of Rhodes Scicilia Corsica Sardinia and of some few besides So far hath that most cruel enemy of mankinde preuailed by bringing in such diuersity of manners such hatefull and damnable superstitious abuses in ceremonies and sacred things that whilest euery nation contendeth by strongest arguments to prooue that the GOD which they worship and adore is the true and great GOD and that they onely goe the way of eternall happinesse and all others the by-path that leadeth to perdition Whilest also euery sect indeauoureth to aduance and set forth themselues it insueth that each one persecuting other with mortall enmity and deadly hatred it is not onely daungerous to trauell into forraine nations but in a manner vtterly bard and prohibited which I perswade my selfe is the cause that the names of bordering nations beeing scarce knowne to their neerrest neighbors whatsoeuer is either written or reported of them is now accounted fabulous and vntrue the knowledge whereof notwithstanding hath euer beene reputed so pleasant so profitable and so praise-worthy as it is most manifest that for the loue and desire thereof onely without other cause at all very many forsaking father and mother wife and children countrie and kin and that which is more neglecting their owne health haue aduentured through great difficulties and daungers care and troubles long and tedious iourneies into forraine nations onely to furnish themselues with experience So as it is vndoubtedly true that not in these daies onely but almost from the beginning of the world All those haue bin generally esteemed men of greatest authority wisdome and learning and by open consent haue beene elected and chosen Maisters and Gouernours Councellors and Iudges Captaines and Controllers who hauing sometimes trauelled strang countries haue knowne the manners of many people and cities for euer as those auncient Philosophers of Greece and Italy which were first founders of sundry sects wherin they instructed their Disciples Schollers as namely Socrates of the Socratick sect Plato of the Academicke Aristotle of the Peripatick Antisthines of the Cynick Aristyppus of the Cyrenaicke Zeno of the Stoicke and Pithagoras of the Pithagoricke As also those old law-giuers Minos and Rhodomanthus to the men of Creete Orpheus to those of Thrace Draco Solon to the Athenians Licurgus to the Lacedemonians Moses to the Iewes Zamolxis to the Scythians and many others which wee see haue set down to their people diuers prescript ceremonies ciuil disciplines inuented not of those seueral sects disciplines and lawes within their city walles but learned and brought them from the Caldeans themselues beeing the most wise men of the world from the Indian Philosophers the Brackmans Gymnosophists and from the Aegiptian Priests with whom sometimes they were conuersant To conclude wee plainely perceiue that those most renowned worthies Iupiter of Creete who was reported to haue measured the world fiue times ouer and his two sonnes of like disire and successe Dionysius surnamed Bacchus and valiant Hercules and Theseus his imitator Iason with the rest of the Greekes which went with him for the golden Fleece wether-beaten Vlisses and Aencas the outcast of Troy Cyrus Darius Xerxes Alexander the Great Hanibal the Carthaginiā Mithrydate king of Pontus expert in the language of fifty nations the great Antiochus and innumerable other Romane Princes and Gouernors the Scipios the Marii the Lentuli Pompey the Great Iulius Caesar Octauian Augustus the Constantines Charles Othones Conrades Henries and Frederickes haue by their warlike expeditions into forraine nations purchased vnto themselues an euerlasting fame and immortal memory Wherefore seeing there is so great pleasure and profit in the knowledge of countries and of their manners and also seeing it is not in euery mans power nor yet lawfull for many causes for euery one to trauel and behold lands far remote thou maist good gentle reader as wel by reading comprehend vnderstand the most renowned customes of al nations and the seueral sytuation of each country expressed in this booke and that as readily with as much pleasure as if taking thee by the hand I shold lead thee through euery nation one after an other faithfully relate vnto thee in what place and vnder what kind of gouernment each nation haue liued heretofore and now doe liue Nor would I haue thee distasted or carried away for that by some too seuere reformer it may bee obiected and laide in my teeth that I haue produced for new and for mine owne a matter written long agoe and heretofore handled of no lesse then a thousand Authors and that I haue vsed only their words without alteration But if thou diligently marke my purpose thou shalt find that in imitation of that liberal houshoulder to whom Christ in the Gospell compared euery learned scribe I haue presented thee my kinde guest with some things as well out of mine owne braine as wholy extracted from the hidden treasure of my bookes and not onely with borowed and vnknowne stuffe but with sundry new dainties of mine owne deuising Farewel and what euer thou findest herein accept in good part To the Reader in commendation of this worke NOt Soline Pliny Trogus nor Herodotus of worth Not Strabo best Geographer that Cretish Isle brought forth Not true historian Siculus nor yet Berosus sage Nor any other writer else within this latter age Not Siluius after Pius Pope the second of that name Nor yet Sabellicus whose workes deserue immortal fame In volums large doe touch so neere the state of th' viniverse As doth the Author of this booke in sewer words reherse For here each part of Asiae soile distinctly you may find Th' Arabians Persians and the Meades the Scythians the Inde The Sirian and Assirian and all the Parthians race The Getes and Dacians Europs Scythes the people ecke of Thrace The Sauromates and those which in Pannonia doe remaine The Germaine the Italian the French and those of Spaine The Irish and the British Isles of Islands all the best And Affricke nations al which first old Affrican possest The Aethiops and the Carthage men and those of Aegipt-land And al the people that doe dwel on the dry Libian sand And many more inhabitants of diuers Isles beside And where the sect of Mahomet most chiefly doth abide What ample large and spatious lands doe honor Christ their head And through what kingdomes of the world his faithfull flocke are spread FINIS The manners lawes and customes of all Nations LIB 1. The true opinions of Diuines concerning mans originall CAP. 1. WHen the diuine Maiestie vpon the first day of Creation had finished this great and wonderfull Architecture of heauen and earth which of his beauty and elegant forme is called the world and all things contained within the compasse thereof vpon the sixt day hee created man of purpose that hee might haue all other things in full fruition and be Lord and Gouernour ouer them and making him the noblest of all other Creatures
hee indued him with celestiall vnderstanding and named him Adam of the redde earth or claye whereof he was framed And to the end he should not bee alone the Lord casting him into a dead slumber tooke a ribbe from out his side and framing woman thereof gaue her vnto him as his wife and companion and placed them in the pleasantest part of all the earth watered on all parts with most pleasant riuers and delectable fountaines which place for the euer fresh and pleasant aspect was of the Greekes called Paradice wherein for a space they liued a most blessed life free from all euill the earth producing all things of her owne accord But no sooner had they transgressed the commandement of their maker but that they were expelled from that most sacred seat and happy habitation thrust into the earth to till the same out of which they were taken which being then for a curse restrained of her former fruitfulnesse and bringing forth nothing willingly they got their liuings with sweate and sorrow their bodies being become subiect to heat and cold and all kinde of infirmities Their first begotten sonne they called Cain the second Abell after whom they had many other children So that the world growing richer in age and the earth more inhabited as the multitude of people increased so did wickednesse waxe more rife and men growing worse worse accounting iniury for innocencie and the contempt of Gods maiesty for piety were come to that height of iniquity that God in all the world scarce finding Noah only whom for the reparation of mankind he thought fit to be preserued with his houshold sent the generall deluge which drowning all the world destroyed the fowles of the aire and all liuing creatures breathing vpon the face of the earth some few seed pares only excepted defended by the Arke from the force of the floud After the rage of the waters had continued for fiue months space the Arke rested vpon the hils of Armenia and Noah his company going forth into the earth by Gods speciall grace assistances in short time the almost extinguished estate of all mortall creatures was repared And Noah because all parts of the earth might be re-peopled sent his sonnes nephews and kinsfolke with their companies to dwell some into one country some into an other Into Aegipt according to the opinion of Berosus he sent Esennius with the Colonies of Cham Tritamen into Lybia and Cyrene and Iaphet Priscus Attolaa to inioy the rest of Affrick Into East Asia hee sent Canges with some of the sonnes of Gomer Gallus Sabus surnamed Thurifer went into Arabia foelix Arabus ruled in the deserts of Arabia and Petreius in that part of Arabia called Petreia Chanaan hee placed in Damascus in the confines of Palestine In Europe hee made Thuysco King of Sarmatia from the riuer of Tanais to the riuer of Rhene to whom were ioyned the sonnes of Istrus and Mesa with their brethren who had the gouernment from the hill Adulas to Messembria Pontica Vnder whome Tyrus Archadius and Aemathius gouerned in Italy Gomerus in France Samotes possessed that part of France betwixt the riuers Garunia and Sequana and Iuball was Lord of the Celtibers That short and vntimely alienation of the children from their progenitors of whose life and manners they had little taste was cause of all the diuersity which insued for Cham beeing constrained to flye with his wife and children for scorning and deriding his father seated himselfe in that part of Arabia which was afterwards called by his name where hee left no religious ceremonies to his posterity as hauing receiued none from his Father whereof insued that as in tract of time diuerse companies beeing sent out of that coast to inhabite other countries and possessing diuerse partes of the world for the reiected seede did exceedingly increase many of them fell into inextricable errors their languages were varyed and all knowledge and reuerence of the true and liuing God was vtterly forgotten and abolished in so much as many of them might well bee sayd to liue a life so vnciuill and so barbarous as hardly could there any difference bee discerned betwixt them and brute beasts Those which went into Aegypt admiring the motion and brightnesse of the heauenly lights and ascribing a certaine God-head to the Sunne and Moone began to worship them for gods calling the Sunne Osyris and the Moone Isis the Ayre they reuerenced vnder the name of Iupiter the Fire of Vulcan the Skye of Pallas and the Earth of Ceres giuing diuine honors vnto other things likewise vnder diuerse other names and appellations Nor did that black clowde of darknesse hang onely ouer the land of Aegypt but what countries soeuer were first inhabited by the off-spring of Cham were vtterly ouer-whelmed in ignorance of true pietie and wholy inthralled in Satans slauerie Neither was there euer land the mother of more Colonies then that part of Arabia wherein cursed Cham and his crew remained so great was that destruction which the vntimely banishment of one man brought to all man-kinde Whereas on the contrary part the issue of Sem and Iaphet being lawfully instructed by their parents and elders and contented to liue in their owne limits wandred not abroad into all parts of the world as those others did which is the cause that the desire of the truth I meane the worship of the true God and godlinesse was vntill the comming of the Messias priuately practised in one country onely The false opinion of the Ethnicks concerning mans originall CAP. 2. BVT the ancient Philosophers beeing voyde of knowledge of the true God-head haue written long sithence many Histories of Nature haue otherwise thought of mans originall for some of them were of opinion that the world was without beginning and incorruptible and that the stock of humaine kinde hath beene for euer Some others supposed both world and worldly men to haue beginning and to be likewise subiect to corruption for say they at first the nature of heauen and earth being mingled together and vnseperated had one onely forme or Idaea out of which chaos each body being seperated from other the world attained this shape it now carryeth the ayrie being in continuall motion the firye part thereof for his lightnesse required the vppermost seate and by the same reason the Sunne and all other starres obtained their courses That part which was mixt with moysture by reason of his weight remained still in his propper place which being than mingled together of the moyst part thereof was made the sea and the harder part became earth though then soft and slimy which afterwards growing harder and thicker by the heate of the sunne the force of the heate by little and little swelling and puffing vp the superficies or vttermost part thereof there were in many places diuerse humors congealed together wherein appeared certaine putrifactions
twy-light Mattins in the morning and their houres at the first third sixt and ninth houre of the day and that all this if it be possible should be done in the Church humbly kneeling or standing before the Altar with their faces towards the East The Lords prayer and the Apostles Creed were then vsed to be sayd as they are now at this day Saint Hierome at the instance of Pope Damasus distributed and digested the Psalmes by the dayes assigning to euery houre his proper Psalmes and their number as nine at nocturns vpon holy dayes and 12. vpon working daies for the laudes at Mattins fiue fiue at euen-song and at all other houres three and it was chiefly he that disposed and set in order the Gospels Epistles all other things which as yet be read out of the old new Testament sauing only the hymnes Damasus diuiding the Quire of singing men into two parts appointed them to sing in course the Anthemes written by S. Ambrose Bishop of Millaine added Gloria Patri to the end of euery Antheme The Toletan Agathon Councels allowed the lessons hymnes which be read before euery houre The prayers grails tracts alleluias offertories communions in the Masse anthems versicles tropes and other things sung and read to the honor of God in the office of the Masse as well for the day as night were penned by S. Gregory Gelasius Ambros and diuers others of the holy Fathers not all at once but at diuers times The Masse for so is that sacrifice called was celebrated at the first in that simple furniture and plaine manner as it is now vsed vpon Easter Eue. Pope Celestinus added the Priests manner of entrance to the altar the Gloria in excelsis was annexed by Telesphorus the hymne which begins et in terra was composed by Hillarie Bishop of Poictiers and was afterwards by Symachus ordained to be sung The salutations taken out of the booke of Ruth which the priest pronounceth 7. times in the Masse by saying Dominus vobiscum were appointed by Clement Anacletus Gelasius disposed the rest to the offertory in the Order they be now vsed except the Sequentiae which are said after the Masse and these Nicholas added the Apostles Creed which Damasus annexed vnto them out of the Constantinopolitan councell The Sermon which is preached to the people by the priest or deacon standing in a pulpit vppon holy-daies was rather vsed by tradition after the examples of Nehemias or Esdras then instituted by any other in which Sermon the people that be present at Masse bee admonished to communicate as in duty they are bound and that they should imbrace mutual loue that they should be purged from their sins not be polluted with vices when they receiue the Sacrament of the altar and for that cause he concludeth his Sermon with the publike confession of sinners he declareth moreouer vnto them the contents of the old and new Testament and putteth them in mind of the ten Commandements the twelue Articles of our beleefe the seuen Sacraments of the Church the liues and Martyrdomes of Saints the holy-dayes and fasting daies instituted and ordained by the Church the vices and vertues and all other things necessarie for a Christian to know Pope Gregory added the Offertory to the Masse and Leo the Prefaces Gelasius and Sixtus the greater and lesser Canons and Gregory the Lords prayer out of the Gospell of Saint Mathew Martial Saint Peters Disciple instituted that Bishoppes should giue the benediction and Innocentius that inferior Priests should offer the Pax Agnus Dei was adioyned by Sergius the Communion by Gregorie and the Conclusion in these wordes Ite missa est Benedicamus Domino or Deo gratias was inuented by Pope Leo. The twelue Articles of our Faith which the holy Apostles haue commanded euery one not onely to acknowledge but most constantly to beleeue be these following The first that there is one God in Trinitie the Father Almightie Maker of heauen and earth the second That Iesus Christ is his onely begotten Sonne our Lord the third that he was conceiued of the holy Ghost borne of the Virgin Mary the fourth that he suffered vnder Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried the fift that he descended into hell and the third day rose againe from the dead the sixt that he ascended into heauen and that there hee sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty the seuenth that he shall come againe in glorie to iudge both the quicke and the dead the eight that there is a holy Ghost the ninth that there is a holy Catholike Church the tenth that there is a Communion of Saints and remission of sinnes the eleuenth that there is a resurrection of the flesh and the twelfth that there is an eternall life after death in another world The tenne Commandements which were written with the finger of God and deliuered by the hands of his seruant Moses to the people of Israel and which he willed vs to obserue and keepe be these following The first to beleeue that there is one God the second not to take the name of God in vaine the third to keepe holy the Sabbath day the fourth to honour our fathers and betters the fift to do no murther the sixt not to commit adulterie the seuenth not to steale the eighth not to beare false witnesse the ninth not to couet other mens goods and the tenth not to desire another mans wife nor any thing that is his The seuen Sacraments of the Church which bee included in the last fiue Articles of our faith and which the holy Fathers haue commanded vs to beleeue be these following First Baptisme and this Sacrament heretofore as it was established by a canonicall sanction was not ministred vnto any vnlesse vpon very vrgent necessitie but vnto such as were afore-hand well instructed in the faith and sufficiently catechised and examined thereof seuen sundrie times to wit vpon certaine dayes in Lent and vppon the vigils of Easter and Penticost beeing the vsuall times for consecration in all Parishes But this Sacrament beeing aboue all the rest most necessarie vnto saluation and least any one should depart out of this life without the benefit thereof it was ordained that as soon as an infant was borne he should haue God-fathers procured for him to be his witnesses or sureties and that then the child beeing brought by his God-fathers before the church doore the Priest standing there for the purpose should demand of the child before he dippe him in the holy Font whether he will forsake the Diuell and all his pompes and whether he stedfastly beleeue all the Articles of the Christian faith and the God-fathers affirming on his behalfe the Priest bloweth three times in the Infants face and when he hath exorcized and catechized him he doth these seuen things in order vnto the child first he putteth hallowed salt into his mouth secondly hee annointeth his eyes eares and
with great honor and religion it would seeme to be done directly against the will and commandement of him who had rather that heauen and earth should perish then his word especially seeing Christ himselfe came not to destroy the law but to fulfill it wherfore we obserue that day not in imitation of the Iewes but at the bidding of our Lord Iesus Christ his holy Apostles the grace of which Iewes is translated vnto vs Christians And vpon this sabbath day Lent excepted wee euer eate flesh which vse is not obserued in the kingdome of Bernagues and Tygri Mahon the naturall people of which two kingdomes by an ancient custome eat flesh vpon the sabbath daies and Sundaies in Lent now wee celebrate the Lords day as other Christians do in memory of Christs resurrection but we know that the Sabbath day is to be obserued and kept holy by the books of the law and not by the Gospell and yet notwithstanding we be not ignorant that the Gospel is the end of the Law and of the Prophets And vpon these two daies we beleeue that the soules of the godly departed which remaine in Purgatorie bee not there tormented which rest God hath granted vnto those soules vpon these most holy daies vntill the end of their punishments due for their offences in this world being determined they be deliuered thence for the diminishing of which paines and to extenuate shorten the time of their punishments we beleeue that almes deedes done for the dead be very profitable vnto those souls which liue in purgatory To the remission of which soules the Patriarke giueth no Indulgence for that we beleeue doth belong vnto God only and to the constitution of the time of their punishment neither doth the Patriark allow any daies for Indulgēces By the reading of the Gospel we be only bound to keep 6. precepts which Christ explaned with his owne mouth I was an hungred saith he and you gaue me to eate I was thirstie and you gaue me to drink I was a stranger you tooke me in naked and you clothed me sicke and you visited me I was in prison and you came vnto me Which words Christ will onely pronounce in the day of Iudgement because the law as Paul witnesseth sheweth vnto vs our sins which law Christ Iesus excepted no one can keepe And Paul also saith that we be all borne in sinne for the transgression of our mother Eua and for her curse and malediction and the same Paul further saith that wee die through Adam and liue through Christ which Christ of his aboundant mercy hath giuē vnto vs these six precepts to the end that we might be saued when hee shall come in his Maiesty to Iudge both the quick the dead by which words and commandements in that fearefull and terrible day of Iudgment hee will pronounce and shew vnto the good euerlasting glory and to the wicked fire and eternall damnation And wee reckon but only fiue deadly sinnes as they terme them which wee gather out of the last Chapter of the Reuelation where it is sayd For without shal be dogs and inchanters and whoremongers and murtherers and idolaters and whosoeuer loueth or maketh lies It is ordained by the holy Apostles in their bookes of councels that it is lawful for the Clergy to mary after they haue attained to some knowledge in diuinity and being once maried they be receiued into the order of priests into the which order none is admitted before hee accomplish the age of 30. yeeres neithey bee any bastards by any meanes allowed to enter into that most holy order these orders be giuen by no other but by the Patriarch onely where the first wife of a Bishop or Clercke or Deacon is dead it is not lawful for them to mary an other vnlesse the Patriarch dispence therewith which sometimes for a publike good is granted to great men nor is it lawful for them to keepe a concubine vnlesse they wil refuse and put themselues frō saying seruice which if they once do they may neuer after meddle in ministring diuine matters and this is obserued so strictly that those priests which haue beene twise married dare neuer take in their hands so much as a candle that is consecrated to the Church and if any Bishop or Deacon be found to haue any bastard child hee is depriued from all his benefices and from his holy orders his gods if he decease without lawful heires come vnto Prestor Iohn and not to the Patriarch and the warrant that we haue that our priests may marry is taken out of Saint Paul who had rather that both Clergy and Laity should marry then burne And he also saith that a bishop ought to be the husband of one wife and that he should be sober and irreprehensible and in like manner would he haue Deacons and further that Ecclesiasticall persons should haue their proper wiues by lawfull marriage euen as secular people haue but Munckes mary not at all and both Lay men and Clergy haue but one wife a peece and matrimony is not contracted before the gates of the holy Church but in the priuate houses of those that beare most sway at the bridall wee haue haue also receiued from the ordinance of the Apostles that if a priest bee found in addultery or committing manslaughter or theft or bearing false witnesse he shal be depriued and put from his holy orders and punished like other malefactors againe by the institution of those Apostles if any person either Ecclesiastical or Lay doe lie with his wife or bee polluted in sleepe hee commeth not into the Church for the space of foure and twenty houres after nor is it lawfull for menstruous women to come into the Church vnlesse vpon the seuenth day after their sicknesse and then to haue all their garments throughly washed which they wore during the time of their monthly disease and they themselues purged from all filth A woman also that bringeth forth a man child must not come into the Church till after the fortith day and if she brought forth a woman child then shee must not come into the Church till after the eighteeth day This is our custome founded vpon the ancient law and also vpon the Apostolicke law which lawes ordinances and precepts wee obserue as diligently in al points as possible may bee Moreouer we bee prohibited that neither swine nor dogs nor other such beasts shall enter into our Churches Also wee may not goe to the Church but bare footed neither is it lawfull for vs to laugh walke or talke of prophane matters in the Church nor once there to spit hawke or him because the Churches of Aethiopia bee not like vnto that land where the people of Israell did eate the Paschall lambe departing from Egipt in which place God commanded them to eate it with their shooes on and girded with their girdles by reason of the pollution of the earth but they bee like vnto Mount
couered with thin skinnes or filmes as wee may perceiue by experience in the fennes standing waters of Aegipt when as the heate of the ayre vpon a sodaine warmeth the cold earth so that heate abounding in moysture caused generation and a certaine winding ayre incompassing the moysture preserued that from danger by night which by day was made solide by the heate of the sunne so as in the end those putrifactions being brought to perfection as it were their time of birth drawing neere the skins wherewith they were couered beeing burned and broken they brought foorth the formes of all creatures of which those that did most participate of heate tooke theyr place in the vppermost region and became flying fowles those which were most neere vnto the nature of the earth became serpents and other earthly creatures and those of the watery condition were allotted the Element of the same nature and were called Fishes But when the earth with heate and wind waxing euery day dryer then other surceased from bringing forth the greatest sorts of creatures those which shee had already produced brought forth others of the same kinde by mutuall commixtion one with another And in this manner did those Philosophers affirme that men had their beginnings likewise and that they seeking the fields for such foode as herbes and fruites of trees did naturally yeeld them liued a wilde vnciuill and brutish kinde of life And being much annoyde with beasts the better to resist them partly mooued with feare and partly for their common profit gathered them-selues into companies and ioyning their forces together sought out fit places for themselues to dwell in That the sound of mens mouthes being first confused and disordered by little and little became a distinct and intelligible voice and gaue vnto euery thing his proper name And that men being placed and dispersed into diuerse parts of the world vsed not all one but diuerse languages and for euery language diuerse caracters of letters That the first company of men gaue beginning to euery country wherein they liued And that those men which were first so procreated being vtterly voyde of succour and ayde of any thing and not knowing how to gather the fruites of the earth and to lay them vp and keepe them to serue their necessitie lead so hard a life at the first as many of them perished in winter by cold or famine who afterwards growing wiser by experience found them out holes and caues in the ground both to auoyde the extremity of colde and to preserue fruites to defend them from famine And hauing found out the vse of fire and other things profitable and all other commodities of mans life beeing made manifest vnto them and finally making necessity the mistresse of their labours they commended to their memories the knowledge of all things to whom were giuen as helpers hands speach and excellencie of minde Now those which attributing nothing to Gods prouidence were of opinion that man had this manner of beginning did hold also that the Aethiopians were the first of all mortall men vsing this coniecture for their reason that the country of Aethiopia by reason of the vicinity and neerenesse of the heauens did before all other lands begin to waxe warme the earth from the beginning lying long soaked in water whereof it happened that of that first temperature of heate and moysture man himselfe being first begotten would with a better wil hold that place wherein hee was borne than to goe seeke strange countries all other places beeing vtterly vnknowne vnto him Wherefore beginning there yet first speaking a word or two in generall of Affricke one of the the three parts into which the world and this my present worke is diuided wee will first speake of the situation of Aethiopia and of the customes and orders vsed in that country and afterwards wee will treate of all other lands in order as they lye with what diligence we may Of the scituation and perfection of the world CAP. 3. OVr Ancestors as Orosius reporteth were of opinion that the circle of the whole earth inclosed within the borders of the Ocean is in the forme of a Triangle and that there be three parts thereof Affricke Asia and Europe Affricke is deuided from Asia by the riuer Nilus which running from the South into Aethiopia and passing by Aegipt maketh it exceeding fruitfull by his ouer-flowing and dischargeth himselfe into the sea in no lesse then seauen sundry places The Mediterranean sea deuideth Europe from Affrick which according to Pomponius Mela making breach into the earth from the West Ocean about Gades Iland and Hercules pillers is not there in bredth aboue ten miles ouer Asia is seperated from Europe by the riuer Tanais which flowing from the North almost into the middle of the poole of Maeotis meeteth there with the sea called Pontus which parteth the rest of Asia from Europe Affricke is bounded vpon the East with the riuer Nilus and vpon all other parts with the sea it is shorter then Europe and broder when it ioyneth to the sea and fuller of hills and holding on a crooked course towards the West by little and little growing sharper and narrower is then the narrowest when it is neerest to an end As much of Affricke as is inhabited is wonderfull fertile but the greatest part thereof lyeth desert being eyther couered with drye barren sands forsaken for the vicinitie of the Sunne or annoyde with sundry sorts of hurtfull creatures Vpon the North it is compassed with the Lybian Sea with the Aethiopian on the south and with the sea Atlantick on the west The whole country of Affrick was inhabited from the beginning but of foure sundrie sorts of people whereof two as Herodotus writeth were borne bred in that countrey and the other two were strangers the homebred and naturall countrimen are the Carthagenians and the Aethiopians the one inhabiting in the north of Africk the other in the south The strangers be Pheniceans and Grecians The ancient Aethiophians and Egiptians if all be true which they report of themselues were at first rude and barbarous and feeding commonly like bruite beasts with hearbes and wilde flesh vsing neither manners lawes nor gouernement but wandring and straying abroad without consideration or regard and vtterly destitute of any certaine habitation reposing themselues wheresoeuer they were benighted But afterwards beeing made more ciuill and humane by Hercules who is said to haue brought Colonies into that Country and making themselues houses of those shippes wherewith they had before sayled into Libia they beganne to dwell and inhabite together But of this we will speake more at large hereafter The soyle of Affricke is vnequally inhabited for the South part thereof by reason of the exceeding heat lyeth for the most part desert and that part which lyeth next vnto Europ is very populous the fruitfulnes of their ground is admirable
two riuers Nilus and Tanais the Euxine sea and part of the Mediterranian sea and vpon the other three parts with the Ocean which vppon the East is called Oceanus Eous vpon the South Indicus and North Scithicus The hill Taurus in a manner deuideth the whole continent in the middle which lying directly East and West leaueth one part thereof towards the North and the other towards the South which two parts are by the Greekes called the Inner Asia and the vtter Asia This hill in many places is three thousand stadiae in breadth and as long as all Asia beeing about forty and fiue thousand stadia from the vttermost edge of the sea beyond Rhodes vnto the furthermost parts of India and Scythia towards the East Asia is deuided into many partes whereof some bee bigger some lesser and euery part is distinguished from other by a peculiar name but so large and wide is the whole compasse of ground contained vnder the name of Asia as it alone is thought to comprehend as much land as all Affricke and Europe the other two parts of the world The ayre is there very temperate and the soyle fertile and therefore it aboundeth with all kinde of cattell It containeth many Prouinces and regions Vppon that side which bordereth vppon Affricke lyeth Arabia which is situated betwixt Iudaea and Aegipt and according to Plinie is deuided into three parts one part whereof is called Petrea or stony Arabia which vpon the North and West ioyneth vpon Syria and is inclosed with Arabia deserta on the one side and Arabia foelix on the other Panchaia and Sabaea are also by some supposed to bee comprehended within the compasse of Arabia Arabia is so called of Arabus the sonne of Apollo by Babylo the people whereof be scattered and dispersed wide and broad and are much different one from an other both in their customes and their apparell the heire of their heads they neuer cut but tye it vp with fillets and head-laces their beards they shaue close to the skinne they transferre not their arts and occupations from one to another as wee doe but there each one exerciseth his fathers trade and course of life and the Noblest man hath the gouernment ouer all the rest all things they possesse goe in common to their whole kindered and one wife serueth all that family for hee which first entreth into the house and setteth his staffe at the doore lyeth first with her but shee sleepeth all night with the eldest by which meanes they bee all brothers one to another they lye also with their owne mothers and sisters without any respect at all And yet the adulterer is punished with death and the lying with one of anothers kindred is adultery but all those which be of one house or kindred be termed legitimate They celebrate their feasts for almost thirty dayes together wherein two of their kinsmen that be good Musitians giue their attendance in turnes first one then an other Theyr citties and townes liue peaceably and quietly together without walls and fortresses for defence they vse oyle made of the graine Sesamina are very rich and abounding with all other things Theyr sheepe bee of a white fleece and theyr neate of a tall stature but horses they haue none the want whereof is supplyed with great store of Camels Gold siluer and many sorts of sweete and odoriferous oyntments are peculiar to that country Brasse Iron Cloth Purple Saffron Pepper and all workes ingrauen in mettell or stone are brought thether from other places theyr dead bodyes they accompt more abiect and vile then dung and the carcase of their King they bury in a dung-hill they be very carefull to preserue their reputations and promises with men and they confirme theyr leagues of friendship in this manner following When a peace and agreement is concluded betwixt two a third man standing in the middle betwixt them both striketh them vpon the palme of their hands about the longest fingers with a sharpe stone till hee draw bloud then taking a little flock from each of their garments hee annoynteth with the blood seauen stones which be laide before them for that purpose in dooing whereof hee inuocateth the names of Dionisyus and Vrania this done he which is the mediatour for the peace and attonement the frendes of both parties being present causeth the stranger or the Cittizen if the matter bee betwixt cittizens to put in sureties to continue that truce and the league the parties which contract the friendship thinke fit and iust to be obserued Their onely fuell is the branches of Myrrhe the smoke whereof is so noysome and hurtfull as it would breede incurable diseases if they preuented them not by burning a sweet incense or gumme called Storax the smell whereof allayeth the contagion of the smoke The Priests first slay the beasts they intend to sacrifice and then go to gather Cynamon strictly obseruing that they gather none before Sunne-rising nor after the Sun-setting and when they haue appeased their gods with the sacrifice hee which is chiefest amongst them diuideth the heape of branches which they haue gathered that day with a forke consecrated for that vse then do they dedicate a part of those branches to the Sunne which if the diuision made were equal will be inflamed with the beames of the Sunne and take fire and burne of their owne accord Some of those people which liue hardly feed vpon snakes and bee therefore called Ophiophagi they be neither vexed with care nor troble of mind The people called Nomades haue great store of Camels which serue them both in their battels and to carry burthens The people called Debae be some of them shepheards some exercise themselues in husbandry the country abounds with gold insomuch as they find oftentimes amongst the clods of earth certaine round balles of gold as big as acorns of which they make themselues iewels and brooches very pleasant to behold and weare them about their necks and arms They sell gold to their neighboring nations for three times the price of brasse twise the price of siluer both for the small account they make of gold and for the great desire they haue to trafficke with other people Next vnto these be the Sabaei which be rich in Frankincense Myrrhe and Cynnamon Some hold that there be Balme trees growing in the confines of this countrey it aboundeth with sweet Canes and odoriferous Dates there is also a serpent bredde in that countrey of an hand-breadth in length whose sting or biting is deadly and hee lyeth altogether vnder the rootes of trees The exceeding smell and sweet sauour of things growing there breedeth a stupiditie and dulnesse in their senses which they cure with the perfume of a certaine lyme or pitch called Bitumen and the beard of a bucke Goate All matters in controuersie are there referred to the King Many of the Sabaei are husbandmen and some of them are wholy occupied in gathering
the warres and Gouernors in time of peace They haue a mixt language borrowed of the Medes and Scythians and compounded of them both at the first their habites were answerable to their abilitie and after their owne country fashion but waxing richer they were as curiouslie clothed as the Medes their weapons were after the custome of theyr owne countrey and like vnto the Scythians Their armies consist not of free-men as in other nations but for the most part of slaues which sort of base people doe dayly increase for they bee all bondmen borne and no power of manumission permitted them yet bee they brought vp with as great care and industry as if they were free-men and taught both to ride and shoote and euery one as hee is in riches traineth vp and setteth forth with the King when hee goeth into the warres a great company of horse men according to his abilitie in so much as when Antonius made warres vpon the Parthians and the Parthians incountring him with fifty thousand horsemen there were not found in all that whole troupe aboue eight hundred free-men They cannot indure the single combate nor to remooue the assault from Citties besieged but their chiefest fight is with their horses running forward or turning backward and some-times also they faine them-selues to flye that thereby they may wound those which vnwarily pursue them The signe of battell is not giuen them with a trumpet but with a Timbrill or Drumme neither can they indure long fight for surely they were not to bee resisted if their courage and continuance were answerable to the assault and first brunt of the battell and often-times they will leaue the battaile in the very heate of the conflict and shortly after returne againe and begin a fresh so as when the enemy thinketh himselfe most secure he is oftentimes in greatest danger The munition for their horse-men are Brigandines or coates of maile imbrodered and with such bee their horses harnessed likewise In times past they had no other vse of siluer nor golde then in their weapons All of them haue many wiues being mooued therevnto with the pleasure of the variety of women nor is there a more greeuous punishment for any offence then for adultery and therefore they forbid their wiues not onely to banquet with other men but euen the very sight of them also There bee some of opinion whereof Strabo is one that if the Parthians cannot beget children of their wiues them-selues they will giue them in mariage to their friends thereby to raise them issue to succeed them They eate no other flesh but what they get by hunting and they be euer carryed on horse-back for they ride to their banquets they buy and sell conferre together and execute all publicke and priuate offices on hors-back And this difference in the dignities and degrees of the people is very singuler and worthy to bee noted that those which bee of a seruile and base condition goe euer on foote but the better sort of people and free-men ride continually The flesh of their dead bodyes insteed of buriall is commonly rent in peeces and deuoured eyther of byrds or dogges and they couer the bones when they be bare with earth They haue their gods in great reuerence and regarde they bee of a haughty and proud disposition sedicious deceitfull and malepart and very violent in all their actions but yet women bee somewhat more courteous then men they bee alwayes busied eyther in externall or ciuill broyles They bee naturally slowe of speach and farre more apt for action then vtterance They will neither bragge of their prosperity nor dispaire in aduersity they obey their Princes for feare not for shame they bee much giuen to lust and of a sparing dyet and there is no trust nor confidence to bee reposed in their words nor promises but so farre as is expedient and behouefull for themselues The manners and customes Of Persia and of the manners lawes and ordinances of the Persians CHAP. 7. PERSIA a country in the East is so called of Persis the sonne of Iupiter and Danaé of whom also Persepolis the Metrapolitan and chiefe Citty of that nation taketh his name and the people thereof be called Persians This country as Ptolomeus writeth in his fift booke is bounded on the North with Media on the West with Susiana on the East with the two Carmanias and on the South with the Persian sea Their chiefe townes were Aximia Persepolis and Diospolis The Persians beleeue in Heauen and in Iupiter they haue the Sunne also in great veneration whom they call Mitra and worship the Moone Venus the Fire Earth Water and windes as gods and goddesses They haue neither Temples Sanctuaries nor Idols but doe their sacrifices without doores in some high place with great reuerence and deuotion hauing the hoast for sacrifice brought to the Altar with a crowne or garland on his head they sacrifice to their gods nothing else but the heart of the oblation neither do the gods as they suppose require more at their hands and yet the custome of some in that countrie is to put the Intralls of the sacrifice into the fire also when they sacrifice they make a fyre of drye wood the barke or rinde being first pulled of and then casting vpon the wood some sweet tallow or suet and infusing a little oyle thereon set it on fire not blowing with their mouths but with bellowes for if any presume to blow the fire with his mouth or throw therin any dead carcasse or any other filthy thing hee dyeth for it The Persians neither wash themselues in water nor pisse nor spitte into it nor throw any dead carcasse into it nor prophane it any other kinde of way but worship it most religiously and that in this manner When they come to a lake riuer or brooke they make a little ditch or pond seuered from the other water and there they kill the sacrifice hauing speciall regarde that none of the other water bee touched with the bloud least all should be polluted this done and the flesh layde vpon a mirtell or lawrell tree the Priests or Magi make a fire with little twiggs and therewith burne the sacrifice till it be consumed and then sprinkling and infusing it with oyle mingled with milke and hony they pray for a long space together not to the fire nor water but to the earth holding in their hands all the while a bundle of Mirtle rods They create their Kings out of one family and hee which is not obedient vnto the King hath his head and armes cut off and is cast out without buriall Polycritus reporteth that al the Persian Kings haue their houses builded vpon hills and that there they hide all the treasure and tribute which they exact of their subiects for a monument of a well gouerned state And that of the people that dwell vpon the sea coast they exact siluer and from the inhabitants of the middle part of the
other for that the whole world is the vniuersall Temple and open Sanctuary of God And that those which build and erect Churches Monasteries and Oratories do goe about to restraine and limit Gods power and Maiesty That Preests Vestiments Ornaments for the Altar Palls surplices Chalices Patines and such other like vessells are trifles and trash of no moment and that the Priest hath power to consecrate the body of our Lord at all times and in euery place and to minister it to those which desire it and that it is sufficient onely to prouonce the words of consecration That we ought not to pray to Saints to be intercessors for vs vnto Christ and that it is lost time that is spent in singing or saying the Canonicall houres That no dayes should be kept holy from labour but the Lords day only that no feast daies should bee celebrated in honour of the Saints and that by the institutions of the Church fasting is of no merit The report also is that the Boemian Priests do minister the Sacrament of the body of our Lord vnto infants and to all others indifferently vnder both formes which is a greater sacrifice than that which is vsed in the Church of Rome and one George Poggebratius is saidt o be the Author of this Ministration One Picardus comming out of France infected this nation with this monstrous and abhominable madnesse for hee hauing intised a great number of the baser sort both of men and women to bee his followers instructed them to goe naked and as the author of all licentious liuing called them Addamites by whose instructions venery was openly practised without difference of kindred or allyance and many other most horrible offences some of which sect are said to remayne as yet for there bee some Bohemians which bee therefore called Gruebenhamer which choose out for the excercising of their religion vautes and hollow caues in the ground and when their Priest according to their custome hath pronoūced this part of Genesis crescite et multiplicamini et replete terram that is increase and multiply and replenish the earth instantly they put out all their lights and fall to their lechery in the darke euery man with the woman hee first lighteth vpon without respect of age or kindred and when they haue finished their busiesse they light their lights againe and goe euery one into his owne place and so bee their ceremonies ended This execrable custome of that damnable sect is not much different frō those feasts called Bacchanalia which are first celebrated in Hetruria and afterwards in Rome by women in the night time who hauing pampered them-selues with wine and banketting accompanied with men in secret corners without difference or respect either of kindred or age whereby grew such confusion as oftentimes the mothers were defiled by their owne children and many other enormous villanies were perpetrated and done which they tooke their beginning as from the warehouse of all wickednesse The ringleaders of this preposterous celebration were first cut of at Rome when Quintus Martius Philippus and Posthumius Albinus were consulls as Sabellicus reporteth in his first Aenead and seauenth booke but this irreligious impiety and horrible heresie of the Boemians could not bee extirpated and rooted out in the raigne of foure Kings Veneceslaus Sigismundus Albertus and Vladislaus although they opposed them-selues against it with all their force and power Of Germany and of the customes of the Germaines CAP. 12. GERMANY is the largest nation of all Europ it lieth farre North and is deuided from France with the riuer of Rheyne from Rhetia and Pannonia with the riuer Danubius from Sarmatia and Dacia with certaine hills but more with the feare which one nation hath of the other and vpon all other sides it is inclosed with the ocean But the limits of Germany at this day exceed these bounds extend further comprehending vnder that name Rhetia Vindelitia Norica the vpper Pannonia the Alpes part of Illiria euen to the gates of the Citty of Trent All the country of Belgia in like sort which was heretofore vnder the French gouernment and all about the riuer of Rheyne are vnited to the Germaines imbracing both their law and language and forgetting or not daring or else scorning to call themselues French The Heluetians likewise by little and little haue almost lost both their name and speach and become perfect Germaines Germany challengeth as her own a great part of transalpine France besides all these the souldiers of Germany haue within the space of three hundred yeares brought vnder their subiection the Prutenia barbarous and cruell nation waining them from the worshiping of Idols to their owne language and the Christian religion this country therefore as now it is compared vnto what it was before it will appeare that it hath added more to it selfe from forraine nations then was formerly comprehended in his owne limits All Germany was once deuided into two parts wherof that part which is nearest vnto the Alpes was called the higher Germany the other the lower which lieth northward and towards the Ocean this partition doth yet continue and the higher part is now called Alemania as some thinke of a certaine lake or riuer called Alemanus and each of these parts consisteth of sundry Prouinces for the higher Germany going vpwards from the riuer Moganus which runneth along by Franconia containeth Dauaria Austria Styria Athesis Rhetia Heluetia Sueuia Alsatia and the Prouince of Rheine vnto the citty Mentz in Almania The inferior or lower Germany hath in it Franconia a good part wherof towards the South is held to be in high Germany Hassia Lotharingia Brabant Gelderland Zeiland Holland Frysland Flanders Westphalia Saxonie Dacia Peninsula Pomeranià Liuonia Prussia Sletia Morauia Boemia Mysnia Marchia and Thuringia Germany although some parte thereof seemed better than other was first as Cornelius Tacitus writeth for the most part ether ouer-growne with woods or rouer-flown with waters being more base and barren to wards France and more subiect to stormes and tempests towards Noricum Styria Pannonia so that it yeelded neither fruite nor grayne onely it bred good store of cattell but such as were both little and low gold and siluer it affordeth none and therefore as a poore and base county it was dispised and very little regarded But surely Cornelius was either much deceyued or else the country is much altered from what it then was for Germany at this day is so pleasant and so plentifull of all things so beautified strengthened and addorned with famous Citties strong Castels and stately buildings as it is nothing inferior either to France Spaine or Italy for the heauens smyle vpon them the fields affords them store of fruites the Sunne solaceth him selfe amongst her hills shee hath whole mountaines of vynes woods at wil and all kinde of graine in abundance being watred on all sides with Rhene Danubius Moganus Albis Neccharus Sala Odera and with many
in honour of Heroules and were long since instituted in the dayes of Euander Dionysius Halicarnasseus following the opinion of Varro herein saith that Romulus ordained three score priests to make publike sacrifices through euery tribe and euery ward annexing vnto them as their assistants the diuiners and southsaiers euery ward likewise had his proper Genius or spirit which they supposed did defend them and their proper ministers to doe sacrifice vnto them but the goddesse Vesta was generally worshipped of all And lastly hee deuided and digested the yeere into tenne monthes by all which ordinances and decrees it may easily bee gathered and plainely perceiued that Romulus was most skilfull and expert in all matters both diuine and humaine and that they detract much from his glory and wisdome which report that the people of Rome liued without morality amongst themselues or religion towards their gods vntill the raigne of Numa Pompilius And these were the ciuil institutions ordained by Romulus But Numa Pompilius that afterwards succeeded him in the Kingdome in some part altered and in some part added vnto his Statutes and first in following the course of the Moone hee disposed the yeere into twelue monthes whereas before Romulus made it to consist but of tenne and altering the order of the monethes hee set Ianuary and February before March whereas till that time March was the first month and the beginning of the yeere and so hee made March for to bee the third in order and ranke Next hee appointed some daies to bee festiuall and holy and some other as dismal ominous and vnluckie wherein he would not any way meddle with the people or beginne any businesse After this hee created one chiefe Flamin or Priest to doe sacrifice to Iupiter whom he called Dialis and honored him with a roabe of dignity and chaire of state hee then created two other priests one to sacrifice to Mars and the other to Romulus and these were also called Flamines for the caps of honour which they wore vpon their heads moreouer he elected the Virgine Vestals which for the first ten yeeres did nothing but learne the rites and manner of sacrifising the next ten yeeres they spent in doing sacrifice themselues and the third ten yeeres they taught and instructed nouisses and fresh commers into that profession and then at the thirtith yeeres end it was in their choise whether they would mary or continue still in that course of life And those Virgin Vestals were maintained at the common cost of the City and reuerenced with titles of perpetual virginity and other ceremonies but if any of them were conuicted of incest her sentence was sorrowfully pronounced by the Cittizens that shee should bee set quicke in the ground at the gate called Collina which is in the hill Quirinalis and there couered with earth till shee were dead Hee dedicated also vnto Mars twelue other priests which hee called Salij whose office was vpon certaine daies in the month of March which tooke his name of the god Mars to lead a solemne dance in some of the principall places of the City they were cloathed with coates of diuers collours and their vppermost garments were red and changeable they had swords by their sides hanging in brazen belts in their right hand they caried launces and rods and brazen bucklers in their left and vpon their heads they wore high hats waxing sharpe towards the crowne These priests which for their solemne dancing the Romaines called Sallij according to the opinion of Dionysius did little differ from the Coribantes or Sibilles priests which the Greekes called Curetes finally he created a Bishop or high priest to whom he gaue supreme authority ouer all infreior priests and in him it lay to appoint what oblations should bee offred vpon what daies and in what Temples Besides all these holy orders of priests and religious persons hee ordained the Feciales or herraulds to denounce warre or peace and they were to haue a speciall regard that the Romanes should not make warres against any vniustly and if the Romaines were iniured or robbed by any others these Feciales were to require restitution of the goods wrongfully taken and detained but if they denied to make restitution then were they to denounce open war against them Their power was likewise to deliuer offenders to bee punished to those whose goods they had iniuriously taken if wronge were offered to Legats or Ambassadors they were to correct it and if the causes were honest and iust they might conclude a peace and breake it againe if it appeared that the League was vnlawfully established And if either the captaine or chiefe conductor of the army or the whole army in generall had done any thing contrary to their oths and alleagance in them it rested wholy to punish the offence This done he limitted their times of mourning commanding that the death of infants vnder three yeeres old should not bee lamented at all and that for elder children they should bewaile them as many monthes as they were yeeres old so as it exceeded not ten monthes which was the vttermost time prescribed for mourning for any ones death When Numa Pompilius had established these lawes for the gouernment of the common-wealth he then seuered and distributed the people into sundry companies and societies according to their arts and profession as minstrels crafts-men head-carpenters dyers shoomakers tanners masons potters c. making of diuers of those arts one fraternitie or bodie politicke Seruius Tullius deuided the whole multitude of citizens into sundry orders ranckes or armies which he called Classes and into centuries or bands consisting of a hundred men the manner of his disposition of them was thus In the first order or degree he inroled those who were taxed in their subsidie bookes at a hundred thousand Asses and of this order there was fourescore centuries consisting indifferently of young men and old so as the old men should euer remaine at home to saue and defend the city and the youth were to try the fortune of warres abroad he then commanded them both to weare armor and weapons both of defence of offence as helmets shields priuie-coates and bootes to defend themselues and speares and swords to offend the enemy to this first ranke or degree hee added two centuries of workemen or pioners which were to cast trenches build rampiers and to make all their engines and instruments of warre and they euer went vnarmed to bee alwaies in redinesse for any labor The second order or degree consisted of twentie centuries and were such as were taxed betwixt seuentie fiue and a hundred thousand Asses they were deuided into young and old as the former order and tollerated to weare the same armor and weapons the other did saue onely the coate of fence which they might not weare The third order was of such as were taxed at fifty thousand Asses they consisted of as many centuries as the other and did nothing
and thereof conuicted he dyeth for it yet not with such a death as any one should lay violent hands vpon him but by common consent hee is shut vp in some close place from the sight and company of all men and there famished to death This people bee generally addicted to husbandry and hunting of Tygers and Elephants for other common beasts they little regarde and some delight in fishing for shell fishes the shells weereof bee so bigge as one shell will make a house sufficient to containe a whole family The greater part of this Iland is burned with the heate of the Sunne and is therefore desert vppon the side of the Iland beateth a sea that is very greene They esteeme much of gold whereof and of all sorts of precious stones they garnish and beautifie their pots They haue great store of Marbles and Margarites and very bigge ones And these bee the people countries and nations whose manners customes and institutions are commended vnto vs by Historiographers and which by any meanes I could collect out of them yet I confesse there be many other which I haue eyther wholy omitted or lightly passed ouer because I could not write more of them than I found in other Authors hauing neuer by trauelling into those parts beene eye witnesse of them my selfe nor could otherwise attaine to the perfect knowledge thereof neyther doe I thinke it possible for mee or any man else to know and declare the manners of all nations but God onely to whom nothing is hidden nor nothing vnpossible for hee onely it is that first laide the foundation of the earth it was hee that first founded the depth and bottome of the sea and pointed vnto vs the passages through the deepe hee onely it is that so bountifully hath bestowed vpon vs wealth dignities honor and riches and all other commodities necessary for our beeing and hee it is that hath allotted vnto euery one his profession and course of life wherein to imploy himselfe for some hee hath ordained to bee husbandmen permitting then to growe wealthy by vnripping the bowels of the earth to some others hee hath giuen the sea wishing them to prouide their liuings some by fishing and some by merchandize some others he hath addicted to the study of Sciences and Philosophie that thereby they may attaine to honor and estimation and some others he hath put in places of authority to gouerne and praecede the rest And therefore it is no maruell that all men are not of one condition nor of one nature nor yet indued with like manners seeing wee perceiue such difference and variety in kingdomes and countries as that one country produceth white people an other swaithy an other tawny and some cleane black or like vnto flowers which grow in Assyria and euen so hath God appointed that people should be of variable mindes and dispositions as other things are and that euery one should rest contented with that course of life that God hath appointed for him FINIS The manners of diuerse nations collected out of the workes of NICHOLAS DAMASCEN THE Thyni which bee a people of Thrace receiue such as haue suffered shipwracke or fallen into pouerty by their owne defaults very courteously and friendly and all strangers likewise which come willingly vnto them are highly honored but those which come perforce whether they will or no are as seuerely punished The Aritoni kill no kinde of beast they haue their Oracles written in lots which they keepe in golden couers The Dardani a people of Illyrium bee washed onely three times in all their liues that is to say when they bee borne when they be marryed and when they lye a dying The Galactophagi a people of Scythia liue not in houses as most of the other Scythians doe their sustenance consisteth for the most part of Mares milke which serueth them both for meat and drinke They bee seldome ouer-come in battaile for that their prouision of victuals is in euery place and at all turnes in readinesse This people forced Darius to returne home without conquest they bee maruellous iust one towards an other as hauing both wiues and wealth in common to all they salute old men by calling them their fathers the yong men their children and their equals brethren of this people was Anacharsis one of the seuen wise men who came into Greece to learne the laws ordinances of other nations Homer remembreth this people where he saith the Mysi fight nigh at hand the Agaui milke Mares and the Galactophagi and Abij be most iust men And the reason why he calleth them Abij is either because they would not till the earth or for that they liued without houses or else because they onely vsed bowes in the warres for a bow of the Poets is often called Bios there is not one amongst them all as is reported that is either stirred with enuy swelled with hatred or striken with feare by reason of their exceeding great Iustice and communitie of all things The women there be as warlike as the men and go with them to the warres when need requireth and therefore it may well be true that the Amazons be women of such valerous and generous spirits as that they went forth with an army vnto Athens and Scicily at such time as their abode was about the poole of Maeotis The women of Iberia do once euery yeare being their whole yeares worke into an open and publicke place in presence of all the people where certaine men be elected by voyces as Iudges to censure of their labours and those which by them are adiudged most laborious are most honored and in highest estimation they haue also a girdle of a certaine measure within the compasse wherof if the belly of any will not bee comprehended they be thereby much disgraced The Vmbrici in their battels against their enimies hold it vnfitting for the vanquished to suruiue and that it is necessary eyther to ouer-come the enemy or to bee slaine themselues This people when any controuersie happeneth amongst themselues fight armed as if they made warre against their open enimies and hee which killeth his aduersary in fight is supposed to haue the iustest cause The Celtae a people inhabiting neere the Ocean account it a disgrace for any one to withdraw himselfe or leane his body to a wall or house when any inundation commeth towards them from the sea they arme themselues to meete the floud and make resistance vntill they be drowned neuer retiring back nor shewing the least feare of death any manner of way They weare their swords aswell when they bee occupied in the affaires of their common-wealth as in the warres and a greater punishment is infllicted vpon those which kill strangers then Cittizens for the first is punished with death the other with banishment And those aboue all others bee most honoured which atchiuing any victory haue thereby purchased any ground for their publicke vse the
a foote and an halfe long and as thicke as a mans thigh these the women for men bee neuer troubled with the businesse plucke vppe and drye against the fire mingling them with that which they call Boucano some-times also they bruse and breake them in peeces when they bee greene and fresh with sharpe flint stones fastned to a beame as wee are wonte to grate Cheese and Nutmegs and make thereof a very fine white meale or flower so as that new meale beeing steeped in water the whole Iuise which is pressed out of it of which I will speake by and by doth taste and sauour like new and moyste Wafers made of Wheate insomuch as after my returne into France euery place where I came smelled thereof which renewed the memory of that where-with those barbarous and rude peoples houses or roomes bee vsually washed and sprinckled with so great hindrance and losse is that meale made of those kinde of rootes For the preparation of this meale the women of Brasilia deuise great earthen Vessels very fitte for that vse containing euery one a bushell or thereabout which beeing set vpon the fire they put there-vnto the meale and euer as it boyleth the gourd being cut in the middle they take out that which is within and vse the vtmost rinde in steed of dishes to eate pottage and this when it is boyled is like vnto little comfits Of this flower or dowe they make two sorts for one manner is throughly boyled and hard which they call Ouy-entan and this they carry into the warres with them because it will keepe longest the other sort is lesse boyld and softer and that they call Ouy-pov in this respect this is better then the former because it tasteth like the crummes of white bread but that first sauour whereof I spake before becommeth more pleasanter and sweeter by boyling And as this meate especially when it is new is of an excellent sauour and taste so is it very nourishing and easily concocted yet notwithstanding as I haue tryed they cannot by any meanes make bread thereof but they will make it into a lumpe which smelleth like a batch of wheat dowe and is maruellous faire to looke vpon and as white as fine wheate flower yet in boyling it is so dryed and crusted vpon the out-side that it beeing cut or broken the inner part thereof is maruelous drye and like as it was before it was boyled Whereby I am induced to thinke that hee was much deceiued which first reported not well regarding my speeches that those which dwell two or three degrees beyond the Aequinoctiall line which people bee certainly the Tououpinambaltij did eate bread made of rotten wood which is to be vnderstood of these rootes whereof wee spake And both sorts of meate in making a kinde of gruell which they call Myngant especially if it bee mingled with fat broth or liquor is then like vnto Ryce and beeing so seasoned it tasteth very well and delicately But the Tououpinambaltij both men women and children from theyr Cradles vpwards doe eate this kinde of drye meale or dowe insteed of bread wherevnto they are so apt by often vse that with the ends of their fingers they will take it out of their earthen vessels and throw it stedfastly into their mouthes without loosing the least crumme and therein we often-times assaide to imitate them but beeing little exercised wee spilled it vpon our faces and therefore vnlesse wee would bee ridiculous wee must needs vse spoones Moreouer those rootes called Aypi and Manyot be some-times chopped when they bee greene into little gobbets of the meale whereof being moyste the women make round balls which being pressed betwixt their hands they wring out of them a certaine liquid white Iuise like vnto milke and putting it into earthen vessels set it out in the sunne by the heate whereof it doth curde and creame ouer like milke and when they eate it they powre it into dishes made of shels wherein it is boyled as wee are wont to boyle egges Moreouer the roote Aypi is not onely accustomed to bee made into meale but it eateth also very well beeing roasted in the Ashes whereby it will waxe tender and cleaue and bee very like in taste vnto Chesnuts broyld vpon the coales and being so ordered it is very good to eate but the roote called Manyot is farre otherwise for vnlesse it bee made into dowe and boyled it is a very dangerous meate the stalkes of both those rootes be like one vnto an other and of the bignesse of lowe Iuniper and the leaues bee like vnto an herbe called Peony or Pyony But that which is most to bee wondred at in these rootes of Brasile called Aypi and Manyot is the great aboundance of them for the branches of them which be as brittle as hempe stalkes how many so euer of them be broken and put deepe into the earth without any husbandry at all within two or three moneths space will bring forth a great aboundance of rootes The women in like manner doe plant that great Millet whereof we spake before which we commonly call Sarrasins wheat or Arabian wheate and which those barbarous people call Anati and of that also they make a certaine meale which they boyle and eate in the same manner as I said they do the other And thus much sufficeth to say of the manners apparell and diet of the Americans and he which desireth to vnderstand more let him read the Indian history of Iohn Lerius out of whom wee haue gathered that which we haue here set downe FINIS The faith religion and manners of the Aethiopians Liuing within the dominion of Precious Ioan commonly called Prestor Iohn together with a declaration of the league and friendship established betwixt the Emperors of Aethiopia and the Kings of Portugall Damianus a Goes a Portugall Knight being Author and interpretor Herevnto is added certaine Epistles of Helena who was grandmother to Dauid Precious Joan and from the same Dauid to the Bishop of Rome and to Emanuell and Iohn Kings of Portugall very worthy the reading the same Damianus a Goes and Paulus Jouius being interpretors The deploration of the people of Lappia collected by the same Damianus a Goes Damianus a Goes a Knight of Portugall to Pope Paulus the third health THere is nothing wherein wee ought to be more carefull and vigilant and more diligently to indeuour our selues than that by our labour cost punishment of our bodies yea martirdome it selfe if by other meanes it cannot be effected all people of the world may bee brought and wonne to the faith of Christ and being once wonne may then be reduced to liue in an vniformity and one manner of liuing The care and regard whereof doth more especially belong to you right reuerent Pope Paulus than to all the rest of vs as being high Bishop ouer all the Vicar of Christ and head of the vniuersall Church vnder him Wherefore it is your part which with the great hope
of all men you haue already begun to cure the calamities where with the Church is dayly oppressed and with your care and industrie so to effect it that all the whole world may obey and beleeue in one onely Christ and imbracing the true beleefe may be obedient vnto you as vnto Peters successor and to your admonitions in all things which pertaine to the saluation of their soules which when you haue brought to passe wee will say that by your meanes the Prophesie of one sheapheard and one flock is fulfilled the true commendations whereof when you haue obtained which of the Popes may bee deemed so famous as your self either in honor happinesse or merit or to whom with so much right may wee yeeld the triple Crownc as to your selfe For the obtaining whereof although the times be otherwise very vnfortunate yet haue you many occasions ministred vnto you I call the times vnfortunate by reason of those calamities which in Europe are by your selfe to be cured for of none be we more strongly resisted then of the enimie that liueth at our elbow but let vs now omitte to speake of those troublesome cares which wee bee well assured are euer in your minde and come to other matters more calme and temperate which carry great hope that as it were an other new world imbracing the faith of Christ may acknowledge your holinesse Maiestie and Empire Wherefore if you shall so handle these businesses that the Church both in Aethiopia and Europe hauing you her gouernour and protector may escape and auoide all perill and shipwrack and arriue into the hauen of saluation wee shall then sing in your praise that Propheticall Canticle contained in the Booke of Wisdome viz. I will passe through all lower parts of the earth I will behold all those that sleepe and illuminate all those that trust in the Lord behold I haue not laboured for my selfe onely but for all those that seeke the truth Now at length is the time wherein wee trust that this Prophesie will bee fulfilled by you behold here the Aethiopians a large and spacious nation and most desirous of Christ whose Emperor a man of great sanctitie desiring the amity and friendship of the Christian Princes of Europe hath sent his Embassadors vnto you and to the mighty and inuincible Kings of Portugall by whom as by his letters doth appeare hee doth not onely couet Christian friendship and charity betwixt him-selfe and the Princes of Europe but also perceiuing the bitter discords and dissentions that continually raigne amongst them doth most deuoutly and feruently admonish and exhort them to Christian peace and concorde a matter whereof all of vs may bee ashamed for now the Queene of Saba riseth vp and calleth vs into iudgment reprehending our faults Christs Prophesies bee now fulfilled And those which hee elected are by little and little fallen out of his fellowship and his commandements and promises are come vnto those which were teputed Ethnicks and strangers vnto Christ for the Emperour of Aethiopia with all the kingdomes vnder his dominion as by this our declaration shall appeare couet nor desire nothing more then to liue vnder your discipline neither is hee ignorant by the doctrine of the Apostles which hee hath deuided into eight bookes that the gouernment and principallity of all the Bishops of the world belongeth and is due to the Bishop of Rome whom plainly and godlyly hee is willing to obey desiring of him to be well and holily instructed in the institutions and ordinances of the Church of Christ for which purpose he coueteth with great desire to haue learned mē sent vnto him and not contented there-with to the end that the memory of his desires may remaine to all posterity hee intreateth that the truth of this matter may bee recorded and registred in the Popes Annals that so his Epistles and most godly requests may bee inlightned by the Ecclesiasticall history and that those which shall bee borne hereafter may know at what time and vnder what Pope these things were done And I nothing doubt but that your holinesse hath already sent or forthwith will send vnto him learned men and skilfull in the Scriptures and well instructed in other artes by whose learning and industry and also by the preaching and labour of many others already sent thither by the renowned Kings of Portugall Emanuell and Iohn his sonne you will so handle the businesse that all the Christians liuing in Aethiopia and India may by little and little yeeld obedience to the lawes of the Romaine Bishops whom they feare not already to confesse to bee the Vicars of Christ and so they being once by your indeuour ioyned vnto vs by the true religion and gathered together into one fold vnder one shepheard Christ we may perceiue that the mercy of our Lord is confirmed ouer vs that his kingdome indureth for all ages and that his power extendeth vnto all generations and then all flesh shall praise his holy name for euer and euer But least my exhortation may seeme more tedious then is needfull especially vnto him of whose life and doctrine we are and ought all of vs to be imitators I will proceed to my declaration which I will set out more at large that thereby I may more plainly shew vpon what grounds and principles this sacred league and amitie betwixt Prestor Ioan and the Kings of Portugall was established hoping that in declaring those things which bee true and lawfull I may inflame the mindes of the Readers and accite them to those designements whereby the faith of Christ may bee more aboundantly planted preached and reuerenced in all corners of the earth In the yeare from the birth of our Sauiour and redeemer Iesus Christ one thousand foure hundred thirty and three Iohn the first King of Portugal surnamed of famous memory he which freed Portugall from the often incursions and assaults of the Castilians wherewith it was almost made vast desolate departing out of this mortall life of all his other sonnes which hee left behind him his sonne Henry excelled in learning and especially in the study of Mathematickes who for the great desire hee had to know the motion of the heauens liued a single life and for that hee might more deepely and accurately meditate and consider the course of the starres he liued in a holy promontory called Saint Vincents head which place he chose out for that the heauens bee there for the most part calme and temperate least the clowds interposing themselues betwixt the heauens and his instruments his consideration and iudgment of the course of the heauens might be thereby hindred This Henry to the end he might receiue some fruite of his studies determined to seeke out with his owne ships and at his owne charge that which by often watchings he had found out to be so to wit that the Atlantick Ocean floweth into the Indian and the Indian againe into the Atlanticke and therevpon sending ships thither diuerse times they
redeeming thence Adam his sons Al these things Christ did wherfore he was replenished with diuinity and that diuinity was with his soule also with his most holy body which diuinity gaue vertue to the crosse which diuinity he euer had yet hath commune with the Father in Trinity Vnity nor did that Christ while he walked vpō the earth euer want his diuinity for the least twinckling of an eye After this he was buried and the third day the same Iesus Christ the Prince of resurrection Iesus Christ the chiefe of the Priests Iesus Christ the King of Israel arose againe with great power and fortitude and after all things were fulfilled which the holy Prophets fore-shewed hee ascended with great glorie triumph into heauen and sitteth on the right hand of the Father and he shall come againe in glorie carrying his crosse before his face and the sword of Iustice in his hand to iudge both the quicke and the dead of whose kingdome shall be no end I beleeue one holy Catholike and Apostolike Church I beleeue one Baptisme which is the remission of sinnes I hope for and beleeue the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come Amen I beleeue in our Ladie the blessed Virgin Mary a Virgin I say both in spirit and flesh who as the mother of Christ is the charity of all people the Saint of Saints and Virgin of Virgins whome I do worshippe all manner of wayes I beleeue the sacred wood of the crosse to bee the bed of the sorow of our Lord Iesus Christ the son of God which Christ is our saluation by whome wee be saued a scandall to the Iewes and foolishnesse to the Gentils But we preach and beleeue the strength of the Crosse of our Lord Iesus Christ euen as S. Paul our Doctor hath taught vs. I beleeue S. Peter to be the rocke of the lawe which law is founded vpon the holy Prophets the foundation and head of the Catholike and Apostolike Church both east and west where euer is the name of our Lord Iesus Christ the power of which Church Peter the Apostle hath and the keyes of the kingdome of heauen with which he can shut and open loose and bind and hee shall sit with the other Apostles his fellowes vpon twelue seats with honor and praise with our Lord Iesus Christ who in the day of Iudgement shall pronounce the sentence vpon vs which day to the Saints shall be cause of ioy but to the wicked griefe and gnashing of teeth when they shall bee cast out into the burning flames of hell fire with their father the Diuell I beleeue that the holy Prophets and Apostles Martyrs and Confessors were the right imitators of Christ whom with the most blessed Angels of God I worship honor in like maner also do I imbrace affect as their followers Also I beleeue that vocall and auricular confession of all my sinnes is to bee made to the priest by whose prayers through Christ our Lord I hope to obtain saluation Moreouer I acknowledge the B. of Rome to bee the chiefPastor of the sheep of Christ yeelding obedience vnto all Patriarks Cardinals Archb. Bishops of whom he is head as vnto the Ministers of Christ himselfe This is my faith and law and of al the people of Aethiopia that be vnder the power of Precious Iohn which faith the loue of Christ be so confirmed amongst vs as with the help of our Sauiour I shall neuer deny it neither by death fire nor sword which faith all we shall carry with vs in the day of iudgment before the face of the same Lord Iesus Christ Now hauing gone thus farre I will expresse the discipline doctrine and law which the Apostles in their holy books of Councels and Canons which we call Manda Abethylis haue taught vs and of those bookes of the ordonances of the Church there be 8. all which were compiled by the Apostles when they were assembled together at Ierusalem wherof making great inquiry of many Doctours after I came into Portugall I found none that did remember them The obseruatiōs which the Apostles prescribed vnto vs in these bookes be these following First that we ought to fast euery wednesday in remembrance of the Iewes Councell for vpon that day they consulted and decreed amongst themselues that Christ shold be killed and that we shold fast euery Friday vpon which day Christ Iesus was crucified and died for our sins and vpon these two dayes we are commanded to fast till the Sun-setting They also inioyned vs to fast with bread water the forty daies of Lent and to pray seuen times in the day and night By those edicts also we be bound to celebrate our sacrifice vppon Wednesdayes and Fridayes in the euening because at that time our Lord Iesus Christ yeelded vp the ghost vpon the holy Crosse They willed also that vpon Sundaies we should al assemble together in the holy church at the third houre of the day from the Sun rising to reade and heare the bookes of the Prophets and that after that we should preach the Gospell and celebrate Masse Moreouer they appointed nine festiuall daies to be celebrated in memorie of Christ to wit the Annunciation the Natiuity the Circumcision the Purification or Candlemas his Baptisme Palm sunday vnto the octaues of good Friday as we term it which be 12. dayes the Ascension also and the Feast of Penticost with their holy dayes And by the precepts of these bookes we eate flesh euery day without any exception from the Feast of Easter vnto Penticost neither bee we bound to fast in all this time vnto the octaues of Penticost which thing we do for the more honour reuerence of the resurrection of our Lord Iesus Christ They will vs also to celebrate the day of the death assumption of the Virgin Mary with all honor Moreouer besides the precepts of the Apostles one of the Precious Iohns surnamed The seed of Iacob ordained that besides these dayes euery thirtith yere 3. dayes should be celebrated in honor of the same blessed Virgin he also commanded one day in euery moneth to be celebrated for the Natiuity of our Sauior Christ which is euer the 25. day of the month in like manner he appointed one day in euery moneth to be kept holy in honor of S. Michael Furthermore by the cōmandement of the Apostles Synods wee celebrate the day of the Martyrdom of S. Stephen and of other Martyrs We he bound also by the institution of the Apostles to sollemnize two dayes to wit the Sabbath and the Lords day in which daies it is not lawfull for vs to do any manner of businesse no not the least trifle The Sabbath day we obserue for this cause for that God hauing perfected the Creation of the world rested vpon that day which day as it was his will it should be called the Holy of Holies so if that day should not be reuerenced
execute those offices of the court the women likewise by the commandement and decree of the same Maqueda be circumcised shee being induced therevnto by this reason that euen as men haue a fore-skinne that couereth their yards in like manner haue women a certaine kernelly flesh which is called Nympha arysing vp in the middle of their priuy partes which is very fit to take the character of circumcision and this is done both to males and females vpon the eight day and after circumcision the men children be baptised vpon the fortieth day and the women children vpon the eighteeth day vnlesse any sicknesse or infirmity hapneth which may cause it to bee done sooner but if any children be baptised before the time appointed it is not lawfull to giue them sucke of their mothers milke but onely of their nurses vntill their mothers bee purified and the water wherein they bee baptised is consecrated and blessed with exorcismes and that very same day wherein children bee baptised they receiue the blessed bodie of our Lord in a little forme of bread wee receiued baptisme almost before all other Christians from the Eunuch of Candace Queene of Aethiopia whose name was Indich as it is said in the Acts of the Apostles which together with circumcision which wee had at that time as before is sayd wee obserue most holily and Christian like and by Gods assistance euer shall obserue nor doe we obserue or admit of any thing but of those onely which are expressed in the law and the prophets and in the Gospell and in the bookes of the councels of the Apostles and if wee receiue any things besides those they bee onely obserued for the time for that they seeme to appertaine to the gouernment and peace of the Church and that without any bond of sinne Wherefore our circumcision is not vncleane but the law and grace is giuen to our father Abraham which hee receiued of God as a signe not that either he or his children should be saued through circumcision but that the children of Abraham should be known from other nations And that which is inwardly vnderstood by the signe or mistery of circumcision wee doe highly obserue that is that wee may bee circumcised in our hearts neither doe wee boast of circumcision nor therefore thinke our selues more noble then other Christians nor more acceptable vnto God with whom is no acception of persons as Paul saith who also sheweth vs that wee bee not saued through circumcision but by faith because in Christ Iesus neither circumcision nor the cutting off the foreskinne preualeth but the new creature but Paul preached not to destroy the law but to establish it who was also baptised and beeing of the seed of Beniamin hee also circumcised Tymothy who was become a Christian his mother beeing an Hebrew and his father a Gentile knowing that God doth iustifie circumcision by faith and the fore-skinne by faith and as he himselfe was made all to all that hee might saue all To the Iewes hee was as a Iew that thereby hee might winne the Iewes and to those which were vnder the law hee was as one vnder the law although hee was not vnder the law to the end hee might gaine those which were vnder the lawe and to those which were without the law hee was as one without the law although hee was not without the law of GOD but vnder the law of Christ that hee might get those which were without the law and hee became weake that hee might gaine those which were weake which he did to shew that we bee saued not by circumcision but by faith And therefore when he preached to the Hebrewes hee spake vnto them in diuers speeches like an Hebrew saying God heretofore spake many waies and in many manners to our fathers in the prophets shewing vnto them out of the same prophets that Christ was of the seed of Dauid after the flesh Moreouer he preached vnto them that Christ was with our fathers in the tents in the Desert and that he led them into the Land of promise by the hand of Iosua And Paul also testifieth in the same place that Christ was the chiefe of priests and that hee entred into a new tent which is the Sanctum sanctorum The holy of holies and that with the sacrifice of his bodie and bloud hee abolished the bloud of goates and bulles whereby none that killeth them shall bee iustified and so hee spake sundry waies to the Iewes and also suffering himselfe to bee worshipped of his people by many ceremonies in a holy and vncorrupted faith Moreouer those children with vs bee accounted halfe Christians which here I vnderstand in the Romane Church bee called Paganes who because they die without baptisme ought to bee called halfe Christians because they be children of the sanctified bloud of parents baptised and of the holy Ghost and of the bloud of our Lord Iesus Christ by which three Testimonies all Christians bee so reputed because there bee three things which giue testimony in earth the spirite water and bloud as Saint Iohn witnesseth in his first canonicall Epistle the Gospell also saith a good tree bringeth forth good fruite and an euill tree bringeth forth euill fruite and therefore the children of Christians are not like vnto the children of the Gentiles and of the Iewes and of the Moores which bee withered trees without any fruit but the Christians bee elected in their mothers wombes as holy Ieremias the prophet and Saint Iohn Baptist were Furthermore the children of Christian women are elected and consecrated by the communication and imparting of the body bloud of our Lord Iesus Christ for when women great with child do take the most blessed body of our Lord and Sauiour Iesus Christ the infant in the wombe receiuing nutriment is thereby sanctified for euen as the child in the mothers wombe conceiueth either sorrow or ioy according as the mother is affected so also is it nourished by the mothers norishment and as our Lord saith in his holy Ghospell if any one eate my body and drinke my bloud hee shall not tast of eternall death and againe if any one eate of my body and drinke my bloud hee shall remaine with mee and Paul the teacher of the Gentiles saith the vnbeleeuing husband is iustified by the beleeuing wife the vnbeleeuing wife is sanctified by the beleeuing husband otherwise your children should be vncleane but now they bee sanctified which if it bee so that the children of an vnbeleeuing mother bee sanctified by the saithfulnesse of the father then be they much more holy that bee borne of faithfull fathers and mothers for which cause it is farre more holy to call children before they bee christned halfe Christians then Pagans and the Apostles also haue said in their bookes of councels that al which beleeue and be not baptised may iustly bee termed halfe Christians who also say in the said bookes if Iew Moore or Gentile will receiue the faith hee is
after that if an Infidell call you to supper and that you will goe eate of all things which be set before you making no question for conscience sake and againe if any one shall say this is sacrificed to Idols eate not of it because of him that shewed you and for conscience sake c. All these things Paul speaketh to please those which were not yet confirmed in the faith because there arose many disputations and contentions betwixt those and the Iewes for the appeasing whereof he did more easily yeeld vnto them and conforme himselfe vnto their will which were not throughly confirmed in the faith And this hee did not that he would breake the law but that by gratifying others in releasing them from ceremonies hee might thereby winne them to the faith The same Apostle saith Let not him that eateth despice him that eateth not let not him that eateth not condemne him that eateth because hee which eateth eateth to the Lord and hee which eateth not eateth not to the Lord wherefore it is very vnworthily done to reprehend strangers that bee Christians so sharply and bitterly as I haue beene oftentimes reprehended my selfe both for this matter and for other things which belonged not to the true faith but it shal be better and more standing with wisdome to sustaine such Christians whether they bee Greekes Americans or Aethiopians or of any other of the seuen Christian Churches in charity and imbracings of Christ and to suffer them to liue and be conuersant amongst other Christian brothers without contumelies or reproches for we bee al the sons of baptisme and ioyne together in opinion concerning the true faith and there is no cause why wee should contend so bitterly touching ceremonies but that each one should obserue his owne ceremonies without the hatred rayling or inueighing of other neither is he that hath trauelled into other nations and obserueth his owne country ceremonies therefore to be excluded from the society of the Church Moreouer that which we haue in the Acts of the Apostles to wit how Peter saw Heauen opened a certaine vessel descending like vnto a great sheet bound or closed vp at the foure corners wherein were all kind of foure footed beasts and serpents of the earth and foules of the aire and a voice said vnto Peter arise Peter kil and eate to whom Peter said God forbid Lord for I did neuer eate of any thing commune or vncleane and the voice replied vnto him againe saying that which God hath made cleane doe not thou cal commune or vncleane which words being repeated three times the vessel was againe taken vp into Heauen which done the spirit sent him into Caesaria vnto Cornelius a deu out man and one that feared God with whom when Peter spake the holy Ghost fell vpon all those which heard the word of God and when they had receiued the holy Ghost Peter commanded that all Cornelius houshold should be baptised But when the other Apostles and brethren which were in Iudea heard that Cornelius was baptised they were displeased at Peter that hee had giuen Baptisme and the word of God to the Gentiles saying why wentest thou to men that be not circumcised and didst eate with them but when Peter had declared vnto them the whole vision they were pacified and gaue thankes vnto God saying And therefore hath hee giuen repentance vnto the Gentiles for their saluation And they remembred the word of the Lord which hee spake when he ascended vp into heauen Go throughout all the world and preach the Gospell vnto all creatures he that beleeueth and is baptized shall be saued but hee which beleeueth not shall be damned Then the Apostles began to preach the Gospel through out all the world vnto euery creature in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost and the sound of them went throughout all the world And this vision wherein both cleane and vncleane things did appeare we in Aethiopia expound thus That by the cleane beasts was meant the people of Israel and by the vncleane beasts the people of the Gentiles And for this cause be the Gentiles called vncleane for that they bee worshippers of Idols and willingly do the workes of the diuel which be vncleane and whereas the voyce sayd vnto Peter Kill that we interpret in this manner Peter baptize and when it is said Peter eate that is interpreted as if he had sayd Teach and preach the lawe of our Lord Iesus Christ to the people of Israell and to the Gentiles Moreouer it is most certaine that it cannot bee found in any place of the Scriptures that either Peter or the other Apostles did kill or eate any vncleane beast after this vision And also we must vnderstand when the Scripture speaketh of bread he meaneth not meate or corporal nourishment therby but the explication and exposition of Christ his doctrine and of the Scriptures And surely it were well done for all teachers and preachers of this sheet which was shewed vnto Peter to teach high and great matters and not pettie or light things and such as do seeme little to appertaine vnto saluation nor thereby cunningly to hunt after this document as though it should be conuenient or lawfull for vs to eate vncleane things seeing no such thing can bee gathered out of the Scriptures for what is the cause that the Apostles in their bookes of Councels haue taught vs not to eate beasts that be strangled suffocated or killed ' of other beasts or bloud because the Lord loueth cleannes and sobriety and hateth gluttony and vncleannesse And our Lord also greatly loueth those that abstaine from flesh but much more those that fast with bread and water and herbes as Iohn Baptist the Eremite did beyond Iordane who did euer eat herbes and S. Paul the Eremite who remained in the wildernesse foure score yeares euer fasting and S. Anthonie and Saint Macarius and many other their spirituall children which did neuer tast flesh Therefore my brethren we ought not to despise and inueigh against our neighbors because Iames saith Hee which detracteth his brother or condemneth his brother detracteth the law and condemneth the law Paul also teacheth That it were better for euery one to liue contented with their owne traditions then to dispute with his Christian brother of the law and againe Not to know more than is behoofull but to be wise vnto sobrietie and vnto euery one as God hath diuided the measure of faith wherfore it is vndecent to dispute with our brethren of the law or of the difference of meates because the meate doth not commend vs to God especially seeing Paul the Apostle saith We shall neither abound if we do eate nor want if we do not eat And therfore let vs seek those things which be aboue and the celestiall food and leaue off these vaine disputations Al these things which I haue written concerning Traditions I haue not done to breed disputation but that as
much as in me lyeth I may defend and protect my country-folkes against the bitter taunts and reprehensions of many who setting aside all reuerence will not stick to defame reuile that most potent Prince precious Iohn and vs his subiects with slanders and reproches calling vs Iewes and Mahometans because we obserue Circumcision and keepe holy the Sabbath day like vnto the Iewes and also for that like the Mahometans wee fast vntill the Sunne going downe which they alledge is vnfit for a Christian man to do and this they obiect against vs most bitterly that we allow and hold it as lawfull for Priests to marry as for lay people this also they omit not to speake against vs and that most nippingly for that we as it were distrusting in our first Baptisme be re-baptized once euery yeare that women be circumcised as well as men which custome was neuer vsed amongst the Iewes Furthermore because we hold that a difference of meats is most religiously to be obserued and last of all because we call those children halfe Christians which before Baptisme be wont to be called Pagans to which slanders and misreports I am inforced to say thus much that I may purge our people from such reproches and calumnies that I may make the Doctors of the holy Romane church more affable vnto vs by whom how holily I know not I haue bin forbidden to receiue the body of our Lord euer since I came into Portugall which is the space of 7. yeares and that which I speake with griefe and teares I am reputed amongst the Christian brethren as an Ethnicke and one accursed which he that quickeneth and refresheth all things may see and discerne to whose Iudgement I commit all these matters And I am not sent from my most mightie Lord the Emperour of Aethiopia vnto the Bishop of Rome and vnto Iohn the most renowned king of Portugall to mooue disputations and contentions But to begin friendship and felowship and not either to increase or diminish humane traditions but that I should inquire and diligently vnderstand touching the Heresies of Arrius Prince of Heretickes whether the Christians of Europe would meete with vs to ouerthrow the opinions of this man for the destroying of whose errors there was a Councell assembled together at Nicea vnder Pope Iulius consisting of three hundred and eighteene Bishops and withall that I might know whether that be obserued among the Christians of Europe which the Apostles teach in their bookes of Synods that is That a Councell should be celebrated in the church of Christ twise euery yeare to dispute of matters of faith the first of which Councels by the Apostles desire should be assembled at the feast of Penticost the other the tenth of October as also to vnderstand how we did agree together touching the errors of Macedonius for which cause there was a Councel of an hundred and fifty bishops assembled together at Constantinople vnder Pope Damasus and likewise of the errors of Nestorius for whome there was a Councell of two hundred Bishops assembled together in Ephesus vnder Pope Celestine Lastly that I might also know of the fourth Chalcedonian councel wherein for the errors of Eutiches were assembled 632. bishops at which time S. Leo was bishop of Rome from which Councell after many disputations and nothing concluded for the peace of the church the matter beeing left as it was they all departed home euery one remaining in his owne opinion The bookes of which Councels and of others which were celebrated afterwards our most mightie Lord the Emperour of Aethiopia hath in his keeping and of this cockle which the enemy of truth the diuel hath sowne amongst Christians my Lord is much grieued and all his subiects which beleeue in Christ Our countri-men euen from the beginning of the primitiue Church haue acknowledged the bishop of Rome to be the chiefe Bishop whome at this day wee obey as the Vicar of Christ In whose court we would often bee but that the iourney is ouer long and many kingdomes of the Mahometanes betwixt vs that may hinder our passage so as though you should enter into all those great dangers yet you can effect nothing although that most wise and inuincible King Emanuel of happie memorie who was the first that by his nauigations not without Gods celestiall assistance made passage into East India gaue great hope that it might afterwards be done more commodiously for he hauing ouercome the Ocean with his nauie brought the red sea into his subiection being no whit deterred with the greatnesse of the coast so as hee might increase the faith of Christ and as it were make a way open to make vse of our friendship And seeing that is now done and that each nation may receiue ayde from the other wee hope that in short time by the Portugals forces and our owne all the Mahometans and other vnbeleeuing Ethnickes shall be driuen and expelled from the whole Erithraean sea and from all Arabia Persis and India In like manner we trust by the power of Iesus Christ that it will come to passe that peace beeing established amongst all the Christians of Europe the enemies of the crosse shall bee expelled also from the mediterranean places Pontus and other Prouinces that according to the words of Christ There may be vpon earth one lawe one fold and one shepheard Of which thing we haue two Oracles or predictions one out of the Prophecy of S. Ficator the other of S. Synoda the Eremit who was borne in the vttermost rock of Egypt neither of which two differeth from other And since the time that my most mighty Lord receiued the ambassadors of the most famous king Emanuel the truth of these oracles doth seeme to hasten to an end for truly our Prince thinks of nothing more than of that meditating also both by his councell forces how he may root out all Mahometans from the face of the earth For these causes and for others which I haue layd open before the most famous King Iohn the sonne of Emanuel was I sent hither by my most mightie Lord as an Ambassadour and not for friuolous and vaine disputations And I pray with an vnfained heart that the great and mighty God may bring the decrees and indeauours of our Prince for which I was sent to a happie end and to his glorie Amen Hauing gone thus far I will now briefly expound somthing by the way of the state of our Patriarke and Emperour And first you must vnderstand that by a sollemne custome our Patriarke is created by the voyces of our Monkes of Hierusalem which remaine there about the sepulcher of our Lord his election creation is in this maner The Patriarke being dead our Emperour Prester Iohn â—endeth foorthwith a speedie messenger vnto Hierusalem vnto the Monkes there as is sayd who receiuing the message and the gifts which our Lord the Emperour sendeth vnto the holy Sepulcher they presenrly and with all possible expedition
coueteousnes and intollerable impiety and from Godly brests to be expelled both by weapons writings and all our forces and without doubt it had beene quenched and buried by this time if this good man were restored to his former dignity for he desireth nothing more nor meditateth of any thing more earnestly than that this people may be reduced to the faith of Christ nor doth he lament for any thing more than that by his means as he euer desired in his hart these miserable beasts as yet by reason of their impious religion be not made the flocke of Christ by imbracing the Christian faith nether doth he complaine so much for the losse of his Archbishoppricke nor that he was thrust from his goods left him by his ancestors as for that hee wanteth strength aid and substance where-with to cure this plague of Lappia to bring them vnder the yoke of Christ and to vnite them to the Roman Church And this hee often-times confirmed by his letters sent me wherewith my selfe not fully contented made earnest mention of this businesse in the end of that first Embassage of precious Ioan which I dedicated to the same Iohn Magnus Gothus neither did I then satisfie my selfe in this businesse but by my letters dealt with Erasmus Rothrodamus that hee would commit the cause of this matter to writing Afterwards liuing in his company for I was with him at Friburg Brisgoia the space of 5 months I had speaches with him of that busines by which meanes he was induced and appoynted to frame a iust volume of this matter but being preuented by death the substance of the busines he had vndertakē was vtterly dissolued notwithstanding vpon his death he concealed not the wicked Ecclesiastical impiety which truely he did that he might accuse al Christians to whome God hath graunted power and learning and cry for reuengement against them in the last iudgment before Christ the iust Iudge of all men the Christian Princes Monarches may now see what account and reckoning of so many lost soules they can make at the last day before the Tribunall seate of Christ where is no place for pardon or grace and where no excuse nor faire speaches will be receiued And you most reuerent Bishop are only he that can cure this infirmity you only are hee that can shew vnto this people the waies of the Lord and direct them that they may walke rightly in the same you onely are able to redeeme them from the lowest hell by you little children may come vnto Christ and by the power of thy right hand bee deliuered from the bondage and deceits of the Diuell and inioy the plentifull redemption of Christ both in this world and in an other Behold what reward thou shalt obtaine if by your labour that great haruest may be carried into Christs barne and no doubt you will carry it in if once you begin There be at this day with Gostavus King of Suetia and Gothia some great peeres states that be fallen from the Romaine Church there be some in those Kingdomes also that do altogether dissent and disagree from the right Diameter and true course of religion vnto these by your dignity pastoral function may you direct your letters requiring them by the woundes of our Sauiour Christ whome all men though neuer so farre differring from the Roman Church doe acknowledge to bee Gods sonne and our Sauiour that they will permit and suffer this East and West Lappia with those large prouinces of Finmarchia Scrifinia and Biarmia the greatest part where of knoweth not Christ to come and imbrace the sweet yoke of Christ and that they wil extort no more from them then other Christian Princes are accustomed to take from their subiects either by course of law or by voluntary extorsions And it were good not onely to send letters but learned men also and men of approoued sanctity and holynesse of life that these Prouinces may be annexed to the Romaine Church by the faith of Christ whom together with the people of Aethiopia being reduced to the right law of Christ although the people be offended yet the Lord shall raigne sitting vpon the Cherubins and although the earth be mooued it shall reioyce and all Ilands shall bee ioyfull Farewell right reuerend and high Bishop in Christ Iesus Amen From Louaine in the Calends of September in the yeere of our Lord God 1540. Of the situation of Lappia and of the inhabitants of that country by the same DAMIANVS A GOES THE country of Lappia through which runneth the Botnian sea is deuided into East and West Lappia the vtmost part of which sea is Tornia vpon the East part it ioyneth vnto the white lake towards the North it compasseth diuers Prouinces and so extendeth it selfe to a place vnknowne and inclining Westwards towards Island it ioyneth vnto part of Noruegia vpon the South it is compassed about with the other part of Noruegia with Suetia Finland and both the Botnias East Lappia hath in it a church dedicated to Saint Andrew in the eighty fourth degree of the eleuation of the pole which is adorned and beautified with a magnificent and sumptuous Sepulcher and with men skilfull and learned in the holy Scriptures ' This Church is vnder the Archbishop of Vpsall within whose Diocesse it is and yet notwithstanding the neighbors round about that church whether it be by the carelesnesse negligence or through the couetousnesse of the Prelates and great men do not acknowledge Christ as is reported Lappia in the Latine toung is interpreted a foolish and sottish or hartlesse nation which name as I thinke is imposed vpon them for that the soile by the continuall and binding cold being as it were dull is lesse apt eyther to receiue or bring forth fruites the naturall borne people of Lappia be very strong set and of a middle stature they be mauelous nimble and dexterious in vsing their bowes and darts which practise of throwing the dart they exercise euen from their infancy in such sort that if a boy shoote at a marke and misse it he hath no meate giuen him vntill he haue hit the marke insteed of other garments they weare skins finely sowed together where-with they defend them-selues from the cold which they be so accustomed to indure that if need bee they will ouer-come it without any defence at all of those skinnes their dwellings are in tents for of houses they haue no vse because they often remooue out of one place into another other course of life haue they none then hunting fishing and fowling wherein they bee maruellous expert and skilfull for in that Prouince is great aboundance of those things They vse no tillage and they haue ships made without any Iron nailes or pins which being charged and burdened with fishes dried in the ayre and with pelts or skinnes they transport them to their neighbours and bordering people and get for them in exchange victuals and money in dooing whereof they vse
chap. 19 Of Tuscia and of the ancient maners of the Tuscans ch 20 Of Galalia in Europe and of the old customes of that country chap. 21 Of Gallia and of the ancient customes and later â—â—nners of the Frenchmen chap. 22 Of Spaine and of the manners of the Spaniards chap. 28 Of Lusitania and of the manners of the Portugals chap. 24 Of England Scotland and Ireland and of many other Ilands and of the maners customes of the Inhabitants chap. 25 Of the I le of Taprohane and the customes of that people cha 26 FINIS Lib. 3. NIcholas Damascen of the manners and customes of sundry nations fol 472 Certaine things of America or Brasill gathered out of the writings of Iohannes Lerius fol. 483 The faith religion and manners of the Aethiopians and the deploration of the people of Lappia compiled by Damianus a Goes a Knight of Portugall wherein is contained A letter of Damianus a Goes a Knight of Portugall to Pope Paul the third fol. 503 A letter of Helena the grandmother of Prestor Iohn Emperor of Aethiopia to Emanuell King of Portugall written in the yeare 1509. fol. 512 The letters of the most renowned Dauid Emperor of Aethiopia to Emanuell King of Portugall written in the yeare 1521. Paulus Iouius beeing Interpretor fol. 517 The letters of the same Dauid Emperor of Aethiopia to Iohn the third of that name King of Portugall in the yeare 1524. fol. 526 The letters of the same Emperor to the Pope of Rome in the same yeare 1524. the same Paulus Iouius beeing Interpretor fol. 533 Other letters from the said Emperor to the Pope the same yeare fol. 540 The faith and religion that the Aethiopians hold and obserue fol. 546 The deplâ—ration of Lappia f. 581 The siâ—uation of Lapp a. fol. 585 A short discourse of the Aethiopians taken out of Scaligers seuenth booke De emendatione temporum fol. 588 FINIS The cause why he writ this booke The cause why people inhabited neere together The earth recouered from hir first rudenes and barren nesse and made fertile The earth compared to Paradise The true God forgotten Plurality of gods which god was worshipped in each seueral country Jesus Christ reduced the world from error The large Countries of the Mahometans The diuersitie of worshipinge is the seminarie of distention The Greeke Philosophers first glory The law-giuers first authority The Caldeanes the wisest men in the world VVhy the world is so called The originall and appellation of Adam Paradice The fertilnesse of the earth why iâ— was restrained Cain the first begotten of Adam The generall deluge and how long it continued Noah sent his children and kindred to inhabite other countries The cause of the variety of toungs and manners The exile of Cham. Men liued like beasts The Sunne and Moone worshipped The Moone called Isis the Sunne Osyris the Ayre Iupiter the Fyre Vulcan the Sky Pallas and the Earth Ceres Arabia the mother of many Colonies The issue of Sem and Japhet VVhy the worship of the true God remained with so few The two-fold opinion of the Philosophers concerning the world Light things tend vpwards and heauie things downewards The naturall creation of liuing creatures The barbarous manner of liuing of the first people The diuersitie of toungs how it came Men made wiser by danger Necessitie the the mistresse of labours The first men were the Aethiopians The earth deuided into three parts Affrick deuided from Asia Europ deuided from Affricke Asia deuided from Europe The scituation and qualitie of Affricke The incommodities of Affrick Affrick inhabited by home-bred people and strangers The people of Affrick made more ciuill by Hercules The qualitie of the soyle of Affrick The fruitfulnesse of the ground The wonders of Affrick VVhat kind of beasts are bred in Affrick Two Aethiopias One Aethiopia is now called India The qualitie of Aethiopia The Aethiopians were the first people The gods first worshipped in in Aethiopia VVhat letters the Aethiopians vsed The election of their Kings The obedience of the Ethiopians The apparell of the Ethiopians Their exercise Meroê was once the Kings seate Gold accounted baser then brasse The Aethiopian armor The religion of the Ethiopians The authority of the Priests Their gods The new customes of the Aethiopians or Indians Prestor Iohn King of that Aethiopia which is in Asia Their Priests marry once and no more Saint Thomas held in great reuerence The power of the Ethiopian Kings VVhat weapons be vsed in their wars The punishment for adultery Husbands assigne dowers for their wiues Mahomet worshipped in Libia The denomination and description of Aegipt The Aegiptians had their beginning from the Aethiopians The Aegiptian women do the offices of men and men the offices of women Their manner of funerals Circumcision vsed by the Egiptians The cleannesse of the Priests Beanes an vncleane graine with the Egiptians The Aegiptians wine The Aegiptians salutations VVollen garments contemned Many ceremonies vsed in Christian religion borrowed from the Egiptians VVhat seruants attended vpon their Kings The Priests prasied the good Kings dispraised the bad The Egyptians simple diet The Kings safety much regarded How the Egyptians be wayle their dead Kings that were good How their Kings be buried The auncient gouernment of the Egiptians Their common-wealth consisteth of three sorts of people husbandmen shepheards and labourers How their iudgments were giuen The chiefe Iudge weareth the signe of Truth about his neck The lawes of the Egiptians against periurd persons Against salse accusers A law against parents that murdered their children A law against Pariacides Offenders in the warres punished with shame A law against adultery and fornication Bocchoris their law maker Mens bodiesnot liable to their debts The law against theeues Their marriaages The small cost bestowed in bringing vpchildren Musick disalowd of the Egiptians How the Egiptians cure the diseased The Aegiptians worship diuers sorts of creatures The strange kind of burials amongst the Egiptians The bodies of dead parents giuen to their creditors The Adrimachidae The Nasamons The Masagetae The Nasomans and their marriages How the prophesy The Garamantes The Macae The Gnidanes The Machlyes and Auses The Atlantes The Pastoritij The Maxes The zabices The zigantes All these people of Libia be Sauadge people The Trogloditae The Rhisophagi The Ilophagi and Sparmatophagi The Cyneci The Acridophagi The Cinnamini The Ichthiophagi Men free from all passions of the minde Patient people The Amazons most warlike women Asia why so called Arabia deuided into three parts The Arabians lye with their owne mothers and daughters No horses in Arabia The Garraei The Nabathaei Panchaia aboundeth with Frankinsence Iupiter was banished into Panchaia The great Temple in Panchaia Hony wine made of dates The Assyrians botes Their apparell Virgins that be mariageable be sold to their husbands A law excluding Phisitions and how they cured the sick The officers amongst the Assyrians The limmits of Palestine Iudaea or Palestine called also Canaan Canaan promised to
Synai where the Lord spake vnto Moyses saying Moyses Moyses put off thy shooes from thy feet because the ground wherevpon thou standest is holy ground and this Mount Synai is the mother of our Churches from whom they tooke their beginning as the Apostles did from the prophets and the New Testament from the Old Furthermore it is not lawfull for Lay-men or Clergy or for any other person of what condition soeuer hee bee after hee hath receiued the blessed Sacrament of the Altar to spit or cast from the morning till the sunne setting and if any doe spit hee is seuerely punished Also in memory of Christs Baptisme wee be all euery yeere baptised vpon the feast day of the Epiphanie of our Lord and this we doe not that we beleeue that it pertaineth to our saluation but for the laude praise and glory of our Sauiour neither doe wee celebrate any other feast more solemly or bountifully with shewes plaies and ceremonies then wee doe this because vpon this day the holy Trinity did first manifestly appeare when our Lord Iesus Christ was baptised in the riuer of Iordan when the holy Ghost descended vpon his head in forme of a Doue and a voice proclayming from Heauen This is my beloued Sonne in whom I am well pleased which holy Ghost appearing in forme of a white Doue appeared in shew and figure of the Father and Sonne in one Diuinity In like manner Christ was seene of the holy Prophets in many similitudes formes and likenesses first in forme of a white Ram for the preseruation of Isaack the Sonne of Abraham And in like manner hee named Iacob Israel and Iacob Iudas the Lions whelpe to whom hee gaue power ouer his other brethren saying thou didest rise vp my sonne to the prey and when thou didest rest thou didest lie still like a Lion and Lionesse who shall raise him vp Hee also manifested himselfe to Moyses in Mount Synai in forme of a flame of fire hee shewed himselfe to the holy Prophet Daniel in similitude of a Rocke hee appeared also to Ezechiell the Sonne of Man and to Isaias in likenesse of an infant he declared himselfe to King Dauid and to Gedeon like a frost vpon a fleese of wool and besides these similitudes recited hee was seene of his holy Prophets in many other formes and notwithstanding hee was seene in so many sundrie formes yet hee alwaies represented the similitude of the Father and of the holy Ghost And when GOD created the world hee said Let vs make man according to our similitude and likenesse and hee made Adam after his owne similitude and likenesse wherfore wee say that the Father Sonne and holy Ghost are three countenances in one similitude and diuinity Wee haue receiued circumcision euer from the time of Queene Saba which wee obserue vntill this day The proper name of this Queene Saba was Maqueda who was a worshipper of Idoles after the manner of her auncestors into whose eares when the fame of the wisdome of Solomon was entred shee sent a certaine wise man vnto Ierusalem to finde out the truth and to certifie her of the wisdome of that King who beeing returned and shewing the truth vnto her shee sodainely prouided her selfe to take her iourney towardes Ierusalem and when shee was thither come besides many other things which King Solomon taught her shee learned the law and the prophets and returning into her country hauing obtained libertie to depart in her iourney shee brought forth a sonne which was gotten by a King whom she called Meilech and him the Queene brought vp with her selfe in Aethiopia vntill hee was 20. yeers of age and then sent him back vnto Solomon his father that of him he might learne vnderstanding and wisdom desiting by her letters that he would consecrate and make his Sonne Meilech King of Aethiopi a before the Arke of the couenant of the will or testament of the Lord and that from thence-forth women should gouerne no more in Aethiopia as then the custome was but that the male children should lineally succeed in the Kingdome When Meilech came to Ierusalem he easily obtained of his father his mothers requests for Meilech was called Dauid whom when he was sufficiently instructed in the law in other disciplines his father Solomon determined to send him back to his mother decked in gallāt attire and furniture fit for a King and the more to shew his bounty he gaue vnto him noble followers companions and the sonnes of great men who should serue him as their King Moreouer he decreed to send with him Azarias the high priest the sonne of Zadoch the high priest likewise which when Azarias vnderstood he exhorted Dauid that he would intreat liberty of his father for him to sacrifice for good successe in their iourney before the Arke of the couenant of the Lord which beeing obtained of Solomon Azarias as sodainely and as secretly as he could caused tables to be hewen and squared like vnto the tables of the Testament of the Lord and when they were perfected he went to sacrifice and in the time of sacrifice hee priuily and very cunningly stole the true tables of the couenant of the Lord from the Arke and set in there places the counterfeit tables which hee brought with him without the priuity of any man butonly God and himself This declaration wee Aethiopians receiue as most holy and most approued as by the History of the same King Dauid which is most pleasant to read doth appeare the volume of which History is full as thicke as all Saint Paules Epistles When Dauid was come into the borders of Aethiopia Azarias entred into his tent disclosed and reuealed vnto him that which thetherto hee had kept secret to himself that is to say that he had the Tables of the couenāt of the Lord which whē Dauid vnderstood he ran hastily to the tent where Azarias had the tables of the couenāt of the Lord and there in imitation of King Dauid his grand-father he began to daunce for exceeding ioy before the Arke wherein the tables were which when the people saw and vnderstanding the matter they all of them in like manner exulted with mirth and great ioy And then Dauid passing through much part of Aethiopia came lastly to his mother who forth-with yeelded vp into his hands the gouernment of all the prouinces laying vpon his shoulders the whole care of the Kingdome And from that time euen vntill this day being almost the space of two thousand and sixe hundred yeeres the Kingdome of Aethiopia hath lineally descended from male heire to male heire and since that time wee obserue the law of the Lord and circumcision as before is said and likewise since that time hitherto the offices which Solomon ordained for his sonne Dauid for the guiding of his Court are kept and obserued in the same order and families as they were at that time neither hath the Emperor himselfe power to assigne others of other kinreds to