Diseases which affected the Cattel throughout Italy so that most of their Beasts died A great Famine and Pestilence in France The King of England is slain by the East Angles The Danes enter the Thames with two hundred and fifty Ships they take Canterbury and London and expel the King XXIX In the Ninth Tenth and Eleventh Centuries an Earthquake happened in Scotland another in France a very great one in Asia and several terrible ones with mighty Whirlwinds in Germany Also a great Earthquake in England where five Suns appear at one and afterward four Moons at once Horrible groans and noises in the ground at Rome Syracuse in Sicily was extreamly shaken with an Earthquake A wonderful Hail at Oxford in England with many other terrible appearances as Fire rising out of the River Rhyne and many places in Germany the Sun appears for certain days as if it bled In the Reign of King William the Conqueror 1086. happened an Earthquake with a dreadful noise In 1100 in the Reign of King Henry I. the Earth moved with so great violence in England that many buildings where shaken down and Malmesbury the Historian writes That the House wherein he sate was lifted up with a double remove and at the third time setled again in its proper place In divers places a hideous noise was heard and the Earth through several rifts cast forth Fire for many days together which neither by Water nor any other means could be supprest In Lumbardy in Italy about the same time was an Earthquake which lasted above six weeks and removed a Town from the place where it stood a great distance Matthew Paris mentions another Earth quake and a great Darkness in England about twenty years after And another in the Reign of King Henry II. in the Eastern parts of England which threw down many Persons who were standing or walking and made the Clocks to strike and Bells to ring in the Steeples In 1179. on Christmas day at Oxenhall near Darlington in the County of Durham the Earth was lifted up aloft like a Tower and so continued all that day as it were immoveable till Evening and then fell with so horrible a noise that it affrighted the Inhabitants thereabout and the Earth swallowing it up made in the same place three Pits of a wonderful depth which were afterward called Hell-Kettles It is reported that Bishop Tonstal put a Goose into one of these Pits having first given her a mark and the same Goose was found in the River Tees which if true these Kettles have passages under Ground XXX In 1180. an Earthquake ruined a great part of the City of Naples Great Stones were Rained from Heaven and a Hill of an immense magnitude is removed out of his place The City of Catania in Sicily is destroyed with nineteen thousand People by an Earthquake A multitude of Snakes were seen at Rome a fiery Dart ran up and down in the Heavens Women appeared in the Heavens of admirable shapes to the great amazement of the Spectators About this time the Hungarians Invade the Empire of Germany but are reconciled The Bishop of Saltsburg calls an hundred thousand Hungarians into Bavaria which are all slain there and the Emperors Eyes pluckt out A great Famine in Germany and France The Prussians Invade Poland and fifteen thousand of them are slain and twenty thousand made Prisoners The Saxons Rebel against the Emperor twenty six thousand of them are Drowned in a Pitfall by the Stratagem of two Bishops in Holland as they came against the Earl of Flanders Gonsalmus King of Spain Poisons King Sancho with an Apple The Danes Land in Scotland and wast divers places the Scots put them to flight They Land in Kent and spoil the Isle of Thanet The King of Denmark is slain by one of his Servants The Danes being defeated at Oxford fly to the Church and are there burnt Otho Emperor of Germany is Poisoned with a pair of Gloves Pedro King of Spain taketh Oscu and killeth thirty thousand Moors The English Invade Normandy Harold Earl of Caithnes in Scotland cuts out the Bishops Tongue for which the King puts out his Eyes hangs him and causeth his Male Children to be Gelt The K. of Ioenium is swallowed up by an Earthquake and in England many Buildings are thrown down by the same means amongst which the Cathedral Church of Lincoln was rent in pieces XXXI In 1222. There were such Earthquakes in Italy and Lombardy that the Cities and Towns were forsaken and the People kept abroad in the Fields in Tents many Houses and Churches were thrown down much people thereby crushed to Death The Earth trembled twice a day in Lombardy for fourteen days together besides two Cities in Cyprus and the City of Brescia were this year destroyed by Earthquakes In 1176. About the time that Adrian the Fourth was made Pope was a dreadful Earthquake at Millain and all the Country round about A noise like Trumpets in the Air was heard in Italy where was likewise a great Earthquake another in England and a third in Germany The Consequents were thought to be the slaying of two hundred thousand Moors by the Spaniards about that time The Pope giveth the Kingdom of England to Philip King of France Excommunicating King John The French strive to take possession of it but the Flemish with the English take three hundred sail of Ships from them and burn an hundred more The King of Arragon is slain The King of Bulgaria plucks out the Emperors Eyes The Infidels take Jerusalem and slay many Prisoners The Turks win all the lower Asia from the Greeks The Pope is slain by a Fall The Emperor Kills fourteen thousand Bohemians The King of England brings the Welsh under intire subjection XXXII Remarkable is what is related by divers Authors which happened in a Town called Hamel in the Dutchy of Brunswick in Germany in 1248. June 26. This Town being very grievously troubled with Rats and Mice there came to them a Pied Coat Piper who agreed with the Burgers that for so much Money he would quite clear them from those Vermine nor would he demand it till a year and a day after The agreement being made he began to play on his Pipes going from one Street to another and all the Rats and Mice followed him whom he led to a great Lake hard by where they all went in and were drowned so that the Town was Infected no more At the end of the year the Pied Piper returned for his reward The Burgers put him off with slightings and neglect offering him some small matter which he refusing and staying some few days in Town On Sunday Morning at High Mass when most People were at Church he fell to Play on his Pipes and began another Tune whereupon there followed him one hundred and thirty Boys out of the Town to a great Hill called Koppen scituate on the Road hard by when they approached the Mountain it rent in twain and opening let him
and the Children in and then closed again so that he nor they were ever seen after This History is writ and religiously kept by them in their Annals at Hamel to this day is read in their Books and painted in their Windows and their Churches they date their Bills Bonds and other Instruments in Law From the year of the going out of the Children Besides there is a great Pillar of Stone at the Foot of that Hill whereon the Story is Ingraven It is also observed in the memory thereof that in the Streets the Children passed out of no Piper is admitted to live ever since and if a Bride live in that Street till she is come out of it no Dancing is to be suffered Howel's Epistles page 272. XXXIII In 1300. When the Turkish Empire began to be considerable there was such an Earthquake at Rome as never was before and forty eight Earthquakes happened in one year whereby all Lombardy was shaken A great Earthquake in London which was especially felt on the Banks of the River Thames which shook and threw down many buildings and was the more terrible because the Western parts are less accustomed to Earthquakes and there was little ebbing or flowing of the Sea observable as at other times for about three months after Another Earthquake did much mischief about Bath and Bristol and two more happened in England not long after Also two in France and one in Savoy An Earthquake at Rome in the time of Pope Boniface the eight who fainted away for fear and afterward published a Jubilee In 1348. a terrible Earthquake happened at Constantinople which indured six weeks and reached in the extent of it as far as Hungary and Italy Twenty six Cities were overthrown by it Mountains were torn up by the Roots and several Men Women and Beasts by that strong Exhalation were turned into Statues of Salt In Persia five hundred Houses were thrown by an Earthquake in the City of Lair In England for six hours together the Sun appeared as Bloud In Germany was a very great Earthquake Grashoppers cover Switzerland like Snow At Oxford the Image of a Head spake thus Caput decidetur Caput Elevabitur Pedes elevabuntur super Caput The Head shall be cut off The Head shall be lift up The Feet shall be elevated above the Head Which was thought to presage the Deposing and Death of King Richard II. At this time fifty thousand Christians were slain by the Turks in the Plains of Casovia Scotland is wasted by the English The Emperor Sigismond executed thirty two of the Nobles in Hungary The Pope is imprisoned by the French King A great Battle between King Henry the V. and the French wherein they lost twenty thousand men ten thousand being killed upon the place and as many made Prisoners The French burn Rye and Hastings in Sussex and Plunder the Isle of Wight In Gaunt five thousand Houses were burnt and seventeen Towns drowned in Flanders A very great Earthquake in France and Grashoppers destroy almost every green thing there The World was shook with terrible Earthquakes Cities Castles Villages and a multitude of People were swallowed up in the Caverns of the Earth Many at Liege destroyed by Thunder while they were paying their Veneration to the Saints for safety Mountains were cleft and Rivers were dried up XXVIV In 1456. There arose upon the Sea of Ancona in Italy together with a thick Gloomy Cloud that extended above two Miles a Tempest of Wind Water Fire Lightning and Thunder which peircing to the most deep Abysses of the Sea forced up the Waves with a most dreadful fury and carried all before it upon the Land which caused so horrible an Earthquake some time after that the Kingdom of Naples was almost ruined and all Italy carried the dismal marks of it A Million of Houses and Castles were buried in their own ruins and above thirty thousand People crushed to pieces and a huge Mountain overturned into the Lake de la Garde Soon after was a dreadful Earthquake in Millain another in Hungary In Poland there was seen saith my Author an Image of Christ crucified with a Sword to pass along the Air from West to South for two hours In Germany Hailstones fell as big as Goose Eggs. At this time the Hungarians defeat the Turks and take thirty thousand Captives from them The Spanish Inquisition is first instituted in Castile against the Moors and Jews The Jews are expelled Spain The Turks expel the Christians from Adrianople King Henry VI. is taken Prisoner at North-hampton Great Inundations in England The Sun is darkned without an Ecclipse XXXV In 1509. Sept. 14. There happened a terrible Earthquake at Constantinople and in the Countrey thereabout Bajazet II. being Emperor by the violence whereof a great part of that Imperial City with many stately Buildings both Publick and Private were overthrown and thirteen thousand People overwhelmed and slain The terror thereof was so great that the People generally forsook their Houses and lay abroad in the Fields Yea Bajazet himself though very Aged and sore troubled with the Gout for fear thereof went from Constantinople to Adrianople but finding himself in no more safety there than before he left the City and lay abroad in the Fields in his Tent. This Earthquake endured by the space of eighteen days or as the Turks relate for a month with little intermission which was then accounted ominous as portending the miserable Calamities which afterward happened in the Ottoman Family After this Earthquake ensued a great Plague wherewith Constantinople was grievously Visited and almost depopulated After the Earthquake ceased the Emperor imployed eighty thousand Men to repair it who in four months time re-edified the ruins thereof with much Beauty and Magnificence It is strange to Relate saith my Author that in this year 1510 there fell twelve hundred stones from Heaven some weighing Sixty pound others more An Earthquake in Apulia whereby above Sixteen thousand Persons were overwhelmed after which ensued a War betwixt the French and the Duke of Savoy which devoured above a Million of Men. In Holland four hundred and four Parishes are drowned with all their People and Cattel The Turks take Buda in Hungary King Henry VIII writes against the Pope Cardinal Woolsey dies The English Clergy are fined and pay the King an hundred thousand pound for divers Misdemeanors In 1531. In the City of Lisbon in Portugal about fourteen hundred Houses were overthrown by an Earthquake and Six hundred more so sorely shaken that they were ready to fall and many of their Churches were cast to the ground XXXVI In 1538. Mr. George Sandys gives the following Relation of a most remarkable Earthquake and Burning which happened near the City Puteoli with the new formed Mountain For the famous Lake Lucrinus hard by extended formerly to the deadly Sulphurous Lake Avernus supposed the entrance into Hell by ignorant Antiquity where they offered Infernal Sacrifices to Pluto their God of Hell and
to the Manes or Ghosts of their deceased Friends who were there said to have returned answers to what they have demanded of them This place is now only a little watry plash choaked up by the horrible and astonishing eruption of a new Mountain whereof as often as I think I am apt to give credit to whatsoever is wonderful For who is there in this place but knows or who elsewhere will believe that a Mountain should arise partly out of a Lake and partly out of the Sea in one day and anight to such an height as to contend in altitude with the highest Mountains adjoyning yet so it was For Sept. 29. 1538. the Courtrey hereabout having for several days before been tormented with perpetual Earthquakes that no one House was left intire but all Men expected an immediate ruin After the Sea had retired two hundred Paces from the Shoar leaving abundance of Fish and Springs of fresh water rising in the bottom this Mountain visibly ascended about the second hour of the Night with an hideous roaring noise horribly vomiting Stones and such store of Cinders as overwhelmed all the buildings thereabout and the healthful Baths of Tripergula celebrated for so many Ages consuming the Vines to Ashes and killing Birds and Beasts The fearful Inhabitants of Puteoli flying away in the dark with their Wives and Children naked defiled crying out and detesting their Calamities Manifold mischiefs had they suffered by the Turks and Barbarians yet none like that which Nature inflicted This Mountain is to be seen at this day the top whereof is above a Mile from the Foundation the stones upon it are so light and pory that they will not sink when thrown into Water when it was newly raised it had a vast number of Vents or Issues some of them smoaking and likewise flaming others disgorging little Rivers of hot water keeping a dreadful rumbling and many miserably perished who ventured to go down into the hallowness above But that hollow on the top is now an Orchard and the Mountain throughout is bereft of its Terrors no more smoak fire or flames issuing therefrom XXXVII In 1571. Feb. 17. A prodigious Earthquake happened in the Eastern Parts of Herefordshire near a little Town called Kinaston About Six in the Evening the Earth began to open and an Hill called Marcley Hill with a Rock under it made at first a mighty bellowing noise which was heard afar off and then lifted up it self a great heighth and began to travel bearing along with it the Trees that grew upon it the Sheepfolds and Flocks of Sheep abiding thereon at the same time In the place from whence it first moved it left a gaping distance forty Foot wide and eighty Ells long the whole Field was about twenty Acres Passing along it overthrew a Chappel standing in the way removed an Ewâ—-Tree growing in the Church yard from the West to East With the like violence it thrust before it Highways Houses and Trees it made Tilled ground Pasture and again turned Pasture into Village Having thus walked from Sunday in the Evening till Monday Noon it then stood still and moved no more mounting to an Hill twelve fathoms high The like prodigy happened about the same time at Blackmore in that County where a Field of three Acres with the Trees and Fences moved from their place and passed over another Field travelling in the Highway that goeth to Herne and there stayed A great Earthquake fell out at Constantinople about this time a while before a terrible Fire in that City which burnt the Gaol and consumed seven hundred Prisoners An Earthquake and Bowls of Fire in Carinthia The Sun seemed to cleave in sunder Corn rained from Heaven An Earthquake and Inundation in Holland At this time was the Swearing Sickness in England Nine thousand French were slain at Dreux in Normandy among whom the King of Navar. The Turkish Pyrates carry Six Thousand Captives out of the Isle of Gaul near to Malta A great Plague in England Very great Thunder and an Earthquake in Spain XXXVIII In 1580. April 6. being Easter Wednesday about six a Clock in the Afternoon happened a great Earthquake in England which shook all the Houses Castles and Churches every where as it went and put them in danger of utter ruin yet through the Divine Clemency it overthrew few or none save certain Stones Chimneys Walls and Pinacles of high Buildings both in London and divers other places and a Boy and a Girl being at Sermon among a great number of People at Christ-Church in Newgate-Street the Boy was killed outright with the fall of a Stone from the Roof of the Church and the Girl so fore bruised by another that she dyed soon after At York it made the Bells in the Churches jangle This Earthquake had such influence upon the mind of the People That a Prayer was Published by Queen Elizabeth to be used of all Housholders with their whole Family every Evening before thy went to Bed that it would please God to turn his wrath from us threatned in the last terrible Earthquake In 1581. Josephus Acosta relates That in Peru in America there happened an Earthquake which removed the City of Augnangum two Leagues from the place where it stood without demolishing it in regard the Scituation of the whole Countrey was changed The same Author gives an account of another Earthquake in the same Countrey that reached three hundred Leagues along the Sea-shore and seventy Leagues in Land and levelled the Mountains all along as it went threw down Citys turned the Rivers out oâ— their Channels and made an Universal â—avock and confusion All this he saith was done within the space of seven or eight Minutes Some time before this above forty thousand People perished in an Earthquake about Puel and Naples XXXIX In 1590. The Election of Pope Urban VII was signalized by an Earthquake which made Austria Bohemia and Moravia to tremble and was followed by an extraordinary Dearth Gregory XIV quickly succeeded and died in ten months There was such a Famine and Plague in Italy that year that above threescore thousand Persons died In 1591. In St. Michaels Island in the West Indies there happened an Earthquake which continued about sixteen days to the extream terror of the French who inhabite there especially when by the force thereof they perceived the Earth to remove from place to place and Villa Franca their principal Town overthrown the Ships that then road at Anchor in the Bay trembled and quaked insomuch that the People thought the Day of Judgment was come In 1593. Another terrible Earthquake happened in Persia which overturned three thousand Houses in the City of Lair crushing to Death above three thousand Persons in their ruins yea the Castle though built upon a solid Rock groaned under the like affrighting downfall In 1614. there was a great Earthquake in Vercer one of the largest of the Islands called Azores belonging to the King of Portugal overturning in
with the vastness of its strength it cast out huge Rocky Pumice Stones and great heaps of other matter which it carried through all Asia Lesbos and Abydus and the Sea-Coasts of Macedonia so that the whole Surface of the Sea was covered with these Pumices But in the middle of so great a Fire there was an Island made from the heaping up of that matter and and joyned to the Island called The Sacred which never was in being before There was likewise another Island next to this formed in 1670. not without great terror to those of Santorin since the burning lasted for a year as some ancient People who saw it with their Eyes did lately testifie But in the middle of this smaller new Island which is now called little Camena there is to be seen at this very day an huge deep Ditch which being narrow toward the bottom grows bigger by degrees like a Funnel out of which as out of a Chimney those mighty Stones and Rocks did burst forth which being mixt with Cinders and Ashes composed the rest of that Isle XLVII But if ever these Fires pent up in the Bowels of the Earth exercised their force it was most remarkable upon September 24. 1650. which shook the Island till the ninth of October with such mighty and frequent Earthquakes that the People of Santorin fearing that their immediate ruin was approaching were on their Knees night and day before their Altars It cannot be expressed what an horror invaded all men especially when those victorious Flames breaking through all Obstacles strove to make themselves a way through the midst of the Waters of the Ocean about four miles Eastward from Santorin For the Sea all on a suddain swelled Thirty Cubits upward and extending it self wide through the Neighbouring Lands overturned all in its way Insomuch that it broke in pieces several Ships and Galleys in the very Haven of Candia with its extraordinary violence though fourscore miles distant from thence The Air being darkned with those sulphurous stinking Vapours put on innumerable Forms and Appearances as of Fiery Lances and Swords brandished and shaken bright and glittering Arrows darting forth Here terrible Serpents and Dragons seemed to be flying There hideous Thunderclaps Lightnings and Thunderbolts And yet they could scarce see for the Peoples Eyes were so hurt with those sharp pricking sulphurous smoaks and vapours that almost all became blind for three days with such grievous pains in their Eyes that they wept continually and bewailed their most miserable Fate But when their Eye-sight returned they saw all their Silver and Gold both Vessels and Garments and Pictures spread over with a yellow colour and such a vast multitude of Pumice stones did this fiery Gulph vomit forth that it covered the Sea so that they could scarce pass in a Vessel It is most certain that they were carryed many hundred Miles even to Smyrna and Constantinople and all the Shoars and Coasts were filled therewith The fury of this Burning was greatest for the first two months which caused the Neighbouring Sea to bubble like a boyling Pot and night and day huge Globes and Flakes of Fire and exceeding thick Smoak mounted up to the Heavens which if at any time it was carryed by contrary winds to any places near at hand besides a most grievous stink it brought certain destruction upon Birds and Beasts yea upon men themselves As it happened in October and November this year that fifty Husbandmen miserably perished thereby besides an innumerable multitude of Birds Sheep Oxen and Asses The like happened to nine Marriners who passing that way in their Ship by night after three days were all found half burnt and were buried in the Island Nio threescore Miles from Santorin But the other four months for it flamed six in all though that Hellish Hearth or Furnace abated much of its vigour and fierce heat and could scarce lift it self above the waves yet it still seemed to cast out Pumice stones and to be labouring to form a new Island which though it does not yet appear above Water yet in a calm Sea it is observed to be very shallow thereabout the Water being in that place not above eight Cubits deep XLVIII In 1657. The Spaniards felt a terrible blow in Peru which if it were not a Mark of the Wrath of Heaven saith my Author was at least a Sign that the Earth is weary of them especially in those parts where they have stained it with so much innocent blood The City of Lima was swallowed up by an Earthquake and Calao another City not far from it was consumed by a shower of Fire out of the Clouds eleven thousand Spaniards lost their lives in this calamity and the Earth devoured an hundred Millions of refined Silver which the lucre of the Spaniards had forced out of its Bowels All the Mountains of Potosi from whence they dug their choicest mettal were levelled with the Plain and no more hopes of Gold was left to their insatiable avarice XLIX In 1660 an Earthquake happened at Paris in France and at the same time they had news that part of the Pyrenean Mountains had been overthrown some days before They are certain Mountains that divide France and Spain it did great mischief there overwhelming some Medicinal Baths many Houses and destroying hundreds of People only one Church which sunk into the Caverns below was thrown up again and stands very firm but in another place This was looked upon as a great Miracle especially by the French who have disputed with the Spaniard about this Church as standing on the Frontier Line but now is removed near half a League within the acknowledged limits of France L. In 1665. There was a great Tempest accompanied with Thunder Lightning and an Earthquake in divers places in England at which time the stately Spire of Trinity-Church in Coventry fell down and demolished a great part of the Church The next year Sir Rob. Holms destroyed above one hundred and fifty sail of Dutch Ships at the Vly in Holland and burnt the Town of Bandaris in the Island of Schelling containing at least a thousand Houses Sept. 2. about One a Clock in the Morning a sudden and lamentable Fire broke out in the City of London beginning in a place called Pudding-lane near New-Fish-Street which in four days time burnt down thirteen thousand two hundred Houses LI. In 1668 in Autumn a great part of Asia and some parts of Europe were infested with extraordinary Earthquakes The Cities of Constantinople and Adrianople felt its sad Effects but not with that violence and continuance as in other Places In some parts of Persia it continued for above fourscore days Torqueto and Bolio two considerable Cities were by its great violence laid even to the ground and all or most of the Inhabitants buried in the Ruins above six thousand Persons perished in the first of them and above eighteen hundred in the latter And in all the adjacent Cities it raged with extraordinary
left open or by the Fire getting in at the Clefts of the Walls suffered much and are most fallen The Castle at St. Giacomo-Point is quite sunk under ground A Capigee Bassa is sent from hence to Smyrna to look after the Grand Seigniors Interest in taking the Estates of those dead without Heirs which will add affliction to affliction but the publick necessities here are great And the Lord Ambassador of England has sent down an Officer with command from the Grand Visier to be assisting perticulary to our Nation in looking after their concerns LXIII In December following several Earthquakes happened about Naples and Beneventum but without such unfortunate Accidents as attended them some months before Nevertheless that accident being fresh in memory it is not to be imagined in what a consternation the People were and how they fell to their Prayers in several Churches The Monks in those quarters made use of the opportunity to preach That the end of the World was at hand and for that reason endeavoured to a waken the People to give Alms. But in regard saith my Author that the People are not now to be imposed upon as formerly when they used such ways to rear those costly Foundations that are scattered over all Europe they resolved to keep what they had not finding the Monks made better use of their Money than they themselves could do I suppose it will not be deemed presumption to assert that these dreadful shakings of the Earth did seem plainly to presage those Convulsions that happened soon after and may presignify good as well as bad Events Not only the happy Revolutions in these three Kingdoms but also the horrid ruins devastations and miseries which the ambition and barbarity of the French King has occasioned lately in Christendom and which do still continue LXIV Dismal was the Calamity and Judgment which befel the Inhabitants of the Island of Jamaica in the West-Indies upon Tuesday June 7. 1692. by a dreadful Earthquake For about eleven a Clock in the morning the Earth suffered a great Trepidation which in a minutes time was increased to that degree that several Houses began to rumble down and in six or seven minutes or a quarter of an hour at the most made terrible havock and devastation It threw down almost all the Houses Churches Sugar-works Mills and Bridges through the whole Country It tore the Rocks and Mountains and threw them into the Sea but Port Royal had much the greatest share in this astonishing Judgment of God The Minister of that place relates That the same Morning he had been at Prayers in the Church which he never neglected to keep up some shew of Religion amongst a most ungodly debauched People and was gone to a place hard by the Church where the Merchants use to meet and where the President of the Council was designing to dine with one Captain Ruden but his House upon the first concussion sunk first into the Earth and then into the Sea with his Wife and Family and some others that were come to dine with him but the Minister staying some time with the President escaped the danger yet soon after they found the ground rowling and moving under their feet Lord Sir says the Minister What 's this He replied very composedly being a sober grave man It is an Earthquake be not afraid it will soon be over but it increased and they heard the Church and Tower fall upon which they ran to save themselves The Minister quickly lost the President and made toward Morgans Fort which being a wide open place he thought to be securest from falling Houses but as he came near he saw the Earth open and swallow up a multitude of People and the Sea mounting in over the Fortifications He then laid aside all thoughts of escaping and resolved to make towards his own Lodgings and there to meet death in as good a posture as he could and in his way was forced to run through two or three very narrow streets where the Houses and Walls fell on each side of him and some Bricks came rowling over his Shoes but none hurt him When he came to his Lodgings he found all things safe not a Picture of which there were several fair ones in his Chamber displaced He went to the Balconey to view the street in which his House stood and saw never an House down there nor the Ground so much as crackt The People seeing him there cryed out for him to come down and pray with them When he came into the street every one laid hold on his Cloths and embraced him so that with their fear and kindness he was almost stifled He persuaded them at last to kneel down and make a large ring which they did he pray'd with them near an hour when being almost spent with the heat and the exercise they brought him a Chair the Earth working all the while with new motions and tremblings like the rowling of the Sea insomuch that when he was at Prayer he could hardly keep himself upon his Knees By that time he had been about half an hour with them aggravating their sins and provocations and feriously exhorting them to repentance there came some Merchants of the place who desired him to go aboard some Ship in the Harbour refresh himself having got a Boat to carry him off so when he came to the Sea he saw it had swallowed up the Wharf with all those goodly brick Houses upon it most of them as fine as those in Cheapside and two intire Streets beyond that He walked upon the tops of some houses that lay level with the surface of the Water from whence he gotfirst into a Canoo and then into a Long-Boat which put him a Board a Ship called the Siam Merchant where he found the President safe who was overjoyed to see him they could not sleep that night for the returns of the Earthquake almost every hour which made all the Guns in the Ship jar and rattle The next day he went from Ship to Ship to visit those that were bruised and dying and to pray with them and likewise to do the last Office at the sinking of several Corps that came floating from the Point The shakings of the Earth still continued with Thunder and Lightning and foul Weather and the People continued still as desperately wicked as before for that very day this terrible Earthquake happened as soon as night came on a Company of lend Rogues called Privateers fell to breaking open Warehouses and Houses deserted To rob and rifle their Neighbours whilst the Earth trembled under them and some of the Houses fell on them in the Act and those audacious Whores that remained upon the place were as impudent as ever He went again ashoar to pray with the bruised and dying people and to Christen Children where he met too many Drunk and Swearing he did not spare them nor the Magistrates neither who had suffered wickedness to grow to such a height In
means whereby he designed to make them void XXIV In 367. in the Reign of Valens and Valentinian Emperors of Rome there happen'd such horrible Earthquakes throughout the Western Empire as neither True Historians have related the like nor Fables themselves represented to us A little after the day dawned there was a great Tempest of Thunder and Lightning which was followed by such a dreadful trembling of the Earth that the Sea also was shaken therewith and deserted the shore and its ancient bounds for a great space and the depths of its Channels were discovered multitudes of Fish were seen to stick in the Mud and many plowed Fields became Navigable the inequality of the Seas bottom appeared here Hills and there Vallies which had never before seen the Sun since at the original of all things they were first overwhelmed with the Flouds Many Ships were left on the dry ground and swarme of People flew thither to catch Fish when suddenly the Sea as disdaining to be imprisoned returned to its former station with such impetuosity that it over-ran its former bounds and with the fury thereof overthrew a multitude of Towns and Houses with many thousands of People and great numbers of Ships were overwhelmed some of which with the violence thereof were blown upon the tops of Houses Soon after a great Rebellion happened and the Northern Nations came in like a Floud and over-ran the Roman Empire which was thought to be presaged by this lamentable accident XXV In 430. A great Earthquake raged in divers places and overturned many Cities the Wall of Constantinople though but new built it threw to the ground with 57 Turrets Also Stones of great bulk lately placed there fell down many Town were ruined Yea some Authors affirm that it was so terrible as to affect almost the whole World the Earth gaped and swallowed up many Villages Fountains were dried up and Waters brake forth in places formerly dry Great Trees were torn up by the Roots Heaps of Earth were so shaken together that they were raised into Mountains The Sea threw up dead Fishes many Islands were sunk and overwhelmed Ships sailing on the Sea were suddenly left on dry ground In short many places of Bythinia the Hellespont and both the Phrygin's were grievously distrest thereby This disaster continued six months without intermission and the People of Constantinople not daring to stay in the City for fear of the fall of their Houses continued together with their good Emperor and their Patriarch in the Fields instant in Prayers to the Almighty for the removal of so dreadful a Judgment After the danger was over the Emperor repaired the Walls of Constantinople which were much endamaged thereby This was judged a Sign of the Death of Theodosius which soon after followed and of several changes which happened at the same time in divers parts of the World XXVI In 454. A great Earthquake at Rome another at Vienna Wolves and other Beasts wander all the year through the City and devour men An Earthquake in Russia and at Constantinople with two wonderful Blazing Stars About this time the Brittains beat the Saxons and drive them into the Isle of Thanet The Jews Rebel in Egypt and Kill two hundred thousand Men and forced those that survived to eat the dead They slay two hundred and forty thousand in Cyprus and at last are slain themselves A great Famine in Constantinople The Goths wast Thrace Thessaly and Epirus Gratian killeth thirty five thousand Germans Maxinius slayeth Gratian treacherously and possesseth Brittain France Spain and Africk The Temple of Apollo Daphneus is burnt The Heathen Temples are shut up by the Christian Emperors and their Idols destroyed In 458. A great Earthquake happened at Antioch which the Citizens had sad cause to remember Before it began some of the Inhabitants were seized with an extraordinary madness such as seemed to exceed the fury of Wild Beasts and to be the presage of that Calamity which followed soon after For about the Fourth hour of the night in September almost all the buildings of the new City were overturned which was well peopled and none of it forsaken or empty being curiously built by the Magnificence of divers Emperors who strove to exceed each other in the adornment of it The first and second Fabricks in the Palace were also cast down the rest standing together with a Bath which having formerly been neglected now when by the Earthquake the rest were choaked up stood the Citizens in very good stead XXVII In the first Century was a terrible Earthquake in Arabia and another in Palestina and a third at Constantinople for six weeks together It rained Bloud in Piedmont and at York the Fountains ran Bloud a Dragon and many Serpents were seen in the River Tyber After this so terrible a Famine raged in Brittain that the People assembled in great numbers to cast themselves into the Sea A Plague so great in Rome that 800 men fell dead in an hour in the time of Procession Brunchild a Daughter of France being found guilty of the death of ten Kings She is tyed by the Hair of the Head and the Arms to Wild Horses and torn to pieces The Jews and Samaritanes Persecute the Christians and burn their Churches in Caesaria XXVIII In the sixth seventh and eighth Centuries an Earthquake at Antioch Another in Palestina another in England and Normandy a fiery Dragon was seen in the Skies and divers other dreadful Prodigies About the same time there was a violent Earthquake at Constantinople which lasted many days and every hour the City suffered extraordinary shocks Many houses were thrown down but the People betook themselves to Prayer Fasting and Repentance and the Almighty had compassion on them Many Cities in the East were ruined by it and the City of Alexandria was sore shaken therewith which was the more astonishing because it seldom happens in those parts Some years after Constantinople was again shaken so violently that not only the Walls and Churches but all Greece trembled therewith The Saracens about this Age Besieged Constantinople for seven years and at last thirty thousand of them were slain The King of Scots is slain by the Picts A Pestilence in Constantinople for three years which devoured so many that the living were not sufficient to bury the Dead Alphonsus King of Portugal killeth seventy thousand Moors and taketh Lisbon from them The Danes Invade England but all of them almost perished The Brittains Invade Scotland Constantine their King was killed The Saracens take Armoricum and many Captives Lothair Wars with his Brethren and an hundred thousand men are slain In 801. while Charles the Great was in Italy there was an Earthquake with great noises which shook all France and Germany but especially Italy it overthrew several Towers and even Mountains and the Church of St. Paul at Rome was destroyed by it whereupon Pope Leo III. appointed solemn Feasts and Processions These Prodigies were followed with furious Tempests and Contagious