Aristotle Theophrastus and others curious searchers into all kinds of learning never so much as once mention either their names or their writings nor any of these mysteries While the Church of Christ was yet in her infancie many such kind of bookes were forged therby to make the doctrine of the Gospell more passible among the Gentiles and no marvell then that these of the Sybils passed for current among the rest That Saint George was a holy Martyr and that he conquered the dragon whereas Dr. Reynolds proues him to haue beene both a wicked man and an Arrian by the testimonie of Epiphanius Athanasius and Gregory Nazianzen And Baronius himselfe in plaine tearmes affirmes apparet totam illam de actis Georgij fabulam fuisse commentum Arrianorum It appeares that the whole story of George is nothing else but a forgery of the Arrians yet was he receiued as we know as a Canonized Saint through Christendome to be the Patron both of our nation and of the most honorable order of Knighthood in the world That the wise men which came out of the East to worship our Saviour were Kings and from hence their bodies being translated to Cullen they are at this day commonly called the three Kings of Cullen and the day consecrated to their memory is by the French tearmed Le jour de trois Rois the day of the three Kings yet Mantuan a Munke feares not to declare his opinion to the contrary and giues his reason for it Nec reges vt opinor erant neque enim tacuissent Historiae sacrae Authores Genus illud honoris Inter mortales quo non sublimius ullum Adde quod Herodes ut magnificentia Regum Postulat hospitibus tantis regale dedisset Hospitium secumque lares duxisset in amplos Had they beene Kings nor holy History Would haue conceal'd their so great Majesty Higher then which on Earth none can be named Herods magnificence would eke haue framed Some entertainment fitting their estates And harbour'd them within his Royall gates SECT 4. In History Ciuill IN History Ciuill or Nationall it is commonly receiued that there were foure and but foure Monarchies succeeding one the other the Assyrian the Persian the Grecian and the Roman Yet Iohn Bodin a man of singular learning specially in matter of History dares thus to begin the seuenth Chapter of his Method Inveteratus error de quatuor Imperijs ac magnorum Virorum opinione pervulgatus tam altè radices egit ut vix evelli posse videatur that inveterate errour of foure Empires made famous thorow the opinion of great men hath now taken such deepe roots as it seemes it can hardly be pluckt vp thorow a great part of that Chapter labours he the Confutation of those who maintaine that opinion That the Saxons called the Remainder of the Brittaines Welch as being strangers vnto them whereas that word signifies not a strangers either in the high or low Dutch as Verstigan a man skilfull in those Languages hath obserued that the Saxons gaue them the name of Welch after themselues came into Brittaine is altogether vnlikely For that inhabiting so neere them as they did to wit but ouer against them on the other side of the Sea they could not want a more particular and proper name for them then to call them strangers It seemes then more likely that the Brittaines being originally descended from the Gaules the Saxons according to their manner of speech by turning the G into W insteed of Gallish termed them Wallish and by abbreviation Walch or Welch as the French at this day call the Prince of Wales Prince de Galles That Brute a Troian by Nation and great grand-childe to Aeneas arriued in this Iland gaue it the name of Brittaine from himselfe here raigned and left the gouernment thereof diuided among his three sonnes England to Loegrius Scotland to Albanak and Wales to Camber Yet our great Antiquary beating as he professeth his braines and bending the force of his wits to maintaine that opinion hee found no warrantable ground for it Nay by forcible arguments produced as in the person of others disputing against himselfe he strongly proues it in my judgment altogether vnsound and vnwarrantable Boccace Vives Adryanus Iunius Polydorus Buchanan Vignier Genebrard Molinaeus Bodine and other Writers of great account are all of opinion there was no such man as this supposed Brute And among our owne ancient Chronicles Iohn of Wethamsted Abbot of S. Albon holdeth the whole narration of Brute to haue beene rather Poëticall then Historicall which me thinkes is agreable to reason since Caesar Tacitus Gildas Ninius Bede William of Malmesbery and as many others as haue written any thing touching our Countrey before the yeare 1160 make no mention at all of him nor seeme euer so much as to haue heard of him The first that euer broached it was Geffry of Monmoth about foure hundred yeares agoe during the raigne of Henry the second who publishing the Brittish story in Latine pretended to haue taken it out of ancient monuments written in the Brittish tongue but this Booke assoone as it peeped forth into the light was sharply censured both by Giraldus Cambrensis and William of Newberry who liued at the same time the former tearming it no better then Fabulosam historiam a fabulous history and the latter ridicula figmenta ridiculous fictions and it now stands branded with a blacke cole among the bookes prohibited by the Church of Rome That the Pigmies are a Nation of people not aboue two or three foot high and that they solemnely set themselues in battle array to fight against the Cranes their greatest enemies of these notwithstanding witnesseth Cassanion Fabulosa illa omnia sunt quae de illis vel Poetae vel alij Scriptores tradiderunt all those things are fabulous which touching them either the Poëts or other writers haue deliuered And with him fully accordeth Cardan in his eight Booke De rerum varietate Apparet ergò Pigmeiorum historiam esse fabulosam quod Strabo sentit nostra aetas cùm omnia nunc firmè orbis mirabilia innotuerint declarat It appeares then that the Historie of the Pigmies is but a fiction as both Strabo thought and our age which hath now discouered all the wonders of the world fully declares Gellius also Rhodogin referre these Pigmies if any such there be to a kinde of Apes SECT 5. In History Naturall IN Naturall History it is commonly receiued that the Phaenix liues fiue hundred or six hundred yeares that there is of that kinde but one at a time in the World that being to die he makes his nest of sweet spices and by the clapping of his wings sets it on fire and so burnes himselfe and lastly that out of the ashes arises a worme and from that worme another new Phaenix Neither am I ignorant that sundry of the Fathers haue brought this narration to confirme the
fundoque exaestuatimo Aetna here thunders with a horride noise Sometimes black clouds evaporeth to skies Fuming with pitchie curles and sparkling fires Tosseth vp globes of flames to starres aspires Now belching rocks the mountaines entrals torne And groaning hurles out liquid stones there borne Thorow the aire in showres But rightly did another Poet diuine of this mountaine and the burnings therein Nec quae sulphurijs ardet fornacibus Aetna Ignea semper erit neque enim fuit ignea semper Aetna which flames of sulphure now doth raise Shall not still burne nor hath it burnt alwayes The like may be said of Vesuvius in the kingdome of Naples it flamed with the greatest horrour in the first or as some say in the third yeere of the Emperour Titus where besides beasts fishes and fowle it destroyed two adjoyning Citties Herculanum and Pompeios with the people sitting in the Theater Pliny the naturall Historian then Admirall of the Romane Navy desirous to discover the reason was suffocated with the smoake thereof as witnesseth his Nephew in an epistle of his to Cornelius Tacitus Sensit procul Africa tellus Tunc expuluerijs geminata incendia nimbis Sensit et Aegyptus Memphisque Nilus atrocem Tempestatem illam Campano è littore missam Nec caruisse ferunt Asiam Syriamque tremenda Peste nec exstantes Neptunj è fluctibus arces Cyprumque Cretamque Cycladas ordine nullo Per pontum sparsas nec doctam Palladis vrbem Tantus inexhaustis erupit faucibus ardor Ac vapor They be the verses of Hieronymus Borgius touching the horrible roaring and thundring of this mountaine and may thus be englished Then remote Africke suffer'd the direfull heate Of twofold rage with showers of dust repleate Scorcht Egipt memphis Nilus felt amaz'd The woofull tempest in Campania rais'd Not Asia Syria nor the towers that stand In Neptunes surges Cyprus Creet Ioues land The scattered Cyclades nor the Muses seate Minervaes towne that vast plague scapt such heate Such vapours brake forth from full jawes Marcellinus farther obserues that the ashes thereof transported in the ayre obscured all Europe and that the Constantinopolitanes being wonderfully affrighted therewith in so much as the Emperour Leo forsooke the Citty in memoriall of the same did yearely celebrate the twelfth of November Who in these latter ages hath euer heard or read of such a fire issuing out of the earth as Tacitus in the 13 of his Annals and almost the last words describes The citty of the Inhonians in Germanie confederate with vs sayth he was afflicted with a sudden disaster for fires issuing out of the earth burned towns feilds villages every where and spred even to the wals of a colony newly built and could not be extinguished neither by raine nor river water nor any other liquor that could be imployed vntill for want of remedie and anger of such a destruction certaine pesants cast stones a farre of into it then the flame somewhat â—…laking drawing neare they put it out with blowes of clubs and otherlike as if it had been a wild beast last of all they threw in clothes from their backes which the more worne and fowler the berrer they quenched the fires But the most memorable both Earthquake and burning is that which Mr. George Sands in the forth booke of his Travels reports to haue hapeÌ„ed neare Puttzoll in the kingdome of Naples likewise in the yeare of our Lord 1538 and on the 29th of September when for certaine daies foregoing the countrey thereabout was so vexed with perpetuall Earthquakes as no one house was left so intire as not to expect an immediate ruine after that the sea had retired two hundred pases from the shore leauing abundance of fresh water rising in the bottome there visiblely ascended a mountaine about the second hower of the night with hideous roaring horriblely vomiting stones and such store of Cinders as overwhelmed all the buildings therabout and the salubrious Bathes of Tripergula for so many ages celebrated consumed the vines to ashes killing birds and beastes the fearefull inhabitants of Puttzoll flying through the darke with their wiues and children naked defiled crying out and detesting their Calamities manifold mischiefes had they suffered yet none like this which nature inflicted yet was not this the first Iland that thus by the force of Earthquakes haue risen out of the sea the like is reported both of Delos and Rhodos and some others SECT 6. Of the nature of Comets and the vncertaintie of praedictions from them as also that the number of those which haue appeared of late yeares is lesse then hath vsually beene observed in former ages and of other fiery and watry prodigious meteors IT remaines that in the next place I should speake somewhat of Comets or Blazing starres whether in latter times more haue appeared or more disastrous effectes haue followed vpon their appearance then in former ages Some tooke the Comet to haue beene a starre ordained and created from the first beginning of the world but appearing only by times and by turnes of this mind was Seneca Cardan likewise in latter times harps much if not vpon the same yet the like string But Aristotle whose weighty reasons and deepe judgment I much reverence conceiueth the matter of the Comet to be a passing hot and dry exhalation which being lifted vp by the force vertue of the Sun into the highest region of the ayre is there inflamed partly by the Element of fire vpon which it bordereth and partly by the motion of the heavens which hurleth it about so as there is the same matter of an Earthquake the wind the lightning and a Comet if it be imprisoned in the bowels of the earth it causeth an Earthquake if it ascend to the middle region of the ayre and be from thence beating back wind if it enter that region and be there invironed with a thick cloud lightning if it passe that region a Comet or some other fiery Meteor in case the matter be not sufficiently capable thereof The common opinion hath beene that Comets either as Signes or causes or both haue allwayes prognosticated some dreadfull mishaps to the world as outragious windes extraordonary drougth dearth pestilence warres death of Princes and the like Nunquam futilibus excanduit ignibus aether Ne're did the Heavens with idle blazes flame But the late Lord Privy Seale Earle of Northampton in his Defensatiue against the poyson of supposed prophesies hath so strongly incountred this opinion that for mine owne part I must professe he hath perswaded mee there is no certainty in those praedictions in asmuch as Comets doe not alwayes forerunne such euents neither doe such euents alwayes follow vpon the appearing of Comets Some instances he produceth of Comets which brought with them such abundance of all things abated their prises to so low an ebbe as stories haue recorded it for monuments and miracles to posterity And the like saith hee could I say of others
an oxe or a horse or a sheepe in their times is now likewise thought to be but competent And the same proportions of body which the Ancient Painters Caruers allowed to horses and dogges is now likewise by the skilfullest in those Arts found to be most convenient Indeede in the first booke of Macchabes sixth chapter is somewhat a strange relation made of Elephants which are there described to be so bigge that each of them carryed a wooden towre on his backe out of which fought thirty two armed men besides the Indian which ruled the beast Whence some haue conceited that the Elephants of those times were farre greater then those of the present age But doubtles the Authour of that booke speakes of the Indian race which are farre beyond the Ethiopian as Iunius in his annotations on that place hath observed out of Pliny And there are of them saith Aelian nine cubits high which is thirteene foote and an halfe And those which haue beeene in the great Mogulls countrey assure vs that at this day they are there farre more vast and huge then any that wee haue seene in these parts of the world But leaving the Vegetables and beasts springing and walking vpon the face of the earth let vs a little search into the bowels thereof and take a view of the mettalls and mineralls therein bredde Of the nature causes and groweth whereof Georgius Agricola hath written most exactly but neither he nor any man else I thinke euer yet obserued that by continuance of time theirveines are wasted impaired one treatise he hath expresly composed de veteribus novis metallis wherein he shewes that as the old are exhausted new are discouered It is true indeede which Pliny hath observed that wee descend into the entrailes of the earth wee goe downe as farre as to the seat and habitation of the infernall spirits and all to meete with rich treasure as if shee were not fruitfull enough beneficiall vnto vs in the vpper face thereof where shee permitteth vs to walke and tread vpon her Yet notwithstanding by the couetousnesse and toyle of men can her mines neuer be drawn dry nor her store emptied The Earth not onely on her backe doth beare Abundant treasures gliftring every where But inwardly shee 's no lesse fraught with riches Nay rather more which more our foules bewitches Within the deepe folds of her fruitfull lappe So bound-lesse mines of treasure doth shee wrappe That th' hungry hands of humane avarice Cannot exhaust with labour or device For they be more then there be starres in heav'n Or stormy billowes in the Ocean driv'n Or eares of corne in Autumne on the fields Or savage beasts vpon a thousand hils Or fishes diving in the silver floods Or scattred leaues in winter in the woods I will not dispute it whether all mineralls were made at the first creation or haue since receiued increase by tract of time which latter I confesse I rather with Quercetan incline vnto they being somewhat of the nature of stones which vndoubtedly grow though not by augmentation or accretion yet by affimilation or apposition turning the neighbour earth into their substance Yet thus much may wee confidently affirme that the minerals themselues wast not in the ordinary course but by the insatiable desire of mankind Nay such is the divine providence that even there where they are most vexed and wrought vpon yet are they not worne out or wasted in the whole Of late within these few yeares Mendip hills yeelded I thinke more lead then ever at this day I doe not heare that the Iron mines in Sussex or the Tinne workes in Cornewall are any whit abated which I confesse to be somewhat strange considering that little corner furnishes in a manner all the Christian world with that mettall for mines of gold silver though by some it be thought that they faile in the East Indies in regard of former ages Yet most certaine it is that in the West Indies that supposed defect is abundantly recompensed SECT 6. An obiection taken from the Eclipses of the Planets answered BEfore we conclude this Chapter there remaines yet one rubbe to be remoued touching the Eclypses of the Sunne and Moone For as some haue beene of opinion that the bodies of those Planets suffered by them so many haue thought that these inferiour bodies suffered from them consequently that the more Eclypses there are which by tract of time must needes increase in number the more do all things depending vpon those planets decay and degenerate in their vertues operations But as the former of these opinions is already proued to be certainely false so is this latter altogether vncertaine What effects Eclypses produce I cannot punctually define Strange accidents I graunt aswell in the course of Nature as in the Ciuill affaires haue often followed vpon them as appeares in Cyprianus Leouicius who hath purposely composed a Tract of them And Mr Camden obserues that the towne of Shrewesbery suffered twice most grievous losse by fire within the compasse of fiftie yeares vpon two severall Eclypses of the Sunne in Aries but whether those Accidents were to be ascribed to the precedent Eclypses I cannot certainely affirme Once wee are sure that the moone is Eclypsed by the interposition of the Earth as is the Sun by the moone Since then the night is nothing else but the interposition of the Earth betweene vs and the Sunne I see no reason but wee should daily feare as dangerous effects from every night or thicke cloud as from any Eclypse But I verily beleeue that the ground of this errour as also of the former sprang frō the ignorance of the Causes of Eclypses Sulpitius Gallus being the first amongst the Romanes and amongst the Greekes Thales Milesius who finding their nature did prognosticate and forshew them After them Hipparchus compiled his Ephimerides containing the course and aspects of both these Planets for six hundred yeares ensuing and that no lesse assuredly then if hee had beene privy to Natures counsailes Great persons and excellent doubtles were these saith Pliny who aboue the reach of all humane capacity found out the reason of the course of so mighty starres and diuine powers And whereas the weake minde of man was before to seeke fearing in these Eclypses of the starres some great wrong or violence or death of the Planets secured them in that behalfe In which dreadfull feare stood Stesicorus and Pyndarus the Poets notwithstanding their lofty stile and namely at the Eclypse of the Sunce as may appeare by their Poemes In this fearefull fit also of an Eclypse Nicias the generall of the Athenians as a man ignorant of the cause thereof feared to set saile with his fleet out of the haven and so greatly indangered distressed the state of his countrey But on the contrary the forenamed Sulpitius being a Colonell in the field the day before that King Perseus was vanquished by
essence and naturall functions the same which was from the beginning the bounds of his quantity cannot vary in any great or notorious difference but through some exorbitancie and aberration in nature which as they haue beene in all ages so haue monsters too not only in figure and shape but also both in excesse and defect CAP. 5. Wherein the principall objections drawne aswell from Reason as from authority and experience are fully answered SECT 1. Of sundry fabulous narrations of the bones of Gianlike bodies digged vp or found in Caues THe Truth being thus settled it remaines that wee now dispell those mists and cloudes with which the brightnes of it is sometimes ouercast whereof the chiefe is the huge bodies and bones that at sundry times haue beene digged vp and yet are kept in many places as monuments of Antiquity to be seene Such are they which are shewen at Puteoli or Putzole in the Kingdome of Naples vpon which Pomponius Laetus hath bestowod verses which he thus concludes Hinc bona posteritas immania corpora servat Et tales mundo testificatur avos Their huge corpes good posterity keepes here To witnesse to the World that once such were The like haue I seene at Wormes in Germany and other Citties standing vpon the Rheine hung vp in Chaines or laid vp in Megazines and other publique places but saith Philippus Camerarius I haue heard many dispute and make doubt whether they were the bones of men or of fishes Infinite are the stories which to this purpose are recorded it would require a iust volume to collect them into one body and in truth it shall not need inasmuch as I finde it already done by the same Camerarius by Gassanion in his booke of Gyants and Fazelus in his first booke and first Decade of the affaires of Sicily as also by our Hollenshed in the fourth chap. of his first volume but with this Caution For my part saith he I will touch rare things and such as to my selfe doe seeme almost incredible wherefore I will onely point at a few of the most memorable lest on the one side I should seeme purposely to baulke that rubbe which is commonly thought most of all to thwart my way or on the other side should cloy the Reader with too many vnsavory tales It is reported by Plutarch out of Gabinius which I confesse I somewhat marvell at in so graue an Authour that Sertorius being in Lybia neere the streights of Morocco found the body of Antaeus there buried sixty cubits to which Fazelus adds ten more and makes it vp scaventy But Strabo in the seaventeenth of his Geography mentioning the same thing layes this censure vpon Gabinius the Authour of it Sed nec Gabinius Romanarum rerum Scriptor in describenda Mauritania fabulis prodigiosis abstinet neither doth Gabinius in his description of Mauritania abstaine from the relation of monstrous fables In the fourteenth yeare of Henry the second Emperour was the body of Pallas as 't was thought companion to Aeneas taken vp at Rome and found in height to equall the walles of that cittie But as Galeotus Martius hath well obserued his body was said to haue beene burned Arsurasque comas obnubit amictu The locks that shortly should consume in fire He couered with his Robe Which I suppose to be likewise true of many of those bodies which notwithstanding are reported to haue beene found intire for their proportions long after their deaths though turned into ashes many yeares before It being the custome of those countries to burne as it is ours to burie our dead Our Malmesburiensis likewise in his second booke thirteenth chapter de gestis Rerum Anglorum mentioneth the same story shall I call it or fable telling vs that in the yeare of grace 1042 in the reigne of S. Edward the body of Pallas the sonne of Euander of whom Virgill speakes Romae repertum est illibatum ingenti stupore omnium quod tot saecula incorruptionem sui superavit was found at Rome intire and sound to the great astonishment of all men that by the space of so many ages it had triumphed ouer corruption and farther to confirme the trueth thereof he assures vs that the gaping widenesse of the wound which Turnus made in the midst of his breast was found by measure to be foure foote an halfe a large wound and the weapon which made it we cannot but conceiue as large and by the appearance of it at full not onely the bones and skinne and sinewes but the flesh to remaine incorrupt a matter altogether incredible Besides he sets vs downe his Epitath found at the same time Filius Evandri Pallans quem lancea Turni Militis occidit more suo iacet hic Which himselfe knowes not well how to giue credit too quod non tunc crediderim factum sayth he which I cannot beleeue was then made but by Ennius or some other of latter ages But I proceede Herodotus in his first booke tels vs that the body of Orestes being taken vp was found to be seaven cubits but Gellius is bold to bestow vpon him for his labour the title of Homo Fabulator a forger of fables rather inclining to the opinion of Varro who held the vtmost period of a mans growth to be seaven foote What would he then haue said to the body of Oryon which Pliny makes forty six cubits or of Macrosyris which Trallianus makes an hundred cubits or of that body discouered in a vast caue neere Drepanum in Sicilie three of whose teeth if wee may beleeue Boccace weighed an hundred ounces and the leadde of his staffe a thousand and fiue hundred pounds And the body it selfe by proportion of some of the bones was estimated to no lesse then two hundred cubits which makes three hundred feete somewhat I thinke beyond Pauls steeple The more I wonder at S. Augustine who confidently assures vs that himselfe with others being on the sea shore at Vtica he there saw a mans iaw-tooth so bigge that being cut into small peeces it would haue made an hundred such as the men liuing in his age commonly had by which computation the body it selfe must likewise in reason haue exceeded the bodies of his age an hundred times so that being compared with a body of six foote exceeding it one hundred times it will be found six hundred foote high which is the just double to Boccace his Gyant Yet Ralph the Munke of Cogshall who wrote 350 yeares agoe as witnesseth Camden it may be in imitation of S. Augustine auerres that himselfe saw the like which in a Munke is I confesse more tollerable then that which Lodovicus Viues deservedly reputed a graue and learned Authour vpon that passage of S. Augustines affirmes that going to the Church on S. Christophers day the place he names not but it seemes to be Louaine because from thence he dates his Epistle dedicatorie to King Henrie the 8
which either immediatly or mediatly they all draw be corrupted if the testimony of the first man vpon whom they depend proue invalide then is this one vpon the matter no testimony which is in truth the case of the counter-witnesses produced in this businesse SECT 4. Of the wonderfull strength of diuerse in latter ages not inferiour to those of former times BVt to graunt that Hector and Ajax and Diomedes and Hercules and the like excelled in strength yet can it not be denied but some such haue likewise beene recorded in succeeding ages as C Marius by Trebellius Pollio Maximinus by Capitolinus Aurelian by Vopiscus Scanderbeg by Barlet Galiot Bardesin a Gentleman of Catana by Fazell Tamerlane Ziska Hunniades by others George Le Feure a learned Germane writes that in his time in the yeare 1529 liued at Misâ—…a in Thuring one called Nicholas Klunher Prouost of the Great Church that was so strong as without Cable or Pulley or any other helpe he setch vp out of a Cellar a pipe of wine carried it out of dores and laid it vpon a cart I haue seene a man saith Mayolus an Italian Bishop in the towne of Aste who in the presence of the Marquesse of Pescara handed a pillar of marble three foote long and one foote in diameter the which he cast high in the aire then receiued it againe in his armes then lasht it vp againe sometime after one fashion sometime after another as easily as if he had beene playing with a ball or some such little thing There was sayth the same Authour at Mantua one named Rodamas a man of a little stature but so strong that he brake a Cable as bigge as a mans arme as easily as it had beene a small twine thread mounted vpon an horse and leading another by the bridle he would runne a full Cariere and stop in the midst of his course or when it liked him best Froissard a man much esteemed for the truth and fidelity of his history reports that about two hundred yeares since one Ernaudo Burg a Spaniard and companion to the Earle of Foix when as attending the Earle he accompanied him to an higher roome to which they ascended by twenty foure steps the weather cold and the fire not answerable and withall espying out at the window certaine asses in the lower court loaden with wood he goes downe thither lifts vp the greatest of them with his burden on his shoulder and carrying it to the roome from whence he came cast both as he found them into the fire together Lebelski a Polander in his description of the things done at Constantinople in the yeare 1582 at the circumcision of Mahumet the sonne of Amurath Emperour of the Turkes writes that amongst many actiue men which there shewed their strength one was most memorable who for proofe thereof lifted vp a peece of wood that twelue men had much adoe to raise from the earth and afterwards lying downe flat vpon his backe he bore vpon his breast a weighty stone which tenne men had with much a doe rolled thither making but a iest of it Many are yet aliue saith Camerarius that know how strong and mighty George of Fronsberg Baron of Mindlehaim of late memory was There is a booke printed published in the Germane tongue contayning his memorable acts howbeit Paulus Iouius handleth him but roughly as being an enemy to the Pope yet extolleth hee highly his wonderfull great force being able by the acknowledgment of Iouius with the middle finger of his right hand to remoue a very strong man out of his place sate he neuer so fast He stopp'd a horse suddainely that ranne with a maine Carriere by onely touching the bridle and with his shoulder would hee easily shoue a Canon whither hee listed Cardan writes that himselfe saw one dauncing with two in his armes two vpon his shoulders and one hanging about his necke Potocoua a Polonian and Captaine of the Cosakes during the reigne of Stephen Batore was so strong as witnesseth Leonclauius that he would teare in peeces new horse shoes as it had beene paper The history of the Netherlands reports that the woman Gyantesse before mentioned was so strong that shee would lift vp in either hand a barrell full of Hamborough beere and would easilie carrie more then eight men could Before these but long since those ancient Heroes was the Gyant Aenother borne in Turgaw a village in Sweuia who bore armes vnder Charlemaigne he felled men as one would mow hay sometimes broached a great number of them vpon his pike and so carried them all vpon his shoulder as one would carrie little birds spitted vpon a sticke Hinc apparet saith Camerarius quòd nostra aetas natio tales viros produxerit quos fortitudine robore cum veteribus conferre licet From hence it appeares that our age and nation hath brought forth such men as euery way are matchable with the Ancients in actiuity strength Oflatter dayes and here at home Mr Richard Carew a worthy Gentleman in his survey of Cornewall assures vs that one Iohn Bray well known to himselfe as being his tenaunt carried vpon his backe at one time by the space well neare of a But-length six bushels of wheaten meale reckoning 15 gallons to the bushell and the miller a lubber of 24 yeares age vpon the whole wherevnto he addeth that Iohn Roman of the same sheire a short clownish grub would beare the whole carkasse of an oxe though he neuer tugged with it when he was a calfe as Milo did To these might be added diuerse other domesticall examples of latter times saue that such kinde of relations seeme as vnsauory and incredible to the most part of Readers as they are certaine admirable and delightfull to the beholders It is most true that the great workes our noble Predecessours haue left vs our Cathedrall Churches our ruines of Castles and Monasteries our bridges our high-wayes and Cauce-wayes and in forraine parts their Arches Obelisks Pyramids Vawtes Aqueducts Theaters and Amphitheaters seeme to proclaime as the greatnesse of their mindes so likewise of their bodies But I should rather ascribe this to their industry their deuotion their charity vniting their forces and purses in publique workes and for the publique good then to the bodily strength of particular men SECT 5. Two doubtes cleered the first touching the strong physicke which the Ancients vsed the second touching the great quantity of blood which they are sayed vsually to haue drawne at the opening of a veine A greater doubt arises touching the litle but strong physicke which the Ancients vsed and the great quantity of blood which they vsually drew at the opening of a veine For the first of these I should thinke that it rather argued the strength of our bodies who notwithstanding our disuse of exercise and more frequent vse of Physicke and that many times from the hands of vnskilfull Empericks we ordinarily hold out as long
the french Kings aduocate and others of that nature which are all published and extant partly in Latine and partly in their owne languages with that variety and learning as much exceedes the former ages SECT 4. Ancient and moderne Physitians compared especially in the knowledge of Anatomy and Herbary the two legges of that Science THE third great Profession is Physicke in which besides the vncertaine and fabulous reports of Apollo and Esculapius we read not of any excellent till Hippocrates after him being much decayed it was revived by Galen vt sub eo rursum nata medicina videatur so as it seemed vnder him to bee borne againe Two speciall parts thereof are the knowledge of the body of man and the knowledge of simples touching the former the opening and anatomizing of mens bodies It was doubtlesse among the Ancients in very little vse I meane the Aegyptians the Hebrewes the Graecians the Romans the Primitiue Christians First then I know the Aegyptians are by some said to haue beene this way most skilfull but considering how excessiuely curious ceremonious or rather superstitious they were in preseruing their bodies intire vnputrified I coÌ„ceiue their opening them to haue beene rather for the imbowelling imbaulming then the anatomizing of them and for the Graecians they could not well practise it in as much as they vsually burnt their dead bodies by the testimony not onely of Homer Herodotus whose authorities yet in this case might passe as sufficient but likewise of Thucidides Plutarch witnesses beyond all exception whereof the latter in the 3 booke and 4 question of his Symposiaques giues vs to vnderstand that their custome was with the bodies of ten men to burne one of an woman because they supposed their flesh to be more vnctuous and thereby to helpe forward the burning of the rest more easily speedily surely had Anatomy beene in vse among the Graecians me thinkes Physitians Anatomists should somewhere discouer it in the works of Hippocrates yet extant which I presume cannot be showne once I am sure that when at the instance of the Abderites he came to visite Democritus hee found him as may bee seene in his Epistle to Damogetus cutting vp seuerall beasts who being by him demaunded the reason thereof Democritus returnes him this answere Haec animalia quae vides proptereà seco non dei opera perosus sed fellis bilisque naturam disquirens these beasts which thou seestI cut vp not because I hate the workes of God but to search into the nature of gall choller now if hee feared lest the cutting vp of beasts might be censured as an hating of Gods workes he must needes much more haue feared that censure had he cut vp the bodies of men But among the Iewes it is evident that this Art could not be in vse for that their executed malefactours were put to death either by burning or stoning whom they buried vnder an heape of stones or by crucifying them vpon a crosse for these they had expresse charge Deut. 21. at the last verse that they should noâ—… suffer them to hang all night vpon the tree but in any wise must they bury them the very day they werâ—… crucified and besides it was most precisely injoyned them Number 〈◊〉 11 that they might not so much as touch the dead body of any that was either executed or died otherwise he that touched it was by the law of Moses so farre held vncleane that if he presumed to enter into the tabernacle before he was purified he was to be cut off from Israel for defiling it nay if in this case he but touched bread or pottage or wine or oyle or any meate he thereby made it vncleane as appeares Aggai 2. 13. Some more doubt seemes to be touching the ancient Romanes but I thinke it may easily bee shewed that from the Graecians they likewise tooke vp practised the burning of dead bodies the places which they commonly vsed to this purpose were by them called puticuli or culinae the pots or vessels in which they preserued the bones ashes of the burnt bodies Vrnae whereof I haue seen one in M. Chambers his keeping at Bath but all the difficultie seems to consist in this when this custome began among them and when it ceased for the former it is commonly held that it was not in vse among the Romans before Sylla the Dictator who hauing himselfe cruelly tyrannized vpon the dead bodie of Marius fearing lest the same measure might be shewed to himselfe commanded that his body instantly vpoÌ„ his death should be burned wheras Pli 7. 54. only sayes that he was thefirst of the Cornelian family that had his body burnt Tully 2 de legibus restrains it more narrowly Primus è patritijs Cornelijs igni voluit cremari he was the first of the Cornelian nobility that commanded it and he that attentiuely reads the Roman story will easily finde that this custome was practised among them long before Sylla euen from the first foundation of Rome so witnesseth Ovid in his 4 de Fastis speaking of Remus the brother of Romulus Arsarosque artus vnxit The limbes that now were to be burnt His brother did annoint And againe Vltima plorato subdita flamma rogo est The last fire now was set vnto his hearse After this Numa being by sect a Pythagorean forbade his owne body to be burnt as witnesseth Plutarch in his life which he needed not haue done had not the custome then beene vsuall Tullus Hostilius his successour had not his body therefore burnt because he was stricken dead with lightning for so was the Law After this againe Tully in his second de legibus telsvs that the Law of the 12 Tables commaunded Hominem mortuum in vrbe ne sepelito neve vrito let no dead body be buried or burned in the Citie which as he there addes was for feare their buildings might from thence take fire now the Lawes of the 12 Tables were composed as witnesseth Gellius 20. 1. in the 300 yeare after the foundation of the City which was almost 400 yeares before Sylla if any desire further satisfaction in this point I referre him to the learned and copious Annotations of Blasius Vigenerus in French vpon the first Decade of Livie which Author himselfe hath excellently translated into that language among other examples produced by him to this purpose he makes it plaine ouâ—… of Livie lib. 8 that the body of the sonne of Manlius the Consull who contrary to his fathers commaund fought out of his ranke was therefore by a commaund from the same mouth put to death was presently carried out of the campe and burned with all military pompe and this he assignes to the yeare 412 by his computation aboue 270 yeares before the death of Sylla Now this practise of the Romans I haue the longer insisted vpon partly for the checking of a common errour
sonitus imitatur Olympi Quatuor hic invectus equis ac lampada quaessans Per Graium populos mediaeque per Elidis vrbem Ibat ovans Divumque sibi poscebat honores Demens qui nimbos non imitabile fulmen Aere cornipedum cursu fimulabat equorum I saw Salmoneus there endure Most cruell paines and great For that he dar'd the flames of Ioue And thunder counterfeit In Chariot drawne with horses foure Shaking a fiery brand Through mids of Elis towne he rode And through all Graecian land Triumphing wise and to himselfe Audaciously did take Honours divine Mad franticke man That did not inlie quake With horne-foot horses and brasse-wheeles Ioves stormes to emulate And lightenings impossible For man to imitate But Servius in his Commentaries conceiues that this imitation of thunder was by driuing his Chariot ouer a brasen bridge And if hee vsed any Engine it seemes to haue beene rather for rattling and terrour then for any reall effect And whereas great Ordinance exceed thunder this was such that it came farre short of it And therefore as ' Rota hath well obserued the Poet calls it non imitabile fulmen But this I leaue as a very vncertaine ground for the ancient invention of this Engine Petrarch and Valturius vpon better shew of reason as they conceiue referre it to Archimede found out as they pretend by him for the ouer-throw of Marcellus his shipps at the siege of Syracuse But it were strange that both Plutarch Liuie who haue written largely of his admirable wit wonderfull Engines and particularly of the siege of that citie should among the rest forget this rare invention and yet more strange that the Romanes vpon the taking of the citie should not take it vp and make vse of it Nay as Magius who hath written a chapter of purpose to refute them who referre this invention to the Ancients hath obserued neither Heron nor Pappus nor Athenaeus nor Biton in their manuscrips of the Mechanniques for printed they are not haue described any such Engine nor Aegidius Romanus who liued wrote in the reigne of Philip the faire King of France about the yeare 1285 where he treates purposely of warlike Engines instruments remembers any such thing Brightman in his exposition on the Revelation of S. Iohn tels vs that by the fire smoake brimstone which in that place are said to haue issued out of the mouths of the horses are to be vnderstood our powder gunnes now in vse that of them S. Iohn prophesied but how these can be said to issue out of the mouthes of horses he doth not well expresse nor I thinke well vnderstood The common opinion then is that this diuise was first found out by a Monke of Germanie whose name many writers affirme to be deseruedly lost But Forcatulus in his fourth booke of the Empire Phylosophy of France names him Berthold Swarts of Cullē Salmuth Constantine AnklitZen of Friburg Howsoeuer they all agree that he was a German Monke and that by chaunce a sparke of fire falling into a pot of Niter which he had prepared for Physicke or Alchimy and causing it to fly vp he therevpon made a composition of powder with an instrument of brasse yron and putting fire to it found the conclusion to answere his expectation The first publique vse of Gunnes that we reade of was thought to be about the yeare 1380 as Magius or 400 as Ramus in a battle betwixt the Venetians the Genowayes fought at Clodia-Fossa in which the Venetian hauing from this Monke belike gotten the vse of Gunnes so galled their enimies that they saw themselues wounded slaine and yet knew not by what meanes or how to prevent it as witnesseth Platina in the life of Vrbane the sixth And Laurentius Valla in the second booke 34 Chapter of his Elegancies which as himselfe testifies he wrote in the yeare 1438 affirmes that the Gunne grew in vse not long before his time His words are Nuper inventa est machina quam Bombardam vocant the Engine which they call the Gunne was lately found out And Petrarch who liued somewhat before him to like purpose in his 99 dialogue of the Remedies of both fortunes though therein I confesse he seeme to crosse himselfe Erat haec pestis nuper rara vt cum ingenti miraculo cerneretur This pestilent deuise was lately so rare that it was beheld with marueilous great astonishment Yet I haue seene the copie of a record that great ordinance were brought by the French to the batterie of a Castle or fort called Outhwyke neere to Callis and then in possession of the English the first yeare of Richard the second of which fort one William Weston was Captaine and being questioned in Parliament for yeelding vp the fort he doth in his excuse alalleage that the enimies brought to the batterie thereof nine peeces de grosses Canons par les quelles les mures les measons da dit Chastel furent rentes percussez en plusiears lieux of great Canons by meanes whereof the wals and houses of the sayed Castell were in diuerse places rent in sunder and sorely battered and in another place he tearmeth them huge most greivous admirable Ordinance nay more then so I am credibly informed that a commission is to be seene for the making of Salt-peter in Edward the thirds time and another record of Ordinance vsed in that time some twēty yeares before his death by all which it should appeare that either the invention of Gunnes was sooner then is commonly conceiued or that our Nation and the French had the vse of it with the first howsoeuer it is most cleare that at least-wise in these parts of the world this invention was not knowen till in latter ages in comparison of the worlds duration SECT 4. Of the vse and invention of the Martiners Compasse or sea-card as also of another excellent invention sayd to be lately found out vpon the Load-stone together with a conclusion of this comparison touching Arts Wits with a saying of Bodins and another very notable one of Lactantius TO these inventions of Printing Gunnes may be added in the last place that of the Marriners compasse of which Bodin thus confidently speakes Cum Magnete nihil sit admirabilius in tota rerum natura vsum tamen eius plane diuinum Antiqui ignorarunt Though there be nothing more admirable then the Load-stone in the whole course of Nature yet of the Diuine vse thereof were the Ancients ignorant And Blondus Certum est id navigandi auxilium Priscis omnino fuisse incognitum It is certaine that helpe of sayling was altogether vnknown to the Ancients And Cardan a man much versed in the Rarities of Nature inter caetera rerum inventa admiratione primum digna est ratio Nauticae pyxidis Among other rare Inventions that of the Marriners compasse is most worthy of admiration
exercendae atque desidiae miâ—…uendae causa fieri praedicant It is no discredit among the Germans to robbe so it be without the bounds of their citties and this they allow for the exercise of their youth the shunning of idlenes But particulars are infinite wherefore I will content my selfe with one nation three or foure notorious vices of that Nation The Nation shall be that of the ancient Romans I meane before their receiuing of Christianity because they were commonly reputed the most civill best disciplined of the whole world The speciall vices I will instance in shall bee their cruelty their couetousnes their luxurie their vaine-glory and ambition and in these will I shew their wonderfull excesse beyond latter ages concluding with a demonstration that the most eminent and renowned vertues of the Romanes as their wisedome courage haue likewise beene at least matched by some of latter ages and that in some other vertues as namely in modesty and humility they haue beene much exceeded CAP. 4. Of the excessiue cruelty of the Romans towards the Iewes the Christians other Nations one another vpon themselues SEC 1. Of the Romane cruelty toward the Iewes THe savage and barbarous inhumanity of the Romans appeares partly in their cruell handling of the Iewes Christians partly of other Nations But chiefely in their vnnaturall disposition one towards another and vpon themselues First then for the Iewes it is indeede true that by putting to death the Lord of life and crying alowd His blood be vpon vs and vpon our children they wilfully drew vpon themselues the Divine vengeance that dreadfull threate Loe the dayes shall come when they shall say happy are the barren and the wombes that haue not borne children and the paps that haue not giuen sucke Yet were the Romans though greater enemies to Christian Religion then the Iewes appointed by divine providence as the Executioners of that vengeance which they performed in a most vnmercifull manner And in regard of themselues an vndue vniust measure For to let passe all other bloody massacres of them in diverse townes citties thorow the Romane Empire after the passion of our Saviour and before the destruction of Ierusalem surely their cruelty acted in the siedge of that citty recorded by Iosephus was such as were able even to resolue an heart of steele into teares of blood It was on every side so straightly begirt that the besieged by extreamity of famine were forced to 〈◊〉 not only horses asses dogges rats mice and the leather that couered their shields bucklers but also the very dung out of their stables yea a Noble woman was knowne to eate her owne child that suckt vpon her breast wherein no doubt was fulfilled the prophecie of our Saviour happy are the barren Such as were taken by the Romans were by the commaundement of Titus crucified before the walls of the citty to the number of fiue hundred every day vntill at length as Iosephus reporteth there wanted both crosses for the bodies and place for the crosses Also great numbers of them who being forced with famine sought to saue their liues by yeelding themselues to ther enemies were nevertheles killed by the mercilesse souldier and their bowels ripped vp in hope to finde gold therein vpon a report or at least a conceite that the Iewes did swallow their gold to convay it out of the citty by that meanes Finally the number of those which were slaine and died during the siege was as witnesseth Iosephus a million and an hundred thousand and of the Captiues nine hundred and seventy thousand whereof Iosephus himselfe was one and of those some were condemned to the publique workes others of the stronger handsommer sort carried in triumph and such as were vnder the age of seventeene yeares were sold for litle or nothing those which remained in their countrey were loaden with such greivous impositions and tributes that they liued in a continuall misery slauery worse then death Yet the cruelty of the Romans towards these miserable Iewes ceased not heere but in the next age in the time of Traiane the Emperour within lesse then fifty yeares after the subversion of Ierusalem infinita eorum millia sayth Eusebius infinite thousands of them were killed in Egypt and Mesopotamia in Macedonia they were vtterly extinguished and in Cyprus they were all either put to the sword or banished and a law made that it should be death for any Iew to arriue there though he were driven thither by tempest against his will And in a few yeares after Iulius Severus being called out of Brittaine by the Emperour Adrian and sent into Iudea destroyed almost all the countrey For as Dyon writeth he dismantled fifty strong forts and razed or burnt nine hundred eighty fiue townes or villages and killed aboue fifty thousand Iewes in battell besides an infinite number of others that died either by fire famine or pestilence or were sold for slaues Shortly after Adrians time they were also miserablely afflicted by the Emperour Antoninus Pius and after him by Marcus Aurelius and againe some yeares after that by the Emperour Seuerus who renewed the decrees of Adrian for their exclusion from the sight of their countrey and triumphed for his great victories against them Now though it be true that the wickednes of the Iewish Nation was such as they well deserued to be thus seuerely punished yet cannot the Romanes be excused from vnreasonable cruelty in dealing thus vnmercifully with them as if they had beene beasts rather then men SECT 2. Their cruelty toward the Christians first in regard of the insatiable malice of their persecutors THeir dealing with the Christians whom they likewise named Iewes because our Saviours Apostles first disciples were all of that nation was yet more mercilesse because more vnjust They pretended the frequent rebellions of the Iewes to be the reason of their great severity towards them But the Christians they deadly hated and most cruelly persecuted only for their religion whereas they suffered all religions saue the Christian to be quietly exercised thorow their dominions Now their cruelty towards the poore Christians appeared in the insatiable malice of their persecutors the incredible number of those that suffered as Martyrs or Confessors and the exquisite variety of their tortures St. Augustine and his scholler Orosius compare the tenne persecutions of the Primitiue Christians which as so many raging waues came tumbling one vpon the necke of another to the tenne plagues of Egypt the first of which was vnder Nero whose cruelty or luxury was of the two more monstrous vnnaturall cannot easily be determined He caused Rome to be set on fire that he might the better conceiue the flames of Troy singing vnto it Homers verses His father and brother he poysoned murthâ—…red his master wife mother taking an exact view of her dead bodie commending the proportion of some parts discommending others
all things else doe hire Being such as fortune when she would be merrie To highest place doth raise from lowest mire What marvell then if Seneca complaine Haec ipsa res tot magistratus tot judices detinet quae Magistratus Iudices facit pecunia This selfe-same thing which keepes in so many Magistrates and Iudges In their places is it which makes both Magistrates and Iudges to wit money Mercatoresque venales invicem facti quaerimus non quale sit quid sed quanti being become Merchants on all hands we seeke not so much of what quality things are but of what price And all kinde of offices being thus purchased with money as the places of Iudicature were commonly bought so was Iustice openly sold. Omnium sermone percrebuit in his judicijs quae nunc sunt pecuniosum hominem quamvis sit nocens neminem posse damnari saith Cicero It is rife in euery mans mouth in these Courts of Iustice which now are that a monied man though he bee guilty cannot be condemned and againe nihil tam sanctum quod non violari nihil tam munitum quod non expugnari pecunia possit there is nothing so sacred which with money may not be violated nothing so fenced which may not be razed Nay Catiline could say of Rome ô vrbem venalem maturè perituram si emptorem invenerit O mercenary city and soone to bee ruined by sale if it might finde but a Chapman Not without reason then haue some found in the word ROMA Radix Omnium Malorum Avaritia Covetousnesse is the roote of all mischiefe taking the first letters of those wordes as they lye in their order for the making vp of that name And not without proper signification did Rome take to her selfe the Eagle for her Ensigne which as Iob speaketh dwelleth and abideth on the rock vpon the cragge of the rocke the strong place from thence she seeketh the prey and her eyes behold a farre off her young ones also suck vp blood and where the slaine are there is he So as generally might be verified of them what Claudian writes of Ruffinus Plenus sevitiae lucrique cupidine fervens Non Tartassiacis illum satiaret arenis Tempest as pretiosa Tagi non stagna rubentis Aurea Pactoli totumque exhauserit Hermum Ardebit majore siti Greedy of filthy gaine and full of cruelty Nor can Tartessian sands him of the pretious Tage Or golden streames of red Pactolus satisfie Might he all Hermus drink his thirst the more would rage Or Strozza of Scaurus Scaurus habet villas vrbana palatia nummos Pinguiaque innumeris praedia bobus arat Huic tamen assiduè maior succrescit habendi Nunquam divitijs exsatiata fames Scaurus hath farmes coine cities palaces With many an oxe his fertile fields he plowes Yet wealth his hunger neuer satisfies But his desire to haue still greater growes CAP. 6. Of the Romane Luxury in matter of Incontinency and Drunkennesse SECT 1. A touch of the Romane Luxurie in generall and in particular of the sins of the flesh NOw as the Romane Covetousnes was vnsatiable their cruelty vnquenchable so was their Luxury most incredible were it not recorded by their owne Writers Nunc patimur longae pacis mala saevior armis Luxuria incumbit victumque vlciscitur orbem Nullum crimen abest facinusque libidinis ex quo Paupertas Romana perit Now suffer we the plagues and mischiefes of long peace Now is the conquer'd world reveng'd by luxurie Far worse then armes and since Rome's poverty did cease There wanteth no attempt or crime of lecherie Pariterque luxuria nata est Carthago sublata saith Pliny no sooner was Carthage vanquished by vs but we by luxurie and these two covetousnesse and luxurie mutvally made way each for other Luxuriamque lucris emimus luxuque rapinas We draw on luxurie by vnjust gaine And rapine by luxurie is drawne on againe Eiusmodi tempora constat à Tacito in annalibus esse descripta quibus nulla unquam fuerunt turpissimis vitijs foediora neque aut virtutum steriliora aut virtutibus inimicitiorae as witnesseth Causabon in his preface to Polybius It is evident that those times are by Tacitus described in his Annals then which neuer were any more fruitfull in most shamefull and abhominable vices or of vertues more barren or to vertue more opposite The branches of the Romane luxurie were monstrous excesse in all kinde of vncleannesse incontinency in diet in apparell in retinew of servants in buildings furniture of their houses in bathings anointings of their bodies in prodigall gifts and lastly in setting foorth their playes Theatricall shewes I am not ignorant that Meursius a Netherlander hath composed an entire booke purposely of this subject intituling it De luxu Romanorum of the Romane Luxurie and concluding it with this censure damno damno luxum vestrum Romani in hac sententia concludo O ye Romanes I damne I damne your Luxury and with this sentence I conclude yet is it certaine that hee hath omitted many materiall Collections which might haue beene added and the most obserueable in him I shall not faile to make choice and vse of First then for their excesse in the sinnes of the flesh it is evident that they acted more then is now commonly knowne to Christians and I rather desire the foulenesse thereof should be eternally buried in oblivion then by exposing it to publique view defile my penne with it and perchaunce teach whiles I reprehend The Apostle in the first to the Romanes hath given vs a touch thereof yet so as no doubt but hee concealed much that he knew and many things by them were practised which came not to his knowledge Though this infection were so generally spread had taken so deepe root amongst them that they made but a jest of the foulest sinnes in that kinde They had certaine pastimes which they tearmed Ludos Florales in honour of Flora a notorious strumpet Qui ludi tanto devotius quanto turpius celebrari solent saith S. Augustine in his second booke de Civitate Dei and 27 chapter which games of theirs the more dishonestly the more devoutly they were celebrated In these the common queanes which got their maintenance by that trade ran vp downe the streetes by day-light in the night with burning torches in their hands having their whole bodies starke naked and expressing the most beastly motions gestures and vttering the most filthy speeches songes that could possiblely be imagined To these the Poet alludes Turba quidem cur hos celebret meretricia ludos Non ex difficili cognita causa fuit Why queanes these playes doe celebrate I trow 'T is not so difficult the cause to know Yet to these shamefull or rather shamelesse pastimes were their youth admitted thereby adding as it were fire to tinder nay their sagest Senatours gravest Matrones and severest
Magistrates were well content to grace them with their presence as it had bin some very commendable or profitable exercise But these Florall playes were but once a yeare their enterludes in the Theater acted vpon the open stage were almost daily yet so abominable that the godly dâ—…voute Fathers of the Primitiue Christian Church can hardly write of them with patience specially Salvianus whose words to this purpose are very smart and piercing Talia sunt saith he quae illic fiunt vt ea non solum dicere sed etiam recordari aliquis sine pollutione non possit Alia quippe crimina singulas sibi in nobis vendicant portiones vt cogitationes sordidae animum impudici aspectus oculos auditus improbi aures ita vt cum ex his vnum aliquid erraverit reliqua possint carere peccatis in Theatris vero nihil horum reaetu vacat quia concupiscentijs animus auditu aures aspectu oculi polluuntur quae quidem omnia tam flagitiosa sunt vt explicare ea quispiam atque eloqui salvo ore non valeat Quis enim integro verecundiae statu dicere queat illas rerum turpium imitationes illas vocum ac verborum obscaenitates illas motuum turpitudines illas gestuum foeditates quae quanti sint criminis vel hinc intelligi potest quòd relationem sui interdicunt His conclusion is Quae cum ita sint ecce qualia aut omnes aut penè omnes Romani agunt Of such a nature they are which are there acted that a man cannot speake of them nor well remember them without some touch of pollution Other offences challenge to themselues but a part of vs as impure thoughts the mind vnchast sights the eyes wicked speeches the eares so that when one of these is tainted yet the rest may be cleere from pollution but in the Theatre none of them is free from the guilt of infection in asmuch as the minde is there defiled with corrupt thoughts the affections with naughty desires the eares by hearing and the eyes by seing all which are so lewd that no man without blushing can somuch as name them much lesse fully describe them For what modest man is there who can rccount those representations of beastly actions those filthy speeches motions gestures which how sinfull they are we may from hence conjecture that they cannot well be related which being so behold what manner of things all or at least-wise the greatest part of the Romanes practise And this may wee adde to Salvianus that the Actors of these Comedies were by the state it selfe highly regarded and richly rewarded as if they had done some profitable peece of service for the Common-wealth But this kinde of luxurie as being loathsome in the very handling I briefely passe over as men lightly skippe over quagmires and proceede to their luxury in diet and first of their excesse in drinking SEC 2. Of their excesse in drinking THis we may partly guesse at by that which Ammianus Marcellinus writes of their pots graviora gladijs pocula erant their pots were heavier then their swords Among the rest they had a kind of cups which Horace cals ciboria Oblivioso lavia massico Ciboria imple Goe fill the biggest cups you may With liquor that driues care away Thought to be the leaues of the Egyptian beane which are so broad that Dioscorides for their largenesse compares them to a bonnet Theophrastus to a Thessalian hat Pliny thus describes them vnder the name of Colocassia The leaues of Colocassia are exceeding large and comparable to the broadest that any tree beareth of these plaited and infolded one within another the Egyptians make them cups of diverse formes fashions out of which they take no small pleasure to drinke whereby the leaues of Colocassia Adrianus Iunius conceiveth Horace his Ciboria to be described Such a kinde of cup it seemes was that which that mad fellow speakes of in Plautus vpon casting the dice. Iacto basilicum propino magnum poclum Ille ebibit I threw the principall chaunce and therevpon begin an health in the greatest bowle and hee instantly pleadges me the whole Now the principall chaunce was Venus Quem Venus arbitram Dicet bibendi Whom Venus shall name To be Judge of the game And this Lord of misrule in their compotations or drunken meetings cald Modiperator or Magister his office was to prescribe rules and to see them executed and there he commaunded as a Soveraigne Monarch in his kingdome Nec regna vini sortiere talis Nor shalt thou any more by chaunce of dice Win Bacchus kingdome or the drinking price Their rules of drinking they borrowed for the most part from the Grecians the most debosht drunken Nation I thinke that ever was in somuch as their very name is for that quality growne into a proverbe both in Latine English Of these rules one was to drinke downe the evening starre and drinke vp the morning starre ad Diurnam stellam matutinam potantes saith Plautus another commonly practised among them was the drinking of so many healths as there were letters in their Mistresses name Naevia sex Cyathis septem Iustina bibatur Quinque Lycas Lyde quatuor Ida tribus Six healths to Naevia drinke seaven to Iustina To Lycas fiue to Lyde foure and three to Ida. And yet it should seeme by Plutarch in his Symposiaks that they had a superstitious conceite of drinking foure healths perchaunce because an euen number Aut quinque bibe aut tres aut non quatuor Three drinke if more Fiue but not foure These drunken matches were in a manner the dayly trade of their Poets Nulla manere diu nec vivere carmina possunt Quae scribuntur aquae potoribus Who nought but water dâ—…inke their rime Cannot endure or liue long time Nunc est bibendum nunc pede libero Pulsanda tellus Now let vs drinke out wit And daunce frolicke it Neither were their very women free from this excesse Nay Seneca assures vs that in this practise they put downe the men themselues Non minus pervigilant non minus potant oleo mero viros provocant aequè invitis ingesta visceribus per os reddunt vinum omne vomitu remetiuntur aeque nivem rodunt solatium stomachi aestuantis They no lesse sit vp late in the night they drinke no lesse then men themselues nay they challenge men to the annointing of their bodies and the swilling down of wine regorging what they eate drinke aswell as they neither doe they forbeare to chaw vpon snow as men do for the refreshing of their boyling stomackes SECT 3. The same amply confirmed by the testimony of Pliny THis vice of excessiue drinking is by some thought to be the Epidemicall proper disease of this age But he that will be pleased patiently to pervse advisedly to consider this ensuing discourse which I shall heere annexe