by your speeches late uttered that some who are no well-wishers of mine but rather seeke to poyson my reputation with your Majesty have possessed you that I have been accessary to the death of your brother and proceeded further having then a piece of bread in his hand ready to put into his mouth but so may I safely swallow this morsell as I am altogether innocent and guiltlesse of the act which streyning to eate he was therewith immediately choaked at the table which the King seeing and observing the strange Judgement inflicted upon his perjury he commanded his body to be drag'd froÌ„ thence conveyed to Winchester there buried But Marianus and some others write that he was not choaked with bread but upon his former false protestation dining with the King upon an Easter Monday at Winchester he was suddenly struck with a dead palsie and died the third day after Neither did Gods Judgements upon him end here but after his death all his Lands in Kent which were very spacious and great were eaten up and swallowed by the Sea and turned into dangerous quick sands on which many a goodly vessell hath since beene shipwrackt and they beare the name of Goodwins sands even to this day Harold the second sonne of Earle Goodwin after the death of his elder brother Swanus aswell heire to his fathers insolent and aspiring spirit as to his Earledome and Lands in the twentieth yeare of the raigne of the before-named Edward the Confessor he sayled into Normandy to visit some of his friends but by adverse windes and a sudden tempest at Sea he was driven upon the Province of Pountiffe where hee was tooke prisoner and sent to Duke William of Normandy who inforced him to sweare that hee should marry with his daughter when she came to mature age and farther that after the death of King Edward he should keep the Crowne of England to his behoofe according to the will of the Confessor to both which Articles having solemnly sworne he was dismissed from the bastard Duke and with great and rich gifts sent backe to England But after the death of Edward in the yeare of the Incarnation one thousand threescore and sixe Harold forgetting his former oath and promise made to Duke William he caused himselfe to be crowned King of the Lande who was no sooner warme in his Throne but Harold Harfoot sonne to Canutus with a puissant hoast of Danes invaded the Realme whom Harold of England met in a set battaile slew him hand to hand and discomfited his whole Army for he was of an invincible hardinesse and valour which victory was no sooner obtained but newes was brought him that William of Normandy was landed with a potent Army to claime his right and interest he had in the Crowne of England by the last Testament of Edward the Confessor with these tydings being thoroughly heated he marched with all speed from the North scarce suffering his Army to rest by the way to give the Normans battaile betwixt whom was a dreadfull and bloudy conflict But when the victory rather hovered over the English then the other Harold after many deepe and dangerous wounds was shot into the eye with an arrow and slaine In whose death may be observed Gods heavy Judgements against price and perjury Of my first sinne namely Pride none hath ever beene by our English Chronologers more justly taxed then that French Gerson Pierre Gavestone the great misleader and seducer of Edward the second whom though his Royall Father King Edward the first sirnamed Long-shanks upon his death-bed caused to bee banished yet the sonne was no sooner inaugurated and admitted to the government of the Realme but contrary to the wils of all his Lords and Peeres he caused his Exile to be repealed sent for him over and advanced him to great honour in which he demeaned himselfe like a proud upstart or as our English Proverbe goes Like a beggar set on horsebacke who is ready to ride poste to the Devill for whose sake the King committed William Lancton Bishop of Chester in the second yeare of his raigne to the Tower because he had perswaded the King against his Minion for which the Barons of the Realme and especially Sir Henry Lacy Sir Guy and Sir Aymery de Valence Earle of Lincolne of Warwick and Pembroke to whom the late King had given charge for his exile upon his death-bed wrought so farre by their power that contrary to the Kings will hee was avoyded the Land and banisht into Ireland for that yeare whither his Majestie sent many secret messengers with rich gifts to comfort him and made him chiefe Ruler of that Countrey But in the third yeare of his reigne divers grudges and discontents began to arise betwixt the King and his Nobles insomuch that for quietnesse sake and in hope of his amendment he was againe repealed but more and more increased in his insufferable insolence insomuch that having charge of all the Kings Jewels and Treasure he went to Westminster and out of the Kings Jewell-house tooke a Table and a paire of trestles all of pure gold and conveyed them with other precious gems out of the Land to the great exhausting and impoverishing of the same by whose wanton effoeminacies and loose conditions he drew the King to many vitious courses as adulteries and the like which mischiefes the Lords seeing daily to increase they tooke counsell againe at Lincolne and notwithstanding the Kings main opposer he was a second time confined into Flanders but in his fifth year was again sent for over when not able to contain himselfe from his immoderate luxury as he demeaned himselfe far more arrogantly than before insomuch that he disdained and had in contempt all the Peeres of the Land giving them much opprobrious and despightfull language wherefore seeing there was no hope of his amendment with an unanimous consent they vowed to rid the Land of such a Caterpiller and soon after besieged him in the Castle of Scarborrow and taking the Fort they surprised him and brought him to Gaversed besides Warwicke and the nine and twentieth day of â—une smote off his head Thus was Gods just doom against his pride luxury and avarice But there succeeded him both in ambition and the Kings favour of our own Natives the two Spencers the father and the son his great minions and favorites who both in wealth power and pride overtopt all the Nobles of the Land commanding their Soveraigne and confounding the Subjects of whom you may reade in the Records of the Tower that in the fourteenth year of this Edward the second Hugh Spencer the elder for his riots and extortions being condemned by the Commonalty and expelled the Land an Inventory of his estate being taken it was found by inquisition that the said Spencer had in sundry Shires fifty nine Mannours and in his possession of his own goods and chattels twenty eight thousand sheep one thousand oxen and steeres twelve hundred beeves with their calves
he suffer deeds of such horrid nature to passe unpunished in this world what vengeance soever he without true repentance reserveth for them in the world to come as it is observable in this present History for Lewis the fourth the thirty third King of France by lineall discent comming to the Crowne being the sonne to the before-named Charles the simple and loath that so grosse a treason committed against his father should be smothered without some notable revenge being very ingenious he bethought himselfe how with the least danger or effusion of bloud in regard of the others greatnesse and alliance how to bring it about and therefore he devised this plot following He caused a letter to be writ which he himselfe did dictate and hired an English-man who came disguised like a Poste to bring it unto him as from the King his Master at such a time when many of his Peeres were present and amongst the rest this Herebert was amongst them this suborned Poste delivereth the letter to the Kings hands hee gives it to his principall Secretary who read it privately unto him who presently smiling said openly Most sure the English-men are not so wise as I esteemed them to be for our Brother of England hath signified unto me by these letters that in his Countrey a labouring-man having invited his Lord and Master to dine with him at his house and he vouchsafing to grace his Cottage with his presence in the base requitall of so noble a curtesie he caused him to be most treacherously slaine and now my Brother of England desireth my counsell to know what punishment this fellow hath deserved In which I desire to be instructed by you my Lords that hearing your censures I may returne him the more satisfactory answer The King having ended his Speech the Lords were at first silent till at length Theobant Earle of Bloyes was the first that spake and said that hee was worthy first to be tortured and after to be hanged on a Gibbet which sentence all the Lords there present confirmed and some of them amongst the rest much aggravating the punishment which also Herebert Earle of Vermendoys did approve and allow of whereupon the Kings Officers who by his Majesties appointment then waited in a with-drawing roome of purpose seised upon him with an armed guard at which sudden surprise hee being much amazed the King raising himselfe from his seat said Thou Hebert art that wicked and treacherous labourer who didst most trayterously insidiate the life of my father thy Lord and Master of which felonious act thine owne sentence hath condemned thee and die thou shalt as thou hast well deserved whereupon he was hanged on a Gibbet on the top of a Mountaine called Lodan which since his execution is called Mount Hebert to this day Bajazet the great Emperour of the Turkes who in his mighty pride thought with his numerous Army to drinke rivers dry and to weight the mountaines in a ballance who had made spoyle of many Nations and with tyranny persecuted the Christians dispersed through his vast dominions who compared the world to a Ship and himselfe to the Pilot who commanded the sayles and secured the helme yet afterwards being met in battaile by Scythian Tamberlaine and his Army being quite routed his person also taken prisoner in the field the Conquerour put this untamed beast into an iron cage and caused him to be fed from the very fragments and scraps from his table and carried along with him whither soever hee marched and onely then released him from his imprisonment when he was forced to stoope and humble his body as a blocke to tread upon whilest Tamberlaine mounted upon his steed but here ended not Gods visible Judgements against this Usurper Persecutor and Tyrant who in despaire rayling upon his Prophet Mahomet in whom he had in vaine trusted against the Iron grate in which he was inclosed beate out his owne braines and wretchedly expired Infinite are the examples to the like purpose but I will leave those Forraine to come to our Domestick extracted out of our owne Chronologers and first of King Bladud Who was the sonne of Lud Hurdribras and after the death of his father was call'd from Rome where hee had studied darke and hidden Arts and was made Governour in this Isle of Brittain in the yeare of the world foure thousand three hundred and eighteene For so testifieth Gualfride Polichronicon and other ancient remembrancers This Bladud was altogether devoted to the study of Magick and Necromancy and very expert in Judiciall Astrology by which he is said to make the hot Baths in the Towne then called Caerbadon but now Bath which Citie he is said to have erected This King caused the Art of Magick to be taught through his Realm and ordained Schooles and Schoole masters to that purpose in which hee tooke such pride and presumption as that he thought by it all things were possible to be done so much the Devill the first master and founder of that Art had deluded him so farre that at the length having called a great confluence of his people about him he made an attempt to flie in the arre but fell upon the Temple of his god Apollo where he brake his neck his body being torne and bruised after he had raigned twenty yeares leaving a sonne called Leire to succeed him and continue his posterity Goodwin Earle of west Saxon in the time of Edward the sonne of Egelredus was of that insufferable ambition by reason of his great revenues and numerous issue for he had five sonnes and one daughter that he swayed the whole Kingdome and almost compulsively compelled the King his Soveraigne to take his daughter Edith to wife After rebelling against the King and forced with his sonnes to depart the Land yet after he made such meanes that hee mediated his peace and was reconciled to him 〈◊〉 but amongst all his other insolencies he was accessary to the death of the Kings brother or at least much suspected to be so which was the first breach betwixt his Soveraigne and him But so it happened in the thirteenth yeare of the raigne of this King Edward Earle Goodwin upon an Easter Monday sitting with diverse other Lords and Peeres of the Kingdome at the Kings table in the Castle of Windsor it happened one of the Kings Cup â—eaâ—â—â—s to stumble and yet well to recover himselfe without falling and not spilling any of the wine which Earle Goodwin observing laughed aloud and said There one brother helped the other thereby intimating that the one leg or foot had well supported the other from falling To which words the King instantly replyed and so might my brother Alphred have bin still living to have helped and supported me had not Earle Goodwin supplanted him by death At which words being startled as conceiving that the King suspected him of his brothers murder thinking to excuse himself of that horrible act he said to the King Sir I perceive
fourty mares with their coltes one hundred and threescore drawing horses for the teame two thousand hogges three hundred bullockes in his cellar fourty tonnes of wine he had moreover six hundred bacons and fourscore carcases of Martinmasse beeves six hundred muttons in larder ten tonnes of sider besides his provision of ale for beer in these dayes was not known thirty six sackes of wooll with a fair library of bookes and other rich and costly utensils his armour plate jewels and ready money amounting to more than an hundred thousand pounds but what in the end became of all this magâ—zine This Spencer being after called home by the King and restored to all his former estate mauger the Queen and the chief Peeres of the Realme she with an Army pursued the King with these his proud favourites the father she surprised in Bristow which Town the King had fortified and left unto his charge himselfe for his better safeguard flying with his son into Wales whither she pursued them and seâ—sed upon them both bringing Sir Hugh the elder and Sir Hugh the younger to Hereford where upon the morrow following the Feast of Simon and Iude at Bristow Sir Hugh Spencer the father upon a publique scaffold lost his head and his body was after buried at Winchester and upon Saint Hugh's day following being the eighteenth of November was Sir Hugh his son drawn hanged and quartered at Hereford and his head sent to London and was set upon a pole amongst other Traitours of whom a Poet of those times made this short Epitaph Funis cum lignis à te miser ensis ignis Hugo securis equus abstulit omne decus And thus paraphrased or interpreted in old English suiting these times With ropes wert thou bound and on the gallowes hunge And from thy body thine head with sword was kit Thy bowels in the fire were thrown and burned long Thy body in four parts eke with axe was slit With horse before drawn few men pittying it Thus with these torments for thy sinnes sake From thee wretched Hugh all worldly wealth was take And these were remarkable judgements of such as being raised from humble and mean fortunes to high and eminent posture through pride and vainglory attributed that to their own merit which is onely due to their Maker I come next to Sir Roger Mortimer who being highly puft up with the favour that he had from Queen Isabel who in the minority of her young son Edward swayed all during the imprisonment of her husband Edward the second whether by the Queenes consent or no I dare not say but of most assured truth it is that this Roger caused the King to be removed from Kenelworth Castle to the Castle of Barkley where by his direction and command he was most bloodily and inhumanely murdered After which Edward his son the third of that name at the age of fifteen yeares was crowned King but for a time kept in a kinde of pupillage under the Queen and Mortimer betwixt whom there was suspected to have been too much familiarity in whose power was all the management of State and many things past by them to the great dishonour of the Kingdom This Mortimer was by the King made Earle of March who imitated King Arthur by keeping so many Knights of the Round Table to whom he allowed both meat and meanes and bore himselfe in that high straine that he had in contempt the greatest Peeres in the Land but in processe of time he was surprised in Votengham Castle and from thence sent prisoner to the Tower of London when a Parliament being called in the fourth year of the King He was convicted of five Articles first of the murder of the King next that he had dealt perfidiously betwixt our Nation and the Scots thirdly that he received certain summes of money from Sir Thomas Duglas and caused to be delivered unto them the Church called Rugium to their great advantage and Englands prejudice fourthly that he had got unlawfully into his possession much of the Kings treasure and wastfully mispent it and lastly that he was more private with the Queen than was to Gods pleasure or the Kings honour of all which being convicted by the said Parliament upon Saint Andrews day next following he was drawn upon an hurdle to the common place of execution since called Tiburne and there like a Fellon and Traitour upon the Gallowes hanged such is the end of greatnesse when it abandons goodnesse and honour and opposeth it selfe against humility Great also were the arrogancies and insolencies of Sir William Scroop Earle of Wiltshire and Treasurer of England Sir Iohn Bushey Sir Henry Green and others in the time of Richard the second who by him greatly animated and incouraged greatly vexed and oppressed the people men advanced from the cottage to the Court and from basenesse to honour who through their great pride forgetting from whence they came in their surplus of wealth and height of ambition were surprised in Bristow by Henry Duke of Lancaster as cankers and caterpillars of the Common-wealth the son of Iohn of Gaunt who then laid claim to the Crown and by him caused to be executed on a publike scaffold Infinite are Gods threatning judgements to this purpose of which there be infinite examples but being loath to tire the Reader with too much prolixity I will conclude this Tract against pride with one notable president as much if not more remarkable than any of the former In the time of King Henry the eighth Thomas Wolsey Archbishop of Yorke and Cardinall had in his hall daily three Tables or Boards mannaged by three principall Officers a Steward who was alwayes a Priest a Treasurer no lesse degreed than a Knight and a Controwler who was by Place an Esquire he had also a Cofferer who was a Doctor of Divinity three Marshals three Yeomen Ushers in the Hall besides two Groomes and Almners in his Kitchen belonging to the Hall two Clerkes of the Kitchin a Clerke Controller a Surveyour of the Dresser a Clerke of the Spicery and these kept a continuall messe in the Hall two master-cookes and of other Cookes Labourers and Children of the Kitchen twelve persons four Yeomen of the ordinary Scullery four Yeomen of the silver Scullery two Yeomen of the Pastry with two or three Pastulers under the Yeomen In his Privy Kitchin he had a Master-cook who wore alwayes Satten and Velvet with a great chain of gold about his necke with two other Yeomen and a Groom in the Scalding-house a Yeoman and two Groomes in the Pantry two Yeomen in the Buttery two Yeomen two Groomes and two Pages in the Chandry two Yeomen in the Wafery two Yeomen in the Wardrobe of Beddes the Master of the Wardrobe and ten other persons attending in the Laundry a Yeoman and a Groom thirty Pages two Yeomen-purveyours and one Groom in the Bake-house a Yeoman and two Groomes in the Wood-yard a Yoman and a Groom in the Barne one in
way addicted to any martiall exercise hee put into a religious house called Saint Swithens Abbey and made him a Monke his two other sonnes were Aurelius Ambrosius and Vter sirnamed Pendragon But Constantine the father being trayterously murdered one Vortiger who then was the most potent Peere in the Land tooke Constantine the eldest sonne out of the Monastery and made him King onely in name for he himselfe swayed the government of the Kingdome with all the power that belonged to a Crowne and Scepter Yet not with that contented he envied the state of the innocent King and though he had all the power yet he could not content himselfe without the title and therefore placed a guard of an hundred Picts and Scots about the Kings person and having ingrossed into his hands the greatest part of the Kings Treasury hee was so bountifull to those strangers that they feared not to say openly that be better deserved to be King then Constantine and waiting their best advantageous opportunity murdered him Whose head being presented to Vortiger then at London he made much seeming sorrow for his death and to acquit himselfe of the act caused all those hundred Knights to be beheaded by which the people holding him innocent crowned him King when the other had raigned about five yeares and this his coronation caused those that had the keeping of the two younger brothers Aurelius and Vter to flie with them into little Brittain where they remained long after but as a just reward of this trayterous supplantation hee was never after in any peace or quietnesse his Land being alwayes in combustion and trouble his Peeres suspecting him of the death of the King made insurrection against him insomuch that he was forced to sollicite aide of the Saxons who though they helped him for the present after of his friends they grew to be his enemies and were too mighty for him so that when he had raigned in great molestation and trouble sixteen years the Brittaines deprived him of all Kingly dignity and crowned his eldest sonne Vorâ—imerus in his stead Who when he had in many battailes overcome the Saxons and had almost quite expulsed them the Land he was poysoned by his stepmother Râ—waine when he had gloriously and victoriously seaven yeares governed the Land and his father Vortimer was againe made King who was after twice taking prisoner by Hengest King of the Saxons and his Peeres and Nobles cruelly butchered in his presence At length the two younger brothers of Constantine invaded the Land being aided by the distressed Brittains and pursued him into Wales where hee and divers of his complices fortified themselves in a strong Castle which Castle the two brothers with their Army besieged and after many vaine assaults it being valiantly defended with wilde-fire they burned and consumed the Fort together with Vortiger and all his souldiers and servants Worthy it is to observe by how many severall kinde of Judgements this sinne of Envy hath beene punisht as in the former examples is made apparant namely by the single sword by battaile by poysoning strangling heading torturing by murdering and cutting to pieces by being swallowed up of monsters the living to be buried with the dead by famishing in prison by being torne piece-meale and the bleeding limbes cast into common privies some burnt with ordinary fire others with wilde-fire the brother murdering the brother and the mother the sonne the bondage and vassalling of Nations c. which sinne though for the commonnesse and familiarity it hath amongst us is scarce minded or thought upon because many who are envious may so hide it that they may appeare honest withall yet is this hypocrisie no excuse for you see how hatefull it is in the eyes of the Creator by so many visible punishments thereof But I proceed After many dreadfull battailes fought and not without great effusion of bloud betwixt Edmund sirnamed for his strength and valour Iron-side the sonne of Ethelstane and Canutus the sonne of Swanus during this warre betwixt those martiall Princes to the great desolation of the Realme and mortality of the people It was agreed betwixt the two Generals to conclude the difference in a single duell The place where this should be performed was in an I le called Olney neare unto Glocester incompast with the water of the Severne In which place at the day appointed both the Champions met without any company or assistance and both the hoasts stood as spectators without the Isle there awaiting the fortune of the battaile where the Princes first proved one another with sharpe speares and they being broken with keene cutting swords where after a long fierce combate both being almost tyred by giving and receiving of hard and ponderous blowes at length the first motion comming from Canutus they began to parle and lastly to accord friendly kissing and embracing each other and soone after by the advise of both their Counsels they made an equall partition of the Land betwixt them and during their naturall lives lived together and loved as brothers But there was one Eâ—riâ—us Duke of Mercia of whom my Author gives this character A man of base and low birth but raised by favour to wealth and honour subtile of wiâ— but false of turning eloquent of speech but perfidious both in thought and promise who in all his actions complyed with the Danes to the dammage of his owne Countrey men and yet with smooth language protestations and false oathes could fashion his excuse at his pleasure This false Traytor in whose heart the serpent of envy and base conspiracy ever burned â—t length breaking out into flame against his owne Prince Iron-side for what cause is not knowne and thinking to get the grace and favour of Canutus he so awaited his opportunity that hee most treacherously slew his King and Master Iron-side Which done thinking thereby to be greatly exalted he poasted in all haste to Canutus shewing him what he had done for his love and saluted him by the stile of sole King of England which when the Prince of Danes had well understood and pondering what from his owne mouth he had confest like a just and wise Prince he answered him after this manner Since Edâ—â—câ—s thou hast for the love thou sayest thou bearest unto me slaine thy naturall Lord and King whom I most loved I shall in requitall exalt thy head above all the Lords thy fellow Peeres of England and forthwith commanded him to be taken and his head to be strook off and pitcht upon a speares head and set upon the highest gate of London a just judgement inflicted upon Envy which hath alwayes beene the hatcher of most abâ—ominable treason Unparalleld was that piece of Envy in Fostius one of the sonnes of Earle Goodwin and brother to Harold after King hee in the two and twentieth yeare of the raigne of Edward the Confessor upon some discontent betwixt him and his brother Harold came with a company of Ruffins and rude Pellowes and
enjoy the moecall embraces of her libidinous companion plotted divers ways to take away her husbands life which at length she affected by poysoning him and divers of his family which having done and fearing to be questioned about the Fact she truss'd up her Jewels and the best things about her and fled into France unto the Court of Charles the Great with whom she so temporized and qualified her owne impious Cause and being withall a Lady of extraordinary aspect and presence that she grew highly into his grace and favour But when after he was informed of her unstable condition hee thought to make some tryall of her and being at that time a Widdower one day when hee was in some private conference with her at a window hee said openly Now Lady I put it to your free election whether you will take mee for your wedded Lord and Husband or this my Son here standing in presence To which Question shee without the least pause gave this suddaine Answer Then I make choice of the Sonne and refuse the Father which the King taking as an affront and being therewith somewhat mov'd he as suddenly reply'd I protest woman if thou hadst made choice of me I would have given thee to my Sonne if he would have accepted of thee but for that thou hast slighted and for saken me thou shalt now have neither of us and so presently commanded her as a Recluse to be shut up into a Nunnery But this place though never so strict could not containe her within the bounds of Modesty or Chastity For by the meanes of some Libertines her old companions and acquaintance shee made an escape out of the Cloister and having quitted that place shee wandred up and downe till having consumed all that shee could make she fell into necessitous poverty in which she miserably dy'd none commiserating her in her greatest extremity In memory of which her misdemeanors mixt with the murder of her naturall Lord and Husband the Kings of the West Saxons made a Decree that thence-forward none of their Wives should be called Queenes nor sit by them at any Feast or in any place of State or Honour And this was observed amongst them for a long time after Now to shew how the Creator of all who instituted chaste Matrimony in Paradice as hee hates those contaminated with all impurity so of the contrary he is a Guardian and Potector to those of cleane and undefiled life as may appeare by this subsequent story In the time of Edward the sonne of King Edgar by his first wife Egelfleda who began his reigne in the yeare of Grace nine hundred threescore and nineteene though he was opposed by his step-mother Elphaida who got into her confederacy Alphred Duke of Mercia a potent man in those dayes to have instated her sonne Egelredus a childe of seven yeares old in the Regall Dignity yet she was opposed by Bishop Dunstan with the rest of the Clergy who were also supported by the Earle of East Ingland now called Essex who against the Queens minde and her Confederates Crowned the said Edw. at Kingstowne but the fore-named Alphred who altogether adhered to the proceedings of the Dowager Queen being suspected to have too much private familiarity with her they agreed to put the strict Religious Cloysterers out of the College of Winchester where K. Edgar had before there placed and put into their roomes so many wanton and lascivious Clerks every one of them having his Concubine about him which Controversie had been like to have ended in bloud But there was an assembly of the Bishops and Lords the Prelates and Peeres of both parties in which Dunstan maintaining Chastity was much despised by the Adversary but still he upheld his opinion being grounded upon Justice and Vertue Now the place of their meeting was in a faire and large upper â—â—om and in this great division and argument it being doubtfull which side would carry it suddenly the joysts of the Loft failed and the floore tumbled downe being a great distance from the ground in which ruine the greatest part of those adverse to the Bishop and Clergy were either slaine outright or very dangerously hurt even to lamenesse but of all those that stood with Dunstan in the defence of chastity not one perished neither was any heard to complaine of the least hurt felt or found about them by which miraculous accident the Bishop compass'd his pious and religious ends This King Edward upon a time being hunting in the Forrest and having lost his Traine and finding none of his servants neare him hee bethought himself that his Mother-in-law Elphaida with her Sonne Egelredus lived at a place called Corfe-Castle which is in the West-Countrey and thought it no better a time then now to give her a visit but the malicious woman looking out of her window and knowing him a far off called to one of her servants of her owne breeding and told him what he had to doe for she perceived he was alone and none of his Peeres or Attendants about him By this time the King was come to the Castle gate whither she descended and offered him all the Courtesie of entertainment that any Syren who only flatters to destruction could have done for with courteous words she besought him to alight and to lodge in the Castle that night both which he with great affability and gentlenesse refused saying he would onely taste a Cup of her Beere and then ride to finde out some of his Company but the Cup being brought he had no sooner moved it towards his mouth but this Barbarous Villaine Traitor and Regicide strook him with a long Dagger edg'd on both sid 〈…〉 which entring behind the poynt appear'd to have fore'd way through his breast at which mortall wound receiv'd he put spurres to his horse making speed towards the Forrest in hope to have met with some of his servants but by the extremity of bleeding fainting by the way he felt from his horse with one foot intangled in the stirrop then he was dragg'd crosse high-wayes and a thwart plowde lands till his horse staid at a Towne called Covisgate where he was found but not being knowne for the King hee was unworthily buried at a Town called Warham where his body remained for the terme of three yeares after at which time it was discovered and the dissembling and murderous woman thinking to clearer her selfe of the fact to the world thought at the first to visit him in the way of Pilgrimage but to make the cause evident against her the Horse on which she rode could not be compell'd to come neare unto the place by a miles distance neither by faire usage nor sore beating or any course that man could devise after whose death her sonne Egelredas was Crowned King in the first yeare of whosâ— Reigne the Land grew barren and scarce bore any fruit there happened moreover a Plague which tooke away the men and a Murraine
after died being the one and fiftyeth yeare of his raigne I come now to our Moderne Histories Ferrex and Porrex joyntly succeeded their father Gorboduc in the governement of this Land of Brittaine in the yeare of the World foure thousand seaven hundred and eleven and continued in love and amity for a season but in the end Envy the mother of all misorder and mischiefe so farre prevailed with them that the one began to maligne the others estate insomuch that they both studied and devised to supplant each other thereby to gaine the entire supremacy which first brake out in Porrex who gathering an Army unknowne to his brother thought suddenly to surprise and kill him of which he having notice and yet not able for the present to provide for opposition he was forced to fly into France where craving ayde he was supplyed with a sufficient Hoast of Galls with which landing in England he gave his brother Porrex battaile defeated his Army and slew him in the field Ferrex proud of his victory retyred himself to his Tent whither his mother Midan came by night with some of her women and being freely admitted to the place where he lay sleeping she with the rest most cruelly murdered him and after cut his body into small pieces causing them to be scattered in the field and in these two brothers ended the line of Brute Thus you see a most dreadfull judgement against Envy as well in the vanquisht as the victor but the greatest in the last to be so cruelly murdered rather by a monster then a mother Morindus was the bastard sonne of Flavius King of Brittaine by his Concubine Fanguestela and was inaugurated in the yeare of the World one thousand eight hundred fourescore and ten and made Governour of the Land The Chronicle reports him to have beene of a comely and beautifull personage of liberall gifts having an active body and a most daring spirit and strength withall above any Peere or Subject in the Land but as a grievous staine and blemish to all these good parts and endowments hee was of an envious condition and cruell disposition for he grew jealous of all such as either were great in wealth or gracious in the Court for any noble vertue for the first hee had a way to confiscate their estate and the latter he so suppressed that they never came into favour or grew to preferment being further so subject to wrath that whosoever crost or vexed him he would suddenly slay with his owne hands Afterward his Land being invaded by a Prince of Mauritania he met him in battaile and chased him to the Sea taking many prisoners whom to satisfie this cruelty and tyranny he caused to be put to death in his presence and sight with severall sorts of torments by heading killing hanging burning drowning and other kindes of execution but at the length as testifieth Guido de Columna and others this Morindus whom our English Chronicles call Morwith walking by the Sea side and spying a dreadfull monster upon the shore he out of his bold and Kingly prowesse assaying to kill the beast after a long fight was devoured and swallowed by the monster when he had eight yeares governed the Land which was a most strange and remarkable Judgement Envy and dissension was the first bondaging of this our free and noble Nation in becomming tributary to the Romans King Lud of famous memory being dead during the minority of his two sonnes Androgeus and Tenantius Cassibelan the brother to Lud was made King in the yeare of the World five thousand one hundred forty two who was a Prince noble bountifull just and valorous when the young Princes came to yeares of discretion hee gave to Androgeus the elder the Citie of London with the Earledome of Kent and to Tenantius the younger the Dukedome of Cornewall In this season Iulius Caesar being in the warres of France and beholding the white cliffes and rocks by Dover demanded of the Gauls whether it were inhabited or no or by whom being satisfied of his demand hee first exhorted the Brittaines by writing to pay tribute to the Romans to whom Cassibelan returned a short and sharpe answer with which Caesar much incensed makes ready his Navy and people but when they should have landed they found long and sharpe stakes pitcht by the Brittons which put them to great trouble and danger yet at length gaining the shore Cassibelan with a strong Army of Brittans gave them battaile and beat them to their shippes Notwithstanding Caesar soone after made a second Invasion with a greater power and had the like brave repulse to his great dishonour For which double victory Cassibelan having first given great thankes to the gods assembled his Lords and Peeres to feast them and held sundry triumphs and sports amongst which two young Knights one Nephew to the King called Herilda and the other Euelinus allyed to Androgeus made a challenge for wrastling in the performing of which exercise they grew to words and from words to blowes so that parties were made and in this tumult Herilda was slaine whose death the King tooke heinously and sent to his Nephew Androgeus that Euelinus might be delivered up to know how he could acquit himselfe of the murder which Androgeus denying the King gave him to understand that it was in his power to chastise his presumption which the other fearing sent to Iulius Caesar not onely letters but thirty hostages to assure him of his fidelity that if hee would make a third attempt for Brittaine he would ayde him with a puissant Army of which Caesar gladly accepting with a strong hoast landed and encamped himselfe neare unto Canterbury of which when Cassibelan had notice he marched towards him and betwixt them was fought a strong and bloudy battaile where many were slaine on either side and the day likely to incline to the Brittons when on the sudden Androgeus came in with fresh forces by which the wearied Souldiers were compelled to forsake the field and gave place to the Romans who slew them without mercy so that Cassibelan with those few that were left retired himselfe to places of safety Whose valour Caesar admiring would not prosecute his victory any further for the present but offered him peace conditionally that he should pay a yearely tribute of three thousand pounds to the Romans which conditions Cassibelan accepted and still continued King and Androgeus who had so basely betrayed his Countrey not daring to trust his owne Nation whom in so high a nature he had injured abandoned the Realme and went with Caesar. Now if any shall aske me where were Gods dreadfull Judgements in all this I answer what greater then for a free Nation to lose their immunities and become tributary and vassals to strangers from which they were not freed many hundred yeares after Long after this Constantine was made King and left three sonnes behinde him Constantine the eldest because he was of a very milde and gentle temper and no
death of Marius for commanding his body to be burnt he sprinkled and threw his ashes into the river Anien after all which and many more his bloody executions he was strook by the hand of God with the lowsie disease so that his living body crawled with vermin in so much that before his death his houshold servants were almost stifled with the stench of his carcase such or the like are the terrible judgements of God against these proud Nimrods mighty Giants and great hunters of the earth to day in their pride and pontificalibus glorying in their oppressions and persecutions and to morrow worse than any carrion of beast stinking in the grave their memories being as hatefull to the hearing as their corrupt putrefaction to the smell I have hitherto spoken of cruell and bloody Tyrants let me treat a little of Ire or Wrath it self for they are sinonima's since all these are but siens growing from that stocke Anger and power meeting in one breast are more violent than any thunderbolt wrath and revenge take from man the mercy of God destroying and quenching that Grace which he hath before-time given Anger consisteth in habit and disposition but Ire and Wrath indeed and effect Hasty and froward speeches beget Anger Anger being kindled begets Wrath Wrath seeketh greedily after Revenge and Revenge is never satisfied without blood which blood is never shed without just vengeance from Heaven as may be made apparant by many pregnant examples For instance Clâ—tarius smothering in his breast the seeds of ranker and malice for the space of ten yeares against Galterus Rhothomanges when that most holy day cald the Parasceve in which our blessed Saviour suffered death for all mankind slew him as he was at his devotion upon his knees in an holy Chappell in Paris for so the French Chronicles report who for that horrid act was after fearfully punished in himselfe and his issue The like hath often happened in the Temples of Italy betwixt that imbestuous faction of the Guelfs and the Gibbelines who made no conscience of person or place but in the time of divine Service have pistolled one another in their pewes as they were kneeling at their prayers when the Church hath been full of drawn swords to the disturbing of the whole Congregation making no more reverence of the place than a slaughter-house or shambles upon whose but cheries God inflicted such vengeance that the one party quite destroyed the other till they were mutually cut off and utterly extinguished Such is the irreligious boldnesse of some that I heard a Scotishman of note soon after King Iames came into the Land speak in the company of prime Gentlemen after this manner Such a one killed my brother and I could not meet him in seven yeares after but at length espying him in the Church on a Sabbath-day my fury could not contain it selfe but even where he sate I shot him with my pistoll and slew him and the arrant puritans saith he would have excomunicated me for nothing else but for killing him who had before killed my brother But though men make slite of these atheisticall and sacrilegious butcheries that God who made man after his own Image and all men of one and the selfesame earth and clay will not let them escape his fearfull and terrible judgements Neither have the holy Fathers the Popes been altogether free of this sin of Ire and implacability for we reade in their own Chronicles that upon the day when the Sacra Cineritia were celebrated that was upon Ash-wednesday in which is used great solemnity when the great Presbiters and Cardinals according to the custome came to kneel to Pope Boniface to receive the ashes he took the ashes and vessell in which they were contained and in great rage flung them in the face of Prochetus Archbishop of Genoa with whom he was at oddes and hated him exceedingly and changing his words of exhortation and benediction he violently brake out into this language Remember O thou man that thou art of the faction of the Gebelines and with those Gibelines thou shalt die for he was of that party and enemy to the Guelfs whom the Pope favoured Stephanus Sextus because Formosus upon his death-bed would not set his hand to his election who was Pope before him when he came to be instated in the Papacy he commanded him to be plucked out of his sepulcher and buried in the Church-yard causing his fingers first to be cut off and so basely dismembred him being dead for refusing to subscribe for him being alive With the like malevolent hatred also did Sergius the third prosecute the same Formosus who again commanded his body to be taken out of the second Grave and brought it into the Forum or publike Rialto when the head was cut from the body and cast into the river Tiber and this he did to insinuate into the favour of Lotharius King of France to whom Formosus living was in great opposition Divers other examples of the like malitious nature I could extract out of their Annals and those remembrancers who have writ the lives of the Popes which for brevity sake I omit but am confident withall that these evil presidents from the Clergy whose light should shine to others have been a great encouragement to the Laity to offend in the like who for the most part paterne their actions be they good or evill by their teachers and instructers Mahometes Otomanus the Grand Seignior missing but two Cucumers out of his Garden in his returne home after solacing himselfe abroad he in his rage slew two of his Catamites with his own hands being young boyes of choice feature and beauty And Commodus was of that fiery indignation that when he came into the Bath to wash himselfe and found it somewhat more hot than usuall he commanded the Bath-keeper to be thrown into the fornace and there burnt to ashes And Quintus Metellus was of such a testy and cholericke disposition that having lived some yeares as Consul and Proconsull in Spain when he heard by the decree of the Senate of Rome Pompeius whom he much hated was to succeed him in his command and soveraignty his anger grew so violent that he diminished his army and made all the Magazine of Grain and provision of victuall a spoil and prey to the souldiers he caused all the Bowes and Arrowes in the Army to be broken and knapt asunder forbidding the Horses and Elephants to have their ordinary and customed food and fare not leaving him at his arrivall any one thing of any moment wherewith he might succour or relieve either himselfe or his Army Prâ—merus a domesticke servant of Archelaus King of Macedonia with such an intestine hatred persecuted Euripides that one night he watched him when he came late from supper with the King and in the way let loose fierce Mastiffes upon him by which he was most miserably torne to pieces Such also was the grounded and inveterate hare of the
himselfe to have the like congresse with them being a young man he was a scandall to all those whom he made his companions and they reciprocally were scandalized by being in his company These with infinite others of his licentious irregularities are recorded by Lampridius Hee had also as the same Author testates three hundred Concubines of selected forme and feature chosen out of the families of the Senatours and Patritians and as many choice young men of sweet aspect and undespised proportion taken out of the best of the Nobility and with these hee did continually riot drinke and wanton in his Pallace where were used all immodest postures and uncomely gestures that the very Genius of lust could devise so that his Court shewed rather a common stewes then the royall dwelling house and mansion of a Prince Gordianus Iunior who wore the Imperiall purple with his father absenting himselfe from all warlike imployment lived in lazinesse and ease giving himselfe solely to voluptuousnesse and carnall concupiscence having at once two and twenty Concubines and by every one of them three or foure children at the least for which by some he was called the Priamus of his age but by others in scorne the Priapus And Proculus the Emperour in one expedition besides many other spoyles tooke captive an hundred Sarmatian Virgines all which hee boasted not onely to have vitiated and deflowred but to have perpetrated or more plainly got with childe within fifteene dayes for so Flavius Vopiscus reports of him as also Sabellicus in Exemplis Heliogabalus that Monster of nature gathered together Bawdes Whores Catamites Pimps Panders Rounsevalls and Stallions the very pest and poyson of a Nation or People even till they grew to a great multitude to which he added all the long-nos'd vagabonds and sturdy beggars he could finde for these they say have the greatest inclination to libidinou filthinesse and these he kept together and maintained at his great charge onely to satisfie his brutish humour Therefore Lampridius writing to the Emperour concerning his prodigious Venery useth these words Who can endure a Prince who committeth lust in all the hollowes of his body when Roomes Cages and Grates the receptacle and dennes of wilde beasts cannot amongst them all shew a beast like him He also kept cursors and messengers who had no other imployment but to ride abroad and seek out for these Masuti and to bring them to Court that he might pollute and defile himselfe amongst them But these whose dissolute and floath-infected lives have growne to such an execrable height of impudence have not escaped Gods terrible Judgements by miserable and tragick ends as you may read in the premises where I have had occasion to speake of the same persons though to other purpose I will prosecute this further by example wherein the effects of this dull and drowsie vice of idlenesse and sloath shall be better illustrated and in none more proper then that of â—Egistus and Clitemuestra for Agamemnon King of Mycena and brother to Menelaus King of Sparta the husband of Helena ravisht thence by Paris one of the sonnes of King Priam being chosen Generall of the Grecian Army in that great expedition against Troy for the rape of that Spartan Queene In his absence he left Aegistus to governe his family and mannage his Domesticke affaires who lull'd in ease and loytring in idlenesse and she a lusty Lady and lying in a widdowed and forsaken bed such familiarity grew betwixt them that at length it came into flat adultery of whom the Poet thus ingenuously writes Quaeritur Aegistus quare sit factus adulter In promptâ— causa est Desidiosus erat c. Aske any why Aegistus did Faire Clitemnestra woe 'T is answer'd he was idle and Had nothing else to doe Now this Egistus was before espoused to a young Lady the daughter of Phocas Duke of Creophen whose bed he repudiated and sent backe to her father For the love of this Queene of Micena of whom he begot a daughter called Egiona and in the absence of his Lord and Master supported by the Queene tooke upon him all regall authority and was obeyed as King Now Agamemnon had a young sonne called Orestes who was then under the tuition or guardianship of a worthy Knight called Fultibius who fearing lest the adulterer and the adulteresse might insidiate his life he conveyed him out of the Land and brought him to Idomeneus King of Creet a pious and just Prince who undertooke to bring him up educate and instruct him like the sonne of such a father and protect him against all his enemies whatsoever Imagine now the ten yeares warres ended Troy sackt and spoyled rak't to the earth and quite demolished and Agamemnon at his returne the very first night of his lodging in the Palace cruelly murdered in his bed by Egistus and the Queene By this time Orestes being of the yeares able to beare Armes and having intelligence how basely his father was butchered and by whom he made a solemne vow to avenge his death upon the Authors thereof and to that end besought aide of the King Idomeneus his foster father and protector who first made him Knight and furnisht him with a competent Army To assist whom came Fultibius his first Guardian with all the forces he could levy as also Phocas whose daughter Egistus had before forsaken These sped themselves so well that in few dayes they entred the Land and after laid siege to the chiefe Citie called Micene where the Queen then lay for Aegistus was at that time abroad to solicit aâ—d against invasion which he much feared but finding the gates shut and the wals manned and all entrance denied they made a fierce assault and though it was very couragiously and valiantly defended yet at length the City was taken and the Queen surprised in the Palace who being brought unto the presence of her son all filiall duty set apart and forgetting the name of mother he saluted her onely by the title of Adulteresse and Murderesse and when he had thundered into her eares the horridnesse and trocity of her crime having his sword drawn in his hand he suddenly transpieâ—â—'d her body and left her dead upon the pavement as an explaâ—ion or bloody sacrifice to appease the soul of his dead farher Some would aggravate the fact and say that he caused her breasts to be torne off she being yet alive and cast to the dogges to be eaten but that had been a cruelty beyond nature for a son to exercise upon a mother now whilest these things were in agâ—â—ation Aegistus had gathered an Army for the raising of the â—â—ege and reclaiming the City of which Orestes having intelligence ambuâ—hed him in his way and had such good successe that having incompassed him in he set upon his Forces both before and behinde routed them and took Aegistus prisoner whom after he had put to the greatest tortures that humane apprehension could invent or devise he commanded his body
the City called Dominica sent to parle with him and made a covenant for a mighty great sum of money to betray it into his hands which Brennus according to the composition entred and after sacked and spoiled and standing at one of the great gates to receive the reward he willing to keep his promise and yet in his heart detesting the avarice of the woman caused so much gold and treasure to be thrown upon her till under the huge masse she was buried alive Near allied to the former is the story of Tarpeia one of the vestall virgins in Rome who having covenanted with Sabine the enemies to the Romans to betray unto them the Capital for the bracelets they wore on their left arme which were very rich and costly they when they were entred and had possession of the place in stead of their bracelets and carcanets threw upon her their shields and targets worne of their left armes and so stiâ—â—ed smothered and pressed her to death in memory of whose soul and traiterous act grounded on Covetousnesse the Hill where she was buried is called The Tarpeian Mountain even to this day and this hapned in the year of the world 2305. Europhites was likewise the wife of Amphiâ—rus who for a carcanet of gold given her by Pâ—linyces betrayed her husband and discovered him in the place where he had hid himselfe because he would not go to the The 〈…〉 warres because it was told him by the Oracle that there he should assuredly die for which he left a strict charge with his son Alemaâ—â— that he should no sooner hear of his death but he should instantly kill his mother which Orestes-like he performed and proved a Maâ—â—icide to performe the will of his deceased father Thus you see not one of these three escaped a fearfull judgement Of contrary disposition to these was the virgin Placidia daughter to the Emperour Valentintanut and Eudosia who neglecting all her fathers riches and honours abandoned the vanities of the world and betook her selfe to a devout and sequestred life As the like did Elburga daughter to Edward King of England a Saxon and had the sirname of Seignior or the elder Edward And if we look no further than to this City London the Metropolis of the Kingdom how many pious and devout matrons hath it yeelded even from antiquity to this present who have contributed largely to the erecting and repairing of Temples building of Almes-houses and Hospitals erecting schooles for learning maintaining poore Ministers in preaching in giving liberally towards Halls leaving stockes to set up young beginners and bequeathing legacies for poor maides marriages and these not for the present but to the end of the world For which God be praised and daily increase their number but this is directly averse to the argument now in agitation which is Covetousnesse If it be dangerous to be rich even to him that knowes how to use his wealth how much more fearfully perillous then for him that hath abundance of all worldly fortunes and knows only how to abuse them Caesar being in Spain extorted great summes of money most injustly from the Proconsul there and certain Cities of the Lusitanians though they neither offended him nor violated any covenant with them yet when they friendly set open their gates to receive him as their patton and defender he spoiled their houses made seisure of their goods and even the Temples of the gods he sacrilegiously robbed it being his custome to rifle Cities not for any fault committed but for the certain prey expected In the first year of his Consulship he stole for no better attribute my Author giveth it 〈◊〉 thousand pound weight of gold out of the Capitol he moreover sold societies liberties and immunities nay even Crownes Scepters and Kingdomes for gold he also defrauded King Pâ—olomeus of six thousand talents at one time in his own name and Pompeys before they were at distance Eutropius writes that Flavius Vespatianas was wretchedly corrupted with this vice and evermore gaping after gold who at his comming to the Empire called in all those debts and impositions which were remitted or forgotten by his predecessour Galba to which he added new taxes more grievous and burdensom than the former he increased all the tributes in the Provinces and in some doubled them and for the avidity of money would sit upon all triviall and common causes such with which a private man would have been ashamed to have troubled himselfe to the â—anditates 〈◊〉 fold honours and to the guilty of any notorious act pardonâ— his custome was to raise procurators such as were the most â—apacious to great and gainfull Offices for no other cause but that 〈◊〉 they were â—â—ll he like a spunge might squeeze them by forfeiting their whole ill-gotten estate into his own hands neither was he ashamed to raise money out of urine for so saith Suetonius Thus we see what a monster money can make of the most mighty and potent men Sergius Galba who was Emperour in the year of our Redemption 71. Those Cities of Spain and France who were most constant to the Roman Empire upon them he imposed the most grievous exactions and tributes he rob'd the statâ—e of Iupiter of his crown of fifteen pound weight in gold the souldiers who desired the Roman Eagle and military Ensignes he decimâ—ted and tythed dismissing nine parts and to save charges reserved the tenth onely the German Cohorts appointed by the Caesars to be the Guard of their bodies as most intrusted next their persons he quite dissolved and sent them empty handed into their Countries without any reward at all he was moreover of that parsimony that if at any time he had at his table more fare than ordinary he would horribly repine at it forgetting the state of an Emperour and say that it was money expended in waste he said openly for his own part he could content himselfe with a dish of pulse or pease as sufficient to content nature Of the like penurious disposition was Didius Iulianus Emperour who made a Law called Did 〈…〉 x to restrain the excesse in banqueting who for his Imperiall table would make a pig or an hare to serve him for three severall suppers when his dinner was nothing else but a few olives and herbes Which abstinence had been very commendable had it been for continence sake and not the avaritious desire to save money And Aelius Pertinax was of that frugality that he would set before his guests onely an halfe sallad of lettice and thistles two sops and a few apples or if he would exceed at any time in his diet he would feast them with a leg or a wing of a hen And these two last Emperours may compare with the former who notwithstanding all his masse of wealth wrestingly and injuriously purchased was wretchedly murdered by his souldiers in the sixty third year of his age after he had reigned onely seven moneths and seven dayes Many others are for this sin
noise not so much as a sigh or groane hee began to imagine that shee was dead and so indeed it prov'd hee then more incivilly then before rapt at his Ladyes chamber-doore and wakned her telling her that shee had now the event of her bloudy and cruell desires for by reason that there was a still silence in the Dungeon hee perceived the poore Virgin had expired her life At which words being startl'd and strangely mov'd she rose from her bed and calling for store of lights caused the Dungeon doore to be opened where they might behold a most ruthfull and samentable spectacle the maid throwne upon her backe and foure great Snakes wrapt about her one of an extraordinary bignesse wound about her neck another had twinde it selfe encompassing both her legges a third like a girdle imbrac'd her waste or middle a fourth stuck upon her jawes stretching its selfe to its utmost length which no sooner taken thence but was found dead having so ingorg'd it selfe with her bloud that it swel'd and burst asunder At whichsight the Lady strook with the horrour thereof from a suddaine melancholy grew into a meere madnesse and in a raging fit soon after dy'd Strange were that act abroad which cannot in some sort be parallel'd with us at home At Gainsborough in Lincolnshire it happened that a Gentleman of the Town had occasion to ride up to London about his Term businesse and as the custome is in the Countrey the night before a man takes his journey his neighbours and friends will send in their meat and sup with him and drinke to the hope of his safe returne and so they did to him Now this Gentleman had in his house a young gentlewoman sent thither to bee tuter'd and withall to learne good huswifrie and was about the age of fourteen or fifteen yeares at the most The next morning before hee tooke horse when hee call'd for water this maid brought him the Towell and Bason and held it till hee had wash'd onely in rubbing of his hands he sprinkled a little water on her face which his wife observed after Breakfast the Gentleman road on his journey and the woman in whom this slight accident strooke a deepe impression of devillish Jealousie soon after call'd to the maid to deliver her an account of her linnen us'd the night before which was her charge she having hid a Napkin or two out of the way of purpose to pick a quarrell with her The Girle sought in every roome and could not finde them then she bid her looke in the next Chamber but shee was no sooner up staires but after followes the Mistresse like an incens'd Virago and shut the doores fast upon her then casts her upon the Bed and threw another Feather-bed upon her and spying a Scotch Pocket-Dagger hanging by the Walls shee tooke out one of the knives and casting her selfe upon the upper bed turn'd up the bottome where she fell most unwoman-like to worke with her maid making her quite uncapable of future marriage and this was done withinin memory for to the womans great ignominy and shame in the same Towne I have heard it reported and been shewne the very house where the deed was done The horridnesse of which Act makes me that I cannot conceale her name shee was call'd Mistris Brig house In this intrim a Serving-man comming in and hearing his Mistris was in great displeasure and distemperature gone up with her maid and knowing her froward and hasty disposition he went to the doore and knockt but hearing none but one as it were miserably forcing breath for life he lookt in either at some chinke or the key-hole where he saw his Mistris in the same posture I before described with a knife in her hand and one pittifully bleeding under her He broke open the doore being Wainscot and casting her off from the Bed to the floore tooke up the Maid nigh stifled and carried her to a neighbours house where Chyrurgeons were sent for and she in time recovered of life though shee had made her utterly unable of Conception But what gain'd shee by this her uncivill cruelty she was after abhorr'd by all good and modest women asham'd to looke out of her owne doores neither would any of fashion converse with her but held it a scandall to be but seen in her company But now to return to the Judgments inflicted upon adultery and to shew what our own countrey relates as those perpetrated and committed in this Land King Locrine who succeeded his Father Brute in the Kingdome tooke to his Bride Guendolina daughter to Corinaus Duke of Cornwall who lived in great conjugall love together having a young Prince to their issue call'd Madan but after the King having rest and ease in his age with which his youth was scarce acquainted with he was greatly enamoured of a delicate faire Lady whose name was Estrild the daughter of one Homber a Dane who with a great power invading the Land the King gave him battaile and having routed their whole Army they were forc'd to take that great River which parteth Lincoln-shire and Holdernes and runnes up to Hull in which he with his people being drowned left to the same River his name unto this day To returne to the matter Locrine had by this Lady Estrild a daughter call'd Sabrina but this close packing could not be long conceal'd but by some who thought to insinuate into the favour of the Queen who was of a haughty and masculine spirit all was told her for which being mightily incensed no mediation could appease her implacability but she first incensed her Father and then all her owne particular friends whom by her bounty or favour shee had before obliged to make Warre upon her Husband and prevailing in her purpose shee gave the King Battaile in which his party was discomfited and he himselfe slaine in field This revenge to any of reason might seeme sufficient but here her anger rested not but shee caused the faire Estrild and her Daughter Sabrina to be brought unto her Tent where having reviled them both one with the name of Whore the other of Bastard shee in her heat of bloud and height of rage commanded them both to be throwne into the River neare unto the place where the Battaile was late fought where they were both drowned the River upon that accident losing the name and after the Daughter Sabrina hath beene called Severne even to this day Brithricus the first King of the West Saxons began his Reigne in the yeare of our Lord seven hundred threescore and eighteen and the tenth of Charles the Great then King of France who took to Wife Ethelburge one of the Daughters of Off a King of Mercia he was a valiant Prince and renowned for many Warlike exploits but especially for beating the Danes and compelling them to avoid the Land But what can Valour or Prowesse availe against a wicked and cursed woman who the more freely to
rid downe to Hereford in the marches of Wales where at that time his brothers servants were very busie to make provision for the entertainment of the King invited thither by Harold who when he was thither come most cruelly and inhumanely he fell upon the innocent servants and â—lew them all and after cut them into pieces and gobbets which he put into sowce and salt pickling and powdering their limbes and afterward sent messengers to the King and his brother to give them to understand that if they brought fresh meate along with them hee had provided them of powdered meate as much as they could desire Which barbarous act being bruited abroad it made him so hatefull to all men that his owne tenants and people men of Northumberland the Province of which he was then Lord rose up in Armes against him seising all the Lands and Goods of which he was possest and chased him into Flanders with no more then one or two servants to attend him where he remained with his wife and children during the Kings life But when his brother Harold after the decease of K. Edward had usurped the Crowne Fostius envying his brothers Soveraignty having purchased to himselfe a Navy of threescore small ships sailed about the Isle of Wight and the coast of Kent where hee robbed and tooke preyes and from thence went into Lindsee where hee did much harme by fire and sword but was chased thence by Edwin and Malearus the Earles of Mercia and Northumberland Then he sayled into Scotland where he stayed till the Summer after And when Harold Harfager the sonne of Canutus King of Denmarke and Norway invaded the Realme Fostius took part with him against his brother Harold and in a dreadfull battaile fought neare Stemisford Bridge he with all his complices and adherents were miserably cut to pieces A just Judgement suting with his former envy butchery and tyranny But leaving many Histories and Examples with strange inflictions imposed upon this sinne I come to the later times as low as to the raigne of Edward the sixt over whom by his fathers last Will for the time of his minority his two Unkles the brothers Seymors being made chiefe Guardians it happened that the two great Dukes of Northumberland and Suffolke Dudley and Gray much murmured and maligned that they should beare such sway in the Kingdome The one being Lord Protector the other Lord high Admirall one having great power by Land the other by Sea by which their glories seemed to be much ecclipsed and finding no way how to supplant them by their servants they took a newer course and practised it by their wives to draw their ruines out of their owne bosomes and thus it happened Sir Thomas Seymor the younger brother being Admirall and having married King Henries Queene Dowager whose good fortune it was of all the rest to survive her husband she was suggested to contest with her sister in law for priority in place to which the other for both were privately incouraged by the two Dukes would no way assent the one claiming precedence as she had beene Queene the other challenging it as she was now the Protectors wife The wives set their husbands at oddes by taking their parts insomuch that there grew envy and heart-burning betwixt them so that in the third yeare of the young King the Admirall was questioned about his Office and by the consent of his brother condemned in Parliament to have his head strooke off the Protector with his owne hand signing the Warrant for his death The one brother being thus removed there was now the lesse difficulty to supplant the other for in the same moneth of February in which his brother lost his head was the Protector by the Lords of the Counsell committed to the Tower but about a yeare after by intercession of the King and his submission to the Lords of the Counsell upon the sixt of February he was released and set at liberty yet this proved but a lightning before a clap of thunder For the two Dukes his great and potent adversaries still prosecuted their malice insomuch that not long after calling him to a second account when he had nobly acquitted himselfe of all Treasons whatsoever that could be alleadged against him He was in a tryall at Guild-Hall not having a Jewry of his Peeres convicted of Felony and in the first yeare of the King upon the two and twentieth day of Ianuary the great Duke of Sommerset the Kings Unkle and Lord Protector was beheaded upon the Tower Hill But this envy in the two Dukes escaped not without Gods heavy Judgements for after the Kings death Northumberland having a large commission from the Lords signed with the great Seale of England to raise an Army to suppresse the Lady Mary afterward repenting thereof sent a countermand after him and when he thought himselfe in most security the Nobility forsaking him and the Commons abandoning him hee with his sonnes and some few servants in Cambridge were left alone where notwithstanding in the open Market-place he proclaimed the Lady Mary Queene yet in Kings Colledge he was arrested of high Treason and thence brought to the Tower of London and on a scaffold upon the Hill the twelfth day of August next following lost his head The Duke of Suffolke being likewise proclaimed Traytor had a servant called Vnderwood whom he had raised to a faire estate and therefore to his trust he committed his person who for some moneths concealed him in an hollow tree and morning and evening brought him his food with millions of oaths engaged for his truth and fidelity but being corrupted with a small quantity of gold and some large promises he betrayed him and delivered him up to the noble Earle of Huntington under whose conduct the Duke with a strong guard of speare-men was conveyed through London to the Tower and the seaventh day after his surprisall he was arraigned and convicted of Treason in the great Hall at Westminster and upon the twenty fourth day on the Tower Hill beheaded In this relation it is worthy to be observed in those two great Dukes of Sommerset and Northumberland that though the whole Kingdome could scarce satiate their ambitions yet now a small piece of earth contents them for they lie buried together before the Altar in Saint Peters Church in the Tower betwixt two Queenes the wives of King Henry the eight Queene Anne and Queene Katharine they being also both beheaded CHAP. III. Gods dreadfull Judgements against Wrath. DIverse are the divisions and branches of this sinne of Wrath which some reduce to these foure heads Mortall Veniall Capitall Generall It is then called Mortall when it hath a desire to punish not to satisfie the Justice of the Law but its spleene or when through the vehemence of anger it divides from the love of God and our neighbour or when it seekes a severe and cruell revenge for trifling delinquencies It is called Veniall when the motion of ire doth