iewes in their office for the dead call vpon the Fathers which lye buried at Hebron namely Adam Eue and the rest to open the gates of Paradise Deuotion to Saints because the Cherubins were set betweene Paradise and Sinners as if their Saints were honoured to keepe them out of Heauen and not the bloudie Sacrifices onely in Abels offering but that vnbloudie Sacrifice so they stile their Masse in the offering of Caine wee enuie them not their Founder yea he finds their Sacrifice of Orders in Gods executing the Priestly function of Matrimony in Adam and Eue of Baptisme in the Breeches which they ware of Penance because GOD said Thou art dust and to dust thou shalt returne of Confirmation in those words Shee shall breake thy head the Truth will breake their heads for so reading it of Vnction in that Seth went to the Cherub which kept Paradise and receiued of him three graines of the Tree of Life whereof we reade in the Apocalyps the leaues shall heale the Nations with those graines was an Oyle made wherewith Adam was anoyed and the stones put into his mouth whence sprang the Tree whereof the Crosse of our Lord was made hidden by Salomon in the Temple and after in the Poole of Bethesda Spectatum admissi risum teneatis amici Did not Genebrard deserue an Archbishopicke or if the obseruation be his did not Petrus Victor Palma which set him forth with such Comments deserue the Palme and Victory for Peters pretended Successors which could find such antiquitie for proofe of their Catholicisme Much good may it doe their Catholike mawes with such Dainties Iust art thou O Lord and iust are thy iudgements which because they will not beleeue thy Truth giuest them ouer to such strong delusions to beleeue so grosse and palpable Lyes CHAP. VII Of the cause and comming of the Floud THus wee haue seene in part the fulfilling of the Prophesie of the Seed of the Woman and of that other of the Serpent in the Posteritie of Caine and Seth. The Family of Caine is first reckoned and their forwardnesse in humane Arts as the children of this World are wiser in their generation in the things of this life which they almost onely attend then the children of light As for the Iewish Dreames that Lamech was blind and by the direction of Tubalcaine his sonne guiding his hand slew Caine supposing it had beene a wilde beast which when he knew so inraged him that he killed his sonne also they that list may follow Moses reckoneth the Generations according to the first-borne in the Posteritie of Seth as enioying the Principalitie and Priest-hood that so the promised Seed of the Woman after such a World of yeares comming into the World might iustifie the stablenesse of GODS promises his Lineall Descent from Adam with a due Chronologie beeing declared After Seth Enosh Kenan Mehalaleel Iared was Henoch the seuenth from ADAM who walked with God whom God tooke away that he should not see death This before the Law and Helias in the Law are Witnesses of the Resurrection being miraculously taken from the Earth into Heauen not by death but by supernaturall changing of their bodies That hee should bee still in an Earthly Paradise and that hee and Elias should come and preach against Antichrist and of him be slaine is a Popish Dreame the Scripture saying that HENOCH was taken away that he should not see death of Elias that he is alreadie come in the person of Iohn Baptist the Spirit and power or spirituall power of walking with GOD reforming Religion and conuerting soules beeing communicated to many of those Ministers which haue lien slaine in the streets of that great Citie This his Assumption is supposed to be visibly done Hee was a Prophet and Iude doth in his Epistle cite a testimonie of his which eyther by Tradition went from hand to hand as it seemeth the whole Word of GOD was deliuered before the dayes of Moses GOD by Visions and Dreames appearing vnto the Patriarkes or else it was written and since is lost Some hold it was penned by some Iew vnder the name of Enoch Augustine thinketh that the Booke entituled Enoch was forged in his name as other Writings vnder the names of Prophets and Apostles and therefore calleth it Apocrypha as Hierome doth also Chrysostome and Theophilact account Moses the first Pen-man of Holy Scripture Although it seemes that Letters were in vse before the floud if Iosephus his testimonie be true who affirmeth that Adam hauing prohpecied two vniuersall destructions one by fire another by water his Posteritie erected two Pillars one of bricke another of stone in both which they writ their inuentions of Astronomie that of stone was reported to remaine in his time Some ascribe this to Seth as
by mans industrie forced to yeeld to the match as Plinie sayth for that purpose emptied Babylon of her Inhabitants and inherited her name also with her people It was from Babylon ninetie miles or as some reade it fortie inhabited with sixe hundred thousand Citizens To spoile the spoiler the Parthians built Ctesiphon three miles from thence and failing of their purpose Vologesus built another Towne by called Vologesocerta Yet did Babylon it selfe remaine but not it selfe in the time of Ammianus Marcellinus and after Ortelius thinketh that Bagdat was called Babylon as Seleucia before had beene because it stood neere to the place where Babylon had stood For that old Babylon in Pausanias time had nothing left standing but the Temple of Bel and the walls sometimes sayth he the greatest Citie that euer the Sunne saw In Ieromes time within those walls were kept beasts for the Kings game It was after inhabited with many thousands of Iewes and was laid euen with the ground as Ios. Scaliger affirmeth in the yeere after the Iewish account 4797. and after the Christian 1037. Master Fox hath a little lengthned the date and fate thereof shewing that Almaricus King of Ierusalem rased and ruined it and that it was neuer after inhabited Ann. 1170. But in Beniamin Tudelensis his dayes which seemeth to be somewhat before Almaricus this Citie was vtterly subuerted as in his Itinerarie is related in these words One dayes iourney from Gehiagan anciently called Resen is old Babel containing thritie miles space now vtterly ruined in which the ruines of Nabuchodonosors palace are yet seene not accessible for diuers hurtfull kinds of Serpents and Dragons there breeding There now remaineth nothing but the small part of that great Tower either of ornament or of greatnesse or of place inhabited Before that time was Bagdet built by Bugiafar as Barrius calleth him or after Scaliger Abugephar Elmantzur who beganne to reigne in the one hundred thirtie and sixe and died in the one hundred fiftie and eight yeere of their Aegeira Scaliger and Lydyate agree of this place which in their Emendations of Time disagree so eagerly that it was Seleucia or built in the place and of the ruines thereof an opinion not so improbable as theirs altogether which thinke the present Bagded to be the old Babylon The storie of this Bagded or Baldach and her Chalifs ye may reade in our Saracenicall Historie Authors agree that Haalon the Tartar sacked it about the yeere one thousand two hundred and threescore Mustratzem being then Chalipha the foure and fiftieth and last of those Saracenicall Popes Hee found a miserable death where others with miserablenesse seeke a blessed life being shut vp and starued amidst those Treasures whereof he had store which niggardise forbade him to disburse in his owne defence There is yet a bone left of this Calipha's carkasse or some ghost and shadow of that great and mightie bodie I meane that ancient name and power of the Calipha's which magnificent Solyman the Turkish Emperour in his conquest 1534. would seeme to acknowledge in accepting the royall ensignes of that new conquered state at the hands of their Calipha a ceremonie which the Soldans in Egypt and Persia vsed more for forme then necessitie this Assyrian and that Egyptian Caliph hauing but gesture and vesture the Soldans themselues enioying both bodie and soule of this authoritie In the yeere one thousand one hundred fiftie nine the Riuer Tygris ouer-flowed Bagded and desolated many Cities Barrius affirmeth out of the Arabian and Persian Tarigh which he saith he had seene that Bagded was built by the counsell of an Astrologer a Gentile named Nobach and hath for ascendent Sagittarius was finished in foure yeeres and cost eighteene millions of gold These studies of Astrologie did there flourish One Richardus a Frier Preacher sayth That here was a Vniuersitie the Students whereof were maintained at publique charge of which number himselfe was one That Caliph that founded it for the preuenting of sects banished Philosophie out of these Schooles and accounted him a bad Saracen which was a good Philosopher The reason whereof grew from some which in reading Aristotle and Plato relinquished Mahomet Marco Palo or Paulus the Venetian saith that they studied here in his time the Law of Mahomet Necromancie Geomancie Phisiognomie Physicke and Astronomie And that it was then a great Staple of the Indian Commodities This was within few yeeres after the Tartar had wonne it He addeth that there were many Christians in these parts and that in the yeere one thousand two hundred twentie and fiue in derision of the Gospell the Caliph commanding by a day that the Christians should remoue a mountaine in testimonie of their faith according to the words of Christ or else to abide the perill this was effected by a Shoomaker and the day in remembrance thereof yeerely solemnized with fasting the Euen The Iewes goe still to visite the Denne which is there shewed as the place of Daniels imprisonment with his terrible Gaolers or fellow-prisoners as Master Allen told me A certaine Merchant the Discourse of whose voyage Ramusius hath published speaketh of Orpha a towne in the way from Byr to Babylon wherein the people foolishly suppose that Abraham offered Isaac at which time say they there sprang a fountaine which watereth their Countrey and driueth their Mils Here was a Christian Temple called Saint Abraham after turned into a Mahumetane Moschee and now called Abrahams Well into which if any enter so many times they haue a set number with deuotion hee is freed of any feuer The fishes which are many haue taken Sanctuarie in these waters and none dare take them but hold them holy Sixe miles from hence is a Well holden in like sacred account which cureth Leprosies Nisibis Carrae and Edessa were chiefe Cities of Mesopotamia at Edessa reigned Abagarus betwixt whom and our Sauiour passed if we may beleeue it those Epistles yet extant At Carrhae there was a Temple of the Moone in which they which sacrificed to the goddesse Luna were subiect to the gouernment of their wiues they which sacrificed to the god Lunus were accounted their wiues Masters As for this difference of sexe ancient Idolatrie scarce obserued it For wee reade of the god Venus which the Cyprians sayth Macrobius accounted both male and female and so doth Trismegistus mystically say of God himselfe So is Baal in the Scripture sometimes masculine sometimes feminine Hee sayth that the Babylonians allowed marriages of parents and children Cafe is two dayes iourney from Bagdet religious for the buriall of Hali and his sonnes Hassan and Ossain whereunto is resort of Pilgrims from Persia whose Kings were wont here to bee crowned But this Citie Curio calleth Cufa assigneth it to Arabia and sayth that of this accident it was called Massadale or the house of Ali slaine here by Muani his Competitor Mesopotamia is now called
day of the same Maldonatus for the Feast day of Pentecost which was the second of the chiefe Feasts But Ioseph Scaliger saith That the second day of the Feast was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being the sixteenth day of the Moneth called Manipulus frugum and the Sabbaths which fell betwixt that and Pentecost receiued their denomination in order from the same Secundo-primum Secundo-secundum c. And hence doth Luke call that first Sabbath which fell after that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or second day of the Feast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of this we shall haue occasion to say more when we come to the Samaritans The name Sabbath is also taken for the whole weeke But I list not to stand on the diuers significations of the Word Iosephus and Plinie tell of a Riuer in Syria in the kingdome of Agrippa called Sabbaticus which on other daies ran full and swift on the Sabbath rested from his course Petrus Galatinus alledgeth the ceasing of the Sabbaticall streame for an argument of the abrogation of the Iewish Sabbath The Iewes were superstitiously strict in the obseruation of their Sabbath Ptolomey without resistance captiuating their Citie and themselues by this aduantage as did Pompey afterwards And in the dayes of Matathias father of Iudas Maccabeus a thousand were murthered without resistance till that by him they were better aduised Which appeared by the Pharises that cauelled at the plucking and rubbing of a few eares of Corne by the hungrie Disciples and at their Master for healing on that day though by his Word which their superstition the Iew that fell into a Priuie at Maidenbourg An. 1270. on his Sabbath and another at Tewksburie 1220. and were the one by the Bishop of the place the other by the Earle of Glocester constrained to abide the Christian Sabbath whence on their owne they would not be freed testified to the world by a stinking penance and the later leauing also his stinking superstitious soule behinde to seale his deuotion They added of their owne fasting that day till noone their Sabbath daies iourney which was saith Saint Ierome by the institution of Barachibas Simeon and Hellis Rabbines not aboue two thousand paces or two miles Thus did this holy ordinance which GOD had instituted for the refreshing of their bodies the instruction of their Soules and as a type of eternall happines vanish into a smoky superstition amongst them The Sacrifices and accustomed rites of the Sabbath are mentioned Num. 28 Leu. 23. 24. Where we may reade that the daily burnt-offering and meate-offering and drinke-offering were doubled on the Sabbath and the Shew-bread renued c. The sanctification of daies and times being a token of that thankefulnesse and a part of that publike honor which we owe vnto GOD he did not onely enioyne by way of perpetuall homage the sanctification of one day in seuen which GODS immutable Law doth exact for euer but did require also some other part of time with as strict exaction but for lesse continuance besides accepting that which being left arbitrarie to the Church was by it consecrated voluntarily vnto like religious vses Of the first of these the Sabbath we haue spoken of the Mosaicall Feasts the New-Moones are next to be considered The institution hereof we reade Numb 28. and the solemne Sacrifice therein appointed so to glorifie GOD the Author of Time and Light which the darkened conceites of the Heathens ascribed to the Planets and bodies Coelestiall calling the Moneths by their names Besides their Sacrifices they banquetted on this day as appeareth by Dauid and Saul where the day after was festiuall also eyther so to spend the surplusage of the former daies sumptuous Sacrifice or for a further pretext of Religion and Zeale as Martyr hath noted Sigonias maketh these New-Moone daies to bee profestos that is such wherein they might labor the Sacrificing times excepted but those couetous penny-fathers seeme of another minde When say they will the New-moone be gone that we may sell Corne and the Sabbath that we may sell Wheate And Esay 1. the Sabbaths and New-moones are reckoned together Their PASSEOVER called of them Pasach so called of the Angels passing ouer the Israelites in the common destruction of the Aegyptian first-borne For Pasach the Grecians as some note vse Pascha of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to suffer fitly in regard of the body of that shadow Christ himselfe who was our Paschal Lambe in his suffering sacrificed for vs The institution of this Feast is set downe Exod. 12. as Hospinian hath noted in the yeere after the creation of the world 2447. after the stoud 791. after the promise made to Abram 430. It was celebrated from the fifteenth to the one and twenty day of the moneth Abib or Nisan those two daies being more specially sanctified with a holy Conuocation and abstinence from worke except the dressing of their meate the other being obserued with vnleauened bread and the foureteenth day being the Parasceue or preparation in the euening of which foureteenth day as some men hold opinion after Sun-set in the twy-light others in the fourth houre or fourth part of the day as containing three houres space before the going downe of the Sun the Paschal Lambe was slaine about which time the ninth houre Christ the true Pascha yeelded vp the ghost hauing eaten the Passeouer on the night before which was the true time and was then altred by the Iewes which corruption continued to the destruction of their Temple Christ suffered saith Scaliger on the third of Aprill the fourth yeere compleate after his Baptisme From which ninth houre the Iewes began their Vespera or Euening and therefore it was inioyned them inter duas Vesperas to kill the Passeouer In these Vespers as also in the Eeuen of euery Feast and Sabbath after the euening Sacrifice they which do any worke saith the Iewish Canon shall neuer see good signe of a blessing which was the cause that they hastened so much the death of the theeues which were crucified with Christ This Lambe or Kidde was chosen a male of a yeere old the tenth day of the Moone which they kept till the foureteenth day tyed after their traditions to the foote of some bench or fourme so to minister occasion to their children of questioning about it to themselues of Preparation and Meditation and to espie in this meane while if any default were in the Lambe It was first a priuate Sacrifice to be performed in euery house after in that place onely where the Tabernacle or Temple was they were dispersed by companies according to Iosephus not fewer then tenne sometime twentie in a companie with Christ there were thirteene and of these sacrifices and companies in time of Cestius were numbred two hundred fiftie six thousand and fiue hundred so that reckoning the least number there were ten times so many
of Sects and to leaue those Hosidaean obseruants As long saith he as Supererogation onely was vsed there was no Sect in the people of GOD But when the precepts thereof were brought into Canons and committed to wrighting then arose many doubts disputations altercations growing and succeeding daily from whence sprang two Sects differing in opinion the one admitting onely the Law the other embracing the interpretations and expositions of their Rabbines The former in processe of time was diuided into two For at first the Karraim were only such as obserued the Law and the Prophets till the times of Sadok and Boethi or Baithi who first doubted of the punishment of sinnes and rewards of good works from whom sprang the heresie of the Sadduces The Karraim were not before this diuided in Sect from the Hasidim but onely in those voluntarie Functions and Supererogations wherein the Law by Iniunction ruled the former and these as is said supererogated But when Canons and Iniunctions began to bee written then of these Hasidim arose Dogmatists which called themselues Perushim Holy and Separated both from the other Hasidim and from the Vulgar making a necessitie of that obseruation which before was voluntarie This sort was againe diuided into those which retained the name Perushim or Pharises and the Essens both receiuing from their Authors the Rules and Precepts of their Sect After this the Pharises were diuided into many kindes The Iewes reckon seuen The Essens also were diuided first into Cloysterers or Collegians which liued in a common societie and Eremites or solitarie persons and those former into such as married and others which remained continent § III. Of the Pharises NOW let vs consider of these more particularly and first of the Pharises Drusius deriueth the name from the Syrian as most of the names of the new Testament are and not from the Hebrew for then it should not bee Pharises but Pharuses as after the Hebrew it should rather be Masias then Messias The Etymologie some fetch from Phares which signifieth Diuision as Epiphanius and Origen with others against which Drusius excepteth because in Phares the last Letter is Tsaddi here it is Schin Others deriue it from Parash signifying to explaine because they did all things openly to be seene of men it is not likely for Hypocrisie loues her works should be seene but not her Humor then should it be hypocrisie she would not be seene in her affection to be seene And this name in this sense would haue beene to their infamie and not to their reputation which they most aymed at A third deriuation of this name is from another signification of the same Verbe to expound But to expound the Law was more ptoper to the Scribes and some of the Pharises were not expositors Howbeit the most probable opinion is that they were so called of Separation because they were or would seeme to be separated from others first in cleannesse of life secondly in dignitie thirdly in regard of the exquisitenesse of those obseruations whereto they were separated fourthly in their habit wherein they were as our Monkes distinguished from the people yea they did abhorre the garments of the people Their opinions are gathered by Iosephus and others out of whom Drusius Serarius Scaliger and others They attributed saith Iosephus all things to Fate Abraham Zacuth interpreteth their opinion thus They beleeue that God knoweth and disposeth all things and the Stars helpe yet so as free-will is left in the hand of man And if a man by his free-will chuseth the good God will helpe him in his good way They say That there is no Hearb in Earth which hath not his proper Planet in Heauen The ascribe immortalitie to the Soule holding that iudgement passed on it vnder the Earth and that if it had done euill it was adiudged to perpetuall prisons if well it had easie returne vnto life by a transmigration or going into another body So Zacuth The good Soules take delight of their good workes the bad descend and ascend not They beleeued that there were both Deuils and good Angels They conceiued that he which kept the most of the commandements although he transgresse in some is iust before GOD against which opinion Burgensis thinketh that Iames alledged that saying in his Epistle He that fayleth in one is guiltie of all He citeth Rab. Moses for his Pharisaicall opinion That GOD iudgeth according to the pluralitie or paucitie to vse his owne words of merits or demerits Like stuffe haue I read in S. Francis Legend of the ballance wherein mens deeds are weighed and the Deuil lost his prey by the weight of a Chalice which one had giuen to the Saint which heauie metall caused the Scale wherein his good deedes were put before too light to weigh heauiest They the ancienter Pharises confesse the Resurrection of the flesh Here of are three opinions one That all good and bad shall rise againe another That the iust onely shall rise a third That the iust and part of the wicked shall rise They call their Traditions the Law giuen by Word and the vnwritten Law which they equall to the written deriuing both from Moses as more fully else-where shall bee said These Traditions they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as both Epiphanius and Hieronymus witnesse the Teachers thereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Wise-men and when they lectured they were wont to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The wise-men teach Traditions Of these Traditions were concerning the Sabbath That they might iourney from their place two thousand cubites Hierome accounteth feete Origen Elnes That none might carry any burthen that day but they interpreted if one carried on one shoulder it was a burthen if on both it was none if his shooes had nailes they were a burthen otherwise not Concerning fasting the Pharise boasteth Luke 18.12 I fast twice in the weeke which they obserued sayth Theophilact on the second and fifth day Mundaies and Thursdaies Happily our Wednesdaies and Fridaies succeeded in this Penance that we might not seeme to be behinde them in dutie howsoeuer we disagree with them in their time And yet Mercerus saith The Iewes fasted the fourth day Wednesday because they held that vnluckie in which children are taken with the Squinancie Further the Pharises eate not vnwashed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Marke 7.3 Except they wash with the fist as Beza translateth Scaliger expoundeth it not by washing one fist in the other but composing the fingers into such a frame that all their ends meete on the top of the thumbe which for want of another name is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Fist although it be not properly so In this forme they hold vp their hands in washing that the water may slide downe to the elbow and thence fall to the ground as the Iewes vse to this day They washed when they came from Market because sinners vncleane
found him writing accents therein that GOD euery day maketh deuout prayers that GOD hath a place a-part wherein hee afflicteth himselfe with weeping for bringing so much euill on the Iewes that euery day hee putteth on their Tephilin and Zizis and so falleth downe and prayeth that as oft as hee remembreth their miseries hee lets fall two teares into the Ocean and knocks his brest with both his hands that the last three houres of the day hee recreateth himselfe in playing with the Fish Leuiathan which once in his anger he slew and powdred for the feast whereof you shall after heare that hee created the Element of fire on the Sabbath day that the RR. one day reasoning against R. Eliezar because GOD with a voyce from a heauen interposed his sentence for for Eliezer the other RR. anathematized GOD who thereat smiling said My children haue ouer-come me But I am weary to adde the rest of their restlesse impieties against the Almightie Neither haue the Creatures escaped them Thus the Talmud telleth That GOD once whipped Gabriel for a great fault with a whip of fire that as Adam before Eue was made had carnally vsed both Males and Females of other Creatures So the Rauen which Noe sent out of the Arke was iealous of Noah lest hee should lye with his Mate that Iobs storie was fayned that Dauid sinned not in his murther and adulterie and they which thinke hee did sinne are Heretikes that vnnaturall copulation with a mans wife is lawfull that he is vnworthy the name of a Rabbine which hateth not his enemie to death that GOD commanded them by any manner of meanes to spoyle the Christians of their goods and to vse them as beasts yea they may kill them and burne their Gospels which they entitle Iniquitie reuealed Iniquitie reuealed indeed is the declaration of these things as of their opinion of the soule if it sinne in one body it passeth into a second if there also into third if it continue sinning it is cast into Hell the soule of Abel passed into Seth and the same after into Moses the soules of the vnlearned shall neuer recouer their bodies Two RR. euery weeke on Friday created two Calues and then did eate them Nothing ought to be eaten by euen numbers but by vneuen wherewith GOD is pleased Perhaps they had read in Virgil Numero Deus impare gaudet but this is common to all Magicians And what doe I weary you and my selfe anticipating the following discourse wherein wee shall haue further occasion to relate the like absurdities which yet if any deny they say hee denyeth GOD. §. II. Of the ancient Iewish Authors and their Kabalists AFter the Times of Christ Philo and Iosephus are famous and after the Resurrection of Christ the Iewes were of three sorts some true beleeuers others absolute denyers the third would haue the Christian Religion and the Iewish Ceremonies to bee conioyned in equall obseruation against which third sort the first Councell Act. 15. was summoned The moderne Iewes insist principally on the litterall sense of Scripture the Elder sought out a spirituall and mysticall sense accounting this a great matter the literall but small like to a candle of small value with the light whereof the other as a pearle hidden in a darke roome is found The Talmudists followed the allegoricall sense the Cabalists the Anagogicall As concerning this Cabala in olde times they communicated not that skill to any but to such as were aged and learned and therefore nothing thereof or very little is found written of the Ancient except of Rabbi Simeon Ben Iohai But the Doctors of the later Iewes lest that learning should perish haue left somewhat thereof in writing but so obscurely that few know it and they which doe account it a great secret and hold it in great regard So saith Elias in the bookes of the Kabala are contained the secrets of the Law and the Prophets which man receiued from the mouth of man vnto our Master Moses on him be peace and therefore it is so called and is diuided into two parts Speculatiue and Practike But I am not worthy to explaine this businesse and by reason of my sinnes haue not learned this wisedome nor knowne this knowledge of those Saints The word Cabala signifieth a receiuing and in that respect may bee supplyed to all their Traditionall receipts but in vse which is the Law of speech it is appropriated to that facultie which as Ricius describeth it by the type of the Mosaicall law insinuateth the secrets of diuine and humane things and because it is not grounded on reason nor deliuered by writing but by the faith of the hearer receiued it is called Cabala Or if you had rather haue it in Reuchlines words it is a Symbolicall receiuing of diuine Reuelation deliuered to the wholesome contemplation of GOD and of the seperated formes and they which receiue it are called Cabalici their Disciples Cabalaei and they which any way imitate them Cabalistae The Talmudists therefore and the Cabalists are of two faculties both agreeing in this that they grow from Tradition whereunto they giue credite without rendring any reason herein differing that the Cabalist as a super-subtill transcendent mounteth with all his industrie and intention from this sensible World vnto that other intellectuall but the grosser Talmudist abideth in this and if at any time hee considereth of GOD or the blessed Spirits yet it is with relation to his workes and their functions not in any abstract contemplation bending his whole study to the explaination of the Law according to the intent of the Law-giuer considering what is to bee done what eschewed whereas the Cabalists most indeauour themselues to contemplation leauing the care of publike and priuate affaires to the Talmudists and reseruing onely to themselues those things which pertaine to the tranquillitie of the minde As therefore the minde is more excellent then the body so you must thinke the Cabalist superiour to the Talmudist For example In the beginning God created Heauen and Earth saith Moses Heauen here after the Talmudist is all that part of the World which is aboue the Moone and all beneath it Earth also by Heauen hee vnderstandeth forme and by Earth matter the composition whereof hee effected not by labour of the hand but by that nine-fold Oracle of his word for so often is it mentioned and God said likewise hee findeth the foure Elements in those words Darkenesse Spirit Waters drie Land But the Cabalist frameth to himselfe two Worlds the Visible and Inuisible Sensible and Mentall Materiall and Ideall Superiour and Inferiour and accordingly gathereth out of the former words God created Heauen and Earth That hee made the highest and lowest things meaning by the highest the immateriall by the lowest this materiall and this is gathered out of the first letter Beth which in numbring signifieth two and insinuateth there these two Worlds Yea they also
finde two Paradises and two Hells one in this World and the other in the other and future for the body heere and the soule hereafter Euen as saith R. Saadia the white of the Egge comprehendeth the yolke so that first intelligible World infoldeth the second in this are nine Spheres mooued of the immoueable Empyreon in that nine orders of Angels Ricius reckoneth ten Hayes Hakadesch Offanim Erelim Hasmalim Seraphim Malachim Elohim bene Elohim Cherubim Some Diuines count them thus out of Dionysius Seraphim Cherubim Throni Dominationes Virtutes Potestates Principatus Archangels Angeli The tenth Order the Peripatetikes terme Anamastica the Cabalists Ischim that is Men moued of the vnchangeable GOD who in vnmoueable silence first created altogether and after by nine times speaking moued and promoted each thing to its owne distinction The Talmudists dreame of an earthly Messias to free them from this their slauerie the Cabalists if our Cabalists haue not seene these things through spectacles expect a spirituall deliuerie from sinne Doubtlesse they deliuer many excellent assertions howsoeuer their collection seemeth curious and vncertaine gathering the same on grounds without ground beyond all Sense Reason Scripture and therefore often leauened with other superfine absurdities Buxtorfius in his abbreuiat Heb. saith that by his abbreuiation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they vse to signifie the three parts of the Art Cabalastica Gematria Notarkon Temurah Gematria is that part which by like numbers contained in the letters of diuers words explaineth one by the other as Tzemach Zach. 3.8 hath in the numerall letters 138. and so many are in Menachem a name which they giue to the Messias and therefore by Tremach they there vnderstand the Messias So in Gen. 49.10 Shilo shall come containe 358. and so doth Messiah which is therefore there meant and many like examples Notaricon is when euery letter in one word shall note so many other words and make vp a sentence Thus the Maccabees are so called of these foure letters which they inscribed in their banners m. c. b. i. the first letters of so many words Exo. 15.11 Who is like thee amongst the gods O Lord So in Adams name they finde as the cause thereof words beginning with the same letters signifying ashes bloud gall whence are noted his corruption losse and calamitie as the Greekes in the same name find the the East West North and South A 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 D 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 M 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Temurah is when one or two words are changed into one or more other by transposition of letters or inuersion of qualitie So out of the Hebrew words Psal. 21.2 The King shall reioyce in thy strength O Lord they expound the King Messias for this is gathered by transposition of the letters So Chrerem Anathema is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mercy and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in the numerall letters hath 248. the iust number in their anatomie of the members of mans bodie The glosse is he which is anathematized if hee repent shall haue for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is mercy if not it pierceth his 248. members and destroyes the whole man Hence came our Anagrammatismes and Chronogrammatismes wherein some doe sometimes learnedly triflle and spend their wits foolishly This of all their Caball is true that it may better serue to conuince the Iewes with testimonie of their owne then for an instruction to vs who cannot enforce arguments out of Symbolicall senses If any be in loue with these mysteries let him resort to Paulus Ricius his Theoremes to Iohn Reuchlin to Iohannes Picus and his Commenter Archangelus to Abrahams supposed Booke of the creation to R. Ioseph Castiliensis his Porta lucis which Ricius hath also translated and epitomized to Galatinus and others Commendable is the labour of some of these and of many others both conuerted Iewes which haue sought to reclaime their peruerse brethren and of our owne as Mornaeus Gregentius Pomeranus out of whom they which please may borrow arguments to conuince the Iewish incredulitie and stubbornenesse and to confound them by their owne testimonies both from these elder Writers aboue mentioned and also from the later So great is the Truth and mightily it preuaileth that it extorteth not onely her owne weapons vsurped and stollen by her enemies but their owne also wherewith they come armed against the Truth and retorteth them on themselues as Dauid serued the Philistims Who cut off Goliahs head with Goliahs sword as Benaiah one of his Worthies slew an Aegyptian a man of great stature fiue cubits long and in the Aegyptians hand was a speare like a Weauers beame and hee went downe to him with a staffe and plucked the speare out of the Aegyptians hand and slew him with his owne speare Thus did Dioxippus the Champion if forrainers delight any deale with Horratus the Macedonian in a set combate and thus hath our Worthie and Champion come often into the field against the Popish Giants armed inwardly with Truth outwardly with Arguments wrested without wresting from his enemies Hee in his Latine and English workes hath obserued the two-fold rule of policie Diuide and Rule against the Papists Vnite and Rule for the Protestants which Breerely would haue brought into the like bryers But those his troupes are shewed not to bee Men but Apes like those that held Alexanders Armie in suspence and like Semiramis Elephants which were but stuffed Oxe-hides kill-cow-frayes But Macte virtute esto worthy Deane Euen so goe on still and fight the Lords battels that thy Sparta so happily vndertaken still adorne and shew the confusion of Babels bablers Diuide that Societie which now in their last age haue hissed with their forked venemous Tongues feared and enuyed at home for their arrogance no lesse then hated abroad for their heresies and treasons Let Saint Iohns Let England and the whole Church still sing the ten thousands that thou doest thus slay with their owne weapons and let the Apostolicall Truth escape whiles her Apostaticall Enemies the Pharisies and Sadducees are set together by the eares A happie and diuine stratageme which not to detract from others iust prayses in this or other parts of the battell hath beene singled and singularly managed by thy prowesse which speakest more iustly then he which vsed those words to these Babylonians in their owne Language that they may eate their owne dung and drinke their owne pisse together Doctor White also in that Lactea via his Milke-white Way to the true Church challengeth in all points of Poperie both authoritie of Scriptures Fathers and later Romanists and to produce the same against the Trent-Councell and the Iesuites But how hath that fatall name of Babel confounded mee Truely the likenesse of these Traditionaries Cabalists muddie Talmudists and Legendaries as will appeare to an easie Obseruer and Comparer of this ensuing Historie to their practice which haue
And of great goodnesse 7. And Truth 8. Which keepest Mercy for thousands 9. Which takest away the Iniquitie 10. Transgressions 11. And sinnes 12. Which absoluest not 13. But rendrest the Iniquitie of the Fathers vpon the Children to the third and fourth Generation then follow those thirteene Articles in forme of an Hymne with the Exposition of R. Moses which also you may reade in the Treatise of Philip Ferdinand a Polonian Christned Iew. And hee which thus beleeueth sayth Ferdinand is a Iew and as a Brother to bee loued and though hee commit all the sinnes of the World howsoeuer hee shall bee punished for his sinne yet shall he haue part in the Kingdome of Heauen though he be reckoned among the Sinners of Israel But he which shall ouerturne one of these Precepts shall bee blotted out of the number of the Saints and be reckoned an Heretike Apostata Epicure worthy to bee hated of all This is the Iewish Faith in which with much vexation doubting and lamentation they liue and dye vpon which their Religion hath beene alway founded but it was first put in writing and brought into this Order by R. Mosche bar Maimon who dyed in the yeere after their reckoning 4964. Anno Dom. 1104. and straite charge was giuen That the Iewes thenceforth for euer confessing it in this Order should according to the same liue and dye This their Creed howsoeuer Charity may construe much of it to a better sense yet according to their vnderstanding doth it principally ayme at the subuersion of Christian Religion as appeareth in a more strait Examination after their sense of the 2 3 4 and 5 the 7 8 9 10 11 12. Articles All which make against the person or the Office of the Sonne of GOD as they vnderstand them denying his God-head and disanulling his Office affirming as a Iew shamed not to professe and vtter vnto M. Buxdorfius That it needed not that any should satisfie for them for euery Fox must yeeld his owne skinne and haires to the flayer And the Iewish Faith saith R. Ioseph Albu is founded vpon three foundations vpon the vnitie of the Diuine Essence vpon the Law of Moses and vpon the eternall reward of good workes and punishment of euill contemning the Passion of Christ by whose stripes we are healed and on whom GOD hath laid the iniquities of vs all It is written also in their Talmud that all the Israelites haue their portion in the World to come not all alike but he shall haue a greater part that hath done more good workes and the wicked and Impenitent shall be punished twelue moneths in Hell or Purgatorie after which time they also and some sooner if they haue beene lesse sinners shall haue their part but a lesse then the former but to them which deny GOD which become Christians their fore-skinne groweth againe and as vncircumcised eternally are punished in Hell And the Sonne of a deceased Iew is bound to say for the space of one yeere a Prayer called Kiddisch thereby to redeeme him from Purgatorie in which respect the Father dyeth with ioy A good woman may doe the like for her Husband But R. Bechai who excludeth all other Nations from their part in the Resurrection preferring the Iewes in a foure-fold Priuiledge viz. the Land of Canaan the Law the Prophets and the Resurrection reciteth out of the great Talmud That three sorts of men shall rise againe at the Day of Iudgement one of the best Israelites a second sort of the wicked and worst the third of a meane who haue done as much good as euill The good shall presently goe into life eternall the wicked shall be cast into Hell as in the twelfth of Daniel and shall be for euer in torments of bodie and soule The third and meaner sort of sinners shall bee tormented for twelue moneths space for their sinnes in Hell at the end of which time their bodies shall be consumed and the wind shall scatter their ashes vnder the soles of the feet of the Iust c. and as worthily doe they proue it out of the Prophet And in that day two parts shall be cut off and dye and the third shall be left therein and I will bring that third part thorow the fire and will fine them as siluer is fined and will try them as Gold is tryed And in another place The Lord killeth and maketh aliue bringeth downe to Hell and raiseth vp Iust as fitly applyed as 1. Cor. 3. and such like places by our Purgatory Spirits R. Dauid Kimchi vpon the first Psalme and Esay 26. commenteth That the wicked shall not rise but in the day of death their soule shall dye together with their bodie And Aben Ezra in his Exposition of Dan. 12. writeth out of R. Higgaon That many shall rise and many not rise but suffer euerlasting reproch and expoundeth it thus That the good Iewes which dye in Exile shall rise againe when the Messias shall come and shall liue as long as the Patriarkes before the Floud and then they shall make merrie with the great Fish Leuiathan and the great Bird Ziz and the great Oxe Behemoth of which we shall speake after When this is done they shall dye and at the last Day shall be raysed vp againe and shall possesse eternall Life where shall bee no eating nor drinking but glory c. Iacob desired to be buried in Canaan not in Egypt for three causes saith R. Salomon Iarchi because he foresaw That of the Dust of Egypt shall bee made Lice Secondly because the Israelites which dye out of Canaan shall not rise againe without much paine of their rolling thorow the deepe and hidden Vaults of the Earth Thirdly left the Egyptians should make an Idoll of him For the better vnderstanding hereof let vs heare what is said out of the Booke Tanchum an Exposition of the Pentateuch concerning this subiect The Patriarkes sayth he desired to be buried in Canaan because they which are there buried shall first rise in the time of the Messias And R. Hananiah sayth That they which dye out of Canaan must endure two deaths and the same appeareth Ier. 20. where it is said Pashur should go into Babel and should there dye and there be buried What quoth R. Simon shall then all the Iust perish which dye out of Canaan No but God will make them Mechillos that is deepe Clifts and Caues vnder the Earth by which they may passe into the Land of Promise whither when they are come GOD shall inspire into them the breath of life that they may rise againe as it is written I will open your Graues and cause you to come out of your Sepulchres c. The like is written in their Targum or Chaldaean Interpretation of the Canticles When the dead shall rise Mount Oliuet shall cleaue asunder and the Israelites which haue beene dead shall come out of the same and they which haue dyed in
strange Lands comming thither by holes vnder the Earth shall come forth And for this cause I my selfe saith our Author haue heard the Iewes say That sometime some of the wealthiest and deuoutest amongst them goe into the Land of Canaan that their bodies may there sleepe and so be freed from this miserable passage vnder so many deepe Seas and rough Mountaynes There be three sorts of men sayth Salmanticensis in the Booke Iuchasin which see not the face of Hell those which are extremely poore those which are in debt those which are troubled with the Collicke the Hasidaei chastised themselues tenne or twentie dayes before their death with this paine of the bowels that so they might clense all and goe pure to the other World some adde in this exemption from Hell or comming to Iudgement him which had an euill Wife and some also Magistrates But in Pauls time they themselues did allow saith he a Resurrection of the dead both of the Iust and Vniust They did then hold also a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in which sense it is likely the Iewes thought Christ to be Elias or Ieremie or one of the Prophets and the Disciples somewhat sowred with this Leauen asked of the blind man whether he had sinned vnderstanding as it seemeth according to the Iewish Errour when his soule had beene in some former bodie And the Cabalisticall Authors sayth Elias Leuita are of opinion that euery soule is three times created they meane it rolleth or passeth thorow three mens bodies according to that of Iob GOD worketh all these things with a man thrice So the soule of the first man saith hee rolled it selfe into the bodie of Dauid and shall thence returne into the bodie of the Messias So they say that the soules of Sinners passe into the bodies of beast as if a man committeth Sodomie his soule passeth into a Hare because that creature is somtimes Male sometimes Female the soule of the Adulterer passeth into a Camell Now to come from their Faith to their Workes The wise Rabbines perswade the silly people That they are the only Elect people of God who easily can keepe not the Decalogue or ten Commandements alone but the whole Law of Moses They diuide the whole Law into sixe hundred and thirteene Commandements and them againe into Precepts and Prohibitions Of the commanding Precepts they number two hundred fortie and eight iust so many as according to the Rabbines Anatomie a man hath members in his bodie Of the prohibiting Commandements they reckon three hundred threescore and fiue as many as are dayes in the yeere or as in the Booke Brandspiegel veines in a mans bodie Therefore if euery member of a man doe euery day performe one of the Precepts and omit one of the things prohibited the whole Law of Moses shall be euery yeere and so for euer fulfilled Their wise Rabbines say further That the men only are to obserue those sixe hundred and thirteene Commandements the women are onely subiect to the Prohibitions yea of those prohibitorie Mandates onely to threescore and foure are they obliged by some and to sixe and thirtie of the former and this because of their other houshold-businesse and subiection to their Imperious Husbands Some of their deeply-wise Rabbines adde to those sixe hundred and thirteene seuen other Commandements making vp the number of sixe hundred and twentie iust so many as are p Letters in the Decalogue and as arise of the word Keter signifying a Crowne for were it not for the Law God would not haue created the World and for the obseruation thereof it yet subsisteth And they which keepe all the Commandements doe set a Crowne on the head of God and hee vpon the head of those which crowne him shall set seuen Crownes and make them to inherit seuen Chambers in Paradise and will keepe them from the seuen Infernall Dungeons because they haue obtayned the seuen Heauens and the seuen Earths Their Wise-men affirme that euery veine of the bodie of a man doth prouoke him to omit that which is forbidden and he which doth omit such their vaine veine-warning hath no good veine in him euery of his members also doe prouoke him to performe those iussory Inuentions But as veine should I be as they if I should not make some end where they can find none We would now from these generalities proceed to the particulars of their Superstitions tracing them herein from their birth to their graues Religion being in the pretence of their Law the square of all their otherwise ciuill actions at least to speake of their Superstitions in the same But first seeing Sebastian Munster hath written a whole Booke both in Hebrew and Latine of those sixe hundred and thirteene Precepts taken out of Moses with the Exposition of their Rabbines as also P. Ricius hath done and Philip Ferdinand likewise out of Ben Kattain I thought good to cull out some which seeme most remarkeable and strange to entertayne our Reader §. II. Of the negatiue Precepts expounded by the Rabines 1. THou shalt haue no strange Gods in my sight Exod. 20. The Name of God is forbidden to be communicated to any creature 2. Thou shalt not violate mine holy Name Thou shalt not destroy a Synagogue or Temple bee it neuer so old nor shalt blot out one of the holy names wheresoeuer thou findest it written The Rabbines say If any doe against any Affirmatiue Precept and repent his sinne is forgiuen him but hee which transgresseth a Negatiue Precept is not clensed by repentance but it remaineth to the day of Expiation which is the day of their solemne Fast and Reconciliation But hee which committeth a sinne whereby he deserueth Death or Excommunication is not then purged but must abide thereunto the diuine chastisements and hee which violateth the Name of GOD cannot bee absolued from that sinne but by death 5. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart He which is wronged by another should not hate him and hold his peace but reproue him openly and if hee repent he ought not to be cruell to him But if any be often reproued and will not amend it is lawfull to hate him This Christ confuteth 12. No Idoll as to bee adored If a man haue a thorne in his foot hee may not bow before an Image to pull it out and if money fall out of his hand hee may not there before an Image stoope to take it vp lest he might seeme to adore it but he must sit downe on the ground to doe it And if the water of a Fountaine be caused to passe thorow the mouth of an Image he may not drinke thereat lest he should seeme to kisse the Image 22. An Image may not bee made viz. The Image of a man in siluer or gold if it be embossed or set out but if it bee stamped in metall in manner of a seale it is lawfull
the very middle of the world That in the Messiahs dayes Wheate shall grow without renewing by Seed as the Vine But of these and the like more then enough in this booke following L. Carretus a Conuert from the Iewes setteth downe these size as the maine differences betwixt them and vs The Trinitie the Incarnation the manner of his comming whether in humilitie or royaltie the Law ceremoniall which the Iew holdeth eternall saluation by and for our owne workes which the Christian ascribeth to Faith in Christ crucified and lastly of the time of his comming whether past or present To these he thinketh all other may be referred But let vs examine the particulars CHAP. XIIII Of the Iewish opinions of the Creation their Ceremonies about the birth of a Child Of their Circumcision Purification and Redemption of the first-borne and Education of their Children §. I. Of their Exposition of Scripture a taste in Gen. 1.1 THeir Exposition of Scripture is so absurd that wee haue hence a manifest argument that as they denyed the Sonne that Eternall Word and Truth whose written word this is so that Spirit which indited the same the Spirit of Truth hath put a vayle on their heart and iustly suffered the spirit of errour to blind their eyes that seeing they should see and not vnderstand This will appeare generally in our ensuing Discourse but for a taste let vs begin with the beginning of Moses whereon R. Iacob Baal Hatturim hath left to the world these smoakie speculations The Bible beginneth with Beth the second letter in the Alphabet and not with Aleph the first because that it is the first letter of Beracha which signifieth blessing this of Arour that is a curse Secondly Beth signifieth two insinuating the two-fold Law written and vnwritten for Bereshith hath the letters of Barashetei first hee made secondly Lawes thirdly Bereshith the first word of Genesis hath as many letters as Aleph be Tishrei that is the first of Tishrei or Tisri on which the Iewes say the world began fourthly Bereshith hath the letters of Baijth roshe that is the first Temple which he knew the Iewes would build and therefore created the world fiftly it hath the letters of Iare shabbath that is to keepe the Sabbath for God created the world for the Israelites which keepe the Sabbath sixtly also of Berith esh which signifieth the Couenant of fire to wit Circumcision and the Law another cause of the creation seuenthly likewise it hath the letters of Bara iesh that is hee created as many worlds as are in the number Iesh that is three hundred and ten that the Saints might reioyce therein Now if I should follow them from these letters and spelling to their mysticall sententious exposition of greater parts of the sentence you should heare Moses tell you out of his first words that the world was created for the Talmudists for the sixe hundred and thirteene precepts because hee loued the Israelites more then the other people Againe that hee foresaw the Israelites would receiue the Law but hee is now an Asse saith he which beareth Wine and drinketh water There are in the first verse seuen words which signifie the seuen dayes of the weeke seuenth yeere of rest seuen times seuenth the Iubilee seuentimes seuen Iubilees seuen Heauens seuen lands of Promise and seuen Orbes or Planets which caused Dauid to say I will praise thee seuen times a day There are 28. letters in it which shew the 28. times of the World of which Salomon speaketh Eccles 3.1 There are in it sixe Alephs and therefore the world shall last sixe thousand yeeres So in the second verse The earth was without forme and voyde are two Alephs which shew the world should bee two thousand yeeres voyde now in the third verse are foure Alephs which shew other foure thousand yeeres two of which should bee vnder the Law and two vnder Messias §. II. Their Dreames of Adam NOw for the first man his body saith R. Osia in the Talmud was made of the earth of Babylon his head of the land of Israel his other members of other parts of the world So R. Meir thought hee was compact of the earth gathered out of the whole earth as it is written Thine eyes did see my substance now it is elsewhere written The eyes of the Lord are ouer all the earth There are twelue houres of the day saith R. Aha in the first whereof the earth of Adam or earthly matter was gathered in the second the trunke of his body fashioned in the third his members stretched forth in the fourth his soule infused in the fift hee stood vpon his feet in the sixt hee gaue names to the Creatures in the seuenth Eue was giuen him in marriage in the eighth they ascended the bed two and descended foure in the ninth hee receiued the Precept which in the tenth he brake and therefore was iudged in the eleuenth and in the twelfth was cast out of Paradise as it is written Man continued not one night in honour The stature of Adam was from one end of the world to the other and for his transgression the Creator by laying on his hand lessened him for before faith R. Eleazar with his head he reached a reacher indeed the verie firmament His language was Syriacke or Aramitish saith R. Iuda and as Reschlakis addeth the Creator shewed him all generations and the wise-men in them His sinne after R. Iehuda was heresie R. Isaac thinketh the nourishing his fore-skin He knew or vsed carnall filthinesse with all the beasts which GOD brought vnto him before Eue was made as some interpret R. Eleazar and R. Salomon but Reuchline laboureth to purge them of that sense who affirmeth that hee had an Angell for his Master or Instructor and when he was exceedingly deiected with remorse of his sinne GOD sent the Angell Raziel to tell him that there should be one of his progenie which should haue the foure letters of Iehouah in his name and should expiate originall sinne And heere was the beginning of their Cabala and also presently hereupon did hee and Eue build an Altar and offer sacrifice The like offices of other Angels they mention to other Patriarchs and tell that euery three moneths are set new watches of these watchmen yea euery three houres yea and euery houre is some change of them And therefore wee may haue more fauour of them in one houre then another for they follow the disposition of the starres so said the Angell Samael which wrestled with him vnto Iacob Let mee goe for the day breaketh for his power was in the night But let me returne to Adam of whom they further tell that he was an Hermaphrodite a man-woman hauing both Sexes and a double bodie the Female part ioyned at the shoulders and backe parts to the Male their countenances turned from each other This is proued by Moses his words So GOD created man
in Christians odious to them that they may season them from their child-hood with hatred of them When they are seuen yeeres old they learne to write and reade and when they can reade they learne to construe the Text of Moses in their vulgar tongue When the Mother carrieth him first to the schoole to the Rabbi she maketh him cakes seasoned with honie and sugar and as this cake so saith she let the Law be sweet to thy heart Speake not vaine trifling words in the schoole but onely the words of God For if they so do then the glorious Maiestie of God dwelleth in them and delighteth it selfe with the ayre of their breath For their breathing is yet holy not yet polluted with sinne neither is hee Bar-mitzuah bound to obey the Commandements till he bee thirteene yeeres old When he is ten yeers old and hath now some smattering in Moses he proceedeth to learne the Talmud at thirteene yeeres his Father calleth ten Iewes and testifieth in their presence that this his sonne is now of iust age and hath beene brought vp in their manners and customes their daily manner of praying and blessing and hee will not further stand charged with the sinnes of his Sonne who is now Bar-mitzuah and must himselfe beare this burthen Then in their presence hee thanketh God that he hath discharged him from the punishment of his sonne desiring that his sonne by diuine grace may be long safe and endeuour to good workes At the fifteenth yeere of their life they are compelled to learne their Gemara or the complement of their Talmud Disputations and subtill Decisions about the Text of their Talmud And in these they spend the greatest part of their liues seldome reading any of the Prophets and some not in the whole space of a long life reading one Prophet through and therefore know so little of the Mossias At eighteene yeeres their male children Marrie according to their Talmud-constitution and sometimes sooner to auoyde fornication Their Maydens may marrie when are twelue yeeres old and a day At twentie yeeres they may traffike buy sell and circumuent all they can for their neighbour in the Law is in their sense such a Iew as you haue heard described But because these things are ioyned together in one of their sentences or Apophthemes of the R R. called Pirke Aboth I thought good to adde the same as containing a mappe of the Iewes life A sonne of fiue yeeres to the Bible a sonne of ten yeeres to the Mischna a sonne of thirteene yeeres to the Precepts a sonne of fifteene yeeres to the Thalmud a sonne of eighteene yeeres to marriage a sonne of twentie yeeres to follow the affaires of the world a sonne of thirtie yeeres to strength a sonne of fortie yeeres to wisedome a sonne of fiftie yeeres to counsell a sonne of sixâ—ie yeeres to old age a sonne of seuentie yeeres to gray haires a sonne of eightie to the height a sonne of ninetie to the graue a sonne of one hundred yeeres is as a dead man departed out of the world CHAP. XV. Of their Morning Prayer with their Fringes Phylacteries and other Ceremonies thereof §. I. Of their Behauiour before they goe to the Synagogue THe good-wife is to waken her Husband and the Parents to awaken their Children when after thirteene yeeres they are subiect to the Iewish Precepts before their Penticost they rise before it is light and after the nights being shorter when it is now day They are to awaken the day not to tarrie till it awaken them For their Morning-prayer must bee made whiles the Sunne is rising and not later for then is the time of hearing as they interpret Lamen 2.19 And hee which is deuout ought at that time to bee sad for Ierusalem and to pray euerie morning for the re-edifying of the Temple and Citie if in the night-time any sheddeth teares for their long captiuitie God will heare his prayer for then the Starres and Planets mourne with him and if he suffer the teares to trickle downe his cheekes God will arise and gather them into his bottle and if any decree be by their enemies enacted against them with those teares he will blot out the same Witnesse Dauid Put my teares in thy bottle are they not in thy booke And if any rub his fore-head with his teares it is good to blot out certaine sinnes that are there written In there beginning of the night God causeth all the gates of heauen to be shut and the Angels stay at them in silence and sendeth euill spirits into the world which hurt all they meet but after mid-night they are commanded to open the same This command and call is heard of the Cocks and therefore they clap their wings and crow to awaken men and then the euill spirits lose their power of hurting and in this respect the Wise-men haue ordained them a thanksgiuing to be said at Cock-crowing Blessed art thou O God Lord of the whole world who hast giuen vnderstanding to the Cocke They must not rise vp in their beds naked nor put on their shirts sitting but put their heads and armes into the same as they lye lest the walls and beames should see their nakednesse It is a brag of Rabbi Iose that in all his life hee had not herein faulted But to goe or stand naked in the chamber were more then piacular and much more to make water standing naked before his bed although it be night Hee must not put on his garments wrong nor his left shooe before the right and yet he must put off the left foot shooe first When he is clothed with his head inclined to the earth and a deuout minde in remembrance of the destruction of the Temple hee goeth out of the chamber with his head feete and all couered because of the holy Schechinam diuine glorie ouer his head Then hee goeth to stoole in some priuie place for so hath Amos commanded Prepare thy selfe O Israel to meete thy God and DAVID All that is within mee praise his holy name That is all within the body emptie and cleane For else must not God bee named and therefore his garments must not be spotted and fouled To restraine nature too long were a sinne and would cause the soule to stinke and sauing your reuerence hee must wipe with the left hand for with the right he writeth the name of God and the Angels And in this place and businesse hee must take heed he thinke not of God or his Word much lesse name him for God will shorten the dayes of such a one R. Sira told his Scholers that the cause of his long life was that in an impure place hee neuer though of the Word nor named the name of God Besides hee must turne his face and not his hinder-parts toward the Temple of Ierusalem Hee ought not to touch his body with vnwashen hands in regard of the euill spirits which rest thereon till they
Steeples vse to erect the Crosse For then there was no new Moone day of there moneth Muharram but was the second day after the Iewish account and therefore the new Moone might then be seene But for the Friday it was obserued before Mahomets time as shall after be shewed Hee depriued a certaine Carpenters poore Orphans of their patrimonie and consecrated their House into a Temple This Citie being for most part inhabited with Iewes they asked a signe in confirmation of his Office He said That hee was not sent with miracles but denunciation of Armes heere and Hell hereafter and those which would not receiue his new Doctrine he expelled by force Being absolute Lord heere he aspired also to the Dominion of Mecca He sent thirtie Horse with Hanzeta to rob the Marchants trauelling thither but being then preuented hee sent foure yeeres after sixe hundred of his best Souldiers vnder Hugaida to assault Mecca but hee also was discomfited yet not desisting his enterprize seuen yeeres after he atchieued it and after eleuen battels entered and sacked the Towne and gaue the spoyle to his souldiers and for feare the neighbouring-Cities submitted themselues Mahomet here with encouraged assaulted the Persians and Aegyptians exchanging with those hee conquered his new Religion for their old wealth and libertie binding the Gouernours thereunto But now being old and through his intemperances weake and diseased also with the falling Sicknesse he coloured his often falling with pretext of Gabriels brightnesse and the vnsufferable splendour of his presence Hee was of meane stature large sinewes browne colour broad face with a cut lip and had one of his fore-teeth stricken out in one Expedition and in another his face wounded He had great head thinne haires long shankes not proportionable to his head He was of few words but deceitfull couetous and withall prodigall but of other mens goods and in deeds of lust equalling himselfe to fortie other men or as some say fiftie When hee was threescore and three yeeres of age he dyed of which he liued in trade of Marchandize thirtie eight and in the Caue two at Mecca ten in Medina thirteene He had commanded that they should not burie him for that on the third day after hee would ascend in bodie and soule into Heauen Meanewhile the Earth being poysoned with the stinke of his Carkasse they buryed him not at Mecca as some affirme but at Medina His Law in his life-time sustained many alterations Cellenus his Scribe writing what himselfe pleased and the seuerall parcels of the same being collected by Odmen one of his successours this Booke was thereupon called Alcaron that is a Summarie or Collection of Precepts Thus Mahomet aduantaged himselfe with the mutinous Rebels Fugitiues Vnthrifts Apostata-Iewes and hereticall Christians in that diseased State of the Empire the body wherof was afflicted on the East by the Persians on the West by the Gothes and other Barbarians and fretted within his owne bowels by intestine rebellions the Soule thereof being no lesse torne and rent by the Sects and Heresies of the Arians Donatists Nestorians Pelagians and others He fishing in these troubled waters set on foot his new Religion to bring light to the Gentiles and to mitigate to the Iewes and Christians the seueritie of the Law and Gospell But the Mahumetans themselues doe report otherwise fabling of this Fabler great matters as if hee had been the Promise and Hope of Nations and the most excellent personage of the World §. II. The Saracens storie of Mahomets life THey haue written a Booke of the generation of Mahomet to this effect The Booke of the generation of Mahomet the Messenger of God the Prayer and Saluation of God bee vpon him from Adam and Eue to the time when God brought him forth gracious perfect and fit for himselfe When as Kabachbar had learned out of the Scriptures and by Astrologie that this Prophet should be borne to the world hee heard That there was a man borne in Ieseras a Citie of Arabia hauing all such markes and tokens as hee had fore-seene by the Prophecies and his Art viz. A spot on his fore-head a print betweene his shoulders c. And to satisfie his desire hee went thither to see where finding those tokens fulfilled in young Mahomet hee thereupon expounded the darke mysterie of his farre-fetched Light learned of his Master Kabelmedi in this manner When Adam was newly created as he stood vp his braine shaked and made a noyse as the leaues doe which are shaken with the winde whereas Adam wondring GOD said vnto him The sound which thou hast heard is the signe of the Prophets and Messengers of my Commandements Take heed therefore that thou commit the Seed of Light onely to worthie Loynes and to a cleane Wombe And this Light of Mahomet that should be borne shined from the face of Adam as the Sun or Moone at the full And when hee had begotten Seth that Light passed instantly from the face of Adam into the face of Eue in so much that the birds of the Aire and beasts of the Earth wondred at her beautie Yea the Angels euery day saluted her and brought her odours out of Paradise till she brought forth Seth alone hauing before at euery burthen brought forth a brother and a sister Seth inherited this Light which remained betweene heauen and earth the Angels thereby ascending and descending vpon Seth and crying alwaies Reioyce thou Earth worthie of the Light of Mahomet on him be Prayer and Saluation of God Adam drawing neere to his end declared vnto him by his Testament the mysterie of that Light and the Genealogy of the Prophets Then descended Gabriel accompanied with threescore and ten thousand Angels bearing euery one of them a white leafe and a pen which signed the writing for the continuance of the order of the Propheticall generation Seth receiued this writing was cloathed with a double red garment shining as the Sunne as saft as the violet-flower From him it passed by succession to Noe and Sem then to Abraham at whose birth two lights from the East and West meeting in the middest lightned the whole world and the Angels were heard singing That it was the Light of the Prophet Mahomet who should be borne of his Seed whose Word should bee in the vertue of God This Light passed from Abraham to the face of Hagar being with childe and after to Ismael and God told him That the soule of Mahomet in the beginning of the Creation was mingled with his and that his name in Heauen should be Asmet in Earth Mahomet in Paradise Abualtrazim At this Sara grieued vntill three Angels comforted her with the promise of ISAAC From Ismael it remoued to Keidar his sonne who being indued with seuen Gifts married Nulia of the Land of Isaac but being warned by an Oracle he tooke to wife Algadira an Arabian and after by diuine warning carried the chest of this Light vnto Iacob Then was Hamel borne
tell his Disciples the Historie of the Arke Who told them that by the weight of the Ordure the Arke leaned on the one side whereupon Noe consulting with GOD was bidden bring the Elephant thither out of whose dung mixed with mans came forth a Hog which wrooted in that mire with his snout and by the stinke thereof was produced out of his nose a Mouse which gnawed the boords of the Arke Noe fearing this danger was bidden to strike the Lion on the forehead and by the Lions breath was a Cat engendred mortall enemie to the Mouse But to returne from this stinking tale to refresh our selues with the like sweets of this Paradise He addeth that there they haue the wiues that here they had and other Concubines whom how when wheresoeuer they will Abd. But why is Wine lawfull there and here vnlawfull Mah. The Angels Arot and Marot were sometime sent to instruct and gouerne the world forbidding men Wine iniustice and murther But a woman hauing whereof to accuse her husband inuited them to dinner and made them drunke They inflamed with a double heat of Wine and Lust could not obtaine that their desire of their faire Hostesse except one would teach her the word of ascending to heauen and the other of descending Thus she mounted vp to heauen And vpon enquirie of the matter shee was made the Morning-Sarre and they put to their choice whether they would bee punished in this world or in the world to come they accepting their punishment in this are hanged by chaines with their heads in a pit of Babel till the day of Iudgement Hell saith Mahomet there hath the floore of Brimstone smoakie pitchy with stinking flames with deepe pits of scalding Pitch and sulphurous flames wherein the damned are punished daily the trees beare most loasome fruits which they eate The day of Iudgement shall be in this sort In that day GOD will command the Angel of Death to kill euery Creature which being done hee shall aske him if nothing bee aliue Adreiel the Angell of Death shall answere Nothing but my selfe Then goe thy waies betwixt Paradise and Hell and last of all kill thy selfe Thus he folded in his wings prostrate on the earth shall strangle himselfe with such a bellowing noise as would terrifie the verie Angels if they were aliue Thus the world shall bee emptie fortie yeeres Then shall GOD hold the Heauen and Earth in his fist and say Where are now the mightie men the Kings and Princes of the World Tell mee if yee be true whose is the Kingdome and Empire and Power Repeating these words three times he shall rise vp Seraphiel and say Take this Trumpet and goe to Ierusalem and sound This Trumpet is of fiue hundred yeeres iourney At that sound all Soules shall come forth and disperse themselues vnto their owne bodies and their bones shall be gathered together Fortie yeeres after hee shall sound againe and then the bones shall resume flesh and sinewes After fortie yeeres the third sound shall warne the Soules to re-possesse their bodies and a fire from the West shall driue euery creature to Ierusalem When they haue here swum fortie yeeres in their owne sweat they shall with much vexation come to Adam and say Father Adam Father Adam Why hast thou begotten vs to these miseries and torments Why sufferest thou vs to hang betweene hope and feare Pray to GOD that hee will finish his determination of vs between Paradise and Hell Adam shall excuse his vnworthinesse for his disobedience and send them to Noe Noe will post them to Abraham Abraham to Moses He shall send them to Iesus Christ To him they shall come and say The Spirit Word and Power of GOD let thy pitie moue thee to make intercession for vs He shall answer them That which you aske you haue lost I was indeed sent vnto you in the power of GOD and Word of Truth but yee haue erred and haue made me GOD more then euer I preached to you and haue therefore lost my benefit But goe to the last of the Prophets meaning him with whom thou now talkest Abdia Then shall they turne to him and say O faithfull Messenger and friend of GOD we haue sinned heare vs holy Prophet our only hope c. Then shall Gabriel present himselfe to helpe his friend and they shall goe to the Throne of GOD. And GOD shall say I know why you are come Farre be it that I should not heare the prayer of my faithfull one Then shall a bridge be made ouer Hell and on the top of the bridge shall bee set a ballance wherein euery mans workes shall bee weighed and those which are saued shall passe ouer the bridge the other shall fall into Hell Abd. How many bands of men shall there be in that day Mahom. An hundred and twentie of which three only shall be found faithfull and euery Band or troupe of men shall be in length the iourney of a thousand yeeres in breadth fiue hundred Abd. What shall become of Death Mah. He shall be transformed into a Ram and they shall bring him betweene Paradise and Hell Then shall arise much dissentions betweene these two peoples through feare of the one and hope of the other But the people of Paradise shall preuaile and shall slay Death betweene Paradise and Hell Abd. Thou O Mahomet hast ouercome and I beleeue that there is but one GOD Almightie and thou art his Messenger and Prophet In this long and tedious Summarie of that longer and more tedious Dialogue compared with the former Iewish opinions touching their Behemoth Leuiathan Ziz Ierusalem Swines flesh the Angell of Death and other their superstitious opinions it may appeare that the Iewes were forward Mint-masters in this new-coyned Religion of Mahomet In the beginning of this Dialogue are mentioned their fiue Prayers and their Ramadam or Ramazan Of which that Arabian Noble-man in confutation of the Alcoran writeth thus He which hath fulfilled these fiue Prayers shall bee praised in this world and in the next They are as follow Two kneelings in the morning after-noone foure at Vespers or a little before Sun-set foure after Sun-set foure at their beginning of supper two and after supper when it is darke two in all eighteene kneelings in a day Their Lent or Fast of the Moneth Ramazan is thus In the day time they must fast from Meate Drinke and Venerie till the Sunne bee downe then is Riot permitted them till a white threed may be discerned from a blacke But if any be sicke or in iourneying he may pay at another time the same number of dayes Sampsates Isphacanes a Persian in a letter written to one Meletius which had conuerted to Christianitie and fled to Constantinople to reduce him to his former vomit alleageth this saying of GOD to Mahomet I haue made all things for thee and thee for mee obiecteth to Christians the worship of three Persons the Father Mother and Sonne the worship of many gods And
Christians more vnnatural against his brother but most most vnnatural and monstrous against his sonne Selym. His conquests were in Cilicia Caramania and Peloponnesus Selym not content to haue thrust his father out of the Throne aspired to a further effect of aspiring ambition depriuing him of life from whom himselfe had receiued it To this end he corrupted a Iew Baiazets Physician whom Knolles calleth Hamon but Menauino an eye-witnesse nameth him Vstarabi who with the powder of beaten Diamonds poysoned him and for reward when hee claymed Selyms promise had his head stricken off in the Tyrants presence So much did he hate the Traytor whose treason he so much loued The body of Baiazet was embalmed and interred at Constantinople in a beautifull Sepulchre neere to the Meschit which himselfe had built and Priests were appointed which should euery day pray for his soule Two of his Pages did Selym put to death for wearing blacke and mourning apparell for their Masters death and three others whereof Menauino was one hardly by intreatie of Selyms daughters and some Bassaes escaped This Viper that spared not his father proceeded with bloudie hands to make an end of the rest of his Ottoman-kindred beginning with fiue sonnes of his brethren and adding the remnant as hee could bring them into his power And hauing thus founded his Throne in bloudie cruelties of his owne at home no maruell if abroad his proceedings were no lesse cruell and bloudie towards his enemies Of whom the first which offered himselfe after his domesticall warres appeased was Ismael the Sophie who with thirtie thousand Persian Horse-men gaue battell to Selym notwithstanding his three hundred thousand Turks where was fought in Armenia neere Coy a terrible and mortall battell betwixt them the Turkes at last very hardly preuailing by helpe of their great Ordnance but so little cause had they to reioyce of their victorie that this is reckoned among the dismall and disastrous dayes termed by the Turkes The onely day of Doome The next yeere he entred againe into the Persian Confines and there tooke Ciamassum ouerthrew Aladeules the Mountaine King who raigned in Taurus and Antitaurus and slew him But his most fortunate attempts were against Campson Gaurus the Egyptian Soldan and his forces of Mamalukes whom by his multitudes notwithstanding their fame and valour not inferiour to any Souldiors of the world hee ouercame the Soldan himselfe being left dead in the place August 7. 1516. Neither had Tomumbeius his Successor any better successe but succeeded as wel in his fortune as to his Scepter who by treason of his owne and power of his enemy lost both his life and Kingdome all Egypt and Syria therby accrewing to the Ottoman Selym from thenceforth purposing to turne his forces from the Sunne-rising against the Christians in the West came to his owne Sunne-set the period of his raigne and life a miserable disease as an angrie Pursuiuant exacting and redemanding his bloudie cruell spirit an implacable officer of that implacable Tyrant to Tyrants and Prince of Princes Death who at last conquered this Conquerour or rather if his Epitaph written on his Tombe say true conueied him hence to seeke new Conquests His disease was a Canker in the backe eating out a passage for his viperous soule which made him rot while he liued and become a stinking burthen to himselfe and others He died in September 1520. hauing before bequeathed bloudshed and desolation to the Christians and ordained Solyman his sonne and heire executour of that his hellish Testament And further to excite him thereunto had left him the liuely counterfeit of himselfe with sundrie bloudie Precepts annexed His title therein written was Sultan Selym Othoman King of Kings Lord of all Lords Prince of all Princes Sonne and Nephew of God Wee may adde Heire apparant to the Deuill that breathed his last in bloud resembling him that was a Murtherer from the beginning CHAP. IX A Continuation of the Turkish Warres and Affaires together with the succession of the Great Turkes till this present yeere 1616. §. I. Of SOLYMAN the Magnificent SOLYMAN sir-named the Magnificent succeeded his Father Selym in place and surmounted him exceedingly in exploits Belgrade which ominous name did presage happinesse vnto him in his Warres and proceedings was the beginning of his Conquests wonne by the Turkes August 29. 1521. Rhodes receiueth him on Christmasse day 1522. but withall exileth both Cheere Christmasse and Christians Hee inuadeth Hungarie and in the field discomfiteth and killeth Lewes and slayeth or captiueth two hundred thousand Hungarians in that expedition 1526. Hee entereth Hungarie the second time 1529. and after some butcheries therein marcheth to Vienna in Austria where he lost fourescore thousand of his Turkes and then with shame anger returned In the yeere 1532. he returneth with an Armie of fiue hundred thousand men to whom Charles the fifth opposed himselfe and the Christian forces in greater numbers then hath in many ages been seene mustering in his Armie at Vienna two hundred and threescore thousand men whereof fourescore and ten thousand Foot-men and thirtie thousand Horse-men were old Souldiers to whom Solyman did not nor durst not bid battell Poore Hungarie rues in meane while whether he getteth or loseth in Austria being made his thorow-fare as he went and came After this he trieth his successe against the Persian where hee taketh Tauris and Babylon with the Countries of Assyria and Media Anno 1534. each of which had sometimes beene Ladie of the World At incredible costs he prepared a Fleet in the Red Sea 1537. and taking Aden and Zibyth two petie Kingdomes in Arabia by his forces besieged Dium a Castle of the Portugals in the East-Indies but without his wished successe For the Portugals still retaine their Indian-Seas and Traffique and not onely freed that their Castle from Turkish bondage but had meanes to fortifie it better by the Ordnance which the Turkes in their hastie flight had left behinde A more dangerous plot did Solyman meane while contriue against Christendome preparing his forces to inuade Italy and to that end was come to Aulona an Hauen in Macedonia with two hundred thousand Souldiers where Barbarussa and Lutzis Bassa his great Admirall met him with his Fleet to transport his Armie But Solyman first employed these Sea-forces on the coast of Italy and tooke Castrum his Horse-men which he had sent ouer in great Palendars carried away the people cattell and substance betwixt Brundusium and Tarentum fortie miles space all the countrey of Otranto terrified with feare of a greater tempest But the Venetians turned it from the rest of Italy vpon themselues notwithstanding their league by vnseasonable exacting of that Sea-courtesie the vayling of the bonnets or top sayles of some Turkish Gallies vnto them as Lords of that Sea for which neglect some of them were sunke Auria also the Emperours Admirall had surprised some of the Turkes stragling Fleet and
goat skins the haire thereof being dried in the Sunne one before and the other behinde embracing the bodie in forme of a girdle otherwise naked Winter and Summer They dwell without the Cities in Suburbs and Villages Thus vnder the colour of Religion they roame vp and downe and make no conscience to rob kill and murther if they finde themselues the stronger with a small Hatchet which they beare vnder their girdle all men of whatsoeuer Law or Nation They are fornicators and most detestable in that most detestable sinne of Sodomie For shew of holinesse they eate of a certaine herb called Matslach the violent operation whereof maketh them to become madde so as through a certaine furie they with a certaine knife or razor doe cut their necks stomacks and thighes vntill they be full of most horrible wounds which to heale they lay vpon them a certaine herbe letting it lie vpon their hurt vntill it be altogether consumed into ashes suffering in the meane time extreme paine with maruellous patience Thus do they imitate their Prophet Mahomet who through abstinence in his den fell into such a furie say they that hee would haue throwne himselfe from the top of it And therefore fooles and madde men are in great reuerence yea they account such for Saints and if such madde men strike or rob them they take it in good part and say they shall haue good lucke after it They erect stately Monuments ouer such mad mens graues as at Aleppo one Sheh Boubac who being mad went alwayes naked being dead they built a house ouer his graue where to this day saith our Author there are Lampes burning day and night and many of these Daruises there remained to looke to his Sepulchre and to receiue the offerings of such as come as many do euery weeke out of Aleppo If any be sicke or in danger they vow to offer money or other things to Sheh Boubac if they recouer The same account they make of one Sheh Mahammet a mad man yet liuing in Aleppo going naked with a spit on his shoulder Men and women will come and kisse his hand or some other part of his body and aske him counsell for they hold that mad mens soules are in heauen talking with GOD and that he reuealeth secrets to them And euen the Bassaes themselues wil kisse and consult with this Oracle Hard I deeme it to say whether is the mad man In a late victorie against the Christians they affirme that this Sheh Mahammet was seene in the field many thousand miles distant fighting against their enemies whom by his helpe they ouercame But to returne to our Daruises this our Author saith that oftentimes great Bassaes in displeasure with the Emperor will retire themselues into this Order as the Hospital and Sanctuarie of their diseased and dangerous state Their witnesse is of better account then any other mans although he were an Emir or of the kindred of Mahomet They liue of Almes as the other Religious doe which they begge in the name of Haly. They haue in Natolia a Sepulchre of a Saint called by them Scidibattal who say they conquered the most part of Turkie and about the place of the Sepulchre is an habitation and couent where aboue fiue hundred of these Deruises dwell and there once in the yeere they keepe a generall assembly in which their Superiour whom they call Assambaba is present and President their Counsell or Chapter consisting saith Menauinus of aboue eight thousand of their Order One of these Deruislars drawing neere vnto Baiazet the second as if he would haue receiued an Almes of him desperately assailed him with a short Scimatar which he closely hid vnder his hypocriticall habite But Baiazet by the starting of his horse afraid of this Hobgoblin auoided the deadly blow but not vnwounded neither had he so escaped had not Ishender Bassa with his Hors-mans Mace presently strucke downe the desperate villaine as he was redoubling his blow who was forthwith rent in pieces by the Souldiers Baiazet thereupon proscribed all them of that superstitious Order and banished them out of his Empire The like as Steptemcastrensis saith they had attempted against Mahomet his father in his youth while Amurath was yet liuing And in our daies Mehemet or Muhemet the great Visier Bassa who swayed almost wholly and onely their mightie Empire as appeareth in the Historie of that State in the dayes of Soliman Selym and Amurath and as Master Harborne relateth was esteemed to possesse two and twentie millions of gold was not assaulted only but murthered by one of these Deruislers For whereas it is a custome of the great men that at ordinarie houres all their Chaplaines or Priests assemble themselues in the Diuano there together mumbling their superstitions and this Deruisler ordinarily thither admitted vpon an old grudge for that Mahomet had before depriued him of a Souldiers place and pension when the Visier sate there to giue publike audience sitting right against him after his Mumpsimus finished the Visier reaching vnto him his wonted Almes he with a dagger closely before prouided stabs him into the breast and was therefore of Mehemets slaues with exquisite torments done to death In their great Counsell before mentioned there are young men clothed in white which tell the most memorable obseruations in their trauells which they present to the Assambaba in writing subscribed with their names On the Friday they vse after praier and eating the herbe Asseral to read the same with dances and after their dance which is about a huge fire made of as much wood as an hundred beasts can carrie they cut the skin of their armes legs or breasts engrauing some figure thereon whereto they after apply ashes and vrine In the doing hereof they vtter this speech This I cut for the loue of such a woman Vpon the last day of their Feast they take leaue of their Gouernor and depart in troupes like Souldiers with Banners and Drums and so returne vnto their owne Monasteries The Torlaquis by others called Durmislurs cloath themselues with sheeps and goats skins like vnto the Deruis aboue the same they wrap about them in manner of a cloake the skinne of a great Beare with the haire made fast vpon their stomacke with the legs vpon their heads they weare a white Bonnet of Felt folded with small plaits hauing the rest of their bodies altogether naked They also burne their Temples as the former A beastly generation For they know not nor will not learne to read write or doe any ciuill profitable act but liue idlely vpon almes roaguing thorow the Countrey alone and in troupes thorow the Desarts robbing such as they meet handsomely apparelled causing them to goe as they doe naked They professe palmistry and fortune-telling the people feeing and feeding them for such vanities And sometimes they carry with them an old man whom they worship as a God lodging themselues neere the best house of the
Towne where they come And there this new numen and old impostor faining himselfe rauished in spirit pronounceth graue words and spirituall commandements at sundry times lifting vp his eyes to heauen and after turning to those his disciples willeth them to carry him from thence for some imminent iudgement there to be executed as is reuealed to him They then pray him to auert that danger by his prayer which he accordingly doth which the people deluded by their hypocrisies reward with a large beneuolence at which they after amongst themselues doe merrily scoffe They eate also of the herbe Matslatz and sleepe vpon the ground naked of clothes and shame and commit also abominable Sodomitrie And thus much of their misorderly orders of an irreligious Religion He that will read more at large of them let him read the Booke of the Policie of the Turkish Empire which out of Menauino discourseth more largely of these things and other the Turkish Rites Septemcastrensis telleth of certaine Saints of exceeding estimation for holinesse whose Sepulchres are much frequented of deuout Votaries as that of Sedichasi which signifieth a holy Conquerour in the confines oof Caramania Another is called Hatsehipettesch that is The Pilgrims helpe Another Ascik passa who helpeth in loue-matters and for children in barrennesse Another Van passa for concord and Scheych passa in trouble and affliction and Goi or Muschin or Bartschin passa inuoked for their cattle and Chidirelles for trauellers to whom he sometime appeareth as a traueller and any one that hath extraordinarily liued is reputed a Saint after his death They haue many whose names I remember not saith hee in like reuerence with them as are the Apostles with vs When they would seeke for things lost they go to one Saint when they are robbed they goe to another and for the knowledge of things secret they repaire to a third They haue their Martyrs and Miracles and Reliques Thus they tell of certaine religious men condemned wrongfully for suspition of treason to the fire which they entred without harme as those three companions of Daniel and their shooes were hanged vp for a Monument Their Nephes ogli that is soules or persons begotten of the holy Spirit such is their fancie without seed of man they hold in such reputation that they account themselues happy which can doe them any good yea that can touch them and if their haires be laid vpon any they say that their sicknesses are cured In this reputation of sanctitie they haue a certaine old woman which hauing a dog with her in her pilgrimage to Mecca readie to die for thirst made water in her hand and gaue it to the dog which charitable act was so highly accepted that a voyce was presently heard from heauen saying This day thou shalt be in Paradise And at the same time shee was caught vp bodie and soule into heauen and hereupon are they liberall to their dogs If this crosse an opinion which some Saracens hold that women come not to Paradise no maruell seeing falsehood is commonly contrarie both to the Truth and it selfe He that would read the miraculous tales which they tell of their Saints may haue recourse to that namelesse Author which of his Countrey is called and heere often cited by name Septemcastrensis who telleth of his Master and his Mistris their deuotion and vowes to Goi and Mirtschin for preseruation of their cattell sometimes miraculous so readie is the Deuill with his sauing destruction and destroying preseruation yea hee saith that the Deuill doth turne himselfe amongst them into an Angell of light with such effectuall illusions that there are seene or at least beleeued amongst them the dead raised to life diseases of all sorts cured secrets of the hearts disclosed treasures long before hidden in the ground reuealed and besides such ostentation and shew of dissembled holinesse that they may seeme not to come short of the Fathers and Apostles in that behalfe if bodily exercise were the triall of sanctitie Busbequius tells that they haue like conceit of one Chederles amongst them as some superstitious persons haue of St. George and the Turkes affirme to bee the same The Deruis haue a great Temple dedicated in his honor at Theke Thioi not farre from Amasia the chiefe Citie of Cappadocia The Countrey and both Legends agree for the killing of the Dragon deliuering the Virgin c. They say that hee trauelled many Countries and at last came to a Riuer the waters whereof yeelded immortalitie to the drinker and now cannot be seene Chederles heereby freed from death rides about euery where on his horse which thence also dranke in immortalitie and delighteth in battells taking part with the best cause and to make vp the tale they say hee was one of the companions of Alexander the Great they affirme that Alexander was Salomons chiefe Captaine and Iob his high Steward In that Moschee or Temple at Theke Thioi is a fountaine of water which they say sprang vp of the staling of Chederles horse Like Stories haue they of his horse-keeper and nephew whose Sepulchres they shew where deuout Pilgrims obtaine many blessings They shew for relikes the pieces of the shooes which Chederles his horse brake in that Dragon-fight vse the same in drinke against agues and head-aches These places are full of Dragons and Vipers Sultan Murat Chan or Amurath the second in a battell against the Christians vsed this prayer O righteous God giue vs strength and victorie O Muhamet O Mustapha the top of glory by abundance of miracles by the abundance of Gaiberenlers which are friends to the Musulmans and walke inuisible by the abundance of the Cheders grant vs victorie In the time of Vrchan or Orchanes the sonne of Ottoman they say these Gaib-erenlers appeared on white horses in a battell against the Christians and slew them These they say are friends to the Islams that is Catholike or right beleeuing Musulmans and are diuine protectors of the Imania or Mahumetan Law Such tales you may read in the Spanish relations of the West Indies as at the battell of Tauesco where a strange horse-man discomfited the Indians c. And our inuocation of God and Saint George is rather Turkish then truely Christian For God alone is our strength which teacheth our hands to fight and our fingers to battell and whom haue I in heauen but thee and I haue desired none in earth with thee As for George and Chederles I know them both alike in matter of Inuocation saue that it is worse to abuse to impietie a Christian name then a Turkish and King Edward the third seemed to inuoke Edward as much as George Ha Saint Edward Ha Saint George saith Thomas Walsingham But that of George is rather an Embleme of euery Christian as not onely the Heroique Muse of our Spencer in Poeticall fiction but the Diuiner of great Diuines in their iudiciall censure haue manifested It seemeth
Heresie of Eutyches heere Iason had built a Temple to Iupiter in the straights which seuer Europe from Asia after Melas measure fiue furlongs Of their ancient Kings others haue related but one cannot passe this our Historie without obseruation and that is Mithridates the sixth King of that name who loosing his father in the eleuenth yeere of his age by his Tutors was trecherously assailed but escaped and by vse of that antidote which of him still beareth the name Mithridate out-liued their poysoning conspiracie Hee liued indeed to the death of thousands which either his crueltie or his warres consumed Foure yeeres together to auoid their Treasons he liued in the fields and woods vnder a shew of hunting both preuenting their designes and inuring himselfe to hardnesse Hee spake two and twentie languages being Lord of so many Nations Hee held warres with the Romans sixe and fortie yeeres whom those renowned Captaines Sylla Lucullus Pompey did so conquer as he alway arose againe with great lustre and with greater terror and at last dyed not by his enemies command but voluntarily in his old age and his own Kingdome neuer made to attend the Roman triumphs Syllaes felicity Lucullus prowesse and Pompeyes greatnesse notwithstanding His aspiring thoughts had greedily swallowed the Soueraignty both of Asia and Europe He caused in one night all the Romans in his Dominions to be slaine in which massacre perished a hundred and fiftie thousand as some haue numbred But it cannot be conceiued saith Orosius how many there were or how great was the griefe both of the doers and sufferers when euery one must betray his innocent guests and friends or hazard his owne life no Law of Hospitalitie no Religion of Sanctuary or reuerence of Images being sufficient protection And no maruell if he spared not his enemies when he slew Exipodras and Homochares his sonnes and after the poysonings and voluntary death of Monyma his wife Statira and Roxane his daughters his sonne Pharnaces like to taste of the same cup won to his part his fathers Armie sent against him with which he pursued his father so hotly that hee hauing denounced a heauy curse vpon him entred amongst his Wiues Concubines and Daughters and gaue them poyson pledging them in the same liquor which his body accustomed to his Antidotes easily ouer-came and therefore was faine to intreat another to open a bloudy passage for that his cruell soule A man saith Orosius of all men most superstitious alway hauing with him Philosophers and men expert in all Arts now threescore and foureteene yeeres old The Religion in Pontus was little differing from the Greekes Wee read of the Sacrifices of this King to Ceres and to Iupiter Bellipotens in which the King brought the first wood to the fire He powred also thereon Hony Milke Wine Oyle and after made a Feast In honour of Neptune they drowned Chariots drawne with foure white Horses with which it seemed they would haue him ease himselfe in his Sea-voyages At the mouth of Pontus was the Temple of Iupiter Iasus called Panopeum and nigh thereto a Promontory sacred to Diana sometime an Iland ioyned to the Continent by an Earthquake Hereabouts was the Caue Acherusium whose bottomlesse bottome was thought to reach to Hell I may in the next place set downe Paphlagonia which as it fareth with such as haue mightie Neighbours can scarcely finde her proper limits Some reckon it to Galatia before described and sometimes Pontus hath shared it and either the force of Armes or bountie of Emperours hath assigned it at other times to Phrygia Cilicia or other parts the bounds thereof are thus deliuered Pontus confineth on the North on the East the Riuer Halys on the South Phrygia and Galatia on the West Bithynia Of the people hereof called Heneti some deriue the Veneti of Italy They now call it Roni It had the name Paphlagonia of Paphlagon the sonne of Phineus The Mount Olgasys is very high and in the same are many Paphlagonian Temples Sandaracurgium is another Mountaine made hollow by the Metall-miners which were wont to bee slaues redeemed from capitall Sentence who heere exchanged that speedie death for one more lingring So deadly is the Alpha and Omega the beginning and ending of this Idoll of the World which the Spaniards haue verified in the West by the destruction of another world Vitruuius tells of a Fountaine in Paphlagania as it were mixed with Wine whereof they which drinke without other liquor proue drunken The Heptacometae and Mossynoeci inhabited about those parts a people of that beastly disposition that they performed the most secret worke of Nature in publike view These are not so much notorious for being worse then beasts as their neighbours the Tibareni for surpassing in iustice other men They would not warre on their enemy but would faithfully before relate vnto him the Time Place and Houre of their fight whereas the Mossynoeci vsed to assault strangers that trauelled by them very treacherously They haue also a venemous kinde of Hony growing out of their trees with which they beguiled and slew three troupes of Pompey The Tabareni obserued one strange fashion that when the woman was deliuered of a childe her husband lay in and kept his chamber the women officiously attending him a custome obserued at this day amongst the Brasilians CHAP. XVI Of Asia proprie dicta now called Sarcum THis Region in the strict sense being a particular Prouince of the lesser Asia is bounded on the West with part of Propontis and Hellespont the Aegean Icarian and Mertoan Seas on the South with the Rhodian Sea Lycia and Pamphilia on the East with Galatia on the North with Pontus and Bithynia and part of Propontis In which space are contained Phrygia Caria and both Mysias Aeolis Ionia Doris Lydia Some circumcise from hence both Phrygia and Mysia alledging the authoritie of Saint Luke But in the Apocalypse Chap. 1. these parts are also added and 1. Pet. 1.1 PHRYGIA is diuided into the greater which lyeth Eastward and the lesse called also Hellespontiaca and Troas and of some Epictetus The greater PHRYGIA hath not many Cities Here stood Midaium the Royall Seat of Mydas and Apamia the Phrygian Metropolis Phrygia is called of the riuer Phryx which diuideth it from Caria Herodotus telleth that the Phrygians were accounted the most ancient of all people for the triall whereof Psammetichus King of Egypt had shut vp without societie of any humane creature two children causing onely goats to bee admitted to suckle them who after long time pronounced bec which they had learned of the goates but because that with the Phrygians signified bread therefore they accounted the Phrygians first authors of mankinde Before Deucalions floud Nannacus is reported to raigne there and foreseeing the same to haue assembled his people into the Temple with supplications and prayers Hence grew the prouerbe to say A thing was from
Nannacus which was exceeding old Many antiquities are told of their gods whose Theologie thus is recited by Eusebius The Phrygians tell that Meon was the most ancient King of Phrygia the Father of Cybele who inuented the pipe called Syrinx and was named the Mountaine mother beloued of Marsyas But when as Attis had raised her belly her father slaying him and his fellowes shee enraged with madnesse ranne vp and downe the countrey Marsyas roamed with her who after being ouercome in a Musicall contention of Apollo was slayed quicke After these things did Apollo loue Cybele with whom she wandred to the Hyperboreans and by his command the bodie of Attis was buried and Cybele obtained diuine Honours Hence it is that euen to this day the Phrygians bewayle the young mans death In Pessinus a City of Phrygia after reckoned to Galatia they erected a Temple to Attis and Cybele After the death of Hyperion the children of Coelus parted the Kingdome amongst them the most famous of which were Atlas and Saturne to the first of which befell the parts adioyning to the Ocean He had great skill in Astronomy Of his seuen daughters were procreated many of the Gods and Heroes and of Maia the eldest and Iupiter was Mercury begotten Saturne the sonne of Atlas being couetous and wicked married Cybele his sister and had by her Iupiter They tell of another Iupiter brother of Coelus and King of Crete but there and here they are so intangled with Fables that the least inquirie hath most ease and no lesse certaintie This Cretan held the Empire of the World and had ten Sonnes whom they call Curetes his Sepulchre they shew to this day Saturne the Brother of Atlas reigned in Italy and Sicilia till Iupiter his Sonne dispossessed him who proued a seuere Prince to the wicked and bountifull to the good Thus much Eusebius of the Phrygian Diuinitie out of their owne Legends the Mysteries whereof he after vnfoldeth Other Tales they had as that Minerua killed there a fire breathing beast of Philemon and Baucis and such like mentioned by the Poets Meander making Warres with the Pessinuntians vowed for Sacrifice whatsoeuer he first met after hee returned with Conquest which he performed on Archelaus his Sonne ouercomming saith one Pietie with Pietie Impious is that Pietie which destroyeth Humanitie and Deuillish crueltie both in the Idoll and Idolater as appeared also in the euent if our Story bee true the father rewarding such Pietie with greater Impietie on himselfe and casting himselfe into the riuer left his name therunto The like is told of the Riuers Sagaris and Scamander Hercules when he went with the Argonautes to Colchos came on shoare on Phrygia to amend his Oare and being thirstie sent his sweeting Hylas to the riuer for water who falling therein was drowned whereupon he leauing his cōpanions wandred in the woods bemoning his Hylas About these times Tantalus liued in these parts a man besides other vices exceedingly couetous not sparing the Temples of the Gods Hence arose the Fable that he was punished in Hell with perpetuall hunger and thirst whiles pleasant waters and dainty fruits did offer themselues to his mouth but when he would haue tasted them fled from him So indeed doth Mammon torment his followers making them to want as well that which they haue as that which they haue not the Medicine being the increaser of the Disease as when fire is quenched with Oile like Gardners Asses laden with good herbs a burthen to them food for others themselues glad to feed on Thistles And how many Tantali do we daily see enduring a hunger and thirst in the midst of their abundance a monstrous and vnnaturall sicknesse to hunger after that which they haue yet cannot yet will not feed on a Dropsie-thirst saue that they dare not drinke that which they haue and thirst Vnworthy of that life which he sacrificeth to that which neuer had the dignitie to be mortall vnworthy that body which he pineth with plenty or that soule which he damneth for a fancie of hauing or that nature of man which he confineth to the Gallies to the Mynes in the seruice of a piece of earth vnworthy of the name of Christian whose Christ was to one of his Fore-fathers worth thirty pence but now this will sell him for three halfe pence for a piece of bread yea like Aesops Dog for the shadow of a piece of Bread vnworthy of any thing saue that his couetise to be his Tempter his Tormentor his Fury his Deuill Once pitty it is that hee prizeth a Halter so deare else would he rid the World of a burthen and himselfe of his worthlesse life But whither hath Tantalus carried me Take heed Reader he doe not carry thee further or thou him beyond words They say he would haue sacrificed his Sonne Pephilops had not Diuine power releeued him thou art like to find him Tantalus still What the Poets tell of Ganymedes euery one knowes of Niobe famous for her sonnes daughters which she lost all in one day of Midas another Tantalus whose couetousnesse became a new Alchymie to turne all into Gold And how doth this two-fold Alchymie gull the world the one making with vaine hopes a rich estate become poore the other with ful haps making all Gold but the Man onely the Romane Alchymist is Master of that Art which the former professe that turnes so easily a little Lead into so much good Gold onely the wiseman wise in the latter to be Master of himselfe his wealth not a slaue to passion or pelfe And yet Midas in a publike calamity hapning by an Earthquake which swallowed vp Houses warned by an Oracle to cast into those gaping jawes of the earth that which was most precious hurled therein much treasure what could hee thinke more precious and how much more easily would many a Mydas haue hurled in himselfe But the Earth not yet satisfied would not close vp her mouth till his sonne Anchurus esteeming man to be most precious leaped in and the reconciled Element receiued an Altar in witnesse of his haughty courage There were many Phrygian Kings named Midas The Phrygians sacrificed to the riuers Meander and Marsius they placed their Priests after death vpon a stone ten cubits high They did not sweare or force others to an oath they were much addicted to diuination by Birds Macrobius applyeth their Tales of Cybele and Atis to the Sunne Silenus is reckoned among the Phrygian Deities whom Goropius fercheth out of Scythia and maketh him Midas his Master in Geography and Philosophy The diligent attendance of the Scholer was occasion to that Fable of his long eares the learning of the Master gaue him diuine Honours In Phrygia on the riuer Sangarius stood Gordie or as Arrianus calleth it Gordion of which he reporteth that when Alexander came thither he had a great desire to see the Tower in which was the palace of Gordius Midas
Doer or his Posteritie The Ancients made no question of the Soules immortalitie speaking often of the Dead as liuing in Heauen But of the punishments of wicked men in Hel not a word The later Professors teach that the Soule dies with or soone after the Bodie and therfore beleeue neither Heauen nor Hel. Some of them hold that good mens soules by the strength of vertue hold out some longer time but of bad men to die with the bodie But the most common opinion taken from the Sect of Idolaters and brought in fiue hundred yeeres since holdeth that the World consisteth of one substance and that the Maker thereof together with Heauen and Earth Men Beasts Plants and the Elements doe make vp one bodie of which euery Creature is a distinct member thence obseruing what loue ought to be amongst all things and that Men may come to become one with GOD. Although the learned men acknowledge one supreame Deitie yet doe they build him no Temple nor depute any place to his worship no Priests or Ministers of Religion no solemne Rites no Precepts or Rules none that hath power to ordaine or explaine their Holies or to punish the Transgressors They doe Him no priuate or publike deuotions or seruice yea they affirme that it belongs to the King only to do sacrifice and worship to the King of Heauen and that it is treason for others to vsurpe it For this cause the King hath two Temples very magnificent in both the Royall Cities the one consecrate to Heauen the other to Earth in the which hee was wont himselfe to sacrifice but it is now performed by some principall Magistrates which slay there many Sheepe and Oxen and performe other Rites many to Heauen and Earth in his stead To the other spirits of Hills Riuers and the foure Regions of the World onely the chiefe Magistrates doe sacrifice nor is it lawfull to priuate men The Precepts of this Law are in their nine Bookes before mentioned Nothing in this Sect is moee generall from the King to the meanest then their yeerely Obits to their Parents and grand-fathers which they account obedience to Parents though dead of which afterwards The Temple they haue is that which in euery Citie is by the Law built to Confutius in that place where there Schoole or Commencement house is This is sumptuous and hath adioyning the Palace of that Magistracie which is ouer the Bachellors or Graduates of the first degree In the chiefe place of this Temple or Chappell is placed his Image or else his name in golden Cupitall Letters on a faire Table besides which stand other Images of his disciples as inferiour Saints Into this Temple euery new and full Moone all the Magistrates of the Citie assemble with the Bachellors and adore him with kneelings wax-lights and incense They do also yeerely on his birth-day and other appointed times offer vnto him meat-offerings or dishes with great prouision yeelding him thanks for the learning they haue found in his Bookes as the cause of their Degrees and Magistracies But they pray not to him for any thing no more then to the dead in their Obits There are other Chappels of the same Sect vnto the Tutelare spirits of each Citie and proper to euery Magistrate of the Court Therein they binde themselues by solemne oath to obserue the Lawes in their function and that at their first entrance heere they offer meates and burne odours acknowledging diuine Iustice in punishing periurie The scope of this Sect of the learned is the publike peace and well ordering of the priuate and publike state and framing themselues to Morall vertues wherein they doe not much disagree from the Christian veritie They haue fiue concords in their Moralitie in which as Cardinall vertues they comprise all Humanitie the duties namely of Father and Child Husband and Wife Master or Superiour and those vnder them Brethren amongst themselues and lastly Equals and Companions They condemne single life and permit polygamie This precept of Charitie to doe to others as one would bee done to is well handled in their Bookes and especially the pietie and obseruance of Children to their Parents and Inferiours to their Superiours Longobardus saith that euery new and full Moon-day a little before Sun-rising in all the Cities of this Kingdome and in all the streets at one and the same houre they make publication of these sixe Precepts First Obey thy Father and Mother Secondly Reuerence thy Elders and Superiours Thirdly Keepe peace with thy Neighbours Fourthly Teach thy Children Fiftly Fulfill thy Calling and Office The last prohibiteth crimes Murther Adulterie Theft c. Many mixe this first with other Sects yea some hold not this a Sect but an Academie Schoole or Profession of Policie and gouerning the priuate and publike State §. IIII. Of the Sect Sciequia THe second Sect is called Sciequia or Omitose in Iapon pronounced Sciaccu and Amidabu the characters to both are the same the Iaponites call it also the Totoqui Law This was brought into China from the West out of a Kingdome called Thiencio or Scinto now Indostan betweene Indus and Ganges Anno Dom. 65. I haue read That the King of China mooued by a dreame sent Legates thither which brought thence Bookes and Interpreters which translated those Bookes from hence it passed into Iapon and therefore the Iaponders are deceiued which thinke that Sciaccu and Amidabu were Siamites and came into Iapon themselues Perhaps they then heard of the Apostles preaching in India and sending for that had this false doctrine obtruded on them These hold that there are foure Elements whereas the Chinois foolishly affirme fiue Fire Water Earth Metals and Wood not mentioning the Aire of which they compound this Elementary World with the creatures therein They multiplie Worlds with Democritus and with Pythagoras hold a Metampsychosis or passage of Soules out of one body into another They tell of a Trinitie of Gods which grew into one Deitie This Sect promiseth rewards to the good in Heauen to the euill threatens punishments in Hell extolleth Single life seemes to condemne Marriage bids fare-well to house and houshold and begs in Pilgrimages to diuers places Their Rites doe much agree it is the Iesuites assertion with the Popish their Hymnes and Prayers with the Gregorian fashion Images in their Temples Priestly Vestments like to their Pluutalia In their Mumsimus they often repeate a name which themselues vnderstand not Tolome which some thinke may be deriued from that of Saint Thomas Neither in Heauen or Hell doe they ascribe eternitie but after certaine spaces of yeeres they allow them another birth in some other Earth there allowing them penance for their passed sinnes The seuerer sort eate not flesh or any thing that had life but if any delinquish their penance is not heard the gift of some money or the mumbling ouer their Orisons being they promise of power to free from Hell These things made a faire shew but their corruptions
made them distastfull and this also which the Learned often obiect to these Sectaries that the King and Princes which first gaue way hereto died violently and miserably and fell into publike calamities Yet hath it euen to these times in diuers vicissitudes encreased and decreased and many Bookes haue beene thereof written which contayne many difficulties inextricable to themselues Their Temples are many and sumptuous in which huge monstrous Idols of Brasse Marble Wood and Earth are to be seene with Steeples adioyning of stone or timber and therein exceeding great Bells and other ornaments of great price Their Priests are called Osciami They continually shaue their heads and beards contrary to the Countrey custome Some of them goe on Pilgrimages others liue an austere life on Hills or in Caues and the most of them which amount to two or three millions liue in Cloysters of their reuenues and almes and somewhat also of their owne industrie These Priests are accounted the most vile and vicious in the Kingdome being of the baser raskalitie sold when they are children by their parents to the elder Priests of slaues made Disciples and succeeding their Masters in Sect and Stipend few voluntarily adioyning themselues to these Cloysterers Neither doe they affect more liberall learning nor abstayne but perforce from disauowed Luxurie Their Monasteries are diuided into diuers Stations according to their greatnesse in euery Station is one perpetuall Administrator with his slaue-Disciples which succeed him therein Superiour in the Monasterie they acknowledge none but euery one builds as many Cells or Chambers as he is able which they let out to strangers for great gaine that their Monasteries may be esteemed publike Innes wherein men may quietly lodge or follow their businesse without any explication of their Sects They are hired also by many to Funerall Solemnities and to other Rites in which wilde Beasts Birds or Fishes are made free and let loose the seuerer Sectaries buying them to this meritorious purpose In our times this Sect much flourisheth and hath many Temples erected and repaired many Eunuches women and of the rude vulgar embracing the same There are some Professors called Ciaicum that is Fasters which liue in their owne houses all their life abstayning from Fish and Flesh and with certaine set prayers worship a multitude of Idols at home but not hard to be hired to these deuotions at other mens houses In these Monasteries women also doe liue separated from men which shaue their heads and reiect Marriage These Nunnes are there called Nicu. But these are but few in comparison of the men One of the learned Sect famous in the Court relinquished his place in the Colledge and shaued his haire wrote many Bookes against the Confutians but being complayned of the King commanded hee should be punished which hee punished further on himselfe with cutting his owne throat Whereupon a Libell or Petition was put vp to the King against the Magistrates which relinquished Confutius and became of this Sect the King notwithstanding all the Queenes Eunuches and his Kindred are of this Sect made answere That such should goe into the Desarts and might bee ashamed of their Robes Hence followed orders That whosoeuer in his Writings mentioned an Idoll except by way of Confutation should be vncapable of degrees in Learning which caused much alteration in Religion for many of this Sect had preuayled much in Court and elsewhere Amongst the rest one Thacon was so honoured of the chiefe Queene that shee worshipped daily his garment because it was not lawfull for himselfe to enter the Palace but dealt by Eunuches One libelled to the King against him but had no answere which is the Kings fashion when he denies or disallowes it which made him more insolent But being suspected for a Libell made against the King and some writings in zeale of his Idols against the King being found he was beaten to death howling in his torments which before had vanted a Stoicall Apathie The other Sect-masters were banished the Court §. V. Of the third Sect Lauzu THeir third Sect is named Lauzu of a certaine Philosopher which liued in the same age with Confutius They fable that he was fourescore yeeres in his mothers wombe before his birth and therefore call him Lauzu that is old Philosopher He left no booke written of his Sect nor seemes to haue intended any such institution But his Sectaries called him after his death Tausa and haue fathered on him their opinions whereof they haue written many elegant bookes These also liue single in their Monasteries buying Disciples liuing as vile and vicious as the former They shaue not their haire but weare it like the Lay-men sauing that they haue a Hat or Cap of wood There are others married which at their owne houses professe greater austeritie and recite ouer set prayers They affirme That amongst other Idols they also worship the God of Heauen but corporeall and to whom their Legends tell that many indignities haue happened The King of Heauen which now raigneth they call Ciam he which raigned before was Leu who on a time came riding to the Earth on a white Dragon Him did Ciam who was a Diuinor giue entertainment and whiles Leu was at his good cheere mounted vp his Dragon which carried him to heauen there seized on the heauenly Royaltie and shut out Leu who yet at last was admitted to the Lordship of a certaine Mountaine in that Kingdom Thus they professe their god to bee a coozener and vsurper Besides this King of Heauen they faine another threefold Deitie one of which they say was the head of their Lauzu sect They promise to theirs Paradise which they shall enioy both in bodie and soule and in their Temples haue pictures of such as haue the Images of such Saints To obtaine this they prescribe certaine exercises which consist in diuers postures of sitting certaine prayers and medicines by which they promise to the obseruers through their gods fauour an immortall life in Heauen at least a longer mortall in the bodie The Priests of this Sect haue a peculiar Office of casting out Deuils which they do by two meanes one is to paint horrible shapes of Deuill in yellow paper with inke to be fastned on the walls and then fill the house with such sauage clamors that themselues might be thought to be Deuils the other is by certaine prayers or coniurations They professe also a power of faire weather and soule and other priuate and publike misfortunes : and some of them seeme to be Witches These Priests reside in the Kings Temples of Heauen and Earth and assist at the Kings sacrifices whether by himselfe performed or his Deputie Magistrates and thereby acquire great authoritie At these sacrifices they make musicke of all sorts which China yeeldeth harshed Europaean eares They are called likewise to Funeralls to which they come in precious Vestments playing on Musical Instruments They assist also at the consecrations of new Churches and
the Ancients which they hold in estimation of Saints diuised these Arts and after ascended bodie and soule into Heauen Many volumes are written in both these Arts and many printed Both seeme to haue like successe the one lessening their siluer for siluer the other shortning their liues to lengthen them The Alchymist passeth his dayes and euaporateth his substance in smoake either aduanced by great labour and cost to beggerie or if hee attaine to any siluered siluer-science it furthers him in deceiuing himselfe and others One only Alchymist said a madde lad of this generation that had melted a faire house in these furnaces hath beene in this kind happy that can turne so little Lead into so much Gold But these Chinois want such sanctified fires howsoeuer herein also besides their exceeding diligence many of them seeke to better their attempt by many yeeres fastings No people more bewitched with this though vniuersall foolery no harmes fraudes losses teaching them more discretion And yet greater madnesse may be ascribed to the other who hauing obtained some prosperous condition of life thinke nothing wanting to felicitie but continuance Few there are in this City Pequin saith Ricius of the Magistrates Eunuchs and chiefe men which are not sicke of this disease none being warned by the ordinary deaths of Masters and Schollers in this kinde I haue read in the Chinese Chronicles of one of their ancient Kings who by these Impostors helpe had procured a potion which hee thought would make him immortall A friend of his sought to disswade him from this vanitie but in vaine wherevpon watching opportunitie he catched the cup and dranke vp the potion The King in his furie offered to kill him whereat the other How canst thou kill mee said hee whom this cup hath made immortall and if thou canst then haue I freed thee of this error The King rested satisfied but not so this people which though many write against both these professions doe now more then euer practise them Trigautius writes of one man which had obtained the second Degree of learning which by this profession had gotten much wealth He had bought many children and killed them secretly composing his Recipes of their bloud as if hee could adde life to others which he had taken from them This came to light by one of his Concubines and he apprehended and thereof conuicted A new punishment was inuented for this new inuention that hee should be bound to a stake and three thousand pieces of his flesh should be cut from him with a Rasor the vitall parts being spared as much as might be This sentence being sent to the King was by him confirmed There be which fable themselues to be very old vnto whom is great recourse of Disciples as to some heauenly Prophets to learne lessons of long liuing They supposed the Iesuites whom they tooke to be of great learning did not truely tell them their Age but suspected that they had alreadie liued some Ages and knew the meanes of liuing euer and for that cause abstained from marriage The Spaniards of the Philippina's being feasted by the Viceroy two Captaines appointed Stwards or Feast-masters before they sate downe did take each of them a cup full of liquor in his hand and went together whereas they might discouer the Heauen and offered the same to the Sunne adding many prayers that the comming of their guests might bee for good and then did fill out the wine making a great curtesie And then proceeded they to their feast The Chinois in the Eclipse of the Sun and Moone are afraid that the Prince of Heauen will destroy them and pacifie him with many sacrifices and prayers they hold the Sunne and Moone Man and Wife §. VII Of the Marriages Concubines and other vices and errours of the CHINOIS THeir Marriages and Espousals want not many Ceremonies Both are done in their youth They like equalitie of age and state betwixt the parties The Parents make the contracts not asking their Childrens consent neither doe they euer refuse As for their Concubines euery one keepes according to his pleasure and abilitie respecting in them especially their beautie and buy them for the most part the price being a hundreth Crownes or lesse The common people also buy their wiues and sell them at their pleasure The Magistrates marry in their owne ranke their legitimate wife This chiefe wife only sits at table with her husband the rest except in the Royall Families are as seruants which in the presence of either of the former may not sit but stand Their children also call that wife their Mother not their naturall Parent and for her Funeralls alone solemnize their three yeeres mourning or leaue their Office not for their owne Mother In their marriages they are very scrupulous that the wife haue not the same surname with her husband although there be no kindred betwixt them and the surnames in all China are not a thousand as before is said neither may any deuise new but must haue one that the same which their Ancestors by the fathers side not the mothers had except he be adopted into another Family They heed not degrees of affinitie or consanguinitie so this surname differ and therefore marry in the Mothers kindred be it almost neuer so neere The Bride brings no portion to her husband and yet the first day she comes to his house she hath to attend abundance of houshold-furniture euen the streets being therewith filled all at the husbands cost who some months before sends her a great summe of mony to this purpose There are many which being poore doe for lust make themselues slaues to rich men that so they may be furnished with a wife amongst his women-slaues whereby also the children become perpetually bond Others buy their wiues but seeing their increasing family grow chargeable beyond their abilitie sell their young sonnes and daughters at the same price they would sell a swine or beast or some two or three duckats more yea though they bee not by dearth compelled thereto Thus this Kingdome abounds with seruants not taken in the warres but home-bred Citizens The Spaniards also and Portugalls carry many of them out of the Countrey into euerlasting seruitude But this child-sale is the more tolerable because the estate of seruants is there more easie then in other Nations the number of the poore which liue hardly is exceeding and they may redeeme themselues at the same price if they be able to giue it And lastly a greater villiny in some Prouinces vsed makes this seeme the lesse which is to murther those their children especially of the female sexe which they thinke they cannot bring vp which fact also is with them the lesse heynous not by preuenting that sale and transportation of their children an impious pietie but by a pious impietie that opinion of transanimation or passage of soules into other bodies thinking that by this vntimely and sudden murther they may haue more
which hee might heare as hee passed and once also saw them the Eunuch purposely putting on a thinner cloth ouer his head there being of them some hundreds His wife had more accesse at Chan Channas Court whose daughter sometimes wife to the elder brother of this Mogol and liuing still a widdow had a desire to see the English-woman and Chan-Channa intreated her husband to permit it Shee was fetched in a close Chariot drawne by white Oxen attended by Eunuchs and was first brought into an open Court in midst of which was a Tanke or Well of Water where sate many women slaues to Chan-Channas daughter of diuers Nations and complexions some blacke exceeding louely and comely of person notwithstanding whose haire before did stand vp with right tufts as if it had growne vpward nor would ruffling disorder them some browne of Indian complexion others very white but pale and not ruddy many of them seemed goodly and louely all sitting in their slight but rich garments on the floore couered with carpets The Lady came forth in meaner attire whereat they all arose and did her reuerence with their faces to the ground Mistresse Steele made her three courtsies after the English fashion being also in English attire and deliuered her a Present without which there is no visitation of great persons and the Lady caused her to sit by her and after discourse entertained her with a Banket and began familiaritie with her continued and increased with often visitations and rewarded with many gifts as of womens vestments of of those parts some of which I saw the vpper garment like a smocke of thin Calico vnder which they weare a paire of breeches close aboue the neather parts very long and slender loosely ruffling about their legs of thin stuffe also the mans garment differing from the womans by the fastning on the side vnder the arme whereas the womans is fastened before both tyed with ribbands Chan Channa caused his Taylor to take view of Master Steele and without other measure hee made him a cloake of cloth of gold after the English fashion very comely which I also saw §. VI. Of the Rasboots and other people subiect to the Mogol and of their Countries Religion and Rites THus haue we delineated this huge Giantly Body of the Mogol Empire The Soule or Religion thereof is more inuisible What lurking places and labyrinths the breasts of the Kings haue had in their vnknowne curious vncertaine Faith yee haue heard and may there by guesse at the rest As the people are manifold so are their Rites some of which about Ganges and in other parts haue alreadie beene touched and some hereafter as the People and their Rites are diffused and dispersed in diuers Tracts of India we shall elsewhere mention Besides Christian Forreiners the principall Religion is Ethnike though that of the Prince be Mahumetan The Reisbuti Rasbootes or Rasbooches the ancient Inhabitants of the Countrey of Sinda are Gentiles How strong one of them is you haue heard Captaine Hawkins report His name as I haue since learned of Mr. Rogers Mr. Clarke and Mr. Withington is Ranna some of them affirming That hee is lately come in and hath sent his sonne a pledge to the Mogols Court who for this cause and his sake hath beene so long resident at Azmere But Mr. Clarke employed in these wars saith That it is not a subiection but voluntarie friendship and neighbourhood with acknowledgement of himselfe the Inferior A Rebell or Outlaw he cannot be called because hee was neuer subiect accounting the Mogoll Superior in power but not his Lord There are of these many Casts or Tribes each of which haue supreame and independent Lords Nature building them with little helpe of Art impregnable Fortresses or inaccessable Hils One of which called Dewras is said to haue very many populations able on the Hill tops to gather sufficient prouisions for themselues and the neighbour-Markets impossible without corruption to be conquered When any of these Casts or Tribes disagree the Mogoll interposeth himselfe professing to take part with the right Their Countrey lies in the direct way from Surat to Agra the wayes by Amadauar or by Brampore both much about yet frequented by Merchants for feare of them The Countrey people are rude naked from the waste vpwards with Turbants differing from the Mogol fashion Their Armes are Sword Buckler and Launce Their Buckler is great in fashion of a Bee-hiue in which they will giue their Camels drinke and Horses prouender Their Horses are good swift and strong which they ride vnshod and back at a yeere old A resolute people which the Mogoll saith knowes as well to die as any in the world They eate no Beefe nor Buffolo but haue them in superstitious respect The Rasbutche husband dying the wife is burned The manner is this The wise accompanies the dead bodie of her husband in her best array pompously attended with her friends and kindred and with Musick The fire being made she compasseth the same twice or thrice first bewayling her husbands death and then reioycing that she shall now liue with him againe and then embracing her friends sits downe on the top of the pyle taking her husbands head in her lap and bids them kindle the fire This done her friends throw Oyle and other sweet Perfumes on her shee enduring the fire with admirable patience loose and not bound I haue seene many it is M. Withingtons report the first at Surat the woman being but ten yeeres old and not yet a woman hauing not knowne her husband who was slaine in the wars and his clothes brought home Yet would she needs burne with his clothes and the Gouernour not permitting because shee was a Virgin her friends intreated and bribed him thereto shee seeming impatient of that delay and saying her husband was a great way before her with much blind ioy entring into endlesse sorrowes The kindred of the deceased husband doe not force this vnkind kindnesse but the wiues owne kindred holding it a disgrace to their family if shee refuse which she hath power to doe but few will and then shee must shaue her haire and breake her iewels and is not suffered to eate drinke sleepe or company with any bodie till her death If after purpose to burne impatient of the flame she leapes out her father and mother will bind and burne her perforce But such weaknesse seldome happens In some places they obserue it with Rites a little differing carrying the woman in great pompe on a Pageant and binding her to a stake all her kindred kneeling round about her and praying to the Sun and their other Idols Shee hath betwixt her legs and vnder each arme a bag of Gun-powder the fire made all of sweet Woods Wee shall mention other Rites in other places The Hendownes possesse the Countrey North from Asmere toward the Multans degenerate Gentiles and refusing no manner of Flesh or Fish They pray naked dresse and eat
any haire except on the browes and eye-lids euen on the least child and for the space of thirteene dayes cease to eate Botels his lips are out that doth it and all that time is an Inter-regnum wherein they obserue if any will come in to obiect any thing against the new future King After this hee is sworne to the Lawes of his Predecessor to pay his debts to recouer whatsoeuer belonged to his Kingdome being lost which Oath he taketh hauing his Sword in his left hand and in the right a Candle burning which hath a Ring of Gold vpon it which he toucheth with two of his fingers and taketh his Oath This being done they throw or powre vpon him a few graines of Rice with many other Ceremonies and Prayers and he worshippeth the Sunne three times after which all the Caymailes or principall Nobles sweare their fealtie to him handling also the same Candle The thirteene dayes ended they eate their Betele againe and Flesh and Fish as before the King except who then taketh thought for his Predecessor and for the space of one whole yeere as is before obserued in part out of Barbosa eates no Betele nor shaueth his beard nor cutteth his nailes eateth but once a day and before hee doth it washeth all his bodie and obserueth certaine houres of Prayer daily The yeere being ended he obserueth a kind of Dirige for his Predecessors soule whereat are assembled 100000. persons at which time hee giueth great Almes and then it confirmed All these Malabar Kings haue one speciall Man which is the chiefe Administrator of Iustice who in matters of gouernment is obeyed no lesse then the King himselfe The Souldiers are Nayros none of which can be imprisoned or put to death by ordinarie Iustice but if one of them kill another or else kill a Cow or sleepe with a Countriewoman or speake euill of the King the King after information giues his Warrant to another Nayro who with his Associates kill him wheresoeuer they find him hewing him with their Swords and then hang on him his Warrant to testifie the cause of his death These Nayros may not weare their Weapons nor enter into combate till they be armed Knights although that from the Age of seuen yeeres they are trayned vp in Feates and practice of Armes He is dubbed or created by the King who commandeth to gird him with a Sword and laying his right hand vpon his head muttereth certaine words softly and afterward dubbeth him saying Haue a regard to keepe these Bramenes and their Kine These are the two Great Commandements of the Bramene Law The King sometimes commits this Ceremonie to their Panicall or Master in the Feats of Armes whom they euer honour as their Father and next to the King most reuerence They teach them to Run Leape Fencing and managing of Weapons and anoint them with Oyle of Gergelin to make their sinewes pliant for all winding and tumbling gestures They begin to goe to Schoole at seuen yeeres olde In fight they are valorous and account it no shame to flee but will doe it in policie and yet when they yeeld themselues to any mans seruice they bind themselues to die with him and for him which they faithfully performe fighting till they bee killed They are great South-sayers haue their good and bad Dayes worship the Sun the Moone the Fire and the Kine and the first they meet in the morning The Deuill is often in them they say it is one of their Pagodes which causeth them to vtter terrible wordes and then hee goeth before the King with a naked Sword quaking and cutting his flesh saying with great cries I am such a god and I am come to tell thee such a thing and if the King doubteth he roreth lowder and cutteth himselfe deeper till he be credited The Fortugals haue much eclipsed the greatnesse of the King of Calicut and caused many other alterations in all the East in this last Age of the World Of whose exploits Castaneda Barrius Maffaeus Oserius and others haue written at large Our English-Indian Societie haue setled a Factory at Calicut touching the conditions and condition whereof you may reade at large in Roger Hawes his Iournall deliuered amongst other our Pilgrimes He telleth of the perfidiousnesse of this people how hardly they could get in debts they chusing rather to spend much in bribes then to pay debts Ours made vse of ther Superstition to Iustice for vnderstanding that they would neither eate nor wash whiles the English were in their houses they would threaten not to depart till they were payd hauing meane while Nayros for their Guard Thus Iniustice made them iust and vncharitablenes charitable For rather then be long troubled with their company most of them would pay part of their debts so that they got fifty Fanos kind of Coine of one 100. of another but one notwithstanding their three dayes abode would pay nothing it seemes equally prophane superstitious and vniust §. III. Of their differing Sects BArbosa reckoneth eighteene Sects that haue no mutuall conuersation nor may marrie but in their owne rankes or order Next to the King and Bramenes he placeth the Nayros which are Gentlemen and Souldiers and are not professed Nayros notwithstanding their bloud till they be by their Lords or by the King made Knights or Souldiers And then hee must neuer from that time goe without his Weapons which commonly are a Rapier and a Target and sometimes Peeces or Bowes They neuer marry but lye with such of the Nayros Women or Daughters as like them leauing his Weapons meane while at the doore which forbid any man else although it be the goodman himselfe to enter till he hath ended his businesse and be gone And if one of the common people once touch a Nayro it is lawfull for the Nayro to kill him and he is also vncleane and must be purified by certaine washings And for this cause they cry as they goe in the streets Po Po that the baser Raskality may giue place They haue a Pit of standing Water at their doores hallowed by the Bramenes wherein euery morning they wash themselues although it bee greene slimie and stinking imagining thus to be clensed of their sinnes They are brought vp altogether to Feats of Armes and Actiuitie from their Child-hood admirably able to wind and turne themselues and are very resolute and desperate binding themselues by oath to liue and die with their King or Lord. No Nayro's women may enter into Calicut but one night in the yeere when the Citie is full of Lights and then they goe with the Nayros to behold and gaze their fill They intend nothing but their lust and thinke that if they die Virgins they shall neuer enter into Paradise The Biabari are another sort and are Merchants Gentiles and enioy great priuiledges The King cannot put them to death but by sentence of the principall of themselues They were the only Merchants before the
when they haue wallowed a long time in lustfull pleasures shoot into the aire pieces of their flesh tyed to Arrowes and diuersly mangle themselues at last cut their owne throats so sacrificing themselues to the Pagode There are also certaine people called Amouchi otherwise Chiani which perceiuing the end of their life approach lay hold on their weapons which they call Chisse and going forth kill euery man they meet with till some body by killing them make an end of their killing They are loth it seemes to come into the Deuils presence empty-handed or to goe to Hell alone Some of them worship GOD in the likenesse of a Man some in the images of Kine and Serpents some inuoke the Sunne and Moone others some Tree or Riuer Among many Feasts which they celebrate in the yeere one in Autumne is most solemne in which they take some great tree and fasten it in the ground hauing first fashioned it like a mast of a Ship with a crosse-yard whereon they hang two hookes of iron And when any one by sicknesse or other miserie hath made a vow to their Idoll or Pagode hee commeth thither and being first admonished by the Priests to offer his sacrifice they lift him with those hookes by both the shoulders and there hold him to the Idoll till he hath three times saluted the same with clapping his folded hands to his breast and hath made some sport thereto with weapons which he hath in his hand After this he is let downe and the bloud which issueth from his shoulders is sprinkled on the Tree in testimonie of his deuotion Then they draw him vp againe by the middle to giue thankes to the Idoll and then giue him leaue to heale himselfe if he can They which are in great miserie or seeke some great matter at the hand of their Idoll doe this They haue another Feast celebrated in the night continuing eight nights in which many Candles were seene burning thorow the Citie Three or foure runne from one end of street to the other and hurling Rice and other meates after them say they offer it to the Deuill which followes them not daring to looke behind lest he should slay them In other places also they haue those Idol-chariots like vnto Towers to the drawing whereof many thousands of deuout persons put their helping-hand Anno 1598. there was a great contention whether the signe of Perimal should bee erected in the Temple of Cidambacham This signe was a gilded Mast with an Ape at the foot thereof Many Embassadors were there about this quarrell some vrging some resisting this deed But the Prince called the Naicho of Gingi would haue it set vp notwithstanding the Priests greatest vnwillingnesse The Priests therefore both regular which are the Iogues and secular Bramenes ascended vp the roofe of the Church and thence threatned to hurle downe themselues which twenty of the Iogues did and the rest threatned to follow But the Naicho caused Gunnes to be discharged at them which slue two and caused the rest to retire and breake their couenant rather then their necks with their fellowes A woman also of this faction cut her owne throat for zeale of this new superstition §. II. Of the Kings and Bramenes in this Kingdome THe swelling stile of this King of Bisnagar I thought worthie to be here inserted which is this The Husband of good fortune the God of great Prouinces King of the greatest Kings and God of Kings the Lord of horsemen the Master of them which cannot speake Emperour of three Emperours Conquerour of all he sees and Keeper of all he conquers Dreadfull to the eight coasts of the world Vanquisher of the Mahumetans c. Lord of the East West North and South and of the Sea c. Vencapadinus Ragiu Deuamaganus Ragel which now ruleth and gouerneth this world These Kings of Bisnagar haue as sayth Barrius a great part of the Westerne coast subject vnto them all betweene the riuers of Aliga and Cangerecora in which space are these coast Townes Ancola Agorapan Mergeu Onor a Royall Citie Baticala Bendor Bracelor Bacanor Carara Carnate Mangalor Mangliran Cumlata and Cangerecora From this Citie standing on a Riuer of the same name Southwards vnto the Cape Comori is reckoned the Malabar coast And although Goa and Calecut much hinder those his Ports yet to salute and shake hands with both Seas argues a great State specially where the adioyning are so small There are three Naichi or Tributary Kings subiect to Him such in power but in title Naichi that is Deputies or Presidents of Madura Gingi and Tanaior The Naicho of Madura is Lord of the Fishing coast The people are called Badagae and despise the Portugals because they drinke Wine eate Beefe and suffer themselues to be touched of the Pareae and carried on their shoulders For these in their Bramene zeale would not endure to touch or talke with the baser vulgar and their Bramenes would die rather then eate that which a Bramene had not dressed And therefore Robert Sforce a Iesuite comming amongst them professed himselfe of the Bramene or Rape bloud that is of Noble race procured a Bramene to dresse his meate abstained from Flesh Fish Wine and Egges after their Countrey manner and attired himselfe in the habite of a Sanasse one of their votaries and in pretence of chastitie stirred not out of his house in a whole yeere nor would be spoken with by euery one alleaging somtimes his deuouter conference with God so to winne credite with these Ethnikes He learned by conference with a Bramene that they maintayned that Philosophicall axiome that Nothing could be made of nothing and held three Beginnings or Vniuersall Causes the first Padi that is God the second Paiu the Matter of which they say the Soules are made the third Passan the Corporall matter They maintayned also the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Pythagorean passage of Soules out of one body into another for else say they how could there be such diuersitie of Men one a King another a Seruant one a Bramene another a Parea They are also Platonikes holding the Soule not to be the forme of the Body but enclosed therein as a Bird in a Cage The Bramenes weare ashes on their heads It seemes they are zealous Baneanes Their Saneasses are Asses indeed for literature only as Hermites they vow chastitie The Gorupi or Gorusi are the Doctors of their Law The Iesuites professed the Doctorship of these in the habite of the former which is a white Garment to the ankle with another of the same colour but thinner ouer it a red cloth cast ouer the shoulders one like a Cap or Hat on his head from his necke hangs downe a corde of fiue threeds three of gold and two of white silke they eate but once a day Their Bramenes haue a proper language and mysticall as Roman for the Romish holies called Gueredan which the Iesuite learned and thereby out of
of Ocaca that is a place of Confession so doth Sangenotocoro signifie of which wee may exclaime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and if you will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one for the cruell terrour wherewith it filleth the Conscience and the latter for the fleshly filthinesse wherein Ocaca is not blamed but their Churches haue beene Stewes and Confession the Bawde But to let this passe and consider the former What Racke or Rocke can Ocaca yeeld like to this which the Councell of Trent hath framed that full confession of all mortall sinnes loe here the Racke euen the very thoughts against the two last Commandements with the circumstances of the sinnes is necessarie by diuine ordinance vnto all which haue sinned after Baptisme and loe here the Rock Anathema to the gaine-sayers Tush your coyne is not currant although you yeeld it profitable and comfortable and satisfactorie to the offended Church except you yeeld all necessarie all diuine Diuines shall I call you or Goquis Deuils in the flesh that make a hell in the spirits of men that with your debita praemeditatione and with your omnia singula peccata etiam occulta etiam circumstantias circumuent poore Christians and put them in an Ocacan ballance ouer hell-mouth there to fall without such fauour as to be broken in peeces Goe Cardinall and write whole volumes for the proofe hereof yet would I rather choose to enter the Sangenotocoro-scale then your Confession-schoole Easie it may bee indeede to scared Iesuiticall consciences that account Treason Religion yea pleasant and delightfull to such Statists to haue Kings vpon the knees of their bodies to powre out before them the secrets of their soules and they are wiser then Salomon which esteemed it vnpossible to search out the Kings heart But to such as haue businesse enough to know and rule themselues and doe indeed make conscience of euery dutie what intolerable anguish is here prepared when mans heart besides that it is wicked and deceitfull aboue all who can search it is like an vntamed Heifer who can rule it Had I not need alway to haue a Priest at mine elbow to whom to shriue me Who knoweth the errours of his life and who knoweth when hee hath made his due premeditation to examine them This made Bellarmine vse the difficultie of Confession as an argument of the diuine Institution thereof It is so difficult saith hee that no power of Man or the Church could haue imposed it and therefore it was diuine I will not say who instituted the ballance of Ocaca and yet it was a hard thing and neuer the like heard of I say that the Gospell imposeth not such hard things this were to bring vs back to the Law but prescribeth an easie yoke and a light burthen easie to such as loue not their ease light to such as like and delight in it But this euen to those that dote vpon it and deuote themselues to it is not onely hard but altogether impossible Witnesse Bellarmine himselfe Quid enim molestius quid onerosius quà m vt cogantur etiam viri principes Regesque potentissimi sacerdotibus qui ipsi homines sunt peccata sua omnia detegere quamuis arcana quamuis turpia c. Witnesse experience in such as haue tried it more neerely then Bellarmines Controuersies would giue him leisure yet liuing in continuall disquietnesse and torment of their Consciences in the vse of their Sacrament of Confession receiuing no rest day nor night as seruing gods who cannot giue it them These are the wordes of Sheldon happily brought out of that darknesse wherein and whereof hee was a Priest and Minister to a cleerer light who out of his owne knowledge addeth That it is not imaginable what inconsolable liues some that are frequent in the vse of Confession as necessarie to saluation doe leade there is no stonie heart which would not pitie them knowing their torments But lest any man thinke that some Goquis hath hurled me out of the scale of my Historie to fall and split my selfe vpon these Iesuiticall rocks I will returne to our Narration of the Iaponites §. VI. Of their Idols Temples Funerals I Haue mentioned too many of their Idols alreadie Amida Xaca Faciman and others I might here adde their Idoll Casunga of whom they begge riches A Iaponian 1611. found one of his Images by change whereupon he promised to himselfe store of wealth but soone after all that hee had was seized on by the Gouernour this caused him to cast this Idoll out of doore and as the Iesuites say to become their Scholer I might annexe Tamondea Bosomondes Homocondis and Zoiolis to which foure their superstitious opinion committeth so many heauens in custodie Canon and Xixi the sonnes of Xaca Maristenes Tirigis and others would be too tedious to report Organtinus telleth That whiles vpon a time the Feast of this last was solemnizing a showre of stones rayned with such violence that the companie to the number of twentie thousand betooke them to their heeles But Amida is most worne in their lips beggars asking and begging in his name chapmen in buying and selling sounding and singing it the Bonzij promising saluation to all that inuoke it Admirable are the Temples for matter and workmanship erected to him one neere to Meaco is an hundred and fortie elles in length with a huge Image of Amida hauing thirtie Images about it of Souldiers besides Aethiopians and Deuils yea Windes and Thunders figured and a thousand Images of Canon on each side of the Temple fiue hundred all in like but monstrous shape with thirtie armes two onely holding proportion to his body the brest adorned with seuen faces all the Images and other furniture so glittering with gold that it dazeleth the beholders eyes Almeida describeth a Temple of theirs in Meaco called Cobucui which had three Porches with so many Cloysters and other pieces of stately and costly workmanship Two mightie Colosses or statues of Lions were set as Porters at the doore In the middest of the Temple were set Xaca and his sonnes about him There were threescore and ten pillars of Cedar of such height that as the Register booke of the Temple testified each of them cost fiue thousand ducats These and the walls were painted the roofe artificially framed a hall for the Bonzij fortie elles long and twelue broad of like workmanship with the Temple whereunto were annexed their chambers an hundred and fourescore in number a Librarie full stored with bookes Bathes Butteries Kitchins huge Caldrons an elle deepe to heate their water for drinke which they neuer drinke cold neither in Summer nor Winter Parlors foure and twentie with lights burning in them all night Before it is a Fish-poole fiftie elles square full of fish which none may touch It is sixe hundred yeeres since the foundation of this Temple The pleasant and spacious walks before the Temple of Casunga planted
eight and twentie The wealth of the Ptolomies raigning in Egypt appeareth by Straboes report of Auletes his reuenues to be twelue thousand fiue hundred Talents which yet was counted dissolute and vnthriftie This by Master Brerewood is summed two millions three hundred fortie three thousand seuen hundred and fiftie pounds of our mony Wheras the reuenues of Darius Hystaspis accounted a hard man is by Herodotus reckoned foureteene thousand fiue hundred and sixtie Euboike Talents which makes 1820000. pounds a great deale lesse summe from that greater Empire But they had other improuements Alexander is said to spend more then this on Hephestions funerall by fiftie fiue thousand pounds Yea the Roman reuenues are by Plutarch p summed at eight thousand fiue hundred Myriades which in our money is two millions sixe hundred fiftie sixe thousand and two hundred and fiftie pounds not hugely exceeding the Egyptian §. II. Of the Schoole and Librarie at Alexandria HAuing mentioned the Studies and learned men at Alexandria and wealth of their Kings I hold it not amisse to entertaine your eyes in longer view of that Alexandrian Schoole and Librarie Simandius or Osymanduas is the first in any Historie mentioned that erected a Librarie setting this Inscription in the Frontispice thereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Medicinary or Physicke-shop of the Minde Some accuse Homer to haue stollen his Iliads and Odysses out of Vulcans Temple at Memphis being the workes of Phantasia a woman the worke of a womanish fantasie so to deceiue or receiue of That almost more then Man But the second Ptolomey sonne of Ptolomeus Lagi was Author of that famous Library at Alexandria following saith Strabo the example of Aristotle Atheneus addes the Bookes of Aristotle also bought by Ptolomey of Neleus which succeeded Theophrastus in this Legacie bequeathed to him from the Philosopher Himselfe Iosephus tells vs of the Translation of the Law by the Seuentie or Seuentie two Interpreters procured by Demetrius Phalareus at the Kings charge who also obtained the like Translations of other Chaldaean Egyptian and Romane Monuments the number of which translated Bookes Cedrenus numbers one hundred thousand Seneca speakes of foure hundred thousand Iosephus of fiue hundred thousand in the whole which by the succeeding care of this Kings Successors did after amount it is Gellius Ammianus Isidores testimonie to seuen hundred thousand Volumes All which by cruell disaster in the Ciuill warres of Caesar perished by fire He firing the ships and they the adjoyning Library which neither He in his Commentaries nor Hirtius as Caesars most dismall fate once mention but Plutarch Dio Liuie Seneca Ammianus and Gellius forget not these manifold Memorials thus buried at once for euer in forgetfulnes This Library was in the Temple of Serapis as both Marcellinus after him Tertullian testifie but that in Tertullians dayes was another famous Library of Cleopatra's Founding called for the likenesse Ptolemeys which in likelihood continued till that glorious Fabrike was ruined in the dayes of Theodosius as Ruffinus Socrates and Sozomen haue written Most of the Bookes of this latter were brought from Pergamus chiefe City of the lesser Asia Seat of the Attalike Kings one of which Eumenes there collected two hundred thousand Volumes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not reckoning as Lipsius interprets the place that Volume for more then one which contayned diuers Treatises giuen by Antonius vnto Cleopatra as Plutarch hath related Ptolemey the fift then liuing denied Eumenes in enuious emulation the Egyptian paper the cause that Parchment was then inuented at Pergamus by Eumenes his industry for the vse of his Library as not onely Plinie and Varro but the name of these skinnes called Pergamena of that City sufficiently witnesse The Egyptian Paper of which ours made of ragges hath still the name was made of a Sedgie Reed growing in the Marishes of Egypt called Papyrus which easily diuides it selfe into thinne flakes these laid on a Table and moystened with the glutinous water of Nilus were prest together and dryed in the Sunne The Greekes and Romanes had their many famous Libraries which would here trouble our Egyptian Traueller who in Lipsius his Booke of that Argument may better satisfie himselfe as also touching their Furnitures of Marble Iuory Glasse and many many curious artificiall Inuentions besides the Images of the bodies of learned Men there placed of Gold Siluer or Brasse neere to more precious Images of their learned Mindes in their written Monuments These indeed are the best mens best Images in which their Immortall Soules speake Immortally yea Immortality to themselues and others they being dead yet speaking and neuer denying their wise counsels and familiar company to the t Studious who by this meanes are neuer lesse alone then when alone and as King Alphonsus sometimes said neuer find better Counsellers then these dead And euer let their names flourish that bestow care and cost to keepe those learned Names euer flourishing and in redeeming these Monuments from Wormes Mice and putrifaction erect vnto themselues Monuments farre beyond the stupendious Pyramides and other monstrous births of artificiall vanity Cheops is scarsly remembred nor worthy to be named with this Ptolemey that fire not being able to consume the honour of his Name that deuoured his Bookes whereas Cheops his very name is doubted and his memoriall rotten not withstansting his Pyramis still continues the remembrance of his Actiue and Passiue forgetfulnesse And let my body want a Sepulchre if my soule doe not more honour that Bodleian Monument then all Triumphall Chariots of the liuing then the Mausolaean Mogoll or Memphian magnificence for the dead or any other Regall or Imperiall interments There the stones are mute or speake the Architects prayse or haue inscribed a few Verses verball flourishes perhaps of the Poets wit but here euery Booke hath an Epitaph nay the whole Booke is an Epitaph and reall Testimony of the Founders worth so many thousand dead Authours quickened by such care to speake his deserued prayse so many liuing Students hauing their Minds daily feasted by such bounty and the vnborne posterity hauing a better Inheritance purchased and prouided to their minds then their carefull Parents can for their Bodies But how doth this likenesse transport vs from Alexandria to Oxford In both an admirable Library in both Prouisions of mayntenance for Collegiate and Academike Students both necessary companions For what else is store of Bookes stately Fabrikes and costly Furniture without Students but carkasses without soule and what They without Bookes and mayntenance but walking Shadowes and wandring Ghosts the one is it is Senecas sentence a studious luxury the other a riotous study Diuine then is that Heroike care of Such who at once both Clients and Patrons of Arts and Learning by liuing and liuelihood seeme to ioyne and giue life to soule and body together And such was this Ptolemey who made part of His
wherof being eaten causeth laughing dalliance and makes one as it were drunken and maruellously prouoketh to lust In the Kingdome of Tunis is placed the Lake Tritonia where Minerua is said to haue shewed her selfe the Inuenter of Spinning and of Oyle and therefore worshipped Ezzab is the most Easterly part of the Tunetan Kingdome the chiefe Prouince whereof is Mesrata The Inhabitants are rich and pay no Tribute There grow Dates and Oliues and they traffique with the Numidians to whom they carry the Wares which they buy of the Venetians The Great Turke swayeth with his Ottoman Scepter at this present this Kingdome of Tunis and all Africa from Bellis de Gomera to the Red Sea except that little which the Spaniard hath At this day they are Mahumetan and haue beene about these nine hundred yeeres past from the time of Hucba The Inhabitants of the Cities differ much from the Mountayners and ruder Rustickes For they are studious especially in matters of their Law as in times past they were also in Philosophy and the Mathematickes But these last fiue hundred yeeres their Princes and Doctors haue prohibited many Sciences as Astrologie and Philosophy according to the Mahumetan custome they vse much washing and resorting to the Temples They are very faithfull in their promises and exceeding iealous They goe through the World as Merchants and in many places are entertayned as Readers and Masters in diuers Sciences and are well esteemed in Egypt Aethiopia Arabia Persia India Turkie The younger sort yeeld much reuerence to their Elders and Parents and will not hold discourse of loue or sing loue-songs in their presence But these Citizens are very proud and reuengefull The Lords esteeme more of their beasts then of their common people The Country people in the fields and mountaynes liue hardly in labour and want They are beastly theeuish ignorant vnfaithfull Their women before they bee married may liue as wantonly as they list yea the father maketh hatefull loue to the daughter and the brother is vnlouingly louing to the sister The Numidians are trayterous homicides theeues and for reward will doe any thing Such also are the Libyans without any kind of Letters Faith or Law without Heauen or Earth liuing if that may be called a life like wild beasts for ignorance like Deuils for wickednesse like Dogges for pouerty These things reporteth Leo of them who liued among them which may prouoke vs to thankefulnesse to that Great God who hath giuen Vs such abundance for body and soule in things present and future temporall and eternall CHAP. IX Of the Kingdome of Tremisen Algier and other places ancienty called Mauritania Caesariensis §. I. Of Tremisen and of the ancient Maurusij THe Kingdome of Telensin or Tremisen beginning Westward from the Riuer of Zha and Muluia Eastward it bordereth on the Great Riuer Southward vpon the Desart of Numidia and Northward vpon the Mediterran Sea It was by the Romans called Mauritania Caesariensis the name came of the Inhabitants called Mauri and of the Greekes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some say of their colour because it is obscure and darke They were supposed to come hither first with Hercules out of India More likely it is that they descended of Phut the sonne of Cham Gen. 10.6 Plinie mentions a Riuer named Fut in these parts descending from Atlas Salust saith they came with Hercules who being dead in Spaine as the Africans report his Armie being gathered of many Nations was diuersly diuided The Medes Armenians and Persians of that number sayled into Africa of which the Persians dwelt neere the Sea their ships with the keeles turned vpwards seruing them for houses and mixed themselues with the Getuli entitling themselues Numidians The Libyans adioyned themselues to the Armenians and to the Medi whom by corruption of Language they called Mauri These Getulians and Libyans he saith were before very rude wandring vp and downe without Law or Ciuility liuing like beasts lying and feeding on the ground which testimony of Salust Mela in like words confirmeth But of these and other African people let them which please learne of that Author and of such as haue written Notes vpon him as Gruterus Glarianus Riuius Ciacconius Putschius and others Vitruuius nameth Mauritania Maurusia Ortelius testifieth That in ancient Coines it is read Mauretania and so Tacitus readeth Ptolemey diuideth it into Mauritania Caesariensis which Victor Vticensis calleth Maior and Tingitania Pliny ascribes this diuision to Caligula Dion to Claudius Caesar of whom it was sirnamed Casariensis of the Mother Citie Caesarea where hee planted a Roman Colony before called Iol the Royall Seat of Iuba a man famous for that hee first reigned ouer both these Mauritania's but more famous for his Learning whereby he still liueth in the learned Monuments of Pliny and others Authour of much of our African report Hee in his childhood was led in triumph at Rome his father Iuba the successour of Bechus had before slaine himselfe in the Ciuill Warres Augustus restored him to his Fathers Kingdome to which he left his sonne Ptolomey borne of the daughter of Antonius and Cleopatra whom Caligula slue and then diuided Mauritania into two Prouinces whereof this is called as is said Caesariensis of the Colonie of Claudius Caesar That which Procopius hath written of the originall of these Maurusij as he termes them although in our first Booke mentioned here also so may seeme to deserue Relation When Iosua or Iesus the sonne of Nun or Nane had inuaded the Land of Canaan the people fled into Egypt and there multiplying , pierced into Africa replenishing with people all that Coast vnto the Pillars of Hercules vsing a semi-Phoenician Dialect For all the Sea-coast from Sidon to Egypt was anciently called Phoenicia They built the Towne Tinge in Numidia where they erected two Pillars of white stone neere a great Fountayne wherein was ingrauen in Phoenician Letters Wee flee from the face of Iesus the Thiefe the Sonne of Nane These are supposed the first Inhabitants of Africa and for that cause Antaeus their King which encountred in single combate with Hercules was said to bee the Sonne of the Earth Afterwards when the Phoenicians came hither with Dido they were here receiued for kindreds sake and permitted to build Carthage which after grew so mighty that it subdued and expelled the Maurusij themselues The Romans made the Carthaginians and other Africans Tributaries and caused the Maurusij to inhabit the furthest parts of Africa but in processe of time they obtayning many victories against the Vandals seated themselues in Mauritania till Iustinian remooued them Thus farre Procopius Paulus Diaconus recordeth also the same History sauing that he sayth the Egyptians would not receiue them and therefore they passed into Africa The Maurusij in the time of Iustinian were destroyed and captiued in such multitudes that a Maurusian slaue was valued at the price of a sheepe The Author of
this was Salomon an Eunuch according to a Prophesie which they had amongst them that one without a beard should destroy them But captiuity could not much empare their happinesse whose very freedome was misery For they liued in small base cottages exposed to the Summer Sunnes and Winter snowes sleeping except a few of the better sort on the bare ground alway wearing the same garment howsoeuer the season differed and that torne and ragged wanting bread and all other necessaries neither grinding nor boyling that Corne they had Thus miserable were their bodies and their soules more For they had neither feare of God nor reuerence of Men nor respect of pledge nor regard of oath nor peace with any but where feare constrained them They had their women Prophetesses which diuined by their Sacrifices a thing vnlawfull for their Men to attempt Of the numbers of their wiues they bragged that the Christians which had but one wife might feare the losse of their children they which might haue fifty wiues need not misdoubt Issue and Posteritie And yet they were by many wars brought to small numbers and a few Tribes or Families Leo sayth that after the Romanes were expelled the ancient Gouernours called Beni Habdalguad of the Family of Magraua repossessed these parts who were after dipossessed by Ghamrazen Sonne of Zeijen whose Posterity reigned here almost three hundred and eightie yeeres But they were much vexed by the Kings of Fez and Tunis It was in later times called the Kingdome of Telensin or of Tremisen stretching in length from East to West three hundred and eighty miles in breadth not aboue fiue and twenty The Kings could neuer satisfie the Numidians couetise whose friendship they haue with great cost sought It hath two frequented Hauen-townes Oram and Mersalcabir both taken and holden by the Spaniards They were taken in the time of Ferdinando King of Spaine for which cause Abuchemmen the Telensin King was expelled by his owne Subiects and Abuzeijen placed in his roome which he could scarcely warme before he was slaine by Barbarussa the Turke who conquered this Kingdome But Abuchemmen sought to Charles the fift for aide by whose helpe he recouered his Kingdome and payed a Tribute to the Emperour But Habdulla his Successor detayned the Tribute and submitted himselfe vnto Soliman the Great Turke Algier remayned to Barbarussa §. II. Of BARBARVSSA of Algier and the parts adioyning THis Barbarussa or Barbarossa was a meane fellow of base condition who in his youth sold Cheeses in Spain for his liuing by his industry attained to great matters There were of them two Brethren born at Mytilene in Lesbos their Mother a Christian their Father a Renegate Grecian Horucius Barbarussa and this Hariadenus Barbarussa They first stole a Galliot and so committing themselues to Sea by Piracy vnder Camales a Turkish Pirate they grew rich and from one Galley came to haue a Nauie of their owne with which they scoured the Coasts of Barbary At the same time two brethren contended for the Kingdome of Algier one of which requested ayde of Horucius who so helped him against his brother that he helped himselfe to the Kingdome by the murther of the King his Patron and Alley which he did not long enioy being taken and slaine of the Spaniards and his head sent into Spaine But Iris Brother Hariadenus succeeding him became mighty both by Sea and Land to the great dammage both of the Mores and Christians and Soliman moued by his fame sent for him and made him Admirall of all the Turkish Seas and Sea forces vnder whom hee grew dreadfull not to these parts of Barbary alone which he subiected to the Turke but to those Countries of Christendome which are washed with the Mediterran euen Rome it selfe quaking for feare of a second Hannibal who after so many ages should by Sea from Africa auenge the angry Ghost of old Carthage In the yeere 1538. the Pope Emperour and Venetians had with ioynt forces set forth a Nauy of aboue two hundred and fifty Sayle against him but by mutuall discords the wonted aduantage of the Turkes against the Christians they made themselues both sport and spoyle to this Turkish Pyrat The Sea could no longer endure the successe of this Barbarian but mad to see the Christians vnchristian madnesse and vnwilling to submit his proud waues to the base thraldome of this base Turke swelling with indignation conspired with the Neighbour Element which pretended equall quarrell for so often darkening his light and poysoning his breath with those hellish smokes and for vsurping those thunders which had wont to be the ayrie priuiledge of his middle Regions these both agreed in their disagreeing with tempestuous furie to spoile the Spoilers the windes from the Acroceraunian Hills and the Seas on the Dalmatian shore so girt in the Turkes with their equall vnequall siege that twentie thousand of them were captiued and shut vp in Neptunes prisons to become foode to his Familie and the new Conquerors on euery shore made their markets of Turkish commodities and by wracks testified to the Earth that they had wrecked themselues on her and their enemies And yet did Barbarussa recouer himselfe by new forces and hauing won Rhegium came to Ostia where he rode three dayes the Romanes trembling meanewhile and readie to leaue Saint Peter alone to locke out the Turks if they came So much more fortunate were his proceedings then of Haly Bassa who in the fight at Lepanto lost his life and Nauie whereof eightie fell to the Seas share and an hundred and thirtie saile to Don Iohn and his Partners the greatest blow that euer the Turke at Sea receiued and had the greatest Homer to sing it But me thinkes I feele some Cynthius pulling me by the eare and asking if the Pirats haue robbed me of my Religion the most proper subiect of my Discourse Truly that irreligious Crue while they seeke to win other things care not to lose that But this Algier hauing beene of old and still continuing a receptacle of Turkish Rouers could not be passed ouer especially in these Piraticall times without some obseruation being also the gate whereby the Turkish forces first entred into Barbarie Iohn Leo writeth a little otherwise of Barbaussa and Algier The Moores call this Citie Gezeir the Spaniards Algier and of old was called Mesgana of that African Familie which founded it It contayneth about foure thousand Families the buildings very sumptuous Innes Bath-stones and Temples very beautifull euery Occupation hath a seuerall place by it selfe It hath adioyning Playnes very pleasant and fertile one whereof is fiue and fortie miles long and almost thirtie broad For many yeeres it was subiect to the Kingdome of Telensin but hearing that Bugia was gouerned by a King they submitted themselues to him paying him a Tribute otherwise in manner free Then did they build themselues Gallies and molested with Piracies the Spanish Ilands of Majorica Minorica
their Religion is lost Concerning their marriages in these parts we reade that the Bride is carryed not on her feet but in the armes of two yong men with her eyes closed and being marryed is in like sort without stirring her eyes or feet conueighed to the Bridegroomes house where she enters first with the right foote in token of prosperitie the left foote first touching ground would portend sinister successe as proceeding from a certayne Constellation and ineuitable destinie with musicke shee is entertayned and conducted to the Bride-chamber where shee sits downe as taking possession of her house all the other women standing about her after which shee is led with great pompe by women to the Hall the men accompanying the Bridegroome to another roome The Bride is set on a bed couered with a white veile the women standing by and many gifts and presents are offered to her two women being her instructers in the rites and ceremonies which shee is to obserue called Magitae to whom the Bride giueth the money which is offered The men which offer if they bee of neere kinne may vpon request see her face her eyes still closed Neither may shee speake but by those Magitae is shifted and gallantly adorned and brought to banquet with the women They haue a dinner and a supper furnished with exceeding varietie of dishes of Honey and Raysins diuersly compounded their flesh is not tasted before oyle be powred on it There are neere as many pots boyling as guests and much superstition is obserued in killing their flesh towards the Sunne with pronouncing certaine wordes or else all is cast on the dung-hill The Bride being conueyed to bed may not signifie any griefe for smart or losse there sustayned The next morning before day the husband riseth not saluting his wife and taking a pot for water and a vessell for meate at his returne beates vpon the doore with a stone many times till shee then first speakes to him and ordering the said meate and water beginnes to looke to her houshold-charge The Magitae presently come and congratulate her last nights dalliance and desire issue thereof and then cut her haire hanging downe on her backe euen with her neck that it should not hinder her husbands embraces The gouernment of these parts is as is said Turkish The Boglerbog hath chiefe title but the Diuano hath chiefe power of Iudgements and Iurisdiction The Corasan or Captaine of the Ianizaries being in many matters as great as the Beglerbeg The Beglorbegs of Algier and Tunis make their principall profits of their places which they hold three yeers hauing first bought them at a deare rate by their piracies which with ioynt consent they exercise on these Seas all in manner being fish that comes to net if they meete them conueniently notwithstanding any league or peace holden with the Grand Signior They also giue entertainment to such Pirats of other places as resort to them either to sell their ill-gotten goods or to ioyne their strength with them As of late Dansker and Warde haue beene famous in this infamie the first after his seruice with them and for them receiuing his reward by them suddenly killed at Tunis where he was knowne notwithstanding his disguising himselfe with purpose to haue surprised their fleet the other a shame to our Countrey of which he was grew so rich by his Piracies that hee shewed at one time to the Authour of these reports Iohn Pountesse a bagge of Iewels contayning almost halfe a bushell besides his other purchases And at last that the end might manifest the wickednesse of these proceedings he became an Apostata and Renegado from his faith and soone after as some haue reported for others say he is still aliue and Captaine of the Turkes Gallies dyed at Tunis leauing his goods for his goodnesse he had left before vnto the Turks his body vnto a forren sepulchre and his soule let pirats and robbers if they think they haue any soule say whither Algier was by Barbarussa subiected to the Turke about the yeere 1534. Tunis An. 1574. Three and twentie yeeres after that Tripoli in Barbarie another Cage of like birds and seat of a Boglerbeg was taken from the Knights of Malta by Sinan Bassa These Kingdomes the Turke hath in Africa besides the great kingdome of Egypt and what hee hath taken from Prester Iohn In Egypt are said to be an hundred thousand Timariots or Horse-mens fees which for that tenure of their Land without any charge to the great Turke are to serue where it pleaseth him to employ them In this kingdome of Algier are fortie thousand CHAP. X. Of the Kingdome of Fez part of Mauritania Tingitana §. I. Of the Poeticall and Historicall Antiquities and part of Temesma MAuritania Tingitana so called of Tingis now Tanger at the mouth of the Streits is by Ptolemey bounded on the West with the Westerne and Atlantike on the North with the Mediterran Seas on the East with the Riuer Muluia or Malua which diuideth it from Casariensis on the South with the inner Nations of Libya Niger saith it was after called Setinensis of the Citie Setia more truly Sitiphensis of Sitiphis which Procopius saith was the mother Citie of Tingitana In this Prouince are now the famous kingdomes of Fez and Marocco The ancient Inhabitants besides the Maurusij of which wee haue spoken were the Massaessuli Autololes Bannurri and the Gaetulians which liued here and in other parts of Africa as the Tartars doe in Asia and the Arabians in Africa remoouing their dwellings if Tent-wandring may bee so called as their pastures faile them So Silius writeth of them Nulla domus plaustris habitant migrare per arua Mos atque errantes circumuectare Penates House they haue none but wandring still in Waynes They cart their houshold-gods about the Playnes The westerly point of Mauritania Pomponius beginneth at the Promontorie called of their store of Vines Ampelusia now Cabo de Cantero as Oliuarius affirmeth In it was a Caue sacred to Hercules and beyond the same Tingi supposed to bee built by Antaeus for proofe whereof they shew his Target made of an Elephants hide too huge and vnweildy for any man of later times and holden in great veneration Next to this Tingi which gaue name to the Countrey after by Claudius Caesar who sent a Colonie thither called Traducta Iulia was a high Mountayne called Abyla to which on the Spanish coast was opposed Calpe which two Hills bare the name of Hercules pillars Hercules himselfe if wee beleeue fabulous antiquitie making there a passage to the Ocean and Mediterran Seas for mutuall view and entertainment They are now called Seuta on that side and Gibraltar on this side A little hence was Iulia Constantia a Colonie of Augustus and Lixus a Colonie of Claudius In this was Antaeus his Palace and his combate with Hercules and the Gardens of the Hesperides which some as is said
Barbarie a Composition called Lafis The Cobtini is as foolish a Sect one of which shewed himselfe not many yeeres since at Algier mounted on a Reede with a Bridle and reynes of leather affirming that hee had ridden an hundred miles on that Horse in one night and was therefore highly reuerenced Somewhat also is said before of these African Sects in our Chapter of Fez Another occasion diuided Africa from other of the Mahumetane superstition For when Muauia and Iezid his Sonne were dead one Maruan seized on the Pontificalitie but Abdalan the sonne of Iezid expelled him Hee also had slaine Holem the sonne of Halea a little before whom the Arabians had proclaimed Caliph and therefore made the Maraunian stocke of which hee descended odious to the Arabians They therefore at Cufa chose Abdimely for the Saracenicall Soueraigne who was of Hali's posteritie which they call the Abazian stocke or family Hee sent Ciafa against Abdalan who fledde and was slaine Ciafa exercised all cruelties against all that Maraunian kindred drew Iezid out of his Sepulchre and burnt his carkasse and slaying all of that house cast their bodies to the Beasts and Fowles to be deuoured Whereupon one Abed Ramon of that familie some suppose him the Sonne of Muauias fled into Africa with great troupes of followers and partakers where the Saracens receiued him very honourably Barrius tels that Ciafa himselfe was Caliph and that he descended of Abaz of whom that stocke was called Abazian and that he tooke an oath at his Election to destroy the Maraunians which hee executed in manner as aforesaid by Abidela his kinsman and Generall To Abed Ramon resorted the Mahumetans in Africke who equalling his heart to his fortunes called himselfe Miralmuminin which is mis-pronounced Miramulim and signifieth the Prince of the beleeuers which he did in disgrace of the Abazians Some attribute the building of Marocco to him which others ascribe to Ioseph as before is said and some to some other Prince built as they say in emulation of Badget which the Easterne Calipha builded for the Metropolitan Citie of their Law and Empire Barrius addeth that he became a Nabuchodonosor to whip and scourge Spaine which Vlit his Sonne by Musa his Captaine wholly conquered in the time of Rhodericus But Pelagius soone after wich his Spanish forces began to make head against the Moores and recouered from them some Townes which Warre was continued with diuersitie of chance and change three hundred yeeres and more till Alphonsus the sixt tooke Toledo from them and for diuers good seruices which Don Henry had done him in these warres gaue him his Daughter in marriage and for her portion those parts which hee had taken from the Moores in Lusitania since called the Kingdome of Portugall with all that hee or his could Conquer from them Thus was the Kingdome of Portugall planted in the bloud of the Moores whereby it hath beene so fatned and hath so batned euer since that all their greatnesse hath risen from the others losse For they not onely cleered those parts of that Kingdome of them by an hereditary Warre but pursued them also into Africa where Iohn the first tooke Scuta from them so making way to his Posteritie to pierce further which happily they performed Alphonsus the fift Portugall tooke from them Tanger Arzila and Alcasare and others especially Emanuel wanne from them many Cities and a great part of Mauritania the Arabians not refusing the Portugals seruice till the Seriff arose in Africa as euen now was shewed and chased the Portugals thence Thus Spaine hath reuenged her selfe of the Mahumetan iniuries by her two Armes of Castle which at last draue them out of Granada and tooke diuers Townes in the Maine of Africa from them and King Philip now in our dayes hath expelled the remainders of that Race quite out of Spaine and Portugall which thus freed it selfe and burthened them by another course did yet more harme to the Mahumetan profession For Henry sonne of Iohn the first set forth Fleets to discouer the Coasts of Africa and the Ilands adiacent diuers of which were by the Portugals possessed and made way to the further discoueries and conquests of that Nation in Africa and India to these our dayes where they haue taken diuers Kingdomes and Cities from the Moores Of which other places of this Historie in part and the larger Relations of Barrius in his Decades of Osorius Maffaeus Marmol Arthus Iarrie and others are ample witnesses CHAP. XIII Of Biledulgerid and Sarra otherwise called Numidia and Libya WEe haue now I suppose wearied you with so long discourse of that part of Africa on this side Atlas but such is the difference of the Mindes wearinesse from that of the Body that this being wearied with one long iourney if the same be continued with a second it is more then tired the other after a tedious and irkesome way when another of another nature presents it selfe is thereby refreshed and the former wearinesse is with this varietie abated yea although it bee as this is from a better to a worse Euen the mounting vp this cold hill and thence to view the Atlantike Ocean on the West Southward and Eastward the Desarts will neither make the Soule breathlesse with the steepe ascent nor faint with so wide prospects of manifold Wildernesses this of barren Earth and that of bare Waters a third seeming to bee mixt of both a Sea without waters an Earth without soliditie a sand not to hazard Ships with her priuie ambushments but with open violence swallowing men and disdaining to hold a foot-print as a testimony of subiection a winde not breathing ayre but sometimes the higher Element in fiery heates and sometimes the lower in sandie showres once a Nature mocking Nature an order without order a constant inconstancie where it is Natures pastime to doe and vndoe to make Mountaines and Valleyes and Mountaines of Valleyes at pleasure Strange is the composition of these places but stranger is that of the Minde which feedes it selfe with the cruell hunger and satiates thirst with insatiable thirstinesse of these Desarts And whereas the body feareth to be drowned euen there where it as much feareth to want water in this sandie iourney the Soule modell of Diuinitie life of Humanitie feares no such accidents to it selfe but in a sweetnesse of varietie delights to suruey all that her first and Ancient inheritance howsoeuer since by sinne mortgaged and confiscated and being sequestred from all societies of Men can here discourse with GOD and Nature in the Desarts Hither now after so long a Preamble we bring you and at first present vnto your view Numidia where you shall bee feasted with Dates which haue giuen the name Biledulgerid that is Date-Region thereunto and before is made one entire part of seuen in our diuision of Africa Ludonicus Marmolius writes it Biledel Gerid Obserue by the way with Aldrete that this Numidia is that
age Some ascend aboue the Moone to call some heauenly Constellation and Influence into this Consistorie of Nature and there will I leaue them yea I will send them further to Him that hath reserued many secrets of Nature to himselfe and hath willed vs to content our selues with things reuealed As for secret things both in Heauen and Earth they belong to the Lord our God whose holy Name be blessed for euer for that he hath reuealed to vs things most necessary both for body and soule in the things of this life and that which is to come His incomprehensible Vnitie which the Angels with couered faces in their Holy Holy Holy-Hymnes resound and Laude in Trinitie hath pleased in this varietie to diuersifie his workes all seruing one humane nature infinitely multiplied in persons exceedingly varied in accidents that we also might serue that One-most God that the tawnie Moore blacke Negro duskie Libyan Ash-coloured Indian Oliue-coloured American should with the whiter Europaean become one sheep-fold vnder one Great Sheepheard till this mortalitie being swallowed vp of life wee may all bee one as Hee and the Father are one and all this varietie swallowed vp into an ineffable vnity only the Language of Canaan bee heard onely the Fathers name written in their foreheads the Lambes song in their mouthes the victorious Palmes in their hands their long Robes being made white in the bloud of the Lambe whom they follow whither soeuer He goeth filling Heauen and Earth with their euerlasting Halleluiahs without any more distinction of Colour Nation Language Sexe Condition all may be One in him that is One and only blessed for euer Amen RELATIONS OF THE REGIONS AND RELIGIONS IN AFRICA OF AETHIOPIA AND THE AFRICAN ILANDS AND OF THEIR RELIGIONS THE SEVENTH BOOKE CHAP. I. Of Aethiopia Superior and the Antiquities thereof §. I. Of the name and diuision of Aethiopia OVt of Nubia we needed neither Palinurus helpe nor Charon to set vs on the Aethiopian Territory the Sea is farre distant and the Riuer Nilus which parteth them whether loth to mixe his fresh waters with the Seas saltnesse or fearing to fall downe those dreadfull Cataracts or dreading the multitude of Pits which the Egyptians make in his way to intrap him heere sheweth his vnwillingnesse to passe further forward and distracted with these passions hath almost lost his Channell diffusing himselfe in such lingering and heartlesse manner as Man and Beast dare here insult on his Waters and I also haue aduentured to take the aduantage of these shallowes and wade ouer into this anciently renowmed Aethiopia The name Aehiopia came from Aethiops the sonne of Vulcan before it had beene called Aetheria and after that Atlantia Lydiat deriueth Aethiopia of Ai and Thebets the Land of or beyond Thebais which was called Aegyptus Superior next to Aethiopia Chytraeus saith it is deriued of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 splendeo and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 visus of the Sunnes burning presence Two Aethiopia's are found in Africke as Plinie witnesseth out of Homer so ancient is the diuision the Easterne and Westerne And this partition is by some still followed as namely by Osorius Others diuide the same into the Asiatike and African Author hereof is Herodotus in his Pocyhimnia which reckoneth two sorts of Aethiopians in Xerxes huge Armie the Easterne mustered vnder the Indian Standards the other of Africa by themselues differing from the former in Language and their curled haire Eusebius mentioneth Aethiopians neere the Riuer Indus And to let passe Pausanias his search among the Seres or Philostratus at Ganges for some Asian Aethiopians the Scriptures seeme to mention an Aethiopia in Asia For Cush the sonne of Cham of whom Iosephus saith the Aethiopians called themselues and were called by others Chusaei was Author not onely of the Aethiopians in Africa but of many peoples of Arabia also in Asia as Moses relateth And hence perhaps it was that Miriam and Aaron contended with Moses for his Wife Zippora because she was an Aethiopian And yet was she a Midianite but called an Aethiopian in respect of the neighbour-hood which Midian had to Aethiopia Orientalis as Vatablus obserueth out of the Iewish Writers or for that Midian is also assigned to Aethiopia taken in a larger sense as saith Genebrard Iunius saith because the Midianites dwelt in that Region which was assigned to Cush Aethicus in his Cosmography affirmeth that Tygris burieth it selfe and runneth vnder ground in Aethiopia which Simlerus interpreteth of Arabia for otherwise Tygris washeth no part of Africa Saint Augustine affirmeth that the Region Northwards from the Red Sea and so euen to India was called Aethiopia Orientalis This distinction is still acknowledged by later Writers And therefore it is needlesse to fetch Moses a Wife out of Aethiopia beneath Egypt to interpret that place For so Iosephus as wee shall after see telleth of a Wife which Moses in his prosperitie before his flight married from thence This obseruation is very necessary because the Scriptures often mention Aethiopia when no part of Africa can be vnderstood as Genes 2.13 where one of the Riuers of Paradise is said to compasse the whole Land of Cush or Aethiopia And so in other places Cush or Aethiopia Learned Iunius obserueth that Cush is either a proper name as Genes 10. or common to the people that came of him it is also a name attributed to the three Arabia's to the two African Aethiopia's and to all the Southerne tract by the Persian Gulfe Leauing that Asian Aethiopia which already wee haue handled vnder other names wee will now proceed in our African iourney where we find in Ptolemie not so exact description thereof as in later Geographers being then in the greatest part vnknowne Maginus maketh Aethiopia to containe two of those seuen parts whereinto he diuideth Africa one of which he calleth Aethiopia Superior and Interior which for the most part is subiect vnto the Christian Prince called in Europe Priest or Prester Iohn the other Inferior and Exterior is all that Southerly part of Africa which was not knowne to the Ancients This doth not altogether agree with Homers diuision whose Geographie Strabo hath so largely trauersed and admired For how could Homer or any in his time attaine to the knowledge of those remote parts Neither yet may we reiect that renowmed Poet seeing this partition may serue vs now in the better discouerie of places where we may reckon all that to the Westerly Aethiopia which from Guinea stretcheth to the Cape of Good Hope and thence to the Red Sea Northwards to the Easterly Nilus and a line from the head thereof vnto the aforesaid Cape being the Arbiter in this diuision But to let passe this curiositie in caruing when all is like to be eaten we will begin at Aethiopia vnder Egypt and so take the Countries
besides great store of Gold Cochinile Sugars Hides c. And at this day saith Acosta the Mines of Potozi yeeld the King a million of Siluer for his fift yeerely besides the wealth that groweth by Quicke-siluer and other Prerogatiues In the yeere 1574. were entred threescore and sixteene millions That which is wrought in the Countrey is not entred besides priuy conueyances How much differeth Potozi from the Mine Bebello in Spain one thousand and fiue hundred paces deepe admired and that iustly by Antiquitie for yeelding three hundred pounds weight of Siluer a day to Hannibal but with much more charges by reason of the intolerable paines in drawing out the waters which therein flowed and in Potozi are wanting But what will not this vnlouely loue of money doe Hereby Man encountreth the vast Ocean passeth the farthest and most contrarie climates drowneth Bootes and all his Teame buryeth himselfe in the bowels of the Earth raiseth new Heauens and seeketh his heauen where he cannot see heauen or light neere the bottomlesse bottomes of Hell remoueth Fountaines and Mountaines reduceth a new Chaos in the confusion of Elements the Earths intrals being towred in the Ayre and sacrificed to his hotter brother in Fiery purgations the Aire filing the darke hollowes and hels which it cannot see the Waters forced out of those possessions wherein they challenged succession and inheritance after the decease and remouing of the Earth all filled with Darknesse to bring to light those metals which possessing the possessors depriue them of the highest Light and brand them for the lowest Darknesse Precious perils where so many bodies are pined so many soules endangered so much Good lost for goods and Man for price setteth himselfe at the worst and basest price of all that hee hath How happy and golden was the outward state of these Indians before they accounted gold any part of their happinesse and found it the cause of their ruine Of meals Gold is esteemed most precious as most enduring both Age and Fire and least subiect to rust according to those Verses vni quoniam nil deperit Auro Igne velut solum consumit nulla vetustas Ac neque rubigo aut arugo conficit vlla Their Gold is found either in Graines which they call Pippins because they are like the Pippins or Seeds of Melons which is pure and hath no need of melting or in powder which is found in Riuers mixed with the soyle and sands for which Tagus Pactolus and Ganges haue been famous or else in stone being a veine that groweth and ingendereth intermixing it selfe with the stones Those Pippins or pieces of pure Gold found among the Rocks or Hils are sometimes very great Peter Martyr tels of one that weighed three thousand three hundred and ten Pezos and was with much people and treasure drowned in the ship called Boadilla being therewith surcharged in the returne homewards A fit Embleme for Christians which when they will lade themselues with this thicke clay drowne the soule in perdition and destruction Ouiedo who a long time held the Office of Proueditor for the Mines saith that hee saw two Graines of Gold one of which weighed seuen pounds and was in value 700. Castilians or Pezos the other fiue pounds was worth fiue hundred and many other of one two or three hundred Yet are not these Graines so welcome to the Miners as that in powder because this continueth and therfore in fine containeth more then the former He obserueth that Gold hath a farre brighter lustre in the naturall virginitie then when it hath passed the fire mans industry and that coles are often found very fresh where they find Gold which place he thinkes was sometimes the face of the Earth and by Time which conserueth coles as well as gold vnder the earth without corruption couered through showres bringing the earth from the higher places whereby hee supposeth it came to passe that in a virgin-Mine fifteene foot vnder the earth he once found two rings of the Indian fashion he addeth that the gold in stone will runne as small as a pin or threed and meeting with a hollow place filleth it and so guideth the Miner by thick and thin but alway pliant flexible like liquid waxe till the first sight of our aire breathes as from the couetous hard hearts of men this naturall hardnesse which it presenteth to vs The wild Indians had the Art of gilding their works with such dexterity that they seemed pure gold which mystery they performed with certayne herbs but would neuer teach it any Europaean The Indians in Hispaniola obserued a kinde of Religion in gathering their Gold as the Arabians in their Frankincense fasted and for twenty dayes space came not at their wiues otherwise thinking they should find none Columbus imitating the like superstition would suffer none to seeke this golden Idoll without those gilded Ceremonies of Confession and their Sacrament before receiued The greatest quantity is drawne at the Indies in the powder-gold The gold in stone is drawne out of the Mynes or Pits with great difficulty They refine powdred Gold in Basons washing it in many waters vntill the sand fall from it and the Gold as more heauy remayneth in the bottome They haue other meanes of refining it with Quick-siluer and strong Waters In the fleet 1585. the declaration of the firme land was twelue Cassons or Chests which was so many hundreth weights of Gold besides one thousand fifty and sixe Mares from New Spaine which was for the King only not mentioning that which came for Merchants and priuate men For the Siluer the second place is giuen to it among metals because next to Gold it is the most durable and least endammaged by the fire and in the sound and colour passeth the Gold The Mynes thereof are commonly in Mountaynes and Rocks seldome in plaines and Champaines Sometimes they find find it straggling in pieces not holding any continuing Veine sometimes it is fixed and spreadeth it selfe in depth and length like to great branches and armes of trees Strange it is that in some places the fire kindled with blowing of bellowes will not serue to refine the Siluer but they vse Furnaces called Guayras set in such places where the wind continually bloweth Thus in Peru the Mynes of Porco stoupe to artificiall fires which those Potozi scorne and contemne Potozi is a dry cold barren and vnpleasant soyle if the rich Mynes did not more then supply all those defects and make it a plentifull both habitation and Mart not fearing the Heauens disasters the cold Ayre the frowning Earth the fell Showres so long as the Siluer hooke can be sufficient attractiue for forreine store Hence it is that they feele no want of store and yet haue no store but of want the Mynes excepted which I know not how are both store and want according as mens minds in a second refining can digest and dispose them
Riuer ninety and odde miles from the mouth thereof which somewhat differs from the number before mentioned and within fifteene or sixteene miles of the Fals being our furthest habitation within land are eight and thirtie men and boyes of which two and twenty Farmers Captaine Smaley Commander in the absence of Iames Dauies who now is returning Master William Wickham Minister At Bermuda Nether Hundred seated on the South side the Riuer which almost encompasseth it and with a pale on a short necke of land boundeth this peninsula are a hundred and nineteene These are incorporated to Bermuda Towne which is made a Corporation according to certaine Orders and Constitutions Captaine Yeardly Deputy gouernour liues most heere Master Alexander Whitaker is Minister West and Sherley Hundred is three or foure miles lower on the North side the Riuer here are twenty fiue men commanded by Captaine Maddeson employed onely in planting and curing Tobacco to the publike benefit Lower by thirty seuen miles is Iames Towne where are fifty men vnder Captaine Francis West Brother to the L. La Ware and in his absence commanded by Lieutenant Sharp Master Buck Minister At Kequoughton thirty seuen miles lower neere the mouth of the Riuer are twenty Capt. Webbe commander Master Mays Minister Dales-Gift is vpon the Sea neere Cape Charles where are seuenteene vnder Lieutenant Cradock their labour to make salt and catch fish The numbers of Officers and Labourers are two hundred and fiue The Farmers eighty one besides sixty fiue women and children in euery place some in all three hundred fifty one persons These I haue thus particularly related as a witnesse to after-Ages of their little but now hopefull proceedings after ten yeeres habitation which as Iacobs little family in Egypt and Gedeons small Armie lesse then that which the Father of the Faithfull mustered in his owne houshold I hope and pray may grow into Townes Cities and Christian-English Churches in numberlesse numbers to the glory of God and honour of our Nation Euen in all the greatest workes of God and exploits of Men the beginnings are ordinarily slow and small How many of the foure hundred and thirtie yeares were almost if not more then halfe spent when Iacob was but a little Family and those in a strange land there suddenly growing vnder the Crosse into a multitude and great people From her Village-foundation how did Rome peepe and creepe forth by degrees vnto the height of Maiestie So may wee say of the Spanish Plantations in this American continent from contemptible and troublesome beginnings to their present Splendor Nor are our hopes lesse if our hearts bee sincere and minde as wee professe the propagation of Christianitie As for their transported Cattell there were the last of May of Buls Steeres Cowes Heifers Calues a hundred forty and foure Horses three and as many Mares Goates and Kids two hundred and sixteene Hogges wilde and tame not to bee numbred and great plenty of Poultry CHAP. VI. Of the Religion and Rites of the Virginians §. I. Of the Virginian Rites related by Master HARIOT NOw for the manners and Rites of the people thus hath Master Hariot reported They beleeue that there are many gods which they call Mantoac but of different sorts and degrees one onely chiefe and great God which hath bin from all eternity Who as they affirme when he purposed to make the world made first other gods of a principall Order to bee as meanes and instruments to be vsed in the Creation and Gouernment to follow and after the Sunne Moone and Starres as petty gods and the instruments of the other Order more principall First they say were made Waters out of which by the gods was made all diuersitie of Creatures that are visible or inuisible For Mankinde they say a Woman was made first which by the working of one of the gods conceiued and brought forth children And in such sort they say they had their beginning But how many yeeres or ages haue passed since they say they can make no relation hauing no letters nor other meanes to keep records of times past but onely tradition from Father to Sonne They thinke that all the gods are of humane shape and therefore they present them by Images in the formes of men which they call Kewasowock one alone is called Kewas Them they place in Houses or Temples which they call Machicomuck where they worship pray sing and make many times offerings vnto them In some Machicomuck we haue seene but one Kewas in some two in other three They beleeue the immortalitie of the Soule that after this life as soone as the soule is departed from the body according to the workes it hath done it is either carried to heauen the habitacle of Gods there to enioy perpetuall blisse and happinesse or else to a great pit or hole which they think to be in the furthest parts of their part of the World toward the Sun-set there to burne continually This place they call Popogusso For the confirmation of this opinion they tell tales of men dead and reuiued againe much like to the Popish Legends Thus they tell of one whose graue the next day after his buriall was seene to moue and his body was therefore taken vp againe who reported that his soule had beene very neere the entring into Popogusso had not one of the gods saued him and giuen him leaue to returne againe and teach his friends how to auoid that terrible place They tell of another which being taken vp in that manner related that his soule was aliue while his body was in the graue and that it had trauelled farre in a long broad way on both sides whereof grew most delicate pleasant Trees bearing more rare and excellent fruits then euer he had seene before or was able to expresse and at length came to most braue and faire houses neere which he met his father that had been dead before who gaue him great charge to goe back againe and shew his friends what good they were to doe to enioy the pleasures of that place which when he had done he should after come againe What subtiltie so euer be in their Weroances and Priests the vulgar are hereby very respectiue to their Gouernours and carefull of their manners although they haue also in criminall cases punishments inflicted according to the qualitie of the offence This I learned by speciall familiaritie with some of their Priests wherein they were not so sure grounded but that they lent open eare to ours with doubting of their owne The Priests in Secota haue their haire on the crowne like a Combe the rest being cut from it onely a fore-top on the forehead is left and that Combe They haue a garment of skins peculiar to their function They are great Wisards Our artificiall Workes Fire-workes Gunnes Writing and such like they esteemed the workes of Gods rather then of Men or at least taught vs by the Gods They bare
vsed the like with all his seruants and ornaments they gaue him for the other world and lastly buried the ashes with great solemnitie The obsequies continued ten dayes with mournefull songs and the Priests carried away the dead with innumerable ceremonies To the Noble-men they gaue their honourable Ensignes Armes and particular Blazons which they carried before the body to the place of burning marching as in a Procession where the Priests and Officers of the Temple went with diuers furniture and ornaments some casting incense others singing and some making the Drums and Flutes to sound the mournfullest accents of sorrow The Priest who did the Office was decked with the markes of the Idoll which the Noble-men had represented for all Noble-men did represent Idols and carrie the name of some One The Mexicans honoured the best souldiers with a kinde of Knighthood of which were three Orders one ware a red ribband which was the chiefe the second was the Lyon or Tyger-knight the Grey-Knight was the meanest they had great priuiledges Their Knighthood had these funerall solemnities They brought the corps to the place appointed and enuironing it and all the baggage with Pine-trees set fire thereon maintaining the same with gummie wood till all were consumed Then came forth a Priest attired like a diuell hauing mouthes vpon euery ioynt of him and many eyes of Glasse holding a great staffe with which he mingled all the ashes with terrible and fearfull gestures When the King of Mexico sickened they vsed forthwith to put a Visor on the face of Tezcatlipuca or Vitzilivitzli or some other Idoll which was not taken away till hee mended or ended If he died word was presently sent into all his Dominions for publike lamentations and Noble-men were summoned to the funerals The body was laid on a Mat and watched foure nights then washed and a locke of haire out off for a relike for therein said they remained the remembrance of his soule After this an Emerald was put in his mouth and his body shrowded in 17. rich mantles costly and curiously wrought Vpon the vpper mantle was set the Deuice or Armes of some Idoll whereunto he had been most deuout in in his life time and in his Temple should the body be buried Vpon his face they put a Visor painted with foule and deuillish gestures beset with jewels then they killed the slaue whose office was to light the Lamps and make fire to the gods of his Palace This done they carried the body to the Temple some carrying Targets Arrows Maces and Ensignes so hurle into the funerall fire The High Priest and his crue receiue him at the Temple gate with a sorrowfull Song and after he hath said certaine words the body is cast into the fire there prepared for that purpose together with jewels also a Dog newly strangled to guide his way In the meane-while two hundred persons were sacrificed by the Priests or more to serue him as is said The fourth day after fifteene slaues were sacrificed for his soule and vpon the twentieth day fiue on the sixtieth three c. The ashes with the locke of haire was put in a Chest painted on the in-side with deuillish shapes together with another locke of haire which had been reserued since the time of his birth On this Chest was set the Image of the King the kinred offered great gifts before the same The King of Mechuacan obserued the like bloudy Rites many Gentlewomen were by the new King appointed their Offices in their seruice to the deceased and while his body was burning were malled with clubs and buried foure and foure in a graue Many Women slaues and free Maidens were slaine to attend on these Gentlewomen But I would not bury my Reader in these direfull graues of men cruell in like and death Let vs seeke some Festiuall argument if that may be more delightfull CHAP XIII Of the supputation of Times Festiuall Solemnities Colledges Schooles Letters Opinions and other remarkeable things in New Spaine §. I. Their Kalender and Conceits of Time and some of their Feasts THe Mexicans diuided the yeere into eighteene moneths ascribing to each twentie dayes so that the fiue odde dayes were excluded These fiue they reckoned apart and called them the dayes of nothing during the which the people did nothing neither went to their Temples but spent the time in visiting each other the Sacrificers likewise ceased their Sacrifices These fiue dayes being past the first moneth began about the twentie sixe of February Gomara sets downe their moneths names in order The Indians described them by peculiar Pictures commonly taken of the principall Feast therein They accounted their weeks by thirteene dayes they had also a weeke of yeeres which was likewise thirteene They reckoned by a certaine Wheele which contayned foure weekes that is two and fiftie yeeres In the midst of this Wheele was painted the Sunne from which went foure beames of lines in a Crosse of distinct colours Greene Blue Red and Yellow and so the lines betwixt these on which they noted by some Picture the accident that befell any yeere as the Spaniards comming marked by a man clad in Red The last night when this Wheele was run about they brake all their vessels and stuffe put out their fire and all the lights saying that the World should end at the finishing of one of these Wheeles and it might be at that time and then what should such things need Vpon this conceit they passed the night in great feare but when they saw the day begin to breake they presently beat many Drums with much other mirth and Musicke saying that God did prolong the time with another Age of two and fifty yeeres And then began another Wheele the first day whereof they tooke new fire for which they went to the Priest who fetched it out of a Mountaine and made a solemne Sacrifice and Thanksgiuing The twenty dayes of each moneth were called by seuerall names the first Cipactli which signifieth a Spade and so the rest a House a Dogge a Snake an Eagle a Temple and the like By this Kalendar they keepe things in memory aboue nine hundred yeeres since The Indians of Culhua did beleeue that the Gods had made the World they knew not how and that since the Creation foure Sunnes were past and that the fift and last is the Sunne which now giueth light vnto the World The first Sunne forsooth perished by water and all liuing creatures therewith the second fell from Heauen and with the fall slue all liuing creatures and then were many Giants in the Country the third Sunne was consumed by fire and the fourth by Tempest of ayre and wind and then Mankind perished not but was turned into Apes yet when that fourth Sunne perished all was turned into darknesse and so continued fiue and twenty yeeres and at the fifteenth yeere God did forme one man and woman who brought forth children and at the end of other ten yeeres
vnto them The Spaniards in this Prouince planted fiue Spanish Colonies which all scarcely could number an hundred and twentie houses §. II. Of Nicaragua their Plentie and exceeding superstition NIcaragua extendeth it selfe from the Chiulatecan Mines of Fonduta toward the South Sea This Region is not great but fertile and therefore called of the Spaniards Mahumets Paradise for the plentie of all things yet in the Summer time it is so scorched with heate that men cannot trauell but in the night Sixe moneths from May to October are pestered with continuall showres which the other six wholly want The Parrots are here as troublesome as Crowes and Rookes with vs and they are forced to keep their corne in like manner from their spoyling The people are of like condition to the Mexicans they feed on mans flesh To their dances they flocke two or three hundred in a companie which are performed with great varietie of gestures vestures and passions Euery man in and euery man out of his humour Thirtie and fiue miles from Legeon or Lyon an Episcopall Citie in this Region is a Vulcano of flaming Hill the fire whereof may be seene in the night aboue one hundred miles Some had a conceit that molten gold was the matter of this fire And therefore a certaine Dominican caused a Kettle and long chaine of Yron to bee let downe into this fierie concauitie where by the violence of the heat the Kettle and part of the chaine was molten He makes a bigger and stronger but returnes with like successe and this added that himselfe and his two companions by eruption of fire had almost beene consumed Gomara calls this fire Blasio de Innesta and the hill Masaya It goes downe two hundred and fiftie braces or yards In this Country they vsed Sodomie and sacrifices of Men. Of this name Nicaragua Gilgousales that first of the Spaniards discouered these parts found a King with whom he had much conference whom he perswaded to become a Christian although his prohibition of warres and dancing did much trouble him This Nicaragua demanded them if the Christians had any knowledge of the Floud which drowned all the Earth with men and beasts as he had heard his Progenitors say and whether another were to come whether the Earth should be ouerturned or the Heauen fall when and how the Moone and Starres should lose their light and motion who moued those heauenly bodies where the soules should remaine and what they should doe being freed from the bodie whether the Pope dyed whether the Spaniards came from Heauen and many other strange questions admirable in an Indian They worshipped the Sun and other Idols which Nicaragua suffered Gilgousales to take out of the great Temple In Nicaragua there were fiue linages and different languages the Coribici Ciocotoga Ciondale Oretigua and the Mexican though this place was a thousand miles from Mexico yet were they like them in speech apparell and religion they had also the same figures in stead of Letters which those of Culhua had and bookes a span broad and twelue spans long doubled of many colours They differ as in Languages so in Religions Of their religious rites thus writeth Gomara their Priests were all married except their Confessors which heard Confessions and appointed Penances according to the qualitie of the fault they reuealed not the Confession they appointed the Holy-dayes which were eighteene When they sacrificed they had a Knife of flint wherewith they opened him that was sacrificed The Priests appointed the Sacrifices how many men whether they were to be women or slaues taken in battell that all the people might know how to celebrate the Feasts what Prayers and what offerings to make The Priest went three times about the Captiue singing in a dolefull tune and suddenly opens his breast anoints his face with the bloud takes out his heart diuideth his body The heart is giuen to the Prelate the feet and hands to the King the buttocks to the taker the reft to the people The heads of the Sacrifices are set on Trees planted there for that purpose euery tree hath figured in it the name of the Prouince wherwith they haue wars Vnder these trees they many times sacrifice men and children of the Country and of their owne people being first bought for it was lawfull for the Father to sell his children Those which the Kings bring vp of their owne people with better fare then ordinary for sacrifice are made beleeue they shall be some canonized Wights or Heauenly Deities and therefore take it gladly They did not eate the flesh of these as they did of the captiues When they ate their sacrificed captiues they made great Faasts and the Priests and Religious men dranke much wine and smoke their wine is of Prunes whiles the Priest anoints the cheekes and mouth of the Idoll with the bloud the others sing and the people make their Prayers with great deuotion and teares and after goe on Procession which is not done in all Feasts The Religious haue white Cotten-coats and other ornaments which hang downe from the shoulders to the legs therby to put a difference between them others The Laymen haue their Banners with that Idol which they most esteem and bags with dust bodkins the yong men haue their Bowes Darts Arrows the guide of all is the Image of the Deuill set vpon a Lance carried by the most ancient and Honourable Priest They goe in order the Religious singing till they come to the place of their Idolatry where being arriued they spread couerings on the ground or strew it with Roses and Flowres because their Idols should not touch the ground and the Banner being stucke fast the singing ceaseth and the Prelate beginning all the rest follow and draw bloud some from their tongues some from their eares some from their members and euery man as 〈◊〉 deuotion liketh best and with that bloud anoint the Image In the meant-while the youths skirmish and dance for the honour of their Feasts they oure the wounds with the poulder of hearbs and coles In some of these Processions they hallow Mayz be sprinkling the same with the bloud of their Priuities and eate it They may haue many women but one is their lawfull wife which they marrie thus the Priest takes the Bridegroome and the Bride by the little fingers sets them in a chamber at a fire and giues them certain instructions and when the fire is out they are maried If he takes her for a Virgin and finds her otherwise he may diuorce her Many bring their wiues to the Caciques or Lords to corrupt them esteeming it an honour Their Temples were low darke roomes which they vsed for their Treasurie also and Armourie Before the Temple was an high Altar for the Sacrifices whereon the Priest played the Preacher first and then the Butcher Adulterers are beaten but not slaine the adulterous wife is diuorced and may not marry againe and her Parents
where they were well refreshed But a disease worse then the French Poxe there warred vpon them called Pori Yet did Pizarro hold on his resolution he passed ouer to Puna where the Gouernour intreated the Spaniards well till the abusing of their Wiues caused the Indians to take Armes and so made their riches become a prey to the preuayling Spaniards There had Pizarro the first intelligence of Atabaliba The Gouernour of this Iland to satisfie his iealousie cut off the Noses the Members and the Armes of his Eunuches or Keepers of his women Pizarro sent to Tumbez sixe hundred Prisoners which the Gouernour of this Land had taken of the party of Atabaliba who at that time mayntained Warre against his Brother Guascar about the Souereigntie and this Gouernour had taken Guascars part This ciuill discord was much to the Spaniards aduantage Pizarro sent three Messengers to Tumbez to demand peace and safe entrance but they notwithstanding the freedome of their Captiues deliuered them to the Priests to bee sacrificed to their Idoll of the Sunne Hee taketh Tumbez and sacketh the Temple and Citie From thence he proceeded in his way to Caximalca and Guascar sent some vnto him with great promises to demand his aide against his Brother Atabaliba soone after Atabaliba sent one to him to charge him to returne to his ships Pizarro answereth That hee came not to hurt any but for their good as his Emperour had giuen him in charge nor could he now being the Embassadour of the Pope and Emperour Lords of the World returne without great dishonour before he had seene his Royall person and communicated to him such instructions as might be good for his body and soule As he passed the Prouince of Chira the Lords thereof prouoked him against Atabaliba who had lately conquered their Countries And on the Riuer of Chira hee founded the Colonie of Saint Michael for the safe keeping of his spoyles and for his ships Hee marcheth on to Caximalca and sendeth Messengers on horse-back to giue him notice of his comming This strange Beast made the Indians afraid but Atabaliba was nothing mooued therewith more mooued to see those bearded men giue him so little reuerence Atabaliba sent Pizarro a paire of shooes cut and gilded that as hee pretended he might know him others thought that hee might bee knowne and designed to imprisonment or slaughter The next day the King was carried as in solemne triumph vpon mens shoulders garded with fiue and twentie thousand Indians in rich pompe and magnificence Vincentius de Valle Viridi a Dominican Frier holding in one hand a Crosse in the other his Breuiarie or as some say a Bible came before him with great reuerence and blessing him with the Crosse said Excellent Lord it behoueth you to know that God in Trinity and Vnity made the World of nothing and formed a man of the Earth whom hee called Adam of whom wee all haue beginning Adam sinned against his Creator by disobedience and in him all his Posteritie except Iesus Christ who being God came downe from Heauen and tooke flesh of the Virgin Mary and to redeeme Mankind dyed on a Crosse like to this for which cause wee worship it rose againe the third day after forty dayes ascended into Heauen leauing for his Vicar in Earth Saint Peter and his Successours which wee call Popes who haue giuen to the most puissant King of Spaine Emperour of the Romans the Monarchy of the World Obey the Pope and receiue the faith of Christ and if yee shall beleeue it most holy and that most false which yee haue yee shall doe well and know that doing the contrary we will make warre on you and will take away and breake your Idols therefore leaue the deceiueable Religion of your false Gods This preaching of the Frier might well seeme strange to Atabaliba which it seemes hee learned of the Mahumetans and not of the Apostles He answered that hee was Free and would not become tributary to any nor did acknowledge any greater Lord then himselfe and for the Emperour he could be pleased to be the friend of so great a Prince and to know him but for the Pope he would not obey him which gaue away that which was not his owne and tooke a Kingdome from him whom hee had neuer seene As for Religion hee liked well his owne and neyther would nor ought to call it in question being so ancient and approued especially seeing Christ dyed which neuer befell the Sunne or Moone And how saith hee doe you know that the God of the Christians created the World Frier Vincent answered That his Booke told it him and gaue him his Breuiarie Atabaliba looked on it and in it and saying it said no such thing to him hurled it on the ground The Frier tooke it vp and went to Pizarro crying Hee hath cast the Gospels to the ground Reuenge it O Christians seeing they will not our friendship nor our Law or to vse the words of a Spanish Captain there present in his relation thereof Come forth Christians come forth and come to these Enemies Dogs that wil not accept the things of God and the Cacique hath cast our holy Law to the ground Francisco di Xeres who was Pizarroes Secretary writeth that the Frier would haue opened the book because Atabaliba could not and he in disdain smote him on the arme and obiected to the Spaniards their abuses and robbing of his Caciques saying hee would not depart thence till all were restored Pizarro commanded to bring forth the Standard and the Ordinance the Horsemen in three Bands assailed Atabaliba's people and slue many hee himselfe arriued with his Footmen which layed about with their Swords all charged vpon Atabaliba slaying them which carried him whose Roome was presently supplyed by other till at last Pizarro pulled him downe from his Litter by the clothes All this while not one Indian fought because they had no commandement or as Xeres sayth for feare and amazement to see their Cacique so vsed and therefore no Spaniard was slaine and many Indians perished vpon the thrust for so the Frier had bidden them fight for feare of breaking their Swords neither were any wounded but onely Pizarro by one of his owne thrusting at Atabaliba in his taking and wounding Pizarro therewith in the arme Thus are the Indians chased their King with other great spoyles remayning with the Spaniards of which Xeres reckoneth 80000. Castilians in hold and 7000. Markes euery Marke being eight ounces in Siluer of the houshold Plate of Atabaliba And in Caxamalca they rifled houses full vp to the roofe of Garments besides Armour and Weapons of which some were Axes and Pole-axes of Gold and Siluer §. II. The huge Treasures taken by the Spaniards THe next day the Spaniards scowred about for spoyle and found fiue thousand Women of the Kings with much treasure Atabaliba was much grieued with his imprisonment especially in regard of the chaine which they
the Day which the Lord hath made wee will reioyce and bee glad in it And now I see a better sight then all my Pilgrimage could yeeld Christian Churches without Heathenish Iewish or Antichristian pollutions a Royall King truely entituled Defender of the Faith a Learned Clergie wise and Honourable Counsellers peaceable and loyall Commons in a word England presents it selfe to mine eyes representing to my mind a Map of Heauen and Earth in the freedome of Bodie and Soule yea where our subiection and seruice is Freedome which I haue not else-where found in all my Perambulation of the World I feele my selfe herewith rauished and in a ioyfull extasie cannot but crie out It is good for vs to bee heere in the true Church and Suburbs of the true Heauen Heere then Reader let me rest me till I see whether thy kind acceptation of this will make mee willing to accept another and neerer but harder European Pilgrimage Trin-vni Deo gloria TWO RELATIONS ONE OF THE NORTHEASTERNE PARTS EXTRACTED OVT OF SIR IEROME HORSEY KNIGHT HIS many yeeres obseruations and experience in his frequent and Honourable Employments to and from the Muscouite Emperours and the adioyning PRINCES THE OTHER OF THE SOVTHEASTERNE Parts viz. GOLCHONDA and other adiacent Kingdomes within the Bay of Bengala Written by Mr. William Methold MOLLIA CVM DVRIS LONDON Printed by William Stansby for Henry Fetherstone and are to bee sold at his shop in Pauls Church-yard at the signe of the Rose 1626. To the Reader REader I here present vnto thee in a later seruice that which deserued a fitter place in another Worke and which I had sought with much industrie before without successe I am ashamed againe to tell thee with what little effect my Russian labours for Intelligence were seconded but since my PILGRIMES published Sir Ierome Horseys kindnesse offered me without seeking better Intelligence then any others could haue giuen for the times of Iuan and Feodore with the politike preparations of Boris vnto the Muscouian Empire a Story whereof I was so much more desirous to publish because our Age if euer so short a time in any Age or any State can hardly parallel the like practises of humane Policies to couetous cruell ambitious ends ended in the Authours and Actors owne Tragedies God taking the wise in their craftinesse and iustly spoyling the vniust spoylers of their spoyles liues states yea rooting out their whole Families the greatnesse and glory whereof they had sought to aduance by such wicked courses and withall punishing the wickednes of the people by so frequent forreigne Inuasions and intestine Combustions that wee may out of others euils learne this good Discite iustitiam moniti the true vse of all Historie I had out of Alexander Gwagninus Paulus Oderbornius and others collected some Relations of Iuan Vasiliwich and his Sonnes but those could see but the out-sides of things and giue vs but huskes shels and rumours which often are vncertaine sometimes false but here wee present an Eye-witnesse which tooke not vp Newes on trust by wonted Bils and Tales of Exchange but was admitted vnto the Mysteries of that State in the Historie of the Imperiall Acts written in their Records and in his owne personall and honourable Employments betwixt Queene Elizabeth of glorious Memory and the Russian Emperours And indeed want of the Languages of remote Regions hath hatched many imperfect Histories the blind leading the blind into errour wherein as I haue euer loued truth so was I glad to rectifie our Russian Relations by opportunitie of so worthy a Guide whose Papers had before furnished Doctor Fletcher with the best peeces of his Intelligence Euen here also I was straitned in time the Presse pursuing me so fast that I had not leisure to transcribe at large the Authours Danish Polish and Germane Relations nor to adde forme or beauty from Arte and perhaps this natiue nakednesse in a Iournall or Trauelling Method will be to some most acceptable The Author and matter addes better lustre to the Worke then my words can the one so full of varietie and weight the other an experienced and Religious Knight employed in many and honourable Seruices of State and honouring the Name and Family of the Horseys with his Acts Arts and good Parts Who had long since also dedicated this Worke to that Honourable Patriote Sir Francis Walsingham Now for Master Methold I had spared some of Frederikes Balbies and Fitches Relations if these had comne in time which so many times I had both by messages and in person sought and by reason of the Authours absence or businesses was frustrate But the Reader will finde his labour and cost recompensed in the Rarities of matter and stile also trauelling beyond the wonted pace of a Merchant-Traueller The Relation is correspondent to the Subiect it entreates of a Mine of Diamants and is a Mine of Diamants it selfe Gemmes may bee put on after the whole bodie so I call my former large Worke is attired and after that full repast as Indian Drugs vsed in second Seruices it will second thee with a new and refresh thee with a fresh Indian appetite and present vnto thee like Spectacles after great Feasts such a muster of Indian Elements affaires men arts Religions customes and other varieties as before we were not able to bring on our Stage Vale fruere EXTRACTS OVT OF SIR IEROME HORSEYS OBSERVATIONS IN SEVENTEENE YEERES TRAVELS AND EXPERIENCE IN RVSSIA AND OTHER COVNTRIES ADIOYNING Hauing before seene FRANCE and the Low Countries by Sir EDWARD HORSEYS meanes and in the company and charge of Master William Mericke Agent for the Company I Arriued in Muscouia A. 1573. and hauing some smack in the Greeke by affinity thereof in short space attained the ready knowledge of their vulgar speech the Sclauonian Tongue the most copious elegant Language of the World with some small difference of Dialect comming neere the Polish Lettois and Transyluanian and all those Countries adiacent being vsed by Merchants in Turkie also Persia in India I read their Chronicles written and kept in secret by a great Prince of that Country Knez Misthislofskie who out of his loue and fauour imparted vnto mee many secrets obserued in the memory of his fourescore yeeres time of the nature and gouernment of that State To omit things of former ages Vasily Andreowich hauing enlarged his Dominions vpon the Pole and Swethen and specially on the Crimme Tartars left his people strong and rich his Countries diuided into foure parts and two Sonnes the eldest of fiue yeeres called Volica Knez Iuan Vasilliwich which reigned after him the other of two yeeres Duke of Vaga Iuan grew vp comely in person indued with excellent gifts At twelue yeeres age he married Nastacia Romanoua which became so wise and vertuous that she was much loued and feared a long time carrying the whole sway Her Husband being young and riotous she ruled with admirable wisdome so that he
Hee appointed Alamin his Successor and gaue him Irac and Syria appointed Abdalla to succeed him and gaue him all from Hamadan to the vtmost East to Casim Mesopotamia Tsugour and Awasim An. 187. Giafor Sonne of Iahia was slaine and his father cast into Prison where he dyed hauing this scroll in his bosom The Defendant goeth before being called into the Law the Plaintiffe followeth and the Iudge shall need no witnesse which when Haron read â—ead hee wept and sware it was true The same yeere hee went as farre as Heraclea spoyling and firing all things and Nicephorus the Emperour offered him yeerely tribute which he accepted but vpon occasion of the cold and snow he performed not couenants whereupon hee returned notwithstanding and forced performance An. 188. he againe inuaded the Romans and in a great battell with Nicephorus the Muslims preuayled and slue forty thousand and Nicephorus receiued three wounds An. 190. he inuaded the Romans with a hundred thirty fiue thousand besides voluntaries and tooke and burned Heraclea Sacaliba Risia and Saffaf with Colonia Hee carried away sixteene thousand captiues of Heraclea Nicephorus bought his P ace with Tribute Hee sent by Sea also and wasted Cyprus and carried away many captiues Hee dyed An. 193. when hee had reigned three and twenty yeeres one moneth and nineteene dayes He was exceedingly delighted with good Verses and was bountifull to Poets Hee made eight or nine Pilgrimages in his Chaliphate and prayed a hundred kneelings or prostrations euery day A hundred learned men accompanied him in his Pilgrimages And when he went not himselfe he set forth three hundred men on Pilgrimage with sufficient expenses and cleane garments Nor was the Court of any Chalifa so furnished with Counsellours Iudges Poets and learned men His Seale was inscribed Greatnesse and Power are Gods Hee gaue his Physician a Christian a hundred thousand Staters a yeere stipend for sauing his life by bloud-letting the same pay which his Keeper had saying One keepes my body the other my soule A. 193. Abuna Marke was made Patriarch which receiued those of the Sect of Sienufa two of their Bishops desiring admission and vpon their humility he entertained them in his house till two Bishops dyed in whose places he set them Abu-Abdalla Alamin called also Muhammed Abu-Musa Sonne of Haron Rasijd was the next and sixth Abasian Chalif created on the day of his Fathers death But Rasijd had renewed the league to his Son Almamon after Alamin who behaued himselfe so well whiles Alamin gaue himselfe to play and drinking that the chiefe men fauoured him Yet Alamin burned the Couenants of his Father and assumed his own Sonne Musa partner of the league Almamon hereupon forbade his brothers name to be stamped in money or cloth and all Chorasan yeelded to him and he named himselfe a Prince and prayed in the Pulpits of Chorasan An. 195. a great battell was fought and the followers of Almamon preuayled whereupon he was saluted Chalifa An. 196. Alamin was deposed and imprisoned with his Mother Zebeida but soone after by popular commotion restored But Taher the Generall of Almamons forces taking Ahwaz Wasijt Madaijn and causing men to sweare to Almamon Egypt Syria Higiaza and Aliaman called him to the Empire An. 197. Bagdad was besieged and most of the houses ruined A. 198. Alamin was forsaken by most of his Souldiers and as he fled his Boate was ouerturned and the men with him drowned but he escaping swamme into a certaine Garden and was there slaine by Tahers Seruant The Ring of the Chalifate the Rolls and the Scepter were sent to Almamon which fell downe and gaue God great thankes for the victory and gaue a Million of Staters to the messenger Alamin reigned foure yeeres eight moneths and eighteene dayes He was liberall bloudy inconsiderate cowardly He neyther left his Angling nor Chesse-play vpon the heauiest tydings or occasions and was a drinker of wine Abulabbas Almamon called also Abugiafar Abdalla was the seuenth Abasian Chalif inaugurated An. 198. An. 199. The Talibites made commotion in diuers places and at Cufa arose Muhammed Sonne of Ibrahim Sonne of Ismael Sonne of Ibrahim Sonne of Hasen Sonne of Husein Sonne of Ali Sonne of Abutalib inuiting the people to respect the stock of Muhammed and to obserue the Booke and the Law Abusaraia warring in his name And the Chawarisians came forth Many battels followed but Abusaraia preuayled which went to Basra and tooke it but in the yeere 200. was slaine and Muhammed was dead and another Muhammed of the Pogenie of Ali inaugurated in his place which was taken and sent to Almamon At Mecca also Muhammed Sonne of Giafar and in Aliaman Ibrahim made insurrection which succeeded not An. 201. Almamon assumed Ali Sonne of Musa Sonne of Giafar Sonne of Muhammed Sonne of Husein Sonne of Ali into partnership of the league and to the succession of the Chalifate and called him Arrad of Muhammeds stocke and commanded the Souldiers to weare greene and cast away their blackes and writ to Hasen to procure his inauguration at Bagdad but they refused to transferre the succession from the Abasian stock to that of Ali and thereupon the Hasiemides and Captaines determined to depose Almamon and to make his Vncle Ibrahim Chalifa This they did An. 202. and named him Mubaric who ascending the Pulpit made a speech to the people and promised them bounty he enioyed Bagdad and Cafa with their Villages Almamon hearing of these commotions in Irac went towardes Bagdad and considering that Fadlus his swaying all things occasioned this distaste he caused him to be closely slain in a Bath then killed the murtherer fayning that he had no hand in it This Fadlus first added surnames in Letters for before the inscriptions of Epistles were only from N. Son of N. to N. Son of N. An. 203. Almamon came to Tus where Ali Sonne of Musa after the eating of a Grape suddenly died poysoned as was suspected yet Almamon seemed to take his death heauily This Ali was very abstinent and religious At Bagdad the Souldiers rebelled against Ibrahim who hid himselfe An. 204. Almamon came to Bagdad clothed in greene as also his Souldiers but after a weeke he ware blacke and commanded the People so to doe An. 206. Hakem Sonne of Hisiam Sonne of Abdurrahman King of Spaine dyed and his Sonne Abdurrahman succeeded Hee had reigned sixe and twenty yeeres An. 207. Taher dyed a wise valiant and liberall Commander and a good Poet. For three Verses made to adorne him he gaue three hundred thousand pieces of Gold and more said he would I haue giuen if thou hadst giuen more An. 210. Almamon got his Vncle Ibrahim into his hands who comming to him is sayd My sinne is great but thou then it art greater My deeds were bad let thine be seene farre better Almamon answered Others haue counselled me to kill thee O Emperour of the faithfull said he Counsellors counsell that which is
the Chalif dyed hauing enioyed that place foure and twenty yeeres three moneths He loued learned men forbad wrongs was eloquent and much in Almes A Note of the Authours Parentage IN the time of Biamrilla one Tijb a Syrian Merchant a Christian came into Egypt and abode at Alcahir His Sonne Carwijn was a Notarie and followed the Court got a Sonne which he called Abultijb which also proued a Notary of note at Elcahir and serued the Arabike Senate He had fiue Sonnes of which foure were made Bishops but Abulmecarim the youngest delighted in Husbandry and breeding of cattell and had aboue a thousand Hiues of Bees Hee married the Sister of Simeon a Notary which serued Ioseph Saladine Anno 569. and after betooke him to a Monasterie in the mids whereof he inclosed himselfe in a place which he had builded and therein liued aboue thirty yeeres Macarim had three Sonnes the second of which Abuliaser Elamid was the Father of the Chronicle Writer Macarem succeeded Simeon when he became an Heremite in his Notaries place in the Court vnder King Abubecr Elaadil Seiffuddin Sonne of Iob and dyed Anno 636 God rest all their soules A continuation of the former Storie out of Mirkond the Persian and Abraham Zacuth a Iew to the end of the Chalifa's IN Mustafirs time Bagdad was ruined by the ouerflowing of Tigris whereupon it was remoued and new builded on the East side of the Riuer where it stands more commodiously then before It is remarkable of fiue and twenty Chalifas since the foundation that none dyed therein The Astrologers had threatned saith Zacuth a floud next to that of Noah then said one of them there were seuen Planets in coniunction with Piscis now but sixe whereupon they feared the low situation of Bagdad and stopped the water-passages Also the Ismaelites which went on Pilgrimage on deuotion to their Sanctuary were most of them drowned The Chalifa honoured that Astrologer with Royall Vests Toledo Sicilia and some Cities of Africa were recouered from the Saracens by the Christians Mustcali King of Egypt dyed Elamir Bahachan fiue yeeres old succeeded Aphtzala the Visir gouerning Musterasched Sonne of Mustetaher succeeded his Father in the Chalifate Anno Hegira 512. He made warre with Masud Saliuaui King of Korasan and was by him taken and slaine An. 529. Raschid or Rached succeeded in the Chalifate quarrell and successe Masud came to Bagdad and made Almoctafy Billa Chalifa who after Masuds death warred on the Persian Prouinces where he recouered much with little labour Noradin got Halep and the parts adioyning on Antioch Elaphit succeeded Elamir his Father in Egypt after him Ettaphar who being slaine Elphais a child of fiue yeeres whom the Wisir enthronized Noradin tooke Damascus An. 552. great Earthquakes in Syria An. 554. great inundation at Bagdad and other Cities Anno 555. Muktaphi the Chalifa dyed Musteneged or Almostanget Billa Issuf his Sonne succeeded Elphaiz King of Egypt dyed and his Sonne Etzar ledin illuhi last of the Phetinaeans succeeded Asareddin Schirachocz succeeded one of the Curdi Noradin sent his Wisir and subdued Egypt Yet Iusuph Asar Eddius brothers Sonne was constituted King of Egypt by the Chalifa Baharon succeeded Masud in Korasan a learned man which writ Bookes in Philosophy He was martiall also and made some enterprizes in India and Persia Kozrao his Sonne followed but by reason of some broyles went to Lahor in India and there dyed Anno 555. His Sonne Kozrao Melic succeeded in Lahor In him the Sabutiquis ended Anno 563. The Chalipha dyed suffocated in a bath Anno 566. His Sonne Mustetzi succeeded in whose time the Chaliphas of Bagdad were restored in Egypt which the Phetimaeans had before abolished He dyed Anno 575. Natzar his Sonne succeeded Saladine recouered Ierusalem A. Hegira 586. and conquered all the Cities of Mesopotamia to Nisibis He dyed Anno 589. His Kingdome was diuided amongst his three Sonnes Elaphatzal had Damascus and Palaestina Elachiz Egypt Taher Giazi Halep The Tartars made prey of Turon and Agem Natzar dyed Anno 622. and Taher his Sonne enioyed the place nine moneths In this time flourished in Egypt Rabbenu Mose Sonne of Maimon of Corduba Mustenatzer succeeded a iust Prince and Almesgiuer which built many Schooles The Tartars ouerranne Asia Russia Polonia and vexed Germany another Army inuaded Syria Baba professed himselfe a Prophet sent of God and gathering rude multitudes to him filled Asia with slaughter and emptinesse till hee was slaine by Gyatheddin King of Gunia The Chaliph dyed Anno 640. and his Sonne Musteatzem succeeded the last of the Chaliphas of Bagdad slaine by Halocho the Tartar Anno 655. Elmutam King of Egypt by the Turkes conspiracie was driuen into a Towre which they set on fire to auoyde which hee leaped into the water vnderneath and was both scorched and drowned Thence forwards the Slaues Mamalukes tuled in Egypt At the conquest of Bagdad the Tartars are said to haue slaine in those parts 1600000. persons A briefe continuation of the Saracens in Spaine out of Rodericus Toletanus and others to the failing of the Ommian Race and Empire THe Saracens did not so extirpate Christianitie in their Conquests but that such as would bee subiect to their Tributes and Exactions might enioy their consciences whereupon not only Asia remayned in great part Christian till the Tartarian Deluge and some also till this day in Nestorian Armenian Iacobite and other Sects but euen in Africa where blacke darknesse most preuailed on mens bodies and soules some Christians continued and doe to this day thorow so many Saracenicall Generations In Marocco in the times of Ferdinand the holy and of Iohn the first diuers Christian Families were found and in Tunis also when Charles the fift in the former age conquered it aboue eight hundred yeeres after the first conquest by Muhammedans Their course as is in Turkie now is by degrees with discountenance disgrace and oppression of their persons and exaltation of their owne which rather vnrippeth then renteth asunder and vntieth then with Sword of extremest Persecuion choppeth in sunder that knot of Christian Religion herein the Westerne Antichrist being the more dangerous enemy to Christian veritie as more in shew pretending but more eagerly and irreconciliably with open warres tumultuous Massacres and direct-indirect workings and vnderminings seeking to extirpate the contrary profession Brethren falne out are the most implacable enemies In Spaine also so few Arabians could not people so large a Countrey but a deluge of African Grashoppers leaped ouer that Sea with them and although 700000. are said to haue beene slaine in that first Spanish Inuasion yet the rest enioyed their Churches and Deuotions still with Tributes In Toledo they had seuen Christian Churches left them with Iudges of their owne Nation and Religion These Christians were called Musarabes of Musa the first Conquerour and Arab-African Commander which sent Taric thither whose Lyturgie is