the Passeover when in a manner all Judea was inclosed in Jerusalem all private synagogues doing then their duties to the mother-temple so that the citie then had more guests then inhabitants Thus the Passeover first instituted by God in mercie to save the Israelites from death was now used by him in justice to hasten their destruction and to gather the nation into a bundle to be cast into the fire of his anger Besides those who were slain ninetie seven thousand were taken captives and they who had bought our Saviour for thirty pence were themselves sold thirty for a penie The Generall of the Romanes in this action was Titus sonne to Vespasian the Emperour A prince so good that he was styled the Darling of mankind for his sweet and loving nature and pitie it was so good a stock had not been better grafted so vertuously disposed that he may justly be counted the glory of all Pagans and shame of most Christians He laboured what lay in his power to have saved the temple and many therein but the Jews by their obstinacie and desperatenesse made themselves uncapable of any mercy Then was the temple it self made a sacrifice and burnt to ashes and of that stately structure which drew the Apostles admiration not a stone left upon a stone The walls of the citie more shaken with the sinnes of the Jews defending them then with the battering rammes of the Romanes assaulting them were levelled to the ground onely three towres left standing to witnesse the great strength of the place and greater valour of the Romanes who conquered it But whilest this storm fell on the unbeleeving Jews it was calm amongst the Christians who warned by Christs predictions and many other prodigies fled betimes out of the citie to Pella a private place beyond Jordan which served them in stead of a little Zoar to save them from the imminent destruction Chap. 2. How Iudea was dispeopled of Iews by Adrian the Emperour THreescore yeares after Adrian the Emperour rebuilt the citie of Jerusalem changing the situation somewhat westward and the name thereof to Aelia To despite the Christians he built a temple over our Saviours grave with the images of Jupiter and Venus another at Bethlehem to Adonis her minion and to enrage the Jews did engrave swine over the gates of the citie Who storming at the profanation of their land brake into open rebellion but were subdued by Julius Severus the Emperours lieutenant an experienced captain and many thousands slain with Bencochab their counterfeit Messias for so he termed himself that is the fonne of a starre usurping that prophesie Out of Iacob shall a starre arise though he proved but a fading comet whose blazing portended the ruine of that nation The captives by order from Adrian were transported into Spain the countrey laid waste which parted with her people and fruitfulnesse both together Indeed pilgrimes to this day here and there light on parcels of rich ground in Palestine which God may seem to have left that men may tast the former sweetnesse of the land before it was sowred for the peoples sinnes and that they may guesse the goodnesse of the cloth by the finenesse of the shreds But it is barren for the generality the streams of milk and hony wherewith once it flowed are now drained dry and the whole face of the land looketh sad not so much for want of dressing as because God hath frowned on it Yet great was the oversight of Adrian thus totally to unpeople a province and to bequeath it to foxes and leopards Though his memory was excellent yet here he forgot the old Romanes rule who to prevent desolations where they rooted out the natives planted in colonies of their own people And surely the countrey recovered not a competencie of inhabitants for some hundred yeares after For though many pilgrimes came thither in after-ages yet they came rather to visit then to dwell and such as remained there most embracing single lives were no breeders for posterity If any say that Adrian did wilfully neglect this land and prostitute it to ruine for the rebellion of the people yet all account it small policie in him in punishing the Jews to hurt his own empire and by this vastation to leave fair and clear footing for forrein enemies to fasten on this countrey and from thence to invade the neighbouring dominions as after the Persians and Saracens easily overran and dispeopled Palestine and no wonder if a thin medow were quickly mown But to return to the Jews Such stragglers of them not considerable in number as escaped this banishment into Spain for few hands reap so clean as to leave no gleanings were forbidden to enter into Jerusalem or so much as to behold it from any rise or advantage of ground Yet they obtained of the after-Emperours once a yeare namely on the tenth of August whereon their citie was taken to go in and bewail the destruction of their temple and people bargaining with the souldiers who waited on them to give so much for so long abiding there and if they exceeded the time they conditioned for they must stretch their purses to a higher rate So that as S. Hierome noteth they who bought Christs bloud were then glad to buy their own tears Chap. 3. Of the present wofull condition of the Iews and of the small hope and great hindrances of their conversion THus the main bodie of the Jews was brought into Spain and yet they stretched their out-limbes into every countrey so that it was as hard to find a populous citie without a common sink as without a company of Jews They grew fat on the barest pasture by usurie and brokage though often squeezed by those Christians amongst whom they lived counting them dogs and therefore easily finding a stick to beat them And alwayes in any tumult when the fense of order was broken the Jews lay next harms as at the coronation of Richard the first when the English made great feasts but the pillaged Jews paid the shot At last for their many villanies as falsifying of coin poysoning of springs crucifying of Christian children they were slain in some places and finally banished out of others Out of England anno 1291 by Edward the first France 1307 by Philip the Fair Spain 1492 by Ferdinand Portugall 1497 by Emmanuel But had these two latter kings banished all Jewish bloud out of their countreys they must have emptied the veins of their best subjects as descended from them Still they are found in great numbers in Turkie chiefly in Salonichi where they enjoy the freest slavery and they who in our Saviours time so scorned Publicanes are now most imployed in that office to be the Turks toll-gatherers Likewise in the Popish parts of Germanie in Poland the Pantheon of all religions and Amsterdam may be forfeited to the king of Spain when she cannot shew a pattern of this as of all other
Eustace The Turks retired to Solomons temple so called because built in the same place there to take the farewell of their lives In a desperate conflict there the foremost of the Christians were miserably slain thrust upon the weapons of their enemies by their fellows that followed them The pavement so swam that none could go but either through a rivulet of bloud or over a bridge of dead bodies Valour was not wanting in the Turks but superlatively abundant in the Christians till night made them leave off Next morning mercie was proclaimed to all those that would lay down their weapons For though bloud be the best sauce for victorie yet must it not be more then the meat Thus was Jerusalem wonne by the Christians and twentie thousand Turks therein slain on the fifteenth of July being Friday about three of the clock in the afternoon Tyrius findeth a great mysterie in the time because Adam was created on a Friday and on the same day and houre our Saviour suffered But these Synchronismes as when they are naturall they are pretty and pleasing so when violently wrested nothing more poore and ridiculous Then many Christians who all this while had lived in Jerusalem in most lamentable slaverie being glad to lurk in secret as truth oftentimes seeketh corners as fearing her judge though never as suspecting her cause came forth joyfully wellcomed and embraced these the procurers of their liberty Three dayes after it was concluded as a necessarie piece of severitie for their defense to put all the Turks in Jerusalem to death which was accordingly performed without favour to age or sex The pretense was for fear of treason in them if the Emperour of Persia should besiege the citie And some slew them with the same zeal wherewith Saul slew the Gibeonites and thought it unfit that these goats should live in the sheeps pasture But noble Tancred was highly displeased hereat because done in cold bloud it being no slip of an extemporany passion but a studied and premeditated act and that against pardon proclaimed many of them having compounded and paid for their lives and libertie Besides the execution was mercilesse upon sucking children whose not-speaking spake for them and on women whose weaknesse is a shield to defend them against a valiant man To conclude Severitie hot in the fourth degree is little better then poyson and becometh crueltie it self and this act seemeth to be of the same nature The end of the first Book The Historie of the HOLY WARRE Book II. Chap. 1. Robert the Normane refuseth the kingdome of Ierusalem Godfrey of Bouillon chosen king his parentage education and vertues FIght dayes after Jerusalem was wonne they proceeded to the election of a King but they had so much choice that they had no choice at all so many Princes there were and so equally eminent that Justice her self must suspend her verdict not knowing which of them best deserved the Crown Yet it was their pleasure to pitch on Robert the Normane as on the man of highest descent being sonne to a King for great Hugh of France was already returned home pretending the colick though some impute it to cowardlinesse and make the disease not in his bowels but his heart Robert refused this honourable profer whether because he had an eye to the kingdome of England now void by the death of William Rufus or because he accounted Jerusalem would be incumbred with continuall warre But he who would not take the Crown with the Crosse was fain to take the Crosse without the Crown and never thrived afterwards in any thing he undertook Thus they who refuse what God fairly carveth for them do never after cut well for themselves He lived to see much misery and felt more having his eyes put out by king Henry his brother and at last found rest when buried in the now Cathedrall church of Glocester under a woodden monument bearing better proportion to his low fortunes then high birth And since in the same quire he hath got the company of another Prince as unfortunate as himself King Edward the second They go on to a second choice and that they may know the natures of the Princes the better their servants were examined on oath to confesse their masters faults The servants of Godfrey of Bouillon protested their masters onely fault was this That when Mattens were done he would stay so long in the church to know of the Priest the meaning of every image and picture that dinner at home was spoiled by his long tarrying All admired hereat that this mans worst vice should be so great a vertue and unanimously chose him their King He accepted the place but refused the solemnity thereof and would not wear a crown of gold there where the Saviour of mankind had worn a crown of thorns He was sonne to Bustace Duke of Bouillon and Ida his wife daughter and heir to Godfrey Duke of Lorein born saith Tyrius at Bologne a town in Champaigne on the English sea which he mistaketh for Bouillon up higher in the continent neare the county of Lutzenburg Such slips are incident to the pennes of the best authours yea we may see Canterbury mistaken for Cambridge not onely in Munster but even in all our own printed Statute-books in the 12. of Richard the second He was brought up in that school of valour the court of Henry the 4. the Emperour Whilest he lived there there happened an intricate suit betwixt him and another Prince about title of land and because Judges could not untie the knot it was concluded the two Princes should cut it asunder with their sword in a combat Godfrey was very unwilling to fight not that he was the worse souldier but the better Christian he made the demurre not in his courage but in his conscience as conceiving any private title for land not ground enough for a duell Yea we may observe generally that they who long most to fight duells are the first that surfet of them Notwithstanding he yeelded to the tyranny of custome and after the fashion of the countrey entred the lists when at the first encounter his sword brake but he struck his adversary down with the hilt yet so that he saved his life and gained his own inheritance Another parallel act of his valour was when being standard-bearer to the Emperour he with the imperiall ensigne killed Rodulphus the Duke of Saxony in single fight and fed the Eagle on the bowels of that arch-rebell His soul was enriched with many vertues but the most orient of all was his humility which took all mens affections without resistance And though one saith Take away ambition and you take away the spurres of a souldier yet Godfrey without those spurres rode on most triumphantly Chap. 2. The establishing of Ecclesiasticall affairs and Patriarchs in Antioch and Ierusalem the numerosity of Palestine-Bishops BUt now let us leave the Helmets and look
affrighted into good works for fear of Purgatory no wonder if devout Godfrey were pliable to any demand Pierce Plowman maketh a witty wonder why Friers should covet rather to confesse and bury then to christen children intimating it proceeded from covetousnesse there being gain to be gotten by the one none by the other And this was the age wherein the Covents got their best living by the dying which made them contrary to all other people most to worship the sunne setting Chap. 6. Godfreys death and buriall AUthours differ on the death of this noble King some making him to die of that long-wasting sicknesse others of the plague It may be the plague took him out of the hands of that lingring disease and quickly cut off what that had been long in fretting He died July 18. having reigned one yeare wanting five dayes A Prince valiant pious bountifull to the Church for besides what he gave to the Patriarch he founded Canons in the temple of the Sepulchre and a monasterie in the vale of Jehoshaphat We would say his death was very unseasonable leaving the orphane State not onely in its minority but its infancy but that that fruit which to mans apprehension is blown down green and untimely is gathered full-ripe in Gods providence He was buried in the temple of the Sepulchre where his tombe is unviolated at this day whether out of a religion the Turks bear to the place or out of honour to his memory or out of a valiant scorn to fight against dead bones or perchance the Turks are minded as John King of England was who being wished by a Courtier to untombe the bones of one who whilest he was living had been his great enemy Oh no said King John would all mine enemies were as honourably buried Chap. 7. Baldwine chosen King He keepeth Ierusalem in despite of the Patriarch GOdfrey being dead the Christians with a joint consent dispatched an embassie to Baldwine his brother Count of Edessa a city in Arabia the lord whereof had adopted this Baldwine to be his heir entreated him to accept of the Kingdome which honourable offer he courteously embraced A Prince whose body Nature cut of the largest size being like Saul higher by the head then his subjects And though the Goths had a law alwayes to choose a short thick man for their King yet surely a goodly statuâ—e is most majesticall His hair and beard brown face fair with an eagles nose which in the Persian Kings was anciently observed as a mark of magnanimity Bred he was a scholar entred into Orders and was Prebendary in the churches of Rhems Liege and Cambray but afterwards turned secular Prince as our Athelwulphus who exchanged the mitre of Winchester for the crown of England Yet Baldwine put not off his scholarship with his habit but made good use thereof in his reigne For though bookishnesse may unactive yet learning doth accomplish a Prince and maketh him sway his sceptre the steadier He was properly the first King of Jerusalem his brother Godfrey never accounted more then a Duke and was crowned on Christmasse-day The reason that made him assume the name of a King was thereby to strike the greater terrour into the Pagans Thus our Kings of England from the dayes of King John were styled but Lords of Ireland till Henry the 8. first entitled himself King because Lord was sleighted by the seditious rebells As for that religious scruple which Godfrey made to wear a crown of gold where Christ wore one of thorns Baldwine easily dispensed therewith And surely in these things the mind is all A crown might be refused with pride and worn with humility But before his Coronation there was a tough bickering about the city of Jerusalem Dabert the Patriarch on the death of Godfrey devoured Jerusalem and the towre of David in his hope but coming to take possession found the place too hot for him For Garnier Earl of Gretz in the behalf of King Baldwine who was not as yet returned from Edessa manned it against him But so it happened that this valiant Earl died three dayes after which by Dabert was counted a just judgement of God upon him for his sacriledge Now though it be piety to impute all events to Gods hand yet to say that this mans death was for such a sinne sheweth too much presumption towards God and too little charity towards our neighbour Indeed if sudden death had singled out this Earl alone it had somewhat favoured their censure but there was then a generall mortality in the city which swept away thousands and which is most materiall what this Patriarch interpreted sacriledge others accounted loyalty to his Sovereigne As for that donation of the city of Jerusalem and towre of David which Godfrey gave to the Patriarch some thought that this gift overthrew it self with its own greatnesse being so immoderately large others supposed it was but a personall act of Godfrey and therefore died with the giver as conceiving his successours not obliged to perform it because it was unreasonable that a Prince should in such sort fetter and restrain those which should come after him Sure it is that Baldwine having both the stronger sword and possession of the citie kept it perforce whilest the Patriarch took that leave which is allowed to loosers to talk chafe and complain sending his bemoning letters to Boemund Prince of Antioch inviting him to take arms and by violence to recover the Churches right but from him received the uselesse assistance of his pity and that was all Chap. 8. The Church-story during this Kings reigne A chain of successive Patriarchs Dabert Ebremare Gibelline and Arnulphus Their severall characters AFterwards this breach betwixt the King and Patriarch was made up by the mediation of some friends but the skinne onely was drawn over not dead flesh drawn out of the wound and Arnulphus whom we mentioned before discontented for his losse of the Patriarchs place still kept the sore raw betwixt them At last Dabertus the Patriarch was fain to flee to Antioch where he had plentifull maintenance allowed him by Bernard Patriarch of that See But he was too high in the instep to wear another mans shoes and conceived himself to be but in a charitable prison whilest he lived on anothers benevolence Wherefore hence he hasted to Rome complained to the Pope and received from his Holinesse a command to King Baldwine to be reestablished in the Patriarchs place but returning home died by the way at Messana in Sicily being accounted seven yeares Patriarch foure at home and three in banishment Whilest Dabert was thrust out one Ebremarus was made Patriarch against his will by King Baldwine An holy and devout man but he had more of the dove then the serpent and was none of the deepest reach He hearing that he was complained of to the Pope for his irregular election posted to Rome
so that their luxury differed from Elias his austerity as much as velvet from sackcloth Wherefore that the Carmelites came from mount Carmel cannot be denied But on that mountain I find that both Elias and Baals priests gathered together and let the indifferent reader judge which of them their lives do most resemble Afterwards Pope Honorius 3. counting the party-coloured coats these Carmelites did wear to be too gaudy caused them to wear onely white the colour which nature doth die simple and therefore fittest for religion But Melexala King of Egypt who formerly was very bountifull to the Carmelites knew not his Alms-men in their new coats but changed his love as they their livery and persecuted them out of all Egypt It seemeth afterwards by the complaint of Mantuan that they wore some black again over their white For he playeth on them as if their bad manners had blacked and altered their clothes Now though Palestine was their mother England was their best nurse Ralph Fresburg about the yeare 1240 first brought them hither and they were first seated at Newenden in Kent An hundred and fourty English writers have been of this order And here they flourished in great pomp till at last King Henry the 8. as they came out of the wildernesse so turned their houses into a wildernesse not onely breaking the necks of all Abbeys in England but also scattering abroad their very bones past possibility of recouniting them Chap. 27. Edessa lost The hopefull voyage of Conrade the Emperour and Lewis King of France to the Holy land blasted by the perfidiousnesse of Emmanuel the Grecian Emperour EMpires have their set bounds whither when they come they stand still go back fall down This we may see in the kingdome of Jerusalem which under Godfrey and the two first Baldwines was a gainer under Fulk a saver under the succeeding Kings a constant loser till all was gone For now Sanguin Prince of the Turks as bloudy as his name wrested from the Christians the countrey and city of Edessa one of the foure Tetrarchies of the kingdome of Jerusalem And though Sanguin shortly after was stabbed at a feast yet Noradine his sonne succeeded and exceeded him in cruelty against the Christians The losse of Edessa wherein our religion had flourished ever since the Apostles time moved Conrade Emperour of the West and Lewis the 7. surnamed the Young King of France to undertake a voyage to the Holy land Pope Eugenius the 3. bestirred himself in the matter and made S. Bernard his soliciter to advance the designe For never could so much steel have been drawn into the east had not this good mans perswasion been the loadstone The Emperours army contained two hundred thousand foot besides fifty thousand horse Nor was the army of King Lewis much inferiour in number In France they sent a distaff and a spindle to all those able men that went not with them as upbraiding their effeminatenesse And no wonder when women themselves went in armour having a brave lasse like another Penthesilea for their leader so befringed with gold that they called her Golden-foot riding astride like men which I should count more strange but that I find all women in England in the same posture on their horses till Anna wife to King Richard the second some 200 yeares since taught them a more modest behaviour The Turks did quake hearing of these preparations which to them were reported farre greater then they were fame contrary to all other painters making those things the greatest which are presented the farthest off Conrade with his army took his way through Grecia where Emmanuel the Emperour possessed with an hereditary fear of the Latines fortified his cities in the way as knowing there needed strong banks where such a stream of people was to passe And suspecting that if these Pilgrimes often made his Empire their high-way into Palestine little grasse would grow in so troden a path and his countrey thereby be much endamaged he used them most treacherously giving them bad welcome that he might no more have such guests To increase their miseries as the Dutch encamped by the river Melas if that may be called a river which is all mud in summer all sea in winter deserving his name from this black and dismall accident it drowned many with its sudden overflowings as if it had conspired with the Grecians and learned treachery from them They that survived this sudden mishap were reserved for lingring misery For the Grecian Emperour did them all possible mischief by mingling lime with their meal by killing of stragglers by holding intelligence with the Turks their enemies by corrupting his coyn making his silver as base as himself so that the Dutch sold good wares for bad money and bought bad wares with good money by giving them false Conductours which trained them into danger so that there was more fear of the guides then of the way All which his unfaithfull dealings are recorded by that faithfull historian Nicetas Choniates who though a Grecian born affirmeth these things the truth of his love to his countrey-men no whit prejudicing his love to the truth Chap. 28. The Turks conquered at Meander The Dutch and French arrive in Palestine SCarce had the Dutch escaped the treachery of the Greeks when they were encountred with the hostility of the Turks who waited for them on the other side of Meander The river was not foordable ship or bridge the Christians had none when behold Conrade the Emperour adventured on an action which because it was successefull shall be accounted valiant otherwise we should term it desperate After an exhortation to his army he commanded them all at once to flownce into the river Meander was plunged by their plunging into it his water stood amazed as unresolved whether to retreat to the fountain or proceed to the sea and in this extasie afforded them a dry passage over the stream An act which like that of Horatius Cocles his leaping into Tiber plus famae ad posteros habiturum quà m fidei will find more admirers then beleevers with posterity The affrighted Turks on the other side thinking there was no contending with them that did teach nature it self obedience offered their throats to the Christians swords and were killed in such number that whole piles of dead bones remain there for a monument like those heaps of the Cimbrians slain by Marius neare Marseils where afterwards the inhabitants walled their vineyards with sculls and guarded their grapes with dead men Hence Conrade made forward to Iconium now called Cogni which he besieged in vain to the great losse of his army The King of France followed after with great multitudes and drank of the same cup at the Grecians hands though not so deeply till at last finding that those who marched through the continent met with an ocean of miserie he thought better to trust the wind and sea then
handsomenesse preferred to be Patriarch William Archbishop of Tyre was violent against his election because of a prophesie That as Heraclius King of Persia wonne so an Heraclius should lose the Crosse. But others excepted that this exception was nothing worth For let God give the man and let the devil set the name As for those blind prophesies they misse the truth ofter then hit it so that no wise man will lean his belief on so slender a prop. But Heraclius had a worse name then his name the bad report of his vitious life keeping a Vintners wife whom he maintained in all state like an Empresse and owned the children he had by her Her name Pascha de Rivera and she was generally saluted The Patriarchesse His example infected the inferiour clergie whose corruption was a sad presage of the ruine of the realm For when Prelates the Seers when once those eye-strings begin to break the heart-strings hold not out long after In his time the Maronites were reconciled to the Romane Church Their main errour was the heresie of the Monothelites touching one onely will and action in Christ. For after that the heresie of Nestorius about two persons in our Saviour was detested in the Eastern Churches some thought not themselves safe enough from the heresie of two persons till they were fallen with the opposite extremity of one nature in Christ violence making men reel from one extreme to another The errour once broched found many embracers As no opinion so monstrous but if it hath had a mother it will get a nurse But now these Maronites renouncing their tenents received the Catholick faith though soon after when Saladine had conquered their countrey they relapsed to their old errours wherein they continued till the late times of Pope Gregory the thirteenth and Clement the eighth when they again renewed their communion with the Romane Church They live at this day on mount Libanus not exceeding twelve thousand households and pay to the great Turk for every one above twelve yeares old seventeen sultanines by the yeare and for every space of ground sixteen spanne square one sultanine yearly to keep themselves free from the mixture of Mahometanes A sultanine is about seven shillings six pence of our money To return to Heraclius Soon after he was sent Embassadour to Henry the second King of England to crave his personall assistance in the Holy warre delivering unto him the Royall standard with the keyes of our Saviours sepulchre the towre of David and the city of Jerusalem sent him by King Baldwine King Henry was singled out for this service before other Princes because the world justly reported him valiant wise rich powerfull and fortunate And which was the main hereby he might expiate his murder and gather up again the innocent bloud which he had shed of Thomas Becket Besides Heraclius entituled our Henry to the kingdome of Jerusalem because Geoffrey Plantagenet his father was sonne some say brother to Fulk the fourth King of Jerusalem But King Henry was too wise to bite at such a bait wherein was onely the husk of title without the kernel of profit Yet he pretended he would go into Palestine and got hereby a masse of money towards his voyage making every one as well Clerk as Lay saving such as went to pay that yeare the tenth of all their revenues moveables and chattells as well in gold as in silver Of every citie in England he chose the richest men as in London two hundred in York an hundred and so in proportion and took the tenth of all their moveables by the estimation of credible men who knew their estates imprisoning those which refused to pay sub eleemosynae titulo vitium rapacitatis includans saith Walsingham But now when he had filled his purse all expected he should fulfill his promise when all his voyage into Palestine turned into a journey into France Heraclius whilest he stayed in England consecrated the Temple-church in the suburbs of London and the house adjoyning belonging to the Templars since turned to a better use for the students of our municipall Law these new Templars defending one Christian from another as the old ones Christians from Pagans Chap. 40. Saladine fitteth himself with forrein forces The originall and great power of the Mammalukes with their first service IN the minority of King Baldwine who was but thirteen yeares old Milo de Plancia Noble-man was Protectour of the Realm Whose pride and insolence could not be brooked and therefore he was stabbed at Ptolemais and Reimund Count of Tripoli chosen to succeed him Now Saladine seriously intendeth to set on the Kingdome of Jerusalem and seeketh to furnish himself with souldiers for that service But he perceived that the ancient nation of the Egyptians had lasted so long that now it ranne dregs their spirits being as low as the countrey they lived in and they fitter to make merchants and mechanicks then military men For they were bred in such soft imployments that they were presently foundred with any hard labour Wherefore he sent to the Circassians by the lake of Meotis neare Taurica Chersonesus and thence bought many slaves of able and active bodies For it was a people born in a hard countrey no fewel for pleasure grew there nor was brought thither and bred harder so that warre was almost their nature with custome of continuall skirmishing with the neighbouring Tartars These slaves he trained up in military discipline most of them being Christians once baptized but afterwards untaught Christ they learned Mahomet and so became the worse foes to religion for once being her friends These proved excellent souldiers and speciall horsemen and are called Mammalukes And surely the greatnesse of Saladine and his successours stood not so much on the legs of their native Egyptians as it leaned on the staff of these strangers Saladine and especially the Turkish Kings after him gave great power and placed much trust in these Mammalukes Who lived a long time in ignorance of their own strength till at last they took notice of it and scorning any longer to be factours for another they would set up for themselves and got the sovereignty from the Turkish Kings Thus Princes who make their subjects over-great whet a knife for their own throats And posterity may chance to see the insolent Janizaries give the grand Seignor such a trip on the heel as may tumble him on his back But more largely of these Mammalukes usurping the kingdome of Egypt God willing in its proper place Thus Saladine having furnished himself with new souldiers went to handsel their valour upon the Christians invaded the Holy land burning all the countrey before him and raging in the bloud of poore Christians till he came and encamped about Askelon Mean time whilest Reimund Count of Tripoli Protectour of the Kingdome with Philip Earl of Flanders the chief strength of the Kingdome were absent in Celosyria wasting the countrey about
lavish physick on him in whom he seeth faciem cadaverosam so that death hath taken possession in the sick mans countenance finding this warre to be desperate and dedecus fortitudinis they even fairly left the Holy land and came into Europe meaning to lay out their valour on some thing that would quit cost But hereof hereafter Chap. 6. Richard of England and Philip of France set forward to the Holy land The danger of the interveiws of Princes THe miseries of the Christians in Syria being reported in Europe made Richard the first King of England and Philip the second surnamed Augustus King of France to make up all private dissensions betwixt them and to unite their forces against the Turks Richard was well stored with men the bones and quickly got money the sinews of warre by a thousand Princely skills gathering so much coin as if he meant not to return because looking back would unbowe his resolution To Hugh Bishop of Duresme for his life he sold the County of Northumberland jesting he had made a new Earl of an old Bishop He sold Barwick and Roxburgh to the Scottish king for ten thousand pounds Yea he protested he would sell his citie of London if any were able to buy it rather then he would be burdensome to his subjects for money But take this as he spake it for a flourish for pretending he had lost his old he made a new seal wherewith he squeezed his subjects and left a deep impression in their purses forcing them to have all their instruments new-sealed which any wayes concerned the Crown Having now provided for himself he forgot not his younger brother John Earl of Morton who was to stay behind him an active man who if he misliked the maintenance was cut for him would make bold to carve for himself Lest therefore straitned for means he should swell into discontent King Richard gave him many Earldomes and honours to the yearly value of foure thousand marks Thus he received the golden saddle but none of the bridle of the Common-wealth honour riches were heaped upon him but no place of trust and command For the King deputed William Bishop of Ely his Viceroy choosing him for that place rather then any lay-Earl because a Coronet perchance may swell into a Crown but never a Mitre For a Clergie-mans calling made him uncapable of usurpation in his own person Thus having settled matters at home he set forth with many of our nation which either ushered or followed him Of these the prime were Baldwine Archbishop of Canterbury Hubert Bishop of Salisburie Robert Earl of Leicester Ralph de Glanvile late chief Justice of England Richard de Clare Walter de Kime c. The Bishops of Duresme and Norwich though they had vowed this voyage were dispensed with by the court of Rome quae nulli deest pecuniam largienti to stay at home His navie he sent about by Spain and with a competent number took his own journey through France At Tours he took his Pilgrimes scrip and staff from the Archbishop His staff at the same time casually brake in pieces which some whose dexteritie lay in sinister interpreting all accidents construed a token of ill successe Likewise when he and the French king with their trains passed over the bridge of Lyons on the fall of the bridge this conceit was built That there would be a falling out betwixt these two Kings which accordingly came to passe their intercourse and familiaritie breeding hatred and discontent betwixt them Yea the interviews of equall Princes have ever been observed dangerous Now Princes measure their equalitie not by the extent of their dominions but by the absolutenesse of their power so that he that is supreme and independent in his own countrey counteth himself equall to any other Prince how great soever Perchance some youthfull Kings may disport and solace themselves one in anothers companie whilest as yet pleasure is all the elevation of their souls But when once they grow sensible of their own greatnesse a lesson they will quickly learn and shall never want teachers then emulation will be betwixt them because at their meeting they cannot so go in equipage but one will still be the foremost Either his person will be more proper or carriage more court-like or attendance more accomplished or attire more fashionable or some thing will either be or conceived to be more majesticall in one then the other And corrivalls in honour count themselves eclipsed by every beam of state which shineth from their competitour Wherefore the best way to keep great Princes together is to keep them asunder accommodating their businesse by Embassadours lest the meeting of their own persons part their affections Chap. 7. King Richard conquereth Sicilie and Cyprus in his passage to the Holy land AT Lyons these two Kings parted their trains and went severall wayes into Sicilie King Richard in his passage though within fifteen miles of Rome wanting forsooth either devotion or manners vouchsafed not to give his Holinesse a visit yea plainly told Octavian Bishop of Ostia the Popes Confessour that having better objects to bestow his eyes on he would not stirre a step to see the Pope Because lately without mercie he had simoniacally extorted a masse of money from the Prelates of England At Messana in Sicilie these two Kings meet again where to complete King Richards joy behold his Navie there safely arriving which with much difficultie and danger had fetched a compasse about Spain And now King Richard by his own experience grew sensible of the miseries which merchants and mariners at sea underwent being alwayes within few inches often within an hairs breadth of death Wherefore now touched with remorse of their pitifull case he resolved to revoke the law of Wracks as a law so just that it was even unjust For formerly both in England and Normandie the Crown was intituled to shipwrackt goods and the King jure gentium made heir unto them which otherwise jure naturali were conceived to be in bonis nullius pertaining to no owner But now our Richard refused to make advantage of such pitifull accidents and to strip poore mariners out of those rags of their estates which the mercie and modestie of the waves and winds had left them And therefore on the moneth of October at Messana in the presence of many Archbishops and Bishops he for ever quitted the claim to Wracks So that if any man out of the ship cometh alive to the shore the propertie of the shipwrackt goods is still preserved to the owner Yea this grant was so enlarged by our succeeding Kings that if a dogge or a cat escaped alive to land the goods still remained the owners if he claimed them within a yeare and a day Tankred at this time was King of Sicilie a bastard born and no wonder if climbing up to the throne the wrong way he shaked when he sat down Besides he was
and famine had pleased to spare Hence the Templars conducted them to Gaza where they fell on forraging the countrey of the Sultan assaulting no places which were of strength or honour to subdue but onely spoiled poore villages which counted themselves walled with the truce as yet in force Abundance of wealth they got and were now late returning home when after their plentifull supper a deare sharp reckoning was called for Behold the Turks in great numbers fell upon them neare unto Gaza and the Christians down with their bundles of spoil and out with their swords bravely defending themselves till such time as the night parted the fray Here they committed a great errour and as one may say a neglect in over-diligence for in stead of reposing themselves to rest and appointing a set watch they all lay in a manner Perdues no one slumbering all night but attending their enemies contrary to the rules of an armie which with Argus should never have all its eyes wake or sleep together Next morning when the Turks whose numbers were much increased set upon them alas they being but few to many faint to fresh were not able to make any forcible resistance Yet what they could not pay in present they pawned their lives for and their arms being too weak for their hearts they were rather killed then conquered Earl Henry was slain Almerick taken prisoner the King of Navarre escaped by the swiftnesse of his Spanish gennet which race for their winged speed the Poets feigned to be begot of the wind Mean time the other Christians looked on and saw their brethren slaughtered before their eyes and yet though they were able to help them were not able to help them their hands being tied with the truce and Reinoldus charging them no way to infringe the peace concluded with the Sultan Hereupon many cursed him as the Christians cut-throat he as fast condemned the King of Navarre and his army for breaking the truce And though the Papall faction pleaded that the former peace concluded not these late adventurers and that it was onely made with Frederick the Emperour yet he representing the whole body of Christianity all the bundle of their shifts could not piece out a satisfactory answer but that they were guilty of faith-breaking Home hastened the King of Navarre with a small retinue clouding himself in privatenesse as they actour who cometh off with the dislike of the spectatours stealeth as invisibly as he may into the tiring-house Expectation that friendly foe did him much wrong and his performance fell the lower because men heightened their looking for great matters from him Chap. 8. Richard Earl of Cornwall saileth to the Holy land His performance there and the censure thereof FIfteen dayes after the departure of Theobald Richard Earl of Cornwall brother to Henry the third then King of England landed at Ptolemais This Prince was our English Crassus or Croesus Cornwall was his Indies where he turned tinne into gold and silver So well-moneyed he was that for ten yeares together he might for every day expend an hundred marks So that England never since had together a poorer King and a richer Subject Before he began his voyage he craved a subsidie of prayers from the Monks of S. Albanes Yea scarce was there any Covent appearing for piety to whose devotions he recommended not himself counting that ship to sail the surest which is driven with the breath of godly mens prayers Theodoricus Lord Prior of the English Hospitallers with many other Barons and brave souldiers attending him passed through France and was there honourably entertained by King Lewis Being come to the Mediterranean sea the Popes Legate brought him a flat countermand that he must go no further but instantly return Richard at first was astonished hereat but quickly his anger got the mastery of his amazement and he fell on fuming Was this Christs Vicar Unlike was he to him who was thus unlike to himself who would say and unsay solemnly summon then suddenly cashier his Holy souldiers This was deluding of peoples devotions with false alarms to make them put their armour on to put it off again As for his own self he had vowed this voyage his honour and treasure was ingaged therein and the Pope should not blast his settled resolutions with a breath his ships were manned victualled and sailing forward and in such great actions the setting forth is more then half the journey All know his Holinesse to be too wary an archer to shoot away his arrows at nothing He had a mark herein a plot in this restraint but that too deep for others to fathom It could not be this To make this rich Earl a fish worth angling for to commute his voyage into money and to buy a dispensation of his Holinesse to stay at home as formerly he had served many meaner Pilgrimes Surely though the Popes covetousnesse might have prompted his wisdome would have disswaded him from a project spunne with so course a threed On saileth Earl Richard and safely arriveth at Ptolemais where he is well welcomed especially by the Clergie solemnly singing Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. He proclaimed No Christian should depart for want of pay for he would entertain any and give them good wages that would do work in this warre But he found the Christians there shivered into severall factions and the two great Orders Hospitallers and Templars two great confusions of the Holy cause Of these the Hospitallers were the seniors in standing their originall being dated eighteen yeares before the Templars and therefore challenged superiority But that which made the younger brother so brisk was that he was his fathers darling The Templars in all their broils had support from the Pope because the others were suspected to have a smack of the Imperiall faction This made them active daring offering of affronts And what countrey-men soever the Templars were they were alwayes Italians that is true to the Triple Crown These being madded with ambition were the more outragious for their â—igh fare their great revenues and deserved to be dieted with a poorer pittance except they would have used their strength better Our Earl knew to please one side would certainly displease the other and to please both would probably please neither Wherefore he managed his matters entirely to himself without relating to either of the parties taking no ground of their giving but bowling at the publick good by the aim of his own eye The Sultans in Syria for the Turkish power there was divided into severall Sultanies as those of Damascus Cracci Seisser but Babylon the chiefest hearing of Richards preparations profered peace unto him But whilest as yet the conditions were in suspense Richard fortified Askelon in all the bunch there was not a better key or harbour of more importance not onely to strength but state with marble pillars and statues though the silent ruines thereof at
different degrees of bountie the Spanish Polish Danish Scots and all other people of Europe The French I make the Founders for these reasons First because they began the action first Secondly France in proportion sent most adventurers Some voyages were all of French and all voyages were of some French Yea French men were so frequent at Jerusalem that at this day all Western Europeans there are called Franks as I once conceived and perchance not without companie in my errour because so many French men came thither in the Holy warre Since I am converted from that false opinion having found that two hundred yeares before the Holy warre was dreamed of namely in the time of Constantine Porphyrogenetes Emperour of the East all Western Christians were known to the Greeks by the name of Franks so that it seemeth the Turks borrowed that appellation from the Grecians Thirdly As France sent the most so many of most eminent note She sheweth for the game no worse cards then a pair royall of Kings Lewis the Young Philip Augustus and Saint Lewis besides Philip the Bold his sonne who went half-way to Tunis The first and last Christian King of Europe that went to Palestine was a French man and all the Kings of Jerusalem Frederick the Emperour onely excepted originally were of that nation Fourthly Even at this day France is most loyall to the cause Most grand Masters of the Hospitallers have been French men And at this day the Knights of Malta who have but foure Albergies or Seminaries in all Christendome have three of them in France viz. one of the France in generall one of Avergne and one of Provence Yet France carrieth not the upper hand so clearly but that Germanie justleth for it especially if we adde to it the Low-countreys the best stable of woodden horses and most potent in shipping in that age of any countrey in Europe which though an amphibion betwixt both yet custome at this day adjudgeth it Dutch Now these are the severall accents of honour in the Germane service First That countrey sheweth three Emperours in the Holy warre Conrade Frederick Barbarossa and Frederick the second The last of these was solemnly crowned and peaceably possessed King of Jerusalem Secondly Germanie sent more Princes to this warre then all Europe besides It would be an infinite task to reckon them all it being true of the Germane Nobilitie what Logicians say of a Line that it is divisibilis in semper divisibilia Here honours equally descend to sonnes and daughters whereby they have Counts without counting in the whole Empire There were seventeen Princes of Henault and seven and twentie Earls of Mansfield all living together So that one of their own countreymen saith That the Dutch esteem none to be men but onely such as are Noble-men We will not take notice of Germanie as it is minced into pettie Principalities but as cut into principall Provinces We find these regnant Princes for as for their younger brethren herein they are not accounted to have been personally present in the Holy warre Prince Palatine of Rhene Henry 1197 Duke or as others King of Bohemia Jaboslaus or Ladislaus 1147 Duke of Saxonie Henry the younger 1197 Marquisse of Brandenburg Otho 1197 Archbishops of Mentz 1 Conrade 2 Siphred 1197 Archbish. of Triers Theodoricus 1216 Archbish. of Colen Theodoricus 1216 Dukes of Austria 1 Leopoldus the second 1190 2 Frederick 1197 3 Leopoldus the third surnamed the Glorious 1216 Dukes of Bavaria 1 Guelpho 1101 2 Henry 1147 3 Lewis 1216 Landt-graves of Thuringia 1 Herman 1197 2 Lewis 1227 Marquesse of Moravia Conrade 1197 Duke of Mechlenburg Henry 1277 Earls of Flandres 1 Theodoricus 1147 2 Philippus 1190 3 Baldwine 1200 4 William Dampier 1250 5 Guido 1270 Dukes of Brabant 1 Godfrey 1195 2 Henry 1227 Earl of Holland William 1216 All these I say not these were all went themselves led forth other companies suitable to their greatnesse The Reader as he lighteth on more at his leisure may strike them into this catalogue Thirdly Germanie maintained the Teutonick Order wholly consisting of her nation besides Templars and Hospitallers whereof she had abundance of whose loyall and valiant service we have spoken largely before Lastly She fought another Holy warre at the same time against the Tartars and other barbarous people which invaded her on her North-east-part And though â—ome will except That that warre cannot be intituled Holy because being on the defensive it was rather of nature and necessitie then pietie yet upon examination it will appear that this service was lesse superstitious more charitable to Christendome and more rationall and discreet in it self it being better husbandrie to save a whole cloth in Europe then to winne a ragge in Asia Chap. 22. The English and Italian service compared Of the Spanish Polish Norvegian Hungarian Danish and Swedish performance in this warre NExt in this race of honour follow England and Italie being very even and hard-matched England it is no flatterie to affirm what envie cannot denie spurreth up close for the prize and though she had a great disadvantage in the starting Italie being much nearer to Palestine yet she quickly recovered it Our countrey sent one King Richard the first and three Kings sonnes Robert Courthois Richard of Cornwall and Prince Edward to this warre Yea England was a dayly friend to this action and besides these great and grosse summes of visible adventurers she dropped and cast in privily many a Pilgrime of good qualitie so that there was scarce any remarkable battel or memorable siege done through the warre wherein there were not some English of eminent desert Yet Italy cometh not any whit behind if the atchievements of her severall States Venetians Genoans Pisans Sicilians Florentines were made and moulded up together Yea for sea-service and engineers in this warre they bear the bell away from all other nations But these things allay the Italian service 1. It was not so abstracted from the dregs of mercinarinesse as that of other countreys whose adventurers counted their very work herein sufficient wages but before they would yeeld their assistance they indented and covenanted with the King of Jerusalem to have such and such profits pensions and priviledges in all places they took to them and their posteritie not as an honorarie reward freely conferred on them but in nature of wages ex pacto contracted for aforehand as the Genoans had in Ptolemais and the Venetians in Tyre 2. These Italians stopped two gaps with one bush they were Merchant-Pilgrimes together applied themselves to profit and pietie Here in Tyre they had their banks and did drive a sweet trade of spices and other Eastern commodities 3. Lastly As at first they gave good milk so they kicked it down with their heel and by their mutuall discord caused the losse of all they helped to gain in Syria Spain was exercised all the time of this warre in defending her self against the Moores and Saracens in her
secretly stole away whereat the rest were no whit discomfited counting the losse of cowards to be gain to an armie At last they generally resolved rather to lose their lives by whole-sale on the point of the sword then to retail them out by famine which is the worst of tyrants and murdereth men in state whilest they die in not dying It did not a little encourage them that they found in the church of S. Peter that lance wherewith our Saviours bodie was pierced They highly prized this militarie relique of Christ as if by wounding of him it had got vertue to wound his enemies and counted it a pawn of certain victorie Whether this spear was truly found or whether it was but invented to cozen men with we will not dispute However it wrought much with these Pilgrimes for conceit oftentimes doeth things above conceit especially when the imagination apprehendeth something founded in religion Marching forth in severall armies they manfully fell upon their enemies and being armed with despair to escape they sought to sell their lives at the dearest rate Valour doth swell when it is crushed betwixt extremities and then oftentimes goeth beyond her self in her atchievements This day by Gods blessing on their courage they got a noble conquest Some saw S. George in the aire with an armie of white horses fighting for them but these no doubt did look through the spectacles of fansie And yet though we should reject this apparition we need not play the Origens with the story of S. George and change all the literall sense into an allegorie of Christ and his Church for it is improbable that our English nation amongst so many Saints that were would choose one that was not to be their patrone especially seeing the world in that age had rather a glut then famine of Saints And here let me advertise the Reader once for all not to expect that I should set down those many miracles wherewith Authours who write this warre so lard their stories that it will choke the belief of any discreet man to swallow them As the intent of these writers was pious to gain credit and converts to the Christian faith so the prosecuting of their project must be condemned in thinking to grace the Gospel in reporting such absurd falsities But let us know that heaven hath a pillorie whereon Fraus pia her self shall be punished and rather let us leave religion to her native plainnesse then hang her eares with counterfeit pearls The pride of the Turks being abated in this battel and an 100000 of them being slain the Christians grew mightily insolent and forgot to return to God the honour of the victorie Whereupon followed a great mortalitie and 50000 died in few dayes whether this proceeded from the climate the bodies of Europe not being friends with the aire of Asia til use by degrees reconcileth them or whether it was caused by their intemperance for after long fasting they would not measure their stomacks by the standard of physick and dieting themselves till nature by degrees could digest the meat but by surfeting digged their graves with their own teeth And now we are come to the skirts and borders of Palestine Wherefore as Heralds use to blazon the field before they meddle with the charge so let us describe the land before we relate the actions done therein If in bowling they must needs throw wide which know not the green or alley whereon they play much more must they misse the truth in storie who are unacquainted with that countrey whereon the discourse proceedeth Briefly therefore of the Holy land as not intending to make a large and wide description of so short and narrow a countrey Chap. 18. A Pisgah-sight or short survey of Palestine in generall and how it might maintain 1300000 men PAlestine is bounded on the North with mount Libanus West with the mid-land-sea South with the wildernesse of Paran parting it from Egypt and East with the mountains of Gilead and the river of Arnon To give it the most favourable dimensions From the foot of Libanus to Beersheba North and South may be allowed 210 miles and from Ramoth-Gilead to Endor East and West seventie which is the constant breadth of the countrey In which compasse in Davids time were maintained thirteen hundred thousand men besides women children and impotent persons and yet the tribes of Benjamin and Levi were not reckoned True this must needs be for Truth hath said it Yet is it wonderfull For though the united Provinces in the Low-countreys maintain as many people in as little a plot of ground yet they feed not on home-bred food but have Poland for their granarie the British ocean for their fish-pond High-Germanie for their wine-cellar and by the benefit of their harbours unlock the store-houses of all other countreys It fared not thus with the Jews whose own countrey fed them all And yet the seeming impossibilitie of so many kept in so small a land will be abated if we consider these particulars 1. People in those hot countreys had not so hot appetites for the quantitie of the meat eaten nor gluttonous palates for the varietie of it 2. The countrey rising and falling into hills and vales gained many acres of ground whereof no notice is taken in a map for therein all things presented are conceived to be in planâ— And so the land was farre roomthier then the scale of miles doth make it 3. They had pasturage to feed their cattel in in out-countreys beyond Palestine Thus the tribe of Reuben grased their cattel east-ward even to the river Euphrates 4. Lastly the soyl was transcendently fruitfull as appeareth by that great bunch of grapes carried by two men For though many a man hath not been able to bear wine it is much that one should be loaden with one cluster of grapes If any object against the fruitfulnesse of this countrey That there were many wildernesses therein as those of Maon Ziph Carmel Gibeon Judah and these must needs cut large thongs out of so narrow a hide it is answered That these wildernesses took up no great space as probably being no bigger then our least forrests in England As for the greater deserts we must not conceive them to lie wholly waste but that they were but thinly inhabited for we find six cities with their villages in the wildernesse of Judah Principall commodities of this countrey were 1. Balm which wholly failed not long after our Saviours passion whether because the type was to cease when the truth was come or because that land was unworthy to have so sovereigne bodily physick grow in her where the Physician of the soul was put to death 2. Hony and that either distilled by bees those little chymists and the pasture they fed on was never a whit the barer for their biting or else rained down from heaven as that which Jonathan tasted when his sweet meat had like to have
had sowre sauce and to have cost him his life Besides these milk oyl nuts almonds dates figs olives So that we may boldly say no countrey had better sauce and better meat having fowl fish in sea lakes and rivers flesh of sheep goats bucks and kiâ—e Mines of gold and silverâ— with pearls and precious stones Judea rather had not then wanted either because God would not have his people proud or covetous or because these are not essentiall to mans life or because nature bestoweth these commodities in recompense on barren countreys Horses they had none but what they bought out of Egypt for service using asses for burden oxen for drawing and mules for travel And for many hundred yeares they used no horses in battel till David took some from Hadadezer The greatest inconvenience of the land was that it had wild beasts and their sheep were not securely folded like ours in England which stand more in danger of men then wolves The chief river of the countrey was Jordan over which the Israelites passed on foot afterwards Elijah made a bridge over it with his cloke and our Saviour washed the water hereof by being baptized in it This ariseth from the springs of Jor and Dan whence running south he enlargeth himself first into the waters of Merom then into the lake of Genesareth or Tiberias and hence recovering his stream as if sensible of his sad fate and desirous to deferre what he cannot avoid he fetcheth many turnings and windings but all will not excuse him from falling into the Dead sea Authours are very fruitfull on the barrennesse of this sea where Sodome once stood writing how on the banks thereof grow those hypocrite apples and well-complexioned dust the true emblemes of the false pleasures of this world which touched fall to ashes Chap. 19. Galilee described PAlestine contained foure provinces Galilee on the north Trachonitis beyond Jordan on the east Judea on the south and Samaria in the middle Galilee was divided into the upper and lower The upper called also Galilee of the Gentiles because it bordered on them comprehended the tribes of Asher and Nephthali Asher entertaineth us with these observables 1. Misrephothmajim the Nantwich of Palestine where salt was boyled 2. Sarepta where Elijah multiplied the widows oyl 3. Tyre anciently the Royall-Exchange of the world but of this as of Sidon and Ptolemais largely hereafter 4. Aphek whose walls falling down gave both the death and grave-stones to 27000 of Benhadads souldiers 5. Cana the great whereof was that woman whose daughter Christ dispossessed of a devil 6. Belus a rivulet famous for his glassie sand 7. Mount Libanus whether so called as our Albion from his snowy top or from frankincense growing thereon Nephthali with these 1. Abel-beth-maacha In this borough Sheba that vermine earthed himself till a womans wisdome threw his head over the wals And pitie it was those wals should have stood if they had been too high to throw a traytours head over them 2. Harosheth the citie of Sisera who for all his commanding of 900 iron-chariots was slain with one iron-nail 3. Capernaum where Christ healed the Centurions servant and not farre off fed an army of guests with five loaves and two fishes so that if we consider what they ate we may wonder that they left any thing if what they left that they ate any thing 4. Kedesh a citie of refuge whither they were to flie that killed men unawares As for those who formerly priviledged Sanctuaries in England where the worst traytours and wilfullest murderers were secure from punishment they rather propounded Romulus then Moses for their president 5. Riblah where King Zedekiah more unhappy that he saw so long then that he was blind so soon had his eyes put out after he had beheld the slaughter of his sonnes 6. Cesarea-Philippi the chief citie of Decapolis which was a small territorie on both sides of Jordan so called of ten cities it contained though Authours wonderfully differ in reckoning them up 7. Christs mount so named because it was his pulpit as the whole Law was his text when he made that famous sermon in the mount This Sunne of righteousnesse which had all Palestine for his zodiack the twelve tribes for his signes stayed longest here and in Zabulon and as S. Hierome observeth as these two tribes were first carried into captivitie so redemption was first preached in these countreys Lower Galilee consisted of Zabulon and Issachar Zabulon presenteth us with Naim where our Saviour raised the widows sonne so that she was twice a mother yet had but one child 2. Cana the lesse where he shewed the virginitie of his miracles at a marriage turning water into wine 3. Bethulia where Judeth strook off Holofernes his head though some since have strook off that story not onely from canonicall scripture but from truth 4. Bethsaida upbraided by Christ famous for her great means great ingratitude great punishment 5. Nazareth where our Saviour had his conception and education 6. Tiberias so called by Herod the Tetrarch in the honour of Tiberius 7. Mount Carmel the Jewish Parnassus where the Prophets were so conversant 8. Tabor where our Saviour was transfigured the earnest of his future glory 9. The river Kishon Gods besome to sweep away Sisera's great armie In Issachar we find Tarichea taken with great difficultie by Vespasian 2. Shunem where Elisha was so often entertained by an honourable woman And as if this land had been thirsty of bloud here in this tribe were fought the battels of Gideon against the Midianites Jehu against Jehoram Saul against the Philistines upon mount Gilboa David therefore cursed that mountain that neither dew nor rain should fall on it But of late some English travellers climbing this mountain were well wetted David not cursing it by a propheticall spirit but in a poeticall rapture Chap. 20. The description of Samaria SAmaria contained half Manasses on this side Jordan and the tribe of Ephraim In the former we meet with Bethshean on the walls whereof the Philistines hanged Sauls body 2. Tirzah where Zimri whose onely goodnesse was that he reigned but seven dayes burned himself and the Kings palace 3. Thebez where Abimelech prodigall of his life but niggardly of his reputation not so pained with his death as angry with his killer because a woman would needs be killed again by his armour-bearer 4. Megiddo where Josiah that bright sunne set in a cloud engaging himself in a needlesse quarrel wherein he was slain 5. Cesarea-Stratonis where Herod was eaten up with worms 6. Jezreel a royall citie of the Kings of Israel nigh which lay the vineyard or rather bloud-yard of Naboth Ephraim was adorned with Samaria the chief citie of Israel which at this day sheweth more ruines then Jerusalem 2. Shiloh where the Ark was long leiger and where Eli heart-broken with bad news brake his neck with a fall 3. Sichem where Dinah bought the satisfying of her curiositie with the losse of her
and have at Italie Wherefore the Hospitallers left Nice and planted themselves at Syracuse in Sicilie Where they right valiantly behaved themselves in defending that countrey But Charles the fifth a politick Prince though he saw their help was usefull yet desired not much to have them live in his own countrey He liked their neighbourhood better then their presence to have them rather neare then in his Kingdome Wherefore he appointed them the Island of Malta to keep for themselves their grand Master onely paying yearly to the King of Spain a Falcon in acknowledgement they held it from him Loth were the Hospitallers to leave Sicilie that Paradise of pleasure and went very unwillingly from it Malta is an Island in the mid-land-sea seated betwixt Europe and Africa as if it meant to escape out of both as being in neither Here S. Paul suffered shipwrack when the viper stung him not but the men did condemning him for a murderer And here the Hospitallers seated themselves and are the bulwark of Christendome to this day giving dayly evident proof of their courage But their master-piece was in the yeare 1565 when they couragiously defended the citie of Malta besieged by Soliman When he discharged seventie eight thousand bullets some of them seven spans in compasse against it big enough not onely to overthrow walls but overturn mountains yet notwithstanding they held out valiantly five moneths and at last forced the Turk to depart These Knights of Malta are at this day a good bridle to Tunis and Algiers I am informed by a good friend who hath spent much yet lost no time in those parts that these Knights are bound by vow not to flie from the Turks though one man or one galley to foure half which ods Hercules himself durst not venture on but if there be five to one it is interpreted wisdome not cowardlinesse to make away from them Also if a Christian ship wherein there is a Knight of Malta take a Turkish ship that Knight is bound by his Order first to go aboard to enter it The grand Master of this Order hath a great command and is highly esteemed of insomuch that the authour of the Catalogue of the glory of the world beleeveth he is to take place next to absolute Kings above all other temporall Princes even above Kings subject to the Empire Sure he meaneth if they will give it him otherwise it seemeth improper that the alms-man should take place of his benefactours Yet the Lord Prior of the Hospitallers in England was chief Baron of the Realm and had precedencie of all other Lords and here his Order flourished with great pomp till their finall period which I now come to relate Chap. 6. The Hospitallers in England stoutly withstand three severall assaults which overthrew all other Religious foundations THe suppression of the Hospitallers in England deserveth especiall notice because the manner thereof was different from the dissolving of other Religious houses for manfully they stood it out to the last in despite of severall assaults 1. Cardinall Wolsey by leave from the Pope suppressed certain small houses of little value therewithall to endow his Colledges in Oxford and Ipswich He first shewed Religious places were mortall which hitherto had flourished in a seeming eternitie This leading case of Wolseys did pick the morter out of all the Abbey-walls in England and made a breach in their strongest gate-houses teaching covetousnesse an apt scholar a readie way to assault them For it is the dedication not the value of the thing dedicated stampeth a character of sacrednesse upon it And King Henry the eighth concluded if the Cardinall might eat up the lean Covents he himself might feed on the fat ones without danger of a sacrilegious surfet True it is Wolsey not wholly but in part alienated the lands of these pettie houses reserving them still to the generall end of pious uses But the King followed this pattern so farre as it was for his purpose and neglected the rest 2. For not long after the Parliament granted him all Religious houses of and under the value of two hundred pounds yearly and it was thought that above ten thousand persons masters and servants lost their livelihoods by the demolishing of them And for an introduction to the suppression of all the residue he had a strait watch set upon them and the Regulars therein tied to a strict and punctuall observation of their orders without any relaxation of the least libertie insomuch that many did quickly un-nunne and disfriar themselves whose sides formerly used to go loose were soon galled with strait lacing 3. Then followed the grand dissolution or judgement-day on the world of Abbeys remaining which of what value soever were seised into the Kings hands The Lord Cromwell one of excellent parts but mean parentage came from the forge to be the hammer to maul all Abbeys Whose magnificent ruines may lesson the beholders That it is not the firmnesse of the stone nor fastnesse of the morter maketh strong walls but the integritie of the inhabitants For indeed foul matters were proved against some of them as Sodomie and much uncleannesse Whereupon unwillingly willing they resigned their goods and persons to the Kings mercie But the Knights-Hospitallers whose chief mansion was at St-Johns nigh London being Gentlemen and souldiers of ancient families and high spirits would not be brought to present the King such puling petitions and publick recognitions of their errours as other Orders had done They complained it was a false consequence as farre from charitie as logick from the induction of some particular delinquents to inferre the guiltinesse of all Religious persons Wherefore like stout fellows they opposed any that thought to enrich themselves with their ample revenues and stood on their own defense and justification Chap. 7. The Hospitallers at last got on an advantage and suppressed BUt Barnabe's day it self hath a night and this long-lived Order which in England went over the graves of all others came at last to its own They were suffered to have rope enough till they had haltered themselves in a Praemunire For they still continued their obedience to the Pope contrary to their allegeance whose usurped authoritie was banished out of the land and so though their lives otherwise could not be impeached for any vitiousnesse they were brought within the compasse of the law The case thus standing their deare friends perswaded them to submit to the Kings mercie and not to capitulate with him on conditions nor to stop his favour by their own obstinacie but yeeld whilest as yet terms honest and honourable would be freely given them That such was the irresistiblenesse of the Kings spirit that like a torrent it would bear down any thing which stood betwixt him and his desires If his anger were once inflamed nothing but their bloud could quench it Let them not flatter themselves into their own ruine by relying on the aid of their friends at
should aw them all into obedience The Germane Emperour though above all came but seldome and was not constant amongst them The King of Jerusalem especially in the declining of the State was rather sleighted then feared The Popes Legate usurped a superioritie but was never willingly nor generally obeyed Surely smaller forces being united under one command would have been more effectuall in proof though not so promising in opinion and fame then these great armies variously compounded by associations and leagues and of the confluence of Princes otherwise unconcurring in their severall courses Livie writing of that great battel the criticall day of the worlds Empire betwixt Hannibal Scipio It is small saith he to speak of yet of much moment in the matter it self that when the armies joyned the shouting of the Romanes was farre more great and terrible as being all of one voice from the same nation whilest Hannibals souldiers voices were different and disagreeing as consisting of severall languages If such a toy be considerable and differing in tongues lesseneth the terriblenesse in an armie how doth dissenting in hearts and affections abate the force thereof and what advantage had the united Turks against divided Christian Princes which managed this warre Had the emulation betwixt those equall Princes onely been such as is the spurre of vertue farre from enmitie and hatefull contention striving with good deserts to outstrip those who by the same means sought to attain to the like end had it been mixed with love in regard of the affinitie of their affections and sympathie of their desires not seeking the ruine of their competitour but succouring him in danger then such simultates had been both honourable and usefull to the advancing of the Holy cause But on the other side their affections were so violent and dispositions so crooked that emulation in them boyled to hatred that to malice which rested better satisfied with the miserable end of their opposite partner then with any tropheys deservedly erected to their own honour And herein the warres betwixt the Venetians and Genoans in Syria are too pregnant an instance The length of the journey succeedeth as the fourth impediment There needed no other hindrance to this voyage then the voyage the way was so long In sensation the object must not be over-distant from the sense otherwise Lynceus eyes may see nothing So it is requisite in warlike adventures that the work be not too farre from the undertakers Indeed the Romanes conquered countreys farre from home but the lands betwixt them were their own wherein they refreshed themselves and well may one lift a great weight at arms end if he hath a rest to stay his elbow on So though Spain hath subdued much in the Indies yet there they met with none or naked resistance It fared not thus with the Christians in this warre By the tediousnesse of the journey their strength was exhausted they ranne dregs when first they were broched in Syria and as it were scattered their powder in presenting before they came to discharge Frederick Barbarossa wrote a braving letter to Saladine reckoning up the severall nations in Europe under his command and boasting what an armie of them he would bring into Syria Saladine answered him That he also ruled over as many peoples and told him that there was no sea which hindred his men from coming quickly together whereas saith he you have a great sea over which with pains and danger you must passe before you can bring your men hither Besides if the Christians shaped their journey by land then their miseries in Hungarie Grecia and Asia the lesse made their land-journey more tedious and troublesome then if they had gone by sea Chap. 14. The fifth impediment Clergie-men being Captains THat Prelates and Clergie-men were often Generalls in this action as Peter the Hermite Pelagius the Cardinall and many others was another cause of their ill successe For allow them able in their own way for matter of learning yet were they unsufficient to manage martiall affairs Many who in England have learned the French tongue and afterwards have gone over into France have found themselves both deaf and dumbe in effect neither hearing to understand nor speaking to be understood They in like manner who frame to themselves in their studies a model of leading an armie find it as full of errours as rules when it eâ—meth to be applied and a measure of warre taken by book falleth out either too long or too short when brought into the field to be used I have heard a storie of a great map-monger who undertook to travel over England by help of his maps without asking the least direction of any he met Long he had not ridden but he met with a non plus ultrà a deep unpassable gullet of water without bridge ford or ferry This water was as unknown to his Camdens or Speeds maps as to himself because it was neither body nor branch of any constant river or brook such as onely are visible in maps but an ex-tempore-water flowing from the snow which melted on hills Worse unexpected accidents surprise those who conceive themselves to have conned all martiall maximes out of Authours and warrant their skill in warre against all events out of their great reading when on the sudden some unwonted occurrent taketh them unprovided standing amazed till destruction seiseth on them Indeed sometimes such unlooked-for chances arrest even the best and most experienced Generalls which have long been acquainted with warre nor are they priviledged by all their experience from such casualties nor are they so omniscient but that their skill may be posed therewith a minute shewing sometimes what an age hath not seen before But then such aged commanders have this advantage that finding themselves at a fault they can soonest know where to beat about and recover it Adde to the inabilitie the incongruitie of Prelates going to fight True in defensive warres necessitie is their sufficient dispensation but otherwise it is improper In the battel against Amalek Josua fought Moses prayed the Levites bare the ark no office of command in the Camp And better it had been that Cardinall Columna had been at his beads or in his bed or any where else then in the camp in Egypt where by his indiscreet counsel he brought all the lives of the Christians into danger Chap. 15. The sixth hindrance the Diversitie of the climate disagreeing with the bodies of Europe And what weakeneth Northern men going Southward NOw followeth the Diversitie of the climate which caused the death of many thousands of the Christians sweeping them away with horrible plagues and other diseases For even as men when they come into a new Corporation must pay their fees before they can be freemen thereof and set up trading therein so it alwayes cost the Christians of Europe a dangerous sicknesse at least before they could be well acquainted with the aire and climate of Palestine Amongst other diseases the