crowns a fine not halfe great ynough for so heinous a fault The Ephesians also by Plutarches reporte receiued him Godlike the women being disguised like Bacchus his dame priests the men boies transfigured into satyres and Panes bearing in their handes Bacchanicall iauelins called Thyrsie and garlandes of iuie on their heads saluting and calling him by the name of Bacchus Charidoles and Malichius Wherein they be the more to be borne with because saies Dion lib. 48. he had after the ouerthrowe that hee gaue vnto Brutus and Cassius named him selfe Bacchus whome in very déede he did very liuely counterfeite and expresse in drunkennesse and commaunded that no man should call him by any other name But before this time had the Romanes decréed Iulius Caesar after that he had with armes oppressed vnto the libertie of his countrie honours higher and greater then could agrée with any man a temple ioyntly vnto him and Clemencie a statuie of golde sette with precious stones to the Curia or Senatehouse and before the iudgement seate a sacred drey or litle carte and a Pageaunt setfoorth with the pompe that they vsed at their playes Circenses his statuies to be set vp close vnto the superstitious beddes of their Gods. A College of priests were instituted vnto his Godhead whiche were called Luperci Iulii and a Bishop or Flamin of the order which was Marcus Antonius the consul that they should swere by his fortune that euery fifth yeare a feast should be celebrated vnto him as a Heros or halfe God that all the games of swoord plaiers that should be kept in Rome or in all Italie should be consecrated vnto him Finally saies Dion they openly gaue him the syrname of Iupiter whiche thinges do agrée vnto Eustatius the famous interpreter of Homer vppon the firste of his Iliades that Iulius Caesar was called a God by the Romanes while he was liuing Al these decrées which partly the flattering people and partly his priuie ill willers to bring him into enuie thus heaped on him were engraued in pillers of siluer with letters of golde and placed at the féete of Iupiter Capitolinus couertly to admonishe him of his humanitie and subiection vnto god But it is not to be wondered at that Caesar was made a God by the oppressed Romanes séeing that Plinie affirmeth that one Euthymus Picta an Italian who had euer béene victor at the games helde at Olympus and neuer but once ouercome was by the commandement of the Oracle of Apollo and the astipulation of Iupiter the highest God consecrated aliue and fealing and that the very same day his statuie that had béene set vp at Olympia was stroken and consumed with lightening and that this did also please the Goddes he sayes that Callimachus doeth so maruell at as he doth at nothing else that euer happened Neither haue Magicians and sorcerers obteined lesse honour for in the time of Claudius the Emperour one Simon a Samaritane of his diuelish art and science called Magus came vnto Rome and plaide there so many fine slye iuggling knackes that he with his minion Helena were accompted for Goddes and sacrifices offered vnto them and his Image set vp betwéene the two bridges of Tiber with this title Simoni Deo Magno to Simon a great God but Tertullian hathe an holy God whome all the Samaritanes and many also of other nations did adore and confesse to be the highest God. The insolencie writes Egesippus out of this iuggling merchaunt went so farre that hee prouoked Simon Peter then beeing at Rome to contende with him in woorking of miracles He went about to raise vppe by magicke artes the bodie of a childe whose soule was departed out of it the Childe was of kinde vnto Nero and in déede moued it a litle but incontinently it fell downe starcke deade as it was before But Peter by the name of Iesus made it to rise alone of it selfe With the euent of whiche miracle Simon being netled and chafed professed that he woulde in the sight of all the people of Rome flye from the Capitoll vnto the Auentiue hill if Peter woulde followe him that déede should manifestly declare whither of them two was best beloued of god And nowe was Simon carried aloft in the ayre when Peter on his knées suppliantly desired almightie GOD not to suffer the people who tourneth all thinges to the wurst to bée deceiued by false iuggling neither lacked his prayers effecte for Simon fell downe to the grounde in the middes of his foolishe flight and brake one of his legges shortely after dying thereof at Aricia whither hee had béene priuily conueied by his disciples after that foule foile I finde also in Lactantius that in the reigne of Domitian Apollonius the famous Magician was adored of many for a GOD and an image set vp vnto him by the name of Hercules Alexicacos Hercules the driuer away of all euill Thus haue ye heard the extreame foolishnesse of many heathen men in choosing of their GODS but the madnesse of the Egyptians doth farre excéede them all for they sayes Herodotus in Euterpe doe take all beastes bothe wilde and tame for Godes There are saies Strabo in his seuentéenth booke some vnreasonable liuing creatures which all the Aegyptians doe vniuersally woorshippe as of the lande beastes the neate and the dogge of byrdes the hawke and the Ibis of fishes the Lepidotus and Oxyrinchus And there be other which euery city adoreth peculiarly as the Saites and Thebans a shéepe the Latopolitanes a fish in the Riuer of Nilus called Latus the Lycopolitanes a woulfe the Hermopolitanes the Cynocephalus the Babylonians besides Memphis the Cepus whiche is a beast like vnto a Satyre but in all other partes meane betwéene a dogge and a beare the Mendesians bothe the ramme and the ewe goat The Athribites the venimous mouse called Mus Araneus Hercules his citie with other the ilfauoured Ichneumon whiche killeth the crocodile and destroyeth the aspes egges the Arsinoites the cruell crocodile the Leontines the Lyon. The Ele also is a generall God in Egypt and all fishes with scales and the byrde Phenix and the Bergander as affirmeth Herodotus who also telleth that if any man kill any of those baggages willingly he dieth the death for it if against his will hée is fined and punished at the discretion will of the priests but whosoeuer killeth an Ibis or an Hauke either with his will or against it must néedes die for it And to be deathe to kill a catte either by mishappe or of purpose doth Diodorus Siculus shewe by an example which he himselfe sawe The Romane imbassadours were at Alexandria to enter into societie and friendshippe with the Egyptians and their king to he called an alie friend of the people of Rome where it chaunced one of the Romanes against his will to kil a catte As soone as it was noised in the citie the angrie citizens assembling together in great
and made meate and drinke onely for noble men But it can not be better expressed then with his owne wordes Out of the garden is the commons their shambles with howe muche more innocent and harmelesse diet No I doe beléeue it is better to diue into the bottome of the sea and kindes of oysters to be sought by shipwrackes birdes to be set beyond the riuer of Phasis who one would haue thought should haue béene safe from fetching by reason of the fabulous terrour that we reade in Poets no for that they are the more pretious to goe a fouling for other into Numidia and Aethiopia among the graues or to fight with wilde beastes coueting to be eaten of that which an other man doth eate But oh Lorde howe good cheape are hearbs howe ready for pleasure and satietie if that the same indignation and spite which doth euery where did not also here occurre and come in the waye it were in déede to be borne withall exquisite fruites to growe of whome some for their tast and verdure some for their greatnesse other for their straungenesse shoulde be forbidden poore men and wines to be made to laste vntill great ages and to be gelded with bagges neyther any man to be so olde that he may not drinke wine elder then him selfe and also riot to inuent a certaine foode out of corne onely and the fine floure of it to be taken and it to liue and continue longer then the workes and ingrauings of the bakehouses some to be breade for noblemen some for the commons breade corne discending in so many kyndes euen vnto the basest of the commons What is there a distinction also in hearbes and hath riches made a difference in a meate yea which is to be bought for an halfepenie And some also of them do the tribes say growe not for them the stalke by franking being made so greate that a poore mans table may not receiue and holde him Nature had made sperage wilde that euery man might euery where gather them but beholde nowe there is francked sperage and Ranenna selleth them for poundes a péece Out alas the prodigies of the paunch it would haue béene a maruel not to be lawfull for cattell to eate thistles it is not lawful for the commons Water also is separated and the verye Elementes of nature are seuered by the power of riches These men drinke snowe they ice and do turne the punishmentes and pains of mountains into the pleasure of the throte Coldenesse is kept in heate and a deuice is founde for snowe to be colde in forreigne and contrarie monethes Other water they boile and that also anone after they winter or vse in the winter hauing warme water in winter So nothing doth please man being suche as it pleaseth nature And be there also some hearbes whiche growe onely for rich men let no man looke about for the holy and Auentine hills and the departure of the commons out of the citie for surely death shall make them equall whome wealth hath ouermatched Thus farre Plinie who also in his 14. booke telleth the waywardnes of men to be suche about their wines that they had inuented 195. kindes of them and of special kindes of those generall almoste double the number Neither did the immeasurable charges of their meats satisfie their vnthriftie mindes but that by vomiting they must make themselues readie to eat often as though there had béen no other vse of eating meate but to vomite it vp again not muche vnlike vnto the Rosomacha in Lithuama a beast of the bignesse of a dogge and the face of a catte the backe and taile of a foxe who vseth when he hathe filled his bellie with meate as full as it wil hold to scummer out that whiche he hath eaten with squising his bellie betwéene two trées standing néere together and then incontinently to returne againe vnto the carreine and so to do continually so long as he can gette meate But the roisting Romanes to haue a quarell vnto the cuppe besides salte meates and olde rotten chéese whiche are in vse also nowe a dayes among our tipplers they vsed to drinke colde poisons as hemlocke that deathe might make them powre in strong wine lustely to saue their liues other tooke the poulder of a pomise stone and other like thinges moste abhominable whiche by rehearsing I am ashamed to teache the wariest of those tiplers saies he do we sée to be boyled with baynes and to be carried out of them halfe dead that they may drinke the harder but other can not stay for the bedde no not for their clothes but incontinently naked and hasing take mightie great cuppes as it were to shewe their strength and plentifully powre in the wine that they may immediatly vomite it out and againe swill and vppe with it straightway and so the thirde time as though they were borne to destroy wine as and if wine could not otherwise be shedde but through mennes bodies But the fruites or rather incommodities of rauenous gluttonie doth he set downe in that place That it fall out the best vnto them they neuer sée the rising of the Sunne and they liue the lesse while Hereof comes palenesse hanging eyliddes vlcers of the eyes shaking handes which wil shedde full cuppes whiche is a present paine furiall sleapes disquiet and ill rest in the night the next day stinking breathes caste out of the mouth and obliuion almost of all things and the death of the memorie It is recorded by Plutarch that at a game of drinking made by Alexander 41. dranke them selues dead An. 1540. was a very good yeare for wines in the which there were found to die in the duchie of Wittenberg at feasts from Autumne vnto the first sunday of Lent 400. persons so that we néede no auncient examples Many dishes saies sage Seneca bring many diseases and innumerable diseases do rewarde innumerable cookes which is agréeable vnto that golden sentence of Plinie great diuersitie of dishes is very pestilent but of sauces and dressings of them more pestilent Aske mée sayes Seneca in his controuersies why we die so soone because we liue by deathes But admit that a man did not with excessiue quantitie of meate put the vaines in daunger of breaking nor set on fire the spirites with hote wines whiche the Phycisians will neuer graunt yet who woulde not thinke it more intollerable then death by gourmandise to be so ouerloden with flesh and fatte that he can not moue as Nicomachus of Smyrna or not goe as was Ptolomei Euagetes king of Egypt who in many yeares before he went foorthe to receiue that Péerelesse Paragon of the worlde Scipio Africanus the yonger walked not on foote or Alexander king of that Realme who could not walke for grosenesse but staied vp with two men or be like vnto Dionysius the tyrant of Heraclea whose fatnesse would not suffer him to fetch his breath and did put him in continual
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
lamentable losse by sicknesse of the flourishing army of his countrimē in Naples vnder the conduct of the Lantrech and the dishonourable yealding of Auersa as he stoode musing on this so great a calamitie and staring vp into heauen fel down starke deade of pitifull pietie towards parents out of Campofulgoso the Toletane who by importunate prayers and flowing teares hardly at the length obteined of the magistrate to be hanged in his fathers stéede of fatherly sorrowe out of Appian Blauus who hearing a false tale that his sonne was slaine by the souldiers of Triumri of his owne accord went vnto them and obteined of them to be killed as one proscribed and out of Iulius Capitolinus Gordian the Romane Emperour who vnderstanding that his sonne was slaine in battell for intollerable griefe hanged vp him selfe that night in his chamber of brotherly loue out of Plinie Pub. Rutilius who being certified of his brothers repulse in his suite for the Consulship incontinently dyed being before but grieued a little with an ague and of the two Cappadocian brothers that contended whether of them was the elder for that Augustus had decréed that the elder shoulde be put to death with his father Adiatorix and when they had long after this manner striuen in deadly pietie scarse at the last Dyetentus by the earnest intreatie and prayers of his mother who sawe that she might be more easily founde and mainteined by him gaue place suffered his yonger brother to dye for him the elder Of sure affied heart vnto wife Marcus Plautinus who slue him vpon his dead wife and Sempronius Gracchus who did suffer him selfe to be slaine wittingly in his fight by killing of a male serpent that he might deliuer his wife from death by letting the female to escape for so the Soothsayers affirmed of feruent frendship Pylades and Pithias who incessantly sued to dye to saue his faithfull friendes Orestes and Damon and Philotinus out of Plinie that threwe him selfe in to the roge or funerall fire of his patrone who had made him heire of all his whole goodes of faithful seruice two bondmen in Dion who did chaunge apparell with their proscribed maisters that they by wished errour might be slaine for them Thus muche of mourning the next is riot wherunto may aptly be annexed too great lust of all thinges The sixte Chapter Of the great riot of man in apparel and the excesse therein of a Cardinals harlot of Poppea of the souldiours of Antiochus Sedetes Caligula Heliogabalus Charles duke of Burgonie the Marques of Astorga Lollia Paulina Agrippina of the Romanes the Greekes and the Alexandrines of the greate prices of a pearle and a precious stone whiche made his maister to be proscribed Howe man doth alter the natural constitution and ornamentes of his body and of Poppea her bath and of a Patriarche and a Cardinal that made themselues to be pale ALl other liuing thinges are contented with the clothing of nature and the ornamentes of it onely man couereth his carcase with forreigne furniture whiche were to be allowed in him séeing nature hathe afforded him none if he coulde be pleased with such things as are able to defend him from colde and heate and not to séeke the bottomes bothe of the seas ye the Arabian and Indian and al landes to garnishe their bodies withall robbing the Seas fishes of purple pearles stones and amber greace and the hidden and secret tresures of the whole earth for golde siluer precious stones and the poore vermine of the farthest colde countries of the Northe cruelly of their able garmentes for Sables Lucernes Hermines and suche like costly furres paying for a face of Sables 1000. ducates and wilde beasts of the East for muske ciuet to make them smel swéet They set pearles saies Plinie on their féete that not only vpon the vpper parts of their shooes but also on the soles ye in the memorie also of our fathers a Cardinals harlot wore al the vpper parte of her shooes set cleane ouer with pearles and precious stones and long before her Poppea wife to Nero would shooe suche horses as she liked of with golde as her husband did all his mules with siluer so that it is not greatly to be marueiled that the souldiers of Antiochus Sedetes king of Syria did peg their shooes with nails of golde Clemens Alexandrinus séemeth to make it a common thing in Greece and Asia or rather at Alexandria where he liued to set their shooes euery where full of studs of golde to weare pantafles made with diuerse kinde of workmanshippe of golde precious stones so that I do ceasse to woonder that Caligula vsed riding clokes couered ouer ouer with precious stones Heliogabalus all his garments ye and his shooes glistering with gemmes No what say you that our Barbarians wil boorde for brauerie those riotous Romanes gorgeous Gréekes for Charles the hautie the last Duke of Burgonie whē he receiued Frederike the Emperour wore a cloke of cloth of golde set with diamonds carbuncles valued at an hundreth thousand crownes And in our dayes at the coronation of Charles the fifth at Bologna a Spaniard the Marques of Astorga as Iouius reports wore a riche gowne of cloth of golde wrought ouer and ouer with dolphines of pearles and precious stones Plinie telleth that the stones pearles that Lollia Paulina wife vnto Caligula wore not at any solemne feast but onely at a nuptiall night vpon her head her haires her eares her neck her hands and fingers were worth quadringenties sestertium which after Budeyes account is tenne hundreth thousand french crownes and aboue thrée hundreth thousand pounde of our monie neither were they the gifts of the prodigal Prince but her graund fathers goods gotten by the spoiles of the prouinces This was the ende of rapines robberies this was it for the whiche Marcus Lollius infamed for the gyfts giuen vnto him by al the kings of the orient and therfore falling into the displeasure of Caius nephewe and sonne adopted vnto Augustus dranke poison that his néece might be séene by candle light couered ouer with 10000 crownes Against this excesse in pearles doeth Plinie exclame in his 9. booke 35. chap. speaking thus ye marry it had béen a small thing for the seas to be buried in our bellies vnlesse they were worne as well of men as women on their handes their eares their féete ye and the whole body What hath the sea to do with the garments and clothing what haue the waters and waues with the backe but nature you will say doth not friendely deale with vs in casting vs forth into the worlde naked Go to let there be so great societie betwéene the bellie and the sea but what with the backe let it be a small matter vnlesse that we that are fedd with daungers be also clothed with perilles so through the whole body thinges gotten with
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
his horse and letted not for all his hurt to giue order for suche things as he thought expedient But at the length when by hanging downe of his legge the bloud drewe vnto the wound it waxed colde whereby his wound began to paine him then coulde he say that he was called the Sonne of Iupiter but yet he felt in himself the passions of a diseased bodie But no peril that euer he suffered was comparable to that whiche he ranne into through his owne desperatenesse at the siege of the citie of the Oxidracans as hathe Curtius of the Mellumans sayes Plutarche or as it is in Iustine the Sicambrians For like a madde man he leaped downe from the walles post alone into the towne it being a thousand to one that he should haue either béene slaine or taken aliue er he coulde haue recouered his legges the walles were so highe but it happely chaunced that he fel vpon his féete and an olde tree adioyning to the wall wel defended him from being inclosed and the boughes serued him for a target to keep off the darts and arrowes of many thousands that fast flocked thither to ende the cruell warres of the whole worlde by one mschiefous mans deathe and to reuenge so many flourishing nations whiche he had spoiled and so many frée peoples as he had wrongfully brought into bondage And at the length one threw a dart of two cubites long which a litle aboue his right thighe passed through his corselete by reason of the whiche wounde he did shead so muche bloud that he was not able to holde his sworde but let it fall out of his hande as one at the point of death so that the Indian that had strucken him came to spoyle him whose hand when Alexander felt vpon him disdaine of infamie reuoked his spirites then passing out of his bodie and with his sworde thrust thorough his vnarmed enimie But yet so feeble was his strength that when he endeuoured to lift himselfe vppe with the helpe of a bought of the trée he straightway fel owne againe vpon his knees During whiche time Peucestes Timaeus Leonatus and Aristonius were come vnto him of whome Timaeus was slaine and the rest so sore wounded that they were able to doe nothing and they had vndoubtedly died there with their Prince if that the whole armie being made almoste madde with the rumour that the king was slaine had not at that verie instant violently broke into the citie and deliuered him out of assured peril of death Neither was the curing of his wounde lesse daungerous and gréeuous then the wounde it selfe because that the hookes or barbes of the darte fastened in the fleshe coulde not be plucked out but by cutting of the wound wider whereof insued suche aboundance of bloud that he fell into a swoone and stretched out himselfe as one at the the panges of death in so muche that all his fréendes had verily thought that he had béen dead so long was it er his bloud could be staunched Thus ye sée howe many and oftentimes this madde man whiche would be accounted a GOD was made painefully to féele within fewe yeares the griefes of mannes fleshe the whiche was also lastly incrediblie increased by the deathe of his darling Ephestion whome he loued as intirely and mourned for as immoderately as euer man did for his fréende But when GOD sawe that no admonishmentes woulde serue to kéepe him in his duetie and that the Empire of the whole earthe woulde not satisfie his insatiable ambition whiche by falling was alwayes made more hungrie but that he woulde also néedes inuade heauen he did cutte his dayes shorter then the commune fate of man is not suffering him to passe the age of thirtie thrée yeares and one moneth and made a small cophin to shewe howe small a thing in déede hee was who hauing all the Orient chafed that hée was thruste vppe into a narrowe corner and squised together If he had followed the counsayle that the Lacedemonian king gaue vnto his Father Philippe after the fortunate battell of Choronea and had measured his shadowe after the ouerthrowe of Darius he should haue found it neither greater nor longer then it was before and sometimes he himselfe could finde it For whē Nicesias a flatterer the pernicious pestilence of Princes sawe Alexander maruelously troubled with a medicine which he had taken and saide what paines must we poore wretched men abide séeing that ye Gods suffer suche torments Alexander sternly looking on him said And what kind of Gods are we no I feare we be hated of the Gods. And at an other time when Anaxander a fortunate Philosopher as Atheneus termes him one of the crowes that haunted that carrion traueling with Alexander in a great and terrible thunder which appauled the hartes yea of the stoutest saide haue you done the like O mightie prince Alexander laught and said I wil not be so terrible and dreadful as thou doest teache me to be who wouldest haue me to be serued at the table with the heades of kings and princes cruelly cutte off It is also reported by Plutarch that he had béen oftentimes heard to say that wheras many men called him a God yet did he finde that hee was a man by two thinges that is to wit the act of Venerie and sléepe for that these two thinges did most bewray the imbecillitie of his nature but against all other thinges he was inuincible Nowe sléepe is an Image of death and the act of venerie as it were a kinde of conuulsion But this man who knewe him selfe so well and besides his often daungers of deathe and many painefull woundes did acknowledge that he had euer in him two things which manifestly declared vnto him that he was a man and yet woulde be adored for a GOD yea and when hée sawe him selfe quighte paste all hope of life instantly desired his wyfe Satyra priuily to conueye him away and to caste him into the riuer of Euphrates that he might séeme vnto the worlde to haue bene assumpted body and soule into heauen did not he iustly deserue to be depriued of those things which the most vilest varlets doe enioy did not his wofull mother Olympias when that she heard that his body lay vnburied many dayes the capteines of the Macedons being busied about the succession in his Empire crye out with aboundant teares déepe sighes and loud lamentatiōs O sonne thou that endeuouredst to be partaker of heauen hasting thether with might and maine nowe alas art not able to obteine and get so muche as those thinges whiche are common vnto all mortall men the earth and buriall A worthy mirrour to be set alwayes before the eyes of great Princes for them to sée in that if they do couet greater and more honour then is due vnto man they shall not haue that whiche hath bene often done vnto horses and dogges The two and twentie Chapter Of the infelicitie and dolefull ende of Demetrius yea his whole life and actes
they had supped together merrily abroade and threwe his bodie into Tyber for no other cause but for that his fathers minde was that Frauncis shoulde marrie and increase the name of the Borgiae the which he would make honourable with large dominions but Caesar he had as it were banished into the cloyster of religion disguising him with a redde hatt the whiche was farre inferiour vnto his royal harte and immesurable desire of earthly honours who bare in his ensigne this worde Aut Caesar aut nihil an Emperour or nothinge the which insatiable thirst of his the Colonnese fearinge that he would quenche with their bloude abandoned all their dominions and landes and fledde away folowing the Castor who some say bites off his owne stones when hee is hardly persued knowing that for them onely his death is sought but the Orsines allured with his liberal interteinemente to serue him in the warres were almoste all murdered Baptista the cardinall at Rome Frauncis the Duke of Grauina and Paulo in the territorie of Perugia Liberto Prince of Firma Vitelloccio Vitelli one of the Princes of Ciuita de Castello at Senogallia the which caused all the rest of the Vitelli to flie and by their liues with the losse of their liuinges And also the noble men of the house of Gaieta who possessed the towne of Sermoneta in Campagna di Roma Iames Nicholas and Bernardine beeing slaine some one way and some an other yealded their castels lands and goodes vnto Caesar And also the Dukes of Camerino Caesar Anibal and Pyrrhus were expelled their dominions and strangled Astor Manfredi Prince of Fauenza yealdinge the towne and himselfe vppon promisse of safetie was slaine and cast into Tyber Furthermore Pandulpho Malatesta Iohn Sforza and Guido Vbaldo had rather by flight leaue their dominions of Rimini Pesaro and Vrbine vnto the inuading tyranne then be murdered And also Iames Appiano let him haue the principalitie of Piombino But Catharine Sforza who reigned at Forly and Imola hauing lost by force her dominions being taken prisoner was brought in triumphe to Rome But while by this bloudy way he encroched on al the principalities about him he also commaunded the prince of Beselio base sonne vnto Alfonse kinge of Naples yea and his sisters husbande to be slaine in her chamber yea in her bed being before wounded in the Courte of the church of Saint Peter but so that it was thought he woulde escape And by the same meanes he dispatched the yonger Borgia the Cardinal because he had seemed to fauour the duke of Candia his brother he also sauagely slue as he came from supper Iohn Cerbellion a man of greate nobilitie both at home and also in the warres because he had seuerely kept the honestie of a gentlewoman of the house of Borgia He did also put to death Iames Santatrucio a noble man of Rome theÌ„ whome there was no man more friende and familiar with Caesar neither for anie other cause but for that he was able vpon a soudeine to gather together a stronge bande of lustie felowes of the Orsine faction make them couragiously to atteÌ„pt anie exploite But wheÌ„ for this cursed and vnquenchable desire of Empire he and his father had appointed to poyson at a feast certeine noble and riche princes his man mistaking the flagon gaue thereof vnto the vngratious father and worse sonne whereof the father beeing olde died but his blessed byrde a lustie younge man was by manie medicines conserued to greater punishmente for after the deathe of Alexander the Colonese and the Orsines that were lefte returned vnto Rome Then Caesar that he might not be ouermatched by haueing warres with both the families restored vnto the Colonese all their possessions on whome in diuerse places he had sumptuously buylt Guido Defeltrie recouered Vrbine Iohn Sforza Pesaro excepte the castle Malatesta Riminie but the castle was stil retayned by Caesar and the Baleones Perugia through the helpe of the Orsines who also toke Tuderto with the castell and put to shamefull deathe the capteine and with like successe at Viterby Ameria and all the cities there aboutes either they restored the Princes of their owne faction or else strengthened them and had also beesieged Caesar in Nepe if hée had not fearefully fledde into Rome the whiche hee obteyned of the newe Pope Pius as a safe refuge but Pope Pius dying within twentie seuen dayes the Orsines also entered the citie with a greate power whome the greatest parte of the citizens fauoured and the Orsines requested that Caesar might according to iustice be put to death for his manifolde murthers or els kept in sure warde in the castell vntill that his cause were hearde But while the matter was prolonged with outragious altercations Caesar being afrayde stale away out of his house in the Suburbes into the Popes palace then his souldiours who vntil that time had valiantly guarded him perceiuing that their Capteines courage quayled and that he sought for hyding holes fled also awaye some to one place and some vnto another leauing him guardlesse among the cruell companies of his enimies and forceing him because hee could otherwise stande in no suretie of his life to desire as a greate benefite to be cast into the castell of Sainct Angelo vntil that a new Pope were created the which béeing Iulius the seconde would not set him at libertie before that he had deliuered vp all the Castels and townes that he had in the territorie of Rome Romandiola and the duchie of Spolieto But not long after preparing at Naples an expedition into Romandiola he was at the Popes earnest suite imprisoned in the newe castell and shortly after carried into Hispanie where he brake prison and fledde vnto the kinge of Nauarre whose néere cousine he had married and there was slaine in a skirmishe with this euent that not béeing knowen he was spoyled of all his armour and clothes and left starke naked and so brought by one of his seruauntes vnto the citie of Pompelona where he had sometimes béene Bishoppe a notable document of mannes miserie But as I saide before I passing ouer in silence all those greate worldlinges whome Fortune at the last ouerthrewe will examine the liues and infortunities onely of those whome the worlde doth account most fortunate and search whether that God did not ofteÌ„ make them to féele his force and to confesse their owne frailtie The xxxi Chapter The vnluckie chaunces of Augustus AND first I will beginne with him that thought so well of his owne fortune that when he sent his nephue Caius into Armenia against the Parâ—thians he wished that the loue good will of Pompey the hardinesse prowesse of Alexander the Fortune of him self might accompanie him Neither had hee alone this opinion of his good Fortune but it was also generally receiued of all men in so muche that it was decréede and also kept vntil the time of Iustinian that the people shoulde crie at the creation of a
Caligula was made out of the way to the incredible ioy of all mankinde whom he hated so deadly that he had béen often heard to bewayle his ill happe that in al his reigne there had chaunced no notable pestilence famine rauin of water earthquake nor any great bloudy battell wherby many men might perish wished that all the people of Rome had but one head that he might haue stroken it off at one blowe it had béene ill with mankinde if that this Phaeton of the world as his vncle Tiberius did vse to call him had béen immortall who in thrée yeares and sixe monethes for so long he reigned had néere hand vtterly destroyed it Moreouer I reade in Suetonius that Domitian the Emperour drawing a forme of letters whiche his agents should vse began thus Our Lord and God doeth commaunde it so to be done Whereby it was decréed afterward that he shoulde not be called otherwise by any man either in writing or spéeche It is is also left to memorie that about the yeare of our Lord 620. Cosdras the mightie King of the Persians after that he had won al Syria with Hierusalem al the South part of Asia with Egypt and all Africa would néedes be adored for a God and diuine honours with sacrifices done vnto him through out all his large dominions But perhappes some man will say what maruel was it for great monarches among the heathen to thinke themselues to be Gods if that you do consider their absurditie fonde vsage in constituting of Gods the originall and causes whereof I doe thinke good to touche The thirde Chapter Whereof the false Goddes had their first ground and the causes that moued diuerse countries to worshippe many men after death for Gods and also some while they liued as Demetrius Iulius Caesar Pycta Lysander Simon Magus Apollonius and of the extreeme maddnesse of the Egyptians in chusing of their Gods of the impudent flatterie of the ambassadours of Palermo vnto Martine the fourth and of the people to Herodes Agrippa and the present punishment of God for the accepting thereof Of the wonderfull reuerence that the Persians gaue vnto their Kinges and of the rare loue that the Galles Arabians Aethiopians bare vnto their Princes two woorthie sayinges of Antigonus and Canute AFter that the vngratious child Chara was abdicated and put away by his father without any instructions giuen him touching the worshippinge of the true God the outcast and his progenie marueilously increased as our common prouerbe is an ill wéede growes fast and they deduced many colonies into diuers partes of the worlde and the ignoraunce of the prouing of the true God whiche was in the first parent daily growing greater and greater in his posteritie You séeing as Cicero saies in his booke of the nature of the Gods it is naturally ingraffed in man to acknowledge a God and that no people or nation is so rude and barbarous that doth not professe a God they being vtterly ignoraunt of the true God thought those thinges which they sawe to excell other and by whom they receiued moste commodities to be Gods whereof arose the worshipping of the Sunne the Moone Starres and suche other things and also the making of the Gods when they were dead who in their liues had inuented or done any notable thinges to the vse and profite of mankinde And hereby it came to passe that some for the great celebrity of their names were as it were generally receiued of all nations as Hercules Bacchus Castor and Pollux and other were worshipped but in particular countries of whom onely they had well deserued as Isis in Egypt Iuba in Mauritania Cabyrus in Macedonia Vracius among the Carthaginians Fanus in Latium Romulus or after his deification Quirinus at Rome and with a great number such other shal he méete that diligently readeth the auncient monuments of the Paganes and those christian authors which haue refused their superstitions We read also in the booke of wisedome that the vnhappie man being bereft by vnripe death of his sonne whome hee loued tenderly to mitigate and assuage his sorrowe first inuented to haue his sonnes image adored and it to be taken for a present GOD in earth and the sonne him selfe for a GOD in heauen The like affection wee reade in Lactantius Cicero hadde towardes his Daughter and Virgils Aeneas vnto his Father with this consolation recouering their Spirites daunted and broken with griefe Wonderfull also was the honour and obseruancie that some nations bare vnto their kings so that he whiche readeth what Atheneus doeth write of the Arabians that the familiars of the Kinges did vse to maime them selues voluntarily of that member which it shoulde happen the king to léese and that when the King died either naturall or violent death they thought it but a sport to die all with him the like whereof is affirmed by Strabo and Diodorus Siculus of the Aethiopians and also of the Soliduni in a countrie of Gallia who were sixe hundreth men whom the King did chuse to be about him as his guard and liued and died with the king neither was it euer knowen that any one man of them did euer refuse or séeme vnwilling to die the Prince being deceased He I say that reads this wil not be hard of beléefe to credite Lactantius that the Maures did vse to consecrate all their kinges for Gods after they were dead The Aethiopians sayeth Strabo libr. 17. thinke that there is an immortall God and a mortall god The immortall is he that is the cause of all thinges the mortal is with them vncertaine and lacketh a name but mostly they do take them by whom they haue receiued benefites and their Kinges for Gods. Moreouer they doe thinke their kinges to be conseruers and kéepers of all men but priuate men when they be dead for they do account all dead men for Gods onely of them to whome they haue done good In like manner also the Romanes vsed to deifie their Emperours after their deathe as they also did their first king Romulus The Persian kings we reade in Curtius and other were adored like vnto Gods which honour saies Arrianus was giuen done vnto Cyrus first of all mortall men and the first of the Romane Emperours that was adored or knéeled vnto was Dioclesian after his glorious voiage and victorie against the Persians Yea in our time Xoas the king of the Persians is worshipped of his subiectes for god The water wherewithall he hathe washed his féete do they powre out of the basen and kéepe religiously as holy being an hoalsome medicine for al diseases he is called the Lord that holdes vppe heauen and earth The Gentiles also to incourage the young Gentlemen to folowe vertue and valiauncie vsed muche to Canonize and consecrate for Gods after death the renouned Capteines and greate conquerours by these meanes Hercules Bacchus and other did clime into heauen Of this
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
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
alone with about a fiftie men who yet kept the citie Yea this foolish feare makes men to affirme stedfastly that they hearde and sawe that whiche they neuer did As when the Turke besieged the mightie rich citie of Argos assaulting it on two sides they whiche were in the one parte of the citie immagined that they hearde one say that the towne was taken in the other side wherefore they all ranne thether leauing at their owne part an easie entrie for the enimie When that the Dukes of Berry and Britaine the Earle of Charolois and the rest of the league whiche called them selues the publike good or the common wealth were incamped against Lewes the eleuenth before Paris in the dead time of the night the watch of the camp hearde the voyce of one that sayde that he was sent by certaine of the citie that fauoured the confederates and willed it to be shewed vnto them that the king had determined in the very dawning of the next daye to assault their campe with all his power being diuided into thrée battelles or companies that the watchmen should with all possible spéede certifie the Dukes that they were not oppressed vnwares Incontinently all the whole armie is raysed vp the souldiers commaunded to arme them selues Before it was day all things were in a readinesse both to defende the campe and also to fight the battell and the scoutes that were sente foorth when the Sunne was vp brought newes backe that they had séene a mightie number of pikes speare men The light was somewhat troubled and not good by reason of a thick mist which arose that morning againe the horsmen being sent foorth confirme the first newes Now was the enimie looked for as though they woulde euen at that very instant salie out but there was not one man in very déede for the scoutes had conceiued a vaine and false sight both feare and also the voyce and mocking vsed in the night representing vnto their eyes false things for true At the length when it was farre foorth dayes a clearer light opened the errour and it was merily iested among them that the thistles with whom the fieldes about the citie are clothed séemed vnto the fearefull to be pikes and speares But Iouius will match this historie with an other more ridiculous Anno. 153 S. Charles the Emperour Frauncis the french and Paulus Tertius the byshop of Rome were appointed to méete at Nicea a towne belonging vnto the Duke of Sauoy and during the colloquie there the Emperour lying at Villafrancha whither Andrewe Doria had brought him out of Hispanie one after noone the idle Courtiers and Mariners walked along the sea side and on the high hilles that runne along there and chaunced to sée beside a farme house built with towers a great thicke smoke to ascend euer and anon incontinently the foolish multitude imagined that it was Barbarosha the Turks high Admirall with a great fléete traiterously procured to come thether by the French king to take the Emperour and the Byshoppe and with this fearefull newes they came running into the citie Immediately was there a mightie vprore in all the whole towne with Out alas we be all betrayd Barbarossa is at hande with a mightie nauie The tale was so credited that the valiant and prudent Marques of Guasto who lay in camp on a hill aboue the citie with a band of souldiers for the Emperours safegard in all haste clapped on his heade péece caught his target commaunded all his souldiers with all spéede to be in a readinesse and with all his power descended downe into the towne vnto the Emperour appointing euery man where he should stande on the cliffes and higher places to beate downe with shot and stones the landing Turkes Andrew Dori also an other Neptune with great tumult makes the mariners to wey vp their anchors to turne about their galleyes and with all spéede sendes out foistes to certeinly espie where their enimies are and in what number They went foorth and not one galley or ship could they sée at length they sayled vnto the towred farme house where this fléete was reported to haue bene séene and there could learne of neuer a ship but vnderstoode that the good husbande that dwelt there had that day béene making cleane and fanning of his beans in diuers places the dust of whome flying vp nowe and then with a space betwéene as ye know hapneth in making cleane of al corne was taken not only of the rude multitude but also of the expert souldiers and skilful mariners for to be 36. galleys for so many times they had marked the dust to flye vp and all men trembled and shoke for feare except only the Emperour him self such was his hardy courage and yet could no man of them al sée from the highe houses and mightie mounteines in that verie open broade sea eyther mast sayle or sayle yard And least I should be tedious I omit in this place how that the olde expert capteine Iames de Caldora with greate vprore aranged his battels in Puglia against a greate heard of déere whome he did take for a mightie hoast of his enimies and how within fewe yeares after Ferdinand the first king of Naples retyred backe with his whole armie to the walles of Barletta for feare of an hearde of déere which was supposed by the fearefull to be a great armie of armed men a thousande such like examples Of this foolish vaine fearefulnesse of men came the prouerbe I thinke among all nations he is afraide of his owne shadowe and among the Gréekes more fearfull thē Pysander who was continually afraid that he shuld méete with his owne soule that he dreamed it had forsaken him while he was yet liuing and more feareful then he that looked out of the caue which prouerb arose of a man who being strucken with great terrour of the same of Hercules who men sayd would come that way hid him selfe in a caue and popping out and in his head as it is the maner of the feareful to sée if he could espy him chaunced vnluckily to sée him in very déede passing by wherwithal he was so affrighted that he dyed presently I read also of one Artemon a man so fearfull if he be not to be accounted madde that as long as he liued two of his seruaunts did continually holde ouer his heade a target of brasse that nothing should fall downe vppon him and if he happened to go foorth any whether out of the doores he was carried in an horslitter séeled ouer thereof was surnamed Periphoretes And in our dayes S. Vallier Duke of Valentinois in Fraunce being condemned to dye for not disclosing the treason of Charles the duke of Burbon the king sent him his pardon at that very instant that the executioner was about to strike of his head but the kinges pardon could not saue his life For the vehement feare of death conceiued brought him into a
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
approche néere vnto the castell without licence before obteyned The bottome of the castel diche caused he to be sticked full of yron pikes and the bankes with rakes of yron whose longe téeth he would euer and anon commaunde to be whetted and made sharpe with a file But this fearefulnesse perhappes he had by inheritance from his father Charles the seuenth who for feare of being poysoned by his rebellious sonne did sixe dayes forbeare all kinde of meate but when at the laste through the persuasions of the phisicians who tolde him if that he continued in this wicked and obstinate purpose he woulde assuredly loose bothe this life and the life to come he woulde haue eaten his strength was so worne with fasting that hee was not able to swalowe any meate downe and so by incoÌ„sâ—derate warinesse ranne into that mischiefe whiche he had thought to haue avoyded by fearing But was not their desire of life immeasurable who hauing liued so longe that al men hated them and therefore woulde they haue no societie and companie with men yet in this vnnatural wilfull wildernesse in the middes of populous cities in this incessante feare sought by daylie bereauinge of other men of life to prolonge their hated life vsinge manie painefull and troublesome meanes to preserue that whiche was vnto them euerie minute cause of intollerable tormentes as Dionysius the tyrante shewed vnto his flatterer that commended the stately life of tyrantes by a verie liuely demonstration setting him at his table furnished sumptuously with all kinde of delicates but hanging ouer his heade by a small threade a mightie sworde whiche continually threatning fall through continuall feare thereof toke away from this vnhappie guest all the ioy of his greate daynties and pompe Massinissa the mightie kinge of Numidia when he had liued foure score and tenne yeares distrusting the faithfullnesse of all men guarded him selfe with fierce bawlinge bandogges and yet had he besides his large dominions manie sonnes and the assured friendshippe of the Romaines the Lordes of the worlde Dionysius the tyrante intrenched his bedde chamber as if it had béene a towne standing in the middes of his enimies with a large and deepe diche ouer the whiche wente a drawebridge whiche he kept vnder locke and keye but when hee him selfe vsed it And Aristippus the tyrant of Argos climed vnto his bedde with his swéete harte by a ladder the which after they were ascended and the Perculleis of yron opened they entred the chamber his minions mother toke away with her and then did he let downe the Perculleis on the whiche hee layde his restlesse bedde that he might soone heare if that anie man wente aboute to woorke his bodie treason in his vnsounde slumbers Dionysius the tyrante trustinge no not his owne daughters after they were growen vp whome hee had vsed before for his barbars to clippe the hayres of his suspicious heade nor shaue his bearde taught them to burne them off with Nutte shales And Commodus the Emperour did nott him selfe with blasinge coales Had it not béene as Iulius Caesar was wonte to say a thousande times better for them once to haue died theÌ„ with so great griefe coÌ„tinually to haue feared it Moreouer it woulde fill greate volumes to rehearse all the examples of those whiche for desire of prolonging their liues a little while haue by denying of God and his faith by betraying of their countrie their parentes wiues children friendes corrupted the glorie which their vertues before had gotten and so while they endeuoured to lenghten a little this temporall life oppressed on all sides with manifolde miseries loste the euerlasting and the eternall memorie of theÌ„ amonge men or rather more truly wonne euerlasting death in tormentes of hell and in reproch and infamie on the earth They came not of the royall bloude of Alexander the greate who sayes in Curtius that he was borne of suche a stocke that he ought not so muche to wishe for longe life as immortalitie of name This noble prince when that Penus had made a longe oration for to persuade him to returne homewarde out of India and not to abiecte his victorious armie to be deuoured by the wild beastes swalowed vp by the mightie riuers of those sauage countries died with in shorte time after sayd that Penus had made too longe an oration for so fewe dayes liuing whiche was not worth halfe his painefull speach But I am almoste a shamed to tel how shamefully Vitellius and Andronicus Comenus Emperours of Rome and Constantinople to saue for that present pinche their liues yelded vnto their enimies to be immediately after slaine with exquisite tormentes after ten thousande vilanies saide and donne vnto them the one drawne like a dogge through the citie of Rome by a rope fastened aboute his necke and halfe naked the other thorough Constantinople set him vpon a mangie Camel his heade towarde the tayle of the beaste and al the vnmannerly multitude euery where emptying all their pispots and close stooles vppon them both which they must néedes receiue on their faces bycause a sworde was put vnder their chinnes to holde vppe their hated heads Vnto these will I adioyne Papirius Carbo who after that he had bene thrise Consul was drawne by the commaundement of the princoxe boye Pompey afterward surnamed the great with thrée chaines like a wilde beast vnto the butchers blocke But when the hastie hangman was about to strike off his noble heade the cowarde wretch stayning his honour that he might a little moment prolong his life desired stay of execution vntill that he had discharged his belly of burthen the which he for gréedy desire of liuing long was so long in doing that his head was struckeÌ„ off and his owne filthy dung became a méete tumbe for his degenerate body This dastardly demeanour of his no doubt abating much the enuie of his enimies which he shuld haue incurred by this cruell vnwonted executioÌ„ but now no man thought him to be worthy of life who had sought suche vnworthy wayes to prolong his life for reason would vs to loue life but not to feare death The ninetenth Chapter The shortnesse of mans life and by how many casualties it is shortned and of sundrie straunge kindes of death SEeing then that man is thus incessantly tormented with infinite diseases of the body and no lesse molested with the perturbations of the mynde who can blame the Thracians or as Herodotus calleth them the Trausi a people of Thrace séeing that they had no knowledge of the resurrection and the blisse which God hath prepared for his elect to inioy after this life for wéeping and lamenting at the byrth of their children rehearsing howe many miseries they must abide but carried them to burying with al mirth pastimes and dauncing numbering vp from howe many and great calamities and griefes they were withdrawne Menander in Stobeus thinketh it to be sufficient and
hée wold not only be very curiously clipped shauen but also would haue diuerse haires pulled out But as the prouerbe saith pride must néedes haue a fal so he in the middes of his maiestie was slaine in the Senate house with 23. woundes yea in the Courte of his enimie Pompey to aggrauate the griefe of his dolefull death which was foretolde vnto him by many sundrie prodigies also the conspiracie was disclosed all vnto him which he contemned as one that was werie of life séeing that he could not inioy his olde wonted health nor securitie frō deadly conspiracies The xxiiij Chapter Of Marcus Antonius THE fourth in order of time is Marcus Antonius an other Bacchus a méete potcompanion for the two Gréeke Gods as he that being Magister Equitum dranke so hard ouer night at Hippias his marriage that the next daye at an assembly of the people he ouerflowed all the stately benche with vomited wine and gobbets of fishe In his youth he was so vnthriftie and so giuen both to suffer and doe all vncleannesse that he brought him selfe in debt sexagies that is sixe and fourtie thousande eight hundreth thrée score and fiftéene pounde wherefore his father did forbid him his house the which forced him to follow the warres in Syria and Egypt vnder Gabinius And afterward being made Tribune of the commons he stubbernely held Caesars part against the Senate both for that he was of kinne vnto him by his mother and also bycause he was moued by him For this pertinacie he was commaunded to auoyde the court or senate house or else to stand vnto his aduentures whervpon he fled out of the citie contrarie vnto the auncient Romane lawes the which did forbid the tribune of the commōs to lodge one night out of the citie and hasted vnto Caesar who was glad to take this slender occasion of inuading his countrie bycause the Senate had violated the inuiolable maiestie of the Tribune In the which wars Caesar obteining the victory aduaunced Antonius who had neuer before that time come vnto the honour of being Pretor to the office of maister of the horsmen the next dignitie vnto him selfe the Dictator and the very same yeare contrarie vnto the auncient ordinaunces made him Consul in the which yeare Caesar was slaine whiche did so amase Antonius that he casting away his Consularie robes and ensignes hid him selfe vntill such time as he hearde that Marcus Lepidus the maister of the horsmen had taken the forum or market place with a great power of souldiers and then came Antonius abroade againe as bragge as a body louse and he and Lepidus made this atonement with the murtherers of Caesar that all should be well and that nothing before time done eyther by the one or the other faction should euer be called into question but al quite forgiuē forgotten Wherby Antonius grew into great fauor with the senat and anon after into farre greater with the people for the duetifull funerals of Caesar and his seditious Oration in his prayse and hatred of his murtherers so that he obteined as a popular man a guard of sixe thousand to defend him against the awaites of the Senate And then at pleasure he solde immunities to cities and Prouinces he remitted Tributes he nominated Kinges and alies he gaue liberties and priuileges but to no man any thing fréely and all these thinges he sayde he did by Caesars Commentaries the whiche being confirmed by the Senate no man had but him selfe He also obteined to haue Macedonie allotted for his Prouince with a goodly armie with the which he besieged all Mutina Decius Brutus the lieftenant of Gallia Cisalpina the which he against all right and order would of selfe will and force haue Wherefore he was proclamed enimie by the Senate and the two Consuls with Octauian Caesars heire whose authoritie was very greate with his vncles souldiers were sent against him who gaue him two ouerthrowes and forced him to rayse his siege and brought him and his armie into great miserie For when they marched on the Alpes to ioine with Lepidus they fell into such lacke of victuals that Antonius him selfe did eate the barke of trées and dranke corrupt and foule stinking water and rode in miserable and filthy habite his heade and beard all vntrimmed and let to growe long like vnto a wilde man vnto Lepidus his campe who had a great power whome Antonius with his teares and wretched habite wonne to receiue him when that his olde friend Lepidus had commaunded the trumpets to be blowne that the souldiers shoulde not heare the lamentable oration of poore Antonius least he might moue them to compassion as he did in very déed with them incontinently after ioyned Plancus and Pollio with both their armies and then also Octauian being feared with the great power that the murtherers of Caesar had then in Asia and Greece Whereof ensued that proude and cruell Triumuirate the which aduaunced Antonius vnto the dignitie of a god But this brittle blisse of his was crased the next yeare with the siege of his brother and deare wife at Perusium by Octauian and they forced to yeald vnto him But who can number vp the manifold daungers difficulties that he susteined when he inuaded the Parthians with 15. legions suche an armie as before that time the Romanes neuer led the euent whereof was nothing but dishonour and shame hauing lost aboue 20000. footmen and 4000. horsmen yea and if he had not for the space of a great number of dayes vsed singular wisedome vigilancie paines and courage he had neuer brought one man backe and also if that a Parthian had not friendly warned him to kéepe the hard hilles and not to come downe into the plaine countrie they had bene slaine euerie mothers sonne One night there was suche an vprore in the campe that Antonius had surely thought the enimie had inclosed them and that he and all the whole armie should haue perished with the sword of the einmie who woulde graunt them no rest neither day nor night Wherefore being in vtter desperation he sware one of his libertes that he should thrust his sworde into him when so euer he woulde commaunde him and then cut off his heade and conuey it away that he might not be a laughing stock vnto his enimies as Crassus had bin I doe thinke there was neuer God euer brought into such an agonie Not many yeares after this brake out that fatall warres betwéene Octauian and him wherein he was discomfited by sea and besieged in Alexandria whether he fled And to augment his sorrowe he sayling out of the citie with a great power took a hil to beholde the fight betwéene his nauie and Octauians sawe his men friendly to ioyne with Octauians immediatly the armie also that he him selfe conducted reuolted to Octauian and he was forced fearefully to flée into the citie being forsaken of all men But hereof also grewe a greater griefe for he thought that
to vpbraide vnto other their calamities miseries Wherof they that presented it being admonished tooke home the arras with them caused the names to be taken out then being brought againe he with heartie thankes receiued it commended the worke This his singular moderation of mynde and conquering of him selfe and insolencie the which very fewe of them that haue vanquished al other men could euer attaine vnto was farre more famous then the taking prisoners of the two mightie Princes then the sacking of the citie that had ben Ladie of the world and at this day also the greatest citie of Christendome then the conquest of the kingdome of Tunes in Afrike then the subduing of the Germanes and the passing ouer beyond Albis the which the proud Romanes when they were in al their greatest roialtie were neuer able to do for this victorie might he iustly vse his word Plus vltra passing not only the bounds of Hercules the Romans but also of cursed enuie the which after all earthly victories remaineth still inuincible and can not be subdued but by this sword of modestie and humilitie The xxx Chapter Of the vnfortunate fall of many great conquerours founders of Empires AND nowe that I haue declared the fearefull fall of those that I knowe not whether more wickedly or foolishly would be accounted Goddes and also of them that proudly vaunted of their victories without humble confession and acknowledging that they receiued them from heauen I prosecuting my purpose will shewe that all those that haue ben famous for victories and the fawning of fortune haue also had often admonitions of their fickle frailtie brittle blisse and tottering state Wherfore passing ouer in silence Cyrus the greate the founder of the Persian Empire who was slaine with his whole armie of two hundreth thousand by a weake woman Tomyris Quéene of the Massagets and the greate Mithridates Eupator king of Pontus who after he had augmented his fathers kingdome with the conquest of two and twentie nations and had won a great part of Gréece and the signorie of the sea from Cilicia to Thracius Chersonesus had kept warres fourtie yeres with the Romanes and vanquished their capteines Cassius Murena Cotta Fabius Triarius Sylla restrained him within his fathers kingdome Lucullus so afflicted him that for despaire he murthered his two wiues and sisters and finally Pompey quite euerted who woulde not graunt vnto him humbly desiring it of his two and twentie kingdomes not so much as the poore one of Pontus and for that also to paye a yerely tribute wherefore after that foure of his sonnes were taken by Pompey and the eldest reuolted vnto him and also one of his daughters taken and the other two poysoned by him selfe he desperately caused a Barbarian to kill him least he should haue come aliue into the hands of the Romanes and to be carried in the triumphe as a laughing stocke and an other Mithridates the great king of the Parthians who augmented the Empire with the accesse of many kingdomes and oftentimes discomfited in battell the valiant Scythes but whē he was in his greatest ruffe being returned out of Armenia the Parthians expelled him out of the kingdome for his crueltie and his owne brother inuaded the emptie siege and taking him prisoner at Babylon caused him vnnaturally to be slaine in his sight and Antiochus the great king of Syria who after great conquestes atchieued in Syria Asia and Greece was ouerthrowne in battell by the Romanes and forced to buye peace with the losse of all his dominions on this side the mountaine Taurus and the payment and the paymente of suche a mightie masse of money that not beeing able to leuie it of his owne possessions he attempted to robbe the riche temple of Iupiter Dyndemenus or as sayes Strabo of Belus where he and all his armie were slaine by a soudeine incursion of the inhabitauntes of the countrie and Pompey the Greate who more augmented the dominions and reuenues of the Romaine Empire then all the capteines before and after him was after the greate ouerthrowe giuen him by Caesar trayterously slaine by the boy kinge Ptolomey and his geldinges and Mathewe the Greate Lorde of Mylan who amonge other his variable chaunces was expelled out of the citie and constreyned twelue yeares to get liuinge by fishinge and beeing restored was at the age of seuentie yeares forced to abandon the citie of Mylan and to resigne his Empire vnto his sonne Galiazo who had vnnaturally not longe before reuolted from him and dying of this anguishe and griefe the bodie of him beeing excommunicated by the Pope was buried in a priuie and vile place his death beeing longe time kepte close leste his carcasse in the aduerse fortune of the warres mighte haue bene subiecte vnto the reproches and vilanies of the Popes cruel Legate and the greate Sforza who besides his ouerthrowes in fight at Viterby at Crixta at Aipua and his beeing taken prisoner in fight at Casaleccio and also twice in captiuitie through treason firste by Pandulpho Alepo the Queene of Naples darlinge and then kepte foure monethes in the newe castell of Naples lookinge euerie day when his breath shoulde be stopped by that effeminate lecher after wardes by Iames Earle of Marchia who had maried the Queene where he escaped as narrowly and his manie other greate daungers was at the laste drowned in the riuer of Lyris or Gariliano by the vnfortunate founderinge of his horse and the greate Gonsalues who only of all the famous warriours of our age the whiche haue yet excelled for noble chiefteines obteined the proude name of the greate this victorious gentleman after that he had cōquered out of the hands of the French men the riche kingdome of Naples for his Prince Ferdinando the kinge of Hispaine was by him ingratefully put from the gouernemente therof and almost also from his life for false suspicion of treason and euer afterwarde kept from all honour and office to leade a lothsome life farre from the courte and fielde at home as it were in an honest banishemente and there for to sée his eldest brothers heire for a light occasion banished the courte for euer and to his greater griefe his owne natiue place his nephues chiefe castle razed downe to the grounde notwithstandinge his most suppliant sute the whiche was also furthered by the earnest prayers of the French kinges honourable Ambassadours for the implacable Prince by all meanes sought to spite him and to empaire his Princely Porte and riches as one whome he suspected to be to greate so that he was aptly compared by a noble man of Hispaine vnto a greate shippe in a shalowe water the which abides in continuall feare to be loste by strikinge and sticking on the flattes and Cresus the mightie kinge of Lydia whose inestimable riches haue euer synce bene a prouerbe throughout the worlde berefte of all by Cyrus and forced to ende his long
forced by lightening sent from heauen to retyre Then soudenly came there to remoue the siege a monstruous might of flies the which plagued the Romanes in their cupps and dishes leauing neither drinke nor meate frée from their filthie contamination and corruption The which forced the Emperour to breake vp the siege and to depart out of the countrie and immediatly after fell sicke and then the Parthians deposed the king that hée had appointed them and chose an other according vnto their auncient orders to reuenge the whiche dishonour Traiane was not able waxing euery day worse and worse and finally fell into a dropsie whereof hée dyed not leauing behind him a child to vphold his house and name The xxxiij Chapter Of Seuerus Emperour of Rome SEVERVS that got the Romane Empire by sleaing of his thrée competitors and foure bloudie battels and entered Parthia taking Babylon Seleucia and Ctesiphon where the king narrowly escaped with the losse of his children wiues mother treasure and furniture of householde and also made great conquestes in Arabia and Arobenica and forced the kinges of the Armenians and Osrhoenes to submit themselues vnto his mercie felt also the tickle turning of fortunes whéele For that I may omit his youth full of furies and crimes and often accusations and howe hée was to his great shame openly arreigned for adulterie and the open bitcherie of his shamelesse latter wife Iulia whome hée witting and knowing did suffer more then either the maiestie of an Emperour yea or the honestie of a man could beare was hee not forced for lacke of victualles and necessaries and the great sickenesse in his campe spéedily to forsake the countries and places that hée had conquered in the Easte and to returne home contented onely with the spoile the whiche he dearely bought with the losse of infinite of his souldiours liues Furthermore hee twice besieged the pelting towne of Atrae in Arabia and twice was constrained to depart with great dishonour and losse his souldiours being either so affrighted or else so disobedient that not one of the Europian souldiours could be gotten to the assault when that a great part of the walles laie flat to the ground moreouer when one of his Capitaines told the Emperour that he would vndertake to winne the towne with 550. Europians and the Emperour did bid him take them the captaine aunswered in the hearing of all the armie But where shall I haue them Neither had his ambition any better successe in Britaine For when that hée would not receiue the submission of the rebells but would néeds tame them by the sword that he might obteine the glorious title of Britannicus or conquerour of Britaine he reaped almost no other fruite by marching with his victorious ensignes euen vnto the furthest part of the East then the losse of fiftie thousand men thorough sicknes lack of victuals the inclemencie of the aire and diuers other chaūces finally endamaging the Britaines who wisely still fledd before him into their safe bogges and marrishes Adde hereunto how at the battell at Lions against Albinus who fought for the Empire hée was vnhorsed and fled out of the field casting away his coate armour that hée might not be knowen and hidd himselfe in a marrishe Spartianus sayth that in this battell hée fell into great perill by the foundering of his horse and then had such a blowe with a pellet of leade that his armie thincking that he had béene slaine were about to choose an other Emperour Furthermore what intollerable torments did the great discord of his two sonnes bring vnto him when that the one neuer liked of any thing that did please the other and in al quarels controuersies games finally in all thinges they were extréeme aduersaries one vnto the other neither could their hatefull hearts euer be reconciled although that their woful father fearing that their discord would be either the destructiō of the Empire or of his house or both sought al meanes to agrée their dissenting minds putting also to death many that were about thē by whose flatterie lewd coūsel he thought them to be corrupted But in what continuall feare he led his life his immesurable murdering of aboue fourtie Senatours and infinite meane men without arreigning of them doth manifestly bewray This Africane is truely said to haue reuenged in his gowne the cruell destruction of his countrie of Carthage by the Romanes Whereof arose that saying of the Senate after his death that it had béene well for the people of Rome if that he had either neuer béene borne or else neuer had died the one being spoken for his cruelties the other for his valiancie and good gouernement But among all other put to death for suspicion of treason I cannot forget two the one Plautianus to whome he had as it were in a manner imparted the Empire yet lost his life vppon a verie vnlikely accusation and onely credited because that the Emperour had dreamed that Albinus some time his competitour was aliue the other Apronianus who was condemned absent because that one had heard his Noursse saye that shée had dreamed that he should be Emperour So fearefull was he left his good childe Antoninus should be put from the Empire who drewe his swoorde to haue thrust his father in at the back as he roade with him if that his seruaunts that roade behinde had not cried out vnto him to take héede of his sonne who was about to murder him And finally he dyed not of his olde torment of the goute but as men thought helped forward by his wicked sonne Antonine and so was helde in an earthen pot whome all the worlde had not holden as he him selfe saide a litle before his death when that he had commaunded his sepulchrall pott to be brought vnto him The xxxiiij Chapter Of Constantine the greate THE greatenesse of Constantine who reduced into one Monarchie the distracted partes of the Empire and to the vnspeakable profite of mankinde first established by Emperial power the faith of Christ throughout the world the foule vnworthie murthering of his owne wife Fausta his sonne Crispus and his sisters sonne and no smal number of his friendes the vngodly restitution of the archeheretike Arius and the more wicked banishmēt of that piller of the church Athanasius whome yet some holde he reuoked by testament and if some belye him not his filthie disease of the dropsie did much diminishe whereof he was by a byworde called Tracala the first ten yeres of his reigne a verie good and excellent Prince the ten next a théefe and a murtherer but the ten last a pupill for his immoderate expences But as his Martial actes but onely against his coparceners in the Empire Licinius and Maxentius were not greate so was his daunger verie great when that his father in lawe Herculeius came vnder colour of friendshipp vnto him trayterously to haue killed him but it being disclosed vnto Constantine by his wife cost her father his life And no lesse also
enimies Cassius lieftenaunt in Syria But not long after that he had fortunately escaped this doubtful perill fell hée into a greater when that the Parthian tooke Hierusalem with king Hyrcanus and placing there in his roome Antigonus forced Herodes his brother Phaselus to dashe out his owne braines against a wall that he might not come aliue into their bondage and Herodes himselfe very hardly escaped their hands and fearefully fledde vnto Rome where he was created king of Iudea The whiche he had not long enioyed but that he was sent for to come before Antonius at Seleucia to be arreigned for the vnworthie murther of his wiues brother Alexander the high priest at what time he knowing the great hatred towards him of Antonius his swéete heart Quéene Cleopatra who insatiably thirsted for his kingdome he was almost in vtter despaire of returne But not long after he fell into greater perill of his state through ayding of Antonius against Octauian wherefore after that Antonius was ouercome he sailed into Rhodes vnto Caesar and there in priuate apparell without diademe suppliantly desired pardon of Caesar the which being happely obteined and his kingdom also by his liberalitie augmented hée fell in his old age into many domesticall dolours the beginning whereof came thorough his wife Mariemne one descended of the auncient bloud royal whom he loued as immoderately as shee hated and abhorred him both hartily and openly vpbrayding him often with the cruell murthering of her graundfather and brother but in the ende hee did wrongfully put her to death for sinister opinion of adulterie betwixte her and his vncle Iosippus and then as immoderately bewailed and lamented her death as before he had rashly slaine her This vnworthie murther of their mother did her two sonnes whome Herodes had appointed to bee his successours in the kingdome stomache in so much that they fled to Rome and accused their father vnto Augustus who made an attonement betwéene the wretched father and his wicked sonnes but it was not long but that Herodes accused them for treason against his person before Archelaus king of Cappadocia whose daughter the one of them had married but Archelaus againe reconciled them but the ill patched friendshipp brake out againe not long after to the destruction of the two innocent sonnes After the dolefull death of his two déere sonnes Alexander Aristobulus the wofull father found out the treason of his sonne Antipater whome he had nominated his heire and how he not onely had caused him by suborning of false witnesses wrongfully to murther his two brothers Alexander and Aristobulus and exasperated him also against two other of his brothers Archelaus Philippe the poison was brought where with Antipater had gone about to poison him whereuppon he obteyned of the Emperour that he might worthily be put to death This domestical calamitie and continual treasons and murtherings of his sonnes did so afflict the aged father that hee ledde a lothsome life wrapped all in wailefulnesse taking no ioy at all in his large Empire great heapes of treasure and beautifull and pleasaunt buildinges And this heauinesse was heaped by long cōtinuance of many dolefull diseases He had no smal ague and an intollerable itche thoroughout all his body then was he also vexed with a painefull torment in his necke and his féete were swollen with the dropsie and his bellie as bigge as a barrell with winde the whiche griefes were augmented with a filthie putrefaction of his priuie parts the which bred aboundance of stinking wormes Moreouer he was very short winded sighing often and had al his lymmes contracted and cramped the tormentes were so intollerable that he thought his friendes did heynously iniurie him when that they did let him to ende his wofull life by friendly stroke of fatall meate knife And then to double his tormentes came this toy into his heade that all the Iewes and people woulde reioyce at his desired death wherefore he commaunded that out of euerie village and towne of the Iudea should the gentlemen be brought into the castell and be all slaine when he shoulde yelde vp his cruell and gastly ghoste that all the whole lande yea and euerie house might weepe and lamente at his death against their willes The xl Chapter Of Mahumet MAhumet the first founder of the secte of the Mahumetanes who possesse nowe farre the greatest parte of the worlde of a beggers bratt and slaue became conquerour and kinge of all Syria and Aegypt and by the consente of the moste of the beste approued authors of the whole Empire of Persia and yet had he also sowre often mingled with his swete for when he firste preached his seditious superstition at Mecha he was driuen by armes out of the towne with his bande of bondmen Neither founde he fortune more friendely at Medina Thalnabi whether he fledde for the Iewes taking armes against him discomfited him in manie skirmishes in one of whom they wounded him in the face strucke out his fore teeth and hurled him into a diche And afterward also in his first inuasion of the Persian was he foiled in fight and forced to retire home where entring in societie with the Sinites that had lately for reprochfull wordes reuolted from the Greekes and returninge with them into Persia fortunately atchiued his exploite But howe pitifully he was tormented with the terrible fallinge sicknesse I thinke it vnknowen vnto fewe Moreouer verie shorte was his reigne for sixe yeares after he beganne his conquestes he died and in the fourtéenth yeare of his age But what cause did depriue this furious fierbrand of mankinde of his enuied life authors do not agrée Some holde that he was poysoned by a Greeke other that he died madde But the cōmon opinion in the East saies Theuet that he was sicke thirty daies of a Pleuresie in seuen of whom he was distraught of his witts but comminge vnto him selfe a little before hee died he tolde his friendes that within three dayes after his death his bodie shoulde be assumpted into heauen The which wordes did witnesse that he was starke madde still as the euente did after proue for when his illuded sectaries had longe time in vaine expected his assumption at last they washing embaulminge his stincking bodie were forced to burie it The xliii Chapter Of Hismaell the Sophie HIsmaell who beganne in our age a newe secte of Mahumetanes amonge the Persians whereof he and all his successors are called Sophies as we shoulde say the wise men thorough the helpe of his folowers threwe downe from the Emperiall siege of Persia the auncient bloude royall and placed himselfe therein making also subiect therevnto manie other countries borderinge there on but Selim the Turke plucked this Pecockes taile discomfiting and woundinge him in a bloudie battell fought in the boweles of his realme the which he himselfe had caused to be all wofully wasted that his fierce enimies shoulde finde nothinge to susteine the necessities of them selues and their horses and also takinge his
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