deliver not only the City of Orleance but the Kingdom of France This Maid aged Eighteen was Sincere and Modest and fearing God had many Revelations by which she was exhorted to an Enterprise differing from and infinitely above the mean Vacation she follow'd which was to look after her Father's Cattle viz. to go to the King and Inform him God had ordain'd her for the Party that should deliver the Kingdom raise the Siege of Orleance and cause his Majesty to be Sacred at Rheims in despite of the English Force then in a most Victorious Condition With this Assurance she Addressed her self to Robert de Bandriecourt Governour of Vancoleur to the end he should Conduct her accoutred as a Man to the King to whom she was ordered to say That she was sent by God to Succour Him and Recover His Kingdom and Reveal things to Him so Secret that thereby he should know God and no other was Chief of the Enterprise she undertook The Governour at first was Astonisht and thought she was Extravagated by some Melanchohy Humor But seeing her so discreet in her Proposals advised in her Answers and resolute in what she said began to have her in Esteem But was more satisfied the Work of God was in it when as the same day the French were Deseared at Rouveroy she averr'd The King had even then received a great loss and 't was time to hasten the business and that if she were not Conducted to him the Kingdom would yet suffer more The Issue of the matter making him see the Maid was in the right he failed no longer to put her in fit Equipage and to dispatch her with two Champaign Gentlemen But they knowing the difficulty would not at first enterprise the Thing but Joan of Arc so assured them that they condescended to her Request and Accompanied her She Arrived at Chinon where the King then was in March 1429. and at the very time when the Council had Decreed Things being as they were it were best for the King to retire into Dauphine and preserve if Orleance were taken Languedock Lionnois Auvergne and the said Dauphine till it should please God to have Compassion of Him and his People In fine She was brought to the King whom she knew tho' he retired himself behind others to conceal himself To whom she proposed her business as aforesaid Her Promises were so great that the King remitted her to some Lords of the Council and Doctors in Divinity to Examine her to whom she Proposed her business as aforesaid she had done to His Majesty and they found nothing in her worthy of Censure although she discoursed of matters of Faith very high which she did with great Integrity and Eloquence Here Belleforest makes a Pause and says The greatest Enemies of France have brought more Honour to the Memory of this Virgin than many French of our time who have dared to soil her Irreprehensible Life with their foul Bespatterings And he quotes Meyer a Flemish Annalist No Equitable Judge says he to the French Nation but an Enemy to the Blood of their Kings who affirms What ever she Proposed in Words she made good in Deeds Quis non videt c. says he Who sees not this to be the Work of God Who can doubt these things were not effected by the Immense Clemency of God Although the King and His Council were assured of the Vertue of Joan and were of resolv'd Opinion she was inspir'd by God because she had told the King things which he had never Discoursed to any Body Yet not to go over lightly to work with a thing of such Importance she was sent to Poitiers where Resided then the Grand Parliament of France and the Vniversity which before was wont to be the Ornament of Paris to the end the Parliament and the Divines might enquire further of the Proposals of the Maid and make Judgment accordingly who concluded That the King ought to Believe and Confide in her and to furnish her with Monies for her Equipage to Advance towards the Army Being returned to the King he gave her Arms and Horses and she requested him to send and search for a Sword being in the Church of Saint Katharines of Fierbois in the Blade of which near to the Traverse Bar or Guard were five Crosses impressed and that no other Sword but This could serve her turn What the Conduct of this Virgin and her Select Sword by her so wonderfully discovered in a short time effected I refer to the English and French Chronologers These two Instances of Swords answer to the latter part of my Title viz. Effective Consequence In the Preface to my Introductio ad Latinam Blazoniam I tell my Readers Arms are the Rewards of Meritorious Deeds whether Military or Civil which Deeds soon Die how Nobly soever performed But the Rewards are lasting out-living the Actors and in their Honorary Symbols continually from Age to Age accompanying and dignifying their Descendents Thus Charles the VII that grateful King of France rewarded this successful Virgin and her Family with these Arms following D'Azure à l'Espee c. B. a Sword in pale Ar. its Guard Or Surmounted by a Crown and Accosted by two Fleurs lys of the same Her Successors bear the Name of Du Lys. And I shall have occasion to speak of the Allusion of these Ensigns in a Collection I intend suddainly to make Publick of many of the Arms of the Europian Nations alluding either to the Name it self or other Circumstances of the Bearer Sozomenus Lib. 6. writes That when Julian the Apostate Sacrificed to the Gods of the Gentiles a Crown'd Cross was found in the Entralls of the Slain Beasts upon which the Ministers of the Offering astonish'd cryed out Illud esse Signum Victoriae Aeternitatis Christianae Religionis It was a sign of the Prevalency and Eternity of the Christian Religion Dagobert the Son of Clotherius King of France being Young pulled from Sadregefillus a deserving and worthy Noble-man whom his Father had designed Governour of Aquitain his Honourable Robe belonging to his Place and Quality and grievously Beat him out of a Fond Conceit he had not that Respect for him which the Son of a King might expect Upon this mis-usage he went to Clotherius complaining of the same and shewing the Marks of the Blows he received the King Incensed commanded his Son should be taken and brought to him The Prince fearing the Anger of his Father flies from on Secret place to another at last the King having but one only Son and bethinking himself he had done sufficient Penance for his Offence by long Fear and Flight resolves to Forgive him and be Reconciled Those whom the King sent to fetch him from the Cave where he had Absconded himself were taken with such Fear and Horror that the Hairs of their heads stood upright and their whole Bodies trembled and had no Power to go into the Cave which was a thing much to be wondered at But
laetare tuo quam maxime princeps Fausta velut haec sunt omina semper habe Great Prince rejoyce in this Your Day of Birth And may such Omens still increase Your Mirth Verily This hearty Wish hath not been in vain but hath succeeded Prosperously See Day-Fatality concerning the Third of March as also The Swans-Welcome and Prince-Protecting Providences And forget not That very many took notice that at His Majesties Proclamation at the very Instant when 't was performed at the Royal-Exchange a great number of Doves were there Flocked together To which is added The finding of a Sacred Relique appertaining to a Dove-like Prince Let us hear what Authors say of King Edward Stow says Pag. 94. For His excellent Holiness He is unto this very Day called Saint Edward who so soon as he had gotten His Father's Kingdom released the heavy Tribute of Dane-Gilt And Pag. 95. he calls Him Good King Edward and commends him for his Compassion and relates a Story as if God had indued Him with the Grace of seeing Visions The Description of which Vision I have often-times beheld in Painted Glass on the South-side of the Body of Westminster-Abby Church And Stow relates it at large from approved Authors That when the Officers had Collected the grievous Tribute called Dane-Gilt and brought it into the King's Treasury The King being called to see so great an Heap and Mass was at the beholding thereof much asraid protesting he saw the Devil Dancing thereupon and making exceeding much Joy and therefore gave Commandment it should be forthwith rendred again to the former Owners thereof averring That of so cruel an Exaction He would not keep One Farthing to Himself but it should go back from whence it came If Pope Nicholas the III. called the Money drawn and squeesed à Pauperibus Litigantibus from Poor Litigious People by cunning Solicitors and Attornies their very Blood and Souls How much more hard Taxes which especially light upon the Trading part of a Nation who of all People ought to be incouraged as was the Opinion of Frederick Marquis of Mantua for Les Estate du Monde tells us His Subjects lov'd Him much for He was Liberal and would Lend them Money without Interest if he fonnd them fit for Traffick An Heroick and Princely Humor But I return Stow tells us likewise King Edward was the first that Collected from the Ordinances and Customs of the Mercians West-Saxons Danes and Northumbers an excellent Body of Law. Fox in his Martyrology says of them That being gathered out of the Best and Chiefest of other Laws they were so Just and Equal and so Serving the Publick Profit and Weal of all Estates and Conditions of Men that the People long after did Rebel to have the same Laws again Matthew Paris tells us That William the Conqueror at his Coming in did Swear to Use and Practise the same Good Laws of King Edward for the Common Laws of the Realm but being Established in the Kingdom broke his Word and placed the Norman Laws in their room And Stow informs us That his Son Henry the First restored the said Laws again and amended Them where deficient In the first Chapter of the said Laws the Duty of a King is excellently set forth but I refer you to Fox But let us hear the Elogy the aforesaid Fox gives this Prince from approved Authors He was a Man of a Gentle and Soft Spirit of Nature and Condition so far from all War and Blood-shed that being in His Banishment He wished rather so to continue all His Life-time in that Private Estate than by Blood-shed to aspire to His Kingdom After He had taken upon Him the Government of the Realm He guided the same with much Wisdom and Justice Twenty Four Years save Two Months from whom Issued as out of a Fountain much Godliness Mercy Pity and Liberality towards the Poor Gentleness and Justice towards all Men and in all Honest Life He gave a Vertuous Example to His People Wardner in his Albions England says thus of St. Edward Religious Chast Wise Fortunate Stout Frank and Mild was He And from all Taxes Wrongs and Foes did set His Kingdom Free. Serlo of Paris in his Epitaph begins thus of Him Edovardus probitate potens Pietate verendus Powerful in Goodness and Reverend in His Piety Robert of Glocester calls him Edward the Simple understand it not in our worst Acceptation at this day but with a reference to Mat. 10.16 As Innocent and Harmless as a Dove or to the Qualification of Moses Numb 12.3 Who was very Meek above all the Men upon the Face of the Earth Farther Illustrated Ecclus. 45.1 2 3 4. concluding thus That God chose Him for His Faithfulness and Meekness out of all Men c. Meekness being an Attribute our Saviour assumes to himself Matt. 11.29 and therefore by no means unbecoming a King and which Robert of Glocester should have called Sweetness of Conversation which was made admirably good in that Story Alluredus Rivalleness relates of Him That as He lay on a Time Waking in His Bed it chanced That His Chamberlain taking Money out of one of the King's Coffers left it open and goes his ways A Young Servitor that Waited at the King's Table spying the Coffer open and supposing the King asleep thrust a good quantity of Money into his Bosome goes away and lays it up comes again and does the like and when he came the Third time and the King knew as 't was thought the Chamberlain was at hand and willing the Young-Man should avoid the danger cryed out to him Thou art too bold take what Thou hast and get Thee gone for by God 's Mother if Hugoline come for that was the Chamberlain's Name and whose Epitaph is mentioned by Weaver Pag. 483. he will not leave Thee one Penny whereupon the Thief made hast away and was never discovered by the King Now when Hugoline came and perceived much Money to be gone and by his own negligence he began to sigh most grievously whereupon the King Rising and making as if he knew nothing of what had happened asked What he ailed to be so Troubled which when the Chamberlain had related the King replyed Be not Troubled certainly he that hath it has more need of it than Thou and I let him go that which remains is enough for Vs Certainly This is an Instance of great Clemency Mildness and good Humor And to which let me add another out of Haraeus The King Residing at His Palace near the Church of St. Peter there came a certain Irish-Man deprived of the Use of both his Feet and seeing Hugoline the King's Chamberlain said unto him Six times as thou seest even creeping have I Visited the Thresholds of the Apostles and yet have not deserved the Restoration of my Limbs But I have received Command from the Prince of the Apostles to go to the King That He taking me upon His Sacred Shoulders bear me to the Church near
EDOVARDUS Confessor Redivivus THE PIETY and VERTUES Of HOLY Edward the Confessor Reviv'd in the Sacred Majesty of King James the II. BEING A RELATION of the Admirable and Unexpected finding of a Sacred Relique viz. the CRUCIFIX of that Pious Prince which was found in Westminster-Abby the place of his Interrment 622 Years succeeding and is since worn sometimes by his present Majesty With a COMMENT thereon Previous to which Relation are recited many wonderful casual Discoveries All of them being Presagious or very Effective Cuncta aperit secreta Dies abscondita pandet Adveniens aetas tempus operta recludet Long latent Day discovers hidden Things And Time to come to Light close Matter brings LONDON Printed by W. D. And are to be Sold by Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall 1688. Ad Regiam Majestatem Jacobi Secundi Inclytissimi Regis Jacobi quarti Seri sed veri Nepotis PArce tuum vatem temerum reputare JACOBE Rex metuende cui nunquà m bella omina desunt Et quae semper eram palà m profarier ausus Foelicis Regis foelicis omina plebis DRead Prince Thy Fecial Prophet don't disdain Animadversor of Thy Omens plain And who to Publish them has took the pain As sure Presages of Thy Blessed Reign THE PREFACE Without Reading which the Discourse and Design of the ensuing Treatise cannot well be understood PResently after His Majesty's most happy Inauguration I heard of that unexpected Bene-ominous Accident which is the Subject of this present Discourse Not One in Ten but look'd upon it as a matter meerly Fabulous and Feign'd For my part having been abroad in the World I have met with strange Passages but read of many more so for my better satisfaction I went to a Loving Friend of mine Mr. J. G. Famous for Astronomical Learning living near the Abby who assured me of the Truth thereof and offered to carry me to the very Person who was the Discoverer thereof and receiv'd a Royal Reward which I refused for that would have looked as if I had distrusted my Friends Veracity Within two or three days after my old Friend T. H. Esq Windsor-Herald also a near Inbabitant re-assured me of the Truth thereof Vpon which I Penned this ensuing Discourse giving it to one to use at his Discretion being a Printer my Friend and I thought it would have found no obstacle in the Impression But those that were Authoriz'd to License obstinately refused it as savouring of down right Popery and Superstition So I having occasion to retire into the Country acquiesc'd and let it lye submitting to the Rigour or Nicety of the Licensers But afterward when I saw many notable and very acceptable Occurrences fall under His Majesty's Auspicious Government such as are mention'd by Tertullus the Orator Acts 24.2 I incited my Friend to move afresh These Occurrences are such as His Proclamation April 4. declaring His Benign Indulging Well-meaning Tender Consciences in matter of Religion and Forms and Circumstances of Worship Certainly the means to make People live in more Vnity and more free from Envy that might arrive from some to have more Priviledge Grace and Favour than others This caused a great rejoycing of all People generally as Mr. Gadbury well observes Annot. Apr. 88. Then His paying the Arrears due to His late Majesty 's Servants as far as His present Majesty with convenience could do He having had no Supplies but His own ordinary Revenues The Payment of their Arrears is the more to be Commended in that after the Measure and Quantum was Consider'd and Determin'd the performance thereof was as speedy as might be Qui cito dat bis dat His particular taking into consideration the Debts due to the City Orphans and Widdows Strangely have their Monies been squandred and embezled by the Step-Fathers of this Renowned City once so Memorable for Piety and Justice Gulielmus Stephanides Writing of it sub H. 2. made it a City of Prayer So Robert Fabian sub H. 7. in his Prologue to his Second Chronological Volume But truly of late Years it hath shew'd it self Spelunca Latronum Matt. 21.13 His Intention to settle a Registry of Sales of Estates and Chattels Real About the Year 76 and onward the House of Commons were upon this Matter At Satanus impediit divertit in peiora 1 Thes 2.18 For my part I Wrote to several Noblemens Chaplains desiring them to perswade their Lords to Advance it the Right Reverend the Lords Bishops of Glocester and Rochester can Attest this to be True The Honourable Knights Sir Winston Churchil and Sir Joseph Williamson then Secretary of State will acknowledge I put them upon it Certainly it would be a mighty satisfaction and Security to all sorts of People whom God's Blessing and their own Honest endeavour have made capable of Purchase and is the usage of the Low-Countries introduc'd by Charles the V. whose Memory the Netherlanders greatly Reverence upon this very account This is mention'd by Sir William Temple P. 200. of his excellent Discourse of those Parts His restoring of an antient Order of Knight-hood many Ages dis-used viz. The Thistle so reviving the Honour of His Antient Kingdom of Scotland the Nurse of Brave Men It was one of the Praises of that Good and Great Prince Humphry Duke of Glocester that Wrote himself Son Brother and Vnkle of Kings c. That He was Amator Honoris a Lover of Honour See Weaver 555. But our Generous Soveraign is Lapsi Restaurator Honoris a Restorer of it when fallen But lastly and above all What is mentioned by Mr. John Gadbury in his Ephemeris for the approaching Year 88. viz. upon the 23 of Aug. His Majesty began his Royal Progress for the West where he most Mercifully vouchsafed to heal many Languishing Men Women and Children of the Evil And this indeed was the main matter I presumed to Presage from this discoursed Discovery But to conclude my Preface Why may not I presume Vaticiniously from that passage I borrow from Harêus mention'd hereafter Pag. 24 to add by the By Post longos imbres obscuraque nubila quid si Natio Jacobo gaudebit Hiberna sereno After long Clouds and Storms what if we see James the Serene a Sun to Ireland be Let not my Reader Censure this comes out too too long post factum when as Mr. Payne Fisher's most excellent Latin Panegyrick in Heroick Verse upon his Majesty's Inauguration Nor Mr. Sandfords much and long expected Prosal Description thereof have not yet seen the Light The former I suppose and 't is pity has been hitherto supprest Propter non posse pecuniae Non propter Papismum as was the Fate of Mine (a) DAy-Fatality 1679. TEmporibus duris qui Scripsit Fata-Dierum (b) Flagellum Mercurii Antiducalis or The Author of the Touch of the Times Charitably brought to the Whipping-Post to prevent his coming to the Gallows 1679. Mercurium rigide correxit Antiducalem (c) Swans Wellcome 1679. Omina
took the Suit in ill part and commanded the Stones to be carried to the use aforesaid viz. to build the Baths called Constantiana So great is the force of Destiny and Fate Read Cuspinian in the Life of Valens and the Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus lib. 4. ch 8. Translated out of Greek by Meredith Hanmer D. D. who recites the Prophesie in English Verse of fourteen Feet not well relishing to our Poetical Palate at this day or as Camden phrases it Apolline minus plenas In the sixth Year of Justine the Great Edessa that Noble and Blessed City of the Osroenians was over flown with the Streams of the River Scirtus that glided by i insomuch as many Houses were carried away with the violence thereof and multitudes of Men were drowned with the Water See Evagrius's Ecclesiastical History lib. 4. chap. 8. And Cedrenus reports That at the same time in the Bank of the River a Table of Stone was found whereon was Written in Egyptian Letters to this effect Scirtus the Stream shall Leap and Dance And cause Edessas great mischance If my Reader be Inquisitive why Evagrius calls Edessa that Blessed City let him know 't was because King Agabarus that so much desired to see our Saviour lived there Of which matter see Eusebius lib. 1. chap. 14. who discourses at large of Agabarus his Letter to our Saviour and the Answer thereunto the sending of Thadeus to Him who Cured his Disease and Converted him and his People Rodericus Toletanus writes That before the Coming of the Saracens into Spain King Roderick upon hope of some Treasure did open a part of the Palace long being forbidden to be touched but found nothing but Pictures which resembled the Moors with a Prophecy That whensoever that part of the Palace was opened the People there resembled should overcome Spain and so it happened See Heylen after his Catalogue of the Gothish Kings of Spain In the Time of Ferdinand the First King of Arragon the City of Naples was in a most Flourishing condition and the Kingdom free from all Calamity Now 't is manifest That one Cataldus about 1000 Years before that Time had been Bishop at Tarentinum the Citizens whereof did Worship him as their Patron In the mid'st of the Night he again and again appeared to a Minister who had lately taken the Order of Priest-hood having been Educated under the Vow of Chastity charging him That he should without delay take out of a certain place a little Book which he in his Life-time had Wrote and privately hid containing some Divine Writings and bring it to the King. The Priest gave little Credit to the Dream although he saw Cataldus in his Sleep very often and always of the same shape and form After that he appeared unto him being all alone in the Temple early in a Morning Apparell'd in such Bishops Weeds as he used in his Life-time and Adorned with a Mitre advising him as he desired to avoid great Punishment That the next day without further delay he should digg for the Book which he had Written and Hidden as he had formerly shewn him by Visions and bring it to the King. The Priest and People went the next day to the place wherein for many Years this little Book had been hidden and found it Bound with a Leaden Cover and Clasped wherein it appeared that the Destruction of the Kingdom Miserable Calamities and Most Sad Times were at hand whereof the King was warned We have found by Experience says my Author That this Prophecy was fully Executed and shew'd it self to be so Divine that not long after Ferdinand himself either by the justly incensed Wrath of God Almighty or other inscrutable Causes of his Divine Will could not avoid what he was so fully admonish'd of but in the very first appearance of War departed this Life and Charles the Eighth of France with a strong Hand Invaded the Kingdom And Alphonsus the Heir of Ferdinand having but newly entred the Kingdoms Government was thereof deprived basely running away and dying in Flight as a Banish'd Man. Then the Second Son of Ferdinand the hopefulness of whose Youth had indeared him to all Men to whom the Kingdom fell was intangled with a miserable and fatal War and died in the Flower of his Age and afterward the French and Spaniards dividing the Kingdom made Havock of all with deplorable Devastations Alexander ab Alexandro cap. 15. The Discourse of Policy and Religion by Mr. Fitz-Herbert mentions this Matter We read in the Persian History of one Emande Daule a great Persian Prince that resting in the House of Tacut a Prince whom he had Vanquished he began to be careful for the Payment of his Souldiers being without Money and seeing their Insolence to be great and that they would Mutiny if they were delay'd Being very Pensive he laid him down upon a Bed studying what course to take where lifting up his Eyes he espyed an ugly Snake at an hole which did often put forth her Head and draw it up again Daule being amazed thereat commanded they should presently break up the top of the House and Kill the Snake which was done and in doing of it they discovered a great Treasure which Yacut had hidden there and which was sufficient to Pay the Souldiers Soon after there happened another Accident to Daule which was both Pleasant and Profitable Having an intent to make some Apparrel he caus'd a Taylor to be brought unto him who being before him instead of a Measure he call'd for a Cudgel the Taylor who had served Yacut fearing to be Bastinado'd besought him to Pardon him and without any Exhortation of the Cudgel would confess the Truth which was That he had seventeen Coffers in his House which Yacut had committed to his Custody Daule was joyful of this Discovery and having sent for the Coffers they were found full of Cloth of Gold and all sorts of Silk of great value whereof the Taylor had his share Jornandes writes That Attila relied much upon the Sword of Mars kept along time among the Kings of the Scythians and discovered at first upon this occasion A certain Neat-herd seeing one of his Beasts halting and not knowing how it came followed the Tract of the Blood at the end whereof he finds a Sword upon which the Beast had trod in Feeding This Sword he takes out of the Ground and brings it to Attila who joyful of such a Present for which he rewarded the Neat-herd being a Man of a lofty Courage conceived in his Mind the Monarchy of the World was designed for him and that Mars's Sword would bear him out to make War with every one Camerarius lib. 4. I will not say any thing of Alis's Cimitar so renowned among the Turks but come to Joan of Arc and her Sword so strangely discovered I will Epitomize it out of Belleforest She was Born of very mean Parentage in the Country of Barrois It pleased God by means of her to