obtained the sole regiment without controlment Besides hee corrupted so by bribes the Senators of Rome that had soueraigne authority in and ouer his kingdome that in stead of punishment which his murder cried for he was by the decree of the Senat allotted to the one halfe of the kingdome Wherevpon being growne yet more presumptuous hee made excursions and riots vpon Adherbals territories and did him thereby much iniurie and from thence falling to open war put him to flight and pursued him to a citie where hee besieged him so long till hee was constrained to yeeld himselfe And then hauing gotten him within his power put him to the cruellest death he could deuise which villanous deed gaue iust cause to the Romanes of that warre which they vndertooke against him wherein he was discomfited and seeing himselfe vtterly lost fled to his sonne in law Bochus king of Mauritania to seeke supply of succour who receiuing him into safegard prooued a false guard vnto him and deliuered him into the hands of his enemies and so was he carried in triumph to Rome by Marius fast bound being come to Rome cast into perpetual prison where first his gowne was torne off his back by violence next a ring of gold pluckt off his eare lap and all and lastly himselfe starke naked throwne into a deep ditch where combating with famine six daies the seuenth miserably ended his wretched life according to the merits of his misdeeds Orosius saith he was strangled in prison Oros Sabel Treason lib. 2. cap. 3. Methridates king of Parthia put to death the king of Cappadocia to get his kingdome and after vnder pretence of parlying with one of his sons slew him also for which cause the Romanes tooke vp the quarrell and made warre vpon him by means whereof much losse and inconuenience grew vnto him as well by sea as by land After his first ouerthrow where one of his sisters was taken prisoner and when he saw himselfe in so desperate a case that no hope of helpe was left he slew two other of his sisters with two of his wiues hauing before this war giuen his fourth sister who also was his wife a dram of poison to make vp the tragedie Afterward beeing vanquished in the night by Pompey the Romane and put to flight with onely three of his company as hee went about to gather a new supply of forces behold tidings was brought him of the reuolt of many of his Prouinces and countries and of the deliuering vp of the rest of his daughters into Pompeis hand and of the treason of his yoong sonne Pharnax the gallantest of his sonnes and whome hee purposed to make his successour who had ioined himselfe to his enemie which troubled and astonished him more then all the rest so that his courage being quite dashed and all hope of bettering his estate extinguished his other two daughters he poysoned with his owne handes and sought to practise the same experiment vpon himselfe but that his body was too strong for the poison and killed the operation thereof by strength of nature but that which poyson could not effect his owne sword performed Though Pompey the great was neuer any of the most notorious offenders in Rome Plâ—tarch yet did this staine of cruelty ambition and desire of rule cleaue vnto him for first he ioining himselfe to Silla dealt most cruelly vnnaturally with Carbo whom after familiar conference in shew of friendship hee caused sodainly to be slaine without shew of mercie And with Quintius Valerius a wise and well lettered man with whome walking but two or three turnes hee committed to a cruel and vnexpected slaughter He executed seuere punishment vpon the enemies of Silla sepecially those that were most of note and reputation and vnmercifully put Brutus to death that had rendered himselfe vnto his mercie It was he that deuised that new combate of prisoners and wild beasts to make the people sport withall a most inhumane and bloodie pastime to see humane and manly bodies torne and dismembred by brute and sencelesse creatures which if we will beleeue Plutarch was the only cause of his destruction Now after so many braue gallant victories so many magnificent triumphs as the taking of king Hiarbas the ouerthrow of Domitius the conquest of Africa the pacifying of Spaine and the ouerwelding of the commotions that were therein the clearing of the sea coasts from Pyrates the victory ouer Methridates the subduing of the Arabians the reducing of Siria into a prouince the coÌ„quest of Iudea Pontus Armenia Cappadocia Paphlagonia I say after all these worthy deeds of armes and mighty victories he was shamefully ouercome by Iulius Caesar in that ciuil war wherin it was generally thought that hee had vndertaken the better cause in maintaining the authority of the Senat defeÌ„ding the liberty of the people as he pretended to do being thus put to flight making towards Aegypt in hope the king for that before time hee had ben his tutor would protect furnish him that he might recouer himselfe again he found himself fo far deceiued of his expectation that in stead thereof the kings people cut him short of his purpose of his head both at once sending it for a token to Caesar to gratifie him withall Neuerthelesse for all this his murderers betraiers as the yong king all others that were causers of his death were iustly punished for their cruelty by the hands of him whom they thought to gratifie for as Cleopatra the kings sister threw her selfe downe at Caesars feet to intreat her portion of the kingdome and he being willing also to shew her that fauor was by that meanes gotten into the kings pallace forthwith the murderers of Pompey beset the pallace went about to bring him into the same snare that they had caught Pompey in But Caesar after that he had sustained their greatest brunt frustrated their purposes recouered his forces into his hands assailed them with such valor prowesse on al sides that in short space he ouercame this wicked traiterous nation Amongst the slain the dead body of this young and euill aduised king was found ouerborn with durt Flor. lib. 4. Theodotus the kings schoolemaster by whose instigation and aduise both Pompey was slaine and this war vndertaken being escaped fled towards Asia for his safety found euen there sufficient instruments both to abridge his iourney shorteÌ„ his life As for the rest of that murdering felowship they ended their liues some here some there in that merciles element the sea and by that boisterous element the wind which though senslesse yet could not suffer them to escape vnpunished Although that Iulius Caesar concerning whom more occasion of speech will be giuen in the 39 chapter did tyranously vsurpe the key of the Romane common-wealth Plutarch intruded himselfe into the Empire against the lawes customs and authority of the people and Senat yet was it accounted a
and hardening himselfe in his sinne that contrariwise he cast downe and humbled himselfe and craued pardon and forgiuenesse at the hand of God with all his heart and true repentance not like to such as grow obstinate in their sinnes and wickednesse and make themselues beleeue all things are lawfull for them although they be neuer so vile and dishonest This therefore that wee haue spoken concerning Dauid is not to place him among the number of leud and wicked liuers but to shew by his chastisements beeing a man after Gods owne heart how odious and displeasant this sinne of Adultery is to the Lord and what punishment all others are to expect that wallow therein since hee spared not him whome he so much loued and fauoured CHAP. XXVI Other examples like vnto the former THe history of the rauishment of Helene registred by so many worthy and excellent authours and the great euils that pursued the same Herodot lib. 2. is not to be counted altogither an idle fable Thucyd. or an inuention of pleasure seeing that it is sure that vpon that occasion great and huge warre arose betweene the Greeians and the Troianes during the which the whole countrey was hauocked many cities and townes destroied much blood shed and thousands of men discomfited amongst whome the rauisher and adulterer himselfe to wit Paris the chiefe moouer of all those miserable tragedies escaped not the edge of the sword no nor that famous citie Troy which entertained and maintained the adulterers within her wals went vnpunished but at last was taken and destroied by fire and sword In which sacking old and gray headed king Priam with all the remnant of his halfe slaine sonnes were togither murdered his wife and daughters were taken prisoners and exposed to the mercy of their enemies his whole kingdome was entirely spoiled and his house quite defaced and well nigh all the Troiane nobilitie extinguished and as touching the whore Helene her selfe whose disloialtie gaue consent to the wicked enterprise of forsaking her husbands house and following a stranger shee was not exempt from punishment for as some writers affirme shee was slaine at the sacke but according to others Anton. Vols vpon Ouids epist of Hermione to Orestes she was at that time spared and entertained againe by Menelaus her husband but after his death shee was banished in her old age and constrained for her last refuge beeing both destitute of reliefe and succour and forsaken of kinsfolkes and friends to flie to Rhodes where at length contrary to her hope shee was put to a shamefull death euen hanging on a tree which shee long time before deserued Tit. Liu. The iniury and dishonour done to Lucrece the wife of Collatinus by Sextus Tarquinius sonne to Superbus the last king of Rome Rape l. 2. c. 19. was cause of much trouble and disquietnesse in the city and elsewhere for first shee not able to endure the great iniury and indignity which was done vnto her pushed forward with anger and despite slue her selfe in the presence of her husband and kinsfolke notwithstanding all their desires and willingnesse to cleare her from all blame with whose death the Romans were so stirred prouoked against Sextus the sonne and Tarquinius the father that they rebelled forthwith and when hee should enter the city shut the gates against him neither would receiue or acknowledge him euer after for their king Whereupon ensued warre abroad and alteration of the state at home for after that time Rome endured no more king to beare rule ouer them but in their roome created two Consuls to be their gouernours which kind of gouernment continued to Iulius Caesars time Thus was Tarquinius the father shamefully deposed from his crowne for the adultery or rather rape of his sonne and Tarquinius the sonne slaine by the Sabians for the robberies and murders which by his fathers aduise he committed amongst them and hee himselfe not long after in the warre which by the Tuscane succours hee renued against Rome to recouer his lost estate Plutarch in the life publick was discomfited with them and slaine in the midst of the rout In the Emperour Valentinianus time the first of that name many women of great account and parentage were for committing adulterie put to death as testifieth Ammianus Marcellinus When Europe after the horrible wasting and great ruines which it suffered by the furious inuasion of Attilia Lib. 28. began to take a litle breath and find some ease behold a new trouble more hurtfull and pernicious than the former came vpon it by meanes of the filthy leachery and lust of the Emperour Valentinianus the third of that name who by reason of his euill bringing vp Procop. and gouernment vnder his mother Placidia being too much subiect to his owne voluptuousnesse and tied to his owne desires dishonoured the wife of Petronius Maximus a Senatour of Rome by forcing her to his pleasure an act indeed that cost him his life and many more beside and that drew after it the finall destruction of the Romane Empire and the horrible besacking and desolation of the city of Rome For the Emperour being thus taken and set on fire with the loue of this woman through the excellent beauty wherewith shee was endued endeauoured first to entice her to his lust by faire allurements and seeing that the bulwarke of her vertuous chastity would not by this meanes be shaken but that all his pursuit was still in vaine hee tried a new course and attempted to get her by deceit and pollicy which to bring about one day setting himselfe to play with her husband Maximus he woon of him his ring which he no sooner had but secretly he sent it to his wife in her husbands name with this commaundement That by that token shee should come presently to the court to do her duty to the Empresse Eudoxia shee seeing her husbands ring doubted nothing but came forthwith as shee was commanded where whilst she was entertained by certaine suborned women whome the Emperour had set on he himselfe commeth in place and discloseth vnto her his whole loue which he said he could no longer represse but must needs satisfie if not by faire meanes at least by force and compulsion and so he constrained her to his lust Her husband aduertised hereof Rape l. 2. c. 19. intended to reuenge this iniury vpon the Emperor with his owne hand but seeing he could not execute his purpose whilst Actius the captain generall of Valentinianus army liued a man greatly reuerenced and feared for his mighty and famous exploits atchieued in the warres against the Burgundians Gothes and Attila he found meanes by suggesting a false accusation of treason against him which made him to be hated and suspected of the Emperour to worke his death After that Actius was thus traiterously and vnworthily slaine the griefe of infinite numbers of people for him in regard of his great vertues and good seruice which he had
least wee fall into the sinne of Saul and Herod 1. Sam 14. Marc. 6. Now what punishments God hath laid vpon periurers these examples that follow shall make knowen vnto vs. Osee the last king of Israel beeing made by Gods iust iudgement for his sinnes subiect and tributary to Salmanazar king of Ashur without regard to the bond wherewith he was bound 2. King 17. and to his faith which he had plighted conspired and entred league with the king of Aegypt against him but hee discouering their seditions and priuie conspiracies assembled his forces spoiled his countrey and bad them warre on all sides laying siege to the chiefe citie of his kingdome after three yeeres tooke it togither with the forsworne king whome he put in close prison and kept very straightly leading him and his whole nation captiue into Assyria to end their daies in misery of which euill as of all others that happened in that warre the disloialty and treason of Osee was the next and chiefest cause Among the beadroll of sinnes which Sedechias the last king of Iuda is noted withall in holy scripture periury is one of the count for notwithstanding hee receiued his kingdome of Nabuchadnezzar and had sworne fealty to him as to his soueraigne yet brake hee his oath in rebelling against him which was the very cause of his destruction 2. Chron. 36. for NabuchadneZZar to be reuenged on his disloialty sent a puissant army against Ierusalem which tooke spoiled and burned it and ouertooke the periurer in his flight and first made him a beholder of the slaughter of his owne children and then had his owne eies bored out and was caried in chaines to Babylon seruing for a spectacle to all posteritie of Gods wondrous iudgements vpon periurers And thus both the kingdomes of Israel and Iuda were for breach and falsifying their oth quite extinguished and razed out Plutarch The greatest deceiuer and most treacherous person one of them that euer Greece saw was Lisander the Lacedemonian a busie body full of cunning subtilty and craft and one that perfourmed the most of his acts of warre more by fraud and stratagemes then by any other meanes this was he that said that when the lyons skin meaning Fortitude would not serue it was needfull then to sue vnto the foxes case meaning subtilty he made so litle reckening of forswearing himselfe that he would often say that children were to be cousened wirh trifles as dice and cockals and old men with othes but by his deceitfull trickes he was occasion of much euill diuers murders but at last this fox making warre against the Thebanes for that they had taken part with the Athenians against him and giuen them succour and meanes for recouering their liberty was taken in the trap and slaine at the foote of their walls Liuie Metius Suffetius Generall of the Albanes procured the Fidenates to enter war against the Romanes contrary to his oth which he had sworne vnto them and being called by the Romans to their succour and placed in an outwing to helpe if need were whilst the rest were fighting he droue away the time in ordering his men and ranging them into squadrons to see which part should haue the best that hee might ioyne himselfe vnto that side But Tullus the Romane king hauing obtained the victory and seeing the cowardise subtilty and treason of this Albane adiudged him to a most straunge and vile death answerable to his fact for as hee had in his bodie a double heart swimming betweene two streames and now ready to go this way now that so was his body dismembred and torne in pieces by foure horses drawing foure contrarie waies to serue for an example to all others to be more faithfull and true obseruers of their othes then he was In old time the Africanes and Carthaginians were generally noted for perfidie and falshood aboue other nations Liâ— Decad. 3. lib. 1. the cause of which bruit was principally that old subtill souldier Anniball an old deceiuer and a notorious periurer who by his crafts and cousenages which hee wrought without religion or feare of God raised vp that euill report This subtill foxe hauing made warre in Italy sixteene yeeres and all that while troubled and vexed the Romanes sore after many victories wastings of countries ruines and sackings of cities and cruell bloodshed was at length ouercome by Scipio in his owne countrey and perceiuing that his countrey men imputed the cause of their fall vnto him and sought to make him odious to the Romanes by laying to his charge the breach of that league which was betwixt them hee fled to Antiochus king of Siria not so much for his own safeties sake as to continue his warre against the Romans which he knew Antiochus to be in hammering because they came so neare vnto his frontiers but hee found his hope frustrate for king Antiochus for the small trust hee affied in him and the daily suspition of his trechery would not commit any charge of his army into his hand although for valiantnesse and prowesse he was second to none in that age It came to passe therefore that assoone as Antiochus was ouerthrowen of the Romanes he was constrained to flie to Prusias king of Bithynia that tooke him into his protection but being as treacherous as himselfe hee soone deuised a meanes to betray him to Quintius the generall of the Romane army which when Anniball vnderstood and seeing that all the passages for euasion were closed vp and that hee could not any way escape hee poisoned himselfe and so miserably ended his treacherous life And thus the deceit which hee practised towards others fell at length vpon his owne pate to his vtter destruction Albeit that periurers and forswearers were to the Aegyptians very odious and abominable as wee said before yet among them there was one Ptolome Iustine who to bereaue his sister Arsinoe of her kingdome stained himselfe with this villanous spot and thereby brought his purpose to passe for pretending and protesting great affection and loue vnto her in the way of mariage for such incestuous mariages were there through a peruerse and damnable custome not vnlawfull and auowing the same by solemne oath before her embassadours did notwithstanding soone make knowen the drift of his intent which was to make himselfe king for being arriued in shew to consummate the marriage at his first approch he caused his nephewes her sonnes which she had by her former husband Lisimachus and were come forth from their mother to giue him entertainment on the way to be slaine yea and least they should escape his hands he pursued them euen to their mothers bosome and there murdered them and after expelling her also from her kingdome caught the crowne raigned tyrant in her roome all which mischiefes hee committed by reason of the faithlesse oth which he had taken and although that in such a case no oth ought to be of force to confirme so
by the Romans after he had made war vpon them six yeares At his returne to Epire he reentred by violence Macedonia tooke many places ouercame the army of king Antigonus that resisted him and had all the whole Realme rendered into his hand Being intreated by Cleominus to make warre vpon Sparta to the end to reinstall him in his kingdome which hee was depriued of forthwith he mustered his forces besieged the city and spoiled and wasted all the whole country Afterwards there being a sedition raised in the city Argos betweene two of the chiefest citizens one of the which sent vnto him for aid hee what issue soeuer was like to ensue whether victorie or vanquishment could not abide in peace from disquieting others and himselfe but must needes goe to take part in that sedition but to his cost euen to his destruction For first in his way hee found an euill-fauoured welcome by an Ambush placed of purpose to interrupt his iourney amongst whom he lost his sonne which mishap nothing dismaied him nor abated any whit of his purpose or courage from pursuing this iourney to Argos though the citizens themselues intreated him to retire and though he had no businesse there saue only to looke ouer the towne being arriued by night finding a gate left open for him to enter by by the means of him that had sent for him to his aid hee put his souldiors in and possessed himselfe of the towne incontinently But the city being aided by Antigonus and the king of Sparta charged and pressed him so sore that he sought meanes to retire out of the same but could not At which time being about ro strike a yoong man of the citie that had done him some hurt his mother being aloft vpon the roofe of an house perceiuing his intent threw downe a tile with both her handes vpon his head and hat him such a knocke vpon the necke through default of his armour that it so brused his ioints that hee fell into a suddaine sound lost his sight his raines falling out of his hand he himselfe tumbling frō his saddle vpō the ground which whē some of the souldiors perceiued they drew him out of the gate there to make an end of the tragedy cut off his head The cruelty of the Ephori was maruellous strange when being vnwilling once to heare the equality of lands and possessions to be named Plutarch which Agis their king for the good of the Common-wealth according to the ancient custome and ordinance of Licurgus sought to restore they rose vp against him cast him in prison and there without any processe or form of law strāgled him to death with his mother grandfather But it cost them very deare for Cleomenes who was ioint king with Agis albeit he had consented to the weauing of that web himselfe to the end hee might raigne alone yet ceased hee not to prosecute reuenge vpon them which hee did not only by his daily vsual practises openly but also priuily for taking them once at auantage being at supper all togither he caused his men to kill thē sodainly as they sat And thus was the good king Agis reuenged But this last murderer which was soullied and polluted with so much blood he went not long vnpunished for his misdeeds for soone after Antigonus king of Macedonia gaue him a great ouerthrow in a battaile wherein hee lost Sparta his chiefe citie and fled into Aegypt for succour where after small abode vpon an accusation laid against him he was cast into prison and though he scaped out with his company by cunning craft yet as he walked vp down Alexandria in armour in hope that through his seditious practises the citizens would take his part helpe to restore him to his liberty when he perceiued it was nothing so but that euery man forsooke him that there was no hope left of recouerie he commanded his men to kill one another as they did In which desperate furie and rage he himselfe was slaine and his body being found was commanded by king Ptolomy to be hanged on a gibbet and his mother wiues and children that came with him into Aegypt to bee put to death And this was the tragicall end of Cleomenes king of Sparta Alexander the tyrant of Pheres neuer ceased to marke spie out al occasions of war against the people of Thessaly Plutarch to the end to bring thē generally in subiectiō vnder his dominiō he was a most bloody cruel minded mā hauing neither regard of reason or iustice in any action In his cruelty he buried some aliue others he clothed in beares bores skins then set dogs at their tailes to rent thē in peeces others he vsed in way of pastime to strike through with darts and arrows And one day as the inhabitāts of a certain city were assembled togither in counsel he caused his guard to inclose thē vp sodainly to kil them all euen to the very infants He slew also his owne vncle and crowned the speare wherewith he did that deed with garlands of flowers and sacrificed vnto him being dead as to a god Now albeit this cruell Tygre was guarded continually with troopes of souldiors that kept night day watch about his body wheresoeuer hee lay and with a most ougly terrible dog vnacquainted with any sauing himselfe his wife and one seruant that gaue him his meat tied to his chāber dore yet could he not escape the euill chance which by his wiues meanes fell vpon him for shee taking away the staires of his chamber let in three of her owne brethren prouided to murder him as they did for finding him asleep one took him fast by the heeles the other by the haire wringing his head behind him and the third thrust him through with his sword shee all this while giuing them light to dispatch their businesse The citizens of Pheres when they had drawn his carcasse about their streets trampled vpon it their bellies full threw it to the dogs to bee deuoured so odious was his very remembrance among them Iugurth son to Manastabal brother to Micipsa Salust king of Numidia by birth a bastard for he was born of a cōcubine yet by nature disposition so valiant full of courage that he was not only beloued of al men but also dearly esteemed of by Micipsa that he adopted him ioint heir with his sons Adhorbal Hiempsal to his crowne kindly admonishing him in way of intreaty to continue the vnion of loue concord without breach betweene them which he promised to performe But Micipsa was no sooner deceased but he by by not content with a portion of the kingdome ambitiously sought for the whole For which cause he found means first to dispatch Hiempsall out of his way by the hands of his guard who in his lodging by night cut his throat and then by battaile hauing vanquished Adherbal his other brother
Heraclius hauing raigned Emperour but one yeere was poisoned by his stepmother Martina Zonoras tom 3. to the end to install her owne sonne Heraclon in the crowne but for this cruell part becomming odious to the Senat they so much hated to haue her or her sonne raigne ouer them that in stead thereof they cut off her tongue and his nose and so banished them the city Fausta the wife of Constantine the Great fell in loue with Constantine her sonne in law begotten vpon a concubine Zonoras 3. Annal. Sex Aur. whom when she could not persuade vnto her lust shee accused vnto the Emperour as a sollicitour of her chastitie for which cause hee was condemned to die but after the truth was knowen Constantinus put her into a hote bath and suffered her not to come forth vntill the heat had choaked her reuenging vpon her head his sonnes death and her owne vnchastitie CHAP. XII Of Subiect Murderers SEing then they that take away their neighbours liues doe not escape vnpunished as by the former examples it appeareth it must needs folow that if they to whom the sword of iustice is committed by God to represse wrongs and chastise vices doe giue ouer themselues to cruelties and to kill and slay those whome they ought in duty to protect and defend must receiue a greater measure of punishment according to the measure and quality of their offence Such an one was Saul the first king of Israel who albeit he ought to haue bene sufficiently instructed out of the law of God in his duty in this behalfe yet was hee so cruell and bloody minded as contrary to all iustice to put to death Abimelech the high priest with fourescore and fiue other priests of the family of his father 1. Sam. 22. onely for receiuing Dauid into his house small or rather no offence And yet not satisfied herewith h◠vomited out his rage also against the whol city of the priests and put to the mercilesse sword both man woman and child without sparing any Hee slew many of the Gibeonites who though they were reliques of the Amorites that first inhabited that lād yet because they were receiued into league of amity by a solemne oth and permitted of long continuance to dwell amongst them should not haue bene awarded as enemies nor handled after so cruell a fashion Thus therefore he tyranizing and playing the butcher amongst his own subiects for which cause his house was called the house of slaughter practising many other foul enormities he was at the last ouercome of the Philistims sore wounded which when he saw fearing to fall aliue into his enemies hands and not finding any of his owne men that would lay their hands vpon him desperately slew himselfe The same day three of his sonnes and they that followed him of his owne houshold were all slaine The Philistims the next day finding his dead body despoiled among the carcasses beheaded it and caried the head in triumph to the temple of their god and hung vp the trunke in disgrace in one of their cities to be seene lookt vpon and pointed at And yet for all this was not the fire of Gods wrath quenched for in king Dauids time there arose a famine that lasted three yeeres the cause whereof was declared by God to be the murder which Saul committed vpon the Gibeonites 2. Sam. 21. wherefore Dauid deliuered Sauls seuen sonnes into the Gibeonites hands that were left who put them to the most shamefull death that is euen to hanging Amongst all the sinnes of king Achab and Iezabel which were many and great 1. King 21. the murder of Naboth standeth in the forefront for though hee had committed no such crime as might any way deserue death yet by the subtill and wicked deuise of Iezabel foolish and credulous consent of Achab and false accusation of the two suborned witnesses he was cruelly stoned to death but his innocent blood was punished first in Achab who not long after the warre which hee made with the king of Siria receiued so deadly a wound that hee died thereof the dogges licking vp his blood in the same place where Naboths blood was licked 2. King 9. according to the foretelling of Elias the Prophet And secondly of Iezabel whome her owne seruants at the commandement of Iehu whome God had made executour of his wrath threw headlong out of an high window vnto the ground so that the walls were died with her blood and the horses trampled her vnder their feet and dogs deuoured her flesh till of all her dainty body there remained nothing sauing only her scull feet and palme of her hands Ioram sonne of Iehosaphat king of Iudah being after his fathers death possessed of the crowne and scepter of Iudah 2. Chron. 21. by and by exalted himselfe in tyranny and put to death sixe of his owne brethren all younger than himselfe with many princes of the realme for which cause God stirred vp the Edomites to rebell the Philistims and Arabians to make war against him who forraged his countrey sacked and spoiled his cities and tooke prisoners his wiues and children the yongest only excepted who afterwards also was murdered when he had raigned king but a small space And lastly as in doing to death his owne brethren hee committed crueltie against his owne bowels so the Lord stroke him with such an incurable disease in his bowels and so perpetuall for it continued two yeeres that his very entrails issued out with torment and so died in horrible misery Albeit that in the former booke we haue already touched the pride and arrogancie of king Alexander the Great yet wee can not pretermit to speake of him in this place his example seruing so fit for the present subiect for although as touching the rest of his life hee was verie well gouerned in his priuat actions as a monarch of his reputation might be yet in his declining age I meane not in yeeres but to deathward he grew exceeding cruell not only towards strangers as the Cosseis whome he destroied to the sucking babe but also to his houshold and familiar friends Insomuch that being become odious to most fewest loued hi◠and diuers wrought all meanes possible to make him away but one especially whose sonne in law and other neare friends he had put to death neuer ceased vntill he both ministred a deadly draught vnto himselfe Iustine whereby he depriued him of his wicked life and a fatall stroke to his wiues and children after his death to the accomplishment of his full reuenge Phalaris the tyrant of Agrigentum made himselfe famous to posterity by no other meanes Oros then horrible cruelties exercised vpon his owne subiects inuenting euery day new kinds of tortures to scourge and afflict the poore soules withall In his dominion there was one Perillus an artificer of his craft one expert in his occupation who to flatter and curry fauour with him deuised a new torment
brother Elydurus in his roome after he had raigned fiue yeares Hardiknitus king of Denmarke The same after the death of Harold was ordained king of England in the yeare of the Lord 1041 this king as he was somewhat cruell for he caused the body of Harold to be taken vp out of the sepulchre and smiting off his head to be cast out into the riuer Thames because he had iniured his mother Emma when he was aliue so hee was burdensome to his subiects in tributes and exaction for which cause growing into hatred with God and his subiects hee was stricken with suddaine death not without suspition of poysoning after he had raigned three years The same William Rufus second sonne of William the conquerour succeeded his father as in the kingdome of England so in disposition of nature for they were both cruell vnconstant and couetous and burdened their people with vnreasonable taxes insomuch that what with the morreine of men by pestilence and the oppressions of them by exactions the tillage of the earth was put off for one yeare being the yeare 1096 whereby ensued great scarsitie the yeare following throughout all the land but for the oppression William was iustly punished by sodaine death when being at his disport of hunting hee was wounded with an arrow glaunsing from the bow of Tyrill a French knight and so his tyranny and life ended togither The same Neither dooth the Lord thus punish oppressors themselues but also they that either countenance or hauing authoritie doe not punish the same as it appeareth by this example following In the yeare of our Lord 475 there liued one Corrannus a king of Scots who though hee gouerned the people in peace and quietnesse a long space and was indeed a good Prince yet because his Chancelour Tomset vsed extortion and exaction amongst his subiects and hee being aduertised thereof did not punish him hee was slaine traiterously by his owne subiects It is not vnworthie to bee noted how Edward the third king of England prospered a long while in the warres against France and got many worthie and wonderfull victories but when Prince Edward sonne vnto the foresaid Edward after conditions of peace concluded began to set taxes and impositions vpoÌ„ the country of Aquitaine then did king Edwards part begin to decline and the successe of war which the space of fortie years neuer forsooke him now frowned vpon him so that he quickly lost all those lands which by composition of peace were granted vnto him CAAP. XXXIX Of such as by force of armes haue either taken away or would haue taken away the goods and lands of other men NOw if they that oppresse their subiects and deuour them in this manner In this whole chapter note the nature of ambition and the fruits thereof bee found guiltie then must they needs bee much more that are carried with the wings of their own hungrie ambitious desire to inuade their lands and signiories attended on with an infinite retinue of pillages sackings ruines of cities and people which are alwaies necessarie companions of furious vnmercifull warre There are no flouds so broad nor mountaines so steepe nor rockes so rough and dangerous nor sea so long and furious that can restraine the rash and headstrong desire of such greedie minded Sacres so that if their bodie might bee proportioned to the square and greatnesse of their mindes with the one hand they would reach the East and with the other hand the West as it is said of Alexander howbeit hereof they boast and glorie no lesse than they that tooke delight to bee surnamed citie-spoilers others burners of cities some conquerors and many Eagles and Faulcons seeking as it were fame by infamy and by vice eternitie But to these men it often coÌ„meth to passe that euen then when they think to aduance their dominion and to stretch their bounds and frontiers furthest they are driuen to recoile for feare of being dispossessed themselues of their owne lands and inheritances and euen as they delt with others rigorously and by strength of weapons so shall they bee themselues rehandled and dealt withall after the same measure according to the word of the Prophet denounced against such as they Cursed bee thou that spoilest and dealest vnfaithfully when thou hast made an end of spoiling others thou thy selfe shall bee spoiled and when thou hast done dealing traiterously then treason shall begin to be practised against thee and this curse most commonly neuer faileth to sease vpon these great Theeues and Robbers or at least vpon their children and successours as by particular examples wee shall see after wee haue first spoken of Adonias who not content with his owne estate of being a kings sonne 1. King 12. which God had allotted him went about to get the crowne and kingdome from his brother Salomon Treason lib. 2. cap. 3. to whome by right it appertained for God had manifested the same by the mouth of his father Dauid but both hee and his assistants for their ouerbold and rash enterprise were iustly by Salomon punished with death â—arod Crassus king of Lidia was the first that made war against Ephesus and that subdued the Greekes of Asia to wit the Phrigians Mysians Chalybeans Paphlagonians Thracians Bythinians Ionians Dorians Aeolians and Pamphilians and made them all tributaries vnto him by meanes whereof hee being growne exceeding rich and puissant by the detriment and vndoing of so many people vaunted and gloried in his greatnesse and power and euen then thought himselfe the happiest man in the world wheÌ„ most misery and aduersity griefe and distresse of his estate and whole house approched neerest for first and formost one of his sonnes that was deare vnto him was by ouersight slaine at the chase of a wild bore next himselfe hauing commenced war with Cirus was ouercome in battaile and besieged in Sardis the chiefe city of his kingdome and at last taken and carried captiue to Cyrus despoiled of all his late glorie and dominion And thus Crassus as sayth Plutarch after Herodotus bore the punishmeÌ„t of the offence of his great grandfather Giges who being but one of king Candanles attendants slew his master and vsurped the crowne at the prouokement of the Queene his mistresse whom he also tooke to be his wife And thus this kingdome decaied by the same meanes by which it first encreased Policrates the Tyrant Herod was one that by violence and tyrannous meanes grew from a base condition to an high estate for being but one of the vulgar sort in the citie Samos hee with the assistance of sifteene armed men seased vpon the whole citie and made himselfe Lord of it which deuiding into three parts he bestowed two of them vpon his two brethren but not for perpetuitie for ere long the third part of his vsurpation cost the elder of them the best part of his life and the younger his liberty for he chased him away that hee might be
thus subdued sued for pardon and release at the conquerours hand but he was so farre from pitying his estate that hee corrupted one Iringus a noble man and Irminfrides subiect to murder his master which he perfourmed kneeling before Theodoricke running him through with his sword at his backe which traiterous deed assoone as it was finished Theodoricke though the setter of it yet hee could not abide the actour but bad him be packing for who could put trust in him that had betraied his owne master At which words Iringus mad with anger and rage ran at Theodoricke also with purpose to haue slaine him too but his hand missing the marke returned his sword into his owne bowels so that he fell downe dead vpon his masters carkasse What more notable and wonderfull iudgement could happen surely it is an example worthy to be written in golden letters to be read and remembred of euery one to teach men allegiance and obedience to their princes and superiors least more sudden destruction than this fall vpon them Tit. Liuius After the death of Ieronimus king of Siracusa Andronodorus and Themistius prouoked by their wiues descending of the blood roiall affected an vsurpation of the crowne and wrought much hurt to the common wealth but their practises being discouered the Pretours by the consent of the Seniours slew them both in the market place as rotten members of their common body and therefore fit to be cut off And when they vnderstood how their wiues Damarata and Harmonia were breeders and incensers of this mischiefe they sent to kill them also yea and Heraclia Harmonia her sister guiltlesse and witlesse of the crime for no other cause but because shee was sister vnto her was pluckt from the altar and slaine in the tumult with two of her daughters that were virgins And thus is treason plagued not only in traitors themselues but also in those that are linked vnto them in friendship and affinity The glory and reputation of Fabritius the Romane is eternized by that noble act of his Cic. offic lib. 9. in sending bound to Pyrrhus a traitour that offered to poison him For albeit that Pyrrhus was a sworne enemy to the Romane Empire and also made warre vpon it yet would not Fabritius treacherously seeke his destruction but sent backe the traitour vnto him to be punished at his discretion What notable treasons did Hadrian the fourth Pope of Rome practise against the Emperor Fredericke Barbarossa yet all was still frustrate for the Lord protected the Emperour and punished the traitour with a sudden and straunge death for he was choked with a fly which went downe his throat and stopped his breath and could by no meanes be pulled out till it made an end of him Besides many others that went abour the same practise were brought to notable destructions as that counterfait foole whome the Italians set on to murder Fredericke in his chamber which had beene perfourmed had he not leaped out of a window into a riuer and so saued his life for the foole being taken was throwne headlong out of the same window and broke his necke As also an Arabian doctor a grand poisoner who going about to infect with poison his bridle his saddle his spurs and stirrops that assoone as hee should but touch them he might be poisoned was discouered and hanged for his labour In the yeere of our Lord 1364 Albert. Crantz when as the Emperour Charles the 4 and Philip duke of Austria were readie to ioine battaile in the field Charles distrusting his owne power vndermined his foe by subtilty on this fashion he sent for three of duke Philips captains priuily perswaded them with promises of rewards to worke some means to terrifie the duke dissuade him from that battell which they performed with all diligence for they told the duke that they had stolne into the Emperors tents by night viewed his power which they found to exceed his by three parts and therefore counselled him not to trie the hazard of the battell but to saue his souldiers liues by flight which if they tarried they were sure to loose Wherewithall the Duke mistrusting no fraud sore affrighted tooke the next occasion of flight returned home with dishonour Now when these three traitours came to the Emperour for their compacted rewards he caused them to be paid in counterfait mony not equiualing the summe of their bargaine by the twentieth part which though at first they discerned not yet afterwards finding how they were cousened they returned to require their due and complaine of their wrong But the Emperor looking sternly vpon them answered That counterfait mony was good enough for their counterfait seruice and that if they tarried long they should haue a due reward of their treason CHAP. III. More examples of the same subiect WHen Manuel the Emperour of Constantinople lay about Antioch with an army prepared against the Turke Otto Frisingensis de rebus Freder prin lib. 1. cap. 47. one of his chiefest officers namely his Chancellour put in practise this notable piece of treason against him he waged three desperate yong men with an infinite summe of mony to kill him on a day appointed and then with a band of souldiers determined to possesse himselfe of the crowne and of the city and to slay all that any way crossed his purpose But the treason being discouered secretly to the Empresse shee acquainted her lord with it who tooke the three traitours and put them all to cruell deaths and as for the Chancellour he first bored out his eyes and plucking his tongue through his throat tormented him to death with a rigorous and most miserable punishment When the Turke besieged Alba Graca certaine souldiors conspired to betray the citie into his hands Bonfiâ—â—us lib 3. Decad. 5. for hee had promised them large rewards so to doe howbeit it succeeded not with them for they were detected and apprehended by Paulus Kynisius gouernour of Hungarie who constrained theÌ„ to eat one anothers flesh seething euery day one to feed the other withall but hee that was last was faine to deuour his owne body Scr bonianus a Captaine of the Romanes in Dalmatia rebelled against the Emperour Claudius Lanquet chron and named himselfe Emperour in the â—rmy but his rebellion was miraculously punished for though the whole army fauoured him verie much yet they could not by any meanes spread their banners or remoue their standerds out of their places as long as hee was called by the name of Emperour with which miracle being mooued they turned their loues into hatred and their liking into loathing so that whome lately they saluted as Emperour him now they murdered as a traitor To rehearse all the English traitors that haue conspired against their kings from the conquest vnto this day Lanquet it is a thing vnnecessarie and almost impossible Howbeit that their destructions may appeare more euidently and the cutse of God vpon traitors bee made
most traiterous and cruell part to massacre kill him in the Senat as he sate in his seat misdoubting no mishap as the sequele of their seuerall ends which were actors in this tragedy did declare Treason lib. 2. cap 3 4. Plutarch for the vengeance of God was so manifestly displaied vpon them that not one of the conspirators escaped but was pursued by sea and land so eagerly till there was not one left of that wicked crâ—e whome reuenge had not ouertaken Cassius being discomfited in the battell of Philippos supposing that Brutus had beene also in the same case vsed the same sword against himselfe a marueilous thing wherwith before he had smitten Caesar Brutus also a few daies after Eutrop. when a fearfull vision had appeared twice vnto him by night vnderstanding therby that his time of life was but short though he had the better of his enemies the day before yet threw himselfe desperately into the greatest danger of the battel for his speedier dispatch but hee was reserued to a more shamefull end for seeing his men slaine before him he retired hastily apart from view of men setting his sword to his breast threw himselfe vpon it piercing him through the body and so ended his life And thus was Caesars death reuenged by Octauius and Anthony who remained conquerours after all that bloodie crew was brought to naught betwixt whome also ere long burst out a most cruell deuision which grew vnto a furious and cruell battaile by sea wherein Anthony was ouercome and sent flying into Aegypt and there taught his owne hands to be his murderers And such was the end of his life who had beene an actor in that pernicious office of the Triumuirship and a causer of the deaths of many men And for asmuch as Cleopatra was the first motiue and setter on of Anthony to this warre it was good reason that shee should partake some of that punishment which they both deserued as she did for being surprised by her enemies to the intent she might not be carried in triumph to Rome she caused an aspe to bite her to death Marke here the pitifull Tragedies that following one another in the necke were so linckt together that drawing and holding ech other they drew with them a world of miseries to a most woful end a most transparent and cleare glasse wherein the visages of Gods heauy iudgements vpon all murderers are apparently deciphered CHAP. VIII Other examples like vnto the former AFter that the Empire of Rome declining after the death of Theodosius was almost at the last cast ready to yeeld vp the ghost Procopius and that Theodorick king of the Gothes had vsurped the dominion of Italy vnder the Emperour Zeno he put to death two great personages Senators chiefe citizens of Rome to wit Simmachus and Boetius onely for secret surmise which he had without probabilty that they two should weaue some slie web for his destruction After which cruell deed as he was one day at supper a fishes head of great bignesse being serued into the table purposing to bee verie merry sodainly the vengeance of God assailed amazed oppressed pursued him so freshly that without intermission or breathing it sent his body a sencelesse trunk into the graue in a most strange maruelous maner for he was conceited as himselfe reported that the fishes head was the head of Simmachus whom hee had but lately slaine which grinned vpon him seemed to face him with an ouerthwart threatning angrie eie wherewith hee was so scarred that forthwith hee rose from the table and was possessed with such an exceeding trembling icie chilnesse that ran through all his ioints that he was constrained to take his chamber go to bed where soone after with griefe fretting displeasure he died He committed also another most cruell and traiterous part vpon Odoacer whom inuiting to a banquet he deceitfully welcommed with a messe of swords in stead of other victuals to kill him withall that hee might sway the Empire alone both of the Gothes and Romans without check It was not without cause that Attila was called the scourge of God Iornand Greg. de Tours for with an army of 500 thousand meÌ„ he wasted and spoiled al fields cities villages that he passed by putting al to fire and sword without shewing mercie to any on this manner hee went spoiling through France and there at one time gaue battaile to the vnited forces of the Romans Vice-Gothes Frenchmen Sarmatians Burgundians Saxons and Almaignes after that he entred Italy tooke by way of force Aquilea sacked and destroied Millan with many other cities and in a word spoiled all the countrie in fine being returned beyond Almaigne hauing married a wife of excellent beautie though he was well wiued before hee died on his marriage night sodainly in his bed for hauing well caroused the day before hee fell into so dead asleepe that lying vpon his backe without respect the blood which was often wont to issue at his nosethrils finding those coÌ„duites stopped by his vpright lying descended into his throat stopped his wind And so that bloody tyrant that had shed the blood of so many people was himselfe by the effusion of his owne blood murdered and stifled to death Ithilbald king of Gothia at the instigation of his wife put to death very vnaduisedly one of the chiefe peeres of his realm after which murder as he sat banquetting one day with his princes enuironed with his guard other attendants hauing his hand in the dish and the meat betweene his fingers one sodainly reached him such a blow with a sword that it cut off his head so that it almost tumbled vpon the table to the great astonishment of all that were present Greg. of Tours lib. 3. histor Sigismund king of Burgundy suffered himselfe to bee caried away with such an extreame passion of choler prouoked by a false and malicious accusation of his second wife that hee caused one of his sonnes which hee had by his former wife to bee strangled in his bed because hee was induced to thinke that hee went about to make himselfe king which deed being blowne abroad Clodomire sonne to Clodoâ—ee and Clotild king of Fraunce and cousin German to Sigismund Refer this properly to lib. 2. cap. 11. came with an armie for to reuenge this cruell and vnnaturall part his mother setting forward and inciting him thereunto in regard of the iniurie which Sigismunds father had done to her father and mother one of whome hee slew and drowned the other As they were readie to ioine battaile Sigismunds souldiours forsooke him so that hee was taken and presently put to death and his sonnes which hee had by his second wife were taken also and carried captiue to Orleance there drowned in a well Thus was the execrable murder of Sigismund his wife punished in their owne children As for Cleodomire though hee went conquerour from this
that had regard and respect vnto those poor wretches took their cause into his hand to quit this prowd prelate with iust reuenge for his outrage committed against thē sending towards him an army of rats mise to lay siege against him with the engines of their teeth on all sides which when this cursed wretch perceiued he remoued into a tower that standeth in the midst of Rhine not far from Bing whether he presumed this host of rats could not pursue him but he was deceiued for they swum ouer Rhine thick threefold got into his tower with such strange fury that in very short space they had consumed him to nothing In memorial wherof this tower was euer after called the tower of rats And this was the tragedy of that bloody archbutcher that compared poor Christian soules to brutish base creatures and therfore became himselfe a prey vnto them as Popiel king of Poleland did before him In whose strange exāples the beams of Gods iustice shine forth after an extraordinary wonderfull maner to the terror feare of all men when by the means of small creatures he made roome for his vengeāce to make entrance vpon these execrable creature murderers notwithstanding al mans deuises impediments of nature for the natiue operation of the elements was restrained frō hindering the passage of them armed inspired with an inuincible supernatural courage to feare neither fire water nor weapon till they had finished his command that sent them And thus in old time did frogs flies grashoppers and lice make warre with Pharoa at the command of him that hath all the world at his beck After this Archbishop in the same ranke of murderers we find registred many Popes of all whome the notorious and markable are these two Innocent the fourth and Boniface the eight who deserued rather to be called Nocents Malefaces than Innocents Boniface for their wicked peruerse liues for as touching the first of them from the time that hee was first installed in the Papacy he alwaies bent his horns against the Emperor Fredericke fought with him with an army not of men but of excommunications cursings as their manner is seeing that all his thundering buls and canons could not preuaile so far as hee desired hee presently sought to bring to passe that by treason which by force he could not for hee so enchanted certain of his houshold seruants with foule bribes and faire words Hieron Marius that when by reason of his short draught the poison which he ministred could not hurt him hee got thē to strangle him to death Moreouer he was chiefe sower of that war betwixt Henry Lantgraue of Thuring whom he created king of the Romans Conrade Fredericks son wherein hee reaped a crop of discomfitures ouerthrows after which he was found slain in his bed his body being full of black marks as if he had ben beaten to death with cudgels Concerning Boniface Baleus after he had by subtle crafty means made his predecessor dismisse himselfe of his Papacy and enthronized himselfe therein hee put him to death in prison and afterward made war vpon the Gibilines and committed much crueltie wherefore also he died mad as we heard before But touching the murderers of Popes and their punishments for the same wee shall see more in the 43 chapter following whether the examples of them are referred that exceeding in all kind of wickednesse cannot bee rightly placed in the treatise of any particular commandement CHAP. XIX Other memorable examples of the same subiect IF wee descend from antiquities to histories of later fresher memory we shall find many things worthy report and credit as that which happened in the year 1405 betwixt two gentlemen of Henault Eguerron de monstr vol. 1. the one of which accused the other for killing a near kinsman of his which the other vtterly and stedfastly denied wheron duke William county of Henault offered thē the cōbat in the city of Quesney to decide the cōtrouersie by when as by law it could not be ended wherevnto they being come hauing broken their speares in two incountred valiantly with their swords at length hee that was charged with indeed guilty of the murder was ouercome of the other and made to confesse with his mouth in opē audience the truth of the fact Wherefore the County adiudged him in the same place to bee beheaded which was speedily executed and the conqueror honourably conducted to his lodging Now albeit this maner of deciding controuersies be not approued of God yet we must not thinke it happened at aladuentures but rather that the issue therof came of the Lord of hosts that by this means gaue place to the execution of his most high soueraign iustice by manifesting the murderer bringing him to that punishmēt which he deserued Eguerron de monstr vol. 1. About this very time there was a most cruel outragious riot practised performed vpō Lewis duke of Orleance brother to Charles the sixt by the complot deuise of Iohn duke of Burgundy who as he was naturally haughty ambitious went about to vsurpe the gouernmēt of the realm of France for that the king by reason of weaknesse of his braine was not able to manage the affairs therof so that great trouble vnciuil wars were growne vp by that occasion in euery corner of the realme As therfore he affected and gaped after the rule so he thought no means dishonest to attain vnto it and therfore his first enterprise was to take out of the way the kings brother who stood betwixt him and home Hauing therfore prouided fit champions for his purpose hee found oportunity one night to cause him to come out of his lodging late by counterfait tokens from the king as if hee had sent for him about some matters of importance and being in the way to S. Pauls hostle where the kings lodging was in Paris the poore prince suspecting nothing was sodainly set vpō with eighteen roisters at once with such fury violence that in very short space they left him dead vpō the pauement by the gate Barbet his braines lying scattered about the street After this detestable and odious act committed and detected the cruell Burgundian was so farre from shaming that he vaunted and boasted at it as if he had atchieued the most valorous and honourable exploit in the world so farre did his impudencie outstretch the bond of reason Neuerthelesse to cast some counterfait colour vpon this rough practise he vsed the conscience and fidelitie of three famous diuines of Paris who openly in publicke assemblies approoued of this murder saying That he had greatly offended if hee had left it vndone About this deuise hee emploied especially M. Iohn Petit a Sorbonist doctor whose rashnes and brasen-facednes was so great as in the counsell house of the king stoutly to auerre that that which was done in the death of
betwixt whome was great strife for the soueraigne dominion but to rid himselfe of all his trouble at once hee slew his brother Manlius by treason and after continued his raigne in tyranny and all vnlawfull lusts the space of twentie yeares but although vengeance all this while wincked yet it slept not for at the end of this space as hee was hunting hee was deuoured of wild beasts In the yeare of our Lord God 745 one Sigebert was authorised king of the Saxons in Brittaine a cruell and tyrannous Prince towards his subiects and one that chaunged the ancient lawes and customes of his realme after his owne pleasure and because a certaine Nobleman somewhat sharpely aduertised him of his euill conditions he malitiously caused him to bee put to death but see how the Lord reuenged this murder hee caused his Nobles to depriue him of his kingly authority and at last as a desolate and forlorne person wandering alone in a wood to bee slaine of a swine-heard whose maister hee being king had wrongfully put to death In the yeare of our Lord 678 Childerich king of Fraunce caused a Nobleman of his Realme called Bolyde to bee bound to a stake and there beaten to death without the pretence of any iust crime or accusation against him for which cruelty his Lords and commons being grieuously offended conspired togither and slew him with his wife as they were in hunting In the raigne of Edward the second and Edward the third Sir Roger Mortimer committed many villanous outrages in sheading much humane blood but hee was also iustlie recompenced in the end first he murdered king Edward the second lying in Barkley castell to the end hee might as it was supposed enioy Isabell his wife with whome hee had very suspitious familiarity Secondly hee caused Edward the third to conclude a dishonourable peace with the Scots by restoring to them all their ancient writings charters and patents whereby the kings of Scotland had bound themselues to be feudaries to the kings of England Thirdly he accused Edmund Earle of Kent vncle to king Edward of treason and caused him vniustly to be put to death And lastly he conspired against the king to worke his destruction for which and diuerse other things that were laid to his charge he was worthely and iustly beheaded In the raigne of Henry the sixt Humfry the good duke of Gloucester faithfull protector of the king by the meanes of certaine malicious persons and especially the Marques of Suffolke as it was suspected was arrested cast into hold strangled to death in the Abbey of Bury for which cause the Marques was not only banished the land for the space of fiue yeares but also banished out of his life for euer for as he sailed towards France he was met withall by a ship of warre and there presently beheaded and the dead corps cast vp at Douer that England wherein hee had committed the crime might be a witnesse of his punishment As the murder of a gentleman in Kent called maister Arden of Feuersham was most execrable so the wonderfull discouerie thereof was exceeding rare this Arden being somewhat aged had to wife a young woman no lesse faire then dishonest who being in loue with one Mosby more then her husband did not onely abuse his bed but also conspired his death with this her companion for togither they hired a notorious ruffian one Blacke Will to strangle him to death with a towell as hee was playing a game at tables which though secretly done yet by her own guiltie conscience and some tokens of blood which appeared in the house was soon discouered and confessed Wherfore she her selfe was burnt at Canterbury Michael maister Ardens man was hanged in chaines at Feuersham Mosby and his sister were hanged in Smithfield Greene another partner in this bloody action was hanged in chaines in the high way against Feuersham And Blacke Will the ruffian after his first escape was apprehended and burnt on a scaffold at Flushing in Zealand And thus all the murderers had their deserued dewes in this life and what they endured in the life to come except they obtaine mercy by true repentance it is easie to iudge CHAP. XI Of Paricides or parent murderers IF all effusion of humane blood bee both horrible to behold and repugnant to nature then is the murdering of parents especially detestable when a man is so possessed with the deuill or transported with a hellish fury that he lifteth vp his hand against his owne naturall father or mother to put thē to death this is so monstrous and inormious an impiety that the greatest Barbarians euer haue had it in detestation wherefore it is also expressely commanded in the law of God that vvhosoeuer smiteth his father or mother in what sort soeuer though not to death Exod. 21. yet he shall die the death If the disobedience vnreuerence and contempt of children towards their parents are by the iust iudgement of God most rigorously punished as hath ben declared before in the first commandement of the second table how much more then when violence is offered aboue all when murder is cōmitted Diodor. Sic. Thus the Aegyptians punished this sin they put the cōmittants vpon a stack of thorns and burnt thē aliue hauing beaten their bodies before hand with sharp reeds made of purpose Solon being demanded why hee appointed no punishment in his lawes for Parricides answered that there was no necessity thinking that the wide world could not affoord so wicked a wretch It is said that Romulus for the same cause ordained no punishment in his Common-wealth for that crime but called euery murderer a Parricide the one being in his opinion a thing execrable and the other impossible And in truth there was not for 600 years space according to Plutarchs report found in Rome any one that had cōmitted this execrable fact The first Parricide that Rome saw was Lucius Ostius after the first Punick war although other writers affirme that M. Malliolus was the first and Lucius the second howsoeuer it was they both vnderwent the punishment of the law Pompeia which enacted that such offendors should be thrust into a sack of lether an ape a cock a viper a dog put in to accōpany them then to be thrown into the water to the end that these beasts being enraged animated one against another might wreke their teene vpon them so depriue thē of life after a strange fashion being debarred of the vse of aire water earth as vnworthy to participate the very elements with their deaths much lesse with their liues which kind of punishmēt was after practised and confirmed by the constitution of Constantine the great And albeit the regard of the punishmēt seemed terrible the offence it self much more monstrous yet since that time there haue ben many so peruerse exceedingly wicked as to throw themselues headlong into that desperat gulfe As Cleodorick son of Sigebert king of
same cup which his predecessors did he was taken in his own snare for Darius vnderstanding his pretence made him drinke vp his owne poyson which he prouided for him and thus murder was reuenged with murder and poyson with poyson Exod. 22.24 according to the decree of the almighty who sayth Eie for eie tooth for tooth c. In the yeare of the world 3659 Morindus a most cruell and bloodie minded Prince raigned here in England who for his cruelties sake came to an vnhappie and bloodie end Stow. for out of the Irish seas came foorth a monster which destroied much people whereof he hearing would of his valiant courage needs fight with it and was deuoured of it so that it may truly here bee said that one monster deuoured another There was as Elianus Elianus reporteth a cruell and pernicious Tyrant who to the end to preuent all practises of conspiracie and treason as Tyrants are euer naturally and vpoâ— desert timorous that might bee deuised against him enacted this law among his subiects that no man should conferre with another either priuately or publickely vpon paine of death and so indeed hee abrogated all ciuill societie for speech as it was the beginning and birth of fellowship so it is the very ioint and glew therof but what cared he for society that respected nothing but his owne safety hee was so far from regarding the common good that when his subiects not daring to speake signified their minds by signes hee prohibited that also and that which is yet more when not daring to speake nor yet make signes they fell to weeping lamenting their misery he came with a band of men euen to restrain their teares too but the multitudes rage being iustly incensed they gaue him such a desperate welcome that neither he nor his fellowes returned one of them aliue And thus his abhominable cruelty came to an end together with his life and that by those meanes which is to be obserued by which hee thought to preserue and maintaine them both Childericus who in the yeare 697 succeeded in the kingdome of Fraunce Theodoricke that for his negligence and sluggish gouernment was deposed and made of a king a Frier exercised barbarous and inhumane cruelty vpon his subiects Michael Rit l b. 1. de regibus Franc. Lib. 2. cap. 46. For hee spared neither noble nor ignoble but mixtly sent them to their graues without respect of cause or iustice One of the noble sort hee caused to bee fastened to a stake and beaten with clubs not to death but to chastisement which monstrous cruelty so incensed the peoples mind against him that there wanted no handes to take part with this clubbeaten man against the tyrant his enemie Wherfore they laid wait for him as hee came one day from hunting and murdered him togither with his wife great with child no man either willing or daring to defend him Tymocrates the king or rather tyrant of the Cyrenians wil giue place to none in this commendation of cruelty for hee â—fflicted his subiects with many and monstrous calamities â—nsomuch that hee spared not the priests of his gods which commonly were in reuerent regard among the Heathen as the bloody death of Menalippus Apolloes Priest did witnesse whome to the end to marry his faire and beautiful wife Aretaphila hee cruelly put to death howbeit it prospered not with him as he desired for the good woman not contented with this sacrilegious contract sought rather meanes to reuenge her first husbands death than to please this new lechers humour Wherefore she assaied by poyson to effect hir wish and when that preuailed not she gaue a young daughter shee had to Leander the tyrants brother to wife who loued her exceedingly but with this condition that hee should by some practise or other worke the death and destruction of his brother Which indeed hee performed for hee so bribed one of the groomes of the tyrants chamber that by his helpe he soone rid wicked Tymocrates out of the way by a speedy deserued death But to abridge these long discourses let vs looke into all times and ages and to the hystories of all countries and nations and we shall find that tyrants haue euer coâ—â— to one destruction or other Diomedes the Thracian king fed his horses with mans flesh as with prouender Plut. in Dion but was made at last prouender for his owne horses himselfe by Hercules Calippus the Athenian that slew Dian his familiar friend and deposed Dionisius the Tyrant and committed many other murders among the people was first banished Rheginum and then liuing in extreame necessity Philip. Melanct. lib. 3. Valemar slaine by Leptines and Polyserchon Clephes the second king of the Lumbardies for his sauadge cruelty towards his subiects was slaughtered by one of his friends Damasippus that massacred so many citizens of Rome was cut off by Silla Ecelinus that plaied the tyrant at Taurisium gelding boies deflouring maides maiming Matrones of their dugs cutting children out of their mothers bellies and killing 1200 Patauians at once that were his friendes Sabel lib. 8. c. 3. was cut short in a battaile In a word if wee read and consult hystories of all countries and times wee shall find seldome or neuer any notorious Tyrant and oppressor of his subiects that came to any good end but euer some notable iudgement or other fell vpon them CHAP. XXIII Of those that are both cruell and disloiall NOw if it bee a thing so vnworthy and euill beseeming a Prince as nothing more to bee stained with the note of cruelty how much more dishonourall is it when with crueltie disloialtie and falshood is coupled and when hee is not ashamed not onely to play the Tyrant but also the traitor dissembler and Hypocrite to the end hee may more freely poure out the fome of his rage against those that put confidence in him This is one of the foulest and vilest blots that can bee wherewith the honour and reputation of a man is not onely stained but blasted and blotted out not euer to bee recouered for what persuasion can one haue of such Or who is so fond as to put affiance in them 2. Sam. 18. This was one of the notorious vices of king Saul when maligning the prosperity of Dauid hee cunningly promoted him to bee generall of his army and married him to one of his daughters to this end that by exposing him to the hazards and perrils of warre hee might bring him to speedy destruction seeking besides other vnlawfull meanes to put him to death by but what was the end of this vniust murderer wee haue declared in the former chapter But aboue all that by Treason and deceit made way vnto their cruelty Herodian the Emperour Antonius surnamed Caracalla was the chiefe who to reuenge himselfe more at full vpon the Citizens of Alexandria in Aegypt faigne as if hee would come see their city built by Alexander and receiue an
Oracle from their God which when hee approched neere vnto the Alexandrians prepared to entertaine him most honourably and being entered hee went first to visite their Temples where to cast more colours vpon his trecherie hee offered many sacrifices and in the meane while perceiuing the people gathered togither from all quarters to bid him welcome finding oportunity fitting his wicked and traiterous enterprise bee gaue commandement that all the young men of the city should assemble together in one place saying that hee would acquaint them to range themselues in battaile after the manner of the Macedonians in honour of king Alexander But whilest they thus assembled together in mirth and brauerie hee making as though hee would bring them in aray by going vp and downe amongst them and holding them in talke his army enclosed them on all sides then withdrawing himselfe with his guard hee gaue the watch-word that they should rush vpon them which was performed with such outrage that the poore credulous people beeing surprised at vnawares were all most cruelly massacred There might you see the most horrible barbarous and incredible butcherie of men that euer was heard of for besides those that were actors in this bloody Tragedy there were others that drew the slaine bodies into great ditches and very often haled in them that were scarse dead yea and sometimes that were altogether aliue which was the cause that diuerse souldiours perished at the same time when those that hauing some strength of life left being haled to the ditch held so fast by the halers that diuerse times both fell in together The blood that was shead at this massacre was so much that the mouth of the riuer Nilus and the sea shore were died with the streames thereof that ran down by smaller riuers into those plaine places Furthermore being desirous to obtaine a victorie ouer the Parthians that hee might get himselfe fame and reputation thereby hee passed not at what rate he bought it He sent therefore Embassadors with letters and presents to the king of Parthia to demand his daughter in marriage though hee neuer entended any such thing and being nonsuted at the first with a deniall yet pursued he his counterfeit purpose with much earnestnesse and with solemne oath protested his singular good affection and loue that he bore vnto her so that in the end the match was condiscended vnto by all parties whereof the Parthian people were not a little glad in hope of so durable a peace which by this marriage was like to be established betwixt thē The king therefore with all his subiects being ready to entertaine this new bridegroome went out with one consent to meet him in the midway their encounter was in a fair plain where the Parthians hauing sent backe their horses being vnarmed and prepared not for a day of battaile but of marriage and disport gaue him the most honourable welcome they could but the wicked varlet finding oportunity so fit set his armed souldiors vpon the naked multitude hewed in peeces the most part of them and had not the king with a few followers bestirred him well he had ben serued with the like sauce After which worthy exploit Treason lib. 2. cap. 3. and bloody stratageme he took his voiage backward burning and spoiling the towns and villages as he went till hee arriued at Charam a city in Mesopotamia where making his abode a while hee had a fancie to walke one day into the fields and going apart from his companie to vnburden nature attended vpon by one onely seruant as hee was putting downe his breeches another of his companie ranne in and stroke him through with his dagger Thus God blessed the world by taking out of it this wicked Tyrant who by treason and trechery had spilt so much innocent blood Seturus Galba another bird of the same feather exercised no lesse perfidious cruelty vpon the people of three cities in Lusitania for he assembled them togither in colour of prouiding for their common affaires but when hee had gotten them into his hands vnarmed and weaponlesse he took nine thousand of the flower of their youth and partly committed them to the sword and partly sold them for bondslaues The disloiall and treacherous dealing of Stilico towards the Gothes how deare it cost him and all Italy beside Iornand Paul Aemil histories doe sufficiently testifie for it fell out that the Gothes vnder the conduct of Allaricus entred Italy with a puissant and fearefull army to know the cause why the Emperour Honorius withheld the pension which by vertue of a league and in recompence of their aid to the Empire in time of war was due vnto them which by riper iudgement and deliberation of the councill was quieted to preserue their countrey from so imminent a tempest Treason lib. 2. cap. 3. offer was made vnto them of the Spaniards and Frenchmen if they could recouer them out of the hands of the Vandales which vsurped ouer them so that incontinently they should take their iourney ouer the Alpes towards them and depart their coasts Which offer and gift the Gothes accepting did accordingly fulfill the condition and passed away without committing any riot or any dammage in their passages But as they were vpon mount Cinis making towards France behold Stilico Honorius his father in law a man of a stirring stubborne and rash spirit pursueth and chargeth them with battaile vnawares and dreaming of nothing lesse whereat they being at the instant amazed quickly gathered their spirits togither and putting themselues in defence fought it out with such courage and eagernesse that the traitours army was wholly discomfited and he himselfe with one of his sonnes slaine The Gothes hauing gotten this victory broke off their voiage to France and turned their course backe againe to Italy with purpose to destroy and spoile And so they did for they laid wast all the countrey of Piemont and Lumbardy and elsewhere and besieged Rome itselfe so that from that time Italy neuer ceased to be scourged and tormented with the Gothes for the space of eighteene yeeres Moreouer whosoeuer else haue bene found to follow the steps of these truce peace promise breakers void of truth and regard of reputation alwaies vnderwent worthy punishment for their vnworthy actes and fell headlong into confusion and ignominy making themselues subiects worthy to be curst detested of all men CHAP. XIIII Of Queenes that were Murderers IF these and such like cruelties as we haue spoken of before be strange and monstrous for men what shall wee then say of wicked and bloody women who contrary to the nature of their sexe addict themselues to all violence and bloodshedding as cursed Iezabel Queene of Israel did of whome sufficient hath beene spoken before Athaliah Achabs daughter and wife to Ioram king of Iuda was a bird of the same feather for shee was possessed with such a spirit of fury and rage 2. King 11. that after the death of her
and consent of parties is committed bee condemned how much more greeuous and hainous is the offence and more guiltie the offendour when with violence the chastity of any is assailed and enforced This was the sinne wherwith Sichem the sonne of Hemor the Leuit is marked in holy scripture for hee rauished Dina Iaacobs daughter Gen. for which cause Simeon and Lui her brethren reuenged the iniury done done vnto their sister vpon the head of not onely him and his father but all the males that were in the citie by putting them to the sword It was a custome among the Spartanes Messenians during the time of peace betwixt them to send yearely to one another certaine of their daughters to celebrate certaine feasts and sacrifices that were amongst them now in continuance of time it chanced that fiftie of the Lacedemonian Virgines being come to those solemne feasts were pursued by the Messenian gallants to haue their pleasures of theÌ„ but they iointly making resistance and fighting for their honesties stroue so long not one yeelding themselues a prey into their hands till they all died wherevpon arose so long miserable a warre that all the countrie of Messena was destroied thereby Aristoclides a Tyrant of Orchomenus a city of Arcadia fell enamoured with a maid of Stymphalis who seeing her father by him slaine because hee seemed to stand in his puâ—poses light fled to the Temple of Diana to take Sanctuarie neither could once bee pluckt from the image of the goddesse vntill her life was taken from her but hir death so incensed the Arcadians that they fell to armes sharpely reuenged her cruell iniury Appius a Romane a man of power and authoritie in the city â—â—us Liuius enflamed with the loue of a Virgin whose father hight Virginius would needs make her his seruant to the end to abuse her the more freely whilst he endeuoured with all his power and pollicie to accomplish his immoderate lust her father slew her with his own hands more willing to prostitute her to death than to so foule an opprobrie and disgrace but euery man prouoked and stirred vp with the wofulnesse of the euent with one consent pursued apprehended and imprisoned the foule lecher who fearing the award of a most shamefull death killed himselfe to preuent a further mischiefe In the yeare of our Lord 1271 vnder the raign of the Emperour Rodolphe Nic. Gil. vol. 1. the Sicilians netled and enraged with the horrible whoredomes adulteries Rapes which the Garrisons that had the gouernment ouer them committed not able to endure any longer their insolent outragious demeanor entred a secret coÌ„mon conspiracy vpon a time appointed for the purpose which was on Easter sunday at the shutting in of the euening to set vpon them with one accord and to murder so many as they could as they did for at that instant they massacred so many throughout the whole island that of all the great multitude there suruiued not one to beare tidings or bewaile the dead At Naples it chaunced in the Kings pallace Bâ—mb lib. 3. hist Venet. as young King Fredericke Ferdinands sonne entered the priuie chamber of the Queene his mother to salute her and the other Ladies of the court that the Prince of Bissenio waighting in the outward chamber for his returne was slaine by one of his owne seruants that suddainely gaue him with his sword three deadly strokes in the presence of many beholders which deed hee confessed that hee had watched three yeares to performe in regard of an iniurie done vnto his sister and in her to him Benzoni Milan of the new found land whome hee rauished against her will The Spaniards that first tooke the Isle Hispaniola were for their whoredomes and Rapes whhich they committed vpon the wiues and Virgins all murdered by the inhabitants The inhabitants of the Prouince Cumana when they saw the beastly outrage of the Spanish nation The same author that lay along their coasts to fish for pearle in forcing and rauishing without difference their women young and old set vpon them vpon a Sunday morning with all their force and slew all that euer they found by the sea coasts Westward till there remained not one aliue And the fury of the rude vnciuill people was so great that they spared not the Monkes in their cloisters but cut their throates as they were mumbling their Masses burnt vp the Spanish houses both religious and priuate burst in peeces their belles drew about their Images hurld downe their crucifixes and cast them in disgrace and contempt ouerthwart their streetes to bee trodden vpon nay they destroyed whatsoeuer belonged vnto them to their very dogges and hennes and their owne Countriemen that serued them in any seruice whether religious or other they spared not they beate the earth and cursed it with bitter curses because it had vpholden such wicked and wretched caitifes Now the report of this massacre was so fearefull and terrible that the Spaniards which were in Cubagna doubted much of their liues also and truly not without great cause for if the Indians of the Continent had beene furnished and prouided with sufficient store of barkes they had passed euen into that Island and had serued them with the same sauce which their fellows were serued with for they wanted not will but hability to doe it And these are the goodly fruits of their adulteries and Rapes which the Spanish nation hath reaped in their new found land The great calamity and ouerthrow which the Lacedemonians endured at Leuctria wherein their chiefest strength and powers were weakened and consumed was a manifest punishment of their inordinate lust committed vpon two Virgines â—i Mel. lib. 2. whome after they had rauished in that very place they cut in peeces and threw them into a pit and when their father came to complaine him of the villanie they made so light account of his words that in stead of redresse he found nothing but reproch and derision so that with griefe hee slew himselfe vpon his daughters sepulchre but how greeuously the Lord reuenged this iniurie hystories doe sufficiently testifie and that Leuctrias calamitie doth beare witnesse Pausan lib. 2. Brias a Grecian captaine being receiued into a Citizens house as a guest forced his wife by violence to his lust but when he was asleepe to reuenge her wrong she put out both his eies and afterward complained to the citizens also who depriued him of his office and cast him out of their city Macrinus the Emperour punished two souldiours that rauished their hostesse on this manner hee shut them vp in an oxes bowels with their heads out and so partly with famishment and partly with wormes and rottennesse they consumed to death Iohan magnus Rodericus king of the Gothes in Spaine forced an Earles daughter to his lust for which cause her father brought against him an army of Sarasens and Moores and not onely slew him
with his sonne but also quite extinguished the Gothicke kingdome in Spaine in this warre and vpon this occasion seuen hundred thousand men perished as hystories record and so a kingdome came to ruine by the peruerse lust of one lecher Anno 714. At the sacking and destruction of Thebes by king Alexander a Thracian captaine which was in the Macedonian army tooke a noble Matron prisoner called Tymoclea whome when by no persuasion of promises he could entise to his lust he constrained by force to yeeld vnto it Plut. in vita Alexand. Sabel lib. 5. c. 6. but this noble minded woman inuented a most witty subtile shift both to rid her selfe out of his hands and to reuenge his iniurie she told him that she knew where a rich treasure lay hid in a deepe pit whether when with greedinesse of the gold he hastened standing vpon the brinke pried and peared into the bottome of it she thrust him with both her hands into the hole and tumbled stones after him that he might neuer find meanes to come forth for which fact she was brought before Alexander to haue iustice who demanding her what she was she answered that Theagenes who led the Thebane army against the Macedonians was her brother Alexander perceiuing the maruellous constancie of the woman and knowing the cause of her accusation to bee vniust manumitted and set her free with her whole family When Cn. Manlius hauing conquered the Gallo-Grecians pitched his army against the Tectosages people of Narbonia towards the Piren mountains amongst other prisoners a very fair womā wife to Orgiagous Regulus was in the custodie of a Centurion that was both lustfull and couetous Liuiu◠lib. 38. This lecher tempted her first with faire persuasions and seeing her vnwilling compelled her with violence to yeeld her body as a slaue to fortune so to infamy and dishonor after which act somewhat to mitigate the wrong he gaue her promise of release and freedome vpon condition of a certaine summe of money and to that purpose sent her seruant that was captiue with her to her friends to puruey the same which hee bringing the Centurion alone with the wronged lady met him at a place appointed and whilest hee weighed the money by her counsaile was murdered of her seruants so she escaping caried to her husband both his money and threw at his feet the villaines head that had spoiled her of her chastitie Andreas king of Hungary hauing vndertaken the voiage into Siria for the recouety of the holy land together with many other kings and Princes committed the charge of his kingdome and family to one Bannebanius Chronica Hungariae a wise and faithfull man who discharged his office as faithfully as hee tooke it willingly vpon him now the Queene had a brother called Gertrude that came to visite and comfort his sister in her husbands absence and by that meanes soiourned with her a long time euen so long till hee fell deadly in loue with Bannebanus lady a faire vertuous woman one that was thought worthie to keepe company with the Queene continually to whome when hee had vnfolded his suit and receiued such stedfast repulse that hee was without all hope of obtaining his desire he began to droupe and pine vntill the Queene his sister perceiuing his disease found this peruerse remedie for the cure thereof shee would often giue him oportunitie of discourse by withdrawing her selfe from them being alone and many times leaue them in secret and dangerous places of purpose that he might haue his will of her but she would neuer consent vnto his lust and therefore at last when hee saw no remedie hee constrained her by force and made her subiect to his will against her will which vile disgracefull indignitie when shee had suffered shee returned home sad and melancholy and when her husband would haue embraced her she fled from him asking him if he would embrace a whore and related vnto him her whole abuse desiring him either to rid her from shame by death or to reuenge her wrong make knowne vnto the world the iniury done vnto her There needed no more spurs to pricke him forward for reuenge he posteth to the court and vpbraiding the Queene with her vngratefull and abhominable trecherie runneth her through with his sword and taking her heart in his hand proclaimeth openly that it was not a deed of inconsideration but of iudgement in recompence of the losse of his wiues chastitie foorthwith hee flieth towards the King his Lord that now was at Constantinople and declaring to him his fact and shewing to him his sword besmeared with his wiues blood submitteth himselfe to his sentence either of death in rigour or pardon in compassion but the good King enquiring the truth of the cause though greeued with the death of his wife yet acquite him of the crime and held him in as much honour and esteeme as euer hee did condemning also his wife as worthy of that which shee had endured for her vnwomanlike and traiterous part A notable example of iustice in him and of punishment in her that forgetting the law of womanhood and modestie made her selfe a baud vnto her brothers lust whose memory as it shall be odious and execrable so his iustice deserueth to be engrauen in marble with caracters of gold Equall to this king in punishing a Rape was Otho the first Albert. Krant lib. 3. for as he passed through Italy with an armie a certaine woman cast her selfe downe at his feet for iustice against a villaine that had spoiled her of her chastitie who deferring the execution of the law till his returne because his hast was great the woman asked who should then put him in mind thereof hee answered This church which thou seest shall be a witnesse betwixt mee and thee that I will then reuenge thy wrong Now when hee had made an end of his warfare in his returne as hee beheld the church hee called to mind the woman and caused her to be fetcht who falling down before him desired now pardon for him whom before she had accused seeing he had now taken her to wife redeemed his iniury with sufficient satisfaction Not so I sweare quoth Otho your compacting shall not infringe or collude the sacred ◠but hee shall die for his former fault and so he caused hi◠be put to death A notable example for them that after they haue committed filthinesse with a maid thinke it no sin but competent amends if they take her in marriage whom they abused before in fornication Nothing inferiour to these in punishing this sin was Gonzaga duke of Ferrara as by this historie following may appear in the yeare 1547 a citizen of Comun Theat histor was cast into prison vpon an accusation of murder whome to deliuer frō the iudgement of death his wife wrought all means possible therefore comming to the captaine that held him prisoner she sued to him for her husbands life
Agathias writing of the manners of the Persians reporteth that certaine Philosophers comming out of Aegypt into Greece where they had seene all manner of vnnaturall mixtures found the carkasse of a man without a sepulchre which when in charity they buried the next day it was found vnburied againe and as they went about to bury it the second time a spirit appeared vnto them and forbad them to doe it saying That it was vnworthy that honour seeing when it liued he had committed incest with his own mother A notable story shewing that the very earth abhorreth this monstrous confusion of nature the truth whereof let it lie vpon the authors credit Most abominable was the incest of Artaxerxes king of Persia Herod lib. 9. for first he tooke to himselfe Aspasia his brother Cyrus concubine hauing ouercome him in warre and afterward gaue the same Aspasia to his owne sonne Darius to wife from whome after carnall knowledge hee tooke her againe committing incest vpon incest and that most vnnaturally but marke how the Lord punished all this first Darius his eldest sonne was put to death for treason then Ochus succeeding in the inheritance slew Arsame another of his brethren and albeit Artaxerxes himselfe died without note of iudgement yet his seed after him was punished for his offence for so miserable a calamitie pursued them all that in the second generation not one was left to sit vpon his throne Now to teach vs how execrable and monstrous this kind of sinne is and how much to be abhorred of all men the example of a poore bruit beast may stand in stead of a lesson for vs it being so worthy of remembrance that I thought meet to make rehearsall of it in this place It is reported by Varro Varro a learned and graue writer whome S. Augustine often commendeth in this booke de ciuitate Dei of a certaine horse which by no meanes could be brought to couer a mare that was his damme vntill by hiding her head Lib. 2. de re rustica cap. 7. they beguiled his senses but after when hee perceiued their guile and knew his damme being vncouered he ran so furiously vpon the keeper with his teeth that incontinently he tore him in pieces Truly a miraculous thing and no doubt diuinely caused to reprooue the enormous and too vnruly lusts of men CHAP. XXXII Of effeminate persons Sodomites and other such like monsters SArdanapalus king of Assyria Frog lib. 1. was so lasciuious and effeminate that to the end to set forth his beauty hee shamed not to paint his face with ointments and to attire his body with the habites and ornaments of women Cic. lib. 5. Tuscul quest and on that manner to sit and lie continually amongst whores with them to commit all manner of filthinesse and villany wherefore being thought vnworthy to beare rule ouer men first Arbaces his lieutenant rebelled then the Medes and Babylonians reuolted and ioyntly made warre vpon him till they vanquished and put him to flight and in his flight he returned to a tower in his pallace which mooued with griefe and despaire he set on fire and was consumed therein Such like was the impudent lasciuiousnes of two vnworthy Emperors Lamprid. Commodus and Heliogabalus who laying aside all Emperiall grauitie shewed themselues oftentimes publikely in womans attire an act as in nature monstrous so very dishonest and ignominious but like as these cursed monsters ranne too much out of frame in their vnbridled lusts and affections so there wanted not many that hastened and emboldened themselues to conspire their destruction as vnworthy in their iudgements to enioy the benefit of this light wherefore to one of them poison was ministred and when that would take no effect strangling came in the roome thereof and brought him to his end the other was slaine in a iakes where hee hid himselfe and his body drawne like carrion through the streets found no better sepulchre but the dunghill Touching those abominable wretches of Sodome and Gomorrah Gen. 19. which gaue themselues ouer with all violence and without all shame and measure to their infamous lusts polluting their bodies with vnnaturall sinnes God sent vpon them an vnnaturall raine not of water but of fire and brimstone to burne and consume them that were so hote and feruent in their cursed vices So that they were quite rooted and raked out of the earth and their cities and habitations destroied yea and the very soile that bore them made desolate and fruitlesse and all this by fire whose smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace yea and in signe of a further curse for to be a witnesse and a marke of this terrible iudgement the earth and face of that countrey continueth still parched and withered and as Iosephus saith whereas before it was a most plentifull and fertile soile and as it were an earthly paradise bedecked with fiue gallant cities now it lyeth desart inhabitable and barren yeelding fruit in shew but such as being touched turneth to cinders In a word the wrath of God is so notoriously and fearefully manifested therein that when the Holy Ghost would strike a terrour into the most wicked hee threatneth them with this like punishment saying The Lord will raine vpon each wicked one Psal 11.6 Fire snares and brimstone for his portion Howbeit this maketh not but that still there are too many such monsters in the world so mightily is it corrupted and depraued neither is it any maruell seeing that diuers bishops of Rome that take vpon them to be Christs vicars and Peters successours are infected with this filthy contagion As namely Pope Iulius the third whose custome was to promote none to Ecclesiasticall liuings saue onely his buggerers amongst whome was one Innocent whome this holy father contrary to the Suffrages of the whole colledge would needs make Cardinall nay the vnsatiable and monstrous lust of this beastly and stinking goat was so extraordinary that hee could not abstaine from many Cardinals themselues Iohn de la Casa a Florentine by birth and by office Archbishop of Beneuento and Deane of his Apostaticall chamber was his Legat and Intelligencer in all the Venetian signiories a man equall or rather worse than himselfe and such a one as whose memory ought to be accursed of all posteritie for that detestable booke which he composed in commendation and praise of Sodomie and was so shamelesse nay rather possessed with some deuilish and vncleane spirit as to divulgate it to the view of the world Here you may see poore soules the holinesse of those whome you so much reuerence and vpon whome you build your beleefe religion you see their braue excellent vertues and of what esteem their lawes and ordinances ought to be amongst you Now touching the end that this holy father made it is declared in the former booke among the rank of Atheists where we placed him And albeit that he such like villains please their
returned aboue ten all the rest beeing either drowned or pined to death Francis Pizare a man of base parentage for in his youth he was but a hogheard and of worse qualities and education Benzoni for he knew not so much as the first elements of learning giuing himselfe to the West Indian warres grew to some credite in bearing office but withall shewed himselfe very disloiall trecherous and bloudy-minded in committing many odious and monstrous cruelties entering Peru with an army of souldiours to the end to conquer new lands and dominions and to glut his vnsatiable couetousnesse with a new surfet of riches after the true Spanish custome hee committed many bloudie and traiterous acts and exercised more than barbarous crueltie for first vnder pretence of friendship faining to parle with Artabaliba King of Cusco the poore king comming with fiue and twenty thousand of vnarmed men in ostentation of his greatnesse not in purpose to resist he welcommed him and his men so nimbly with swords and courtelaxes that they had all soone their throats cut by a most horrible slaughter the king himself was taken put in chains yea and the city after this massacre of men abroad felt soone the insolences of these braue warriors within in fine though Pizarre promised Artabaliba to saue his life in regard of a ransome amounting to more than two Millians of gold yet after the receit thereof hee traiterously caused him to bee hanged contrary to both his oth and all equitie and reason but this cruel perfidie of his weÌ„t not long without punishmeÌ„t for both he and all the rest that were any waies accessary or consenting to the death of this king came to a wretched end but especially his foure brethren Ferdinand Gonzall Iohn Martin of Alcantara and Diego of Almagro who as they were principall in the action so were they in the punishment the first that was punished was Iohn Pizarre who with many other Spaniards was surprised in the citie Cusco and slaine by the men of warre of Mangofrem and Artabaliba next after that there arose such a deuision and heartburning betwixt the Pyzarres and Almagro their partakers that after they had robbed and wasted and shared out the great and rich countrie of Peru they slew one another by mutuall strokes and albeit that there was by common consent an agreement accorded betwixt them for the preseruing of their vnity and friendship yet Francis Pizarre enuying that Almagro should be gouernour of Cusco he not interrupted all their agreâ—ments by starting from his promises and rekindled the halfe quenched fire of war by his own ambitioÌ„ for he presently defied Almagro sent his brother Ferdinand before to bid him battaile who so well behaued himselfe that he tooke Almagro prisoner and deliuered him bound to his brother Francis who caused him to bee strangled in prison secretly and after to be beheaded in publicke now Ferdinand being sent by his brother towards Spaine with a great masse of gold to cleare himselfe of the death of Almagro could not so well iustifie the fact as that all his treasure could saue him froÌ„ the prison what became of him afterwards knowne it is to God but not to the world A while after the fellows and friends of Almagro whose goods the Pizarrists had seazed vpon tooke counsell with Don Diego Almagro his sonne to reuenge the death of his father therefore being in number but twelue with vnsheathed swords they desperately burst into Francis Pizarres house then Marques and gouernor of Peru and at the first brunt slew a captaine that guarded the entrance of the hall and next him Martin of Alcantara with other moe that kept the entrance of the chamber so that hee fell dead euen at his brother the Marquesses feet who albeit his men were all slaine before his eies himselfe left alone amidst his enemies yet gaue not ouer to defend himselfe stoutly and manfully vntill all of them setting vpon him at once he was stabd into the throat so sel dead vpon the ground and thus finished he his coÌ„plices their wretched daies answerable to their cruell deserts but their murderers though they deserued to be thus delt withal yet for dealing in this sort without authority were not faultlesse but receiued the due wages of their furious madnes for Don Diego himself after he had ben a while gouernor of Peru had his army ouercome discoÌ„fited by the Emperors force was betraied into their haÌ„ds by his own lieutenant of Cusco where he thought to haue saued himself right soon lost his head with the greatest captains and fauourits that hee had who were also quartered Now of the fiue brethren wee haue heard foure of their destruction onely one remaineth namely Gonzalle Pyzare to bee spoken of who being sent for by the conquerors to be their chiefetaine and Protector against the Viceroy that went about to make them obserue the Emperours lawes and decrees touching the liberty of the Indian Nation was betraied and forsaken by the same men that sent for him and so fell into his enemies hands that cut off his head the Generall of his army a couetous and cruell man that in short space made away aboue three hundred Spaniards and all as it were with his owne hand was drawne vp and downe at a horse taile the space of halfe a quarter of an houre and then hanged vpon the gallowes and quartered in foure parts The Munke of Vauuard called Vincent who with his crosse porteise had encouraged Pizarre his army against Artabaliba and was for that cause treated bishop of Peru when Diego came to the gouernement fled into the Island Puna to escape his wrath but in seeking to auoid him hee fell into as great a snare for the Islanders assaulted him one night and knockt him to death with staues and clubs togither with fortie Spaniards of his fellowship that accompanied him in his flight and started not from him in his death And thus the good and holy Monke for medling with and setting forward the murder of so many poore people was for his paines and good deeds iustly rewarded by the Indians of that Island Moreouer after beside al these troubles seditions ciuill wars of Peru all they that returned from Spaine suffered shipwrack for the most part for their fleet had scarse attained the midst of their course wheÌ„ there arose so terrible a teÌ„pest that of 18 ships 13 so perished that they were neuer heard of after of the fiue which remained two were tuÌ„bled back to the coast of S. Dominick al berent shiuered in peeces other three were driuen to Spain wherof one hitting against the bay of Portugal lost many of hir meÌ„ the admiral hir selfe of this fleet perished neere vnto S. Lucar de barra meda with two hundred persons that were within her and but one onely of them all got safe into the hauen of Calix without dammage Here we may see how