a wiseman hath giuen too much to many men but enough to no man For althoughe saies Horace wealthe do growe without measure yet is there alwaies some thing wanting vnto wealth whiche is euer too short Wherefore in an other Ode doethe he aptly compare couetousnesse to the dropsie whiche groweth still greater and greater by continuall féeding of her humor with lugging in of drinke the which it vehemently desires For bothe the moisture the grounde of the griefe is augmented and also the liquor whiche is powred in to quenche the thirst being turned into a salt qualitie by the inward humour increaseth the former thirst the salte moisture the cause thereof being augmented In like manner couetousnesse chaunging all that euer shée doth get into her owne gréedy desiring humour hath not her insatiable desire satisfied filled by getting of much but rather made the greater more matter being supplied and added vnto it no otherwise then Hippocrates saieth that the more thou doest nourish and feede an vncleane bodie the more thou hurtest and weakenest it the quantitie of ill humours being by meate increased and the ill qualitie of them still kept and reteined To what pains doth this gréedy gulfe put man vnto This maketh him to runne day night thorough thicke and thinne fire and water to suffer killing colde in winter to abide the hurtfull heate in summer to sayle the daungerous seas to trauell the countries burnt vppe with the scortching sunne beames or oppressed with snowe and yce What facte is so perillous the whiche it will not driue man to do And when the couetous haue gotten great riches are they not Tantalus in the Poets that continually is like to dye for thirst and yet the water toucheth his lower lippe and starue for hunger the apple bobbing his vpper for vnto the couetous according vnto the olde sawes as well that is lacking which he hath as also that which he hath not and vnto a poore man be many thinges wanting but vnto a couetous man all And as he coueteth those thinges whiche he hathe not so feareth he to vse them which he hath least he should spend them but muche more is he tormented least they should be taken away from him so that in prosperitie he feareth aduersitie and léeseth present ioy for feare of sorrowe to come Wherefore moste true is that saying of the Mimographer one can wishe a couetous man no greater mischéefe then long life for he is the cause of his owne ill The fourteenth Chapter The rites vsed at burialles of almost all nations and sectes as well auncient as moderne with mention of diuerse costly rumbes BVt howe great mans care for buriall is whiche Plinie doeth set downe for the next incommoditie the two Oceans of all knowledge and wisedome Homer and Virgil haue declared yea and long before them God himselfe who commaunded it to be tolde to a disobedient prophet as a great terrour and mischiefe that he should not be buried in the sepulchre of his auncestours and threateneth Achab and Iezabel for their great outrages that either dogges or byrdes should teare into péeces their dead carcases But Homer in the 22. booke of his Iliad maketh couragious Hector to desire his cruel enimie Achilles when he was about presently to bereaue him of light not to spare his life but only earnestly to obtest him for the soule pietie of his parentes not to suffer the dogges to teare him in péeces at the shippes of the Gréekes but to take a great masse of money golde and other riche gyftes of his father and mother for his dead bodie that the Troiâ—â—s their wiues might honorably burne it And in the xij booke of Virgils Aeneidos the Italian Hector Turnus desireth the insulting Victor to restore vnto his fréendes his body spoyled of life and to extend his hatred no further Also in the tenth that despiser of the Goddes Mezentius when that Aeneas triumphed ouer him who lay flat on the ground and said where is this valiaunt Mezentius where is that sauage fiercenesse of hart of his answered O cruell enimie why doest thou insult ouer me threatnest me death why staiest thou thy happie hand why man it is no crueltie to kil me neither came I hither chalenged thée to the cumbat that I might be victor vanquisher neither did my deare sonne Lausus make any such couenaunt with thée for mée but nowe he is slaine it is life for me to die But this one thing I do request of thee if the a vanquished enimie may obteine any pardon or benefit at thy hand that thou wilt suffer my body to be couered with the earth I know the cruell hatred of my subiects inuiron me round about I suppliantly beséeche thée defend me from this one extréeme furie and let me be partaker of my sonnes sepulchre The foolish gentiles did holde that the soules of deadmen could not passe ouer the Srygian lake into the place of rest before that their bodies rested in some seate and place hereof came it that the soule of Patroclus in the xxiij of the Iliades appearing vnto Achilles complaineth of his flouthe desiring him to hasten his funeralles and buriall And Palinurus in Virgil can not passe the Stygian lake because that his bones lay vnburied Moreouer Virgil in the same sixt booke doth affirme that the soules of the vnburied doe wander aboute the hither shore of the lake 100. yeares which is saies Seruius the iust yeares of mannes life which being compleate and ended they may passe ouer the riuer that is go into the place of purgation that they may returne againe according vnto Pythagoras his doctrine into some body Hereof it came that among the Athenians if any captein did not honest with buriall his souldiers slaine in the warres he should léese his life for it And there was among the Macedons almoste no so solemne a function of warrefare as to bury their dead felowes But at Rome he that had taken vppe a dead man out of the graue or digged vp the bones if he were a man of lowe degrée sayes Paulus he suffered death but if of more honest calling he was banished into an I le or condemned to worke in the mines Yea this care of burial is so coÌ„mon vnto all mankinde that I knowe not whither there were euer any nation so barbarous or sect so sauage whiche hath not had their solemne funeralles and burying although in déede diuerse yea and quite contrarie one vnto an other The Persians after that the dead body is torne in péeces either by dogges or byrdes wrapping it in waxe buried it in the ground The Babylonians honied them and in other ceremonies were like vnto the Egyptians among whom when one died the women of the house did couer their face and head all ouer with durt and ranne out of the doores through out the streetes crying and wringing their handes with their clothes tucked vppe their dugges naked and
folkes burying with them their bookes of remembrances and ordering of their affaires and businesses and also of their debtes there were some also that would willingly cast them selues into the roges or burial fires of their friends as though they should by that meanes liue with them together in an other world When the king of Lacedemonia happened to dye horsmen did carrie newes of his death thorough out all the realme and women went about the citie making a great noyse with ringing of brasen pots and basens And while this was a doing of euery house there must one man and one woman be defiled with mourning or else a great fine was set vpō their heads But at the funerals they vsed the same order that the Barbarians of Asia did at the burials of their kings For there must be at the funerals out of euery region of Lacedemonia al that were of aliaunce vnto him Of whom and also of bondmen and the Lacedemonians them selues after there were many thousandes assembled together then both men and women pricked and punched their foreheades without feare and vsed an vnmeasurable howling affirming euery last king to be the best But that king which dyed in the warres after they had made a very liuely Image of him did they carrie to be buried laying him vpon a bed gorgeously trimmed At his interring proclamation was made that no Iudges nor Magistrates shoulde sit and that there shoulde be continuall mourning but for priuate men they might mourne but eleuen dayes But I thinke this buriall was common vnto all the Greeks to burne their bodies and putting the ashes into a pot or stone to burie it in the ground setting vpon the graue a tumbe Seruius although Celius doth reprehend him for it thinkes that the vsage of burning deade bodyes was begunne by Hercules who burnt Argiuus the sonne of Lycimnius bringing his bones with him vnto Lycimnius that he might performe the promise which he had made vnto him that he woulde bring him home his sonne againe And vpon the eleuenth of the Aeneidos he sayth that Heraclitus who would haue that all things consist of fire holdes that al bodies ought to be resolued into fire but Thales who affirmes all things to be bred of moysture sayes that bodyes ought to be couered in the earth that they may be resolued by moysture And on the thirde that the Aegyptians men skilfull in all wisedome doe conserue their coorses being seasoned for sayes Mela they kéepe the deade being medicined by art at home in their houses that the soule may long time continue and remaine obnoxious and bound vnto the body that he may not soone passe into an other body the Romanes do contrarie for they burne the bodies that the soule may incontinently returne into generalitie that is to wit into her nature Herodotus writes in his thirde booke that the Aegyptians Persians think it not lawfull to burne the dead For the Persians doe holde the fire for a God and it is not méete and conuenient to offer a deade mans carkasse vnto a god But the Aegyptians be persuaded that the fire is a certaine liuing beast which doth consume and deuour all that euer it can get but when it hath eaten and absumed all that then both it and also al those things which it hath deuoured do dye together therefore the Aegyptians haue decréed neyther to burne folkes nor yet to cast them vnto beastes which many other nations did but to season them that they maye not be consumed by wormes But to returne againe vnto the Greekes Homer thus describeth the manner of their buriall when he writeth howe Patroclus was buried They made a mightie oyle of wood an hundreth foote highe vppon the which they layde the deade body pouring into the fire gallons of oyle and hony and threwe in also shéepe and oxen alwayes prouided that they were euen out of whome they had before taken the caules and talowe and layde vpon the coorse and when the carkasse with all these geare were burnt and the wood spent they did put the fire quite out with black wine and gathered vp all the bones and ashes whiche being put into a cup of gold and wrapped in two foldes of tallowe they digged a graue in which they layde the cup throwing still earth vpon it vntill they had made a great hillocke wherevpon they did set a tumbe If that a noble man were slaine in the warres they vsed to kyll and burne with him for an infernall sacrifice to appease his spirite certeine of the enimies prisoners So doth Achylles sacrifice twelue Troians vnto Patroclus and Aeneas as many Rutillians vnto Pallas and Alexander vnto Ephestion although he dyed of sicknesse all the Cussei that were aboue 14. yeares whiche in olde time to haue bene also vsed in Italie doth appeare by Seruius vpon the tenth of the Aeneidos where he hath these wordes Inferiae be the sacrifices which are payde vnto hell Indéede it was the manner in olde time for prisoners to be slaine vpon the sepulchres of valiaunt men but afterward whē that séemed to be ouer cruel it was thought good that sword players should fight before the sepulchres who thereof were called Bustiarij of the bustes or buriall fires The Greekes also vsed at burials to hold great feastes playes and all sorts of games as Achylles doth in Homer at the buriall of Patroclus and Aeneas in Virgil at the twelue monthes mynd of his father Hereof arose those incredible charges of funerals that Alexander bestowed 10000. talents that is 1875000.l vpon the funerals of Ephestion and Isidorus a Romane willed by testament his heire to bestowe vpon his funeralles xj thousand sesterties which amounts to aboue 87937. for the ryotous Romanes followed all the rites of the Gréekes in their funerals burning the body and laying the bones in a pot or stone in the ground and setting therevpon a tumbe and holding of magnificent feastes games stage playes and all such other pastimes C. Curio who sayes Plinie had no goodes to put into the Censors booke but onely the discord of Pompey and Caesar did at the funeralles of his father make two mightie Theatres of wood the one set close vnto the other eyther of them hanging by one vice so that in the forenoone they stoode backe to backe that the players in the one shoulde not with their noyse hinder the other but soudenly with all the people sitting vpō them were they turned round about so that the one stoode right ouer against the other and at the last their horns for they were made in forme of a newe moone ioyned close together and made an amphitheatre round wherevpon fought sword players But bicause I spake a little before of the great charges bestowed vpon the funeralles of Ephestion I thinke it not vnpleasant to rehearse out of Diodorus Siculus somwhat of the sumptuous manner of them All the capteines and friendes of
vnto the greate Cham for they do thinke that they shall stande him in vse there In like maner doth Iouius write that all the lordes and princes of the Moores and Numidians dwell they neuer so farre off are all buried at the citie of Caruenna three days iourney frō Tunes because they be persuaded that their soules whose bones lie in the moste auncient sacred temple of that citie are most effectually commended vnto God for to obteine the felicitie of the heauenly life as they whiche are moste purely purged and clensed by the exquisite ceremonies and prayers of the reuerende college of holie priestes of the church In Tangute a prouince vnder the great Cham they vse to burne the bodie of the deade as also do almost al the nations of the East yet some do reserue the bodie certeine dayes some seuen dayes other while a moneth often times sixe moneths making at home a coffen for him the boords therof being ioyned together so close that no stinke can breath out of it And euerie day whilest the coorse is in the house do they at dinner time prepare and furnishe a table besides the coorse where vpon they set wine and meates letting them stande there the space of an houre for they do thinke that the soule of the deade man doth take and féede of the thinges whiche are set vpon the table In the citie of Tarnasseri in the newe founde Easte Indies they also burne their deade and put their ashes in vessels of clay which are seasoned with saltepeter or nitrum the vessels beeing filled with the ashes in the grounde do they set vp at home in their owne houses When they burne them they cast into the fire all kindes of swéete odors as Aloe Franckincense Myrrh Storax Corall Saunders and innumerable sortes of such odoriferous trées the trumpets blowing the pipers playing heauenlike but fiftéene dayes after the death of her husband the wife which suruiueth biddeth all her kinsfolkes vnto a feaste and adourned with all her iewels goeth vnto the place where her husband was burnt where a hole or pitte is digged of greate deapth and able to receiue a woman which they hange rounde aboute with blacke clothe and the pitte burneth verie feruently beeing filled full of odoriferous woodes after that the guests haue ended their feast the widdowe eateth greate store of Betola whereby her wittes are somewhat taken from her Nowe a greate number of pipers stande rounde about the pitte apparelled like vnto diuels and the woman like one somwhat frantike goeth to and fro hopping skipping as though she daunced at the length when al the ceremonies be finished shée throweth her self downe headlong into the burning pitt euen as though shée therby should be receiued immediately into heauen And vnlest the widdowe will doe thus after the death of her husband she is noted with wounderful infamie is a mocking stocke vnto all the whole region as one that loued not her husbande This fashion do none keepe but the noble men and the chiefe of the citie wherefore they say the king is mostly present at such a pompe The wylde people of America as soone as euer the soule is departed out of the bodie laye the deade bodie in the earth in that place where the diseased person did lacke greatest pleasure in his life time thinking that they cannot lay him in a more notable and honourable place then in the earth that bringeth foorth so manie good fruits and other riches profitable and néedefull for mannes vse If that an householder happen to die his wiues and his nearest kinsfolkes and friendes wil make a merueilous mourning not for the space of thrée or foure dayes but of foure or fiue monethes but the greatest lamentation is foure or fiue of the firste dayes you shal heare them make such a noise and harmonie as if a sorte of cattes and dogges were together ye shall sée as well men as women some laide on their beddes sorrowfull other sitting with their bare buttockes on the ground embracing one an other saying in their launguage our father or friende was so good a man he was so stronge and mightie he laboured so well and dressed our gardens he caught beastes foules fishes for our sustenance alas he is deade wee shall sée him no more but after that we be dead with our friendes in the countries where the pages they be their priestes and prophets say they haue séene them with manie such like wordes the which they will tenne thousand times repeate daye and night continually for the space of foure or fiue dayes neuer ceasing to lamente The childrē of the deceased a moneth after their mourning will desire their friendes vnto a feast or solemnitie helde in the honour of the deade man there will they all assemble together painted with diuers colours and bedecked with feathers and other brauerie according vnto the fashion of their countrie vsinge a thousande ceremonies pastimes daunces playes and pipinge on flutes made of the bones of the legges and armes of the slaine enimies and play also on other instruments which are in vse amongest them But the auncient sort cease not to tipple all the day longe without eating one morsell of meate and they be serued by the wiues and kinswomen of the deceased In the Isle of Cephale when one is deade they burie him in the courte of his house vntill that his fleshe bee consumed and when this is done they take vppe the bones and marke them that they may afterwarde knowe whose they were and then laye them on the table vnder a cloth of blacke fustion whither one doth bringe breade and fleshe baked as an offeringe or sacrifice made for the deade whome they do praye to haue them in remembraunce The principall effecte of their praiers is to desire him to be fauourable and good vnto their kinge to make him prosperous in all his affaires and so to destroy and confounde his enimies that he may keepe the Islande in peace reste and securitie These prayers are made by the chiefe of euerie house all the reste that be there beeing silente clothed in white But when this prayer is done they all rise vp wash their faces handes and then sit laughing and singing of the prayse of the deade person and euerie one with his householde eateth vp those thinges that were offered When one dieth in the Isle of the Heremites and specially one of the Heremites or priestes all the women of the towne or village assemble together in the deade mans house who is put into the barke of a tree in the middes of the house Aboute the coorse they make with ropes whiche are all couered with barkes if trees as it were a tente the whiche they couer all ouer with greene boughes of diuers trees and in the middes thereof they make a place finely trimmed with hearbes in forme like vnto a pauilion Vnder these
foūdation do kingdoms stand on so tottering a stoole do princes sitt that sporting Fortune séemes oftentimes to put them into the hand of a madd man But nothing did more manifestly shewe vnto him his brittle blisse then the reuolting of all the noble men of the farther Hispaine except the duke of Alua vnto Philip duke of Burgogie who had maried his eldest daughter and heire at his arriual in Hispaine after the death of Quéene Isabell they eftsones saying that they would rather adore the sunne rising then going downe The griefe of this shamefull forsaking of him did so gripe the aged princes heart that not being able to endure the dishonour to be a subiecte where hee had long reigned he left Hispaine and sailed with his newe wife vnto Naples chosing rather to cōmit himselfe vnto the doubtfull faith of the gouernour and conquerour of that flourishing kingdome whom the report was minded to reuolt make himselfe king of Naples the which hée might easily haue done then vnto the open ill wills and rebellion of the vnfaithful Hispaniards And doubtlesse hee was in very great danger of being vtterly excluded out of his kingdomes of Castill Lions if that God had not shortly after taken out of the world his sonne in lawe who was so alienated from him that when the courteous king laden with wearisome yeares had taken a lōg paineful iourney to receiue him at the water the proud and vnciuil duke would not vouchsafe to shew him any countenaunce But after he had giuen him scornefully a word or two and them too in French which the king vnderstood not he flange away from him al the nobilitie with him The xlix Chapter Of William Conquerour BVt nowe after that wee haue romed long abroad in all forreigne lands let vs returne home vnto our owne countrie take a view of such Princes as haue by dint of sword atteined the imperial crowne thereof or enlarged the dominions least we may be thought to be like vnto the Lamiae in Poets whome they do faine to sée very exactly when they are abroad but to be starke blinde at home William bastard sonne vnto Robert duke of Normandie who left him his heire although by puissance he cōquered this land discomfited in battel the king of Denmarke forced the king of Scotland for feare to do him homage sweare him fealtie yet the often rebellions and secrete treasons of the Englishmen Normans the perfidiousnes of his owne déere brother Odo in whom he reposed his greatest trust the wicked reuolting of his eldest sonne Robert vnto the French king with his aide his daungerous inuasion of Normandie his arme thrust through in fight and his vnhorsing by that vnnaturall child and his bowelles sore brused by a leape off his horse in his last voyage against the French king of the intollerable torments whereof he died will not suffer him to be enrolled among the happie But nothing in my mind doth more manifestly bewray his infelicitie then that he had not so much ground at his death as could couer his carcase without doing an other man wrong and that which the begger hath without contradiction was denied and forbidden this mightie king Hée had built S. Stephens Church at Cane in Normandie where he would be buried vppon an other mans ground and had not payed the owner for it who being then a very poore man yet nothing fearing the funeral pompe and the great number of nobles attending on the corps did thrust through the thickest thronge of the solemne traine like vnto a madd man and got him to the Church doore wherein he stoode stoutly to withstand the bearing into the Church of the kings body crying out with a lowde voice Hée that in his life time oppressed kingdomes by his furious force hath hitherto with feare also oppressed mee but I that do suruiue him that hath done me the wronge will not graunt rest and peace vnto him now he is dead The place whereinto ye doe carrie this dead man is mine I claime that it is not lawfull for any man to lay a dead body in an other mans ground But if that the case do so stand that when as now at the length through the grace of good God the author of this so vnworthie a wrong is extinguished yet force still doth flourish I do appeale vnto Rhollo the founder father of this nation who alone is of greater power by the lawes which he ordeyned then is any mans iniurie And therewithal I know not whether by hap or mans fraud there soudeinly was séene a great fire which raged on the Church the houses neere adioyning then euery body spéedily running to quench the fire left the kinges corps desolate all alone onely Henrie the kings youngest sonne could not be gotten frō his fathers body who being feared with as it were the manifest wrath of God presently paid the poore mā for his ground discharged his fathers iniurious spirite But these blisselesse bones of his which so hardly obteined entumbing did afterward as vnluckily againe lose it in Anno Domini 1562. when Chastillion conducting reliquias Danaum atque immitis Achillis those that had escaped at the battell at Dreax toke the citie of Cane For certaine sauage souldiours accompanied with foure Capteynes did beate downe and vtterly deface the noble tumbe and monument of that renowmed conquerour and victorious king and pulled out all his bones which they spitefully threwe away when that they could not finde the treasure that they falsly surmised had béen layed vp there as I haue béene certainly enformed by Englishmen of very good credite faithfull fauourers of the reformed who sawe this sorrowfull sight scarse without distilling teares And also Theuet maketh mention of this matter in his vniuersall Cosmographie writing of Cane The l. Chapter Of Henrie the second HENRIE the second had by his father the Earledomes of Aniow Toures and Maine by his mother the kingdome of England and the duchie of Normandie and by his wife the mightie duchie of Aquitane and the earledome of Poitow conquered the kingdome of Ireland and toke prisoner in battell the king of Scottes but this his glistering glorie was fouly darkened by the shamefull submission of his crowne vnto the Romane Sée as Platina their recorder doth report or certes by binding himselfe vnto vnreasonable conditions to abate the enuie of the murther of Thomas the archbishop of Canterburie as our Chronicles do record and by the daungerous and wicked warres a long time kept in Normandie Fraunce and England with al his vngodly sonnes Henrie Richard Gefferie and Iohn yea and his owne wife and their mightie confederats the kings of Fraunce and Scotland with a great number of the English nobilitie and after the death of his vngracious sonne Henrie by the second reuolting of his sonne Richard vnto the French king who wan from him in those warres a great part of the duchie of Normandie and besieged him in the
with them in like manner did all their neighbours runne but the men bareing their breastes did beate and thumpe themselues After they had done this then they caried the dead bodie forth to be seasoned and dressed There were certain appointed for this purpose who when the body was brought vnto them did shewe them which brought it thrée images of woode painted euery one like vnto a dead man And they say that one of them was very curiously and cunningly made whose name saies Herodotus if I shoulde name I shall not do holily The second was inferiour and of lesse price The third very good cheape Then they demaunded to which of these patterns they would haue the Image of their dead person made Then after they were agréed of the price they departed But the seasoners trimmed the body very diligently after this manner First of all they drewe out all the braine out of his head throughe his nose with a hooked instrument filling vp the place again with medicinal matter Then they ripped his bellie with an Aethiopian stone tooke out all the paunch which when they haue made very cleane and filled with wine of Phoenicia they stuffed full of beaten odors then farsing al the belly with pure myrrhe cinamon and other odours except franckincense they sowed it vppe againe When they had thus done they kéeping it in a secret place within did salt it 70. dayes for longer it is not lawfull to salt them When that the 70. dayes were expired they washed and wrapped it in a shéete of bissine mallng it with whip cordes which they annointed with a gumme that the Egyptians doe for the most parte vse in stéede of glewe Then the kinsefolkes of the dead man receiuing the bodye did make an Image of a man of woode in the whiche they doe put the dead man and so laye him vppe Thus vsed the Egyptians to burne their priuate men But when the King died all the people lamented with common heauinesse they tare their clothes they locked the doores of their Temples they frequented not the courtes places they kept no solemne feastes defiling their heades 72. dayes with durt two hundreth thrée hundreth in a company with a shéete gyrt vnder their breast would walke round aboute the citie twise in a day renewing their mourning and sing to the instrument the praises of the king And during this time they absteined from eating of any liuing thing any boyled meates wine al furniture of the table They vsed neither bathes ointments beds nor venerie but as though their deare sonne had béen dead did they all this time mourne lament Now in the meane while all things apperteining vnto the pompe of the funeralles béeing prepared the next day after they did set the bodie being laid in a cofin before the entrie into the sepulchre where of custome they read a briefe of all thinges that he had done in his life time and leaue was giuen to euery man that would to accuse the dead king The priests stoode by praysing the good déedes of the king the people which stoode round about the funerall pompe applauded vnto his true praises but at the rest reclaimed with greate tumult Whereby it happened that many kinges the people repugning lacked the wonted honour and magnificence of funerals The feare whereof made the kings of Egypt to liue vprightly fearing that they should haue the euerlasting anger and hatred of the multitude when they were dead But the Aethiopians after that they had dried the dead bodie either as the Egiptians or else as other nations vsed couered it ouer with Gipsum and adorned it with a picture the which did expresse the dead person as liuely as might be then they inclosed it in a tumbe of glasse in the middes whereof one might sée the dead man who caused no ill smell at all nor any kinde of filthinesse This tumbe did the next of kinne vnto the dead man kéepe in his house twelue moneths offering vnto him the first fruites of all thinges and sacrifices When a yeare was passed they carried the tumbe out of the house and did set it in some place about the citie But Diodorus Siculus contrarieth by the authoritie of Clesias who was in great credite 17. yeares with Artaxerxes king of Persia this rite of the Aethiopians written by Herodotus and sayes that they salted and then burnt them and did put the ashes in holowe statuies of Golde the whiche they inclosed in glasse whom they did set in some highe place of the house so that all men that beheld the tumbe might sée not the dead body but a liuely statuie thereof through the glasse but onely the richer sort had statuies of golde the poorer of siluer the poorest of clay But some of the Aethiopians sayes Diodorus do cast the dead into a riuer as the best sepulchre as did also some of the Meroites but other of them kept them at home in their houses inclosed in glasse other putting them in earthen pottes buried them in the earth about the Temples But this was general vnto them all to sweare by them to account them for Gods. The Troglodites did burie the dead tying their necke to their féete with twigges of Paliurus and afterwarde they soudenly carried them foorth merrie and laughing vntill they had with earthe couered the bodie and then sticking a Goates horne vpon the graue they departed The Panebi in Africa did put in the ground the body of their deceased king but his head being cutte off guilted did they set vp in the Temple The Colch◠did not lay dead men in the ground but hanged them vp on high vp on trées the Phrigians their dead priestes vpon stones set-vp of eleuen cubites highe The Chij after they had burnt the corses and gathered the bones they pounded all in a mortar and embarking them in a shippe did saile into the maine sea al a long as they went shifted them through a siue into the Sea vntill all were quite dissipated and consumed The Arabians buried their kings in dunghils It was peculiar vnto the Cathei of all Indians for the wife to be burned with her husband and she that refuseth so to doe was euer after accounted infamous which Herodotus in his fifth booke affirmes also to be the manner of the Scythians aboue the Chrestonei Some of the Indians vsed when they felt themselues sore sicke to cause a great pile of woode to be made vpon the toppe whereof they woulde ascend and it being set on fire burne them selues and thus did a Gymnosophist in the campt of Alexander the great The Derbices killed them that were past 70. yeares and the next of their kinne did eate all the fleshe of them which Strabo doeth also affirme of the Irish men but they strangled old women and buried them They that dyed before they were 70. yeares olde did they not eate but put
in the ground The Caspians starued him that liued past 70. yeares and casting him away into a desart would stand a farre off and watch his euent If he were pulled and torne out of the head by byrdes they iudged him happie if by wild beastes and dogges not so fortunate but if by neither then altogether vnhappie If dogges deuoure my dead carkase said Diogenes I shal haue the burial of the Hyrcanians if vulturs of the Iberians Onesicritus writes that the Bactrians did vse to cast aliue suche persons as were quite worne with age or sicknesse vnto dogges whiche they kept for that purpose and calling them sepulchrall dogges But it is not true saies Strabo who writes that the Massagetâ— thought it to be the best kinde of deathe that men wâ—â—ue with age should be chopped into péeces and eaten mingled with mutton But those that died of sicknesse did they cast away as wicked folkes and worthie to be deuoured by wilde beasts The manner of the Thracians in burying of their noble men was thus To bring foorth the corse to kill all kindes of sacrifices to feast thrée dayes and then the corse being first bewept and after burnt they buried or otherwise couered it with earth making a mightie highe heape and setting foorth all kindes of games and specially combats But the Transi among other buried their dead in the ground with all ioy and mirthe rehearsing from howe many calamities and euils he was deliuered When any of the kings of Scythia died the people digged a great hole foure square whiche when they haue prepared they tooke the dead king his bodie being wrapped in waxe his paunch taken out and cleansed the which when they haue filled with beaten siluer swéete hearbs persely seede and aniséede they sowed it vp againe laying the corse in a waine they caried him vnto an other countrie who did the same that the other Scythians had done where he had béen resident they did cut round his eares they rouÌ„ded his hairs they circumcised his armes they wouÌ„ded his nose and forehead they thrust his left hand through with arrowes Afterward they carried the kings corse in a wain to another nation that he had reigned ouer who did accompanie theÌ„ vnto the countrie from whence they first came Now when they carying the dead king about had traueled all the countries ouer whoÌ„ he had reigned they laid him with them the dwelt in the farthest part of the Gerrhi in the solemne sepulchres of the kings and wheÌ„ they had séen him laid vpoÌ„ a bed in a tumb spears being sticked here there they also did set vp posts rouÌ„d about vpon whom they hanged a cloke that couered the tumb But in the wide tumb with the king thei buried one of his concubines being straÌ„gled his cupbearer his cooke his horskéeper the man that vsed to go on his messages also horses the first fruites of al other things ye also cups of gold WheÌ„ they had so done they anie hurled earth vpon him coueting to make a very great and high mount After a yeare was passed the like did they againe They tooke the chiefest of the Kinges seruauntes and the seruauntes of the kinges of Scythia were all fréemen for no bondman serued theÌ„ of whom when they had strangled 50. and so many excellent horses and taken out their intrailes and cleansed them they filled them full of chaffe and sowed them vp And when they had set on halfe of an embowed edifice turned topsie turuie vppon two beames and the other halfe vpon two other set vppe many made after this fashion then they did set vp on these edifices the horses strong péeces of tymber béeing thrust through them along their backes comming out at their neckes who so stood that the formost vaults or embowed edifices did hold vppe the fore legges of the horses and the hinder did beare vppe their bellies close to their thighes both the legs hanged down aloft they bridled the horses and tyed their reignes vnto the postes Then vpon euery one of the horses did they sette one of the young men a long péece of wood which was fastened at the lower ende vnto the poste that went through the horse being thrust through them whiche came out at their necke These horsemen being set vp round aboute the sepulchre who séeme like vnto a troupe of horsemen set to guarde the King they departed After this manner they buried their kinges But other Scythians when they were departed did all their neighbours laying theÌ„ in waynes carrie about vnto their kinsfolkes Euery one of their fréendes receiuing them did make a feast vnto all that accompanied the corse aswel kinsfolkes as other After this maner were priuate men caried about fourtie days and then buried in the ground but being first cleansed after this manner when they had taken al the braine out of his head and washed it this they did with the bodie They did set vp thrée postes one shoring aboue towards another about these posts did they hang wollen caps and into a trey set in the mids of the posts and cappes did they throw fire stones vpon whom they did cast séedes of a kinde of flaxe that they haue whereof they made a perfume causing such a vapour as no censars do among the Gréekes With this odour the Scythians being brought into an astonishment vsed to crie out right and howle But of the Scythians saies Mela the Essedones did celebrate the funerals of their parents merrily with sacrifices and festiuall assemblies of their fréendes eating the dead bodies chopped together with mutton but the heades after they had finely polished theÌ„ did they make mayzers of trimming them about with golde and these were their last dueties of pietie He also telleth that in Thracia when a husbande died his wiues who are alwayes many did earnestly contend whom her husband best loued in his life time and was the most worthiest woman that she might be slaine vpon her husbandes bodie and burnt with him which she to whom it was adiudged did ioyfully fulfill the rest mourning and with lamentable voyces bitter beating did bring foorth the corse vnto buriall and by this onely way could they be comforted if that certaine men did bring weapons and money or cattel vnto the roge or funeral fire and say that they were readie either to compound with the fate of him that lay there or els to fight with it but when there was place neither for money nor for fight then they remained suiters vnto the women The Massilians buried their dead without any lamentatioÌ„ or beating of themselues finishing the funerals with a domesticall sacrifice and a feast made vnto their kinsfolkes The Tauri in Scythia did vse to burie with their kinges suche of their fréendes as they best loued in their life time The Galles burned and did put in the ground their dead
the kinges sayes he séeking to féede his humour and to followe his affection caused Images to be made of yuorie golde and other pretious stuffe But Alexander him selfe gathered together a great number of Architects and the excellentest workmen to adorne his funeralles And first of all did he cast downe ten furlongs of the wals of Babylon all the bricks being gathered together caused he to be carried away the the ground might be leuel to build the roge or funerall fire vpon the which he erected foure square euery side being one furlong long the rest of the plot he diuided into 30. edifices the which were built with stories boorded with palme trée at the lowest part were set 240. béekes of quinqueremes or galleies with fiue ranckes of oares of golde and vpon euery one of them as it were vpon the stemme of a galley stoode two archers two cubites high resting on their knée in the middes stoode fiue statuies in armour of fiue cubites high and all the places betwéene them were couered with drawne courteins of purple On the second storie were fiftéene lampes whose féete were inclosed with crowns of gold In the top or highest story where the fire should be put and kindled were Eagles portraytured spreading abroade their winges and looking downe vpon the dragons that stoode beneath staring vppe vppon them The third storie was filled ful of a mightie number of wild beasts wrought for that purpose The fourth had the fight of the Centaures made in golde The fifth had Bulles and Lyons of golde first a Bull and then a Lyon and so stil in like order Aboue all this was the highest storie hanged round about with the weapons of the Macedons and also of all the Barbarians bothe to shewe the vallor of the Macedons and also to signifie what nations they had conquered Then vpon the toppe of al did there stand holow Myrmaides in whom were hidden certaine men that sang the funerall Nenia or song The height of the whole work was estéemed to be 130. cubites And when that the capteins the souldiers the embassadours and the inhabitants did to the vttermost of their power helpe to furnishe and adorne the pompe there was bestowed aboue 12000 talentes that is 572500. And after the rate and proportion of this magnificence were all other thinges celebrated in the funerals and buriall with surpassing brauery And last of al were men commanded to sacrifice vnto him as vnto a God president To furnish the funerals of so déere a beleued Alexander gaue commandement vnto all the cities néere to helpe and garnish the pompe by all meanes and with al things that they could possible He also gaue commandement to al the cities of Asia that they should put out the fire which was kept in the Temples and casted the holy fire the which thing was neuer vsed to be done among the Persians but at the death of their king In this place also although somewhat out of order will I set downe out of Thucidides the publike obsequies the which the Atheniens kept for their countrimen that were slain in the Pelopâ—a â—stan wars folowing the auncient manner of their countrie Thrée dayes before the buriall was there made a great tabernacle within the which were laide the bones of them that were dead that their parents fréends might lay vpon them what they thought good Afterward euery linage or tribe of the towne had a great cofer or cophin of cypresse into the which they did put the bones of al them of that tribe which were dead and carried it in a chariot to the vsuall place of buriall And after all the cofers was there carried in aâ— other chariot a great bedd ready made garnished without any body lying theron the which represented these deadmen whose bodies could not be found These chariots were conducted and accompanied by all sortes of people citizens or other those that would go vnto the sepulchre where the wiues parents of the diseased wept bitterly and made great lamentation Then did they lay all the cofers or cophins in a publike sepulchre or monument made for the purpose in the fairest suburbe of the citie the which sepulchre is called Ceramicon wherin they vsed to but iâ— al thâ—se that died in the warres except it were they that were slaine at the battel of Marâ—â—â—n In memorie of whose singular â—â—wesse they had willed a â—â—â—â—â—ar sepulchre to be 〈◊〉 â—s the selfe same pâ—â—e And after the bodies were buried the vsage was the some notable personage of the citie both for knowledge honour should make an Oration vnto the people in the praise of the persons departed the which being unded euery body departed home But for to make the oration at that time was the vallaint and â—â—quent Petâ—â—teâ— appointed And nowe to 〈◊〉 vnto the Rominâ—â— I do finde in Plinie 〈◊〉 was not vsed among them 〈…〉 for to burne the deaâ— bodies 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 them in the earth but afterward when that they vnderstood the those which were ouer whelmed by warres farre from home were oftentimes taken vp an ordinaunce was made that all should be burnt yet they kept the auncient rite diuersly for they do report that none of the house of the Cornelij were burnt before Sylla the Dictator who feared lest he himselfe should be taken vp and handled after his deathe as he in his life time had dealt with Marius his dead body Learned Volaterranus doth holde that after the time of the Antonines of whome Heliogabalus was the last they burnt no corses at Rome And before that time I read in Tacitus that when Nero had slaine in his madde moode his wife Poppea he burnt not her body but stuffing it ful of odours after the maner of forreigne kings buried it in the sepulchres of the Iulij but the solemne accustomed funerals were kept Furthermore laying of the dead bodie in the earth doth Cicero truely thinke to be the most ancient kinde of burial for the Patriarches were so buried wherunto Xenophon also séemeth to asseÌ„t making Cyrus to will his sonne to lay him neither in gold siluer nor in any thing else but only to restore him vnto the earth This also was common bothe vnto the Greekes and Romanes to burie the dead with great lameÌ„tations and teares without which saies Seruius they thought that they were not orderly duely buried wherof procéedes that complaint of Drances against Turnus the we an vnbewept multitude may be slaine in the fielde for the which cause they vsed to hire women to wéepe houle at burials whereof Chrysostome doth make mention in many places Horace also toucheth in his booke De Arte Poetica Chrysostome in his 69. sermon vnto the people of Antioche blameth in them the tearing of their haires the baring of their armes the dissipating of their eyes and the wearing of blacke apparell and vpon the first vnto the Philippians scratching of their faces he rebuketh their
immoderate and vndecent mourning so sharply that he threatneth to excōmunicate them which would not ceasse to vse it And not without good cause For by Bellonius his report it is vsed among the Greekes euen at this day that when one is dead all the women of the towne or hamlet wil assemble together euen at the hard morning and there continue vntil night making a very piteous howling and wofully tearing their hairs renting their faces and thumping their breastes And that their pauses as the musicians terme them may be the better vnderstoode they hyre a woman that hath a good wide and a cleare throte to leade the song whom all they follow singing al the actes and life of the deceased euen from his natiuitie But the auncient Germanes did soone wipe drie their teares leaue off their lamentations but remained somewhat longer in sorow and sadnesse It was also permitted onely vnto the women to mourne and vnto the men no more but to haue them in memorie There was no ambition of funerals amōg them this only was obserued that the bodies of famous men were burnt with certaine woddes neither did they make high the pile of the funeral fire either with garments or odors as did the Romanes but euery man had onely his armour and weapons caste into the fire with him some of them their horses the graue was raised vp with gréen turfes they despising abhorring the painfull and laboursome honour of tumbes monumentes as heauy and grieuous vnto the deceased But I read in Curtius the Alexander in his great mourning for Ephestion commanded the manes of al the horses mules in the campe to be shorne the pinnacles of al the cities nere about to be beatē down neither pipes nor other instrumēts of musick to be vsed for a time in the campe Herodotus writeth in his ninth booke that it was the manner of the Persiani when that their king or any of consanguinitie or familiaritie with him died to poule themselues and to share the manes of their horses and other beasts eyther for burthen or the saddle But the vsage of the Romanes was quite contrarie for they in all kynde of mourning and sorrowe did let their head beard grow long whereof came the merrie iest of Sabinus who being offered by the Cretes bycause they sawe the Proconsul Appius singularly to fauour him to beare the chiefest office among them which officer must beare his beard and the haire of his heade long thanked them heartily for their good willes but he would none of it for he had borne it twice already at Rome for he had bene twice accused of notorious crimes But to shame their beards in mourning maye séeme to haue béene a fashion in Fraunce yea of late yeares for in Frosard the Earle of Foix shaueth his beard for the death of his sonne Moreouer Suetonius reporteth in the life of Caligula that whē the Romanes hearde of the death of the noble Germunious they battered their temples with stones they threw downe the altars of their Goddes some did hurle their housholde Gods into the streates and finally other did cast away their children lately borne Also the Barbarians that had eyther forreigne or ciuil warres as in a common heauinesse consented to truce Some of the kings shaued their beards and the heads of their wiues for a token of supreame mourning The king of the Parthians commanded a Megistanū which is to abstein from hunting setting at meate together like vnto the Romane institium whiche Caligula commaunded to be kept so straightly for the death of his sister Drusilla that during the time it lasted no man vppon paine of death might laugh wash or sup yea with his parents his wife or children Moreouer this I thee in Seranus that men at the first did vse to burie the beade at home at their houses and I dead that it was permitted the Lacedemonians to burie within their citie yea and to set vp tumbes and monuments about the temple but afterwarde the Romanes were mostly buried in Appia Via without the citie and Vulpian rehearseth an Edict of Adrian the Emperour that no man vpon paine of fourtie aurei which I take to be twentie poundes shoulde burie any man within the citie with a penaltie also on the officers that suffered it yet I reade in Plutarche that it was graunted vnto noble and famous capteins and their posteritie to be buried in the Romane forum or market place but the Romane Emperours were well neare all buried in Mars his fielde where they were made Goddes Furthermore this I note out of Appian that the greatest cause that the rich men did alledge against the lawe for diuision of landes among the people was bycause they sayde it was a wicked thing for to haue the sepulchres of their auncestours to passe vnto strangers albeit Pomponius the lawyer doth hold that the Owners of lands vpon whom they haue builded sepulchres haue right to resort vnto and visite thē after that the landes be alienated Moreouer sayes Sernius it was the maner among the auncient Romanes that where soeuer a man dyed he was brought home vnto his owne house or of his kinsfolkes and there kept seuen dayes and the eight burnt so he were aboue thrée yeares olde and the ninth buried whereof the playes that were kept in the honour of the deade were called Ludi nouensiles Euery day of these seuen was the bodie annoynted with pretious oyntments and washed with hote water and called vnto with a lowde voyce to sée if he would come vnto him selfe againe for many had returned to life in the middes of their burning could by no means be saued After this was he carried foorth vpon a highe bed with his féete forwarde to be burned the people following although afterwarde in the time of Hierome they went before with torches tapers candles and trumpets sounding pipes and other musical instruments playing also many boughes of Cypres were borne before the béere the which were sticked down rounde about the fire bicause sayes Varro the people which stoode about should not be annoyed with the smel of the burning of the corps the people continued there answering vnto the wéeping words gestures doings of the Prefica or leader of the lamentations vntil that at the length the last word was pronounced ilicet ye may be gone if ye list Polybius wryteth that when a noble man died in Rome they carried the coorse vnto a place in the citie where orations were vsed to be made vnto the people called the Rostra where his son or else some other of his kin did make an oration in his praise of his noble actes then they buryed him then did set vp his Image in the noblest parte of his house built about it litle chappels of wood But when any notable man died there rode round about the coorse diuers men that
séemed very like vnto him in stature other points who ware apparell if he had ben Consul or General of an armie guarded about with purple if he had ben Censor of cleane purple but if he had triumphed interwouen with gold Thus rode they in their chariots the bundels of rods the axes other ensignes belonging vnto the office that he had borne in his life time were borne before thē but whē they came vnto the Rostra they did al set down in their seates of yuorie thē was done as you haue heard before Furthermore Plinie affirmes that it was the vsage throughout the whole worlde to burne at burials great heapes pyles of odors wheras they offered them vp vnto the Gods but by crums This also was cōmon vnto the Athenians for the nexte of kin to make an oration in praise of the dead person at his buriall I read in Valerius Maximus that it was first ordeined at Athens by Pericles but Plutarche in the life of Publicola affirms it to haue come frō Solon to whom I do rather assent but afterward it was enacted that it should not be lawfull to make an oration in the praise of the dead but only at burials made by the publike weale nor for euery man to pronounce it but such an one as was by publike authoritie appointed thervnto But the first that was praised at Rome was Iunius Brutus the first consul that by Publicola his college it was also permitted vnto women in the time of Camillus bicause they gaue their iuels to make a cup for Apollo the which shuld be sent vnto Delphos But this was peculiar vnto the Romanes to canonize their good emperours after their death for gods the maner of the which consecration funerals is thus described by Herodian When the emperour is departed out of this life there is in al the whole citie as it were a certaine mourning mixed with festiual celebritie for they burie the dead body after the rite of their country with sūptuous burial But they make an image very like to the emperor deceased which they lay foorth at the porch or comming in of the court vpō a very great high bed couered with clothes of gold the image doth lye pale like vnto a sicke man But about the bed on both sides set there a great part of the day on the left side all the Senate apparelled in blacke but on the right matrones honourable for the dignitie of their husbands or parents none of them wearing any gold ouch or tablet but being clothed in streight short white garments seeme to be women in great heauinesse This do they continually the space of seuen dayes the Physicians repayring euery day vnto the dead man looking vpon the image as it were the sicke emperour telling daily that he waxeth worse and worse Afterwarde when he hath seemed to haue changed life for death the noblest of the yong gentlemē and the very floure of the orders of the Senators and horsmen tooke vp the bed vpon their shoulders and bare it along the Sacred waye a streate so called into the olde forum where the Romane magistrates had vsed to giue vppe their authoritie and ofices But on both sides of the Forum stepps or grieces were built like vnto staires vpon the whiche was on the one side a greate companie of the children of the moste noble men and senatours and on the other of noble women which did sing hymnes and Paeans made with solemne and lamentable verse and note in the honour of the Emperour departed which being ended they tooke vp the bedde againe and carried it out of the citie into Mars his fielde where in the broadest place of the fielde there was a skaffolde set vp foure square with equall sides built of nothing else but mightie tymber in the forme of a tabernacle Within it was a wal all filled full of drie stickes kixes spray and all other thinges that wil quickly take fire but without it is adorned with hangings of purple and golte with Images of Iuorie and diuerse kindes of pictures and paintinges But vnder it was there another lesse Tabernacle set but in forme and garnishing very like vnto the first with gates doores standing wide open And so also a third and a fourth euer alwaies lesser lesser and so other beneath them vntill you come vnto the lowest which was the least of all You may liken the forme of this building vnto those towres that stande ouer hauens who by shewing of fire in the night doe direct the shippes into safe rodes the Greekes do vulgarly cal them Pharos and we towres seruing to such vses as lanterne toures Then the bed being carried vp into the seconde Tabernacle they get together spices perfumes of all kindes fruites hearbes and all swéete smelling iuyces and powred them downe by heapes For there was neither nation nor citie nor man excelling in any honour or dignitie but euery one of them did anie one vpon another giue those their last gyfts vnto the honour of the Prince Nowe when they had made a mightie great heape of odoriferous thinges and all the whole place was filled full of them all the whole order of the horsemen rode round about the edifice making their horses to tread that solemne kinde of daunce which the Lacedemonians did vse to exercise armed called Pyrrhica Chariotes also were drawen round about it who were guided by men clothed in purple bearing the persons of all the Romane capteines and of al their famous Princes After all these solemnities were celebrated the successor of the Empire tooke a fire brand and thrusted it into the Tabernacle Then all the multitude on all partes did thicke and thréefolde put to fire and incontinently al the whole edifice being filled full of that drie stuffe and those odoriferous thinges burned with a mightie fire Anon from the lowest lest Tabernacle was an Eagle let go who fléeing out at the topp of a building together with the fire it was beléeued did carrie the Emperours soule into heauen And then euer after that time was the Emperour woorshipped with the other Gods. But the funerals and buriall of Augustus is thus set forth by Dion There was a bed or bane made of golde and iuorie adorned with clothes of purple interwouen with golde In the lowest parte thereof lay the dead body inclosed in a chest but his image of waxe in triumphall robes was laide aboue to be séene of all men This did the nominated Consuls carie an other was of golde carried out of the senate house the third in a triumphall chariot Behinde them were borne the Images of his grandfathers and kinsmen dead except of Iulius Caesar who was enrolled among the half Gods and of all other men that euer had béen famous in Rome for their actes beginning at Romulus among whome was also an Image of Pompey the great and al the nations whiche he had subdued
set forth in their proper apparell and habite and after them all his noble actes conquestes and victories The hearse being set downe at the Rostra Drusus his adopted sonne read an Oration in writing but at Rostra Iulia by the decrée of the senate Tyberius had an eloquent spéeche vnto the people in his praise whiche beeing ended they that brought the hearse thither did take it vppe and bare it out at the triumphal gate There attended on the corse the Senate the horsemen with their wiues the Pretorian souldiers of the guard and almoste all men that were then at Rome After that his body was laid vpon the roge or pyle of wood which should burne it first of al the priests went rounde about it after them the horsemen then the legionarie and also the other souldiours and lastly they which had had any charge of custodie throwing vpon him all the rewardes that euer they had receiued of him for their noble actes in the warres After this the Centurions or petie capteines taking firebrandes did set on fire the roge which being absumed an Eagle was let to go who flying out of the roge did as they woulde say carie Augustus soule into heauen When all these thinges were done the rest departed but his wife Liuia with the chiefest of the horsemen tarying in that place fiue dayes gathered together his bones and laide them in a tumbe The men did not mourne for him many dayes but the women by decrée an whole yeare as they had done before time for Brutus Publicola and other Moreouer at Rome the wiues vsed to mourne for their husbandes tenne moneths in white within the whiche time if that they maried Numa made a lawe that they shoulde offer vppe a cowe with calfe but afterwarde it was enacted that they should be reputed infamous But nowe leauing the Romanes I do finde that the Iewes vsed to annoynt their dead all ouer with precious ointments and then wrapping them in a shéete full of swéete odours lay them in a sepulchre or graue as wée reade that Ioseph of Arimathea buried our Sauiours bodie embaulming it with a mixture of Aloe and myrrha of an hundreth weight Iosephus in his first booke of the warres of the Iewes telleth this of the burying of Herodes All the hearses were garnished and set with golde and precious stones but the bedde it selfe was spotted with purple the bodie also was couered with purple But a Diademe was sette on his head but ouer it a crowne of golde and a scepter at his right hand and aboute the bed attended his children with his kinsfolkes Moreouer the guarde and the bande of the Tetrarchie the Germanes and the Galatae went all before in battell araye and furniture But the rest of the souldiours did decently folowe armed the capteines and chiefe of their orders But fiue hundreth bondemen and libertes carried odors The bodie was with this pompe carried two hundreth furlonges to Herodian where it was buried Hee was mourned for seuen dayes for the vsage of the countrie would allowe no longer whiche is agréeable vnto that saying of the Sonne of Syrach the mourning for a dead man is seuen dayes Yet I reade no certaine time appointed by the lawe and also I finde that the Israelites mourned for Moses thirtie dayes for Aaron other 30. But why we doe not reade that Iosue was mourned for as wel as Moses and Aaron Ierome in his consolation vnto Paula for the death of Blesilla affirmes the cause to be for that Aaron and Moses presignified the time before the comming of Christ but Iosue figured Christ and the time after In the which Epistle also he doth report that the Iewes in his time did vse at the death of their fréendes to go barefooted and tumbled in Ashes to lye on hayre clothe and least that any thing should want vnto superstition by a lewde rite of the Pharisées the first meate the they did eate was lentilles Furthermore these rites I note out of the sacred Scriptures to be vsed by the Iewes in their solemn mournings to rent their clothes to go barefooted ye sometimes all their bodie half bare to lye prostrate on the ground and vpon haire clothe to shaue their heads and beardes and cast dust and ashes on their heades to sit in ashes to couer their face with a whoode to apparel them selues in haire cloth ye to cut the brawnes of their fleshe whiche thing although I finde forbidden in Leuit. 19. yet this to be commonly vsed among the Iewes may we probably gathere by the sixtéenth of Ieremie and Ierome vppon that place doth affirme that diuerse Iewes still vsed it in his time I finde also that they vsed to go a gossiping as we do nowe terme it vnto them that mourned carrying with them breade and wine and making them good cheare This also is worthie to be remembred that the Nazarenes might not be present at the funerals no not of their parentes brothers nor sisters the high Priest only of his parentes children brothers sisters so she were a virgin but at no buriall else no not of the Prince and yet was it not lawfull for him to passe by a dead bodie and leaue it vnburied for the lawe commaunded the Iewes to burie their enimies And thus muche of the Iewish funerals But this was common vnto all ciuil nations to erect vpō the graue namely of noblemen Princes a tumbe but they began to be so sumptuous at Athens that the citie was forced to make a lawe that no man shoulde builde other tumbe then suche an one as tenne workemen could make in three dayes vpon the whiche neither might there be any Image of Mercurie which they called Hermes Also Demetrius Phalereus prohibited by statute any piller to be set vp vppon any graue aboue thrée cubites high or any table but pillers were not set vpon the graues of none but very noble and famous men whereby was signified that they did excéede other men which nowe adayes sayes Plinie is done by Arches a new inuention It was not lawful at Lacedemonia to ingraue any mās or womans name on a tumbe but only of them whiche had valiauntly dyed in the warres Plutarche in the liues of the tenne Rhetoricians writeth that there was ingrauen in Isocrates his sepulchre a Ramme of thirtie cubites wherein was a Syren of seuen cubites for a mysticall signification and also neare vnto it a table which had the Poetes and his scholmaisters among whome was also Gorgias beholding an Astronomicall sphere and Isocrates standing by him Augustus in his life time built for him selfe in Mars his field a tumbe of wonderfull workmanshippe with twelue doores in memorie of the twelue Sages and an obelisce wherein was ingrauen the interpretation of the nature of things out of the philosophie of the Aegyptians Vnto the which obelisce August added an other maruellous good vse that was to finde out by it the
done very much good vnto the behoofe of mans life both for their reuerent worshiping of the Gods also for their iustice among men Behind the librarie stoode there a goodly house wherein were twentie sacred beddes of Iupiter and Iuno and also a statuie of the king where also the kings bodie séemed to be buried Roūd about this house stood there a great many of dwellings in whom were there séene pictured many beastes of Egypt all of them being apt for sacrifices all ascending towards the sepulchre There went round aboute the monument a circle or bande of golde of 365. cubites one cubite thick on the which were described by euerie cubite the days of the yeare the risings goings down of the stars what after the obseruations of the Aegyptian astrologians they doe signifie thus much Diodorus But here stayed not the maddenesse of men but their bodies must be wrapped in silke which Ierome noteth in the life of Paule the Heremite or costly purple ye they also vsed saith he to burie in the sepulchers of Princes and of the nobilitie golde and riche ornaments both for men and women So we read in Iosephus that Dauid was buried with great riches in so much that 1300. years after Hircanus tooke out of his tumb thrée thousande talents to deliuer himselfe and the citie from the daungerous seege of Antiochus Pius and many yeares after that Herodes tooke out another great masse of money I finde also in Strabo that there was in Cyrus his tumbe a licter of golde a table with cupps and a payre of tables of golde and great store of apparell inconstated with precious stones In like manner An Dom. 1544. was there found in the tumbe of Marie daughter vnto Stilico whiche Marie had béene sent to Rome to marrie with the Emperour Honorius but dyed before the marriage was solemnized besides the rich robe which was about her whiche beeing burnte was there gathered sixe and thirtie pounds of golde a casket of siluer a foote and an halfe long and twelue fingers broade in the whiche were many small vessels of Christal and of Achates marueilously faire wrought also fourtie rings of golde sette with diuerse stones There was also an emeraude enclosed in golde whiche was valued at fiue hundreth ducates and as it were a cluster of grapes compacted of emeraudes and other stones a great number of eare rings tablets bracelettes and other iewels and ornamentes for Ladies and innumerable precious stones and a great deale of other magnificent stuffe Hereof I thinke for Polydore Virgil who of purpose entreateth of the inuention of thinges sheweth not from whom or whence it came procéeded this foolishe fashion of latter yeares for the christian bishops of the West churche to be buried in their pontificalibus that is with all suche robes and ornaments as they vsed to weare when they were consecrated and the Archebyshop of Wirtzpurge hath also a naked swoord laide with him But this is most certaine that from the beginning all christians in all places vsed to burie their deade whole in the earthe without burning nor at the first the godlier sorte with suche immoderate mourning and riotous funerals as did the Gentiles Yet were there some corrupt christians that in immoderate mourning did imitate the Paganes whom as you haue read before Chrysostome sharply takes vp as he doth in an other place crie out against their madnesse who when they died woulde will suche and so muche gorgeous géere to be bestowed vpon their carkases as would quite consume all their substaunce and goodes Of suche degenerate christians doth holy Augustine complaine who woulde most riotously swill and tipple at the graues of the dead and exhibite vnto corses exquisite banquets and burying them selues vpon the buried depute their raueninges and drunkennesse vnto religion So in our dayes the christians that inhabite the citie Carangora in India doe vse to feast eight daies together for the dead person all his kinsfolkes assembling together But I do thinke that of all the christian nations only certaine Tartares do not lay the dead body whole in the ground but vse this sauage fashion when that their parentes be worne with age they doe féede them altogether with fatte and talowe that they may dy the sooner But when that they are dead by this diet they burne them and take vp their ashes very diligently kéeping them as some pretious thing and euery day season their meat therwithal vntil they be al spent But the barbarous christians the Sarmatians the inhabite about Cimerius Bosphorus vse this manner When one of their Princes dyeth they make in a faire large fielde a great pyle or heape of réedes whereupon they lay the dead body being howelled eight dayes is he visited by his kinsmen and subiects and is honoured with diuerse kindes of gyfts There stand by the pyle two of the princes ancient fréends resting on their staues and on the left hande of the corse a maide with a dart a péece of silke fastened vnto the end of it wherwithal she driues away the flies yea although it be in the winter But ouerright against him setteth his chiefe or first wife on the bare grounde incessantly beholding him but without teares Now when the eight days be ended they bring a great cophin in the which they inclose the dead man with part of the gyfts and beare him vnto the place where he is appointed to be buried and there they set him downe on the ground casting earth vppon him not onely vntill they haue couered him but also made a borough or litle hil or mount and the greater his power and Dominions were the greater and higher do they make the hill or graue After they haue thus buried him when it is vpon the time of refection they make ready an horse garnished with fayre furniture and leade him vnto the graue of the dead Prince and inuite and bidd him thrée times vnto the prepared feast But when he maketh them no answere they returne home with the horse to bring newes vnto the guestes that they had receiued no aunswere Then it is decréed by them all that they be exempted from his band and obedience eating drinking and feasting merrily in the honour of the dead prince The Liuonians when they wil burie a dead man do stand round about him tippling hard also inuite the dead man to drinke with them powring his part vppon him but when they lay him in the graue they lay by him an axe meate and drinke a litle money for to spend by the way and speake vnto him thus farewel goe into an other world where thou shalt reigne ouer the Almaines as they haue done here ouer thée This manner of buriall of the Liuonians hathe reduced into my memorie although somewhat to late a vsage of the Gréekes whiche I haue read in Epiphanius in Ancorato the which was to bring meate and drinke vnto
the monumentes of the deade and to call out vnto them aloude by their names Oh arise vppe againe man come eate drinke and be merrie but on their dayes called Pandemes they did burne vnto coales their meates and offer vppe their wines bringing thereby no good at all vnto the dead and also hurting themselues But sayes Theuet although the Mahumetanes the Turkes the Persians the Arabians the Moores do dissent in diuers ceremonies yet do they all agree in the rites of buriall and the songe vsed thereat When that anie Turke dieth they washe his bodie and socke it in a verie cleane white sheete afterwarde they carie him with his heade forwarde men bearing men and women womē vnto some place without the citie to be buried for it is not lawful to burie anie bodie within a church no not the greate Turkes them selues wherefore the Bassaes do vse to founde greate mosques and hospitalles adioyning to whom they do erecte a rounde roome in forme like vnto our pigeon houses where they be buried Before the coorse go the monkes with candles but Theuet holdes it stifly that they beare no candles nor anie other kinde of lights the priestes come behinde the beare singing verie mournfully as also doeth all the people vntill they come vnto the place of his buriall eftsoones crying out abounde the greate God that made heauen and earth and had compassion of his prophetes Dauid Abraham Mahumeth and Haly will also take pitie on the soule of this poore sinner who hath offended all his life longe But if that anie of the great officers dooe die as a Bassa a Beglerbey the Aga which is capteine of the garde the Nassangibassa who is Lorde chauncellour or anie suche like the newes of his death is bruted euerie where and the day when hee shal be buried the whiche doth cause a greate number of people to stande in the streetes to beholde the funeralles They that beare the coorse are of the nearest of his kinne clothed all in white rusette cloth but the reste of the mourners haue euerie man a peece of white linnen cloth hanging downe from the toppe of his tubban whiche is his hatte vnto his knees But if he be a greate capteine that hath serued in the warres one doth lead after the coorse a horse or two into whose nostrels they do put the poulder of a roote that makes them to neese and their eyes to water the which they doe say the horse sheddeth for sorrowe that he taketh for his maisters death There do also attend on the coorse sixe or seuen Solachers they are a kinde of ordinarie souldiours and euerie one with a certeine number of Ianisars and the stewarde of his house and certeine Timariotes which be seruitours on horse backe who beare diuers banners and estanders And before the corps marcheth a Mutapharca an horseman of the turkish garde who holdes a speare in his hande vpon the ende wherof is borne the Tulban of the deade man with a taile of an horse fastened thervnto but if one of the children of the greate segniour die the pompe is verie magnificent and the maister of the ceremonies causeth manie sortes of armes to be borne before the coorse by the kinge of herhautes But to procéede in the relation of the generall ceremonies if that he that dieth be a poore man they vse to gather money through the streates for the paines of the religious men The friendes of the person departed do often resorte vnto the graue with mourning and set vpon the monumente breade fleashe egges and milke a nouendiall feast after the manner of the Ethnickes the which are eaten for the soule of the deade by poore men or birdes of the aire or els emottes for they do holde that it is a like acceptable to God to giue almes vnto brute creatures which are in lacke as it is to men seeing that it is giuen for the loue of god There be that do let flie birdes which were kept in cages paying their masters for thē and some for the loue of God do cast breade into riuers for fishes saying that they shall obteine most ample rewarde of God for such pitie shewed towardes them that do wante But the greate lordes of the Turkes or as we do here commonly call them the greate turkes lie all magnificently intumbed at Brusa a citie of Bithynia in manie chappels which do stande rounde aboute the church euerie prince hath his candlesticke of golde with a candle burning set vpon his sepulchre in the higher parts of the chappels hang there manie lampes alight Moreouer there do continually abide in that place twelue priestes of their religion who of their greene cappes are called Talismanlarie who do by course incessauntly praye in the church both day and night thrée before noone and three after three before midnight and three after But when that anie man is sicke amongst the Tartares and is neere vnto the point of death they do stick vp before the tente wherin he lyeth a speare with a blacke cloth that he that goeth by come not in for no man if he sée this signe dare goe in yea though he be called But after that he is departed this life all his householde assembles together and priuily carries the coorse out of the tent into some place chosen before and digging there a hole depe and broad enough they set vp ouer it a little tent and furnish a table with dishes of meate and setting the dead bodie verie preciously apparrelled vnto the table they ouerwhelme them altogether with earth There is also buried with him one beaste for burden and one horse trapped But the mightier sorte choose in their life time one of their seruauntes whome beeing burned with their marke they cause to be buried with them and the for this cause that they may vse them in an other worlde After this his friends take an other horse kill him eate vp the fleshe but the skinne being stuffed full of haye and sowed vp againe do they sette vpon foure postes ouer the sepulchre for a signe of a deade man The bones doe the women burne for to cleanse the soule But the men of greate power do an other thinge with the skin or hyde they cutte it in verie narrowe thonges and measure with them so much ground aboute the graue as they wil compasse for they do beleeue that the deade man shall haue so muche lande assigned him in an other worlde as his friends haue measured out for him with this hide The thirtithe day they ende their mourning But the Emperour of the Tartars the great Chame must be buried in the mountein Altay yea and thither is he caried although he die an hūdreth dayes iourney from thence All the men the horses yea if they be worth neuer so muche that they meete withal as they carrie the Emperour to the place of buriall do they kill and bidde them go into the other worlde to do seruice
greene boughes and within the tent do the moste honourable and honest women assemble all clothed in blacke hauing euerie one of them a fanne made of palme leaues the rest of the women the parentes of the deade are in the house wéeping and sighing then one of the womē that is of greatest estimation aduaunceth her selfe and cutts off the haires of the deade man during the which time his wife remaineth all dismall and wéeping bitterly ouer the coorse of her husband ofte kissing his mouth handes and féete But whē that al the haires be shorne off this wéeping wife raiseth vp her selfe and falles to singing with a countenaunce as merie and laughing as it was before monstruously sadde These things beeing done they put into a vessel of purcellane wherin is fire Myrrhe frankincense Storax and other suche odoriferous things perfuming therewith both the bodie and the house in the whiche ioy and perfuming they continue fiue or sixe dayes after which terme expired they do annoynt the bodie with camphore a certeine time which béeing ended they inclose him in a cofine the which is nayled with wodden pinnes and after wardes lay him in the grounde in some place where no bodie dwelleth But when the king is departed out of life the greatest and moste honourable men of the realme assemble to celebrate the obsequies and haueing apparelled clothed the bodie verie honourably and reuerendly they cutte off the heades or snatche certeine greate personages of the chiefe of the men of warre or the best of the souldiours or some merchauntes of the retinue and certeine of the kinges best horses to the ende they may wayte vpon the kinge in the other worlde and when they do pute them to death they do say Goe in the name of our Goddes to serue our kinge in our paradise euen as ye haue attended on him in this worlde and as ye haue bene faithfull vnto him here beneth in the earth so also shal ye be in the glorie of our Gods. Those that be slaine be nothing sorie or dismaide therfore but take their death in very good part laughing reioycing no lesse then they doe among vs that goe vnto a marriage When one dieth in Siam a countrie of India beyond Ganges his fréendes and kinsmen for to honour him do take his body and carrie it into the middes of a fielde where they do driue into the ground two postes of wood lay a third vpon thē vnto this crosse post do they fasten a chaine with two hookes in whom they do lay the dead man and make a great fire vnder him and as long as the body rosteth his children and kinsfolks stand round about the fire wéeping howling and sighing bothe as pitifully also as loude as they can for their liues But when the the body is well rosted they take out their goblets and fill them with their kinde of wine and ordinarie drinke made of rice and sugar and euery one also draweth his knife and beginnes to cutte off the fleshe of the man the which they do eate and drinke of their goblettes and yet they ceasse not to sighe and lament And the first that beginneth to eate of the dead mans flesh is the person that is nearest of his kin neither do they departe out of the place before that they haue eaten al the fleshe vnto the very bones the whiche they doe burne a rite vsed by all the Orient And they do say that it is impossible to giue vnto their fréendes a more honourable tumbe and where he shal be better then their owne bodies who loue him best and are also of equal dignity vnto his person In the citie of Fesse in Aphrica they vse to bury the dead men in a common fielde without the towne setting vpon the graue a great stone made of the fashion of a triangle But notable men and of great reputation haue at the head a table of marble and an other at their féete in whom are séene ingrauen proper verses in comfort of hard and vnhappie chances passed And a litle beneath the name of him that lieth there and the name of the house he was off with the day yeare of his death There is also without the towne vpon a hil a palace where are séene the tumbes of the kinges made of marble with fine and wittie epitaphes ingrauen in them and the tumbes are garnished with suche surpassing workmanshippe and beautified with the finest colours of the worlde so that it woulde make a man astonied to beholde the excellencie of them At Ormus in the Arabian gulfe vseth the wife of the deceased man once in a day for the space of foure monethes to make a pitifull solemne wéeping and howling and sometime to hyre an other woman to do it for her The like manner saies Bel Forest the author hereof haue I séene in Perrigord a Prouince of Fraunce among the peasaunts The fifteenth Chapter The confuse and causelesse feare of man and particularly of the Romanes three times of Augustus Caesar of the Greekes at Patras Philocrene and Trapezonda of the league called the cōmō wealth in Fraūce before Paris of the Emperials at Villa Francha of Pysander of one that died with the sight of Hercules of Artemon of Saint Vallier of Cassander at the sight of Alexanders Image and other ANd this is enough ye and I feare me too too much touching mans care for his burying Which hofulnesse doeth the confuse feare of man muche augment which Plinie rightly putteth as a miserie of man and truely affirmeth that no liuing thing hath greater Hereof came the prouerb among the Gréeks Latines a Panik chance whereby they signifie a soudaine vaine and causelesse tumult of mens hartes and it is so called because that the Ethnickes did thinke that the God Pan did send into men such souden terrours and consternations of minde making them like madde men so impotent and vnstaied that for the time they be not only void of reason but also of common sense Such vaine feares according to the prouerbe often happen in warrs many in Alexander the great his voiage and twise vnto the Saracenes in that famous expedition of Godfrey de Bolloigne whiche chaunces be of suche force that the famous Poet Pyndarus holdeth that it ought not to be accounted a reproche and dishonor if that the sonnes of the Gods or the most valiant men flie out of the fielde in suche tumultes I read in Liuie that Claudio Sulpicio and Aemilio Ceritano Conss there arose suche a feare one night in the citie of Rome that alarum was cried throughout all the whole citie such a tumult was raised as though euery streat had béene full of the enimies But when it waxed day there appeared authour neither of the noise or yet of the feare And in his third decade he telleth that when the Fragellans had brought newes that Hanibal drewe neere vnto the citie all the Citizens fell into a marueilous feare
pernicious feuer the which within few days maugre all Physicke bereft him of life Whereof came the French prouerbe La fieure de Saint Vallier The feuer of Saint Vallier for a strong apprehension Cassander did so feare Alexander the great that comming to Delphos long time after Alexanders death to behold the statuies that were set vp there and chauncing to sée one of his old prince Alexander with the sight thereof was he that had won Macedonie and Greece shaken with suche feare that he could not in long time leaue trembling come againe vnto him selfe In the like agony wil many be with the sight of a toade other of a snake as the Gentleman of late yeares that durst not goe by a writhed hat bande of white and blacke that laye on the floore bycause he had thought it had bene an adder but many are more foolishe then Syr Thomas Moores ape whiche fell into an ague with séeing vppon a scuden a snayle putting out her hornes for they wil be in a colde sweate with the sight of many meates and diuers of a cat and some swoone with the sight of their bloud or beholding of other letten bloud It is common that many men otherwise of good courage and hardinesse dare not lie alone for feare of spirites no nor goe alone in darke places taking euery thing they sée heare or féele to be a diuell I haue shewed the more examples of mens confuse feare bycause that the great clearke Ludouicus Viues séemeth to doubt whether that Plinie hath charged man truly with it or not wherin I dare say Plinie hath not belyed him no nor yet in the nexte that no liuing thing hath more extreme rage The sixteenth Chapter Of the furious rage of man and specially of Walter Earle of Breme and Matthias king of Hungarie FOr the proofe hereof will I only alledge two exāples among sixe hundreth namely séeing that daily experience doth continually giue vs a great number that of them that moued with wrath and inflamed with yre doe in that raging fit many things which bring them assured destruction indeleble dishonestie and sorrowfull repentance Walter the Earle of Breme hauing to wife the eldest daughter of Tancredi late king of both Sicyles but then prisoner vnto the Emperour as next heire vnto his father in lawe his kingdome inuaded Naples with onely foure thousande souldiers and had what through fortunes rare fauour and his owne prowesse recouered almost the whole realme but at the last he was taken prisoner in a skyrmishe before Sarno by one Thebald an Almaine who within thrée dayes after he was taken offered to set him and also his father in lawe Tancredi at libertie and to restore him vnto his kingdome which he had lost so that he woulde confirme vnto him the townes which he then possessed in the kingdome Walter bewitched with rage considering nothing at all eyther the recouerie of the kingdome or his owne seruile captiuitie out of the which he might easily rid him selfe like a madde man answered him that he would neuer take at such a stinking scabs hand eyther that Thebald had offered him or things much greater The Almaine being iustly moued to be so currishly answered by his prisoner threatened that he would make him repent those vilanous wordes of his whiche as soone as Walter had hearde he fell immediately into such a rage that renting off the clothes and rolles with whome his woundes were bound he cryed out the fire flying out of his eyes that he woulde liue no longer séeing that he was come into suche a villaines handes as woulde deale with him by threates and therwithall like a Tygre tare his woundes bowels with his cruell hands neuer after wold either eate meate or suffer any thing to be applyed vnto his woundes so within a fewe dayes violently draue his furious soule out of his tormented body leauing his only daughter destitute of al friends to be a laughing stocke vnto the worlde who if she had gotten a modest father should haue bene Quéene of the flourishing kingdome of both Sicyles Neither could that bulworke of christendome Matthias king of Hungarie who valiantly euer ouercame the Turkes who neuer could be vanquished since ouercome his owne ire and he that had so often slaine in the fielde so many of his fierce forreigne foes was killed at home at his owne table by an inward enimie For he sitting very merrie at dinner vpon a Palme Sunday accōpanied with honourable Embassadours sent frō the French king called for figges but when it was tolde him that they were all eaten he became so angrie and raging that he incontinently fell into an apoplexie and neuer spake word afterward but roaring out like vnto a Lyon died the nexte day Was it not thinke ye nowe wisely fained of the Poets that Promotheus lacking clay to finishe his man was forced to make it vp with parts cutte off from other liuing thinges and among other did put the heart of a woode and madde Lion into mans brest And truely saide Cato that anger differeth not from madnesse but onely in this that it continueth not so long Wherfore wisely doth Plutarche wil men to loke in a glasse when they be angrie and to behold them selues well and then will they be afraide euer afterward to deforme themselues againe in suche sorte Yea when they shall beholde their fierie eyes theyr swolne vaines and arteries their terrible Lionlyke looke they will be no lesse afraide of themselues then was poore transformed Io in Ouid when she behelde her horrible hornes in the water But how hurtful it is vnto the body doe Physicians shewe who define it to be a setting on fire of the vitall spirites in the hart whereby it is of néere aliaunce vnto an ague But that which foloweth this perturbation be long pining consumptions which inféeble the bodie The seuenteenth Chapter Of the great troubles that religion and superstition do inflict into man of the vnutterable sorrowe for sinne of Dauid Marie Magdalene Fabiola king Edgar the gryping griefs of a guiltie conscience and the vaine imaginations of the Melancholike AS no man doth doubt but that these troubles do happē vnto man only so I think no man will denie but that all whiche haue reason doe féele the molestation of them We are willed by the Apostle to worke our saluation in trembling and feare the wiseman accounted that man happie which is always fearful so that according vnto saint Paules counsel good men are very carefull that they fall not when they be fallen are hartely heauie and sorrowfull therefore And as God doth excéed in tender loue towards vs the kindest parentes and in gentle gouernment the mildest Princes and as the pleasing of him doth bring vnto vs vnutterable ioyes and the displeasing of him vnspeakable paines so doubtlesse doth the hofulnesse of the godly for to please him passe all worldly studie and the torments that teares
do contemne their deadly daunger and seeme to haue an insensibilitie of their sinnes and perill finally are ashamed of nothing so muche as to shewe ye any light signe of sorrowe for their horrible déepe sinke of sinne yet can not these lustie bloudes escape the inwarde percinge pricke of a guiltie conscience which tormenteth them a thousande folde more terriblye then if it were the deadly stinge of a viper and worketh them more woe and vnrest then doth the madde flie the coursed cattell in the rageing dogge dayes These iolly gentlemen tremble â— shake at euerie flash of lighteninge and be halfe deade at a clappe of thunder as though they came not of anie naturall cause but were sente downe from heauen by angred God purposely to reuenge their outrages Not in the day time not in the night will their vexed mindes graunte vnto their bodies anie reste WheÌ„ they go vnto their meales no one morsell of meate will go downe their throates fearing as men that had their iawes dried vp with a longe wastinge sicknesse yea they cast vp their drinke like vnto younge children makinge a sowre face at sweete Hippocras as though it were sharpe vineagre so vnsauourie doth remorse of their sinnes make al things vnto them But when the time of the night doth adhorte them to goe vnto their restlesse bedde they dare not lye alone for feare that a thousande diuelles woulde carrie them away bodie and soule vnto hell Nowe after they be tyred with tossinge and turning if they chaunce to happen on a slumber for sounde sleape will not the tormenting torche that burneth without intermission in their troubled brestes in anie case graunt them with what dreadfull dreames méete they howe starte they howe hydeously crie they out If theÌ„ religioÌ„ ingendereth suche griefes what tormentes may we think superstitioÌ„ bringeth for I can not tel how saith Seneca vaine thinges do trouble and vexe vs farre more theÌ„ true for the true haue their certeine measure and quantitie but whatsoeuer commeth of an incertâ—ntie is deliuered and giuen ouer vnto the coniecture and licence of a fearefull minde and what that will make of them may the straunge imaginations of the melancholyke manifestly declare some steadfastly beleauinge that they haue eaten venimous serpentes soÌ„e that they haue lost their heads soÌ„e that they haue drouÌ„ke poysoÌ„ soÌ„e that they beare vp al the whole world faynte faile vnder so heauie a burden other that they sée Atlas whoÌ„e the Poetes fayne to staye vp heauen with his shoulders to shrinke and giue ouer and presently readie to lett fall the weightie engine of the heauens on their heades some that they be earthen vessells and merueilously feare breaking other crie out if they do but see one come into the chamber for feare he will treade on his nose some that they haue deadly botches where as in verie déede there are no such thinges with 1000 such like vaine feares al of whome it were as madd a parte for me to rehearse as it was is for theÌ„ to imagine The eighteenth Chapter The hoofullnesse of Lewes the eleuenth Charles the seuenth French kings of Dionysius Commodus and Aristippus for the prolonging of their liues ANd no lesse madnesse considering the manifolde miseries the often calamities the greate mischiefes and annoyances whiche happen vnto man in his life is mans immesurable desiring of liuing which Plinie assigneth for a proper incoÌ„moditie of mankinde Lewes the French kinge the eleuenth of that name when he had liued thrée score yeares perceiuinge that he was fallen into a sicknesse which was likely to shorten his time and also being feared with the sixtieth yeare of his age because that none of the Capetts had passed that bound which yet could not coÌ„tent him what wayes wrought he to prolong his lothsome life to what solemne shrine offered he not greate rich oblations to what famous house of religion throughout all Fraunce gaue not hee fayre lands for a great parte of it wrongefully wrouÌ„g from pore men which donations because they were so great were reuoked after his death to what holy man of name in al Christendome sent not he the golden gifts instantly desiring them in their daylie praiers to God to haue a speciall memento for the large increase of his yeares But amonge all other he fet out of Calabria one Robert an Heremite a man of all them of his time moste renowned for holynesse of life at whose feete at the firste méetinge he fell downe desiring him with manie a bitter teare to prolonge his life foolishly hopinge as the Heremite truely tolde him to obteine that of a man whiche God only was able to giue But yet fearinge that he was not surely enoughe defenced againste terrible death by spirituall helpe studiously also soughte for naturall by phisicke and founde one Cocterius who with large promises of longe life fedde his folishe humoure as the kinge againe glutted the physicians vnsatiable desire of golde with giuinge him ten thousande crownes a moneth yea in fiue monethes foure and fiftie thousande besides manie greate promotions promised if he did recouer his health Yet could not this rare liberalitie of the kinge make the physician courteous vnto him but hee woulde continually handle him verie roughly churlishely and with despitefull wordes vpbrayed vnto him his wrongfull and cruell demeanour towardes diuers of the nobilitie and the counsell and vsed often to tell him that he woulde also handle him so one day Although this vncourteous and proude dealinge greatly greeued the kinge and made him often to complaine of it vnto his familiars yet durste he in no wise put him away because that he had constantly affirmed that the kinge shoulde not liue sixe dayes after that he were gone Which direfull denunciation the kinge abhorred as gate of hell as the man that in al his whole life coulde not abide to haue it once tolde him that he must one day die and would often in his health will his friendes that when they should sée him daungerously sicke they shoulde in no case put him in minde of death where as in verie déede he shoulde haue meditated nothinge so much all his life longe which should haue bene a continual preparing of him self vnto death where vnto he should most assuredly come at the laste and howe soone vncerteine neither yet during his longe sicknesse stoode hee in greater dreade of death by inwarde diseases then he feared shortening of life by forreigne foes Wherefore he imprisoned manie noble men of great power diuerse faithful counsellours vpon vaine imagination conceiued in his fearefull minde of their infidelitie He woulde suffer verie fewe of the nobilitie to come neare vnto the place where he lodged much lesse come within the castell gate which was guarded daye and night with foure hundreth souldiours of whom the one halfe were Scottes whome he trusted better then his owne subiectes commaunding them to shoote at all men whiche did
life in bondage and Philippe king of Macedonie the mightiest kinge of all Europe saies Diodorus in his time and who durst for the largenesse of his Empire for he conquered Thessalia Greece and manie other countries adioyning vnto him reckon himselfe matche vnto the twelue Goddes slaine by his subiecte Pausanias at the sumptuous mariage of his daughter vnto the kinge of Epyrus in the middest of his myrth yea and of his conquestes whē he had leuied two hundreth thousand Greekes foote men and fifteen thousand horsemen besides the power of Macedonie Thessaly and all his Barbarous dominions to inuade the Persian and Antiochus kinge of Sy ria surnamed the noble who was slaine going aboute to spoile the temple of Diana at Helimais omittinge also the two walls of Greece Milciades and Themistocles of whome the one destroyed the huge armie of Darius and the other of Xerxes and mightie Emperours of Persia afterwarde died both in great miserie the one beeing caste into prison by the vnthankfull people and the other banished where he poysoned himselfe and the two lightes of the Romaine Empire the two Scipiones Africani of whome the one was banished out of his countrie the which he not only had conserued from the rage of Hanibal but also enlarged with the dominions of the Hispaines and all Asia on this side Taurus but the younger after he had razed Carthage and Numantia the two terrors of the Romaines was one night shamefully murdered at Rome in his bedde without anie inquisition after made howe hee came vnto this vnworthy ende to whome his countrie was almost as muche bounde as vnto their founder Romulus whom they cruelly tare in péeces shewing at the verie firste what rewarde all their benefactours shoulde looke for of that vnthankefull and vngratious people passinge also ouer in silence Lucius Sylla who onely of all men named himselfe happie because that hee had oppressed the libertie of his countrie and proscribed and slaine so manie of his countrie men was eaten to deathe with lice his bodie gnawing it selfe and breeding his owne punishemente nor Dionysius the elder who of a meane man became Lorde of the mightie state of Syracusae yea and of the whole Islande of Sicyl out of the whiche hee expelled the Carthaginians and subdued manie cities in Italie and was growne vnto this power that he was able to bringe sixscore thousande footemen and twelue thousande horsemen into the fielde and foure hundreth shippes into the sea yet at length beeing broken with continuall warres was slaine by his owne people nor yet rehersinge the vnfortunate fatall fall in fighte of the three gemmes of Greece Lysander Epaminondas and Pelopidas and the maniefolde foiles and finally the banishment of the fourth and laste famous capteine of Greece Conon nor Hanibal the honour of Afrike banished his countrie and after diuers wandringes forced to poyson himselfe leste he shoulde haue beene a Maye game vnto the yrefull Romaines nor Brennus kinge of the wanderinge Galles the terrour of Greece who slewe him selfe after that he sawe his inuincible armie destroyed from heauen nor Aurelianus who reduced into one the Romaine Empire beeing manie yeares torne into péeces by thirtie tyrants but was slaine by his seruaunt nor Alboinus the founder of the kingdome of the Lombardes in Italie murdered by the treason of his owne wife Nowe Enghist who first brought into Britaine the Saxons chaunged the name of a parte therof into England slaine with a great power in battell after that he had seene his brother Horsa fallen by the like feate nor the valiantest capteine that euer serued Prince Belisarius who triumphed eftsoones of the Persians and reduced vnto the Romaine Empire bothe Africa Italie whiche had beene longe time quietly possessed by the Vandalles and Gothes yet he whome no mans might could mate cursed enuie ouerthrewe raysed by a displeasure taken againste his proude wife by the insolente Empresse who stirred the shameful indignation of her husband not only to bereaue him of his sight but also of his goodes so that he was forced to begge his breade who had triumphed ouer all partes of the worlde Nor minding to recite Orchanes the seconde Prince of the Turkes who after that he had conquered Mysia Lycaonia Phrygia Caria and the citie of Prusa extended his Empire vnto the Hellesponte and the Sea Euxine was slaine in a greate ouerthrowe giuen him by the Tartars nor his sonne Amurathes slaine by a slaue of the Dispotes of Seruia after that hee had conquered a greate parte of Thrace the lower Mysia the Triballes and Besses and discomfited in a greate battell the power of Seruia and Bulgaria nor howe his sonne Baiazet after that he had subdued all Thrace excepte Pera and Constantinople the whiche he besieged eyghte yeares and doubtlesse had taken it if that he fearing the cōminge of Sigismunde the Emperour with a greate power and not broken vp the siege to giue the Westerne Christians that famous foile at Nicopolis and afterwarde wonne Macedonia Thessalia Phocis and Attica was takē prisoner by Tamberlaine with the losse of two hundreth thousande Turkes and made during all the reste of his lamentable life a miserable blocke for the proud victor to mounte on horsebacke and also was carried aboute with him in an yron cage to gnawe bones vnder the table among his dogges nor howe the Martiall prince of the Moscouies Swatoslawe after that he had subdued Bulgaria and all the countrie euen vnto Thonawe discomfited the Emperours of Greece with their huge armie forced thē to redéeme the sacke of Constantinople with a greate weight of golde was at the length slaine in an ambushe by Cures Prince of Pleczenig and a maizer made of his scull about the which was ingrauen by seekinge other mennes he loste his owne nor howe the three Italian tyrantes of our time of whom two were Creti sanguine Diuum two Popes sonnes the thirde a neare Sib vnto Pope Clemens the seuenth who oppressing wrongfully the libertie of his countrie aduaunced this vnthriftie bastarde Alexander Di medici vnto the Duchie of Florence where within fewe yeares for his tyrannie and lecherie he was hated of all men and slaine by his cosen and familiar Laurence Di medici the which fate also befell for his semblable manners vnto Peter Luigi created by his father Paule the thirde Duke of Placentia and Parma but that greater vilanies were done vnto his deade bodie by the angrie multitude the thirde but the firste in order of age was Caesar Borgia sonne vnto Alexander the sixte one that for cruel murderinge of noble men passed the cursed memorie of Tyberius Caligula Claudius Nero Domitian Commodus Seuerus and al the rest of those Romaine Monsters And firste to lay a fit foundation for his ambitious buylding he caused his elder brother Frauncis Duke of Candia to be murthered in the citie one night after
reli 1. cap. 15. The second cause Aeneid 5. The thirde cause The loue of the Arabians vnto their Kinges Lib. 4. Lib. 17. The loue of the Solidunes vnto their Kinges What man was first adored The fourth cause of deifying of men Lact. de fals relig To what men godly honors were decreed while they liued The fift cause The impudeÌ„t flatterie ef the Athenians vnto Demetrius Ath. lib. 6. ca. 6 Ath. li. 14. ca. 8 A worthy saying of Antigonus The shameles speache of the Panormitanes Paul Aemyl lib. 7. The shamlesse flatterie of the Athenians vnto Antonius and howe hee required them therefore The flatterie of the Romanes to Iulius Caesar Lib. 44. Diod. lib. 44. Lib. 7. cap. 47. Simon Magus adored for a God. Iust in Apol Tertul. in Apolo c. The contention betweene Peter and Magus Lib. 5. cap. 3. Apollonius adored for a God. The madnesse of the Egyptians in choosing their false Gods. Diod. Sic. 2. Ath. 7. cap. 17. Hero. Enterp Lib. 2. cap. 4. The flatterie of the people vnto Herodes of his dolefull end A golden sentence of Augustine The humilitie of king Canute Polyd Arist in proble Hip. Aph. sect 3. Hip. Aphor. sect 5. Valer. 4.6 Georg. Agri. de animal subter Paul. Io. Rer. Musc com A Cardinalles harlot Poppea Antiochus Sedetes his souldiours Caligula and Heleogabalus Sueto Lamprid. Charles Duke of Burgonie Annales Fland. The Marques of Astorga Lollia Paulina Plinies exclamation against pearles A great price of a pearle A great price for a precious stone The iewels vsed by the Romanes The Iewells worne by the Greekes The Iewells worne by the Asians The price of purple Agrippina Womens rich robes at Alexandria Man is not coÌ„teÌ„ted with the natural habite or ornaments of his body The patriarch of Moscouie Elog doct viror Cardinal Egidius The Romane houses Nero his house Pli. 33. cap. 10. Lucullus his buildings Clodius his house The stuffe garnishing of the Romane buildings The great prices of trees The great prices of painted tables Pli. li. 35. ca. 11 Pli. li. 35. ca. 10 Pl. li. 35. ca. 11. Pli. li. 35. ca. 12. Pli. 34. ca. 8. Plin. 53. cap. 11 Lamprid. in vit Pliâ— lib. 33. cap. 11. Lib. 33. cap. 12. Pli. lib. 37. ca. 1 Pli. li. 35. ca 12. Bap. Fulg. li. 9 cap. 1. Lamprid. in vit Plin. lib. 33 Martial in Epigr. Paul. Iou. in vita Leonis Lamp. in vita Pli. lib. 17. Aul. Gelli Pli. and Macro Prices of fishes De re rust Li. de re rust Lib. 15. ca. 12. Lib. 17. cap. 1. The ryot of Vitellius and his brother Sueto Pli. lib. 10. The riot of Caligula Consol and Albinam The riot of Heliogabalus Lamprid. in vit The riot of Lucullus Plut. in vita The rate of Darius Alex ander in diet Athen. lib. 4. cap. 6. The frugality of the auncient Romanes The slender diet of Augustus and other Emperours In vita Vari The riot of Lucius Comodus Lib. 5 cap. 9. Lib. 4. cap. 7. The riot of Cleopatra The magnificent feast of Galeaze The riot of a Venetian The riot of a Cardinal Rap. vol. com Vrb. lib. 33. The riot of Aesopus Pli. li. 10. ca. 51. Who first franked henns Plin. 9.54 Pondes of salt water Of those that deuoured pearles and precious stones Cleopatra He alludeth to the name vnâ—o Clodius Caligula The prices of spices at Rome in Plinies dayes The ryot of sweete oyntments Io. 12. Pli. li. 13 cap. 3. Lib. 12. cap. 18. Muleasses his costly cookerie Paul Iou. hist sui temp The gret price of cookes Pli. li. 9. ca. 17. Lib. 19. ca. 4 Riot in herbs and water He alludeth vnto the two departures of the commons out of the city vnto those hils when they were oppressed by the noble and riche men How many kindes of wines Deuises to make men eate drinke The beast Rosomacha Car. de sub 10. The incomodities of surfetting drunkennesse Io. maus in Loc com Gal. de morb diffâ—r Monstruous fatte men Athe. lib. 12. cap. 27. Ath. li. 12. ca. 26 Sheepe and swine monstruously fatte Vide Card. de sub 10. De sub ex 199 cap. 2. Athe. lib. 12. cap. 27. Tarapha de râ—g Hisp The Pyramides Pli. li. 36. ca. 12 The Laberinthes The lake of Merios The description of labyrinthes out of Plinie Of Obelisces The Garden at Babylon Ptolomeus Philopaters shippe Ath. li. 5. ca. 6 The shippe of Hiero. Athe. li. 5. ca. 7 Caligula his galley Caligula his madde buildings Suetonius Nero his pond Sueto Nero his dich Sueto Caligula his bridge Sueto Traianes bridge Dion Vol. Anthro lib. 24. Lib. 3. epi. vl The Romane triumphes Pompeyus his triumphe The triumphs of Antiochus and Ptolomey Salust why Catiline rebelled Dion Plinie why Antonius and Curio rebelled Why Caesar inuaded his country Suet. Caesars vnhonourable dealings for money Caesars great debtes Heraclitus his aduise against rebellion Caligula his shamelesse shiftes for money Nero his shamelesse shiftes for money Histo animal lib. 9. cap. 47. Arist de hist Anim. lib. 9. cap. 47. Ad Ro. cap. 1. Lib. 13. cap. 12. Lib. 36. cap. 5. Lib. 13. cap. 29. In orat ad hort ad geÌ„tes Cel. Lec antiq The Persian burial The Babilonian buriall The Egyptian buriall The funerals of the Egyptian King. The burial of the Aethiopians The burial of the Meroites The burial of the Troglodites The burial of the Panebi The burial of the Colchians The burial of the Phrigians The burial of the Chii The burial of the Arabians The burial of the Cathei The burial of the Chrestonei The burial of the Indians The burial of the Derbices The Irish buriall The burial of the Caspians The burial of the Iberians The burial of the Bactrians The burial of the Massagetae The Thracian buriall The burial of the Transi The burial of the Scythian kings The burial of priuate Scythians The burial of the Essedones The burial of a countrie in Thrace The burial of the Massilians Vale Max. lib. 2. cap. 1. The burial of the Tauri The burial of the Galles The buriall of the king of Macedon Herod lib. 6. The buriall of the Greekes Who began burning of the deade The opinions of Heraclitus and Thales of buriall Why the Aegyptians preserued the ded bodies Why the Greekes burnt the bodies Why the Persians and Aegyptians wold not burn their deade The funeralls of the Greekes The funerals of a capteine slaine The sumptuous charges of funerals The Romane funerals Curio his maruellous Theatres 36.15 The funerals of Ephestion The funerals of the Athenians slaine in the fielde Why the Romanes burned the dead Rites of burial common to many countries In Epistolam ad Cor. 8.12 In Mat. ho. 32. in cap. ad Cor. 1. Ser. 13. P. Bello in obseru Tacit. de mori Ger. The burial of the Germanes The manner of the Persian mourning The maner habites of the Roman mourning A merrie tale of Sabinus The maner of