King of Macedonia had a minion called Cratenas whom hee loved most entirely but he againe requited him not with love but with hatred and stretched all his wits to install himselfe in his kingdome by deposing and murthering him which though he accomplished yet his deserts were cut short by the vengeance of God for he continued not many dayes in his royalty but he was served with the same sauce that he had made Archelaus before him to taste of even betraied and murthered as he well deserved Lodovicus Sfortia to the end to invest himselfe with the Dukedome of Millain spared not to shed the innocent bloud of his two Nephewes the sonnes of Galenchus together with their tutors and one Francis Calaber a worthy and excellent man but the Lord so disposed of his purposes that he in stead of obtaining the kingdome was taken prisoner by the King of France so that neither he nor any of his off spring injoyed that which he so much affected When Numerianus was to succeed â—arus his father in the Empire Arrius Axer his father in law to the end to translate the Empire unto himselfe entered a conspiracy and slew his sonne in law that nothing mistrusted his disloyalty but the Pretorian army understanding the matter discharged Arrius and elected Dioclesian in his roome who laying hold upon his competitour laied an action of treason to his charge and put him to death in the sight of the multitude Theodoricke and Fredericke conspired against their owne brother Thurismund King of the Visigothes to the intent to succeed him in his Kingdome And albeit that nature reclaymed them from the act yet they slew him without all compassion But after thirteene yeres reigne the same Theodericke was requited by his other brethren with the same measure that he before meted to his brother Thurismund And so though vengeance slept a while yet at length it wakened Aelias Antonius Gordianus Emperour of Rome though so excellent a young Prince that he deserved to be called the Love and Iewell of the World yet was he slaine by one promoted by himselfe to high honour called Philip Arabs when he was but two and twenty yeres old after whose decease this Philip got himselfe elected Emperour by the Band and confirmed by the Senate All which notwithstanding after five yeres Decius rebelled and his owne souldiers conspired against him so that both he at Verona and his sonne at Rome were slaine by them about one time After the death of Constantine the Great his three sonnes dividing the Empire betwixt them succeeded their father Constantine the eldest had for his share Spaine France the Alpes and England Constance the second held Italy Africa Graecia and Illyricum Constantine the younger was King and Emperour of the East But ambition suffered them not to enjoy quietly these their possessions for when the eldest being more proud and seditious than the other not content with his alotted portion made warre upon his brother Constance his Provinces and strove to enter Italy he was slaine in a battell by Aquileia when he was but five and twenty yeares old by which meanes all the provinces which were his fell to Constance and therewithall such a drowsinesse and Epicurisme for want of a stirrer up after his brothers death that he fell into the gout and neglected the governement of the Empire Wherefore in Aâ—sourge and in Rhetia they created a new Emperour one Magnentius whose life before time Constance had saved from the souldiers and therefore his treachery was the greater This Magnentius deprived and slew Constance but was overcome by Constantine the third brother in Illyricum yet in such sort that the conqueror could not greatly brag for he lost an infinit company of his men and yet missed of his chiefe purpose the taking of Magnentius for he escaped to Lyons and there massacring all that he mistrusted at last growing I suppose in suspition with his owne heart slew himselfe also and so his traiterous ingratefull and ambitious murther was revenged with his owne hands Victericus betrayed Lnyba king of Spaine and succeeded in his place seven yeares after another traitour slew him and succeeded also in his place Mauritius the Emperor was murthered by Phocas together with his wife and five of his children he seating himselfe Emperour in his roome Howbeit traitors and murtherers can never come to happy ends for as he had slaine Mauritius so Priscus Heraclianus and Phorius three of his chiefest captaines conspiring against him with three severall armies gave him such an alarme at once at his owne doores that they soone quailed his courage and after much mangling of his body cut him shorter by the head and the kingdome at one blow In the time of Edward the second and Edward the third in England one Sir Roger Mortimer committed many villanous outrages in shedding much bloud and at last King Edward himselfe lying at Barkley castle to the end that he might as it was supposed enjoy Isabel his wife with whom he had very suspitious familiarity After this he unjustly accused Edmund Earle of Kent of treason and caused him to bee put to death therefore and lastly he conspired against King Edward the third as it was suspected for which cause he was worthily and deservedly beheaded Among this ranke of murtherers of Kings we may fitly place also Richard the third usurper of the Crowne of England and divers others which he used as instruments to bring his detestable purpose to effect as namely Sir Iames Tirrèl Knight a man for natures gifts worthy to have served a much better Prince than this Richard if he had well served God and beene endued with as much truth and honesty as he had strength and wit also Miles Forest and Iohn Dighton two villaines fleshed in murthers But to come to the fact it was on this sort When Richard the usurper had enjoyned Robert Brackenbury to this piece of service of murthering the young King Edward the fifth his Nephew in the Tower with his brother the Duke of Yorke and saw it refused by him he committed the charge of the murther to Sir Iames Tirrel who hasting to the Tower by the Kings Commission received the keyes into his owne hands and by the helpe of those two butchers Dighton and Forest smothered the two Princes in their bed and buried them at the staires feet which being done Sir Iames rode back to king Richard who gave him great thankes and as some say made him knight for his labour All which things on every part well pondered it appeareth that God never gave the world a notabler example both of the unconstancy of worldly wâ—ale and also of the wretched end which ensueth such despightfull cruelty for first to begin with the ministers Miles Forest rotted away peecemeale at Saint Martins Sir Iames Tirrel died at the Tower hill beheaded for treason King Kichard himselfe as it is declared elsewhere was slaine
King of England sonne of Geffrey Plantagenet and Maud the Empresse after he had raigned twenty yeares was content to admit his young sonne Henry married to Margaret the French Kings daughter into participation of his Crowne but he like an unnaturall son to requite his fathers love sought to dispossesse him of the whole for by inciting the King of France and certaine other Nobles hee tooke armes and raised warre against his owne naturall father betwixt whom divers strong battels being fought as well in England by the Deputies and friends of both parties as also in Normandy Poytou Guian and Britain the victory alwayes inclined to the father so that the rebellious son with his allies were constrained to bend to his fathers will and to desire peace which he gently granted and forgave his offence Howbeit the Lord for his disobedience did not so lightly pardon him but because his hasty mind could not tarry for the Crowne till his fathers death therefore the Lord cut him short of it altogether causing him to die six yeares before his father being yet but young and like to live long Lothair King of Soissons in France committed the rule of the province of Guian to his eldest son Cramiris who when contrary to the mind of his father he oppressed the people with exactions and was reclaimed home he like an ungratious and impious son fled to his uncle Childebert and provoked him towarre upon his owne father wherein he himselfe was by the just vengeance of God taken and burned with his wife and children to death Furthermore it is not doubtlesse but to a very good end enacted in the law of God That he which curseth his father or mother should die the death and that rebellious children and such as be incorrigible should at the instance and pursuit of their owne parents by order of law be stoned to death As children by all these examples ought not onely to learne to feare to displease and revile their parents but also to feare and reverence them lest that by disobedience they kindle the fire of Gods wrath against them so likewise on the other side parents are here advertised to have great care in bringing up and instructing their children in the feare of God and obedience to his will lest for want of instruction and correction on their part they themselves incurre a punishment of their carelesse negligence in the person of their children And this is proved by experience of the men of Bethel of whose children two and forty were torne in pieces by Beares for that they had been so evill taught as to mocke the holy Prophet Elizeus in calling him bald-pate Heli likewise the high priest was culpable of this fault for having two wicked and perverse sonnes whom no feare of God could restraine being discontent with that honourable portion of the sacrifices allotted them by God like famished and unsatiable wretches fell to share out more than was their due and by force to raven all that which by faire meanes they could not get and that which is worse to pollute the holy Tabernacle of God with their filthy whoredomes in such sort that the Religion of God grew in disgrace through their prophane dealings And albeit it may seem that their father did his duty in some sort when he admonished and reproved them yet it is manifest by the reprehension of the man of God that he did no part of that at all or if he did yet it was in so carelesse loose and cold manner using more lenity than hee ought or lesse severity than was necessary that God turned their destructions when they were slaine at the overthrow of Israel by the Philistins to be his punishment for understanding the dolefull newes of his sonnes death and the Arkes taking at once he fell backewards from his stoole and burst his necke being old and heavy even fourescore and eighteene yeares of age not able either to help or stay himselfe David also was not free from this offence for hee so much cockered some of his children that they proved the greatest plagues and scourges unto him especially Absolon and Adonijah for the one openly rebelled against him and almost drove him out of his kingdome the other usurped the title and honour of the kingdome before his fathers death of this it is recorded That David so cockered and pampered him that he would never displease him from his youth But see how he was punished in them for this too great lenity both of them came to an untimely death and proved not onely the workers of their owne destruction but also great crosses to their father Ludovicus Vives saith That in his time a certain woman in Flanders did so much pamper and cocker up two of her sonnes even against her husbands will that she would not suffer them to want money or any thing which might furnish their roiotous life both in drinking banquetting and dicing yea she would stoale from her husband to minister unto them but as soone as her husband was dead she was justly plagued in them both for they fell from royoting to robbing which two vices are commonly linked together and for the same one of them was executed by the sword and the other by the halter she her selfe looking on as a witnesse of their destructions whereof her conscience told her that her indulgence was the chiefest cause Hither may we referre that common and vulgar story and I suppose very true which is almost in every childes mouth of him that going to the gallowes desired to speake with his mother in her care ere he dyed and when she came unto him in stead of speaking bit off her care with his teeth exclaiming upon her as the causer of his death because she did not chastise him in his youth for his faults but by her flatteries established him in vice which brought him to this wofull end and herein she was doubly punished both in her sonnes destruction and her owne infamy whereof she carried about her a continuall maâ—ke This ought to be a warning to all parents to looke better to the education of their children and to root out of them in time all evill and corrupt manners lest of small sprigs they grow to branches and of qualities to habits and so either be hardly done off or at least deprave the whole body and bring it to destruction but above all to keep them from idlenesse and vaine pleasures the discommodity and mischiefe whereof this present example will declare At a towne called Hannuel in Saxony the Devill transforming himselfe into the shape of a man exercised many jugling trickes and pretty pastime to delight young men and maids withall and indeed to draw after him daily great companies one day they followed him out of the city gates unto a hill adjoyning where he played a jugling tricke indeed with them for he carried them all away with him so that they were never
despightfull manner for the Daulphin escaping their hands by night and safegard in his castle after that he heard of the seisure of the citie found meanes to assemble certuine forces and marched to Montereaufautyon with 20000 men of purpose to be revenged on the Duke for all his brave and riotous demeanors hither under colour of parling and devising new means to pacifie these old civill troubles he enticed the Duke and being come at his very first arrivall as he was bowing his knee in reverence to him he caused him to be slaine And on this manner was the Duke of Orleance death quitted and the evill and cruelty shewed towards him returned upon the murderers owne necke for as he slew him trecherously and cowardly so was he also trecherously and cowardly slaine and justly requited with the same measure that he before had measured to another notwithstanding herein the Daulphin was not free from a grievous crime of disloyaltie and truth-breach in working his death without shame of either faith-breach or perjury and that in his owne presence whom hee had so often with protestation of assurance and safetie requested to come to him Neither did he escape unpunished for it for after his fathers decease he was in danger of losing the Crowne and all for this cause for Philip Duke of Burgundie taking his fathers revenge into his hands by his cunning devices wrought meanes to displace him from the succession of the kingdome by according a marriage betwixt the King of England and his sister to whom he in favor agreed to give his kingdome in reversion after his owne decease Now assoone as the King of England was seised upon the governement of France the Daulphin was presently summoned to the marble Table to give answere for the death of the old Duke whither when he made none appearance they presently banished him the realme and pronounced him to be unworthy to be succeeder to the noble Crowne which truely was a very grievous chastisement and such an one as brought with it a heape of many mischiefes and discomfitures which happened in the warre betwixt England and him for the recovery of his kingdome Peter sonne to Alphonsus King of Castile was a most bloudy and cruell Tyran for first he put to death his owne wife the daughter of Peter Duke of Burbon and sister to the Queene of France next hee slew the mother of his bastard brother Henrie together with many Lords and Barons of the realme for which he was hated not onely of all his subjects but also of his neighbor and adjoyning countries which hatred moved the foresaid Henrie to aspire unto the Crowne which what with the Popes avouch who legitimated him and the helpe of certaine French forces and the support of the Nobility of Castile he soone atchieved Peter thus abandoned put his safest gard in his heeles and fled to Bordeaux towards the Prince of Wales of whom he received such good entertainment that with his aid he sonne re-entred his lost dominions and by maine battell chased his bastard brother out of the confines thereof but being re-installed whilest his cruelties ceased not to multiply on every side behold Henrie with a new supply out of France began to assayle him afresh and put him once again to his shifts but all that he could doe could not shift him out of Henries hands who pursued him so hotly that with his owne hands hee soone rid him out of all troubles and afterwards peaceably enjoyed the kingdome of Castille But above all the horrible murders and massacres that ever were heard or read of in this last age of the World that bloudy massacre in France under the reigne of Charles the ninth is most famous or rather infamous wherein the noble Admirall with many of the nobility and gentrie which were Protestants were most traiterously and cruelly murdered in their chambers and beds in Paris the foure and twentieth of August in the night in this massacre were butchered in Paris that very night ten thousand Protestants and in all France for other cities followed the example of Paris thirty or as some say forty thousand I will not stand to relate the particular circumstances and manner thereof it being at large described by divers writers both in French and English only to our purpose let us consider the judgements and vengeance of Almightie God upon the chiefe practisers and plotters thereof which were these Charles the ninth then King by whose commission and commandement this massacre was undertaken his brother and successour the Duke of Aniou the Queene mother his bastard brother and the Duke of Guise yea the whole towne of Paris and generally all France was guilty thereof Now observe Gods just revenge Charles himselfe had the thred of his life cut off by the immediat hand of God by a long and lingring sickenesse and that before he was come to the full age of 24 yeres in his sicknesse bloud issued in great abundance out of many places of his body insomuch that sometimes he fell and wallowed in his owne bloud that as he had delight to shed the bloud of so many innocents so he might now at the latter end of his dayes be glutted with bloud And surely by this meanes the Lord did put him in minde of his former bloudy murders to draw him to repentance if it were possible The Duke of Anjou who succeeded this Charles in the Crowne of France and was called Henrie the third was murdered by a young Iacobine Monke called Frier Iaques Clement at the instigation of the duke de Maine and others of the league and that wherein appeareth manifestly the hand of God in the selfe same chamber at S. Cloves wherein the Councell for the great massacre had beene taken and plotted as it is constantly affirmed The Duke of Guise in the yeare 1588 the 23 of December was murdered by the kings owne appointment being sent for into the kings chamber out of the councell chamber where attended him 45 with rapiers and poniards ready prepared to receive him The Queene mother soone after the slaughter of the Duke of Guise tooke the matter so to heart that shee went to bed and dyed the first of Ianuarie after Touching all the rest that were chiefe actors in the tragidie few or none escaped the apparant vengeance of God and as for Paris and the whole realme of France they also felt the severe scourge of Gods justice partly by civile wars and bloudshed and partly by famine and other plagues so that the Lord hath plainly made knowne to the world how precious in the sight of his most Holy Majestie is the death of innocents and how impossible it is for cruell murderers to escape unpunished CHAP. X. Of divers other Murderers and their severall punishments MAximinus from a shepheard in Thracia grew to be an Emperor in Rome by these degrees his exceeding stength and swiftnesse in running commended him so to Severus then Emperour that he made
grace of Gods spirit saw his Sorbonicall errors and renounced them betaking himselfe to the profession of the purer religion and the company and acquaintance of godly men amongst whom was Bucer that excellent man who sent him also to Nurnburge to oversee the printing of a booke which he was to publish Whilest Diazius lived at this Nurnburge a city scituat upon the river Dimow his brother a lawyer and judge laterall to the Inquisition by name Alphonsus came thither and by all meanes possible endevoured to dissuade him from his religion and to reduce him againe to Popery But the good man persisted in the truth notwithstanding all his perswasions and threats wherefore the subtill fox took another course and faining himselfe to be converted also to his religion exhorted him to goe with him into Italy where he might do much good or at the least to Angust but by the counsell of Bucer and his friends he was kept back otherwise willing to follow his brother Wherefore Alphonsus departed and exhorted him to constancy and perseverance giving him also fourteene crowns to defray his charges Now the wolfe had not been three dayes absent when he hired a rakehell and common butcher and with him flew again to Nurnburge in post hast and comming to his brothers lodging delivered him a letter which whilest he read the villain his confederat cleft his head in pieces with an axe leaving him dead upon the floore and so fled with all expedition Howbeit they were apprehended yet quit by the Popes justice so holy and sacred are the fruits of his Holinesse though not by the justice of God for within a while after hee hung himselfe upon his mules necke at Trent Duke Abrogastes slew Valentinian the Emperour of the West and advanced Eugenius to the crowne of the Empire but a while after the same sword which had slain his lord and master was by his owne hands turned into his owne bowels Mempricius the sonne of Madan the fourth King of England then called Britaine after Brute had a brother called Manlius betwixt whom was great strife for the soveraigne dominion but to rid himselfe of all his trouble at once he slew his brother Manlius by treason and after continued his raigne in tyranny and all unlawfull lusts the space of twenty yeeres but although vengeance all this while winked yet it slept not for at the end of this space as he was hunting he was devoured of wilde beasts In the yeare of our Lord God 745 one Sigebert was authorised king of the Saxons in Britaine a cruell and tyrannous Prince towards his subjects and one that changed the ancient Lawes and customes of his Realme after his owne pleasure and because a certaine Nobleman somewhat sharpely advertised him of his evill conditions hee maliciously caused him to bee put to death But see how the Lord revenged this murder hee caused his Nobles to deprive him of his kingly authority and at last as a desolate and forlorne person wandring alone in a wood to be slaine of a swineheard whose master he being king had wrongfully put to death About the yeare of our Lord 793 Ethelbert king of the East Angles a learned and right godly Prince came to the court of Offa the king of Mercia perswaded by the counsell of his nobles to sue for the marriage of his daughter well accompanied like a prince with a great traine of men about him whereupon Offa's Queene conceiving a false suspition of that which was never minded That Ethelbert under the pretence of this marriage was come to worke some violence against her husband and the kingdome of Mercia so perswaded with king Offa and certaine of his Councell that night that the next day following Offa caused him to be trained into his palace alone from his company by one called Guymbertus who tooke him and bound him and after strooke off his head which forthwith he presented to the king and Queene Thus was the innocent King wrongfully murdered but not without a just revenge on Gods hand for the aforesaid Queene worker of this villany lived not three moneths after and in her death was so tormented that she bit and rent her tongue in pieces with her teeth which was the instrument to set abroach that murtherous practise Offa himselfe understanding at length the innocency of the king and the hainous cruelty of his fact gave the tenth part of his goods to the Church bestowed upon the Church of Hereford in remembrance of this Ethelbert great lands builded the Abbey of S. Albons with certaine other Monasteries beside and afterward went to Rome for his penance where hee gave to the Church of S. Peter a peny through every house in his dominion which was commonly called Romeshot or Peterpence and there at length was transformed from a king to a monke Thus God punished not only him and his wife but the whole land for this vile murder One principall cause of the conquest of this land by the Normans was a vile and horrible murder committed by one Goodwin an Earle in England upon certaine Mormans that came overwith Alfred and Edward to visit their mother Emma that had beene married to King Canutus This matter thus fell out When these two came from Normandy to England to visit their mother as I have said Earle Goodwin having a daughter called Godith whom hee thought to marry to Edward and advance him to the kingdome to bring his purpose to passe used this practise that is to perswade King Hardeknout and the Lords not to suffer those Normans to bee within the Realme for jeopardy but rather to punish them for example by which meanes hee got authority to order the matter himselfe Wherefore hee met them on Guild downe and there wretchedly murdered or rather martyred the most part of the Normans killing nine and leaving the tenth alive throughout the whole company and then tything againe the said tyth he slew every tenth knight and that by cruell torment as winding their guts out of their body after a most savage manner among the rest he put out the eyes of the elder of the two brethren Alfred and sent him to an Abbey at Elie where being fed with bread and water hee ere long ended his life Now albeit hee obtained his purpose hereby and married his daughter to Edward who was after King called Edward the Confessor yet did not Gods justice sleepe to punish this horrible murder for he himselfe died not long after suddenly having forsworne himselfe and the Normanes with William their Duke ere long came into this Iland to revenge this murder as also to claime a right of inheritance bequeathed unto him by Edward his Nephew and how hee succeeded and what misery he brought this whole Nation unto who knoweth not But heere is the justice of God As the Normans comming with a naturall English Prince were most cruelly and barbarously murdered of Englishmen so afterwards the Englishmen were slaine and
enforced to shoot and shooting God so directed his shaft that the apple was hit and the childe untoucht and yet for all this he adjudged him to perpetuall prison out of which he miraculously escaping watched the tyrans approach in so fit a place that with the shaft that should have beene the death of his sonne he strooke him to the heart whose unluckie end was a luckie beginning of the Switzers deliverance from the bondage of tyrans and of the recovery of their antient freedome which ever after they wisely and constantly maintained The Emperour Albert purposing to be revenged upon them for his injury as also for slaying many more of his men and breaking downe his castles of defence which he had caused to be builded in their countrey determined to mak war upon them but he was slaine ere he could bring it hat determination to effect by one of his owne nephews from whom being his overseer and gardant for bringing up he withheld his patrimonie against all equity neither by prayers or entreatie could be perswaded to restore it These things according to Nic. Gils report in his first volume of the Chronicles of France happened about the reigne of Saint Lewis Hither may be referred the history of Richard the first King of England called Richard Coeur de Lyon though not so much a fruite of ambition in him as of filthie covetousnesse This King when as Widomarus Lord of Linionice in little Britaine having found a great substance of treasure in the ground sent him a great part thereof as chiefe Lord and Prince of the countrey refused it saying That he would either have all or none but the finder would not condiscend to that whereupon the King layed siege to a castle of his called Galuz thinking the treasure to lye there but as he with the Duke of Brabant went about viewing the Castle a souldier within stroke him with an arrow in the arme the yron whereof festering in the wound caused that the King within nine daies after died And so because he was not content with the halfe of the treasure that another man found lost all his owne treasure that he had together with his life the chiefest treasure of all CHAP. XLII Of Vsurers and their theft IF open larcenies and violent robberies and extortions are forbidden by the law of God as we have seene they are then it is no doubt but that all deceit and unjust dealings and bargains used to the dammage of others are also condemned by the same law and namely Usurie when a man exacteth such unmeasurable gaine for either his mony or other thing which hee lendeth that the poore borrower is so greatly indammaged that in stead of benefitting and providing for his affaires which he aimed at he hitteth his further losse and finall overthrow This sinne is expressely prohibited in Leviticus 25 Deuteronomy 23 and Psalme 15 where the committants thereof are held guilty before Gods judgement Seat of iniquitie and injustice and against them it is that the prophet Ezechiel denounceth this threatening That he which oppresseth or vexeth the poore and afflicted he which robbeth or giveth to usurie and receiveth the encrease into their bags shall die the death and his bloud shall bee upon his pate Neither truely doth the justice of God sleepe in this respect but taketh vengeance upon all such and punisheth them after one sort or other either in body or goods as it pleaseth him I my selfe knew a grand usurer in the countrey of Vallay that having scraped together great masses of gold and silver by these unlawfull meanes was in one night robbed of fifteene hundred crownes by theeves that broke into his house I remember also another usurer dwelling in a town called Argental nigh unto Anovay under the jurisdiction of Tholosse in high Vivaria who being in hay time in a meadowe was stung in the foot by a serpent or some other venomous beast that he died thereof an answerable punishment for his often stinging and biting many poore people with his cruell and unmercifull usurie Nay it is so contrarie to equitie and reason that all nations led by the instinct of nature have alwayes abhorred and condemned it insomuch that the conditions of theeves hath bin more easie and tollerable than usurers for theft was wont to be punished but with double restitution but usurie with quadruple and to speake truely these rich and gallant usurers do more rob the common people and purloine from them than all the publike theeves that are made publike examples of justice in the world It is to be wished that some would examine usurers bookes and make a bond-fire of their obligations as that Lacedemonian did when Agesilaus reported that hee never saw a â—leerer fire or that some Lucullus would deliver Europe from that contagion as the Romane did Asia in his time Licurgus banished this canker worme out of his Sparta Amasis punished it severely in his Aegypt Cato exiled it out of Sicilie and Solo condemned it in Athens how much more should it he held in detestation among Christians S. Chrysostome compareth it fitly to the biting of an aspe as he that is stung with an aspe falleth asleepe as it were with delectation her hand to reach it miraculously turned into a serpent and bit her so fast that by no meanes it could be loosened from her arme untill it had brought her to a woefull and miserable end Sergius Galba before hee came to be Emperor being President of Africa under Claudius when as through penurie of victuals corne and other food was very sparingly shared out and divided amongst the armie punished a certaine souldier that sould a bushell of wheat to one of his fellows for an hundred pence in â—ope to obtaine a new share himselfe in this manner he coÌ„manded the Quaestor or Treasurer to give him no more sustenance since hee preferred lucre before the necessity of his owne body and his friends welfare neither suffered he any man else to sell him any so that hee perished with famine and became a miserable example to all the army of the fruits of that foule droupsie covetousnesse And thus wee see how the Lord rained downe vengeance upon all covetous Usurers and oppressors plaguing some on this fashion and some on that and never passing any but either in this life some notable judgement overtakes them either in themselves or their off-springs for it is notoriously knowne that usurers children though left rich yet the first or second generation became alwayes beggers or in the life to come they are thrown into the pit of perdition from whence there is no redemption nor deliverance CHAP. XLIII Of Dicers and Card-players and their theft IF any recreation be allowed us as no doubt there is yet surely it is not such as whereby we should worke the damage and hurt of one another as when by gaming we draw away another mans mony with his great losse and this
or feare of God but onely to the intent to counterfeit a kind of honestie and cover his foule vices and cruelties under the cloake of Religion But God quickly espied and punished his deepe hypocrisie for before he had raigned full five yeares both he and his son were slain at Verona by his men of war Let us learn then this lesson by these examples to carry our selves in all purenesse sinceritie and good conscience before God that our thoughts words and deeds being estranged from all hypocrisie and dissimulation may be agreeable and acceptable in his sight Moreover even as hypocrisie can winde and insinuate her selfe into the pure and sincere service of God as hath been declared so doth she play her part with no lesse bravery and ostentation in superstition and idolatry for the truth whereof before I proceed further I will set downe a history not altogether unworthy the reading and remembring Two hundred yeares are not yet past since there was in the raigne of Charles the seventh King of France a certaine preaching Frier of Britaine called Frier Thomas who by his dissembling customes and brags under pretence of a certaine reformation of manners so mightily deceived the whole world that every where he was reputed for an holy man This Frier puffed up with a greedy desire of vaine-glory used to goe from towne to towne and from countrey to countrey finding exceeding honourable entertainment in every place which he tooke very willingly and that he might ride at the more case he got him a little young Mule that would goe very softly and in this sort appointed he was accompanied with divers of his owne Order and many other Disciples that went for the most part on foot by him the people flocked from all quarters to see him yea and many were so besotted as to forsake their fathers mothers wives and children to attend upon this holy man Alwayes when he came neere to any citie the Burgesses and Gentlemen and Clergy with one consent came forth to meet him doing him as much reverence saith mine Author as they would have done to one of Christs Apostles if he were alive Hee was very well content that honourable personages as Knights and such others being on foot should hold his Mule by the bridle to be in stead of pages and lacquies to lead him into the townes His entrance into every citie was with great pompe and magnificence and his lodging provided at the richest and stateliest Burgesses house Now that he might the better play his part they prepared him in the best and convenientest places in the citie a scaffold richly hung and garnished upon the which his custome was first to say Masse then to begin his Sermon wherein he ripped up the vices of every estate but reproved especially the Clergies enormities because of their concubines and whores which they maintained wherein he did say nothing but that which was good and lawfull but in the same he used no discretion but joyned madnesse and sacriledge with his Monkish nature in stirring up little children to exclaime upon women for their attyre promising certain dayes of pardon to them as if he had been a god so that Ladies and Gentlewomen were inforced to lay aside for a season their accustomed trinkets Moreover also towards the end of his Sermons hee commanded to be brought unto him their Chesse-boords Cards Dice Nine-pins and such other trash which he openly threw into the fire to be burned before them all And that he might give more strength and credit to this his paltry rifraffe he caused the men and women to be divided on each side with a line drawne betwixt them as in a Tennis-court and by this means he drew together sometimes twentie thousand persons so ready and zealous is and ever hath been the world to follow after such hypocriticall deceivers rather than the true preachers of Gods Word But let us heare the issue of this holy hypocrite it was thus When he had in the fore-named sort traversed as well France as Flanders it took him in the head to passe the mountaines and visit Rome imagining that it was no hard matter to obtaine the Popeship seeing that in all places where he went there was equall honour given unto him or if he should faile of that hope yet at least the Pope and his Cardinals would entertain him honourably but it happened farre short of his expectation for Popes are not so prodigall of their honours to doe any such reverence to a poore silly Monke but are very niggards and sparing thereof even towards Kings so farre are they from leaving their Thrones of Majestie to any other neither must we thinke that the Pope cared greatly for all those trickes and quidditiâ—s of Frier Thomas seeing he himselfe is the onely merchant of such trash When he was arrived at Rome Pope Eugenius seeing that he came not according to custome to kisse his holinesse feet sent for him twice and understanding that he refused to come and that he feigned himselfe to be evill at ease sent his Treasurer but not to impart to him any treasure but to apprehend and attatch him The Frier now perceiving that enquiry was made for him and that they were at his chamber-dore leapt out at a window thinking by that means to escape but he was quickly taken prisoner by the Treasurers servants waiting before the dore and brought before the Consistory of Cardinals Law proceeded against him by doome wherof though no erroneous opinious could be proved against him he was adjudged to the stake to be burned for an Hereticke but it was sufficient to make him guiltie because he defamed the Priests in his Sermons and had spoken so broadly of their Gossips and had been so bold to usurpe the authoritie of giving pardons which the Popes claime for a priviledge of their owne See and besides had made no more account of him that is a petty god on earth but had done all these things without his leave and licence it was a hard matter to be endured of the Bishops of Rome that a silly Monke should so intermeddle with their affaires and should derogate any whit from their supremacy seeing that they quit themselves so well with Kings and Emperours and can at every sleight occasion make them stoope neither is it to be doubted but that Pope Eugenius was very jealous of the honour which Frier Thomas attained unto in every place and fearfull lest his presence might disturbe his present estate By this meanes God who useth all instruments for his owne purpose and can direct every particular to the performing of his will did punish and correct the hypocrisie of this Monke that seemed to be holy and wise being indeed nothing but foolish stubborne and ambitious Moreover most notable was the hypocrisie of two counterfeit holy Maids one of Kent in England called Elizabeth Barton the other of France called Ioane la Pucelle the former of which by the procurement and
information of one Richard Master Parson of Aldington and Edward Bocking Doctor of Divinity a Monke of Canterbury and divers others counterfeited such manner of trances and distortions in her body with the uttering of divers counterfeit vertues and holy words tending to the rebuke of sinne and reproving such new opinions as there began to spread that shee woon great credit amongst the people and drew after her a multitude of favourites besides she would prophecy of things to come as that shee should be helped of her disease by none but the Image of our Lady in Aldington whither being brought she appeared to the people to be suddenly relieved from her sicknesse by meanes of which hypocriticall dissimulation she was brought into marvellous estimation not only with the common people but with divers great men also insomuch that a book was put in print touching her fained miracles and revelations Howbeit not content to delude the people she began also to meddle with the King himself Henry the eight saying That if he proceeded to be divorced from his wife Queene Katherine he should not remaine King one month after and in the reputation of God not one day for which and many other tricks practised by her she with her complices was arraigned of high treason and after confession of all her knavery drawn from the Tower to Tyburne and there hanged the holy maidens head being set upon London bridge and the other on certaine gates of the City The other named la Pucella de Dieu marvellously deluded with her counterfeit hypocrisie Charles the seventh King of France and all the whole French Nation in such sort that so much credit was attributed unto her that she was honoured as a Saint and thought to be sent of God to the aide of the French King By her meanes Orleance was woon from the English and many other exploits atchieved which to be short I will referre the Reader unto the French Chronicles where they shall finde her admirable knavery at large discovered But touching her end it was on this sort as she marched on horsebake to the towne of Champaigne to remove the siedge wherewith it was guirt by the Duke of Burgoine and other of the English Captaines Sir Iohn Leupembrough a Burgonian Knight tooke her alive and conveyed her to the City of Roan where she faigning her selfe with child when the contrary was knowne was condemned and burnt And thus these two holy women that in a diverse kind mocked the people of England and France by their hypocrisie by the justice of God came to deserved destructions CHAP. XXI Of Conjurers and Enchanters IF God by his first Commandement hath enjoyned every one of us to love serve and to cleave unto him alone in the conjuction and unity of a true faith and hope unremovable there is no doubt but he forbiddeth on the other side that which is contrary to this foresaid duty and herein especially that accursed familiarity which divers miserable wretches have with that lying Spirit the Father of errour by whose delusions and subtilty they busie themselves in the study of sorceries and enchantments whereupon it is forbidden the Israelites in the nineteenth of Leviticus to turne after familiar spirits or to seeke to Soothsayers to be defiled by them and the more to withdraw them from this damnable crime in the Chapter following there is a threat set downe against it in manner of a Commandement That if either man or woman have a spirit of divination or soothsaying in them they should dye the death they should stone them to death their bloud should be upon them so in the two and twentieth of Exodus the Law of God saith Thou shalt not suffer a Witch to live and Moses following the same steps giveth an expresse charge in the eighteenth of Deuteronomy against this sinne saying Let nonebe found among thee that useth witchcraft nor that regardeth the Clouds or times nor a Sorcerer or a Charmer or that counselleth with a Spirit or a teller of Fortunes or that asketh counsell of the dead for all that doe such things are abhomination unto the Lord. And therefore this sinne 1 Sam. ver 15. is reputed amongst the most hainous and enormous sinnes that can be When they shall say unto you saith the Prophet Enquire at them that have a Spirit of Divination and at the Soothsayer which whispers and murmures answer Should not a people enquire at their God from the living to the dead To the Law and to the Testimony Wherefore it was a commendable thing and worthy imitation when they that had received the Faith by Pauls preaching having used curious Arts as Magicke and such like being touched with the feare of God brought their bookes and burned them before all men although the price thereof amounted to fifty thousand pieces of silver which by Budeus his supputation ariseth to five thousand French Crownes The Councels as that of Carthage and that other of Constantinople kept the second time in the suburbs utterly condemned the practices of all Conjurers and Enchanters The twelve Tables in Rome adjudged to punishments those that bewitched the standing corne And for the Civill Law this kind is condemned both by the Law Iulia and Cornelia In like manner the wisest Emperours those I mean that attained to the honour of Christianity ordained divers Edicts and Prohibitions under very sharp and grievous punishments against all such villany as Constantine in the ninth book of the Cod. tit 18. enacted That whosoever should attempt any action by Art Magicke against the safety of any person or should bring in or stir up any man to make him fall into any mischiefe or riotous demeanour should suffer a grievous punishment in the fifth Law he forbiddeth every man to aske counsell at Witches or to use the helpe of Charmers and Sorcerers under the paine of death Let them saith he in the sixth Law be throwne to wild beasts to be devoured that by conjuring or the helpe of familiar spirits go about to kill either their enemies or any other Moreover in the seventh Law he willeth that not so much as his owne courtiers and servants if they were found faulty in this crime should be spared but severely punished yet neverthelesse many of this age gave themselves over to this filthy sinne without either feare of God or respect of Law some through a foolish and dangerous curiosity others through the overruling of their owne vile and wicked affections and a third sort troubled with the terrours of an evill conscience desire to know what shall besall and happen unto them in the end Thus Saul the first King of Israel being troubled in himselfe and terrified with the army of the Philistims that came against him would needs foreknow his owne fortune and the issue of this doubtfull warre Now whereas before whilest he performed the duty of a good King and obeyed the commandement of God hee had cleansed his Realme