betwixt whome was great strife for the soueraigne dominion but to rid himselfe of all his trouble at once hee slew his brother Manlius by treason and after continued his raigne in tyranny and all vnlawfull lusts the space of twentie yeares but although vengeance all this while wincked yet it slept not for at the end of this space as hee was hunting hee was deuoured of wild beasts In the yeare of our Lord God 745 one Sigebert was authorised king of the Saxons in Brittaine a cruell and tyrannous Prince towards his subiects and one that chaunged the ancient lawes and customes of his realme after his owne pleasure and because a certaine Nobleman somewhat sharpely aduertised him of his euill conditions he malitiously caused him to bee put to death but see how the Lord reuenged this murder hee caused his Nobles to depriue him of his kingly authority and at last as a desolate and forlorne person wandering alone in a wood to bee slaine of a swine-heard whose maister hee being king had wrongfully put to death In the yeare of our Lord 678 Childerich king of Fraunce caused a Nobleman of his Realme called Bolyde to bee bound to a stake and there beaten to death without the pretence of any iust crime or accusation against him for which cruelty his Lords and commons being grieuously offended conspired togither and slew him with his wife as they were in hunting In the raigne of Edward the second and Edward the third Sir Roger Mortimer committed many villanous outrages in sheading much humane blood but hee was also iustlie recompenced in the end first he murdered king Edward the second lying in Barkley castell to the end hee might as it was supposed enioy Isabell his wife with whome hee had very suspitious familiarity Secondly hee caused Edward the third to conclude a dishonourable peace with the Scots by restoring to them all their ancient writings charters and patents whereby the kings of Scotland had bound themselues to be feudaries to the kings of England Thirdly he accused Edmund Earle of Kent vncle to king Edward of treason and caused him vniustly to be put to death And lastly he conspired against the king to worke his destruction for which and diuerse other things that were laid to his charge he was worthely and iustly beheaded In the raigne of Henry the sixt Humfry the good duke of Gloucester faithfull protector of the king by the meanes of certaine malicious persons and especially the Marques of Suffolke as it was suspected was arrested cast into hold strangled to death in the Abbey of Bury for which cause the Marques was not only banished the land for the space of fiue yeares but also banished out of his life for euer for as he sailed towards France he was met withall by a ship of warre and there presently beheaded and the dead corps cast vp at Douer that England wherein hee had committed the crime might be a witnesse of his punishment As the murder of a gentleman in Kent called maister Arden of Feuersham was most execrable so the wonderfull discouerie thereof was exceeding rare this Arden being somewhat aged had to wife a young woman no lesse faire then dishonest who being in loue with one Mosby more then her husband did not onely abuse his bed but also conspired his death with this her companion for togither they hired a notorious ruffian one Blacke Will to strangle him to death with a towell as hee was playing a game at tables which though secretly done yet by her own guiltie conscience and some tokens of blood which appeared in the house was soon discouered and confessed Wherfore she her selfe was burnt at Canterbury Michael maister Ardens man was hanged in chaines at Feuersham Mosby and his sister were hanged in Smithfield Greene another partner in this bloody action was hanged in chaines in the high way against Feuersham And Blacke Will the ruffian after his first escape was apprehended and burnt on a scaffold at Flushing in Zealand And thus all the murderers had their deserued dewes in this life and what they endured in the life to come except they obtaine mercy by true repentance it is easie to iudge CHAP. XI Of Paricides or parent murderers IF all effusion of humane blood bee both horrible to behold and repugnant to nature then is the murdering of parents especially detestable when a man is so possessed with the deuill or transported with a hellish fury that he lifteth vp his hand against his owne naturall father or mother to put thē to death this is so monstrous and inormious an impiety that the greatest Barbarians euer haue had it in detestation wherefore it is also expressely commanded in the law of God that vvhosoeuer smiteth his father or mother in what sort soeuer though not to death Exod. 21. yet he shall die the death If the disobedience vnreuerence and contempt of children towards their parents are by the iust iudgement of God most rigorously punished as hath ben declared before in the first commandement of the second table how much more then when violence is offered aboue all when murder is cōmitted Diodor. Sic. Thus the Aegyptians punished this sin they put the cōmittants vpon a stack of thorns and burnt thē aliue hauing beaten their bodies before hand with sharp reeds made of purpose Solon being demanded why hee appointed no punishment in his lawes for Parricides answered that there was no necessity thinking that the wide world could not affoord so wicked a wretch It is said that Romulus for the same cause ordained no punishment in his Common-wealth for that crime but called euery murderer a Parricide the one being in his opinion a thing execrable and the other impossible And in truth there was not for 600 years space according to Plutarchs report found in Rome any one that had cōmitted this execrable fact The first Parricide that Rome saw was Lucius Ostius after the first Punick war although other writers affirme that M. Malliolus was the first and Lucius the second howsoeuer it was they both vnderwent the punishment of the law Pompeia which enacted that such offendors should be thrust into a sack of lether an ape a cock a viper a dog put in to accōpany them then to be thrown into the water to the end that these beasts being enraged animated one against another might wreke their teene vpon them so depriue thē of life after a strange fashion being debarred of the vse of aire water earth as vnworthy to participate the very elements with their deaths much lesse with their liues which kind of punishmēt was after practised and confirmed by the constitution of Constantine the great And albeit the regard of the punishmēt seemed terrible the offence it self much more monstrous yet since that time there haue ben many so peruerse exceedingly wicked as to throw themselues headlong into that desperat gulfe As Cleodorick son of Sigebert king of
more manifest I will briefly reckon vp a catalogue of the cheifest of them In the yeare 1275 Lewline Prince of Wales rebelled against King Edward the first and after much adoe was taken by Sir Roger Mortimer and his head set vpon the tower of London In like sort was Dauid Lewlines brother serued Ries Madok escaped no better measure in stirring the Welchmeâ— vp to rebellion No more did the Scots who hauing of their owne accord committed the gouernment of their kingdome to king Edward after the death of Alexander who broke his necke by a fall from an horse and left no issue male and sworn feaulty vnto him yet dispensed with their oth by the Popes commission and Frenchmens incitement and rebelled diuerse times against King Edward for hee ouercame them sundrie times and made slaughter of their men slaying at one time 32000 and taking diuerse of their Nobles prisoners In like manner they rebelled against King Edward the third who made three voiages into that land in the space of foure yeares and at euerie time ouercame and discomfited them in so much that well neare all the nobilitie of Scotland with infinite number of the common people were slaine Thus they rebelled in Henry the sixts time and also Henrie the eights and diuerse other kings raignes euer when our English forces were busied about forraine warres inuading the land on the other side most traiterously And thus it is to bee feared they will euer doe except they degenerate from their old natures and therefore it ought to bee a Caueat to vs how wee trust them in any extremity but neuerthelesse they euer yet were whipped for their treason as the histories of our English Chronicles doe sufficiently record â—â—nquet In the raigne of king Henry the fourth there rebelled at one time against him Sir Iohn Holland D. of Excester with the Dukes of Aumarle Surrey Salisburie and Gloucester and at another time Sir Thomas Percie Earle of Worcester and Henry Percie sonne to the Earle of Northumberland at another Sir Richard Scroope Archbishop of Yorke and diuerse others of the house of the Lord Moubray at another time Sir Henry Percie the father Earle of Northumberland the Lord Bardolph And lastly Ryce ap Dee and Owen Glendour two Welchmen all which were either slaine as Sir Hendry Percie the yoonger or beheaded as the rest of these noble rebels or starued to death as Owen Glendour was in the mountains of Wales after he had deuoured his owne flesh In the raigne of Henry the fift Sir Richard Earle of Cambridge Sir Richard Scroope treasurer of England and Sir Thomas Gray were beheaded for treason No lesse was the perfidious and vngratefull trecherie of Humfrey Banister an Englishman towards the duke of Buckingham his Lord maister whom the said duke had tenderly brought vp exalted to great promotion For when as the duke being driuen into extremity by reason of the seperation of his army which he had mustered together against king Richard the vsurper fled to the same Banister as his trustiest friend to be kept in secret vntill hee could find oportunity to escape This false traitor vpon hope of a thousand pounds which was promised to him that could bring forth the duke betraied him into the haÌ„ds of Iohn Mitton sheriefe of Shropshire who conueied him to the citie of Salisbury where king Richard kept his houshold where he was soon after put to death But as for vngrateful Banister the vengeaÌ„ce of God pursued him to his vtter ignominy for presently after his eldest son became mad died in a bores stie his eldest daughter was sodainly stricken with a foule leprie his second sonne marueilously deformed of his lims and lame his yoongest sonne drowned in a puddle And he himself in his old age arraigned and found guiltie of a murder and by his clergie saued And as for his thousand pounds king Richard gaue him not a farthing saying that hee which would bee vntrue to so good a master must needs be false to all other To passe ouer the time of the residue of the kings wherein many examples of treasons punishmeÌ„ts vpon them are extant to come nearer vnto our own age let vs consider the wonderfull prouidence of God in discouering the notorious treasons which haue ben preteÌ„ded so often so many against our soueraign now liuing Queen Elizabeth protecting her so fatherly from the dint of them all First therefore to begin with the chiefest the Earle of NorthumberlaÌ„d Westmerland in the eleuenth year of her raign began a rebellioÌ„ in the North pretending their purpose to bee sometimes to defend the Queens person gouernment from the inuasion of strangers and sometimes for conscience sake to seeke reformation of religion vnder colour whereof they got together an army of men to the number of sixe thousand souldiors against whom marched the Earle of Sussex leiutenant of the North and the Earle of Warwick sent by the Queen to his aid whose approch stroke such a terror into their hearts that the two Earles with diuerse of the Archrebels fled by night into Scotland leauing the rest of their companie a prey vnto their enemies whereof threescore and sixe or thereabout were hanged at Durham As for the Earles one of them to wit of Northumberland was after taken in Scotland and beheaded at Yorke Westmerland fled into another countrie and left his house and family destroied and vndone by his folly A while after this what befell to Iohn Throgmorton Thomas Brooke George Redman and diuerse other Gentlemen at Norwich who pretended a rebellion vnder the colour of suppressing strangers were they not discouered by one of their owne conspiracy Thomas Ket and executed at Norwich for their paines The same end came Francis Throgmorton to whose trecheries as they were abominable touching the Queens owne person so they were disclosed not without the especial prouidence of God But aboue all that vile and vngratefull Traitor William Parry vpon whome the Queene had poured plentifully her liberalitie deserueth to bee had in euerlasting remembrance to his shame whose Treasons being discouered hee paied the tribute of his life in recompence thereof What shall I say of the Earle of Arundell and a second Earle of Northumberland Did not the iustice of God appeare in both their endes when being attainted for Treason the one slew himselfe in prison and the other died by course of nature in prison also Notorious was the conspiracie of those Arch-traitors Ballard Babington Sauadge and Tylney c. yet the Lord brought them downe and made them spectacles to the world of his iustice Euen so that notorious villaine doctor Lopus the Queens Phisitian who a long time had not onely beene an intelligencer to the Pope and King of Spaine of our English counsailes but also had poysoned many Noblemen and went about also to poyson the Queene her selfe was he not surprised in his trecherie and brought to suddaine destruction In summe
brother Elydurus in his roome after he had raigned fiue yeares Hardiknitus king of Denmarke The same after the death of Harold was ordained king of England in the yeare of the Lord 1041 this king as he was somewhat cruell for he caused the body of Harold to be taken vp out of the sepulchre and smiting off his head to be cast out into the riuer Thames because he had iniured his mother Emma when he was aliue so hee was burdensome to his subiects in tributes and exaction for which cause growing into hatred with God and his subiects hee was stricken with suddaine death not without suspition of poysoning after he had raigned three years The same William Rufus second sonne of William the conquerour succeeded his father as in the kingdome of England so in disposition of nature for they were both cruell vnconstant and couetous and burdened their people with vnreasonable taxes insomuch that what with the morreine of men by pestilence and the oppressions of them by exactions the tillage of the earth was put off for one yeare being the yeare 1096 whereby ensued great scarsitie the yeare following throughout all the land but for the oppression William was iustly punished by sodaine death when being at his disport of hunting hee was wounded with an arrow glaunsing from the bow of Tyrill a French knight and so his tyranny and life ended togither The same Neither dooth the Lord thus punish oppressors themselues but also they that either countenance or hauing authoritie doe not punish the same as it appeareth by this example following In the yeare of our Lord 475 there liued one Corrannus a king of Scots who though hee gouerned the people in peace and quietnesse a long space and was indeed a good Prince yet because his Chancelour Tomset vsed extortion and exaction amongst his subiects and hee being aduertised thereof did not punish him hee was slaine traiterously by his owne subiects It is not vnworthie to bee noted how Edward the third king of England prospered a long while in the warres against France and got many worthie and wonderfull victories but when Prince Edward sonne vnto the foresaid Edward after conditions of peace concluded began to set taxes and impositions vpoÌ„ the country of Aquitaine then did king Edwards part begin to decline and the successe of war which the space of fortie years neuer forsooke him now frowned vpon him so that he quickly lost all those lands which by composition of peace were granted vnto him CAAP. XXXIX Of such as by force of armes haue either taken away or would haue taken away the goods and lands of other men NOw if they that oppresse their subiects and deuour them in this manner In this whole chapter note the nature of ambition and the fruits thereof bee found guiltie then must they needs bee much more that are carried with the wings of their own hungrie ambitious desire to inuade their lands and signiories attended on with an infinite retinue of pillages sackings ruines of cities and people which are alwaies necessarie companions of furious vnmercifull warre There are no flouds so broad nor mountaines so steepe nor rockes so rough and dangerous nor sea so long and furious that can restraine the rash and headstrong desire of such greedie minded Sacres so that if their bodie might bee proportioned to the square and greatnesse of their mindes with the one hand they would reach the East and with the other hand the West as it is said of Alexander howbeit hereof they boast and glorie no lesse than they that tooke delight to bee surnamed citie-spoilers others burners of cities some conquerors and many Eagles and Faulcons seeking as it were fame by infamy and by vice eternitie But to these men it often coÌ„meth to passe that euen then when they think to aduance their dominion and to stretch their bounds and frontiers furthest they are driuen to recoile for feare of being dispossessed themselues of their owne lands and inheritances and euen as they delt with others rigorously and by strength of weapons so shall they bee themselues rehandled and dealt withall after the same measure according to the word of the Prophet denounced against such as they Cursed bee thou that spoilest and dealest vnfaithfully when thou hast made an end of spoiling others thou thy selfe shall bee spoiled and when thou hast done dealing traiterously then treason shall begin to be practised against thee and this curse most commonly neuer faileth to sease vpon these great Theeues and Robbers or at least vpon their children and successours as by particular examples wee shall see after wee haue first spoken of Adonias who not content with his owne estate of being a kings sonne 1. King 12. which God had allotted him went about to get the crowne and kingdome from his brother Salomon Treason lib. 2. cap. 3. to whome by right it appertained for God had manifested the same by the mouth of his father Dauid but both hee and his assistants for their ouerbold and rash enterprise were iustly by Salomon punished with death â—arod Crassus king of Lidia was the first that made war against Ephesus and that subdued the Greekes of Asia to wit the Phrigians Mysians Chalybeans Paphlagonians Thracians Bythinians Ionians Dorians Aeolians and Pamphilians and made them all tributaries vnto him by meanes whereof hee being growne exceeding rich and puissant by the detriment and vndoing of so many people vaunted and gloried in his greatnesse and power and euen then thought himselfe the happiest man in the world wheÌ„ most misery and aduersity griefe and distresse of his estate and whole house approched neerest for first and formost one of his sonnes that was deare vnto him was by ouersight slaine at the chase of a wild bore next himselfe hauing commenced war with Cirus was ouercome in battaile and besieged in Sardis the chiefe city of his kingdome and at last taken and carried captiue to Cyrus despoiled of all his late glorie and dominion And thus Crassus as sayth Plutarch after Herodotus bore the punishmeÌ„t of the offence of his great grandfather Giges who being but one of king Candanles attendants slew his master and vsurped the crowne at the prouokement of the Queene his mistresse whom he also tooke to be his wife And thus this kingdome decaied by the same meanes by which it first encreased Policrates the Tyrant Herod was one that by violence and tyrannous meanes grew from a base condition to an high estate for being but one of the vulgar sort in the citie Samos hee with the assistance of sifteene armed men seased vpon the whole citie and made himselfe Lord of it which deuiding into three parts he bestowed two of them vpon his two brethren but not for perpetuitie for ere long the third part of his vsurpation cost the elder of them the best part of his life and the younger his liberty for he chased him away that hee might be
woman to the Emperour Adrian is very worthy to be remembred Fulgos lib. 6. cap. 2. who appealing and complaining to the Emperour of some wrong when hee answered that he was not at leisure then to heare her sute shee told him boldly and plainly That then he ought not to be at leisure to be her Emperour which speech went so neare the quicke vnto him that euer after he shewed more facilitie and courtesie towards all men that had any thing to do with him The kings of Fraunce vsed also this custome of hearing and deciding their subiects matters as wee read of Charlemaigne the king and Emperour who commanded that he should be made acquainted with all matters of importance and their issues throughout his realme King Lewes the first treading the steps of his father Charlemaigne accustomed himselfe three daies in a weeke to heare publikely in his pallace the complaints and grieuances of his people and to right their wrongs and iniuries King Lewes sirnamed the Holy Aimo a little before his death gaue in charge to his sonne that should succeed him in the crowne amongst other this precept To be carefull to beare a stroke in seeing the distribution of iustice and that it should not be peruerted not depraued CHAP. XLVI Of such princes as haue made no reckening of punishing vice nor regarded the estate of their people IT cannot choose but be a great confusion in a common-wealth when iustice sleepeth and when the shamelesse boldnesse of euill doers is not curbed in with any bridle but runneth it owne swinge and therefore a Consull of Rome could say That it was an euill thing to haue a prince vnder whome license and libertie is giuen to euery man to doe what him listeth for so much then as this euill proceedeth from the carelesnes and slothfulnesse of those that hold the sterne of gouernment in their hands it can not be but some euill must needs fall vpon them for the same The truth of this may appeare in the person of Philip of Macedonie whome Demosthenes the oratour noteth for a treacherous and false dealing prince after that he had subdued almost all Greece not so much by open warre as by subtilty craft and surprise and that being in the top of his glory hee celebrated at one time the marriage of his sonne Alexander whome hee had lately made king of Epire and of one of his daughters with great pompe and magnificense as hee was marching with all his traine betwixt the two bridegroomes his owne sonne his sonne in law to see the sports and pastimes which were prepared for the solemnitie of the marriage behold suddenly a young Macedonian gentleman called Pausanias ran at him and slew him in the midst of the prease for not regarding to doe him iustice when hee complained of an iniury done vnto him by one of the peeres of his realme Plutarch Tatius the fellow king of Rome with Romulus for not doing iustice in punishing certaine of his friends and kinsfolkes that had robbed and murdered certaine Embassadors which came to Rome and for making their impunitie an example for other malefactours by deferring and protracting and disappointing their punishment was so watcht by the kindred of the slaine that they slew him euen as he was sacrificing to his gods because they could not obtaine iustice at his hands What happened to the Romanes for refusing to deliuer an Embassadour Tit. Liuius Plutarch who contrary to the law of nations comming vnto them plaid the part of an enemie to his own country euen well nigh the totall ouerthrow of them and their citie for hauing by this meanes brought vpon themselues the calamitie of warre they were at the first discomfited by the Gaules who pursuing their victory entred Rome and slew al that came in their way whether men or women infants or aged persons and after many daies spent in the pillage spoiling of the houses at last set fire on all and vtterly destroied the whole city Childericke king of France Paul Aemil. is notified for an extreame dullard and blockhead and such a one as had no care or regard vnto his realme but that liued idly and slothfully without intermedling with the affaires of the common wealth for he laid all the charge and burden of them vpon Pepin his lieutenant generall therefore was by him iustly deposed from his roiall dignity mewed vp in a cloister of religion to become a monke because he was vnfit for any good purpose albeit that this sudden change mutation was very strange yet there ensued no trouble nor commotion in the realme thereupon so odious was hee become to the whole land for his drowsie and idle disposition Paul Aemil. For the same cause did the princes Electours depose Venceslaus the Emperour from the Empire and established another in his roome King Richard of England amongst other foule faults which he was guilty of incurred greatest blame for this because he suffered many theeues and robbers to roue vp and down the land vnpunished for which cause the citizens of London coÌ„menced a high sute against him coÌ„pelled him hauing raigned 22 yeres to lay aside the crown resigne it to another in the presence of all the states died prisoner in the Tower Moreouer this is no small defect of iustice when men of authority do not only pardon capitall and detestable crimes but also grace and fauour the doers of them and this neither ought nor can be done by a soueraigne prince without ouerpassing the bounds of his limited power which can in no wise dispence with the law of God Exod. 21. whereunto euen kings themselues are subiect for as touching the willing and considerate murderer Dâ—ut 19. Thou shalt plucke him from my altar saith the Lord that hee may die thy eye shall not spare him to the end it may goe well with thee which was put in practise in the death of Ioab 1 King 2. who was slaine in the Tabernacle of God holding his hands vpon the hornes of the Altar for hee is no lesse abominable before God that iustifieth the wicked Prou 17. than hee that condemneth the iust and hereupon that holy king S. Lewes when hee had granted pardon to a malefactour Nich. Gilles reuoked it againe after better consideration of the matter saying That hee would giue no pardon except the case deserued pardon by the law for it was a worke of charitie and pittie to punish an offender and not to punish crimes was as much as to commit them In the yeere of our Lord 978 Egebrede the sonne of Edgare end Alphred king of England was a man of goodly outward shape and visage but wholly giuen to idlenesse and abhorring all princely exercises besides he was a louer of riot drunkennesse and vsed extreame cruelty towards his subiects hauing his eares open to all vniust complaints in feats of armes of all men most ignorant so
obiect to shew his wonderfull power on by the meanes of horrible plagues and scourges which hee cast vpon him and by destroying him with all his armies at the length as his rebellion well deserued for he like a cruell tyrant continuing to oppresse the children of Israel without giuing them any release or breathing time from their miserie or libertie to serue God although by Moses in the name authoritie of God who made himselfe well enough knowne vnto him without the helpe of any written law he was many times instantly vrged and requested therunto so many iudgements and punishments assailed him one in the necke of the other in such sort that at length hee was ouertaken and ensnared therewith First of all the verie waters of Aegypt being conuerted into blood proclaimed warre against him then the frogges which couered the face of the earth climed vp euen to his chamber and bed and filling euery corner of his land sounded him an alarum next a muster of lice and gnats and such other troublesome and stincking creatures summoned him to combate an handfull of embers scattered in the aire by Moses vvere vnto him as the strokes of a stone or a shaft which did vvoonderfully disfigure their bodies vvith boiles and most noisome scabs afterward the grashoppers vvere put in battaile aray against him together with the pestilence hailestones horrible thunders and lightnings wasting and spoiling and running vp and downe greeuously though his whole land After al these bitter blows the tyrant being cut short and being so besieged on euery side with hideous and palpable darkenesse that he could not tell which waies to turne himselfe yet would he not be brought to any reason but continued obstinate hardned against God though all the elements with heauen and earth had taken armour together and conspired his destruction Therefore while hee remained in this wretched state Gods angell punished him in the person of his eldest son which died sodainly in one night together with all the first borne of Aegypt wherewithall both he and all his people being greatly moued and grieued at length gaue the Israelites not only leaue but also hasted thm to depart but anone as he saw them going like a man bestraught he ran after them again and pursued them with a mightie armie vntill God in the meane while opening a passage to his children ouerthwart the deepe red sea attended him in the midway where he surprised and ensnared him ouerthrew and violently ouerturned the wheeles of his chariots and put his whole armie to a hurliburly and that hee might vtterly destroy him caused the sea from each side to returne to his channell which drowned and deuoured him and all his armie And this is one of the notablest and fearefullest iudgements of God that can bee mentioned and therefore is very often recounted inmanie places of the scripture as a thing most memorable aboue others Neither ought we to meruaile if so notable an hystorie as this is not set down among the writings of prophane authors for besides that their histories doe not ordinarily stretch so farre as to record such ancient acts there is also no doubt but the successors of that Tyrant and all the Aegyptians sought all meanes possible to cancell and blot out the memorie of their so great and horrible ruine And if by chance any historiographer make mention of the departure of the Israelits out of Aegypt it is done in such sort that the truth is not only disguised but wholly peruerted by them and in place thereof nothing but lies and falshood foisted in CHAP. VIII Of the destruction of many other Kings for the like sinne LIke as Pharaoh by his vniust and outragious persecuting the children of God made him selfe so guiltie of Gods wrath that hee deserued to be vtterly destroied with the greatest part of his people so also after thâ—â—r miraculous deliuerance whosoeuer laboured either to hurt hinder or resist them did no lesse incurre Gods displeasure and fierce wrath against them wherewith they were consumed Whereof the ouerthrow and discomsiture of Amalech is a plaine example who admit all the great wonders which God had done for the Israelites in Aegypt and in the red sea Exod. 17. whereof the bruite being blowen into all corners of the earth he could not be ignorant of yet was he so malitious and foolish hardy as to take vp armour against them and to meete them to bid them battaile but he and his wicked complices were by Ioshua and his poore people though vnwarlike and vnacquainted with such actions lately crept out of bondage wherein they had bene onely exercised to make mortar and bricke and not to handle weapons discomfited and ouerthrowen for the Lord of hosts who is the deuider of victories to whome he pleaseth at the feruent praiers of his seruant Moses fought for them to the confusion of Amalech and all his traine And therefore he commanded Moses to put this deed of his in writing as a thing worthy to be remembred who also erected an altar in the same place for a perpetuall monument of so noble a victory As Amalech and for the like sinne Num. 2.1 were Arad a king of the Canaanites Sehon king of Amorites and Og king of Basan with their people cities destroied and rased downe So the Madianites enterprising to withstand the foresaid Israelites by the wicked and pernicious counsell of Balaam were subdued put to the sword Num 31. euen fiue kings of them togither not one escaping saue the yong virgines which had neuer committed fornication with man CHAP. IX More Examples like vnto the former AFter that the children of Israel had continued a season peaceably in the land of Canaan which the Lord had bestowed vpon them Indg. 3. then did Eglon king of Moab rise vp subdued them by warre tyrannized ouer them eighteene yeres And although it was Gods will that they should be thus chastised because of their corruption iniquities neuertheles this Moabite his rod he caused in regard of his loue to his people to be slaine by Ahud an Israelite as he was taking his ease in his chamber In like maner was his wrath stirred vp against Iabin king of Asor who had oppressed Israel twenty yeres whose army though it was great and well appointed was notwithstanding by Baracs handfull of men vnder the conduct rule of Deborah the Prophetesse wonderously discomfited in such sort that of all the multitude there remained not one that felt not the edge of the sword except Sisera their captaine who escaping from the battell by taking him to his heeles turned in by chance into the house of a woman called Iahel who hating him as he slept with a hammer fastned a naile into his temples and thus escaping from those whom he feared he was murdered by her whome he trusted And so this valiant warriour as he was ouercome in battell by the conduct of a woman so was he
put to death by the hand of a woman That which hapned to the Madianites in the time of Gedeon Iudg. 7. is admirable and very strange who being furnished with a mighty army of soldiers with the Amalekites other their allies to destroy Israel were so scarred scattered at the sound of the trumpets brightnes of torches of three huudred men at the most that were with Gedeon that through the marueilous astonishment they were in they turned their blades into their owne bosomes murdred one another till the greatest part of them were destroied and the residue being put to flight and pursued by the men of Ephraim two of their kings Oreb Zeb were taken and slaine A while after it came to passe that the princes of the Philistims Iudg. 16. who had oppressed the people of God by the space of 40 yeres being assembled togither with all their people in the temple of Dagon their god euen then whē after their sacrifices they thought to make themselues most sport pastime with poore Samson whose eies in mockery contemp◠they had put out were altogither massacred by the fall of the house which Samsō by his strength pulled vpon their heads which was the greatest ouerthrow that beforetimes by his means they had receiued In the reigne of Saul king of Israel 1. Sam. 15. Agag king of Amalech the posterity or those that laid wait for Israel in the desart as they came out of Aegypt were by Saul following the commandemēt of the Lord set vpon who running vpon him his people made a great slaughter butchery of them not sparing man woman nor child except the king only whom he tooke to mercy led captiue which he ought not to haue done This captaine being thus spared by one that was but little better then himselfe could not so escape for the Prophet Samuel became the executioner of Gods vengeance vpon him since Saul refused it with his own hand slue him euen then when he thought he should liue A litle while after Golia a gyant of the Philistims who as well through the hugenes of his stature strength of body 1. Sam. 17. as thorough the horrible cruelty which appeared in him seemed in mans eies inuincible proudly presumptuously defied the army of the liuing God offring daring any one mā of Israel to enter combat with him this proud fellow was notwithstanding all his brags by yong vnarmed Dauid saue a litle stick a few stones which he had in his hands vanquished trode vnder foot for he gaue this great beast such a knocke with one of his stones on the forhead that at the first blow he tumbled him groueling on the earth quickly leaping vpon him caught hold of his huge sword therwithall cut off his monstrous head which the Philistims perceiuing turned thair backs and fled and were pursued and slaine by the Israelites CHAP. X. More examples like vnto the former IN the time of Achah Benhadad king of Syria accompanied with two and thirty kings 1. King 20. came very proudly against Israel as it were in despight of God to bid him battaile but it turned to his owne shame and confusion being first dishonourably put to flight by two hundred thirty seruants of the Princes of Israel a small handfull to encounter so mighty an army And secondly returning to seeke reuenge found the losse of an hundred thousand footmen at one clap besides seuen and twenty thousand which escaping by flight were crushed in peeces by the ruine of a wall in the city Aphec And so this braue gallant that earst bragged that the gold and siluer of Israel yea their wiues and children were his was now glad to flie for his life among the rest and in his returne to hide himselfe all dismaid in a little chamber and from thence being aduised thereto by his seruants to send to intreat Achab for his owne life which a little before thought him sure of the liues of all Israel Yet for all this ere long he enterprised a new practise against the Prophet Elizaeus 2. King 6. 2. King 7. and besieged also the city of Samaria so long that certaine women constrained by extreme famine deuoured their children but in the end hee was compelled through fearfull terrour which God sent into his army by the noise of infinite chariots and horses which sounded in their eares as if some puissant host of men of warre had bene marching towards them to forsake the siege and flie with all his forces leauing behind them their tents horses cariages vitailes and munitions to be a prey for them that pursued them not And lastly falling sicke Hazael one of his own seruants that succeeded him in the kingdome 2. King 8. to the end he might dispatch him quickly and without tumult early in the morning tooke a thicke cloth dipt in water and spreading it ouer his face stifled him to death 2. Chron. 20. When the Moabites and Ammonites rose vp in arms against Iehosaphat king of Iuda assoone as this good king humbled him selfe togither with all his people before the face of God by fasting and praier forthwith God sent such a giddinesse of spirit amongst his enemies that they killed one another and the men of Iuda without being troubled with fighting gathered the spoile which they had scattered and enriched themselues with their reliques Aman Ester 7. 9. promoted in honour and credit aboue all the Princes of the court of king Assuerus conceiued so deadly an hatred against the poore dispersed Iewes being at that time the onely Church of God that malitiously he conspired in one day to destroy and put to death the whole nation to the very women infants and in accomplishing this his purpose he mightily abused the authoritie of the king whome he falsly enformed that this nation would not be subiect to his ordinances and lawes which his other people were subiect vnto and that therefore he ought not to permit suffer them any longer But God that carieth alwaies a watchfull eie ouer his Church and knoweth how to breake dash all the enterprises of his enemies brought all this wretches purposes to nought by preseruing miraculously those whome he would haue destroied making him doe reuerence to Mardocheus whom he especially sought to bring to infamy and for whome he had of purpose prouided a gibbet to hang him on but was hanged thereon himselfe with ten of his sonnes beside all those which had conspired with him against the Iewes were vpon the same day which they had set downe for their massacre by the kings commandement slaine by the hands of them whom they had appointed to the slaughter Balthasar king of Babylon as he was feasting among his princes Dan. 5. commanded amidst his cups the golden and siluer vessels which Nabuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple of Ierusalē to be brought that both he
his princes and his wiues and concubines might drinke therein exalting himselfe thus against the Lord of heauen boasting in his Idols of earth therfore God being stirred vp to wrath against him appointed his destruction euen whilst he thus dranke and made merry in the midst of his iolity and caused a strange and fearfull signe to appeare before his eies a bodilesse handwriting vpon the wall ouer against the candlestick The words of which writing portended the destruction of his kingdom which presently ensued for the very same night he was murdred and the scepter seased vpon by Darius king of Media CHAP. XI Of the kings which in hatred to the law and religion of God afflicted the Iewes in the time of the Machabees 1. Mach. 2. 6. ANtiochus by sirname Epiphanes or excellent though by truer report of people contemptuously intituled the furious king of Asia being venimously enraged against the Iewes began at the first marueilously to oppresse them to rob and spoile their temple and to slaughter the people About ten yeeres after deceiuing the poore people with faire and smooth words couers of most vile and wretched treason whilst they imagined no mischiefe he set vpon them in such cruell sort that the losse desolation which they endured at that time was inestimable for besides the destruction of Ierusalem their city the slaughter of infinite multitudes of their people and the captiuitie of women and infants as if all these were not enough there was yet another misery to make vp the full sum worse then all the rest which was this The cursed tyrant seeing his purpose not to take the full effect commaunded euery where that all his subiects I meane the Iewes should forsake and abiure the law of God be vnited into one religion with the infidels By meanes of which edict the religion of God was defaced the bookes of his law rent and burned and those with whome any such books were found rigorously put to death Which fearfull crueltie when the Iewes perceiued it caused many of them to wax faint hearted to giue themselues ouer to wallow in the durty fashions of the vncircūcised idolaters in their madnes to subscribe to the vniust lawes of the vile monster Now after he had committed all these outrages he was repulsed with dishonour frō the city Elymais in Persia which he went about to spoile rob and forced to fly to Babylon where after tidings of the ouerthrow of his two armies in Iudea with grief despite he ended his daies Antiochus the sonne of this wretched father 1. Mach. 6. succeeding him as in his kingdom so in wickednes periury disloialty when to the end to consult about his own affaires he cōcluded a peace with the Iewes by solemne oath as well of himselfe as his princes confirmed the free exercise of their religiō behold suddenly he falsified his plighted sworn faith vndid all that euer he had done but it was not long ere he also was ouertaken by the army of Demetrius togither with Lysias his gouernor put to death A while after reigned Alexander his brother 1. Mach. 11. who whilst hee was encumbred with the troubles of Cilicia that reuolted from him the king of Aegypt his father in law came traiterously to forestall him of his kingdome tooke his wife gaue her to his deadliest enemy and afterward gaue him battell discomfited his forces and droue him to flie into Arabia for safety where in stead of help he found an hatchet to chop off his head which was sent for a present to gratifie the king of Aegypt withall Not long after Antiochus his son recouered 1. Mach. 13. the scepter of his father but alas his reign endured but a small space for being yet but a yong child he was slaine by Triphon in the way as he led him to war against the Iews and thus perished the cursed race of Antiochus which felt Gods wrath vpon it euen to the third generation Antiochus the son of Demetrius of whom mention was made but a litle before after he had chased Triphon from the kingdome of Asia which he vsurped 2. Mach. 5. and broken the league which he had made with the Iewes gaue himselfe wholly to worke them misceiefe Therfore comming against Ierusalem he tooke it by force commanding his souldiers to put all to death that were within the same So that within three daies there was such a massacre of young and old men women and children that the number of the slaine arose to fourescore thousand carcasses After this hauing executed many more villanies against this people in so much as to make them renounce the lavv of God putting them cruelly to death that did not obey his commandement It came to passe that this cruell tyrant was first of all pur to flight by the inhabitants of Persepolis a city of Persia for going about to rob their temple of their treasures next endamaged by an ouerthrow of his armie in Iudea which he no sooner vnderstood but he tooke counsell in his fury how to be reuenged on Ierusalem and belched forth bitter threats against it But in the meane while the Lord stroke him with a sudden incurable plague surprised him with a horrible torment of his entrails Howbeit for all this he ceased not his malitious enterprisse but hasted forward his iourny towards the Iews with such egernesse that in the way he fell out of his charriot bruised so his body that it became putrified so full of corruption that very vermine scrawled out therof and the rotten flesh dropped peecemeale away no man no nor himselfe being able to endure the stinch therof Then was he constrained in the midst of his torments to confesse that it was meet that he should submit himselfe vnto God that he which is mortall ought not to exalt himselfe so high as to compare with the immortall God and in this estate this reprobate ended his wicked daies by a strange and most miserable kind of death CHAP. XII Of those that persecuted the sonne of God and his Church IF they who in the law iniured and persecuted the Church of God were punished according to their deserts as we haue already heard is it any maruell then if the enemies persecuters of our Lord Sauiour Christ Iesus which labour by all meanes to discountenance and frustrate his religion and to oppresse his Church do feele the heauy fearfull vengeance of God vpon them for their wickednes vnbeliefe No verily for he that honoreth not the sonne honoureth not the father which sent him and is guilty therfore before God of impiety prophanesse From this hamous crime king Herod in no wise can be exempted that caused all the infants of Bethlehem of two yeres old vnder to be cruelly murdred Mat. 2. in hope therby to put the true Messias and sauiour of the world to death For which deed accompanied
earnestly to desire to know the day wherein hee should die which also his schoolemaster the deuill reuealed vnto him but vnder such doubtfull tearmes that he dreamed in his foolish conceit of immortalitie and that he should neuer die It chanced on a time as he was singing masse at Rome in a Temple called Ierusalem which was the place assigned for him to die in and not Ierusalem in Palaestina as he made himselfe falsly beleeue he heard a great noise of deuils that came to fetch him away A note worthy the noting note that this was done in masse while whereat hee being terrified and tormented and seeing himselfe not able any waies to escape he desired his people to rend his body in pieces after his death and lay it vpon a charriot and let horses draw it whether they would which was accordingly perfourmed for as soone as hee was dead the pieces of his carkasse were carried out of the Church of Laterane by the wicked spirit who as he ruled him in life so he was the chiefe in his death and funerals By like means came Benedict the ninth to the Popedome for he was a detestable magitian Benno Balleus and in the ten yeres wherin he was Pope hauing committed infinite villanies and mischiefes was at last by his familiar friend the deuill strangled to death in a forrest whither he went to apply himselfe the more quieter to his coniurings Gregorio the sixt scholler to Siluester as great a coniurer â—s his master wrought much mischiefe in his time Bal. but was at last banished Rome and ended his life in misety in Germany Iohn the two and twentieth being of no better disposition then these we haue spoken of but following iudiciall astrologie fed himselfe with a vaine hope of long life whereof hee vanted himselfe among his familiars one day aboue the rest at Viterbum in a chamber which hee had lately builded saying that hee should liue a great while hee was assured of it presently the flore brake suddenly in pieces and hee was found seuen daies after crushed to pieces vnder the ruines thereof All this notwithhanding yet other Pope eased not to suffer themselues to be infected with this execrable poison as Hildebrand who was called Gregorie the seuenth and Alexander the sixt of which kind we shall see a whole legend in the next booke and 43 chapter do but marke these holy fathers how abominable they were to be in such sort giuen ouer to Satan Cornelius Agrippa a great student in this cursed Art and a man famous both by his owne workes and others report for his Necromancie Iouius in elogijâ— vtrorum illustrium went alwaies accompanied with an euill spirit in the similitude of a blacke dog but when his time of death drew neare and he was vrged to repentance he tooke off the enchaunted collar from the dogs necke and sent him away with these tearmes Get thee hence thou cursed beast which hast vtterly destroied mee neither was the dog euer after seene some say hee leapt into Araris and neuer came out againe Agrippa himselfe died at Lions in a base and beggerly Inne Zoreastres king of Bactria is notified to haue beene the inuentor of Astrologie and Magicke Theat hist but the deuill whose ministerie he vsed when he was too importunate with him burned him to death Charles the seuenth of Fraunce put Egidius de Raxa marshiall of his kingdome Fulgos lib. 9. cap. 1. to a cruell and filthie death because hee practised this arte and in the same had murdered an hundred and twenty teeming women and young infants he caused him to be hanged vpon a fâ—â—ke by a hote fire and rosted to death Bladud the sonne of Lud king of Britaine now called England in the yeere of the world 3100 hee that builded the citie Bath as our late histories witnesse and also made therin the hote bathes addicted himselfe so much to the deuilish arte of Necromancie that he wrought wonders thereby in so much that hee made himselfe wings and attempted to flie like Dedalus but the deuill as euer like a false knaue forsooke him in his iourney so that he fell downe and brake his necke In the yeere of our Lord 1578 one Sâ—mon Penbrooke dwelling in S. Georges parish in London being a figure setter and vehemently suspected to be a coniurer by the commaundement of the iudge appeared in the parish Church of S. Sauiour at a court holden there where whilst hee was busie in entertaining a proctour and leaned his head vpon a pew a good space the proctour began to lift vp his head to see what hee ailed and found him departing out of this life and straight waies hee fell downe rattling in the throat without speaking any one word this straunge iudgement happened before many witnesses who searching him found about him fiue deuilish bookes of coniuration and most abominable practises with a picture in tinne of a man hauing three dice in his hand with this writing Chance dice fortunately and much other trash so that euery one confessed it to be a iust iudgement against sorcerie and a great example to cause others to feare the iustice of God Now let euery one learne by these examples to feare God and to stand firme stedfast to his holy word without turning from it on any side so shall he be safe from such like miserable ends as these wicked varlets come vnto CHAP. XXXIIII Of those that through pride and vainglory stroue to vsurpe the honour due vnto God A Forgetfull and vnthankfull mind for the benefits which God bestoweth vpon vs is a braunch of the breach of this first commaundement as well as those which went before and this is when we ascribe not vnto God the glory of his benefits to giue him thanks for them but through a foolish pride extoll our selues higher then we ought presuming aboue measure and reason in our owne power desire to place our selues in a higher degree then is meet With this fond and foolish affection I know not how our first fathers were tickled and tainted from the beginning to thinke to empaire the glory of God Gen. 3. and they also were puffed vp with the blast of ambition that I know not with what fond foolish rash and proud conceit went about after the flood to build a city and tower of exceeding height by that meanes to win fame and reputation amongst men Gen. 11. In stead whereof they ought rather to haue praised God by remembring his gratious goodnesse in their miraculous deliuerance in their fathers persons from that generall deluge and shipwracke of the world but forasmuch as with a proud and high stomacke they lifted vp themselues against God to whome onely all glory appertaineth therefore God also set himselfe against them and against their ouer bold practises interrupting all their determined presumptuous purposes by such a confusion and alteration of tongues which he sent amongst them that one could not
least wee fall into the sinne of Saul and Herod 1. Sam 14. Marc. 6. Now what punishments God hath laid vpon periurers these examples that follow shall make knowen vnto vs. Osee the last king of Israel beeing made by Gods iust iudgement for his sinnes subiect and tributary to Salmanazar king of Ashur without regard to the bond wherewith he was bound 2. King 17. and to his faith which he had plighted conspired and entred league with the king of Aegypt against him but hee discouering their seditions and priuie conspiracies assembled his forces spoiled his countrey and bad them warre on all sides laying siege to the chiefe citie of his kingdome after three yeeres tooke it togither with the forsworne king whome he put in close prison and kept very straightly leading him and his whole nation captiue into Assyria to end their daies in misery of which euill as of all others that happened in that warre the disloialty and treason of Osee was the next and chiefest cause Among the beadroll of sinnes which Sedechias the last king of Iuda is noted withall in holy scripture periury is one of the count for notwithstanding hee receiued his kingdome of Nabuchadnezzar and had sworne fealty to him as to his soueraigne yet brake hee his oath in rebelling against him which was the very cause of his destruction 2. Chron. 36. for NabuchadneZZar to be reuenged on his disloialty sent a puissant army against Ierusalem which tooke spoiled and burned it and ouertooke the periurer in his flight and first made him a beholder of the slaughter of his owne children and then had his owne eies bored out and was caried in chaines to Babylon seruing for a spectacle to all posteritie of Gods wondrous iudgements vpon periurers And thus both the kingdomes of Israel and Iuda were for breach and falsifying their oth quite extinguished and razed out Plutarch The greatest deceiuer and most treacherous person one of them that euer Greece saw was Lisander the Lacedemonian a busie body full of cunning subtilty and craft and one that perfourmed the most of his acts of warre more by fraud and stratagemes then by any other meanes this was he that said that when the lyons skin meaning Fortitude would not serue it was needfull then to sue vnto the foxes case meaning subtilty he made so litle reckening of forswearing himselfe that he would often say that children were to be cousened wirh trifles as dice and cockals and old men with othes but by his deceitfull trickes he was occasion of much euill diuers murders but at last this fox making warre against the Thebanes for that they had taken part with the Athenians against him and giuen them succour and meanes for recouering their liberty was taken in the trap and slaine at the foote of their walls Liuie Metius Suffetius Generall of the Albanes procured the Fidenates to enter war against the Romanes contrary to his oth which he had sworne vnto them and being called by the Romans to their succour and placed in an outwing to helpe if need were whilst the rest were fighting he droue away the time in ordering his men and ranging them into squadrons to see which part should haue the best that hee might ioyne himselfe vnto that side But Tullus the Romane king hauing obtained the victory and seeing the cowardise subtilty and treason of this Albane adiudged him to a most straunge and vile death answerable to his fact for as hee had in his bodie a double heart swimming betweene two streames and now ready to go this way now that so was his body dismembred and torne in pieces by foure horses drawing foure contrarie waies to serue for an example to all others to be more faithfull and true obseruers of their othes then he was In old time the Africanes and Carthaginians were generally noted for perfidie and falshood aboue other nations Liâ— Decad. 3. lib. 1. the cause of which bruit was principally that old subtill souldier Anniball an old deceiuer and a notorious periurer who by his crafts and cousenages which hee wrought without religion or feare of God raised vp that euill report This subtill foxe hauing made warre in Italy sixteene yeeres and all that while troubled and vexed the Romanes sore after many victories wastings of countries ruines and sackings of cities and cruell bloodshed was at length ouercome by Scipio in his owne countrey and perceiuing that his countrey men imputed the cause of their fall vnto him and sought to make him odious to the Romanes by laying to his charge the breach of that league which was betwixt them hee fled to Antiochus king of Siria not so much for his own safeties sake as to continue his warre against the Romans which he knew Antiochus to be in hammering because they came so neare vnto his frontiers but hee found his hope frustrate for king Antiochus for the small trust hee affied in him and the daily suspition of his trechery would not commit any charge of his army into his hand although for valiantnesse and prowesse he was second to none in that age It came to passe therefore that assoone as Antiochus was ouerthrowen of the Romanes he was constrained to flie to Prusias king of Bithynia that tooke him into his protection but being as treacherous as himselfe hee soone deuised a meanes to betray him to Quintius the generall of the Romane army which when Anniball vnderstood and seeing that all the passages for euasion were closed vp and that hee could not any way escape hee poisoned himselfe and so miserably ended his treacherous life And thus the deceit which hee practised towards others fell at length vpon his owne pate to his vtter destruction Albeit that periurers and forswearers were to the Aegyptians very odious and abominable as wee said before yet among them there was one Ptolome Iustine who to bereaue his sister Arsinoe of her kingdome stained himselfe with this villanous spot and thereby brought his purpose to passe for pretending and protesting great affection and loue vnto her in the way of mariage for such incestuous mariages were there through a peruerse and damnable custome not vnlawfull and auowing the same by solemne oath before her embassadours did notwithstanding soone make knowen the drift of his intent which was to make himselfe king for being arriued in shew to consummate the marriage at his first approch he caused his nephewes her sonnes which she had by her former husband Lisimachus and were come forth from their mother to giue him entertainment on the way to be slaine yea and least they should escape his hands he pursued them euen to their mothers bosome and there murdered them and after expelling her also from her kingdome caught the crowne raigned tyrant in her roome all which mischiefes hee committed by reason of the faithlesse oth which he had taken and although that in such a case no oth ought to be of force to confirme so
vnlawfull an alliance though it be pronounced taken by the name and in the temple of their idols yet notwithstanding it being done with an euill conscience and to an euill purpose hee that did it can be no lesse then a periurer But for this and other vices it came to passe that ere long hee was conquered by the Gaules who taking him in battell slew him and cut off his head and hauing fastened it vpon a launce caried it in signe of victory and triumph vp and downe the host A most notable example of the punishment of periurie falshood in Vladislaus king of Hungary and his army destroied by the Turkes is set downe in Bonfinus his Hungarian history after this manner It fell out that the king of Hungary had so well bestirred himselfe against the Turkes that Amurathes was glad vpon vnequall conditions and euen to his owne hurt and their good to conclude a peace with him wherein it was agreed that certaine prouinces should be restored to the Hungarians which otherwise could not haue beene recouered but by great losse of men this league beeing made and the articles thereof engrossed in both languages with a solemne oth taken on both parties for the confirmation of the same Behold the Cardinall of Florence Admirall of the nauie which lay vpon the sea Hellespont now called S. Georges arme It is so called by the French meÌ„ but more coÌ„monly The straights of Castill which deuideth Turkie from Greece sendeth letters to the king of Hungary to persuade him to disanull and repeale this new concorded peace this practise likewise did Cardinall Iulian the Popes legate in Hungary with might and maine helpe forward which two good pillars of the Church inspired with one and the same spirit wrought togither so effectually with the king that at their instance he falsified his oth broke the peace sent to Constantinople to denounce warre afresh and forthwith whilst their Embassadours were retiring their garrisons out of Mâ—sia to bring them into their hands againe and had sent fortie thousand crownes for the ransome of certaine great men which were prisoners and had restored the realme of Rascia al their captiues according to the tenor of the late league not knowing of this new breach in the meane while I say hee set forward his armie towards the Turkes iâ— all expedition Now the Turkes secure and misdoubting nothing were set vpon vnawares by the king yet putting themselues in defence there grew a long and sharpe battell till Amurathes perceiuing his side to decline and almost ouercome pulled out of his bosome the articles of the foresaid peace and lifting vp his eies to heauen vtrered these speeches O Iesus Christ these are the leagues that thy Christians haue made and confirmed by swearing by thy name and yet haue broken them again If thou beest a God as they say thou art reuenge this iniury which is offered both thee and me and punish those truce-breaking varlets Hee had scarse ended these speeches but the Christians battell and courage began to rebate Vdislaus himselfe was slaine by the Ianissaries his horse being first hurt his whole armie was discomfited and all his people put to the sword sauing a few that fled amongst whome was the right reuerend Embassadour of the Pope who assoone as hee had thrust in others ouer the eares withdrew himselfe forsooth far enough from blowes or danger Then followed a horrible butchery of people and a lamentable noise of poore soules ready to be slaughtered for they spared none but haled them miserably in pieces and executed a iust and rigorous iudgement of God for that vile treachery and periury which was committed CHAP. XXX More examples of the like subiect BVt let vs adde a fewe more examples of fresher memory as touching this vngodly periury and first not to ouerpasse king Philip of Macedonie who neuer made reckoning of keeping his othes but swore and vnswore them at his pleasure and for his commoditie doubtlesse it was one of the chiefest causes why hee and his whole progenie came quickely to destruction as testifieth Pausanias for hee himselfe beeing sixe and fourty yeeres old In Arcadâ—cis was slaine by one of his owne seruants after which Olympias his wife made away two of his sonnes Anideus and another which hee had by Cleopatra Attalus his neece whome shee sod to death in a cauldron his daughter Thessalonicaes children likewise all perished and lastly Alexander after all his great victories in the midst of his pompe was poisoned at Babylon De Consessoribus Gregory Tours maketh mention of a wicked varlet in France among the people called Auerni that forswearing himselfe in an vniust cause had his tongue so presently tied that hee could not speake but roare and so continued till by his earnest praiers and repentance the Lord restored to him the vse of that vnruly member Thete were in old time certaine people of Italy called Aequi whereof the memory remaineth onely at this day for they were vtterly destroied by Q. Cincinnatus Liu. lib. 3. these hauing solemnly made a league of friendship with the Romans and sworne vnto it with one consent afterward chose Gracchus Cluilius for their captaine and vnder his conduct spoiled the fields and territories of the Romans contrary to their former league and oth Whereupon the Romans sent Q. Fabius P. Voluminus A. Posthumius Embassadours to them to complaine of their wrongs and demand satisfaction but their captaine so little esteemed them that he bad them deliuer their message to an oake standing thereby whilst he intended other businesse Then one of the three turning himselfe towards the oake spake on this manner Thou hallowed oke and whatsoeuer els belongeth to the gods in this place heare and beare witnesse of this disloiall part and fauour our iust complaints that with the assistance of the gods wee may be reuenged on this iniurie This done they returned home and shortly after gathering a power of men set vpon and ouercame that truce-breaking nation In the yeere of Rome built 317 the Fidenates reuolted from the friendship and league of the Romanes to Toluminus the king of the Veyans and adding crueltie to treason killed foure of their Embassadours that came to know the cause of their defection which disloialty the Romans not brooking vndertooke war against them and notwithstanding all their priuat and forraine strength ouerthrew and slew them In this battell it is said that a Tribune of the souldiers seeing Toluminus brauely galloping vp and downe and encouraging his souldiers the Romans trembling at his approch said Is this the breaker of leagues violatour of the law of nations If there be any holines on earth my sword shall sacrifice him to the soules of our slaine Embassadours therewithall setting spurs to his horse he vnhorst him fastening him to the earth with his speare cut off his perfidious head whereat his army dismaid retired became a slaughter
on their iourney they came riding ouer a great bridge vpon which this gentleman swearer spurred his horse in such sort that he sprang cleane ouer with the man on his backe who as he was going cried Horse and man and al to the deuill This terrible storie bishop Ridley preached and vttered at Paules crosse and one Haines a minister of Cornwall the reprehender of this man was the reporter of it to Maister Fox out of whom I haue drawne it Refraine then wretches that you are your diuellish tongues leaue off to prouoke the wrath of God any longer against you forbeare all wicked and cursed speeches and acquaint your selues as well in word as deed to praise and glorifie God CHAP. XXXIIII Punishments for the contempt of the word and the Sacraments and abuse of holy things NOw it is another kind of taking the name of God in vain to despise his words and sacraments for like as among earthly princes it is accounted a crime no lesse then treason either to abuse their pictures to counterfeit or depraue their seales to rent pollute or corrupt their letter patents or to vse vnreuerently their messengers or any thing that cōmeth frō them So with the prince of heauen it is a sin of high degree either to abuse his word prophanely which is the letter patents of our saluation or handle the sacraments vnreuerētly which are the seales of his mercy or to despise his ministers which are his messēgers vnto vs. And this he maketh known vnto vs not only by edicts cōmandemēts but also by examples of his vēgeance on the heads of the offēders in this case for the former look what Paul saith That for the vnworthy receiuing of the Sacraments many were weake and sicke among the Corinthians many slept how much more then for the abusing contemning the Sacraments 1. Cor. 11.29.30 And the prophet Dauid That for casting the word of God behind them Psal 50.16.17 they should haue nothing to doe with his couenāt how much more then for prophaning deriding his word Exod. 16.8 And Moses when the people murmured against him and Aaron saith that their murmurings were not against them which were but ministers but against the Lord how much more then is the Lord engaged when they are scoffed at derided set at naught hence it is that the Lord denounceth a woe to him that addeth or taketh away frō the word and calleth them dogs that abuse such precious pearles Deut. 4.2 12.22 Apoc. 22.18 Prouerb 30.6 Vide lib. 1. cap. 14. example of the Iews But let vs come to the examples wherin the grieuousnesse of this sin will lie more open then by any words can bee expressed Denterius an Arrian bishop being at Bezantium as he was about to baptise one Barbas after his blasphemous maner saying I baptise thee in the name of the father through the son in the Holy-ghost Which forme of words is contrary to the prescript rule of Christ that bad his disciples to baptize al nations In the name of the father the son and the Holy-ghost the water sodenly vanished so that he could not then bee baptised wherefore Barbas all amased fled from thence to a church of purer religion and there was entertained into the church by baptisme Socrat. lib 7. cap. 17. Socrates in his Ecclesiasticall hystorie reporteth the like accident to haue happened to a Iew who had beene oftentimes baptised and came to Paulus a Nouatian bishop to receiue the sacrament againe but the water as before vanished and his villany being detected hee was banished the church Opiat Meltuit lib. 2. contr Parenianum Cent. 4. cap. 6. Vrbanus Farmensis and Foelix Iducensis two Donatists by profession rushing into Thipasa a Citty of Mauritania commaunded the Eucharist to bee throwne amongst the dogges but the dogges growing mad thereby set vpon their owne maisters and rent them with their teeth as being guiltie of despising the body of Christ certainely a noble iudgement to condemne the wicked behauiour of those miscreants who were so profane as not onely to refuse the sacrament themselues Vide lib. 1 ca. 17. but also to cast it to their dogs as if it were the vilest and contemptablest thing in the world Theopompus a Philosopher being about to insert certaine things out of the writings of Moses into his prophane workes and so to abuse the sacred word of God was stroken with a frensie and being warned of the cause therof in a dreame Ioseph antiq lib. 12. cap. 2. by praiers made vnto God recouered his senses againe this story is recorded by Iosephus as also another of Theodectes a Poet that mingled his Tragedies with the holy Scripture and was therefore stroken with blindnesse vntill hee had recanted his impiety In a towne of Germany called Itzsith there dwelt a certaine husbandman that was a monstrous despiser and prophaner of the word of God and his sacraments Luther in coloquijs he vpon a time amidst his cups railed with most bitter tearmes vpon a minister of Gods word after which going presently into the fields to ouerlooke his sheep he neuer returned aliue but was found there dead with his body all scorched and burnt as black as a coale the Lord hauing giuen him ouer into the hands of the deuill to be thus vsed for his vile prophanesse and abusing his holy things This D. Iustus Ionas in Luthers conferences reporteth to be most true In the yeare of our Lord 1553 a certaine coblers seruant being brought vp among the professors of the reformed religion and hauing receiued the sacrament in both kinds Philip Melanc after liuing vnder Poperie receiued it after their fashion in one kind but when hee returned to his old maister and was admonished by him to goe againe to the communion as he was wont then his sleepie conscience awaked and hee fell into most horrible despaire crying that hee was the deuils bondslaue and therewithall threw himselfe headlong out of the window so that with the fall his bowels gushed out of his mouth and he died most miserably When the great persecution of the Christians was in Persia vnder king Sapor in the yeare of our Lord 347 Sozomen lib. 2. cap. 31. there was one Miles an holy bishop and constant Martyr who preaching Vide lib. r. ca. 16. exhorting suffering all manner of torments for the truth of the gospel could not conuert one soule of the whole citie whereof he was bishop to the faith wherfore in hatred and detestation of it he forewent it cleane but after his departure the Lord made them worthily rue their contempt of his word for he sent the spirit of deuision betwixt king Sapor and thē so that he came with an army of men three hundred Eliphants against it and quickly subuerted it that the very appearence memorial of a city was quite defaced and rooted out for certainely this is a sure position
of meat Fides fit apud Authorem snakes and of sauce serpents to the great terror of his conscience but that which is more one of the serpents leaped in his face and catching hold by his lip hung there till his dying day so that hee could neuer feed himselfe but hee must feed the serpent withall And this badge carried he about as a cognisance of an vnkind and vngratefull sonne Moreouer this is another iudgement of God that coÌ„monly as children deale with their parents so doe their children deale with them this in the law of proportion is most iust in the order of punishing most vsuall for the proofe wherof as experience daily teacheth so one example or two I wil subioine Theat histor It is reported how a certaine vnkind peruerse son beat his aged father vpon a time and drew him by the haire of his head to the threshold who when he was old was likewise beaten of his sonne and drawne also by the haire of the head not to the threshold but out of dores into the durt and how he should say he was rightly serued if he had left him at the threshold as he left his father and not dragged him into the streets which he did not to his thus did his owne mouth beare record of his impietie his own conscience condemn him before God and men Guiliel Lugdi Another old man being persuaded by his sonne that had married a young wife with faire and sugred promises of kindnesses and contentments to surrender his goods and lands vnto him yeelded to his request and found for a space all thinges to his desire Discipulus de temp but when his often coughing annoied his young and daintie wife hee first remooued his lodging from a faire high chamber to a base vnder roome and after shewed him many other vnkind and vnchildish parts and lastly when the old man asked for clothes hee bought foure elnes of clothes two whereof he bestowed vpon him and reserued the other two for himselfe Now his yoong sonne marking this niggardise of his father towards his grandfather hid the two elles of cloth and being asked why hee hid them whether by ingeniousnesse of wit or instinct of God he answered to the end to reserue them for his father against hee was old to be a couering for him Which answere touched his father so neere that euer after hee shewed himselfe more louing and obsequious to his father then hee did before Two great faults but soone and happily amended Would it might bee an example to all children if not to mitigate yet at least to learne them to feare how to deale roughly and crookedly with their parents seeing that God punisheth sinne with sinne and sinners in their owne kind and measureth the same measure to euerie man which they haue measured vnto others George Lanter de disciplina liberorum The like wee read of another that prouided a trough for his old decrepite vnmannerly father to eate his meat in who being demanded of his sonne also to what vse that trough should serue answered for his grandfather What quoth the child and must wee haue the like for you when you are old Which words so abashed him that hee threw it away forthwith At Millan there was an obstinate and vngodly sonne that wheÌ„ he was admonished by his mother of some fault which hee had committed made a wrie mouth Theat histor and pointed his fingers at her in scorne and derision Whereat his mother bâ—ing angrie Mandat 3. Cursing lib. 1. cap. 33. wished that he might make such a mouth vpon the gallows Neither was it a vaine wish for within few daies he was taken with a theft and condemned by law to be hanged and being vpon the ladder was perceiued to wryth his mouth in griefe after the same fashion which hee had done before to his mother in derision Henry the second of that name king of England sonne of Geffrey Plantagenet and Maud the Empresse Stow. chron after hee had raigned twentie yeares was content to admit his yoong sonne Henrie married to Margaret the French kings daughter into participation of his crowne but he like an vnnaturall sonne to requite his fathers loue sought to dispossesse him of the whole for by inciting the King of Fraunce and certaine other Nobles hee tooke armes and raised deadly warre against his owne naturall father betwixt whome diuerse strong battailes being foughten as well in England by the Deputies and friends of both parties as also in Normandie Poytou Guyan and Brittaine the victorie alwaies enclined to the father so that the rebellious sonne with his allies were constrained to bend to his fathers will and to desire peace which hee gently granted and forgaue his offence Howbeit the Lord for his disobedience did not so lightly pardon him but because his hasty mind could not tarrie for the crowne till his fathers death therefore the Lord cut him short of it altogether causing him to die sixe yeares before his father being yet but yoong and like to liue long Languet chron Lothair King of Soyssons in Fraunce committed the rule of the Prouince of Guyan to his eldest sonne Cramiris who when contrary to the mind of his father he oppressed the people with exactions and was reclaimed home hee like an vngratious and impious sonne fled to his vncle Childebert prouoked him to war vpon his owne father wherein he himselfe was by the iust vengeance of God taken burned with wife and children to death Leuit. 20. Furthermore it is not doubtles but to a very good end enacted in the law of God that he which curseth his father or mother shold dy the death that rebellious childreÌ„ such as be incorrigable should at the instance and pursute of their owne parents by order of law be stoned to death As children by all these examples ought not onely to learne to feare to displease and reuile their parents but also to fear and reuerence them least that by disobedience they kindle the fire of Gods wrath against theÌ„ so likewise on the other side parents are here aduertised to haue great care in bringing vp and instructing their children in the fear of God and obedience to his will least for want of instruction and correction on their part they themselues incurre a punishment of their carelesse negligence in the person of their children And this is prooued by experience of the men of Bethel 2. King 2. of whose children two and fortie were torne in peeces by beares for that they had beene so euill taught as to mocke the holy Prophet Elizeus in calling him bald pate 1. Sam. 2.4 Heli likewise the high Priest was culpable of this fault for hauing two wicked and peruerse sonnes whome no feare of God could restraine being discontent with that honourable portion of the sacrifices allotted them by God like famished and insatiable wretches fell to share
The fathers shal not be put to death for the children nor the children for the fathers but euerie man shall beare his owne sinne 2. King 15. Neither did Shallum that slue Zacharia king of Israel prosper any better for he raigned but one month in Samaria wheÌ„ Menahim the sonne of Gadi rebelled against him and slew him as he had done his maister Amon the sonne of Manasseh was slaine by his owne seruants but the Lord stirred vp the people of the land to reuenge his death to kill all them that had conspired against their king But to let passe the holy histories of the sacred scripture wherein euer after any treason the Holy-ghost presently setteth down the punishment of traitors as it were of purpose to signifie how the Lord hateth all such rebels that rose vp against his owne ordinance Let vs consider a little the consequents of these in prophane yet credible authors and applie them vnto our purpose Iâ—lian lib. 1. Archelaus King of Macedonia had a mignion called Cratenas whome he loued most entirely but he againe required him not with loue but with hatred and stretched all his wits to enstall himselfe in his kingdome by deposing and murthering him which though he accomplished yet his deserts were cut short by the vengeance of God for he continued not many daies in his roialtie but he was serued with the same sauce that he had made Archelaus before him to tast of euen betraied and murdered as he well deserued Ludouicus Sfortia to the end to inuest himselfe with the dukedome of Millain spared not to shed the innocent blood of his two nephewes the sonnes of Galeachus togither with their tutors and one Francis Calaber a worthy and excellent man But the Lord so disposed of his purposes that he in stead of obtaining the kingdome was taken prisoner by the king of France so that neither hee nor any of his offspring enioyed that which he so much affected When Numerianus was to succeed Carus his father in the Empire Phil. Melanct. chron lib. 3. Arrius Axer his father in law to the end to translate the Empire vnto himselfe entred a conspiracie and slew his sonne in law that nothing mistrusted his disloialty But the Pretorian army vnderstanding the matter discharged Arrius and elected Dioclesian in his roome who laying hold vpon his competitor laid an action of treason to his charge and put him to death in the sight of the multitude Theodericke and Fredericke conspired against their owne brother Thurismund king of the Visigothes Chron. Sigebert to the intent to succeed him in his kingdome And albeit that nature reclaimed them from the act yet they slew him without all compassion But after thirteene yeres raigne the same Theodericke was requited by his other brethren with the same measure that hee before met to his brother Thurismund And so though vengeance slept a while yet at length it wakened Aelias Antonius Gordianus the third Emperour of Rome Phil. Melanct. chron Aventin lib. 2. though so excellent a young prince that hee deserued to be called the Loue and Iewell of the world yet was hee slaine by one promoted by himselfe to high honour called Philip Arabs when hee was but two and twentie yeere old after whose decease this Philip got himselfe elected Emperour by the band confirmed by the Senat. Ingratitude punished All which notwithstanding after fiue yeeres Decius rebelled and his owne souldiers conspired against him so that both he at Verona and his sonne at Rome were slaine by them about one time Aâ—entin lib. 2. After the death of Constantine the Great his three sonnes deuiding the Empire betwixt them succeeded their father Constantine the eldest had for his share Spaine France the Alpes and England Constance the second held Italy Africa Graecia and Illiricum Constantine the younger was king and Emperour of the East But ambition suffered them not to enioy quietly these their possessions for when the eldest being more proud and seditious thâ—n the other not content with his alotted portion made warre vpon his brother Constance his prouinces and stroue to enter Italy hee was slaine in a battell by Aquileia when he was but fiue and twentie yeere old by which meanes all the prouinces which were his fell to Constance and therewithall such a drowsinesse and epicurisme for want of a stirrer vp after his brothers death that he fell into the gout and neglected the gouernment of the Empire Wherfore in Auspurge and in Rhetia they created a new Emperour one Magnentius whose life before-time Constance had saued from the souldiers Notable ingratitude punished and therefore his treachery was the greater This Magnentius depriued and slew Constance but was ouercome by Constantine the third brother in Illiricum yet in such sort that the conquerour could not greatly brag for he lost an infinite company of his men and yet missed of his chiefe purpose the taking of Magnentius for he escaped to Lyons and there massacring all that he mistrusted at last growing I suppose in suspition with his owne heart slue himselfe also And so his traiterous ingratefull and ambitious murder was reuenged with his own hands Ritius lib. 1. regib Hispan Victericus betraied Luyba king of Spaine and succeeded in his place seuen yeeres after another traitor slew him succeeded also in his place Mauritius the Emperour was murdered by Phocas togither with his wife fiue of his children he seating himselfe Emperor in his Rome Howbeit traitours and murderers can neuer come to happy ends for as hee had slaine Mauritius so Priscus Heraclianus and Phorius three of his chiefest captaines conspiring against him with three seuerall armies gaue him such an alarme at once at his owne dores that they soone quailed his courage and after much mangling of his body cut him shorter by the head and the kingdome at one blow In the time of Edward the second and Edward the third in England Lanquet one Sir Roger Mortimer committed many villanous outrages in shedding much blood and at last king Edward himselfe lying at Barkley castle to the end that he might as it was supposed enioy Isabell his wife with whom he had very suspitious familiarity After this hee vniustly accused Edmond Earle of Kent of treason and caused him to be put to death therefore and lastly he conspired against king Edward the third as it was suspected for which cause he was worthily and deseruedly beheaded Among this ranke of murderers of kings we may fitly place also Richard the third vsurper of the crowne of England Stow. and diuers others which he vsed as instruments to bring his detestable purpose to effect as namely Sir Iames Tirrell knight a man for natures gifts worthy to haue serued a much better prince then this Richard if he had well serued God and bene indued with as much truth honestie as he had strength wit also Miles Forest Iohn Dighton two villains fleshed
in murders but to come to the fact It was on this sort When Richard the vsurper had enioined Robert Brackenbury to this peece of seruice of murdering the yo â—g king Edward the fift his nephew in the tower with his brother the duke of York and saw it refused by him hee committed the charge of the murder to Sir Iames Tirrel who hasting to the tower by the kings commission receiued the keies into his own hands and by the help of those two butchers Dighton Forest smothered the two princes in their bed buried them at the staires feet which being done Sir Iames node back to king Richard who gaue him great thanks as some say made him knight for his labor All which things on euery part wel pondered it appeareth that God neuer gaue the world a notabler exaÌ„ple both of the vnconstancie of worldly weale and also of the wretched end which ensueth such despitefull crueltie for first to begin with the ministers Miles Forest rotted away peecemeale at S. Martins Sir Iames Tirrell died at the tower hill beheaded for treason king Richard himselfe as it is declared elsewhere was slaine in the field hacked and hewed of his enemies carried on horsebacke dead his haire in despight torne and tugged like a dog besides the inward torments of his guilty conscience were more then all the rest for it is most certenly reported that after this abominable deed done he neuer had quiet in his mind when hee went abroad his eie whirled about his body was priuily fenced his hand euer vpon his dagger his countenance and manner like one alwaies ready to strike his sleepe short and vnquiet full of fearefull dreames insomuch that he would often suddenly start vp and leape out of his bed and runne about the chamber his restlesse conscience was so continually tossed and tumbled with the tedious impression of that abominable murder CHAP. V. Of such as rebelled against their superiours because of subsidies and taxes imposed vpon them AS it is not lawfull for children ro rebel against their parents though they be cruell and vnnaturall so also it is as vnlawfull for subiects to withstand their princes and gouernours though they be somewhat grieuous and burdensome vnto them which wee affirme not to the end that it should be licensed to them to exercise all manner of rigour and vnmeasurable oppression vpon their subiects as shall be declared in the 35 chapter of this booke more at large but wee intreat only here of their duties which are in subiection to the power of other men whose authoritie they ought in no wise to resist vnlesse they oppose themselues against the ordinance of God Therfore this position is true by the word of God that no subiect ought by force to shake off the yoke of subiection and obedience due vnto his prince or exempt himselfe from any taxe or contribution which by publike authoritie is imposed Giue saith the Apostle tribute to whome tribute belongeth custome to whome custome pertaineth feare to whome feare is due and honour to whom honour is owing And generally in all actions wherein the commodities of this life though with some oppression and grieuance and not the religion and seruice of God nor the conscience about the same is called into question wee ought with all patience to endure whatsoeuer burden or charge is laid vpon vs without moouing any troubles or shewing any discontentments for the same for they that haue otherwise behaued themselues these examples following will shew how well they haue bene appaied for their misdemeanours In the yeere of our Lord 1304 Nich. Gil. vol. 1. after that Guy Earle of Flaunders hauing rebelled against Philip the Faire his soueraigne was by strength of armes reduced into subiection and constrained to deliuer himselfe and his two sonnes prisoners into his hands the Flemmings made an insurrection against the kings part because of a certaine taxe which he had set vpon their ships that arriued at certaine hauens and vpon this occasion great warre diuers battels and sundry ouerthrowes on each side grew but so that at last the king remained conquerour and the Flemmings for a reward of their rebellion lost in the last battell sixe and thirty thousand men that were slaine beside a great number that were taken prisoners Two yeeres after this Flemish stirre The same authour there arose a great commotion and hurlyburly of the rascall and basest sort of people at Paris because of the alteration of their coines who being not satisfied with the pillage and spoilage of their houses whome they supposed to be either causes of the said alteration or by counsell or other meanes any furtherers thereunto came in great troupes before the kings pallace at his lodging in the temple with such an hideous noise and outrage that all that day after neither the king nor any of his officers durst once stirre ouer the threshold nay they grew to that ouerflow of pride and insolencie that the victuals which were prouided for the kings diet and carried to him were by them shamefully throwed vnder feet in the durt trampled vpon in despight and disdaine But three or foure daies after this tumult was appeased many of them for their paines were hanged before their owne dores and in the citie gates to the number of eight and twenty persons In the raigne of Charles the sixt the Parisians by reason of a certaine taxe which hee minded to lay vpon them banded themselues and conspired togither against him they determined once saith Froissard to haue beaten downe Loure and Saint Vincents castle Vol. 2. cap. 120. all the houses of defence about Paris that they might not be offensiue to them But the king though young in yeeres handled them so ripely and handsomly Cap. 129. that hauing taken away from them their armour the city gates and chaines of the streets locked vp their weapons in S. Vincents castle hee dealt with them as pleased him Cap. 130. And thus their pride being quashed many of them were executed and put to death As also for the like rebellion were at Troyes Nic. Gil. vol. 2. Orlean Chalon Sens and Rhemes About the same time the Flandrians and especially the inhabitants of Gaunt wrought much trouble against Lewys the Earle of Flanders Froiss vol. 2. cap. 97. for diuers taxes and tributes which hee had laid vpoÌ„ them which they in no respect would yeeld vnto The matter came to be decided by blows much blood was shed many losses endured on both sides as a means appointed of God to chastise as well the one as the other The Gaunts being no more in number then fiue or sixe thousand men Cap. 98. ouerthrew the Earls army consisting of forty thousand and in pursuite of their victory tooke Bruges whither the Earle was gone for safety lying in a poore womans house was constrained in the habit of a begger to flie the citie And thus hee
his head wherewith finding himselfe hurt to death he commanded one of his souldiers to kill him outright And thus this wicked murderer that had shedde the blood of many men yea of his owne brethren had his braines knockt out by a woman and died a most desperate death The bloody treacherie of Baana and Rechab 2. Sam. 4. chiefe captaines of Ishbosheth Sauls sonne in conspiring against and murdering their master whilst hee slept abode not long vnpunished for hauing cut off his head they presented it for a present to king Dauid hoping to gratifie the king Treason lib. 2. cap. 3 4. and to receiue some recompence for their paines But Dauid beeing of an vpright and true kingly heart could nor endure such vile treachery though against the person of his enemie but entertained them as most vile traitours and master murderers commaunding first their hands and feet to be cut off which they had especially imploied as instruments about that villany and afterwards caused them to be slaine and then hanged for an example to all others that should attempt the like For the like cause was Ioab generall of king Dauids host for killing Abner traiterously who forsaking Ishbosheth had yeelded himselfe to the king cursed of Dauid with all his house Treason lib. 2. cap. 3. with a most grieuous and terrible curse And yet notwithstanding a while after he came againe to that passe as to murder Amasa one of Dauids chiefe captaines making shew to salute and imbrace him 2. Sam. 20. For which cruell deed albeit that in Dauids time he receiued no punishment yet it ouertooke him at last and the same kind of crueltie which hee had so traiterously and villanously committed towards others fell vpon his owne head being himselfe also killed as he had killed others which happened in king Salomons raigne who executing the charge and commandement of his father put to death this murderer in the tabernacle of God 1. King 2. and by the altar whither he was fled as a place priuiledged for safety CHAP. VII A suit of Examples like vnto the former LEauing the Scripture wee find in other writers notable examples of this subiect Herod lib. 1. As first of Astyages king of the Medes who so much swarued from humanitie that hee gaue in straight charge that young Cyrus his owne daughters sonne now ready to be borne should be made away by some sinister practise to auoid by that meanes the danger which by a dreame was signified vnto him Notwithstanding the yong infant finding friends to preserue him aliue and growing vp by meanes of the peeres fauor to whom his grandfather by his cruell dealings was become odious obtained the crowne out of his hands and dispossessing him seated himselfe in his roome This Cirus was that mighty and awfull king of Persia whome God vsed as an instrument for the deliuery of his people out of the captiuity of Babylon as he foretold by the Prophet Isaiah who yet following kind made cruell war in many places for the space of thirty yeres and therfore it was necessary that he should tast some fruits of his insatiable and bloodthirstie desire as hee indeed did for after many great victories and conquests ouer diuers cuntries atchieued Oros lib. 2. going about to assaile Scithia also hee and his army togither were surprised ouercome and slaine to the number of two hundred thousand persons and for his shame receiued this disgrace at a womans hand who triumphing in her victory threw his head into a sacke full of blood with these tearmes Now glut thy selfe with blood which thou hast thirsted after so long time Cambyses Cyrus sonne was also so bloody and cruel a man Herod lib. 3. that one day he shot a noble mans sonne to the heart with an arrow for being admonished by his father of his drunkennes to which he was very much giuen which he did in indignation and to shew that hee was not yet so drunken but he knew how to draw his bow Hee caused his owne brother to be murdered priuily for feare hee should raigne after him and slew his sister for reproouing him for that deed In his voiage to Aethiopia when his armie was brought into so great penury of victuals that they were glad to feed vpon horse flesh hee was so cruel and barbarous that after their horses were spent hee caused them to eate one another But at his returne from Aegypt the Susians his chiefe citizens welcomed him home with rebellion and at last as hee was riding it so chanced that his sword fell out of the scabberd and himselfe vpon the point of it so that it pierced him through and so hee died After that Xerxes by his ouerbold enterprise had distuâ—bed the greatest part of the world Diodor. lib. 11. passed the sea trauersed many countries to the end to assaile Greece with innumerable forces he was ouercome both by sea by land and compelled priuily to retire into his countrie with shame discredit where he had not long beene but Artabanus the captaine of his guard killed him in his pallace by night who also after that many other mischiefes committed by him was himselfe cruelly murdered The thirtie gouernours which the Lacedemonians set ouer the Athenians by compulsion were such cruell Tyrants oppressors and bloodsuckers of the people that they made away a great part of them vntil they were chased away themselues violently and then being secretly dogged pursued were all killed one after another Pirrhus King of Epire that raigned not long after Alexander the great was naturally disposed to such a quicknesse heat of courage that he could neuer be quiet but wheÌ„ he was either doing some mischiefe to another or when another was doing some vnto him euer deuising some new practise of molestation for pastimes sake This his wild and dangerous disposition began first to shew it selfe in the death of Neoptolemus who was conioined King with him whom hauing bidden to supper in his lodging vnder pretence of sacrifice to his gods he deceitfully slew preuenting by that meanes Neoptolemus pretended purpose of poisoning him when occasion should serue After this he conquered Macedonia by armes and came into Italie to make warre with the Romanes in the behalfe of the Tarentines and gaue them battaile in the field and slew fifteene thousand of them in one day he took their campe reuoked many cities from their alliance spoiled much of their country euen to the wals of Rome and all this in a trice without breathing Againe by Ascoly he encountred them the second time where there was a great ouerthrow of ech side of fifteen thousand meÌ„ But the Romans had the worst took their heeles WheÌ„ he was intreated by the Sicilian Embassadours to lend them aid to expulse the Carthaginians out of their isle hee yeelded presently and chased them out Being recalled by the Tarentines into Italy for their succour hee was conquered
battaile yet was hee encountred with another desastrous misfortune for as hee marched forward with his forces to fight with Sigismunds brother he was by him ouercome and slain and for a further disgrace his dismembred head fastened on the top of a pike carried about to the enterview of all men Hee left behind him three yoong sonnes whom his owne brethren and their vncles Clotaire and Childebert notwithstanding their yong tender yeares tooke from their grandmother Clotildes custodie that brought them vp as if they would enstall them into some part of their fathers kingdome but most wickedly and cruelly to the end to possesse their goods lands signiories bereft them al of their liues saue one that saued himselfe in a monestarie In this strange monstrous act Clotaire shewed himselfe more then barbarous when hee would not take pitty vpon the youngest of the two being but seuen yeare old who hearing his brother of the age of tenne yeares crying pittifully at his slaughter threw himselfe at his vncle Childeberts feet with teares desiring him to saue his life wherewith Childebert being greatly affected entreated his brother with weeping eies to haue pitty vpon him and spare the life of this poore infant but al his warnings and entreaties could not hinder the sauadge beast from performing this cruell murder vpon this poor child as he had done vpon the other The Emperour Phocas attained by this bloody means the emperiall dignity Nicephor lib. 18. cap. 58. euen by the slaughter of his Lord maister Mauricius whom as he fled in disguised attire for feare of a treason pretended against him hee being beforetime the leiutenant general of his army pursued so maliciously hotely that he ouertook him in his flight for his further griefe first put all his childrē seuerally to death before his face that euery one of thē might be a seuerall death vpon him before he died and then slew him also This murderer was hee that first exalted to so high a point the popish horn whē at the request of Boniface he ordained that the bishop of Rome shold haue preheminence authority oueral other bishops which he did to the end that the stain blame of his most execrable murder might be either quite blotted out or at least wincked at Vnder his regencie the forces of the Empire grew wonderously into decay France Spaine Almaigne and Lumbardy reuolted from the Empire and at last himselfe being pursued by his sonne in law Priscus with the Senators vvas taken and hauing his handes and feet cut off was togither with the whole race of his ofspring put to a most cruel death because of his cruell and tyrannous life Among all the strange examples of Gods iudgements that euer were declared in this world that one that befell a king of Poleland called Popiell for his murders is for the strangenesse thereof most worthy to bee had in memory hee raigned in the year of our Lord 1346 this man among other of his particular kinds of cursings and swearing whereof he was no niggard vsed ordinarily this oth If it bee not true would rats might deuour me Munst Cosmog Mandat 3. Cursing lib. 1. cap. 32. prophecying thereby his owne destruction for hee was deuoured euen by the same means which hee so often wished for as the sequele of his historie will declare The father of this Popiell feeling himselfe neare death resigned the gouernment of his kingdome to two of his brethren men exceedingly reuerenced of all men for the valor and vertue which appeared in them He being deceased and Popiell being growne vp to ripe and lawfull yeares when hee saw himselfe in full libertie without all bridle of gouernment to doe what he listed he began to giue the full swindge to his lawlesse and vnruly desires in such sort that within few daies he became so shamelesse that there was no kind of vice which appeared not in his behauior euen to the working of the death of his owne vncles for all their faithfull dealing towards him which hee by poyson brought to passe Which being done he caused himself forthwith to be crowned with garlands of flowers and to bee perfumed with pretious ointments and to the end the better to solemnize his entrie to the crowne commanded a sumptuous and pompous banket to be prepared wherevnto all the princes and lords of his kingdome were inuited Now as they were about to giue the onset vpon the delicate cheare behold an army of rats sallying out of the dead and putrified bodies of his vncles set vpon him his wife and children amid their dainties to gnaw them with their sharp teeth insomuch that his guard with all their weapons strength were not able to chase them away but being weary with resisting their daily mightie assaults gaue ouer the battaile wherfore counsell was giuen to make great coale fires round about them that the rats by that meanes might bee kept off not knowing that no pollicy or power of man was able to withstand the vnchangeable decree of God for for all their huge forces they ceased not to run through the midst of them and to assault with their teeth this cruell murderer Then they gaue him counsaile to put himselfe his wife children into a boat and thrust it into the middest of a lake thinking that by reason of the waters the rats would not approch vnto thē But alasse in vain for they swum through the waters amaine gnawing the boat made such chinckes into the sides thereof that the water began to run in which being perceiued of the boatmen amazed them sore and made them make post hast vnto the shore where he was no sooner arriued but a fresh muster of rats vniting their forces with the former encountred him so sore that they did him more scath then all the rest Wherevpon all his guard and others that were there present for his defence perceiuing it to be a iudgement of Gods vengeance vpon him abandoned and forsooke him at once who seeing himselfe destitute of succour and forsaken on all sides flew into a high tower in Chousuitze whether also they pursued him and climing euen vp to the highest roome where he was first eat vp his wife and children shee being guilty of his vncles death and lastly gnew and deuoured him to the very bones After the same sort was an Archbishop of Mentz called Hatto Munsteer Cosmographie punished in the year 940 vnder the raigne of the Emperour Otho the great for the extreame cruelty which he vsed towards certaine poore beggers whom in time of famine he assembled together into a great barne not to releeue their wants as he might ought but to rid their liues as he ought not but did for hee set on fire the barne wherein they were and consumed them all aliue comparing them to rats mise that deuoured good corne but serued to no other good vse Mandat 8. Auarice and vnmercifulnesse But God
Constantinople exercising more cruelty at his returne then euer hee had done before him for he not only put to death Leontius and Tiberius but also all that any way fauoured their parts It is said of him that he neuer â—â—â—w his mangled nose but he caused one of them to be executed to death At last he was slaine by Philippicus to verifie the word of the Lord That he which striketh with the sword shall perish with the sword Albonius king of Lumbardy drinking vpon a time to his wife Rosimund in a cup made of her fathers skull whome he in battaile had slaine so displeased her therewith that shee attributing more to naturall affection then vnity of marriage decreed with her selfe to hazard life and kingdome to be reuenged vpon this grieuous iniury wherefore shee thus practised A knight called Hemichild was enamoured with one of her maids him she brought into a secret darke place by pollicie in shew to enioy his loue but indeed to be at her commaund for shee supplied his loues place and then discouering her selfe put it to his choise either to kill her husband or to be accused by her of this villany Hemichild chose the former and in deed murdered his lord in his bed and after the deed done fled with her to Rauenna But marke how the Lord requited this murder euen most strangely for they both which had beene linkt togither in the fact were linkt togither also in the punishment and as they had beene ioynt instruments of anothers destruction so he made them mutuall instruments of their owne for Rosimund thinking to poison him too made him drinke halfe her medicine but he feeling the poison in his veines staied in the midway and made her sup vp the other halfe for her part so they died both togither The Electors of the Empire disagreeing in suffrages Munst cosâ—n Philip. Melan. lib. 5. Adolphus duke of Nassauia Albertus duke of Austria tooke vpon them the regiment and managing of the state whereupon grewe grieuous warres in all Germany and dissention betweene the two statemen so that Adolphus was slaine by the duke of Austria in battaile by the city of Spire whose death was thus notably reuenged All that tooke part against him or that were accessary to the murder perished most strangely Albert Earle of Hagerloch was slaine Otto of Ochsensteme hanged the bishop of Mentz died suddenly of an apoplexie in his sellar the bishop of Stratsbrough was butchered by a butcher the Earle of Leimingen died of a phrensie the duke of Austria himselfe was slaine by his nephew Iohn from whome he had taken the gouernment of Sueuia because of his vnthriftinesse generally they all came to destruction so grieuous is the crie of innocent blood against those that are guiltie thereof After the death of Woldimirus king of Rhythenia his son Berisus succeeded in the kingdome Treason lib. 2. cap. 3. who though hee was a vertuous and religious prince yet could not his vertue or religion priuiledge him from the malice of his brother Suadopolcus who gaping and itching for the crowne slue his brother this good prince as he was sleeping in his chamber togither with his Esquire that attended vpon him Chron. Pol. lib. 2. cap. 10. and not content herewith but adding murder to murder he assaulted another of his brethren by the same impiety and brought him to the same end Whereupon the last brother Iorâ—slaus to be reuenged on this villany set vpon him with an army of men and killing his complices droue him to flie to Crachus king of Polonia for succour who furnishing him with a new army sent him backe against his brother in which battell his successe being equall to his former he lost his men and himselfe escaping the sword died in his flight to Polonia and was buried in a base and ignoble sepulchre fit enough for so base ignoble a wretch And that we may see how hatefull and vngodly a thing it is to be either a protectour or a sauer of any murderer marke the iudgement of God that fell vpon this king of Polonia though not in his owne person yet in his posterity Treason lib. 2. cap. 3. for he being dead his eldest sonne and heire Crachus was murdered by his younger brother Lechus as they were hunting so disguised and torne that euery man imputed his death not to Lechus whose eies dropt crocadiles teares but to some sauadge and cruell beast Howbeit ere long his treachery being discouered and disseised of his kingdome hee died with extreame griefe and horrour of conscience And thus wee see that Crachus his kingdome came to desolation for maintaining a murderer Iohn the high priest of Ierusalem sonne and successour to Iudas had a brother tearmed Iesus to whome Bagoses the lieuetenant of Antaxerxes army promised the priesthood Ioseph anâ—iq Iudaic. l. r 1. c 7 meaning in deed to depose Iohn and install him in his roome vpon which occasion this Iesus growing insolent spared not to reuile his brother that in the temple with immodest opprobrious speeches so that his anger being prouoked ProfanatioÌ„ of holy things lib. 1. cap. 34. hee slue him in his rage a most impious part for the high priest to pollute the holy temple with blood that of his owne brother and so impious that the Lord in iustice could not choose but punish the whole natioÌ„ for it most seuerely For this cause Bagoses imposed a tribute vpon them euen a most grieuous tribute that for euery lambe they offered vpon the altar they should pay fifty groats to the king of Persia besides the prophanation of their temple with the vncircumcised Persians who entred into it at their pleasures and so polluted the sanctuary and holy things of God this punishment continued vpon them seuen yeeres and all for this one murder Gerhardus Earle of Holsatia after he had conquered the Danes in many and sundry battailes Treason lib. 2. cap. 3. was traiterously slaine in the city Kanderhusen by one Nicolaus Iacobus a rich Baron so that whome the open enemie feared in the field him the priuie subtill foe murdered in his chamber But the traitour and murderer albeit he fled to the castle Schaldenburg and got a band of soldiers to defend himselfe yet he was surprised by the Earls sonnes who tormenting him as became a traitor to be tormented at last rent his body into foure quarters and so his murder and treason was condignly punished Aboue all the execution of Gods vengeance is most notably manifested in the punishment and detection of one Parthenius an homicide treasurer to Theodobert king of France Greg. of Tours lib. 3. cap. 36. who hauing traiterously slaine an especiall friend of his called Ausanius with his wife Papianilla when no man suspected or accused him thereof hee detected and accused himselfe after this strange manner As hee slept in his bed suddenly hee roared out most pitifully crying for helpe or else hee perished
Heraclius hauing raigned Emperour but one yeere was poisoned by his stepmother Martina Zonoras tom 3. to the end to install her owne sonne Heraclon in the crowne but for this cruell part becomming odious to the Senat they so much hated to haue her or her sonne raigne ouer them that in stead thereof they cut off her tongue and his nose and so banished them the city Fausta the wife of Constantine the Great fell in loue with Constantine her sonne in law begotten vpon a concubine Zonoras 3. Annal. Sex Aur. whom when she could not persuade vnto her lust shee accused vnto the Emperour as a sollicitour of her chastitie for which cause hee was condemned to die but after the truth was knowen Constantinus put her into a hote bath and suffered her not to come forth vntill the heat had choaked her reuenging vpon her head his sonnes death and her owne vnchastitie CHAP. XII Of Subiect Murderers SEing then they that take away their neighbours liues doe not escape vnpunished as by the former examples it appeareth it must needs folow that if they to whom the sword of iustice is committed by God to represse wrongs and chastise vices doe giue ouer themselues to cruelties and to kill and slay those whome they ought in duty to protect and defend must receiue a greater measure of punishment according to the measure and quality of their offence Such an one was Saul the first king of Israel who albeit he ought to haue bene sufficiently instructed out of the law of God in his duty in this behalfe yet was hee so cruell and bloody minded as contrary to all iustice to put to death Abimelech the high priest with fourescore and fiue other priests of the family of his father 1. Sam. 22. onely for receiuing Dauid into his house small or rather no offence And yet not satisfied herewith h◠vomited out his rage also against the whol city of the priests and put to the mercilesse sword both man woman and child without sparing any Hee slew many of the Gibeonites who though they were reliques of the Amorites that first inhabited that lād yet because they were receiued into league of amity by a solemne oth and permitted of long continuance to dwell amongst them should not haue bene awarded as enemies nor handled after so cruell a fashion Thus therefore he tyranizing and playing the butcher amongst his own subiects for which cause his house was called the house of slaughter practising many other foul enormities he was at the last ouercome of the Philistims sore wounded which when he saw fearing to fall aliue into his enemies hands and not finding any of his owne men that would lay their hands vpon him desperately slew himselfe The same day three of his sonnes and they that followed him of his owne houshold were all slaine The Philistims the next day finding his dead body despoiled among the carcasses beheaded it and caried the head in triumph to the temple of their god and hung vp the trunke in disgrace in one of their cities to be seene lookt vpon and pointed at And yet for all this was not the fire of Gods wrath quenched for in king Dauids time there arose a famine that lasted three yeeres the cause whereof was declared by God to be the murder which Saul committed vpon the Gibeonites 2. Sam. 21. wherefore Dauid deliuered Sauls seuen sonnes into the Gibeonites hands that were left who put them to the most shamefull death that is euen to hanging Amongst all the sinnes of king Achab and Iezabel which were many and great 1. King 21. the murder of Naboth standeth in the forefront for though hee had committed no such crime as might any way deserue death yet by the subtill and wicked deuise of Iezabel foolish and credulous consent of Achab and false accusation of the two suborned witnesses he was cruelly stoned to death but his innocent blood was punished first in Achab who not long after the warre which hee made with the king of Siria receiued so deadly a wound that hee died thereof the dogges licking vp his blood in the same place where Naboths blood was licked 2. King 9. according to the foretelling of Elias the Prophet And secondly of Iezabel whome her owne seruants at the commandement of Iehu whome God had made executour of his wrath threw headlong out of an high window vnto the ground so that the walls were died with her blood and the horses trampled her vnder their feet and dogs deuoured her flesh till of all her dainty body there remained nothing sauing only her scull feet and palme of her hands Ioram sonne of Iehosaphat king of Iudah being after his fathers death possessed of the crowne and scepter of Iudah 2. Chron. 21. by and by exalted himselfe in tyranny and put to death sixe of his owne brethren all younger than himselfe with many princes of the realme for which cause God stirred vp the Edomites to rebell the Philistims and Arabians to make war against him who forraged his countrey sacked and spoiled his cities and tooke prisoners his wiues and children the yongest only excepted who afterwards also was murdered when he had raigned king but a small space And lastly as in doing to death his owne brethren hee committed crueltie against his owne bowels so the Lord stroke him with such an incurable disease in his bowels and so perpetuall for it continued two yeeres that his very entrails issued out with torment and so died in horrible misery Albeit that in the former booke we haue already touched the pride and arrogancie of king Alexander the Great yet wee can not pretermit to speake of him in this place his example seruing so fit for the present subiect for although as touching the rest of his life hee was verie well gouerned in his priuat actions as a monarch of his reputation might be yet in his declining age I meane not in yeeres but to deathward he grew exceeding cruell not only towards strangers as the Cosseis whome he destroied to the sucking babe but also to his houshold and familiar friends Insomuch that being become odious to most fewest loued hi◠and diuers wrought all meanes possible to make him away but one especially whose sonne in law and other neare friends he had put to death neuer ceased vntill he both ministred a deadly draught vnto himselfe Iustine whereby he depriued him of his wicked life and a fatall stroke to his wiues and children after his death to the accomplishment of his full reuenge Phalaris the tyrant of Agrigentum made himselfe famous to posterity by no other meanes Oros then horrible cruelties exercised vpon his owne subiects inuenting euery day new kinds of tortures to scourge and afflict the poore soules withall In his dominion there was one Perillus an artificer of his craft one expert in his occupation who to flatter and curry fauour with him deuised a new torment
more strange in matter of warre than this which I now goe about to recite of Henry of Luxenbourge Emperour of Germanie who when he heard that his sonne Charles king of Bohemia was in the French army Froiss vol. 1. Cap. 130. and that Philip of Valoys king of France was ready to giue battaile to the English albeit hee was blind and consequently vnfit for warre yet would needs take part with the French And therefore commaunded his men at armes to guide him into the place where the field was to be fought that he might there strike one blow They as foolish as himselfe not willing to crosse his mind and fearing to loose him in the prease tied him fast to the raines of their bridles being by this meanes so coupled togither as if they meant al to perish togither if need were as indeed they did for they were ouercome in battaile and the next day found all dead horse and men fast bound togither This accident befell at Crecy neare Abreuile in which iourney the French king sustained an inestimable dammage for hee lost fifteene of his chiefest princes fourescore ensigns twelue hundred knights and about thirty thousand men In the yeere 1455 the Hungarians without any iust cause or pretence Theatr. hist. made war vpon the Emperour Otto only mooued with a desire of bringing vnder their subiection the Germane powers and the rather at this time because they supposed the Emperours strength of war to be weakened and his power of men lessened by those continuall troubles and warres which he had beene daily occupied in notwithstanding Otto as by his former deedes of armes hee deserued the sirname of Great so in this exploit especially for he conscribed eight legions of men out of Franconia Bauaria and Bohemia and with that small valiant handfull ouerturned and destroied the huge vnchristened multitude of his enemies for albeit the Bohemians being placed in the rereward were as suddenly and vnexpectedly assaulted by the enemy that craftily passed ouer the riuer Lycus to set vpon them behind as vnhappily put to flight with the losse of the carriages and vittailes which they were set to protect yet Otto with his other legions renuing the battell and encouraging his souldiers gaue the enemy such an encounter and repulse that he put them to flight and slew them with a miserable slaughter three of their kings hee tooke prisoners and few of that vast army escaped with their liues On the Emperours side died many worthy men among whome Conrade the Emperours sonne in law and Burghard duke of Sueuia were two beside many other In this successiue battaile it is to be noted aboue the rest how religiously the Emperor both began and finished it the day before the fight he inioyned a fast in his army and directed his praiers to the Almighty relying more vpon the presence of Gods helpe than his owne power After the conquest gotten he caused solemne thankes to be giuen in all Churches to God for that great deliuerance I would our moderne Generals and Captaines would learne by this example to follow his footsteps not to make their praiers quaffings and their thanksgiuings carousings as they vse to doe euen as it were purposely to tempt the Lord and to stirre vp his wrath against them Penda king of middle England Lanqueâ— Chron. making warre vpon Anna king of East Angles slew him in open field with which victory being puffed vp in pride he sent defiance to Osway king of Northumberland also who hearing of his approch proffered him great gifts and faire conditions of peace which when Penda obstinately refused he was slaine in battaile with thirty of his most noble captaines although hee had thrise the number of people which Osway had And thus the heathen and bloody Pagan ended his cruelty and paied deare for his too much forwardnes in warre CHAP. XVI Of such as please themselues ouermuch in seeing cruelties THe Romanes were so accustomed by long vse of warre to behold fightings and bloodshed that in time of peace also they would make themselues sports and pastimes therewith for they would compell poore captiues and bondslaues either to kill one another by mutuall blowes or to enter combat with sauadge and cruell beasts to be torne in peeces by them The first according to Seneca Seneca that deuised and put in practise this vnkindly combat of beasts and malefactours was Pompey who prouided an army of eighteene Elephants to fight with men and thought it a notable and commendable spectacle to put men to death after this new and strange fashion Oh how mens minds are blinded with ouermuch prosperity hee esteemed himselfe at that time to be higher in dignity than all other when he thus threw to wild beasts people of farre countries and in the presence of the people caused so much blood to be shed but not long after himselfe was betraied by the treachery of the Alexandrians slaine by a bondslaue a iust quittance for murdering so many of that condition thus much out of Seneca Now it is manifest that this was an ordinary pastime among the Romanes albeit it is strange that any pastime or pleasure could arise by seeing poore creatures interchangeably strike one another to death and humane blood to runne like water along the streets It was not then without cause but by a special will of God to reuenge cruelty Flor. that the bondslaues conducted by Spartacus the fencer rebelled against their masters in Rome after they had broken through the guards of Lentulus his house and issuing out of Capua gathered togither aboue ten thousand fighting men and encamped themselues in Mount Vesuvius where being besieged by Clodius Glaber they sallied so rudely and boisterously vpon him that the victory and spoile of their enemies tents remained on their sides after this they ran ouer all the land forraged the countrey and destroied many villages and townes but especially these foure Nola Nocera Terreneuae and Metaponte were by them sacked and spoiled with a strange and bloody ouerthrow after all which hauing encountred two Consuls they ouercame Lentulus on mount Apennine and discomfited Gaius Cassius here Modene all which victories and luckie proceedings did so embolden puffe vp the courage of captaine Fencer that he determined to giue an alarme to Rome and to lay siege vnto it but the Romans preparing and directing all their forces to withstand their practises gaue him his crew so sore a repulse that from Rome they were faine to flie to the vttermost borders of Italy there seeing themselues pent in on all sides and driuen to deep extremity they gaue so desperat an onset vpon their enemies that both their captaine they were all slaine And thus the Romans made iolly pastime with their fencers and bondslaues and more I thinke at this time than they either looked or wished for for four hundred of them being taken by the bondmen were enforced to shew them pastime at the
had vnto them both to the end to auoid those mischiefes and enormities which oftentimes happen when either by an ouer hardy foolish and rash presumption a man would nestle himselfe in an higher nest than his estate and calling requireth or by a sensuall and fleshly lust passing the bounds of reason goeth about to constraine and interrupt the law of nature The chiefest thing that is required in marriage is the consent of parties as well of themselues that are to be ioyned togither as of each of their parents the contrary whereof is constraint where either partie is forced Iudg. 21. as it happened to those two hundred maides which the Beniamites tooke by force and violence to be their wiues This was a reproch to Romulus the first king of Rome when hee rauished the Sabine virgins that came to see their sports which was cause of great warre betwixt them Moreouer besides the mutuall ioynt of loue which ought to be betwixt man and wife it is necessary that they that marrie doe marry in the Lord to serue him in greater puritie and with lesse disturbance which can not be if a Christian marrie an infidell for the great difficulties and hinderances that vsually spring from such a roote Exod. 34 16 Deut. 7 3. Therefore it was straightly forbidden the people of God to contract mariages with Idolatours yea and the holy Patriarchs before any such law was giuen had carefully great regard in the marriages of their childrē to this thing as the example of Abraham doth sufficiently declare Therefore they that haue any manner of gouernment and authority ouer vnmarried folkes whether they be fathers mothers kinsmen or tutours ought to haue especiall care and regard thereof Yea Christian princes and lords or rulers of commonwealths should not in this respect be so supine and negligent in the performance of their offices as once to permit and suffer this amongst them which is so directly contrary to the word of God but rather by especiall charge forbid it to the end that both their lawes might be conformable and in euery respect agreeable to the holy ordinances of God and that the way might be stopped to those mischiefes which were likely to arise from such euill concluded marriages For what reason is it that a yong maide baptized and brought vp in the Church of Christ should bee giuen in marriage to a worshipper of images and idols and sent to such a countrey where the worship of God is not so much as once thought vpon Is not this to plucke a soule out of the house of God and thrust it into the house of the deuill out of heauen into hell than which what greater Apostasie or falling from God can there be whereof all they are guilty that either make vp such marriages or giue their good will and consent to them or doe not hinder the cause and proceedings of them if any manner of way they can Now that this confusion and mixture of religion in marriages is vnpleasant and noisome to God it manifestly appeareth by the sixt chapter of Genesis where it is said That because the sonnes of God to wit those whome God had separated for himselfe from the beginning of the world to be his peculiar ones were so euill aduised as to be allured with the beauties of the daughters of men to wit of those which were not chosen of God to be his people and to marry with them corrupting themselues by this contagious acquaintance of prophane people with whome they should haue had nothing to doe that therefore God was incensed against them and resolued simply to reuenge the wickednes of ech party without respect Beside the monstrous fruits of those prophane marriages doe sufficiently declare their odiousnes in Gods sight for from them arose gyants of strength and stature exceeding the proportion of men who by their hugenes did much wrong and violence in the world and gained fearefull terrible names to themselues but God prouoked by their oppressions drowned their tyrannies in the flood and made an end of the world for their sakes In the time of the Iudges in Israel the Israelites were chastised by the hand of God for this same fault for they tooke to wiues the daughters of the vncircumcised and gaue them their daughters also Iudg. 3. In like sort framed they themselues by this means to their corrupt manners and superstitions and to the seruice of their idolatrous Gods But the Lord of heauen rained downe anger vpon their heads and made them subiect to a stranger the king of Mesopotamia whome they serued the space of eight yeeres 1. King 11. Looke what happened to king Salomon for giuing his heart to strange women that were not of the houshold of Gods people Hee that before was replenished with such admirable wisdome that he was the wonder of the world was in his old age depriued thereof and besotted with a kind of dulnes of vnderstanding and led aside from the true knowledge of God to serue idols and to build them altars and chappels for their worship and all this to please forsooth his wiues humours whose acquaintance was the chiefe cause of his misery and apostasie CHAP. XXIIII Touching Incestuous marriages NOw as it is vnlawfull to contract marriages with parties of contrary religion so it is as vnlawfull to marry those that are neare vnto vs by any degree of kindred or affinitie as it is inhibited not only by the law of God but also by ciuill and politique constitutions whereunto all nations haue euer by the sole instinct of nature agreed and accorded except the Aegyptians and Persians whose abominations were so great as to take their owne sisters and mothers to be their wiues Cambyses king of Media and Persia married his owne sister but it was not long ere he put her to death a iust proofe of an vniust and accursed marriage Many others there were in protract of time that in their insatiable lustes shewed themselues no lesse vnstaied and vnbridled in their lawlesse affections than hee One of which was Antiochus king of Iuda sonne of Herodes sirnamed Great Ioseph antiq lib. 17. cap. 15. who blushed not to marrie his sister the late wife of his deceased brother Alexander by whome shee had borne two children but for this and diuers other hi◠good deeds hee lost not only his goods which were confiscated but was himselfe also banished out of his countrey into a forraine place from Iudea to Vienna in France Herode also the Tetrarch was so impudent and shamelesse The same lib. 18. cap. 9. that hee tooke from his brother Philip his wife Herodias and espoused her vnto himselfe which shamelesse and incestuous deed Iohn Baptist reproouing in him told him plainly how vnlawfull it was for him to possesse his brothers wife but the punishment that befell him for this and many other his sinnes wee haue heard in the former booke and need not here to be repeated Anton.
nature also Martin Luther hath left recorded in his writings many examples of iudgements on this sin but especially vpon clergie men whose profession as it requireth a more strict kind of cōuersation so their sins and iudgements were more notorious both in their owne natures and in the eie and opinion of the world some of which as it is not amisse to insert in this place so it is not vnnecessary to beleeue them proceeding from the mouth of so worthie a witnesse There was saith he a man of great authoritie learning that forsaking his secular life betooke himselfe into the colledge of preists Luther in epist consolat ad Lucum Cranach whether of deuotion or of hope of libertie to sin let thē iudge that read this history this new adopted priest fell in loue with a Masons wife whom he so woed that he got his pleasure of her what fitter time but whē Masse was singing did he daily chuse for the performing of his villany In this haunt hee persisted a long season till the Mason finding him in bed with his wife did not summon him to law nor pennance but took a shorter course cut his throat Luther Another nobleman in Thuringa being taken in Adulterie was murdered after this strange fashion by the adulteresses husband he bound him hand foot cast him into prison to quench his lust seeing that Ceres that is gluttony is the fewel of Venus that is lust denied him al maner of sustinance the more to augment his pain set hote dishes of meat before him that the smel sight thereof might more prouoke his appetite the want therof torment him more In this torture the wretched lecher abode so long vntil he gnew off the flesh frō his own shoulders and the eleuenth day of his imprisonment ended his life this punishmēt was most horrible too too seuere in respect of the inflicter yet most iust in respect of God whose custome is to proportion his iudgements to the quality of the sinne that is committed Luther affirmeth this to haue happened in his childhood and that both the parties were known vnto him by name which for honor and charity sake he would not disclose There was another nobleman that so delighted in lust Luther Mandat 1. Atheisme li. 1. cap. 25. was so inordinat in his desires that he shamed not to say that if this life of pleasure passing from harlot to harlot might endure euer he would not care for heauē or life eternal what cursed madnesse impiety is this a man to be so forgetful of his maker himself that he preferred his whores before his Sauiour and his filthy pleasure before the grace of God doth it not deserue to be punished with scorpions Yes verily as it was indeed for the polluted wretch died amongst his strumpets being stroken with a suddaine stroke of Gods vengeance In the yeare 1505 a certaine Bishop well seene in all learning and eloquence and especially skilfull in languages was notwithstanding so filthy in his conuersation that he shamed not to defile his bodie and name by many Adulteries but at length hee was slaine by a cobler whose wife hee had often corrupted being taken in bed with her and so receiued a due reward of his filthinesse Lanquet chron In the yeare of our Lord 778 Kenulphus king of the West Saxons in Britaine as hee vsually haunted the company of a a certaine harlot which he kept at Merton was slaine by one Clito the kinsman of Sigebert that was late king The same Sergus a king of Scotland was so foule a drunkard glutton and so outragiously giuen to harlots that hee neglected his owne wife and droue her to such penurie that shee was faine to serue other noblewomen for her liuing wherefore she murdered him in his bed and after slew her selfe also Arichbertus eldest son vnto Lotharius king of France died euen as he was imbracing his whores In summe to conclude this matter our English Chronicles report that in the yeare of our Lord 349 there was so great plentie of corne and fruit in Britaine that the like had not ben seene many yeares before but this was the cause of much idlenesse gluttony lechery and other vices in the land for vsually ease and prosperitie are the nurses of all enormitie but the Lord requited this their riotous and incontinent life with so great a pestilence mortalitie that the liuing scantly sufficed to bury the dead Petrarch Petrarch maketh mention of a certaine Cardinall that though hee was seuenty yeares old yet euery night would haue a fresh whore to this end had certain bauds purueiors and prouiders of his trash but he died a miserable and wretched death And Martin Luther reported that a bishop being a common frequenter of the Stues in Hidelberge came to this miserable end The bords of the chamber whither hee vsed to enter were loosened that assoone as hee came in hee flipt through and broke his necke But aboue all that which wee find written in the second booke of Fincelius is most strange and wonderfull Iob. Fincelius lib. 2. of a Priest in Albenthewer a towne neare adioining to Gaunt in Flaunders that persuaded a yong maid to reiect and disobey all her parents godly admonitions to become his concubine whē she obiected how vile a sinne it was and how contrary to the law of God hee told her that by the authority of the Pope hee could dispence with any wickednesse were it neuer so great and further alledged the discommodities of marriage and the pleasure that would arise from that kind of life in fine he conquered her vertuous purpose and made her yeeld vnto his filthie lust But when they had thus pampered their desires together a while in came the deuill and would needs conclude the play for as they were banquetting with many such like companions he tooke her away from the priests side and notwithstanding her pittifull crying and all their exorcising and coniuring carried her quite away telling the Priest that very shortly he would fetch him also for hee was his owne darling CAAP. XXVIII More examples of the same argument I Cannot passe ouer in silence a history truly tragical touching the death of many men who by reason of an Adulterie slew one another in most strange and cruell manner indeed so strangely that as farre as I euer red or knew there was neuer the like particular deed heard of wherein God more euidently poured forth the stream of his displeasure turning the courage and valor of ech part into rage and furie to the end that by their owne meanes he might bee reuenged on them In the Dukedome of Spoleto which is the way from Ancona to Rome of the ancient Latines called Vmbria there were three brethrē who kept in their possession three cities of the said dukedome namely Faligno Nocera and Treuio the eldest of whom whos 's
her enemies namely his sonne Callinicus who slew her with one of her sonnes and all that belonged vnto her and then he tooke again his old wife for which cause Ptolomie Euergetes sonne to Philadelphus renued war vpon him Herod the Tetrarch was so bewitched with the loue of Herodius his brother Philips wife Ioseph of the Iewish antiquitie lib. 18. cap. 7.9 that to the end hee might enioy her hee disclaimed his lawfull wife and sent her home to her father king Aretas who being touched netled with this indignity and disgrace sought to reuenge himselfe by armes and indeed made so hote war vpon him and charged his army so furiously that it was discomfited by him after which shameful losse he was by the Emperor Caligulas commandement banished to Lions there to end the residue of his daies Amongst the Remans Marcus Antonius was noted for the most dissolute and impudent in this case of diuorce Plutarch for albeit that in the beginning of his triumphirship he forsooke his first wife to mary Octauius his sister yet he proceeded further not content herewith but must needs forsake her to to bee with Cleopatra the queen of Aegypt from whence sprung out many great euils which at length fel vpon his own head to his finall ruin destruction for when he saw himself in such streights that no means could be found to resist Octauius hee sheathed with his own hands his sword into his bowels whē all his seruants being requested refused to performe the same being thus wounded hee fell vpon a little bed intreating those that were present to make an end of his daies but they all fled and left him in the chāber crying tormēting himself vntill such time that he was cōueied to the monumēt wherin Cleopatra was enclosed that he might die there Cleopatra seeing this pitifull spectacle all amased let down chains cords from the high window with the help of her two maids drew him vp into the monument vniting their forces and doing what they could to get his poore carcasse though by a shamefull vndecēt maner for the gate was locked might not be opened it was a lamentable sight to see his poor body al besmeared with bloud breathing now his last blast for he died assoon as he came to the top to be drawne vpon that cruell fashion As for Cleopatra who by her flattering allurements rauished the hart of this miserable man was cause of his second diuorce she plaied her true part also in this woful tragedy as she partaked of the sin so she did of the punishment for after she saw her self past hope of help her sweet heart dead she beat her own breasts tormented her self so much with sorrow that her bosome was brused halfe murdered with her blows her body in many places exulcerate with inflamations she puld off her hear rent her face with her nailes altogether in phrensied with grief melancholy distresse was found fresh dead with her two maids lying at her feet this was the miserable end of those two who for enjoying of a few foolish cursed pleasures together receiued in exchange infinite torments and vexations and at length vnhappy deaths togither in one the same place verifieng the old prouerbe For one pleasure a thousand dolours Charles the eight king of France Philip. de Cont. after he had ben long time married to the daughter of the king of the Romanes sister to the Archduke of Austria was so euill aduised as to turne her home again vpō no other occasion but to mary the duchesse of Britaine the sole heire to her fathers dukedome wherein he doubly iniured his father in law the Roman king for he did not only reiect his daughter but also depriued him of his wife the duchesse of Britaine whom by his substitute according to the maner of great Princes he had first espoused Bembus Bembus in his Venetian history handling this story somewhat mollifieth the fault when he saith that the Roman kings daughter was neuer touched by king Charles in the way of mariage all the while she was there by reason of her vnripe oueryong yeares After a while after this new maried king had giuen a hote alarme to all Italy and conquered the realme of Naples as the Venetians were deliberating to take the matter in hand of themselues to resist him Maximilian the Roman king sollicited them in the same thrust them forward aswell that he might confederate himselfe with the duke of Millan as that he might reuēge the iniury touching his repelled daughter so that by this means the French king was sore troubled at his return hauing to withstād him al the Venetian forces with the most part of the Potentates of Italy notwithstāding he broke through thē al after he had put the Venetians to the worst Philip. de Com. but being returned after this victorious triumphant voiage it happened that one day as hee led the queen to the castle of Amboise to see some sport at tenise he stroke his forehead against the vpper dore post of the gallory as he went in that he fel presently to the ground speechles Surseuil died incontinently in the place from whence though the filthiest sluttishest place about the castle they remoued not his body but laid it on a bed of straw to the veiw of the world from two of the clocke in the afternoone till eleuen at midnight and this good successe followed at last his so much desired diuorce CHAP. XXX Of those that either cause or authorise vnlawfull diuorcements Mat. 19. ALthough the commandement of our Sauiour Christ bee very plaine and manifest That man should not seperate those whome God hath ioined together yet there are some so void of vnderstanding and iudgement that they make no conscience to dissolue those that by the bond of mariage are vnited Iudg. 15. of which number was Sampsons father in law who took his daughter first giuen in mariage to Sampson and gaue her to another without any other reason saue that he suspected that Sampson loued her not but what got he by it Marry this the Philistims prouoked against him consumed him and his daughter with fire because that by the meanes of his iniury Sampson had burned their corne their vineyards and their oliue trees 1. Sam. 25. After the same sort dealt king Saule with Dauid when he gaue him his daughter Michol to wife and afterward in despight and hatred of him tooke her away againe and bestowed her vpon another wherein as in many other things hee shewed himselfe a wicked and prophane man and was worthely punished therefore as hath ben before declared Froysard vol. 1. Hugh Spencer one of king Edward of Englands chiefest fauourits insomuch that his eare and heart was at his pleasure was he that first persuaded the king to forsake and repudiate the Queene his
things a very niggard and pinchpenny shewed himselfe on the other side more then prodigall next he sent into Calabria for a Hermit reported to be a holy and deuout man to whome at his arriuall hee perfourmed so much dutie and reuerence as was wonderfull and vnseemely for hee threw himselfe on his knees and besought him to prolong his decaying life as if hee had beene a God and not a man but all that hee could doe was to no purpose no nor the reliques which Pope Sixtus sent him to busie himselfe withall nor the holy viall of Rheims which was brought him could prorogue this life of his nor priuiledge him from dying a discontent and vnwilling death he suspected the most part of his nearest attendants and would not suffer them to approch vnto him in his sicknesse after hee had thus prolonged the time in hope and yet still languished in extreame distresse of his disease it was at length told him in all speed that hee should not set his mind any longer vpon those vaine hopes nor vpon that holy man for his time was come and hee must needs die And thus hee that during his raigne shewed himselfe rough and cruell to his subiects by too many and heauy impositions was himselfe in his lattet end thus roughly and hardly dealt withall Christiern the eleuenth king of Denmarke Norway and Suecia after the death of king Iohn his father raigned the yeere of our Lord 1514 and was too intollerable in imposing burdens and taxes vpon his subiects for which cause the Swecians reuolted from his gouernment whome though after many battailes and sieges hee conquered and placed amongst them his garrisons to keepe them in awe yet ceased they not to rebell against him and that by the instigation of a meane gentleman who very quickely got footing into the kingdome and possessed himselfe of the crowne and gouernment Now Christiern hauing lost this prouince and beeing also in disdaine and hatred of his owne countrey and fearing least this inward heat of spight should grow to some flame of danger to his life seeing that the inhabitants of Lubeck conspiring with his vncle Fredericke began to take armes against him hee fled away with his wife sister to the Emperour Charles the fift and his young children to Zeland a prouince of the Emperours after hee had raigned nine yeeres after which the Estates of the realme aided by them of Lubeck assembling togither exalted his vncle Fredericke prince of Holsatia though old and ancient to the crowne and publishing certaine writings addressed them to the Emperour and the princes of his Empire to render a reason of their con-proceeding and to make knowne vnto them vpon how good siderations they had deposed and banished Christierne for the tyranny which hee exercised among them ten yeres after this hee got togither a new army by sea in hope to recouer his losses but contrary to his hope he was taken prisoner and in captiuity ended miserably his daies Henry king of Suecia was chased from his scepter for enterprising to burden his commons with new contributions Those that were deuisers of new taxes and tributes Nic. Gil. vâ—l 1. for the most part euer lost their liues in their labours for proofe whereof let the example of Parchenus or Porchetes serue who for giuing counsell to king Theodebert touching the raising of new subsidies was stoned to death by the multitude in the city Trieues Likewise was George Presquon cruelly put to death by the people for persuading and setting forward Henry of Suecia to the vexation and exaction of his subiects CHAP. XXXVIII More Examples of the same subiect Platiniae in vita Zacharin AIstulphus the nineteenth king of Lumbardy was not onely a most cruell tyrant but also a grieuous oppressour of his subiects with taxes and exactions Phil. Melanct. lib. 3. for hee imposed this vpon euery one of them to pay yeerely a noble for their heads against this man Pope Steuen prouoked king Pepin of France who comming with an army droue the tyrant into Ticinum and constrained him to yeeld to partiall conditions of peace howbeir Pepin was no sooner gone but he returned to his old byas wherefore the second time he came and droue him to as great extremitie in so much as another peace was concluded after the accomplishment whereof peruerse Aistulph still vexing his subiects was plagued by God with an apoplexie and so died Zonar lib. 3. Iustinian the Emperour as be was profuse and excessiue in spending so was hee immoderate and insatiable in gathering togither riches for hee exercised his wit in deuising new tributes and paiments and reioyced his heart in nothing more for which causes there arose a grieuous sedition at Constantinople against him wherein not onely the excellent and famous monuments of the Empire were burned but also fourty thousand men slaine and this was no small punishment for his oppression At Paris there is to be seene in the corne market a certain monument hard at the mouth of the common sinke which conuaieth away all the filth out of the city Eras in lingua the occasion whereof is reported to be this A certaine courtier seeing the king sad and melancholly for want of treasure counselled him to exact of euery countriman that brought ware into the city but one penny and that but for two yeares togither which when the king put in practise and found the exceeding commoditie thereof he not only continued that taxe but also inuented diuers others to the great damage of the Common-wealth and inriching of his owne treasurie Wherefore hee that put it first into his head when he saw that he had not so much authoritie in dissuading as hee had in persuading it to take punishment of himselfe for that inconsiderate deed and to warne others from attempting the like he commanded by his testament that his body should bee buried in that common sincke to bee an example of exaction and the filthinesse thereof Barnabe Vicount of Millane by the report of Paulus Ionius Tom. 2. ViuoruÌ„ illustrum was an vnconscionable oppressor of his subiects and tenants for hee did not only extort of them continuall imposts and payments but enioned them to keepe euery one a dog which if they came to any mishap or were either too fat or too leane the keeper was sure to bee beaten or at least some fine to be set on his head this tyrant was taken by Iohn Galeacius and after seuen months imprisonment poysoned to death Archigallo brother to Gorbonianus in nature Lanquet though vnlike in conditions for hee was a good Prince whereas this was a Tyrant was crowned King of Britaine in the yeare of the world 3671 we may well place him in this ranke of oppressors for he deposed the Noblemen and exalted the ignoble he extorted froÌ„ men their goods to enrich his treasure for which cause the estates of the realme depriued him of his roiall dignitie placed his yonger
slew the sonne and heire of the Emperour Emanuel shutting him in a sacke and so throwing him into the sea after which by violence he tooke possession of the Empire of Constantinople and like a strong theefe seazed vpon that which was none of his owne but assoone as hee had gotten his desire then began his lusts to rage and raue then hee fell to whoring and forcing women and maids to his lust whome after hee had once robbed of their chastities hee gaue ouer to his bauds and ruffians to abuse and that which is more than all this he rauished one of his owne sisters and committed incest with her moreouer to maintaine and vphold his tyranous estate hee slew most of the nobilitie and all else that bore any shew of honestie or credit with them and liued altogither by wrongs and extortions Wherefore his subiects prouoked with these multitudes of euils which raigned in him and not able to endure any longer his vile outrages and indignities rebelled against him and besieged him got him into their mercilesse hands and handled him on this fashion following first they degraded him and spoiled him of his imperiall ornaments then they pulled out one of his eyes and set him vpon an asse backeward with the taile in his hand in steed of a scepter and a rope about his necke instead of a crowne and in this order and attire they led him through all Constantinople the people shouting and reuiling him on all sides some throwing durt others spittle diuers dung and the women their pispots at his head after all which banketting dishes he was transported to the gallowes and there hanged to make an end of all Charles king of Nauarre Froyss vol. 3. chap. 100. whose mother Ieane was daughter to Lewes Lutton king of France was another that oppressed his subiects with cruelty and rough dealing for hee imposed vpon them grieuous taxes and tributes and when many of the chiefest of his common wealth came to make knowne vnto him the pouertie of his people and that they were not able to endure any more such heauy burdens he caused them all to be put to death for their boldnesse he was the kindler of many great mischiefes in France and of the fire wherewith diuers places of strength and castles of defence were burned to ashes he counselled the Countie of Foix his sonne to poison his father and not only so but gaue him also the poison with his owne hands wherewith to doe the deed Nich. Gilles Moreouer aboue all this leacherie and adultery swaied his powers euen in his old age for at threescore yeeres of age hee had a whore in a corner whose company he daily haunted and so much that she at length gaue him his deaths wound for returning from her company one day as his vse was entring into his chamber hee went to bed all quaking and halfe frosen with cold neither could hee by any meanes recouer his heat vntill by art they sought to supply nature and blew vpon him with brasen bellows aquauitae and hote blasts of aire but withall the fire vnregarded flew betwixt the sheets and inflamed the dry linnē togither with the aquauitae so suddenly that ere any helpe could be made his late quiuering bones were now halfe burned to death It is true that hee liued fifteene daies after this but in so great griefe and torment without sense of any helpe or asswagement by phisicke or surgerie that at the end thereof hee died miserably and so as during his life his affection euer burnt in lust and his mind was alwaies hot vpon mischiefe and couetousnes so his daies were finished with heat and cruell burning Lugtake king of Scots succeeding his father Galdus in the kingdome was so odious and mischieuous a tyrant that eueryman hated him no lesse for his vices Lanques than they loued his father for his vertues hee slew many rich and noble men for no other cause but to inrich his treasury with their goods he committed the gouernment of the realme to most vniust and couetous persons and with their company was most delighted hee shamed not to defloure his owne aunts sisters daughters and to scorne his wise and graue counsellours calling them old doting fooles all which monstrous villanies with a thousand more so incensed his nobles against him that they slew him after he had raigned three yeeres but as the Prouerb goeth seldome commeth a better another or worse tyrant succeeded in his kingdome namely Mogallus cousen germane to Lugtake a man notoriously infected with all manner of vices for albeit in the beginning of his raigne he gaue himselfe to follow the wisdome and manners of his vncle Galdus yet in his age his corrupt nature burst forth abundantly but chiefly in auarice lechery and cruelty this was hee that licensed theeues and robbers to take the goods of their neighbours without punishment and that first ordained the goods of condemned persons to be confiscate to the kings vse without respect either of wiues children or creditours for which crimes he was also slaine by his nobles Besides these there was another king of the Scots called Atherco in the yeere of our Lord 240 who shewed himselfe also in like manner a most vile and abominable wretch The same for hee so wallowed in all manner of vncleane and effeminate lusts that hee was not ashamed to go in the sight of the people playing vpon a flute reioycing more to be accounted a good fidlar than a good prince from which vices hee fell at last to the deflouring and rauishing of maids and women in so much as the daughters of his nobles could not bee safe from his insatiable and intollerable lust Wherefore beeing pursued by them when he saw no meanes to escape he desperately slew himselfe The great outrages which the Spaniards haue committed in the West Indies are apparant testimonies of their impiety iniustice crueltie insatiable couetousnesse and luxurie and the iudgements wherewith God hath hunted them vp and downe both by sea and land as late and fresh histories doe testifie are manifest witnesses of his heauy anger and displeasure against them amongst all which I will here insert none but that which is most notorious and worthy memory as the wretched accident of Pamphilus Nauares and his companie This man with sixe hundred Spaniards making for the coast of Florida to seeke the gold of the riuer of Palme trees Benzoni Mil. were so turmoiled with vehement winds and tempests that they could not keepe their vessels from dashing against the shore so that their ships did all split in sunder and they for the most part were drowned saue a few that escaped to land yet escaped not daunger for they ranne rouing vp and downe this sauage countrey so long till they fell into such extreame pouerty and famine that for want of vittails twelue of them deuoured one another of the whole sixe hundred that went forth there neuer yet
thus subdued sued for pardon and release at the conquerours hand but he was so farre from pitying his estate that hee corrupted one Iringus a noble man and Irminfrides subiect to murder his master which he perfourmed kneeling before Theodoricke running him through with his sword at his backe which traiterous deed assoone as it was finished Theodoricke though the setter of it yet hee could not abide the actour but bad him be packing for who could put trust in him that had betraied his owne master At which words Iringus mad with anger and rage ran at Theodoricke also with purpose to haue slaine him too but his hand missing the marke returned his sword into his owne bowels so that he fell downe dead vpon his masters carkasse What more notable and wonderfull iudgement could happen surely it is an example worthy to be written in golden letters to be read and remembred of euery one to teach men allegiance and obedience to their princes and superiors least more sudden destruction than this fall vpon them Tit. Liuius After the death of Ieronimus king of Siracusa Andronodorus and Themistius prouoked by their wiues descending of the blood roiall affected an vsurpation of the crowne and wrought much hurt to the common wealth but their practises being discouered the Pretours by the consent of the Seniours slew them both in the market place as rotten members of their common body and therefore fit to be cut off And when they vnderstood how their wiues Damarata and Harmonia were breeders and incensers of this mischiefe they sent to kill them also yea and Heraclia Harmonia her sister guiltlesse and witlesse of the crime for no other cause but because shee was sister vnto her was pluckt from the altar and slaine in the tumult with two of her daughters that were virgins And thus is treason plagued not only in traitors themselues but also in those that are linked vnto them in friendship and affinity The glory and reputation of Fabritius the Romane is eternized by that noble act of his Cic. offic lib. 9. in sending bound to Pyrrhus a traitour that offered to poison him For albeit that Pyrrhus was a sworne enemy to the Romane Empire and also made warre vpon it yet would not Fabritius treacherously seeke his destruction but sent backe the traitour vnto him to be punished at his discretion What notable treasons did Hadrian the fourth Pope of Rome practise against the Emperor Fredericke Barbarossa yet all was still frustrate for the Lord protected the Emperour and punished the traitour with a sudden and straunge death for he was choked with a fly which went downe his throat and stopped his breath and could by no meanes be pulled out till it made an end of him Besides many others that went abour the same practise were brought to notable destructions as that counterfait foole whome the Italians set on to murder Fredericke in his chamber which had beene perfourmed had he not leaped out of a window into a riuer and so saued his life for the foole being taken was throwne headlong out of the same window and broke his necke As also an Arabian doctor a grand poisoner who going about to infect with poison his bridle his saddle his spurs and stirrops that assoone as hee should but touch them he might be poisoned was discouered and hanged for his labour In the yeere of our Lord 1364 Albert. Crantz when as the Emperour Charles the 4 and Philip duke of Austria were readie to ioine battaile in the field Charles distrusting his owne power vndermined his foe by subtilty on this fashion he sent for three of duke Philips captains priuily perswaded them with promises of rewards to worke some means to terrifie the duke dissuade him from that battell which they performed with all diligence for they told the duke that they had stolne into the Emperors tents by night viewed his power which they found to exceed his by three parts and therefore counselled him not to trie the hazard of the battell but to saue his souldiers liues by flight which if they tarried they were sure to loose Wherewithall the Duke mistrusting no fraud sore affrighted tooke the next occasion of flight returned home with dishonour Now when these three traitours came to the Emperour for their compacted rewards he caused them to be paid in counterfait mony not equiualing the summe of their bargaine by the twentieth part which though at first they discerned not yet afterwards finding how they were cousened they returned to require their due and complaine of their wrong But the Emperor looking sternly vpon them answered That counterfait mony was good enough for their counterfait seruice and that if they tarried long they should haue a due reward of their treason CHAP. III. More examples of the same subiect WHen Manuel the Emperour of Constantinople lay about Antioch with an army prepared against the Turke Otto Frisingensis de rebus Freder prin lib. 1. cap. 47. one of his chiefest officers namely his Chancellour put in practise this notable piece of treason against him he waged three desperate yong men with an infinite summe of mony to kill him on a day appointed and then with a band of souldiers determined to possesse himselfe of the crowne and of the city and to slay all that any way crossed his purpose But the treason being discouered secretly to the Empresse shee acquainted her lord with it who tooke the three traitours and put them all to cruell deaths and as for the Chancellour he first bored out his eyes and plucking his tongue through his throat tormented him to death with a rigorous and most miserable punishment When the Turke besieged Alba Graca certaine souldiors conspired to betray the citie into his hands Bonfiâ—â—us lib 3. Decad. 5. for hee had promised them large rewards so to doe howbeit it succeeded not with them for they were detected and apprehended by Paulus Kynisius gouernour of Hungarie who constrained theÌ„ to eat one anothers flesh seething euery day one to feed the other withall but hee that was last was faine to deuour his owne body Scr bonianus a Captaine of the Romanes in Dalmatia rebelled against the Emperour Claudius Lanquet chron and named himselfe Emperour in the â—rmy but his rebellion was miraculously punished for though the whole army fauoured him verie much yet they could not by any meanes spread their banners or remoue their standerds out of their places as long as hee was called by the name of Emperour with which miracle being mooued they turned their loues into hatred and their liking into loathing so that whome lately they saluted as Emperour him now they murdered as a traitor To rehearse all the English traitors that haue conspired against their kings from the conquest vnto this day Lanquet it is a thing vnnecessarie and almost impossible Howbeit that their destructions may appeare more euidently and the cutse of God vpon traitors bee made