Selected quad for the lemma: fire_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
fire_n	burn_v	great_a	water_n	2,442	4	5.7787	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48803	The marrow of history, or, The pilgrimmage of kings and princes truly representing the variety of dangers inhaerent to their crowns, and the lamentable deaths which many of them, and some of the best of them, have undergone : collected, not onely out of the best modern histories, but from all those which have been most famous in the Latine, Greek, or in the Hebrew tongue : shewing, not onely the tragedies of princes at their deaths, but their exploits and sayings in their lives, and by what virtues some of them have flourished in the height of honour, and overcome by what affections, others of them have sunk into the depth of all calamities : a work most delightfull for knowledge, and as profitable for example / collected by Lodowick Lloyd ... ; and corrected and revived by R.C. ...	Lloyd, Lodowick, fl. 1573-1610.; Codrington, Robert, 1601-1665.	1653 (1653)	Wing L2660; ESTC R39067	223,145	321

divers places else which is the nature of the ground About Babylon a field burneth day and night In Aethiopia certain fields about mount Hesperius shine all night like stars As for Earthquakes and wonders that thereby happened I will not speak but those strange grounds that never alter from such effects before mentioned beside the mettals the stones the herbs the trées and all other things are miraculous and strange as Pliny in divers places doth witnesse And as for fire it is too great a wonder that the whole world is not burned thereby sith the Sun the Stars the Elementary fire excell all miracles if God had not prevented in kéeping the same from damage and hurt to man yea appointed that the heat of the Sun should not kindle straws stubbles trées and such like where the heat thereof as we daily sée burneth stones lead and harder substances sith especially that fire is in all places and is able to kindle all things insomuch that the water Thrasimenos burneth out in flames which is unnatural and strange that fire kindles in water and likewise in Egnatia a City of Salentine there is a stone which if any wood touch it wil● kindle fire In the Well called Nympheus there is a stone likewise whence come flames of fire the stone it self burneth in the water A greater wonder it is that the fire should be kindled by water and extinguished by wind Fire flashed about the head of Servius Tullius being then a boy in sleep which did prognosticate that he should be King of the Romans Fire shined about the head of L. Marcius in Spain when he encouraged his souldiers to revenge manfully the deaths of those noble and famous Romans named Sipians The marvellous effects of fire are most wonderful and most strange CHAP. XXI Of the World and of the soul of Man with divers and sundry opinions of the Philosophers about the fame AMongst divers Philosophers and learned men grew a great controversie of the beginning of the world some of the best affirming that it had no beginning nor can have end as Aristotle and Plato applying incorruption and perpetual revolution to the same Some with Epicurus thought the world should be consumed Of this opinion was Empedocles and Herachius Some on the other side did judge with Pythagoras that so much of the world should be destroyed as was of his own nature Thales said there was but one world agréeing with Empedocles Democritus affirmeth infinite worlds and Metrodorus the Philosopher conceived worlds to be innumerable Thus hold they several opinions concerning the making the beginning the ending and the numbers of the world What child is there of this age but smileth at their folly reasoning largely one against another in applying the cause and the effect of things to their own inventions And as they have judged diversly of the world concerning the frame and nature thereof so were they as far off from the true understanding of the Creation of man Some grosly thought that mankind had no beginning Some judged that it had a beginning by the superiour bodies And for the antiquity of mankind some judge Egypt to be the first people some Scythia some Thrace some this countrey and some that countrey with such phantastical inventions as may well appear to the most ignorant an error And alas how simple are they in finding out the substance of the soul what it should be where it should be and by what it should be Some say that there is no soul but a natural moving as Crates the Theban Some judge the soul to be nothing else but fire or heat betwéen the undivisible parts others thought it an air received into the mouth tempered in the heart boiled in the lights and dispersed through the body Of this opinion was Anaxagoras and also Anaximenes Hippias judged the soul of man to be water Thales and Heliodorus affirmed it to be earth Empedocles is of opinion that it is hot bloud about the heart so that they vary in sundry opinions attributing the cause thereof either to the fire or else to water either to the earth or to the air and some unto the complexion of the four elements others of the earth and fire others of water and fire some again reason that the substance of the soul is of fire and of the air And thus of approved Philosophers they show themselves simple innocents How ignorant were they in defining the soul of man So far disagréeing one with another that Zenocrates thinketh again the soul to be but a number that moves it self which all the Egyptians consented to Aristotle himself the Prince of all Philosophers and his master Plato shewed in this their shifting reason which both agree that the soul is a substance which moveth it self Some so rude and so far from perfection in this point that they thought the heart to be the soul some the brain How ridiculous and foolish séemeth their assertion to this age concerning the soul and as childishly they dispute and reason again about the placing of the same where and in what place of the body the soul resteth For Democritus judgeth his seat to be in the head Parmenides in the breast Herophilus in the ventricles of the brain Strato doth think that the soul was in the space between the eye brow yea some were so foolish to judge it to be in the ear as Xerxes King of Persia did Epicurus in all the breast Diogenes supposed it to be in a hollow vein of the heart Empedocles in the bloud Plato Aristotle and others that were the best and truest Philosophers judged the soul to be indifferent in all parts of the body some of the wisest supposed that every peece and p●rce● of the body had his proper soul In this therefore they were much deceived in séeking a proper seat for the soul Even as before they erred shamefully and li●d manifestly about the essence and substance of the soul so now were they most simply beguiled in placing the soul as you have heard And now after I have opened their several opinions concerning what the soul is and where the soul is you shall here likewise hear whither the soul shall go after death according to the Philosophers which as diversly vary and disagrée in this as you before heard the diversity of opinions concerning the substance and the place And first to begin with Democritus who judgeth the soul to be mortal and that it shall perish with the body to this agrée Epicurus and Pliny Pythagoras judged that the soul is immortal and when the body dieth it s●éeth to his kind Aristotle is of opinion that some parts of the soul which have corporal seats must dye with the body but that the understanding of the soul which is no instrument of the body is perpetual Tho people called Drinda were of this judgement that souls should not descend to hell but should pass to another world as the Philosophers called Essei which suppose

the ravishment of Virginia CHAP. XX. Of the strange Natures of Waters Earth and Fire IN divers learned Histories we read especially in Pliny of the wonders of waters and of the secret and unknown nature of fire wherin for the rare sight thereof are noted things to be marvelled at There is a water in the countrey of Campania where if any mankind will enter therein it is written that he shall incontinent be bereft of his senses And if any woman kind happen to go into that water she shall always afterward be barren In the same countrey of Campania there is a lake called Avernus where all flying fowls of the air that fly over that lake fall presently therein and die A well there is in Caria called Salmacis whose water if any man drink thereof he becommeth chaft and never desireth the company of a woman The River Maeander doth bréed such a kind of stone that being put close to a mans heart it doth straight make him mad There are two rivers in Boetia the one named Melas whose water causeth straight any beast that drinketh thereof if it be white to alter colour to black the other Cephisus which doth change the black beast to a white beast by drinking of the water Again there is in India a standing water where nothing may swim beast bird man or any living creature but they all sink this water is called Silia In Affrica on the contrary part there is the water named Apustidamus where nothing be it never so heavy or unapt to swim but will swim upon the water Lead or any heavy mettal doth swim in that lake as it is in the well of Phinitia in Sicilia Infinite waters should I recite if I in this would be tedious in repeating their names whose strange natures whose secret and hidden operation whose force and vertue were such as healed divers diseases As in the Isle of Avaria there was a water that healed the collick and the stone By Rome there was also a water called Albula that healed gréen wounds In Cilicia the river called Cydnus was a present remedy to any swelling of the legs Not far from Neapolis there was a well whose water healed any sicknesse of the eys The lake Amphion taketh all scurfs and sores from the body of any man What should I declare the natures of the four famous Rivers that issue out of Paradise the one is named Euphrates which the Babylonians and Mesopotamians have just occasion to commend the second is called Ganges which the Indians have great cause to praise the third called Nilus which the countrey of Egypt can best speak of and the fourth is called Tigris which the Assyrians have most commodity by Here might I be long occupied if I should orderly but touch the natures of all waters So the alteration of the seas and the wonders thereof appear as ebbing and flowing as saltnesse and swéetnesse and all things incident by nature to the seas which were it not that men see it dayly and observe the same hourly and mark things therein continually more wonders would appear by the seas then almost reason might be alledged for God as the Prophet saith is wonderfull in all his works So the five golden Rivers which learned and ancient writers affirm that the sands thereof are all glistering gems of gold as Tagus in Spain Permus in Lydia Pactolus in Asia Idaspes in India and Arimaspus in Scythia These are no lesse famous through their golden sands which their rowling waves bring to land in these aforesaid countreys then Parnessus in Boetia where the Muses long were honoured or Simois in Phrygia where Venus was conceived by Anchises To coequat the number of these five last and pleasant Rivers there are five as horrible to Nature as Styx in Arcadia whose property is to kill any that will touch it and therefore feigned of the Poets to be consecrated to Pluto for thfre is nothing so hard but this water wil consume so cold is the water thereof Again the River Phlegeton is contrary to this for the one is not so cold but the other is as hot and therefore called Phlegeton which is in English Fiery or smoakie for the Poets feign likewise that it burneth out in flames of fire Lethes and Acheron two Rivers the one in Affrica the other in Epire the one called the river of forgetfulnesse the other the river of sadnesse The fifth called Cocytus a place where mourning never ceaseth These five rivers for their horror and terror that procéeded from them for the strange and wonderfull effects thereof are called infernal lakes consecrated and attributed to King Pluto which Virgil at large describeth Divers wells for the strangenesse of the waters and for the pleasantnesse thereof were sacrificed to the Gods as Cissusa a well where the Nurses of Bacchus used to wash him was therefore consecrated to Bacchus so Melas to Pallas Aganippe to the Muses and so forth not molesting the Reader further with natures of Water I mean now briefly to touch the strange nature of the Earth Pliny affirmeth that there was never man sick in Locris nor in Croton neither any Earthquake ever heard in Licia By Rome in the field called Gabiensis a certain plat of ground almost two hundred Acres would tremble and quake as men rode upon it There are two hils of strange natures by the River called Indus the nature of the one is to draw any Iron to it insomuch as Pliny saith that if nails be in any shoes the ground of that place draweth the sole off There is a piece of ground in the City Characena in the countrey of Taurica where if any come wounded he shall be straight healed And if any enter under divers places as in a place called Hirpinis where the temple of Mephis is builded or in Asia by Iheropolis they shall incontinently die Again there are places by the vertue of ground in that place that men may prophesie Divers times we read that one piece of ground devoured another as the hill Ciborus and the city hard by called Curites were choaked up of the earth Phegium a great mountain in Aethiopia and Sipilis a high hill in Magnesia with the cities named Tantalis and Galarus There is a great Rock by the City Harpasa in Asia which may be moved easily with one finger and yet if a man put all his strength thereunto it will not stir I néed not speak of mount Aetna in Sicilia of Lypara in Acolia of Chymera in Lycia of Vesuvius and Aenocauma five fiery mountains which day and night burn so terribly that the flame thereof never resteth If any man will see more of these marvellous and wonderfull effects of Elements let him read the second book of Plini where he shall have abundance of the like examples There he shall see that in some places it never rained as in Paphos upon the temple of Venus in Nea a town in Phrygia upon the temple of Minerva and in

but one year a ruler in the Empire was poysoned by his mother in Law named Martina The very cause of the Emperor Conradus death who was Fredericks son was onely the Empire and rule of Rome for Manfredus his successour hired the Physitians to poyson him that he might have the onely sway O unhappy state of Princes whose lives are desired both of friends and foes No lesse danger it is to be in favour with Princes sometime then perillous to be Princes We read of a Quéen named Rosimunda the daughter of King Cunimund of Gepida who after she had poysoned Albonius King of the Longobards her first husband did marry a Prince of Ravenna named Helinges whom likwise she thought to poison but being warned in the middest of his draught he caused his wife to drink the rest which drink was the cause of both their deaths How many noble Princes in the middest of their pilgrimages have died that death as Dioclesian the Emperour of Rome Lotarius King of France Charls the eight of that name with divers others as Hannibal prince of Carthage Aristobulus King of Iudea and Lucullus Generall of Rome Princes and noble men do sometime poison themselves lest they should be inforced to serve their foes as Themistocles being banished from his country of Athens being in service under Artaxerxes King of Persia poisoned himself with the bloud of a Bull in presence of all the Persians lest he should be compelled to fight in wars against Gréece his country Even so Aratus prince of Sicionia perceiving Philip the younger would banish and exile him out of his country was inforced with poison to drink his own death out of his own hand Even after this sort after long administration of the Commonwealth did noble Socrates learned Anaxagoras worthy Seneca and famous Demosthenes poison themselves Thus their pilgrimages were ended and their lives finished their honour and dignity their fame and renown did purchase them death Happy then are those whom the world knows not who desire not to be acquainted with the world but quiet and contented do finish the course of their pilgrimages Had not Jugurthus thirsted for the Kingdom of Numidia he had not slain his two brethren Adherbal and Hempsal which were partakers of the Crown for the which vengeance fell upon him being subdued by Marius and dying afterwards in prison Had not King Siphax thirsted after the Empire of Rome he had never béen taken captive and prisoner by Tiberius where he at length out of his Kingdome died in prison Henry the third was of his own son named Henry put again in prison where he died Aristonicus for all his businesse and great doings was vanquished by the Consull Aquilius and put in prison where likewise he died In prison divers princes have ended their lives in forrein countries Strange kinds of deaths happen upon Princes more then on any other men as orderly I shall prove by their pilgrimages and lives Some by fire as the Tyrant Phalaris of Agrigentum who was burned with all his children and his wife in the Brasen Bull which Perillus made for others was first of all put into it himself By fire was the Emperour Valentine burned by the Goths by fire was that famous Greek Alcibiades destroied in Phrygia and burned in bed with his mistresse Timandra after he had ruled Athens and all Greece a long while Sardanapalus that great King and last prince of Assyria fearing to fall into the hands of Arbactus and detesting to die by his enemies made a solemn fire when after his lewd life wantoning in lust and following his desires he burned himself it was the end of the renowned Hercules who conquered Monsters subdued Serpents Lions Dragons and wild beasts at the last he put on the shirt of Nestus the Centaur which burned him alive What shall I speak of Boges the dear friend sometime of King Xerxes who when he knew that he could not escape the hand of Cimon and the power of At●ens he made a great fire where he caused his wife and concubines his children and family to be burned and then his gold silver and treasure and last of all he burned himself Empedocles Catullus Luctatius Asdrubal and Po●tia died this death So desirous were men alwaies to become princes so ambitious of honour so greedy of wealth that having the name of a King they thought to avoid and escape that which alwaies waits on the heels of Princes I mean death Were not princes hanged by their own subjects which is the vilest and most ignominious death that can be Achaeas King of Lidia for that he troubled his subjects with new taxes and subsedies was hanged by his own subjects at the river of Pactolus Bomilchar a Prince of Libia being suspected by the Carthaginians that he had conspired with Agathocles unto the annoiance of the subjects was hanged in the City of Carthage in the middest of the Market Policrates who was supposed to be the happiest Prince that ever reigned in Samos and never sustained any losse by fortune was at last by Orontes the Persian King Darius General hanged in sight of Samos Herodotus doth affirm that Leonides that famous King of Sparta who long ruled the Lacedemonians with great fame and renown was by Xerxes King of Persia after his head was smitten off commanded notwithstanding to be hanged Trogus doth write of Hanno a prince of Carthage which flourished in the time of King Philip father to Alexander the great who for his prosperous successe that he had in all his attempts waxed to be such a tyrant that his own people first bound him with cords whipt him with rods pluckt out his eys brake his legs cut off his hands and at last to recompence his tyranny they hanged him up in Carthage These were no mean men that thus were hanged in their own country and by their own people Thus Princes in the middest of their lives have béen arrested by death and by divers kinds of death Some as you have heard by poison some by fire some by hanging have ended their pilgrimages some again have been devoured by their own horses as Diomedes King of Thracia became food himself to those beasts which before he fed with mens bodies The King of Eubea for his tyranny in Boetia was given by Hercules to be eaten by his own horses Licinius the Emperour at what time he had appointed that his daughter H●rina should be given to his horses to be eaten he himself giving her as food unto them was torn in pieces It h●ppened that Neocles the son of that noble Greek Themistocks was by a horse likewise devoured And this was not strange unto princes for they were alwaies subject unto all kind of deaths After that the famous prince M●●us Captain of the Lybians had broken truce with the Romans he was afterward as Livi doth witnesse taken and drawn by four great horses alive at the cemmandement of Tullus Hostilius being then King of Rome H●pp●litus son

unto Daniel in the Den to Sidrach in the Fire to Jonas in the water was nothing else but examples for our learning to be gentle one unto another even as Iesus Christ was unto us all thus we conclude as Cicero said of Caesar that Caesar extolling Pompey being dead and setting up his pictures did extoll his own name so that the clemency that men do shew unto others doth advance their own glory CHAP. XVI Of sober and temperate Kings and Princes and where temperance and sobriety were most used SO much was this noble vertue of temperance estéemed with ancient people that they thought the greatest pleasure and the happiest life was to abstain from desired meat and drink So much was this sobriety of life commended of learned Philosophers that Anacharsis the Scythian was wont to write about the pictures of Princes this little lesson Rule Lust Temper the Tongue Bridle the Belly Whereby the Philosopher diligently perswaded Princes to be temperate of life to be sober in talk and to abstain from filthy féeding For to subdue appetite to vanquish lust to suppress pleasure is a worthy conquest He is a worthy Victor a famous Conquerour a puissant Prince that can govern his own affection For even as fishes are taken with hooks so men saith Pliny are allured with pleasure It is the greatest vertue that can be in man to abstain from pleasure to avoid these baits these swéet pleasures wise Princes have lothed banquetting and drinking insomuch that Julius Caesar that famous Emperour of Rome for his singular sobriety and passing temperance was the glory of Europe and for his abstinence the onely mirrour of Italy who by overcomming of himself overcame all Europe Of this Emperour Cato of U●ica would say though he was a mortal enemy unto Caesar for that Caesar used the company of Catoes sister Servilia that one sober Caesar should subdue all Rome His abstinence was such saith Pliny that most seldome or never would this Emperour drink wine Agesilaus King of the Lacedem̄onians passing through the country of Thasius being met with then ●bles and entertained of the people with divers dainties and rare banquets to welcome the King unto the country he touched not their dainties but fed onely with bread and drink to satisfie the importunity of the Thasians And being earnestly requested and humbly sought and in manner inforced least he should séem ungratefull not to eat their meats he commanded his footmen and slaves the Helots to feed if they would on such chear saying That princes might not pamper themselves with dainty chear and wines but to use abstinence and temperance The one is incident to vice and shame the other a nurse unto vertue and glory for in eating and drinking there lieth hidden that sucking Serpent named Forgetfulness To avoid therefore gluttony and drunkennesse which are often tendred unto Princes Constantius that most temperate Emperour kept him alwaies so hungry that he would take of a poor woman a crust of bread to satisfie hunger It was Licu●gus law in Sparta and Ze●uchus rule in Locresia to abstain from delicate meats and sweet wines as from an enemy unto Princes for wise men were wont to say that meat is onely good to expell hunger and drink to quench thirst King Cyrus in his wars being demanded of his host what he would have provided against dinner Bread said Cyrus for drink we shall not want meaning as Amianus saith water This vertue of abstinence was so honoured then that Princes which were given to wine were odious to the world A great shame it was in Thebes in Leonidas time to make banquets thus Epaminondas that brave Prince of temperance being willed of a rich Citizen being his friend to come to a supper he found there such superfluous chear such excesse of meat and drink that he said being much offended with his friend that he thought he was invited to come to eat like a man and not to féed like a beast This Prince knew the incommodity of féeding and again knew the commodity of abstinence A number of excellent vertues do follow abstinence as continence chastity sobriety and wisedome A heap of vices wait on pampering Princes as gluttony lechery drunkennesse and such others Such was the temperance of great King Porus of India that bread and water was his accustomed chear Such was the abstinence of Masinista King of Numidia being fourscore years old that he fed hungerly always and not daintily at any time Such was the temperance of that noble Pericles and of that Gréek Tymon that Aelianus in his book of divers histories commendeth the abstinence of the one and Cicero in his book of friendship extolleth the temperance of the other and so jointly these two noble Gréeks did avoid alway banquetting and belly-chear they forsook and fled the company of drinkers as things more noisome then profitable more dangerous then healthy and more filthy then friendly Demetrius king sometime of Macedonia and son unto Antigonus being much given to féeding and pampering of himself grew to that lechery that being not sufficed with divers stately strumpets and curious curtisans as with that renowned Lamia the famous Crisides the Diamond of that age Dama and such other dainty dames he lusted after a young Gentleman of Greece of amorous countenance of passing beauty and of a princely port endued with séemly shamefacednesse who came from Athens unto Macedonia to serve a souldier under King Demetrius who sought divers means to accomplish his inordinate lust by eating and drinking with this young Democles and divers ways attempting to have his purpose he followed him privily where Democles went a bathing unto a close chamber Demetrius hid himself until the young man was naked and then on a sudden enterprized his lust But when Democles saw the King and perceived his wicked intent to avoid the shamefull act and filthy lust of the King and to maintain temperance of life and everlasting fame of abstinence he leapt naked into a great séething vessel of hot boiling water and finished his noble life with famous death O renowned Democles O vile and shamefull Demetrius thy death is famous his life is infamous thy temperance and vertue commended his lust and wickednesse justly of all men condemned The like history doth Plutarch write of Trebonius a young souldier of a younger Captaine named Lucius and Nephew unto that noble Romans Caius Marius This Lucius having a charge over rertaine souldiers designed to him by his uncle Marius then Generall and having a long while devised means to bring his purpose to passe in accomplishing his lust with Trebonius it hapned on such a season that he found Trebonius by himselfe alone and offered violence unto him Trebonius understanding his Captaines desire made as though he should obteyn it and imbracing him he thrust him to the heart with Lucius own dagger and so slew his Captain to avoyd infamy which when it came to Marius his eare that his Nephew was slaine by Trebonius

every countrey in their due order of living and to begin with the Egyptians a people most ancient and so expert in all sciences that Macrobius the writer calleth the Countrey of Egypt the Nurse and Mother of all Arts For all the learned Greeks have had their beginning from Egypt even as Rome had from Gréece This people observe their days by account of hours from midnight to midnight They honour the Sun and Moon for their Gods for they name the Sun Osiris and the Moon Isis Their féeding was of fish broyled in the heat of the sun with herbs and with certain fowls of the aire They lived a thousand years but it is to be understood that hey number their years by the Moon the men did bear burthens upon their heads and the women upon their breasts and shoulders the men made water sitting the women standing The Crocodile is that beast which they most do adore that being dead they bury him a Sow is that beast which they most detest so that if any part of their clothes touched a sow they straight did pull off their clothes and wash them over They were black people most commonly slender and very hastie Cur●ius calleth them seditious vain very subtile in invention of things and much given to wine The Aethiopians are a people that live without Laws and reason servants and slaves to all men selling their children to merchants for corn their hair long with knots and curled The Indians were a people of too much liberty as Herodotus saith the women accompanying them in open sight Neither sowe they nor build neither kill they any living beast but féed on barley bread and herbs they hang at their ears small pearls and they deck their arms wrists and necks with gold The Kings of India are much honoured when they come abroad their ways are set and decked with fresh flowers and men in arms following their Chariots made of Margarite stones and men méeting them with frankincense And when their King goeth to bed their harlots attend him with songs and mirth making their prayers unto their Gods of darknesse for the good rising of their King Again the children kill their parents when they wax old the maids and young damosels of India are brought abroad amongst the young men to choose them their husbands When any man dieth his wife will dress her self most bravest for the funeral and there they are both buried together Hercules is much honoured in that countrey and the River Ganges The Scythians are pale and white for the coldness of the air and full of courage Amongst these people all things are almost in common saving no man will have his sword and his cup common their wives they weigh not but are common one with another For drunkenness they pass all nations for in their solemn banquets there may no man drink of that appointed cup which is carried abroad to banquets unlesse he had slain one or other for it was accounted amongst the Scythians no honesty for a man to live unlesse he had killed one or other They have no cities nor towns as Egypt which was full of them for it is written that when Amazis reigned a King in Egypt there were twenty thousand cities numbred within the countrey of Egypt but Scythia is a most barren and rude countrey the people whereof live and féed beastly a countrey most cold for that no wood groweth in the countrey no religion no temples for their Gods but to Mars onely their chief weapons are bows and arrows When the King dieth in Scythia fifty men and fifty of his best horses must bear him company and be slain for that they judge they shall go one way The Parthians are a people most thirsty saith Pliny for the more they drink the more thirsty they are their chief glory they séek is by drinking and are given so much to surfeits and drunkenness that their breath for their inordinate drinking doth stink and wax so strong that no man can abide them their King likewise is so much honored of them that when he commeth in place they ever knéel and kisse his foot He hath many Quéens with whom the King must lie one after another The King hath about his Chariot ten thousand souldiers with silver spears in their hands and the end of their spears all gold they honour their King with the Sun the Moon the fire the water the wind and the years to these they sacrifice and honour them as their Gods to lie is most horrible with the Parthians insomuch that they instruct their young children onely to avoid lies and to learn to speak truth Of all men they hate ungrateful men they judge it most unhonest to speak any thing filthy and loath chiefly that which is shamefull either in talk or in doing insomuch that they will not spit or make water but in a place where either a floud or a river or some other water is Riding dancing and tennis they exercise most The people of Arabia are long haired with shaven heards save that they spare the upper lips unshaven their women are common for all men at al times to meddle with leaving a staffe at the door in token unto one another that she is with one already and to let understand that he must tarry untill that man go out In Arabia it is not thought amisse for any one to lie with his mother and if any that is not kin take that in hand it is adultery they worship as their Gods Urania and Dionisius They are like unto the Babylonians people of most corrupt life and most given unto filthy pleasure Insomuch that their daughters and their wives are hired unto every man walking in the stréets going unto the temples meeting and offering themselves unto any stranger With the Arabians and Babylonians we may well compare the Lesbians and the Sybarites people passing in that wickednesse given to nothing but to sleep and venery insomuch that they weary themselves with all kind of pleasures and the excesse of their banquets and the bravery of their women was such that made all the beholders to muse and wonder at their excesse as well in cloathing as in féeding wherein they took glory they expelled all sound and noise that might trouble their sleep So filthy were these nations that hand foot head and all parts of the body were naturally given to pollute themselves with venery The Arcadians are people of such antiquity that as they suppose they are before the Moon of this they brag most they worship Pan as their God this people never triumphed over their enemies nor kept wars with any nations but oftentimes served under other princes These Arcadians were like to the people called Averni for their brags of their antiquity for even as the Arcadians brag of the moon so the Averni boasted of their pedigree and stock who were the ancient Troyans wherefore they would be called brethren unto the stout and ancient Romans The Boetians

that the souls of the dead do live in great felicity beyond the Ocean Seas The Egyptians judged with Pythagoras that the souls of men should pass from one place to another and then to enter into another man again The Stoicks are of that opinion that the soul forsaketh the body in such sort that the soul which is diseased in this life and advanced by no vertue dyeth together with the body but they judge it if it be adorned with noble and heroical vertues that it is then accompanied with everlasting natures Divers of the Pagans hold that the soul is immortal but yet they suppose that reasonable souls enter into unreasonable bodies as into plants or trées for a certain space There were again some frivolous Philosophers as Euripides and Archelaus which say that men first grew out of the earth in manner of herbs like to the fables of Poets who fain that men grew of the sowen téeth of Serpents Some again very childishly affirm that there be nine degrées of punishment or rather nine mansions in Hell appointed and prepared for the soul The first seat is appointed for young infants the second for Idiots and fools I fear that place will be well filled the third for them that kill themselves the fourth for them that be tormented with love the fifth for those that were found guilty before Iudges the sixth appointed for strong men and champions the seventh is a place where the souls be purged the eight seat is where the souls being purged do rest the ninth and last is the pleasant field Elisium And to joyn these Legends of Lies of old women with frivolous figments of Poets they likewise affirm the like folly of fiery Phlogeton of frosty Cocytus of the water of Styx of the sloud Lethes and of Acheron with other such whence all Paganical rites and fond foolish observations first grew I mean of fables of Poets and not by the reading of the Holy Scriptures O blind baiards in séeking that which they could never find And as they could prove and say that the body came out of the earth the moysture out of the water the breath of man by the air and the heat of man by the fire so could they not know the worker thereof how wit and wisedome came from God how all things were made by him of nothing This knew they not not that they wanted learning but that they wanted the knowledge of true Divinity They could appoint planets in their several places in their due seats and just mansions as Iupiter in the liver Saturn in the spleen Mars in bloud Sol in the heart the Moon in the stomack and Venus in the reins but they could not agrée in appointing a place for the soul They could likewise appoint seats for the bodies superior in man as the Ram in the head the Bull in the neck and the Crab in the brost the Lion in the heart and the Fish in the foot and so others but they could in no wise find a seat for the soul Truly is it said that God revealeth wisedome unto Babes and hideth the same from the Sages of the world Hence groweth the beginning of all Heresies according to the proverb The greatest Philosophers the greatest Hereticks Hereby I say grew almost the invention of Philosophy coequal unto the verity of the Gospel and therfore Paul the Apostle cryeth upon all men to take héed of flattering Philosophers If in this place I should shew their opinions concerning our God and Creator I should séem tedious For Diagoras and Theodorus affirm that there is no God Epicurus judged that there is a God but that he had no care over earthly things Thales said that God was a mind which made all things of water Cleanthes supposed God to be the air onely Alcineon judged the Sun the Moon and the Stars to be onely God Parmenides maketh God to be a continuall circle of light which is called Stephanen Crisippus nameth God a divine necessity Anaxagoras supposed God to be an infinit mind moveable of it self so doth Pythagoras likewise judge yea Aristotle imagined God to be a proper nature as the world or the heat of the heavens or the divinity of the mind which either of these thrée he nameth God and so infinite are they that so simply conceive the majesty of the Godhead that far wiser had they seemed unto us by silence therein then by uttering such fond fantastical opinions wherein their too much folly and errour is to all men evident CHAP. XXII Of worshipping of Gods and religion of Gentiles NUma Pompilius the second King of Rome being studious to draw the ignorant and rude people to some profession of religion was the first that appointed sacrifices to Jupiter to Mars In Rome he elected Virgins to Vesti and appointed certain orders in chusing of the same None by the law of Numa might be taken under six years old and none above ten to be a Vestal Virgin which virgins should be thirty years religious and vowed to Vesta of the which thirty years the first ten years they should learn the order and fashion of the sacrifices and religion of the Goddesse Vesta The second ten years they should sacrifice and imploy the ceremonies with rites and honours belonging to Vesta The third ten years they should as grave matrons learn the others late chosen to be perfect in the rites and ceremonies of Vesta then if any of them would marry they might after thirty years continuance so do If any of these Vestal virgins were convicted of whoredome the law was that in open sight of the City of Rome she should be brought to the gate called Collina and there alive be burned Again if the fire at any time in the Temple had gone out by any means their kéepers with scourges should whip and scourge them almost to death The same Numa to make the people more religious appointed twelve men called Salii with painted garments singing verses in the praise and commendation of Mars with soleman dancing and playing round about the City Amongst other sacred orders he made certain priests called Feciales these punished effendours these revanged the wrongs done to Ambassadours these redressed all injuries offered and committed within the City of Rome these Priests appointed rites and ceremonies made sacrifices to the Goddesse Bona Dea in a Temple erected upon mount Aventine here might no men come to do sacrifice but all women Of this Goddesse Bona Dea doth Cicero make oft mention in divers of his orations and invectives made against divers pernitious and wicked Citizens as Catelin Clodius and others There was in Rome another kind of religion dedicated to Flora the sacrifice whereof was called Floralia This Flora as both Livius and Dionisius do report was a common strumpet which for that she made the whole City of Rome her heir being wealthy at her death she was therefore thought to be of the Romans the Goddesse of fruits and was honoured of

all the lewd women in brave garlands decked with all kind of flowers in gorgeous apparel and this was done in the moneth of May. The Goddess C●●●● began then to be famous for she had her feasts and sacrifices named Cerealia by the Priests appointed she was thus honoured The Priests in white garments and with lanthorns and fire-brands in the night time would come to the Temple they abstained from wine and avoided venery for a certain time they appeinted every fifth year a great fasting Minerva likewise began to have such honour in Rome that she had thrée several kinds of sacrifices one of a Bull the second of a Crane the third of a Weather The Romans did celebrate in the beginning of the spring such feasts and sacrifices to Berecynthia called the Mother of the Gods that every man did offer of the chiefest things that he did possess to pleasure this Goddess There were divers other kinds of sacrifices and vain superstitious ceremonies observed then in Rome whose beginnings procéeded from the invention of Devils which of long time were honoured as Gods for then men sought no help but of their Gods which were rather Devils As Polidorus in his fourth Book affirmeth of a certain rich man in Rome who had thrée of his sons sore sick of the plague this man was named Valesius who every night at home in his house besought his houshould Gods called Penates to save his children and to plague him for the fault of his sons Thus every night praying to his Gods for the health of his children a voice was heard that if he would go with his thrée sons to Tarentum and wash his sons with the water which was consecrated to Pluto and Proserpina they should recover their health Valesius thought the way was far yet for health to his children he took his journey and being ready shipt in Martius field hard by the river Tyber he was desired of the master of the ship to go to the next village called Tarentum for a little fire for the fire was out in the ship and the mariners busie about other things When Valesius heard the name of Tarentum he knew straight that it was that place that his Gods appointed him to go to for the city of Tarentum was in the furthest part of all Italy in the country of Calabria he willingly went and brought both fire with him for the Master of the Ship and water for the children which being given to his sons they recovered health Wherefore in memory of this he recompensed his Gods with this sacrifice he in the night appointed solemn playes to honour Pluto and Proserpina to each severall nights every year for so many sons as he had that recovered health erecting up altars and offering sacrifices in honour and solemnity of Pluto These were the Oracles and divine answers which the Divels were wont to give in Idols to deceive men withal these I say were they that allured the people to idolatry Cicero saith that the chiefest Priests of Rome the Bishops for that the sacrifices and feasts the ceremonies and rites belonging to new made Gods grew to such a number that they appointed thrée men called Triumviri to be rulers of the sacrifices and appointed other thrée that should kéep the sacred Oracles of Sybilla The Oracles of Sybilla were written in books to which they resorted oftentimes for counsel and admonition fiftéen men were appointed to know what was to be done in any peril or necessity as at the wars betwixt Caesar and Pompey such prodigious sights were séen such unnatural working of the heavens such terrible sights on the earth such portentuous miracles then seen in Rome that the Senators came to Sybilla to know the effects and ends of these monstrous shows and to be instructed of the state of the City Vnto whom she gave six letters in writing three of R. and three of F. to be exponded of their wisemen whereof the meaning was found the thrée of R. were these Reg●um Roma Ruet and the thrée of F. were Flamma Ferro Fame that is as much to say that the monarchy of Rome should perish with fire sword and hunger Dionisius in his fourth book saith that an aged woman brought nine books to Tarquinius Superbus being the seventh and last King of the Romans which she would have sold for three hundred Crowns to the King letting Tarquinius understand that those books were full of Oracles and divine answers but he making a jest of her books did burn three of them before her face demanding of her again what he should pay for the other six she answered Thrée hundred Crowns then he burned thrée more and asked what he should pay for the thrée books that were left She answered as before Thrée hundred Crowns The King marvelling much at the constancy of the woman bought the three books for three hundred Crowns and after that time that woman was never seen in Rome wherefore it is thought of the Romans that she was Sibilla Therefore these three books were preserved in Rome as aforesaid under the custody of three men appointed for the purpose and she so honoured and worshipped that sacrifice upon sacrifice was offered to Sibilla in Rome Thus the Oracles of Sibilla in Rome the Oracles of Apollo in Delphos the Oracle of Jupiter in Ammon were the instructors to the Gentiles and teachers of the Greeks Moreover they had such solemnities of feasts and celebration of banquets either called pontifical feasts for that it was ordained by Priests or else triumphant banquets after victories made of the Emperors and given to the people or else funeral feasts where honour and solemnitie was had for the dead As for games and plays to sacrifice and to honour their Gods they had Lupercalia Floralia Bacchanalia Cerealia with divers and sundry others to pleasure their Gods and to mitigate their fury and wrath For in the days of Tarquinius the proud for that divers women of Rome being great with children got sufeits in eating of Bulls flesh they appointed certain sacrifices to the Gods infernals called Tau●●lia to appease their anger therein again for them that were sick Valerius Publicola who was the first Tribune in Rome appointed banquets and feasts in the temple of the Gods to asswage likewise their fury as Jupiter Juno and Minerva who were with banquets reconciled to restore health to the sick The homages and services the sacrifices and solemnities the banquets and feests the mirth and melody the pastime and sport the great games and plays that alwayes Greeks and Gentiles have used towards their Gods were almost infinite The honour and reverence that Jupiter had in Creet the worship and fame that Apollo had in Delphos the sacrifices and ceremonies that Mars had in Thracia are in books written and by authority recorded and I fear they be in the hearts of men too deeply printed Pallas had her seat in Athens Juno was enshrined in Samos Diana in Ephesus