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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A16240	Certaine secrete wonders of nature containing a descriptio[n] of sundry strange things, seming monstrous in our eyes and iudgement, bicause we are not priuie to the reasons of them. Gathered out of diuers learned authors as well Greeke as Latine, sacred as prophane. By E. Fenton. Seene and allowed according to the order appointed.; Histoires prodigieuses extraictes de plusiers fameux auteurs grecs & latins. English	Boaistuau, Pierre, d. 1566.; Fenton, Edward.	1569 (1569)	STC 3164.5; ESTC S105563	173,447	310

wherin the Emperor Mauritius although he were a Christian followed in this the lawes of the Auncients who forthwith vpon the sighte of any monstrous childe caused it not onely to be killed but kissed the knife wherwith he committed the butchery All whiche I haue preferred to memorie in this place for the respect of these .ij. maide twynnes whose portraict is here to be séene for if they had bene brought forth into the worlde ▪ in the tyme of the aūcient Indians Brachmans Spartins Lacedemonians or in the time of the Romains or in the raign of the Emperor Mauritius their history and figure had bē buryed with their bodies and had not bē sene in déede of so many thousands of people In the yere of grace .1475 these two maides that you sée so knyt together by the raines euen from theyr shoulders to theyr haunches were engendred in Italy in the famous Citie of Verona And for that their parents were poore they were caried through diuers Cities of Italy to get money of the people being very desirous to see that newe spectacle and wonder of Nature Wherfore some write that that monster whom you maye here see was a shewe and prognostication foretelling sundry maruellous mutations which happened after in those prouinces for in the same yeare that they were engendred Charles Duke of Burgoyne occupied and gouerned the coūtrey of Loraine Ferdinande the great king of Spayne diuided the realme wyth Alphonsus king of Portingale Mathias and Vladislaus kings made peace with the Hungarians and Bohemians Edwarde king of England was procured by the Duke of Burgoine to come into Fraunce where was a peace concluded betwixt● him and king Lewys And in the yeare of grace .1453 an other monster like vnto this was brought forth at Rome wyth greate maruell to all the people in the time of Pope Alexander the sixte who as Polidorus writeth prognosticated the euils hurts and miseries whiche shoulde happen and come to passe in the tyme of that Bishoppe ¶ A wonderfull Historie of Crueltie CHAP. xxxvj MAny be astonished to see the great nūber of maruellous examples of Crueltie which haue raigned not only amongest the Ethniques but also the more to be lamented amongest vs Christians which be all issued out of one vine formed of like elements incorporate in one church hauing one head Lord Iesus Christ being the children of one father celestiall of one spirite raunsomed by one bloud regenerate of one baptisme norished of like Sacraments participating of one Chalice and fightyng vnder the crosse and banner of Iesus Christ hauing one common enimie Sathan being called a like to one heritage and yet notwithstanding we be not ashamed to dismember and teare in pieces one an other with suche horrour and confusion that it séemeth we would fighte against nature and drenche the earth of humain bloud leauyng it besides as a deserte or place inhabitable But bycause you shall not maruell of that y t the Historians write of the great effusion of bloud which was shed in the batail which Edwarde the .iiij. king of England made against the Scots where he killed murdred thrée score thousand men I will shew you a more horrible spectacle in nature wherof also Sabellicus writeth of Charles Martell king of France and Abidaran where in one conflict was killed and murdred thrée hundreth and fiftie thousande But what a butcherie and slaughter had the poore flocke of Iesus Christ in the battaile which Ladislaus king of Pauonie had against Amurath Emperor of the Turkes seing that of the partie of the same Turkes being victorers was founde .iiij. hundred thousand dead carkasses as Sabellicus witnesseth There is scarsly to be founde such a wonder or horror in nature as that wherof Iosephus writeth in y e warres of the Iewes by that great butcher Alexander in the bloudy battail which he had against Darius where was slaine a million of men In like maner Cyrus king of Perses was so vnfortunate in the battail which he had against the Scythians that of two hundred thousand men which he had in his armie was not found one man to report the newes of the ouerthrow Albeit reading nowe amongest the Historians of those that Sylla killed of the Mariens those that Pompey slew of the souldiors of Mytridates those that Ptolomeus ouerthrewe of Demetrius of those that Cesar cut in pieces in ten yeres when he sent to fight agaynste the Gaules those that Lucullus slewe in the warre whiche he had agaynst the Armenians those that Attilla killed those that Miltiades slew those that Marcus Claudius Cornelius killed with an infinite numbre of like slaughters whiche be founde by the Historians Greekes and Latins you shall fynde that if you coulde see them all put in accompt there must néedes be inuēted a new Arithmetike to numbre them and I beleue that if they had made a roll of al the bieues muttons veales goates and other fourefooted beastes which haue bene killed in a thousande yeares within all the butcheries of Europe their number would not excéede the dead carkases of men slaine murdered yet it is not sufficient so to kyll men in battaile by sworde but that they must search new meanes and inuentions to murder them as Eusebius doth shewe in hys Ecclesiastical Historie of that infamous butcher Dioclesian the Emperour who seing that the Christians whiche raigned in hys tyme woulde not renounce the name of God and worshyp hys ydoles was not contente to cut of theyr noses and their eares causing spelles of woode to be put vnder theyr nayles pouryng hote leade vpon theyr priuie partes but in like maner he caused to be bowed by great force foure trees to the which he made to be tyed their féete and handes who being left in this sort were by the violence and force of those trées dismembred pluckt in peces as may be séen by the portraict and figure here before the which torments haue also bene practised put in vre in our time in Piemont against a certain souldier which would haue betrayed a citie as le seigneur de Launge writeth in his art of warfare Astiages that great king of the Medes hath not only surpassed that president in crueltie but hath also executed that which you wil not only haue in horror to reade but also in as great detestation to conceiue in your heart At what time the greate Patriarch of tirāny hapning to dreame one night of a certain thing touching one of his litle childrē which he could hardly digest withal fering y t it shold one day take effect determined to preuent his misfortune and the better to execute his entent he made to be called Arpalus one whō he most fauoured and the best of his realme to whome he gaue secretly in charge forthwith to kill one of hys owne sonnes without making any mā priuie therunto for certain causes which he would make hym to vnderstād more at leisure Arpalus vnderstanding the sorowful commaūdement of

the whiche meanes we iudge to sée diuers sunnes We maye also sée the lyke in a table wel painted and polished which when we behold there appeareth to vs the shape of two or .iij. being but one in dede and as much we may say of y e Moone Thus haue we declared the very true causes wherfore appere so often .ij. or .iij Sunnes Moones let vs therfore now from henceforth search in nature the cause and beings of these things and stay no more at these fripperies deceiptes and dreames of the Astrologians iudicials who therby haue so oftentimes deceiued begiled vs that they oughte and deserue to be banished exiled from all cōmon wealths well gouerned for what trouble perplexitie and terrour haue they engendred in the consciences of a numbre of poore people As for example in the yere 1514. when they feared not with obstination to publishe openly in all places that there shoulde be in the moneth of February well nigh an vniuersall floud for that the coniunction of all the planets were in the signe of Pisces and notwithstandyng the day which should haue brought forth these waters was one of the moste faire and temperate days of the yere albeit many great personages fearefull of their prophecies made prouision of bisket flower ships and other like things propre to sayle withall fearyng to be surprised and drowned wyth the greate abundance of water whiche they before had tolde of Lette vs further from henceforth learne with Henry the .vij. king of Englande who reigned in oure tyme makyng no accompt of theyr deceytes but chastised their dreame who vpon the sodaine beyng made to vnderstande that one of the moste famous Astrologians of Englande had published in all places that he had found amongst the most hidden secretes of Astrologie that the King shoulde die before the next feast of Christmas commaunded that he should be brought before hym who after he had asked hym whether this talke were true and that the prognosticator had answered him that it was certaine and that he had founde this infallible in his constellation and natiuitie I pray thée then sayde the King tell me where the starres tell thée thou shalte kéepe thy Christmas this yeare To whom he answered he shoulde be in hys owne house with hys familie but I knowe very wel sayd the King that thy starres be lyers for thou shalt neither sée Moone Sunne Starres heauen nor thy familie this Christmasse putting hym presentely in the moste straight darke prison in the great tower of London where he continued till the feast was past Here you may sée how this true Astrologian was vsed remayning prisoner in extreme misery vntil after the feast kept of the natiuitie of Iesus Christe ¶ A wonderfull Historie of Flames of fyre which haue sprong out of the heades of diuers men CHAP. xxj IF there were but one onely Authour which had made mention of the Historie followyng although the truthe therof be sufficiently proued for whiche cause I haue the rather at this time placed it in these my wōders as a chiefe argument or coniecture in nature whereupon may be founded the cause notwithstanding seing so many learned men haue busied themselues to write therof together with so greate a number of faithfull authors witnessing the same in their works we ought the rather vpon their credite to beleue that whiche they haue sayd therin Titus Liuius in his thirde booke and thirde Decade Cicero in his seconde boke De diuinatione Valerius the great in his first boke and .vj. chapiter Frontinus in his secōd boke and .x. chapiter write that after the Scipions were surprised by their enimies and ouerthrowē and killed by the Spanyards and that Lucius Martius a Romaine knight making an oration to his souldiers exhorting to reuēgement they became astonished to see a great flame of fire issuing from his heade without doing to him any hurt which caused the armed men being moued with the sight of thys wonderfull flame to take heart and run so furiously vpon their enimies that they not onely killed xxvij thousande but also had a praie of a great number of captiues besides an inestimable riches they toke from the Carthaginiens Neither haue such fantasticall fyres sprong from the bodies of certaine men or appeared in one only but in many Wherof the same author Titus Liuius writeth in his first boke of things worthy of memory sithens the foundation of Rome the like to happen to Seruius Tullius who succéeded in the imperial seate Tarquinius Priscus from whose heade being yet but yong and as he slepte they sawe issue a flame of fyre whervpon the Quéene Tanaquil wife to the foresayd Priscus affirmed to hir husbād that this flame promised to hym greate good honour and prosperitie whiche afterwards chaunced for he maried not onely hir daughter but after the death of hir husband hée was Kyng of the Romaines And Plutarche and others haue written the lyke of Alexander when he foughte against the Barbariens being in the moste heate of the skirmish they sawe him all on fyre whiche caused a maruellous feare and terrour to his ennimies Euen so I knowe a certaine Physition at this day who writeth of the lyke in diuers of his histories chauncing in our time to a nere friende of his in Italy not onely at one time but at many Whereof as Plinius not onely in an other place maketh mention of the ryuer Trasimenus whyche was seene all on fyre but also maketh a certain discourse of these wonderfull flames whyche be seene aboute the bodies of men Also Aristotle in hys fyrst boke of Metheores treateth in lyke maner But to tell you myne opinion therein I can not any wayes gather the cause or foundation eyther of the one or other althoughe I haue promised to shewe the causes and reasons whervpon these wonders procede and take their beginnyng For if we wyll saye they be made by Arte As we haue séene very often in oure tyme certaine Ruffians vomite and caste forth of theyr mouthes certayne flames of burnyng Fyre whiche Atheneus in the fyrst boke of the Dipnosophistes and fouretenth Chapiter doth witnesse whiche coulde not happen as I thinke to the Histories before mentioned for that it hath chanced to greate lordes vpon whome these wonders haue bene moste proued by which meanes they being attended vpon wyth a greate numbre and multitude of persones the fraude thereof was easlyer discouered Wherefore it is moste expediente then to beléeue that they be wonders and deceytes of Sathan who was so familiar in the worlde passed that he inuented dayly newe wonders as is wytnessed in Exodus of the Magitiens of Pharao whiche conuerted Maydes into Serpentes and floudes of water into bloud whyche be matters as difficulte as to make flames of fyre issue or come from the bodies of men ¶ A Historie very notable of Prodigeous Loues CHAP. xxij I Am ashamed and almoste confused in my self that I must declare the wonderfull loue

and there giuing out suche arguments of pity according to his dumme kind as if he had demaunded iustice of the murder at the kings handes The same mouing in him and the rest of the assistants such suspition of the facte in them whome the dogge assailed that what with torment and other examination they confessed the matter were punished accordingly A thing very wōderful wherin our God sheweth himself most iust in hys iudgements hauing in such horrour such as doe spoyle and spil mans bloud that he stirreth vp sometime little beasts to be his ministers of reuenge of their iniquities Plutarch Aelyan and also Tretzes in the thirde Chiliade and a hundred thirtye and one Chapter wryte that after Darius the laste king of the Persians was vanquished by Alexander and hurte in many places by Bessus and Nabarzenes he was forsaken of all the world and void of humaine suc●ors except a dogge which he had norished and brought vp who neuer forsoke the body of his maister but became no lesse faithful to him being dead thā he was whilst he liued The Romane histories giue also great commendation to the fidelitie of the dogge of Titus Fabius who being condēned by the iustice of the Senate and his body laid dead vpon the ground the dogge did not only accompany the dead carkasse but made such a pitifull howling and crying that he stirred the assistāts to compassion who to appease him if they offred him bread he tooke it and in the presence of them all by such meanes as he could he opened the mortified mouth of his master and put in the bread thinking that as he sawe his distresse so he would relieue it by meanes as he best might but that which is more wonderfull touching the faith of this dogge was in that the bodye of hys master being cast into Tyber according to their custome at that time to bury dead men the dogge leaped also into the riuer not ceasing to contēd with the waues till he had got holde of his maister whom by maine strength he did not only support and kepe frō sinking but also drewe him out to the shore thinking he had thē deliuered him from peril By this and such other may we discerne in some respects a more great faith and amitie in these brute beastes than in reasonable creatures who for the most parte now a dayes obserue the order of the swallow shunning as they doe the roofe in the winter their frends touched with any aduersitie or sinister fortune for whych cause also Masinissa the great king of Numidia would neuer commit the garde of his body by night to the faith of men but vsed for hys sauetie that way the company of .viij. or .x ▪ great dogges whom he brought vp for the nonce and made them be shut in hys chāber by night to the ende that by their barking he might be warned of any peril which remaineth in practise at this ●ay in S. Maloes in Britaine a town of defense enuironed with the Sea wherein only a great number of dogges of England do kepe watch and that so truely that the whole gard and protection of that city consists no lesse in the fidelity of those dogges than in their strong bands of their old souldiours of Piemont neither moueth any charge by them for either armour or weapon seeing they cōtent thēselues only with their liues which are reserued by cōmon order they nourished continually in certaine dark caues where they are barde to see any light to the end to giue encrease to their fiercenesse the same in déede giuing them suche a woodnesse that they neither know nor vse regarde to any but such as are appointed to nourish and féede them in such sort y t at night when they are drawne out of their dennes they are driuen to soūd drummes and trumpets as a warning to euery body to retire which hath bred suche a custome in those dogges that after the last retrait be soūded there is none so hardy to be found afore them which escapeth not their iawes without great hazard and daunger of his life There is also mention made in the Eccles●asticall histories how the Emperor Aurelian forcing Benignus the Martyr to worship Idols made to be kepte fasting for .iiij. or v. dayes certaine great mastiues whom he reserued only to fede vpon christian mennes flesh afore whom he caused the body of the sayd Martir to be brought forth bound but the dogges refusing to become the mynisters of the sinne of such a tyrant in place to deuoure or teare hym in péeces they licked his hands and smelled to his body without either offer or effect of other harme Which makes me remember an History commēded by Appius the Gréeke Aulus Gelius y e Latine Iouianus Pontanus lib. 1 amorū and lastly Anthonio de Gueuuare bishop of Monodemo Al which albeit they treate of an other beast than a dogge yet bicause the discourse is no lesse prodigious than confirmable to our former arguments I thinke it no time euil imployed to describe it in sorte as they haue left it behinde them Titus the Emperor sonne to Vespasian vpon his ret●rn from the warres of Germanye determined according to an auncient custome of the Nobilitie there to solemnise at Rome with great pompe the day of his natiuity For a first entry or beginning wherof he caused royall triumphes to be made to the Senate with a bountifull distribution of treasure amōgst the Romaines He enioyned withal by speciall charge to make prouision of Lions Beares Hartes Bulles wilde Bores Wolues Camels Elephāts wyth a number of other sauage and fierce beasts found most commonly in the deserts of Egipt and valley of the mount Caucase In like sort it was decréed sometime afore by the maiestie imperiall that to all théeues felons murderers periurers traitors and rebels theyr liues should be reserued to be punished and torn in péeces y ● day by those beastes by whō should not onely be thundred vpon them due reuenge of their wicked life past but also in the combate should appeare equall pleasures and delite to the lokers on wherein this was the order that was obserued One of those miserable men was let out after an other and committed all alone to a place which is at this day being at Rome called the Collisea after the which in the viewe of all the assistantes was let loose in the same place one of these cruell beastes who if by chaunce he tare the man in péeces the same was the sentence and punishment of his offence but if the man subdued the crueltye of the beast and killed him it serued as an absolution or dispence from further punishment And as they kept hungrye of purpose long time before these cruell beastes to the ende to adde a more fiercenesse to their woodde nature so amongst the ●est that were brought to the combate the Emperoure séemed chiefly to sée fight a Lion brought out of the deserts of Egipt