Selected quad for the lemma: woman_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
woman_n	child_n	conception_n	womb_n	1,398	5	9.5747	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75977	The glory of women: or, A treatise declaring the excellency and preheminence of women above men, which is proved both by scripture, law, reason, and authority, divine, and humane. Written first in Latine by Henricus Cornelius Agrippa Knight, and doctor both of law and physicke. And presented to Margaret Augusta, Queen of the Austrians and Burgundians. And now translated into English, for the vertuous and beautifull female sex of the Commonwealth of England By Edvv. Fleetvvood, Gent.; Declamatio de nobilitate et praecellentia foeminei sexus. English	Agrippa von Nettesheim, Heinrich Cornelius, 1486?-1535.; Fleetwood, Edward.	1652 (1652)	Wing A788; Thomason E655_7; ESTC R205944	27,257	39

the man which Aristotle gives as proper to the Female Sex Wherefore it is I think Salomon saith where there is not a woman the sick languisheth either because by serving assisting she is of wonderful dexterity towards the sick and also full of chearfulnesse or else because womans milke is a remedy to the sick and weak and to them that are next neighbours to death by which they are restored to life Hence Physitians report that the heat of their paps applyed to brests of old men stricken with extream age exciteth increaseth and confirmeth vitall heat in them Which thing David was not ignorant of who chose Abishag the Shunamite maid in his old age to cherish him by her imbracements Moreover woman is more apt then man for that mysterious office of Generation for that she is ripe at 10. years and under but he not many years after And besides it is very well knowne that the woman alone of all fruitfull creatures after she is with child and beginneth to bear in her womb also not long after she is delivered inclineth to the foresaid act again whose vessell is so affected to humane conception that it is said sometimes without lying with a man she hath conceived So that Naturalist hath delivered in those his famous Monuments of learning concerning a woman which conceived of seed that was spent in a Bath To this may be added another wonder of Nature that a woman if being with childe shee have longed as wee say without hurt hath fed on raw flesh raw fish often times upon coales loame stones also hath concocted metalls poysons and many things of this sort and converted them into wholesome nutriment how great miracles besides these mentioned Nature her selfe desireth to produce in women no man will wonder that hath read through the Volumes of Philosophers and Physitians I will lay down one notable example from them which is ready and at hand And that is that the menstruous blood of women besides from quartan Agues freeth them from Hydrophobia being a disease when one is extreamly afraid of water from the Falling Sicknes the Leprosie Bruises Melancholy and Madnesse and other most pernicious Maladies of that kind and many other things no lesse if not more wonderfull it effecteth as that it quencheth great flames of fire allayeth tempests saveth from danger of drowning driveth away whatever is noxious counter-works Witch-crafts and putteth to flight evill spirits Many more things they say which is not my mind at present to urge Yet this I will adde to the rest as a vantage that there is in women according to the traditions of Philosophers and Phisitians which are proved by experiences a divine gift by which they by their own proper helps and benefits are able to heale themselves in every kind of disease without the assistance of any outward means But that which goeth beyond all Miracles being it selfe the greatest Miracle is viz. that Woman alone without man is able to produce humane nature which in no wise is given to man which things even by the Turks and Mahumetans is confessed with whom many are beleeved to have conceived without mansseed whom they cal in their tongue Nefesol●i And Isles are spoken of where women conceive by the blast of wind which thing notwithstanding we will not grant to be true because the Virgin Mary alone I say shee alone without man conceived Christ and brought forth a son of her own proper substance and naturall fruitfulnesse the most blessed Virgin Mary is the true Mother of Christ and he true Christ and the naturall son of the Virgin Mary I say naturall because a man and againe the naturall son of a Virgin in regard the Virgin Mary was not obnoxious to corrupt nature wherefore she neither brought forth with any paine neither was she under the power of man Such was her fruitfulnesse by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit that she did not need the help of man Amongst brute creatures it is manifest that some Females have conceived without Males as the Females of Vultures which is storyed by Origen in his first against Faustus also certaine Mares to have conceived by the West wind blowing Antiquity hath found concerning which these things are sung All with face turn'd 'gainst the West wind do stand And take in aire on rocks so high from Land And often times without conjunction sprung And with coole winds they were begot with young Now what shall I say concerning speech a divine gift by which one thing we chiefly excell beasts which Trismegistus Mercurius esteemed of the same price he esteemed immortality and Hesiod names it the best treasure of man Now is not woman more eloquent of speech then Man more terse and fluent doe not we all of us learn first to speak either from Mothers or Nurses truly Nature it selfe the wise disposer of all matters in this hath wisely provided for women that scarce at any time you shall finde a woman dumb It is a glorious thing then to excel men in that by which men chiefly excel other living creatures But from prophane let us returne to sacred writ as by re-enterance and let us begin the matter from the very fountaines of Religion We know in the first place without doubt that God blessed the Man for the Womans sake which benediction for as much as Man was unworthy he deserved not to have before the woman was created To which is consonant that Proverb of Salomon Who findeth a good Woman findeth a good thing and obtaineth a blessing from the Lord And that of Ecclesiasticus The Husband of a good Woman is blessed and the number of their yeares are doubled and no other man is able in dignity to be compared to him which is worthy to have a good woman For as Ecclesiasticus saith A good Woman is a grace above every grace Therefore Salomon in his Proverbs calleth her the Crowne of a Man and Paul the glory of a Man but glory is defined the consummation and perfection of a thing resting and delighting in its own end which is so compleate in it selfe as that nothing can be added to make its perfection greater The woman therefore is the Consummation Perfection Felicity Benediction and Glory of the Man And as Augustine saith the first society of mankind in this mortality therefore there is a necessity every man should love her and who doth not he is estranged from all vertues and graces nay I will say more even from humanity Hitherto might be referred those Cabalisticall mysteries how Abraham was blessed of God by reason of a woman Sarah the letter H being taken away from the name of the woman and added to the name of the man and he was after called Abraham How Jacob had his blessing by a woman also to wit his mother who got it for him There are many things in holy Writ of this kind but not to be explained in this place

account when Nabal was dead she became one of the wives of David And Bathsheba was a woman of so excellent a forme that David was taken with the love of her and after the death of her Husband did extol her with Queenly dignity before the rest when she was espoused to him Abishag the Shunamite because she was a Virgin most faire therefore was chosen to lye with the King in his extream age to recover his heat Whereupon the King being old did inrich her with the highest honours and after his death she was accounted in the place of Queen Hitherto appertaine those things which we read concerning the wonderful beauty of Queen Vasti and Hester who was yet preferred before her and was more excellent and of a more exceeding fair and comely face We read concerning Judith whose beauty the Lord increased so much as in beholding her men were struck with astonishment We read concerning Susanna which was ravishingly delicate and beautifull We read concerning Job that after his various temptations and his involved miseries besides other things the Lord gave to him three most fair daughters more gracious then the three Graces fairer then whom there was not any in the whole earth found out If we read the history of holy Virgins truely wee cannot but admire their wonderfull beauty and specious form before other children of men But above all both far and near as the immaculate Princesse of all shines forth the blessed Virgin Mary Mother of Christ at whose beauty the Sun and Moon stands amazed from whose glorious countenance such a lustre of chastity and holinesse floweth as that it was able to dazle the minds of all men no man for all that at any time through the temptation and inticements of so stupendious a beauty falling in the least thought These although more largely set downe in the holy Bible where so often mention is made concerning beauty I have related almost in the very words themselves by which we are given plainly to understand that the beauty of women not onely with men but with God is esteemed and hath its honour Therefore we read in holy Writ that God commanded every male child to be slaine but the fair women to be saved alive In Deuteronomy the children of Israel were permitted to chuse themselves Wives out of the fair women captives Besides this admired beauty also the woman is endowed with a certaine grace of comelinesse which happeneth not unto men For the hairs of women grow to such a length as that they may cover those parts of the body wherein there is lesse comelinesse Of which parts it is not necessary at this time I should treat Onely this I shall say that in wonderfull decency Nature hath ordained these in women being not prominent as in men but biding within in a more secret and sure place Furthermore Nature hath afforded women more modesty then men Wherefore often times it happens that women being diseased with the dangerous Ulcer in the secrets they have rather chosen death then to submit themselves to the sight and handling of a Chirurgeon that they might be healed And they retaine this grace of modesty not onely living but dying yea and also dead which appeareth cheifly in those which perish in waters For as Pliny writeth and experience testifieth the woman lyeth with her face downwards nature sparing the modesty of the dead but the man swimmeth with his face upwards To these may be added the worthiest member in man by which we differ chiefly from bruits and shew forth the divine nature is the head in which head the chiefest part is the countenance the head in men is deformed with baldnesse the woman contrariwise by a great priviledge of Nature waxeth not bald The countenance moreover in men is often times so soiled with a most odious beard and covered with nasty haires that they can scarcely be discerned from beasts in woman contrarywise the face alwayes abides pure and comely Hence there was in the law of the twelve tables that women should not shave their cheeks least when a beard should bud forth their modesty might be hid and it is to all for an argument of the cleanlinesse of women that when a woman is once cleanly washed as often as she washeth afterwards in cleane water the water receiveth not the least foulnesse but man when he hath been washed often times very clean he muddieth and soileth the water Moreover by the ordinance of nature women through secret places every moneth expell their superfluities but mens are continually expelled through the face the most comely part of the body Furthermore since amongst all other living creatures it is given only to man to look with the countenance erect towards heaven Nature and Fortune have respected woman cheifly in this and are so propitious that if by chance she falls she almost alwayes falls upon her backe and seldome or never on her head or face There is another thing which we may not omit Do not we see that in the procreation of mankind nature preferreth women before men which is cheifly perspicuous because the womans seed alone as Galen and Avicen say that is the matter and nutriment of the child not the mans because it entreth into the woman as an accident into the substance For as the law saith that is the greatest and cheifest office of women to conceive and to nourish the thing conceived for which cause we see that many are like their mothers because they are procreated of the blood of them and that holds also very much in the habit of the body alwayes in the manners if the mothers be foolish also the sons are foolish if the mothers be prudent the sons are prudent But contrary wise in fathers if they be wise for the most part they beget foolish children and foolish fathers wise children provided alwayes the mothers be wise Neither is there any other reason why Mothers love their children more then Fathers except that because the mothers are sensible they have more of their owne substance then the fathers for the same cause also I think it is naturall to us to be more affected towards the mother then towards the father so as we seem but to affect the father but passionately to love the mother And therfore nature affordeth to women milk of such a strength which doth not only nourish infants but also restore them being sicke which also when they are grown up may suffice for saving of life The experiment we read in Valerius Max. concerning a young maid of the common people which by suckling nourished her mother in Prison when otherwise she was condemned to have perished with hunger for which piety of hers life was not only given to the mother but a settled maintenance to both and the prison was afterward dedicated to the goddesse Piety For it is most commonly seen that the woman is more full of compassion and piety then

shine bright continually to this day but least any should doubt that women are not able to doe all those things appertaining to men let us run over the matter by examples and wee shall finde there is no famous action in any kind of Vertues performed by men which may not as excellently be done by women Melissae Cybeles in times past were famous for the Priesthood from whose name other goddesses Priests afterward were called Melissae Hypecaustria was the Priest of Minerva Mera of Venus Iphigenia of Diana and women were the Priests of Bacchus famous by many names as Thyades Maenades Bacchae Eliades Mimalonides Aedonides Euhyades Bassarides Triaterides with the Jewes Mary the sister of Moses together with Aaron did enter the Sanctuary and was accounted as a Priest In our Religion although the office of Priest-hood be forbidden women we know notwithstanding that Histories declare that women sometimes concealing their Sex have ascended to the top of the High Priests office So many there have beene most holy Abbesses and Nuns whom antiquity was not ashamed to call Priests Famous in prophecy with Nations of all Religions Cassandra Sybillae Mary the sister to Moses Debora Holda Anna Elizabeth the foure daughters of Philip and many other holy women of later days as Brigida Hildegardis have been Furthermore in Magicke whether by the familiarity and acquaintance of good or evill spirits I dispute not Circes before the rest and Medea did far more wonderful things then even Zoroastes himselfe although the Inventor of this Art as hee is beleeved by many Againe In Philosophy there is famous Theano the wife of Pythagoras and his daughter Dama famous for expounding the darke sentences of her father also Aspasia and Diotima the Schollars of Socrates and Mantinea and Philesia Axiochia both the Shollars of Plato To conclude Plotinus extolleth Gemina and hee praiseth Amphiclea and Lactantius Themistis The Roman Church rejoyceth in her Katharine which maide alone did farre excell all the learning of wise men in that age Neither may we forget in this place Zenobia the Queen and Schollar of Longinus the Philosopher who for her abundant and excellent skill of letters obtained the name of Ephinissa whose holy workes Nicomachus hath turned into the Greek tongue Let us proceed to Oratory and Poetry behold Armesia by sirname Androgenea Hortensia Lucrea Valeria Capiola Sappho Corinna Cornificia Romana and Erimna Telia or Telbia which were named Epigrammatists in Salust Sempronia and Calphurnia among the Lawyers yea except it had been forbidden women to learn letters in these days even now as yet might be had women of most famous learning more excellent in wit then men But wherefore do I speake concerning this because women by nature it selfe alone without doubt seem to excell Artificers in all Disciplines do not Grammarians boast themselves to be Masters of Well-speaking and do we not learn that better from Nurses and Mothers then from Grammarians hath not Mother Cornelia framed the most eloquent tongue of the Gracchi and the mother of Istrinus taught Sylem the son of Aripithus the King of Scythia the Greek tongue did not alwayes children born in Colonies brought in with strange Nations hold the speech of their mothers Not for any other cause Plato and Quintilian carefully gave Order concerning chusing a fit Nurse for children that their speech might be rightly and discreetly formed by the tongue of the child And are not also Poets in their Trifles and Fables and Logicians in their Notionall contentions overcome by women There is not an Orator so good or so happy but the perswasion of a light Huswife will overcome him What Arithmetician by casting up falsely can deceive a woman of her due benevolence What Musician can equall a woman by singing and pleasantnesse of voice Philosophers Mathematicians Astrologers are they not in their Divinations and Prognostications oftentimes inferiour to plaine Country women and often an old woman excells a Physitian Socrates himselfe the wisest of all men if credit may be given to the testimony of Pythius and mature in judgement yet disdained not to learn something of the Lady Aspasia So neither was Apollos the divine ashamed to be instructed by Priscilla Now if Prudence be required Opis related amongst the goddesses Plotina the wife of Trajanus Amalasuntha the Queen of the Ostrogoths Aemilia the wife of Scipio are examples to whom may be added Debora a most Prudent woman the wife of Labidoth who alone as may bee read in the Booke of Judges some time judged over the people of Israel and the children of Israel went up to her for every Judgement who also was chosen Captaine of the Host of Israel when Barach did refuse to fight and wone the Field her Enemies being slaine and put to flight Furthermore It is read in the History of the Kings that Attalia the Queen Reigned and Judged seven yeares in Jerusalem and Semiramis after the death of Ninus the King judged the People Forty yeares and all the Candaces Queens of Aethiopia Reigned being most wise and potent concerning whom mention is made in the Acts of the Apostles Josephus that faithfull Writer of Antiquities telleth wonderfull things of them Adde hereunto Nicaula the Queene of Sheba who coming from the uttermost ends of the Earth to heare the Wisdome of Salomon by the testimony of the Lord condemned all the men of Jerusalem And also there was one Technites a most wise woman which staggered K. David with an Interrogation taught him by a riddle appeased him by an Example of God Neither here again is to be passed by in silence Abigal and Bathsheba the one of which freed her Husband from the anger of David The other the Mother of Salomon prudently obtained the Kingdom for her Son Furthermore in the invention of matters Isis Minerva Nycostrata are examples And in modelling Governments and Cities Semiramis holding the Monarchy of the whole World Dido and the Amazones In Wars Thomiris Queene of the Massagetans which conquered Cyrus the Monarch of the Persians Also Camilla of the Nation of the Volscians Valisca of Bohemia both mighty Queens and Pande of the Indians the Amazones Candaces Lemnenses and the Phocians Chians and Persian woman Wee read of many other most famous women which restored safety to their Nation in the highest despaire thereof amongst whom is Judith whom Jeremy extolleth in these words saying Receive ye Judith the widow an example of chastity with triumph perpetuate her never-dying memory with praises he giveth her out not only to be imitated by women but by men because being an example rewarder of chastity such were her vertues that she overcame the invincible and excelled the most excellent We read also that a certain wise woman called to Joab and gave into his hands the head of Siba the enemy of David that he might save the City Abela which was the Mother of Cities in Israel And that a certain woman cast a peece of Mil-stone

and dasht out the brains of Abimelech being the rod of divine vengeance upon him because he had done evill before the Lord against his owne Father his seventy brethren being slaine by him upon one stone So Hester the wife of King Ahasuerus not onely freed her People from a certaine death but also inriched them with great Honour When the Roman City was besiedged by the Volscians Cneus Martius Coriolanus being Captaine and the men were not able to defend it by their Armes Veturia a woman of noble birth and the Mother of Coriolanus saved it by the chiding of her Sonne Arthemisia defeated the Rhodians of their Army rising up against her brought the Isle into subjection and erected a Statue in the City of Rhodes for a Monument of her noble acts Who can sufficiently praise that most noble Maide although of mean discent who in the year of Christians One thousand four hundred twenty eight the Kingdom of France being possessed by the English taking Armes like an Amazon led the Army so stoutly and fought so happily that she did restore the lost Kingdom to the King of France the English being overcome by many Battells to whose perpetuall memory a Statue is erected at the Towne Genabum which is now called Orleans on the Bridge which is over the river Ligur I could reckon up besides these others innumerable most excellent women of the Greeks Latines Barbarians as well from old as moderne Histories But I will study brevity least the worke should swel too big For Plutarch Valerius Bocatius and many others have writ concerning them Hence it is that I have not spoken so many things of the praises of women as I have kept silent Because I am not so ambitious that I should presume that I am able to comprehend the infinite Excellencies and Vertues of women in so small a speech Who can be sufficient to enumerate the infinite praises of women on whom all our being and the whole conservation of man-kinde which otherwise in short time would perish and every Family and Common-wealth dependeth Which thing Romes Builder understood very well who whilst he wanted women doubted not to ravish the daughters of the Sabins and in defence of the Rape made War with their Fathers for hee knew that an Empire of men alone would be but of a short age At length the Capitoll being taken by the Sabins when they had fought most bloodily together in the middest of the Market-place at the running in of women between the two Armies the War ceased and at length a Peace and League was made and they entered into a perpetuall Friendship wherefore Romulus put the names of them upon the family of the Curii and by consent of the Romans it was set down in publick Records that women should neither grind nor play the Cook That women should be forbid to receive any thing from the Husband by gift and the Husband to receive any thing by gift from the Wife that they might know that all good things were common Hence arose the custom that in their marriages the wife should be brought in saying ubi tu ego denoting wher thou art Master I am Mistris where thou art Lord I am Lady Afterwards when the Bands of the Volscians pitched their Camp within five miles of the City when their Kings being expelled Coriolanus Martius was Captain they were turned back by women In honour of which exploit a famous Temple was dedicated to Womens Fortune Yea notable ensignes of great honour and dignity were given to them by Decree of the Senate So it comes about that they take the upper-hand in the way and men rise up and give them place Furthermore Purple garments with gold Lace Ornaments of Gems Earings Golden-Chains are allowed them for it was provided by the Lawes of following Emperours as often times as there were Statutes made which prohibited certaine Garments and Ornaments that womens Garments should not be comprehended under them they were also rewarded with successions of inheritances and possessions and it was permitted by the Lawes to celebrate with publick praises the Funeralls of Women as the Funeralls of famous Men in regard that when the present was to be sent to Delphian Apollo by the desire of Camillus and so much gold could not be had the women brought the Ornaments of their bodies of their own accord towards it Furthermore In that War with Cyrus carried on against Astyages the Army of the Persians being turned to flight it was by the reprehension of women made ashamed and brought againe into a good posture of defence and gave to their enemies a notable overthrow for which deed it was determined by the Lawes of Cyrus that the Kings of Persia as they enter the City should give to each woman some summes of gold which Macedo twice entering the City twice payed Moreover hee commanded the gift should be doubled to women with childe So women were presented with every kind of honour by the ancient Kings of the Persians and Romans from the cradles as I may say of the Roman City and Empire yea and not lesse honoured by the Emperours themselves Hence Justinianus the Emperor did think fit that the advice and counsel of his Wife should be taken in making Laws And elsewhere the Law saith because the Wife shineth in the honour of the Husband that he might take notice of her splendor as in how much the Husband is exalted so much is the Wife So the Wife of an Emperour is called an Emperesse and the Wife of a King a Queen and the Wife of a Prince a Princesse and illustrious howsoever she was borne And Vlpianus saith a Prince or Emperour is freed from and above Lawes but Augusta which is the Wife of an Emperour although she be not free from the Lawes by her selfe notwithstanding the Prince or Emperour brings the same Priviledges to her as he hath himselfe Hence it is that famous women are permitted to judge and to arbitrate and that they might be capable to investe into Fee-Farme Land and of being invested and to determine what right vassalls have And it appertaineth to the same thing that women may have particular Servants as the man hath and the woman is able to judge amongst strangers she is also of power to put a name upon a family so that Sons might be denominated from their Mother not from their Father they have also great Priviledges concerning Dowries here and there exprest in divers parts of the body of the Lawes where also provision was made that women of honest life and fame ought not to be imprisoned for civill debtes yea that Judge was punished with death which should put her in prison But if she were suspected of a fault she was thrust into a Monastery or was delivered to the custody of women to be secured because by the testimony of the Law the woman is in better condition then the man as also in the same kind of offence the man

because she got Jacob the blessing of his Father by deceit and afterwards warnes him to fly his brothers wrath And Rhaab the Harlot did deceive those that sought the Spies of Joshua and it was accounted to her for rightèousnesse Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him enter in O my Lord and she gave to him requiring water a bottle of milke to drinke and covered him lying down and Sisera sleeping she entered in unto him and drove a naile into his head and slew him who had trusted himself with her for safety and for this notorious betraying she was blessed among women in her tabernacle Read the History of Judith and note her words to Holefernes she saith Take the words of thy handmaid because if thou wilt follow them the Lord will keep thee safe saying I will tell to thee all things so that I may lead thee thorow the midst of Jerusalem and thou shalt leade the people of Israel as sheep without a shepherd and not one dog shall barke against thee because these things are spoken to me by the providence of God And Holofernes lulled a sleep with her flatteries shee strucke into the neck and cut off his head I pray you what more wicked counsel what crueller treacheries what more capitall treasons can be invented And yet this woman therefore was praised and magnified so then the wickednesse of woman is higher reputed then mans well doing Did not Cain do well in offering the first of the fruites of the earth for a sacrifice and yet for that very thing he was rejected of God And did not Esau do well while in a pious obedience he hunted after Venison for his decrepit father and in the meane time he was defrauded of the blessing and hated of God Vzzah for his zeale to Religion holding up the Arke sliding and almost fallen downe was struck down with sudden death King Saul for sparing the fat beasts of the Amalakites although for a sacrifice to the Lord was deprived of his Kingdome and delivered up to an evill spirit The daughters of Lot were excused from the incest with their father but their drunken father was not excused and his posterity was cast out from the Church of God Incestuous Tamar was defended and called more just then the Patriark Judah and notwithstanding that fraudulent Incest was thought worthy to propagate that line of which our Saviour should afterwards be borne Goe now yee stout and valiant men go yee great Schollars that have Pallas and the Muses most propitious to you goe I say by as many examples which all your Poetical helps are too few for prove the contrary opinion namely that the wickednesse of a man is better then a womans well doing Sure I am you cannot be able to defend that except you run to blind Allegories where also the authority of woman shall be equall at least with that of man But let us returne even this may be a most evident Argument to all of the excellence of so happy a Sex because the purest of them the most blessed Virgin Mary was conceived as some divines affirm without originall sin This is a strong Argument of Aristotle the best of which kinde is more noble then the best of the other kind that kind is more noble then the other In the Female kind the best is the Virgin Mary in the Male kind there hath not risen a greater then John Baptist but how much the blessed Virgin which is exalted above all the companies of Angels excelleth John Baptist no sound Christian can be ignorant of In like manner on the contrary wee may argue the worst of which kind is worse then the worst of the other that kinde is inferiour to the other But we read of some men worse then the worst of women We will not here dispute whither he might bee Judas that betrayed Christ concerning whom Christ saith It had been better for that man he had not been borne or Antichrist in whom the whole power of Satan dwelleth Furthermore the Scriptures declare many men to be condemned to eternal torments when no woman at any time condemned may be read of to this may be added in way of testimony a prerogative of brutish nature because the Eagle which is Queen of all Birds always of the Female never of the Male is found it is said that there is but one only Phaenix and that a Female which is in Egypt But on the contrary of the Serpent which hath its name from King I mean the Basiliske the most poysonous of all venemous creatures there is none except a Male which is impossible to be gendered a Female Furthermore the excellency vertue and innocency of this Sex even by these Arguments aboundantly sufficient may be shewed because the rising of all evills is of man none of the woman because the first formed Adam hee durst transgresse the Law of the Lord he hath locked the gates of Heaven and hath rendred us all liable to sin and death for we all have sinned and dyed in Adam not in Eve In like manner the first begotten of him hath unlocked the gates of Hell he was the first Envyer the first Man-slayer the first Parricide the first despairing of the mercie of God the first that had two Wives Lamech the first drunkard Noah the first discoverer of the nakednesse of his father the son of Noah Ham the first Tyrant and Idolater Nimrod Man first committed adultery man was first incestuous men first made covenants with devills and found out prophane arts the sons of Jacob first sold their brethren Pharaoh the Aegyptian first killed children men first lascivious against nature Sodome and Gomorrah in times past famous Cities being witnesses which for the wickednesse of men perished We read of some men having two Wives for their goatish pleasure some more such were Lamech Abraham Jacob Esau Joseph Moses Sampson Helcana Saul David Salomon Assur Roboham Abia Caleph Ahasuerus and innumerable others which had each of them many Wives and Concubines neither content with the use of them to fill their lusts they have mingled themselves with their hand-maides also But on the contrary we finde that no woman except onely Bathsheba but hath been contented with one man alone neither shalt thou find any that had two husbands if they had Off-spring of the first for women are much more continent by reason of their shamefacednesse and modesty then men who because they have known themselves unfruitfull we read that they have abstained from lying with men and to have brought into their Husbands strange women as Sarab Rachel Lea and many others unfruitful which have brought in their handmaids to raise up posterity to their husbands But what man I pray you how old soever cold barren and unfit for women is of such goodnesse towards his wife or at any time of that charity that they will appoint some in their places which might bedew the fertile

womb of the Wife with fruitfull seed although we read that Lycurgus and Solon established lawes of this sort in times past as if any old man and unfit for marriage or lesse active then is required for the service of Venus had married a Maid that it might bee lawfull to the wife to chuse one of the young-men approved for his strength and activity with whom she might sweetly sport and dally provided always that the issue might be her Husbands neither was it lawfull for any to account such issue adulterous or mis-begotten we read of them not kept not so much by the rigidnesse of men as by the continency of women refusing them There are innumerable most famous women who in modesty conjugal love have excelled all men such as Abigal the wife of Nabal Artemisia of Mausolus Argia the wife of Polinices the Theban Julia of Pompeius Portia of Cato Cornelia of Gracchus Messalina of Sulpitius Alceste of Admetus Hypsicratea of Mithridates the Pontic King Dido the builder of Carthage the Roman Lucretia and Sulpitia of Lentulus there are infinite others whose immoveable Virginity and chastity could not be changed by death examples of which offer themselves Atlanta Calidonia Camilla Volsca Iphigenia a Greek Cassandra and Crise to these may be added the Lacedaemonian Spartan Milesian and Theban Virgins and innumerable others which the histories of Hebrewes Greekes and Barbarians number to us who made Virginity of more account then Kingdomes yea then life it selfe if now examples of piety be required amongst others these offer themselves Claudia a Vestal Virgine towards her father and that mean Plebeian Maid concerning whose pious affection to her Mother we have spoken of before But some Zoilus wil object against these that there have bin destructive marriages which have made direful Tragedies as those of Sampson Jason Deiphobus Agamemnon which if any wil see into with Lynceus eyes he shall find that wives are falsely accused none of which at any time have proved bad to a good Husband for there were never ill Wives but to ill Husbands to whom although they should prove good oftentimes they are corrupted with the vices of their husbands Doe not you think if it might be lawfull for women to make Lawes write Histories but that they could write Tragedies concerning the unmeasurable malice of men amongst whom many are found Manslayers Theeves Ravishers Forgers Incendiaries traytors which in the time of Joshua and David the King did rob in so great multitudes that they did appoint Princes of their companies yea also in these dayes there is an infinite number of them Hence all Prisons are filled with men on every hand all places are burthened with the carkasses of men But on the other side women have been the inventors of all liberall Arts of every Grace and Vertue which the feminine names of Arts and Vertues clearly manifest To which I will adde that notable thing that the Orbe of the earth is named from the names of women to wit from Asia the Nymph from Europa the daughter of Agenor from Lybia the daughter of Epaphus which is also called Africa To conclude if a survey be made through the singular kinds of vertues women every where obtaine the principall place It was a woman the Virgin Mary her self which first vowed virginity to God women Prophetesses were alwaies inspired with diviner gifts then men which is noted concerning the Sybils as Lactantius Eusebius and Augustine testifie So Mary the sister of Moses was a Prophetesse and Jeremiah being in prison the wife of his Uncle by name Olda was raised up to be a Prophetesse to the perishing people of Israel greater then all the Prophets they then had Let us search the holy Scriptures and we shall see the constancy of women in faith and holy duties commended far above men as Judith Ruth Hester which are mentioned with so much glory that they give names to bookes in holy Scripture Abraham himselfe who for his eminency of faith the Scripture hath called just because he beleeved God notwithstanding he must submit to his wife Sarah and by the voyce of God is commanded All things whatsoever Sarah saith heare her voyce So Rebecca firmly beleeving proceedeth to aske of God and for an answer she heareth a miracle Two Nations are in thy wombe and two people shall be divided from thy belly And the widdow of Sarepta beleeved Eliah although he did tel her a difficult thing So Zacharias reproved of the Angell for incredulity was dumb and Elizabeth his wife prophesied in voyce and wombe and is commended because she beleeved faithfully who afterwards commendeth the blessed Virgin saying Blessed art thou which beleevest what things are said to thee of the Lord So Anna the Prophetesse did confesse God after the revelation of Simeon and did speake concerning him to all willing to heare who did expect the redemption of Israel and Philip had foure Daughters Virgin Prophetesses What shall I say concerning that woman of Samaria with whom Christ did speak at the Well and filled with faith of her beleeving he refused the food offered him by the Apostles See the faith of the woman of Canaan and of the woman which had the issue of blood is not the faith and confession of Martha like the confession of Peter Yea how much constancy of faith was in Mary Magdalen is noted to us out of the Gospels for she while the High Priests and Jewes crucifie weepeth at the crosse carrieth oyntments seeketh in the Tomb asketh the Gardiner re-acknowledgeth God goeth to the Apostles and tells that he is risen they doubt she beleeveth What againe shall I say of Priscilla a most holy woman who instructed Apollos an Apostolicall man most learned in the Law the Bishop of the Corinthians neither was it an unseemly thing for an Apostle to learne of a woman which could teach in the Church Adde moreover those which have testified the constancy of their faith by patience in Martyrdome by contempt of death whose number is no lesse then mens Neither is to be past by with silence that wonderfull mother and worthy of the memory of all good men who seeing her seven sons perishing by cruel martyrdom was not only of good courage but also strongly did exhort to put them to death she her self trusting in the Lord in al conditions after her sons was also put to death for the Laws and Liberties of her Country Did not Theodelina the daughter of the K. of the Bavarians convert the Lombards to the faith of Christ Greisilla the sister of Henry the first Emperor the Hungarians Clotildis the daughter of the K. of the Burgundians the Franks a certain Apostlesse a woman of a low rank the Iberians and each of them innumerable other people besides wone over to Christian Religion Finally This most Religious Sex alone or at least cheifly is it in which the Catholique faith and the continued works of godlinesse