a brasen bull of such a strange workmanship that the voice of those that were rosted therein resembled rather the roaring of a bull then the cry of men the tyrant was well pleased with the inuention but hee would needs haue the inuentour make first triall of his owne worke as hee well deserued before any other should take tast thereof But what was the end of this tyrant Cic. Off. 2. The people not able any longer to endure his monstrous and vnnaturall cruelties ranne vpon 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 he prouided to rost others to be rosted therein himselfe deseruing it as well for approouing the deuise as Perillus did for deuising it Edward the second of that name king of England at the request and desire of Hugh Spencer his darling Enguerr de Monstr vol. 1. made war vpon his subiects and put to death diuers of the peeres lords of the realme without either right or forme of lawe insomuch that Queene Isabell his wife fled to Fraunce with her young sonne for feare of his vnbridled fury and after a while finding oportunity and meanes to returne againe guarded with certaine small forces which shee had in those countries gathered together she found the whole people discontented with the kings demeanors and ready to assist hir against him so she besieged him with their succor and took him prisoner and put him into the tower of London to bee kept till order might be taken for his deposition so that shortly after by the estates being assembled togither he was generally iointly reputed pronounced vnworthy to be king for his exceding cruelties sake which he had cōmitted vpon many of his worthy subiects and so deposing him they crowned his young son Edward the third of his name king in his roome he yet liuing and beholding the same Iohn Maria duke of Millan may be put into this rancke of murderers Paulus Iouius for his custome was diuerse times when any citizen offended him yea and sometimes without offence too to throw them amongst cruell mastiues to be torn in peeces and deuoured But as hee continued delighted this vnnaturall kind of murder the people one day incensed stirred vp against him ran vpon him with such rage and violence that they quickly depriued him of life And he was so wel beloued that no man either would or durst bestow a sepulchre vpon his dead bones but suffered his body to lie in the open street vncouered saue that a certain harlot threw a few roses vpon his wounds and so couered him Alphonsus the second king of Naples Ferdinands son was in Tyranny towards his subiects nothing inferiour to his father Sabel Guicciard lib. 1. Philip de Com. Bemb histor Vent lib. 2. for whether of them imprisoned put to death more of the nobility 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 as 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 euery one had of the approch of the Frenchmen which when Alphonsus perceiued and seeing his affaires and estate brought vnto so narrow a pinch hee also cowardly cast away all courage to resist and hope to recouer so hug a tempest and hee that for a long time had made war◠his trade and profession and had yet all his forces and armies complete in readinesse making himselfe banquerout of all that honour and reputation which by long experience and deeds of armes hee had gotten resolued to abandon his kingdome and to resigne the title and authoritie thereof to his son Ferdinand thinking by that meanes to assuage the heat of their hatred and that so yoong and innocent a king who in his owne person had neuer offended them might bee accepted and beloued of them and so their affection toward the French rebated and cooled But this deuise seemed to no more purpose then a salue applied to a sore out of season whē it was growne incurable or a prop set to a house that is alreadie falne Therefore hee tormented with the sting of his owne conscience and finding in his mind no repose by day nor rest by night but a continuall Summns and aduertisement by fearefull dreames that the Noblemen which hee had put to death cried to the people for reuenge against him was surprised with so terrible terrour that foorthwith without making acquainted with his departure either his brother or his owne sonne hee fled to Sicily supposing in his iourney that the Frenchmen were still at his backe and starting at euerie little noise as if hee feared all the elements had conspired his destruction Philip Comineus that was an eie witnesse of this iourney reporteth that euerie night hee would crie that hee heard the Frenchmen and that the verie trees and stones ecchoed Fraunce into his eares And on this manner was his flight to Sicily King Charles in the meane while hauing by force and bloodshed to terrifie the rest taken two passages that were before him the whole realme without any great resistance yeelded it selfe vnto his mercie albeit that the young king had done what hee could to withstand him But at length seeing the Neapolitanes ready to rebel and himselfe in danger to be taken prisoner he fled from the castell of Naples and with a small company got certaine brigandines wherein hee sailed to the Island Ischia thirty miles from Naples saying at his departure this verse out of the Psalmes How vaine are the watchmen and guards of that city which is not guarded and watched by the Lord which he oftentimes repeated and so long as Naples was in his view And thus was crueltie punished both in Ferdinand the father and Alphonse the son Artaxerxes Ochus the eight king of the Persians began his raign with thus many murders Herodos he slew two of his owne brethren first secondly Euageras king of Ciprus his partner and associate in the kingdome thirdly he tooke Gidon traiterously was the cause of forty thousand mens deaths that were slain burned therin beside many other priuate murders outrages which he cōmitted for which cause the Lord in his iustice rained down vengeance vpon his head for Bagoas one of his princes ministred such a fatal cup to his stomack that it mortified his sences depriued him of his vnmercifull soule and life not only vpon his head but vpon his kingdome his son Arsame also for he was also poisoned by the same Bagoas his kingdome translated to Darius prince of Armenia whome when the same Bagoas went about to make tast of the
the Emperor Sigismond had in all his affaires after the violation of his faith giuen to Iohn Hus Theatr. histor and Ierome of Prage at the councill of Constance whome though with direct protestations and othes he promised safe conduct returne yet he adiudged to be burned doth testifie the odiousnesse of his sinne in the sight of God But aboue all this one example is most worthy the marking of a fellow that hearing periurie condemned in a pulpit by a learned preacher and how it neuer escaped vnpunished said in a brauery I haue oft forsworne my selfe and yet my right hand is not a whit shorter then my left which words hee had scarse vttered when such an inflammation arose in that hand that he was constrained to go to the surgeon and cut it off least it should infect his whole body and so his right hand became shorter then his left in recompence of his periury which hee lightly esteemed of In the yeere of our Lord 1055 Goodwine Earle of Kent sitting at the table with king Edward of England Stow Chron. it happened that one of the cupbearers stumbled and yet fell not whereat Goodwine laughing said That if one brother had not holpen another meaning his legges all the wine had beene spilt with which words the king calling to mind his brothers death which was slaine by Goodwine answered So should my brother Alphred haue holpen me had not Goodwine beene then Goodwine fearing the kings new kindled displeasure excused himselfe with many words at last eating a morsell of bread wished it might choke him if he were not guiltlesse of Alphreds blood but he swore falsly as the iudgement of God declared for he was forthwith choaked in the presence of the king ere hee remooued one foote from that place though there be some say he recouered life againe Stow Chron Long time after this in the reigne of Queene Elizabeth there was in the city of London one Anne Aueriâ—â— widdow who forswore her selfe for a little mony that she should haue paid for six pound of tow at a shop in Woodstreet for which cause being suddenly surprized with the iustice of God shee fell downe speechlesse forthwith and cast vp at her mouth in great aboundance with horrible stinke that matter which by natures course should haue bene voided downwards and so died to the terrour of all periured and forsworne wretches There are in Histories many more examples to be found of this hurtfull and pernicious sinne exercised by one nation towards another and one man towards another in most profane and villanous sort neither shaming to be accounted forsworne nor consequently fearing to displease God and his maiestie But forasmuch as when we come to speake of murderers in the next booke we shall haue occasion to speake of them more or of such like I will referre the handling thereof vnto that place only this let euery man learne by that which hath bene spoken to be sound and fraudlesse and to keepe his faith and promise towards all men if for no other cause yet for feare of God who leaueth not this sinne vnpunished nor holdeth them guiltlesse that thus take his name in vaine CHAP. XXXI Of Blasphemers AS touching Blasphemie it is a most grieuous and enormous sinne and contrary to this third commandement when a man is so wretched and miserable as to pronounce presumptuous speeches against God whereby his name is slandered and euill spoken of which sinne can not choose but be sharpely and seuerely punished for if so be that God holdeth not him guiltlesse that doth but take his name in vaine must hee not needs abhorre him that blasphemeth his name See how meritoriously that wicked and peruerse wretch that blasphemed and murdered as it were the name of God among the people of Israel in the desert was punished hee was taken Leuit. 24. put in prison and condemned and speedily stoned to death by the whole multitude and vpon that occasion as euil manners begat euermore good lawes the Lord instituted a perpetual law and decree that euery one that should blaspheme and curse God of what estate or degree soeuer should be stoned to death in token of detestation which sentence if it might now a daies stand in force there would not raigne so many miserable blasphemers deniers of God as the world is now filled and infected with It was also ordained by a new law of Iustinian Cod. lib. 3. tit 43. that blasphemies should be seuerely punished by the Iudges magistrates of commonweales but such is the corruption and misery of this age that those men that ought to correct others for such speeches are oftentimes worst themselues there are that thinke that they can not be sufficiently feared and awed of men except by horrible bannings swearings they despite maugre God nay it is further come to that passe that in some places to sweare and ban be the marks ensignes of a Catholike they are best welcome that can blaspheme most How much then is that good king S. Lewes of France to be commended Nichol. Gil. vol. 1. Of French Chronicles who especially discharged all his subiects from swearing blaspheming within his realme insomuch that when he heating a a Lord of Ienville noble man blaspheme God most cruelly he caused him to be laid hold on his lips to be slit with an hor iron saying he must be content to endure that punishment seeing he purposed to banish othes out of his kingdome Now we call blasphemie according to the scripture phrase euery word that derogateth either from the bountie mercy iustice eternity soueraigne power of God of this sort was that blasphemous speech of one of king Iorams princes who at the time of the great famine in Samaria when it was besieged by the Sirians hearing Elizaeus the Prophet say that the next morow there should be plenty of victuals and good cheape reiected this promise of God made by his Prophet 2. King 7. saying that it was impossible as if God were either a lyar or not able to performe what he would for this cause this vnbeleeuing blasphemer receiued the same day a deserued punishment for his blasphemie for hee was troden to death in the gate of the citie vnder the feet of the multitude that went out into the Sirians camp forsaken and left desolate by them through a feare which the Lord sent among them 2. King 19. Sennacherib king of Assyria after he had obtained many victories subdued much people vnder him also laid siege to Ierusalem became so proud arrogant as by his seruants mouthes to reuile and blaspheme the liuing God speaking no otherwise of him then of some strange idoll and one that had no power to helpe and deliuer those that trusted in him for which blasphemies he soone after felt a iust vengeaÌ„ce of God vpon himselfe his people for although in mans eies he seemed
The fathers shal not be put to death for the children nor the children for the fathers but euerie man shall beare his owne sinne 2. King 15. Neither did Shallum that slue Zacharia king of Israel prosper any better for he raigned but one month in Samaria wheÌ„ Menahim the sonne of Gadi rebelled against him and slew him as he had done his maister Amon the sonne of Manasseh was slaine by his owne seruants but the Lord stirred vp the people of the land to reuenge his death to kill all them that had conspired against their king But to let passe the holy histories of the sacred scripture wherein euer after any treason the Holy-ghost presently setteth down the punishment of traitors as it were of purpose to signifie how the Lord hateth all such rebels that rose vp against his owne ordinance Let vs consider a little the consequents of these in prophane yet credible authors and applie them vnto our purpose Iâ—lian lib. 1. Archelaus King of Macedonia had a mignion called Cratenas whome he loued most entirely but he againe required him not with loue but with hatred and stretched all his wits to enstall 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 daies in his roialtie but he was serued with the same sauce that he had made Archelaus before him to tast of euen betraied and murdered as he well deserued Ludouicus Sfortia to the end to inuest himselfe with the dukedome of Millain spared not to shed the innocent blood of his two nephewes the sonnes of Galeachus togither 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 hee nor any of his offspring enioyed that which he so much affected When Numerianus was to succeed Carus his father in the Empire Phil. Melanct. chron lib. 3. Arrius Axer his father in law to the end to translate the Empire vnto himselfe entred a conspiracie and slew his sonne in law that nothing mistrusted his disloialty But the Pretorian army vnderstanding the matter discharged Arrius and elected Dioclesian in his roome who laying hold vpon his competitor laid an action of treason to his charge and put him to death in the sight of the multitude Theodericke and Fredericke conspired against their owne brother Thurismund king of the Visigothes Chron. Sigebert to the intent to succeed him in his kingdome And albeit that nature reclaimed them from the act yet they slew him without all compassion But after thirteene yeres raigne the same Theodericke was requited by his other brethren with the same measure that hee before met to his brother Thurismund And so though vengeance slept a while yet at length it wakened Aelias Antonius Gordianus the third Emperour of Rome Phil. Melanct. chron Aventin lib. 2. though so excellent a young prince that hee deserued to be called the Loue and Iewell of the world yet was hee slaine by one promoted by himselfe to high honour called Philip Arabs when hee was but two and twentie yeere old after whose decease this Philip got himselfe elected Emperour by the band confirmed by the Senat. Ingratitude punished All which notwithstanding after fiue yeeres 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 Aâ—entin lib. 2. After the death of Constantine the Great his three sonnes deuiding 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 Illiricum Constantine the younger was king and Emperour of the East But ambition suffered them not to enioy quietly these their possessions for when the eldest being more proud and seditious thâ—n the other not content with his alotted portion made warre vpon his brother Constance his prouinces and stroue to enter Italy hee was slaine in a battell by Aquileia when he was but fiue and twentie yeere old by which meanes all the prouinces which were his fell to Constance and therewithall such a drowsinesse and epicurisme for want of a stirrer vp after his brothers death that he fell into the gout and neglected the gouernment of the Empire Wherfore in Auspurge and in Rhetia they created a new Emperour one Magnentius whose life before-time Constance had saued from the souldiers Notable ingratitude punished and therefore his treachery was the greater This Magnentius depriued and slew Constance but was ouercome by Constantine the third brother in Illiricum yet in such sort that the conquerour could not greatly brag for he lost an infinite 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 slue himselfe also And so his traiterous ingratefull and ambitious murder was reuenged with his own hands Ritius lib. 1. regib Hispan Victericus betraied Luyba king of Spaine and succeeded in his place seuen yeeres after another traitor slew him succeeded also in his place Mauritius the Emperour was murdered by Phocas togither with his wife fiue of his children he seating himselfe Emperor in his Rome Howbeit traitours and murderers can neuer come to happy ends for as hee had slaine Mauritius so Priscus Heraclianus and Phorius three of his chiefest captaines conspiring against him with three seuerall armies gaue him such an alarme at once at his owne dores 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 Lanquet one Sir Roger Mortimer committed many villanous outrages in shedding much blood and at last king Edward himselfe lying at Barkley castle to the end that he might as it was supposed enioy Isabell his wife with whom he had very suspitious familiarity After this hee vniustly accused Edmond Earle of Kent of treason and caused him to be put to death therefore and lastly he conspired against king Edward the third as it was suspected for which cause he was worthily and deseruedly beheaded Among this ranke of murderers of kings we may fitly place also Richard the third vsurper of the crowne of England Stow. and diuers others which he vsed as instruments to bring his detestable purpose to effect as namely Sir Iames Tirrell knight a man for natures gifts worthy to haue serued a much better prince then this Richard if he had well serued God and bene indued with as much truth honestie as he had strength wit also Miles Forest Iohn Dighton two villains fleshed
fared till king Charles the sixt sent an army of men to his succour Cap. 125 126. for he was his subiect by whose support he ouercame those rebels in a battaile foughten at Rose Be◠to the number of forty thousand the body of their chieftaine Philip Arteuill slaine in the throng hee caused to bee hanged on a tree Nic. Gil. vol. 2. And this was the end of that cruell Tragedy the countrie being brought againe into the obedience of their old Lord. A while before this Froiss vol. r. cap. 182. whilest king Iohn was held prisoner in England there arose a great cōmotion of the cōmon people in France against the nobilitie and gentilitie of the realme that oppressed them this tumult began but with an hundred men that were gathered togither in the countrey of Beauvoisin but that small handfull grewe right quickly to an armefull euen to nine thousand that ranged and robbed throughout al Brie along by the riuer Marne to Laonoise and all about Soissons armed with great bats shod with iron an headlesse crue without gouernour fully purposing to bring to ruine the whole nobility In this disorder they wrought much mischief broke vp many houses and castles murdered many Lords so that diuerse Ladies and knights as the Dutchesses of Normandy Orleance were faine to flee for safegard to Meaux whither when these rebels would needes pursue them they were there ouerthrowen killed and hanged by troupes In the yere of our Lord 1525 Sleid. lib. 4. there were certaine husbandmen of Souabey that began to stand in resistance against the Earle of Lupsfen by reason of certaine burdens which they complained themselues to be ouerlaid with by them their neighbors seeing this enterprised the like against their lords And so vpon this small beginning by a certaine contagion there grew vp a most dangerous and fearfull commotion that spread it selfe almost ouer all Almaine the sedition thus increasing in all quarters and the swaines being now full fortie thousand strong making their owne liberty and the Gospels a cloake to couer their treason and rebellion and a pretence of their vndertaking armes to the wonderfull griefe of all that feared God did not only fight with the Romane Catholikes but with all other without respect as well in Souabe as in Franconia they destroied 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 Helfestin making him passe through their pikes But at length their strength was broken they discomfited and torne in pieces with a most horrible massacre of more than eighteene thousand of them During this sedition there were slaine on each side fifty thousand men The captaine of the Souabian swaines called Geismer hauing betaken himselfe to flight got ouer the mountaines to Padua where by treason hee was made away In the yeere of our Lord 1517 in the Marquesdome of the Vandales the like insurrection and rebellion was of the comminaltie especially the baser sort against the nobilitie spirituall and temporall by whom they were oppressed with intollerable exactions their army was numbred to stand of ninety thousand men all clownes and husbandmen that conspired togither to redresse and refourme their owne grieuances without any respect of ciuill magistrate or feare of Almightie God This rascality of swaines raged and tyranized euery where burning and beating downe the castles and houses of noble men and making their ruines euen with the ground Nay they handled the noble men themselues as many as they could attaine vnto not contumeliously only but rigorously and cruelly for they tormented them to death and carried their heads vpon speares in token of victory Thus they swaied a while vncontrolled for the Emperour Maximilian winked at their riots as beeing acquainted with what iniuries they had bene ouercharged but when he perceiued that the rude multitude did not limit their fury within reason but let it runne too lauish to the damnifying as well the innocent as the guilty hee made out a certaine small troupe of mercenary souldiers togither with a band of horsemen to suppresse them who comming to a city were presently so inuironed with such a multitude of these swaines that like locusts ouerspread the earth that they thought it impossible to escape with their liues wherefore feare and extremitie made thē to rush out to battel with thē But see how the Lord prospereth a good cause for all their weake number in comparison of their enemies yet such a feare possessed their enemies hearts that they fled like troupes of sheepe and were slaine liee dogs before them insomuch that they that escaped the sword were either hanged by flockes 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 countrey with their monstrous villanies that the traces and steppes thereof remaine at this day to be seene In the yeere of our Lord 1381 Stow Chron. Richard the second being king the commons of England and especially of Kent and Essex by meanes of a taxe that was set vpon them suddenly rebelled and assembled togither on Blackheath to the number of 60000 or more which rebellious rout had none but base and ignoble fellowes for their captaines as Wat Tilour Iacke Straw Tom Miller but yet they caused much trouble and disquietnesse in the realme and chiefly about the citie of London where they committed much villanie in destroying many goodly places as the Sauoy and others and being in Smithfield vsed themselues very proudly and vnreuerently towards the king but by the manhood and wisdome of William Walworth Maior of London who arrested their chiefe captaine 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 seuenth Stow Chron. a great commotiō was stirred vp in England by the commons of the North by reason of a certaine taxe which was leuied of the tenth penny of all mens lands good within the land in the which the Earle of Northumberland was slaine But their rash attempt was soone broken and Chamberlaine their captaine with diuers others hanged at Yorke for the same Howbeit their example scared not the Cornish men frō rebelling vpon the like occasion of a taxe vnder the conduct of the lord Audley vntill by wofull experience they felt the same scourge for the king met them vpon blacke heath and discomfiting their troupes tooke their captains and ringleaders and put them to most worthy and sharpe death Thus we may see the vnhappie issue of all such seditious reuoltings and thereby gather how vnpleasant they are in the sight of God Let all people therefore learne by these experiences to submit themselues in the feare of God to the higher powers whether they be lords kings princes or any other that are set ouer them CHAP. VI. Of Murderers AS
most traiterous and cruell part to massacre kill him in the Senat as he sate in his seat misdoubting no mishap as the sequele of their seuerall ends which were actors in this tragedy did declare Treason lib. 2. cap 3 4. Plutarch for the vengeance of God was so manifestly displaied vpon them that not one of the conspirators escaped but was pursued by sea and land so eagerly till there was not one left of that wicked crâ—e whome reuenge had not ouertaken Cassius being discomfited in the battell of Philippos supposing that Brutus had beene also in the same case vsed the same sword against himselfe a marueilous thing wherwith before he had smitten Caesar Brutus also a few daies after Eutrop. when a fearfull vision had appeared twice vnto him by night vnderstanding therby that his time of life was but short though he had the better of his enemies the day before yet threw himselfe desperately into the greatest danger of the battel for his speedier dispatch but hee was reserued to a more shamefull end for seeing his men slaine before him he retired hastily apart from view of men setting his sword to his breast threw himselfe vpon it piercing him through the body and so ended his life And thus was Caesars death reuenged by Octauius and Anthony who remained conquerours after all that bloodie crew was brought to naught betwixt whome also ere long burst out a most cruell deuision which grew vnto a furious and cruell battaile by sea wherein Anthony was ouercome and sent flying into Aegypt and there taught his owne hands to be his murderers And such was the end of his life who had beene an actor in that pernicious office of the Triumuirship and a causer of the deaths of many men And for asmuch as Cleopatra was the first motiue and setter on of Anthony to this warre it was good reason that shee should partake some of that punishment which they both deserued as she did for being surprised by her enemies to the intent she might not be carried in triumph to Rome she caused an aspe to bite her to death Marke here the pitifull Tragedies that following one another in the necke were so linckt together that drawing and holding ech other they drew with them a world of miseries to a most woful end a most transparent and cleare glasse wherein the visages of Gods heauy iudgements vpon all murderers are apparently deciphered CHAP. VIII Other examples like vnto the former AFter that the Empire of Rome declining after the death of Theodosius was almost at the last cast ready to yeeld vp the ghost Procopius and that Theodorick king of the Gothes had vsurped the dominion of Italy vnder the Emperour Zeno he put to death two great personages Senators chiefe citizens of Rome to wit Simmachus and Boetius onely for secret surmise which he had without probabilty that they two should weaue some slie web for his destruction After which cruell deed as he was one day at supper a fishes head of great bignesse being serued into the table purposing to bee verie merry sodainly the vengeance of God assailed amazed oppressed pursued him so freshly that without intermission or breathing it sent his body a sencelesse trunk into the graue in a most strange maruelous maner for he was conceited as himselfe reported that the fishes head was the head of Simmachus whom hee had but lately slaine which grinned vpon him seemed to face him with an ouerthwart threatning angrie eie wherewith hee was so scarred that forthwith hee rose from the table and was possessed with such an exceeding trembling icie chilnesse that ran through all his ioints that he was constrained to take his chamber go to bed where soone after with griefe fretting displeasure he died He committed also another most cruell and traiterous part vpon Odoacer whom inuiting to a banquet he deceitfully welcommed with a messe of swords in stead of other victuals to kill him withall that hee might sway the Empire alone both of the Gothes and Romans without check It was not without cause that Attila was called the scourge of God Iornand Greg. de Tours for with an army of 500 thousand meÌ„ he wasted and spoiled al fields cities villages that he passed by putting al to fire and sword without shewing mercie to any on this manner hee went spoiling through France and there at one time gaue battaile to the vnited forces of the Romans Vice-Gothes Frenchmen Sarmatians Burgundians Saxons and Almaignes after that he entred Italy tooke by way of force Aquilea sacked and destroied Millan with many other cities and in a word spoiled all the countrie in fine being returned beyond Almaigne hauing married a wife of excellent beautie though he was well wiued before hee died on his marriage night sodainly in his bed for hauing well caroused the day before hee fell into so dead asleepe that lying vpon his backe without respect the blood which was often wont to issue at his nosethrils finding those coÌ„duites stopped by his vpright lying descended into his throat stopped his wind And so that bloody tyrant that had shed the blood of so many people was himselfe by the effusion of his owne blood murdered and stifled to death Ithilbald king of Gothia at the instigation of his wife put to death very vnaduisedly one of the chiefe peeres of his realm after which murder as he sat banquetting one day with his princes enuironed with his guard other attendants hauing his hand in the dish and the meat betweene his fingers one sodainly reached him such a blow with a sword that it cut off his head so that it almost tumbled vpon the table to the great astonishment of all that were present Greg. of Tours lib. 3. histor Sigismund king of Burgundy suffered himselfe to bee caried away with such an extreame passion of choler prouoked by a false and malicious accusation of his second wife that hee caused one of his sonnes which hee had by his former wife to bee strangled in his bed because hee was induced to thinke that hee went about to make himselfe king which deed being blowne abroad Clodomire sonne to Clodoâ—ee and Clotild king of Fraunce and cousin German to Sigismund Refer this properly to lib. 2. cap. 11. came with an armie for to reuenge this cruell and vnnaturall part his mother setting forward and inciting him thereunto in regard of the iniurie which Sigismunds father had done to her father and mother one of whome hee slew and drowned the other As they were readie to ioine battaile Sigismunds souldiours forsooke him so that hee was taken and presently put to death and his sonnes which hee had by his second wife were taken also and carried captiue to Orleance there drowned in a well Thus was the execrable murder of Sigismund his wife punished in their owne children As for Cleodomire though hee went conquerour from this
the duke of Orleance was a vertuous and commendable action and the authour of it to be void of fault and therefore ought to be void of punishment The preface which this braue oratour vsed was That he was bounden in duty to the duke of Burgundy in regard of a goodly pension which he had receiued at his hands and for that cause he had prepared his poore tongue in token of gratitude to defend his cause Hee might better haue said thus That seeing his tongue was poore and miserable and he himselfe a senslesse creature therfore he ought not to allow or defend so obstinately such a detestable and traiterous murder committed vpon a Duke of Orleance and the same the kings brother in such vile sort and that if hee should do otherwise he should approoue of that which God and man apparantly condemned yea the very Turkes and greatest Painyms vnder heauen that he should iustify the wicked condemne the innocent which is an abomination before God should put darknes in stead of light and call that which is euill good for which the Prophet Esai in his 1 chapter denounceth the iudgemēts of God against false prophets should follow the steps of Balaam which let out his tongue to hire for the wages of iniquity but none of these supposes came once into his mind But to returne to our history The duke of Burgundy hauing the tongues of these braue doctors at his commaundement and the Parisians who bore themselues partially in this quarrel generally fauourers of his side came to Paris in armes to iustifie himselfe as he pretended and stroke such a dreadfull awe of himselfe into all mens minds that notwithstanding all the earnest pursuit of the Duchesse the widow of Orleance for iustice he escaped vnpunished vntill God by other meanes tooke vengeance vpon him which happened after a while after that those his complices of Paris being become lords and rulers of the city had committed many horrible and cruell murders as of the Constable and Chancellour two head officers of the realme whose bodies fast bound togither they drew naked through the streets from place to place in most despitefull maner for the Daulphin escaping their hands by night and safeguarded in his castle after that hee heard of the seasure of the citie found meanes to assemble certaine forces and marched to Montereaufautyon with twenty thousand men of purpose to be reuenged on the Duke for all his braue riotous demeanors hither vnder colour of parling deuising new means to pacifie these old ciuill troubles he enticed the duke being come at his very first arrtuall as he was bowing his knee in reuerence to him he caused him to be slaine And on this manner was the duke of Orleance death quitted the euill and cruelty shewed towards him returned vpon the murderers owne necke for as hee slew him treacherously cowardly so was hee also treacherously and cowardly slaine and iustly requited with the same measure that he before had measured to another Treason lib. 2. cap. 3. notwithstanding herein the Daulphin was not free from a grieuous crime of disloialtie truth breach in working his death without shame of either faith-breach or periury and that in his owne presence whom he had so often with protestation of assurance and safety requested to come vnto him Neither did hee escape vnpunished for it for after his fathers decease hee was in danger of loosing the crowne and all for this cause For Philip duke of Burgundy taking his fathers reuēge into his hands by his cunning deuises wrought meanes to displace him from the succession of the kingdome by according a marriage betwixt the king of England and his sister to whome he in fauour agreed to giue his kingdome in reuersion after his owne decease Now assoone as the king of England was seased vpon the gouernment of Fraunce the Daulphin was presently summoned to the marble table to giue answer for the death of the old duke whither when he made none appearance they presently banished him the realme and pronounced him to be vnworthy to be succeeder to the noble crowne which truly was a very grieuous chastisement and such an one as brought with it a heape of many mischiefes and discomfitures which happened in the warre betwixt England and him for the recouery of his kingdome Peter sonne to Alphonsus king of Castill Froiss lib. r. hist was a most bloodie and cruell tyrant for first hee put to death his owne wife the daughter of Peter duke of Burbone and sister to the Queene of France Next he slue the mother of his bastard brother Henry togither with many Lords and Barons of the realme for which he was hated not only of all his subiects but also of his neighbour and adioyning cuntries which hatred mooued the aforesaid Henry to aspire vnto the crowne which what with the Popes aduouch who legitimated him and the helpe of certaine French forces and the support of the nobility of Castill he soone atchieued Peter thus abandoned put his safest-guard in his heeles and fled to Bordeaux towards the Prince of Wales of whome he receiued such good entertainment that with his aid he soone reentred his lost dominions and by maine battell chased his bastard brother out of the confines thereof But being reinstalled whilst his cruelties ceased not to multiply on euery side behold Henry with a new supply out of France began to assaile him afresh and put him once againe to his shifts but all that hee could doe could not shift him out of Henries hands who pursued him so hotly that with his owne hands he soone rid him out of all troubles and afterwards peaceably enioyed the kingdome of Castill CHAP. X. Of diuers other murderers and their seuerall punishments MAximinus from a shepheard in Thracia grew to be an Emperor in Rome by these degrees his exceeding strength and swiftnes in running commended him so to Seuerus then Emperour that he made him of his guard from that hee arose to be a Tribune and at last to be an Emperour which place he was no sooner in possession of but immoderate crueltie all this while buried began to shew it selfe for he made hauocke of all the nobilitie and put to death those that hee suspected to be acquainted with his estate insomuch as some called him Cyclops some Busiris others Anteus for his cruelty Wherfore the Senat 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 knowen his souldiers lying at the siege of Aquileia mooued with hatred entred his tent at noone day and slew him and his sonne togither Iustinian the younger no lesse hatefull to his subiects for his cruelty than Maximinus was deposed from the Empire by conspiracie and hauing his nosthrils slit exiled to Chersona Leontius succeeding in his place Howbeit ere long hee recouered his crowne and scepter and returned to
Constantinople exercising more cruelty at his returne then euer hee had done before him for he not only put to death Leontius and Tiberius but also all that any way fauoured their parts It is said of him that he neuer â—â—â—w 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 Lumbardy drinking vpon a time to his wife Rosimund in a cup made of her fathers skull whome he in battaile had slaine so displeased her therewith that shee attributing more to naturall affection then vnity of marriage decreed with her selfe to hazard life and kingdome to be reuenged vpon this grieuous iniury wherefore shee thus practised A knight called Hemichild was enamoured with one of her maids him she brought into a secret darke place by pollicie in shew to enioy his loue but indeed to be at her commaund for shee supplied his loues place and then discouering her selfe put it to his choise either to kill her husband or to be accused by her of this villany Hemichild chose the former and in deed murdered his lord in his bed and after the deed done fled with her to Rauenna But marke how the Lord requited this murder euen most strangely for they both which had beene linkt togither in the fact were linkt togither also in the punishment and as they had beene ioynt instruments of anothers destruction so he made them mutuall instruments of their owne for Rosimund thinking to poison him too made him drinke halfe her medicine but he feeling the poison in his veines staied in the midway and made her sup vp the other halfe for her part so they died both togither The Electors of the Empire disagreeing in suffrages Munst cosâ—n Philip. Melan. lib. 5. Adolphus duke of Nassauia Albertus duke of Austria tooke vpon them the regiment and managing of the state whereupon grewe grieuous warres in all Germany and dissention betweene the two statemen so that Adolphus was slaine by the duke of Austria in battaile by the city of Spire whose death was thus notably reuenged 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 hanged the bishop of Mentz died suddenly of an apoplexie in his sellar the bishop of Stratsbrough was butchered by a butcher the Earle of Leimingen died of a phrensie the duke of Austria himselfe was slaine by his nephew Iohn from whome he had taken the gouernment of Sueuia because of his vnthriftinesse generally they all came to destruction so grieuous is the crie of innocent blood against those that are guiltie thereof After the death of Woldimirus king of Rhythenia his son Berisus succeeded in the kingdome Treason lib. 2. cap. 3. who though hee was a vertuous and religious prince yet could not his vertue or religion priuiledge him from the malice of his brother Suadopolcus who gaping and itching for the crowne slue his brother this good prince as he was sleeping in his chamber togither with his Esquire that attended vpon him Chron. Pol. lib. 2. cap. 10. and not content herewith but adding murder to murder he assaulted another of his brethren by the same impiety and brought him to the same end Whereupon the last brother Iorâ—slaus to be reuenged on this villany set vpon him with an army of men and killing his complices droue him to flie to Crachus king of Polonia for succour who furnishing him with a new army sent him backe against his brother in which battell his successe being equall to his former he lost his men and himselfe escaping the sword died in his flight to Polonia and was buried in a base and ignoble sepulchre fit enough for so base ignoble a wretch And that we may see how hatefull and vngodly a thing it is to be either a protectour or a sauer of any murderer marke the iudgement of God that fell vpon this king of Polonia though not in his owne person yet in his posterity Treason lib. 2. cap. 3. for he being dead his eldest sonne and heire Crachus was murdered by his younger brother Lechus as they were hunting so disguised and torne that euery man imputed his death not to Lechus whose eies dropt crocadiles teares but to some sauadge and cruell beast Howbeit ere long his treachery being discouered and disseised of his kingdome hee died with extreame griefe and horrour of conscience And thus wee see that Crachus his kingdome came to desolation for maintaining a murderer Iohn the high priest of Ierusalem sonne and successour to Iudas had a brother tearmed Iesus to whome Bagoses the lieuetenant of Antaxerxes army promised the priesthood Ioseph anâ—iq Iudaic. l. r 1. c 7 meaning in deed to depose Iohn and install him in his roome vpon which occasion this Iesus growing insolent spared not to reuile his brother that in the temple with immodest opprobrious speeches so that his anger being prouoked ProfanatioÌ„ of holy things lib. 1. cap. 34. hee slue him in his rage a most impious part for the high priest to pollute the holy temple with blood that of his owne brother and so impious that the Lord in iustice could not choose but punish the whole natioÌ„ for it most seuerely For this cause Bagoses imposed a tribute vpon them euen a most grieuous tribute that for euery lambe they offered vpon the altar they should pay fifty groats to the king of Persia besides the prophanation of their temple with the vncircumcised Persians who entred into it at their pleasures and so polluted the sanctuary and holy things of God this punishment continued vpon them seuen yeeres and all for this one murder Gerhardus Earle of Holsatia after he had conquered the Danes in many and sundry battailes Treason lib. 2. cap. 3. was traiterously slaine in the city Kanderhusen by one Nicolaus Iacobus a rich Baron so that whome the open enemie feared in the field him the priuie subtill foe murdered in his chamber But the traitour and murderer albeit he fled to the castle Schaldenburg and got a band of soldiers to defend himselfe yet he was surprised by the Earls sonnes who tormenting him as became a traitor to be tormented at last rent his body into foure quarters and so his murder and treason was condignly punished Aboue all the execution of Gods vengeance is most notably manifested in the punishment and detection of one Parthenius an homicide treasurer to Theodobert king of France Greg. of Tours lib. 3. cap. 36. who hauing traiterously slaine an especiall friend of his called Ausanius with his wife Papianilla when no man suspected or accused him thereof hee detected and accused himselfe after this strange manner As hee slept in his bed suddenly hee roared out most pitifully crying for helpe or else hee perished
betwixt whome was great strife for the soueraigne dominion but to rid himselfe of all his trouble at once hee slew his brother Manlius by treason and after continued his raigne in tyranny and all vnlawfull lusts the space of twentie yeares but although vengeance all this while wincked yet it slept not for at the end of this space as hee was hunting hee was deuoured of wild beasts In the yeare of our Lord God 745 one Sigebert was authorised king of the Saxons in Brittaine a cruell and tyrannous Prince towards his subiects and one that chaunged the ancient lawes and customes of his realme after his owne pleasure and because a certaine Nobleman somewhat sharpely aduertised him of his euill conditions he malitiously caused him to bee put to death but see how the Lord reuenged this murder hee caused his Nobles to depriue him of his kingly authority and at last as a desolate and forlorne person wandering alone in a wood to bee slaine of a swine-heard whose maister hee being king had wrongfully put to death In the yeare of our Lord 678 Childerich king of Fraunce caused a Nobleman of his Realme called Bolyde to bee bound to a stake and there beaten to death without the pretence of any iust crime or accusation against him for which cruelty his Lords and commons being grieuously offended conspired togither and slew him with his wife as they were in hunting In the raigne of Edward the second and Edward the third Sir Roger Mortimer committed many villanous outrages in sheading much humane blood but hee was also iustlie recompenced in the end first he murdered king Edward the second lying in Barkley castell to the end hee might as it was supposed enioy Isabell his wife with whome hee had very suspitious familiarity Secondly hee caused Edward the third to conclude a dishonourable peace with the Scots by restoring to them all their ancient writings charters and patents whereby the kings of Scotland had bound themselues to be feudaries to the kings of England Thirdly he accused Edmund Earle of Kent vncle to king Edward of treason and caused him vniustly to be put to death And lastly he conspired against the king to worke his destruction for which and diuerse other things that were laid to his charge he was worthely and iustly beheaded In the raigne of Henry the sixt Humfry the good duke of Gloucester faithfull protector of the king by the meanes of certaine malicious persons and especially the Marques of Suffolke as it was suspected was arrested cast into hold strangled to death in the Abbey of Bury for which cause the Marques was not only banished the land for the space of fiue yeares but also banished out of his life for euer for as he sailed towards France he was met withall by a ship of warre and there presently beheaded and the dead corps cast vp at Douer that England wherein hee had committed the crime might be a witnesse of his punishment As the murder of a gentleman in Kent called maister Arden of Feuersham was most execrable so the wonderfull discouerie thereof was exceeding rare this Arden being somewhat aged had to wife a young woman no lesse faire then dishonest who being in loue with one Mosby more then her husband did not onely abuse his bed but also conspired his death with this her companion for togither they hired a notorious ruffian one Blacke Will to strangle him to death with a towell as hee was playing a game at tables which though secretly done yet by her own guiltie conscience and some tokens of blood which appeared in the house was soon discouered and confessed Wherfore she her selfe was burnt at Canterbury Michael maister Ardens man was hanged in chaines at Feuersham Mosby and his sister were hanged in Smithfield Greene another partner in this bloody action was hanged in chaines in the high way against Feuersham And Blacke Will the ruffian after his first escape was apprehended and burnt on a scaffold at Flushing in Zealand And thus all the murderers had their deserued dewes in this life and what they endured in the life to come except they obtaine mercy by true repentance it is easie to iudge CHAP. XI Of Paricides or parent murderers IF all effusion of humane blood bee both horrible to behold and repugnant to nature then is the murdering of parents especially detestable when a man is so possessed with the deuill or transported with a hellish fury that he lifteth vp his hand against his owne naturall father or mother to put thē to death this is so monstrous and inormious an impiety that the greatest Barbarians euer haue had it in detestation wherefore it is also expressely commanded in the law of God that vvhosoeuer smiteth his father or mother in what sort soeuer though not to death Exod. 21. yet he shall die the death If the disobedience vnreuerence and contempt of children towards their parents are by the iust iudgement of God most rigorously punished as hath ben declared before in the first commandement of the second table how much more then when violence is offered aboue all when murder is cōmitted Diodor. Sic. Thus the Aegyptians punished this sin they put the cōmittants vpon a stack of thorns and burnt thē aliue hauing beaten their bodies before hand with sharp reeds made of purpose Solon being demanded why hee appointed no punishment in his lawes for Parricides answered that there was no necessity thinking that the wide world could not affoord 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 euery murderer a Parricide the one being in his opinion a thing execrable and the other impossible And in truth there was not for 600 years space according to Plutarchs report found in Rome any one that had cōmitted this execrable fact The first Parricide that Rome saw was Lucius Ostius after the first Punick war although other writers affirme that M. Malliolus was the first and Lucius the second howsoeuer it was they both vnderwent the punishment of the law Pompeia which enacted that such offendors should be thrust into a sack of lether an ape a cock a viper a dog put in to accōpany them then to be thrown into the water to the end that these beasts being enraged animated one against another might wreke their teene vpon them so depriue thē of life after a strange fashion being debarred of the vse of aire water earth as vnworthy to participate the very elements with their deaths much lesse with their liues which kind of punishmēt was after practised and confirmed by the constitution of Constantine the great And albeit the regard of the punishmēt seemed terrible the offence it self much more monstrous yet since that time there haue ben many so peruerse exceedingly wicked as to throw themselues headlong into that desperat gulfe As Cleodorick son of Sigebert king of
Caracalla tooke to wife his mother in law allured thereunto by her faire enticements whose wretched and miserable end hath already beene touched in the tenth Chapter of this booke The Emperour Heraclius after the decease of his first wife married his owne neece the daughter of his brother which turned mightily to his vndoing for besides that that vnder his raigne and as it were by his occasion the Saracens entred the borders of Christendome and spoiled and destroied his dominions vnder his nose to his soule and vtter disgrace hee was ouer and aboue smitten corporally with so grieuous and irkesome a disease of dropsie that hee died thereof Thus many men run riot by assuming to themselues too much libertie and breake the bounds of ciuill honesty required in all contracts and too audaciously set themselues against the commaundement of God which ought to be of such authority with all men that none be they neuer so great should dare to derogate one iot from them vnlesse they meant wholly to oppose themselues as profest enemies to God himselfe and to turne all the good order of things into confusion All which notwithstanding some of the Romish Popes haue presumed to encroch vpon Gods right and to disanull by their foolish decrees the lawes of the almightie Sleid. lib. 9. As Alexander the sixt did who by his bull approoued the incestuous marriage of Ferdinand king of Naples with his owne Aunt his father Alphonsus sister by the fathers side which otherwise saith Cardinall Bembus had beene against all law and equitie and in no case to be tollerated and borne withall Henry the seuenth king of England after the death of his eldest sonne Arthur caused by the speciall dispensation of Pope Iulius his next sonne named Henry to take to wife his brothers widdow called Katherine daughter to Ferdinando king of Spaine for the desire hee had to haue this Spanish affinitie continued who succeeding his father in the crowne after continuance of time began to aduise himselfe and to consult whether this marriage with his brothers wife might be lawfull or no and found it by conference both of holy and prophane lawes vtterly vnlawfull whereupon hee sent certain bishops to the Queene to giue her to know That the Popes dispensation was altogither vniust and of none effect to priuiledge such an act to whome shee answered that it was too late to call in question the Popes bull which so long time they had allowed of The two Cardinals that were in Commission from the Pope to decide the controuersie and to award iudgement vpon the matter were once vpon point to conclude the decree which the king desired had not the Pope impeached their determination in regard of the Emperour Charles nephew to the said Queene whome hee was loth to displease wherefore the king seeing himselfe frustrate of his purpose in this behalfe sent into diuers countries to know the iudgement of all the learned Diuines concerning the matter in controuersie who especially those that dwelt not farre off seemed to allow and approoue the diuorce thereupon hee resolued reiecting his old wife to take him to a new and to marry as he did Anne of Bullaine one of the Queenes maids of honour a woman of most rare and excellent beauty Now as touching his first marriage with his brothers wife how vnfortunate it was in it owne nature and how vniustly dispensed withall by the Pope we shall anon see by those heauie sorrowfull and troublesome euents and issues which immediatly followed in the necke thereof And first and foremost of the euill fare of the Cardinall of Yorke with whome the king beeing highly displeased for that at his instance and request the Pope had opposed himselfe to this marriage requited him and not vndeseruedly on this manner First he deposed him from the office of the Chancellourship secondly depriued him of two of his three bishopricks which he held lastly sent him packing to his owne house as one whom hee neuer purposed more to see Yet afterward being aduertised of certaine insolent and threatning speeches which hee vsed against him hee sent againe for him but he not daring to refuse to come at his call died in the way with meere griefe and despight The Pope gaue his definitiue sentence against this act and fauoured the cause of the diuorced ladie But what gained hee by it saue onely that the king offended with him reiected him and all his trumperie retaining his yearely tribute leuied out of this realme and conuerted it to another vse and this was the recompence of his goodly dispensation with an incestuous mariage wherein although to speake truly and properly he lost nothing of his owne yet it was a deepe checke and no shallow losse to him and his successors to be depriued of so goodly a reuenue and so great authoritie in this realme as hee then was CHAP. XXV 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 Adulterie whereby the bond of marriage is desolued should bee 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 euen his enemies brats in stead of his owne not onely to bee fathered but also to bee brought vp and maintained by him and in time to bee made inheritours of his possessions which thing being once known must needs stirre vp coles to set anger on fire and set a broch much mischiefe and albeit that the poore infants are innocent and guiltlesse of the crime yet doth the punishment and ignominy thereof redound to them because they can not be reputed as legitimate but are euer marked with the blacke cole of bastardy whilst they liue so grieuous is the guilt of this sinne and vneasie to be remooued For this cause the very heathen not onely reprooued adultery euermore 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 couenant Gen. 26. knowing by the light of nature for he knew not the law of God how sacred and inuiolable the knot of marriage ought to bee expressely forbad all his people from doing any iniury to Isaac in regard of his wife and from touching her dishonestly vpon paine of death Out of the same fountaine sprang the words of Queen Hecuba in Euripides speaking to Menelaus as touching Helen when she admonished him to enact this law That euery woman which should betray her husbands credit and her owne chastitie to another man should die the death In old time the Aegyptians vsed to punish adultery on this sort the man with a thousand ierkes with a reed Diodor. and the woman with cutting off her nose but hee that forced a free woman to his lust had his priuie members cut off By the law of
things a very niggard and pinchpenny shewed himselfe on the other side more then prodigall next he sent into Calabria for a Hermit reported to be a holy and deuout man to whome at his arriuall hee perfourmed so much dutie and reuerence as was wonderfull and vnseemely for hee threw himselfe on his knees and besought him to prolong his decaying life as if hee had beene a God and not a man but all that hee could doe was to no purpose no nor the reliques which Pope Sixtus sent him to busie himselfe withall nor the holy viall of Rheims which was brought him could prorogue this life of his nor priuiledge him from dying a discontent and vnwilling death he suspected the most part of his nearest attendants and would not suffer them to approch vnto him in his sicknesse after hee had thus prolonged the time in hope and yet still languished in extreame distresse of his disease it was at length told him in all speed that hee should not set his mind any longer vpon those vaine hopes nor vpon that holy man for his time was come and hee must needs die And thus hee that during his raigne shewed himselfe rough and cruell to his subiects by too many and heauy impositions was himselfe in his lattet end thus roughly and hardly dealt withall Christiern the eleuenth king of Denmarke Norway and Suecia after the death of king Iohn his father raigned the yeere of our Lord 1514 and was too intollerable in imposing burdens and taxes vpon his subiects for which cause the Swecians reuolted from his gouernment whome though after many battailes and sieges hee conquered and placed amongst them his garrisons to keepe them in awe yet ceased they not to rebell against him and that by the instigation of a meane gentleman who very quickely got footing into the kingdome and possessed himselfe of the crowne and gouernment Now Christiern hauing lost this prouince and beeing also in disdaine 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 Lubeck conspiring with his vncle Fredericke began to take armes against him hee fled away with his wife sister to the Emperour Charles the fift and his young children to Zeland a prouince of the Emperours after hee had raigned nine yeeres after which the Estates of the realme aided by them of Lubeck assembling togither exalted his vncle Fredericke prince of Holsatia though old and ancient to the crowne and publishing certaine writings addressed them to the Emperour and the princes of his Empire to render a reason of their con-proceeding and to make knowne vnto them vpon how good siderations they had deposed and banished Christierne for the tyranny which hee exercised among them ten yeres after this hee got togither a new army by sea in hope to recouer his losses but contrary to his hope he was taken prisoner and in captiuity ended miserably his daies Henry king of Suecia was chased from his scepter for enterprising to burden his commons with new contributions Those that were deuisers of new taxes and tributes Nic. Gil. vâ—l 1. for the most part euer lost their liues in their labours for proofe whereof let the example of Parchenus or Porchetes serue who for giuing counsell to king Theodebert touching the raising of new subsidies was stoned to death by the multitude in the city Trieues Likewise was George Presquon cruelly put to death by the people for persuading and setting forward Henry of Suecia to the vexation and exaction of his subiects CHAP. XXXVIII More Examples of the same subiect Platiniae in vita Zacharin AIstulphus the nineteenth king of Lumbardy was not onely a most cruell tyrant but also a grieuous oppressour of his subiects with taxes and exactions Phil. Melanct. lib. 3. for hee imposed this vpon euery one of them to pay yeerely a noble for their heads against this man Pope Steuen prouoked king Pepin of France who comming with an army droue the tyrant into Ticinum and constrained him to yeeld to partiall conditions of peace howbeir Pepin was no sooner gone but he returned to his old byas wherefore the second time he came and droue him to as great extremitie in so much as another peace was concluded after the accomplishment whereof peruerse Aistulph still vexing his subiects was plagued by God with an apoplexie and so died Zonar lib. 3. Iustinian the Emperour as be was profuse and excessiue in spending so was hee immoderate and insatiable in gathering togither riches for hee exercised his wit in deuising new tributes and paiments and reioyced his heart in nothing more for which causes there arose a grieuous sedition at Constantinople against him wherein not onely the excellent and famous monuments of the Empire were burned but also fourty thousand men slaine and this was no small punishment for his oppression At Paris there is to be seene in the corne market a certain monument hard at the mouth of the common sinke which conuaieth away all the filth out of the city Eras in lingua 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 euery countriman that brought ware into the city but one penny and that but for two yeares togither which when the king put in practise and found the exceeding commoditie thereof he not only continued that taxe but also inuented diuers others to the great damage of the Common-wealth and inriching of his owne treasurie Wherefore hee that put it first into his head when he saw that he had not so much authoritie in dissuading as hee 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 bee buried in that common sincke to bee an example of exaction and the filthinesse thereof Barnabe Vicount of Millane by the report of Paulus Ionius Tom. 2. ViuoruÌ„ illustrum was an vnconscionable oppressor of his subiects and tenants for hee did not only extort of them continuall imposts and payments but enioned them to keepe euery one a dog which if they came to any mishap or were either too fat or too leane the keeper was sure to bee beaten or at least some fine to be set on his head this tyrant was taken by Iohn Galeacius and after seuen months imprisonment poysoned to death Archigallo brother to Gorbonianus in nature Lanquet though vnlike in conditions for hee was a good Prince whereas this was a Tyrant was crowned King of Britaine in the yeare of the world 3671 we may well place him in this ranke of oppressors for he deposed the Noblemen and exalted the ignoble he extorted froÌ„ men their goods to enrich his treasure for which cause the estates of the realme depriued him of his roiall dignitie placed his yonger
mightily the hand of God was stretched foorth to the reuenge of those wicked deedes and villanies which were committed by the Spaniards in those quarters Peter Loys bastard son to Pope Paule the third Sleidan lib. 19. Bal. was one that practised many horrible villanies robberies murders adulteries incest and Sodomitries thinking that because his father was Pope therefore no wickednesse was vnlawfull for him to commit He was by the report of all men one of the most notorious vildest and filthiest villaines that euer the world saw he forced the Bishop of Faence to his vnnaturall lust so that the poore Bishop with meere anger and griefe that hee should be so abused died immediately being made Duke of Plaisence and Parme hee exercised most cruell tyrany towards many of his subiects insomuch that diuerse gentlemen that could not brooke nor endure his iniuries conceiued an inward hate against him and conspired his death and for to put in practise the same they hired certaine ruffians and roisters to watch the oportunitie of slaying him yea and they themselues oftentimes went apart with these roisters keeping themselues vpon their guards as if some priuate and particular quarrels had beene in hand one day as the Duke went in his horselitter out of his castell with a great retinue to see certaine fortifications which he had prepared being aduertised by his father the Pope by the helpe of Magicke which he practised to looke diligently to himselfe the tenth day of September in which notwithstanding he was slaine for as he returned into his castell the conspirators to the number of sixe and thirtie marched before him as it were to do him honor but indeed to doe him villany for assoone as he was entred the castell they drew vp the drawbridge for feare of his retinue that were without and comming to him with their naked swords cast in his teeth his tyrannie and so slew him in his litter togither with a Priest the maister of his horse and fiue Almaignes that were of his guard his dead body they hung by a chaine ouer the wals and shaking it to and fro to the view of the people threw it downe headlong at last into the ditch where the multitude to shew their hates wounded it with daggers and trampled it vnder their feet and so whome they durst not touch in his life him being dead they thus abused and this befell vpon the tenth day of September in the yeere of our Lord 1547. Some of the Bishops of Rome for their rare and notable vertues and the glory of their braue deeds may be honoured with this dignity to be placed in this worthy ranke for their good conditions and behauiours were such that no tyrant butcher theefe robber ruffian nor any other euer excelled them in crueltie robbery adulterie and such like wickednesse or deserued more the credit and reputation of his place than they And hereof we haue a manifest example in Iohn the thirteenth who pulling out the eies of some of his Cardinals cutting out the tongues of others hewing off the hands noses and priuy members of others shewed himselfe a patterne of such crueltie as the world neuer saw the like Hee was accused before the Emperour Otho in a synode first of incest with two of his owne sisters secondly for calling the deuill to helpe him at dice thirdly for promoting young infants to bishoprickes bribed thereto by the gift of certaine peeces of gold fourthly for rauishing maides and wiues and lying with his fathers concubine yea and lastly for lying with his owne mother and many other such monstrous villanies for which cause hee was deposed from the papacie though reinstalled againe by the sute and cunning practise of his whores by whome as hee recouered his triple crowne so he lost shortly after his vicious life by the meanes of a married whore that betraied him Benno Bal. Pope Hildebrand sirnamed Gregory the seuenth was adorned with all these good qualities namely to be bloody minded a poisoner a murderer a coniurer also a consulter with spirits and in a word nothing but a lumpe and masse of wickednesse hee was the stirrer vp of many battels against the Emperor Henry the fourth and a prouoker of his own son to depose and poyson his father as hee did but this wicked I would say holy Pope was at last banished his Cathedrall citie to Salernum where he ended his daies in miserie Pope Clement the sixt of name contrary to his nature for his inclemencie crueltie pride towards the Emperor Lewis of Bauarie was intollerable he procured many horrible wars against the Empire and caused the destruction of twenty thousand Frenchmen by the king of England yea and poysoned the good Emperour also so well he wished to him Howbeit ere long himselfe was stifled to death and that sodainly not by any practise of man as it was thought but by the speciall hand of God in recompence of all his notable acts Iohn the foure and twentith was deposed by the councell of Constance for these crimes following heresie Simonie Benno Bal. manslaughter poysonings cousenings adultry Sodomitry and was cast into prison where remaining three years he falsly made shew of amendment of his wicked life therefore was graced with a Cardinals hat but it was not that which he expected for which cause with despight griefe he died It would bee too long to run ouer the discourse of euery particular Pope of like conditions and therefore wee will conteÌ„t our selues in briefe with the legend of Pope Alexander the sixt reported by two authors of credite and renowne vnsuspected to wit Guicciardine a Florentine gentlemaÌ„ Guicciardine lib. 2. Bembus Bembus a Venetian cardinall this man saith Guicciardine attained to the Papacy not by worthinesse of vertues but by heauinesse of bribes and multitude of faire promises made to the cardinals for his election promising large recompence to them that stood on his side whereupon many that knew his course of life were filled with astonishment amongst whome was the king of Naples who hearing of this election coÌ„plained to his queene with tears that there was such a pope created that wold be a plague to Italy al ChristeÌ„dome beside the great vices which swaied in him of which the same author speaking maketh this catalogue and pettigree in his own language which followeth Guiâ—â—tardine lib. 2. Costum d it il oscensimi non sincerita non verita non fede non religione auaritia insatiabile ambitione immoderata crudelta pinque barbara eo ardentissima cupidita di escaltare in qualunque modo i figli voli i quali erano molti that is to say He was endued with most filthie conditions and that neither sincerity truth faith nor religion was in him but in steed of them couetousnesse vnquenchable ambition vnmeasurable more then barbarous crueltie and a burning desire of promoting his owne children for he had many by what meanes soeuer He
giuing him the crowne he most vnthankfully recompenced by putting to death his sonne Zacharias 2. Chron. 24. whome he caused for reproouing and threatning his idolatry in a publicke assembly incited thereto by the spirit of God to be stoned to death in the porch of the Temple But seeing he did so rebelliously set himselfe against the holy spirit as if he would haue quite oppressed and extinguished the power thereof by the death of this holy Prophet by whome it spake God hissed for an armie of Syrians that gaue him battell and conquered his souldiers who in outward shew seemed much to strong for them His princes also that had seduced him were destroied himselfe vexed with grieuous diseases till at length his owne seruants conspired against him for the death of Zacharia and slue him on his bed yea and his memory was so odious that they could not afford him a burying place among the sepulchres of their kings Amazias the sonne of this wicked father 2. Chro 25. caried himselfe also at the first vprightly towards God in his seruice but it lasted not long for a while after he was corrupted and turned aside from that good way which he had begun to tread after the by paths of his father Ioas for after he had conquered the Idumeans and slaine twenty thousand men of war and spoiled diuers of their cities in stead of rendring due thankes to God who without the aid of the Israelites had giuen him that victory he set vp the gods of the Edomites which he had robbed them of to be his gods and worshipped and burned incense to them so void of sense and reason was he And being rebuked by the Prophet of his aduerse dealing hee was so farre from humbling and repenting himselfe thereof that quite contrary he proudly withstood and reiected the Prophets threatnings menacing him with death if he ceased not Thus by this meanes hauing aggrauated his sinne and growing more and more obstinate God made him an instrument to hasten his owne destruction for being proud and puffed vp with the ouerthrow which he gaue the Edomites hee defied the king of Israel and prouoked him to battell also but full euill to his ease for he lost the day and was carried prisoner to Ierusalem where before his face for more reproch foure hundred cubits of the wall was broken downe the temple and pallace ransackt of his treasures his children caried for hostâ—ges to Samaria And not long after treason was deuised against him in Ierusalem so that he fled to Lachish and being pursued thither also was there taken and put to death 2. Chron. 28. Likewise king Ahaz for making molten images for Baalim and walking in the idolatrous waies of the kings of Israel and burning his sonnes with fire after the abominations of the heathen in the valley of Ben-Hinnon was forsaken of the Lord and deliuered into the hands of the king of Syria who caried him prisoner to Damascus and not only so but was also subdued by Pekah king of Israel in that great battell wherein his owne sonne with fourescore thousand men at armes were slaine yea and two hundred thousand of all sorts men women and children taken prisoners for all these chastisements did hee not once reforme his life but rather grew worse and worse To make vp the number of his sinnes he would needs sacrifice to the gods of Damascus also thinking to find succour at their hands so that hee vtterly defaced the true seruice of God at Ierusalem broke in pieces the holy vessels lockt vp the temple dores and placed in their stead his abominable idols for the people to worship and erected altars in euery corner of the city to doe sacrifice on But as hee rebelled on euery side against his God so God raised vp enemies on euery side to disturbe him The Edomites and Philistims assaulted him on one side beate his people tooke and ransackt his cities on the other side the Assyrians whome he had hired with a great summe for his helpe turned to his vndoing and vtter ouerthrow and confusion What shall wee thinke of Manasses who reedified the high places and altars which the zeale of Ezechias his father had defaced and throwen downe 2. Chron 33. and adored and worshipped the plannets of heauen the Sunne the Moone and the Starres profaned the porch of Gods Temple with altars dedicated to strange gods committing thereon all the abominations of the Gentiles Idolatrie Lib. 1. cap. 26. yea and caused his sonnes to passe thorough the valley of Benhinnon and was an obseruer of times and seasons and gaue himselfe ouer to witchcraft charming and sorceries and vsed the helpe of familiar spirits and soothsayers and that which is more placed a carued Image in the house of God flat against the second commaundement of the law So that hee did not onely go astray and erre himselfe in giuing ouer his mind to most wicked and damnable heresies but also seduced the people by his pernitious example and authoritie to doe the like mischiefe And that which is yet more and worst of all hee made no account nor reckening of the admonitions of the Prophets but the rather and the more hardened his heart to runne out into all manner of crueltie and wickednesse that his sinnes might haue their full measure For the very stones of the streetes of Ierusalem were stained from one corner to another with the guiltlesse and innocent blood of those that either for disswading him from or not yeeldihg vnto his abominable and detestable Idolatry were cruelly murdered amongst the number of which slaine innocents many suppose that the Prophet Esaias although hee was of the blood royall was with a straunge manner of torment put to death 2. King 12. Wherefore the flame of Gods ire was kindled against him and his people so that they stirred vp 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 caried captiue to Babylon but being there in tribulation he humbled his soule and praied vnto the Lord his God who for all his wicked cruell and abominable Apostasie was intreated of him and receiued him to mercy yea and brought him againe to Ierusalem into his vnhoped for kingdom Then was hee no more vnthankefull to the Lord for his wonderfull deliuerance 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 gaue straight commandement to his people to do the like Wherein it was the pleasure of the Highest to leaue a notable memorial vnto all posterity of his great and infinite mercy towards poore and miserable sinners to the end that no man be his sinnes neuer so heinous should at any time despaire for where sinne aboundeth Rom. 5. there grace aboundeth much more Admit that this reuolt of Manasses
Socrat. lib. 3. hist ecclesiast cap. 20. that hee died thereof When he vndertooke this voiage hee was furnished with such brauery both of apparell and all things else as it might seeme it appertained to him and none else to ouerwhelme and ouersway the world still belching out threats against poore Christians whome he had determined at his returne from Persia vtterly to destroy and leaue none aliue as was afterwards reported by one of his counsaile The number of his souldiers was so innumerable and his strength so impregnable that hee made no other reckening but to be lord of Persia in a verie short space But loe how the Lord ouerturneth the attempts of his enemies this great army as S. Chrysostome reporteth against the heathen in which he put so much confidence seemed ere long to be rather a vast and weake multitude of women infants then an host of warriours for by his euil and foolish conduct and gouernment there rose so great a famine amongst them that their horses which were prouided for the battell serued for their bellies yea and for want of that too many hundreds died for hunger and thirst Euer when he skirmished his own side came to the worst doing more scath to themselues then to their enemies and last leading them so vndiscretely they could not by any meanes escape but were constrained after he was slaine to intreat the Persians to suffer them to retire and so as many as could escaped and fled away to saue their liues And thus this braue armie was thus miserably dismembred and discomfited to the euerlasting shame of that wicked Apostate One of the treasurers of this wicked Emperour who to please his master Theod. lib. 3. cap. 13. Sozom. lib. 5. cap. 8. Contempt the word Lib. 1. cap. 34. forsooke also the religion of Christ being on a time mocking and deriding the ministery of the holy word died miserably on a sudden vomiting his owne blood out of his mouth and as Chrysostome saith his priuie parts being rotten and putrified and consumed with lice for all that euer he could doe to remedy the same It is recorded of Trebellius the first king of the Bulgarians that being conuerted with his people to the faith of Christ to the end to giue himselfe the quieter to the meditation exercise of religion resigned ouer his kingdome to his eldest sonne whome when he perceiued to renounce the faith and to follow strange gods he not only depriued of all his roiall dignity but also caused his eies to be put out for a punishment of his Apostasie and bestowed the kingdome vpon his other sonne shewing thereby that hee that abandoneth the true light of saluation is not worthy to enioy the comfortable light of the world A Diuine of Louaine one Iames Latonus who was well instructed at the first in the knowledge of the truth afterwards renouncing the same endeuoured with all his power to impugne oppresse it this man being on a time mounted into a pulpit to preach before the Emperor Charles the fift was at the very instant so amased astonished that no man could perceiue what he said so made himself a laughing stock to all that audience seeing himselfe thus disgraced he returned frō Brussels to Louaine where he fell into such grief sorow of mind for the dishonor which hee had gotten that it turned at length into despaire and in his daily lectures these or like words oftentimes escaped him after that goodly sermon that he had impugned the truth of God which when diuers of his own coat heard they caused him to be shut vp fast in a house where in desperation he died telling euery man he was damned and that hee could not hope for saluation or remission of his sinnes because that of meere malice hee had resisted and made war with God Cardinal Poole an Englishman had also somtimes professed himself to be wel seene in the sincerity of the gospel yet contrary to his conscience he sent into his countrie the trophees 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 fearefulnesse without any shew of repentance Stephan Gardiner bishop of Winchester and afterward Chancelor of England shewed in his yoong yeares some forwardnesse to withstand the Popish abuses and superstitions but assoone as he was exalted to honor he turned ouer a new leafe began freshly and furiously to afflict and to rend the poor and faithfull seruants of Christ putting them to the cruellest deaths hee could deuise And yet more to discouer his profanesse rebellion he wrot many books against the pure religion of God being thus swolne with venomous spight against the son of God beside the extreame couetousnesse whoredomes extortions which raigned in him behold the Lord laid his hand of wrath vpon him stroke him with so strange a malady that before his death such horrible stincke issued from him that none of his friends and seruants no not himselfe could endure the sauour therof his belly was swoln like a taber his eies distracted and sunke into his head his cheeks thin the appearance of his whole face very terrible his breath sauoured of a filthie intollerable stincke and all his members were rotten with continual griefes sownings yet this vile wretch in the middest of al these torments ceased not to yell out continual blasphemies and infamous speeches and so despighting and maugring God died Peter Castellan bishop of Maston hauing attained to great riches and renowne by the meanes of the gospell turned notwithstanding his backe to Christ and mightily inueyed in his sermons at Orleance against the profession of his religion seeking to make it knowne that he had not onely abiured and denied it but also that hee was a profest aduersarie vnto it This man sitting at a time in his chaire fell into a strange disease which no Phisition had euer seen or could search out the cause of for one halfe of his body was extreme hote and burned like fire the other extreame cold and frozen like I se and in this torment with horrible cries and gronings hee 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 being in the pulpit at Orleance after infinit blasphemies which he disgorged against the truth at last said That he protested before God and the whole assemblie that hee would neuer preach more after that day because he was an Apostatae which saying hee by and by impudently and constantly denied to the perill damnation of his owne soule thinking by his horrible curses forswearings to abuse the poore ignorant and superstitious people but he no sooner came into the field but the puissant hand of God ouerreached him and stroke him speechlesse so that he was caried thence
Austria Greg. of Tours lib 2. who being tickled with an vnsatiable lust of raigne through the deceiuable persuasions of Cleodouius king of Fraunce 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 contrarie to his expectation for after his fathers death as hee was vewing his treasures and ransacking his coffers one of Cleodouius factors stroke him sodainly and murdered him so Cleodouius seased both vpon the crowne and treasures After the death of Hircanus Ioseph antiq Aristobulus succeeded in the gouernmēt of Iudea which whilest he stroue to reduce into a kingdome 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 and 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 teates euen his naturall mother And after persuaded with false accusations caused his late best beloued Antigonus to be slain by an ambush that lay by Stratos tower because in the time of his sicknesse hee entered the temple with pompe but the Lord called for quittance for the two bloosheads immediatly after the execution of them for his brothers blood was scarse washed of the ground ere in the extremity of his sicknesse he was carried into the same place there vomiting vp bloud at his mouth nosthrils to be mingled with his brothers he fell down starke dead not without horrible tokens of trembling and despaire Nero that vnnaturall Tyrant surpassed all that liued Corn. Tacit. lib. 14. as in all other vices so in this for hee attempted thrise by poyson to make away his mother Agrippina and when that could not preuaile by reason of her vsuall Antidots and preseruatiues hee assaied diuerse other meanes as first a deuise whereby shee should bee crushed to death as she slept Sueton. cap. 33. a loosened beame that should fall vpon her and secondly by shipwracke both which when shee escaped the one by discouery and the other by swimming hee sent Anicetus the Centurion to slaughter hir with the sword who with his companions breaking vp the gate of the city where shee lay rushed into her chamber and there murdered her It is written of her that when shee saw there was no remedy but death shee presented her belly vnto the murderer and desired him to kill her in that part which had most deserued it by bringing into the world so vile a monster and of himt hat he came to veiw the dead carcasse of his mother and handled the members thereof commending this and discommending that as his fancy led him in the mean time being thirstie to call for drinke so far was hee from all humanitie and touch of nature but he that spared not to embrew his handes in her blood that bred him was constrained ere long to offer violence vnto his own life which was most dear vnto him Munst Cosmog lib. 3. Henry the son of Nicolotus duke of Herulia had two wicked cruell and vnkind sons by the yonger of whom with the consent of the elder he was traiterously murdered because he had married a third wise for which cause Nicolotus their cousin Germane pursued them both with a iust reuenge for he depriued them of their kingdome and droue them into exile where they soone after perished Phil. Melanct. chron lib. 5. Munst Cosmog lib. 4. Selimus the tenth Emperour of the Turks was so vnnaturall a child that he feared not to dispossesse his father Baiaset of the crowne by treason and next to bereaue him of his life by poyson And not fatisfied therewith euen to murder his two brethren and to destroy the whole stocke of his own bloud But when hee had raigned eight yeares vengeance found him out and being at his backe so corrupted and putrified his reines that the contagion spread it selfe ouer all his bodie so that hee died a beast-like and irkesome death and that in the same place where hee had before oppressed his father Baiaset with an army to wit at Chiurle a citty of Thracia in the yeare of our Lord 1520 the month of September Casp Hedian lib. 6. cap. 29. Charles the younger by surname called Crassus sonne to Lodouick the third was possessed and tormented with a Deuill in the presence of his father and the peeres of the realme which hee openly confessed to haue iustly happened vnto him because hee had pretended in his mind to haue 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 cruel sonne longing and gaping after the inheritance of his father which nothing but his life kept him from wrought this meanes to accomplish his desire he accused his father of a most filthy and vnnameable crime euen of committing filthinesse with a cow knowing that if he were conuicted thereof Theat hist the law would cut off his life and herein he wrought a double villany in going about not onely to take away his life which by the law of nature he ought to haue preserued but also his good name without respecting that the staine of a father redoundeth to his posteritie Mandat 8. Calumniatiō lib. 2. cap. and that children commonly doe not only inherit the possessions but also imitate the conditions of their parents but all these supposes laid aside togither with all feare of God he indicted him before the magistrate of incest that vpon his owne knowledge insomuch that they brought the poore innocent man to the racke to the end to make him confesse the crime which albeit amidst his tortures he did assoone as he was out he denied againe howbeit his extorted confession stood for euidence and he was condemned to be burned with fire as was speedily executed and constantly endured by him exclaiming still vpon the false accusation of his sonne and his owne vnspotted innocencie as by the issue that followed most clearely appeared for his sonne not long after fell into a reprobate mind and hanged himselfe and the iudge 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 reuenge his death and also to quit his reputation and innocency from ignominy and discredit in this world Manfred prince of Tarentum Phil Melanct. Chron. lib. 4. No better fruit to be expected of an◠bastard im◠bastard sonne to Fredericke the second smothered his father to death with a pillow because as some say he would not bestow the kingdom of Naples vpon him not content
Heraclius hauing raigned Emperour but one yeere was poisoned by his stepmother Martina Zonoras tom 3. to the end to install her owne sonne Heraclon in the crowne but for this cruell part becomming odious to the Senat they so much hated to haue her or her sonne raigne ouer 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 loue with Constantine her sonne in law begotten vpon a concubine Zonoras 3. Annal. Sex Aur. whom when she could not persuade vnto her lust shee accused vnto the Emperour as a sollicitour of her chastitie for which cause hee was condemned to die but after the truth was knowen Constantinus put her into a hote bath and suffered her not to come forth vntill the heat had choaked her reuenging vpon her head his sonnes death and her owne vnchastitie CHAP. XII Of Subiect Murderers SEing then they that take away their neighbours liues doe not escape vnpunished as by the former examples it appeareth it must needs folow that if they to whom the sword of iustice is committed by God to represse wrongs and chastise vices doe giue ouer themselues to cruelties and to kill and slay those whome they ought in duty to protect and defend must receiue 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 haue bene 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 iustice to put to death Abimelech the high priest with fourescore and fiue other priests of the family of his father 1. Sam. 22. onely for receiuing Dauid into his house small or rather no offence And yet not satisfied herewith h◠vomited out his rage also against the whol city of the priests and put to the mercilesse sword both man woman and child without sparing any Hee slew many of the Gibeonites who though they were reliques of the Amorites that first inhabited that lād yet because they were receiued into league of amity by a solemne oth and permitted of long continuance to dwell amongst them should not haue bene awarded as enemies nor handled after so cruell a fashion Thus therefore he tyranizing and playing the butcher amongst his own subiects for which cause his house was called the house of slaughter practising many other foul enormities he was at the last ouercome of the Philistims sore wounded which when he saw fearing to fall aliue into his enemies hands and not finding any of his owne men that would lay their hands vpon him desperately slew himselfe The same day three of his sonnes and they that followed him of his owne houshold were all slaine The Philistims the next day finding his dead body despoiled among the carcasses beheaded it and caried the head in triumph to the temple of their god and hung vp the trunke in disgrace in one of their cities to be seene lookt vpon and pointed at And yet for all this was not the fire of Gods wrath quenched for in king Dauids time there arose a famine that lasted three yeeres the cause whereof was declared by God to be the murder which Saul committed vpon the Gibeonites 2. Sam. 21. wherefore Dauid deliuered Sauls seuen sonnes into the Gibeonites hands that were left who put them to the most shamefull death that is euen to hanging Amongst all the sinnes of king Achab and Iezabel which were many and great 1. King 21. the murder of Naboth standeth in the forefront for though hee had committed no such crime as might any way deserue death yet by the subtill and wicked deuise 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 hee made with the king of Siria receiued so deadly a wound that hee died thereof the dogges licking vp his blood in the same place where Naboths blood was licked 2. King 9. according to the foretelling of Elias the Prophet And secondly of Iezabel whome her owne seruants at the commandement of Iehu whome God had made executour of his wrath threw headlong out of an high window vnto the ground so that the walls were died with her blood and the horses trampled her vnder their feet and dogs deuoured her flesh till of all her dainty body there remained nothing sauing only her scull feet and palme of her hands Ioram sonne of Iehosaphat king of Iudah being after his fathers death possessed of the crowne and scepter of Iudah 2. Chron. 21. 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 vp the Edomites to rebell the Philistims and Arabians to make war against him who forraged his countrey sacked and spoiled his cities and tooke prisoners his wiues and children the yongest only excepted who afterwards also was murdered when he had raigned king but a small space And lastly as in doing to death his owne brethren hee committed crueltie against his owne bowels so the Lord stroke him with such an incurable disease in his bowels and so perpetuall for it continued two yeeres that his very entrails issued out with torment and so died in horrible misery Albeit that in the former booke we haue already touched the pride and arrogancie of king Alexander the Great yet wee can not pretermit to speake of him in this place his example seruing so fit for the present subiect for although as touching the rest of his life hee was verie well gouerned in his priuat actions as a monarch of his reputation might be yet in his declining age I meane not in yeeres but to deathward he grew exceeding cruell not only towards strangers as the Cosseis whome he destroied to the sucking babe but also to his houshold and familiar friends Insomuch that being become odious to most fewest loued hi◠and diuers wrought all meanes possible to make him away but one especially whose sonne in law and other neare friends he had put to death neuer ceased vntill he both ministred a deadly draught vnto himselfe Iustine whereby he depriued him of his wicked life and a fatall stroke to his wiues and children after his death to the accomplishment of his full reuenge Phalaris the tyrant of Agrigentum made himselfe famous to posterity by no other meanes Oros then horrible cruelties exercised vpon his owne subiects inuenting euery day new kinds of tortures to scourge and afflict the poore soules withall In his dominion there was one Perillus an artificer of his craft one expert in his occupation who to flatter and curry fauour with him deuised a new torment
wife daughter to Philip the Faire king of France vpon no other occasion but onely to satisfie his owne appetite and the better to follow his delights And thus by this meanes shee was chased out of England and driuen to retire to king Charles her brother where hoping to find rest and refuge shee was deceiued for what by the crafts and practises of the English and what by the Popes authoritie who thrust himselfe into this action as his custome is shee was constrained to dislodge her selfe and to change her countrey very speedily wherefore from thence shee went to craue succour of the Countie of Henault who furnished her with certaine forces and sent her towards England where being arriued and finding the people generally at her commaund and ready to doe her seruice shee set vpon her enemie Hugh Spencer tooke him prisoner and put him to a shamefull death as hee well deserued For hee was also the causer of the deaths of many of the Nobles of the Realme therefore he was drawne through the streets of Herford vpon a hurdle and after his priuie members his heart and head were cut off his foure quarters were exalted in foure seuerall places to the view of the world Now if these be found guiltie that either directly make or indirectly procure diuorcements shall wee excuse them that allow and authorize the same without lawfull and iust occasion No verily Guicciard li. 4. no though they be popes that take it vpon them as we read pope Alexander the sixt did who for the aduancement of his hautie desires to gratifie and flatter Lewis the twelft king of France sent him by his son a dispensation to put away his wife daughter to king Lewis the eleuenth because shee was barren and counterfait and to recontract Anne of Bretaigne the widdow of Charles the eight lately deceased But herein though barrennesse of the former was pretended yet the dutchie of the latter was aimed at which before this time he could neuer attaine vnto But of what force and vertue this dispensation by right was or at least ought to be it is easie to perceiue seeing that it is not only contrary to the words of the Gospell Mat. 19 but also to their own decrees secund part quaest 7. Hi qui matrimoniū wherein is imported that marriage ought not to be infringed for any default or imperfection no not of nature but Popes may maime and clip both the word of God and all other writings and doe whatsoeuer themselues liketh be it good or bad CHAP. XXXI Of Incestuous persons ALthough incest be a wicked and abominable sinne and forbidden both by the law of God and man in so much that the very heathen held it indetestation yet are there some so inordinately vicious and so dissolute that they blush not once to pollute themselues with this filthinesse Genes 35. Reuben the Patriarch was one of this vile crew that shamed not to defile himselfe with Bilba his fathers concubine but hee was cursed for his labour for whereas by right of eldership and birth Genes 49. he ought to haue had a certaine prerogatiue and authoritie ouer his brethren his excellencie shed it selfe like water and he was surpassed by his brethren both in encrease of progenie and renowme Ammon one of king Dauids sonnes 2. Sam. 13. was so strongly enchaunted with the loue of his sister Thamar that to the end to fulfill his lust hee traiterously forced her to his will Rape lib. 2. cap. 21. but Absolom her natural brother hunting for opportunitie of reuenge for this indignity towards his sister inuited him two yeeres after to a banquet with his other brethren and after the same caused his men to murder him for a farewell The same Absolom that slew Ammon for incest with his sister 2. Sam. 16. committed himselfe incest with his fathers concubins mooued thereto by the wicked counsell of Achitophel that aduised him to that infamous deed of defiling his fathers bed but it was the forerunner of his ouerthrow as wee haue already heard Diuers of the Romane Emperours were so villanous and wretched Suet. Lamprid as to make no bones of this sinne with their owne sisters as Caligula Antoninus and Commodus and some with their mothers as Nero so much was he giuen ouer and transported to all licentiousnesse Oros lib. 7. c. 4. Plutarch telleth vs of one Cyanippus that being ouercome with wine defloured his owne daughter Cyane but hee was slaine of her for his labour Neither doe I thinke it so vnnaturall a part for her to kill her father as in him to commit incest with his own daughter for the oracle lessened or rather approoued her fault when it abhorred and chastened his crime for when Siracusa was grieuously infected with the pestilence it was pronounced by the oracle that the plague should continue till the wicked person was sacrificed which darke speech when no man knew Cyane haled her father by the head to the altar telling them that hee was that wicked person pointed at by the Oracle and there sacrificed him with her owne hands killing her selfe also with rhe same knife that her innocencie might be witnessed euen by her blood Thus it pleased God euen among the idolatrous heathen to execute iustice iudgement vpon the earth though by the meanes of the deuill himselfe who is the authour of all such villany Valeria Thusculana was in loue with her owne father Plutarch and vnder colour of another maid got to lie with him which as soone as hee vnderstood hee slew himselfe in detestation of his owne ignorant abomination and wickednesse nay so monstrous and horrible is this sinne euen in the sight of man Valerius that Nausimenes a woman of Athens taking her owne sonne and daughter togither was so amazed and grieued therewith that shee neuer spake word after that time but remained dumbe all the rest of her life time as for the incestours themselues they liued not but became murderers of their owne liues Papyrius a Romane got with child his owne sister Canusia which when their father vnderstood hee sent each of them a sword wherewith they slue themselues But aboue all the vengeance of God is most apparant in the punishment of Heraclius the Emperour Zonar lib. 3. who to his notorious wickednesses heresie persecution and paganisme hee added this villany Paul Diac. lib. 18. to defile carnally his owne sister so to his notorious punishments the Saracens sword dropsie and the ruine of the Empire the Lord added this infamous and cruell iudgement that he could not giue passage to his vrine but it would flie into his face had not a pentise beene applied to his belly to beat it downward And this last plague was proper to his last sinne wherein the very member which he had abused sought reuenge of him that abused it for that hee had confounded nature and most wickedly sinned against his owne flesh Agathias
as the earth was corrupted and polluted with abundance of sinne so God sent abundance of water to purge and clense away the filthinesse thereof as at the latter day hee will send fire to purifie and refine heauen and earth from their dregs and restore them to their first and purest estate And thus God reuenged the extortion and crueltie of that age But yet for all this those sinnes were not then so defaced and rooted vp but that they be burnished againe and grown in time to as big a Bulke for euen at this day the greatest part of the world is giuen to practise fraud and deceit and by vnlawfull meanes to encroch vpon others goods which subtleties though they desire neuer so to disguise and cloke yet will they euer bee condemned reputed kinds of theft before God now as some are of greater power and authority than others in the world so answerable to their selues is the qualitie of their sinnes and by consequence the punishment the greater of power the greater theeues and the greater iudgement for if a poor man through pouerty and necessity cutteth a purse of stealeth any other trifle be culpable how much more culpable shall he that is rich bee that vsurpeth the goods of his neighbor Draco the lawgiuer of Athens appointed death to be the punishment of theft Solon mitigated that rigor and punished it with double restitution The Locrians put out his eies that had stolen ought from his neighbour The Hetrurians stoned them to death The Scythians abhorred theÌ„ more than all creatures because they had a communitie of all things except their cups The Vacceians vsed such seuerity towards this kind of men that if one had taken but a handfull of corne he was sure to die for it Marcus Fabius being Censor condemned his own son Buteâ— to death being apprehended for theft Tiberius the Emperor punished a souldior after the same manner for stealing a Peacock in sum there was no CoÌ„monwealth wherin this sin was not highly detested sharply punished except the Lacedemonian where it was permitted and tollerated for their exercise of warlike discipline It was a rash and seuere Theat histor yet as it proued a iust ded of Tamburlaine that mightie tyrant and conqueror of Asia when a poore woman complained to him of one of his souldiors that had taken from her a little milke and a peece of cheese without paiment he caused the souldiors belly to be ripped to see whither shee had falsly accused him or no and finding the milke in his stomacke adiudged him worthy of that punishment for stealing from so poore a woman When Theophilus raigned Emperour in the East there was a certaine souldiour possessed of a very gallant and braue horse which his captaine by all meanes possible sought to get from him Zonar Annal. 3. but he would not in any case part with him wherefore hee 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 souldiour was slaine in the battaile for want of his horse and his wife and children left destitute of succour insomuch that through necessity shee was constrained to flie to Constantionple and to complaine to the Emperour of the iniury done vnto her husband with this resolution entring the citie she met the Emperour riding vpon her husbands horse and catching the horse bridle chalenged him not onely for stealing the horse but also being the cause of her husbands death The Emperour wondering at the womans 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 recompence vpon the distressed widdow Ibicus the Poet being set vpon by theeues when hee saw that they would not only spoile him of his money but of his life also he cried for help and reuenge to the cranes that flew ouer his head a while after as these murdering theeues sat togither in the market place the same cranes appearing vnto them in the aire they whispered one another in the eare and said yonder flie Ibicus reuengers which though secretly spoken yet was ouerheard so that they being examined and found guiltie were put to death for their paines The like story Martin Luther Luther reporteth touching a trauailer only differing in this that as cranes detected the former so crows laid open the latter Albert. Krantz lib. 10. cap. 7. In the yeare 1384 when as al Saxony was so infested with theeues that no man could trauaile safely in the countrie the Princes calling a councill set downe this order That not only the theeues themselues should be seuerely punished but all that did protect or harbor any of them which decree wheÌ„ as Theodorick countie of Weringrode impugned the body of the councill sent for him and adiudged him to a most cruell and shamefull death Cranth lib. 10. cap. 30. In the year 1410 Henry duke of Luneburge a most iust seuere prince went about to purge his country from all thefts robberies insomuch as the least offence coÌ„mitted in that kind he suffered not to goe vnpunished now it happened as the Duke went towards Luneburge hee sent before him one of his chiefest officers to prouide necessaries against his comming who riding â—â—thout a cloake the weather being cold entreated a ploughman to lend him his cloke till his returne which wheÌ„ the clown refused to do he took it without leaue but it cost him his life for it for the ploughman awaited the dukes comming and directed his complaint vnto him on this maner What auaileth it O noble prince to seek to suppresse the outrage of theeues spoilers when as the chiefest officers dare commit such things vncontrolled as the lieutenant of Tzela hath but now taken froÌ„ memy cloke the duke hearing this complaint considering the cause dissembled his councill till his returne backe from Luneburge vnto the same place where calling for his leiutenant and rating him for his iniury he commanded him to be hanged vpon a tree a wonderfull seueritie in iustice and worthy to be commended for what hope is it to root out small and pettie theeues if we suffer grand theeues to goe vncorrected There is another kind of theft practised of them that be in authority who vnder the title of confiscation assume vnto themselues stollen goods and so much the readilier by how much the value of the things amounteth to more worth an action altogither vniust and contrary to both diuine and humane law which ordaine to restore vnto euery man his own truly he that in steed of restitution with holdeth the good of his neighbour in this manner differeth no more from a theefe than that the one stealeth boldly without feare the other timorously and with great danger and what greater corruption of Iustice can there be then this For who would follow the law vpon a theefe when
and brought all high and haughtie purposes to their desired effect being prickt forward with the spur of ambition and a high mind through the meanes and assistance of the mightie forces of the Commonwealth which contrary to the constitution of the Senate were left in his hands hee set footing into the state and making himself maister Lord of the whole Romane Empire vsurped a soueraigntie ouer theÌ„ But as he attained to his dignitie by force and violence so he inioied it not long Plutarch Sueton. â—â—â—rop neither gained any great benefit by it except the losse of his life may bee counted a benefite which shortly after in the open Senat was bereft him for the conspirers therof assoon as he was set down in his seat coÌ„passing him about so vehemently ouercharged him on all sides that notwithstanding al the resistance he could make for his defence tossing amongst them and shifting himselfe vp and downe he was ouerthrowne on the earth and abode for dead through the number of blowes that were giuen him euen three and twentie wounds The monarchie of Assyria was at one instant extinguished in Sardanapalus and of Babylon in Balthasar Arbaces being the worker of the first and Darius king of Persia of the latter both of them receiuing the wages not of their wickednesse but also of their predecessours great grandfathers crueltie and oppressions by whome many people and nations had bene destroied Moreouer as the Babylonian Empire was ouerthrowne by Darius of Persia so was his Persian kingdome in Darius the last king of that country his time this mans successour ouerturned by Alexander Againe the great dominion of Alexander who suruiued not long after was not continued to any of his by inheritance but deuided like a prey amongst his greatest captaines and from them the most part of it in short time descended to the Romans who spreading their wings and stretching their greedie talents far and neere for a while rauened and preyed ouer all the world and enriched and bedecked themselues with the spoiles of many nations and therefore it was necessarie that they also should be made a prey and that the far fetcht Gothes and Vandales should come vpon them as vpon the body of a great Whale that suffers shipwracke vpon the sea shore since which time the Romane Empire went to decay and grew euery day weaker than other yea and many princes setting themselues against and aboue it haue robbed it of the realmes and prouinces which it robbed others of before and thus wee may see how all things runne as it were in a circle and how great the vncertentie of this world is seeing that the mightiest are subiect to so many and great changes For if there be any thing vnder the sunne that may carry any shew of stabilitie or continuance surely it is a monarchie or common wealth grounded vpon the vnitie and consent of all people maintained by the authority of the greatest and most mightie and vnderpropped with the shores of much strength and wealth as that Romane Empire was and yet for all that there was neuer any though neuer so well reared and furnished and deepe rooted which at the length hath not bene demolished ransacked and pulled vp by some notable and strange calamity And this is that which the spirit of God would giue vs to know by the vision of that great image represented to Nabuchadnezzar in a dreame according to Daniels interpretation thereof to wit that the foure great and puissant monarchies of the world should at last bee ruinated and dispersed like the chaffe before the wind till they were consumed and brought to nothing albeit they were glorious and excellent as gold and siluer or strong and mightie as brasse and iron How much more foolish and euill aduised are they then that for a certaine apparant splendour and shew of worldly honour which is as fraile as any rose as variable as the wind as light and vaine as a shadow or smoke as vnassured as a rotten planke haue the eies of their minds so dazled and their wits so bewitched all their affections so transported as to mingle heauen and earth togither to dash the East against the West to stirre vp discord and dissention betwixt man and man and to shed so many thousand mens blood and all for a paltry desire of raigne though to their owne finall ruine and destruction Sabellicus And thus came it to passe in the time of the Emperor Otho to a duke of Venice called Peter Caudian who not content with his dukedome went about to vsurpe a tyrannicall rule ouer the whole segniory and that by pride and threats desiring rather to make himselfe terrible to the people by those bad means than amiable and beloued by any meanes whatsoeuer and thus daily he grew as in age so in insolencie hee placed a garrison of men about his pallace and so fortifying himselfe presently he shewed himselfe in his colours namely a cruell tyrant which when the multitude perceiued and remembred withall their liberty which they were like to lose they tooke vp armes forthwith in purpose to beat downe his hautie mind therefore they first set on fire his house and caused him to forsake his fortresse and to betake himselfe to his shifts but when by reason of the stopping of the passages he could not escape they tooke him and his young sonne also which was with him and put them to a most cruell and suddaine death and cast their carcasses to be deuoured of dogs In the Empire of Maximilian Lewes Sforce Bemhâ—â— lib. 2. of the Venâ—â—â— historie a prince of an inconstant and turbulent spirit ambitious and one that made no account of his promises nor faith tooke vpon him the gouernment of Millaine after the death of his brother Galeaz duke of Millaine who was traiterously slaine in which action the first wrong which he did was to his brothers widow whome hee deposed the second to his young nephew his brother Galeaz sonne whome he so brought vp as if hee neuer meant he should come to honour or goodnes for hee suffered him not to be trained vp either in learning or armes but let him runne into all possible occasions that might corrupt and spoile his tender age thus hee enioyed the principalitie thirteene yeeres all the while vnder his nephewes raine to whome when Alphonsus king of Naples had giuen in marriage one of his daughters and perceiued what small reckoning his vncle made of restoring him his dukedome after hee had often and instantly entreated him without preuailing at length he fell to threaten him with warre he fearing to haue the worse and to loose so great a dignitie wrought so by his owne shifts and deuices togither with the helping hand of Pope Alexander that he put it in the head of Charles the eight of Fraunce to goe and conquer Naples for the hatred which his heart possessed against Alphonsus supposing by this meanes the better to accomplish
woman to the Emperour Adrian is very worthy to be remembred Fulgos lib. 6. cap. 2. who appealing and complaining to the Emperour of some wrong when hee answered that he was not at leisure then to heare her sute shee told him boldly and plainly That then he ought not to be at leisure to be her Emperour which speech went so neare the quicke vnto him that euer after he shewed more facilitie and courtesie towards all men that had any thing to do with him The kings of Fraunce vsed also this custome of hearing and deciding their subiects matters as wee read of Charlemaigne the king and Emperour who commanded that he should be made acquainted with all matters of importance and their issues throughout his realme King Lewes the first treading the steps of his father Charlemaigne accustomed himselfe three daies in a weeke to heare publikely in his pallace the complaints and grieuances of his people and to right their wrongs and iniuries King Lewes sirnamed the Holy Aimo a little before his death gaue in charge to his sonne that should succeed him in the crowne amongst other this precept To be carefull to beare a stroke in seeing the distribution of iustice and that it should not be peruerted not depraued CHAP. XLVI Of such princes as haue made no reckening of punishing vice nor regarded the estate of their people IT cannot choose but be a great confusion in a common-wealth when iustice sleepeth and when the shamelesse boldnesse of euill doers is not curbed in with any bridle but runneth it owne swinge and therefore a Consull of Rome could say That it was an euill thing to haue a prince vnder whome license and libertie is giuen to euery man to doe what him listeth for so much then as this euill proceedeth from the carelesnes and slothfulnesse of those that hold the sterne of gouernment in their hands it can not be but some euill must needs fall vpon them for the same The truth of this may appeare in the person of Philip of Macedonie whome Demosthenes the oratour noteth for a treacherous and false dealing prince after that he had subdued almost all Greece not so much by open warre as by subtilty craft and surprise and that being in the top of his glory hee celebrated at one time the marriage of his sonne Alexander whome hee had lately made king of Epire and of one of his daughters with great pompe and magnificense as hee was marching with all his traine betwixt the two bridegroomes his owne sonne his sonne in law to see the sports and pastimes which were prepared for the solemnitie 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 doe him iustice when hee complained of an iniury done vnto him by one of the peeres of his realme Plutarch Tatius the fellow king of Rome with Romulus for not doing iustice in punishing certaine of his friends and kinsfolkes that had robbed and murdered certaine Embassadors which came to Rome and for making their impunitie an example for other malefactours by deferring and protracting and disappointing their punishment was so watcht by the kindred of the slaine that they slew him euen as he was sacrificing to his gods because they could not obtaine iustice at his hands What happened to the Romanes for refusing to deliuer an Embassadour Tit. Liuius Plutarch who contrary to the law of nations comming vnto them plaid the part of an enemie to his own country euen well nigh the totall ouerthrow of them and their citie for hauing by this meanes brought vpon themselues the calamitie of warre they were at the first discomfited by the Gaules who pursuing their victory entred Rome and slew al that came in their way whether men or women infants or aged persons and after many daies spent in the pillage spoiling of the houses at last set fire on all and vtterly destroied the whole city Childericke king of France Paul Aemil. is notified for an extreame dullard and blockhead and such a one as had no care or regard vnto his realme but that liued idly and slothfully without intermedling with the affaires of the common wealth for he laid all the charge and burden of them vpon Pepin his lieutenant generall therefore was by him iustly deposed from his roiall dignity mewed vp in a cloister of religion to become a monke because he was vnfit for any good purpose albeit that this sudden change mutation was very strange yet there ensued no trouble nor commotion in the realme thereupon so odious was hee become to the whole land for his drowsie and idle disposition Paul Aemil. For the same cause did the princes Electours depose Venceslaus the Emperour from the Empire and established another in his roome King Richard of England amongst other foule faults which he was guilty of incurred greatest blame for this because he suffered many theeues and robbers to roue vp and down the land vnpunished for which cause the citizens of London coÌ„menced a high sute against him coÌ„pelled him hauing raigned 22 yeres to lay aside the crown resigne it to another in the presence of all the states died prisoner in the Tower Moreouer this is no small defect of iustice when men of authority do not only pardon capitall and detestable crimes but also grace and fauour the doers of them and this neither ought nor can be done by a soueraigne prince without ouerpassing the bounds of his limited power which can in no wise dispence with the law of God Exod. 21. whereunto euen kings themselues are subiect for as touching the willing and considerate murderer Dâ—ut 19. Thou shalt plucke him from my altar saith the Lord that hee 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 1 King 2. who was slaine in the Tabernacle of God holding his hands vpon the hornes of the Altar for hee is no lesse abominable before God that iustifieth the wicked Prou 17. than hee that condemneth the iust and hereupon that holy king S. Lewes when hee had granted pardon to a malefactour Nich. Gilles reuoked it againe after better consideration of the matter saying That hee would giue no pardon except the case deserued pardon by the law for it was a worke of charitie and pittie to punish an offender and not to punish crimes was as much as to commit them In the yeere of our Lord 978 Egebrede the sonne of Edgare end Alphred king of England was a man of goodly outward shape and visage but wholly giuen to idlenesse and abhorring all princely exercises besides he was a louer of riot drunkennesse and vsed extreame cruelty towards his subiects hauing his eares open to all vniust complaints in feats of armes of all men most ignorant so