they which saying Amen beleeueth all things which the wise Rabbins haue written And if any bee so simple that he cannot vnderstand yet must hee beleeue When two Rabbins saith their Talmud maintaine contrary opinions yet must not men contradict them because both of them hath his Kabala or Tradition for the same and this is a rule in their Rabbins Remember rather the word of the Scribes than of the Law of Moses R. Salomon Iarchi vpon Deuteronomie chap. 17. verse 12. Thou shalt not decline from the word that they shall shew thee to the right hand or to the left hath these words And when he saith vnto thee Of the right hand that it is the left and Of the left hand that it is the right thou must beleeue it how much more if hee saith The right hand is the right c. They haue a storie in their Legend for the same That there came a Goi a Gentile to Sammai and asked how many Lawes they had who answered two a Written and a Verball Hee replyed the written Law I acknowledge no lesse then thou make mee therefore a Iew and teach me the other Sammai refused and hee went to Hillel these both liued a little before the time of Christ who admitted and instructed him after hee bad him pronounce the letters in order Aleph Beth Gimel c. which he did The next day he bade him say the same letters backward Gimel Beth Aleph The Gentile said Rabbi yesterday you taught me otherwise and yet said Hillel you beleeue me and so learne of me which you must no lesse doe in the Traditionall Law beleeuing all that is therein I had almost thought in reading of this Hillel I had heard the Catechizing of some Romish Conuert that with an implicite faith beleeuing and worshipping hee knowes not what repentè prodit Catholicus is foole Catholike in an hower resigning himselfe to whatsoeuer that Church teacheth vpon an Ipsa dixit or else that I had beene reading the life and precepts of Ignatius Leiola the Iesuite-founder so like is the story though the names differ who practised himselfe and trayned vp others Ad sapientem hanc sanctamque stultitiam caecae vt ipse appellabat obedientiae saith Maffaeus in a large Discourse hereof Pauls Omnia probate was in those dayes but prudentiam non obedientis sed imperantis esse respondit Ignatius negabat obedientis nomine dignum haberi oportere qui legitimo superiori non cum voluntate iudicium quoque suhmitteret in superiorum iussu examinando esse arrogantiam And thus writeth Ignatius himselfe Perit celebris illa Obedientiae caecae simplicitas cùm apud nos ipsos in quaestionem vocamus recténe praecipiatur an secus perit humilitas perit in rebus arduis fortitudo c. To obey in outward execution and effecting the command of a Superiour may proue no vertue of patience but a cloake of malice a very imperfect perfection not worthy the name of vertue vntill the inward affect bee ioyned to the outward effect neither is this a whole sacrifice except hee not onely will the same but iudge and bee of the same sentence with his superiour hee must in the person of his superiour behold Christ who can neither deceiue nor be deceiued ready alway to defend neuer to mislike his command yea whatsoeuer his superiour enioyneth hee must accept as the precept and will of God and as hee is readie to beleeue the Catholique faith so to be carryed without further search with a blind force of the will desirous to obey Thus did Abraham when hee was commanded to offer Isaac and therefore thus must the Iesuite doe when an Ignatian Superiour commands or else hee is no Holocaust for the Loiolan Altar Euen as a Carkasse saith the Iesuiticall Constitution which will bee drawne any way or a Staffe in an old mans hand plyant as he pleaseth so and so must our waxen Iesuites bee Asses without vnderstanding nay carkasses without life staues and slaues and blockes guided by their guides though it bee to cracke the Crownes of Kings And as his legacie hee bequeathed this a little before his Death to the societie that they should bee as plyant waxe as an Image flexible at pleasure yea though it seeme against Conscience yet must a man beleeue his Superiour rather then himselfe And if the Pope should bid him crosse the Sea in the next Boat hee met with though destitute of sayles oares mast and helme and without all kind of prouision he would doe it willingly This hee called Mortification Others which are not thus blind haue their sinnes still remaining and haue but one foot in Religion This obedience saith another of them is the character imprinted by Diuine and not humane hand in this societie What Diuell of Hell could euer haue taught Murthers and Treasons to be tollerable nay commendable nay meritorious if his Scholler should not first passe this Iesuiticall Retrograde from a Christian and a Man with the losse of Religion and Reason to become as these Rome-Rabbins terme it a Carkasse indeed an Image or a Staffe in the hand of That old one which like the Aegyptian Inchanters hee might make a Serpent at his pleasure But let the truth preuaile and Moses Rod eate vp these Serpent-rods of the Aegyptians And what more could old Hillel say to his Disciples Or doth God himselfe exact Bernard throughout his seauenth Epistle teacheth more soundly of the Pope and those religious Superiours Nec dico praepositorum mandata esse à subditis iudicanda vbi nihil iubere deprehenduntur diuinis contrarium institutis Sed necessariam esse dico prudentiam qua aduertatur si quid aduersetur libertatem qua ingenuè contemnatur Hanc ego nunquam aemuler obedientiam talem mihi nunquam libeat modestians vel potius molestiam imitari Talis siquidem obedientia omni est contemptu deterior talis quoque modestia vltra omnem modum extenditur O patientia omni digna impatientia But to leaue this question and our Iesuites till fitter time Iewish Rabbins auerre that whosoeuer mocketh or contemneth their sayings shall bee punished in hot and boyling Zoah or excrement in hell And thus much of their Talmud the originall and authoritie thereof More modest yet were those Fathers of Trent that would ascribe but equalitie of reuerence and respect to their Traditions with the Sripture With equall affection and esteeme say they wee receiue and reuerence Traditions and the bookes of the old and new Testament which must needs acknowledge themselues beholding to them lest if they complaine they follow not their Traditionarie Masters in making sit lower and they haue their Anathema as ready as the Rabbins their Zoah and their Traditions Canons and Constitutions must interpret as well as their Kabala And some of that hotter societie haue found fiue priuiledges of Tradition aboue Scripture as being written in the hearts of men
in Christians odious to them that they may season them from their child-hood with hatred of them When they are seuen yeeres old they learne to write and reade and when they can reade they learne to construe the Text of Moses in their vulgar tongue When the Mother carrieth him first to the schoole to the Rabbi she maketh him cakes seasoned with honie and sugar and as this cake so saith she let the Law be sweet to thy heart Speake not vaine trifling words in the schoole but onely the words of God For if they so do then the glorious Maiestie of God dwelleth in them and delighteth it selfe with the ayre of their breath For their breathing is yet holy not yet polluted with sinne neither is hee Bar-mitzuah bound to obey the Commandements till he bee thirteene yeeres old When he is ten yeers old and hath now some smattering in Moses he proceedeth to learne the Talmud at thirteene yeeres his Father calleth ten Iewes and testifieth in their presence that this his sonne is now of iust age and hath beene brought vp in their manners and customes their daily manner of praying and blessing and hee will not further stand charged with the sinnes of his Sonne who is now Bar-mitzuah and must himselfe beare this burthen Then in their presence hee thanketh God that he hath discharged him from the punishment of his sonne desiring that his sonne by diuine grace may be long safe and endeuour to good workes At the fifteenth yeere of their life they are compelled to learne their Gemara or the complement of their Talmud Disputations and subtill Decisions about the Text of their Talmud And in these they spend the greatest part of their liues seldome reading any of the Prophets and some not in the whole space of a long life reading one Prophet through and therefore know so little of the Mossias At eighteene yeeres their male children Marrie according to their Talmud-constitution and sometimes sooner to auoyde fornication Their Maydens may marrie when are twelue yeeres old and a day At twentie yeeres they may traffike buy sell and circumuent all they can for their neighbour in the Law is in their sense such a Iew as you haue heard described But because these things are ioyned together in one of their sentences or Apophthemes of the R R. called Pirke Aboth I thought good to adde the same as containing a mappe of the Iewes life A sonne of fiue yeeres to the Bible a sonne of ten yeeres to the Mischna a sonne of thirteene yeeres to the Precepts a sonne of fifteene yeeres to the Thalmud a sonne of eighteene yeeres to marriage a sonne of twentie yeeres to follow the affaires of the world a sonne of thirtie yeeres to strength a sonne of fortie yeeres to wisedome a sonne of fiftie yeeres to counsell a sonne of sixâ—ie yeeres to old age a sonne of seuentie yeeres to gray haires a sonne of eightie to the height a sonne of ninetie to the graue a sonne of one hundred yeeres is as a dead man departed out of the world CHAP. XV. Of their Morning Prayer with their Fringes Phylacteries and other Ceremonies thereof §. I. Of their Behauiour before they goe to the Synagogue THe good-wife is to waken her Husband and the Parents to awaken their Children when after thirteene yeeres they are subiect to the Iewish Precepts before their Penticost they rise before it is light and after the nights being shorter when it is now day They are to awaken the day not to tarrie till it awaken them For their Morning-prayer must bee made whiles the Sunne is rising and not later for then is the time of hearing as they interpret Lamen 2.19 And hee which is deuout ought at that time to bee sad for Ierusalem and to pray euerie morning for the re-edifying of the Temple and Citie if in the night-time any sheddeth teares for their long captiuitie God will heare his prayer for then the Starres and Planets mourne with him and if he suffer the teares to trickle downe his cheekes God will arise and gather them into his bottle and if any decree be by their enemies enacted against them with those teares he will blot out the same Witnesse Dauid Put my teares in thy bottle are they not in thy booke And if any rub his fore-head with his teares it is good to blot out certaine sinnes that are there written In there beginning of the night God causeth all the gates of heauen to be shut and the Angels stay at them in silence and sendeth euill spirits into the world which hurt all they meet but after mid-night they are commanded to open the same This command and call is heard of the Cocks and therefore they clap their wings and crow to awaken men and then the euill spirits lose their power of hurting and in this respect the Wise-men haue ordained them a thanksgiuing to be said at Cock-crowing Blessed art thou O God Lord of the whole world who hast giuen vnderstanding to the Cocke They must not rise vp in their beds naked nor put on their shirts sitting but put their heads and armes into the same as they lye lest the walls and beames should see their nakednesse It is a brag of Rabbi Iose that in all his life hee had not herein faulted But to goe or stand naked in the chamber were more then piacular and much more to make water standing naked before his bed although it be night Hee must not put on his garments wrong nor his left shooe before the right and yet he must put off the left foot shooe first When he is clothed with his head inclined to the earth and a deuout minde in remembrance of the destruction of the Temple hee goeth out of the chamber with his head feete and all couered because of the holy Schechinam diuine glorie ouer his head Then hee goeth to stoole in some priuie place for so hath Amos commanded Prepare thy selfe O Israel to meete thy God and DAVID All that is within mee praise his holy name That is all within the body emptie and cleane For else must not God bee named and therefore his garments must not be spotted and fouled To restraine nature too long were a sinne and would cause the soule to stinke and sauing your reuerence hee must wipe with the left hand for with the right he writeth the name of God and the Angels And in this place and businesse hee must take heed he thinke not of God or his Word much lesse name him for God will shorten the dayes of such a one R. Sira told his Scholers that the cause of his long life was that in an impure place hee neuer though of the Word nor named the name of God Besides hee must turne his face and not his hinder-parts toward the Temple of Ierusalem Hee ought not to touch his body with vnwashen hands in regard of the euill spirits which rest thereon till they
be washed and if hee should touch his eyes hee would be blinde his eares deafe his nose dropping his mouth stinking his hand scabbed with these vnwashed and therefore venemous hands and when hee washeth he must powre water three times on his right hand and as oft on the left before one hand may touch the other hee must not bee sparing in his water for store of water store of health after the hands the mouth and face must bee washed because they were created after the Image of God and how should the name of God be vttered out of a foule mouth hee must wash ouer a bason not ouer the ground he must drie his face very well for feare of wheales and wrinkles and that with a cleane Towel not with his shirt for this would make them blockish and forgetfull After all this followeth his Brachah or blessing Blessed bee thou O God our God King of the whole world who hast commanded vs to wash our hands Their hands they must alwayes wash on these occasions in the morning at their returne from the stoole from bathing when they haue cut their nayles haue scratched their naked bodie hauing pulled off their shooes with their hands haue touched a dead bodie haue gone amongst the dead haue companied with their wiues or haue killed a louse If hee respect not washing after these if he bee learned he shall forget his learning if vnlearned he shall lose his sense §. II. Of their Zizis and Tephillim and Holy Vestments THey haue a foure-cornered garment which some put on with the rest when they rise others then when they will pray The foure cornered parts thereof are made of linnen silke tyed together with two winding bands of such length that they may draw through their head betwixt them so that those two quadrangular pieces may hang downe one on his brest the other on his backe In euery of those foure corners hangeth a labell made of white woollen threds by a little knot downewards to the ground and the same is foure or eight or twelue fingers broad These labels they call Zizis Those which are deuout weare this garment euery day vnder a long outward coat in such sort that those labels may appeare out a little so that they may alwayes see them as monitories of the Commandements of God When they put them on they praise God that hath commanded them to weare these Zizis Hee say they that keepeth duely this Precept of Zizis doth as much as if hee kept the whole Law for there are in all fiue knots compared to the fiue bookes of Moses eight threds added to them make thirteene And the word Zizis maketh sixe hundred altogether amounting to sixe hunded and thirteene the number as you haue heard of Gods Commandements They ascribe the continencie of Ioseph in Potiphars house and of Boaz when Ruth slept by him to the Zizis May it please your patience a storie out of the Talmud One Rab. Iochanan saw a boxe full of Iewels which one of his Schollers Bar-Emorai purposed to steale but was forbidden by a voyce sounding out of the ayre Let it alone Bar-Emorai for it belongeth to R. Chaninas wife which in the other world shall put into the same violet wooll to make thred for Zizis that of them the iust men there may haue their fringed garments sewed Once hee which weareth this garment without intermission is fortified against the Deuill and all euill Spirits Besides this memorable Vestment they weare a certaine knot neare their nose out of Deut. 6.8 They shall bee frontlets betweene thine eyes They make it thus They take a little blacke foure-square calfe-skin which they fold eight times that it may haue foure double folds and distinct breadths They put into these distinct Scriptures the same being fourefold of parchment These Scriptures are taken out of Exod. 13. and Deut. 6. Then take they haires out of a Cow or Calues tayle and wash them cleane and binde them about those writings of Scripture so that any one may see that they are good by the ends of them appearing out of the skin This skinne they sew with cleane and fine strings taken out of Calues or Kines bodies or made of Bulls sinewes or if such strings cannot bee had with strings of Calue-skin-parchment Then doe they sew a long and blacke thong to that thick hide or skin and knit a knot about it This piece of worke they call Tephillim to put them in minde of often prayer and tye it so about their heads that the thicke knot wherein the Scriptures are may hang betwixt the eyes After this they take another foure-cornered skin which they fold as the former and write certaine verses out of Exodus in parchment and put it into a little hollowed skinne and sew it vpon the thicke-folded skin to which they adde a long thong and call it the Tephillim of the hand This they tye to the bare skin aboue the elbow of the left arme that so that which is written may bee ouer-against the heart which may hereby be the more enflamed to prayer That long string is so fastned that it commeth to the fore-part of the hand thus fulfilling that Commandement The words which I command thee this day shall bee on thine heart and thou shalt tye them for a signe in thy hand They tye on first this Tephillim of the hand and then that of the head and make their brachah or prayer saying Blessed bee thou O God our Lord who hast sanctified vs in thy Commandements and hast commanded vs to put on Tephillim looking while hee speaketh diligently on the knot on his fore-head In folding sewing knitting and tying them they verie subtilly frame the name of God Schaddai Other their manifold ceremonies about these Tephillim I willingly omit Their sanctitie is such that he which weareth them must be pure within and without and if hee lets them fall on the ground all that shall see them so lying must fast with him one whole day they must not bee hanged vp bare but in a bagge nor may they be left in a chamber where a man and his wife lye together except in a triple chest or bagge A man must not sleepe while he hath them on nor may hee breake winde and if he haue list to the stoole he must lay them foure ells from the place of his easement or lay them against his heart in a double bagge Their women seruants and sicke folkes are free from wearing them It is sufficient for women to say Amen to their prayers And all this Moses learned in Mount Sinai §. III. Of their Schoole or Synagogue Rites and their Mattins WEE haue beene tedious in furnishing our Iew to his Mattins at Sun-rising is their houre as you haue heard but their Rabbins haue inlarged and lengthened that time to about nine of the clocke Where many of the Iewes liue together they resort at a set houre to their Synagogue Thither they must
of gold and shee had of yeerely reuenue halfe a million shee amongst other her workes attempted one most famous which was a conduit to conuey water for the vse of the Pilgrims betwixt Cairo and Mecca fortie dayes iourney and for the same intent procured the Sultan Selym her brother to write to the Venetians for a licence to extract out of Italy an hundred thousand pound of Steele only to make Chizzells Hammers and Mattocks for the cutting of certaine Rockes by which this water must passe Their Oathes especially of their Emperours are of many cuts and varietie of fashion And for Vowes in necessities and dangers they wil promise vnto God the sacrifices of beasts in some holy places not vpon Altars but hauing flaied off the skin they giue it with the head feet and forth part of the flesh to the Priest another part to the Poore the third to the Neighbours the fourth is for the Guests They are so addicted to the opinion of Fate that GOD is esteemed to blesse whatsoeuer hath successe as namely Selyms murthering his Father and to detest what wanteth good euent whatsoeuer ground it had They feare not the Plague accounting euerie mans time limited by Fate and therefore will wipe their faces with the cloathes of such as haue dyed thereof They hold it alike acceptable to God to offer almes to beasts and to bestow it on men when it is offered for the loue of God Some there are which will redeeme birds imprisoned in their cages or coopes and hauing payed their price let them flie Others for the loue of God cast bread into the water to feed the fishes esteeming it a worke greatly meritorious but Dogges are accounted vncleane in stead whereof they delight in Cats following they say their Prophet Mahomet who falling asleepe at table and awaking to goe to his deuotions rather cut off his sleeue whereon he found his Cat fast asleepe then he would disturbe her Master Simons told mee that he hath seene them at Cairo feed Dogges with baskets of bread one standing by with a club to keepe them from fighting and one gaue almes for a Bitch which had Whelps vnder a stall Heerein perhaps as in other things the Egyptians are more superstitious then the Turkes especially in this of Dogs which sauours of their old Anubis and dog-worshipping Yea and in Constantinople though they suffer them not as vncleane creatures to come into their houses yet they thinke it a deed of pietie to feed them and buy bread therefore prouiding them kennells also most of them haue no particular owner they repaire to the Sea-side nightly where they keepe a grieuous howling heard if the winde be Southward to Pera. They say Moses was the first great Prophet to whom was giuen the booke of Tefrit that is the Law and they which obserued it in those times were saued But when men grew corrupt God gaue Dauid the booke Czabur or the Psalter and when this preuailed not Iesus was sent with the booke Ingil or the Gospel whereby in that time men were saued They hold that Christ was borne of the Virgin Marie at her breasts hauing conceiued by the smell of a Rose which the Angell Gabrel presented her And preferring Christ before Moses they admit not a Iew to turne Turke but hee must first be a Christian and eate Swines-slesh and after two or three dayes abiuring Christ hee is made Musulman For so Mahomet came last in order of the Prophets with his Alcoran This Law and Law-giuer is so sacred to them that in all their prayers euen from their mothers breasts they obserue this forme La illah illelah Mehemmet irresullellah tanre rirpeghamber hace That is there is no God but one and Mahomet his Prophet one Creator and more Prophets This they sucke in with their milke and in their first learning to speake lispe out this deuotion The infants goe with the rest to their Mosquees or Meschits but are not tied to other ceremonies sauing washing till they are circumcised Euery man hath in their opinion from his birth to his death two Angels attending him the one at his right hand the other at his left At foure or fiue yeere old they send him to the Schoole to learne the Curaam and the first words which their Masters teach them are to this sense God is one and is not contained in any place but is through all and hath neither father nor mother nor children eateth not nor dinketh nor sleepeth and nothing is like to him The two Angels before said are called Chiramim and Chira tibin which write the good or euill that men doe against the day of Iudgement The Turkes abhorre blasphemie not onely against God and Mahumet but also against Christ and the Virgin Marie and other Saints and they punish blasphemers of whatsoeuer Sect they account it a sinne for a man to build a house which shall last longer then a mans life and therefore howsoeuer they are sumptuous and magnificent in there publike buildings yet are their priuate dwellings very homely and ill contriued They eate much Opium thinking it maketh them couragious in the warres They haue a remedie for paine in the head or elsewhere to burne the part affected with the touch-boxe which they alway carry with them or with some linnen cloth whereby they haue many markes on their foreheads and temples witnesses of their needlesse and heedlesse respect to Physicians As the Scripture containeth some Prophecies of the arising and proceedings of the Turkish Nation the rod of God whereby hee scourgeth his Christian people so haue they also prophecies amongst themselues of their end and ruine when God in his mercie to Christians shall execute iustice vpon the Turkes and cast the rod into the fire wherewith he had chastised his children Such an one is that which Georgiovitz translateth and expoundeth and such is that which Leunclavius hath transcribed out of their Booke called Messabili wherein is written that Constantinople shall be twice taken before Degnal Lain that is the cursed Antichrist shall come once by the Sword another time by the force of the praiers of the sonnes of Isahac Lain is an Epithete which they giue to Degnal signifying wicked or mischieuous Of this Degnal the Turks fable that before his comming shall Mechdi enioy the Empire This Mechdi they say was descended of their Prophet Mahumet and walketh inuisible one day he shall come into light and raigne for a time and after him shall Degnal their Anti-Prophet or Antichrist come A certain Deruise offered to assault murther Baiazet the Great Turk professing himselfe to be that Mechdi and was slain by one of the Bassas §. III. Of the Turkish Manners their Ciuill and Morall behauiour AS for the bloodie practises which each Emperor vseth in murthering his brethren to secure him in his Throne in rooting out of the Nobilitie of the Countries which they conquer in rasing the Wals
Legates to Hannibal that by equiuocation had before fulfilled their Oath of returning foolish Regulus that returnedst to thy Tormentors chusing thy selfe rather then thy Oath to be tortured and most most foolish Martyrs that so sleightly for want of this sleight ran vpon Fire Swords Lyons And might not we begin a contention with that assertion That an Oath for confirmation is to men an end of contention which in this equiuocating Hydra is rather multiplied That neither Rome Ethnike nor primitiue Christian Rome could at least by imitation of diabolicall ambiguous Oracles deuise in those dayes so transcendent a suttlety but Moderne Rome by Iesuiticall midwiferie must be the Mother of so super-fine a babe But what doth this Brat in our way I will rather follow the Iesuits in China then in Rome except when Rome followes them thither too and herein with thankfulnesse accept their report The reason of this equiuocall sound of words is ascribed to the Chinois account of eloquence in writing rather then speaking and therefore to furnish that neglecting this insomuch as familiar messages are sent by writing and not by word of mouth Musicall skill was a good helpe to the Iesuites in learning the language by reason of their varietie of accents And although this multitude of Characters be to the Memory burthensome yet it helpes it as much another way in sauing the labour of learning diuers languages whiles euery Prouince of China speaking diuersly agree in writing the Iaponians also Corayans Cauchin-Chinois Leuhiees all conceiuing the same Characters although the Iaponians haue an Alphabet of letters to write after our manner which the Chinois haue not They write their lines from the top of the Page to the bottome downewards which they multiply from the right hand to the left whereas our custome is quite contrary from the left hand side-wayes We haue three consonants B.D.R. which the Chinois neither vse nor can by any Character expresse and in our words which haue them they borrow some sound neerest the same Likewise they neuer haue two consonants without a vowell betweene and all their words end in vowells except M. or N. of consonants onely This and the diuers pronuntiation of their Characters in diuers places made the Latin forme of Baptisme hard to be expressed by the Iesuites Now for the subiect of their studies their chiefe is Morall Philosophie in Naturall they are rude and their Ethikes are confusedly deliuered not digested into formall method for of Logicke they are ignorant but in confused sentences and discourses The greatest of the Chinian Philosophers was Confutius who was borne fiue hundred and fiftie one yeeres before the Incarnation of our Lord and liued aboue seuentie yeres in great shew of learning holinesse And few of our Ethnike Philosophers haue equalled him many he hath exceeded The Chinois haue him in such reputation that they thinke there neuer liued man more holy and all his sayings are of authoritie beyond gaine-saying amongst the learned And the Kings themselues haue euer since had him in veneration not as a god but as a most excellent man and Author of their learning honouring his posteritie the chiefe of which enioyeth by inheritance ample titles immunities and reuenues They are also indifferently skilled in Astrologie and diuers Mathematicall Sciences in Geometry and Arithmetike they haue beene more expert The Constellations they doe not distinguish as we do and number foure hundred Stars more then our Astrologers reckoning some smaller which doe not alway appeare They tell the Quantities and foretell Eclipses but not exactly and referre all their Astrologie to that which is called Iudiciall esteeming a fatall dependance of all things from the Stars and haue borrowed in these Arts many things from the Saracens The Author of this Royall Family forbad the studie of Iudiciall Astrologie to all but one Family in which it continueth by inheritance But he which now reigneth maintaines many at great cost both Eunuchs in his Palace and Magistrates without which haue two Courts in Paquin one obseruing China Kalenders the other the Saracenicall and compare both together Both of them haue an open place on the top of a small Hill to contemplate the Starres in which they haue Mathematicall Instruments of exceeding greatnesse of molten brasse which seeme to bee ancient On this Hill alwayes one of their Colledge doth watch by night to obserue if any new Comet or other raritie appeare in the Heauens which if it happen the next day they by libell admonish the King thereof together with their opinion of good or euill ensuing This place of contemplation at Nanquin is within the Citie and in massinesse of Instruments excells that at Pequin or Paquin The Pequin-Astrologers haue priuiledge of foretelling the Eclipses of Sunne or Moone and the Magistrates and Priests are commanded to meet in a certaine place in their Robes and Vestments to helpe the labouring Planet which they thinke they doe with musicall sound of Cymballs often bowing their knees all the time of the Eclipse fearing as I haue heard lest some I know not what Serpent should then deuoure the same In Naturall Philosophie they were too Naturall and haue very little Art They knew not the cause of the Moones Eclipse by the interposition of the earth but thought that being opposite to the Sunne it lost the light by some amazement others thought that the Sunne had a hole in the midst against which when the Moone came shee lost her light That the Sunne was greater then the earth seemed to them a strange paradoxe much more that this might be spoken of the Starres the like was it that the Earth was round for they thought it square and the middle and best part thereof to be their Kingdome or that there could be Antipodes without falling or that heauy things were attracted by the Center or that there were Orbes and for the ayre they thought it a vacuum or emptinesse not reckoning it amongst the Elements of which yet they numbred fiue Metall Wood Fire Water Earth Their Arithmetike was with beades on wyre-strings fastned to a linnen cloth In these things Ricius declaring their ignorance and the Europaean Science wan great admiration they which before thought all besides themselues Barbarians saying that they were to vs as the rude Tartars to them and that they left where we began namely at Rhetorike and Grammar which with Ethikes and Politikes are the chiefe Some of the Idolatrous sects had more monstrous and ridiculous fancies that the Sunne hid himselfe euery night in a certaine Hill called Siunni which they said was fixed in the Sea 24000. miles vnder the water and for Eclipses they held that a certaine god named Holochan eclipsed the Sunne couering it with his right hand and so the Moone with his left Their Astrologers rather obserued their old rules little knowing or seeking the Naturall causes The Instruments which they had in their two Colledges at Nanquin and
some to call the name of the Lord that is after Rabbi Salomo to apply the name of God to Images Stars and Men But the more likely opinion is that when Adam had obtained a more holy posteritie which was now multiplyed in diuers families Religion which before had been a priuate In-mate in Adams houshold was now brought into publike exercise whereof Prayer hath alwaies been accounted a principall part and God himselfe in both Testaments calleth his house a house of Prayer the calues of the lips and the ejaculations of the heart being the body and soule of Diuine worship whereof Sacrifices were in a manner but the apparel fashioned to that infancy of the Church Of the names of the posteritie of Adam and his hundred yeeres mourning for Abel of Seth his remoouing after Adams death to a mountaine neere Paradise and such other things more sauouring of fabulous vanity in the false-named Methodius Philo and others that follow them I list not to write And wel might Genebrard haue spared his paines in searching for the antiquitie of Popery in this first Age of the World Easily may we grant a Church then truely Catholike in the Posteritie of Seth instructed partly by Reuelations partly by Traditions concerning the Creation the fall the good and euill Angels the promised Seed the Vnitie and Trinitie punishments and repentance for sinne publike and priuate Deuotions and other like Articles gathered out of Moses but for the Rabble of Rabbinicall Dreames which hee addeth herevnto we had need of the implicite faith of some simple credulous Catholike to receiue them as namely Purgatory resembled in the fiery Sword at the entrance of Paradise Free-will grounded on that which GOD speaketh to CAINE Thou shalt rule ouer him the prerogatiue of the elder Brother ouer the yonger falsly applyed to the rule of the minde ouer sinfull lusts the choice of meates in the first Fathers abstinence from flesh fish and wine as hee saith which had not beene permitted to them as it is to vs Traditions when as yet they had no Scripture Superstitious Obsequies to the dead because the Iewes in their office for the dead call vpon the Fathers which lye buried at Hebron namely Adam Eue and the rest to open the gates of Paradise Deuotion to Saints because the Cherubins were set betweene Paradise and Sinners as if their Saints were honoured to keepe them out of Heauen and not the bloudie Sacrifices onely in Abels offering but that vnbloudie Sacrifice so they stile their Masse in the offering of Caine wee enuie them not their Founder yea he finds their Sacrifice of Orders in Gods executing the Priestly function of Matrimony in Adam and Eue of Baptisme in the Breeches which they ware of Penance because GOD said Thou art dust and to dust thou shalt returne of Confirmation in those words Shee shall breake thy head the Truth will breake their heads for so reading it of Vnction in that Seth went to the Cherub which kept Paradise and receiued of him three graines of the Tree of Life whereof we reade in the Apocalyps the leaues shall heale the Nations with those graines was an Oyle made wherewith Adam was anoyed and the stones put into his mouth whence sprang the Tree whereof the Crosse of our Lord was made hidden by Salomon in the Temple and after in the Poole of Bethesda Spectatum admissi risum teneatis amici Did not Genebrard deserue an Archbishopicke or if the obseruation be his did not Petrus Victor Palma which set him forth with such Comments deserue the Palme and Victory for Peters pretended Successors which could find such antiquitie for proofe of their Catholicisme Much good may it doe their Catholike mawes with such Dainties Iust art thou O Lord and iust are thy iudgements which because they will not beleeue thy Truth giuest them ouer to such strong delusions to beleeue so grosse and palpable Lyes CHAP. VII Of the cause and comming of the Floud THus wee haue seene in part the fulfilling of the Prophesie of the Seed of the Woman and of that other of the Serpent in the Posteritie of Caine and Seth. The Family of Caine is first reckoned and their forwardnesse in humane Arts as the children of this World are wiser in their generation in the things of this life which they almost onely attend then the children of light As for the Iewish Dreames that Lamech was blind and by the direction of Tubalcaine his sonne guiding his hand slew Caine supposing it had beene a wilde beast which when he knew so inraged him that he killed his sonne also they that list may follow Moses reckoneth the Generations according to the first-borne in the Posteritie of Seth as enioying the Principalitie and Priest-hood that so the promised Seed of the Woman after such a World of yeares comming into the World might iustifie the stablenesse of GODS promises his Lineall Descent from Adam with a due Chronologie beeing declared After Seth Enosh Kenan Mehalaleel Iared was Henoch the seuenth from ADAM who walked with God whom God tooke away that he should not see death This before the Law and Helias in the Law are Witnesses of the Resurrection being miraculously taken from the Earth into Heauen not by death but by supernaturall changing of their bodies That hee should bee still in an Earthly Paradise and that hee and Elias should come and preach against Antichrist and of him be slaine is a Popish Dreame the Scripture saying that HENOCH was taken away that he should not see death of Elias that he is alreadie come in the person of Iohn Baptist the Spirit and power or spirituall power of walking with GOD reforming Religion and conuerting soules beeing communicated to many of those Ministers which haue lien slaine in the streets of that great Citie This his Assumption is supposed to be visibly done Hee was a Prophet and Iude doth in his Epistle cite a testimonie of his which eyther by Tradition went from hand to hand as it seemeth the whole Word of GOD was deliuered before the dayes of Moses GOD by Visions and Dreames appearing vnto the Patriarkes or else it was written and since is lost Some hold it was penned by some Iew vnder the name of Enoch Augustine thinketh that the Booke entituled Enoch was forged in his name as other Writings vnder the names of Prophets and Apostles and therefore calleth it Apocrypha as Hierome doth also Chrysostome and Theophilact account Moses the first Pen-man of Holy Scripture Although it seemes that Letters were in vse before the floud if Iosephus his testimonie be true who affirmeth that Adam hauing prohpecied two vniuersall destructions one by fire another by water his Posteritie erected two Pillars one of bricke another of stone in both which they writ their inuentions of Astronomie that of stone was reported to remaine in his time Some ascribe this to Seth as
swelling ouerflowed part of the Citie and cast downe twenty furlongs of the walls Whereupon despayring as seeming to see GOD and man against him he which before had chambered himselfe with women and accustomed himselfe to the distaffe in a womans both heart and habite now in a manly resolution if it may not more fitly be called a Feminine Dissolution which thus runneth from that danger which it should encounter gathered his treasures together and erecting a frame in his Palace there burnt them himselfe his wiues and Eunuches together The Ashes vnder pretence of a Vow thereof made to Belus Belesus obtained of Arbaces the new Conquerour and Monarch to carry to Babylon But the coozenage being knowne and Belesus condemned for the treasures which with the ashes hee had conueyed Arbaces both gaue them and forgaue him adding the praefecture of the Babylonians according to promise Some say that Belesus whom they call Phul Beloch shared the Empire with him Arbaces raigning ouer the Medes and Persians the other ouer Niniue and Babylonia following herein the forged Metasthenes who as Annius maketh him to say out of the Susian Librarie penned his Historie hauing before fabled a Catalogue out of Berosus of the ancient Kings contrary to that which out of the fragments of the true Berosus before is deliuered Sardanapalus is written saith Scaliger in his Notes vpon Eusebius with a double ll Sardanapalus a name fitting to his effeminate life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie the same whence are those words of Cicero 3. De Repub. Sardanapalus ille vitijs multo quam nomine ipso deformior Sardanapalus built Tarsus and Anchiale saith Eusebius at the same time the one famous for the most famous Diuine that euer the Sunne saw except the Sunne of Righteousnesse himselfe PAVL the Apostle and Doctor of the Gentiles The other for the Authors Monument and stony Image with this Assyrian Epigramme Sardanapalus the sonne of Anacyndaraxis built Anchiale and Tarsus in one day and thou O stranger eate drinke play And Verses were annexed which I haue thus Englished Mortall thou knowst thy selfe then please thine appetite With present dainties Death can yeeld thee no delight Loe I am now but dust whilome a Prince of might What I did eate I haue and what my greedy mind Consum'd how much alas how sweet left I behind Learne this O man thus liue best wisdome thou canst find This his Legacie hee hath bequeathed to all Epicures the liuing Sepulchres of themselues breathing graues not of so many Creatures onely better than themselues which they deuour but of Reason Nature Religion Soule and if it were possible of GOD which all lie buried in these swine couered with the skins of Men. Let vs eate and drinke for to morrow we shall die Who knoweth whether Paul did not allude to this speech of the Founder of his Citie This subuersion of the Assyrian Empire was Anno Mundi 3145. after Buntingus account Of the Medes see more in their proper place The Babylonian Empire renewed by Nabonassar continued till Cyrus of which times we haue little record but in the Scripture as neyther of those Assyrian Kings which before had captiued Israel and inuaded Iuda Senacherib is famous euen in the Ethnike history although they had not the full truth For thus Harodotus telleth that Senacherib King of the Arabians Assyrians warred on Egypt where Sethon before Vulcans Priest then raigned who being forsaken of his Souldiers betooke him to his deuotion amiddest the which hee fell asleepe And the god appearing promised ayde which hee performed sending an Armie of Mice into the Armie of Senacherib which did eate his Souldiers quiuers and the leathers of their shields and armour insomuch that the very next day they all fled In witnesse whereof the Image of the King made of stone standeth in the Temple of Vulcan holding a Mouse in his hand vttering these words Hee that looketh on mee let him bee Religious This Historie the Aegyptians in vanity and ambition had thus peruerted and arrogated to themselues Funccius of Osiander made Nabopollasar and Nabuchodonosor to bee one and the same and diues Commenters vpon Daniel hold the same opinion whom Scaliger and Caluisius confute at large Nabopollasar is supposed to begin his raigne Anno Mundi 3325. which hee continued nine and twentie yeeres in his seuenteenth yeere Nebuchadnezzer so the Masorites misse-call him saith Scaliger or Nabuchodonosor his sonne was sent by him to subdue the rebellious Aegyptians Iewes and Palestinians at which time he carried away Daniel into captiuitie He beganne his raigne Anno Mundi 3354. and in the yeere 3360. destroyed Ierusalem In the yeere 3386. Euilmerodach his sonne succeeded him whom Neriglossoorus as Scaliger affirmeth slew thereby to aduance his owne sonne the Nephew of Nabuchodonosor called Laborosoarchadus to the Scepter which himselfe swaied as Protector in the minoritie of his sonne But he being dead and his sonne more fit for a chamber then a Throne Nabonidus conspired against him and slew him This Nabonidus sayth he is Darius Medus and Laborosoarchadus is that Baltasar mentioned by Daniel after Scaligers interpretation of the Prophet out of Berosus and Megasthenes It is a world to see how the Catholickes so they call themselues sweat in finding out that Nabuchodonosor mentioned in Iudith 1. Pintus would make it a common name to the Babylonian Kings as Pharao to the Egyptians Pererius will haue two of the name others will haue him to be Cyrus others Cambyses Artaxerxes Ochus Once Babel is a Mother of confusion to her children and makes them babble while they will Canonize Apocrypha-Scriptures Cyrus ended the Babylonian Monarchie and hauing wonne Babylon and taken Darius Medus at Borsippa he gaue him his life and the gouernment of Carmania An. Mund. 3409. As Nabuchodonosor had by Edict proclaimed the GOD of Daniel so Cyrus ended the captiuitie of his people giuing libertie to such as would to returne But many Iewes abode there still and thence sent their yeerely offerings to the Temple In the time of Artabanus the Parthian when Caligula tyrannized at Rome Asimaeus and Anilaeus brethren of the Iewish Nation grew mightie and haughtie withall forgetting GOD and themselues which caused the Babylonians to conspire against them and after the death of the brethren with thousands of their partakers and slew in Seleucia fiftie thousand of the Iewish Nation Neerda and Nibisis were then much peopled by the Iewes And thus Religion partly held the ancient course partly was mixed according to the custome of Conquests with the Persian Macedonian Parthian besides the Iewish and Syrian vntill the Apostles preached here the Christian veritie About the same time Helena and her sonne Izates King of Adiabena which is in these parts of Assyria became Iewish Proselytes Seleucia built by Seleucus as it were the marriage-Chamber of Euphrates and Tygris which there meete and mixe their waters Nature being
further the Priests hindrances Ceremoniall was the third Tithe as dependant on the Temple and Feasts The Fourth Iudiciall as reliefe to the poore of that Iewish state whether Leuites or Lay-man in their seuerall habitations But if any lust to fill themselues with matter of this argument let them reade what hath beene written by Master Selden and his Antagonists which maintaine the portion of Leui in the Euangelicall Priest-hood against his Historie of Tithes seeming by way of Storie to vndermine it Wherein Sir Iames Sempills labours that I mention not many of our owne more interessed deserue honorable mention in all Leui's Tents and to all his generations §. III. Of their Personall Offerings and of their and our Ecclesiasticall Reuenues BEsides First-fruits and Tithes they payed to the Treasurie personall offerings as Exod. 30.12 Euery man payed halfe a shekel which the Hebrewes interpreted to be perpetuall for the maintenance of the Sacrifices others temporarie then onely put in practice As for that collection 2. King 21. made by Ioas for the repayring of the Temple and that after by Nehemiah Chap. 10. the circumstances shew much difference This Treasurie in regard of this Poll-money grew very rich as appeared in Crassus robbing the same often thousand talents at one time besides a great beame of gold which Eleazarus the Treasurer vpon Crassus his Oath afterwards violated neuerthelesse to redeeme the rest deliuered to him weighing three hundred Mina euery Mina being two pounds two ounces and a quarter Troy Tully and other Authors mention these Oblations of the Iewes to their Treasurie yeerely These Gifts and offerings the Law exacted they performed many other also either of their free-will or of Vow otherwise little differing from the former Leuitici vltimo Many other Ceremonies of their meates garments fastings Trumpets and in other cases I hope I shall haue leaue to omit in this place and remit him that would further know of them to the Scripture it selfe hauing pointed out the principall But by this is apparant which Doctor Downam hath obserued that all these being deliuered them in the Lords Treasurie without their labour or cost together with their eight and fortie Cities assigned them amounting to a farre greater proportion for the maintenance of that small Tribe then all the Bishoprick Benefices Colledge-lands or whatsoeuer other Ecclesiasticall endowments and profits in this Land although the prophane Ammonites or hypocriticall Cloysters had neuer conspired to shaue off our beards and our garments by the Buttocks not leauing to couer our nakednesse or their shame And yet how sicke is Ahab for Naboths Vineyard And would GOD we had no Iezabels to play the too cunning Physicians in this disease Let me haue a little leaue to say no more then others for the substance in bookes and Sermons haue said alreadie although those Bellies to whom we speake haue no eares The first stroke that wounded vs and causeth vs still to halt was from Rome The mother of abominations and whoredomes Here as in the suburbs of Hell were founded the Churches Ruines Our Bulls of Bashan Abbey-lubbers and Cloysterers with the leaden hornes of those Romane Bulls haue pushed downe our Churches our Chauncels at least and made them to fall into those Cages of vncleane Byrds the Popish Monasteries Of nine thousand two hundred eightie and foure Parishes in England after Master Camdens account three thousand eight hundred fortie fiue were it is properly termed impropriated And who knoweth whether those Appropriations did not supplant their Supplanters and dispropriate them of that which in a iuster proprietie was giuen them in their first foundations for that three-fold maintainance of themselues of learning and of the poore yea happily yet if we obserue the course of Diuine Iustice we may see many whose former inheritances haue by the addition of these as of a contagious garment beene infected and haue either died or beene sicke at the least of this plague The Arke when it was in Dagons Temple because imprisoned in an Idoll-Temple brake Dagons neck and when it was thence translated to their Cities they also were filled with diseases Our Arke hath thus dealt with the Temples and cannot well brooke the Cities and lay-Lay-hands which imprison or if they will appropriate it O that they would once send it home where it should be How fitly and fully doe those words of Habacuk agree to the houses founded for Religion by this and like irreligion peruerted and at last subuerted They coueted an euill couetousnesse to their houses they consulted shame to their owne houses by destroying many people and sinned against their owne soules The stone hath cryed out of the wall and the Beame out of the Tymber hath answered it Woe vnto him that buildeth a Towne with blood and erecteth a Citie by iniquitie Thus we see the stones haue cryed out of their walles indeede and by their demolished heapes may receiue Labans name Iegar schadutha the heape of witnesse their ruines remayning testimonies of GODS iudgements A violent streame saith Master Camden breaking through all obstacles hath rushed out vpon the Ecclesiastick state of this Land and ouerwhelmed to the worlds wonder and Englands griefe the greatest part of the English Clergie with their most beautifull buildings and those riches which the Christian pietie of the English had from the time of their first Christianitie consecrated to God were as it were in a moment dispersed and if I may so say prophaned And let not our Temporall men pretend inheritances and humane Lawes in these things of diuine right For how can Kyrkes so called as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the Lords houses before giuen vp by solemne consecration into diuine possessions with their liuings become humane without surrender of the owner or satisfaction to him As the word since hath receiued a double aspiration so the things themselues a doubling and deceiuing alteration wherby we haue robbed our GOD as in Malachie he complaines worse then the heathen which he there iustifies and which in that extreme Aegyptian famine alienated all Lay possessions but wanted this Aura sacra fames sacri left the Priests Lands inuiolated which yet were very large as in our Aegyptian Relations shall appeare Poore Vzzah offered in a good intent which I also thinke of many which were forward in suppression of Religious houses in the daies of King Henrie and of other Church lands in King Edwards time but GOD accepted not such zeale and he by his vntimely fates left the name to the place Perez Vzzah vntill this dvy Nor did King Henry long enioy that his Ecclesiasticall purchase or long continue much wealthier by it but was forced to base monies before his end that I speake not of the short raigne of King Edward his sonne that vertuous Prince whose times rather then his holy hands caused the desolations of the Chauntrie lands and how many other vanished away in
Christ said They made them two-fold more the children of Hell then themselues for they freed themselues from many of those impositions they laid on the Consciences of others And these Proselytes the lesse trusted and therefore burthened them with more obseruations §. IIII. Of the Sadducees AFter we haue spoken of the Pharisees which loued the first roomes which they haue heere obtained it followeth to speake next of the Sadducees who in the New Testament are often mentioned Beda giueth an vniust interpretation of their name saying the Sadducees are interpreted Iust. Epiphanius also fetcheth their name from Sedec which signifieth Iustice Lyra alleageth a reason because they were seuere and rigorous in iudgement they gaue this name of Iust not iustly to themselues Burgensis otherwise as of Arrius were the Arrians so of one Sadoch saith hee are the Sadducees called who was the first inuentor of their Heresie Serarius deriueth the name from both The Pharisees were esteemed more iust then they as appeareth Luke 18.9 They counted themselues iust and despised others Summumius summa iniuria Their rigorous Iustice was vniust rigour This Sadoc or rather Saduc liued vnder Antigonus Sochaeus who succeeded to Simeon the iust His fellow Scholler was Baithos of whom came the Baithosaeans So saith Abraham ben Dauid in his historicall Cabball Antigonus said Bee ye not as seruants which Minister to their Prince on condition to receiue reward Sadoc and Baithos asked him of this thing And he answered that they should not put confidence in the reward of this life but in the world to come But they denied his words and said We neuer heard any thing of the world to come for they had beene his Disciples and they dissented from him and went to the Sanctuarie of Mount Garizim where the Princes were They vpbraided the Pharisees with their Traditions saying The Tradition is in the hand of the Pharisees to vexe themselues in this World whereas in the World to come they haue no reward Antigonus his words are in the Treatise Pirke Aboth Be yee not seruants which minister to a Prince to receiue of him reward But be yee as seruants which minister to their Prince with this condition that they receiue no reward and let the feare of God be vpon you Elias Leuita thus reporteth it Antigonus Sochaeus had two Disciples Zadok and Baiethos which leauing their Master to follow wicked men first beganne to deny the Lawe which was giuen by word of mouth and beleeued nothing but that which was written in the Law Wherefore they were called Karraim that is Bible-men or Textuals and in the Romane Tongue they call them Sadducees These two are reported also to haue forsaken their Master Antigonus and as Apostaticall Heretikes to haue embraced Sanballats new Samaritane Religion at Carizim Baithos had a certaine family from Sadoc otherwise held the same opinions as Hillel and Sammai among the Pharisees so these were two chiefe Masters of the Sadducaean Schooles The Baithucaeans ministred to Baithos in vessels of siluer and gold These Sadduces were called Minim or Minei that is Heretikes They are called Karraim because they would seeme Textuall and Scripture-men disallowing Traditions of Kara which signifieth the Scripture which was called Kara or Cara of Cara to reade saith Drusius because of the diligence which ought to be vsed in reading the Scriptures whereunto men should designe after the Iewish precepts the third part of their life Abraham Zachuth calls them Epicures The Scriptures they interpreted after their owne sense nor regarded they the words of the Wise-men that is the Pharisees They were of the ancient Caraeans or Karraim but not of those which now are so tearmed Which as Zachuth confesseth confesse the Resurrection and Reward Scaliger affirmeth by the testimonie of Philip Frederike a Christian Iew who had great familiaritie with these Karraim at Constantinople and had beene often present at their Synagogue that they differ nothing from the other Iewes but in reiecting Traditions and are farre more honest and faithfull then the Rabbanim of whome they are no lesse hated for their integritie then for reiecting Tradition But in comparison of the Rabbanim there are but fewe of the Karraim And these are of the Reliques of the olde Sadducees These two Sects haue nothing common betweene them but the Text of the Scripture They haue a differing account of their New-Moones the other Iewes reckoning from the Coniunction these Karraim from the time of apparition as doe the Arabians Concerning the Karraim now remayning it is reported that the other Iewes and they will not speake one to another so inexpiable hatred doe the other Iewes conceiue against them And Postellus saith There are three principall Sects of the Iewes in the Easterne parts Thalmudists Carraim which reiect those Glosses They are rich but so hated of the rest that a great part of their Virgins remaine vnmarried And if saith the common Iew it should so happen that a Caraim a Christian should fall together into the water with like possibilitie of sauing either he would make a bridge of the Carraim to saue the Christian The third sort is the Samaritan of which afterward Buxdorf saith that there are of these Caraim also in Poland and Leo mentioneth some places in Barbarie where this sort of Iewes doth inhabite as you may hereafter reade in our sixt booke and the eleuenth Chapter Some also are in Palestina First their difference from the Pharisees was about the future reward which being denied they by consequence of that error fell into the rest to denie the Resurrection the subsistence spirituall c. They cooped vp God in Heauen without all beholding of euill They denied Fate which the Pharisees held They denied Spirit altogether saith Lira for they held God to be corporeall the soule to die with the bodie Angels and diuels they denied Good and Euill they ascribed to a mans free-will They were inhospitall and cruell and as cruelly hated of the people They are charged the Diuell may be slandered to denie all Scripture but Moses But first in Scripture this opinion of theirs is not mentioned and Iosephus affirmeth that they receiued the Scriptures and reiected Tradition Neither would the zealous people of the Iewes haue endured them in the Temple if they had denied their Prophets for feare of whom they durst not professe otherwise of Iohn Baptist although hee had left no monument of miracle or Scripture Drusius would reconcile this opinion of the Fathers which say they denied all but Moses and the other saying that some of the Sadduces liued in Iudaea others in Samaria These later happily with the Samaritans denied all saue Moses Amongst these were the Apostata's which liued in Sichem mentioned by Iosephus Antiq. lib. 11. cap. 8. and Eccles 50.27 Iunius thinketh that they fell from the Iewish Religion with Manasses in the time of Nehemias The Sect of the
found him writing accents therein that GOD euery day maketh deuout prayers that GOD hath a place a-part wherein hee afflicteth himselfe with weeping for bringing so much euill on the Iewes that euery day hee putteth on their Tephilin and Zizis and so falleth downe and prayeth that as oft as hee remembreth their miseries hee lets fall two teares into the Ocean and knocks his brest with both his hands that the last three houres of the day hee recreateth himselfe in playing with the Fish Leuiathan which once in his anger he slew and powdred for the feast whereof you shall after heare that hee created the Element of fire on the Sabbath day that the RR. one day reasoning against R. Eliezar because GOD with a voyce from a heauen interposed his sentence for for Eliezer the other RR. anathematized GOD who thereat smiling said My children haue ouer-come me But I am weary to adde the rest of their restlesse impieties against the Almightie Neither haue the Creatures escaped them Thus the Talmud telleth That GOD once whipped Gabriel for a great fault with a whip of fire that as Adam before Eue was made had carnally vsed both Males and Females of other Creatures So the Rauen which Noe sent out of the Arke was iealous of Noah lest hee should lye with his Mate that Iobs storie was fayned that Dauid sinned not in his murther and adulterie and they which thinke hee did sinne are Heretikes that vnnaturall copulation with a mans wife is lawfull that he is vnworthy the name of a Rabbine which hateth not his enemie to death that GOD commanded them by any manner of meanes to spoyle the Christians of their goods and to vse them as beasts yea they may kill them and burne their Gospels which they entitle Iniquitie reuealed Iniquitie reuealed indeed is the declaration of these things as of their opinion of the soule if it sinne in one body it passeth into a second if there also into third if it continue sinning it is cast into Hell the soule of Abel passed into Seth and the same after into Moses the soules of the vnlearned shall neuer recouer their bodies Two RR. euery weeke on Friday created two Calues and then did eate them Nothing ought to be eaten by euen numbers but by vneuen wherewith GOD is pleased Perhaps they had read in Virgil Numero Deus impare gaudet but this is common to all Magicians And what doe I weary you and my selfe anticipating the following discourse wherein wee shall haue further occasion to relate the like absurdities which yet if any deny they say hee denyeth GOD. §. II. Of the ancient Iewish Authors and their Kabalists AFter the Times of Christ Philo and Iosephus are famous and after the Resurrection of Christ the Iewes were of three sorts some true beleeuers others absolute denyers the third would haue the Christian Religion and the Iewish Ceremonies to bee conioyned in equall obseruation against which third sort the first Councell Act. 15. was summoned The moderne Iewes insist principally on the litterall sense of Scripture the Elder sought out a spirituall and mysticall sense accounting this a great matter the literall but small like to a candle of small value with the light whereof the other as a pearle hidden in a darke roome is found The Talmudists followed the allegoricall sense the Cabalists the Anagogicall As concerning this Cabala in olde times they communicated not that skill to any but to such as were aged and learned and therefore nothing thereof or very little is found written of the Ancient except of Rabbi Simeon Ben Iohai But the Doctors of the later Iewes lest that learning should perish haue left somewhat thereof in writing but so obscurely that few know it and they which doe account it a great secret and hold it in great regard So saith Elias in the bookes of the Kabala are contained the secrets of the Law and the Prophets which man receiued from the mouth of man vnto our Master Moses on him be peace and therefore it is so called and is diuided into two parts Speculatiue and Practike But I am not worthy to explaine this businesse and by reason of my sinnes haue not learned this wisedome nor knowne this knowledge of those Saints The word Cabala signifieth a receiuing and in that respect may bee supplyed to all their Traditionall receipts but in vse which is the Law of speech it is appropriated to that facultie which as Ricius describeth it by the type of the Mosaicall law insinuateth the secrets of diuine and humane things and because it is not grounded on reason nor deliuered by writing but by the faith of the hearer receiued it is called Cabala Or if you had rather haue it in Reuchlines words it is a Symbolicall receiuing of diuine Reuelation deliuered to the wholesome contemplation of GOD and of the seperated formes and they which receiue it are called Cabalici their Disciples Cabalaei and they which any way imitate them Cabalistae The Talmudists therefore and the Cabalists are of two faculties both agreeing in this that they grow from Tradition whereunto they giue credite without rendring any reason herein differing that the Cabalist as a super-subtill transcendent mounteth with all his industrie and intention from this sensible World vnto that other intellectuall but the grosser Talmudist abideth in this and if at any time hee considereth of GOD or the blessed Spirits yet it is with relation to his workes and their functions not in any abstract contemplation bending his whole study to the explaination of the Law according to the intent of the Law-giuer considering what is to bee done what eschewed whereas the Cabalists most indeauour themselues to contemplation leauing the care of publike and priuate affaires to the Talmudists and reseruing onely to themselues those things which pertaine to the tranquillitie of the minde As therefore the minde is more excellent then the body so you must thinke the Cabalist superiour to the Talmudist For example In the beginning God created Heauen and Earth saith Moses Heauen here after the Talmudist is all that part of the World which is aboue the Moone and all beneath it Earth also by Heauen hee vnderstandeth forme and by Earth matter the composition whereof hee effected not by labour of the hand but by that nine-fold Oracle of his word for so often is it mentioned and God said likewise hee findeth the foure Elements in those words Darkenesse Spirit Waters drie Land But the Cabalist frameth to himselfe two Worlds the Visible and Inuisible Sensible and Mentall Materiall and Ideall Superiour and Inferiour and accordingly gathereth out of the former words God created Heauen and Earth That hee made the highest and lowest things meaning by the highest the immateriall by the lowest this materiall and this is gathered out of the first letter Beth which in numbring signifieth two and insinuateth there these two Worlds Yea they also
vnsauourie to adde somewhat of their Vniuersities degrees of Schooles and the like in the next Section §. III. Of the Rabbines the Rites of their Creation the Iewish Vniuersities and Students AMongst the Iewes all these Titles were of one Root Rab Rabrab Rabba Rabbi Rabban Rabbana Rabbanan Ribbi Ribbun Ribbon Ribbona Ribbuni Rabbuni Rabboni some of which are more vsuall then others but all of them in generall signification betoken either a Prince or Lord or a Master and Doctor Of the former signification are few Examples in Scripture in their Thargumim many and those commonly with some word annexed signifying the thing or mayne subiect of the later the New Testament is full The Root from whence these Titles spring is Rabab or Rab which signifieth to multiply for a Prince multiplyeth his power a Doctor his Learning and one such is as many according to the moderne vse which speaketh to great men and they of themselues in plurall Pronounes Of Rab is Rabbim and Rabboth in the plurall number that vsed for any multitude in other things this appropriated to signifie Rabbins Some also of those Titles are Hebrew some Chaldee or Syriake some indifferently signifie a Lord or Master some more especially the one or the other also in regard of place one of Babylon was called Rabbi of Israel Ribbi of those two famous Vniuersities in Babylonia and Iudaea In regard of excellence one of lowest esteeme was stiled Rab of higher Rabbi or Ribbi of of highest Rabbenu Rabban and Rabbanan Yet doe not these rules alway hold for they haue much altercation amongst themselues why some are named without any Title as Hillel Shamai and diuers others and why some more eminent are called Rab or Rabbi as Rabbi Eliezer Rabbi Iuda Hakkadosh R. Hakiba Rab Ase Authour of the Gemara Rab Haai Rab Baruch and why the Title of Rabban is appropriated to some few Rabban Gamaliel R. Symeon c. This is affirmed for currant that he which hath Disciples may bee called Rab or Rabbi that the younger are not so called by the elder that they which want Imposition of hands may not be so called that the Rulers amongst the people called Nesijm were in manner onely called Rabban and for Rabbenu that is our Master it was ascribed to very few as to Moses first and after to Hakkadosh Hillel Gamaliel c. Those Rabbans were only seuen all of the posterity of Hillel as Buxtorfius witnesseth and these were so called rather because they were Princes or Lords then Doctors Other Titles besides these were also giuen them as Chacham that is wise so Hierom. The Doctors of the Iewes are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from which Greeke word perhaps came that other Title giuen them Sopher so that which Esay hath Sopher the Apostle interpreteth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They were also called by other Doctorly Titles as Mascilim Malphan and Malphana Moreh whence commeth the Moderne Title Morenu that is our Masters attributed to their Arch-rabbines Mar Abba and Abbothenu Zekkenim that is our Fathers old men and the like The RR. were of two sorts one numbred by a succession of time another named of their studies and employments Of the first kind were the Thanaei Amoraei Seboraei Geonim Marbithe Thoraz Chechame Thalmudim Of the other the Masorites Cabbalists Thalmudists Medakdekim Methargemim and others For the former ranke thana signifies to learne whence those Masters which followed the times of the last Prophets till the Reigne of Commodus were called Thanaim Of these are numbred twelue Generations R. Abraham Dauidicus reckoneth from Zorobabel to the destruction of the Temple ten and fiue after These Thanaei are sometimes reckoned by couples of which before the destruction of the Temple one was called Nasi or Prince the other Ab beth Din the Father of the Councell of these Colleagues or paires they reckon fiue the last of which was Hillel Nasi and Schamai Ab beth Din. Hillel had thousands of Disciples but eightie principall the chiefe of which was Ionathan Author of the Chaldee Paraphrase He and his House or Sect held many peculiar Opinions to which Shamai and his House or Schoole opposed themselues and maintayned the contrarie To these succeeded the Amoraim which were so named because hain omerim memoroth They vttered wise Sentences Of these they account seuen Generations These continued till about fiue hundred yeeres after Christ The Seboraei succeeded so called of Sabar that is to bee of opinion for they made not Canons and Constitutions as the former but onely shewed their Opinions Of them were fiue Generations which ended about A. D. 680. and then followed the Geonim The word gaon signifieth both proud and magnificent Of these they number eight Generations continuing till Anno Dom. 1038. Some of them being of Europe in France Germanie and especially in Spaine their Easterne Academies then decaying Of their Chachime Thalmidim afterwards The other ranke or classis of RR. hath first the Masorites of Masor to deliuer tradere so called in respect of their Traditionall Law in a generall sense and more especially of their Tradition of reading the Bible as the Distinctions Accents and Prickes obserued prescribe and that other tradition of Marginall Notes concerning the diuers Readings of the Text They which committed this Masoreth to writing beeing before deliuered by word of mouth only were called Masorites These Masorites by Caninius Genebrard Galatinus Bellarmine and whom in this part of our Discourse we principally follow Serarius that I speake not of Scaliger Martinius and others are acknowledged Authors of the Prickes and Accents as they are now in vse howsoeuer there were some other vsed before which some ascribe to Ezra and some to Moses So doth Sohar Chadasch printed at Cracouia 1603. which sayth the Points were deliuered by the secret of the Law in Sinai And without them words are as women without clothes may not come abroad there is no light in them c. These Masorites are holden to haue liued after the Talmud was finished and therefore to be of the Seboraei Rabbines and that at Tiberias where they had many Synagogues and Libraries sometimes also if Zacuths testimony be true the Sanhedrin it selfe Of the Kabbala and the Kabbalist called Kabbelan and Mekubbal you haue heard a little before and likewise of the Thalmud and Thalmudist The Medakdekim are the Grammarians as Dikduk signifies Grammar R. Iuda is reported to be the first Hammedakdek or Grammarian before whom was no Dikduk of the holy Tongue after him R. Ionah and after him R. Saadias Haggaon after whom innumerable others Ioseph Moses and Dauid all Kimchi's Elias c. That which is said of R. Iuda is to be conceiued of the moderne Prickes and Accents for before his time R. Ioseph Caecus the Amoraei the Scribes and Moses himselfe were therein expert Thargum signifies an Interpretation and thence Thurgemana and Mechurgeman an Interpreter as Dargoman with the Arabs and Turkes at this day
And as the bodie of Scripture was diuided into three parts the Pentateuch Hagiographa and Prophets so haue they three Thargums of Onkelos Ionathas and R. Ioseph the blind which liued about Anno Dom. 400. And as the Thalmud so the Thargum is of two Dialects the Babylonian and of Ierusalem of this the Authour is vnknowne the Babylonian was written the Pentateuch by Onkelos the Prophets by Ionathan the Hagiographa by R. Ioseph Caecus As for the Iewish Fables of a Voyce to Ionathan and of the consuming with fire from Heauen any flye that should disturbe him in his writing his super-excellence among the most excellently learned Schollers of Hillel c and of their many other supposed Thargums with other Rabbinicall workes testifying truly of Christ collected and related by Galatinus and others I forbeare further recitall I might heere amongst their Doctorall Titles reckon the Archiperecitae mentioned by Iustinian a stile giuen to such as were skilfull either in times or rather in the Thalmud as chiefe Masters and Archrabbines Of their Sanhedrin is alreadie spoken The name is if wee receiue Serarius borrowed of the Greekes with whom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Senators These may well be reckoned amongst their learned men Bahal Midrasch is the Author of a Commentary or a Preacher as Darsan also But I haue too long examined Titles If in the next place we obserue the power of the Rabbines they were had in great reuerence and respect they sate in loftie and stately seates had power to create others Masters and Doctors to weare Rings and Hoods and enioyed other Priuiledges differing according to the times places and differing Estates of the Iewes vnder diuers Lords For as we haue obserued in this Countrey of England so in other Countries their power was lesse or more after the will of their Lord in Babylonia Egypt and Spaine somewhat in some places nothing In Iustinians time they challenged power of Excommunication which the Emperour forbad vnder paine of bodily punishments and losse of all their goods The like Ecclesiasticall censure was lately sought by the Iewes of Frankford examined by the Emperours Commissioners at Mentz Now for the Rites of creating the R. in this Doctorall or Rabbinicall Degree First there was some tryall of his worth So Lampridius testifieth of the Emperour Alexander that hee nominated those which were to be sent to gouerne the Prouinces and to will such as could say ought against them to make good proofe thereof or else as Slanderers to lose their heads alleaging that if the Iewes and Christians made such tryals of the Priests it was necessary in these to whom the liues and goods of men were to bee committed By the Iewish Priests wee vnderstand the RR. as the chiefe of them at Wormes is by the vulgar called Iuden Bischoff receiuing some Iurisdiction vnder the Bishop Next after this tryall followed Imposition of hands called by them Semicah which was done by some Rabbine whom they stiled Somech neither before this Imposition might any rightly be termed Rab Rabbi Rabban or Gaon This Rite is ancient Moses hauing vsed it to Ioshua and the Apostles and Christian Bishops still obseruing He was also placed in a Chaire which the Hebrewes call Cisse whence come those Phrases he sate in the seat of such or such a Rabbine as of R. Iose the hand being imposed he was there in Babylon made Gaon and placed in the Throne Rab Haai To this seemes to allude the sitting in Moses Chaire A fourth Rite was a set forme of words anciently these Eni somech otheca Thihieh Samuch that is I lay hand on thee be thou hee on whom hand is laid or I make thee Master bee thou a Master R. Iuda whom Adrian the Emperour slue added a fuller forme of words This Imposition was publikely done in their Schooles where their Chaire was This Imposition of hands some conceiue might not be done extra terram but onely in the Land of Israel which howsoeuer it bee true or false this is certayne that now in their Rabbinicall Creations it is omitted as the chiefe RR. of Frankford in their Epistle to other Iewes complaine and therefore they ordayne tha none in Germany bee esteemed a Morenu our Master without the Approbation of their Archrabbines which keepe an Academie in Germany None shall bee Chaber which hath receiued Imposition of Hands out of Germany None Bachur till the second Yeere after his Marriage especially if hee dwell in a place where is not an Academie that tryall may bee had of his Life and Learning These are three Degrees Morenu as a Doctor Chaber as a Licentiate Bachur as a Bachellour in the Christian Vniuersities Of the Morenu there is difference one beeing chiefe the rest vnder him and these are made of the RR. and if a Rabbine will bee a Morenu he must be examined vsually of three Morenu But to become a Rabbine needs no Examination their Masters testimonie beeing sufficient who is a Morenu or else one chosen by the Congregation to this purpose for one simple R. cannot make another The place is in the Synagogue the day commonly the Sabbath at which time and place the Morenu standing before the Arke or place where the Law is kept speaking to the Assembly saith that such and such haue now spent many yeeres profitably in studie of the Law and is thought worthy of the honour of a Rabbine or a Morenu And then cals the partie foorth by name and appoints him to reade presently to the people and then is he accounted a R. or Morenu And if he be to trauell into any place farre distant he carryeth the testimoniall of this Doctor of the Chaire or Father of the Act which conferred his degree vpon him A Chaber is the Colleague or Companion of a Rabbine but inferiour to him For as in Vniuersities there are Regents and Non-Regents so a Rabbenu or Morenu as one which actually teacheth and as it were a Regent is more then a Rab or Rabbi Scaliger saith that he was not presently after this his Commencement or Proceeding intituled Master but Chaber which had also his Relatiue annexed as R. Ismael Chaber of R. Eleazar which was the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amongst the Greekes as Speusippus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Platonis and whiles hee was so called he neuer sate whiles his Master sate but was prostrate on the pauement And when they were both Masters the younger stood whiles the elder sate and taught as in the Primitiue Church the younger Bishop called the Elder Papa Serarius and he cannot agree about these points Elias sayth that the Doctorall Title of Gaon was giuen them for their perfection in the Talmud for Gaon signifieth sixtie And so many parts are there of the Misna These Wisemen in Spaine added Aben to their Titles as R. Abraham Aben Ezra his Fathers name was Meir but Aben the name of the Family As Paul and Aquila
their returne at their Meales and otherwise and of their Euening Prayer THus haue wee seene the Iewish Mattens which they chant sayth another in a strange wilde hallowing tune imitating sometimes Trumpets and one ecchoing to the other and winding vp by degrees from a soft and silent whispering to the highest and loudest notes that their voyces will beare with much varietie of gesture kneeling they vse none no more then doe the Graecians they burne Lampes but for shew of Deuotion or Eleuation of Spirit that yet in Iewes could I neuer discerne for they are reuerend in their Synagogues as Grammar boyes are at Schoole when their Master is absent In summe their holinesse is the verie outward worke it selfe being a brainlesse head and a soulelesse bodie Meane-while the good-wife at home against her husbands returne sweepeth the house that nothing may disturbe his holy cogitations and layeth him a booke on the Table either the Pentateuch of Moses or a booke of Manners to reade therein the space of an houre before he goeth out of the house about his businesse This studie is required of euerie deuout Iew eyther in his owne house or else in their Schoole or Synagogue And being thus come home they lay vp their Tephillim in a Chest first that of the head then that of the hand They account it healthfull also to eate somewhat in the morning before they goe to worke for whereas there are threescore and three diseases of the gall a bit of Bread or a draught of Wine can cure them all About eleuen of clocke his wife hath prepared his dinner pure meates purely dressed but if she haue Pullen or Cattell shee must first feed them For it is said I will giue grasse in thy field for thy Cattell and thou shalt eate and bee satisfied you see the Cattell are first mentioned And to keepe such Domesticall cattell is good in respect of the disasterous motions of the Planets which must some way sort to effect But if they bee studious of almes and good works then Saphyra Rabba the great Chancellor some Angell according to his office registreth the same and commendeth them vnto GOD saying Turne away that planetarie misfortune from such a one for hee hath done these and these good workes And then doth it befall some wicked man or else some of the Cattell Before they come to the Table they must make tryall againe in the priuie what they can doe for it is written Thou shalt carry out the old because of the new Especially let there bee cleane water wherein the houshold must first wash then the wife and lastly the good-man who presently without touching or speaking ought else might more purely giue thankes Hee sayth R. Iose in the Talmud that eateth with vnwashen hands is as hee that lyeth with an Harlot for it is written For the strange woman a man commeth to a morsell of bread They must wash before meat and after so strictly that they may not keepe on a Ring on their finger for feare of some vncleannesse remaining vnder it I had rather sayth R. Akiba dye for thirst then neglect this washing tradition of the Elders when hee had onely so much water brought him into prison as might serue him but to one vse of washing or drinking at his owne choyse On the Table cleanely spred must bee set a whole loafe well baked and the salt and then the housholder or the chiefest Rabbi at Table taketh the loafe into his hands and in the cleanest and best baked part thereof maketh a cut into it and then setting it downe and spreading his hands on it saith Blessed art thou Lord God King of the world who bringest Bread out of the earth and then breaketh off that piece of bread which hee had cut before and dipping it into the salt or broath eateth it without speaking a word for if hee speake he must say ouer his Grace againe After this hee taketh the loafe and cutteth for the rest Then hee taketh a cup of Wine if they haue any with both hands and with the right hand holdeth it vp a handfull higher then the Table and looking stedfastly on the cup saith Blessed c. who hast made the fruit of the Vine Ouer water they pronounce no blessing and if there bee not three at least at the Table each man must blesse for himselfe If three or more the rest say Amen Salt is religiously set on in remembrance of the Sacrifices If when they cut they should cut off the piece of bread it would offend GOD. Both hands they spread ouer the loafe in memorie of the ten Commandements which GOD hath published concerning Wheat of which bread is made The bread must bee had in speciall honour no vessell supported with it or set vpon it and a spirit called Nabal giueth attendance as deputed to obserue such as through negligence tread it vnder foote and to bring them into pouertie and another man dogged by this spirit which sought to bring him to pouertie eating victuals one day on the grasse in the field the spirit hoped to effect his purpose but this deuout Iew after he had eaten pared away the grasse and threw it with the crummes scattered into it into the Sea for the fishes and presently heard a voyce saying Woe is me foole who haue attended to punish this man and cannot haue occasion They dreame that Elias and euerie mans proper Angell attendeth at Table to heare what is said if they talke of the Law otherwise an ill Angell commeth and causeth brawles and diseases and in respect of these spirituall attendants they cast not their bones beside or behind them They are curious not to eate flesh and fish together but first flesh and then scoure their teeth from the flesh and eate a bit of bread and drinke a draught of drinke before they eate the fish They must not vse the same knife to meats made of milke which they vsed in eating flesh Milke must not stand on the table with flesh nor touch it Besides the 23. Psalme set before them in the meale time they testifie their deuotion by multitudes of new graces or thankesgiuings if any better wine or dainties bee set before them yea besides the particulers of their cates euen for euery good sent as of Oyle Roses Spices c. and are of opinion that to vse any thing without thankesgiuing is to vsurpe and steale it Let this bee spoken to the shame of many prophane Esaus with vs that will rather sell Gods blessings for their meat then seeke them to their meat although in them the payment of these by tale and not by weight is no better then a bead-superstition They make a religion of leauing some leauings of their bread on the table but to leaue a knife there were dangerous euer since that a Iew once in the rehearsing that part of their grace after meat which concerneth the re-edifying of Ierusalem in a deepe
20 21 22. and out of Iob chapter 23. verse 23 24. 25. swingeth the Cocke three times about his head euery time saying This Cocke shall make an exchange for me he shall dye for mee and I shall goe into life with all the people of Israel Amen He doth it three times for himselfe for his children for the strangers that are with him Then hee killeth him and cutteth his throat and hurleth him with all his force to the ground and roasteth him signifying that he himselfe deserueth death the sword stoning and fire the inwards they hurle on the top of the house that the Crowes may with it carrie away their sinnes A white Cocke for this purpose is principall a red Cocke they vse not for they are full of sinne themselues by Esaias authoritie If your sinnes were red as scarlet c. Antonius Margarita saith That this propitiatory creature should bee an Ape as most like to man but they vse a Cocke for the names sake a man in Hebrew is Gebher which is the Talmudicall or Babylonish name of a Cocke Thus those that with a Rams horne beguile the Deuill and with a Cocke beguile GOD iustly beguile themselues who refuse that sacrifice of Christ in whose stripes they might be healed They haue another fable of a Cocke mentioned by Victor Carbensis thinking that as often as a Cocke stands on one leg and his combe lookes pale that GOD is angry which hapneth they say euery day and onely in the day time and that but the twinckling of an eye And therefore they praise GOD which hath giuen such vnderstanding to a Cocke After the performance of this Cocke-sacrifice they goe to the buriall place vsing like Ceremonies there as on New-yeers eeuen and after noone bathe them likewise After Eeuensong he which hath offended others askes them forgiuenesse which if he obtaine not at first then the offender taketh with him three other and asketh the second and third time if all this bee in vaine he taketh ten others and renueth his suite if he obtaine it is well if not GOD will hold him excused and the other partie shall be guiltie If the partie offended be dead the offender with ten other goeth to the graue there confesseth his faults They confesse one to another also and that in a secret place of their Synagogue where each receiueth mutually at his fellowes hand with a leather belt nine and thirty blowes at each blow the partie beaten beateth himselfe on the brest and saith one word of his Confession taken out of the seuentie and eight Psalme and eight and thirtieth Verse being in the Hebrew thirteene words which he thrice repeateth then the striker lyeth downe and receiueth like penance at the hands of the former you may iudge with what rigour This done they runne home and make merry with the Cockes and Hens before mentioned supping largely because of the next dayes fast Their Supper must be ended before Sunne-set for then begineth their fast They put on their cleanest rayment and ouer the same a great and large shirt downe to the shooes to testifie their puritie They resort to their Synagogues with waxe candles in Germanie they haue for euery man one and then light them The women also light Candles at home as on the Sabbath It is ominous if the Candles burne not cleerely They spread the floore with Carpets for soyling their purest cloathes Their humiliations at this feast are fiue first foure and twentie or seuen and twentie houres fast whereunto children are subiect the Males after twelue yeeres the Females after eleuen Secondly they weare no shooes Thirdly they must not annoint them Fourthly nor bathe them no not put a finger into the water Fiftly nor companie with no not touch their wiues Before they begin prayers thirteene of the principall Rabbies walking in the Temple giue licence to all both good and bad to pray And the Praecentor or Reader fetcheth the booke out of the Arke and openeth it singing a long Prayer beginning all compacts vowes and oathes c. insinuating that all the vowes promises oathes and couenants which euerie Iew had that yeere broken bee disanulled and pardoned and that because now all haue power to pray and prayse GOD. They continue singing till late in the night Some remaine all night in the Synagogue yea the deuouter some stand vpright singing and praying without intermission all that feast the space of seuen and twentie houres in the same place Those that departed the Synagogue returne in the morning before day and there stay all that day Often they prostrate themselues with their face couered at euery word of their Confessions knocking their brest When it beginneth to bee night the Priest draweth his Tallies a large cloath made of haires before his eyes and pronounceth the blessing Numb 6. holding his hand towards the people who meane-while couer their faces with their hands for they may not looke on the Priests hand because the spirit of GOD resteth thereon Then hee singeth a Prayer seuen times together sometimes higher sometimes lower with his voyce because that GOD now ascendeth from them into the seuenth Heauen and they with their sweet melodie bring him on the way Then they make a long and shrill sound with their Rams-horne-trumpet and there followeth presently a voyce from Heauen Goe eate thy bread with ioy and gladnesse c. After this they returne home some carrying home their lights to distinguish the holy Times as you haue heard from the prophane some leaue them in the Synagogue all the yeere at certaine times lighting them Some Saint-Iewes prouide to haue a waxe-light continually burning all the yeere long in the Synagogue In their returne they wish to each other a good yeere For the bookes before mentioned are now closed nor may they expect any alteration They sup largely and betimes the next morning returne to the Synagogue lest Sathan should complaine at so soone a cooling of their zeale But the Deuill may bee quiet for when the Law was giuen Samael the euill spirit complained that hee had power ouer all people but the Israelites GOD answered That he should haue power ouer them if on the Reconciliation-day hee found any sinne in them But he finding them pure sayd That this his people were like the Angels liuing in vnitie without eating or drinking The Iewes haue a ceremonie to giue the Deuill gifts on this day either not to hinder them or else because Gifts blinde the wise §. VI. Of their other Feasts THe Iewes diuide the Law into two and fiftie parts and reading euery Sabbath one the last falleth on the next day after the Feast of Tabernacles about the three and twentieth day of September In this day they leape dance and make much ioy They assemble in their Synagogue and take all the bookes of the Law out of the Arke leauing in it meane-while that it bee not left emptie a burning light
the Aethiopian and Calliata Ellecedi which vpon emulation composed also euery one an Alcoran glory of those their Workes containing more honestie and truth Neither hath it pleased any noble or wise man but the rude vulgar of which sore the wearie Labourers gladly gaue eare to his promise of Paradise the poore delighted to heare of Gardens in Persia and Bankrupts and Felons easily listened to securitie and libertie The language is vulgar Postellus also testifieth and without all Art of Grammar such as is obserued of their learned Writers without all bounds of reason or eloquence The Method is so confused that our Arabian Author who liued before it was so generally embraced and in freer times saith That hee had heard euen good Saracens affirme with griefe that it was so mixed and heaped together that they could finde no Reason in it Bad Rime as you haue heard and worse Reason Hierome Sauanorola hath the like saying That no man can finde herein any order Nor could so confused and foolish a Worke proceed from any naturall or supernaturall light It is yet craftily contriued when hee hath set downe some wicked doctrine presently to lace and fringe it with precepts of Fasting Prayer or good manners alwayes taking away things hard to bee beleeued or practised and where it deliuereth any truth it is maymed with defect eclipsed with obscuritie and serueth for a stale to falshood Erpenius hath translated the Chapiter of Ioseph containing a hundred and eleuen Verses the second of which calls it Coran and the next Alcoran the Article added His Annotation is Per verbum Dei intelligunt legem suam qua Coranus ipsis dicitur quam Muhamed ijs persuasit coelitus ad se demissam And although the matter bee absurd and impious yet he saith others perhaps haue of zeale said otherwise that this Coran is composed with such puritie of speech accurate analogie and expressed with perfection of writing that deseruedly it is to them the matter and rule of Grammar They call it Koran of a word which signifies to read as a reading Lecture or collection of Chapiters as the learnedst Arabs will haue it It is not much lesse then the New Testament in words The Arabs extoll it aboue all creatures and ranke it next to God and thinke him vnworthy to liue which toucheth it vnreuerent as a contemner of God They vse it therefore with all reuerence nor will permit a Christian or a Iew to touch it to sit on it is a grieuous crime capitall to Iewes or Christians Nor may they themselues touch it vnwashed and therefore write on the couer thereof Let no man touch it but he which is cleane In it are one hundred and fourteen Chapiters of vnequall quantitie that of Ioseph the twelfth the second as large as the last fortie The first is but of six Verses and therefore not reckoned a Chapiter by our Country-man Robert of Reading who also diuides the fiue following into more by tenne that the seuenth is his seuenteenth Euery Chapiter hath the name of the first word or of the subiect as this is called Ioseph the first opening because it presents it selfe at the opening of the booke It was composed out of diuers papers of Muhamed found at his house which hee professed to receiue from Gabriel at diuers times by Abubecr his father in law the Numa of that Saracen Empire Each Chapiter is called Souraton and with the Article Assurato whence the Latine call it Azoara z. for ss and o. a for o. u as in the word Alcoran it is not to be construed vultus but gradus a degree or step for these steps the whole is passed and each of these was a lesson also to be conned of children and of his disciples After these fancies had caused him to bee expelled Mecca he fled ten dayes off to Iatfrib and there diuulged the rest This is called Medina and Medinatalnabi the Citie of the Prophet and hence some Chapiters haue title of Mecca some of Medina This flight was the fifteenth of Iuly at night A. 622. which is their Aera or computation of their yeeres reckoned by the Moone so that their 1026. began the twentie ninth of December A. D. 1616. Euery Chapiter consists of Verses very vnequall and lame affected rithmes Yea sometimes a sentence is patched in to make vp a rithme Before euery Chapiter is prefixed Bismillahirrahmanirrahimi for so they read it coined together with Articles as if it were all one word the signification is In nomine Dei miseratoris misericordis that is In the name of God shewing mercie mercifull which is as much as summè misericordis exceedingly mercifull or mercifull in Act and Nature To these words they ascribe innumerable mysteries and vertues so that they thinke that almost no worke can haue good successe vnlesse they preface it with this sentence Therefore in the beginning of their bookes they vse it and whatsoeuer businesse they goe about if it be to mount their horse or set forth to rowe a boat c. as I haue beene told Also there are in the beginning of Chapiters fourteene mysticall words of the signification whereof the Arabs professe their vncertaintie and Abubecr was wont to say That in euery booke God kept somewhat secret to himselfe which in the Alcoran were those mysticall beginnings of Chapiters Diuers haue diuersly deuised to hunt out Cabalisticall senses and state-periods with other vanities from them They hold that all the Alcoran was sent in one night which they call therefore nox demissionis nox potentiae and lest it might breed a contradiction that some parts were deliuered at Mecca for so it must be written not Mecha they say that Muhamed receiued them by pieces of the Angell as occasions required but hee from God all in one night and so they will haue the name signifie also a booke sent from heauen Thus much Erpenius in his Annotations on that Chapiter wherein also he blameth the old translation of Robert Reading as in other things so in that that when his mistresse brought Ioseph before other women they were all saith the translation menstruous and cut their hands saying hee was rather an Angel then a man He translates for menstruate sunt magnificarunt eum they magnified him adding concerning that cutting off the hand that it is still an vse of the Arabs Persians and people of the East to expresse loue My friend Mr. Bedwel fortie yeeres studious of Arabike hath told mee that that translation of Reading is generally reasonable well done nor is so faultie as some will haue it or much reading supply that way As for other supply it needs a sword like that Gordian knot rather then a penne that as by the sword it hath beene obtruded on the world as a iust punishment of ingratitude to the Sonne of God the eternall Truth and not by reasons or Scriptures which it corrupts mingles mangles maimes as the Impostors obliuion sometimes sometimes
is carryed to Church with a long speare borne before him hauing a torch on the top worth a crown more or lesse according to the state of the partie adorned with roses and garlands which with the speare is left a gift to the Church the fees of the Priest all the way they sound on instruments after the sonne followeth the father the kindred and the rest of the friends that sometimes there are a hundred horse at Church they alight and accompany the childe to the Priest which wayteth for them Here one of the friends sitteth downe and on his lap the child is set presently another pulleth off his shooes another holdeth his hands and others his feet and many hold him in talke with words and these are the Gossips The Priest seeing all things readie taketh the end of the skinne of his yard and draweth it out and nippeth it with siluer Pinsers so to mortifie it and cut it off with lesse paine then making him beleeue he will deferre it till the next day he ariseth the other holding him fast and after as if he had forgot somewhat to be done about it with sizzers which he holdeth closely in his hand suddenly cutteth it off and another layeth thereon a certaine powlder to ease the paine and in fiue and twentie dayes they looke to the curing of it laying on it salt and marmalade of Quinces and thence forwards he is called a Musulman But his name is not then giuen him but at his birth and that according to their qualitie Bellonius writes that they must answere the Circumciser to certaine questions somewhat like it seemes to that which in the Baptisme of elder persons is performed by themselues of younger by their Godfathers and therefore they are so old before they bee circumcised Hee also affirmeth that it is neuer done in the Meschit wherein none vncircumcised may enter but in the house The name Mussulman Mussliman or Muslim signifies an Orthodoxe Mahometan as Christian or Catholike with vs Verus Turca saith Bellonius Saluatus or sanae fidei homo after Cantacuzenus After the childe is loosed who to shew himselfe of courage smileth and lifting vp his greatest finger saith those former words of their profession and is againe mounted all the company after a little prayer and offering at the Church with like pompe conueigh him home where is great feasting prouision some feast it three dayes together Amurath circumcised his sonne Mahomet at sixteene yeeres old Vnto which solemnitie many Christian Princes were solemnly inuited who sent thither their Ambassadors with Presents who had there their scaffols prepared for them and furnished according to their states The solemnitie lasted fortie dayes and fortie nights in the great Market-place of Constantinople And to end these solemnities Mahomet the Prince was circumcised not publikely but in his Fathers chamber by Mechmet one of the inferiour Bassaes sometime the Emperour Solymans Barber And it is done of other Turkes also most commonly in the Fathers house not in the Church The women-children about the same age among other women without other solemnity say ouer those words La illah c. and likewise the renegado-Iewes but the Christian renegadoes are carried about the streets of the Cities with much solemnity and many gifts giuen them besides freedome from tribute many blinded by couetousnesse offer themselues to this circumcision But if any for blasphemie against Mahomet or iniurie to a Turke be by force circumcised they haue no such gifts which punishment the Cadilescher by the testimony of two accusing Turkes inflicteth And therefore to preuent the same the Christians obtaine the Grand Seigniors safe conduct that in cases of conscience they may not be iudged of any except they were accused at the Court before the foure Bassaes and the Cadilescher of Constantinople and that by the witnesse of Priests onely which had not in twelue yeeres drunke wine CHAP. XII Of the Sepulchres Funerall-Rites and Opinions touching the Dead among the Turkes NOw if you be wearie of viewing their Temples and their Prayers and other Ceremonies seeme tedious I haue thought fit to present you with another sight and to conclude with that which is the conclusion of all flesh a discourse of their Funerals When a Turke is sicke and like to die his friends visite him and putting him in minde of his sinnes aduise him with a penitent heart to bewayle them Then doe certaine of their Priests or one of his kinsmen read some Psalmes and Prayers And if the pangs of death doe still continue they bring him the Alcoran or Curaam wherein is one Legend called Thebara Echelezi which they read seuen times and if hee shall die of that sicknesse they thinke hee will die before they haue thrice read it and if they see breath still remaine they read another Psalme called Iasinnel Curanil Hecin to the end that the Deuill cause no impediment to his soule When hee is dead they lay him forth in the middest of the house vpon Carpets and place him on his right side with his face towards the South Then doe assemble certaine Priests to buy him who bring with them a string of Beades such as the Papists vse in mumbling and numbring their deuotions being a thousand of them of lignum aloes and there with compasse the bodie and then say to euery one Sababan alla that is God haue mercie on him and turne it about foure or fiue times After this their Priests which are twentie or more carrie the corps into the Garden and lay it on a Table two hands breadth from the ground taking away his shirt and couering his shame with a new cloth made of fine bombast with warme water and sope washing him from top to toe Then do they take two sheets of bombast in which they wrap the corps wetting the same with Rose-water perfumes and odoriferous things and laying him on the Beere couer him quite ouer with his best garments placing his Turbant at the head thereof all bedecked with flowers This done the Priests begin their deuotions and some of the company take vp the Beere carrying the same with the head forwards to the Meschit the kinsmen follow and the women remaine at home weeping and make readie to eate for the Priests When they come to the Church they set him downe without doores and goe and make an end of their seruice After that they carry him forth of the City to the buriall place for it is not lawfull to bury in their Cities Some prouide their Sepulchres in their life time some haue them made after by their friends either in their Gardens or some solitarie place They haue also common buriall places as are our Church-yards wherein are many Tombes of Marble Brick or other matter according to the qualitie of the person If the deceased were a man of high condition his horses are led with his corps and his Tombe is adorned with many Epitaphs And if he were a great
hand Fifthly To weare any base attire and to patch their clothes whether there bee any need or not Sixthly to take or steale from any stranger whatsoeuer they can get Seuenthly Towards their owne to bee true in word and deede Eightly To suffer no stranger to come within their Dominion but the same to bee slaue to the first taker except they haue a Pasport But by this time I thinke the Reader will wish mee their pasport to bee gone from them who haue shewed my selfe no Tartarian whilest I dwell so long on this Tartarian discourse happily herein as tedious to him as staying in one place would be to the Tartar a thing so abominable as in anger he wisheth it as a Curse Would GOD thou mayest abide in one place as the Christian till thou smell thine owne dung Indeed this Historie not throughly handled before by any one drew me along and I hope will purchase pardon to this prolixitie CHAP. XVI Of the Nations which liued in or neere to those parts now possessed by the Tartars and their Religions and Customes FRom those Countries inhabited by the Persians and Zagathayan Tartars Eastward we cannot see with M. Paulus his eyes the best guides wee can get for this way any Religion but the Saracen till we come to Bascia a Prouince somewhat bending to the South the people whereof are Idolaters and Magicians cruell and deceitfull liuing on Flesh and Rice Seuen dayes iourney from hence is Chesmur wickedly cunning in their deuillish Art by which they cause the dumbe Idols to speake the day to growe darke and other maruellous things being the wel-spring of Idols and Idolatrie in those parts They haue Heremites after their Law which abide in their Monasteries are very abstinent in eating and drinking containe their bodies in straight chastitie and are very carefull to abstaine from such sinnes wherewith they thinke their Idols offended and liue long There are of them many Monasteries They are obserued of the people with great reuerence The people of that Nation shed no bloud nor kill any flesh but if they will eate any they get the Saracens which liue amongst them to kill it for them North-eastward from hence is Vochan a Saracenicall Nation and after many dayes iourney ouer mountaines so high that no kind of birds are seene thereon is Beloro inhabited with Idolaters Cascar the next Countrey is Mahumetan beyond which are many Nestorian Christians in Carchan There are also Moores or Mahumetanes which haue defiled with like superstition the Countâ—ies of Cotam and Peym where the women may marrie new husbands if the former be absent aboue twenty dayes and the men likewise and of Ciarcian and Lop. From Lop they crosse a Desart which asketh thirtie dayes and must carrie their victuals with them Here they say spirits call men by their names and cause them to stray from their companie and perish with famine When they are passed this Desart they enter into Sachion the first Citie of Tanguth an Idolatrous Prouince subiect to the Great Can there are also some Nestorians and Saracens where they haue had the Art of Printing these thousand yeeres They haue Monasteries replenished with Idols of diuers sorts to which they sacrifice and when they haue a male child borne they commend it to some Idoll in whose honour they nourish a Ramme in their house that yeere and after on their Idols festiuall they bring it together with their Sonne before the Idoll and sacrifice the Ramme and dressing the flesh let it stand till they haue finished their prayers for their childs health in which space they say their Idoll hath sucked out the principall substance of the meate which they then carrie home to their house and assembling their kinsfolke eate it with great reuerence and reioycing sauing the bones in goodly vessels The Priests haue for their fee the head feet inwards skinne and some part of the flesh When any of great place dieth they assemble the Astrologers and tell the houre of his natiuitie that they may by their Art finde a Planet fitting to the burning of the corps which sometime in this respect attendeth this fiery constellation a weeke a moneth or halfe a yeere in all which time they set before the corps a Table furnished with bread wine and other viands leauing them there so long as one might conueniently eate them the Spirit there present in their opinion refreshing himselfe with the odour of this prouision If any euill happen to any of the house the Astrologers ascribe it to the angry soule for neglect of his due houre agreeing to that of his Natiuitie They make many stayes by the way wherein they present this departed soule with such cates to hearten it against the bodies burning They paint many papers made of the barkes of trees with pictures of Men Women Horsâ—s Camels Money and Rayment which they burne together with the Body that the Dead may haue to serue him in the next World And all this while of burning is the Musike of the Citie present playing CHAMVL the next Prouince is Idolatrous or Heathenish for so we distinguish them from Saracens Iewes and Christians which I would were not as guilty of Idolatrie as the former in so many their forbidden Rites although these haue all and the other part of the Scriptures whereof those Heathens and Idolaters are vtterly ignorant Here they not onely permit but account it a great honour to haue their wiues and sisters at the pleasure of such strangers as they entertaine themselues departing the while and suffering all things to be at their guests will for so are their Idols serued who therefore for this hospitalitie they thinke will prosper all that they haue And when as Mangu Can forbad them this beastly practice they abstained three yeeres but then sent a pitifull Embassage to him with request That they might continue their former custome for since they left it they could not thrine who ouercome by their fond importunitie granted their request which they with ioy accepted and doe still obserue In the same Prouince of Tanguth is Succuir whose Mountaines are clothed with Rheubarbe from whence it is by Merchants conueyed through the World Campion is the mother Citie of the Countrey inhabited by Idolaters with some of the Arabian and Christian Nations The Christians had there in the time of M. Paulo three faire Churches The Idolaters had many Monasteries abounding with Idols of wood earth and stone couered with gold and artificially made some great ten paces in length lying along with other little ones about them which seeme as their Disciples to doe them reuerence Their religions persons liue in their opinion more honestly then other Idolaters although their honestie is such as that they thinke it no sinne to lie with a woman which shall seeke it at their hands but if the man first make loue it is sinfull They haue also their Fasting-dayes three foure or fiue in a moneeh in
and by their weight leaue so deepe impression in the sand that hereby men knowing their haunt doe vnder set this their Tract with sharpe stakes headed with yron couering the same againe with sand by this meanes preying on the spoyler and deuouring the deuourer esteeming nothing more sauorie then the flesh nor more medicinable then the gall of this Serpent More Serpentine then this diet was that custome which they vsed when any proper and personable Gentleman of valourous Spirit and goodly presence lodged in any house amongst them in the night they killed him not for the spoyle but that his soule furnished with such parts of body and mind might remaine in that house Much hope of future happinesse to that house did they repose in so vnhappy attempts But the great Can killed this Serpent also ouerthrowing this custome in the conquest of that Prouince CARDANDAN confineth on the Westerne limits of Carazan They make blacke lists in their flesh razing the skinne and put therein some blacke tincture which euer remayneth accounting it a great ornament When a woman is deliuered of a child the man lyeth in and keepeth his bed with visitation of Gossips the space of fortie dayes They worship the ancientest person of the house ascribing to him all their good In this prouince and in Caindu Vocian and Iaci they haue no Phisicians but when any be sicke they send for their Witches or Sorcerers and acquaint them with their maladie They cause Minstrels to play while they dance and sing in honour of their Idols not ceasing till the Diuell entereth into one of them of whom those Sorcerers demand the cause of the parties sickenesse and meanes of recouerie The Demoniake answereth for some offence to such or such a god They pray that God of pardon vowing that when he is whole he shall offer him a sacrifice of his owne bloud If the Diuell see him vnlikely to recouer he answereth that his offences are so grieuous that no sacrifice can expiate but if there be likelihood of recouery he enioyneth them a sacrifice of so many Rams with blacke heads to be offered by these Sorcerers assembled together with their wiues then will that god be reconciled This is presently done by the kinsemen of the sicke the sheepe killed their bloud hurled vp towards Heauen The Sorcerers and Sorceresses make great lights and incense all this visited house making a smoke of Lignum Aloes and casting into the ayre the water wherein the sacrificed flesh was sodden with some spiced drinkes laughing singing dancing in honour of that God After all this reuel-rout they demand againe of the Demoniake if the God be appeased : if so they fall to those spiced drinkes and sacrificed flesh with great mirth and being well apayed returne home if not they at his bidding renue their superstition ascribing the recouerie if it happen to that Idoll and if he dyeth notwithstanding they shift it off to the want of their full due fleecing or tasting the same before to the Idols defrauding Thus doe they in all Cathay and Mangi Thus much out of the large reports of Paulus that renowmed Venetian to whom our Relations are so much indebted Rubruquius telleth the like of CAILAR and CARACORAM where hee had beene in these Catayan Prouinces concerning their Christopher or Giant-like Idols and Idol Temples in one of which he saw a man with a crosse drawne with inke on his hand who seemed by his answers to bee a Christian with Images like to that of Saint Michael and other Saints They haue a Sect called Iugures whose Priests are shauen and clad in Saffron-coloured garments vnmarried an hundred or two hundred in a Cloyster On their holy-dayes they place in their Temples two long formes one ouer against another whereon they sit with bookes in their hands reading softly to themselues Nor could our Author entring amongst them by any meanes breake this their silence They haue wheresoeuer they goe a string about them full of nut-shels like the Popish beadrols alway they are vttering these words Ou â—am hactani God thou knowest expecting so many rewards as they make such memorials of God They haue a Church-yard and a Church-porch with a long pole on it as it were a steeple adioyning to their Temples In those porches they vse to sit and conferre They weare certaine ornaments of paper on their heads Their writing is downewards and so from the left hand to the right which the Tartars receiued from them They vse Magicall Characters hanging their Temples full of them They burne their dead and lay vp the ashes in the top of a Pyramis They beleeue there is one God that he is a Spirit and their Images they make not to represent God but in memoriall of the rich after their death as they professed to Rubruquius The Priests besides their Saffron-iackets buttoned close before weare on their left shoulder a cloake descending before and behind vnder their right arme like to a Deacon carrying the Housel-boxe in Lent They worship towards the North clapping their hands together and prostrating themselues on their knees vpon the Earth holding also their foreheads in their hands They extend their Temples East and West in length vpon the North side they build as it were a Vestrie on the South a Porch The doores of their Temples are alwayes opened to the South A certaine Nestorian Priest told him of so huge an Idoll that it might be seene two dayes before a man came at it Within the Quier which is on the North side of the Temple they place a chest long and broad like a Table and behind that chest stands their principall Idoll towards the South round about which they place the other lesse Idols and vpon that chest they set candles and oblations They haue great Bels like vnto ours The Nestorians of those parts pray with hands displayed before their breasts so to differ from that Iugurian Rite of ioyning hands in prayer Thus farre William de Rubruquius who was there Anno 1253. In Thebet sayth Odoricus resideth the Abassi or Pope of the Idolaters distributing Religious preferments to those Easterne Idolaters as the Roman Pope doth in the West CHAP. XVII Of other Northerne people adioyning to the Tartars and their Religions THE Permians and Samoits that lye from Russia North and North-east are thought to haue taken their beginning from the Tartar-kind whom they somewhat resemble in countenance The Permians are subiect to the Russe they liue by hunting and trading with their furres as doe the Samoits which dwell more toward the North-Sea The Samoit or Samoed hath his name as the Russe sayth of eating himselfe as if they had sometime beene Canibals and at this time they will eate raw flesh whatsoeuer it be euen the very carrion that lyeth in the ditch They say themselues that they were called Samoie that is of themselues as if they were Indigenae there â—â—ad and not transplanted from
eares but no rings on their fingers Both men and women weare long garments with wide sleeues The men weare shooes of silke with curious workes and knots none weares of leather but the basest yea their soles they make of cloth The learned men weare square caps or hats others round They bestow long time euery morning in trimming their haire They vse no shirts but weare their inmost garment of white cloth and vse often washing They haue visants or vmbrellas to keepe off the sunne or raine borne ouer them by their seruants the poorer carrie them of lesse forme themselues The generall colour of the Chinois is white more or lesse according to the climate Their beard is thin long before it comes of a few staring haires in some none noses little scarse standing forth eyes prominent blacke little of egge-fashion many dreames they had of Pantogia's eyes of a darke gray colour as if iewels and precious things might thereby be knowne where they were hidden their eares are small If they would paint a deformed man they giue him a short garment great eyes and beard with a long nose like to vs Their custome of names is very strange The surname is ancient vnchangeable and significant of which there are not a thousand in all China The name is also significant and arbitrary at the fathers pleasure if a sonne For daughters haue no names besides the surname but are called after their age and order the sonnes also are so called by others first second or otherwise with their surname the parents onely and ancestors calling them by their names and themselues in their writings It would bee accounted an iniurie if any other should call them thereby or if he should call his father or kinsman by his name When first a childe betakes himselfe to studie his Master giues him another name which hee and his schoole-fellowes may call him by and no man else When he puts on his Mans hat and marries a wife some chiefe man giues him another name more honorable by which all men may call him but his seruants or such as are subiect to him This they call the Letter Lastly when he is of full ripe age some graue man giues him his most honorable name which they call Great and by this any one may stile him which yet his parents and elders doe not but onely by the Letter If any make profession of Religion in any of their Sects his ghostly Father or Authour of his profession giues him a new name which they call of Religion When one visits another if hee doe not write in his letter of which afterwards his honorable name or surname the Visitee askes him of it that he may call him thereby without iniurie And the Iesuites did also take to themselues in China-fashion such honorable names They are studious of Antiquities Pictures artificially drawne with inke without other colours they haue in highest price the characters also and writings of the Ancients with their Seales annexed For many will seeke to gull men with counterfeits All Magistrates haue the Seale of their office deliuered to them by Humvu which if they lose they are both depriued and punished most diligently therefore preserued carrying it with them to all places and laying it vnder their heads at night Men of good sort goe not in the streets on foot but are carried in a close chaire by foure men the curtens drawne on all parts but before to distinguish them from Magistrates whose chaires are euery way open The Matrons are also carried in chaires closed euery way by the forme easily knowne from those of Men. Coaches and Chariots the law forbids Dice and Cards are common playes in China Chesse also somewhat vnlike ours for the King goes not out of foure places next him and the two Bishops haue their Queenes two men also goe before the Knights besides the ordinary pawnes They haue another play which makes the skilfull therein well esteemed though he can doe nothing else with two hundred men some white some blacke on a table of three hundred diuisions This is vsed by the Magistrates Women goe not abroad except seldome to see their neerest kindred or some of basest condition In their offices of vrbanitie and courtesie they goe beyond all others haue many bookes thereof and reckon it one of those fiue vertues which they call Cardinall I feare to be in the relation as they in action tedious and will but salute their salutations They vncouer not the head to any nor stirre the knee or foot or vse embraces or kissing the hand Their hands are hid and ioyned in their wide sleeues except they doe some worke or with a fanne coole themselues and in salutations first lift vp both sleeues and hands aloft in a modest manner and then let them fall againe standing face to face and saying Zin Zin which word is a rituall interiection without any signification When one visits another or when friends meet in the streets they doe thus bowing also their bodies with their heads almost to the ground they call this Zo ye the inferiour placing the superiour and the visited the visitor on the right hand in the Northerne Prouinces on the left and then turne themselues both to the North. In solemner salutations on high dayes or after long absence after the first bowing they kneele and touch the ground with their forehead and then rise and doe it againe three or foure times ouer In visitations after other officious ceremonies they offer him Chia to drinke of which we haue spoken with other iunkets Except there bee great familiarity he which will salute a friend must at the doore deliuer to the seruant a letter before for his harbenger to signifie his name in modest termes and affection towards him with termes answerable to his estate He is hereby warned to prepare himselfe for entertainment clothing himselfe with apparell for that purpose as must the guest also If they were vnknowne to each other they prostrate themselues and knocke the ground diuers times with their foreheads If they send a Present they send withall a Letter contayning the Inuentorie of the things sent with termes very complementall which he must answere with another Letter of thankes and a Present of like or greater value besides a recompence to the messenger Their parting 's from each other are as full of ceremonie In their feasts they set each guest to tables one furnished with flesh and fish the other with fruits and iunkets They send a Paitre or Letter the day and sometime fiue or sixe dayes before to inuite them and he which cannot come with another Letter must excuse himselfe On the day with the first light he sends new inuitations and againe a little before the time or else his guests will not come Much curtesie is in the meeting exceeding much strayning and striuing about the place of sitting as much solemne ceremonie in eating as if they were bidden to be witnesses of their
prouiding of which they commit not to their heire but themselues in their liues take order for the same bestowing great care and cost for the best wood and workemanship which they are able to procure therein spending sometime seuenty eighty or a hundred ducats They hold it vnfortunate to die before they haue prouided the same They are no lesse curious for the place of their buriall thinking that hereon dependeth the fortune of their posterity and therefore sometime spend a whole yeare in consultation whether it shall bee toward the North or some other Region Their Sepulchers are in the fields on some hillocke neere the Cities each family by themselues where they fortifie them and oft-times resort thither to performe their obsequies To bee buried within the walls were a thing most miserable neuer to bee forgotten At these Sepulchres they haue their yeerely meetings where their kindred burne odours and make a Funerall banket Their Sepulchres are very great of marble with the images of diuers beasts and men standing by Their Epitaphs also in marble magnificent with elegant inscriptions of their exploits For some time after they will eate no flesh in regard of that passage of soules before spoken of This opinion is of more authoritie and credite with them then that of Hell or Heauen although as is said their Bookes and Pictures depaint horrible things in that kinde Others adde that as soone as one is dead they wash him and clothing him in his best apparell all perfumed set him in his best chaire and there all his neerest kindred kneeling before him take their leaue with teares They Coffin him as before and place him in a roome richly furnished and couer him with a sheet in which they paint his portraiture A table standeth by full of Viands with Candles on it Thus doe they keepe him fifteene dayes euery night the Priests executing their superstitious exequies burning and shaking certaine papers before Him By the Sepulchre they plant a Pine tree which is sacred and may not be cut downe nor conuerted to any vse if the weather ouerthrow it Their funerall pompe is in manner of Procession with Candles carried in their hand They burne vpon the graue many papers painted with men cattell and prouision for his vse in the next world It is now time to leaue them quietly resting in their graues onely a word of their Times reputed holy The times religious are the new Moones and full Moones as yee haue heard in which they make great banquets and then also they muster their Souldiers who alone may weare weapons is China They solemnize also their Birth-dayes whereunto their kindred doe resort of custome with presents and receiue good cheere The Kings birth-day is a great festiuall But New-yeeres day is their principall feast This is solemnized of all Sects alike the first new Moone and then againe the first full Moone in the beginning of the yeere This is their Candlemasse feast euery man deuising artificiall lanterns of paper glasse cloth the Halls seeming to bee on fire with the multitude of lights some carrying in the night with great reuels lights and twisted lanthornes Serpentine fashion and many deuices are practised of fire-workes with gunpowder Then they send New-yeeres-gifts to each other as Mendoza writes They haue no Sabboth nor weekely solemnity §. X. Of Strangers and Forren Religions in China OF the Iewes in China wee haue spoken already with their Ethnike rites we haue toyled and tyred you It may haply be some refreshing to looke vpon Sarecenicall or Christian obiects if it bee but for variety How inhospitall the Chinois are to strangers wee haue in part heard neither permitting egresse to the Natiues nor ingresse to aliens except in three respects The first such as come to paye their annuall tributes The second such as pretending honour and tribute come as wee haue heard from the West with seeming tribute a colour to their gaine by Merchandise The third such as in admiration of the Chinian vertues and learning come thither as the Queene of Sheba to Salomon to learne the same which is the Iesuites pretence but these must here fixe their habitation nor may bee suffered to returne such is their iealousie of discouering their mysteries to others And this made the Iesuites after so long stay free from feare of expulsion which yet since complayne of persecution But it may not bee knowne that they haue any intelligence or commerce with strangers and therefore the Iesuites which haue obtained two so great priuiledges the Eunuchs Palace for their Residence and the imployment in correcting the China Kalender both by Royall approbation yet could not obtaine leaue to goe into the Prouince of Canton though with Mathematicall pretexts for that Kalender-businesse to obserue Longitudes and Latitudes of Places because they were said to bee countreymen to those of Macao Yea a Colao or Counsellor of State was depriued for sending a message to a bordering King a tempest of libelling complaints thundering and showring against him therefore In the bordering Prouinces they set narrow watch at Custome-houses Bridges and in the very Riuers by ships of warre thereto appointed But if they bee once gotten into the inner parts of the Kingdome there are no such officers not Searchers Neither may any stranger passe out of the Kingdome after once entring without the Kings licence The Iesuites steale their ingresse and egresse by meanes of the Portugalls which had the Towne of Macao assigned them by the Chinois for traffique These come vsually twice a yeare to the chiefe Citie of the Prouince of Canton which is not called Quantum or Canton the name of the Prouince but Quam ceu All the day time they haue free entrance into the Citie about their Merchandise but must lye on shipboord at night In the midst of the Riuer there is a little Iland and therein a Temple in which they are allowed their Catholike deuotions There by Boat did they prouide to steale in or out of the Countrey The Mahumetans that come in by land if they stay nine yeeres as is obserued may neuer returne home againe Of these there are now many thousand Families in China dispersed into most of the Prouinces and chiefe Cities They haue there their Temples very sumptuous and their Circumcision But as farre as I could euer learne they neyther teach nor care to teach others their deuotions but are vnskilfull of the Saracen Tenets and are contemned of the Chinois It seemes that there comming in was in the time that the Tartars raigned here which since haue increased and after so long continuance are not held in suspition as other strangers Some say after the fourth generation they are reputed as Natiues yea they are admitted to the studies of Learning Degrees and Magistracie as well as the Chinois But most of these thus dignified relinquish their former Superstition retayning nothing thereof but abstinence from Swines flesh which rather by
any haire except on the browes and eye-lids euen on the least child and for the space of thirteene dayes cease to eate Botels his lips are out that doth it and all that time is an Inter-regnum wherein they obserue if any will come in to obiect any thing against the new future King After this hee is sworne to the Lawes of his Predecessor to pay his debts to recouer whatsoeuer belonged to his Kingdome being lost which Oath he taketh hauing his Sword in his left hand and in the right a Candle burning which hath a Ring of Gold vpon it which he toucheth with two of his fingers and taketh his Oath This being done they throw or powre vpon him a few graines of Rice with many other Ceremonies and Prayers and he worshippeth the Sunne three times after which all the Caymailes or principall Nobles sweare their fealtie to him handling also the same Candle The thirteene dayes ended they eate their Betele againe and Flesh and Fish as before the King except who then taketh thought for his Predecessor and for the space of one whole yeere as is before obserued in part out of Barbosa eates no Betele nor shaueth his beard nor cutteth his nailes eateth but once a day and before hee doth it washeth all his bodie and obserueth certaine houres of Prayer daily The yeere being ended he obserueth a kind of Dirige for his Predecessors soule whereat are assembled 100000. persons at which time hee giueth great Almes and then it confirmed All these Malabar Kings haue one speciall Man which is the chiefe Administrator of Iustice who in matters of gouernment is obeyed no lesse then the King himselfe The Souldiers are Nayros none of which can be imprisoned or put to death by ordinarie Iustice but if one of them kill another or else kill a Cow or sleepe with a Countriewoman or speake euill of the King the King after information giues his Warrant to another Nayro who with his Associates kill him wheresoeuer they find him hewing him with their Swords and then hang on him his Warrant to testifie the cause of his death These Nayros may not weare their Weapons nor enter into combate till they be armed Knights although that from the Age of seuen yeeres they are trayned vp in Feates and practice of Armes He is dubbed or created by the King who commandeth to gird him with a Sword and laying his right hand vpon his head muttereth certaine words softly and afterward dubbeth him saying Haue a regard to keepe these Bramenes and their Kine These are the two Great Commandements of the Bramene Law The King sometimes commits this Ceremonie to their Panicall or Master in the Feats of Armes whom they euer honour as their Father and next to the King most reuerence They teach them to Run Leape Fencing and managing of Weapons and anoint them with Oyle of Gergelin to make their sinewes pliant for all winding and tumbling gestures They begin to goe to Schoole at seuen yeeres olde In fight they are valorous and account it no shame to flee but will doe it in policie and yet when they yeeld themselues to any mans seruice they bind themselues to die with him and for him which they faithfully performe fighting till they bee killed They are great South-sayers haue their good and bad Dayes worship the Sun the Moone the Fire and the Kine and the first they meet in the morning The Deuill is often in them they say it is one of their Pagodes which causeth them to vtter terrible wordes and then hee goeth before the King with a naked Sword quaking and cutting his flesh saying with great cries I am such a god and I am come to tell thee such a thing and if the King doubteth he roreth lowder and cutteth himselfe deeper till he be credited The Fortugals haue much eclipsed the greatnesse of the King of Calicut and caused many other alterations in all the East in this last Age of the World Of whose exploits Castaneda Barrius Maffaeus Oserius and others haue written at large Our English-Indian Societie haue setled a Factory at Calicut touching the conditions and condition whereof you may reade at large in Roger Hawes his Iournall deliuered amongst other our Pilgrimes He telleth of the perfidiousnesse of this people how hardly they could get in debts they chusing rather to spend much in bribes then to pay debts Ours made vse of ther Superstition to Iustice for vnderstanding that they would neither eate nor wash whiles the English were in their houses they would threaten not to depart till they were payd hauing meane while Nayros for their Guard Thus Iniustice made them iust and vncharitablenes charitable For rather then be long troubled with their company most of them would pay part of their debts so that they got fifty Fanos kind of Coine of one 100. of another but one notwithstanding their three dayes abode would pay nothing it seemes equally prophane superstitious and vniust §. III. Of their differing Sects BArbosa reckoneth eighteene Sects that haue no mutuall conuersation nor may marrie but in their owne rankes or order Next to the King and Bramenes he placeth the Nayros which are Gentlemen and Souldiers and are not professed Nayros notwithstanding their bloud till they be by their Lords or by the King made Knights or Souldiers And then hee must neuer from that time goe without his Weapons which commonly are a Rapier and a Target and sometimes Peeces or Bowes They neuer marry but lye with such of the Nayros Women or Daughters as like them leauing his Weapons meane while at the doore which forbid any man else although it be the goodman himselfe to enter till he hath ended his businesse and be gone And if one of the common people once touch a Nayro it is lawfull for the Nayro to kill him and he is also vncleane and must be purified by certaine washings And for this cause they cry as they goe in the streets Po Po that the baser Raskality may giue place They haue a Pit of standing Water at their doores hallowed by the Bramenes wherein euery morning they wash themselues although it bee greene slimie and stinking imagining thus to be clensed of their sinnes They are brought vp altogether to Feats of Armes and Actiuitie from their Child-hood admirably able to wind and turne themselues and are very resolute and desperate binding themselues by oath to liue and die with their King or Lord. No Nayro's women may enter into Calicut but one night in the yeere when the Citie is full of Lights and then they goe with the Nayros to behold and gaze their fill They intend nothing but their lust and thinke that if they die Virgins they shall neuer enter into Paradise The Biabari are another sort and are Merchants Gentiles and enioy great priuiledges The King cannot put them to death but by sentence of the principall of themselues They were the only Merchants before the
had his skinne painted with a hot Iron Pensill he and his people at Magellan's peswasion were baptized and burned their Idols which were made of hollow wood with great faces and foure teeth like Bores tuskes in their mouthes painted they were all ouer but had only a forepart and nothing behind They weare in their yard a nayle of Gold They had many wiues but one principall They obserued many Ceremonies in killing a Hogge in Sacrifice as it seemed to the Sunne After the sounding of their Cymbals and certaine Cates set downe in platters two old women came forth with Trumpets or Pipes of Reed and did reuerence to the Sunne and then clothing themselues with sacred Vestments one of them put about her fore-head a haire-lace with two hornes holding another heire-lace or skarfe in her hand and so beganne to sound dance and call vpon the Sunne wherein she is followed by the other both of them in this manner dancing about the Hogge which is there fast tyed The horned Beldame still muttereth certaine words to the Sunne and the other answereth her then doth shee take a cup of wine and after some Ceremonies powreth it on the Hogge and after that with a Launce after dances and flourishes she killeth the Hogge All this while a little Torch is burning which at last she taketh into her mouth and byteth it and the other woman washeth the Pipes with the Swines bloud and with her finger embrewed with bloud marketh the fore-head of her husband first and then of the rest Then doe they vntire themselues and onely with women associates eate the cheare in the platters and after sindge the Hogge and eat him Without these Ceremonies they eat no Swines flesh From hence Magellan went to Mathan where in a battle with the Ilanders he was shine In Pulaoan they keepe Cockes for the game but eate not of their flesh forbidden by their Superstitions In Ciumbubon they found a tree which had leaues like those of the Mulbery hauing besides on each side of the leafe as it were two feete with which as if it had beene mouing and sensible it would stirre and goe vp and downe Pigafetta kept one eight dayes in a platter and when he touched it presently it would flee from him and moue vp and downe he thought it liued of the ayre In Burneo the people are partly Moores and partly Gentiles and according to their Religions haue two Kings and two Royall Cities situated in Salt-water The Moores when they kill a Hen or a Goat vse first certayne words to the Sunne The Gentiles worship the Sunne and Moone esteeming the one Male and the other Female him the Father this the Mother of the Stars whom also they reckon in the catalogue of their Demi-gods They salute the Sun in his morning-approach with certaine Verses and adoration which they also performe to the Moone and demand of them children riches and other their necessaries After death they expect no future state The Spaniards heard of great Pearles as bigge as Egges which the King of Burneo had and if you beleeue them they tooke an Oyster themselues whose fishie substance weighed seuen and fortie pounds The Moore King in Burneo was serued in his Palace and attended only by women and Maydens In Gilolo they are likewise some of the Arabian Sect the others Gentiles The Moores had two Kings of their Law each of which had sixe hundred children The Gentiles vsed to worship the first thing they encounter in the morning all the day following They were sometime man-eaters some of the Ilanders were by the Portugals conuerted but the King being poysoned by a Mahumetan they declined Yet one Nobleman named Iohn first killed his wife and children with his owne hands lest they should apostatize and then offered himselfe to endure any torment §. II. Of the Moluccos Banda Amboyna and Selebes THe Moluccos are vsually reckoned fiue as before is said but many other Ilands are subiect to them and by some Authours called also by that name The King of Ternate is said to haue seuenty Ilands vnder his subiection and in his Port representeth great Maiesty Both heere and in Banda the Mahumetan Superstition hath set footing and preuayled as in the other adioyning Ilands the Moores being as zealous to winne Proselites as to enrich themselues None of these Ilands is aboue sixe leagues in compasse enriched with Cloues but of other fruits barren and poore One tree they haue which out of the cut branches yeeldeth a white wholsome and sauourie liquor for drinke they call it Tuaca and the pith thereof affoordeth them meate called Sagu tasting in the mouth like sowre Curds melting like Sugar whereof they make certayne Cakes which will endure good for food ten yeeres HONDIVS his Map of the Indian Ilands INSULAE INDIAE orientalis The Cloue-trees not onely sucke vp all the moysture of the Earth where they grow disdayning any other plant should grow neere them like our Inclosers suddenly drinking vp all the Heauens liberality in showres but with their thirsty appetite intercept the running waters that descend from the Mountaines before they can betake them to their Mothers lap the Oceans refuge In this Iland are said to bee men hauing anckles with spurres like to Cockes heere are Hogges with hornes a Riuer stored with fish and yet so hot that it flayeth off the skin of any creature which entereth it Oysters so large that they Christen in the shels Crabs so strong that with their clawes they will breake the Iron of a Pick-axe stones which grow like fish whereof they make Lime In Ternate is a Mountayne which as it were angry with Nature for being fastned to the earth doth not only lift vp his high head aboue the Ayrie Regions of cloudes but endeuoureth also to conioyne it selfe with the fiery Element wherewith it seemeth to hold some entercourse with dreadfull thunders belching out light flames mixed with a darke smoke like proud Greatnesse wasting it selfe with it owne flames and filling the neighbouring-valley with ashes It is not much aboue a hundred yeeres since first the Sect of Mahumet entred the Moluccas But now both heere and in Amboino the Iesuits haue their Residences and haue perswaded many to their Catholike Faith and whipping Processions Stephan ab Hagan in the yeere 1605. wanne this Iland of Amboino and the Fort of the Portugals to the States it is a Cloue-Iland The King of Ternate is Mahumetan In Ternate theft is neuer suffered vnpunished the Hollanders saw a Boy of eleuen or twelue yeeres for stealing a leafe of Tobacco led vp and downe with his hands bound behind him for a publike spectacle and derision to other Boyes They mayntaine deadly wars with the Portugals and spare none of them that they can get If an Eclipse of the Sunne or Moone happen they howle and make piteous lamentation perswading themselues that their King or some great man amongst them will
in which all the Marriageable Virgins are kept and instructed a yeeres space by some old man of best estimation This done they are brought forth well apparelled with Musicke and Dances there the young men make their choice and bargaine with the Father paying also the Old man for his yeeres schooling Sorcerers are beheaded and their bodies cast to the Beasts and Fowles for other offences they are sold and made slaues They weare gold Rings hanging at their Noses weighing twenty or thirtie Crownes these with their Eare-rings and Bracelets are buried with them The Cumbae are not of the ancient Natiues but were barbarous and deuourers of mans flesh continually warring on the former These about the yeere one thousand fiue hundred and fifty wasted all the Countrey and at last seated themselues here driuing the Capi from their habitations If they tooke any chiefe men they deuoured them the meaner they sold for slaues to the Portugals reseruing the younger for Souldiory They would sell them more then Dogge-cheape yea some of the Natiues would sell themselues slaues to auoide this barbarous enemy But now being here setled they are growne more milde and gentle Of these are descended as some thinke the Giachi or Iagges of which we shall speake else-where called by this name in Congo in Angola Gindae in Abassia Gallae in Mombaza Zimbae or Imbiae and here Cumbae and Manes by themselues Imbangolae a Nationlesse Nation breeding without generation and vncertaine of what monstrous humane-inhumane Deuillish Originall §. II. Obseruations of those parts out of CADAMOSTA and other Ancient Nauigators NOw for further particulars of the Guinean Nation we will begin with the Nauigations of former times The people inhabiting on the Riuer Sanaga Aloise di Codimosti a Venetiani calls Azanaghi and saith that when first the Portugals sayled thither their simplicity was such hauing neuer before seene a ship that they tooke the ships for great Birds with white wings out of some strange place comming thither but when they saw them strike sayle they changed their opinion and thought them to be fishes seeing them afarre off but when they saw them the next day so farre off from that place they tooke them for night-goblings or spirits This did he learne of diuers of the Azanaghi slaues in Portugall They hid their faces no lesse then the priuities esteeming the mouth vnmeete to be seene whence they belched such sowre breath They had a kind of Muffler to hide it and part of the nose onely discouering the same at meate Other Gouernours they then had not only more reuerence was done to the most rich A beggerly theeuish lying trecherous Nation as any in the World They aniont their haire euery day with fat of fish for great gallantry whereof they stinke exceedingly And lest you should thinke better of their Eyes then of their Nose their women esteeme it the greatest part of goodly feature to haue large Brests which by Arte and industrious stretching of them they enlarge and some of them haue them hanging to their Nauell Neere vnto those are certaine Negros which suffer not themselues to be seene of any nor to be heard speake but haue excellent Gold which they exchange with other Negros which bring vnto them Salt such as the Minerall Salt of Tagazza and leauing the same they goe away from thence halfe a dayes iourney the Negros come downe in certain Barkes and lay at euery heape of Salt a quantity of Gold and goe their wayes When the Salt-Merchants returne if they like the summe they take it if not they leaue the Gold still with the Salt and goe their wayes and then the other returne and what heapes of Salt they find without Gold they take for their own the other either they leaue more Gold for or els leaue altogether This seemeth hard to beleeue but many of the Arabians and Azanhagi testified it to our Author for truth The Merchants of Melli affirmed to mee that their Prince had once by a plot taken one of them thinking to haue learned the condition of that people but either of â—dlennesse or because hee could not hee neither ate nor spake and within three dayes dyed Their stature they which had taken him affirmed to bee a hand higher then themselues and that their nether lip was thicke and red and so great that it hung downe to their brest and it together with their Gummes bloudie their teeth great and on each side one very large their eyes standing out terrible they were to looke vpon And because they had apprehended this man by their ambushment they returned not in three yeeres but after forced by the need of Salt to cure their diseases whence haply that deformitie proceeded they renued that Traffique To leaue these farre within Land and come to the Riuer Senaga Cadamosto iustly maruelled at the partition which that Riuer caused for on the one side the Inhabitants were well proportioned very blacke and the soyle very fertile on the other side the Inhabitants meagre small swart and the ground barren The people that dwell on the bankes of Niger are called Gilofi The Kings name in my time which was almost an hundred and threescore yeeres since was Zuchali He had thirty Wiues When Richard Rainolds was there 1591. the Kings name was Amar Melik All that Region betwixt Sanaga and Gambea is called by one generall name Gia Lef of which Maffaeus and Barrius write That in an accident of ciuill warres Bemoin came to the King of Portugall for aide and was there royally entertayned and baptized with his followers of which some were of such admirable dexteritie and nimblenesse of bodie that they would leape vpon a Horse as hee galloped and would stand vpright in the Saddle when he ranne fastest and turne themselues about and suddenly sit down and in the same race would take vp stones laid in order on the ground and leape downe and vp at pleasure This Bemoin was shamefully murthered by Peter Vaz the Portugall Generall and the hope of Christianity in those parts disappointed This was Anno 1489. From thence Cadamosto went to Budomel the Prince whereof was had in great respect by his people which when they come into his presence kneele on both their knees and bowing their heads to the ground cast sand ouer their shoulders and on their heads with both hands and then to goe towards him on their knees and when they speake to him cast sand ouer their shoulders still with their head bowed downe the Prince scarcely deigning them a looke or word For euery light offence hee would sell their Wiues and Children He suffered our Authour to goe into his Moschee where his Arabian Chaplaines after their manner mumbled their Mattens ten or twelue times in halfe an houre all the company rising and falling againe to the Earth and kissing it He also heard him willingly confute the Mahumetan and approoue the Christian Faith but said hee thought
Their markets are on Sundayes The Knights come hither exceeding yong the sooner to attaine Commendams at home which goe by Senioritie There are resident about fiue hundred and as many abroad to repaire vpon summons Sixteene of them are Counsellors of State called Great Crosses There are seuen Albergs or Seminaries one of which was of England till in the generall Deluge vnder Henrie the eight Saint Iohns without Smithfield sometime the Mansion of the Grand Prior of England was hooked into that crooked streame though still that Title continue an Irish man now enioying it Euery Nation feed by themselues in their seuerall Alberges and sit at table like Friars But how doe I pre-occupate my Christian Relations and fall into a Lethargie hauing opportunitie of such an Hospitall and such Hospitulars Now a word of the ancient Nauigations about Africa Hanno his voyage set forth by the Carthaginians seemed fabulous but Ramusius sheweth euery place by him mentioned to agree with the later Discoueries of the Portugals and thinketh guided by a Portugall Pilot skilfull of those Seas which skanned this Nauigation of Hanno that hee went as farre as Saint Thome Long before this Homer reporteth of Menelaus compassing the Ethiopians from Egypt which some interprete of sayling by the Cape of Good Hope as the Portugals Of this minde Strabo citeth Aristonichus Of Salomon and Iehoshaphat is said before Herodotus affirmeth the Phoenicians sayling in the Red Sea in Cambyses time but this was vsuall and yeerly as Plinie sheweth lib. 6. cap. 23. The same Plinie alledgeth out of Cornelius Nepos the sayling of Eudoxus out of the Red Sea round about Africa to Cales which Strabo relateth otherwise and refuteth The like may be shewed in some other instances of which reade Master Hakluyt his Epistle Dedicatorie Tom. 1. Ramusius part 1. pag. 111. and Galuanus in his Discoueries of the World Which I mention not to disparage or weaken the Portugals praises but to giue Antiquitie their due which I thinke could not ordinarily if at all compasse so long a Nauigation for want of the Compasse yet we should iniurie our Authors if wee should not beleeue somewhat although not so much as they report And this agreeth with the Greeke prouerbe of Hanno's Discoueries and Iubas Historie that hee which findeth sweetnesse in the one may swallow the other and as well entertayne Bauius as Mauius the Periplus of the one and Libyke Histories of the other not obtayning full credit nor wholly meet to be reiected And thus much of this African part of the World the Regions and Religions thereof the one most subiect to the burning beames of the heauenly Sunne the other least enlightning by the comfortable warmth of the Sunne of Righteousnesse blacke in body but more darkned and deformed spiritually as hauing onely some parts of Habassia entirely possessed with Christians besides what in Congo hath of later yeeres beene effected by the Portugals and that little which is subiect to them and Spaine all the rest being Pagan or Mahumetan And would God this were the case of Africa alone seeing that if we diuide the knowne Regions of the world into thirtie equall parts it is Master Brerewoods Computation The Christians part vnderstand it in all Sects and Professions bearing that name is as fiue the Mahumetans as sixe and the Idolaters as nineteene besides that huge heathenous Tract of the vnknowne South Continent which by probable reasons is by him coniectured to bee no lesse then Europe Africa and Asia together So farre is it from truth which one of our Country-men hath lustily bragged on behalfe of his Romish Mother That the Catholike Roman Religion hath had and hath yet a farre greater sway in the world then any other Religion euer had or hath whereas this our Africa hath more Mahumetans in two or three Cities then Romish Catholikes perhaps in her whole compasse And for Asia how pitifully doth he tumble together some names of a few Townes or little Ilands it seemeth vnknowne to himselfe as monuments of Romish Conquests What their American Conuersions are is touched elsewhere Yea euen in our Europe where this mysticall Babylon is situate the mother of the whoredomes and abominations of the Earth the number of Protestants is not much inferiour vnto them But his reasons haue beene alreadie proued vnreasonable by him whose Pen then and Prelacie since wee with all dutie acknowledge a pillar to the Truth and Ornament to our Church and State For my part I am sorrie his assertion is no truer as one seeing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 betweene Catholike and Roman a great gulfe not easily without many prouisoes passable but betweene Heathen and Heauen a bottomlesse depth the way impassable and life impossible Let vs pray to him which is the Way the Truth the Life to make and be the Way by reuelation of his Truth vnto euerlasting Life to these poore Africans that as they are almost wholly in all professions Christian Iewish Morish Ethnike circumcised in the flesh so they may receiue that Circumcision of the Spirit not made with hands which may cut away this superfluitie of superstitions wherein they seeme more deuout then any part of the World and make them with meeknesse to receiue that Word which being grafted in them is able to saue their soules Amen Lord Iesus RELATIONS OF THE DISCOVERIES REGIONS AND RELIGIONS OF THE NEW WORLD OF NEW FRANCE VIRGINIA FLORIDA NEW SPAINE WITH OTHER REGIONS OF AMERICA MEXICANA AND OF THEIR RELIGIONS THE EIGHTH BOOKE CHAP. I. Of the New World and why it is named AMERICA and the West Indies with certaine generall discourses of the Heauens Ayre Water and Earth in those parts §. I. Of the names giuen to this part of the World and diuers opinions of the Ancients concerning the Torrid Zone NOw are wee shipped for the New World and the New Discoueries But seeing this Inkie Sea through which I vnder-take a Pilots office to conduct my Readers is more peaceable then That which on the back-side of this American World was called the Peaceable by Magellane the first Discouerer it yeeldeth vs the fitter opportunitie to contemplation and discourse in such Philosophicall subiects as the best Authors haue thought worthy the first place in their Histories of these parts Yet before we prie into Natures mysteries the better to know our intended voyage let vs enquire somewhat of the Names if any notice may thence arise of the places thereby knowne The New World is the fittest name which can be giuen to this vast and huge Tract iustly called New for the late Discouerie by Columbus An. Dom. 1492. and World for the huge intention thereof as Master Hakluyt hath obserued A new World it may bee also called for that World of new and vnknowne Creatures which the old World neuer heard of and here onely are produced the conceit whereof moued Mercator to thinke which I dare not thinke with him that the great
bigge as Rauens with bils like Hawkes liuing on the prey and smelling like Muske Great Bats one of which was a Physician by strange accident to a seruant of the Friers which being sicke of a Pleurisie was giuen ouer for dead because they could not raise a veine wherein to let him bloud in the night a Bat after the custome of that Creature bit and sucked him whereby so much bloud issued that the sicke man recouered which the Friers counted for a miracle They haue three sorts of Bees one whereof is little and blacke and makes honey in the Trees without Waxe Their Spiders are greater then ours of diuers colours and weaue such strong Cobwebs that they aske good strength to breake them There are Salamanders as bigge as a mans head they cackle much like a Pullet their biting is deadly I might here hold you too long in viewing these strange Creatures we will now returne to their stranger customes §. II. Of their vices and superstitions THey take great pleasure in two things Dancing and Drinking in which they will spend eight dayes together especially at the Marriages or Coronation of their Kings Many Gallants will then meet together diuersly drest some with crownes and Feathers some with shels about their legges in stead of bels to make a noise some otherwise all painted with twenty colours figures he that goes worst seemes best taking one another by the hand they dance in a ring some backwards some forwards with a world of varietie grinning singing crying counterfetting the Deafe Lame Blind Fishing Weauing telling of Stories and this continueth sixe houres and then they eate and drinke before he which danced most now he which drinketh most is the most complete and accomplished Gallant and now beyond counterfetting Drunkennesse sets them together in brauing swaggering quarrelling others play the Swine spue vp the former to make way for other liquor and they adde hereunto the fume of an Hearbe which hath the like drunken effect it seemeth to be Tobacco This perhaps will not seeme strange to some seeing these Sauage customes of drinking dancing smoking swaggering so common with vs in these dayes It might indeed seeme strange to our forefathers if their more ciuill more sacred ghosts might returne and take view of their degenerating posteritie but now hee must be a stranger in many companies that will not estrange himselfe from ciuilitie from humanitie from Christianity from God to become of a Man a Beast of an Englishman a Sauage Indian of a Christian a Fiend saue that he hath a body in the diuersified pollutions whereof he hath aduantage and takes it to out-swagger the Diuell These are the Gull-gallants of our dayes to whom I could wish that either their Progenitors had beene some Cumanian Indians or that they would leaue this vsurped Gallantry to those true owners and resume spirits truely English The Gods of the Cumanians are the Sun and Moone which are taken for man and wife and for the greatest Gods They haue great feare of the Sunne when it Thunders or Lightens saying that he is angry with them They fast when there is any Eclipse especially the women for the married women plucke their haires and scratch their faces with their nailes the Maids thrust sharpe fish-bones into their armes and draw bloud When the Moone is at full they thinke it is wounded by the Sunne for some indignation he hath conceiued against her When any Comet appeareth they make a great noise with Drums hallowing thinking so to scarre it away or to consume it beleeuing that those Comets portend some euils Among their many Idols and figures which they honour as Gods they haue one like a Saint Andrews Crosse which they thought preserued them from night-spirits and they hanged it on their new-borne children They call their Priests Piaces whose Maiden-head-rite we before mentioned They are their Physicians and Magicians They cure with roots and hearbs raw sod and pounded with the fat of Birds Fishes and Beasts with wood and other things vnknowne to the people with abstruse and darke words which themselues vnderstand not They sucke and licke the place where the paine is to draw out the euill humours And if the paine encreaseth they say that the Patients are possessed with euill Spirits and then rub their bodies all ouer with their hands vsing certaine words of Coniuration or Charmes sucking after that very hard giuing them to vnderstand that by that meanes they call out the euill spirits Presently they take a piece of wood the vertue whereof none else knoweth but the Piace and therewith rub their mouthes and throats so long till they cast all that is in their bellies vomiting sometimes bloud with the force thereof the Piace in the meane time stamping knocking calling and gesturing after two houres there comes from him a thicke flegme and in the middest thereof a blacke hard bullet which those of the house carry and cast into the fields saying Let the Diuell goe thither If the sicke man recouer his goods die and become the Priests if he die they say his time was come The Piace is their Oracle with whom they consult whether they shall haue warre what shall be the issue thereof whether the yeere will be plentifull They forewarne them of Eclipses and aduertise of Comets The Spaniards demanded in their necessitie whether any ships would come shortly And they answered that on such a day a Caruell would come with so many men and such prouision and Merchandize which accordingly came to passe They call vpon the Diuell in this manner the Piace entereth into a Caue or secret place in a darke night and carries with him certaine couragious youths that may moue questions without feare He sits on a bench and they stand on their feet he cryeth calleth singeth Verses soundeth shels and they with a heauy accent say many times Prororure Prororure if the Diuell comes not all this Black-Sanctus is renued with grieuous sighs and much perplexity When he commeth which is knowne by the noise hee sounds lowder and suddenly fals downe by visages and varied gesture shewing that the diuell is entred Then one of those his Associates demandeth what him pleaseth The Friers went one day with their coniuring and coniured holies the Crosse Stole Holy-water and when the Piace was in that distraction cast a part of the stole on him crossing and coniuring in Latine and he answered them in his natiue language much to the purpose at last they demanded whither the soules of the Indians went He answered to Hell These Piaces by their Physick and diuining grow rich they goe to Feasts and sit by themselues apart and drinke themselues drunke and say The more they drinke the better they can Diuine They learne these Arts when they are children and are inclosed in the woods two yeares all that time eating nothing that had bloud see no women nor their owne parents come not out of their Caues or Cels
inherited not the goods as is sayd already but they were wholly dedicated to his Oratorie or Guaca and for the mayntenance of the Family he left which with his Off-spring was alway busied at the Sacrifices Ceremonies and Seruice of the deceased King for being dead they presently held him for a God making Images and Sacrifices to him The Ensigne of Royaltie was a Red Rowle of Wooll finer then Silke which hung on his forehead which was a Diadem that none else might weare in the middest of their forehead at the eare the Noblemen men might When they tooke this Roll they made their Coronation Feast and many Sacrifices with a great quantitie of vessels of Gold and Siluer and many Images in the forme of Sheepe of Gold and Siluer and a thousand others of diuers colours Then the chiefe Priest tooke a young Child in his hand of the age of sixe or eight yeeres pronouncing these words with the other Ministers to the Image of Viracocha Lord wee offer this vnto thee that thou mayest mayntaine vs in quiet and helpe vs in our Warres mayntaine our Lord the Ingua in his Greatnesse and estate that hee may alway increase giuing him much knowledge to gouerne vs There were present at this Ceremonie men of all parts of the Realme and of all Guacas and Sanctuaries It is not found that any of the Inguas Subiects euer committed Treason against him Hee placed the Gouernours in euery Prouince some greater and some smaller The Inguas thought it a good rule of State to keepe their Subiects alway in action and therefore there are seene to this day long Causeys of great labour diuiding this large Empire into foure parts Hauing conquered a Prouince they presently reduced them into Townes and Communalties which were diuided into Bands one was appointed ouer tenne another ouer a hundred and another ouer a thousand and ouer tenne thousand another Aboue all there was in euery Prouince a Gouernour of the House of the Inguas to whom the rest gaue accounts of what had passed and who were eyther borne or dead At the Feast called Raymar the Gouernours brought the Tribute of the whole Realme to the Court at Cusco All the Kingdome was diuided into foure parts Chinchasuyo Collosuyo Andesuyo and Condesuyo according to the foure wayes which went from Cusco East West North and South When the Ingua conquered a Citie the Land was diuided into three Parts the first for Religion euery Idoll and Guaca hauing his peculiar Lands appropriated to their Priests and Sacrifices and the greatest part thereof was spent in Cusco where was the Generall and Metropolitan Sanctuary the rest in that Citie where it was gathered which all had Guacas after the fashion of Cusco some being thence distant two hundred leagues That which they reapt on the Land was put into Store-houses built for that purpose The second part of that diuision was for the Ingua for the mayntenance of his Court Kinsmen Noblemen and Souldiers which they brought to Cusco or other places where it was needfull The third part was for the Communaltie for the nourishment of the people no particular man possessing any part hereof in proper As the Family encreased or decreased so did the portion Their Tribute was to till and husband the Lands of the Ingua and the Guacas and lay it vp in Store-houses being for that time of their labour nourished out of the same lands The like distribution was made of the Cattel to the same purposes as that of the lands and of the wooll and other profits that thence arose The old men women and sicke folkes were reserued from this Tribute They payed other Tributes also euen whatsoeuer the Ingua would choose out of euery Prouince The Chicas sent sweete Woods the Lucanas Brancars to carrie his Litter the Chumtilbicas Dancers others were appointed to labour in the Mines and all were slaues to the Ingua Some hee employed in building of Temples Fortresses Houses or other Workes as appeareth by the remnants of them where are found stones of such greatnesse that men cannot conceiue how they were cut brought and layed in their places they hauing no Iron or Steele to cut Engines to carrie nor Morter to lay them and yet they were so cunningly layed that one could not see the ioynts Some of eight and thirtie foot long sayth Acosta eight broad and sixe thicke I measured and in the walles of Cusco are bigger none so little sayth Sancho in some buildings there as three Carts might carrie and some thirty spannes square Iohn Ellis which lately was there sayth some of them are twentie tunne weight strangely ioyned without morter They built a Bridge at Chiquitto the Riuer being so deepe that it will not admit Arches they fastened bundles of Reedes and Weedes which being light will not sinke which they fasten to eyther side of the Riuer they make it passable for man and beast it is three hundred foot long Cusco their chiefe Citie standeth in seuenteene degrees it is subiect to cold and Snow the Houses are of great and square stone It was besieged by Soto and by Pizarro and by him entred where they found more treasure then they had by the imprisonment of Atabaliba Quito is said to haue beene as rich as Cusco Hither Ruminagni fled with fiue thousand Souldiers when Atabaliba his Master was taken by the Spaniards and slue Illescas his Brother that withstood his Tyrannicall proceedings flayed him and made a Drumme of his skinne slue two thousand Souldiers that brought the bodie of Atabaliba to Quite to be interred hauing in shew of Funerall pompe and honour before made them drunke and with his Forces scoured the Prouince of Tamebamba hee killed many of his Wiues for smiling when hee told them they should haue pleasure with the bearded men and burnt the Wardrobe of Atabaliba that when the Spaniards came and entred Quito which had almost dispeopled Panama Nicaragua Cartagena and other their Habitations in hope of Peruuian spoyles they found themselues disappointed of their expected prey and in anger set fire on the Towne Aluarado with like newes came from Guatimala into those parts with foure hundred Spaniards but was forced to kill his Horse to feede his famished Company although at that time Horses were worth in Peru aboue a thousand Ducats a piece was almost killed with thirst was assaulted with showres of Ashes which the hote Vulcane of Quito dispersed two hundred and fortie myles about with terrible Thunders and Lightnings which Pluto had seemed to steale from Iupiter and here to vent them and after with Snowes on the colde Hils which exacted seuenty Spaniards for Tribute in the passage found many men sacrificed by the Inhabitants but could finde no Gold till Pizarro bought his departure with an hundred thousand Duckets Hee gaue Thankes hee sayd to God for his deliuerance by that Tract by which hee had passed to the Deuill This was hee that afterward being bruised with the fall
brood hath taught especially the Spaniards whose they are and whom they serue a better Catholicisme let Arnauldus tell you he sayth that they haue indeed wrought Miracles amongst Indians among which he reckoneth conuerting the Pagans by butcherly subuerting and rooting them out In Hispaniola by keeping the husbands and wiues in diuers workes asunder the old generation being thus worne out and a new preuented In Peru they had publike places of torture within the Marches wherein they might put a thousand at once by tortures to draw forth confessions of their hidden treasures such as escaped hanged themselues in the Mountaynes and their wiues by them with their children at their feete By their Dogs at land they worried them and in their Pearle-fishing exposed them to the rauening Sharkes themselues more dogged and sharking then the brute creatures by fire and Sword consuming 20. Millions of the people I would giue the Deuill his due and therefore would not ascribe all this to those later Locusts the Iesuits who are yet accounted the most cunning and zealous Architects in setting vp the roofe of that aspiring Spanish Monarchie these and the like bloudie foundations notwithstanding and therefore may be called Accessories after As for the Spaniards we see them by testimonie of their owne accused of the same things And how the Ignatians wash their hands not from but in bloud our Europe can testifie What Deuill brought into America the Inquisition his faire Daughter much resembling his accursed presence I know not our Countrimen Philips Hortop and others knew it to their cost But what should we speake of the Spanish crueltie to others Looke on their dealing with each other in ciuill broyles thus dealt they with Columbus rewarding him with Chaines and sending him Prisoner to Spaine by that way which he first of all and for Spaine had discouered What Roldanus and his rebellious faction did in Hispaniola and Vaschus in the Continent Martyr relateth But the bloudiest butcheries passed in Peru where Couetousnesse which before had ioyned now diuorced the hearts of Pizarro and Almagro and after that that neerer coniunction of the head and body of Almagro reuenged in the persons of all the Pizarri which againe retorted the like vengeance vpon the Almagrists their Ghosts seeming or some hellish furies rather to be loosed on that Peruuian stage and to haue brought like mischiefes to the beholders and actors in this Tragedie Vengeance seemed to haue broken forth of Atabalibas Tombe armed with Sword fire halters chaines yea the Spaniards themselues offered themselues her officious Vassals to become cruell Executors of her bloudy Will in mutuall executions vpon themselues The awfull names of Vice-royes Gouernours and Captaines were no lesse subiected to imprisonment and death then the poorest Souldier But for these ciuill vnciuill cruelties amongst themselues they require a good Orator to describe them and those former tyrannies vpon the Indians are beyond all Oratory and description Thunders from Heauen had need be the voice to vtter such Hellish and vnheard-of Massacres Deuils from Hell were fittest Scribes with the fierie Characters of their infernall work-houses to register them the reading whereof might astonish the sense of the Reader amaze his reason exceed his faith and fill his heart with horrour and vncouth passions For mee I want fit words to paint them in their blacke colours my Hand with reluctation trembleth at the writing my Tongue faltereth in the speaking and wholly I seeme to my selfe surprized with distraction and not to bee my selfe whiles the view of this Spanish Medusa transformeth mee into a stone the rather when I thinke such should our English Conuersion haue beene if in that dismall yeere 1588. England had as well succeeded to them as the Indies or if since our Catholike Preachers had preuayled in their Powder-proiects in the yeere 1605. Who for a Temple chose a Vault that their workes of darknesse might be done in the darke and their Work-house might be neerer to Hell thence to borrow at hand supplies of Deuillish deuices and in neerer familiaritie to consult with the Deuill For words they had prepared a Sulphurous breath the smoke whereof might darken the Heauens the fire might rent the trembling and ashonished Earth the noyse might make the hearers past hearing and being together Once those Hellish Cerberi by such preaching had intended there to haue opened the mouth of Hell vpon vs which should haue swallowed our Lawes our Religion our Sun Moone and Morning Star the King Queene and Prince Our fairest Skie of fixed and well ordered lights then shining in their greatest splendour of Parliament-brightnesse The Giants of old were said to bee the sonnes of the Earth but these as they were engendred of Earth so had they incestuously violated that their Mother whether you vnderstand it in a literall or mysticall sense and begotten in her wombe this Hel-monster of their bloudie Catholicisme they had designed the time of her Trauell and themselues would haue beene the Mid-wiues the Deuils had bidden themselues as Gossips and at that opening of the Earths wombe in her fierie trauell would haue sent that way into the World to attend the Babe all the black-guard of Hell Treason Superstition Atheisme Ignorance Fire Sword and all confusion in a reuolution of a worse Chaos then that b Tohu and Bohu of old could haue effected Then should it haue beene no maruell if Rome France Spaine or any other had exercised tyrannie or crueltie seeing all must haue come short of the first crueltie which our English Catholikes had executed to open the floudgates of bloud vnto them And all this was the Catholike cause and these the Preachers or the Vshers rather to the Preachers for the Iesuits will bee angry if wee take from them their bloudie priuiledge of this new Catholicisme which the Deuill till now he is an older and cunninger Serpent had neuer learned himselfe nor could learne others before he had gotten Ignatian Vshers in his Hellish Schoole But whither is your Pilgrime transported Friend I draw neere my Port and leauing America behind mee still red with this bloud now also hauing England in sight which as from a greater height was neere to a more dangerous fall and in this subiect which is of the Spanish cruelties not written in hatred of their Nation because they are Spaniards but of their Pseudo-catholike Religion vnder shew whereof they there did and heere would haue executed those butcheries and for thankfulnesse to God for our later deliuerance of which the time when I relate these things being the returne of that very Day wherein those things should haue beene effected iustly demandeth my testimony I haue thus told out my Storie And now me thinkes I see the shoares of England from which my lingring Pilgrimage hath long detayned me I heare the Bels and see the Bon-fires with publike acclamations of thankfulnesse for that Deliuerance all singing their Hallelu-iahs and saying This is
well attended to meet him and make his prouisions At Yeraslaue another Querry of the Stable met him At Musco hee was honourably entertayned Knez Iuan Suetzcoie attended with 300. Horse brought him to his lodging Sauelle Frolloue the Secretary was sent to congratulate his welcome with many dishes of dressed meate and promise of best accommodating The next day the Emperour sent a Noble man Ignatie Tatishoue to visit him with faire words and promise of speediest audience which was on Satturday following About nine of the clocke the streets were filled with people and a thousand Gunners attired in yellow and blue Garments set in rankes by the Captaines on Horsebacke with bright Harquebuses in their hands from the Ambassadours doore to the Emperours Palace Knez Iuan Sitzcoie attended him mounted on a faire Gennet richly bedecked with a faire Gelding well furnished for the Embassadour attended with three hundred Gentlemen gallantly adorned The Embassadour being displeased that the Dukes Horse was better then his mounted on his owne Horse and with his thirty men liveried in Stamell Clokes well set forth each hauing a part of his Present being most Plate marched onward to the Kings Palace where another Duke met him and told him that the Emperour stayed for him He answered that hee came as fast as he could By the way the people ghessing at the vnpleasingnesse of his message cryed Carenke that is Cranes-legs in mockage of him whereat hee stormed much The passage stayres and Roomes thorow which hee was conducted were all beset with Merchants and Gentlemen in Golden Coats His men entred before him with their Presents into the Roome where the Emperour sate in his Robes and Maiesty with his three Crownes before him foure young Noble men called Ryndes shining in their Cloth of beaten Siluer with foure Scepters or bright Siluer Hatchets in their hands on each side of him the Prince and other his great Dukes and Nobles in rankes sitting round about him The Emperour stood vp and the Embassadour making his courtesies deliuers the Queenes Letters which hee receiued and put off his Imperiall Cap asking how his louing Sister Queene Elizabeth did His answere made he sate downe on a side forme couered with a Carpet and after some little pause and mutuall view was dismissed in manner as hee came and his Dinner of two hundred dishes of dressed meats sent after him by a Gentleman of qualitie I was forewarned by my secret and best friends not to intermeddle in those businesses Some secret and publike conferences passed but good note was taken that none of the great Family of the Godonoues were consulted with therein The King feasts the Embassadour grants great allowance of daily prouision and nothing would please him yea he made great complaints about friuolous matters The Merchants and the Emperours Officers were reconciled in their accounts grieuances remedied Priuiledges granted and an Embassadour to the Queene resolued on if Sir I. B. could haue conformed himselfe to the time any thing might haue beene yeelded yea he promised that if his Marriage with the Queenes Kinswoman tooke effect her issue should inherit the Crowne for assurance whereof he had a masse of ready treasure presently to be transported with his Embassadour vnto Queene Elizabeths trust The Clergy and Noblity especially the neerest allied to the old Empresse the Princes wife and her Family of the Godonoues found meanes to crosse all these Designes The King much distracted in fury caused many Witches Magicians or Wors presently to be sent for out of the North where there are many betweene Colmogro and Lappia Threescore of them were brought post to Musco where they were guarded dyeted and daily visited by the Emperours great Fauourite Bodan Belscoy to receiue from them their Diuinations or Oracles on the Subiects giuen them in charge by the Emperour Note that a great blasing Star and other prodigious sights were seene a moneth together euery night ouer Musco that yeere This Fauorite now sought to serue the turne of the rising Sunne wearied with the wicked disposition of the Emperour The Sooth-sayers tell him that the heauenly Planets and Constellations would produce the Emperours death by such a day But he not daring to tell the Emperour so much said to them that on that day they should be all burned The Emperour began grieuously to swell in his Cods wherewith he had offended so long boasting that he had deflowred thousands of Virgins and a thousand children of his begetting destroyed was carried euery day in his Chaire into his Treasury One day two dayes before the Emperour his death the Prince beckoned to me to follow and I aduenturously stood among the rest and heard him call for his Precious Stones and Iewels He then held discourse to the Nobles about him directing his eye and speech most to Boris Godouona of the nature and properties of his Gemmes of the World compassing Load-stone causing the Wayters to make a Chaine of Needles therewith touched of the Corall also and Turkesse whose beautifull colours sayd he layd on my arme poysoned with inflammation you see are turned pale and declare my death Reach out my Staffe Royall an Vnicornes Horne garnished with very faite Diamonds Rubies Saphires Emeralds and other Precious Stones it cost 70000. Markes sterling bought of Dauid Gowell of the Fulkers of Ausburge seeke out some Spiders caused his Physician Iohannes Eiloff to scrape a Circle thereof vpon the Table and put within it one Spider and after another which burst presently others without the Circle running away from it aliue It is too late it will not preserue me Behold these Precious Stones the Diamond most precious of all other I neuer affected it it restraines Fury and Luxury the powder is poyson Then he points to the Rubie this comforts the Braine and Memory clarifieth congealed bloud That Emerald of the nature of the Rainbow is enemy to all vncleanenesse and though a man cohabit in Lust with his owne Wife this Stone being about them will burst at the spending of Nature The Saphyre I greatly delight in it preserueth and increaseth Nature and Courage reioyceth the heart is pleasing to all the vitall Senses souereigne to the Eyes strengthens the Muscles Hee takes the Onyx in hand c. All these are Gods wonderfull gifts secrets in Nature reuealed to mans vse and contemplation as friends to grace and vertue and Enemies to vice I faint carry me away till another time In the afternoone he peruseth ouer his Will and yet thinkes not to dye His Ghostly Father dares not put him in minde of annointing in holy forme Hee hath beene witched in that place and often vnwitched againe He commands the Master of the Apotheke and the Physicians to prepare a Bath for his solace enquires the goodnesse of the Signe sends his Fauourite to his Witches to know their Calculations Hee tels them the Emperour will bury or burne them all quicke for their Illusions and Lyes the day is comne he is
nothing to say to him from that Renowmed Queene of England the Myrrour of all the Queenes that euer reigned yet he did so much honour and admire her excellent vertues and graces that he would also hold me in the reputation of her Maiesties Ambassadour and that it was in his Supreame power and pleasure to allow or not allow of the King his Letters Patents for my passage thorow that great Principalitie his Inheritance and differing from the Crowne of Poland That his Subiects might thinke I negotiated with him he tooke me with him to his Church heard Diuiue Seruice Psalmes fling and a Sermon the Sacrament also was administred as in the Reformed Churches whereat his Brother Cardinall Ragauill did murmure His Highnesse inuited me to Dinner honoured with fifty Halbardiers thorow the Citie Gunners placed and fiue hundred Gentlemen his Guard to bring me to his Palace where himselfe accompanied with many young Noblemen receiued me vpon the Terras and then brought me into a very large Roome where were Organs with singing A long Table was set with Lords and Ladies Himselfe vnder a Cloth of State and I was placed before him in the middest of the Table With sound of Trumpets and Kettle Drummes the first Seruice was brought in and after Prayer sayd by his Almoner Iesters and Poets dicoursed merrily Instruments of lowd and other of lower Musicke were added twenty Dwarfes men and women attired curiously made sweet harmony with mournfull Pipes and Songs vsing also Dauids Tymbrels and Aarons Bels as they called them and danced deuidng themselues man and woman hand in hand His Highnesse dranke for the Maiestie of the Angelicall Queene of England her health illustrating her greatnesse and graces with many good words The Princes Ladies euery one with their glasses of sweet Wine pledged I did the like for his Highnesse health Then were serued in strange portraytures of Lions Vnicornes Spread Eagles Swannes c. made artificially of Sugar past gilded with Spickets in their bellies filled some with Sacke others with Rhenish or Hungarian Wines euery one thence to fill his Glasse others also had Suckets to be taken out of their bellies with their Siluer Forkes It were tedious to relate all the particulars After sixe houres spent in this Feast I was conducted to my lodging in manner as I had beene brought and afterwards had my Letters Parens and a Gentleman to conduct mee thorow his Countrey I passed by Smoleuske to Musco 1200. miles from Vilna My entertaynment at Vilna and negotiating with the King of Poland now made me suspected to the Russian Nobility The Bishop of Susdales House was appointed for my lodging where I was guarded and attended by meane Gentlemen the pretence was lest I should haue conference with the Polish Embassadour The Protector was not present when I had audience of the Emperour and after priuately sent for me professed himselfe sorry he could not bee so fauourable as in former times to me but promised that a haire of my head should not fall to the ground c. I perceiued many of my good Friends were gone and made away had warning of many Articles framed against me which against their wils being divulged I answered so as I gained reputation thereby Yet the water which was daily brought mee from the Riuer was poysoned as also my drinke Herbs and Muske Melons sent to my House my Landresse was hired likewise to poyson me which she confessed with the circumstances I had a Seruant a Lords Sonne of Danzike which brake out with Blaynes and escaped narrowly my Cooke and Butler both dyed of poyson I writ to the Lord Protector hereof but receiued no answere I must remoue to Yeraslaue till the Polish Embassadour was gone and the third night after I came to this Towne I commended my Soule to God expecting death One tapped at my gate at midnight and I with my Seruants well appointed came to enquire the cause Alphonasie Nagoy Brother to the Emperour Mother of Demetrius which were placed at Onglets fiue and twenty miles off cryed out and sayd O sweet Yereme the Charowich Demetrius is dead his throate was cut about the sixt houre by the Deaks Sonne one of his Pages confessed vpon the Racke by Boris his setting on and the Empresse poysoned and vpon point of death her haire nayles and skinne fall off helpe helpe with some good thing for the passion of God This out cry did not a little astonish me till I saw his face ouer the wall I durst not open my gates sayd I had nothing worth the sending yet gaue a little Viall of Balsam which Queene Elizabeth had giuen me as an Antidote against Poysons giuen her by Sir F. Dr. with a boxe of Venice Treacle Some three dayes before the Suburbs of Musco were set on fire and 12000. houses burned Boris his guard had the spoyle It was giuen out that Demetrius his Mother her Brother and that Family of the Nagoies had practised to kill the Emperour and Protector and to burne the whole Citie of Musco Fiue desperate Souldiers were suborned to indure the Racke and confessed there that they were the men which should doe this exploit This was published to make the name of Demetrius hatefull to the people with that whole Family The Bishop of Orutesca was sent accompanied with fiue hundred Gunnes and diuers Nobles and Gentlemen to see Demetrius buried vnder the high Altar of Saint Iohns in Ouglets in Ouglets Castle Little did Boris thinke that his Ghost should after root out him and his Family The sicke poysoned Empresse was presently shorne a Nunne all her Allies her Brother Vncles Friends and Officers dispersed in displeasure to diuers secret Dens not to haue communitie with men or see the light I was hasted away also I had Letters from Boris he could not doe as he would but time would worke me more grace as amply as euer If I wanted money or prouision hee would impart of his owne Some secrets he had committed to mee which now made a dangerous impression in his memory I arriued in England deliuered my Letters to the Queene which I found much more fauourable then I expected the Company of Merchants payd me 1845. pounds in ready money for my goods in their hands a generall release past on both sides c. I furnished Master Hakluyt and Doctor Fletcher with Intelligences c. Thus the Race of Iuan Vasiliwich which had continued aboue 300. yeeres was raced out and extinguished in bloud the Emperour soone following as I receiued by Letters from thence from my worthy friends and haue since had conference with two Embassadours and a Fryer of good intelligence Boris had made away most of the chiefe and ancient Nobility and now remooued the Emperour Theodor placed his Sister the Empresse in a Monastery causeth the Patriarches Metropolites Bishops and new sprung Nobility his Officers Merchants and other his owne creatures to petition him to take the Crowne