Persian Provinces and removed the Imperiall Seat to Ninive by him much beautified and inlarged 52. 1959 4. Semiramis the wife of Ninus subdued the Arabians but invading the Indians also she was vanquished and slain by their King Staurobates Of this great Lady it is said she was born in Ascalon a Town of Syria and exposed to the fury of wilde beasts But being born not to die so ingloriously she was brought up by shepherds and at full age presented to the Syrian Vice-roy who gave her in mariage to his onely Sonne Going with him to the warres she fell in acquaintance with Ninus who liking her person and spirit took her to his bed This bred in him a greater affection towards her so that he granted her at her request the command of the Empire for five daies making a Decree that her will in all things should be punctually performed which boon being gotten she put on the Royall Robes and as some Writers doe report commanded the King to be slain Having thus gotten the Empire she exceedingly enlarged it leading with her an Army consisting of one hundred thousand Chariots of warre three millions of Foot and half a million of Horse A woman in whom there was nothing not to be honoured or applauded but her insatiable lusts in which if the Greek writers say true as we have no reason to believe it of so gallant a woman she was very guilty 2001 5. Ninus II. the Son of Ninus and Semiramis 2039 6. Arias 30. 2069 7. Arabius 40. 2109 8. Belus II. 30. 2139 9. Armamatrites 2177 10. Belochus Prisc 35. 2212 11. Belochus Jun. Balaeus 52. 2264 12. Altades 32. 2296 13. Mamitns 30. 2326 14. Mancaleus 30. 2356 15. Spherus 20. 2376 16. Mancaleus II. 30. 2406 17. Sparetus 40. 2446 18. Ascatades 40. 2486 19. Amintes 45. 2511 20. Belochus Jun. 45. 2556 21. Bellopares 30. 2586 22. Lamprides 22. 2618 23. Sasares 20. 2638 24. Lampares 20. 2668 25. Panmas 45. 2713 26. Sâ—ramas 19. 2732 27. Mitreus 27. 2759 28. Tatanes 32. 2791 29. Tautes 40. 2831 30. Tineus 30. 2861 31. Dercillus 40. 2901 32. Eupales 38. 2939 33. Loastines 45. 2984 34. Pyrithiades 30. 3014 35. Ophrateus 20. 3034 36. Ophraganeus 50. 3084 37. Ascrasapes 24. 3126 38. Sardanapalus by Eusebius called Tonosconcolos the last King of this Race Of which being 38. in all there is scarce any thing remaining but the very names registred in this order by Berosus or rather by Frier Annius a Monk of Viturbum in Tuscany who hath thrust upon the world the fancies of his own brain under the name of that antient Historian The chief Kings of note after Semiramis were 1. Ninus or Zameis her Sonne who by his Deputies and Lieutenants subdued the Arrians Bactrians and Caspians but was otherwise a man of effeminate and unkingly carriage And therefore is conceived to be the elder Bacchus so much celebrated amongst the Grecians 2. Belus the second who recovered that Countrey which afterwards was called Judaea to the Assyrian Empire from which it had revolted in the time of his Predecessor on the defeat of Amraphel one of his Lieutenants by the sword of Abraham and subdued many other nations 3. Belochus Prise the tenth King who by some writers is said to be the Author of Divination by the flying of Birds called Auspicium For of Sooth-saying there were in all four kinds 1. This Auspicium quasi Avispicium taken from the flight of birds either on the right hard or on the left and hence the Proverb commeth avi sinistra good luck because in giving the right hand is opposite to the receivers left or from the number of the birds whence Râ—mulus had promised to him the Empire before his Brother because he had seen the double number of Vultures or lastly from the nature of them whence the same Romulus seeing the Vultures was saith Florus spei plenus urbem bellatriem fore ta illi sauguini praedae assuetae aves pollicebantur 2. Aruspicium ab inspiciendo in which the Sooth-sayers observed whether the Beast to be sacrifised came to the Altars willingly or not whether the entrails were of a naturall colour exulcerate c or whether any part were wanting All Histories afford variety of Examples in this kind I need give no particular instance A kind of Divination said to be practised first by the Tuscans or Hetrurians instructed in the knowledge thereof by one called Tages who appearing to certain Ploughmen out of a Furrow caught them this mystery and so vanished 3. Tripudium so called quasi Terripudium and Terripavium from the trembling or shaking of the Earth was a conjecture of future successes by the rebounding of crums cast unto Chichens We have an instance of this in the life of Tiberius Gracchus who being seditiously busie in promoting the Law Agraria was fore-warned by the keeper of his Chickens to desist from that enterprise because when he had thrown the crums to the Coop there came out but one of the Chickens only and the same without eating went back again which was taken for a sign of ill luck as the greedy devouring of them had been of good But Tiberius slighting the advertisement and pursuing his design was the same day slain 4. Augurium so called ab avium garritu was a prediction from the chirping or chattering of birds as also from the sounds and voices heard they knew not whence nor on what occasion In which later kind the death of Caesar was divined from the clattering of Armour in his house and the poisoning of Germanicus by the sounding of a Trumpet of its own accord in the former an Owl screeching in the Seâ—ate-house was deemed ominous to Augustus and a company of Crowes following Setanus to his house with great noise and clamor was judged to be fatall to that great Favorite and so it proved 4. Manitus the thirteenth King who revived again the antient Discipline corrupted by the sloathfulness and effeminacie of his Predecessors and by the terrour of his name awed the Aegyptians 5. Ascatades the eighteenth King more absolute in Syria and the Western-parts than any of the Kings before him 6. Sardanapalus the last King of this Race who being wondrous effeminate and utterly unable to govern so great an Empire gave opportunity to Arbaces his Lieutenant in Media to conspire against him By whom associated with Belochus Governour of Babylon he was besieged in his City of Ninive and there reduced unto such extremities that gathering his treasures all together he burnt himself and them in one funerall Pile eo solum facto virum imitatus as is said by Justine The treasure which he is said to have burnt with him amounted to one hundred Millions of Talents of Gold and a thousand Millions of Talents of Silver which in our English money comes to twenty thousand and five hundred Millions of pounds A mass of money which as it must be long in gathering so probably it had not seen the
Augustus did the more easily establish his Monarchie and restore peace to the City Moreover the prosecution of this cruelty so incensed the people against Antony and Lepidus that Augustus whom most held excusable found them always his fast friends if not for love to him yet in spight to them 9. But to proceed Antony and AUGUSTUS leaving the guard of the City to Lepidus with joynt-forces march against Brutus and Cassius both overthrown by Antony whom AUGUSTUS did therefore put upon that service as well to diminish Antonies forces as to keep his own entire As for himself either he in policy suffered himself to be driven out of the field by Brutus to make Antony more work or else indeed durst not abide the battell Such end had Brutus and Cassius two men whom Fortune seemed to be in love with on the suddain and did as suddenly forsake them Brutus the more accomplished man Cassius the more expert souldier I pass over AUGUSTUS wars in Italie Antonies in Asia the discontents between them and their reconciliation by the means of Octavia sister to the one and wife to the other Emperor As also how joyning forces together to oppress Sextus then Lording it over the Sea and proud with the conquest of Sicilia they received him into the Confederacy and joyned the Iland of Sardinia to his other Conquests To recompence which kindness Sextus invited the two Generals aboord his Admiral Galley and after a bountifull entertainment return'd them safe to their Camps I scarce have ever heard of so great an over-sight among so many able Politicians And much I marvell with my self upon what confidence AUGUSTUS and Antony durst so far trust their persons to a reconciled Enemy or on what reason Sextus having both of them in his power would let slip so slightly that advantage greater than which was never offered to a discontented and ambitious person This I am sure of that he afterward repented it and could have wished that he had hearkened to the voice of Menâ—s his old servant who had perswaded him to make his best of that oportunity The Kings of France and Aragon of old enemies made new friends had the like enterview at Savona which that notable Historiographer and States-man Guicâ—iardinâ— describeth with much wonder and commendation Yet in the like case have many and as I think worthily condemned Lewis thâ— 11. of France and Charles of Burgudy the Arch-politicians of those days in that Lewis at Peronne put himself into the hands of Charles his Enemy who also after a short restraint dismissed him 10. These solemn expressions of amity between the three Generalls being thus ended and Antony gone for Egypt AUGUSTUS then began to contrive his establishment in the State though with the ruin of his Colleagues He beginneth first with Sextus having by gifts and promises drawn Menas unto his side who by reason of his inwardness with his Master knew most of his designs By the directions of this Menas and the assistance of Lepidus he quickly overthrew Sextus who flying death in Europe by the hand of AUGUSTUS found it in Asia by the command of Antony After this victory AUGUSTUS either having or pretending a quarrell against Lepidus entreth into his Camp seizeth his person and depriving him of all honors confineth him to Rome A man that half against his will stumbling upon the Government had beyond any desert of his enjoyed ten yeers continuance of Empire and prosperity An action of a very high nature and such as AUGUSTUS durst not have ventured on if Antony had been in Italy He therefore advisedly removed him out of his way before he would attempt the same It hath been ever a chief Maxim in Court-policy to remove that man out of the way under pretence of some honourable charge whom we intend either to cast from his present honors or else to make less potent with Prince and People For which cause also AUGUSTUS perswaded Antonies absence from the City to bring him at the last into discredit and contempt For well he knew that his dotage on Cleopatra could not but draw him into many inconveniencies neither could his neglecting the State to riot with his Lemman be other than distastfull to the Lords and People Next he commanded his Sister Octavia to leave her husband Antonies house yet privately he perswaded her to live there still and bring up his children that so the Romans seeing her noble demeanor and love to her husband might the more heartily detest him who so ignobly and unkindly had rejected her To adde more fuell to this flame of hatred he readeth Antonies will unto the people in which many of the Roman Provinces were bequeathed to Cleopatra's children and other things ordained to the common prejudice Antony likewise preferred many Bills against AUGUSTUS as that he had deposed Lepidus from the Triumvirate that he had divided Italy amongst his own Souldiers only that he had not restored the ships borrowed to make war against Sextus 11. These discontents seconded with an ambitious hope of prevailing made them both resolute to refer all to the decision of a Battell Antony had a Fleet consisting of 500. ships high-built and trimmed up rather for a Triumph than a fight His Land Forces consisted of 100000. Foot and 12000. Horse AUGUSTUS had the like number of Horsemen 80000. Foot and 250. good Men of War snug and close built more for use than ostentation The Rendezvouz is Actium a place seeming to be marked out for notable designs here being fsought also in our Fathers days that famous battell wherein the Venetians gave the world to understand that the Turks Forces by Sea were not invincible Antony was on the Offensive side therefore much doubted whether it were better to give the Onset by Sea or by Land Cleopatra whose words were Oracles perswaded him to the Sea-fight not that she thought it more safe but that if Antony lost the day she might with more facility escape To this resolution when most of the Captains had for fear agreed one of the old Souldiers thus bluntly gain-said it What a miserable security art thou possessed with most noble Emperor Where is that antient fore-sight wherewith thou hast formerly prevented all disasters and turned the Enemies devises on their own heads Consider with thy self most noble General what uncertain friends the Wind and Sea are To how fickle an Element thou dost trust thy fortunes Let the Egyptians and Phoenicians old Mermaids born and nurst up in the Sea follow this kind of warfare But let us thy true Roman spirits try our valour on the firm Land and there fight for thy Empire and our own lives Perhaps thou dost mistrust our faith look here Antony with that he opened his bosome and thou shalt see many an honourable scar got in thy service We are now too old to learn new Treasons Alter therefore thy resolution and to please a woman cast not away so many of thy faithfull Followers Certainly the
their thoughts are working and hearkning after action do commonly imploy them in some service far from home that there they may both vent their Anger and employ their Courage For let them stay at home to confirm their practises and grow at last into a Faction the State will suffer in it if it be not ruined We cannot have a fairer instance of this truth than the proceeding of our fift Henry and of the times next following Whose forein Wars kept us all quiet here at home wasted those humours and consumed those fiery spirits which afterwards the wars being ended inflamed the Kingdom 29 But his main work was to content the Souldiers and to make them sure Some of which he dispersed as before I sayd all about Italy in 〈◊〉 Colonies as well for the defence of the Countrey as for their more speedy reassembly if need should require Abroad amongst the Provinces were maintained upon the common charge 23 Legions with their ayds besides 10000 of his Guard and those which were appointed for the bridling and safety of the City As to all of them he shewed an excellent thankfulness for their faithfull services So in particular to Agrippa and to one other whose name the Histories of that Age have not remembred This latter had valiantly behaved himself at the battell of Actium and being summoned to appear before the Lords of the Senate in a matter which concerned his life cryed to AUGUSTUS for succour who assigned him an Advocate The poor fellow not contented with this favour baring his breast and shewing him the marks of many wounds These quoth he have I received AUGUSTUS in thy service never supplying my place by a Deputy Which sayd the Emperor descending to the Bar pleaded the Souldiers cause and won it Never did Soveraign Prince or any that command in Chief lose any thing by being bountifull of favours to their men of War For this act quickly spreading it self over all the Provinces did so indeer him to the Military men that they all thought their services well recompensed in that his graciousness to that one man And now were they so far given over to him that the honours conferred on Agrippa could not increase their love well it might their admiration Agrippa was of a mean and common Pareâ—â—age but supplying the defects of his Birth with the perfections of his Mind he became very potent with AUGUSTUS who not only made him Consul but his companion in the Tribunition authority and Provest of the City So many titles were now heaped on him that Mâ—â—nus perswaded the Prince to give him his Daughter Julia to Wife affirming it impossible for Agrippa to live safe considering how open new Creatures ly to the attempts of Malitious men unless he were ingrassed into the Royall stem of the Caesars On which cause questionless for the stronger establishment of his new honours Seâ—amâ— afterward attempted but not with the like success the like matth with Livia Tiberius Daughter-in-Law 30 The Senate People and Men of War thus severally reduced to a Mediocrity of power and â—ontent The next labour is to alter the old and establish a new Government of the City it self To effect which he dashed all former Laws by which the Allies and Confederates of the State were made free Denizens of the Town That he conceived to be a way to draw che whole Empire into one City and by the monstrous growth and increase of that to make poor the rest Therefore this Privilege he communicated unto a few only partly that in the times of dearth the City might not so much feel the want of sustenance and partly that so antient an honour might not be disesteemed but principally left Rome replenished with so huge a multitude of stirring and unruly spirits should grow too headstrong to be governed in due order The greatest and most populous Cities as they are pronest unto faction and sedition so is the danger greatest both in it self and the example if they should revolt This provident course notwithstanding there were in Rome men more than enough and among them not a few malecontents and murmurers at the present state such as contemned the Consuls and hated the Prince To keep these in compass AUGUSTUS it being impossible for him to be still resident at Rome and dangerous to be absent constituted a Provost of the City for the most part chosen out of the Senators assigning him a strength of 6000 men called Milites Urbani or the City-souldiers To him he gave absolute and Royal authority both in the Town and Territory near adjoyning during his own absence To him were appeals brought from the other Magistrates and finally to his Tribunall were referred all causes of importance not in Rome only but the greatest part of Italy Mesalla was the first Provost but proof being had of his insufficiency the charge was committed to Agrippa who did not only setle and confirm the City but did the best he could to free the adjoyning parts of Italy from Theeves and Robbers and stopped the courses of many other troublers of the present State And yet he could not with that power either so speedily or so thorowly reform all those mischiefs which in the late unsetled times were become predominant as he did desire 31 It is recorded that in the Civill wars of Marius and Sylla one Pontius Telesinus of the Marian Faction told his Generall that he did well to scoure the Country but Italy would never want Wolves as long as Rome was so sit a Forrest and so near to retire unto The like might have been spoken to Agrippa That he did well to clear the common Rodes and Passages but Italie would never want Theeves whilst Rome was so good a place of Refuge For though he did as far as humane industry could extend endeavour a generall Reformation both within the City and without yet neither could he remedy nor foresee all mischiefs Still were there many and those great disorders committed in the night season when as no eye but that to which no darkness is an obstacle could discern the Malefactors For in the first Proscription many men used to walk the streets well weaponed pretending only their own safety but indeed it was to make their best advantage of such men as they met either in unfrequented lanes and Passages or travelling as their occasions did direct them in the Night To repress therfore the foul insolencies of these Sword-men AVGVSTVS did ordain a Watch consisting of 7000 Freemen their Captain being a Gentleman of Rome In the day time the Guard of the Town was committed to the Provost and his Citie souldiers These Vigils resting in their standing Camps In the night season one part took their stations in the most suspitious places of the City another in perpetuall motion traversed the streets the rest lying in the Corps du Guarde to relieve their companions By which means he not only remedied the present disorders but preserved the City from
out the Emperor and altered the Government of the City as to them seemed good suddenly they became Enemies to him and the Popes received more injuries at their hands than at any other Christian Princes and that even in those days when the Censures of the Popes made all the West of the wold to tremble yet even then did the people of Rome rebell and both the Popes and the People studied for nothing so much as how one of them might overthrow the Authority and Estimation of the other But for the method and degrees by which the Popes ascended to their temporall greatness take here an extract of the Story collected out of the best Authors by the most reverend Father in God the late Lord Arch-bishop of Canterbury in his learned and laborious work against Fisher the Jesuit The Pope saith he being chosen antiently by the Clergie and people of Rome used always to receive from the Emperors hands a ratification of that choyce insomuch that about the yeer 579. when all Italie was on fire with the Lombards and Pelagius the second constrained through the necessity of the times to enter upon the Popedom without 〈◊〉 Emperors leave S. Gregorie then a Deacon was shortly after sent in an Embassie to excuse it But when the Lombards grew so great in Italic and the Empire was so infested with the Saracens and such changes happened in all parts of the world as that neither for the present the Homage of the Pope was usefull to the Emperor nor the Protection of the Emperor available for the Pope by this means was the Bishop of Rome left to play his own game by himself A thing which as it pleased him well enough so both he and his Successors made great advantage by it For being grown to that eminence by the favour of the Emperors and the greatness of that City and place of his abode he then found himself the more free the greater the Tempest was that beat upon the other And then first he set himself to alienate the hearts of the Italians from the Emperor in which he did prevail so far that Theophylact the Exarch coming into Italie was opposed by the Souldiers who wished better to the Pope than to the Emperor and the Emperors own Governor was fain to be defended from his own Souldiers by the power of the Pope who had gotten interest in them against their own Master Next he opposed himself against him and about the yeer 710. Pope Constantine the first did openly affrone Philippicus the Emperor in defence of Images as Onuphrius telleth us After him Gregory the 2d. and 3d. took up his example and did the like by Leo Isaurus By this time the Lombards began to pinch very close and to vex on all sides not only Italie but Rome too This drives the Pope to seek a new Patron and very fitly he meets with Charles Martel in France that famous Warrier against the Saracens Him he imployeth in defence of the Church against the Lombards and the Address seems very advisedly taken it proved so fortunate to them both For in short time it dissolved the Kingdom of the Lombards having then stood two hundred and four yeers which was the Popes security and it brought the Crown of France into the House of Charles and shortly after the Western Empire And now began the Popes to be great indeed For by the bounty of Pepyn the sonne of Charles that which was taken by him from the Lombards was given to the Pope that is to say the Exarchate and all that lay betwixt the Apennine and the River of Po. So that now he became a Temporall Prince But when Charles the great had set up the Western Empire then he resumed the Antient and Originall power to govern the Church to call Councills and to order Papall Elections And this power continued for a time in his posterity for Gregory the seventh was confirmed in the Popedom by the sanre Henry the fourth whom he afterwards deposed And it might have continued longer if the succeeding Emperors had had Abilities enough to secure or vindicate their own Rights But the Pope keeping a strong Counsell about him and meeting with some weak Princes and those oft-times distracted with great and dangerous wars grew stronger til he got the better yet was it carried in succeeding times with great changes of fortune and different success the Emperor sometimes plucking from the Pope and the Pope from the Emperor winning and losing ground as their spirits abilities aids and opportunities were till at last the Pope setled himself on the grounds laid by Gregory the seventh in that great power which he now useth in and over these parts of the Christian World A power first exercised saith he in another place by this Pope Gregorie the seventh and made too good upon the Emperor Henry the fourth as by Pope Adrian the fourth Alexander the third with some others upon Frederick Barbarossa And others of the Emperors were alike served when they did not submit And for this I hope his Holiness was not to be blamed For if the Emperor kept the Pope under for divers yeers together against all reason the Popes as Bellarmine affirms being never subject to the Emperor and wanting force to stand on his own Prerogative I hope the Pope having now got power enough may keep the Emperors under-foot and not suffer them any more to start before him Having thus a little glanced at the means by which the great power of the Church of Rome was first obtained let us next consider of those Policies by which this Papall Monarchy hath been so long upheld in esteem and credit We may divide them into three heads 1. Those by which they have insinuated and screwed themselves into the affections and affairs of the greatest Princes 2. Those by which already they have and by which they will hereafter be able to secure their estate And 3ly those by which they keep the people in obedeence and ignorance 1. Concerning the first First the Donation of severall Kingdoms to them which have no right nor title but by these Grants of the Pope cannot but bind them fast to uphold that power without which they could lay no clame to that which they are possessed of Of which sort was the Confirmation of the Kingdom of France to the House of Pepin of Naples to the House of Schwaben and Anjou of Navarre to the Spaniards 2. The readiness of their Ministers to kill such as resist them cannot but necessitate Princes to seek their friendship and hold fair with them especially since by a Writ of Excommunication they can arm the Subjects against their Soveraign and without the charge of leavying one souldier either destroy him utterly or bring him to conformity The frequent wars raised by them against the Emperors of Germany and that against King John in England by these Papall fulminations onely the poisoning of the said King John by a Monk of Swinestead and
in King Iames his reign tending to the advancement of such uniformitie be not interrupted For other things certain it is that London is the antienter Citie as being an Archbishops See in the time of the Britans when the name of Paris was scarce heard of a Bishops See at the first conversion of the Saxons increased so much in wealth and honour from one Age to another that it is grown at last too big for the Kingdom which whether it may be profitable for the State or not may be made a question And great Towns in the bodie of a State are like the Spleen or Melt in the bodie naturall the monstrous growth of which impoverisheth all the rest of the Members by drawing to it all the animal and vitai spirits which should give nourishment unto them And in the end cracked or surcharged by its own fulness not only sends unwholesome fumes and vapours unto the head and heavy pangs unto the heart but drawes a consumption on it self And certainly the over-growth of great Cities is of dangerous consequence not only in regard of Famine such multitudes of mouthes not being easie to be fed but in respect of the irreparable danger of Insurrections if once those multitudes sensible of their own strength oppressed with want or otherwise distempered with faction or discontent should gather to an head and break out into action Yet thus much may be said to the honour of London though grown by much too bigg now for the kingdom that it is generally so well governed and in so good peace that those Murders Robberies and outrages so frequent in great and populous Cities beyond the Seas are here seldom heard of 2 York in the West-riding of that Countie the second Citie of England as the old Verse hath it Londinum caput est Regni urbs prima Britanni Eboracum à primâ jure secunda venit That is to say In England London is the chiefest Town The second place York claimeth as its own And so it may being indeed the second Citie of the Kingdom both for same and greatness A pleasant large and stately Citie well fortified and beautifully adorned as well with private as publick Edifices and rich and populous withall Seated upon the River Ouse or Vre which divides it in twain both parts being joyned together with a fair stone Bridge consisting of high and mighty Arches A Citie of great estimation in the time of the Romans the Metropolis of the whole Province or Diâ—cese of Britain remarkable for the death and buriall of the Emperour Seveâ—us and the birth of Constantine the Great by consequence the Seat of the Primate of the British Church as long as Christianity did remain amongst them Nor stooped it lower when the Saxons had received the Faith and notwithstanding those mutations which befell this Kingdom under the Saxons Dancs and Normans it still preserved its antient lustre and increased it too Adorned with a stately and magnificent Cathedrall inferiour to few in Europe and with a Palace oâ— the Kings called the Manour-house the dwelling in these later dayes of the Lord President of the Court or Councell here established by King Henry 8th for the benefit of his Northern Subjects after the manner of the French Parliaments or Presed all Seiges 3 Bristol the third in rank of the Cities of England situate on the meeting of the Frome and Avon not far from the influx of the Severn into the Ocean in that regard commodiously seated for trade and traffick the Ships with full sayl coming into the Citie and the Citizens with as full purses trading into most parts of the World with good Faith and Fortune A Town exceeding populous and exceeding cleanly there being Sewers made under ground for the conveyance of all filth and nastiness into the Rivers Churches it hath to the number 18 or 20 reckoning in the Cathedrall and that of Ratcliff The Cathedrall first built by Rob. Fitz. Harding Sonne to a King of Danemark once a Burger here and by him stored with Canons Regular Anno 1248. but made a Bishops See by King Henry 8th Anno 1542. The principall building next the Church an antient Castle a piece of such strength that Maud the Empress having took King Steven Prisoner thought it the safest place to secure him in 4 Norwich the 4th Citie of the first rank of which more hereafter 5 Oxford the first of the second rank of English Cities seated upon the Ouse or Isis but whether so called as Vadum Isides Ouseford or the Ford of Ouse or Vada boum as the Greeks had their Bosphori in former times I determine not An antient Town and antiently made a seat of Learning coevall unto that of Paris if not before it the Vniversity hereof being restored rather than first founded by King Alured Anno 806. after it had been overborn awhile by the Danish Furies but hereof as an Vniversity more anon This only now that for the statelinesse of the Schooles and publick Library the bravery and beauty of particular Colleges all built of fair and polished stone the liberall endowment of those houses and notable encouragements of Industry and Learning in the salarie of the Professors in most Arts and Sciences it is not to be parallelled in the Christian World The Citie of it self well built and as pleasantly seated formed in the Figure of a Crosse two long Streets thwarting one another each of them neer a mile in length containing in that compasse 13 Parish Churches and a See Episcopall founded here by King Henry 8th Anno 1541. The honourary Title of 20 of the noble Family of the Veres now Earls of Oxon. 6 Salisbury first seated on the Hill where now stands old Salisbury the Sorbiodunum of the Antients But the Cathedrall being removed down into the Vale the Town quickly followed and grew up very suddenly into great Renown pleasantly seated on the Avon a name common to many English Rivers which watereth every street thereof and for the populousness of the place plenty of Provisions number of Churches a spacious Market-place and a fair Town-Hall esteemed the second Citie of all the West 7 Glocester by Antonine called Glevum by the Britains Caer Glowy whence the present name the Saxons adding Cester as in other places A fine neat Citie pleasantly seated on the Severn with a large Key or Wharf on the banks thereof very commodious to the Merchandise and trade of the place well built consisting of fair large Streets beautified with a magnificent Cathedrall and situate in so rich Vale that there is nothing wanting to the use of man except onely Wine which life or luxury may require 8 Chester upon the River Dee built in the manner of a quadrate inclosed with a wall which takes up more than two miles in compasse containing in that compasse 12 Parish Churches and an old Cathedrall dedicated antiently to S. Wereburg Daughter of Wolfere K. the Mercians and Visitress of all the Monasteries of England but
suit elected King anno 1540. into which he actually succeeded on his Fathers death 1575 32 Rodolphus Emperour of Germanie and eldest son to Maximilian elected King 1608 33 Matthias brother to Rodolphus was at the joint suit of them both nominated and appointed King of Bohemia by the generall consent of the States during his brothers life time anno viz. 1608. which denomination they both protest in their letters reversall should not be to the prejudice of the liberties and ancient customs of that kingdom 1618 34 Ferdinand II. Archduke of Austria of the house of Grats was by Matthias adopted for his son and declared Successour to the Crown of Bohemia but never formally and legally elected for which cause amongst others he was by the States rejected in like case as Vladislaus the 3. had formerly been 1619 35 Frederick Electour Palatine the strongest German Prince of the Calvinists and most potent by his great alliances was elected King of Bohemia and crowned at Prague together with his wife on the 5 day of November This Prince derived his descent from the Lady Sophia sister to Ladislaus the 2. King of Poland and Bohemia and married Elizabeth daughter to James King of Great Britain and Anne of Denmark which Anne descended from the Lady Anno daughter of Albertus of Austria and elder sister to Elizabeth mother to Ladislaus the 2. above named from whom the claim of Austria is derived 1621 35 Ferdinand III. son of Ferdinand the 2. elected King of Bohemia during the life both of his Father and of Frederick the Prince Electâ—ur also after whose death he succeeded in this kingdome both in right and fact King of Hungarie also Archduke of Austria and Emperour of Germanie now living anno 1648. more moderate in his Counsels then his Father Ferdinand and more inclinable to peace though honoured with a more signall victorie against the Swedes in the battell of Norlingen then his Father was in all his life which the Conclusions made at Munster are sufficient proof of Of the Revenues Arms and other things which concern this Kingdom we shall speak hereafter when we have took a view of the rest of the Provinces which are incorporated into it 2 MORAVIA is bounded on the East with Hungarie on the West with Bohemia on the North with Silesia and on the South with the lower Austria and the river Teia fenced on the West by the Woods and Mountains of Bohemia parts of the Hireynian Forrest on the North by some spurs or branches of it called Ascibuâ—gius by Ptolemie on the two other sides open like an half moon or semi-circle The most fruitfull place of corn in all Germanie and hath no small store of Frankincense which contrarie to the nature of it groweth not on a tree but out of the earth and that too which addes much to the miracle if Dubravius do report it rightly in the shape and figure of those parts which men and women do most endevour to conceal The former inhabitants of this Province were the Marcomanni and part of the Quadi against whom when M. Antonius the Emperour made war he had unawares run himself into such a straight that his army was environed with Mountains one way and enemies the other To this as calamities seldom go alone was added the extraordinary heat and drought then being To the Emperor thus put to his plunges came the Captain of his Guard telling him that he had in his army a legion of Christians Melitens he calleth them which by prayer to their own God could obtain any thing The Emperour sendeth for them desiring them to make supplication for the Army which they did and God almighty that never turneth a deaf ear to the prayers of his servants when they are either for his glory the Churches or their own good scattered and vanquished the Quadi with thundershot and artillery from heaven and refreshed the faint and dying Romans with many a gentle and pleasing showre This miracle purchased to that legion the surname of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the thunderer and induced the Emperour to honour men of that holy profession and to make an end of the fourth persecution A. Ch. 174. Thus Xiphilinus hath it in his Dion which coming from the pen of an Heathen as his Author was is of more credit in a matter of such concernment un to Christianity then if it had proceeded from Socrates Sozomen or any other Ecclesiasticall Writer Places of most note herein are 1 Olmunts on the River Marck or Mora the chief town of the Countrie and a small Universitie near which out of the hill Odenberg bordering on Silesia springeth the great river of Odera whose course we have before described 2 Brinn on the river Schwats the seat of the ancient Marquesses 3 Radisch and 4 Cremser both upon the Marck or Mora. 5 Zwaim on the Teia 6 Niclasberg Mons Nicolai in the Latine bordering on the Lower Austria 7 Iglaw 8 Newberg 9 Weiskorchem 10 Boserlitz of which little memorable 11 Gradisco near to which and to this place onely the Frankincense is found to grow in the shape and forme before mentioned The old Inhabitants hereof as before is said were the Marcomanni and the Quadi after them that Tribe or Nation of the Sclaves who from their habitation on the river Mora called themselves Moravians and the Country which they dwelt in by the name of Moravia the Dutch call it Merheren Extended at that time over all the Lower Austria to the banks of the Danow on the South and as far as to the river Tibiscusâ— over spreading a great part of the Vppet Hungarie towards the East Governed at the first by their own Kings the first whose name occurs being Raslai in the time of the Emperour Lewis the Godly by whom taken Prisoner and his Realm made Tributarie to the Empire After him succeeded Harmodurus and then Suantopulcus in whose time the Moravians and other Nations of the Sclaves received the Gospel by the preaching of Cyril and Methodius two Grecian Doctours officiating all divine services in the Sclavonian or vulgar Language For which being after called in question by one of the Popes they reâ—â—rned no other answer then this and enough in that Omnis Spiritus laudet Dominum It is written that every thing which hath breath should praise the Lord. Suantobegius son to Suantopuleus succeeded next deposed or rather beaten out of his Countrie by the Emperour Arnulph for denying the accustomed tribute A Prince of great spirit and of as great command having at one time under him not Moravia only according to the largest limits but Silesia Bohemia and Polonia also Arnulph not able otherwise to effect his purpose called in the Hungarians though at that time Pagans by whose help the Moravian was subdued and his Kingdom shattered into pieces seised on by the Hungarians Poles and other Nations and finally reduced to the present limits Afterwards it was made a Marquisate but by whom we finde
part of Illyricum and on the South with the Sea Ionian So that it is in a manner a Peninsula or Demy-Island environed on three sides by the Sea on the fourth only united to the rest of Europe But this is only in relation to the present extent hereof the name being anciently restrained within narrower bounds Confined at first to Attica and the parts adjoining ab Isthmi angustiis Hellas incipit as it is in Plinie and took the name of Hellas from Hellen the son of Deucalion as that of Greece or Graecia from Graecus the son of Cecrops the first King of Athens Communicated afterwards to Peloponnesus then to Thessalie also and finally when the Macedonian Empire had inlarged it selfe over the petit Common-wealths and Estates hereof it came to be communicated to that Countrie also The people for this cause known by divers names by some Achivi by others Myrmidones sometimes Pelasgi Danai Argivi c. But the name whereby they are best known in sacred Writers is that of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so called from Hellas the more proper and genuine name of Greece in the strictest notion and acception A name used frequently and familiarly in the Book of God both absolutely to denote this Nation as where it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Greeks seek wisdome 1 Cor. 1. 22. and relatively as in opposition to the Jews the Barbarians and the Hellenists or Graecizing Jews First with relation to the Jews and then it signifieth the whole bodie of the Gentiles generally of which the Gâ—ecians were the most eminent and famous people as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Jew first and also to the Gentile Rom. 11. 9 10. Give none offence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither to the Jews nor to the Gentiles 1 Cor. 10. 32. and elsewhere frequently In which and all other places of that kinde where the Antiâ—esis lyeth between the Jews and other Nations we are to understand the Gentiles the whole body of them though many times our Translators I know not why render it literally the Greeks as Rom. 1. 16. 10. 12. c. Secondly with reference to all other Nations not so well versed in the learning and 〈◊〉 of that Age as the Grecians were whom by a common name of scorn they called Barbarians according unto that of Strabo Barbarae sunt omnes Nationes praeter Graecos the Romans themselves though then the great Lords of the World being included in the reckoning And so the word is taken Rom. 1. 14. I am a debtour saith S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both to the Greeks and the Barbarians to the wise and unwise in which as well the Romans as those of other Nations have the name of Barbarians Last of all for the Graecizing Jews whom the Vulgar Latine calleth Graecos and our English Grecians they were such of the Jews who living dispersed amongst the Gentiles used the translation of the Septuagint making that the Canon both for life and doctrine Which difference betwixt them and the Jews inhabiting in Judaea who kept themselves unto the Scriptures in their mother-tongue and used the Hebrew only in all sacred actions occasioned many jars amongst them which sometimes brake out into to open violence insomuch as R. Eliezer brake into the Synagogue of the Alexandrians at Hierusalem and therein committed many outrages Of this unfriendlinesse between them mention is made Act 6. 1. where it is said that there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews c. In which place though the English and Vulgar Latine use the name of Grecians yet ought they more properly to be rendred Hellenists or Graecizing Jews as in all other places viz. Acts 9. 29. 11. 20. c. where they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek Originals But to proceed to our description of the Country we finde it situate in the Northern temperate Zone under the fift and sixt Climats the longest day being 15 hours inhabited by a people which were once brave men of war sound Scholars addicted to the love of vertue and civill behaviour A Nation once so excellent that their precepts and examples do still remain as approved rules and Tutors to instruct and direct the man that endeavoureth to be vertuous famous for government affectors oâ— freedome every way noble For which vertues in themselves and want of them in other all their neighbours and remote Nations were by them scornfully called Barbarians a name now most fit for the Grecians themselves being an unconstant people dâ—stitute of all learning and the means to obtain it Vmversities uncivill riotous and so lazie that for the most part they endeavour their profit no further then their belly compels them and so perfidious withall in all their dealings especially towards the Western Christians that it is grown into a Proverb amongst the Italians Chi fida in Grego sara in trigo i. e. He that trusts to a Greek is sure to be cousened When they meet at foasts or banquets they drink small draughts at the beginning which by degrees they increase till they come to the height of intemperancie at which point when they are arrived they keep no rule or order whereas before to drink out of ones turn is accounted a point of incivility Hence as I beleeve sprung our by word As merry as a Greek and the Latine word Graecari The women for the most part are brown-complexioned exceedingly well favoured and excessively amorous Painting they use very much to keep themselves in grace with their husbands for when they once grow wrinckled they are put to all the drudgeries of the house Both sexes generally in their habit and outward garb apply themselves to the State under which they live such as are subject to the Turk conforming unto the dresse and fashions of the Turks as those who live under the Venetians do to that of Venice The Christian Faith was first here planted by S. Paul invited by the Spirit to come over into Macedonia Acts 16. 12. passing from thence to Thessalonica the chief Citie of Mygdonia ch 17. 1. from thence to Athens in Achaia v. 16. then unto Corinth the Metropolis of Peloponnesus ch 18. 1. watering the greatest part of Greece with the dew of heaven and planting Bishops in most Churches where he preached the Gospell as Dionysius the Areopagite at Athens Aristarchus at Thessalonica Epaphroditus at Philippi Silas at Corinth and Titus in the Isle of Crete The like he did in many other Countries also accounted members of the Greek Church though not of Greece the name of the Greek Church extending over all the Provinces of the Eastern Empire governed by the 4 Patriarchs 1 Of Alexandria who presided over Egypt and Arabia 2 Of Hierusalem whose Patriarchate erected only in regard of our Saviours passion in that Citie and the great opinion which by that means accrewed unto it confined within the bounds of Palestine 3 Of
the 2. King of Argos the Founder of it but afterwards beautified and inlarged by Lacedaemon the second King of this Countrie it took that name also promiscuously known by both in the best Authors One of the Eyes of Greece and a most famous Commonwealth but at first governed by Kings as most of the Greek Cities in ancient times Tyndarus the father of Castor and Pollux was once King hereof after whose death and the death of the said famous brethren Menelaus was admitted King of Sparta or Lacedaemon in right of Helena his wife their sister And though Nicostratus and Magapenthes sons of Menelaus by another venter succeeded after his decease yet the Spartans soon rejected them and received Orestes the son of Agamemnon to be their King marrying him to Hermione the daughter of Menelaus and Helena and consequently the neece of Tyndarus Tisamenes the son of Orestes and Hermione succeeded next in whose time the Heraclidae or posteritie of Hercules returned into Greece under the conduct of Temenus Ctesiphon and Aristodemus sons of Aristomachus whereof the first possessed himselfe by force of Arms of the Citie of Argos the second of Messene and the third conquered the Citie and State of Sparta which dying very shortly afterâ— he left unto his two sons Eurysthenes and Procles the roots of the two Royall families which jointly and in common governed the affairs of Sparta first absolutely as Soveraign Prinees without any controll afterwards at the direction of the Senate and finally under the command and check of those popular Officers whom they called the Ephori But because these Spartan Kings in each severall period were for the most part men of action and often mentioned in the Histories of the elder times I will first make a Catalogue of them and then subjoin such observations and remembrances as I think most pertinent The KINGS of SPARTA Of the first Familie A. M. 1 Eurotas the first King of Sparta who gave name to the River Eurotas 2 Lacedaemon brother of Eurotas from whom the Citie of Sparta was called Lacedaemon 3 Amyclas son of Lacedaemon the founder of Amyclae a Laconian Citie 4 Argalus son of Amyclas 5 Cynorta son of Argalus 6 Oebalus sonne of Cynorta from whom a part of this Country had the name of Oebalia 7 Hippocoon son of Oebalus 2700 8 Tyndarus brother of Hippocoon in whose life he was King of Oebalia only 9 Castor and Pollux sons of Tyndarus famous among the Argonautes 2740 10 Menelaus and Helena his wife the daughter of Tyndarus whose Rape occasioned the destruction of Troy 2770 11 Nicostratus and Megapenthes sons of Menelaus by a former wife 12 Orestes and Hermione his wife daughter of Helena and Menelaus 13 Tisamenes son of Orestes and Hermione who being outed of Sparta by the Heraâ—lidae reigned in Achaia and left his Kingdom there unto his posteritie The KINGS of SPARTA Of the race of HERACLIDAE 1 Aristodemus the first King of the Race of Hercules left the Kingdom jointly to his two sons A. M.   A. M.   2848 1 Eurysthenes 2848 1 Procles 2890 2 Agis from whom this line were called Agidae  2 Euripon from whom this line were called Eurypontidae 2891 3 Echestratus  3 Prytanis 2926 4 Labetas  4 Eunomus 2963 5 Dryssus  5 Polydectes 2992 6 Agesilaus 3076 6 Charilaus 3046 7 Archelaus 3140 7 Nicandrus 3096 8 Teleclus 3176 8 Theopompus 3136 9 Alcumenes  9 Archidamus 3173 10 Polydorus  10 Zeuxidamus  11 Eurycrates  11 Anaxidamus  12 Anaxandrus  12 Archidamus II.  13 Eurycrates II.  13 Agasicles  14 Leonidas  14 Ariston  15 Anaxandrides  15 Demaratus  16 Cleomenes 3447 16 Leotychides  17 Leonidas II. 3478 17 Archidamus 3470 18 Plistarchus 3520 18 Agis 3471 19 Plisionax 3547 19 Agesilaus 3539 20 Pausanias 3588 20 Archidamus IV. 3553 21 Agesipolis 3611 21 Agis II. 3567 22 Cleombrotus  22 Eudamidas 3576 23 Agesipolis II.  23 Archidamus V. 3577 24 Cleomenes II.  24 Eudamidas II. 3611 25 Arius 3700 25 Agis III. 3655 26 Acrotatus  26 Eurydamidas the last King of the line of the Eurypoutidoe slain by Cleomenes the last of the other line also  27 Arius II.     28 Leonidas III.     29 Celombrotus II.    3714 30 Cleomenes III. the last of the line of the Agidoe who having slain Eurydamidas the son of Agis the 3. substituted his own brother Epiclides in his place But being himself shortly alter vanquisted by Antigonus of Macedonia and forced to flie his Country with his wife and children the Government of the Heraelidae ended after it had continued here for the space of 900 years or thereabouts    Under these Kings the Government at first was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plutarch termeth it sufficiently Monarchicall if it were not more Under Eunomus the fourth King of the second house the people finding the reins of Government let loose began to mutinie and grow too head-strong To bridle whom and to restrain the Kings withall should they prove exorbitant Lycurgus the Protector of Charilaus the sixth King of that house did ordain the Senate committing to them the supreme power in matters civill and leaving to the Kings the ordering of all militarie and sacred businesse To curb the insolencies of this Senate who quickly found their own strength Theopompus the eighth King of that house with the consent of Polydorus the tenth King of the other instituted a new Magistracie chosen out of the Common-People whom they called the Ephori which grew in fine to such an height of pride and tyrannie as not only to controll the Senators but to censure fine imprison depose and mutually to kill their Kings as the spirit of sedition moved them So that the State of Lacedoemon was at first a Monarchie under Kings then an Aristocratie under the command of the Senate next a Democratie under the Ephori and finally by those popular Officers made so plain a Tyrannie that Aristotle and Plato two great Common-wealths-men who died before they had embrued their hands in the blood of their Kings call it in plain terms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a most absolute tyrannie What think you would these men have called it had they lived to see Leonidas the 3. deposed and Agis the third of that name also most barbarously murdered by these popular Villains But being the foundation of this Common-wealth was first laid and the good Laws and politique Constitutions by which it did so long subsist in great power and splendour established by the wit and power of Lycurgus as before was said we are to know concerning him that he was the son of Eunomus the fourth King of the second house slain in a popular tumult by the common people Who finding by this Essay that the people were become too head-strong for the Kings to govern
infamous for their luxury and excesse of riot when between in warres so that it is a marvel they were able to prevaise on the neighbour Nations and bring then under their command as in the times of some of Croesus Predecessors it is said they did Unlesse perhaps they did participate of the temper of Moecenas the great favorite of Augustus Caesar of whom Paereulus hath left this Character ubires vigiliam exigeret erat sane insomnis providens agendi 〈◊〉 simul â—e aliquidex negotio remitti possit otio ac mossite penè ultra foeminam fluens No man more vigilant then he in times of businesse nor woman more effeminate in his times of leisure Principall Cities of this Countrey were 1. Sardis on both sides of Pactolus the seat Royall of Croesuâ— and the Kings of Lydia till the conquest of Lydia by the Persian After which time being taken by the Grecians it so startled Xerxes that he commanded one of his Attendants to say aloud every day whilest to was at dinner that the Grecians had taken Sardis continuing that Memento till it was recovered Which course I note this onely by the way was commonly observed in the Parliaments of France as long as Calice did remain in the hands of the English and might be profitably revived till again recovered from the French Overthrown by a most terrible Earth-quake to which disease most of these Asian Cities have been very much subject it was re-edified again at the cost of Tiberius continuing long after the Metropolis of this Province and one of the Seven Churches of the Lydian Asia of which the holy Spirit took such speciall notice The others besides Pergamus already mentioned in the Greater Mysia and Ephesus and Smyrna in the Proper Asia were 20 Philadelphia neer or on the banks of the River Caystrus the second City in accompt next to Sardis it selfe and honoured with the dignity of a Metropolitan as appeareth by the Acts of the Constantinopolitan Council where Eustathius Bishop hereof doth subscribe himselfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bishop of the Metropolis of Philadelphia in the Province of Lydia 3. Thiatyra honoured with the same privilege also as appears by the constant Order observed as well in the Civill as Ecclesiasticall Catologues of the Cities belonging to this Province The reason whereof for otherwise it was contrary to the practise both of Church and State to have in one Province more then one Metropolis was the respect had to those severall Churches in regard of their primitive antiquity and the foundation of them by Saint John the Apostle as it was generally believed 4. Lariaicea by Ptolomy placed amongst the Cities of this Province as it stood in his time and before but afterwards laid by Constantine to the Greater Phrygia and made the Metropolis thereof which honour 〈◊〉 had before enjoyed it being well observed by Strabo that the Romans did not dispose of their Provinces according to Nations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but according to those districts or Circuits in which they kept their Courts of justice Next unto these there were of especiall consideration 5. Magnesia ad Maeandrum so called because situate on that River to difference it from 6. Magnesia penes Sipylum montem another of the same name neer the hill Sipylus The first asigned over to Themistocles together with Myus and Lampsacus as was said before The other memorable for the great battell fought neer unto it betwixt Antiochus and the Romans the losse whereof falling unto Antiochus occasioned the losse of all his Asian Provinces on this side of Taurus and the payment of 15000 talents for the charge of the warre besides some other hard conditions then imposed upon him 7. Alabanda opposite to Magnesia on the other side of Maeander the people whereof immediatly on the overthrew of Antiochus not onely sent Ambassadors to Rome to congratulate with them as many other Nations did but built a Temple to it and appointed Anniversary Games to be celebrated in the honour of that new-made Godesse A thing more to be wondered at in the Roman Senate for receiving than in this poor people for bestowing on their City so divine an honour 8. Trallis on the banks of Caystrus to the Inhabitants whereof Ignatius that Reverend Bishop and godly Martyr writ the Epistle ad Trallenses That the Lydians were derived from Lud the Sonne of Sem is testified by the general consent of such antient writers as treat of the dispersions of the Sonnes of Noah to which opinion the nearnesse of the names of Lud Ludin and Lydi or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Grecians call them seems to give good countenance Nor shall I here dispute it further as a point unquestioned the tale of Lydus I know not what Nobleman that should name this Countrey being taken up amongst the Greeks for want of more certain truths Once setled here they grew up suddenly to a Kingdome Amongst the Antient Kings whereof are numbered Manes as the first Cotis and Atis and then Asius from whom Lydia first and after all the Continent had the name of Asia as his immediate Successors After them I find mention of one Cambletes said by Athenaeus to be so great a Gourmandizer that in his sleep he eat his wife and finding her hand in his mouth next morning slew himself for shame and of another named Andramytes as infamous for his filthy lusts as Cambletes for gluttony But the race of these Kings ending in Omphale the Mistresse of Hercules who made that valiant Champion spinne amongst her Damosels the Heraclidae or posterity of Hercules succeeded next of whom there is no constant and continued succession till the time of Ardisius the nineteenth in order of that line who began his reign not long before the building of the City of Rome Under his successors the affaires hereof so exceedingly prospered especially under Haliattes the Father of Croesus that Phrygia Bithynia Paphlagonia Mysia Caria Aeolis Doris and Ionia acknowledged themselves Vassalls to this Crown conceived both in wealth and power to be equall to the Aegyptian Babylonian or Median Kingdomes till the Conquest of Syria and Aegypt by Nabuchadnezzer gave him the preheminence But being come unto the height it received a fall in the person of Croesus the Successour of him who so much advanced it The Kings hereof from the time of the said Ardisius take in order following The Kings of Lydia A. M. 3190. 1. Ardisius 36. 3226. 2. Haliactes 14. 3240. 3. Melos who overcame the people of Sardis 12. 3252. 4. Candaules who shewing his wife naked to Gyges was by him slain who marying his wife succeeded him in his Kingdome The whole story is this Candaules had to his wife a woman of unparallell'd beauty And supposing the greatnesse of his happinesse not to consist so much in his own fruition as the notice which others might take of it intended to shew her in natures bravery to Gyges the master of his heards Gyges at
towards Palmyrens or Aram-Zobah that of Beth-Rehob confederate in the same war also with the other Syrians mention whereof is made in the second book of Sam. chap. 10. ver 6. Which whether they belonged to Syria or to those North-parts of Ituraea is of no great certainty and as little consequence For after their greatest and last exploit we hear no more news of them swallowed up not long after as it seems by the Kings of Damascus To return therefore into Gessur as more certainly within the limits of Palestine the places of most observation in it were 1. Gessur then the chief City of it and giving name unto the whole 2. Mahaeath or Macuti as some call it conceived to be that Maacha mentioned 1 Chron. 19. 6. But of this we have already spoken in Comagena 3. Chauran or Hauran mentioned by the Prophet Ezekul chap. 47. whence these Northen parts of Palestine were called Auranitis 4. Chaisar-Hevan there mentioned by that Prophet also 5. Vs neer the borders of Damascus the first habitation of Vs the Sonne of Aram and Grand-child of Sem by whose name so called supposed to be the founder of Damascus also and that more probably than that the Countrey thereabouts should be the Land of Hus enabled by the dwelling and story of Iob. 6. Sueta mentioned by Brochardus and by some conceived to be the habitation 〈◊〉 surnamed the Shuchite one of Iobs three friends mentioned in that story but both of him and Iob himself and the Land of Hus we shall speak more at large when we come to Arabia More certainly remarkable for a Fort of great strength and use for the commanding of the Countrey recovered from the 〈◊〉 in the time of Baldwin the second by digging with incredible labour thorow the very rock upon which it was seated As for the fortunes of this part the Tribes on that side of Iordan were led captive into Assyria and the Kingdome of Damascus subverted by Tiglah-Phalassar it followed the fortune of the Babylonian and Perâ—ian Empires together with which it came to the Macedonian Kings of the race of Seleucus In the declining of that house but the time I find not it made up the greatest part of the Kingdome of Chalcis possessed by Ptolomy the Sonne of Mennaeus in the beginning of Herods greatness who dying left unto Lysanias his eldest Sonne murdered about seven years after by Marc. Antonie on the suggestions of Cleopatra who presently seized on his estates But Antonie and Cleopatra having left the Stage Lysanias a Sonne of the murdered Prince entreth next upon it by the permission of Augustus During whose time Zenodorus Lord of the Town and territory of Paneas farming his demeasnes and paying a very grat Rent for them not only suffered the Trachonites to play the Robbers and infest the Merchants of Damascus but received part of the booty with them Augustus on complaint hereof giveth the whole Countrey of Trachonites Batanea Gaulonitis and Auranitis to Herod the Ascalonite before created King of Iewrie that by his puissance and power he might quell those Robbers and reduce the Countrie into order Leaving unto Lysanias nothing but the City of Abila of which he was the natural Lord whereof and of the adjoining territory he was afterwards created Tetrarch by the name of the Tetrarch of Abilene mentioned Luke 3. Nor did Herods good fortune end in this For presently on the death of Zenodorus not long after following Augustus gave him also the district of Paneas of which we shall speak more when we come to Galilee which with the Countries formerly taken from Lysanias made up the Tetrarchie of Philip his youngest Sonne affording him the yearly Revenue of 100. Talents which make 37500 l. of English money On Philips death his Tetrarchy was by Cains Calâ—gula conferred on Agrippa the Nephew of Herod by his Sonne Aristobulus whom he had also dignified with the title of King after whose death and the death of Agrippa Minor who next succeeded his estates escheated to the Romans and have since had the same fortune with the rest of Palestine 3. GALILEE GALILEE is bounden on the East with Batanea and part of the halfe Tribe of Manasses on that side of Iordan on the West with the Sea-coast of Phoenicia on the Mediterranean on the North with Anti-Libanus on the South with Samâ—ria So called as some say from Geliloth a Phoenician word signifying as much as borders because the bordering Countrey betwixt them and the Iews The Countrey not so large as that on the other side of the River but far more fertile naturally fruitfull of it self every where producing excellent fruits without much pains to the Husbandman and so well cultivated in old times that there was hardly any wast ground to be found in it Thick set with Cities Towns and Villages in the time of Iosephus and those so populous and rich that the smallest Village in it is affirmed by that Author to comprehend no fewer than 15000 Inhabitants A number beyond all parallel if reported rightly and not mistaken in the transcripts The people from their childhood very stout and warlike not daunted for fear of want or deard of penury which seconded by their vast and almost incredible numbers made them experimentally known for a tough peece of employment when subdued by Titus And this together with their zeal to the Iewish Religion makes it more than probable that there was something in them of the antient Israelite and that they were not meerly of an Assyrian either stock or spirit but intermixt with such remainders of the Tribes as had saved themselves either by flying to the Mountains or hiding themselves in Caves and Defarts or otherwise were inconsiderable for strength and numbers in the great transplantation of them made by Salmanassar And in this I am the more confirmed by their speech or language which was the same with that of the natural Iews differing no otherwise from it than in tone and dialect as our Northern English doth from that which is spoke in London as appeareth by the communication which the Damosel had with Saint Peter in the High-Priests Hall in which she plainly understood him but so that she pronounced him for a Galilean For had the Transplantation been so universal as some think it was and that both sick and sound old and young had been caried away and none but Colonies of the Assyrians to fill up their places it must needs be that those New-comers would have planted their own language there as the Saxons did on the extirpation of the Briâ—â—â— on this side of the Severn The like may be affirmed of the other Tribes on this side of Iordan especially Simeon and Dan which either bordering upon Iudah or having their lands and Cities intermingled with it continued in great numbers in their former dwellings under the Patronage or subjection or the Kings thereof Divided it was antiently into the Higher and the Lower The Higher so called from its
Chaurana the chief City of the Chauranaei 3. Saeta 4. Issedon Scythica so called to difference it from the other of that name in Serica These with the rest and all the Countrey as far as it was known in the daies of Ptolomy inhabited by the Abâ—i Happophagi or horse-eaters a diet still used by the Tartars or modern Scythians 2. The Issedones who are said by Pomponius Mela to make Carousing Cups of their Fathers heads first trimed and gilded 3. The Chauranaei and 4. the Chatae who being as it seemeth the most potent Nation caused all the rest to be called by the name of Cathay communicating that name also to the conquered Seres Besides the possessions of which Tribes there were also the Regions of Acbassa Casia and Auzacitis these last so called from the Mountains upon which they bordered More than this we have not to say of this Countrey by the name of Scythia there being nothing memorable of it in the course of story or worth the observation in the way of Chorography Let us therefore look upon it as presented to us by the name of ALTAY though therein I shall trouble my self no further than by giving a brief touch on the severall parts of it Of which the most that can be said will be but little for the information of the judicious Readers who are not to be bettered by the names of places if there be not something in them of further use Now for these Provinces the principall of them are 1. Cascar 2. Chesmur 3. Lop 4. Camul 5. Tainfu 6. Caindu 7. Carazan 8. Cardandan 9. Erginul 10. Tanguth 1. CASCAR bordering upon China a Mahometan Countrey but admitting of some Christians also In some parts both sexes do indulge themselves this mutual privilege that if the husband or the wife be absent above twenty daies the other party is at liberty to mary again 2. CHESMUR the inhabitants whereof are generally both Idolaters and Inchanters causing the dumb Idols to speak the winds to rise aud the sun to be darkned For studying which black Arts if they come to them by study they have many Monasteries in which their Hermits or Monasticks live a strict kind of life and are very abstemious 3. LOP memorable for a great Desart of thirty daies journey so true a Desart that whosoever doth not mean to be starved must carry all his victuals with him Dangerous to travellers if not before-hand made acquainted with their danger the evill spirits using to call men by their names and make them go astray from their company where they perish with famine or are devoured with wild beasts The chief Town hereof called Lop giving name to both 4. CAMVL an Idolatrous Countrey the people whereof accompt it a great honour to them to have their wives and sisters at the pleasure of such as they entertain From which brutish custome when restrained by Mango Cham they petitioned him at three years end to be restored again to their former liberty protesting they could never thrive since they left that custome Which desire of theirs was at last granted and is still in use 5. TAINFV more civil than the rest the people being very industrious and good Artificers making the most part of the Arms which are used by the Cham and some also which they fell to Merchants 6. CAINDU with a Town in it of the same name of great resort by Merchants such as we commonly call petit Chapmen for the Womens veils here made with very great Art of the barks of Trees And it is well that they have veils to hide their shamelessness the women of this Tract being prostituted unto every Traveller 7. CARAZAN inhabited by a barbarous and savage people who in the day-time live in dens for fear of Serpents with which and some of them ten paces long and ten spans in thickness they are much infested and in the night go forth to prey upon Wolves and Lyons They have an use that when any stranger cometh into their houses of an handsome shape to kill him in the night not out of desire of spoil or to eat his body but that the soul of such a comely bodie might remain amongst them 8. CARDANDAN neer Carazan and as savage as that The people whereof draw black lines on their bodies which they count for the greatest Ornament In case of sickness they send not to the Physician but the next Inchanters who taking Counsail of the Devil apply some remedy or if they think the man past cure they tell him that his offences are grown too great to admit of help and so put him off 9. ERGINVL possessed by an Idolatrous people but mixed with some Mahometans and Nestorian Christians In which Countrey they have certain Bulls as big as Elephants with mains of fine white haire like silk some of which they tame and betwixt them and their Kine engender a race of strong and laborious Beasts not inferiour in that kind to Oxen. Here is alsofound a beast of an exquisite shape but not bigger than a Goat which at every full Moon hath a swelling under the belly which being cut off by the Hunters and dryed in the Sunne proveth to be the best Musk in the World 10. TANGVT the greatest and most potent of all the rest inhabited by an industrious and laborious people amongst whom the Art of printing is said to have been extant a thousand years Blessed heretofore with a great increase of Christianity but now the Gentiles or Idolaters make the greatest part with some Mahometans amongst them And for the serving of those Idols they have not onely many large and beautifull Temples built in the manner of Christian Churches and capable of 4 or 5000 persons but also many fair Monasteries for the use of their Votaries and Recluses They are possessed of many Towns most of them well fortified and planted with good store of Artillery The chief of which 1. Sachian bordering on the Desart of Lop inhabited by some of all three Religions in which it is affirmed that they first used the Art of printing 2. Campion the Metropolis or Mother City of this Countrey where the Christians in the time of Paulus Venetus had three fair Churches now over-numbred by the Gentiles who have here many Monasteries for the use of their Iaols and many Religious persons dedicated to their service only Who though they live more honestly than the rest of their Order and hold it an impiety to tempt a woman to the act of lust yet if the woman make the offer they hold it no small siâ—â—e to refuse her curtesie 3. Suâ—cuir situate amongst Mountains clothed with Rhubarb from whence conveyed by Merchants over all the world but so neglected by the natives that did not the forein Merchant bring it into request they would scorn to gather it This once a Kingdome of it self but subject now with Taâ—guth to the Cham of Cathay or the Great Cham of Tartary 5. TARTARIA ANTIQVA TARTARIA ANTIQVA hath
the righteous God may so direct your mind that you may joyfully imbrace the Message I send presenting to you the means of exalting the Majesty of God and your own Reward amongst men The Regal power allotted to us makes us common Servants to our Creator then of those People whom we govern So that observing the duties we owe to God we deliver blessings to the World in providing for the publike good of our States we magnifie the honour of God like the Celestial Bodies which though they have much veneration yet serve only to the benefit of the World It is the Excellencie of our Office to be Instruments whereby happiness is delivered unto the Nations Pardon me Sir this is not to instruct for I know I speak to one of a more cleer and quick sight then my-self but I speak this because God hath pleased to grant me a happy Victory over some part of those Rebellious Pirats that have so long molested the peaceful Trade of Europe and hath presented further occasion to root out the generation of those who have been so pernicious to the good of our Nations I mean since it hath pleased God to be so auspicious to our beginnings in the Conquest of Salla that we might joyn and proceed in hope of like success in the war against Tunis Algier and other places Dens and Receptacles for the inhumane villanies of those who abhor Rule and Government Herein whilest we interrupt the corruption of malignant Spirits of the World we shall glorifie the great God and perform a Duty that will shine as glorious as the Sun and Moon which all the Earth may see and reverence A work that shall ascend as sweet as the perfume of the most precious Odours in the nostrils of the Lord A work gratefull and happy to men A work whose memory shall be reverenced so long as there shall be any that delight to hear the Actions of Heroick and magnanimous Spirits that shall last as long as there be any remaining amongst men that love and honour the piety and vertue of Noble minds This Action I here willingly present to You whose piety and vertues equal the greatness of your power that we who are Servants to the Great and mighty GOD may hand in hand triumph in the glory which this Action presents unto us Now because the Ilands which you govern have been ever famous for the unconquered strength of their Shipping I have sent this my trusty Servant and Ambassador to know whether in your Princely wisdome you shall think fit to assist me with such Forces by Sea as shall be answerable to those I provide by Land which if you please to grant I doubt not but the Lord of Hosts will protect and assist those that fight in so glorious a Cause Nor ought you to think this strange that I who much reverence the Peace and accord of Nations should exhort to a VVar. Your great Prophet CHRIST JESUS was the Lion of the Tribe of JUDAH as well as the Lord and Giver of Peace which may signifie unto you that he which is a lover and maintainer of Peace must always appear with the terror of his Sword and wading through Seas of blood must arrive to Tranquillity This made JAMES your Father of glorious memory so happily renowned amongst all Nations It was the noble fame of your Princely vertues which resounds to the utmost corners of the Earth that perswaded me to invite you to partake of that Blessing wherein I boast my self most happy I wish God may heap the riches of his blessings on you increase your happiness with your dayes and hereafter perpetuate the greatness of your Name in all Ages Such was the Letter of that King whose motion in all probability might have took effect had not the Troubles which not long after brake out in Scotland put off the design And therefore laying by the thoughts of his future purposes let us take a view of the Revenues and Forces of this mighty Empire before the late distractions made it less considerable And first-for the Revenues of it the Xeriffs are the absolute Lords of the whole Estate and of his Subjects goods and bodies The tenth and first-fruits of all sorts of Fruits Corn and Cattel he demands of course though many times contented in the name of the first-fruits with one in twenty The fifth part of a Ducat he receiveth for every Acre of Land throughout his Dominions the other four parts for every Fire and as much for every Head whether male or female which is above fifteen years of age In Merchandise he receiveth of every Native two in the hundred of an Alien ten and hath a large Impost also upon every Mill. When any of his greater Officers or Judges die he is sole Heir of all their Goods and yet advanceth great sums by the sale of those Offices And in the levying of such Taxes as are extraordinary he useth to demand more then he means to take that the People finding him content to abate somwhat of his Due may think themselves to be fairly dealt with As for their Forces it is evident in matter of Fact that Abdulla the first at the siege of Mazagon a Town held by the Portugals An. 1562. had no less then 200000 men and that Abdel-Melech at the battel of Alcazar Guez against king Sebastian had 40000 Horse and 80000 Foot besides Voluntaries and wild Arabians it being supposed that he might have raised 30000 Horse more notwithstanding the strong party which was made against him had he thought it necessary It is said also that Abdalla kept in constant pay 60000 Horse of which 15000 were quartered in the Realm of Sus 25000 in Morocco and the other in 20000 in the kingdom of Fesse out of which he called 5000 of the best and ablest for the guard of his person well mounted and as richly furnished Besides these he hath bodies of Horse in continual readiness maintained according to the manner of the Turks Timariots and by Pensions given amongst the Chiefs of the Arabians who live like Outlaws in the mountains and up and down in the skirts of of his Country is furnished at his need with supplies from them Well stored with Ammunition also there being 46 Quintals of Gunâ—powder laid up monethly in his famous Arsenal at Morocco and yet not able to stay long not above 3 months upon any action in regard that all his Souldiers live on his daily allowance which maketh them when his Provisions are consumed to dissolve and scatter THE ISLES OF BARBARY THe ISLES of BARBARY which make up the fifth and last part thereof are situate neer the African shores of the Mediterranean assigned by Ptolomy to the Province of Africa Propria In number sixteen 1 Hydras 2 Calathe 3 Dracontias now called Chelbi 4 Aegymnus by Strabo called Aeginarus and now Guietta 5 Larunesia now Mollium 6 Lapedusa now Lampedosa 7 Mesyrus 8 Pontia 9 Gaia all of little note 10 Insula
in the elder times the greatest those of Jason Vlysses and Alexander with the Fleets of Solomon and the Egyptian Kings Of these Jason and his companions say led in the ship called Argo through the Euxine Sea and part of the Mediterranean Vlysses through the Mediterranean only small gullets if compared with the Ocean Alexander's journey so famoused and accounted then so hazardous was but sayling down the River Indus and four-hundred surlongs into the Ocean and for the Fleets of Solomon and the Kings of Egypt it is very apparant that they went with great leisure and crawled close by the shore-side otherwise it had been impossible to have consumed three whole years in going from Ezion-Geber into India and returnning again which was the usual time of these voyages as appeareth in 1 King 10. 22. After the fall of the Roman Monarchy the most potent States by Sea in the Mediterranean were the Genoese and Venetians in the Ocean the English and the Hans-towns neither of which ever attempted any great discoveries But in the year 1300. one Flavio of Malphi in the Realm of Naples found out the Compass or Pixis Nautica consisting of 8 winds only the four principal and four collateral And not long after the people of Bruges and Antwerp perfected that excellent invention adding 24 other subordinate winds or points By means of this excellent Instrument and with all by the good success of Columbus the Portugals Eastward the Spaniards Westward and the English Northwards have made many glorious and fortunate Expeditions which had been utterly impossible to have been performed and had been foolishly undertaken when that help was wanting I know there hath been much pains taken by some learned men to prove the use of the Mariners Compass to be far more antient then is now commonly pretended Fuller a very learned and industrious man but better skilled in the Hebrew tongue then the Philologie of the Greeks and Latines will have it known to Solomon and by him taught unto the Tyrians and Phaenicians the most famous Sea-men of old times but he brings no Argument of weight to make good the cause Nor is it possible that such an excellent invention so beneficial to the common good of all mankind should have been forgotten and discontinued for the use of more then 2000 years if ever the Tyrians and Phoenicians had been masters of it who could not possibly conceal it had they been so minded from the Common-Mariners or they not have communicated it for gain or desire of glory to the Greeks and Romans under whom successively they lived As little moment do I find in some other Arguments as that the Lapis Heraclius of the Antient writers or the Versoria of Plautus should be by them intended of the Mariners Compass For plainly the Versoria of Plautus is no other then that peece of tackle which our Mariners now call the Belin by which they use to turn their Sails and fit them to the change of every wind And so much doth appear by the Poet himself in the Comedie which he cals Mercator saying Hinc ventus nunc secundus est cape modo Versoriam So called from Verso to turn often or from Versum the first Supine of Verto whence Velum vertere is a common phrase amongst the Latines used for the shifting of the Sail as the wind doth vary As for the Load stone it is called indeed Heraclius Lapis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Greeks not because Hercules Tyrius whom the Phoenicians invocated when they were at Sea had first found out the vertue of it as our Fuller thinketh but because first found neer Heraclea a City of Lydia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Hesychius the old Grammarian Called for the same reason Magnes by the writers both Greek and Latine because first found in the Territory of Magnesia a City of Lydia also whereof Heraclea was a part So Suidas telleth us for the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heraclium Lapidem quidam Magnesiam reddiderunt quia Heraclea pars est Magnesiae Called for the very same reason Lydius Lapis also and by them known only as a touch stone Thus old Lucretius for the Latines Quem Magneta vocant patrio de nomine Graii Magnetum quia sit patriis de finibus ortus Which Stone the Greeks do Magnes name Because it from Magnesia came But I have rambled further then I did intend drawn by the vertue of the Load-stone too much out of my way It is time now to return again into America where the Spaniards at their first Arrival found the People without all manner of Apparel nought skilled in Agriculture making their bread either of a Plant called Maize or a kind of Root called Jucca a Root wherein is a venemous liquor not inferior to the most deadly poisons but having first queezed out this juice and after dryed and prepared the Root they made their Bread of it They worshipped Devilish Spirits whom they called Zemes in remembrance of whom they kept certain Images made of Cotton wooll like our Childrens Babies to which they did great reverence as supposing the Spirit of the Zemes to be in them and to blind them the more the Devil would cause these Puppets to seem to move and to make a noise They stood also in so great fear of them that they durst not displease them for if their wils were not fulfilled the Devil strait executed vengeance upon some of their Children so holding this infatuated People in perpetual thraldom So ignorant they were of all things which they had not seen that they thought the Christians to be immortal wondring exceedingly at the Sails Masts and Tacklings of their Ships themselves knowing no Ships or other Vessels but huge Troughs made of some great bodied tree But this opinion of the Christians immortality in the sense they meant it did not long continue for having taken some of them they held their heads under the water till they had quite choaked them by which they knew them to be mortal like other men Quite destitute of all good learning they reckoned their time by a confused observation of the course of the Moon and strangely admired to see the Spaniards know the health and affairs of one another only by reading of a Letter Of a plain and honest nature for the most part they were found to be Loving and kind in their entertainments and apt to do good offices both private and publike accordâ—ng to their understandings encouraged thereunto by an opinion which they had that beyond some certain hills but they knew not where those which lived honestly and justly or offered up their lives in defence of their Country should find a place of everlasting peace and happiness So natural is the knowledge of the Souls immortality and of some Ubi for the future reception of it that we find some tract or other of it in most barbarous Nations And as for Gold and Silver which the new come Christians
Florida unto the 44th where it quartereth on Norumbega The first Discovery hereof by the two Cabots Father and Son An. 1497. did first entitle the Crown of England to this Country The Design after seconded by one Mr. Hare bringing thence certain of the petit Kings or Princes hereof who did Homage to K. Henry the 8. then sitting in his Royal Throne in the Palace of Westminster but nothing further done in pursuance of it And though John Verazzani a noble Florentine at the incouragement and charge of King Francis the first An. 1524. discovered more of the Country then Cabot did yet the French too much in love with the pleasures of France or intangled in Civill Wars amongst themselves looked no further after it Insomuch that the Country lying thus neglected was re-discovered by the charges and direction of Sir Walter Raleigh then Captain of the Guard and in great power and favour with Queen Elizabeth An. 1584. who sending Master Philip Amadas and Master Arthur Barlow upon this employment did by them take possession of it in Queen Elizabeths name in honour of whom he caused it to be called Virginia The next year he sent hither a Colonie under the conduct of the noble Sir Richard Greenvile who not supplied with necessaries for their subsistence returned home again In the year 1587 a second Colonie is sent hither but as successless as the first the business being undertaken only on a private Purse not owned as the interesse of the State or of publick moment till the year 1606. In the mean time the North parts of this Country being more perfectly discovered by Captain Bartholomew Gosnold An. 1602. and the middle parts being taken up by the Hollanders not long after that is to say in the year 1609. the whole became divided into these three parts 1 New-England 2 Novum Belgium 3 Virginia stristly and specially so called To which the Isles of the Bermudas shall come in for a fourth NEW ENGLAND hath on the North east Norumbegua and on the South-west Novum Belgium So called by the Adventurers by whom first planted not so much because opposite to Nova Albion as some men conceive as in imitation of the like adjuncts of distinction given by the French and Spaniards to Nova Francia Nova Hispania Nova Gallicia Nova Granada and the like The Country situate in the middle of the Temperate Zone betwixt the degrees of 41. 44. equally distant from the Artick Circle and the Tropick of Cancer by consequence naturally of the same degree of heat with France or Italy But by reason of the thick mists which arise from the Seas adjoyning those heats so moderated that the Aire is found to be exceedingly agreeable to an English body The soil not only fruitfull of such commodities as grow there naturally but also of all sorts of grain which were brought from England Great store of Woods and trees both for fruit and building plenty of Deer within the VVoods of salt and fish upon the shores and as for Turkies Partriges Swans Geese Cranes Ducks Pigeons such a full variety as serves not only for necessity but for Pride and Luxury The Commodities of most note for maintaining of Traffick rich Furs and many sorts of Fish some Amber Flax Linnen Iron Pitch Masts Cables Timber fit for shipping in a word whatsoever comes to England by the way of the Sound might be at better rates and with far less trouble be supplied from hence at least if we believe the Relations of it published in the year 1622. The People for the most part well enough disposed if not roughly handled hospitable and more civil then the rest of their Neighbours So tractable and docile in matters of Religion that liking well the Rites and Ceremonies of the English at their first setling there Anno 1608. they would use to say that King James was a good King and his God a good God but their Tanto naught Which Tanto was an evil Spirit which did haunt and trouble them every Moon and therefore they worshipped him for fear which notwithstanding I finde not any great increase of Christianity amongst the Natives our English Undertakers thinking it sufficient if they aud their houses served the Lord without caring what became of the souls of the wretched People which hitherto have sate in darkness and the shadow of death notwithstanding those New lights whith have shined amongst them And as for those New-comers which have planted there all English though some immediately out of Holland I cannot better tell you of what strain they were then in the words of John de Laâ—â— Novi Orbis lib. 3. cap 8. where he observeth Primos hosce Colonos uti illos qui postea accesserunt potissimùm aut omnino fuisse ex eorum hominum Secta quos in Anglia Brownistas Puritanos vocant quales non pauci in Belgium superioribus annis se receperunt hinc ad socios sunt profecti They were saith he either for the most part or altogether of that Sect which in England are called Brownists or Puritans many of which had formerly betaken themselves to Holland but afterwards went thence to joyn with their Brethren in New-England Principal Rivers of this part 1 Tamescot where our men found Oysters of nine inches long 2 Nansic a River of the Tarentines one of the chief Nations of this tract 3 Sagahadoc of most note and deservedly too Of a mile and an half broad at the mouth or influx and so upwards for the space of a dayes journey where it maketh a large Lake three dayes journey broad with six Ilands in it nourished with two large Channels the one from the North east the other from the North-west each of them rising from a Lake the least of which four dayes journey long two broad the other double it Of lesse note 4 Apanawapesk 5 Ramassoc 6 Ashamahaga c. The Country on the Sea side full of notable Havens populous and very well inhabited insomuch as Captain Smith reckoned in the space of 70 miles above twenty Havens some of them capable of 500 or 1000 sail most of them sheltered from the furies of wind and sea by the interposition of some Ilands of which about 200 lie upon that Coast In the space of 70 miles he reckoneth forty Villages of the Barbarous people the chief of which 1 Macadacut 2 Segocket 3 Pemmaquid 4 Nusconcus 5 Kennebecque c. all called by the name of some Brook or water upon which they were seated Since added by the English 1 S Georges Fort the first Plantation of the English built by them at the mouth of the River Sagahadoc in a Demy-Iland An. 1607. 2 New Plimouth seated in a large and capacious Bay at the first building An. 1620. consisting of nineteen families only but in short time improved to an handsom Town which as it was the first Town so it was the first Church which was setled there modelled according to the form of Mr. Robinsons
this Terra Incognita the habitation of the Faeries a pretty kind of little fiends or Pigmey devils but more inclined to sport them mischief of which old Women who remember the times of Popery tell us many fine stories A cleanlyer and more innocent cheat was never put upon poor ignorant people by the Monks and Friers Their habitation here or no where though sent occasionally by Oberon and their other Kings to our parts of the World For not being reckoned amongst the good Angels nor having malice enough to make them Devils but such a kind of midâ—ng Sprites as the Latines call Lemures Larvae we must find out some place for them neither Heaven or Hell and most likely this Their Country never more enobled then by being made the Scene of that excellent Poem called the Facrie Queen Intended to the honour of Queen Elizabeth and the greatest persons in her Court but shadowed in such lively colours framed so exactly by the Rules of Poesie and representing such Idaeas of all moral goodness that as there never was a Poem more Artiâ—cial so can no Ethical discourse more fashion and inflame the mind to the love of vertue Invisurum facilius aliquem quam imitaturum shall be Spencers Motto and so I leave him to his rest 5. The PAINTERS WIVES ILAND is an Iland of this Tract mentioned by Sir Walter Raleigh in his History of the World Of which he was informed by Don Pedro de Sarmiento a Spanish Gentleman imployed by his King in planting some Colonies on the Streits of Magellan which we have touched upon before Who being taken Prisoner by Sir Walter in his going home was asked of him about some Iland which the Maps presented in those Streits and might have been of great use to him in his undertaking To which he merrily replied that it was to be called the Painters Wives Iland saying that whilest the Painter drew that Map his wife sitting by desired him to put in one Countrey for her that she in her imaginations might have an Iland of her own His meaning was that there was no such Iland as the Maps presented And I fear the Painters wife hath many Ilands and some Countries too upon the Continent in our common Maps which are not really to be found on the strictest search 6. THE LANDS OF CHIVALRIE are such Ilands Provinces and Kingdoms in the Books of Errantry which have no being in any known part of the World and therefore must be sought in this A gross absurdity but frequent in those kind of Writers who in describing the Adventures of their Knights in despight of Geographie with which indeed they had no acquaintance have not only disjoyned Countries which are neer together and laid together Countries which are far remote but given us the description of many Ilands Provinces and mighty Kingdoms which as the ingenious Author of the History of Don Quixot merrily observeth are not to be found in all the Map Of this sort is the Isle of Adamants in Sir Huon of Burdeaux the Fayery-Iland in the History of Amadis de Gaul the hidden Iland and that of the Sage Aliart in S. Palmerin of England the Ilands of Lindaraza and the Divelish Fauno with the Kingdom of Lyra of which the Amazonian Lady Archisipoza was the rightfull Queen and many others of that kinde in the Mirrour of Knighthood and divers of like nature in Palmerin de Oliva Primaleon and Belianis of Greece Parismus the Romance of Romances and indeed who not of all that Rabble Handsomly humoured by Michael de Cervantes in his Iland of Barutaria of which the famous Sancho Panca was sometimes Governour and the Kingdom of Micomicona And yet I cannot but confess for I have been a great Student in these Books of Chivalrie that they may be of very good use to Children or young Boys in their Adolescency For besides that they divert the minde from worse cogitations they perfect him that takes pleasure in them in the way of reading beget in him an habit of speaking and animate him many times to such high conceptions as really may make him fit for great undertakings 7. THE NEW WORLD IN THE MOON was first of Lucians discovering a man of eminent parts but as ill a Conscience Apostatizing from the faith in which he was bâ—ed Aristophanes had before told us in one of his Comedies of a Nephelococcygia or a City of Cuckoes in the Clouds But Lucian was the first who found out this New World in the Moon of which and of the Inhabitants of it he affordeth us in one of his Dialogues a conceited Character But of late times that World which he there fancied and proposed but as a fancie onely is become a matter of a more serious debate and some have laboured with great pains to make it probable that there is another World in the Moon inhabited as this is by persons of divers Languages Customs Pâ—lities and Religions and more then so some means and wayes proposed to consideration for maintaining an intercourse and commerce betwixt that and this But being there are like endeavours to prove that the Earth may be a Planet why may not this Southern Continent be that Planet and more particularly that Moon in which this other World is supposed to be Certainly there are stronger hopes of finding a New World in this Terra Australis then in the Body of that Planet and such perhaps as might exceed both in profit and pleasure the later discoveries of America But I am no discourager of industrie and ingenuitie which I love and honour wheresoever I find it I know great Truths have many times been startled upon less presumptions Nor would I be mistook as if in my pursuit of this Terra Incognita I put scorn on any of sublimer thoughts or that I would have any man so much in love with the present World as not to look for another World in the Heaven above It is reported that in some controversie betwixt the Polander and the Duke of Moscovie the King of Poland sent the Moscovite a curious Globe representing the whole Heavenly Bodies with the particular motion of each several Sphere To which the Muscovite returned this unworthy Answer Tu mihi Coelum mittis Redde mihi Terras de quibus contendimus You send me Heaven faith he but that will not satisfie unless you give me back those Lands which are now in question And much I fear there are too many of this mind who would not lose their part on Earth for all Heaven it self Whom I desire if any such peruse these Papers to consider That as much as the most flourishing Country which is here described doth fall short of that Paradise wherein God placed our father Adam so much and infinitely more did that Earthly Paradise fall short of the unspeakable glories of the â—ingdom of Heaven To the diligent and careful search of which Heavenly Kingdom I heartily commit the Reader not doubting but the Works of GOD which
be called Benedictines or Monks of Saint Benedict and lived till he had seen twelve Monasteries â—illed with them After his death this Order grew so populous that there have been of it 29 Popes 200 ardinals 1603 Arch-Bishops 4000 Bishops and 50000 Canonized Saints Their habit is a loose Gown of black reaching down to the ground with a Hood of the same anunder-garment of white woollen and boots on their legs The other principall streams of this Fountain are first the Monks of Clugnia secondly of Carthusia thirdly of Cisteaux fourthly the Celestines 1 The Monks of Clugnie are so called from the Abbey of Clugnie in the County of Burgundy the Abbot whereof by name Odo was the first that reformed the Benedictines then fallen from their former integrity An o 913. He obtained of the Popes and Emperors that all such Abbies as would come under the compass of his Reformations which were in all about two hundred should be called the Congregation of Clugni and that they might call their Chapiters c. 2 The Carthusians were first instituted by one Bruno a German Doctor of Divinity at the Town of Carthusia in Daulphine An o 1080 His followers which were at the first but six have at this day 93 Monasteries They eat no flesh live by couples labour with their hands watch pray and never meet together but on Sundaies Their house in London by corruption and long tract of time got the name of the Charter-house the Monks themselves being corruptly called the Charter-house Monks now better known by the name of Suttons Hospitall from the Hospitall of the Foundation of Richard Sutton a wealthy Citizen of London 3 The Monks of Cisteaux were first instituted by one Robert Abbot of Molesme An o 1090 or thereabouts who together with 21 of the most religious of his Covent retired to Cisteaux in Burgundy Dutchy hence the name About five years after one Bernard a great Lord became of their Order who built and repaired for them 160 Abbies Their Robe is a white Cassock girt with a Girdle of wooll the rest black They were by us called White Monks and the common Benedictines Black Monks both from the colour of their habits 4 The Celestines ow their originall to Peter de Moron a Samnite born An o 1250 who being afterwards for his sanctity chose Pope was called Celestine the fift He reformed the Benedictines then much degenerated and had his Order confirmed by Gregory the 11. There are at this present 124 Monasteries of them The 4 and last that prescribed new Orders to the Monasticks was Saint Francis of Assis in the Dutchy of Spoleto He fell from Merchandize which was his first profession unto the study of Religion going bare-foot and behaving himself very penitently whereupon great store of Disciples following him he gave them a Rule in writing by which they are bound to profess absolute beggery and are not permitted to carry any mony about them or more victuals than will for the present serve themselves and their Brethren This they observe punctually in their own persons but give themselves to have a Boy with them to do both without scruple S. Francis desired they should be called Minors to shew their humility but they are generally called Franciscans by the name of their Founder By the French called Cordeliers because of the knotty Cord which they wear about them instead of a Girdle by us the Gray Friers from the colour of their upper Garment Their house in London stood near Newgate of which the Church the Cloysters and some other the publick Offices do still stand entire the whole converted to an Hospitall for poor Children by King Edward the sixt in the latter end of his reign now best known by the name of Christ Church Their Rule and Order was confirmed by Innocent the 3 d An o 1212 and is the fourth and last of the Friers mendicants or begging Friers The other principall Children of this Father are 1 the Minimies and 2 the Capouchins 1 The Friers Minimes were first founded by Franciscus de Pola a Neapolitan An o 1450 according to a corrected copy of the rule of S. Francis of Assis His followers keep alwaies a true Lenten fast unless in case of sickness Their Robe is a dark tawney an hood of the same hanging to their girdles 2 The Capouchins so called from their cowle or capouch were ordained by one Mathew Basci of Ancona Frier Lewis his companion obtained for them of the Pope the habit and rule of S. Francis An. 1526. In the space 42 years they increased to 2240 associates had 222 Monasteries and were divided into 15 Provinces They are bound by their Rule to spend their time in prayer and are generally thought to be the devoutest of all the Orders Monastical I should now speak of the Jesuites but that I cannot bring them under any rule as being a people neither simply Lay nor Priests nor meerly secular nor regular but all together They were founded by Ignatius Loyola born in Navarre who being in his youth addicted to the wars was lamed in one of his legs after which maim betaking himself to the study of Religion he framed this order consisting at the first of ten only Paul the third did confirm it An. 1540. confining the number within sixty which he after inlarged ad infinitum They are now the greatest Politicians soundest Scholars and chiefest upholders of the Romish See so that the onely way to re-establish the Romish Religion in any Land is to plant a College of Jesuites in it To the three vows of Poverty Obedience and Chastitie common to all other orders Ignatius at the institution of this added the Vow of Mission whereby his followers are bound to obey their Generall or the Pope without demanding any reason in all dangerous and hazardous attempts whatsoever whether it be undertaking some tediâ—â—s voyage for the propagation of the Romish Religion or the massacring of any Prince whose life is a hindrance to their proceedings It is reported that a Jesuite being in the midst of his Masse which they call the sacrifice of the Altar was sent for by Ignatius to whom leaving off his Mass he went immediately Ignatius having no business wherein to employ him told him he only sent for him to trie his obedience and withall prophanely added that Obedience is better than sacrifice and this is called the blind obedience of the Jesuites To leave them then as they are the greatest disturbers of the quiet of Europe I have heard a worthy Gentleman now with God say many times that till the Jesuites were taken from the Church of Rome and the peevish Puritan or Presbyterian Preachers out of the Churches of Great Britain he thought there would never be any peace in Christendom with what a true presaging spirit the event hath shewed Corrivals with the Jesâ—ites in power and learning and almost conaetaneous in point of time are the Oratorians founded by Philip Nerio a Florentine An.
1564 who marking the great sway which the Jesuites began to have and the danger which the Church might run if that Order were not equally ballanced by some other of as much abilitie first established this consisting altogether of Priests that by their diligence in preaching of the lives of the Saints and other heads of practical and morall duties they might divert the torrent of the peoples affection from the brood of Ignatius The renowned Cardinall Caesar Baronius Francis Bourdino afterwards Bishop of Avignon in France and one Alexander Fidelis were the three first whom he admitted to his Rule initiated in S. Hieroms Church at Rome by Pope Pius the fourth with great zeal and cheerfulnes to whom as to some of his Predecessors the power and practices of the Jesuites were become suspitious They increased speedily being countenanced on so good grounds to great numbers and a proportionable Revenue as much esteemed of for their knowledge in Ecclesiasticall Historie and Practicall Divinitie as the others for Philosophy Tongues and the study of Controversies and more accepted of in most places because not usually intermedling in affairs of State So evenly looked on by the Popes that the Jesuites could not obtain the Canonization of their Ignatius till the Oratorians were grown rich enough to celebrate that of their Nerius also which hapned in the short Popedom of Gregory the 15. An. 1622. To conclude this discourse of Monks and Friers I will say somewhat of the severest kind of Recluse which is the Anachoret or Anchoret so called from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they use to live retired from company They are kept in a close place where they must dig their graves with their nails badly clad and worse dieted not to be pitied because their restraint of liberty is voluntary yet to be sorrowed for in this that after such an earthly Purgatory they shall find instead of an Euge bone serve a Quis quaesivit de manibus vestris But concerning these Orders of Monks and Friers certain it is that at their first institution they were a People much reverenced for their holy life as men that for Christs sake had abandoned all the Pomps and Vanities of the world And questionless they were then a People altogether mortified and who by their very aspects would gain upon the affection of the hardest heart insomuch that not only mean men but great personages also did desire to be buried in Friers weeds as Francis the 2 d Marquess of Mantua Albertus Pius another Prince of Italie and in late times the great Scholar Christopher Longolius But as Florus saith of the Civill Wars between Caesar and Pompey Causa hujus Belli eadem quae omnium nimia felicitas we may say also of these Friers The greatness of their wealth which many on a superstitious devotion had bequeathed unto them brought them first to a neglect of their former devout and religious carriage next to a wretchlesness of their credits and consequently into contempt so that there was not a people under heaven that was more infamous in themselves or more scornfully abused by others Hence the vulgar sayings of the people that Friers wear crosses on their breasts because they have none in their hearts and that when a Frier receiveth the Razor the Devil entreth into him and the like Nay Sir Thomas Moore who lost his head in the Popes quarrell sticks not in his Utopia to call them Errones Maximos and would have them comprehended within the Statutes of Vagabonds and sturdy Beggers Now to shew both the humours of Respect and Contempt used severally to these Monks and Friers as men stood affected there goeth a Tale how the Lady Moore Sir Thomas his wife finding by chance a Friers Girdle shewed it to her husband with great joy saying Behold Sir Thomas a step towards Heaven whereunto with a scornfull laugh he returned this answer that he feared that step would not bring her a step higher And as for their retiredness and solitary course of life so it is that many Kings especially of the Saxons in the time of their Heptarchie have abandoned their Scepters to enjoy it And Barclay in his Argenis under the person of Anaroestus hath defended this in such Princes as have cloystered themselves to injoy the solitude of a Covent Which notwithstanding Philosophers have defined a man to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Creature principally made for civill conversation the Poets say Nascitur indignè per quem non nascitur alter that he dyeth indebted to the world who leaves no posterity behind him and the Jews which live in great numbers even in Rome it self abhor this unsociable kind of living and prefer a civill sociableness much before it as to Nature more agreeable to Man more prositable and consequently to God more acceptable And having spoken thus much of the Monks and Friers descend we now unto the Nuns And indeed I should much wrong the Friers if I should deprive them of the company of their dearest Votaries and therefore take somewhat of them also Called antiently Moniales from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from their living alone whence we also had the names of Monks and Monasteries in the middle times called Nuns from Nonna an Aegyptian word for Aegypt in old times was not meanly furnished with such Eremites which also signifieth a solitary and lonely life A word in some of the barbarous Latines very much in use Scholastica the Sister of S. Benedict was the first who collected them into companies and prescribed them Rules They are shaved as Monks are and vow as they do perpetuall poverty and Virginity Which last how well they keep let Clemangis testifie who telleth us that Puellam velare eadem est ac publicè eam ad scortandum exponere to veil a Nun and prostitute her for a common Harlot were terms equivalent And one Robinson who lived for a time in the English Nunnery at Lisbon hath told us that he found an hole in their Garden-wall covered over with Morter in which were hidden the bones of many new-born children which their unnaturall Mothers had murdered and thrown in there But of these I will instance only in two Orders viz. that of S. Clare as being the strictest and that of S. Brigit which injoyeth most liberty 1. S. Clare was a Knights daughter of Assis where S. Francis was born with whom she was co-temporary and with whose austere life she was so affected that she forsook her Fathers house and followed him Having learned her Lirrie of that Frier-monger she devised an Order of Religious women and had it confirmed by Pope Honorius the third Ano. 1225. Her followers vow Poverty and Virginity as before was said go barefoot feed meanly and are more streightned in their course of life than those of any other Order By their Foundress out of a desire to conform the better to the Rule and Order of S. Francis they were called Minorites or