were there overthrown killed and hanged by troups In the yeare of our Lord 1525 there were certain husbandmen of Souabe that began to stand in resistance against the Earle of Lupsfen by reason of certaine burthens which they complained themselves to be overlaid with by him their neighbors seeing this enterprised the like against their Lords And so upon this small beginning by a certaine contagion there grew up a most dangerous and fearefull commotion that spread it selfe almost over all Almaine the sedition thus increasing in all quarters and the swaines being now full forty thousand strong making their owne liberty and the Gospels a cloake to cover their treason and rebellion and a pretence of their undertaking armes to the wonderfull griefe of all that feared God did not onely fight with the Romane Catholickes but with all other without respect as well in Souabe as in Franconia they destroyed the greater part of the Nobility sacked and burnt many castles and fortresses to the number of two hundred and put to death the Earle of Helfest in making him passe through their pikes But at length their strength was broken they discomfited and torn in pieces with a most horrible massacre of more than eighteen thousand of them During this sedition there were slaine on each side fifty thousand men The captaine of the Souabian swaines called Geismer having betaken himselfe to flight got over the mountaines of Padua where by treason he was made away In the yeare of our Lord 1517 in the Marquesdome of the Vandales the like insurrection and rebellion was of the commonalty especially the baser sort against the Nobility Spirituall and Temporall by whom they were oppressed with intolerable exactions their army was numbred of ninety thousand men all clowns and husbandmen that conspired together to redresse and reforme their owne grievances without any respect of civill Magistrate or feare of Almighty God This rascality of swaines raged and tyranized every where burning and beating down the castles and houses of Noblemen and making their ruines even with the ground Nay they handled the Noblemen themselves as many as they could attaine unto not contumeliously only but rigorously and cruelly for they tormented them to death and carried their heads upon speares in token of victory Thus they swayed a while uncontrolled for the Emperour Maximilian winked at their riots as being acquainted with what in juries they had been overcharged but when he perceived that the rude multitude did not limit their fury within reason but let it runne too lavish to the damnifying as well the innocent as the guilty he made out a small troup of mercinary souldiers together with a band of horsemen to suppresse them who comming to a city were presently so environed with such a multitude of these swaines that like locusts overspread the earth that they thought it impossible to escape with their lives wherefore feare and extremity made them to rush out to battell with them But see how the Lord prospereth a good cause for all their weak number in comparison of their enemies yet such a feare possessed their enemies hearts that they fled like troups of sheep and were slaine like dogges before them insomuch that they that escaped the sword were either hanged by flocks on trees or rosted on spits by fires or otherwise tormented to death And this end befell that wicked rebellious rout which wrought such mischiefe in that country with their monstrous villanies that the traces and steppes thereof remaine at this day to bee seene In the yeare of our Lord 1381 Richard the second being King the Commons of England and especially of Kent and Essex by meanes of a taxe that was set upon them suddenly rebelled and assembled together on Blackheath to the number of 60000 or more which rebellious rout had none but base and ignoble fellowes for their captaines as Wat Tiler Iacke Straw Tom Miller but yet they caused much trouble and disquietnesse in the Realme and chiefly about the city of London where they committed much villany in destroying many goodly places as the Savoy and others and being in Smithfield used themselves very proudly and unreverently towards the King but by the manhood and wisedome of William Walworth Major of London who arrested their chiefe captain in the midst of them that rude company was discomfited and the ringleaders of them worthily punished In like manner in the raigne of Henry the seventh a great commotion was stirred up in England by the Commons of the North by reason of a certaine taxe which was levied of the tenth peny of all mens lands and goods within the land in the which the Earle of Northumberland was slain but their rash attempt was soon broken and Chamberlain their captain with divers other hanged at Yorke for the same Howbeit their example feared not the Cornishmen from rebelling upon the like occasion of a tax under the conduct of the Lord Audley untill by woefull experience they felt the same scourge for the King met them upon Blackheath and discomfiting their troups took their captaines and ring leaders and put them to most worthy and sharp death Thus we may see the unhappy issue of all such seditious revoltings and thereby gather how unpleasant they are in the sight of God Let all the people therefore learne by these experiences to submit themselves in the feare of God to the higher powers whether they be Lords Kings Princes or any other that are set over them CHAP. VI. Of Murtherers AS touching Murther which is by the second commandement of the second Table forbidden in these words Thou shalt not kill the Lord denounceth this judgment upon it That he which striketh a man that hee dieth shall die the death And this is correspondent to that Edict which he gave to Noah presently after the universall floud to suppresse that generall cruelty which had taken root from the beginning in Cain and his posterity being carefull for mans life saying That he will require the bloud of man at the hands of either man or beast that killeth him adding moreover That whosoever sheddeth mans bloud by man also his bloud shall be shed seeing that God created him after his owne Image which he would not have to be basely accounted of but deare and precious unto us If then the bruit and unreasonable creatures are not exempted from the sentence of death pronounced in the law if they chance to kill a man how much more punishable then is man endued with will and reason when malitiously and advisedly he taketh away the life of his neighbour But the hainousnesse and greatnesse of this sinne is most lively expressed by that ordinance of God set downe in the 21 of Deutronomy where it is enjoyned That if a man be found slain in the field and it be not knowne who it was that slew him then the Elders and Iudges of the next towne assembling together should offer up an expiatory sacrifice
heathen that they that hated them were lords over them In the yeare of our Lord 1551 in a town of Hassia called Weidenhasten The twentieth day of November a cruell mother inspired with Satan shut up all her doores and began to murder her four children on this manner shee snatcht up ā sharpe axe and first set upon her eldest son being but eight yeares old searching him out with a candle behinde a hogs-head where he hid himselfe and presently notwithstanding his pitifull praiers and complaints clave his head in two pieces and chopped off both his armes Next shee killed her daughter of five yeares old after the same manner another little boy of three yeares of age seeing his mothers madnesse hid himselfe poore infant behinde the gate whom as soone as the Tygre espied shee drew out by the haire of the head into the floore and there cut off his head the yongest lay crying in the cradle but halfe a yeare old him she without all compassion pluckt out and murdered in like sort These murders being finished the Diuell incarnate for certaine no womanly nature was left in her to take punishment of her selfe for the same cut her owne throat and albeit she survived nine dayes and confessing her fault dyed with teares and repentance yet we see how it pleased God to arme her own hands against her selfe as the fittest executioners of vengeance The like tragicall accident we reade to have happened at Cutzenborff a City in Silesia in the yeare 1536 to a woman and her three children who having slain them all in her husbands absence killed her selfe in like manner also to make up the tragedy Concerning stepmothers it is a world to reade how many horrible murders they have usually practised upon their children in law to the end to bring the inheritance to their own brood or at least to revenge some injury supposed to be done unto them of which one or two examples I will subnect as a taste out of many hundred leaving the residue to the judgment and reading of the Learned Constantius the son of Heraclius having raigned Emperour but one yeere was poysoned by his stepmother Martina to the end to install her own son Heraclon in the Crown but for this cruell part becomming odious to the Senat they so much hated to have her or her son raigne over them that in stead thereof they cut off her tongue and his nose and so banished them the City Fausta the wife of Constantine the great fell in love with Constantine her sonne in Law begotten upon a Concubine whom when shee could not perswade unto her lust she accused unto the Emperour as a solicitor of her chastity for which cause he was condemned to die but after the truth knowne Constantine put her into a hot bath and suffered her not to come forth untill the heat had choaked her revenging upon her head her sonnes death and her owne unchastity CHAP. XIIII Of Subject Murtherers SEeing then they that take away their neighbours lives doe not escape unpunished as by the former examples it appeareth it must needs follow that if they to whom the sword of Justice is committed of God to represse wrongs and chastise vices do give over themselves to cruelties and to kill and slay those whom they ought in duty to protect and defend must receive a greater measure of punishment according to the measure and quality of their offence Such an one was Saul the first king of Israel who albeit he ought to have beene sufficiently instructed out of the law of God in his duty in this behalfe yet was hee so cruell and bloody-minded as contrary to all Justice to put to death Abimelech the high Priest with fourescore and five other Priests of the family of his father onely for receiving David into his house a small or rather no offence And yet not satisfied therewith he vomited out his rage also against the whole city of the Priests and put to the mercilesse sword both man woman and child without sparing any He slew many of the Gibeonites who though they were reliques of the Amorites that first inhabited that land yet because they were received into league of amity by a solemne oath and permitted of long continuance to dwell amongst them should not have beene awarded as enemies nor handled after so cruell a fashion Thus therefore hee tyrannizing and playing the Butcher amongst his own subjects for which cause his house was called the house of slaughter and practising many other foule enormities he was at the last overcome of the Philistims and sore wounded which when he saw fearing to fall alive into his enemies hands and not finding any of his owne men that would lay their hands upon him desperately slew himselfe The same day three of his sons and they that followed him of his owne houshould were all slaine The Philistims the next day finding his dead body dispoyled among the carkasses beheaded it and carried the head in triumph to the temple of their god and hung up the trunke in disgrace in one of their Cities to be seene lookt upon and pointed at And yet for all this was not the fire of Gods wrath quenched for in King Davids time there arose a famine that lasted three yeeres the cause thereof was declared by God to be the murder which Saul committed upon the Gibeonites wherefore David delivered Sauls seven sons into the Gibeonites hands that were left who put them to the most shamefull death that is even to hanging Amongst all the sins of King Achab and Iezabel which were many and great the murder of Naboth standeth in the fore front for though hee had committed no such crime as might any way deserve death yet by the subtill and wicked devise of Iezabel foolish and credulous consent of Achab and false accusation of the two suborned witnesses he was cruelly stoned to death but his innocent blood was punished first in Achab who not long after the Warre which he made with the King of Syria received so deadly a wound that he dyed thereof the dogs licking up his blood in the same place where Naboths blood was licked according to the foretelling of Elias the Prophet And secondly of Iezabel whom her own servants at the commandement of Iehu whom God had made executor of his wrath threw headlong out of an highwindow unto the ground so that the wals were dyed with her blood and the horses trampled her under their feet and dogs devoured her flesh till of all her dainty body there remained nothing saving onely her skull feet and palme of her hands Ioram sonne of Iehosaphat King of Judah being after his fathers death possessed of the Crowne and Scepter of Judah by and by exalted himselfe in tyranny and put to death sixe of his owne brethren all younger than himselfe with many Princes of the Realme for which cause God stirred up the Edomites to rebell the Philistines and
his companions where threats were blowne out on every side against the Faithful swore before them all That before he died he would â—ide up to his spurs in the bloud of the Lutherans But it hapned in the same night that the hand of God so stroke him that he was strangled and choaked with his own bloud and so he rode not but bathed himselfe not up to the spurs but up to the throat not in the bloud of Lutherans but in his owne bloud before he died In the raign of Francis de Valois of late memory the first King of France of that name those men that shewed themselves frowardest sharpest and most cruell in burning and murthering the holy Martyrs were also forwardest examples of the vengeance of God prepared for all such as they are For proofe whereof the miserable end of Iohn Roma a Monke of the Order of the White Friers may serve who although in regard of his hood and habit ought not to be placed in the number of men of note yet by reason of the notable example of Gods vengeance upon him wee may rightly place him in this ranke This man therefore at that time when the Christians of Cabrier and Merindol began to suffer persecution having obtained a Commission from the Bishop of Provence and the Embassadour Avignion to make inquisition after and seise upon the bodies of all them that were called Lutherans ceased not to afflict them with the cruellest torments he could devise Amongst many of his tortures this was one To cause their boots to be filled with boiling grease and then fastning them overthwartwise over a bench their legs hanging over a gentle fire to seeth them to death The French King advertised of this cruelty sent out his Letters Patents from the Parliament of Provence charging That the said Iohn de Roma should be apprehended imprisoned and by processe of law condemned Which news when the Caitife heard he fled backe as fast as he could trot to Avignion there purposing to recreate and delight himselfe with the excrements of his oppression and robbery which hee had wrung out of the purses of poor people but see how contrary to his hope it fell out for first he was robbed of his evill gotten goods by his owne servants and presently upon the same hee fell sicke of so horrible and strange a disease that no salve or medicine could be found to asswage his paine and beside it was withall so loathsome that a man could not endure his company for the stinke and corruption which issued from him For which cause the white Fryers his Cloysterers conveyed him out of their Covent into the hospitall where increasing in ulcers and vermine and being become now odious not onely to others but to himselfe also hee would often cry either to be delivered from his noysomnesse or to bee slaine being desirous but not able to performe the deed upon himselfe And thus in horrible torments and most fearfull despaire he most miserably died Now being dead there was none found that would give Sepulture to his rotten carkasse had not a Monke of the same Order dragged the carrion into a ditch which he provided for the purpose The Lord of Revest who a while supplied the place of the chiefe President in the Parliament of Provence by whose meanes many of the Faithfull were put to death after hee was put beside his office and returned home unto his owne house was attached with so grievous a sicknesse and such furious and mad fits withall that his wise and neerest allyance not daring to come near him he like a frantick bedlam enraged and solitarily ended his life A Counsellor of the same Court called Bellemont was so hot and zealous in proceeding against the poor prisoners for the Word of Gods sake that to the end to pack them soon to the fire he usually departed not from the Judgement Hall from morning to evening but caused his meat and drinke to bee brought for his meales returning not home but onely at night to take his rest But whilest hee thus strongly and endeavourously imployed himselfe about these affaires there began a little sore to rise upon his foot which at the first being no bigger than if a waspe had stung the place grew quickly so red and full of paine and so increased the first day by ranckling over all his foot and inflaming the same that by the judgement of Physicians and Chirurgions through the contagious fire that spread it selfe over his whole body it seemed incurable except by cutting off his foot the other members of the body might be preserved which hee in no case willing to yield unto for all the medicines that were applied unto it sound the second day his whole leg infected and the third his whole thigh and the fourth day his whole body insomuch that he died the sameday his deadbody being all partched as if it had been rosted by a fire And thus he that was so hot in burning poore Christians was himselfe by a secret flame of Gods wrath as by slow and soft fire burned and consumed to death Lewes du Vaine brother in law to Meniâ—r the President of the said Parliament of Provence with the brother and son of Peter â—urand chiefe butcher of the city Ajax the evening before the horrible cruelty was executed at Merindoll fell at debate amongst themselves and the morrow as instruments of Gods judgements slew one another The Judge of the City Aix one of that wretched crew drowned himselfe in his returne as he passed over the river Durance As for the chiefe Judge that was principall in that murtherous action touching the condemnation of those poore soules of Merindoll and Cabrieres he likewise suddainly died before he saw the execution of that decree which himselfe had set downe Iohn Mesnier Lord of Oppede another chiefe Officer of the aforesaid Parliament that got the leading of the murthering Army against the poore Christians aforesaid committing such excesse of cruelty that the most barbarous heathen in the world would have yearned to doe For which cause hee was also summoned to appeare personally at the Parliament of Paris there to answer those extortions robberies and oppressions which were layd to his charge and being convinced and found guilty theieof was neverthelesse released and set at liberty and that which is more restored to his former estate Howbeit though hee escaped the hands of men yet was hee overtaken by the hand of God who knew well enough the way how to entrap and abate his proud intents for even then when hee was in the height of worldly prosperity and busier than ever in persecuting Christians even then was hee pulled downe by a flux of bloud which provoking his privy parts engendred such a carnositie and thicknesse of flesh therein and withall a restraint of urine that with horrible outeries and raving speeches hee died feeling a burning fire broyling his entrailes from his navill upwards
not respecting or beleeving there was either a God or a Devill or a hell or a Heaven and therefore he was damned there was no remedy And in this miserable case without any signe of repentance he dyed But let us come to our homebred English stories and consider the judgments of God upon the persecutors of Christs Gospell in our own countrey And first to begin with one Doctor Whittington under the raigne of King Henry the seventh who by vertue of his office being Chancellour to the Bishop had condemned most cruelly to death a certaine godly woman in a town called Chipping sadberry for the profession of the truth which the Papists then called Heresie This woman being adjudged to death by the wretched Chancellor and the time come when she should be brought to the place of her martyrdome a great concourse of people both out of towne and country was gathered to behold her end Amongst whom was also the foresaid Doctor there present to see the execution performed The godly woman and manly Martyr with great constancy gave over her life to the fire and refused no paines or torments to keep her conscience cleere and unreproveable against the day of the Lord. Now the Sacrifice being ended as the people began to returne homeward they were encountred by a mighty furious Bull which had escaped from a Butcher that was about to kill him for at the same time as they were slaying this silly Lamb at the townes end a Butcher was as busie within the towne in slaying of this Bull. But belike not so skilfull in his art of killing of beasts as the Papists be in murthering Christians the Bull broke loose as I said and ranne violently through the throng of the people without hurting either man or childe till he came to the place where the Chancellour was against whom as pricked forward with some supernaturall instinct hee ranne full butt thrusting him at the first blow through the paunch and after goaring him through and through and so killed him immediately trayling his guts with his hornes all the street over to the great admiration and wonder of all that saw it Behold here a plaine demonstration of Gods mighty power and judgement against a wretched persecutor of one of his poore flocke wherein albeit the carnall sence of man doth often impute to blinde chance that which properly pertaineth to the only power and providence of God yet none can be so dull and ignorant but must needs confesse a plaine miracle of Gods almighty power and a worke of his own finger Stephen Gardiner also was one of the grand butchers in this land what a miserable end came hee unto Even the same day that Bishop Ridley and Master Latimer were burned at Oxford he hearing newes thereof rejoyced greatly and being at dinner ate his meat merrily but ere he had eaten many bits the sudden stroke of Gods terrible hand fell upon him in such sort that immediately he was taken from the board and brought to his bed where he continued 15 dayes in intolerable anguish by reason he could not expell his urine so that his body being miserably inflamed within who had inflamed so many Godly Martyrs was brought to a wretched end with his tongue all blacke and swolne hanging out of his mouth most horribly a spectacle worthy to be beholden of all such bloudy burning persecutors Bonner Bishop of London another arch butcher though he lived long after this man and dyed also in his bed yet was it so provided of God that as he had been a persecutor of the light and a child of darknesse so his carkasse was tumbled into the earth in obscure darkenes at midnight contrary to the order of all other Christians and as he had been a most cruell murtherer so was he buried amongst theeves and murtherers a place by Gods judgement rightly appointed for him Morgan Bishop of S. Davids sitting upon the condemnation of the blessed Martyr Bishop Farrar whose roome he unjustly usurped was not long after stricken by Gods hand after such a strange sort that his meat would not go downe but rise and picke up againe sometime at his mouth sometime blowne out of his nose most horrible to behold and so continued unto his death Where note moreover that when Master Leyson being then Sheriffe at Bishop Farrars burning had fetcht away the cattell of the said Bishop from his servants house into his owne custody divers of them would never eate meat but lay bellowing and roaring and so dyed Adde unto this Bishop Morgan Iustice Morgan a Judge that sate upon the death of the Lady Iane this Iustice not long after the execution of the said Lady fell mad and being thus bereft of his wits dyed having ever in his mouth Lady Iane Lady Iane. Bishop Thornton Suffragan of Dover another grand persecutor comming upon a Saturday from the Chapter-house at Canterbury and there upon the Sunday following looking upon his men playing at bowles fell suddenly into a palsey and dyed shortly after And being exhorted to remember God in his extremity of sicknesse So I do saith he and my Lord Cardinall too c. After him succeeded another Suffragan ordained by the foresaid Cardinall and equall to his Predecessor in cruell persecuting of the Church who injoying his place but a short time fell downe a paire of staires in the Cardinals chamber at Greenwich and broke his necke and that presently let it be noted after he received the Cardinals blessing The like sudden death hapned to Doctor Dunning the bloudy and wretched Chancellour of Norwich who after he had most rigorously condemned and murthered a number of simple and faithfull servants of God was suddenly stricken with death even as he was sitting in his chaire The like also fell upon Berry Commissary of Norfolke another bloudy persecutor who foure dayes after Queene Maries death having made a great Feast whereat was present one of his concubines as he was comming home from the Church where he had ministred the Sacrament of Baptisme fell downe suddenly to the ground with a heavy groane and never stirred after thus ending his miserable life without any shew of repentance So Doctor Geffrey Chancellor of Salisbury another of the same stampe was suddenly stricken with the mighty hand of God in the midst of his buildings where he was constrained to yeeld up his life which had so little pitty of other mens lives before and it is to be noted that the day before he was thus stricken he had appointed to call before him ninety poore Christians to examine them by inquisition but the goodnesse of God and his tender providence prevented him Doctor Foxford Chancellor to Bishop Stockesley dyed also suddenly So did Iustice Lelond the persecutor of one Ieffery Hurst Alexander the Keeper of Newgate a cruell enemy to those that lay in that prison for Religion dyed very miserably being so swollen that he was more like a monster than a man and
with other care Save of their feed within that pasture faire These Flocks a Sheepheard had of power and skill To fold and feed and save them from all ill By whose advice they liv'd whose wholsome voice They heard and fear'd with love and did rejoyce Therein with melody of song and praise And dance to magnifie his Name alwaies He is their Guide they are his Flocke and Fold Nor will they be by any else controld Well knowing that whom he takes care to feed He will preserve and save in time of need Thus liv'd this holy Flocke at hearts content Till cruell Beasts all set on ravishment Broke off their peace and ran upon with rage Themselves their Young and all their heritage Slitting their throats devoured Lambs and all And dissipating them that seap't their thrall Then did the jolly feast to fast transforme So ask't the fury of that ragefull storme Their joyfull song was turn'd to mournfull cries And all their gladnesse chang'd to well adyes Whereat Heav'n grieving clad it selfe in blacke But earth in uprore triumph't at their wracke What profits then the sheephooke of their Guide Or that he lies upon a Beacons side With watchfull eye to circumscribe their traine And hath no more regard unto their paine To save them from such dangers imminent Some say as are so often incident 'T is not for that his arme wants strength to break All proud at tempts that men of might do make Or that he will abandon unto death His Owne deare bought with exchange of his breath For must we thinke that though they dye they perish Death dyes in them and they in death reflourish And this lifes losse a better life renues Which after death eternally ensues Though then their passions never seeme so great Yet never comfort serves to swage their heat Though strength of torments be extreame in durance Yet are they guencht by Hopes and Faiths assurance For thankefull Hope if God be grounded in it Assures the heart and pacifies the spirit To them that love and reverence his Name Prosperity betides and want of shame Thus can no Tyrant pull them from the hands Of mighty God that for their safety stands Who ever sees and ever can defend Them whom he loves he loves unto the end So that the more their fury overfloweth The more each one his owne destruction soweth And as they strive with God in policy So are they sooner brought to misery Like as the savage Boare dislodg'd from den And hotly chased by pursuit of men Run's furiously on them that come him neere And goares himselfe upon the hunters speare The gentle puissant Lambe their Champion bold So help 's to conquer all that hart 's his fold That quickly they and all their Progeny Confounded is and brought to misery This is of Iudah the couragious Lion The conquering Captaine and the Rocke of Sion Whose favour is as great to Iacobs Line As is his fearefull frowne to Philistine CHAP XV. Of Apostata's and Backsliders that through infirmity and feare have fallen away IT is a kinde of Apostasie and Backsliding condemned by the first commandement of the Law when as hee that hath been once enlightened by the word of God in the knowledge of salvation and nourished and instructed therein from the cradle doth afterward cast behind his backe the grace of Gods spirit or disallow thereof and exempt himselfe from the service of God to serve Idols or make any outward shew to doe it which kinde of sinne may be committed after two sorts either through infirmity and feare or willingly and with deliberation when not being pressed or constrained thereto by any outward means a man doth cleerely and of himselfe abandon and forsake the true Religion to march under the baoner of Satan and Antichrist And this is also of two sorts either when a man doth simply forsake the profession of the Truth to follow superstition and Idolatry without attempting any thing beside the meere deniall of his Faith or when after his revolt he professeth not onely the contrary Religion but also endeavoureth himselfe by all means possible to advance it and to oppresse and lay siege to the doctrine of Gods Truth in those that maintaine the same By this it appeareth that there are three kinds of Apostasie one as it were inforced and compelled the second voluntary the last both voluntary and malitious which though they be all very hainous and offensive in the sight of God yet the second and third sort are most dangerous and of them also one more hurtfull and pernitious than the other as we shall perceive by that which followeth Now as all these kinds are different one from another so I will referre the examples of each sort to his severall place that the efficacy thereof may be the better perceived And first of those which have fallen away through feare and infirmity and afterward in order of the rest Athough that they who by the conceit and feare of tortures presented before their eyes or of speedy and cruell death threatned against them doe decline and slide backe from the profession of the Gospell may pretend for excuse the weakenesse and feeblenesse of the flesh yet doubtlesse they are found guilty before the throne of God for preferring the love of this transitory and temporary life before the zeale of his glory and the honour which is due to his onely begotten Sonne especially at that time when they are called out of purpose by their Martyrdome to witnesse his sacred truth before men and he desireth most to be glorified by their free and constant perseverance therein to the which perseverance they are exhorted by many faire promises of eternall life and happinesse and from the contrary terrified by threats of death and confusion and upon paine to be discharged from the presence of Christ before God because they have denied him before men which is the misery of all miseries and the greatest that can happen to any man for what shall become of that man whom the Sonne of God doth not acknowledge Now to prove that God is indeed highly offended at this faint hearted cowardlinesse he himself hath made knowne unto us by the punishments which divers times he hath sent upon the heads of such offendors As in the time of the Emperour Valerian the eighth persecutor of the Church under whose persecution albeit that many Champions bestirred themselves most valiantly in that combat of Faith yet there wanted not some whose hearts failing them and who in stead of maintaining and standing for their cause to the death as they ought to have done retyred and gave up themselves to the enemy at the first assault Amongst the number of which doubty souldiers there was one that went up into the Capitoll at Rome in that place where Iupiters Temple in old time stood to abjure and recant Christ and his profession which he had no sooner done but he was presently strucke dumbe and so was justly punished
the Bishop of Eureux his house which was accordingly executed This happened in the yeare 1453. In the raigne of the same King 1457 there was a certaine Curate of a village neere to Soissons who to revenge himselfe of a Farmer that retained from him the tenths which were appointed to the Knights of the Rhodes went to a Witch of whom he received in gift a fat toad in an earthen pot which she had a long while fed and brought up which she commanded him to baptise as he also did and called it by the name of Iohn albeit I tremble to recite so monstrous and vile a fact yet that every man might see how deadly besotted those sort of people are that give themselves over to Satan and with what power of errour he overwhelmeth them and beside how full of malice this uncleane spirit is that as it were in despight of God would prophane the holy Sacrament of Baptisme This good holy Curate after he had consecrated the holy host gave it also to the toade to eat and afterward restored it to the Witch again who killing the toade and cutting it in pieces with other such like sorceries caused a young wench to carry it secretly into the Farmers house and to put it under the table as they were at dinner whereupon immediately the Farmer and his children that were at the table fell suddenly sicke and three dayes after died the Witch her selfe being detected was burned but the Curate suffered onely a little imprisonment in the Bishop of Paris house and that not long for what with friendship and money he was soone delivered Froissard who was Treasurer and Canon of Chymay reporteth of another Curate in the countrey of Beare under Charles the seventh that had a familiar spirit which hee called Orthon whose helpe hee used to the disturbance of the Lord of Corosse by causing a terrible noise to bee heard every night by him and his servants in his castle because the said Lord withheld his tythes from him and converted them to his owne use In the yiare 1530 at Nuremburg a certaine Priest studied Art Magick and being very covetous of gold and silver the Devill whom hee served shed him through a Chrystall certaine treasures hidden in the city he by and by greedy of this rich prey went to that part of the city where hee supposed it to have lien buried and being arrived at the place with a companion whom he brought to this pretty pastime fell a searching and digging up a hollow pit untill he perceived a coffer that lay in the bottome of the hole with a great blacke dog lying by it whither he was no sooner entred but the earth fell downe and filled up the hole and smothered and crushed him to death So this poore Priest was entrapped and rewarded by his master no otherwise than he deserved but otherwise than he expected or looked for Howbeit they are not onely simple Priests and Friers that deale with these cursed Arts but even Popes themselves Silvester the second as Platina and others report was first a conjuring Frier and gave himselfe to the Devill upon condition he might be Pope as he was indeed and having obtained his purpose as it seemed he began earnestly to desire to know the day wherein he should die which also his Schoolmaster the Devill revealed unto him but under such doubtfull tearmes that he dreamed in his foolish conceit of immortality and that he should never die It chanced on a time as he was singing Masse at Rome in a Temple called Ierusalem which was the place assigned him to die in and not Ierusalem in Palestina as he made himselfe falsly to beleeve he heard a great noise of Devils that came to fetch him away note that this was done in Masse while whereat he being terrified and tormented and seeing himselfe not able any way to escape hee desired his people to rend his body in pieces after his death and lay it upon a charriot and let horses draw it whither they would which was accordingly performed for as soone as he was dead the pieces of his carkasse were carried out of the Church of Laterane by the wicked spirit who as he ruled him in life so he was the chiefe in his death and funerals By like means came Benedict the ninth to the Popedome for he was a detestable Magitian and in the ten yeares wherein he was Pope having committed infinite villanies and mischiefs was at last by his familiar friend the Devill strangled to death in a forrest whither he went to apply himselfe the more quieter to his conjurings Gregory the sixth scholler to Silvester as great a conjurer as his master wrought much misery in his time but was at last banished Rome and ended his life in misery in Germany Iohn the two and twentieth being of no better disposition than these we have spoken of but following judiciall astrology sed himselfe with a vain hope of long life whereof he vaunted himselfe among his familiars one day above the rest at Viterbum in a chamber which he had lately builded saying that he should live a great while he was assured of it presently the floore brake suddenly in pieces and he was found seven daies after crushed to pieces under the ruines thereof All this notwithstanding yet other Popes ceased not to suffer themselves to be infected with this execrable poison as Hildebrand who was called Gregory the seventh and Alexander the sixth of which kinde we shall see a whole legend in the next booke Doe but marke these holy Fathers how abhominable they were to be in such sort given over to Satan Cornelius Agrippa a great Student in this cursed Art and a man famous both by his owne works and others report for his Necromancy went alwaies accompanied with an evill spirit in the similitude of a blacke dogge but when his time of death drew neer and he was urged to repentance hee tooke off the inchanted collar from the dogs neck and sent him away with these termes Get thee hence thou cursed beast which hast utterly destroyed mee Neither was the dog ever after seen some say he lept into Araris and never came out againe Agrippa himselfe died at Lyons in a base and beggarly Inne Zeroastres King of Bactria is notified to have bin the inventer of Astrology and Magicke But the Devill whose ministry he used when he was too importunate with him burned him to death Charles the seventh of France put Egedius de Raxaâ— Marshall of his Kingdome to a cruell and filthy death because he practised this Art and in the same had murthered an hundred and twenty teeming women and yong infants he caused him to be hanged upon a forke by a hot fire and roasted to death Bladud the sonne of Lud King of Britaine now called England in the yeare of the World 3100 hee that builded the city of Bath as our late Histories witnesse and also
that commeth beyond the mountaines from that scientificall Vniversity and Colledge of the right reverend Masters and from the excellent holinesse of some of their Popes whose manner of life is so dissolute lascivious dishonest and Sardanapal like that thereby their Atheisme is evidently and notoriously knowne and talked of by every one Hereof Pope Leo the tenth a Florentine by birth may serve for an example who as he was a very effeminate person given to all manner of delights and pleasure having no other care but of himselfe and his owne filthy carkasses ease so had he no more taste at all nor feeling of God and his holy Word than a dog he made the promises and threats contained in holy Scripture and all else that we beleeve matter to laugh at and things frivolous and of no weight mocking at the simplicity the faith and beleefe of Christians for one day when Cardinall Bembus who also shewed himselfe to be none of the best Christians in the world by his Venetian history where as ost as he speaketh of God be useth the plurall number after the manner of heathen writers alleadged a place out of the Gospell his damnable impudency was so great as to reply That this fable of Christ had brought to him and such as he no little profit Oh stinking and cursed throat to belch out such monstrous blasphemy doe not these speeches bewray a villanous and abhominable Atheist if ever any were Is not this to declare himselfe openly to be Antichrist For he is Antichrist which denieth Iesus to be Christ and which denieth the Father and the Sonne according as Saint Iohn saith Albeit in the meane while this cursed caitife that had as much religion as a dog made shew to be the protector and defender of the Catholicke Faith making warre with all his power against Christ Iesus in the person of his servant Luther Now after he had by his pardons and indulgences drawne out a world of money and heaped up great treasures by the maintenance of courtizans and whores and had enriched his bastards one day being at meat he received newes of the overthrow of the French in Lombardy whereat hee rejoyced out of measure and for that good tidings doubled his good cheare suddenly he was constrained to turne his copy from joy into sadnesse from pleasure into griefe and gnashing of teeth by a most bitter and unlooked for death which deprived him at once of all his pleasures to make him drink the cup of Gods fierce wrath and to throw him downe headlong into everlasting paines and torments which were provided for him Pope Leo saith Saint Martin of Belay in his second booke of memorable things hearing of the great losse which the Frenchmen sustained at Milan tooke so great joy thereat that a catarrhe and an ague ensuing killed him within three dayes after a happy man indeed to die with joy Pope Iulius the third was one of the same stampe nothing inferiour to the former in all manner of dissolute and infamous living and vile and cursed talke making knowne by his impiety that he had none other god but his belly and that he was none of Christs fold but one of Epicures crew he was such a glutton and so passionate in his lusts and so prophane a despiser of God and his Word that once at supper being inraged and blaspheming because they had not served in a cold Peacocke which he commanded to be kept whole at dinner though there were other hot on the table a Cardinall that was present desired him not to be so moved for so small a trifle What quoth he if it pleased God to be so angry for eating of an apple as to thrust Adam and Eve out of paradise should not I which am his Vicar be angry for a Peacocke which is far more worth than any apple See how this wicked wretch prophaned the holy Scripture and like an Epicure and Atheist mocked God but he died of the gout after he had been long plagued with it together with other diseases leaving none other good name behind him save the report of a most wicked and abhominable man Philip Strozze whom Paulus Iovius reporteth to have bin commonly bruited to be an Atheist was an Exile of Florence and afterwards prisoner there in the time of Cosimus Medius the Prince of that Commonwealth against whom this Philip had enterprized to make warre and being in prison he killed himselfe with the sword of a Spaniard his keeper which by oversight he had left behinde setting the point against his throat and falling downe upon it so may all Atheists perish and come to naught Francis Rabelais having suckt up also this poison used like a prophane villain to make all Religion a matter to laugh and mocke at but God deprived him of his sences that as he had led a brutish life so he might die a brutish death for he died mocking all those that talked of God or made mention of mercy in his eares How miserable was the end of Periers the author of that detestable book intituled Symbolum mundi wherein he openly mocked at God and his Religion even finally he fell into despaire and notwithstanding all that guarded him killed himselfe Iodelle also a French tragicall Poet being an Epicure and Atheist made a very tragicall and most pittifull end for he died in great misery and distresse even pined to death after he had rioted out all his substance and consumed his patrimony Ligneroles the Courtier to make himselfe seeme a man of service made open profession of Atheisme but his end and destruction came from thence whence he looked for credit and advancement To bring the matter to an end I will here set downe a notable and strange thing that chanced in the raigne of Lewis the ninth as Enguerran de Monstrelet in his second volume of Histories recordeth it upon the fifteenth day of Iune in the yeare of our Lord God 1464 there happened a strange thing in the Palace at Paris So it was that there was a matter in law to be tried betwixt the Bishop of Angiers and a rich citicen whom the Bishop charged to have spoken before many witnesses that he beleeved not that there was either God or Devill Heaven or Hell Now whilst the Bishops Lawyer laid to his charge these things the place began to tremble very much wherein they were and a stone fell downe from the roof amongst them all without hurting any yet every man was sore afraid and departed out of the house untill the morrow then the matter was begun againe to be pleaded which was no sooner in hand but the chamber began afresh to shake and one of the summers came forth of his mortisehole falling downwards two foot and there stayed so that all that were within the hall looking to have been slaine outright ran out so violently that some left behinde them their caps others their hoods others their slippers summarily glad was he
by the hands of the Priests to demand pardon for that cruell murther that the guilt of innocent bloud might not be imputed unto them And if by oversight or negligence without any malice hatred or pretence one killed another yet was he not exempted from all punishment but suffered to fly to the city of refuge to be kept and as it were inclosed untill his innocency were made manifest or at the least untill the death of the high Priest From this it may seeme arose the custome of Painims in the like case which was that if a man had unwillingly committed murther he did presently avoid the countrey and goe unto some man of power and authority of a strange nation and present himselfe at his gate sitting with his face covered humbly intreating pardon and reconciliation for his murther and for one whole yeare he might not returne into his countrey On this manner was the sonne of a certaine King of Phrygia entertained in King Craesus court who unadvisedly had slaine his owne brother Whereby it is manifest how odious and execrable in all ages and all places and all people this murther hath been insomuch that men did shun their very meeting and company and abandon them out of their temples and publicke assemblies as people excommunicate and prophane And yet for all this mankinde for the most part like savage beasts hath by the instigation of that wicked spirit who was a murtherer from the beginning been too too addicted to this kind of cruelty not being afraid to offer violence to nature and shed innocent bloud Such was the franticke and perverse cruelty of the second man Cain when without any occasion but onely through envy he slew his brother Abel and that traiterously which deed albeit it was done in secret and without the view of men yet it could not shun the piercing eye of God who reproved him for it saying That the bloud of Abel cried for vengeance from the earth And although this cursed and wicked murtherer received not immediately a condigne punishment answerable to his crime God to the end to spare mans bloud using undeserved favour towards him yet escaped hee not scot free for he was pursued with a continuall torment and sting of confcience together with such an incessant feare that he became a vagabond and a runnagate upon the earth and seeing himselfe brought into so miserable an estate he fell to complaining that the punishment was greater than he was able to beare Thus God permitted this wretch to draw out his life in such anguish that for a greater punishment he might pine away the rest of his daies without comfort A man may find in this world many such brother murthering Cains who for no occasion sticke not to cut their throats whom for the bond of common nature wherein all men are linked together as branches to one root they ought to acknowledge for their brethren and friends upon whom the heavy hand of God hath not beene more slacke to punish either by one meanes or other than it was upon their eldest brother Cain But seeing the number of them is so great and it is not so convenient to heape up here so huge a multitude together it shall suffice onely to recount the most famous and notablest of them as of those that have beene men of note and reputation of the world or that through an ambitious desire of raigning have by armes sought to atchieve their purposes for these for the most part are the greatest murtherers and butchers of all that through their wicked affections worldly pompe or desire of revenge have no remorse of making the bloud of men run like rivers upon the earth making no more account of the life of a man than of a flie or a worme Such an one was Abimelech one of the sonnes of Gedeon who to the end to usurpe the regiment of the people which his father before him refused got together a rout of rascal and vile fellowes by whose aid comming to his fathers house he slew seventy of his brethren even all except Ioathan the yongest that stole away and hid himselfe After which massacre he raigned in jolity three yeares and at the end thereof was cut short by God together with the Sichemites his provokers and maintainers who were also guilty of all the innocent bloud which he had shed for God sent the spirit of division betwixt them so that the Sichemites began to despise him and rebell against him but they had the worst end of the staffe and were overcome by him who pursuing the victory tooke their city by force and put them all to the edge of the sword And after he had thus destroied their city put fire also to the castle wherein he consumed neere about a thousand persons of men and women that were retired thither to save their lives And thus God brought upon them the mischiefe which they had consented and put their hands unto for as they had lent him aid and furtherance to the shedding of his brethrens bloud so was their owne bloud with their wives and childrens shed by him yet this tyran not content therewith made war also with the inhabitants of Tebez and tooke their city and would have forced the tower also wherein the citisens had inclosed themselves but as he approched to the wall a woman threw downe a piece of a milstone upon his head wherewith finding himselfe hurt to death he commanded one of his soldiers to kill him outright And thus this wicked murtherer that had shed the bloud of many men yea of his owne brethren had his braines knockt out by a woman and died a most desperate death The bloudy treachery of Baana and Rechab chiefe captaines of Ishbosheth Sauls son in conspiring against and murthering their master whilest he slept abode not long unpunished for having cut off his head they presented it for a present to king David hoping to gratifie the king and to receive some recompence for their paines But David being of an upright and true kingly heart could not endure such vile treachery though against the person of his enemy but entertained them as most vile traitors and master-murtherers commanding first their hands and feet to be cut off which they had especially imployed as instruments about that villany and afterwards caused them to bee slaine and then hanged for an example to all others that should attempt the like For the like cause was Ioab Generall of king Davids host for killing Abner traiterously who forsaking Ishbosheth had yeelded himselfe to the King cursed of David with all his house with a most grievous and terrible curse And yet notwithstanding a while after he came againe to that passe as to murder Amasa one of Davids chiefe captains making shew to salute and embrace him For which cruell deed albeit that in Davids time he received no punishment yet it overtooke him at last and the same kinde of cruelty
conquered by the Normans comming with a forreine King being none of their naturall countrey In the yeare of our Lord sixe hundred threescore and eighteene Childerich King of France caused a Nobleman of his Realme called Bolyde to bee bound to a stake and there beaten to death without the pretence of any just crime or accusation against him For which cruelty his Lords and Commons being grievously offended conspired together and slew him and his wife as they were hunting In the raigne of Edward the second and Edward the third Sir Roger Mortimer committed many villanous outrages in shedding much humane bloud but he was also justly recompenced in the end first he murdered King Edward the second lying in Barkeley Castle to the end he might as it was supposed enjoy Isabel his wife with whom he had very suspitious familiarity Secondly he caused Edward the third to conclude a dishonorable peace with the Scots by restoring them all their ancient writings charters and patents whereby the Kings of Scotland had bound themselves to be feudaries to the Kings of England Thirdly he accused Edmund Earle of Kent uncle to King Edward of treason and caused him unjustly to bee put to death And lastly he conspi redagainst the King to worke his destruction for which and divers other things that were laid to his charge he was worthily and justly beheaded In the reigne of Henry the sixt Humfrey the good duke of Gloucester and faithfull protectour of the King by the meanes of certaine malicious persons to wit the Queene the Cardinall of Winchester and especially the Marquesse of Suffolke as it was supposed was arrested cast into hold and strangled to death in the Abbey of Bure For which cause the Lords hand of judgement was upon them all for the Marquesse was not onely banished the land for the space of five yeares but also banished out of his life for ever for as hee sailed towards France hee was met withall by a Ship of Warre and there presently beheaded and the dead corps cast up at Dover that England wherein he had committed the crime might be a witnesse of his punishment The Queene that thought by this meanes to preserve her husband in honour and her selfe in estate thereby both lost her husband and her state her husband lost his realme and the Realme lost Anjou Normandy with all other places beyond the sea Calice onely excepted As for the Cardinall who was the principall artificer of all this mischiefe he lived not long after and being on his death bed murmured and grudged against God asking wherefore hee should die having so much wealth and riches and saying That if the whole Realme would save his life he was able either by policy to get it or by riches to buy it but death would not be bribed for all his aboundant treasure he died miserably more like a Heathen than a Christian without any shew of repentence And thus was the good Dukes death revenged upon the princiall procurers thereof As the murder of a gentleman in Kent called master Arden of Feversham was most execrable so the wonderfull discovery thereof was exceeding rare This Arden being somewhat aged had to wife a young woman no lesse faire than dishonest who being in love with one Mosbie more than her husband did not onely abuse his bed but also conspired his death with this her companion for together they hired a notorious Ruffin one Blacke Will to strangle him to death with a towell as he was playing a game at tables which though secretly done yet by her owne guilty conscience and some tokens of bloud which appeared in his house was soone discovered and confessed Wherefore she her selfe was burnt at Canterbury Michael master Ardens man was hanged in chaines at Feversham Mosbie and his sister were hanged in Smithfield Greene another partner in this bloudy action was hanged in chaines in the high way against Feversham And Blacke Will the Ruffian after his first escape was apprehended and burnt on a seaffold at Flushing in Zeeland And thus all the murderers had their deserved dues in this life and what they endured in the life to come except they obtained mercy by true repentance is easie to judge CHA. XI Of the admirable discovery of Murders AS the Lord hath shewed himselfe a most just Judge in punishing most severely this horrible sinne of shedding mans bloud so hath he alwaies declared his detestation thereof and his will to have it punished by those who are in his stead upon the earth and have the sword of vengeance committed unto them by his miraculous and superhaturall detecting of such murderers from time to time who have carried their villanies so closely as the eye of man could not espy them plainely shewing thereby that the bloud of the slaine crieth to the Lord for vengeance from the earth as Abels did upon Cain and that God will have that law stand true and firme which he made almost before all other lawes He that sheddeth mans bloud by man shall his bloud be shed If I should commit to writing all the examples of this kinde which either are recorded in Authors or which dayly experience doth offer unto us it would require rather a full Booke than a short Chapter for that subject And therefore I will be content with some few and those for truth most credible and yet for strangenesse most incredible And to begin with our owne countrey About the yeare of our Lord 867 a certaine Nobleman of the Danes of the kings stock called Lothebrocus father to Inguar and Hubba entring upon a certaine time with his hawke into a cockboat alone by chance through tempest was driven with his hawke to the coast of Northfolke in England named Rodham where being found and detained he was presented to king Edmund that raigned over the East-Angles in Northfolke and Suffolke at that time The King as hee was a just and good man understanding his parentage and seeing his cause entertained him in his Court accordingly and every day more and more perceiving his activity and great dexterity in hunting and hawking bare speciall favour unto him insomuch that the Kings Faulconer bearing privy malice against him for this cause secretly as they were hunting together in a wood did murther him and threw him in a bush Lothebroke being thus murthered and shortly missed in the Kings house no tydings could be heard of him untill it pleased God to reveale the murther by his dog which continuing in the wood with the corps of his Master at sundry times came to the Court and fauned on the King so that the King suspecting some such matter at length followed the trace of the hound and was brought to the place where Lothebroke lay Whereupon inquisition being made at length by some circumstances of words and other suspitions it was knowne that he was murdered by Berikâ— the Kings Faulconer who for his punishment he was set into the same boat of Lothebroke
together in single fight one of Cinna's army the other of the contrary and the one having slaine the other after that the Conquerour perceived that it was his brother whom hee had slaine hee slew himselfe also to make satisfaction for his brothers blood and so they were both buried in one grave Norbanus a Consull of Rome flying from Scylla slew himselfe at Rhodes rather than he would fall into his enemies hands and so did likewise Marius the sonne at Praeneste Of the murderers of Iulius Caesar almost all became also the murderer of themselves Cassius stabb'd himselfe with the same dagger wherewith he had stabb'd Caesar Brutus the night before his overthrow at Philippi saw in his chamber a vision of a great fearefull man and he demanding who he was and what he would he answered I am O Brutus thy evill spirit and to morrow thou shalt see me at Philippi To whom Brutus with a bold courage answered I will therefore see thee there The next day Brutus being conquered by Augustus and Anthony at Philippi fell upon his own sword and slew himselfe Methridates that bloody and mighty King of Pontus being overcome of Lucullus and Pompey and set upon by his owne sonne went about to make away himselfe by poyson which when it tooke not effect by reason of his daily taking of Antidotes he forced a French souldier of his to lay violent hands upon him and so hee became a wilfull spiller of his owne blood that had caused the blood of so many thousands to be spilt His two wives Monica and Veronica hearing of the miserable end of the king made likewise themselves away for the one hanged her selfe but when the weight of her body broke the cord shee committed her selfe to Bochis the Eunuch to bee slaine the other received poyson which when it wrought not so speedily as shee desired Bochis also was made an instrument to dispatch her Most famous and notorious is the story of Lucretia who being ravished by Tarquinius the yonger and impatient of that injury and disgrace slew her selfe openly and gave cause by her death of the change of the Roman State from the government of Kings to Consuls Sophronia another Roman woman but a Christian when as she could by no meanes escape the lust of Decius the Emperour daily assaulting her chastity tooke a sword and by her husbands consent slew her selfe and so to prevent one sin she committed another farre worse than that she feared Portia the daughter of Cato and wife of Brutus hearing of the death of her husband at Philippi sought for a knife to kill her selfe which being denyed her she eat burning coales and so ended her life by a strange kinde of death Wee read of many wanton and lewd Poets that have thus made an end of themselves who as for the most they are Epicures and Atheists so seldome come to a good end Labienus the railing Poet who for that cause was called Rabienus understanding that his bookes were adjudged to bee burned by a publike Decree would not survive his own writings and therefore killed himselfe Lucretius the Atheist taking a love potion to incite his lust was by the force therof deprived of his sences and so deprived himselfe also of life in his rage Empedocles the vainglorious Poet affecting the name of a god and of immortality threw himselfe headlong into mount Aetna and so perished Silvius Italicus being taken with an incurable disease chose rather to be his owne murderer than to endure the torment of his sicknesse Cornelius Gallus an amatorius Poet having robbed the City Thebes over which he was set to be governour by Augustus Caesar and fearing to be called to account prevented the punishment of humane justice by executing the justice of God upon himselfe with his owne hands Of those that persecuted the Church of Christ very many were given over by God to be persecutors of themselves and spoylers of their owne lives as Nero for example the first Emperour that tooke in hand to persecute Christians he seeing himselfe in danger to be murdered by one appointed for that purpose to prevent the malice of the murderer murdered himselfe Magnentius another tyrant and enemy to Christs Church being overcome by Constantius brother to Constans whom he had slaine fled to Lions and there became his owne Butcher whose death as soone as his brother Decentius understood he also hanged himselfe Galerius the Emperour after he had tormented the Christians by all cruell means and left no way unattempted whereby he might root them out of his Kingdome fell into a grievous disease through the torment whereof not being able to endure any longer he thrust a sword into his own bowels and so miserably ended his dayes And to come neerer to our owne age in King Edward the sixths dayes one Clerke an open enemy to the Gospel hanged himselfe in the Tower so did Pavier Towne-clerke of London so did the sonne of one Levar a husbandman that mocked and scorned at the holy Martyr master Latymer so likewise did Henry Smith a Lawyer another open adversary to Gods truth Richard Long another enemy to Gods truth drowned himselfe at Calice in King Henry the eights dayes Iohn Plankney a Fellow of New Colledge in Oxford did the like Anno 1566. and likewise one Hanington a Fellow of the same Colledge in a well at Padua or as some thinke at Rome Of these you may reade more in the first booke Hither I might adde many examples of moderne experience as namely of a covetous wretch in the Isle of Elie who being cast in a suit of Law through impatience of griefe came home and hanged himselfe of another that had beene a great dealer in worldly matters and an undoer of a Family or two of good credit and revenue by usury and taking forfeiture of bonds and that by his owne flattering perswasion being himselfe arrested at Huntington for debt rather then he would satisfie it though he was able enough cut his owne throat after a most fearefull and horrible manner another being a man of note and good possessions threw himselfe downe headlong from the top of a Church Many such like examples I could adjoyne with their names and places of abode but I forbeare least by reporting Gods judgements upon the dead I should offend some that are alive These therefore already proposed may be a sufficient taste of this kinde of judgement inflicted by God upon wicked persons and also may serve for a caveat and warning to all men to take heed how they offer violence to their owne lives seeing it is not onely a punishment of sinne past but a fearfull sinne it selfe and a forerunner and causer of punishment to come even of eternall punishment except the Lord extraordinarily and miraculously shew mercy which none ought to presume of CHAP. XIII Of Paricides or Parent Murderers IF all effusion of humane blood be both horrible to behold and repugnant to nature
then is the murdering of Parents especially detestable when a man is so possessed with the Devill or transported with a hellish fury that he lifteth up his hand against his own father or mother to put them to death this is so monstrous and inormous an impiety that the greatest Barbarians ever have had it in detestation wherefore it is also expresly commanded in the Law of God That whosoever smiteth his father or mother in what sort so ever though not to death yet he shall die the death If the disobedience unreverence and contempt of children towards their Parents are by the just judgements of God most rigorously punished as hath beene declared before in the first commandement of the second Table how much more then when violence is offered and above all when murder is committed Thus the Aegyptians punished this sinne they put the committants upon a stacke of thornes and burnt them alive having beaten their bodies beforehand with sharpe reeds made of purpose Solon being demanded why he appointed no punishment in his Lawes for Paricides answered that there was no necessity thinking that the wide world could not afford so wicked a wretch It is said that Romulus for the same cause ordained no punishment in his Common wealth for that crime but called every murderer a Paricide the one being in his opinion a thing execrable and the other impossible And in truth there was not for 600 yeeres space according to Plutarchs report found in Rome any one that had committed this execrable fact The first Paricide that Rome saw was Lucius Ostius after the first Punicke warre although other Writers affirme that M. Malliolus was the first and Lucius the second how soever it was they both underwent the punishment of the Law Pompeia which enacted That such offenders should be thrust into a sacke of Leather and an Ape a Cocke a Viper and a Dog put in to accompany them and then to be throwne into the water to the end that these beasts being enraged and animated one against another might wreke their teene upon them and so deprive them of life after a strange fashion being debarred of the use of the aire water and earth as unworthy to participate the very Elements with their deaths much lesse with their lives which kinde of punishment was after practised and confirmed by the constitution of Constantine the Great And albeit the regard of the punishment seemed terrible and the offence it selfe much more monstrous yet since that time there have beene many so perverse and exceeding wicked as to throw themselves headlong into that desperate gulfe As Cleodoricke sonne of Sigebert King of Austria who being tickled with an unsatiable lust of raigne through the deceivable perswasions of Cleodovius King of France slew his father Sigebert as he lay asleepe in his Tent in a forrest at noone time of the day who being weary with walking laid himselfe downe there to take his rest but for all that the wicked wretch was so farre from attaining his purpose that it fell out cleane contrary to his expectation for after his fathers death as he was viewing his treasures and ransacking his coffers one of Cleodovius factors strooke him suddenly and murdered him and so Cleodovius seised both upon the Crowne and Treasures After the death of Hircanus Aristobulus succeeded in the government of Judea which whilest he strove to reduce into a kingdome and to weare a crown contrary to the custome of his predecessors his mother other brethren contending with him about the same he cast in prison took Antigonus his next brother to be his associate but ere long a good gratefull son he famished her to death with hunger that had fed him to life with her teares even his naturall mother And after perswaded with false accusations caused his late best beloved Antigonus to be slaine by an ambush that lay by Strato's tower because in the time of his sicknesse he entred the Temple with pompe But the Lord called for quittance for the two bloodsheds immediately after the execution of them for his brothers blood was scarce washed off the ground ere in the extreamity of his sicknesse he was carried into the same place and there vomiting up blood at his mouth and nosthrils to be mingled with his brothers he fell downe starke dead not without horrible tokens of trembling and despaire Nero that unnaturall Tyran surpassed all that lived as in all other vices so in this for he attempted thrice by poyson to make away his mother Agrippina and when that could not prevaile by reason of her usuall Antidotes and preservatives hee assayed divers other meanes as first a devise whereby she should be crushed to death as she slept a loosened beame that should fall upon her and secondly by shipwracke both which when she escaped the one by discovery and the other by swimming he sent Anicâ—tus the Centurion to slaughter her with the sword who with his companions breaking up the gate of the City where she lay rushed into her Chamber and there murdered her It is written of her that when she saw there was no remedy but death she presented her belly unto the murderer and desired him to kill her in that part which had most deserved it by bringing into the world so vile a monster and of him that he came to view the dead carkasse of his mother and handled the members thereof commending this and discommending that as his fancy led him and in the meane time being thirsty to call for drinke so farre was he from all humanity and touch of Nature but he that spared not to embrue his hands in her blood that bred him was constrained ere long to offer violence to his own life which was most deere unto him Henry the son of Nicolotus Duke of Herulia had two wicked cruell and unkind sonnes by the yonger of whom with the consent of the elder he was traiterously murdered because he had married a third wife for which cause Nicolotus their cousin-german pursued them both with a just revenge for he deprived them of their kingdome and drove them into exile where they soon after perished Selymus the tenth Emperour of Turkes was so unnaturall a childe that he feared not to dispossesse his father Bajazet of the crown by treason and next to bereave him of his life by poyson And not satisfied therewith even to murder his two brethren and to destroy the whole stock of his own blood But when hee had raigned eight yeares vengeance found him out and being at his backe so corrupted and putrified his reins that the contagion spread it selfe over all his body so that he dyed a beast-like and irksome death and that in the same place where he had before oppressed his father Bajazet with an army to wit at Chiurle a city of Thracia in the year of our Lord 1520. in the moneth of September Charles the younger by surname called Crassus
son to Lodouick the third was possessed tormented with a divell in the presence of his father the Peeres of the Realme which he openly confessed to have justly happened unto him because he had pretended in his mind to have conspired his fathers death and deposition what then are they to expect that doe not pretend but performe this monstrous enterprise A certaine degenerate and cruell son longing and gaping after the inheritance of his father which nothing but his life kept him from wrought this means to accomplish his desire he accused his father of a most filthy unnameable crime even of committing filtâ—inesse with a Cow knowing that if he were convicted therof the law would cut off his life herein he wroght a double villany in going about not only to take away his life which by the law of nature he ought to have preserved but also his good name without respecting that the stain of a father redoundeth to his posterity and that children commoÌ„ly do not only inherit the possessions but also imitate the conditions of their parents but all these supposes laid aside together with all feare of God he indicted him before the Magistrate of incest and that upon his own knowledge insomuch that they brought the poore innocent man to the rack to the end to make him confesse the crime which albeit amidst his tortures he did as soon as he was out he denyed again howbeit his extorted confession stood for evidence and he was condemned to be burned with fire as was speedily executed and constantly endured by him exclaiming still upon the false accusation of his son and his own unspotted innocency as by the issue that followed most cleerely appeared for his son not long after fell into a reprobate mind and hanged himselfe and the Judge that condemned him with the witnesses that bare record of his forced confession within one moneth died all after a most wretched and miserable sort And thus it pleased God both to revenge his death and also to quit his reputation and innocency from ignominy and discredit in this world Manfred Prince of Tarentum bastard son to Frederick the second smothered his father to death with a pillow because as some say he would not bestow the kingdome of Naples upon him and not content herewith he poisoned also the heirs of Frederick to the end he might attain unto the crown as Conrade his elder brother and his nephew the son of Henry the heir which Henry died in prison and now onely Conradinus remained betwixt him and the kingdome whom though he assayed to send after his father yet was his intention frustrate for the Pope thundered out his curses against him and instigated Charles Duke of Angiers to make war against him wherein bastard and unnaturall Manfred was discomfited and slaine and cut short of his purpose for which he had committed so many tragedies Martin Luther was wont to report of his own experience this wonderfull history of a Locksmith a yong man riotous and vicious who to find fuel for his luxury was so bewitched that he feared not to slay his own father mother with a hammer to the end to gain their mony and possessions after which cruell deed he presently went to a shoomaker and bought him new shooes leaving his old behind him by the providence of God to be his accusers for after an houre or two the slain bodies being found by the Magistrate and inquisition made for the murderer no manner of suspition being had of him he seeming to take such griefe therat But the Lord that knoweth the secrets of the heart discovered his hypocrisie and made his owne shooes which hee had left with the Shoomaker rise up to beare witnesse against him for the blood which ran from his fathers wounds besprinckled them so that thereof grew the suspition and from thence the examination and very soon the confession and last of all his worthy and lawfull execution From hence we may learne for a generall trueth that murder never so secret will ever by one means or other be discovered the Lord will not suffer it to goe unpunished so abominable it is in his sight Another son at Basil in the yeare of our Lord God 1560 bought a quantity of poyson of an Apothecary and ministred it to none but to his own father accounting him worthiest of so great a benefit which when it had effected his wish upon him the crime being detected in stead of possessing his goods which he aimed at he possessed a vile and shamefull death for he was drawne through the streets burnt with hot Irons and tormented nine houres in a wheele till his life forsooke him As it is repugnant to nature for children to deale thus cruelly with their parents so it is more against nature for parents to murder their children insomuch as naturall affection is of greater force in the descent than in the ascent the love that parents bear their children is greater than that which children redound to their Parents because the childe proceedeth from the father and not the father from the childe as part of his fathers essence and not the father of his Can a man then hate his own flesh or be a rooter out of that which himselfe planted It is rare yet sometimes it commeth to passe Howbeit as the offence is in an high degree so it is alwayes punished by some high judgement as by these examples that follow shall appeare The ancient Ammonites had an Idoll called Moloch to the which they offered their children in sacrifice this Idoll as the Jewes write was of a great stature and hollow within having seven chambers in his hollownesse whereof one was to receive meat another turtle Doves the third a sheep the fourth a ram the fifth a calfe the sixth an oxe and the seventh a childe his hands were alwayes extended to receive gifts and when a childe was offered they were made fire hot to burne it to death none must offer the childe but the father and to drowne the cries of it the Chemarims for so were the Priests of that Idoll called made a noise with bels cymbals and horns thus is it written that king Ahab offered his son yea and many of the children of Israel beside as the Prophet David affirmeth They offered saith he their sons and daughters to Divels and shed innocent blood c. this is the horrible crime Now marke the judgement concerning the Canaanites the landspued them out for their abominations Achab with his posterity was accur sed himselfe being slaine by his enemies and the crowne taken from his posterity not one being left of his off-spring to pis against the wall according to the saying of Elias as for the Jewes the Prophet David in the same place declareth their punishment when he saith That the wrath of the Lord was kindled and he abhorred his inheritance and gave them into the hands of the
her servant that was captive with her to her friends to purvey the same which he bringing the Centurion alone with the wronged Lady met him at a place appointed and whilest he weighed the money by her counsell was murdered of her servants so she escaping carried to her husband both his money and threw at his feet the villaines head that had spoiled her of her chastity Andreas King of Hungary having undertaken the voyage into Syria for the recovery of the Holy Land together with many other Kings and Princes committed the charge of his Kingdom and Family to one Bannebanius a wise and faithfull man who discharged his Office as faithfully as he took it willingly upon him Now the Queen had a brother called Gertrude that came to visit and comfort his sister in her husbands absence and by that meanes sojourned with her a long time even so long till he fell deadly in love with Bannebanius Lady a fair and vertuous woman and one that was thought worthy to keep company with the Queen continually to whom when he had unfolded his suit and received such stedfast repulse that he was without all hope of obtaining his desire he began to droup and pine untill the Queen his sister perceiving his disease found this perverse remedy for the cure thereof she would often give him opportunity of discourse by withdrawing her selfe from them being alone and many times leave them in secret and dangerous places of purpose that he might have his will of her but she would never consent unto his lust and therefore at last when he saw no remedy he constrained her by force and made her subject to his will against her will which vile disgracefull indignity when she had suffered she returned home sad and melancholy and when her husband would have embraced her she fled from him asking him if he would embrace a whore and related unto him her whole abuse desiring him either to rid her from shame by death or to revenge her wrong and make knowne unto the world the injury done unto her There needed no more spurres to pricke him forward for revenge he posteth to the Court and upbraiding the Queen with her ungratefull and abominable treachery runneth her through with his sword and taking her heart in his hand proclaimeth openly that it was not a deed of inconsideration but of judgement in recompence of the losse of his wives chastity forthwith he flieth towards the King his Lord that now was at Constantinople and declaring to him his fact and shewing to him his sword besmeared with his wives bloud submitteth himselfe to his sentence either of death in rigour or pardon in compassion but the good King enquiring the truth of the cause though grieved with the death of his wife yet acquit him of the crime and held him in as much honour and esteem as ever he did condemning also his wife as worthy of that which she had endured for her unwomanlike and traiterous part A notable example of justice in him and of punishment in her that forgetting the law of womanhood and modesty made her selfe a Bawd unto her brothers lust whose memory as it shall be odious and execrable so his justice deserveth to be engraven in marble with characters of gold Equal to this King in punishing a Rape was Otho the first for as he passed through Italy with an Army a certain woman cast her selfe downe at his feet for justice against a villain that had spoiled her of her chastity who deferring the execution of the law till his returne because his haste was great the woman asked who should then put him in minde thereof he answered This Church which thou seest shall be a witnesse betwixt me and thee that I will then revenge thy wrong Now when he had made an end of this warfare in his returne as he beheld the Church he called to minde the woman and caused her be fetched who falling downe before him desired now pardon for him whom before she had accused seeing he had now made her his wife and redeemed his injury with sufficient satisfaction not so I swear quoth Otho your compacting shall not infringe or colludo the sacred Law but he shall die for his former fault and so he caused him to be put to death A notable example for them that after they have committed filthinesse with a maid thinke it no sin but competent amends if they take her in marriage whom they abused before in fornication Nothing inferiour to these in punishing this sin was Gonzaga Duke of Ferrara as by this History following may appear In the year 1547. a Citizen of Comun was cast into Prison upon an accusation of murder whom to deliver from the judgement of death his wife wrought all meanes possible therefore comming to the Captain that held him Prisoner she sued to him for her husbands life who upon condition of her yeelding to his lust and payment of two hundred Ducats promised safe deliverance for him the poor woman seeing that nothing could redeem her husbands life but losse and shipwracke of her owne honesty told her husband who willed her to yeeld to the Captaines desire and not to pretermit so good an occasion wherefore she consented but after the pleasure past the traiterous and wicked Captain put her husband to death notwithstanding which injury when she complained to Gonzaga Duke of Ferrara he caused the Captain first to restore backe her two hundred Ducats with an addition of seven hundred Crownes and secondly to marry her to his wife and lastly when he hoped to enjoy her body to be hanged for his treachery O noble justice and comparable to the worthiest deeds of Antiquity and deserving to be held in perpetuall remembrance As these before mentioned excelled in punishing this sin so this fellow following excelled in committing it and in being punished for it his name is Novellus Cararius Lord of Pavie a man of note and credit in the World for his greatnesse but of infamy and discredit for his wickednesse This man after many cruell murders and bloudy practises which he exercised in every place where he came fell at last into this notorious and abhominable crime for lying at Vincentia he fell in love with a young maid of excellent beauty but more excellent honesty an honest Citizens daughter whom he commanded her parents to send unto him that he might have his pleasure of her but when they regarding their credit and she her chastity more than the Tyrans command refused to come he took her violently out of their house and constrained her body to his lust and after to adde cruelty to villany chopped her into small pieces and sent them to her parents in a basket for a present wherewith her poor father astonished carried it to the Senate who sent it to Venice desiring them to consider the fact and to revenge the cruelty The Venetians undertaking their defence made war upon the Tyran and
spirit in a mighty tempest of thunder and lightening before the view of the whole multitude to their great astonishment insomuch that they fled at the sight thereof What shall wee say of Silla that monster in cruelty that most odious and execrable Tyran that ever was by whom all civile order and humane policie was utterly defaced and all vice and confusion in stead thereof set up did hee not procure the death of six thousand men at one clap at the discomfiture of Marius And having promised to save the lives of three thousand that appealed unto his mercy did he not cause them to be assembled within a Parke and there to have their throats cut whilest hee made an oration to the Senate It was hee that filled the channels of the streets of Rome and other cities in Italie with bloud and slaughters innumerable and that neither spared Altar Temple or other priviledged place or house whatsoever from the pollution and distainment of innocent bloud husbands were staine in their wives armes infants in their mothers bosomes and infinite multitudes of men murdered for their riches for if any were either rich or owners of faire houses or pleasant gardens they were sure to die besides if there were any private quarrell or grudge betwixt any citizen and some of his crew he suffered his side to revenge themselves after their owne lusts so that for private mislike and enmity many hundreds lost their lives he that saved an outlaw or proscribed person in his house of which there were too many of the best sort in his time or gave him entertainment under his roofe whether he were his brother sonne or parent whatsoever was himselfe for recompence of his curtesie and humanitie proscribed and sould and condemned to death and he that killed one of them that was proscribed had for reward two talents the wages of his murder amounting in value to twelve hundred crownes whether it was a bondslave that slew his master or a sonne that murdered his father comming to Preneste hee began to proceed in a kinde of justiciall forme amongst the citizens and as it were by law and equitie to practise wrong and injurie but ere long either being weary of such slow proceedings or not at leisure to prosecure the same any further he caused to meet together in one assemblie two thousand of them whom hee committed all to the massacre without any manner of compassion As hee was sitting one day in the middest of his pallace in Rome a souldier to whom he had granted the proscription of his dead brother as if he had beene alive whom he himselfe before the civile warre had slaine presented him in lieu of thanks for the great good turne the head of one Marcus Marius of the adverse faction before the whole citie with his hands all imbrued in bloud which hee also washed in the holy water staâ—ke 〈◊〉 Apolloes temple being near unto that place and all this being commended and countenanced by Silla hee decreed a generall disanulment and abrogation of all titles and rights that were passed before his time to the end to have the more liberty both to put to death whom he pleased and to confiscate mens goods and also to unpeople and repeople cities sack pulldowne and build and to depose make Kings at his pleasure the goods which he had thus seised he shamed not to sell with his owne hands sitting in his tribunall sear giving oftentimes a faire woman a whole countrey or the revenues of a citie for her beauty and to Players Jesters Juglers Minstrâ—â—s and other wicked effranchised slaves great and unnecessary rewards yea and to divers married women also whom pleasing his eye he deprived their husbands of perforce and espoused them to himselfe maugre their wils being desirous to ally himselfe with Pompey hee commanded him to cast off his lawfull wife and taking from Magnus Gâ—abriâ— his wife Aemilia made him marry her though already great with childe by her former husband but she died in travell in his house In seasts and banketâ—ings he was too immoderate for it was his continuall and daily practise the wine that hee dranke usually was fortie yeares old and the company that hee delighted to keepe was compact of ministriss tumblers players singers and such like rascals and with these he would spend whole dayes in drinking carousing dauncing and all dissolutenesse Now this disinordinate life of his did so augment a disease which was growne in his body to wit an imposthume that in time it corrupted his flesh and turned it into lice in such sort that though hee had those that continually followed him to sweepe them off and to louze him night and day yet the encrease was still so plentifull that all would not serve to cleare him for a moment insomuch that not his apparell though never so new and changeable nor his linnen though never so fresh nor his bath nor his laver no nor his meat and drinke could be kept unpolluted from the fluxe of this filthy vermine it issued in such abundance oftentimes in a day hee would wash himselfe in a bath but to no great purpose for his shame increased the more The day before he dyed he sent for one Granius who attending his death delayed to pay that which hee ought to the Common-wealth and being come in his presence hee commanded him to be strangled to death before his face but with straining himselfe in crying after his execution his imposthume burst and vomited out such streames of bloud that his strength failed him withall and passing that night in great distresse the next day made up his wicked and miserable end After that Caligula began to addict himselfe to impiety and contempt of God presently being not curbed with any feare nor shame he became most dissolute in all kinde of wickednesse for at one time he caused to be slaine a great number of people for calling him young Augustus as if it had beene an injury to his person to be so intituled and to say briefly of all his murders there were so many of his kindred friends senators and citizens made away by his meanes that it would be too long and tedious here to recite wherefore seeing that hee was generally hated of the people for his misdeeds hee wished that they all had but one head to the end as it might seeme that at one blow hee might dispatch them all In sumptuousnesse and costlinesse of dishes and banquets he neither found nor left his equall for he would sup up most pretious stones melted by art and swallow down treasures into his belly his banquets were often served with golden loaves and golden meats in giving rewards hee was sometime too too prodigall for he would cast great summes of money amongst the people certain dayes together untill his bags were drawne drie and then new strange shifts must be practised to fill them up againe his subjects he over charged with many new-found
true In Barnewell neare to Cambridge one at the signe of the Plough a lusty young man with two of his neighbours and one woman in their company agreed to drinke a barrell of strong beere they drunke up the vessell three of them died within foure and twenty houres the fourth hardly escaped after great sicknesse This I have under a Justice of Peace his hand neare dwelling besides the common fame A Butcher in Haslingfield hearing the Minister inveigh against drunkennesse being at his cups in an Ale-house fell a scoffing at the Minister and his Sermons As he was drinking the drinke or something in the cup quackned him and stuck so in his throat that he could neither get it up not downe but strangled him presently At Tillingham in Dengy hundred in Essex three young men meeting to drinke strong waters fell by degrees to halfe pintes one fell downe dead in the roome and the other prevented by company comming in escaped not without much sicknesse At Bungey in Norfolke three comming out of an Ale-house in a very darke evening swore they thought it was not darker in hell it selfe one of them fell off the bridge into the water and was drowned the second fell off his horse the third sleeping on the ground by the river side was frozen to death This have I often heard but have no certaine ground for the truth of it A Bay life of Hedly upon the Lords day being drunke at Melford would needs get upon his mare to ride through the street affirming as the report goes that his mare would carry him to the Devill his mare casts him off and broke his necke Instantly reported by sundry sufficient witnesses Company drinking in an Ale-house at Harwich in the night over against one Master Russels and by him once or twice willed to depart at length he came downe and tooke one of them and made as he would carry him to prison who drawing his knife fled from him and was three dayes after taken out of the sea with the knife in his hand Related to me by Master Russel himselfe Maior of the town At Tenby in Pembroke-shire a drunkard being exceeding drunke broke himselfe all to pieces from an high and steep rock in a most fearefull manner and yet the occasion and circumstances of his fall so ridiculous as I thinke not fit to relate least in so serious a judgement I should move laughter to the Reader A Glasier in Chancery lane in London noted formerly for profession fell to a common course of drinking whereof being oft by his wife and many Christian friends admonished yet presuming much of Gods mercy to himselfe continued therein till upon a time having surcharged his stomacke with drinke he fell a vomiting broke a veine lay two dayes in extreame paine of body and distresse of minde till in the end recovering a little comfort died Both these examples were related to me by a Gentleman of worth upon his owne knowledge Foure sundry instances of drunkennesse wallowing and tumbling in their drinke slaine by carts I forbeare to mention because such examples are so common and ordinary A Yeomans sonne in Northampton-shire being drunke at Wellingbrough on a market day would needs ride his horse in a brayery over the ploughed lands fell from his horse and brake his necke Reported to me by a kinsman of his owne A Knight notoriously given to drinke carrying sometime payles of drinke into the open field to make people drunke withall being upon a time drinking with company a woman comes in delivering him a ring with this poesie Drinke and die saying to him This is for you which he tooke and wore and within a week after came to his end by drinking Reported by sundry and justified by a Minister dwelling within a mile of the place One of Aylesham in Norfolke a notorious drunkard was drowned in a shallow brooke of water with his horse by him Two examples have I knowne of children that murdered their owne mothers in drinke and one notorious drunkard that attempted to kill his father of which being hindered he fired his barne and was afterward executed one of these formerly in print At a Taverne in Bread-street in London certaine Gentlemen drinking healths to their Lords on whom they had dependance one desperate wretch steps to the tables end layes hold on a pottle pot full of Canarie Sacke sweares a deepe oath What will none here drinke a health to my noble Lord and Master and so setting the pottle pot to his mouth drinks it off to the bottome but was not able to rise up or to speake when he had done but fell into a deepe snoaring sleepe and being removed laid aside and covered by one of the servants in the house attending the time of his waking was within the space of two houres irrecoverably dead Witnessed at the time of the printing hereof by the same servant that stood by him in the act and helpe to remove him In Dengy hundred neare Mauldon about the beginning of his Majesties reigne there fell out an extraordinary judgement upon five or six that plotted a solemne drinking at one of their houses laid in Beere for the purpose drunke healths in a strange manner and died thereof within a few weekes some sooner and some later Witnessed to me by some that was with one of them on his death-bed to demand a debt and oftentimes spoken of by Master Heydâ—n late Preacher of Mauldon in the hearing of many the particular circumstances were exceeding remarkable but having not sufficient proofe for the particulars I will not report them A man in Suffolke overtaken with wine though never in all his life before as he himselfe said a little before his fall seeming to bewaile his present condition and others that knew him so say of him yet going downe a paire of staires against the perswasion of a woman sitting by him in his chamber fell and was so dangerously hurt as he died soone after not being able to speake from the time of his fall to his death The names of the parties thus punished I for beare for the kindreds sake yet living These examples before going are taken out of the report of that worthy Preacher of Gods word in Ipswich Master Samuel Ward in his Sermon called A woe to Drunkards to the which I will adde one more of mine owne knowledge lately executed A young Gentleman of good fame credit and behaviour being in July last overtaken by drinke and riding homeward void of wit and feare was throwne by his horse and his braines knocked out with the pummell of his sword An example more remarkable for two causes first because he was not formerly given to that vice and secondly in that a friend of his meeting him by the way intreated him that he would ride softly and he would conduct him home but he desperately spurring his horse over rough wayes was thus overthrowne and perished but I hope God had mercy on his soule Saint Augustine in
of ours though after a corrupt and sacrilegious forme and that the Jew did not so much aime at their religion as at Christ the subject of it the Lord might shew a miracle not to establish their errour but to confound the Jews impiety especially in those young yeares of the Church In our English Chronicles are recorded many histories of the malitious practises of the Jews against Christians in hatred of Christ Jesus our Saviour whom they in contempt call our crucified God and especially this devillish practise was most frequent amongst them here in England as in Germany France and other places where they were suffered to inhabite namely every year to steale some Christian manâ— childe from the parents and on good Friday to crucifie him in despight of Christ and Christian religion Thus they served a childe at Lincolne named Hugo of nine years of age in the yeare 1255 in the reigne of Henry the third and another at Norwich about the same time having first circumcised him and detained him a whole yeare in custody In which two facts they were apprehended and at Lincolne thirty two of them put to death and at Norwich twenty But this was not all the punishment that they endured as they proceeded and increased in their malice against Christ and his religion so he proceeded in vengeance and indignation against them First therefore at the coronation of Richard the first whereas some of them presumed to enter into the Court-gate contrary to the Kings expresse commandement a great tumult arising thereupon a number of them were slaine and their houses fired in the City of London by the raging multitude and from thence the example spred into all other countries of the Land for they following the example of the Londoners havocked spoyled killed and fired as many Jewes as they could come by untill by the Kings Writs unto the Sheriffe of every County the tumult was appeased and some few of the principall authors and stirrers of this outrage punished And it is to bee noted that this yeare the Iewes held for their Iubilie but it turned to them a yeare of confusion Neither were they thus massacred onely by the Christians but they became butchers of themselves also For in the City of Yorke when as they had obtained the occupying of a certaine Castle for their preservation and afterward were not willing to restore it to the Christians againe and being ready to bee vanquished and offering much money for their lives when as that would not be accepted by the counsell of an old Jew among them every one with a sharpe rasor cut anothers throat whereby a thousand and five hundred of them were at that present destroyed At North-Hampton a number of them were burnt for enterprizing to fire the City with wilde-fire which they had prepared for that purposes besides many grievous impositions and taxes which were laid upon them At last by King Edward the first they were utterly banished this Realme of England in the yeare 1291 For which deed the Commons gave unto the King a Fifteen And about the same time also they were banished out of France for the like practices and still the wrath of God ceaseth not to punish them in all places wheresoever they inhabit But that their Impiety may bee yet more discovered I will here set downe the confession of one of their own Nation a Jew of Ratisbone converted to the Faith one very skilfull in the Hebrew tongue This man being asked many questions about their superstition and ceremonies answered very fitly and being demanded why they thirsted so after Christian mens bloud He said it was a mystery onely knowne to the Rabbines and highest persons but that this was their custome he knew when any of them was ready to dye a Rabbine anointed him with this bloud using these or such like words If hee that was promised in the Law and Prophets hath truly appeared and if this Iesus crucified bee the very Messias then let the bloud of this innocent man that diedin his Faith cleanse thee from thy sins and help thee to eternall life Nay Epiphanius affirmeth That the Jews of Tyberias did more confidently affirme it than thus for they would whisper into a dying mans eare Beleeve in Iesus of Nazareth whom our princes crucified for he shall come to judge thee in the latter day All which declareth how impious they are to goe against their owne conscience and upon how fickle ground all their Religion standeth CHAP. XII Of those that in our age have persecuted the Gospell in the person of the Faithfull AS the Religion of Christ hath beene hitherto cruelly crossed and besieged by the mightiest captaines of this world as hath been partly declared so it hath not been any better entertained by the Potentates of this age that ceased not to disturbe the quiet and pursue to death the lives of Gods children for their professions sake and to bring them utterly to ruine to addresse all the engines and subtilties of their malicious and wicked counsels without leaving any one device unthought of that their wit could imagine or their power afford they joyned craft with force and vile treason with horrible cruelty thereby to suppresse the truth and quench that faire and cleere light which God after long time of blindnesse and ignorance had caused of his infinite mercy to shine upon us There fires were kindled every where with the bones of Martyrs whilest for the space of forty yeares or thereabouts they never ceased to burne those that were followers of that way Now when they saw that all their butcheries and burnings were not able to consume this holy seed but that the more they went about to choake it the more it grew up and increased they tooke another course and raised up troubles and seditions in all quarters as if by that means they should attaine the end of their purpose Hell vomited up all her Furies of warre the whole earth was in a tumult young and old with tooth and naile were imployed to root out the Church of Christ but God stretching forth his arme against all their practises shewed himselfe not only a Conqueror but also a most sharpe revenger of all his adversaries This is most apparent in that which happened to Thomas Arondel an English man Archbishop of Canterbury an enemy and persecutor of the Truth of Christ who having put to death divers holy and upright men thinking that all he did was gain was rooted out at last himselfe by a most strange and horrible death for he that sought to stop the mouth of God in his Ministers and to hinder the passage of the Gospell had his owne tongue so swolne that it stopped his owne mouth that before his death hee could neither swallow nor speake and so through famine died in great despaire Foelix Farle of Wartemberg one of the Captaines of the Emperour Charles the fifth being at supper at Ausburg with many of
and an extreme infection putrifying his lower parts and beginning to feele in this life both in body and soule the rigour of eternall fire prepared for the devill and his angels Iohn Martin Trombant of Briqueras in Piemont vaunting himselfe every foot in the hinderance of the Gospell cut off a Ministers nose of Angrogne in his bravery but immediately after was himselfe assayled by a mad Woolse that gnawed off his nose as hee had done the Ministers and caused him like a mad man to end his life Which strange judgement was notoriously knowne to all the countrey thereabout and beside it was never heard that this Woolfe had ever harmed any man before Caspard of Renialme one of the Magistrates of the City of Anvers that adjudged to death certaine poore faithfull soules received in the same place ere hee removed a terrible sentence of Gods judgement against himselfe for he fell desperate immediately and was faine to be led into his house halfe beside himselfe where crying that he had condemned the innocent bloud he forthwith died CHAP. XIII Other examples of the same subject ABout the same time there happened a very strange judgement upon an ancient Lawyer of Bourges one Iohn Cranequin a man of ripe wit naturall and a great practitioner in his profession but very ignorant in the law of God and all good literature and so enviously bent against all those that knew more than himselfe and that abstained from the filthy pollutions of Popery that he served instead of a Promotor to inform Ory the Inquisitor for them but for his labour the arme of God stroke him with a marvellous strange phrensie that whatsoever his eyes beheld seemed in his judgement to be crawling serpents in such sort that after he had in vaine experienced all kinde of medicines yea and used the help of wicked sorcery conjuration yet at length his senses were quite benummed and deprived him and in that wretched and miserable estate he ended his life Iohn Morin a mighty enemy to the professors of Gods truth one that laboured continually at Paris in the apprehending and accusing the faithfull insomuch that he sent daily multitudes that appealed from him to the high Court of the Palace died himselfe in most grievous and horrible torment The Chancellour of Prat he that in the Parliaments of France put up the first bill against the faithfull and gave out the first commissions to put them to death dyed swearing and blaspheming the name of God his stomacke being most strangely gnawne in pieces and consumed with wormes The Chancellour Oliver being restored to his former estate having first against his conscience renounced his religion so also now the same conscience of his checking and reclaming he spared not to shed much innocent bloud by condemning them to death But such a fearefull judgement was denounced against him by the very mouths of the guiltlesse condemned soules that stroke him into such a feare and terrour that presently he fell sick surprised with so extreme a melancholy that sobbing forth sighes without intermission and murmurings against God he so afflicted his halfe-dead body like a man robbed and dispossest of reason that with his vehement fits hee would so shake the bed as if a young man in the prime of his yeares with all his strength had assayed to doe it And when a certaine Cardinall came to visit him in this extremity he could not abide his sight his pains increasing thereby but cried out as soone as he perceived him departed That it was the Cardinall that brought them all to damnation When he had been thus a long time tormented at last in extreme angish and feare he died Sir Thomas more L. Chancellour of England a sworne enemy to the Gospell and a profest persecutor by fire and sword of all the faithfull as if thereby he would grow famous and get renowne caused to be erected a sumptuous Sepulchre and thereby to eternize the memory of his prophane cruelty to be engraven the commendation of his worthy deeds amongst which the principall was that hee had persecuted with all his might the Lutherans that is the faithfull but it fell out contrary to his hope for being accused convicted and condemned of high Treason his head was taken from him and his body found no other sepulchre to lie in but the gibbet Cardinall Crâ—sâ—entius the Popes Embassadour to the Councel of Trent in the yeare of our Lord 1552 being very busie in writing to his Master the Pope and having laboured all one night about his letters behold as he raised himselfe in his chaire to stir up his wit and memory over-dulled with watching a huge blacke dog with great flaming eyes and long eares dangling to the ground appeared unto him which comming into his chamber and making right towards him even under the table where hee sate vanished out of his sight whereat he amazed and a while sencelesse recovering himselfe called for a candle and when he saw the dog could not be found he fell presently sicke with a strong conceit which never left him till his death ever crying that they would drive away the black dog which seemed to climbe up on his bed and in that humour he died Albertus Pightus a great enemy of the Truth also insomuch that Paulus Iovius calleth him the Lutherans scourge being at Boloigne at the coronation of the Emperor upon a scaffold to behold the pompe and glory of the solemnization the scaffold bursting with the weight of the multitude he tumbled headlong amongst the guard that stood below upon the points of their Halbards piercing his body cleane through the rest of his company escaping without any great hurt for though the number of them which fell with the scaffold was great yet very few found themselves hurt therby save onely this honourable Pighius that found his deaths wound and lost his hearts bloud as hath been shewed Poncher Archbishop of Tours pursuing the execution of the burning chamber was himselfe surprised with a fire from God which beginning at his heele could never be quenched till member after member being cut off he died miserably An Augustine Frier named Lambert Doctor and Prior in the City of Liege one of the troop of cruell inquisitors for Religion whilest he was preaching one day with an open mouth against the Faithfull was cut short of a sudden in the midst of his sermon being bereaved of sense and speech insomuch that he was faine to be carried out of the pulpit to his cloister in a chaire and a few dayes after was drowned in a ditch In the yeare of our Lord 1527 there was one George Hala a Saxon Minister of the Word and Sacraments and a stout professor of the reformed Religion who being for that cause sent for to appeare before the Archbishop of Mentz at Aschaffenburge was handled on this fashion they took away his owne horse and set him upon the Archbishops fooles horse and so sent
so rotten within that no man could abide the smell of him His sonne called Iames after hee had spent all his fathers substance riotously fell downe suddenly in Newgate market and there wretchedly dyed Iohn Peter sonne in law to the said Alexander and no lesse cruell to the poore Christians rotted away and so dyed Cox an earnest Protestant in King Edwards dayes and in Queene Maries time a Papist and a Promoter going well and in health to bed as it seems was dead before the morning All these almost with many more which I could recite dyed suddenly being most cruell and horrible persecutors of the flocke of Christ. Many there were which though they escaped sudden death yet did not avoid a most miserable and wretched end In the number whereof I may place first Alexander the Keeper of Newgate together with his sonne in law Iohn Peter of whom mention was made before Also Master Woodroofe the Sheriffe of London who used to rejoyce at the death of the poore Saints of Christ and would not suffer Master Rogers going to his Martyrdome to speake with his children this man lay seven or eight yeares bed-rid having one halfe of his body all benummed and so continued till his dying day Also one Burton the Bayliffe of Crowland in Lincolneshire who having been a Protestant in outward shew in King Edwards dayes as soone as Queene Mary was quietly seated in the kingdome became very earnest in setting up the Masse againe and constrained the Curate by threats to leave the English Service and say Masse This blinde Bailiffe not long after as he was riding with one of his neighbours a Crow flying over his head let her excrements fall upon his face the poysoned stinke and savour whereof so annoyed his stomacke that he never lest vomiting untill he came home and there after certaine dayes with extreame paine of vomiting crying and cursing the Crow desperately he dyed without any token of repentance Also one Robert Baldwine who being stricken with lightning at the taking of William Seaman pined away and dyed Robert Blomfield also Bailiffe to Sir Iohn Ierningham after he had prosecuted one Master Browne pined away both in his goods and body by a consumption of both William Swallow the cruell tormentor of George Egles was shortly after plagued of God that all the haire of his head and nailes of his fingers and toes went off his eyes were well neere closed up that he could scant see his wife was also stricken with the falling sicknesse with the which malady she was never infected before Lastly to omit many others one Twiford is not to be forgotten who in King Henries dayes was a busie doer in setting up stakes for the burning of poore Martyrs and seeing the stakes consume so fast provided a big tree cutting off the top and set it up in Smithfield saying I will have a stake that shall hold But behold Gods hand before ever that tree was consumed the state of Religion turned and he fell into an horrible disease rotting alive above the ground before he dyed Besides these many there were that hanged themselves As for example one Clarke an open enemy to the Gospell in King Edwards dayes hanged himselfe in the Tower So did Pavier the Towne Clarke of London another bitter enemy to the Gospell So did the sonne of one Levar a husbandman that mocked and scorned at the holy Martyr Master Latimer being dead and that at the same houre as neere as could be gathered whilst his father was railing upon the dead Martyr So did Henry Smith a Lawyer who having been a Protestant became a Papist Others drowned themselves as namely Richard Long at Calice in King Henry the eights dayes Iohn Plankney a Fellow of New Colledge in Oxford in the yeare of our Lord 1566. And one Lanington a Fellow of the same Colledge in a Well at Padua or as some thinke at Rome Others were stricken with madnesse in which ranke place first Justice Morgan of whom wee made mention a little before Then a Sheriffes servant that railed upon Iames Abbes a godly Martyr as he was going to be burned saying That hee was an Heretique and a mad man but as soone as the fire was put to the Martyr such was the fearefull stroke of Gods justice upon him he was there presently in the sight of all the people stricken with a frenzy crying out aloud that Iames Abbes was saved but he was damned and so continued till his dying day So likewise one William a Student in the inner Temple in the midst of his railing against the Gospell of Christ and the Professors thereof fell starke mad Many other examples of the like kind I could here adde but he that desireth to know and read more thereof let him have recourse unto the latter end of the Acts and Monuments of the English Church where he shall find a whole Catalogue of such like examples The overthrow of many mighty ones in our Age serve for a looking glasse to represent the high exploits of the wonderfull judgements which the King of Kings hath sent upon those that have in any place or countrey whatsoever resisted and strove against the Truth whereof some after great victories which by their singular dexterity and worldly wisedome in the mannaging of their affaires have atchieved by a perverse and overthwart end contrary to their former prosperity have darkned and obscured the renowne and glory of all their brave deeds their good report dying with their bodyes and their credit impaired and buried with them in their graves Others in like manner having addressed all their forces and laid their battery and placed all their Pieces and Canons against the wals of Sion and thinking to blow it up and consume it to ashes have made many breaches into the sides thereof yea they have so bent all their strength against it and afflicted it with such outragious cruelty and unmercifull effusion of bloud that it is pitifull and lamentable to remember howbeit after all their policies and practises their courage hath been at length abated and themselves raked one after another out of this world with manifest markes of the just vengeance of God upon them For though it may seem for a time that God slepeth and regardeth not the wrongs and oppressions of his servants yet he never faileth to carry a watchfull eye upon them and in his fittest time to revenge himselfe upon their enemies CHAP. XIV A Hymne of the persecution of Gods Church and the deliverance of the same ALong the verdant fields all richly dy'd With Natures paintments and with Flora's pride Whose goodly bounds are lively Chryst all streames Begirt with bow'rs to keep backe Phoebus beames Even when the quenchlesse torch the Worlds great eye Advanc'â— his rayes orethwartly from the skie And by his power of heavenly influence Reviv'd the seeds of Springs decay'd essence Then many flockes unite in peace and love Not seeking ought but naturall behove Past quietly uncharg'a
in that very member wherewith he had offended A woman likewise having renounced her profession and feeling in herselfe no remorse of conscience for her fall went as she was wont to doe in the time of her rest and prosperity to the Bathes and Hot-houses to refresh herselfe as if all had had gone well with her but she was so seised upon and possessed by an evill Spirit that in stead of pleasure which she fought for she fell to lamenting and tormenting her owne flesh and chopt in pieces with her dainty teeth her rebellious tongue wherewith shee had spoken wicked words and dishonoured God and tasted meats offered to Idols and so this poore wretch whereas she should have wasted her selfe in teares of true repentance and in the true bath of grace and mercy because she had more care of cleansing her body from filth than her soule from sinne became corrupt and filthy both body and soule by the meanes of that uncleane spirit which God had given power to afflict her and armed her owne mouth which had tasted chewed and swallowed that cursed food furiously to rise against her selfe to destroy her so that she became her owne murtherer for she survived not long by reason that her bowels and intrails were choaked up to the throat with paine Another woman well stricken in yeares that in like manner had revolted from the Truth thrust her selfe notwithstanding into the assembly of the Faithfull as they were receiving the holy Sacrament But that holy food which nourished the soules of them that believed turned to her bane for she found there in stead of peace a sword in stead of norishment deadly and mortall poison in such sort that immediately after the receit of that holy Supper she began to be marvellously troubled and vexed in soule and felt the hand of God so heavy upon her for her offence committed in denying her Saviour to shun her persecution that trembling and stamping she fell downe dead There was also in like manner a certain man that having renounced his saith did notwithstanding present himselfe at the celebration of the holy Supper presuming to come and eat at his Table whom he had a little before denied but receiving into his hand part of the Sacrament as well as the rest and thinking to put it into his mouth it was turned into ashes whereupon he stood amazed and confounded in himselfe God manifesting in him that hee that revoked his faith and recoiled from Christ Jesus Christ Jesus would recoile from him give him over to death by depriving him of his grace and spoiling him of the power of his quickning and saving Spirit These are the fearfull examples of Gods Judgements which Saint Cyprian reporteth to have light upon back sliders in his time adding moreover that besides these many were possessed of devils robbed of their wits and inraged with fury and madnesse and all for this offence of Apostasie Amongst all the examples of our age of Gods severe justice upon Apostates the example of Francis Spiâ—ra an Italian Lawyer a man of credit and authority in his countrey is most pitifull and lamentable who having embraced the true Religion with marvellous zeal and made open profession of the same feared not freely to declare his opinion of every point of Doctrine that came in question and grew in knowledge every day more and more But it was not long ere he was complained of to the Popes Embassadour which when he understood and saw the danger wherein he was like to fall after he had long debated and disputed the matter in his owne conscience the counsell of the flesh and worldly wisedome prevailing he resolved at last to goe to the Embassadour to the intent to appease his wrath and do whatsoever he should command Thus comming to Venice and over-ruled with immoderate fear he confessed that he had done amisse craved pardon for the same promising ever after to be an obedient subject to the Popes Lawes and that which is more when it was enjoyned him that at his return home he should in his owne countrey openly recant his former profession he refused not but performed his recantation in due sort But it chanced very soone after that this miserable man fell sicke of body and soule and began to dispaire of Gods mercy towards him His Physitian perceiving his disposition judged that the cause of his bodies disease was a vehement conceit and thought of minde and therefore gave advice to minister counsell to his troubled minde very carefully that the cause being taken away the effect also might surcease To this end many learned men frequented him every day recalling into his minde and laying open before him many expresse places of Scripture touching the greatnesse of Gods mercy Which things he avouched to be true but said that those promises pertained not to him because he had renounced Christ Jesus and forsworne the known truth and that for this cause nothing was prepared for him but hell fire which already in soule hee saw and felt I would said he willingly if it were possible love God but it is altogether impossible I onely feare him without love These and such speeches used he with a stedfast countenance neither did his tongue at any time run at randome nor his answers savour of indiscretion or want of memory but advisedly warned all that stood by to take heed by his example how to listen too much to worldly wisedome especially when they should be called before men to professe the Religion of Christ. And lying in this extremity he refused all manner of sustenance rebuking and being angry with his sonnes that opened his mouth to make him swallow some food to sustaine him saying Since he had forsaken his Lord and Master all his creatures ought to forsake him I am afraid of every thing there is not a creature that hath not conspired to worke my destruction let me die let me die that I may goe and feele that unquenchable fire which already consumeth me and which I can by no meanes escape And thus hee died indeed pined to death in despaire and horrible torment of conscience Nichomachus a man that stoutly professed Christ Jesus in prosperity being brought to his triall at Troas and put into torments he denied him and being delivered by that meanes consented to offer sacrifice unto Idols But as soone as he had finished his sacrifice he was hoisted up by the spirit of darknesse whose darling now he was dashed against the earth so that his teeth biting his prophane tongue wherewith he had denied his Saviour in two he died continently Tamerus a professor of the true Religion was feduced by his brother to cleave unto Popery and to forsake his first love but for his defection from the truth the Lord gave him up into a ceprobate sense so that falling into despaire he hung himselfe Richard Denton a Blacksmith dwelling at Wels in Cambridge-shire having
authority to doe the like mischiefe And that which is yet more and worst of all he made no account nor reckoning of the admonitions of the Prophets but the rather and the more hardened his heart to runne out into all manner of cruelty and wickednesse that his sinnes might have their full measure For the very stones of the streets of Ierusalem were stained from one corner to another with the guiltlesse and innocent bloud of those that either for disswading him from or not yeelding unto his abhominable and detestable Idolatry were cruelly murthered Amongst the number of which slaine innocents many suppose that the Prophet Esayas although he was of the bloud-royall was with a strange manner of torment put to death Wherefore the flame of Gods ire was kindled against him and his people so that he stirred up the Assyrians against them whose power and force they being not able to resist were subdued and the King himselfe taken and put in fetters and bound in chaines carried captive to Babylon but being there in tribulation hee humbled his soule and prayed unto the Lord his God who for all his wicked cruell and abhominable Apostasie was intreated of him and received him to mercy yea and brought him againe to Ierusalem into his unhoped for kingdome Then was he no more unthankfull to the Lord for his wonderfull deliverance but being touched with true repentance for his former life abolished the strange gods broke downe their Altars and restored againe the true Religion of God and gave strait commandement to his people to doe the like Wherein it was the pleasure of the Highest to leave a notable memoriall unto all posterity of his great and infinite mercy towards poore and miserable sinners to the end that no man be his sinnes never so hainous should at any time despaire for Where sin aboundeth there grace aboundeth much more Admit that this revolt of Manasses was farre greater and more outragious than was Solomons yet his true repentance found the grace to be raised up from that 〈◊〉 â—ull downefall for God hath mercy on whom he will have mercy and compassion on whom he will have compassion O the profound riches of the wisedome and knowledge of God! How unspeakable are his judgements and his wayes pâ—st finding out Amon the wicked sonne of this repentant â—ather committed also the like offence in serving strange gods but recanted not by like repentance and therefore God gave his owne servants both will to conspire and power to execute his destruction after hee had swayed the kingdome but two yeares CHAP. XVIII Of the third and worst sort of Apostata's BY how much the more God hath in these latter daies poured forth more plentifully his graces upon the sonnes of men by the manifestations of his Sonne Christ Iesus in the flesh and sent forth a more cleere light by the preaching of his Gospell into the world than was before times by so much the more culpable before God and guilty of eternall damnation are they who being once enlightened and made partakers of those excellent graces come afterwards either to despise or make light account of them or goe about to suppresse the truth and quench the spirit which instructed them therein This is the Sinne against the Holy Ghost which is mentioned in the sixth and tenth chapter to the Hebrewes and in the twelfth of Luke and in another place it is called a Sinne unto death because it is impardonable by reason that no excuse of ignorance can be pleaded nor any plaister of true repentance applyed unto it The Apostata's of the old Testament under the Law were not guilty of this sinne for although there were many that willingly and malitiously revolted and set themselves against the Prophets of God making warre as it were with the Holy Ghost yet seeing they had no such cleere testimonies of Christ Iesus and declaration of Gods Spirit as we have their sinne cannot be properly said directly to be against the Holy Ghost and so never to be remitted according to the description of this sinne in those passages of Scripture which were before recited as it may manifestly appeare by the former example of King Manasses The Apostle himselfe likewise doth averre the truth hereof when he saith If we sinne willingly after that we have received the knowledge of the Truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sinnes but a fearefull looking for of judgement and violent fire which shall devoure the adversaries If any man despised Moses Law he died without mercy under two or three witnesses of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be worthy which treadeth under foot the Sonne of God and counteth the bloud of the new Testament as a prophane thing whereby he was sanctified and doth despight to the Spirit of Grace Here we may see that this sinne is proper to those onely that lived under the Gospell and have tasted of the comfort and knowledge of Christ. Iudas Iscariot that wicked and accursed Varlet committed the deed and feeles the scourge of this great sinne for he being a Disciple nay an Apostle of Christ Iesus moved with covetousnesse after he had devised and concluded of the manner and complot of his treason with the enemie sold his Lord and Master the Savior of the World for thirty pieces of silver and betrayed him into the bands of theeves and murtherers who sought nothing but his destruction After this vile traitour had performed this execrable purpose by reason whereof he is called the sonne of perdition he could finde no rest nor repose in his guilty conscience but was horribly troubled and tormented with remorse of his wickednesse judging himselfe worthy of a thousand deaths for betraying that innocent and guiltlesse bloud If hee looked up he saw the vengeance of God ready to fall upon him and insnare him if hee looked downe he saw nothing but hell gaping to swallow him up the light of this world was odious to him and his own life displeased him so that being plunged into the bottomlesse pit of despaire he at last strangled himselfe and burst in twaine in the midst and all his bowels gushed out There is a notable example of Lucian who having professed Christianity for a season under the Emperour Trajan fell away afterwards and became so prophane and impious as to make a mocke at Religion and Divinity whereupon his sirname was called Atheist This wretch as he barked out like a foule mouthed dog bitter taunts against the religion of Christ seeking to rend and abolish it so he was himselfe in Gods vengeance torne in pieces and devoured of dogs Porphyrie also a whelp of the same litter after he had received the knowledge of the truth for despight and anger that he was reproved of his faults by the Christians set himselfe against them and published books full of horrible blasphemies to discredit and overthrow the Christian Faith But when he perceived how fully
not hope for salvation or remission of his sins because that of meer malice he had resisted and made war with God Cardinall Poole an Englishman had also somtimes professed himselfe to be well seen in the sincerity of the Gospell yet contrary to his conscience he sent into his countrey the Trophies and Ensignes of Antichrist the Pope which before had been rased out and abolished the realme but he died two or three daies after Queene Mary in horrible griefes terrors and fearfulnesse without any shew of repentance Stephen Gaediner Bishop of Winchester and after Chancellor of England shewed in his young yeares some forwardnesse to withstand the Popish abuses and superstitions but as soone as he was exalted to honour he turned over a new lease and began freshly and furiously to afflict and to rend the poore faithfull servants of Christ putting them to the cruellest deaths he could devise And yet more to discover his prophanenesse and rebellion he wrote many books against the pure Religion of God and being thus swolne with venomous spight against the Sonne of God beside the extreame covetousnesse whoredomes and extortions which raigned in him behold the Lord layd his hand of wrath upon him and stroke him with so strange a malady that before his death such horrible stinke issued from him that none of his friends and servants no not himselfe could endure the savour thereof his belly was swolne like a taber his eyes distracted and sunke into his head his cheeks thin and the appearance of his whole face very terrible his breath savoured of a filthy and intolerable stinke and all his members were rotten with continuall griefes and swounings yet this vile wretch in the midst of all these torments ceased not to yell out continuall blasphemies and infamous speeches and so despighting and maugring God died Peter Castellon Bishop of Maston having attained to great riches and renowne by the means of the Gospell turned notwithstanding his backe to Christ and mightily inveyed in his sermons at Orleance against the profession of his Religion seeking to make it knowne that he had not onely abjured and denied it but also that hee was a profest adversary unto it This man sitting at a time in his chaite fell into a strange disease which no Physitian had ever seene or could search out the cause of for one halfe of his body was extreme hot and burned like fire the other extreame cold and frozen like Ice and in this torment with horrible cries and groanings he ended his life A gray Frier called Picard who once was not ashamed of the Gospell afterwards set himselfe to preach against that which he had professed and being in the pulpit at Orleance after infinite blasphemies which he had disgorged against the Truth at last said That he protested before God and the holy assembly that he would never preach more after that day because he was an Apostate which saying he by and by impudently and constantly denied to the perill and damnation of his owne soule thinking by his horrible cursings and forswearings to abuse the poore ignorant and superstitions people but he no sooner came into the field but the puissant hand of God over-reached him and stroke him speechlesse so that he was carried thence halfe dead and within short space died altogether without any appearance of repentance Among other Iudges which shewed themselves hot and rigorous in persecuting and proceeding against the faithfull prisoners of Valence in Daulphine and other Romanes at that season when two Ministers of the same city suffered Martyrdome one Lanbespin a Counsellor and Ponsenas the Kings Atturney at the Parliament of Grenoble both two having been professors in times past were not the backwardest in that action but God made them both strange examples of his wrath for Lanbespin falling in love with a young maid was so extremely passionate therein that he forewent his owne estate and all bounds of civill honesty to follow her up and down whithersoever she went and seeing his love and labour despised and set at nought he so pined away with very thought that making no reckoning of himselfe such a multitude of lice so fed upon him and tooke so good liking of their pasture that by no means he could be cleansed of them for they increased and issued out of every part of his body in such number as maggots are wont to engender in a dead and rotten carrion At length a little before his death seeing his owne misery and seeling Gods heavy vengeance upon him he began to despaire of all mercy and to the end to abridge his miserable dayes he resolved to hungerstarve himselfe to death Which purpose the lice furthered for they stucke so thicke in his throat as if they would have choaked him every moment neither could he suffer any sustenance to passe downe by reason of them They that were eye witnesses of this pittifull spectacle were wondrously moved with compassion and constrained him to eat whither he would or not And that they might make him take cullissâ—s and other stewed broaths because he refused and strove against them they bound his armes and put gagges into his mouth to keep it open whilest others poured in the food And in this wise being gagged he died like a mad beast with abundance of lice that went downe his throat insomuch that the very Papists themselves stucke not to say That as he caused the Ministers of Valence to have gagges thrust into their mouths and so put to death so likewise he himself died with a gagge in his mouth As touching Ponsenas commonly called Bourrel a very Butcher indeed of poore Christians after he had sold his owne patrimony and his wives and friends also to the end to buy out his office and had spent that which remained in house keeping hoping in short space to take up twise as much as he had scattered fell downe into a strange and unknowne disease and shortly grew in despaire of Gods succour and favour towards him by a strong remembrance of those of Valence and the other Romanes which he had put to death which would never depart out of his minde but still presented themselves before him so that as one bestraught of reason and sence he denied his Maker and called upon his destroyer the Devill with most horrible and bitter ensuings which when his Clearke perceived he layd out before him the mercies of God out of all places of the Scripture to comfort and restore his decayed sense But in stead of returning to God by repentance and prayer he continued obstinate and answered his Clerke whose name was Stephen in this wise Stephen Stephen thou art blacke So I am and it please you quoth he but I am neither Turke nor Moore nor Bohemian but a Gascoigne of red haire No no answered he not so but thou art blacke but it is with sinne That is true quoth he but I hope in the bountifull mercy of God that for the love
of Christ who died for me my blacke sinnes shall not be imputed to me Then he redoubling his choler cried mainly after his Clerke calling him Lutheran Huguenot Villaine At which noise his friends without rushed in to know what the matter was But hee commanded that Stephen his Clerke should presently have a paire of bolts clapt on his heeles and to be burned for an Heretique In briefe his choler and rage boyled so furiously in him that in short space he died a fearefull death with horrible howling and outcries His creditors scarse gave him respite to draw his carkasse out of his bed before they seised upon all his goods not leaving his poore wife and children so much as a bed of straw to lye in so grievous was the curse of God upon his house Another great Prince having in former time used his authority and power to the advancing of Gods kingdome afterwards being seduced by the allurements of the world renounced God and tooke part with the enemies of his Church to make warre against it in which war he was wounded to death and is one notable example of Gods just vengeance to all that shall in like manner fall away CHAP. XIX Of Heretiques AS it is a matter necessarily appertaining to the first Commandement That the purity and sinceritie of the doctrine of Gods Word be maintained by the rule whereof he would have us both know him and understand the holy mysteries which are revealed to us therein so also by the contrary whatsoever tendeth to the corrupting or falsifying of the same Word rising from foolish and strange opinions of humane reason the same transgresseth the limits of this Commandement of which sort is Heresie an evill of its owne nature very pernicious and contagious and no lesse to be feared and shunned than the heat of persecution and by means whereof the whole nation of Christendome hath been heretofore tossed with many troubles and the Church of God grievously vexed But as Truth got ever the upper hand and prevailed against falshood so the broakers and upholders of falshood came ever to the worse and were confounded as well by the strength of Truth as by the speciall judgements of God sent downe upon the most part of them Theudas Iudas Galileus were two that seduced the Jews before Christ for the first of them said he was a Prophet sent from God and that he could divide the waters of Jordan by his word as Ioshuah the servant of the Lord did The other promised to deliver them from the servitude and the yoake of the Romanes And both of them by that means drew much people after them so prone is the common multitude to follow novelties and to beleeve every new sangle that is but yesterday set on broach But they came both to a deserved destruction for Fatus the Governour of Jury overtooke Theudas and sending his trunke to the grave carried his head as a monument to Jerusalem As for Iudas he perished also and all his followers were dispersed manifesting by their ends that their works were not of God but of men and therefore must needs come to naught After Christ in the Apostles time there was one Elymas a Sorcerer that mightily withstood the doctrine of Paul and Barnabas before Sergius Paulus the deputy and sowed a contrary heresie in his minde but Paul full of the Holy Ghost set his eyes on him and said O full of all subtilty and mischief the childe of the Devill and enemy of righteousnesse wilt thou not cease to pervert the strait wayes of the Lord Now therefore behold the hand of the Lord is upon thee and then shalt be blinde for season And immediately there fell upon him a mist and darknesse and hee went about to seeke some to lead him by the hand And this recompence gained hee for his erroneous and hereticall practise A while after him under the Empire of Adrian arose there another called Benchochab that professed himselfe to be the Messias and to have descended from Heaven in the likenesse of a Star for the safety and redemption of the people by which fallacy he drew after him a world of seditious disciples but at length he and many of his credulous rout were slaine and was called by the Iewes Bencozba that is the son of a lye And this was the goodly redemption which this Heretique brought upon his owne head and many of his fellowes It is reported of Cerinthus an Heretique that he denying and going about to darken the doctrine of Christs everlasting kingdome was overwhelmed by the sudden fall of an hot house which fell upon him and his associates as soone as S. Iohn was departed from it for Ireneus saith That he heard Polycarpus often report how S. Iohn being about to enter into the bathes at Ephesus when he perceived Cerinthus already within departed very hastily saying to those that bore him company that he feared that the house would fall upon their heads because of Cerinthus the heretique that was therein at that instnat Manes of whom the Maniches tooke their name and first originall forged in his foolish braine a fiction of two gods and two beginners and rejecting the old Testament and the true God which is revealed in the same published a fifth Gospell of his owne forgery yea and was so besotted with folly as Suidas testifieth of him that he reported himselfe to be the Holy Ghost when he had thus with his devillish heresies and blasphemies infected the world and was pursued by Gods just judgement at last for other wicked practises he had his skin plucked over his eares alive and so dyed in misery Montanus that blasphemous Caitise of whom came the Montanists or Pepuzian heretiques of a towne in Phrygia called Pepuza denied Christ our Saviour to be God and said he was but a man only like other men without any participation of divine Essence he called himselfe the Comforter and holy Spirit which was forepromised to come into the world and his two wives Priscilla and Maximilla he named his prophetesses and their writings prophecies howbeit all their cunning could not foretell nor prevent a wretched and desperate end which befell him for he hung himselfe after he had deluded the world a long season and proved by his end his life to have been vile and damnable according to the proverb Qualis vita finis it a A cursed life and a cursed death Of all Heretiques that ever troubled and afflicted Gods Church the Arrians were the chiefe the author and ringleader of which crue as by his vainglorious pride and ambition he sought to extoll himselfe above the clouds boasting and vaunting in his damnable errour so by the just vengeance of God he was abased lower than hell and put in everlasting shame and opprobry for he had long time as it were entred the list and combated with Christ and was condemned for an Heretique by the Nicene Councell and his bookes burned
information of one Richard Master Parson of Aldington and Edward Bocking Doctor of Divinity a Monke of Canterbury and divers others counterfeited such manner of trances and distortions in her body with the uttering of divers counterfeit vertues and holy words tending to the rebuke of sinne and reproving such new opinions as there began to spread that shee woon great credit amongst the people and drew after her a multitude of favourites besides she would prophecy of things to come as that shee should be helped of her disease by none but the Image of our Lady in Aldington whither being brought she appeared to the people to be suddenly relieved from her sicknesse by meanes of which hypocriticall dissimulation she was brought into marvellous estimation not only with the common people but with divers great men also insomuch that a book was put in print touching her fained miracles and revelations Howbeit not content to delude the people she began also to meddle with the King himself Henry the eight saying That if he proceeded to be divorced from his wife Queene Katherine he should not remaine King one month after and in the reputation of God not one day for which and many other tricks practised by her she with her complices was arraigned of high treason and after confession of all her knavery drawn from the Tower to Tyburne and there hanged the holy maidens head being set upon London bridge and the other on certaine gates of the City The other named la Pucella de Dieu marvellously deluded with her counterfeit hypocrisie Charles the seventh King of France and all the whole French Nation in such sort that so much credit was attributed unto her that she was honoured as a Saint and thought to be sent of God to the aide of the French King By her meanes Orleance was woon from the English and many other exploits atchieved which to be short I will referre the Reader unto the French Chronicles where they shall finde her admirable knavery at large discovered But touching her end it was on this sort as she marched on horsebake to the towne of Champaigne to remove the siedge wherewith it was guirt by the Duke of Burgoine and other of the English Captaines Sir Iohn Leupembrough a Burgonian Knight tooke her alive and conveyed her to the City of Roan where she faigning her selfe with child when the contrary was knowne was condemned and burnt And thus these two holy women that in a diverse kind mocked the people of England and France by their hypocrisie by the justice of God came to deserved destructions CHAP. XXI Of Conjurers and Enchanters IF God by his first Commandement hath enjoyned every one of us to love serve and to cleave unto him alone in the conjuction and unity of a true faith and hope unremovable there is no doubt but he forbiddeth on the other side that which is contrary to this foresaid duty and herein especially that accursed familiarity which divers miserable wretches have with that lying Spirit the Father of errour by whose delusions and subtilty they busie themselves in the study of sorceries and enchantments whereupon it is forbidden the Israelites in the nineteenth of Leviticus to turne after familiar spirits or to seeke to Soothsayers to be defiled by them and the more to withdraw them from this damnable crime in the Chapter following there is a threat set downe against it in manner of a Commandement That if either man or woman have a spirit of divination or soothsaying in them they should dye the death they should stone them to death their bloud should be upon them so in the two and twentieth of Exodus the Law of God saith Thou shalt not suffer a Witch to live and Moses following the same steps giveth an expresse charge in the eighteenth of Deuteronomy against this sinne saying Let nonebe found among thee that useth witchcraft nor that regardeth the Clouds or times nor a Sorcerer or a Charmer or that counselleth with a Spirit or a teller of Fortunes or that asketh counsell of the dead for all that doe such things are abhomination unto the Lord. And therefore this sinne 1 Sam. ver 15. is reputed amongst the most hainous and enormous sinnes that can be When they shall say unto you saith the Prophet Enquire at them that have a Spirit of Divination and at the Soothsayer which whispers and murmures answer Should not a people enquire at their God from the living to the dead To the Law and to the Testimony Wherefore it was a commendable thing and worthy imitation when they that had received the Faith by Pauls preaching having used curious Arts as Magicke and such like being touched with the feare of God brought their bookes and burned them before all men although the price thereof amounted to fifty thousand pieces of silver which by Budeus his supputation ariseth to five thousand French Crownes The Councels as that of Carthage and that other of Constantinople kept the second time in the suburbs utterly condemned the practices of all Conjurers and Enchanters The twelve Tables in Rome adjudged to punishments those that bewitched the standing corne And for the Civill Law this kind is condemned both by the Law Iulia and Cornelia In like manner the wisest Emperours those I mean that attained to the honour of Christianity ordained divers Edicts and Prohibitions under very sharp and grievous punishments against all such villany as Constantine in the ninth book of the Cod. tit 18. enacted That whosoever should attempt any action by Art Magicke against the safety of any person or should bring in or stir up any man to make him fall into any mischiefe or riotous demeanour should suffer a grievous punishment in the fifth Law he forbiddeth every man to aske counsell at Witches or to use the helpe of Charmers and Sorcerers under the paine of death Let them saith he in the sixth Law be throwne to wild beasts to be devoured that by conjuring or the helpe of familiar spirits go about to kill either their enemies or any other Moreover in the seventh Law he willeth that not so much as his owne courtiers and servants if they were found faulty in this crime should be spared but severely punished yet neverthelesse many of this age gave themselves over to this filthy sinne without either feare of God or respect of Law some through a foolish and dangerous curiosity others through the overruling of their owne vile and wicked affections and a third sort troubled with the terrours of an evill conscience desire to know what shall besall and happen unto them in the end Thus Saul the first King of Israel being troubled in himselfe and terrified with the army of the Philistims that came against him would needs foreknow his owne fortune and the issue of this doubtfull warre Now whereas before whilest he performed the duty of a good King and obeyed the commandement of God hee had cleansed his Realme
so brazen-faced as to command angels and devils as Clement the fifth did in one of his buls so impudent as to be carried like Idols upon their vassals shoulders and weare three crownes upon their heads so proud and arrogant as to constraine Kings and Emperours to kisse their feet to make them their vassals to usurp lordship and dominion over them and all their lands and possessions and to dispossesse whom they like not of Kingdomes and install in their roome whom they please and all this by the thunder of excommunication whereby they make themselves feared and stood in awe of By which dealing of theirs they verifie in themselves that which the Scripture speaketh of Antichrist which is the man of sinne the sonne of perdition an adversary and one that exalteth himselfe against all which is called God or which is worshipped till he be set as a God in the Temple of God shewing himselfe that he is God Wherefore also the heavy vengeance of God is manifest upon them by the great and horrible punishments they have been tormented with for some of them have had their eyes pulled out others have dyed in prisons a third sort have bin smothered to death a fourth hath bin killed with the sword a fifth hath died with hunger a sixth hath been stoned a seventh poysoned and yet there hath not wanted an eighth sort whom the Devill himselfe hath stifled This it is to over-reach the clouds and not content with earthly power to usurp a supremacy and preheminence over Kings such was the pride of Pope Boniface the eighth when he sent an embassage to Philip the Faire King of France to command him to take upon him an expedition against the Sarazens beyond the sea upon paine of forfeiting of his Kingdome into his hands and when having his sword by his side he shamed not to say that he alone and none else was Emperour and Lord of all the world in demonstration whereof he bestowed the Empire upon Duke Albert together with the Crowne of France and not content herewith his insolency was so importunate that he charged Philip the Faire to acknowledge himselfe to be his subject in all causes as well spirituall as temporall and to levy a subfidy for his holinesse out of his clergy disabling his authority in bestowing Church livings which prerogative he challenged to his See the conclusion of this bull was in these words Aliud credentes fatuos reputamus as much to say as whosoever is of another mind than this we esteeme him a foole Whereunto the King answered in this wise Philippus Dei gratia Francorum Rex Bonifacio se gerenti pro summo pontifice salutem modicam sive nullam Sciat tua maxima fatuitas in temporalibus nos alicui non subesse Ecclesiarum Prebendarum vacantium collationem ad nos jure regio pertinere secus autem credentes fatuos reputamus deviantes In English thus Philip by the grace of God King of France to Boniface bearing himselfe for Pope little or no health Be it knowne to thy exceeding great foolishnesse that we in temperall affaires are subject to none that the bestowing of Benefices belongs to us by our royall right and if there be any that thinke otherwise we hold them for erroneous fools A memorable answer well beseeming a true royall and French heart Immediately he assembled together a nationall Councell of all the Barons and Prelates within his dominion at Paris wherein Boniface being pronounced an Hereticke a Symonist and a Manslayer it was agreed upon by a joint consent that the King should doe no more obeisance but reject as nothing worth whatsoever he should impose Wherefore the King to tame his proud and malitious nature dispatched secretly two hundred men at armes under the conduct of one Captaine Noguard towards Avian in Naples whither his Holinesse was fled for feare of divers whose houses and castles he had caused to be rased downe there to surprise him on a sudden which stratagem they speedily performed and carried him prisoner to Rome where he died most miserably Peter Mesie a Spanish Gentleman of Sevill saith in many of his Lectures that he died in prison inraged with famine Nicholas Gilles in his first volume of French Chronicles reporteth that he died in the castle Saint Angelo through a fluxe of his belly which cast him into a frenzy that he gnew off his owne hands and that at the houre of his death there were heard horrible thunders and tempests and lightenings round about this is he in whose honour this fine Epitaph was made Intravit ut Vulpes regnavit ut Leo mortuus est ut Canis He entred like a Fox raigned like a Lyon and dyed like a Dog And this was he that on the first day of Lent giving ashes to the Bishop of Genes in stead of using the ordinary forme of speech which is Memento homo quòd cinis es in cinerem converter is Remember man that thou art ashes and into ashes thou shalt returne said in despight and mockery Memento homo quia Gibellinus es cum Gibellinis in cinerem converter is Rember that thou art a Gibelline and together with the Gibell nes thou shalt be turned into ashes and in stead of laying the ashes upon his forehead threw them into his eyes and forthwith deprived him of his Bishopricke and would have done worse if it had been in his power marke what little account this holy father himselfe made of these ceremonies and therefore it is no marvell if others mocke at them seeing the Popes themselves make them but matters of pastime If it be so therefore that no man ought to arrogate to himselfe any title of deity then consequently it is no lesse unlawfull to give that divine honour to any other mortall creature and therefore the people of Caesarea faulted greatly when blasphemously they called King Herod a god as hath been declared before Likewise it was high and proud presumption in the Senat of Rome not to receive any god to their Common-wealth without their owne fore-approbation and consent As if that God could not maintaine his dignity nor stand without the good liking and assent of men or as if that man could defie whom he liâ—ted which is a most ridiculous and absurd thing And thus the Romanes in time of Tiberius consecrating to themselves a whole legion even thousands of false gods would not admit of the true God and his Sonne Christ but rejected him above all others Among all the vanities of the Athenians this was one worthy noting how they ordained that Demetrius Alexanders successor for re-establishing their popular and antient liberty with his father Antigonus should be called Kings and honoured with the title of Saving gods and to have a Priest that should offer sacrifice unto them and moreover caused their pictures to be drawne in the same banner where the pictures of Iupiter and Minerva the protectors of their city were drawne
dagger into his own head in such sort that notwithstanding all the means of surgery that could be wrought he shortly after died thereof the manner of his death being so terrible for he even cursed and blasphemed to his last gaspe and together with his breath an oath flew out of his mouth that it was not onely a manifest signe of Gods judgement but also an horrible and fearefull terrour to all that beheld him But herein did the justice of God most notably appeare in that he compelled his own hand which had written those blasphemies to be the instrument to punish him and that in his braine which had devised the same Another also of our owne nation is not to be overpassed who for an Atheist and an Epicure might compare with any of the former and for the judgement of God upon him doth give place to none It was a gentleman of Barkshire whose name I forbeare to expresse a man of great possessions This man was an open contemner of God and all Religion a profest Atheist and a scorner of the Word of God and Sacraments insomuch as I have heard reported of very credible persons being a witnesse at the baptising of a childe he would needs have it called Beelzebub Besides this he was given over to all sensuality of the flesh keeping in his house continually notorious strumpets and that openly without shame his mouth was so accustomed to swearing that he could scarse speake without an oath This miserable man or rather beast having continued long in this damnable course of life at last Gods heavy vengeance found him out for upon a certain day riding abroad a hunting with another companion as they were discoursing of many vaine matters it pleased Almighty God of a sudden to strike him with sudden death for falling suddenly to the crupper of his horse backward he was taken downe starke dead with his tongue hanging out of his mouth after a fearfull manner and became a terrible example to all wicked Atheists of Gods justice Hither I might adde the examples of others who having been in high places of favour in former times are fallen like Lucifer from their heaven that is their worldly felicity and live like him in chaines of imprisonments These had wont being in their bravery to mocke at all Religion and to make themselves merry with scoffing at the holy Scripture but the Lord hath brought them downe and plucked the feathers of their pride to teach them to know there is a God and that Religion is no matter of policy but Gods owne ordinance to bring men to blessednesse and let them be assured if they repent not the Lord will yet further execute his vengeance upon them and make them more manifest spectacles of his justice Many more moderne and home-bred examples I could adde of some that were hanged some that died desperate some that were deprived of their senses having been notorious Atheists and Epicures in their lives but I hope these already named are sufficient to prove that the Lord of heaven observeth the wayes of men and rewardeth every man according to his works especially such as strive to deny his Essence-or his sonne Christ. I would to God and I pray it from my heart that all Atheists in this Realme and in the world beside would by the remembrance and consideration of these examples either forsake their horrible impiety or that they might in like manner come to destruction and so that abominable sin which so flourisheth amongst men of greatest name might either be quite extinguished and rooted out or at least smothered and kept under that iâ— durst not shew it head any more in the worlds eye CHAP XXII Touching the transgressors of the second Commandement by Idolatry WE have hitherto seene how and in what sort they that either by malice or impiety or Apostasie or heresie or otherwise have transgressed the first Commandement have been punished Let us now consider the judgements that have befallen Idolaters the breakers of the second Commandement But before we proceed wee must know that as it is required of us by the first Commandement to hold God for our true and onely God to repose all our whole trust and confidence in him and call upon him serve and worship him alone so in the second to this the contrary to this is forbidden which is to doe any manner of service honour and reverence by devotion to Idols forasmuch he is a Spirit that is to say of a spirituall nature and Essence which is infinite and incomprehensible so loveth he a spirituall worship and service which is answerable to his nature and not by Images and pictures and such other outward and corruptible means which he hath in no wise commanded wherefore Isaiah the Prophet reproving the folly and vanity of Idolaters saith To whom will you liken God or what similitude will you set up unto him Therefore if it be not Gods will that under pretence and colour of his owne name any Image or picture should be adored being a thing not only inconvenient but also absurd and unseemly much lesse can hee abide to have them worshipped under the name and title of any creature whatsoever And for this cause gave he the second Commandement Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any graven Image c. which prohibition the Israelites brake in the desart when they set up a golden calfe and bowed themselves before it after the manner of the Paynims giving it the honour which was onely due to God whereby they incurred the indignation of Almighty God who is strong and jealous of suffeâ—ing any such slander to be done unto his name wherefore he caused thâ—â—e thousand of them to be stroken and wounded to death by the hand of the Levites at the commandement of Moses to make his anger against Idolatry more manifest by causing them to be executioners of his revenge who were ordained for the ministry of his Church and the service of the Altar and Tabernacle Howbeit for all this the same people not long after fell back into the same sin and bowed themselves befere strange gods and through the allurements of the daughters of Moab joyned themselves to Belphegor for which cause the Lord being insenced stroke them with so grievous a plague that there died of them in one day about twenty and foure thousand persons And albeit that after all this being brought by him into the land of promise he had forbidden and threatned them for cleaving to the Idols of the nations whose land they possessed yet were they so prone to Idolatry that notwithstanding all this they fell to serve Baal and Astaroth wherefore the fire of Gods wrath was inflamed against them and he gave them over to be a spoyle and prey unto their enemies on every side so that for many yeares sometimes the Moabites oppressed them otherwhiles the Madianites and ever after the death of any of their Iudges and Rulers which God raised
King of England sonne of Geffrey Plantagenet and Maud the Empresse after he had raigned twenty yeares was content to admit his young sonne Henry married to Margaret the French Kings daughter into participation of his Crowne but he like an unnaturall son to requite his fathers love sought to dispossesse him of the whole for by inciting the King of France and certaine other Nobles hee tooke armes and raised warre against his owne naturall father betwixt whom divers strong battels being fought as well in England by the Deputies and friends of both parties as also in Normandy Poytou Guian and Britain the victory alwayes inclined to the father so that the rebellious son with his allies were constrained to bend to his fathers will and to desire peace which he gently granted and forgave his offence Howbeit the Lord for his disobedience did not so lightly pardon him but because his hasty mind could not tarry for the Crowne till his fathers death therefore the Lord cut him short of it altogether causing him to die six yeares before his father being yet but young and like to live long Lothair King of Soissons in France committed the rule of the province of Guian to his eldest son Cramiris who when contrary to the mind of his father he oppressed the people with exactions and was reclaimed home he like an ungratious and impious son fled to his uncle Childebert and provoked him towarre upon his owne father wherein he himselfe was by the just vengeance of God taken and burned with his wife and children to death Furthermore it is not doubtlesse but to a very good end enacted in the law of God That he which curseth his father or mother should die the death and that rebellious children and such as be incorrigible should at the instance and pursuit of their owne parents by order of law be stoned to death As children by all these examples ought not onely to learne to feare to displease and revile their parents but also to feare and reverence them lest that by disobedience they kindle the fire of Gods wrath against them so likewise on the other side parents are here advertised to have great care in bringing up and instructing their children in the feare of God and obedience to his will lest for want of instruction and correction on their part they themselves incurre a punishment of their carelesse negligence in the person of their children And this is proved by experience of the men of Bethel of whose children two and forty were torne in pieces by Beares for that they had been so evill taught as to mocke the holy Prophet Elizeus in calling him bald-pate Heli likewise the high priest was culpable of this fault for having two wicked and perverse sonnes whom no feare of God could restraine being discontent with that honourable portion of the sacrifices allotted them by God like famished and unsatiable wretches fell to share out more than was their due and by force to raven all that which by faire meanes they could not get and that which is worse to pollute the holy Tabernacle of God with their filthy whoredomes in such sort that the Religion of God grew in disgrace through their prophane dealings And albeit it may seem that their father did his duty in some sort when he admonished and reproved them yet it is manifest by the reprehension of the man of God that he did no part of that at all or if he did yet it was in so carelesse loose and cold manner using more lenity than hee ought or lesse severity than was necessary that God turned their destructions when they were slaine at the overthrow of Israel by the Philistins to be his punishment for understanding the dolefull newes of his sonnes death and the Arkes taking at once he fell backewards from his stoole and burst his necke being old and heavy even fourescore and eighteene yeares of age not able either to help or stay himselfe David also was not free from this offence for hee so much cockered some of his children that they proved the greatest plagues and scourges unto him especially Absolon and Adonijah for the one openly rebelled against him and almost drove him out of his kingdome the other usurped the title and honour of the kingdome before his fathers death of this it is recorded That David so cockered and pampered him that he would never displease him from his youth But see how he was punished in them for this too great lenity both of them came to an untimely death and proved not onely the workers of their owne destruction but also great crosses to their father Ludovicus Vives saith That in his time a certain woman in Flanders did so much pamper and cocker up two of her sonnes even against her husbands will that she would not suffer them to want money or any thing which might furnish their roiotous life both in drinking banquetting and dicing yea she would stoale from her husband to minister unto them but as soone as her husband was dead she was justly plagued in them both for they fell from royoting to robbing which two vices are commonly linked together and for the same one of them was executed by the sword and the other by the halter she her selfe looking on as a witnesse of their destructions whereof her conscience told her that her indulgence was the chiefest cause Hither may we referre that common and vulgar story and I suppose very true which is almost in every childes mouth of him that going to the gallowes desired to speake with his mother in her care ere he dyed and when she came unto him in stead of speaking bit off her care with his teeth exclaiming upon her as the causer of his death because she did not chastise him in his youth for his faults but by her flatteries established him in vice which brought him to this wofull end and herein she was doubly punished both in her sonnes destruction and her owne infamy whereof she carried about her a continuall maâ—ke This ought to be a warning to all parents to looke better to the education of their children and to root out of them in time all evill and corrupt manners lest of small sprigs they grow to branches and of qualities to habits and so either be hardly done off or at least deprave the whole body and bring it to destruction but above all to keep them from idlenesse and vaine pleasures the discommodity and mischiefe whereof this present example will declare At a towne called Hannuel in Saxony the Devill transforming himselfe into the shape of a man exercised many jugling trickes and pretty pastime to delight young men and maids withall and indeed to draw after him daily great companies one day they followed him out of the city gates unto a hill adjoyning where he played a jugling tricke indeed with them for he carried them all away with him so that they were never
King of Macedonia had a minion called Cratenas whom hee loved most entirely but he againe requited him not with love but with hatred and stretched all his wits to install himselfe in his kingdome by deposing and murthering him which though he accomplished yet his deserts were cut short by the vengeance of God for he continued not many dayes in his royalty but he was served with the same sauce that he had made Archelaus before him to taste of even betraied and murthered as he well deserved Lodovicus Sfortia to the end to invest himselfe with the Dukedome of Millain spared not to shed the innocent bloud of his two Nephewes the sonnes of Galenchus together with their tutors and one Francis Calaber a worthy and excellent man but the Lord so disposed of his purposes that he in stead of obtaining the kingdome was taken prisoner by the King of France so that neither he nor any of his off spring injoyed that which he so much affected When Numerianus was to succeed â—arus his father in the Empire Arrius Axer his father in law to the end to translate the Empire unto himselfe entered a conspiracy and slew his sonne in law that nothing mistrusted his disloyalty but the Pretorian army understanding the matter discharged Arrius and elected Dioclesian in his roome who laying hold upon his competitour laied an action of treason to his charge and put him to death in the sight of the multitude Theodoricke and Fredericke conspired against their owne brother Thurismund King of the Visigothes to the intent to succeed him in his Kingdome And albeit that nature reclaymed them from the act yet they slew him without all compassion But after thirteene yeres reigne the same Theodericke was requited by his other brethren with the same measure that he before meted to his brother Thurismund And so though vengeance slept a while yet at length it wakened Aelias Antonius Gordianus Emperour of Rome though so excellent a young Prince that he deserved to be called the Love and Iewell of the World yet was he slaine by one promoted by himselfe to high honour called Philip Arabs when he was but two and twenty yeres old after whose decease this Philip got himselfe elected Emperour by the Band and confirmed by the Senate All which notwithstanding after five yeres Decius rebelled and his owne souldiers conspired against him so that both he at Verona and his sonne at Rome were slaine by them about one time After the death of Constantine the Great his three sonnes dividing the Empire betwixt them succeeded their father Constantine the eldest had for his share Spaine France the Alpes and England Constance the second held Italy Africa Graecia and Illyricum Constantine the younger was King and Emperour of the East But ambition suffered them not to enjoy quietly these their possessions for when the eldest being more proud and seditious than the other not content with his alotted portion made warre upon his brother Constance his Provinces and strove to enter Italy he was slaine in a battell by Aquileia when he was but five and twenty yeares old by which meanes all the provinces which were his fell to Constance and therewithall such a drowsinesse and Epicurisme for want of a stirrer up after his brothers death that he fell into the gout and neglected the governement of the Empire Wherefore in Aâ—sourge and in Rhetia they created a new Emperour one Magnentius whose life before time Constance had saved from the souldiers and therefore his treachery was the greater This Magnentius deprived and slew Constance but was overcome by Constantine the third brother in Illyricum yet in such sort that the conqueror could not greatly brag for he lost an infinit company of his men and yet missed of his chiefe purpose the taking of Magnentius for he escaped to Lyons and there massacring all that he mistrusted at last growing I suppose in suspition with his owne heart slew himselfe also and so his traiterous ingratefull and ambitious murther was revenged with his owne hands Victericus betrayed Lnyba king of Spaine and succeeded in his place seven yeares after another traitour slew him and succeeded also in his place Mauritius the Emperor was murthered by Phocas together with his wife and five of his children he seating himselfe Emperour in his roome Howbeit traitors and murtherers can never come to happy ends for as he had slaine Mauritius so Priscus Heraclianus and Phorius three of his chiefest captaines conspiring against him with three severall armies gave him such an alarme at once at his owne doores that they soone quailed his courage and after much mangling of his body cut him shorter by the head and the kingdome at one blow In the time of Edward the second and Edward the third in England one Sir Roger Mortimer committed many villanous outrages in shedding much bloud and at last King Edward himselfe lying at Barkley castle to the end that he might as it was supposed enjoy Isabel his wife with whom he had very suspitious familiarity After this he unjustly accused Edmund Earle of Kent of treason and caused him to bee put to death therefore and lastly he conspired against King Edward the third as it was suspected for which cause he was worthily and deservedly beheaded Among this ranke of murtherers of Kings we may fitly place also Richard the third usurper of the Crowne of England and divers others which he used as instruments to bring his detestable purpose to effect as namely Sir Iames Tirrèl Knight a man for natures gifts worthy to have served a much better Prince than this Richard if he had well served God and beene endued with as much truth and honesty as he had strength and wit also Miles Forest and Iohn Dighton two villaines fleshed in murthers But to come to the fact it was on this sort When Richard the usurper had enjoyned Robert Brackenbury to this piece of service of murthering the young King Edward the fifth his Nephew in the Tower with his brother the Duke of Yorke and saw it refused by him he committed the charge of the murther to Sir Iames Tirrel who hasting to the Tower by the Kings Commission received the keyes into his owne hands and by the helpe of those two butchers Dighton and Forest smothered the two Princes in their bed and buried them at the staires feet which being done Sir Iames rode back to king Richard who gave him great thankes and as some say made him knight for his labour All which things on every part well pondered it appeareth that God never gave the world a notabler example both of the unconstancy of worldly wâ—ale and also of the wretched end which ensueth such despightfull cruelty for first to begin with the ministers Miles Forest rotted away peecemeale at Saint Martins Sir Iames Tirrel died at the Tower hill beheaded for treason King Kichard himselfe as it is declared elsewhere was slaine
so high a point the popish horn when at the request of Boniface he ordained That the Bishop of Rome should have preheminence and authority over all other Bishops which he did to the end that the staine and blame of his most execrable murther might be either quite blotted out or at least winked at Vnder his regency the forces of the Empire grew wondrously into decay France Spaine Almaigne and Lombardy revolted from the Empire and at last himselfe being pursued by his son in law Priscus with the Senatours was taken and having his hands and feet cut off was together with the whole race of his off-spring put to a most cruell death because of his cruell and tyrannous life Among all the strange examples of Gods judgements that ever were declared in this world that one that befell a King of Poland called Popiel for his murthers is for the strangenesse thereof most worthy to be had in memory he reigned in the yeare of our Lord 1346. This man amongst other of his particular kinds of cursings and swearings whereof he was no niggard used ordinarily this oath If it be not true would rats might devoure me prophesying thereby his owne destruction for hee was devoured by the same meanes which he so often wished for as the sequell of his history will declare The father of this Popiel seeling himselfe neere death resigned the government of his kingdome to two of his brethren men exceedingly reverenced of all men for the valour and vertue which appeared in them He being deceased and Popiel being growne up to ripe and lawfull yeares when he saw himselfe in full liberty without all bridle of government to doe what hee listed he began to give the full swinge to his lawlesse and unruly desires in such sort that within few daies he became so shamelesse that there was no vice which appeared not in his behavior even to the working of the death of his owne uncles for all their faithfull dealing towards him which he by poison brought to passe Which being done he caused himselfe forthwith to be crowned with garlands of flowers and to be perfumed with precious oyntments and to the end the better to solemniâ—e his entry to the crowne commanded a sumptuous and pompous banquet to be prepared whereunto all the Princes and Lords of his kingdome were invited Now as they were about to give the onset upon the delicate cheere behold an army of rats sallying out of the dead and putrified bodies of his uncles set upon him his wife and children amid their dainties to gnaw them with their sharp teeth insomuch that his gard with all their weapons and strength were not able to chase them away but being weary with resisting their daily and mighty assaults gave over the battell wherefore counsell was given to make great cole â—ires about them that the rats by that means might be kept off not knowing that no policy or power of man was able to withstand the unchangeable decree of God for for all their huge forces they ceased not to run through the midst of them and to assault with their teeth this cruell murtherer Then they gave him counsell to put himselfe his wife and children into a boat and thrust it into the middest of a lake thinking that by reason of the waters the rats would not approach unto them but alas in vaine for they swum through the waters amaine and gnawing the boat made such chinkes into the sides thereof that the water began to run in which being perceived of the boatman amased them sore and made them make poste haste unto the shore where hee was no sooner arrived but a fresh muster of rats uniting their forces with the former encountred him so sore that they did him more scath than all the rest Whereupon all his guard and others that were there present for his defence perceiving it to be a judgement of Gods vengeance upon him abandoned and for sooke him at once who seeing himselfe destitute of succour and forsaken on all sides flew into a high tower in Chouzitze whither also they pursued him and climbing even up to the highest roome where hee was first eat up his wife and children she being guilty of his uncles death and lastly gnew and devoured him to the very bones After the same sort was an Archbishop of Mentz called Hatto punished in the yeare 940 under the reigne of the Emperour Otho the great for the extreme cruelty which he used towards certain poor beggers whom in time of famine he assembled together into a great barn not to relieve their wants as he might and ought but to rid their lives as he ought not but did for he set on fire the barne wherein they were and consumed them all alive and comparing them to rats and mice that devoured good corne but served to no other good use But God that had regard and respect unto those poore wretches tooke their cause into his hand to quit this proud Prelate with just revenge for his outrage committed against them sending towards him an army of rats and mice to lay siege against him with the engines of their teeth on all sides which when this cursed wretch perceived he removed into a tower that standeth in the midst of Rhine not far from Bing whither hee presumed this host of rats could not pursue him but he was deceived for they swum over Rhine thick and threefold and got into his tower with such strange fury that in very short space they had consumed him to nothing in memoriall whereof this tower was ever after called the tower of rats And this was the tragedy of that bloudy arch-butcher that compared poore Christian soules to brutish and base creatures and therefore became himselfe a prey unto them as Popiel King of Poland did before him in whose strange examples the beames of Gods justice shine forth after an extraordinary and wonderfull manner to the terrour and feare of all men when by the means of small creatures they made roome for his vengeance to make entrance upon these execrable creature-murtherers notwithstanding all mans devises and impediments of nature for the native operation of the elements was restrained from hindering the passage of them armed and inspired with an invincible and supernaturall courage to feare neither fire water nor weapon till they had finished his command that sent them And thus in old time did frogs flyes grashoppers and lice make war with Pharaoh at the command of him that hath all the world at his becke After this Archbishop in the same ranke of murtherers we finde registred many Popes of all whom the most notorious and remarkable are these two Innocent the fourth and Boniface the eighth who deserved rather to be called Nocents and Malefaces than Innocents and Boniface for their wicked and perverse lives for as touching the first of them from the time that he was first installed in the Papacie he alwayes bent his hornes against
him of his gard from that he arose to be a Tribune and at last to bee Emperor which place he was no sooner in possession of but immoderate cruelty all this while buried began to shew it selfe for he made havocke of all the Nobilitie and put to death those that he suspected to be acquainted with his estate insomuch as some called him Cyclops some Bâ—siris others Aâ—teus for his cruelty Wherefore the Senate of Rome seeing his indignity proclaimed him an enemy to their commonwealth and made it lawfull for any man to procure his death Which being knowne his souldiers lying at the siege of Aquileia moved with hatred entred his tent at noone day and flew him and his sonne together Iustinian the yonger no lesse hatefull to his subjects for his cruelty than Maximinus was deposed from the empire by conspiracy and having his nosthrils slit exiled to Chersona Leontius succeeding in his place Howbeit ere long he recovered his Crowne and Scepter and returned to Constantinople exercising more cruelty at his returne than ever he had done before for he had not only put to death Leontius and Tiberius but also all that any way favored their parts It is said of him that he never blew his mangled nose but he caused one of them to be executed to death At last he was slaine by Philippicus to verifie the word of the Lord That he which striketh with the sword shall perish with the sword Albonius king of Lunbardy drinking upon a time to his wife Rosimund in a cup made of her fathers skull whom he in battell had slaine so displeased her therewith that attributing more to naturall affection than unity of marriage decreed with her selfe to hazard life and kingdome to be revenged upon this grievous injurie wherefore she thus practised A knight called Hemichild was enamoured with one of her maids him shee brought into a secret darke place by policie in shew to injoy his love but indeed to be at her command for she supplyed his loves place and then discovering her selfe put it to his choise either to kill her husband or to be accused by her of this villanie Hemichild chose the former and indeed murdered his Lord in his bed and after the deed done fled with her to Ravenna But marke how the Lord required this murder even most strangely for they both which were linkt together in the fact were linkt together also in the punishment and as they had beene joynt instruments of anothers destruction so he made them mutuall instruments of their owne for Rosimund thinking to poyson him too made him drinke halfe her medicine but hee feeling the poyson in his veines staied in the mid way and made her sup up the other halfe for her part so they died both together The Electors of the Empire disagreeing in suffrages Adolphus Duke of Nassavia and Albertus Duke of Austria tooke upon them the regiment and managing of the State whereupon grew grievous wars in all Germanie and dissention between the two State-men so that Adolphus was slaine by the Duke of Austria in battell by the citie of Spire whose death was thus notably revenged All that tooke part against him or that were accessary to the murder perished most strangely Albert Earle of Hagerloch was slaine Otto of Ochsensteme was hanged the Bishop of Mentz died suddenly of an apoplexie in his cellar the Bishop of Strasbrough was butchered by a Butcher the Earle of Leimingen died of a frensie the Duke of Austria himselfe was slaine by his nephew Iohn from whom hee had taken the government of Suevia because of his unthriftinesse generally they all came to destruction so grievous is the crie of innocent bloud against those that are guilty thereof After the death of Woldimirus King of Rhythenia his sonne Berisus succeeded in the kingdome who though hee was a vertuous and religious Prince yet could not his vertue or religion priviledge him from the malice of his brother Suadopolcus who gaping and itching for the Crowne slew his brother this good Prince as hee was sleeping in his Chamber together with his Esquire that attended upon him and not content herewith but adding murder to murder hee assaulted another of his brethren by the same impietie and brought him to the same end Whereupon the last brother Iorislaus to bee revenged on this villanie set upon him with an armie of men and killing his complices drove him to fly to Crachus king of Polonia for succour who furnishing him with a new armie sent him backe against his brother in which battell his successe being equall to the former hee lost his men and himselfe escaping the sword dyed in his flight to Polonia and was buried in a base and ignoble sepulchre fit enough for so base and ignoble a wretch And that we may see how hatefull and ungodly a thing it is to be either a protector or a saver of any murderer marke the judgement of God that fell upon this king of Polonia though not in his own person yet in his posterity for hee being dead his eldest sonne and heire Crachus was murdered by his younger brother Lechus as they were hunting so disguised and torn that every man imputed his death not to Lechus whose eyes dropt crocodiles teares but to some savage and cruell beast howbeit ere long his trechery being discovered and disseised of his kingdome hee died with extreame griefe and horrour of conscience And thus we see that Crachus his kingdome came to desolation for maintaining a murderer Iohn the high Priest of Jerusalem sonne and successor to Iudas had a brother termed Iesus to whom Bagoses the lieutenant of Artaxerxes army promised the Priesthood meaning indeed to depose Iohn and install him in his roome upon which occasion this Iesus growing insolent spared not to revile his brother and that in the temple with immodest and opprobrious speeches so that his anger being provoked he slew him in his rage a most impious part for the high Priest to pollute the holy temple with bloud and that of his owne brother and so impious that the Lord in justice could not chuse but punish the whole nation for it most severely For this cause Bagoses imposed a tribute upon them even a most grievous tribute that for every lambe they offered upon the altar they should pay fiftie groats to the king of Persia besides the prophanation of their temple with the uncircumcised Persians who entred into it at their pleasures and so polluted the Sanctuary and holy things of God this punishment continued upon them seven yeares and all for this one murder Gerhardus Earle of Holsatia after he had conquered the Danes in many and sundry battells was traiterously slaine in the citie Kanderhusen by one Nicolaus Iacobus a rich Baron so that whom the open enemy feared in the field him the privie subtile foe murdered in his chamber But the traitor and murderer albeit hee fled to the castle Schaldenburg and
stove fell out among themselves and from words grew to blowes the Candles being put out insomuch that one of them was stabbed with a punyard Now the deed doer was unknowne by reason of the number although the Gentleman accused a Pursevant of the Kings for it who was one of them in the stove The King to finde out the homicide caused them all to come together in the stove and standing round about the dead Corps becommanded that they should one after another lay their right hand on the slain Gentlemans naked breasts swearing they had not killed him the Gentlemen did so and no signe appeared to witnesse against them the Pursevant onely remained who condemned before in his owne conscience went first of all and kissed the dead mans feet but as soone as he layed his hand on his breast the blood gushed forth in abundance both out of his wound and nosthrils so that urged by this evident accusation he confessed the murder and by the Kings owne sentence was incontinently beheaded whereupon as I said before arose that practise which is now ordinary in many places of finding out unknowne Murders which by the admirable power of God are for the most part revealed either by the bleeding of the corpes or the opening of the eye or some other extraordinary signe as daily experience doth teach The same Authour reporteth another example farre more strange in the same letter written to David Chytreus which happened at Itzehow in Denmarke A Traveller was murdered by the high-way side and because the murderer could not be found out the Magistrates of Itzehow caused the body to be taken up and one of the hands to be cut off which was carried into the prison of the Towne and hung up by a string in one of the Chambers about ten yeares after the murderer comming upon some occasion in to the prison the hand which had been a long time dry began to drop blood on the Table that stood underneath it which the Gaoler beholding stayed the fellow and advertised the Magistrates of it who examining him the murderer giving glory to God confessed his fact and submitted himselfe to the rigour of the Law which was inflicted on him as he very well deserved At Winsheime in Germany a certaine Theefe after many Robberies and Murders committed by him upon Travellers and Women with childe went to the Shambles before Easter and bought three Calves heads which when hee put into a Wallet they seemed to the standers by to be mens heads whereupon being attached and searched by the Officers and he examined how hee came by them answered and proved by witnesses that hee bought Calves heads and how they were transformed â—hee knew not whereupon the Senate amazed not supposing this miracle to arise of naught cast the party into prison and tortured him to make him confesse what villany he had committed who confessed indeed at last his horrible murders and was worthily punished for the same and then the heads recovered their old shapes When I read this story I was halfe afraid to set it downe least I should seeme to insert fables into this serious Treatise of Gods Judgements but seeing the Lord doth often worke miraculously for the disclosing of this foule sinne I thought that it would not seeme altogether incredible Another murderer at Tubing betrayed his murder by his owne sighes which were so deepe and incessant in griefe not of his fact but of his small booty that being but asked the question he confessed the crime and underwent worthy punishment Another murtherer in Spain was discovered by the trembling of his heart for when many were suspected of the murder and all renounced it the Judge caused all their breasts to be opened and him in whom he saw most trembling of brest he condemned who also could not deny the fact but presently confessed the same At Isenacum a certaine yong man being in love with a maid and not having wherewith to maintain her used this unlawfull meanes to accomplish his desire upon a night he slew his host and throwing his body into a Cellar tooke away all his money and then hasted away but the terrour of his owne conscience and the judgement of God so besotted him that hee could not stirre a foot untill he was apprchended At the same time Martin Luther and Philip Melancthon abode at Isenacum and were eye-witnesses of this miraculous judgement who also so dealt with this murderer that in most humble and penitent confession of his sinnes and comfort of soule he ended his life By all these examples wee see how hard it is for a murderer to escape without his reward when the justice of man is either too blinde that it cannot search out the truth or too blunt that it doth not strike with severity the man appointed unto death then the justice of God riseth up and with his owne arme he discovereth and punisheth the murderer yea rather than he shall goe unpunished sencelesse creatures and his owne heart and tongue rise to give sentence against him I doubt not but daily experience in all places affordeth many more examples to this purpose and especially the experience of our Judges in criminall causes who have continuall occasion of understanding such matters in their Circuits but these shall suffice for our present purpose CHAP. XII Of such as have murdered themselves WHen the Law saith Thou shalt not kill it not onely condemneth the killing of others but much more of our selves for charity springeth from a mans selfe therfore if they be guilty of murder that spill the bloud of others much more guilty are they before God that shed their owne bloud and if nature bindeth us to preserve the life of all men as much as lyeth in our power then much more are we bound to preserve our owne lives so long as God shall give us leave We are here set in this life as souldiers in a station without the licence of our Captaine we must not depart our soule is maried to the body by the appointment of God none must presume to put a sunder those whom God hath coupled and our life is committed to us as a thing in trust we must not redeliver it nor part with it untill he require it againe at our hands that gave it into our hands Saint Augustine in his first Booke De Civitate Dei doth most strongly evince and prove That for no cause voluntary death is to be undertaken neither to avoid temporall troubles least we fall into eternall nor for feare to be polluted with the sinnes of others lest by avoiding other mens sinnes we encrease our owne nor yet for our owne sinnes that are past for the which we have more need of life that we might repent of them nor lastly for the hope of a better life because they which are guilty of their owne death a better life is not prepared for them These be the words of Augustine wherein he alledgeth
Arabians to make warre against him who forraged his countrey sacked and spoiled his cities and tooke prisoners his wives and children the youngest onely excepted who afterwards also was murdered when he had raigned King but a small space And lastly as in doing to death his own brethren he committed cruelty against his owne bowels so the Lord stroke him with such an incurable disease in his bowels and so perpetuall for it continued two yeares that his very entrails issued out with torment and so he dyed in horrible misery Albeit that in the former booke we have already touched the pride and arrogancy of King Alexander the Great yet we cannot pretermit to speake of him in this place his example serving to fit for the present subject for although as touching the rest of his life he was very well governed in his private actions as a Monarch of his reputation might be yet in his declining age I meane not in yeares but to deathward he grew exceeding cruell not onely towards strangers as the Cosseis whom he destroyed to the sucking babe but also to his houshold and familiar friends Insomuch that being become odious to most fewest loved him and divers wrought all meanes possible to make him away but one especially whose sonne in law and other neere friends he had put to death never ceased untill he both ministred a deadly draught unto himselfe whereby he deprived him of his wicked life and a fatall stroke to his wives and children after his death to the accomplishment of his full revenge Phalaris the Tyran of Agrigentum made himselfe famous to posterity by no other meanes than horrible cruelties exercised upon his subjects inventing every day new kinds of tortures to scourge and afflict the poore soules withall In his dominion there was one Perillus artificer of his craft one expert in his occupation who to flatter and curry favour with him devised a new torment a brasen bull of such a strange workmanship that the voyce of those that were roasted therein resembled rather the roaring of a Bull then the cry of men The Tyran was well pleased with the Invention but he would needs have the Inventor make first triall of his owne worke as he well deserved before any other should take taste thereof But what was the end of this Tyran The people not able any longer to endure his monstrous and unnaturall cruelties ran upon him with one consent with such violence that they soone brought him to destruction and as some say put him into the brasen Bull which hee provided to roast others to bee roasted therein himselfe deserving it as well for approoving the devise as Perillus did for devising it Edward the second of that name King of England at the request and desire of Hugh Spencer his darling made warre upon his subjects and put to death divers of the Peeres and Lords of the Realme without either right or form of the law insomuch that queen Isabel his wife fled to France with her yong son for fear of his unbrideled fury after a while finding opportunity and means to return again garded with certain small forces which she had in those countreyes gathered together she found the whole people discontented with the Kings demeanours and ready to assist her against him so she besieged him with their succour and tooke him prisoner and put him into the Tower of London to be kept till order might be taken for his deposition so that shortly after by the Estates being assembled together he was generally and joyntly reputed and pronounced unworthy to be King for his exceeding cruelties sake which he had committed upon many of his worthy Subjects and so deposing him they crowned his young sonne Edward the third of his name King in his roome he yet living and beholding the same Iohn Maria Duke of Millan may be put into this ranke of Murtherers for his custome was divers times when any Citizen offended thim yea and somtimes without offence too to throw them amongst cruell Mastives to be torne in pieces and devoured But as he continued and delighted in this unnaturall kinde of murther the people one day incensed and stirred up against him ranne upon him with such rage and violence that they quickly deprived him of life And he was so well beloved that no man ever would or durst bestow a Sepulchre upon his dead bones but suffered his body to lie in the open streets uncovered save that a certaine harlot threw a few Roses upon his wounds and so covered him Alphonsus the second King of Naples Ferdinands sonne was in tyranny towards his subjects nothing inferiour to his father for whether of them imprisoned and put to death more of the Nobility and Barons of the Realme it is hard to say but sure it is that both were too outragious in all manner of cruelty for which so soone as Charles the eight King of France departing from Rome made towards Naples the hatred which the people bore him secretly with the odious remembrance of his fathers cruelty began openly to shew it selfe by the fruits for they did not nor could not dissemble the great desire that every one had of the approach of the Frenchmen which when Alphonsus perceived and seeing his affaires and estate brought unto so narrow a pinch he also cowardly cast away all courage to resist and hope to recover so huge a tempest and he that for a long time had made warre his trade and profession and had yet all his forces and armies complete and in readinesse making himselfe banquerupt of all that honour and reputation which by long experience and deeds of armes he had gotten resolved to abandon his kingdome and to resigne the title and authority thereof to his sonne Ferdinand thinking by that meanes to asswage the heat of their hatred and that so young and innocent a King who in his owne person had never offended them might be accepted and beloved of them and so their affection toward the French rebated and cooled But this devise seemed to no more purpose than a salve applyed to a sore out of season when it was growne incureable or a prop set to a house that is already falne Therefore he tormented with the sting of his owne conscience and finding in his minde no repose by day nor rest by night but a continuall summons and advertisement by fearefull dreames that the Noblemen which hee had put to death cryed to the people for revenge against him was surprised with so terrible terrour that forthwith without making acquainted with his departure either his brother or his owne sonne he fled to Sicilie supposing in his journey that the Frenchmen were still at his backe and starting at every little noyse as if he feared all the Elements had conspired his destruction Philip Comineus that was an eye-witnesse of this journey reporteth That every night he would cry that he heard the Frenchmen and that the very trees
dreaming of nothing lesse whereat they being at the instant amazed quickly gathered their spirits together and putting themselves in defence fought it out with such courage and eagernesse that the traitors Army was wholly discomfited and he himselfe with one of his sonnes slain The Gothes having gotten this victory broke off their voyage to France and turned their course backe again to Italie with purpose to destroy and spoil and so they did for they laid waste all the Countrey of Piemont and Lumbardy and elsewhere and besieged Rome it selfe so that from that time Italie never ceased to be scourged and tormented with the Gothes for the space of eighteen yeers Moreover whosoever else have been found to follow the steps of these truce peace and promise-breakers void of truth and regard of reputation alwayes underwent worthy punishment for their unworthy acts and fell headlong into confusion and ignominy making themselves subjects worthy to be curst and detested of all men CHAP. XVI Of Queenes that were Murtherers IF these and such like cruelties as we have spoken before be strange and monstrous for men what shall we then say of wicked and bloudy women who contrary to the nature of their sex addict themselves to all violence and bloudshedding as cursed Iezabel Queen of Israel did of whom sufficient hath been spoken before Athaliah Ahabs daughter and wife to Ioram King of Judah was a bird of the same feather for she was possessed with such a spirit of fury and rage that after the death of her son Ochosias that died without issue she put to death all the bloud royall to wit the posterity of Nathan Solomons brother to whom by right of succession the inheritance of the Crown appertained to the end that she might install her selfe into the kingly diadem after this cruell butchery of all the royall male children except Ioas who by Gods providence was preserved alive she usurped the Crowne and Scepter of Juda full seven yeeres at the end of which date Ioas was exalted to the Crowne and she not onely deposed but slain by the hands of her Guard that attended upon her Semiramis the Queen of Assyria was a woman of an ambitious spirit who through her thirst of reigning counterfeited her sex and attired her selfe like a man to get more authority and reverence to her selfe She was the destruction of many thousand people by the unjust war which she stirred up besides that she was a notorious strumpet and withall a murderer of those that satisfied her lust for still as they came from her bed some lay privily in watch to kill them lest they should bewray her villany it is reported that she was so shamelesse that she solicited her owne son to commit incest with her who in detestation of her filthinesse and cruelty raised a power against her and conquering her in one great battell caused her most deservedly to be put to death Brunchild whom Histories call Brunhault a Queen of France by marriage but a Spaniard by birth was a woman that bred much mischiefe in her age and that wrought many horrible and death-deserving crimes for partly with her subtle devices and partly with her owne hands she murdered ten Kings of France one after another she caused her husband to slay his owne brother she procured the death of her nephew Meroveus whom against all equity and honesty she had secondly espoused for her husband for he being hated of his father for that vile incest and perceiving himselfe in danger of taking made one of servants thrust him through After she had committed these and many other foul facts she went aboutalso to defraud Clotairius the son of Chilpericke of the right of the Crowne which pertained unto him and to thrust in another in his room whereupon arose great war in the which as she dealt more boldly and manfully than the condition of her sexe would bear so she received the due wages of her brave and vertuous deeds for she was taken prisoner with three of her nephewes whose throats she saw cut before her face and after her selfe was set upon a Camell and led through the hoste three dayes together every man reviling mocking reproaching and despighting her and at last by the award and judgement of the Princes and Captaines of the Army she was adjudged to be tied by the hair of her head one arme and one foot to the tail of a wilde and unâ—â—med horse and so to be left to his mercy to be drawne miserably to her destruction which was no sooner executed but her miserable carkase the instrument of so many mischiefes was with mens feet spurned bruised trampled and wounded after a most strange fashion and this was the wofull end of miserable Brunchild Edilburga the daughter of Offa King of Mercia in England who was married to Brigthricus King of the West Saxons was a woman so passing all the bounds of humanity and so given to cruelty and other beastly conditions that she first poysoned divers of the Nobles of the Kingdom and then having practised this wickednesse upon them she at length poysoned also the King her husband for which cause flying over into France unto Charles the Great for fear of punishment among her owne people when by reason of her beautie it was offered unto her that she should marry either with the King himselfe or with his son because she chose the son before the father married neither the one nor yet the other but was thrust into a Monastery where she not forgetting her old trade playing the harlot with a Monke was expulsed from thence and ended her life in great penury and misery About the same time that this Edilburga was thus working her feats in England Irene another most idolatrous and cruell minded woman being Emperesse of the Greekes was as busie for her part at Constantinople This wicked woman through the meanes of Pope Adrian took up the body of Constantine Emperour of Constantinople her owne husbands father and when she had burned the same she caused the ashes to be cast into the sea because he disannulled images Afterward reigning with her son Constantine the sixth son to Leo the fourth and being at dissention with him for disallowing the worshipping of images caused him to be taken and laid in prison who afterward through power of friends being restored to his Empire again at last she caused the same her owne son to be cast in prison and his eyes to be put out so cruelly that within short space he died After this the said Emperesse as it were triumphing in her cruelty and idolatry caused a Councell to be held at Nice where it was decreed That images should again be restored to the Church but this Councell was after repealed by another Councell holden at Frankford by Charles the Great and at length this wicked woman was deposed by Nicephorus who reigned after and was expulsed the Empire and after the example of Edilburga
above mentioned being condignely punished for her wickednesse ended her life in much penury and misery Alexius Emperour of the Greekes dying left behinde him a wicked and cruell woman his late wife now widow this widow being exhorted by the Peeres of the Empire to a second marriage and to that end choice being offered unto her of all the Nobility to chuse whom she should best affect notwithstanding refused all for she was so linked in familiarity with one of her owne houshold called Grifo who afterward when he came to be Emperour called himselfe Emanuel that for his love she refused all other matches with this Grifo this wicked woman entereth a secret and bloudy practise she consulted with him that he should bring into the Court a number of his servants secretly armed which comming in at divers times and by divers wayes to avoid suspition she disposed in the house in secret places to be ready at her call to execute her bloudy designement This being thus plotted she called together the Peeres of the Empire and demanded of them if they were content that she should chuse to her husband whom she pleased and that they would acknowledge him for their Emperour whom she should chuse when as the Noblemen hereunto consented supposing that she would have chosen one fitting for her estate she presently saluted this Grifo her old adulterous companion for her husband and Emperour and commanded them all to swear fealty unto him which when as they all utterly refused and disdained the wicked woman forthwith called the bloudy troop prepared for that purpose and caused them all to be murdered not one escaping alive Thus to satisfie her wicked lust she spared not to spill the bloud of the most part of her Nobility after a most savage and cruell manner and indeed she injoyed her desire but behold the issue of it from this time forward the race of Constantine ceased to sit in the Imperiall throne and no doubt but Gods vengeance also fell upon her and her wicked husband In the yeer of our Lord 700. Gracus the famous King of Poland being deceased the Crowne and Government descended upon his onely daughter Venda by full consent of the whole Realme This Venda being of a proud and stately nature refused to be joyned in marriage with any saying That she had rather be a Prince her selfe and governed by her owne power than the wife of the greatest Prince in the World Among many that were suiters unto her there was one Ritigerus a noble and mighty Prince of the Theutons whose suit being not onely denied but scornefully rejected and he notwithstanding greatly inflamed with her love went about to enforce her by strength to his will but she as valiant as he raised a great power to withstand his violence when the matter was ready to come to deciding by blowes Ritigerus his army perceiving the resolution of Queen Venda and the danger and losse which was like to arise to them and that upon so slight an occasion refused to fight so that Ritigerus being thus forsaken for griefe and shame slew himselfe and Queen Venda returning to Cracovia and there sacrificing to her gods for her good successe at last least her succesfull government should be stained with some disastrous misfortune and so her pride abated to prevent this fear desperately threw her selfe from an high bridge into the River Vistula and there ended her glorious and proud dayes with a shamefull and ignominious death Let every one both great and small learne by these examples to contain themselves within the limits of humanity and not be so ready and prompt to the shedding of humane bloud knowing nothing to be more true than this That he that smiteth with the sword shall perish with the sword CHAP. XVII Of such as without necessity upon every light cause move war AS in Surgery so in a Common-wealth we must account war as a last refuge and as it were a desperate medicine which without very urgent necessity when all other meanes of maintaining our estate against the assaults of the enemy fail ought not to be taken in hand and indeed the chief scope and marke that all those that lawfully undertake war ought to propound to themselves should be nothing else but the good and quiet of the Common-wealth with the peace and repose of every member thereof And therefore so ost as any reasonable offers and conditions of peace are propounded they ought to be accepted to the end to avoid the masse of evils as ruines bloudsheds robberies which alwayes accompany war as necessary attendants for whosoever doth not so but upon every light occasion runneth to Armes and to trie the hazard of battell they manifest their owne foolish and pernicious rashnesse and their small conscience in shedding humane bloud Amongst the good Kings of Judah Iosias for piety and zeal in the service of God was most renowned for he purged the Realme from all drosse of idolatry repaired the decayed Temple and restored it to the first glory and yet for all this for committing this one crime he lost his life for as Necho King of Aegypt was passing with an Army toward the King of Babylon in Charcamis beside Euphrates to bid him battell he would needs encounter him by the way and interrupt his journey by unprovoked war yea though Necho had by embassage assured him not to meddle with him but intreated onely free passage at his hand yet would not Iosias in any wise listen so opinionative and selfe-willed was he but gave him battell in the field without any just cause save his owne pleasure which turned to his pain for he caught so many wounds at that skirmish that shortly after hee died of them to the great griefe of the whole people and the Prophet Ieremy also that lamented his death King Iohn of France for refusing reasonable conditions of peace at the English mens hands was overthrowne by them two miles from Poytiers with a great overthrow for the Englishmen in regard of their owne small number and the huge multitude of the French to encounter with them timorously offered up a surrender of all that they had either conquered taken or spoiled since their comming from Bourdeaux and so to be sworne not to bear Armes against him for seven yeares so that they might quietly depart But the King that crowed before the Conquest affying too much in the multitude of his Forces stopt his eares to all conditions not willing to hear of any thing but war war even thinking to hew them in pieces without one escaping but it fell out otherwise for the English men intrenching themselves in a place of advantage and hard of accesse inclosed with thicke hedges and brambles disturbed and overthrew with their Archers at the first onset the French Horsemen and wounded most of their men and horses with multitude of arrowes it tarried not long ere the footmen also were put to flight on the other side
in many witnesseth they are intolerable in that kinde for which cause they have borâ—â— the markes of Gods Justice for their rigorous and barbarous handling of the poor West Indians whom they have brought to that extremity by putting them to such excessive travels in digging their mines of Gold as namely in the island Hispagnola that the most part by sighes and teares wish by death to end their miseries many first killing their children have desperately hung themselves on high trees some have throwne themselves headlong from steep mountaines and others cast themselves into the sea to be rid of their troubles but the Tyrans have never escaped scot-free but came alwayes to some miserable end or other for some of them were destroyed by the inhabitants others slew one another with their owne hands provoked by insatiable avarice some have been drowned in the sea and others starved in the Desart in fine few escaped unpunished Bombadilla one of the Governours of Hispagnola after he had swayed there a while and enriched himselfe by the sweat and charge of the inhabitants was called home again into Spain whitherward according to the commandment received as he imbarqued himselfe shipping with him so much treasure as in value mounted to more than an hundred and fifty thousand duckats beside many pieces and graines of Gold which he carried to the Spanish Queen for a Present whereof one weighed three thousand duckats there arose such a horrible and outragious tempest in the broad sea and beat so violently against his ships that four and twenty vessels were shivered in pieces and drowned at that blow there perished Bombadilla himselfe with most of his Captaines and more than five hundred Spaniards that thought to returne full rich into the Country and became with all their treasures a prey unto the fishes In the year of our Lord 1541. The eight day of September there chanced in the City Guatimala which lyeth in the way from Nicaragna Westward a strange and admirable judgement After the death of Alvarado who subdued this province and founded the City and was but a little before slain in fight it rained so strangely and vehemently all this whole day and night that of a sudden so huge a deluge and floud of waters overflowed the earth streaming from the bottom of the mountains into the lower grounds with such violence that stones of incredible bignesse were carried with it which tumbling strongly downewards bruised and burst in pieces whatsoever was in their way In the mean while there was heard in the air fearfull cries and voices and a blacke Cow was seen running up and downe in the midst of the water that did much hurt The first house that was Overthrowne by this tempest was dead Alvarado's wherein his widow a very proud woman that held the Government of the whole Province in her hand and had before despited God for her husbands death was slain with all her houshold and in a moment the Citie was either drowned or subverted there perished in this tempest of men and women sixscore persons but they that at the beginning of the floud â—ted saved their lives The morrow after the waters were surceased one might see the poor Spaniards lie along the fields some maimed in their bodies other with broken armes or legs or otherwise miserably wounded And thus did God revenge the monstrous Spanish cruelties exercised upon those poor people whom instead of inâ—icing by fair and gentle meanes to the knowledge of the true God and his Son Christ they terrified by extraordinary tyranny for such is the Spanish nature making them thinke that Christians were the cruellest and most wicked men of the earth In the year of our Lord 1514. happened the horrible sedition and butchery of the Croysadoes in Hungary the story is this There was a generall discontent amongst the people against the King and chiefest of the Realme because they went not about to conquer those places again from the Turke which he held in Hungary Thereupon the Popes Legate published Pardons for all those that would crosse themselves to go to war against the Turke Whereupon suddenly there gathered together a wonderfull company of thieves and robbers from every corner of Hungary who together with great multitudes of the common people that were oppressed by the insolency of the Nobility creating themselves a Generall committed a most horrible spoil almost over all Hungary murdering all the Gentlemen and Bishops they could meet withall the richest and those which were noblest descended they empailed alive This cruell rage continuing at last the King raised Forces against them and ere long they were defeated in a set battle by Iohn the son of Vayvod Stephen who having cut the most of them in pieces took their Leaders and put them to death by such strange torments as I have horrour to remember for the Generall of this seditious troop called George he caused to be stript naked and a Crowne of hot burning iron to be set upon his head then some of his veines to be opened and made Lucatius his brother to drinke the bloud which issued out of them After that the chiefest of the Peasants who had been kept three dayes without meat were brought forth and forced to fall up on the body of George yet breathing with their teeth and every one to tear away and eat a piece of it Thus he being torne in pieces his bowels were pulled out and cut into morsels whereof some being boyled and the rest roasted the Prisoners were constrained to feed on them which done all that remained were put to most horrible and languishing deaths An example of greater cruelty can hardly be found since the world was a world and therefore no marvell if the Lord hath punished the King and Realme of Hungary for such strange cruelties by suffering the cruell Turkes to make spoil of them Cruell chastisements are prepared for them that be cruell and inhumane During the Peasants war in Germany in the year 1525. a certain Gentleman not content to have massacred a great number even of those which had humbly craved pardon of him used in all company to glory of his exploits and to tell what murders and thefts he had committed But some moneths after he fell sicke and languished many dayes of an extreme pain in the reines of his back through the torment whereof he fell into despair and ceased not to curse and deny his Creatour who is blessed for ever untill that both speech and life failed him Neither did the severity of Gods justice here stay but shewed it selfe on his posterity also for his eldest son seeking to exalt the prowesse and valour of his father vaunted much of his fathers exploits in an open assembly at a banquet wherewithall a countriman being moved stabbed him to the heart with his dagger and some few dayes after the Plague fals among the residue of his Family and consumeth all that remaineth CHAP. XX. Of Adulteries IT
followeth by the order of our subject now to touch the transgression of the third Commandement of the second Table which is Thou shalt not commit Adultery in which words as also in many other Texts of Scripture Adultery is forbidden and grievous threatnings denounced against all those that defile their bodies with filthy and impure actions estrange themselves from God and conjoyne themselves to whores and ribauds This sin did the Israelites commit with the woman of Madian by means whereof they were to follow strange gods and to fall into Gods heavie displeasure who by a cruell Plague destroyed 24000. of them for the same sin And forasmuch as the Madianites through the wicked and pernicious counsell of Balaam did lay this snare for them and were so villanous and shamelesse as to prostitute and be Bauds to their owne wives therefore they were by the expresse Commandement of God discomfited their Kings and false prophets with all their men and women except onely their unpolluted virgins that had knowne no man slain and all their Cities and dwellings burned and consumed to ashes As every one ought to have regard and care to their honesty so maides especially whose whole credit and reputation hangeth thereupon for they that make no account thereof but suffer themselves to be polluted with any filthinesse draw upon them not onely most vile infamy but also many great miseries as is proved by the daughter of Hippomenes Prince of Athens who being a whore her father shut up in a stable with a wilde horse giving him no provender nor other meat to eat that the horse naturally furious enough but more enraged by famine might tear her in pieces and with her carkase refresh his hunger as he did Pontus Aufidian understanding that his daughter had been betrayed and sold into a lechers hands by a slave of his that was her schoolmaster put them both to death In like manner served Pub. Atilius Falisque his daughter that fell into the same infamy Vives reporteth that in our fathers dayes two brothers of Arragon perceiving their sister whom they ever esteemed for honest to be with childe hiding their displeasure untill her delivery was past came in suddenly and stabbed her into the belly with their daggers till they killed her in the presence of a sage matron that was witnesse to their deed The same Authour saith That when he was a young man there were three in the same Countrey that conspired the death of a companion of theirs that went about to commit this villany and as they conspired so they performed it strangling him to death with a napkin as he was going to his filthinesse As for Adulterers examples are infinite both of their wicked lives and miserable ends In which number many of them may be scored that making profession of a single life and undertaking the vow of chastity shew themselves monstrous knaves and ribauds as many of the Popes themselves have done As we reade of Iohn the Eleventh bastard son to Lando his predecessour who by meanes of his Adulteries with Theodora then Governesse of Rome came by degrees to the Papacy so he passed the blessed time of his holy Popeship with this vertuous Dame to whom he served instead of a common Horse to satisfie her insatiable and disordinate lust but the good and holy father was at last taken and castin prison and there smothered to death with a pillow Benedict the Eleventh diâ—ing on a time with an Abbesse his familiar was poysoned with certain figs that he eat Clement the Fifth was reported to be a common Bawd and a protectour of whores he went apart into Avignion and there stayed of purpose to do nothing but whore-hunt he died in great torment of the bloudy flux plurisie and grief of the stomacke In our English Chronicles we reade of Sir Roger Mortimer Earl of March in the time of Edward the Third who having secret familiarity with Isabel Edward the Seconds wife was not onely the cause to stir her up to make war against her husband but also when he was vanquished by her and deposed from his Crowne his young son being installed in his Throne caused him most cruelly to be put to death by thrusting a hot spit into his body at his fundament He also procured the Earle of Kent the Kings uncle to be arraigned and beheaded at Winchester for that he withstood the Queenes and his dealings and would not suffer them to do what they listed All these mischiefes sprung out from the filthy root of Adultery But the just judgement of God not permitting such odious crimes to be unpunished nor undetected it so fell forth at the length that Isabel the old Queen was discovered to be with childe by the said Mortimer whereof complaint being made to the King as also of the killing of King Edward his father and conspiring and procuring the death of the Earle of Kent the Kings uncle he was arreigned and indicted and by verdict found guilty and suffered death accordingly like a Traitor his head being exalted upon London-bridge for a spectacle for all murderers and adulterers to behold that they might see and fear the heavy vengeance of God CHAP. XXI Of Rapes NOw if Adultery which with liking and consent of parties is committed be condemned how much more grievous and hainous is the offence and more guilty the offendour when with violence the chastity of any iâ— assailed and enforced This was the sin wherewith Sichem the son of Hemor the Levite is marked in holy Scripture for he ravished Dina Iacobs daughter for which cause Simeon and Levi revenged the injury done unto their sister upon the head of not onely him and his father but all the Males that were in the City by putting them to the sword It was a custome amongst the Spartans and Messenians during the time of peace betwixt them to send yearly to one another certain of their daughters to celebrate certain feasts and sacrifices that were amongst them now in continuance of time it chanced that fifty of the Lacedemonian virgins being come to those solemne feasts were pursued by the Messenian gallants to have their pleasures of them but they joyntly making resistance and fighting for their honesties strove so long not one yeelding themselves a prey into their hands till they all died whereupon arose so long and miserable a war that all the Countrey of Messena was destroyed thereby Aristoclides a Tyran of Orchomenus a City of Arcadia fell enamored with a maid of Stymphalis who seeing her father by him slain because he seemed to stand in his purposes light fled to the Temple of Diana to take Sanctuary neither could once be plucked from the image of the goddesse untill her life was taken from her but her death so incensed the Arcadians that they fell to Armes and sharpely revenged her cruell injury Appius a Roman a man of power and authority in the City inflamed with the love of a virgine
besieging him in his owne City took him at last prisoner and hanged him with his two sons Francis and William Diocles son of Pisistratus Tyran of Athens for ravishing a maid was slain by her brother whose death when Hippias his brother undertook to revenge and caused the maidens brother to be racked that he might discover the other conspiratours he named all the Tyrans friends which by commandment being put to death the Tyran asked whether there were any more None but onely thy selfe quoth he whom I would wish next to be hanged whereby it was perceived how abundantly he had revenged his sisters chastity by whose notable stomacke all the Athenians being put in remembrance of their liberty expelled their Tyran Hippias out of their City Mundus a young Gentleman of Rome ravished the chaste Matron Paulina in this fashion when he perceived her resolution not to yeeld unto his lust he perswaded the Priests of Isis to say that they were warned by an Oracle how that Anubius the god of Egypt desired the company of the said Paulina to whom the chaste Matron gave light credence both because she thought the Priests would not lie and also because it was accounted a great renowne to have to do with a god and thus by this meanes was Paulina abused by Mundus in the Temple of Isis under the name of Anubius Which thing being after disclosed by Mundus himselfe he was thus justly revenged the Priests were put to death the Temple beaten downe to the ground the Image of Isis throwne into Tiber and the young man banished A principall occasion of the Danes first arrivall here in England which after conquered the whole Land and exercised among the Inhabitants most horrible cruelties and outrages was a Rape committed by one Osbright a deputy King under the King of the West-Saxons in the North part This Osbright upon a time journeying by the way turned into the house of one of his Nobles called Bruer who having a wife of great beauty he being from home the King after dinner allured with her excellent beauty took her to a secret Chamber where he forcibly contrary to her will ravished her whereupon she being greatly dismayed and vexed made her mone to her husband at his returne of this violence and injury received The Nobleman forthwith studying revenge first went to the King and resigned to his hands all such services and possessions which he held of him and then took shipping and sailed into Denmarke where he had great friends and had his bringing up there making his mone to Codrinus the King desired his aid in revenging of the great villany of Osbright against him and his wife Codrinus glad to entertain any occasion of quarrell against this Land presently levied an Army and preparing all things for the same sendeth forth Inguar and Hubba two brethren with a mighty Army of Danes into England who first arriving at Holdernesse burnt up the Countrey and killed without mercy both men women and children then marching towards Yorke encountered with wicked Osbright himselfe where he with the most part of his Army was slain and discomfited a just reward for his villanous act as also one chief cause of the Conquest of the whole Land by the Danes In the year of our Lord 955. Edwine succeeding his uncle Eldred was King of England this man was so impudent that in the very day of his Coronation he suddenly withdrew himselfe from his Lords and in sight of certain persons ravished his owne kinswoman the wife of a Nobleman of his Realme and afterward slew her husband that he might have unlawfull use of her beauty for which act he became so odious to his Subjects and Nobles that they joyntly rose against him and deprived him of his Crowne when he had reigned four yeares CHAP. XXII Other examples of Gods Judgements upon Adulterers AMongst all other things this is especially to be noted how God for a greater punishment of the disordinate lust of men strucke them with a new yet filthy and stinking kinde of Disease called the French Pox though indeed the Spaniards were the first that were infected therewith by the heat which they caught among the women of the new-found lands and sowed the seeds thereof first in Spain and from thence sprinkled Italy therewith wherethe French men caught it when Charles the Eighth their King went against Naples From whence the contagion spread it selfe throughout divers places of Europe Barbary was so over-growne with it that in all their Cities the tenth part escaped not untouched nay almost not a Family but was infected From thence it ran to Aegypt Syria and the graund Cair and it may near hand truly be said that there was not a corner of the habitable world where this not onely new and strange for it was never heard of in antient ages but terrible and hideous scourge of Gods wrath stretched not it selfe They that were spotted with it and had it rooted in their bodies led a languishing life full of aches and torments and carried in their visages filthy markes of unclean behaviour as ulcers boyles and such like that greatly disfigured them And herein we see the words of Saint Paul verified That an Adulterer sinneth against his owne body Now for so much as the world is so brutishly carried into this sin as to none more the Lord therefore hath declared his anger against it in divers sorts so that divers times he hath punished it in the very act or not long after by a strange death Of which Alcibiades one of the great Captaines of Athens may stand for an example who being polluted with many great and odious vices and much given to his pleasures and subject to all uncleannesse ended his life in the midst thereof for as he was in company of a Phrygian strumpet having flowne thither to the King of Phrygia for shelter was notwithstanding set upon by certain Guards which the King induced by his enemies sent to stay him but they though in number many through the conceived opinion of his notable valour durst not apprehend him at hand but set fire to the house standing themselves in armes round about it to receive him if need were he seeing the fire leaped through the midst of it and so long defended himselfe amongst them all till strength failed in himselfe and blowes encreasing upon him constrained him to give up his life amongst them Pliny telleth of Cornelius Gallus and Q. Elerius two Roman Knights that died in the very action of filthinesse In the Irish History we finde recorded a notable judgement of God upon a notorious and cruell lecher one Turgesnis a Norwegian who having twice invaded Ireland reigned there as King for the space of thirty yeares This Tyran not onely cried havocke and spoil upon the whole Countrey abusing his victory very insolently but also spared not to abuse virgins and women at his pleasure to the satisfying
Countries to know the judgement of all the learned Divines concerning the matter in controversie who especially those that dwelt not far off seemed to allow and approve the divorce Thereupon he resolved rejecting his olde wife to take him to a new and to marrie as he did Anne of Bulloine one of the Queenes maides of honour a woman of most rare and excellent beauty Now as touching his first marriage with his brothers wife how unfortunate it was in it owne nature and how unjustly dispensed withall by the Pope we shall anon see by those heavy sorrowfull and troublesome events and issues which immediatly followed in the neck thereof And first and formest of the evill fare of the Cardinall of Yorke with whom the King being highly displeased for that at his instance and request the Pope had opposed himselfe to this marriage requited him and not undeservedly on this manner first he deposed him from the office of the Chancellorship secondly deprived him of two of his three bishoprickes which he held and lastly sent him packing to his owne bouse as one whom he never purposed more to see yet afterward being advertised of certaine insolent and threatning speeches which he used against him he sent againe for him but he not daring to refuse to come at his call dyed in the way with meere griefe and despight The Pope gave his definitive sentence against this act and favoured the cause of the divorced Ladie but what gained he by it save only that the King offended with him rejected him and all his trumpery retained his yearely tribute levied out of this Realm and converted it to another use and this was the recompence of his goodly dispensation with an incestuous marriage wherein although to speake truly and properly he lost nothing of his owne yet it was a deep check and no shallow losse to him and his successors to be deprived of so goodly a revenue and so great authority in this Realme as he then was CHAP. XXVII Of Adulterie SEeing that marriage is so holy an institution and ordinance of God as it hath been shewed to be it followeth by good right that the corruption thereof namely Adultery whereby the bond of marriage is dissolved should be forbidden for the woman that is polluted therewith despiseth her owne husband yea and for the most part hateth him and foisteth in strange seed even his enemies brats in stead of his owne not only to be fathered but also to be brought up and maintained by him and in time to be made inheritors of his possessions which thing being once knowne must needes stir up coales to set anger on fire and set abroach much mischiefe and albeit that the poore infants are innocent and guiltlesse of the crime yet doth the punishment and ignominie thereof redound to them because they cannot be reputed as legitimate but are even marked with the black coale of bastardy whilest they live so grievous is the guilt of this sin and uneasie to be removed For this cause the very Heathen not only reproved adultery evermore but also by authority of law prohibited it and allotted to death the offenders therein Abimelech King of the Philistims a man without circumcision and therefore without the covenant knowing by the light of nature for hee knew not the law of God how sacred and inviolable the knot of marriage ought to be expresly forbad all his people from doing any injury to Isaac in regard of his wife and from touching her dishonestly upon paine of death Out of the same fountaine sprang the words of queene Hecuba in Euripides speaking to Menelaus touching Helen when she admonished him to enact this law That every woman which should betray her husbands credit and her owne chastity to another man should die the death In olde time the Aegyptians used to punish adultery on this sort the man with a thousand jerkes with a reed and the woman with cutting off her nose but he that forced a free woman to his lust had his privy members cut off By the law of Iulia adulterers were without difference adjuged to death insomuch that Iulius Antonius a man of great parentage and reputation among the Romanes whose son was nephew to Augustus sister as Cornelius Tacitus reporteth was for this crime executed to death Aurelianus the Emperour did so hate and detest this vice that to the end to scare and terrifie his souldiers from the like offence he punished a souldier which had committed adultery with his hostesse in most severe manner even by causing him to be tyed by both his feet to two trees bent downe to the earth with force which being let goe returning to their course rent him cruelly in pieces the one halfe of his body hanging on the one tree and the other on the other Yea and at this day amongst the very Turkes and Tartarians this sin is sharply punished So that we ought not wonder that the Lord should ordaine death for the Adulterer If a man saith the law lie with another mans wife if I say he commit adultery with his neighbours wife the Adulterer and the Adulteresse shall die the death And in another place If a man be found lying with a woman married to a man they shall die both twaine to wit the man that lay with the wife and the wife that thou maiest put away evill from Israel Yea and before Moses time also it was a custome to burne the Adulterers with fire as it appeareth by the sentence of Iuda one of the twelve Patriarchs upon Thamar his daughter in law because he supposed her to have played the whore Beside all this to the end this sin might not be shuffled up and kept close there was a meanes given whereby if a man did but suspect his wife for this sin though she could by no witnesse or proofe be convinced her wickednesse notwithstanding most strangely and extraordinarily might be discovered And it was this The woman publikely at her husbands suit called in question before the Priest who was to give judgement of her after divers ceremonies and circumstances performed and bitter curses pronounced by him her belly would burst and her thigh would rot if she were guilty and she should be a curse amongst the people for her sin but if she was free no evill would come unto her Thus it pleased God to make knowne that the filthinesse of those that are polluted with this sin should not be hid This may more clearely appeare by the example of the Levites wife of whom it is spoken in the 19 20 and 21. Chapters of Iudges who having forsaken her husband to play the whore certaine moneths after he had againe received her to be his wife she was given over against her will to the villanous and monstrous lusts of the most wicked and perverse Gibeonites that so abused her for the space of a whole night together that in the morning she was found dead upon
for her living wherefore she murthered him in his bed and after slew her selfe also Arichbertus eldest son unto Lotharius King of France dyed even as hee was embracing his whores In summe to conclude this matter our English Chronicles report that in the yeare of our Lord 349 there was so great a plenty of corne and fruit in Britaine that the like had not been seene many yeares before but this was the cause of much idlenesse gluttony lechery and other vices in the land For usually case and prosperity are the nurses of all enormity but the Lord requited this their riotous and incontinent life with so great a pestilence and mortality that the living scantly sufficed to bury the dead Petrarch maketh mention of a certaine Cardinall that though hee was seventy yeares old yet every night would have a fresh whore and to this end had certaine bauds purveyours and providers of his trash but he dyed a miserable and wretched death And Martin Luther reported that a bishop being a common frequenter of the stewes in Hidelberg came to this mistrable end the boards of the chamber whither he used to enter went loosened that as soone as he came in he slipped through and broke his neck But above all that which we finde written in the second booke of Fincelius is most strange and wonderfull of a priest in Albenthewer a towne neare adjoyning to Gaunt in Flanders that perswaded a young maid to reject and disobey all her parents godly admonitions and to become his concubine when she objected how vile a sin it was and how contrary to the Law of God he told her that by the authority of the Pope he could dispence with any wickednesse were it never so great and further alledged the discommodities of marriage and the pleasure that would arise from that kinde of life in fine he conquered her vertuous purpose and made her yeeld unto his filthy lust But when they had thus pampered their desires together a while in came the devill and would needs conclude the play for as they were banquetting with many such like companions he tooke her away from the Priests side and notwithstanding her pittifull crying and all their exorcising and conjuring carried her quite away telling the Priest that very shortly he would fetch him also for he was his owne darling I may not here passe over in silence an Irish history famous both for notorious villany and excellent in justice wherein we may see by the adultery of one filthy Fryer occasion given not only of much bloodshed but of the ruine of a famous City called Rosse scituate in Leinster This City being first an unwalled towne was to prevent the sudden invasion of the Irish compassed about with a large and strong wall by the advice and charges of one Rose a chaste widdow and bountifull Gentlewoman This Rose had issue three sons who being bolstered out by their mothers wealth and their owne traffique made divers prosperous voyages into far countries but as one of the three chapmen was employed in his traffique abroad so the pretty poppet his wise began to play the harlot at home and that with none but a fat religious cloysterer of the towne they wallowed so long in this stinking puddle that suspition began to creepe into mens braines and from suspition the matter was so apparent that it grew to plaine proofe her unfortunate husband was no sooner come home but notice hereof was blowne in his eares so that with griefe and anger he grew for such is the nature of jealousâ—e almost starke mad and not only he but the whole towne took themselves as extreamely wronged by this shamefull fact whereupon divers of them conspiring together agreed as being a deed of charity to grub away such wilde shrubs from the towne and so flocking together in the dead of the night to the Abbey wherein this Fryet was cloystered the monument of which Abbey is yet to be seen at Rosse on the South side they undersparred the gates and breaking open the doores stabbed the Adulterer with the rest of the Covent through with their weapons where they left them goaring in their blood and gasping up their ghosts in their couches a cruell act I must needs confesse in the executioners who being carried away with private revenge had no measure in their cruelty but yet a just vengeance upon the executed that harboured and maintained so wretched a person but secret and deep are the judgements of God who punisheth one sin with another and maketh one wicked man a rod to plague another and after casteth the rod also into the fire for so did he here stirring up the rest of the Clergy to be a meanes to punish this cruelty for when as these three brethren not long after sped themselves into some far countrey to continue their trade the religious men being informed of their returne homeward every night did not misse to set a lantorne on the top of a high rock which was used to be set upon the Hulk tower a notable marke for Pilots in directing them which way to sterne their Ships and to eschew the danger of the rockes which are there very plentifull and so by this practise these three passengers bearing saile with a good winde made right upon the lantorne supposing it had been the Hulk tower and so ere they were aware their Ship was dasht upon the rockes and all the passengers over-whirled in the Sea And thus was Adultery punished with cruelty and cruelty with treason but see the end upon this there grew so great quarrels and discontentments between the townesmen and the religious the one cursing the other that the estate of that flourishing towne was turned upside downe and from abundance of prosperity quite exchanged to extreame penury CHAP. XXX More examples of the same argument I Cannot passe over in silence a history truly tragicall touching the death of many men who by reason of an Adultery slew one another in most strange and cruell manner and indeed so strangely that as far as I ever read or knew there was never the like particular deed heard of wherein God more evidently poured forth the streame of his displeasure turning the courage and valour of each part into rage and fury to the end that by their owne meanes he might be revenged on them In the Dukedome of Spaleto which is the way from Ancona to Rome of the antient Latines called Umbria there were three brethren who kept in their possession three Cities of the said Dukedome namely Faligno Nocera and Trevio the eldest of whom whose sirname was Nicholas as he passed from one town to the other being at Nocera lodged divers times in the Castle in the keepers and Captaines house whom he had there substituted to defend the place with an ordinary band of souldiers Now as he made his abode there a few dayes he grew to cast a more lascivious eye upon the Captaines wife than was
meant to have made so glorious a building came never to any good effect the one at Ipswich being cleane defaced the other at Oxford unfinished And thus much of sacriledge Now let us come and see the punishment of simple theft the principall cause whereof is covetousnesse which is so unruly an evill and so deep rooted in the heart of man that ever yet it hath used to encroach upon the goods of others and to keep possession of that which was none of its owne breaking all the bonds of humanity equity and right without being contained in any measure or meane whereof wee have a most notable example in the old world before the flood which by Moses report overflowed with iniquity and extortion the mighty ones oppressed the weak the greater trode under foot the lesse and the rich devoured the poore When the Lord saw the generall deluge of sin and disorder thus universally spread which indeed was a signe of great defection and contempt of him he like a just judge that could not endure these monstrous iniquities sent a deluge of waters amongst them by opening the windowes of heaven and breaking up the fountaines of the great deepes and giving passage to the waters both by heaven and earth so that it raigned forty daies and forty nights without ceasing and the waters prevailed upon the earth and overcovered the high mountaines by fifteen cubites the earth being reduced into the same estate which it had in the beginning before the waters were tooke away from the face thereof verily it was a most hideous and sad spectacle to see first the vallies then the hils and last the highest mountaines so overflowne with water that no shew or appearance of them might be perceived it was a dreadfull sight to behold whole houses tossed to and fro up and downe in the waves and at last to be shivered in pieces there was not a City nor village that perished not in the deep not a tree nor tower so high that could overpeere the waters as they increased more and more in abundance so feare horrour and despaire of safety encreased in the heart of every living soule And on this fashion did God punish those wicked rebels not at one blow but by little and little increasing their paine that as they had a long time abused his patience and made no reckoning of amendment so the punishment of their sin might be long and tedious Now in this extremity one could not help another nor one envy another but all were concluded under the same destruction all surprised assieged and environed alike as well he that roved in the fields as he that stayed in the houses he that climbed up into the mountaines as he that abode in the vallies the mercilesse waters spared none it was to no purpose that some ascended their high houses some climbed upon trees and some scaled the rockes neither one nor other found any refuge or safety in any place the rich were not saved by their riches nor the strong by the pith of their strength but all perished and were drowned together except Noah and his family which punishment was correspondent unto the worlds iniquity for as the earth was corrupted and polluted with abundance of sin so God sent abundance of water to purge and cleanse away the filthinesse thereof as at the latter day hee will send fire to purifie and refine heaven and earth from their dregs and restore them to their first and purest estate And thus God revenged the extortion and cruelty of that age But yet for all this those sins were not then so defaced and rooted up but that they be burnished againe and growne in time to as big a bulke for even at this day the greatest part of the world is given to practise fraud and deceit and by unlawfull meanes to incroach upon others goods which subtilties though they desire never so to disguise and cloke yet will they ever be condemned and reputed kindes of theft before God now as some are of greater power authority than others in the world so answerable to themselves is the quality of their sins and by consequence the punishment the greater of power the greater theeves and the greater judgment for if a poore man that through poverty and necessity cutteth a purse or stealeth any other trifle be culpable how much more culpable shall he that is rich be that usurpeth the goods of his neighbour Draco the lawgiver of Athens appointed death to be the punishment of sheft Solon mitigated that rigour and punished it with double restitution The Locrians put out his eyes that had stolne ought from his neighbour The Hetrurians stoned them to death The Scythians abhorred them more than all creatures because they had a community of all things except their cups the Vatoeiane used such severity towards this kinde of men that as 〈…〉 taken a handfull of 〈◊〉 he was sure to die for it 〈…〉 being Censor 〈◊〉 demeed his owne son Buteo to death being apprehended for theft Tiberius the Emperour punished a souldier after the time 〈◊〉 for stealing iâ—â—eacoâ—ke in summe there was no Commonwealth 〈…〉 was not highly detested and sharply 〈…〉 the 〈…〉 where it wâ—s permitted and tollerated 〈…〉 of 〈…〉 〈…〉 yet as 〈…〉 a just dead of Tamberlaine that mighty 〈◊〉 and Conquerour of Asia when a poore woman complained 〈…〉 of his souldiers that had taken from her a little milke and a 〈…〉 the caused the souldiers belly to be ripped to see that her 〈◊〉 had falsely accused him on no and finding the milke in his stomacke adjudged him worthy of that punishment for stealing from poore â—â— woman When Theophilus raigned Emperour in the East there was a certaine souldier possessed of a very gallant and brave horse which his Captaine by all meaâ—es possible sought to get from him but he would not in any case 〈…〉 he put him forth of pay and tooke his horse from him by force and sent him for a present to the Emperour Theophilus now it chanced that this poore souldier was slaine in the battell for want of his horse and his wife and children lest destitute of succour insomuch that through necessity she was constrained to flie to Constant inople and to complaine to the Emperour of the injury done unto her husband with this resolution entring the City she met the Emperour riding upon her husbands horse and catching the horse bridle challenged him not onâ—y for stealing the horse but also being the cause of her husbands death The Emperour wondring at the woman boldnesse examined her more narrowly and found out the whole practise of that wicked Captaine whom he banished presently his Empire and bestowed his possession in recommence upon the distressed widdow Ibicus the Poet being set upon by Theeves when he saw that they would not only spoile him of his money but of 〈◊〉 he also cryed for help and revenge to the cranes that flew over his head a while after
did most pill and pull the people and would often say That the gold and silver of the Kingdom pertained in right to none but him Being reproved of his mother at a time for his immoderate and excessive expences saying That there was almost not so much more treasure left as he had already spent he made her this answer That she should take no care for that for as long as his hand was able to wield his sword which he held naked before her he would not want money This is the sword which many now adayes after the example of Caracalla have taken up to cut out by force and violence a way to their owne wils and to cut the throat of equity and justice and to compell the poor people to forgo their goods and surrender them into their hands Now how odious and hatefull these three were made unto the people by their owne wicked demeanours their miserable ends do sufficiently testify which wee have already before ment ioned and mean afterward more at large to speak of The Emperour Constance son to Constantine whose father was Heraclius comming at a time out of Greece into Rome abode there but five dayes but in that short space committed so much outrage in ransacking the Temples and other publike places and carrying away so many rich ornaments and pictures whereof those places then abounded that in mans remembrance no forreigne barbarous enemy having taken the City by force of war ever went away with the like spoil besides he did so oppresse the Allies and Tributaries of the Empire and chiefly the Sicilians with taxes and imposts that many of them were constrained to sell their children for money to satisfie his extortion and by this meanes he scraped together an infinite masse of rapines and evill gotten goods but enjoyed the sweet of them not very long for very soon after he was murdered by his owne men of wat in his returne out of Sicily and all that spoil which he had unjustly surprised was suddenly taken and transported into Africa by the Sarasens that then inhabited the City Panorme Lewis the eleventh King of France after he had overcharged his subjects with too grievous burdens of payments and taxes fell into such a timorous conceit and fear of death as never any man did the like he attempted all meanes of avoiding or delaying the same as first during his sicknesse he gave his Physitian monethly ten thousand crownes by that meanes to creep into his favour wherein he being in all other things a very niggard and pinch-penny shewed himself on the other side more than prodigall next he sent into Calabria for an Hermit reported to be an holy and devout man to whom at his arrivall he performed so much duty and reverence as was wonderfull and unseemly for he threw himselfe on his knees and besought him to prolong his decaying life as if he had been a God and not a man but all that he could do was to no purpose no nor the reliques which Pope Sextus sent him to busie himselfe withall nor the holy viall of the Rheimes which was brought him could prorogue this life of his nor priviledge him from dying a discontent and unwilling death he suspected the most part of his nearest attendants and would not suffer them to approach unto him in his sicknesse after he had thus prolonged the time in hope and yet still languished in extream distresse of his disease it was at length told him in all speed that he should not set his minde any longer upon those vain hopes nor upon that holy man for his time was come and he must needs die And thus he that during his Raigne shewed himselfe rough and cruell to his subjects by too many and heavy impositions was himselfe in his latter end thus roughly and hardly dealt withall Christierne the eleventh King of Denmarke Norway and Suecia after the death of King Iohn his father reigned the year of our Lord 1514. and was too intolerable in imposing burdens and taxes upon his subjects for which cause the Suecians revolted from his government whom though after many battels and sieges he conquered and placed amongst them his garisons to keep them in awe yet ceased they not to rebell against him and that by the instigation of a mean Gentleman who very quickly got foâ—ting into the Kingdom and possessed himselfe of the Crowne and government Now Christierne having lost this Province and being also in disdain and hatred of his owne Countrey and fearing least this inward heat of spight should grow to some flame of danger to his life seeing that the inhabitants of Lubecke conspiring with his uncle Fredericke began to take armes against him he fled away with his wife sister to the Emperour Charles the fifth and his young children to Zealand a Province of the Emperours after he had reigned nine yeares after which the Estates of the Realme aided by them of Lubecke assembling together exalted his uncle Fredericke Prince of Holsatia though old and antient to the Crowne and publishing certain writings addressed them to the Emperour and the Princes of his Empire to render a reason of their proceeding and to make knowne unto them upon how good considerations they had deposed and banished Christierne for the tyranny which hee exercised among them Ten yeares after this he got together a new Army by sea in hope to recover his losses but contrary to his hope he was taken prisoner and in captivity miserably ended his dayes Henry King of Suecia was chased from his Scepter for enterprising to burden his Commons with new contributions those that were devisers of new Taxes and Tributes for the most part ever lost their lives in their labours for proof whereof let the example of Parchenus or Porchetes serve who for giving counsell to King Theodebert touching the raising of new subsidies was stoned to death by the multitude in the City Trieves Likewise was George Presquon cruelly put to death by the people for perswading and setting forward Henry of Suecia to the vexation and exaction of his subjects CHAP. XL. More examples of the same subject AIstulphus the nineteenth King of Lumbardy was not onely a most cruell Tyran but also a grievous oppressour of his subjects with taxes and exactions for he imposed this upon every one of them to pay yearly a Noble for their heads against this man Pope Stephen provoked King Pepin of France who comming with an Army drove the Tyran into Tycinum and constrained him to yeeld to partiall conditions of peace Howbeit Pepin was no sooner gone but he returned to his old byas wherefore the second time he came and drove him to as great extreamity insomuch as another peace was concluded after the accomplishment whereof perverse Aistulph still vexing his subjects was plagued by God with an Apoplexy and so died Iustinian the Emperour as he was profuse and excessive in spending so was he immoderate and insatiable in gathering
together riches for he exercised his wit in devising new tributes and payments and rejoyced his heart in nothing more for which causes there arose a grievous sedition at Constantinople against him wherein not onely the excellent and famous monuments of the Empire were burned but also forty thousand men slain and this was no small punishment for his oppression At Paris there is to be seene in the corne market a certaine monument hard at the mouth of the common sinke which conveyeth away all the filth out of the City the occasion whereof is reported to be this A certaine courtier seeing the king sad and melancholly for want of treasure counselled him to exact of every countriman that brought ware into the city but one penny and that but for two yeares together which when the King put in practise and found the exceeding commodity thereof he not onely continued that tax but also invented divers others to the great dammage of the common-wealth and enriching of his owne treasurie Wherefore he that put it first into his head when hee saw that he had not so much authority in dissuading as he had in persuading it to take punishment of himselfe for that inconsiderate deed and to warne others from attempting the like he commanded by his testament that his body should be buried in that common sinke to be an example of exaction and the filthinesse thereof Barnabe Vicount of Milan by the report of Paulus Iovius was an unconscionable oppressor of his subjects and tenants for he did not onely extort of them continuall imposts and payments but enjoyned them to keepe every one a dogge which if they came to any mishap or were either too fat or too leane the keeper was sure to be beaten or at least some fine to be set on his head This Tyran was taken by Iohn Galeacius and after seven moneths imprisonment poysoned to death Archigallo brother to Gorbonianus in nature though unlike in conditions for he was a good Prince whereas this was a tyran was crowned King of Britaine in the yeare of the world 3671 we may well place him in the ranke of oppressours for he deposed the Noblemen and exalted the ignoble he extorted from men their goods to enrich his treasure for which cause the Estates of the Realme deprived him of his royall Dignity and placed his younger brother Elydurus in his room after he had raigned five yeares Hardiknitus King of Denmarke after the death of Harold was ordained King of England in the year of our Lord 1041. This King as he was somewhat cruell for he caused the body of Harold to be taken up out of the Sepulclire and smiting off his head to be cast out into the River Thames because he had injured his mother Emma when he was alive so he was burdensom to his Subjects in tributes and exaction for which cause growing into hatred with God and his Subjects he was strucken with sudden death not without suspition of poysoning after he had raigned three yeares William Rufus second son of William the Conquerour succeeded his father as in the Kingdom of England so in disposition of nature for they were both cruell inconstant and covetous aud burdened their people with unreasonable taxes insomuch that what by the murraine of men by postilence and oppressions of them by exactions the tillage of the earth was put off for one year being the year 1099 whereby ensued great scarcity the year following throughout all the Land but for the oppression William was justly punished by sudden death when being at his disport of hunting he was wounded with an arrow glauncing from the bow of Tyrill a French Knight and so his tyranny and life ended together And here is further to be noted that the place where this King was slain was called New Forest in which same place Richard the Cousin germane of King William son to Duke Robert his brother was likewise slain This New Forest was made by William the Conquerour their father who plucked downe and depopulated divers Townes and Churches the compasse of 30. miles about to make this a Forest for wilde Beasts a most beastly sin yea a bloudy crying sin too too much practised in these dayes and that by great persons that make no conscience to turne Townes into pastures and men into sheep but let all them behold the just vengeance of God upon this Kings posterity for when then either cannot or will not revenge then God revengeth either in them or their posterity In the year 1548. the Commons of Guyenne Santonge and Augoulemois fell into a great Rebellion by reason of the extortions of the Customers and Farmours of Salt the Rebels in a few weekes grew to the number of fourty thousand men armed with clubs and staves who joyning with the Islanders by a generall consent ran upon the Officers of the Custome and with extreme sury put to sword all that they could take notwithstanding the King of Navarre sought by all meanes to appease them About the same time the Commons of Gascoigne rose in divers places upon the same causes and notwithstanding all that the Lord of Monneins the Kings Lieutenant and all other Officers could do they made a great spoil of many honourable Houses and massacre of much people insomuch that the Lord of Moneins himselfe was slain by them whilest he was making an Oration to them to pacifie their rage but at length these Rebels were suppressed by Francis of Lorraine Earle of Aumale and Anne of Mommorancye high Constable of France and the chief King-leaders and Captaines of them executed according to their deserts La Vergne was drawne in pieces by four horses L'Estonnac and the two brothers of Saulx had their heads cut off Tallemoigne and Galeferâ— the two Colonels of the Commons were broken upon the Wheele being first crowned with a crowne of burning iron as a punishment of the Soveraignty which they had usurped Thus the Lord punished both the one and the other and the one by the other the exactors for their oppression and the tumultuous Commons for their Rebellion Neither doth the Lord thus punish oppressours themselves but also they that either countenance or having authority do not punish the same as it appeareth by this example following In the year of our Lord 475. there lived one Corrannus a King of Scots who though he governed the people in peace and quietnesse a long space and was indeed a good Prince yet because his Chancellour Tomset used extortion and exaction amongst his Subjects and he being advertised thereof did not punish him he was slain traiterously by his owne Subjects It is not unworthy to be noted how Edward the Third King of England prospered a long while in the warres against France and got many worthy and wonderfull victories but when Prince Edward son unto the aforesaid Edward after conditions of peace concluded began to set taxes and impositions upon the Country
the squadron of Switzers now joyned to the French in attire and armour like a Switzer thinking by this tricke to save his life but all his counterfeiting could not save him from being taken and from lying ten yeares prisoner in the Tower of Loches where he also died and so all his high and ambitious thoughts which scarcely Italie could containe were pend up in a strait and narrow roome With the like turbulent and furious spirit of ambition have many Roman Bishops been inspired who what by their jugling trickes cousenages and subtill devises and what by force have prospered so well that of simple Bishops which they were wont to be they are growne temporall Lords and as it were Monarchs having in their possessions lands cities castles fortresses havens garrisons and guards after the manner of Kings nay they have exalted themselves above Kings so intollerable is their impudence and made them subject to their wils and yet they call themselves the Apostles pedigree whom Christ forbad all such domination But what of that It pertaineth not to them to succeed in vertue but in authoritie the Apostles for if that charge had concerned them then Pope Lucius the second would never have beene so shamelesse as to request in right of his Popeship the soveraigntie over Rome as hee did neither when it was denyed him to have gone about to usurpe it by force and to bring his minde about to have layed siege to the Senat house with armed men to the end that either by banishing or murdering the Senatours then assembled together he might invest himselfe with the Kingly dignitie but what got he by it Marry this the people being in an uprore in the Citie upon the sight of this holy fathers proud attempt tooke themselves to armes and ran with such violence upon master Pope that they forthwith stoned his Holinesse to death but not like Stephen the Martyr for the profession of Christ Iesus but like a vile and seditious theefe for seeking the Common-wealths overthrow Pope Adrian the fourteenth a monkes sonne succeeding Lucius both in the Papacie and also in ambition tooke in hand his omitted enterprises for he excommunicated the Romanes untill they had banished Arnold a Bishop that gave them counsell to retaine the power of electing their magistrate and governing their citie in their hands a thing repugnant to his intent and after hee had degraded the Consuls to make his part the stronger he caused the Emperour Fredericke to come with an armie to the citie whom notwithstanding hee handled but basely for his paines for hee did not onely checke him openly for standing on his feet and holding the stirrop of his horse with his left hand but also denied him the crowne of the Empire except hee would restore to him Poville which he said pertained unto him how beit he got the Crowne notwithstanding and before his returne from Rome into Germanie more than a thousand citizens that would not yeeld nor subscribe unto the Popes will were slaine After Frederickes departure the Pope seeing himselfe destitute of his further aid first excommunicated the King of Sicilie that in right of inheritance possessed the foresaid Poville but when this served him to small purpose he practised with Emanuel the Emperour of Greece to set upon him which thing turned to his finall confusion After this through his intollerable pride hee fell out with Fredericke the Emperour and to revenge himselfe upon him discharged his subjects from their fealtie to him and him from his authoritie over them Now marke his end As he walked one day towards Aviane a flie got in at his mouth and downe his throat so farre that it stopped the conduit of his breath so that for all that his physitions could do hee was choked therewith And thus he that sought by all the meanes he could to make himselfe greater than he ought to be and to get the masterie of every thing at his owne will and pleasure and to take away other mens rights by force was cut short and rebated by a small and base creature and constrained to leave this life which he was most unworthy of Hither may be referred that which befell the Emperour Albert Duke of Austria and one of his lievtenants in Switzerland for going about to usurpe and appropriat certaine lands and dominions to him which belonged not unto him This Emperour had many children whom he desired to leave rich and mighty and therefore by all meanes possible he endeavoured to augment his living even by getting from other men whatsoever he could and amongst all the rest this was one especiall practise wherein he laboured tooth and nayle to alienate from the Empire the land of the Switzers and to leave it for an everlasting inheritance to his heires which although the Switzers would in no case condiscend nor agree unto but contrariwise sued earnestly unto his Majesty for the maintenance of their antient liberties and priviledges which were confirmed unto them by the former Emperors and that they might not be distracted from the Empire yet notwithstanding were constrained to undergo for a season the yoke of most grievous tyranny and servitude imposed by force upon them and thus the poore communaltie indured many mischiefes and many grievous and cruell extortions and indignities at the hands of the Emperours officers whilest they lived in this wretched and miserable estate Amongst the rest there was one called Grislier that began to erect a strong fort of defence upon a little hill neere unto Altorfe to keepe the countrey in greater awe and subjection and desiring to descrie his friends from his foes he invented this devise He put a hat upon the end of a long pole and placed it in the field before Altorfe where were great multitudes of people with this commandement That everie one that came by should do but dieth ere he awaketh so mony taken in usurie delighteth and contenteth at the first but it infecteth all his possessions and sucketh out the marrow of them ere it be long Seeing then it is abhominable both by the law of God and nature let us shun it as a toad and flie from it as a cockatrice But when these persuasions will not serve let them turne their eyes to these examples following wherein they shall see the manifest indignation of God upon it In the Bishopricke of Collen a notable famous Usurer lying upon his death-bed ready to die moved up and downe his chaps and his lips as if he had bin eating something in his mouth and beeing demanded what hee eat hee answered his money and that the divell thrust it in his mouth perforce so that hee could neither will nor chuse but devour it in which miserable temptation he died without any shew of repentance The same author telleth of another Usurer that a little before his death called for his bags of gold and silver and offered them all to his soule upon condition it would not forsake
him But if he would have given all the world it could not ransome him from death wherefore when he saw there was no remedie but hee must needs die hee commended his soule to the Divell to be carried into everlasting torments which words when hee had uttered hee gave up the ghost Another Usurer being ready to die made this his last Will and Testament My soule quoth he I bequeath to the divell who is owner of it my wife likewise to the divell who induced me to this ungodly trade of life and my deacon to the divell for soothing me up and not reproving me for my faults and in this desperate persuasion he died incontinently Usury consisteth not only in lending and borowing but buying and selling also and all unjust and crafty bargaining yea and it is a kinde of usurie to detain through too much covetousnesse those commodities from the people which concerne the publike good and to hoord them up for their private gain til some scarcitie orwant arise and this also hath evermore beene most sharpely punished as by these examples may appeare About the yeare 1543. at what time a great famine and dearth of bread afflicted the world there was in Saxonie a countrey peasant that having carried his corne to the market and sold it cheaper than he looked for as he returned homewards he fell into most heavy dumpes and dolours of minde with griefe that the price of graine was abated and when his servants sang merrily for joy of that blessed cheapnesse he rebuked them most sharpely and cruelly yea and was so much the more tormented and troubled in minde by how much he more he saw any poore soule thankfull unto God for it but marke how God gave him over to a reprobate and desperate sence Whilest his servants rode before hee hung himselfe at the cart taile being past recoverie of life ere any man looked backe or perceived him A notable example for our English cormorants who joyne barne to barne and heape to heape and will not sell nor give a handful of their superfluitie to the poore when it beareth a low price but preserve it till scarcity and want come and then they sell it at their owne rate let them feare by this lest the Lord deale so or worse with them Another covetous wretch when he could not sel his cornesodear as hee desired said the mise should eat it rather than he would lessen one jot of the price thereof Which words were no sooner spoken but vengeance tooke them for all the mise in the countrey flocked to his barnes and fieldes so that they left him neither standing nor lying corne but devoured all This story was written to Martin Luther upon occasion whereof he inveying mightily against this cruell usurie of husbandmen told of three misers that in one yeare hung themselves because graine bore a lower price than they looked for adding moreover that all such cruell and muddy extortioners deserved no better a doome for their unimercifull oppression Another rich farmer whose barnes were full of graine and his stacks untouched was so covetous withall that in hope of some dearth and deerenesse of corne he would not diminish one heape but hoorded up dayly more and more and wished for a scarcity upon the earth to the end hee might enrich his coffers by other mens necessities This cruell churle rejoyced so much in his aboundance that everie day he would go into his barnes and feed his eyes with his superfluitie Now it fell out as the Lord would that having supped and drunke very largely upon a night as hee went according to his custome to view his riches with a candle in his hand behold the wine or rather the justice of God overcame his sences so that he fell downe suddenly into the mow and by his fall set on fire the corne being dry and easie to be incensed in such sort that in a moment all that which he had scraped together and preserved so charily and delighted in so unreasonably was consumed and brought to ashes and scarce he himselfe escaped with his life Another in Misnia in the yeare 1559 having great store of corne hoordedup refused to succor the necessitie of his poore halfe famished neighbours for which cause the Lord punished him with a strange and unusuall judgement for the corne which he so much cherished assumed life and became feathered fowles flying out of his barnes in such abundance that the world was astonished thereat and his barnes left emptie of all provision in most wonderfull and miraculous manner No lesse strange was that which happened in a towne of France called Stenchansen to the Governour of the towne who being requested by one of his poore subjects to sell him some corne for his money when there was none to be gotten elsewhere answered hee could spare none by reason he had scarce enough for his owne hogs which hoggish disposition the Lord requited in it owne kinde for his wife at the next litter brought forth seven pigs at one birth to increase the number of his hogs that as he had preferred filthie and ougly creatures before his poore brethren in whom the image of God in some sort shined forth so he might have of his owne getting more of that kinde to make much of since hee loved them so well Equall to all the former both in cruelty touching the person and miracle touching the judgement was that which is reported by the same authour to have happened to a rich couetous woman in Marchia who in an extreame dearth of victuals denyed not onely to relieve a poore man whose children were ready to starve with famine but also to sell him but one bushell of corne when he wanted but a penny of her price for the poore wretch making great shift to borrow that penny returned to her againe and desired her he might have the corn but as he payed her the mony the penny fell upon the ground by the providence of God which as she stretched out obeisance and vaile bonnet to the hat and in every respect shew themselves as dutifull unto it as to his owne person imagining that his greatest enemies could not endure nor finde in their hearts to do it and therefore upon this occasion he might apprehend them and discover all their close practises and conspiracies which they might brew against him now there was one a stout hearted man that passing everie day up and downe that wayes could in no wise be brought to reverence the dignitie of the worthy hat so unreasonable a thing it seemed in his eyes whereupon being taken the tyran commanded him for punishment of his open contempt to shoot at an apple laid upon the crowne of the head of his dearest childe and if he mist the apple to be put to death the poore man after many excuses and allegations and entreaties that he might not hazard his childes life in that sort was notwithstanding
enforced to shoot and shooting God so directed his shaft that the apple was hit and the childe untoucht and yet for all this he adjudged him to perpetuall prison out of which he miraculously escaping watched the tyrans approach in so fit a place that with the shaft that should have beene the death of his sonne he strooke him to the heart whose unluckie end was a luckie beginning of the Switzers deliverance from the bondage of tyrans and of the recovery of their antient freedome which ever after they wisely and constantly maintained The Emperour Albert purposing to be revenged upon them for his injury as also for slaying many more of his men and breaking downe his castles of defence which he had caused to be builded in their countrey determined to mak war upon them but he was slaine ere he could bring it hat determination to effect by one of his owne nephews from whom being his overseer and gardant for bringing up he withheld his patrimonie against all equity neither by prayers or entreatie could be perswaded to restore it These things according to Nic. Gils report in his first volume of the Chronicles of France happened about the reigne of Saint Lewis Hither may be referred the history of Richard the first King of England called Richard Coeur de Lyon though not so much a fruite of ambition in him as of filthie covetousnesse This King when as Widomarus Lord of Linionice in little Britaine having found a great substance of treasure in the ground sent him a great part thereof as chiefe Lord and Prince of the countrey refused it saying That he would either have all or none but the finder would not condiscend to that whereupon the King layed siege to a castle of his called Galuz thinking the treasure to lye there but as he with the Duke of Brabant went about viewing the Castle a souldier within stroke him with an arrow in the arme the yron whereof festering in the wound caused that the King within nine daies after died And so because he was not content with the halfe of the treasure that another man found lost all his owne treasure that he had together with his life the chiefest treasure of all CHAP. XLII Of Vsurers and their theft IF open larcenies and violent robberies and extortions are forbidden by the law of God as we have seene they are then it is no doubt but that all deceit and unjust dealings and bargains used to the dammage of others are also condemned by the same law and namely Usurie when a man exacteth such unmeasurable gaine for either his mony or other thing which hee lendeth that the poore borrower is so greatly indammaged that in stead of benefitting and providing for his affaires which he aimed at he hitteth his further losse and finall overthrow This sinne is expressely prohibited in Leviticus 25 Deuteronomy 23 and Psalme 15 where the committants thereof are held guilty before Gods judgement Seat of iniquitie and injustice and against them it is that the prophet Ezechiel denounceth this threatening That he which oppresseth or vexeth the poore and afflicted he which robbeth or giveth to usurie and receiveth the encrease into their bags shall die the death and his bloud shall bee upon his pate Neither truely doth the justice of God sleepe in this respect but taketh vengeance upon all such and punisheth them after one sort or other either in body or goods as it pleaseth him I my selfe knew a grand usurer in the countrey of Vallay that having scraped together great masses of gold and silver by these unlawfull meanes was in one night robbed of fifteene hundred crownes by theeves that broke into his house I remember also another usurer dwelling in a town called Argental nigh unto Anovay under the jurisdiction of Tholosse in high Vivaria who being in hay time in a meadowe was stung in the foot by a serpent or some other venomous beast that he died thereof an answerable punishment for his often stinging and biting many poore people with his cruell and unmercifull usurie Nay it is so contrarie to equitie and reason that all nations led by the instinct of nature have alwayes abhorred and condemned it insomuch that the conditions of theeves hath bin more easie and tollerable than usurers for theft was wont to be punished but with double restitution but usurie with quadruple and to speake truely these rich and gallant usurers do more rob the common people and purloine from them than all the publike theeves that are made publike examples of justice in the world It is to be wished that some would examine usurers bookes and make a bond-fire of their obligations as that Lacedemonian did when Agesilaus reported that hee never saw a â—leerer fire or that some Lucullus would deliver Europe from that contagion as the Romane did Asia in his time Licurgus banished this canker worme out of his Sparta Amasis punished it severely in his Aegypt Cato exiled it out of Sicilie and Solo condemned it in Athens how much more should it he held in detestation among Christians S. Chrysostome compareth it fitly to the biting of an aspe as he that is stung with an aspe falleth asleepe as it were with delectation her hand to reach it miraculously turned into a serpent and bit her so fast that by no meanes it could be loosened from her arme untill it had brought her to a woefull and miserable end Sergius Galba before hee came to be Emperor being President of Africa under Claudius when as through penurie of victuals corne and other food was very sparingly shared out and divided amongst the armie punished a certaine souldier that sould a bushell of wheat to one of his fellows for an hundred pence in â—ope to obtaine a new share himselfe in this manner he coÌ„manded the Quaestor or Treasurer to give him no more sustenance since hee preferred lucre before the necessity of his owne body and his friends welfare neither suffered he any man else to sell him any so that hee perished with famine and became a miserable example to all the army of the fruits of that foule droupsie covetousnesse And thus wee see how the Lord rained downe vengeance upon all covetous Usurers and oppressors plaguing some on this fashion and some on that and never passing any but either in this life some notable judgement overtakes them either in themselves or their off-springs for it is notoriously knowne that usurers children though left rich yet the first or second generation became alwayes beggers or in the life to come they are thrown into the pit of perdition from whence there is no redemption nor deliverance CHAP. XLIII Of Dicers and Card-players and their theft IF any recreation be allowed us as no doubt there is yet surely it is not such as whereby we should worke the damage and hurt of one another as when by gaming we draw away another mans mony with his great losse and this
were eye witnesses of this wofull spectacle as for him by law he was judged to a most severe and cruell punishment and all these pitifull events arose from that cursed root of Dice-play We ought therefore to learne by all these things that have beene already spoken to abstaine not onely from this cursed pastime but also from extortion robberies deceit guile and other such naughty practices that tend to the hurt and detriment of one another and in place thereof to procure the good and welfare of each one in all kindenesse and equity following the Apostles counsell where he sayeth Let them that stole steale no more but rather travell by labouring with his hands in that which is good that he may have wherewith to succor the necessitie of others For it is not enough not to do evill to our neighbor but we are tyed to do him good or at least to endeavour to do it CHAP. XLIV Of such as have beene notorious in all kinde of sinne BY these fore placed examples we have seene how heavie the judgements of God have beene upon those that through the untamednesse of their owne lusts and affections would not submit themselves under the holy and mighty will of God but have countermanded his commandements and withstood his precepts some after one sort and some after another now because there have bin some so wicked and wretched that being wholy corrupted and depraved they have over flowed with all manner of sinne and iniquity and as it were maugred God with the multitude and hainousnesse of their offences we must therefore spend sometime also in setting forth their lives and ends as of the most vile and monstrous kinde of people that ever were In this ranke we may place the antient Inhabitants of the land of Canaan an irreligious people void of all feare and dread of God and consequently given over to all abhominabl wickednesse as to conjurings witchcrafts and unnameable adulteries for which causes the Lord abhorring and hating them did also bring them to a most strange destruction for first and formost Jericho the frontier citie of their countrey being assaulted by the Israelites for hindering their progresse into the country were all discomfited not so much by Iosuah his sword as by the huge stones which dropped from heaven upon their heads and lest the night overtaking them should breake off the finall and full destruction of this cursed people the day was miraculously prolonged and the Sunne made to rest himselfe in the middest of heaven for the space of a whole day and so these five Kings hiding themselves in a cave were brought out and their neckes made a footstoole to the captains of Israell and were hanged on five trees The tyran Pertander usurped the government over Corinth after hee had slaine the principall of the city he put to death his owne wife to the end to content and please his concubine nay and was so execrable as to lye with his owne mother he banished his naturall sonne and caused many children of his subjects to be gelded finally fearing some miserable and monstrous end and want of sepulchre in conscience of his misdeeds he gave in charge to two strong and hardy souldiers that they should gaâ—d a certain appointed place and not faile to kill the first that came in their way and to bury his body being slaine now the first that met them was himselfe who offered himselfe unto them without speaking any word and was soone dispatched and buried according to his commandement but these two were encountered with foure other whom he also had appointed to do the same to them which they had done to them In this ranke deservably we may place the second Dionysius his sonne that for his cruelties and extortions was slaine by his owne subjects who though at the first made shew of a better and milder nature than his father was of yet after he was installed in his Kingdom and growne strong his wicked nature shewd forth it selfe for first he rid out of the way his owne brethren then his neerest kindred and lastly all other that but any way displeased him using his sword not to the cutting downe of vice as it ought but to the cutting the throats of his innocent and guiltlesse subjects with which tyrannie the people being incensed began to mutinie and from mutinies fell to open rebellion persecuting him so that he was compelled to flie and take harbour in Greece where notwithstanding hee ceased not his accustomed manners but continued still freshly committing robberies and doing all manner of injuries and outrages in wronging men and forcing both women and maids to his filthie lusts untill hee was brought to so low and so base an ebbe of estate that of a King being become a beggar and a vagabond hee was glad to teach children at Corinth to get his poore living and so died in miserie Clearchus another tyran after hee had put to death the most part of the Nobles and chiefe men of account in the citie of Heraclea usurped a tyrannous authoritie over the rest amongst many of whose monstrous enormities this was one that hee constrained the widowes of those whom hee had slaine against their wils to marry those of his followers whom hee allotted them to insomuch that many of them with griefe and anger slew themselves now there were two men of stouter courage than the rest who pittying the miserable condition of the whole citie undertooke to deliver the same out of his cruell hands comming therefore accompanied with fiftie other of the same minde and resolution as though they would debate a privat quarrell before his presence as soone as convenience served they diverted their swords from themselves into the tyrans bosome and hewed him in pieces in the very midst of his guard Agathocles King or rather tyran of Sicilie from a porters sonne growing to be a man of warre tooke upon him the government of the countrey and usurped the crowne contrary to the consent of his people hee was one given to all manner of filthie and uncleane pollutions in whom treacherie crueltie and generally all kinde of vice reigned and therefore was worthily plagued by God first by a murder of his youngest sonne committed by his eldest sonnes son that aspired unto the crowne and thought that he might be an obstacle in his way for obtaining his purpose and lastly having sent his wife and children into Aegypt for safety by his owne miserable and languishing death which shortly after ensued Romulus the first King of Rome was as Florus testifieth transported by a devill out of this earth into some habitation of his owne for the monstrous superstitions conjurings thefts ravishments and murders which during his pompe hee committed and moreover he saith that Plutarch the most credible and learned Writer amongst Historiographers both Greek and Latin that ever writ avoucheth the same for true That hee was carried away one day by a
and unjust taxes exacting of them a tribute even for their meat if there were any money controversies to be decided the fourth part of the same was his share which way soever the matter enclined the eight penny of every Porters gaine throughout the citie which with travell they earned hee tooke into his purse yea and that which is more filthy and dishonest the very whores and common strumpets payed him a yearely revenue for their bauderies which act though most villanous and slandrous yet is made a samplar to some of our holy Popes to imitate and indeed hath of many beene put in practise but to our purpose whereas before his prodigality was so great as to scatter money like seed amidst the people now his niggardlinesse grew on the other side so miserable that hee would have the people upon the first day of the yeare every one to give him a new-yeares-gift he himselfe standing at the doore of his house like a beggar receiving the peoples almes Moreover of all that ever gave their lusts the bridle to abuse other mens wives hee was most impudent and notorious for divers times he used to feast many faire Ladies and their husbands and after his good cheare ended to overview them severally a part as Merchants doe their wares and to take her that pleased his fancie best into some secret place to abuse at his pleasure neither after the deed done to be ashamed to glory and vaunt himselfe in his wicked and filthy act He committed incest with his owne sisters forcing them to his lust and by one of them had a daughter borne whom saith Eutropius his abhominable concupiscence abused also in most filthy and preposterous manner At length many conspired his destruction but especially one of the Tribunes which office we may after the custome of our French nation rightly terme the Marshalship and the officer one of our foure Marshals as Budeus saith who shewed himselfe more eagerly affected in the cause than the rest pursued this enterprise in more speedy and desperate manner for as the Tyrant returned from the Theater by a by-way to his Pallace the third day of the feast which he celebrated in honour of Iulius Caesar the Tribune presented himselfe as if in regard of his office to import some matter of importance unto him and having received a currish word or two at his hands as his custome was he gave him such a stroke betweene the head and the shoulders that what with it and the blowes of his complices that going for the same intent rushed upon him he was â—laine amongst them no man stirring a foot to deliver him out of their hands though many looked on and might have aided him if they would he was no sooner slaine but his wife incontinently was sent after and his daughter also that was crushed to death against a wall and thus came his wretched selfe with his filthie progenie to a wretched and miserable end Nero shewed himselfe not onely an enemy to God in persecuting his Church but also a perverter and disturber of humane nature in embruing his hands in the bloud of his owne mother and grandmother whom he caused to be put to death and in killing his owne wife and sister and infinite numbers of all kinde of people beside in adulteries he was so monstrous that it is better to conceale them from modest eares than to stirre up the puddle of so stinking and noysome a dunghill for which his villanies the Senate condemned him to a shamefull and most ignominious death and his armies and forces forsooke him which when hee understood he betooke him to flight and hid himselfe in an out way amongst thornes and bushes which with great paine having past through being weary of his life hee threw himselfe downe into a pit foure foot deepe and when he could get none of his men to lay their hands upon him he desperately and miserably slew himselfe Vitellius for the murders and other outragious misdeeds which he committed was taken in his shirt and drawne through the streets with a halter about his necke and his hands bound behinde him and the point of a dagger under his chin the people casting durt and dung upon him in detestation and calling him make-bate and seditious villain with other opprobrious reproches and at last being massacred with many blowes was drawne with a hooke into Tyber like a carrion Domitian was a cruell enemy of the Christians hee rejected his owne wife to take a new and being covertly reproved by Helvidius for the same in a Play of the divorce of Paris and Enon which he presented unto him he put him to death for his labour Many worthy Senatours and chiefe men and such as had borne the office of the Consull without just cause given of reprehension were murdered by him hee spared not his owne bloud and nearest allies no nor his owne brother Titus but what with poyson and sword destroyed them all to confusion But in the end when hee saw that the world hated him for his outragious cruelties he consulted with the Astrologians and Conjurers what death did waite for him one of the which amongst the rest told him that hee should be slaine and that very shortly wherewithall being sore troubled hee first caused him that had prognosticated this evill unto him to be slaine then he compassed himselfe with a strong guard and to the end to see them that should come neare hee made his gallery walls where hee walked of such a kinde of glistring and shining stone that he might see in them all about him both behinde and before When the day and houre which was fore-calculated for his death was come one of the Conspirators came in with his left arme in a scarfe as if he had beene sore hurt feigning that he would bewray the whole treason which hee so much feared and being entred his Chamber he presented him with a long discourse in writing touching the matter and manner of the Conspiracie and when in reading the same he saw him most astonished then he tooke occasion to strike him suddenly into the belly with his dagger his owne servants making up the murther when they saw him goe about to resist And thus by all his wisedome and providence he could not rid himselfe from being surprised nor hinder the execution of Gods just fore-appointed judgement And these were the ends of those wicked Emperours who in regard of their vile lives were rather monsters than men and not onely they whom we have named but many moe also as Antonius Caracalla Heliogabalus and other like may bee worthily placed in this ranke But of all Heliogabalus is most famous of whom is recorded in histories that hee was so prodigious in all gluttonie filthinesse and ribauldrie that the like I thinke was never heard of except those monsters that went before and yet I suppose he surpassed them too Such was the exceeding and luxurious pompe of this beast-like
Emperour that in his lampes hee used baulme and filled his fish-ponds with rose-water the garments which he wore were all of the finest gold and most costly silkes his shooes glistered with precious stones curiously engraven he was never two dayes served with one kinde of meat nor wore one garment twice and so likewise for his fleshly wickednesse he varyed it every time Some dayes hee was served at meales with the braines of Ostriches and a strange fowle called a Phylocapterie another day with the tongues of Popingayes and other sweet singing birds being nigh to the sea hee never used fish in places farre distant from the sea all his house was served with most delicate fish at one supper his table was furnished with seven thousand fishes and five thousand fowles At his remoovals in his progresse there followed him commonly six hundred chariots he used to sacrifice with young children and preferred to the best advancements in the Common-wealth most light persons as Bawdes Minstrels Players and such like in one word hee was an enemy to all honesty and good order And when he was fore-told by his Sorcerers and Astronomers that he should die a violent death he provided ropes of silke to hang himselfe swords of gold to kill himselfe and strong poysons in Jacinths and Emerauds to poyson himselfe if needs hee should thereto be forced Moreover hee made an high tower having the boorded floore covered with gold plate and broidered with pretious stones from the which tower he might throw himselfe downe if hee were pursued of his enemies But notwithstanding all this provision Gods vengeance not permitting him to die as hee would hee was slaine of the souldiers drawne through the citie and cast into Tiber after hee had raigned two yeares and eight moneths Tigellinus one of the Captaines of Neroes guard and a chiefe procurer and setter forward of his tyranny was the cause of the death of many great personages in Rome and being enriched by their spoyle and other such like robberies after the death of Nero whom in his extremity hee forsooke plunged himselfe and wallowed in all manner of licentious and disordinate delights Now though hee was worthy of a thousand deaths for his cruelties towards many good citizens yet by the meanes of one Iunius the Emperour Galba his chiefe minion whose favour hee had by great summes of money bought and obtained for hee gave unto his daughter at one time five and twenty thousand crownes and to himselfe at another time a carknet worth fifteen thousand crownes for a present he was spared and kept in safety but as soon as Otho was installed in the Empire his downfall and destruction began presently to follow for Otho to the end to gratifie the Romans sent to apprehend him who was then in his houses of pleasure in the field banquetting and sporting with his harlots and using all manner of riot albeit by reason of a deadly disease which was upon him hee was even at deaths doore When hee saw himselfe thus taken and that no meanes of escape was left no not by the vessels which he had prepared at the sea shore for purpose if need were to convey him away and that hee which had commission to take him would give him no advantage of escaping though he offered him great rewards for the same he entreated onely leisure to shave his beard before he went which being granted he tooke a rasor and in stead of shaving cut his owne throat CHAP. XLV More examples of the same argument HIeronymus a true Tyran of Sicily enured and fashioned to all pride and of most corrupt and rotten manners began right after the death of his father Hiero that left him a peaceable and quiet Kingdom to shew â—orth his arrogance for he quickly made himselfe fearfull to his Subjects both by his stately and proud manner of speech as also by the hardnesse of accesse unto him together with a kinde of disdainfull contempt of all men but most of all did the inward pride of his heart appeare when hee had gotten a guard about his body for then he ceased not to bait bite and devoure and to exercise all kinde of cruelty against every man and all kind of ryot and excesse of filthinesse against himselfe so that he became so odious and contemptible to his subjects that they conspired against him to deprive him both of his life and kingdome which conspiracy though it came to light yet for all that wanted not his due effect for after hee had through listning to false reports put to death unjustly his truest and dearest friends and those that would indeed have helped him in his necessity both with good advice and other succour he was surprised as he walked in a narrow and strait way and there cruelly murthered Now there was one Andronodorus his brother in law that aspired to the crowne had corrupted his manners and thrust him forward to all these misdemeanours to the end by those practises he might make him odious to his people that by that meanes he might obtaine his owne purpose as indeed he did for after his death he seised upon the Scepter though with no long enjoyance for through the troubles and commotions which were raised in the countrey by his meanes both hee his wife and whole race together with the whole progenie of Hieronymus whether innocent or guilty were all utterly rooted out and defaced Andronicus was one of the most wickedest men that lived on the earth in his time for he excelled in all kinde of evill in ambition boldnesse in doing mischiefe cruelty whoredome adulterie and incest also to make up the whole number besides he was so treacherous and disloyall that hee traiterously slew the sonne and heire of the Emperour Emanuel shutting him in a sacke and so throwing him into the sea after which by violence he tooke possession of the Empire of Constantinople and like a strong theefe seised upon that which was none of his owne but as soone as he had gotten his desire then began his lusts to rage and rave then he fell to whoreing and forcing women and maids to his lust whom after he had once robbed of their chastities he gave over to his bands and ruffians to abuse and that which is more than all this he ravished one of his owne sisters and committed incest with her moreover to maintaine and uphold his tyrannous estate he slew most of the nobility and all else that bore any shew of honesty or credit with them and lived altogether by wrongs and extortions wherefore his subjects provoked with these multitudes of evils which reigned in him and not able to endure any longer his vile outrages and indignities rebelled against him and besieged him got him into their mercilesse hands and handled him on this fashion following first they degraded him and spoyled him of his imperiall ornaments then they pulled out one of his eyes and set him upon an asse backward with the tayle in his
hand in stead of a Scepter and a rope about his necke in stead of a crowne and in this order and attyre they led him through all Constantinople the people shouting and reviling him on all sides some throwing durt others spittle divers dung and the women their pispots at his head after all which banquetting dishes he was transported to the gallowes and there hanged to make an end of all Charles King of Navarre whose mother Iean was daughter to Lewis Lutton King of France was another that oppressed his subjects with cruelty and rough dealing for he imposed upon them grievous taxes and tributes and when many of the chiefest of his Common-Wealth came to make knowne unto him the poverty of his people and that they were not able to endure any more such burthens he caused them all to be put to death for their boldnesse he was the kindler of many great mischiefes in France and of the fire wherewith divers places of strength and castles of defence were burned to ashes he counselled the Count of Foix his sonne to poyson his father and not onely so but gave him also the poyson with his owne hands wherewith to do the deed Moreover above all this lechery and Adultery swayed his powers even in his old age for at threescore yeares of age he had a whore in a corner whose company he dayly hanted and so much that she at length gave him his deaths wound for returning from her company one day as his use was and entring into his chamber he went to bed all quaking and halfe frozen with cold neither could he by any meanes recover his heat untill by art they sought to supply nature and blew upon him with brasen bellowes Aquavitae and hot blasts of ayre but withall the fire unregarded flew betwixt the sheets and inflamed the drie linnen together with the Aquavitae so suddenly that ere any help could be made his late quivering bones were now halfe burned to death It is true that he lived fifteene daies after this but in so great griefe and torment without sence of any helpe or assuagement by Physicke or Surgery that at the end thereof he died miserably and so as during his life his affection over burnt in lust and his minde was alwayes hot upon mischiefe and covetousnesse so his dayes were finished with heat and cruell burning Lugtake King of Scots succeeding his father Galdus in the Kingdome was so odious and mischievous a Tyran that every man hated him no lesse for his vices than they loved his father for his vertues he slew many rich and noble-men for no other cause but to enrich his treasury with their goods he committed the government of the Realme to most unjust and covetous persons and with their company was most delighted he shamed not to defloure his owne aunts sisters and daughters and to scorne his wise and grave counsellors calling them old doting fooles all which monstrous villanies with a thousand more so incensed his Nobles against him that they slew him after he had raigned three yeares but as the Proverbe goeth Seldome commeth a better another or worse Tyran succeeded in his kingdome namely Mogallus cousin germane to Lugtake a man notoriously infected with all manner of vices for albeit in the beginning of his reigne hee gave himselfe to follow the wisedome and manners of his unkle Galdus yet in his age his corrupt nature burst forth abundantly but chiefly in avarice lechery and cruelty this was he that licensed theeves and robbers to take the goods of their neighbours without punishment and that first ordained the goods of condemned persons to be confiscate to the kings use without respect either of wives children or creditors for which crimes he was also slaine by his nobles Besides these there was another king of the Scots called Atherto in the yeare of our Lord 240. who shewed himselfe also in like manner a most abhominable wretch for he so wallowed in all manner of uncleane and effeminate lusts that he was not ashamed to goe in the sight of the people playing upon a flute rejoycing more to be accounted a good Fidler than a good Prince from which vices he fell at last to the deflouring and ravishing of maids and women insomuch as the daughters of his nobles could not be safe from his insatiable and intollerable lust wherefore being pursued by them when hee saw no meanes to escape hee desperately slew himselfe The great outrages which the Spaniards have committed in the West Indies are apparant testimonies of their impiety injustice cruelty insatiable covetousnesse and luxury and the judgement wherewith God hath hunted them up and downe both by sea and land as late and fresh histories doe testifie are manifest witnesses of his heavy anger and displeasure against them amongst all which I will here insert none but that which is most notorious and worthy memory as the wretched accident of Pamphilius Novares and his company This man with six hundred Spaniards making for the coast of Florida to seeke the gold of the river of Palme-trees were so turmoyled with vehement windes and tempests that they could not keepe their vessels from dashing against the shore so that their ships did all split in sunder and they for the most part were drowned save a few that escaped to land yet escaped not danger for they ranne roving up and downe this savage countrey so long till they fell into such extreame poverty and famine that for want of victuals twelve of them devoured one another and of the whole six hundred that went forth there never yet returned above ten all the rest being either drowned or pined to death Francis Pizarre a man of base parentage for in his youth he was but a hogheard and of worse qualities and education for he knew not so much as the first elements of learning giving himselfe to the West Indian wars grew to some credit in bearing office but withall shewed himselfe very disloyall treacherous and bloudy-minded in committing many odious and monstrous cruelties entring Peru with an army of souldiers to the end to conquer new lands and dominions and to glut his unsatiable covetousnesse with a new surfet of riches after the true Spanish custome he committed many bloudy and trayterous acts and exercised more than barbarous cruelty for first under pretence of friendship feyning to parle with Artabaliba King of Cusco the poore King comming with five and twenty thousand of unarmed men in ostentation of his greatnesse not in purpose to resist he welcommed him and his men so nimbly with swords and curtleaxes that they had all soon their throats cut by a most horrible slaughter and the King himselfe was taken and put in chaines yea and the Citie after this massacre of men abroad felt soone the insolencies of these brave warriours within in fine though Pizarre promised Artabaliba to save his life in regard of a ransome amounting to more than two millions of
gold yet after the receit thereof he traiterously caused him to be hanged contrary to both his oath and all equity and reason but this cruell perfidie of his went not long without punishment for both hee and all the rest that were any wayes accessarie or consenting to the death of this King came to a wretched end but especially his foure brethren Ferdinand Gonsal Iohn Martin of Alcantara and Diego of Almagro who as they were principall in the action so were they in the punishment the first that was punished was Iohn Pizarre who with many other Spaniards was surprised in the City of Cusco and slaine by the men of warre of Mangefrem and Artabaliba next after that there arose such a division and heart-burning betwixt the Pizarres and Almagro and their partakers that after they had robbed and wasted and shared out the great and rich Countrey of Peru they slew one another by mutuall strokes and albeit that there was by common consent an agreement accorded betwixt them for the preserving of their unity and friendship yet Francis Pizarre envying that Almagro should bee Governour of Cusco and he not interrupted all their agreements by starting from his promises and re-kindled the halfe-quenched fire of warre by his owne ambition for hee presently defied Amagro and sent his brother Ferdinand before to bid him battaile who so well behaved himselfe that hee tooke Almagro prisoner and delivered him bound to his brother Francis who caused him to bee strangled in prison secretly and after to be beheaded in publique Now Ferdinand being sent by his brother towards Spaine with a great masse of gold to cleare himselfe of the death of Almagro could not so well justifie the fact as that all his treasure could save him from the prison and what became of him afterwards knowne it is to God but not to the world A while after the fellowes and friends of Almagro whose goods the Pizarrists hath seised upon tooke counsell with Don Diego Almagro his sonne to revenge the death of his father therefore being in number but twelve with unsheathed swords they desperately burst into Francis Pizarres house then Marquesse and Governour of Peru and at the first brunt slew a Captaine that guarded the enterance of the Hall and next him Martin of Alcahtara and other more that kept the entrance of the Chamber so that hee fell dead even at his brother the Marquesses feet who albeit his men were all slaine before his eyes and himselfe left alone amiddest his enemies yet gave not over to defend himselfe stoutly and manfully untill all of them setting upon him at once hee was stabbed into the throat and so fell dead upon the ground and thus finished hee and his complices their wretched dayes answerable to their cruell deserts but their murderers though they deserved to bee thus dealt withall yet for dealing in this sort without authority were not faultlesse but received the due wages of their furious madnesse for Don Diego himselfe after he had beene a while Governour of Peru had his army overcome and discomfited by the Emperours forces and was betrayed into their hands by his owne Lieutenant of Cusco where he thought to have saved himself and right soone lost his head with the greatest Captains and favourites that hee had who were also quartered Now of the five brethren wee have heard foure of their destructions onely one remaineth namely Gonzalle Pizarre to bee spoken of who being sent for by the Conquerours to be their Chieftaine and Protector against the Viceroy that went about to make them observe the Emperours lawes and decrees touching the liberty of the Indian Nation was betrayed and forsaken by the same men that sent for him and so fell into his enemies hands that cut off his head The Generall of his army a covetous and cruell man that in short space made away above three hundred Spaniards and all as it were with his own hand was drawn up and downe at a horse tayle the space of halfe a quarter of an houre and then hanged upon the gallowes quartered in foure parts The Monke of Vauvard called Vincent who with his crosse and porteise had encouraged Pizarre and his army against Artabaliba and was for that cause created Bishop of Peru when Diego came to the governement fled into the Island Puna to escape his wrath but in seeking to avoyde him he fell into as great a snare for the Islanders assaulted him one night and knockt him to death with staves and clubs together with forty Spaniards of his fellowship that accompanied him in his flight and started not from him in his death And thus the good and holy Monke for medling with and setting forward the murder of so many poore people was for his paines and good deeds justly rewarded by the Indians of that Island Moreover after and beside all these troubles seditions and civil warres of Peru all they that returned from Spaine suffered shipwracke for the most part for their fleet had scarce attained the midst of their course when there arose so terrible a tempest that of eighteen ships thirteen so perished that they were never heard of after and of the five which remained two were tumbled backe to the coast of Saint Dominick all berent and shivered in pieces other three were driven to Spaine whereof one hitting against the bay of Portugall lost many of her men The Admirall her selfe of this fleet perished near unto Saint Lucar de Baramede with two hundred persons that were within her and but one onely of them all got safe into the haven of Calix without dammage Here we may see how mightily the hand of God was stretched forth to the revenge of those wicked deeds and villanies which were committed by the Spaniards in those quarters Peter Loys bastard son to Pope Paul the third was one that practised many horrible villanies robberies murthers adulteries incest and Sodomitries thinking that because his father was Pope therefore no wickednesse was unlawfull for him to commit He was by the report of all men one of the most notorious vilest and filthiest villaines that ever the world saw he forced the Bishop of Faence to his unnaturall lust so that the poor Bishop with meer anger and grief that he should be so abused died immediately Being made Duke of Plaisence and Parma he exercised most cruell tyranny towards many of his subjects insomuch that divers Gentlemen that could not brook nor endure his injuries conceived an inward hate against him and conspired his death and for to put in practise the same they hired certain Ruffians and Roysters to watch the opportunity of slaying him yea and they themselves oftentimes went apart with these Roysters keeping themselves upon their guards as if some private and particular quarrels had been in hand One day as the Duke went in his horse-litter out of his Castle with a great retinue to see certain Fortifications which he had prepared being advertised by his father the
house was caught in the same snare which he had laid and destroyed by the same meanes himselfe which he had destinated for another being thus dead the whole City of Rome saith Guicciardine ran out with greedinesse and joy to behold his carkasse not being able to satisfie their eyes with beholding the dead Serpent whose venome of ambition treachery cruelty adultery and avarice had impoysoned the whole world Some say that as he purposed to poyson certain Cardinals he poysoned his own father that being in their company chanced to get a share of his drugs and that he was so abominable to abuse his own sister Lucrece in the way of filthinesse When Zemes the brother of Bajazet the Emperour of the Turkes came and surrendred himselfe into his hands and was admitted into his protection he being hired with two hundred duckets by Bajazet gave poyson to his new Client even to him to whom hee had before sworne and vowed his friendship besides that hee might maintain his tyranny he demanded and obtained aid of the Turke against the King of France which was a most unchristian and antichristian part hee caused the tongue and two hands of Anthony Mancivellus a very learned and wise man to be cut off for an excellent Oration which he made in reproof of his wicked demeanours and dishonest life It is written moreover by some that he was so affectionated to the service of his good lord and master the devil that he never attempted any thing without his counsell and advice who also presented himselfe unto him at his death in the habit of a post according to the agreement which was betwixt them and although this wretched Antichrist strove against him for life alledging that his terme was not yet finished yet he was enforced to dislodge and depart into his proper place where with horrible cries and hideous fearfull groanes he died Thus we see how miserably such wretched and infamous miscreants and such pernitious and cruell tyrants have ended their wicked lives their force and power being execrable and odious and therefore as saith Seneca not able to continue any long time for that government cannot be firme and stable where there is no shame nor fear to do evill nor where equity justice faith and piety with other vertues are contemned and trodden under foot for when cruelty once beginneth to be predominate it is so insatiable that it never ceaseth but groweth every day from worse to worse by striving to maintain and defend old faults by new untill the fear and terrour of the poor afflicted and oppressed people with a continuall source and enterchange of evils which surcharge them converteth it selfe from sorced patience to willing fury and breaketh forth to do vengeance upon the tyrants heads with all violence whence ariseth that saying of the Satyricall Poet to the same sence where he saith Few Tyrans dye the death that nature sends But most are brought by slaughter to their ends CHAP. XLVI Of Calumniation and false witnesse bearing WE have seen heretofore what punishments the Lord hath laid upon those that either vex their neigbours in their persons as in the breakers of the fifth sixth and seventh Commandments or dammage them in their goods as in the eighth now let us look unto those that seek to spoil them of their good names and rob them of their credit by slanderous reproaches and false and forged calumniatious and by that meanes go against the ninth Commandment which saith Thou shalt not bear false witnesse against thy neighbour In which words is condemned generally all slanders all false reports all defamations and all evill speeches else whatsoever whereby the good name and credit of a man is blemished stained or impoverished and this sin was not onely inhibited by the divine Law of the Almighty but also by the lawes of Nature and Nations for there is no Countrey and People so barbarous with whom these pernitious kinde of Creatures are not held in detestation of tame beasts saith Diogenes a flatterer is worst and of wilde beasts a backbiter or a slanderer and not without great reason for as there is no disease so dangerous as that which is secret so there is no enemy so pernitious as he which under the colour of friendship biteth and slandereth us behinde our backs but let us see what judgement the Lord hath shewn upon them to the end the odiousnesse of this vice may more clearly appear And first to begin with Doeg the Edomite who falsly accused Achimelech the High-Priest unto Saul for giving succour unto David in his necessity and flight for though he told nothing but that which was true yet of that truth some he maliciously perverted and some he kept backe and falsehood consisteth not onely in plain lying but also in concealing and misusing the truth for Achimelech indeed asked counsell of the Lord for David and ministred unto him the Shew-bread and the sword of Goliah but not with any intent of malice against King Saul for he supposed and David also made him beleeve that he went about the Kings businesse and that he was in great favour with the King which last clause the wicked accuser left out and by that meanes not onely provoked the wrath of Saul against the High-Priest but also when all other refused became himselfe executioner of his wrath and murdered Achimelech with all the nation of the Priests and smote Nob the City of the Priests with the edge of the sword both man and woman childe and suckling oxe and asse not leaving any alive so beastly was his cruelty save Abiathar onely one of the sons of Achimelech that fled to David and brought him tidings of this bloudy massacre But did this 〈…〉 Spirit of God in the 52. Psalme proclaimeth his judgement Why boastest thou in thy wickednesse thou Tyran Thy 〈…〉 and is like a sharpe rasor that cutteth deceitfully c. but God shall destroy thee for ever he shall take thee and plucke thee out of thy tabernacle and root thee out of the Land of the living Next to this man we may justly place Achab the King of Israel and Iesabel his wife who to the end to get possession of Naboths vineyard which being his inheritance he would not part from suborned by his wives pernitious counsell false accusers wicked men to witnesse against Naboth that he had blasphemed God and the King and by that meanes caused him to be stoned to death but marke the judgement of God denounced against them both by the mouth of Elias for this wicked fact Hast thou killed saith he and taken possession Thus saith the Lord In the place where the dogs licked the bloud of Naboth shall dogs even licke thy bloud also and as for Jesabel dogs shall eat her by the wall of Iesrael thy house shall be like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nabat I will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall c. Neither
the woman asked her before them all whether she durst say that he had ravished her to whom she replyed yea I sweare and vow that thou hast done it for shee supposed it to have beene Athanasius whom shee never saw whereat the whole Synod perceived the cavill of the lying Arrians and quitted the innocency of that good man Howbeit these malicious hereticks seeing this practise not to succeed invented another worse then the former for they accused him to have slaine one Arsenius whom they themselves kept secret and that hee carried one of his hands about him wherewith he wrought miracles by enchantment but Arsenius touched by the spirit of God stole away from them and came to Athanasius to the end he should receive no damage by his absence whom he brought in to the Judges and shewed them both his hands confounded his accusers with shame of their malice insomuch as they ranne away for feare and satisfied the Judges both of his integrity and their envious calumniation the chiefe Broker of all this mischiefe was Stephanus Bishop of Antioch but he was degraded from his Bishopricke and Leontius elected in his roome In our English Chronicles we have recorded a notable history to the like effect of King Canutus the Dane who after much trouble being established in the Kingdome of England caused a Parliament to bee held at London where amongst other things there debated it was propounded to the Bishops Barons and Lords of that Assembly Whether in the composition made betwixt Edmond and Canutus any speciall remembrance was made for the children or brethren of Edmond touching any partition of any part of the land which the English Lords flattering the king though falsly and against the truth yea and against their owne consciences denied to be and not onely so but for the Kings pleasure confirmed their false words with a more false oath that to the uttermost of their powers they would put off the bloud of Edmond from all right and interest by reason of which oath and promise they thought to have purchased with the King great favour but by the just retribution of God it chanced farre otherwise for many of them or the most part especially such as Canutus perceived to have sworne fealtie before time to Edmond and his heires he mistrusted and disdained ever after insomuch that some he exiled many he beheaded and divers by Gods just judgement died suddenly In the Scottish Chronicles we read how Hamilton the Scot was brought unto his death by the false accusation of a false Frier called Campbel who being in the fire ready to be executed cited and summoned the said Frier to appeare before the high God as generall Judge of all men to answer to the innocency of his death and whether his accusation were just or not betwixt that and a certaine day of the next moneth which he there named Now see the heart and hand of God against a false witnesse ere that day came the Frier died without any remorse of conscience and no doubt he gave a sharpe account to Almighty God of his malicious and unjust accusation In the yeare of our Lord 1105 Henry Archbishop of Mentz being complained of to the Pope sent a learned man a speciall friend of his to excuse him named Arnold one for whom he had much done and promoted to great livings and promotions but this honest man in stead of an excuser became an accuser for hee bribed the two chiefest Cardinals with gold and obtained of the Pope those two to be sent Inquisitors about the Archbishops case The which comming into Germany summoned the said Henry and without either law or justice deposed him from his Archbishoprick and substituted in his place Arnold upon hope of his Ecclesiasticall gold Whereupon that vertuous and honourable Henry is reported to have spoken thus unto those perverse Judges If I should appeale to the Apostolike Sea for this your unjust processe had against me perhaps I should but lose my labour and gaine nothing but toyle of body losse of goods affliction of minde and care of heart Wherefore I doe appeale to the Lord Jesus Christ as to the most highest and just Judge and cite you before his judgement seat there to answer for this wrong done unto me for neither justly nor godly but corruptly and unjustly have you judged my cause Whereunto they scoffingly said Goe you first and we will follow Not long after the said Henry dyed whereof the two Cardinals having intelligence said one to the other jestingly Behold he is gone before and wee must follow according to our promise And verily they spoke truer than they were aware for within a while after they both dyed in one day the one sitting upon a jakes to ease himselfe voyded out all his entrailes into the draught and miserably ended his life the other gnawing off the fingers of his hands and spitting them out of his mouth all deformed in devouring of himselfe died And in like wise not long after the said Arnold was slaine in a sedition and his body for certaine dayes lying stinking above the ground unburied was open to the spoyle of every raskall and harlot And this was the horrible end of this false accuser and those corrupted Judges Thus were two Cardinals punished for this sinne and that we may see that the holy father the Pope is no better than his Cardinals and that God spareth not him no more than he did them let us heare how the Lord punished one of that ranke for this crime It is not unknowne that Pope Innocent the fourth condemned the Emperour Fredericke at the Councell at Lyons his cause being unheard and before hee could come to answer for himselfe For when the Emperour being summoned to appeare at the Councell made all haste hee could thitherward and desired to have the day of hearing his cause prorogued till that he might conveniently travell thither the Pope refused and contrary to Gods law to Christian Doctrine to the prescript of the law of nature and reason and to all humanity without probation of any crime or pleading any cause or hearing what might be answered taking upon him to be both Adversary and Judge condemned the Emperour being absent What more wicked sentence was ever pronounced What more cruell fact considering the person might be committed But marke what vengeance God tooke upon this wicked Judge The writers of the Annals record that when Fredericke the Emperour and Conrade his sonne were both dead the Pope gaping for the inheritance of Naples and Sicilie and thinking by force to have subdued the same came to Naples with a great hoast of men where was heard in his court manifestly pronounced this voyce Veni miser ad judicium Dei Thou wretch come to receive thy judgement of God And the next day the Pope was found in his bed dead all black and blew as though he had beene beaten with bats And this was the judgement of God which he came
unto To this Pope and these Cardinals let us adde an Archbishop and that of Canterbury to wit Thomas Arundel upon whom the justice of God appeared no lesse manifestly than on the former For after hee had unjustly given sentence against the Lord Cobham he died himselfe before him being so striken in his tongue that he could neither swallow nor speake for a certaine space before the time of his death Hither might be adjoyned the vengeance of God upon Justice Morgan who condemned to death the innocent Lady Iane but presently after fell madde and so dyed having nothing in his mouth but Lady Iane Lady Iane. In the reigne of King Henry the eighth one Richard Long a man of armes in Calice bore false witnesse against master Smith the Curate of our Lady Parish in Calice for eating flesh in Lent which hee never did but hee escaped not vengeance for shortly after he desperately drowned himselfe A terrible example unto all such as are ready to forsweare themselves on a Booke upon malice or some other cause a thing in these dayes over rise every where and almost of most men little or nothing regarded About the same time one Gregory Bradway committed the same crime of false accusation against one Broke whom being driven thereunto by feare and constraint he accused to have robbed the Custome-house wherein hee was a Clerke of foure groats every day and to this accusation he subscribed his hand but for the same presently felt upon him the heavy hand of God for being grieved in his consciene for his deed hee first with a knife enterprised to cut his owne throâ—t but being not altogether dispatched therewith the Gaoler comming up and preventing his purpose hee fell forthwith into a furious frenzie and in that case lived long time after Hitherto we may adde the example of one William Feming who accused an honest man called Iohn Cooper of speaking trayterous words against Queene Mary and all because he would not sell him two goodly bullockes which he much desired for which cause the poore man being arraigned at Berry in Suffolke was condemned to death by reason of two false witnesses which the said Feming had suborned for that purpose whose names were White and Greenwood so this poore man was hanged drawne and quartered and his goods taken from his poore wife and nine children which are left destitute of all helpe but as for his false accusers one of them died most miserably for in harvest time being well and lusty of a sudden his bowels fell out of his body and so he perished the other two what ends they came unto it is not reported but sure the Lord hath reserved a sufficient punishment for all such as they are Many more be the examples of this sinne and judgements upon it as the Pillories at Westminster and daily experience beareth witnesse but these that we have alledged shall suffice for this purpose because this sinne is cousin Germane unto perjury of which you may read more at large in the former booke It should now follow by course of order if wee would not pretermit any thing of the law of God to speak of such as have offended against the tenth Commandement and what punishment hath ensued the same but forsomuch as all such offences for the most part are included under the former of which wee have already spoken and that there is no adultery nor fornication nor theft nor unjust warre but it is annexed to and proceedeth from the affection and the resolution of an evill and disordinate concupiscence as the effect from the cause therefore it is not necessary to make any particular recitall of them more than may well bee collected out of the former examples added hereunto that in evill concupiscence and affection of doing evill which commeth not to act though it be in the sight of God condemned to everlasting torments yet it doth not so much incurre and provoke his indignation that a man should for that onely cause be brought to apparent destruction and be made an example to others to whom the sinne is altogether darke and unknowne therefore we will proceed in our purpose without intermeddling in speciall with this last Commandement CHAP. XLVII That Kings and Princes ought to looke to the execution of Iustice for the punishment of naughty and corrupt manners NO man ought to be ignorant of this that it is the duty of a Prince not onely to hinder the course of sin from bursting into action but also to punish the doers of the Jame making both civill justice to be administred uprightly and the law of God to be regarded and observed inviolably for to this end are they ordained of God that by their meanes every one might live a quiet and peaceable life in all godlinesse and honesty to the which end the maintenance and administration of justice being most necessary they ought not so to discharge themselves of it as to translate it upon their Officers and Judges but also to looke to the execution thereof themselves as it is most needfull for if law which is the foundation of justice be as Plato saith a speechlesse and dumbe Magistrate who shall give voyce and vigor unto it if not hee that is in supreame and soveraigne authority For which cause the King is commanded in Deuteronomy To have before him alwayes the Booke of the Law to the end to doe justice and judgement to every one in the feare of God And before the creation of the Kings in Israel the chiefe Captaines and Soveraignes amongst them were renowned with no other title nor quality than of Judges In the time of Deborah the Prophetesse though she was a woman the weaker vessell yet because she had the conducting and governing of the people they came unto her to seeke judgement It is said of Samuel that he judged Israel so long till being tyred with age and not able to beare that burden any longer hee appointed his sonnes for Judges in his stead who when through covetousnesse they perverted justice and did not execute judgement like their father Samuel they gave occasion to the people to demaund a King that they might be judged and governed after the manner of other Nations which things sufficiently declared that in old time the principall charge of Kings was personally to administer justice and judgement and not as now to transferre the care thereof to others The same we read of King David of whom it is said That during his reigne he executed justice and judgement among his people and in another place That men came unto him for judgement and therefore he disdained not to heare the complaint of the woman of Tekoah shewing himselfe herein a good Prince and as the Angel of God to heare good and evill for this cause Solomon desired not riches nor long life of the Lord but a wise and discreet heart to judge his people and to discerne betwixt good and
under whom licence and liberty is given to every man to do what him listeth forsomuch then as this evill proceedeth from the carelesnesse and slothfulnesse of those that hold the sterne of government in their hands it cannot be but some evill must needs fall upon them for the same the truth of this may appear in the person of Philip of Macedony whom Demosthenes the Orator noteth for a treacherous and false dealing Prince after that he had subdued almost all Greece not so much by open war as by subtilty craft and surprise and that being in the top of his glory he celebrated at one time the marriage of his son Alexander whom he had lately made King of Epire and of one of his daughters with great pompe and magnificence as he was marching with all his train betwixt the two bridegroomes his own son and his son in law to see the sports and pastimes which were prepared for the solemnity of the marriage behold suddenly a young Macedonian Gentleman called Pausanias ran at him and slew him in the midst of the prease for not regarding to do him justice when he complained of an injury done unto him by one of the Peeres of the Realme Tatius the fellow King of Rome with Romulus for not doing justice in punishing certain of his friends and kinsfolkes that had robbed and murdered certain Embassadours which came to Rome and for making their impunity an example for other malefactors by deferring and protracting and disappointing their punishment was so watched by the kindred of the slain that they slew him even as he was sacrificing to his gods because they could not obtain justice at his hands What happened to the Romans for refusing to deliver an Embassadour who contrary to the law of Nations comming unto them played the part of an enemy to his own Countrey even well nigh the totall overthrow of them and their City for having by this meanes brought upon themselves the calamity of war they were at the first discomfited by the Gaules who pursuing their victory entred Rome and slew all that came in their way whether men or women infants or aged persons and after many dayes spent in the pillage and spoiling of the houses at last set fire on all and utterly destroyed the whole City Childericke King of France is notified for an extreme dullard and blockhead and such a one as had no care or regard unto his Realme but that lived idlely and slothfully without intermedling with the affaires of the Common-wealth for he laid all the charge and burden of them upon Pepin his Lieutenant Generall and therefore was by him justly deposed from his royall Dignity and mewed up in a Cloyster of Religion to become a Monke because he was unfit for any good purpose and albeit that this sudden change and mutation was very strange yet there ensued no trouble nor commotion in the Realme thereupon so odious was he become to the whole land for his drousie and idle disposition For the same cause did the Princes Electors depose Venceslaus the Emperour from the Empire and established another in his room King Richard of England among other foul faults which he was guilty of incurred greatest blame for this because he suffered many theeves and robbers to rove up and down the Land unpunished for which cause the Citizens of London commenced a high suit against him and compelled him having reigned two and twenty yeares to lay aside the Crown and resigne it to another in the presence of all the States and died prisoner in the Tower Moreover this is no small defect of justice when men of authority do not onely pardon capitall and detestable crimes but also grace and favour the doers of them and this neither ought nor can be done by a soveraigne Prince without overpassing the bounds of his limited power which can in no wayes dispence with the law of God whereunto even Kings themselves are subject for as touching the willing and considerate murderer Thou shalt plucke him from my Altar saith the Lord that he may die thy eye shall not spare him to the end it may goe well with thee which was put in practise in the death of Ioab who was slaine in the Tabernacle of God holding his hands upon the hornes of the Altar for he is no lesse abhominable before God that justifieth the wicked than he that condemneth the just and hereupon that holy King S. Lewis when he had granted pardon to a malefactor revoked it againe after better consideration of the matter saying That he would give no pardon except the case deserved pardon by the law for it was a worke of charity and pitty to punish an offendor and not to punish crimes was as much as to commit them In the yeare of our Lord 978 Egelrede the sonne of Edgare and Alphred King of England was a man of goodly outward shape and visage but wholly given to idlenesse and abhorring all Princely exercises besides he was a lover of ryot and drunkennesse and used extreame cruelty towards his subjects having his eares open to all unjust complaints in feats of armes of all men most ignorant so that his cruelty made him odious to his subjects and his cowardise encouraged strange enemies to invade his kingdome by meanes whereof England was sore afflicted with warre famine and pestilence In his time as a just plague for his negligence in Governement decayed the noble Kingdome of England and became tributary to the Danes for ever when the Danes oppressed him with warre he would hire them away with summes of money without making any resistance against them insomuch that from ten thousand pounds by the yeare the tribute arose in short space to fifty thousand wherefore he devised a new tricke and sought by treacherie to destroy them sending secret Commissioners to the Magistrates throughout the Land that upon a certaine day and houre assigned the Danes should suddenly and joyntly bee murdered Which massacre being performed turned to be the cause of greater misery for Swaine King of Denmarke hearing of the murder of his countrey-men landed with a strange army in divers parts of this Realme and so cruelly without mercy and pitty spoyled the Countrey and slew the people that the Englishmen were brought to most extreame and unspeakable misery and Egelrede the King driven to flie with his wife and children to Richard Duke of Normandie leaving the whole Kingdome to bee possessed of Swaine Edward the second of that name may well be placed in this ranke for though he was faire and well proportioned of body yet he was crooked and evill favoured in conditions for hee was so disposed to lightnesse and vanity that he refused the company of his Lords and men of honour and haunted amongst villaines and vile persons he delighted in drinking and riot and loved nothing lesse than to keep secret his owne counsailes though never so important so that he let
escape unpunished for his perfidie and impietie For first his warre-like affaires in the East prospered not then a little before the end of his life he grievously complained that he had innovated the faith in his kingdome At last in those sighings and complaints he parted this life with a grievous and violent disease The Unkle of Iulian the Apostata called also Iulianus at Antioch in the temple prophaned the holy table with pissing upon it And when Eusoius the Bishop rebuked him for it he stroke him with his fist Not long after he was taken with a grievous disease of his bowels putrifying and miserably died his excrements comming from him not by their ordinary passages but by his wicked mouth Under the Emperour Valence a wonderfull haile the stones being as big as a man could hold in his hand was sent upon Constantinople and slew many both men and beasts for that the Emperour had banished many famous men that would not communicate with Eudoxius the Arrian and for the same reason a great part of Germa a Citie of Hellespont was throwne downe by an earthquake and in Phrygia such a famine succeeded that the Inhabitants were faine to change their habitation and to â—lee to other places After the martyrdome of Gregory the Bishop of Spoleta Flacchus the Governour who was author thereof was strucke with an Angel and vomited out his entrailes at his mouth and died Under the Empire of Alexander Mammea Agrippitus fifteene yeares old because he would not sacrifice to their Idols was apprehended at Praeneste whipt with scourges and hanged up by the heeles and at last slaine with the sword in the middest of whose torments the Governour of the Citie fell from the Tribunall seat dead Bajazet a most cruell enemy of the Christians was taken by Tamerlane the Tartarian King and bound in golden chaines and carried about by him in an iron cage latised and shewne unto all being used for a stirrop unto Tamerlane when he got upon his horse Gensericus the King of the Vandales exercising grievous cruelty against the Orthodox Christians he himselfe being an Arrian was possessed of the Devill and died a miserable death in the yeare 477. Honoricus the second King of the Vandales having used inexplicable cruelty against the Orthodox Christians hanging up honest matrons and virgins naked burning their bodies with torches cutting off their dugges and armes because they would not subscribe to the Arrian heresie was surprised himselfe with the vengeance of God for his land was turned into barrennesse through an exceeding drought so that numbers of men women and beasts died with famine the pestilence also seised upon them and he himselfe was stricken with such a disease of his body that his members rotted off one after another Anastatius Dicorus a grievous persecutor of the Church of Christ being admonished in a dreame that he should perish with thunder built him an house wherein he might defend himselfe from that judgement but in vaine for in a great thunder he fled from chamber to chamber and at last was found dead blasted with lightning to the great horror of the beholders Chasroes the King of Persia a grievous enemy to Christ and Christians committed horrible outrages against them for first he slew at Jerusalem ninety thousand men with Zachariâ— the Patriarch of Jerusalem and also raged in like manner in Aegypt Lybia Aethiopia and would grant them no condition of peace unlesse they would forsake Christ and worship the Sunne he also put to death with most cruell torments Anastatius a godly Monke because he constantly confessed the faith of Christ. But God met with him to the full for his eldest sonne Syroes tooke him prisoner and handled him in most vile manner he hanged an iron weight upon his neck and imprisoned him in an high tower which he had built to keepe his treasure denying him food and bidding him eat the gold which he had gathered together then he slew all his children before his face and exposed him to the scoffes and railings of the people and lastly caused him to be shot to death and so that great terror of the world and shedder of Christian bloud breathed out his soule after a miserable manner Regnerus the King of Denmarke abrogating Christian Religion and setting up Idolatrie in his Kingdome anew the divine vengeance overtooke him for Helles whom he had cast out of the Kingdome returned upon him with an army of the Gaules and overcomming him in battell tooke him prisoner and shut him up in a filthie prison full of serpents which setting upon him with their venomous bitings and stings brought him to a most horrible end Lysius the Emperour gave Heriâ—a his daughter a virgin because she was a Christian to be trampled under foot of horses but he himselfe was sâ—ain by the byting of one of the same horses A Popish Magistrate having condemned a poore Protestant to death before his execution caused his tongue to be cut out because he should not confesse the truth in requitall whereof the next childe that was borne unto him was borne without a tongue CHAP. II. Of Perjurie Pâ—ilip King of Macedon who was a great contemner of all oathes and held the Religion thereof as a vain thing for this cause as all Writers affirme the vengeance of God followed him and his posteritie for when he had lived scarce forty and sixe yeares he himselfe was slain and all his whole house in short time in short time after utterly extinguished 〈◊〉 one of his sonnes was slaine by Olympias his wife Also another sonne which he had by Cleopatra the 〈◊〉 of Aâ—â—alus â—he tormented to death in a brazen vessell compassed about with fire The â—est of his sonnes periffied in like manner and at last the famous Alexander his sonne after great conquest atchieved by him in the middle course of his victories periffied miserably some thinke by poyson In the Countrey of Arbernum there was a certaine wicked man that used ordinarily to for sweare himselfe but at one time after he had thus sinned his tongue was tyed up that he could not speake but began to low like an oâ—e yet repenting and grieving for his sinne he found the bond of his tongue loosed and a readinesse of speech given unto him againe whereby we see both the Iustice of God in punishing them that sinne in this kinde and his mercy in pardoning when they truly repent At this day we have an example fresh and famous of a certaine maid that had stolne and pilfered many things away out of her mistresses house of which being examined she forswore them and wisht that she might rot if she ever touched them or knew of them but notwithstanding she was carried to prison and there presently began so to rot stink that they were forced to thrust her out of prison and to convey her to the Hospitall where she lies in lamentable miserie
and sweare the more and goe he would But he was encountred by the way with an army of infernall souldiers which beset the nobleman on all sides and threw him from his horse Now there was in his company a vertuous and valiant gentleman who set him againe upon his horse and held him on one side whom when the spirits durst not attempt by reason of his innocency they vanished out of sight and they conveyed the nobleman into a monasterie that was hard by where he lay three dayes and died such is the end of horrible and fearefull blasphemers A Vintner that accustomed himselfe to blaspheming swearing and drunkennesse and delighting to entertaine such that were like himselfe to swallow downe his wine upon the Lords day standing at the dore with a pot in his hand to call in more guests there came suddenly a violent whirlew inde and carried him up into the aire in the sight of all men and he was never seene more CHAP. VI. Of Conjucers Magitians and Witches IOhn Faustus a filthie beast and a sinke of many devils led about with him an evill spirit in the likenesse of a dog being at Wittenberg when as by the Edict of the Prince he should have beene taken he escaped by his magicall delusions and after at Noremberg being by an extraordinary sweat that came upon him as he was at dinner certified that hee was beset payed his host suddenly his shot and went away and being scarce escaped out of the walls of the Citie the Sergeants and other officers came to apprehend him But Gods vengeance following him as he came into a Village of the Dukedome of Wittenberg he sat there in his Inne very sad the host required of him what was the cause of his sadnesse he answered that he would not have him terrified if he heard a great noise and shaking of the house that night which happened according to his presage for in the morning hee was found dead with his necke wrung behinde him the Devill whom he served having carried his soule into hell This story is set downe by many in other termes but Philip Lonicerus expresseth it in this manner in his Theatre of Histories Anno 1553. two Witches were taken which went about by tempest haile and frost to destroy all the corne in the countrey these women stole away a little infant of one of their neighbours and cutting it in pieces put it into a Cauldron to be boyled but by Gods providence the mother of the childe came in the meane while and found the members of her childe thus cut in pieces and boyled Whereupon the two Witches were taken and being examined answered That if the boyling had beene finished such a tempest of â—aine and haile would have followed that all the fruits of the earth in that countrey should have been destroyed but God prevented them by his just judgement in causing them to be put to death Anno 1558. in a Village neare to Ihaena in Germany a certaine Magitian being instructed by the Devill in the composition of divers hearbs restored many unto their healths He had daily commerce with that evill spirit and used his counsell in the curing of diseases but it happened that there fell a quarrell betwixt him and a neighbour of his a carpenter who so exasperated him with his taunting words that in few dayes after he caused the Carpenter by his magicall art to fall into a grievous disease The poore Carpenter sent for this Magitian and entreated him to helpe him in his need The Magitian feigning an appeased minde but desiring to revenge the injuries done unto him gave unto him a potion confected of such venomous hearbs and roots that being taken the poore man presently died Whereupon the Carpenters wife accused the Magitian of murther the cause is brought to the Senate of Ihaena who examining the matter caused him by torments to confesse the murther and many other wickednesses for which he was fastened to a stake and burnt to death CHAP. VII Of the prophanation of the Sabbath A Certaine nobleman prophaning the Sabbath usually in hunting had a childe by his wife with a head like a dog and with eares and chaps crying like a hound Stratford upon Sluon was twice on the same day twelve-month being the Lords day almost consumed with fire chiefly for prophaning the Lords day and contemning his Word in the mouth of his faithfull Minister Feverton in Devonshire whose remembrance makes my heart bleed was oftentimes admonished by her godly Preachers that God would bring some heavie judgement on the Towne for their horrible prophanation of the Lords day occasioned chiefly by their Market on the day following Not long after his death on the third of Aprill Anno Dom. 1598. God in lesse than halfe an houre consumed with a sudden and fearfull fire the whole Towne except onely the Church the Court-house and the Almes-houses or a few poore peoples dwellings where a man might have seene foure hundred dwelling houses all at once on fire and above fiftie persons consumed with the flame And now againe since the former Edition of this booke on the fifth of August last 1612 fourteene yeares since the former fire the whole Towne was againe fired and consumed except some thirty houses of poore people with the School-house and Almes-houses they are blinde which see not in this the finger of God God grant them grace when it is next built to change their Market-day and to remove all occasions of prophaning the Lords day Let other Townes remember the Tower of Siloe Luke 13. 4. and take warning by their neighbours chastisements Feare Gods threatnings Ieremie 17. 27. and beleeve Gods Prophets if they will prospet 1 Chron. 20. 20. CHAP. VIII Of Drunkennesse AN Ale-wise in Kesgrave neare to Ipswich who would needs force three Serving-men that had been drinking in her house and were taking their leaves to stay and drinke the three ou ts first that is Wit out of the head Money out of the purse Ale out of the barrell as shee was comming towards them with the pot in her hand was suddenly taken speechlesse and sickher tongue swolne in her head she never recovered speech but the third day after died This Sir Anthony Felton the next Gentleman and Justice with divers others eye-witnesses of her in sicknesse related to me whereupon I went to the house with two or three witnesses and enquired the truth of it Two servants of a Brewer in Ipswich drinking for a rumpe of a Turkey strugling in their drinke for it fell into a scalding Caldron backwards whereof the one died presently the other lingringly and painfully since my comming to Ipswich A man comming home drunk would needs goe and swimme in the mill pond his wife and servants knowing he could not swimme dissuaded him once by intreaty got him out of the water but in he would needs goe again and there was drowned I was at the house to enquire of this and found it to be
Lonicerus in his Historicall Theatre reporteth that in a great plague one carkasse was seene to devoure it selfe in a grave which the people being superstitious thought it was a presage of the continuance of the pestilence whereupon they sent unto Wittenberge to Luther and other godly Ministers for their advise and counsell he answered that it was a delusion of the Devill and if they gave credit thereunto the sicknesse would increase and therefore advised them that despising this delusion of the Devill they should joyne together in prayer in Gods holy Temple to represse the furie and malice of the old Serpent which by that meanes they obtained At Rotingburge an honest and worthy Citizen having a beautifull daughter to whom many Sutors frequented there came also one in gallant apparrell and two men attending upon him to be a Sutor unto that beautifull maide but her father being displeased at his importunitie invited the godly Minister of the Town and some other good men to supper where entring into conference of divine matters this gallant abhorring the same desired them to talke of some other merry matters which they refusing to doe he shewed himselfe what he was and with his companions disparished into the aire leaving a filthy stinke behinde him thus the Devill doth go about to delude both men and women Manlius in Col. A certaine man abounding with wealth invited to supper a company of his neighbours and friends who when they refused to come upon occasions hee wished that all the Devils in Hell would come which wishes were not in vaine for presently great troopes of Devils came unto his house which hee entertained at the first and afterward as my Authour saith perceiving by their fingers and feet to be infernall Spirits he with his wife trembling ranne out of the house leaving a young infant in a cradle and a foole rocking of it both which were preserved alive after the departure of the Devils Iob. Fincel The Devill also appeared unto a Souldier that was given to play swearing and drinking and having played with him all night and woon his money hee told him it was time to depart and carryed him away with him into the aire whither God knowes for hee never was seene after In the yeare of our Lord 1536 there was at Franckford a maide grievously tormented with a paine in her head and a kinde of frenzie at the last she came to that passe that it was manifest that she was possessed with the Devill for if she touched any thing of any mans either head garment or anything else she drew money out of it of the usuall coyne of that countrey and presently put it into her mouth and swallowed it but sometimes they caught her hand and wrung their money from her and shewed it up and downe as a great wonder Shee also in her fits spake the high Dutch tongue perfectly which she never learned not heard of with many other things of great admiration Luther being demanded What course was to be taken to dispossesse her of this evill Spirit advised that shee should duely be brought unto the Church to heare Sermons and to bee prayed for publiquely in the Congregation by which meanes shortly after shee was delivered from Sathan and restored to her former health this relation the wise Senatours of Frankeford caused to bee published in Print Anno 1538. Certaine learned men in the Counsell of Basil went into a wood for recreation sake friendly to conferre about the controversies of that time Whilest they were there walking they heard a bird like unto a nightingall singing most sweetly above any Nightingall in the World and also sâ—w a bird upon an arme of a tree not like unto any bird one of the companie more hearty than the other said thus unto her I abjure thee in the name of the Lord Iesus Christ to tell us what thou art to whom the bird answered That she was one of the damned soules and appointed to stay in that place untill the last day and then to endure everlasting punishments whereupon she flue from the tree and cried O perpetuall and infinite 〈◊〉 Mâ—lâ—ncthon judged this to bee an evill spirit and so the event prooved for all that were present at this abjuration fell presently very sicke and shortly after died Manl. Collecta A certaine panish Clerke as Câ—sariuâ— reporteth exâ—elled all men in sweetnesse of singing whom when at a time a godly and holy man heard he said This is the voice not of a man but of the Divell 〈…〉 he had abjured in the name of Christ the Divell departed out of the bodie of the Clerke and the bodie fell downe into a dead carkasse Discip. de tempore Paulus Diaconius in his sixteenth Booke witnesseth That in the reigne of Anastasius the Emperour there were in Alexandria many women and children possessed of the Divell which being taken with furie uttered no other voice but like the barking of a dog In the yeare of our Lord 1545 an evill spirit haunted the Citie Rotuill sometimes in the shape of an hare sometimes of a Weesell sometimes of a Gâ—ose and with a cleere voice threatened that he would fire the Citie which malice of his though God prevented yet it strooke great terror into the minds of the people Iob. Finc lib. 1. In the Dukedome of Luneberge a certaine woman possessed of the Divel used to speake in her fits most pure Latine and Greeke to the great admiration of all that heard her Man in Collect. At Fribuge in Misnia a certaine man of great pietie and holinesse lying sicke and neere unto death the Divell came unto him in the habite of a Bishop hee being alone and exhorted the man to confesse all his sinnes which hee had committed in his life time and that having peâ—ne and Inkehorne he would write them downe in order but the old man being importuned by him answered Seeing thou urgest this write downe first this sentence The seed of the woman shall bruise the Serpents head which the Divell-Bishop no sooner heard but he vanished away leaving a filthie savour behinde him and the man died in peace Manl. in Collect. Iob Fincelius in his third booke of miracles writeth a strange storie of a godly young maide infested long and possessed at length by the Divell who in her acted strange things to the admiration of all men but at length shee was freed from his malicious molestation by the earnest prayers of godly Ministers in the Church the Divell flying out of her in the forme of a swarme of flies out of a window This storie is at large related with many strange circumstances by Philippus Lonicerus in his Historicall Theatre Page a hundred twenty and six The same Author relateth a storie of a maide of excellent beauty whom the Priest of the towne so induced and inveigled by his perswasions saying that the Pope had pardoned him for all such offences that shee became his Concubine Now when hee had invited many of
reported in Colloq of Luther Luther doth report that a man of great name and fame did so burne with continuall lust that he blasphemously said That if that pleasure was perpetuall he would never desire to have any part in the Kingdome of Heaven so that he might be carried from one Stewes to another and from one Harlot unto another I could adde more examples of this kinde but these shall suffice to shew that God doth not onely punish this horrible sinne in the life to come but also in this life with fearefull judgements CHAP. XII Of Theeves and Robbers SPiredon a Bishop of a certaine Citie in Cyprus was also delighted with keeping of irrationall sheepe upon a night certaine theeves entered into his sheepe-fold with an intent to steale away some of his sheepe but God protecting the sheepheard and his sheepe infatuated the theeves that they could not stirre out of that place till the morning at what time the Bishop comming to view his flock found them thus bound who presently prayed to God for their delivery and wished them to get their living hereafter by honest labour and not by stealth yet withall gave them a Ramme with this pleasant tant I give you this Ramme that you may not seeme to watch it in vaine and so set them free A certaine young man being bitten with a mad dogge fell presently after into madnesse himselfe and was faine to be bound with chaines The parents of this young man brought their sonne to an Abbot called Ammon entreating him that by his prayers hee would restore him to his former health the holy Abbot answered that they demanded that of him that passed his power But this I can signifie unto you that the Devill holdeth you all bound in his chaines by reason of a Bull which you stole from a poore widdow and untill you restore that Bull backe againe to the widdow your sonne shall never be healed The parents presently confessed their fault restored the Bull and presently their sonne was delivered from this grievous disease A certaine Baker merrily talking with his neighbour bragged that in that great time of dearth which was then he gained out of every bushell of Wheat above a crowne which words being related unto the Governour of the Citie hee sent for the Baker to supper and examined him about those speeches which the Baker could not deny whereupon the Governour commanded him presently to put off his upper garments and to knead so much dowe before him that hee might finde out the manner of his deceit which being done hee and all his fellow Bakers in the towne was cast into prison to their great disgrace The same Authour reporteth That at Prague in Bohemia a Jew being dead his friends desired that he might be buried at Ratisbone forty miles off which becaâ—se it could not bee done without paying of great tribute they put his carkasse into a hog sheâ—d full of sweet wine and committed it to a carter to convey to Ratisbone The theevish carters in the way being greedy of the wine pierced the hogshead and drinking themselves drunke with the wine mixed with the stinke of the dead carkasse most of them died The same Luther reporteth that at Wittenberge three theeves having stolne a silver dish brought it to a Goldsmiths wife to sell who desired them to come againe within an houre and then shee would bargaine with them In the meane while she related this businesse unto the Magistrates who sending presently the Sergeants to apprehend the theeves they seeing themselves to be betrayed resisted with their swords but notwithstanding one of them was taken and executed another escaped by flight and the third being pursued over a bridge leaped into the river Albis and there was drowned This example is more remarkable saith Luther because this fellow was a most notorious wicked wretch and had cut off two fingers of his owne fathers at which very instant his father not knowing of it being asked what was become of his sonne answered that he wished hee was drowned in the river Albis which wish was really performed at that very instant for it was the voyce of Gods anger out of the mouth of a father About Ailton in Huntington-shire a lewd fellow stole one of his neighbours fat weathers and bringing him home bound about his neck 〈…〉 upon a great stone in the field to â—ase himselfe where the weather stâ—â—gling fell over the stone and pulled the thiefe after him and so both striving one for life another for liberty the theefe was found dead in the morning and the weather alive CHAP. XIII Of Trecherie WHen the two Earles of Northumberland and Westmoreland had rebelled against Q. Elizabeth and being defeated in the field fled into Scotland the Earle of Northumberland hid himself in the house of Hector of Harlawe an Armestrange having confidence in him that he would be true to him he notwithstanding for money betrayed him to the Regent of Scotland from whence the Earle was sent into England condemned of high treason and beheaded But it was observed that this Hector being before a rich man fell poor of a sudden and was so hated generally that he never durst go abroad insomuch that the Proverbe to take Hectors cloake is continued to this day among them when they would expresse a man that betrayeth his friend who trusted him The like example we have of Banister who betrayed the Duke of Buckingham in the raigne of Richard the third CHAP. XIV Of the molestation of evill Spirits and their execution of Gods Iudgements upon men ALmighty God sometimes doth execute his judgements himselfe as he did upon Pharaoh in the Red Sea and upon Sodome and Gomorrah sometimes hee useth the creatures as instruments as frogs and lice c. to plague Pharaoh and the Aegyptians Sometimes hee imployeth the good Angels to that purpose as an Angell to destroy the Armie of Zenacherib before Jerusalem but most ordinarily he useth the ministery of evill Angels who being forward enough of their owne malice he giveth more strength unto by his command to execute vengeance upon wicked men Thus Sathan under the shape of a Serpent beguiled our first parents Adam and Eve and promised them great good in the stead of punishments which God had threatned unto them Gen. 3. The same Sathan vexed King Saul 1 Reg. 16. This Sathan rose against Israell and stirred up David to number the people whereat God being offended strooke Israell with a grievous peltilence 1 Chronic. 21. It was Sathan that got leave of God that hee might torture Iob with loathsome botches and boyles Iob 2. It was Sathan that slew seaven husbands to whom Sarah the daughter of Raguel had married Tobit It was Sathan that entred into Iudas Iscariots heart and moved him to betray Christ and hang himselfe Iohn 13. Acts 7. It was Sathan that instigated Ananias and Saphira to lye to the Holy Ghost whereupon they both died suddenly Acts 5. Lastly it was Sathan
that siâ—ted Peter and buffered Paul But to leave the Holy Scripture Philip Melancthon reporteth That he heard of two men credible and faith-worthy that a certain Bottonian young woman two yeares after her death returned againe to humane shape and went up and downe in the house and sate at meate with them but eate little This young seeming woman being at a time amongst other virgines a certaine Magitian came in skilfull in diabolicall Arts who said to the beholders This woman is but a dead carkasse carried about by the Devill and presently he tooke from under her right arme-hole the charme which hee had no sooner done but she fell downe a dead filthie carkasse Martin Luther reporteth the like of a woman at Erford in Germany who being animated by the Devill accompanied a young student that was in love with her and went up and downe divers yeares but at last the Devill being cast out by the prayers of the Church she returned to a dead and filthie carkasse The same Luther in his Colloquies telleth us how Sathan oftentimes stealeth away young children of women lying in child-bed and supposteth others of their owne begetting in their stead in the shapes of Incubus and Sucoâ—bus one such childe Luther reporteth of his owne knowledge at Halbersted which being carried by the parents to the Temple of the Virgine Mary to be cured the Devill asked the childe being in a basket upon the river whither it was going the young infant answered That hee was going to the Virgin Mary whereupon the father threw the basket and the childe into the river The like hee reporteth of another at Pessovia which representing in all lineaments a humane shape it was nothing else but a meere elusion of the Devill this childe saith he delighted in nothing but in stuffing it selfe with food and egesting the same in a filthy manner but was discovered and disrobed and cast out by the Prayers of the Church At Babylon in the Temple of Apollo a souldier breaking open a golden Chest there flew out such a pestilent spirit that infected the whole world with the plague thus Aventine lib. 2. cap. 17. Bruno the Bishop of Herbipolis accompanying the Emperour through an arme of the Sea heard this voyce sounding in his eares Ho Ho thou Bishop I am thy Malus Genius and whithersoever thou goest thou art mine at this time I have no power to hurt thee but thou shalt see me shortly againe and so it came to passe For not long after being in a roome with divers others part of the roofe fell downe and flew this wicked Bishop alone all the rest remaining safe and sound Vrbanus Regius in a Sermon at Wittenberge Anno 1538 concerning good and bad Angels relateth a storie of a certaine young maide possessed by the Devill for whom when prayers were made in the Church he seemed to be quiet for the time as if he were departed out of her watching an opportunity to do her further mischiefe as he did indeed for when as lesse care was taken of her supposing her to be found shee going to wash her hands at the brinke of a river running by the Devill tumbled her headlong in and drowned her in a fearefull manner Platina Nauclerus and other Historiographers write of Pope Bennet the ninth who died in the yeare 1405 that hee appeared or the Devill for him in a prodigious and bestiall forme like a Beare in his body and in his head and tayle like an Asse and when he was asked by some Why he shewed himselfe in so ougly a shape answered That this shape was imposed upon him for his wicked and bestiall behaviour when he was alive In the hill countries of Bohemia there used to appeare an evill Spirit in the habit and shape of a Monk whom the countrie people called Rubezall This devillish Monke used to joyne himselfe unto travellers over those hils and to bid them be of good courage for hee would lead them the right way thorow the woods but when as he had purposely led them out of the way so that they could not tell which way to turne themselves he would leapâ— into a tree and laugh at them with such a loud noyse that the whole wood would ring of him This was a morrie Devill such as our Robin-Goodfellow is said to be but yet in his mirth hee alwayes affected mischiefe Theat Hist. pag. 120. Chunibert King of Lumbardie consulted with one of his trusty counsellours about putting to death his two brothers Aldo and Grauso Whilest they were thus consulting in a by-window there sate a great flie by them one of the feet whereof the King with his knife which he had in his hand cut off in the meane while Aldo and Grauso entering into the Pallace met with a man with one of his feet cut off who told them the King was purposed to slay them if they passed on whereupon they returned and hid themselves in the Temple of Romanus the Martyr The King hearing thereof was much troubled how his Counsell might be revealed and charged his Privie Counsellours with infidelity But the Counsellour answered That hee had not departed from his presence since the matter was contrived but there sate a flie whose foot they cut off which no question was the Devill as it was had revealed this secret in the shape of a man Hereupon the King was reconciled to his brethren and embraced them with love ever after Thus the Devill sometimes doth good but it is with an intent of greater mischiefe Et sinon aliquâ nocuisset mortuus esset Cronica Hedion While certaine Mariners were sayling in the Sea a Monster was taken by them in every thing like unto a woman which being detained in the ship a good while one of the Mariners fell in love with her tooke her to his wife and begot one childe of her after three yeares they returning to the same place againe where the same Monster was taken this woman-Devill leaped into the Sea with her childe in her armes the childe was drowned but shee vanished away Thus it is easie for the Devill to take upon him the shape of a man or a woman Ex Colloquiis Lutheri A certaine Nobleman invited Martin Luther and other learned men to his house the Nobleman after dinner went out a hunting where a Hare of great bignesse and a Fox of great swiftnesse offered themselves unto his hounds The Nobleman riding upon a good horse followed them amaine but his horse falling downe under him dyed and the Hare vanished into the aire This was certainly a diabolicall delusion Luther The same Luther writeth That certaine Noblemen riding a race they cryed out let the last bee the Devils one of the Noblemen having a spare horse hasted forward with the rest of his company but his horse that was leâ—t free came softly behinde and was carried up by the Devill into the aire The Devill is not to be invited for he is ready to come uncalled Philip